20160401
Our lunch stop after departing the Rotorua area was the last of a chain of lakes stretching to the east of Lake Rotorua called Lake Rotoma. Water sports were popular on all these lakes particularly this one. Canoeing, fishing and speedboat activities were everywhere and right next to us a guy launched the most well equiped kayak canoe I have ever seen with all the fishing gear including fish finders and depth sounding. We visited Whakatane (pronounced 'f***atane' in Kiwi....I think) where a giant rock outcrop with significant cultural meaning to Maori's was located right in the the centre of town. Perched atop this gigantic monolith was a massive tree with its roots reaching some 30m towards earth where it gained its life support in soil. What an effort this tree has gone to find nutrients. Dell found a couple of caches nearby before we headed east along the coast to Opotiki an old fashioned struggling township with many of the city centre shops having closed down. The local campground was friendly and quaint and recreation activities along the river were modern and well used. A local cafe called 'Hello India' seemed to be doing a roaring trade which included our patronage. Beside us was a local semi-retired yachty couple (David n Di) who had sailed around the world. Another bottle of good Sauvignon Blanc and a huge meal made us both feel overly satisfied before strolling 1km back to the campground. We had discussed going to the cinema partially out of sympathy for the ageing attendant who looked to be all of 89 years old. If it wasn't for him and his undying enthusiasm I am sure the cinema too would close.
The trip from Opotiki to Gisborne was stunning. SH2 follows a gorge for some 30 kms up to a pass at nearly 900m. The road was built to encourage early settlers to take up blocks in the valley. But it proved to be a tough and rough existence for most not helped by steep terrain and poor soil nutient levels. A timber suspension bridge was constructed in the 1920's to assist the settlers. It has been renovated but it was a true testimony to the dedication of early settlers. Both of us never really understood why anybody was interested in clearing such precipitous land just to graze a few sheep and later cattle. Erosion and unstable landslps were all too common but few if any attempts have been made to rectify these early decisions to graze this country. More than 90% of the mountains and hills have been totally cleared for grazing in the region from Gisborne heading south. I found it very disturbing and disappointing to observe such high impact resutling from grazing activities. Just another nail in the coffin of this truly wonderful country. We arrived in the valley leading to Gisborne late in the day to be confronted by a staggering amount of vineyards. It appeared to be a tidy rather wealthy area and the campground was located right opposite the wharf facilities where a ship was being loaded with logs all night. Fortunately the groaning and squeaking of the cranes was pretty well blocked out by our well insulated motorhome.
Our next destination was the home of Rodger Tynan and Rosie Butler who were old friends from Adelaide back in the mid 1990's. Rosie had returned to her roots and Rodger dutifully followed to start up a high quality vineyard called Lime Rock Winery. We followed the inland minor road as far as Wairoa then hit SH2 all the way to Napier and 50kms further south to Waipawa. Industry in this area was dominated by steep sided mountains used for cattle and sheep grazing and some agro forestry. The flats associated with the coastal belt was heavily developed for vinyards and apple production. The light alluvial soils produced some of NZ best wines and some of the heaviest apple crops I have ever seen particularly around Napier and Hastings. Either side of the Raukawa Range was pretty impressive production in all directions. Lime Rock Winery was located right next to an historic lime quarry. We tasted a few of their top wines including a 2007 Pinot Noir and Gruner Veltinier. Their wines are exquisite with products being exported to Australia, USA and UK. Rodger and Rosie reckon its about quality not quantity. They were about to begin picking the next day and despite Dell wanting to stay on for a week of hard work picking these little gems, we moved on and headed west cross country towards Lake Taupo. If we had more time we would have headed south towards Wellington. However quality time in many places had ended up taking more time than we had realised. The backroad from Napier to Waiouru proved to be one of the most enjoyable routes of the whole trip. Beautiful scenery, rugged native forests, rugged mountain ranges and some of the most heavily stocked hill pastures in the world. I estimated they were running about 14 sheep to the acre. Try doing that anywhere else.
We were heading for National Park a small town on the western side of Tongariro National Park (World Heritage Site). This park housed three volcanic mountains, Mt Tongariro, Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe. Mt Ruapehu had blown its top in 1995. Hence there are many spectaculat pics of this event. Rather than camp in the campground we found a quiet back road leading to a Erua Conservation park nearby. The stark wetland environment reminded me of my adventures in Siberia. Perhaps not so remote but memorable all the same.
We were beginining to take stock of our supplies for we had only 4 more days of travel left in NZ. It included a doz beers, 1/2 L Bundy Rum, two bottle of Pinot Noir, too many choclates etc etc. The next few days were likely to involve some serious bodily abuse.
The drive up to Iwikau Ski Village on Mt Ruapehu was shrouded in fog. However our coffee break in the ski cafe turned out to work in our favour for the fog lifted....slightly. The temperature stayed at a steady 12 deg. Rugged scenery with vivid colours of lichens and low set shrubs of all varieties provided a fruit salad texture to the landscape. It was stunning. By the time the day was over we had zipped up the side of Lake Taupo and found a campsite near town and monstrous Lake Taupo that almost resembled an inland sea.