Nov 2008

The Road To Glacier Country

I needed a good rest and Westport looked like just the place to get it. Not a huge amount to do there but I figured I only needed one night to recharge my batteries and get back on the road.

It was a bit late when I got there - again the drive took ages - and I needed to restock on food so after the usual info centre stop I went for a good old shop around the local supermarket. After spending an absurd amount of time squeezing everything into my cupboard and fridge (yep, just one cupboard in my van) I realised it was really quite late and set off in search of a cheap campsite.

I didn't find a cheap one - there's only 2 and they're both quite pricey - but beggars can't be choosers and I'd already decided that I'd happily pay for power every night just for the warmth of my plug-in fan heater. Well, that night the money wasn't well spent - I woke up absolutely freezing at 4am with no noise coming from the heater. It had died. I was so cold that I didn't even want to get out from under my duvet so I just stayed there in a semi-sleep until it was light, then rang the rental company who told me they'd give me my money back if I bought a new one and kept the receipt. I bought one from town and then decided that while I was there it was about time I updated my internet stuff - 4 hours later I left the internet cafe with photos uploaded and diary entries almost fully up to date. Yes, that's how long it takes to do these things so sorry if I go for long periods without any updates. It's also a pretty expensive business at almost £3 an hour in many places.

Time was really getting on again and I still hadn't seen the town's attractions, so I decided to see those and stay one more night. A quick 15km drive took me to a place called Cape Foulwind, home to a lighthouse an, more importantly, another seal colony. Apparently the males are pretty rampant beasts - the same ones service the females here as well as at Abel Tasman and Kaikoura on the east coast. Impressive stuff. Another little factlet, this time about the females - at Abel Tasman most of the mothers undergo a daily 100km round trip to get food for their pups. That's commitment for you. Seal colonies are usually found in safe havens as their pups are defenseless most of the time; the downside to this being that there's no food to eat in the area. I certainly hope the seals at Westport don't decide to up and leave as they're immaculately signposted at ervy turn from about 20km away - I guess they're pretty well settled.

Another night in Westport so I went for the holiday camp right by the seal colony. Now, do you think it's a good idea to sleep in a fairly flimsy campervan in a place called Cape Foulwind, right by the sea? Well it wasn't too bad at all actually, surprisingly enough, although it was pretty rough in the day.

It's quite a long way to Franz Josef, my next stop, so I took a look at Punakaiki and Greymouth to break up the journey. Punakaiki boasts pancake-style layered rocks along the seafront, as well as beautiful ocean views. Greymouth however was really just a small hick-ish town with not a lot going fo it as far as I could see. The drive itself was spectacular - I couldn't go for more than 15 minutes without stopping and taking pictures - and before I knew it I was on the Glacier Highway heading towards some snow-capped mountains...

Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers

More brilliant naming conventions here. The Franz Josef glacier is known as Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere in Maori, but a German explorer didn't like that much and dedicated it to the Austrian Emperor instead. No doubt the Maoris loved that one. And the Fox Glacier is even better - Te Moeka o Tuawe in Maori but when Sir Edward Fox, then prime minister, visited the glacier in 1872 he liked it so much that he put through a petition to name it after himself. What a modest and shy chap.

A glacier is simply defined as a large body of ice that moves slowly over time. They're usually formed between high, snow-capped mountains and over time they melt and then reform, giving the impression that they're 'moving'. The Franz Josef Glacier is pitched as the fastest moving glacier in the world, moving at a rate of 10 metres every year. That might not sound a lot but in the last 250 years it's moved 2.5km - there's a sign on the way to the glacier showing where the ice wall used to be.

I paid for a half-day hike up the Franz Josef glacier and just checked out the Fox Glacier and nearby Lake Matheson the next day. I really enjoyed the hike, well worth the £35 I spent on it, and our guide (bizarrely a chap from Swindon) was excellent and very informative. And near the township of Fox Glacier you can go to Lake Matheson and see New Zealand's tallest mountains - Mount Cook and Mount Tasman - reflected in the water. Very nice indeed.

One last chance to do a skydive so I rang the company on the evening of the 10th and they told me to check with them at 7:30am as rain was forecast all week and they wouldn't take anyone up if the weather was bad...

Skydive!

