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I once again woke around 7:30am to clear blue skies, but a temperature of only 16°C. After breakfaast we managed to get hold of Katie and Quaid on FaceTime before also contacting Tracy's Dad to wish him a happy birthday. Then we filled up the water tank, emptied the waste water and headed away from Rotorua north on HWY30 around some beautiful lakes before turning onto HWY2, which skirted the coast of the Bay of Plenty, where we stopped at a beach-side car park for lunch, just west of Waiotahi Beach.
From here we headed inland again, through the Urutawa Forest and a landscape dotted with millions of small green hills. The road twisted and turned as it followed the path of the river through Waikohu Gorge, seemingly taking forever to emerge once more into farmland as we approached Gisbourne. On arrival, we filled up with fuel and then drove around town. It was mostly closed, with it being not only Sunday but also Waitangi weekend (the treaty was signed on 6th February - Tuesday - and so it's a long weekend for many). Most of the buildings are like those we've seen in other towns, woodend construction and only 2-stories high, with shop-fronts very uniform and, it has to be said, uninteresting. There were a few unique and attractive buildings in town, including the café where we stopped for a brew and a slice of cake. This was like an old Victorian or Western Hotel, with beautiful wooden rooms with high ceilings and creaking floor boards.
After leaving Gisbourne we headed north up the coast for 10Km to the free camping
Makororiwhere we planned to spend the night. Parked up right on the beach front along with several smaller campervans, we sat in the sun studying