Obviously some good news - when I rang the company at 7:30am I was told to get a shifty on and get to the airstrip as soon as possible as some dodgy weather was coming in. So in no time at all I threw on some clothes and made the very short journey over there; before I knew it (after signing a declaration and filling in some next-of-kin details) we were cramped up in the tiniest of planes, me strapped to a Hungarian instructor and an American girl strapped to the Kiwi that runs the joint.

I really wasn't nervous at all, just a tad uncomfortable in the back (those straps intrude where they shouldn't) and excited about jumping out, but at the same time trying to remember everything that we'd been told to do in a quick hurried sentence before take off. We flew around above the glacier and the two big mountains - Mount Cook and Mount Tasman - for about 10 minutes and then all of a sudden, before anyone could possibly say 'no, stop' I was wearing gloves, goggles and a hat and we were jumping out of the plane.

I wasn't sure how it would be in terms of breathing, and it really was quite weird. At first I tried to breathe through my nose, as instructed, but I found that a bit tricky; then I tried breathing through my mouth which really is a bad move as you get that classic wobbly cheeks syndrome and it doesn't work at all. So, back to breathing through the nose again, and then almost holding my breath completely as we passed through a cloud which didn't seem to do anything at all - no sensation, no difference at all. Surprising. And then the parachute came open, I could breathe normally again and the views hit me - absolutely stunning, a few dodgy stomach moments as the instructor sent us round in a few spinning circles, and then pretty soon we coming into land. I lifted my legs up as I'd been told for the landing, stood up and wondered where the last 30 minutes of my life had gone.

I bought a small selection of photos but didn't go for anything spectacular like my own free-falling photographer or DVD - and the whole thing cost me about £140. But what an experience!! Totally worth it, not sure if I'll do it again but I wouldn't rule it out.

I left the airstrip and couldn't believe that it wasn't even 9am yet, so I checked out the Fox Glacier and Lake Matheson (previous entry), went to the internet cafe and then left for Haast.

Marlborough Region

Finally I've arrived at the south island - it's been hard work so far but hopefully it's been worth it. The south island is prized as the top attraction in New Zealand and most people recommend a ratio of 3:1 in terms of time spent on the two islands which is pretty much what I'm doing. Highlights include the stunning Abel Tasman National Park, the amazing Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, skiing and snowboarding at Queenstown and Wanaka, the beautiful Milford and Doubtful Sounds and whale watching and swimming with dolphins at Kaikoura. So, lots to be done, and I'll see if I can squeeze that skydive in somewhere too.

The ferry journey was pleasant enough, 3 hours in total, and I arrived in Picton to be greeted with a bit of sunshine whuch I barely recognised at all. I wanted to make good use of it - it would probably disappear again soon - so I drove straight to Blenheim for a very swift wine tasting session (the Marlborough Region is another big wine producing area) and then set off for Nelson to make base for a few days.

Nelson is a nice little city (town by UK standards), very quaint with an attractive bay and a compact city centre. After a look around that centre and a bite to eat it was getting on a bit and I was shattered from the early start and long drive (and the wine earlier) so I settled down at a campsite and got to work on some of my long-overdue diary entries.

Despite it raining all night I woke up to beautiful sunshine, so no time to waste...my next target was Nelson Lakes, which surprisingly turned out to be 90km south of Nelson and going away from my next point, Abel Tasman National Park. Nevermind, I did the drive anyway and the whole way there I watched as ominous looking clouds loomed ahead of me - bad choice of destination. Ho hum, well at least I got a few nice rainbow pictures out of the journey! Apparently the lakes usually have pretty poor weather due to the surrounding mountains so maybe it wasn't such a bad move after all.

It was all very time consuming - the drive took ages around windy mountain roads - and after a look the WOW Collectable Cars Museum I decided to stay in Nelson for one more night before heading off to Abel Tasman the next morning.

Abel Tasman National Park

Not a huge amount of luck weather wise on this trip so far but I picked a cracking time to visit this protected reserve. I had two days in total and each day had sunshine and a cool temperature, a bit cloudy on day two but I wasn't about to complain. The park was founded in 1942 - it was previously just a remote village with a few houses scattered here and there - and is now a hugely popular place for walkers and kayakers. Despite being 22,350 hectares (that sounds a lot to me) it's the smallest of New Zealand's national parks.

I arrived at Marahau, where I'd decided to make base, at 11am and after some brief deliberation about what to do I decided to walk up to Anchorage (almost 5 hours) and get a water taxi back, and then get a water taxi to Tonga Bay in the morning and followed by a walk down to Anchorage, with yet another water taxi back down again - that way I could cover the whole of the southern track in two days as well as the seal colony on Tonga Island (apparently the water taxi would stop there on the way to Tonga Bay).

In total I did about 9 hours walking over the two days at quite a pace, which is a lot for someone who doesn't like walking. The paths were fairly easy but the bits that caught me out where the little tracks down to the beaches - the walk (more like climb) back up absolutely killed me, particularly just above the knees, and on both days I was pushed for time so I had to really get my skates on. I never thought I'd end up sweating on the south island of New Zealand in winter but I sure did.

Anyone who's seen my pictures on Facebook will have a good idea of what the park is all about - peace, tranquility and scenery. And lots of it. There's hardly anyone about, although apparently it's pretty busy in the summer; the biggest camp on the Tonga to Anchorage track was occupied by just two ducks. It was all very surreal and I found the 9 hours spent walking just flew by (with the exception of the steep uphill bits). If you want to take a break from it all and lose yourself for a while then you could do worse than this place. A lot worse.

Well, I was absolutely knackered after that, my back hurt from carrying a rucksack about, my knees ached and my left hamstring was sore and tight. Time to stay off the tracks for a few days I think.

Before I end this entry, here's a strange phenomena for you - the naming of places. In Australia you find small towns and creeks that have Aboriginal names, yet most of the places have European ones. On top of that a high percentage of towns, bays, points, lakes and mountains are commonly named after the same people - for example, Lachlan Macquarie, a governor of New South Wales in the 19th century, has over 3,000 things named after him in Australia, many of which he never visited or even knew anything about. And New Zealand has its own strange way of doing things - mostly Maori names but European ones for the major cities (e.g. Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch). And get this - the forgotten man of old world discovery, Abel Tasman (he got to Australia and New Zealand long before Captain Cook), never actually set foot on the reserve which now holds his name. And neither did Cook - that honour went to Dumont d'Urville in 1827 who carefully mapped out the whole area. And yet they named it Abel Tasman National Park - go figure.

More strange naming conventions to come, there's some corkers lying around New Zealand.

Rotorua

Rotorua really is a fascinating place. It lies in the Taupo volcanic zone and is nicknamed Sulphur City; it's famous for its geothermal activity and is one of the major tourist attractions in New Zealand. It also has 17 lakes which must be some sort of record. And let's not mess about, there's a simple fact about Rotorua that needs to be stated - it stinks. Really, really stinks. A rotten, eggy, farty smell fills the air and at times makes you gag; okay, so it's just sulphur and other gases and it's natural, but sorry you wouldn't catch me living there or even hanging around for a while.

Fortunately I only had a day there although don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time there.

I'd read a few things about Rotorua but I had no idea that the whole town would actually be so weird. I went past and subsequently checked out a place called Kuirau Park, near the town centre, which was full of boiling, bubbling, steaming, stinking natural pools; people's gardens have steam rising from them, and presumably their houses smell as a result; all very odd. My campsite offered free thermal baths which I duly tried out, and as enjoyable as they were I didn't enjoy getting out of them into the cold.

In the morning I left Rotorua and headed for Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland, on the way to Taupo (my next stop). The entry fee was worth every cent, $25 (about £10), the place is amazing and certainly not something you could ever see back home. The whole volcanic region is certainly still active and it's something to behold - bubbling mud pools in deep craters, spectacularly coloured lakes, green waterfalls and a strange warming heat around the whole place. The highlight was the Lady Knox Geyser which erupts for about an hour every day at about 10:15am. I missed the beginning but apparently its punctuality is forced a little by some organic soap, which slightly took the edge off it for me when I found out. Mighty impressive all the same.

Next stop is the home of the volcanic area, Taupo.

Taupo & Tongariro

Taupo is a small town off the shore of the massive Lake Taupo. The lake itself has a perimeter of almost 200km and is in fact a crater created by a massive eruption almost 30,000 years ago. The most recent eruption was about 2,000 years ago and was one of the most violent eruptions in the world in the last 5,000 years ago, covering the sky of virtually the whole planet with volcanic ash.

Taupo also boasts a dynamic outdoor scene and in fact rivals Queenstown on the south island as New Zealand's activity centre. Handgliding, parasailing, bungy jumping, skydiving and tearing around the lake and waterfalls in a high powered jetboat are all popular activities here and I had my heart set on doing a skydive here as it's one of the best and cheapest places in New Zealand.

Unfortunately this wasn't to be - once again I was scuppered by the weather. I rang all three skydive operators and all of them told me to wait until the storm had passed as there was no way they could take anyone up in this weather. Marvellous. So, I drove around for a bit, had a look at the Huka Falls and Lake Taupo, then settled down for the night and had a think about what to do next.

I decided to go to Hawkes Bay on the east coast and then come back to Taupo and see if the weather had improved. Fast forward a few days and... it hadn't improved so I gave up and checked out Tongariro National Park, thoroughly depressed.

Fans of the Lord Of The Rings films will know they were shot in New Zealand, and those avid buffs (or those who've visited New Zealand) will know that Mount Tongariro is in fact Mount Doom in the films. Well, I may as well have just stayed in my van all day and watched the films as I couldn't see a thing through all the clouds and rain in the air! Fantastic!!! Fortunately the park has two other mountains - Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, the latter being the bigger of the three - but just as unfortunately I couldn't see those either. Oh yeah. How utterly, utterly, headbangingly frustrating. More storm-related updates to come, in the next one I'll let you know how I got on in my quick escapade in the Hawkes Bay area, and how much rain there was there.

Hawkes Bay

Rain, rain, go away. Seriously, I mean it. The constant hammering of rain on my van is driving me insane. I can't step outside without getting totally soaked through. My clothes are muddy and so is my van. I can't do anything. I can't see anything. I can't take pictures. Nothing. Talk about a disaster of a trip.

Anyway, Hawkes Bay is a big wine area and although I don't particularly like it I tried out a couple of wineries - well at least they offer something to do indoors. All very pleasant stuff, I was the only visitor at both tours and at the first one the guy left me with 10 bottles of wine for tasting while he took a 30 minute phone call! Ha!! I bought a bottle of white from both although they didn't last long at all thanks to my new found depression. I've actually never had a problem with drinking on my own.

I stayed in Napier that night and then took a look around Hastings the next day. I stayed in a place called Clive overnight and in the morning I heard a big commotion from a few vans down and on closer inspection... it was the girls! And they were stuck again, only this time they'd left the handbrake on whilst trying to reverse out. I had a quick chat with them although they didn't seem too keen, and to be fair neither was I, so I left them to it and headed off to Tongariro after two more thoroughly uneventful days.

Wellington

Windy Wellington, so named because of the winds generated by the Cook Straight that separates the two main islands, is located right at the bottom of the north island and is the capital of New Zealand, boasting a population of just 400,000 people.

I didn't come to New Zealand to check out all of its small cities and towns - in fact I'm pretty fed up with them already - but I have to say I liked the look of Wellington, much more than Auckland. I can't quite put my finger on why but it's a compact, picturesque little city with just enough life about it to keep you interested. It also seems busier than Auckland, although that's not hard as Auckland seemed like a ghost town at times; presumably its smaller size explains that.

I spent the previous night in a place called Palmerston North to break up the journey - that's as much as I'll say about that place - and so I only had a day in Wellington before catching the ferry to the south island at stupid o'clock. I spent my time there driving around the one way system looking for the info centre, going up on Mount Victoria for some nice views of the city and also checking out the Botanical Gardens (I got severely lost on the way there trying to take a sneaky shortcut). Thanks to my inability to navigate the one way system (why aren't they ever marked on maps?) I got to see most of the city in a relatively short period of time. Anyway, that was Wellington and after a 20 minute drive to get to the only campsite in the area I settled in and prepared for my ferry journey in the morning.

As this is the capital city I'll throw in some history. The word 'Maori' basically means 'ordinary person' or 'native', and 'Pakeha' basically means 'white skinned gentleman'. During the 1800s tribes were split between Maoris and Pakehas, with many tribes needing to take Pakehas for their skills with farming, hunting and building (and also their muskets) - in fact a chief of a tribe containing Pakehas was deemed to have more 'mana' (power, respect etc) than a chief without any. And that's how Europeans first started settling in New Zealand - by integrating with the Maori tribes. Compare that with Australia where they just started slaughtering the Aborigines and took over the country, although it probably says more for the advancement of the Maoris as a people than any sort of moral improvements by the Europeans. More boring history later, I promise.

The Coromandel Peninsula

I'd taken a copy of the route guide from the girls that a travel agent had given us for free and the first suggested stop was a small sticky out bit of land, north east of Auckland, called the Coromandel Peninsula. Funnily enough the girls had poo-poo'd it as not being interesting so after spending a fortune on foodstuffs I headed straight for it, happy that I was doing something different to them.

It was a good move. The weather had brightened up and sure there was nothing to do there, but that's not all New Zealand has to offer - try the scenery for size too. Stunning, rolling green fields set on a backdrop of coastal edges or lakes as far as the eye can see; winding paths and roads up the hills that give fantastic views of the jagged landscape. I stayed at a place called Thames the first night but only after visiting Kennedy Bay on the north east of the peninsula, a very quiet and remote place which required me to take the van over a 15km gravel path to get to. In all honesty I doubt I was allowed to do that but hey I made it there and back and the van was still in one piece.

The following day, still full of beans at the start of my new adventure and inspired by the newly found sunshine, I decided to something utterly crazy - take the 6 hour trek to the Pinnacles, an activity on the 'Must-do top 100 things for Kiwis' list. Okay, hardly a claim to fame but if ever I was going to climb a mountain it might as well be today. I packed a bottle of water and some food in my rucksack and set off at 11am, in a little bit of a hurry as I needed to get back before dark.

Now, let me clear something up - I hate walking. Hate it. How on earth people can say they enjoy difficult, steep, tiring walks is totally beyond me; I despised every step of that awful trek and am still having nightmares about the flaring pains in my legs and knees. Sure, the views at the top were incredible, breath-taking even and worth every agonising step, but after seeing a helicopter land near the top I decided that there must be better ways to do this sort of thing.

I planned to go to Hot Water Beach the next day where you dig a hole in the sand and sit in your own little hot puddle, but before finding somewhere to stay I stopped at a petrol station where I was warned about an incoming storm that was going to hit the Peninsula really badly. I needed to go to the info centre anyway to find out about tide times at Hot Water Beach so I checked the forecast with them and indeed there was a bad storm coming in - one of the worst in recent history apparently with gale force winds of over 80mph - so I decided Hot Water Beach wasn't worth the risk and promptly took the journey across to the west of the island to Hamilton. I drove round the city for ages trying to find somewhere to camp but without a map, and at night-time, that's pretty hard to do in a city so I eventually settled for a university car park and slept. Not the best choice on a Friday night but beggars can't be choosers.

Little did I know at this point that although I'd escaped the initial eye of the storm it would still manage to plague me for the next 8 days - in fact pretty much my entire trip around the north island.

Hamilton & Raglan

Hamilton is the largest inland city in New Zealand, boasting a simply staggering 150,000 people (about the size of Basingstoke, just smaller than Milton Keynes). Yep, it's pretty small by UK standards, but then again most places are in New Zealand - there are just 4.5 million people in the country compared to 45 million sheep. My Lonely Planet guide didn't have much to say about it, and what it did involved mostly outdoor activities, so what is there to do in Hamilton when it's lashing it down with rain? The storm had hit, and not much was the answer.

I checked into a campsite pretty early after escaping the car park without a fine - I was actually pretty close to finding it without a map, it was only a few streets away - and after getting drenched at a bus stop waiting for a bus to the city centre that never came I went back to my van and watched some Family Guy episodes and a few films.

And that was my day.

No more time to waste so the next morning I went to Hamilton Gardens on the way to Raglan. The rain had eased off a little and the gardens were okay, fairly bland though as no flowers were in bloom, but Raglan was even more unspectacular and boasted even crappier weather. I decided immediately to give up on this area of the country and after getting very muddy tramping up the very average Four Brothers Scenic Reserve I set off for Rotorua, hoping for better weather.

Auckland

Bro. That's the easiest way to spot a Kiwi from an Aussie - every sentence seems to end in Bro. Hey Bro. Sweet as Bro. See ya later Bro. Men talking to men. Men talking to women. Women talking to women, everyone says it. Obviously those of Maori and Aboriginal descent are easy to spot, but another way to tell the difference is their pronunciation of i's and e's; in New Zealand 'is' is pronounced 'eez' and 'yes' is pronounced 'yeeez'. Or something like that. You have to hear it to know what I'm talking about.

So, 6 days in Auckland before myself and the three girls set off for our road trip around the cold and rugged dual islands of New Zealand. We'd booked a 4 berth camper van through a small but cheap company complete with hobs, grill, kettle, toaster, microwave, heater, shower, toilet and complimentary TV for just £6 a say each, not bad at all even with fuel and campsites added on.

Lisa and I had 3 days before the other 2 girls arrived from Fiji and that time was spent planning, doing a bit of shopping, visiting the museum which was interesting enough but also a little too big, taking a ferry to Devonport and walking up Mount Victoria (an extinct volcano), and finally going up the prominent but slightly disappointing Sky Tower for some views of the city.

I'd been expecting some pretty cold weather after reports of -10 degrees in the south island but Auckland, near the northern tip of the north island, is surprisingly just cool and a bit nippy in the evenings. Still, warm clothes would be needed later so a trip to a cheap shop called The Warehouse led to a complete stock-up without spending an obscene amount of money.

I met the other 2 girls - Sarah and Lydia - with Lisa over a drink or six in our hostel bar the night they arrived. They're both 20, from Leeds, and are engaged to each other. Lisa met them in Africa on her way to Australia. They're a bit different from you're everyday Jo...they look very young, act very young and are always either arguing or are all over each other in a pretty embarassing way. Over the next few days we did a bit more shopping and went to Rangitito, a Hauraki Gulf island just north of Auckland. Rangitito is a 'presumed' extinct volcano that was the scene of a massive eruption about 700 years ago. We took the hour long (and steep) track to the summit, enjoyed the views of the city and the other gulf islands and then strolled back down to get the last ferry via some dark and narrow caves. Judging by the pictures I've seen of New Zealand this was a pretty gentle introduction to some of the walking and scenery to come in the next month or so.

A few notes about Auckland. Although Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, Auckland is well known as the major city. It has a population of approximately 1.5 million, 11% of which are Maori, 55% are European descendants, and 34% are other foreigners. It has two harbours, about 50 extinct volcanoes and is closely situated to the Hauraki Gulf islands (you can get 30 minute ferries from the end of Queen Street, the main street in the city centre), which are very popular visiting spots for tourists and locals alike. Waiheke island, the most visited of all the Gulf islands, is home to some nice scenery, lots of posh artists and museums and some of the best wineries in New Zealand; wine tours are frequent but also expensive. We didn't have time to visit it, opting for the cheaper, smaller and more adventurous Rangitito instead, which is a shame but not one I'll worry about given the vast array of better stuff to do in the rest of the country.

I'll leave this entry on the night before we picked up the van...we went to watch some truly dreadful stand-up acts at the local Comedy Club - it was 'first-timer' night (and hopefully their last) - and then retired about midnight with excited anticipation...

Northland

The Northland lies on the north west of the north island, above Auckland, and has a subtropical climate. A deep Maori culture is steeped throughout; for example, at the peak of the north at Cape Reinga they used to send their dead out to sea on rafts. Among the highlights of the Northland are the Bay of Islands, diving at the Poor Knights island (rated amongst the top 10 in the world), Doubtless Bay, 90 Mile Beach, Cape Reinga and the Waipoua Forest, home of the biggest tree in New Zealand (a very old kauri tree called Tane Mahuta).

Our trip started with a taxi ride to the rental depot, near the airport, which the rental company paid for. After spending ages doing the usual checks we piled our stuff into the van and I sat in the driver's seat ready to go; as a free extra they's given us a portable TV which we thought might be useful, but unfortunately no-one remembered to secure it and as soon as I pulled away it slid off the side and smashed on the floor. Great start. I drove straight up the coast to Paihia, near the Bay of Islands, and we stopped at a campsite in a place called Haruru Falls. Unfortunately the power in the van didn't work so in the morning we decided to move and the van and try a different power supply, but due to all the rain that had fallen we were quickly wheel spinning and then moments later well and truly bogged in. All in all, not the best start to the trip. And it was raining too. The owner came down to help us get out with his two sons but to no avail, until finally someone spotted us from across the falls and came all the way round to tow us using their 4x4. We checked the power on another outlet - it worked - and 2 hours later than planned we were on our way with Lisa behind the wheel stalling the van at every opportunity.

We were hoping to get up to Cape Reinga that day but we'd lost too much time so after checking out Doubtless Bay - a bit gloomy and not very interesting - we stopped for the night in Kaituia, still a bit of a trek from Cape Reinga but about as close as you can stay without going the whole way. The next morning we set off and, well, Cape Reinga was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Low hanging clouds and fog obstructed all our views which are apparently spectacular, and most of the area is under maintenance with cones and tape stretched out all the way across the entrance and the first part of the lighthouse path. And, to add insult to injury, even the tacky little signpost near the lighthouse that points to places across the world had been vandalised, leaving just a post.

It was Sarah's turn to drive so I sat in the back and carried on reading my new book, the Penguin History of New Zealand, from which I learnt far more about Cape Reinga than I did from visiting it. Pretty soon we were lost trying to find the way to the Waipoua Forest and so I laid back and gave Sarah and Lydia a chance to right their wrong by getting us back on track. Unfortunately they failed by not only trying to take the wrong road but even failing to find that one and taking us away from our destination and into the middle of nowhere. After 3 more hours of driving around and wasting petrol Sarah pulled into a layby for the night with my enthusiasm for the trip at a very low ebb. After another evening of not getting on with the couple from Leeds and generally not wanting to be there I made an executive decision to get the hell out of that van and make different plans. I just can't spend 6 weeks of my life doing something I hate.

The next day I drove us the rest of the journey to the forest and we checked out Tane Mahuta, king of the forest, and it was certainly impressive. It's between 1,000 and 2,000 years old and Maoris believe it is responsible for all life. Not sure about that one but it's a massive tree alright. Next stop was Waitingi for a look around the Treaty Grounds where Maoris agreed to British sovereignty back in 1840, although if you looked into the treaty you'd see that they were actually duped by a pretty poorly translated version which differed from the English version in some very important areas (I'll bore you with more history in later updates). The Treaty Grounds were fairly interesting, although nothing more than that. Finally we decided we'd had enough of Northland and the crummy weather (I certainly had anyway) and so I drove towards Auckland with plans in my mind to stop off in Orewa the next morning, just north of Auckland, and see the 3 girls I met on the Whitsunday Islands in Australia. When we reached Te Hana I veered inside of someone who suddenly decided he wanted to turn right into a petrol station, and then just as quickly changed his mind and turned back to the left, catching the rear drivers side of our van and crunching the front left of his. What a plonker. After taking pictures, swapping details and inspecting the damage (not much wrong with our van, just a dented plate acting as a vent cover) we were on our way again.

We stopped in a layby for the night in the pouring rain and I told the girls that I'd be leaving them the next day. I decided to be tactful and not tell them that they got on my tits, but I think somehow they knew why I was leaving and had guessed that I might do this as I really was miserable as sin. Well, bring on the next day and a new chapter in the great New Zealand adventure.

New Beginnings

I had a great time in Orewa, we got trashed on the Saturday night playing drinking games and then went to a 70s/80s fancy dress bash at the bar Hollie works at, and then slobbed about on Sunday and ate pizza and rented a DVD. Perfect. On Monday I booked myself into a hostel in Auckland and the girls kindly gave me a lift down there, at which point I had a sudden sense of deja vu - on my own in a big city trying to work out what to do next. My energy levels were low and I didn't fancy putting in the effort needed to travel round on a party bus like the Kiwi experience so the next day I started hunting around for vans.

The girls in Orewa were going to be travelling too but for now they were working and saving some cash so I knew I was on my own for at least the majority of my trip, and pretty quickly worked out that I'd have to rent a van by myself. I wanted one with a power point and plug sockets to charge everything up so I eventually settled on a Jucy Cruiza for $32 a day (about £12) with a free ferry journey from the north to the south island thrown it, saving me about $100. That was clearly the best I was going to get do after a few days of downloading films and games to play on my own I was bored of Auckland pretty excited about having the freedom of doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

A bit expensive but hopefully worth it...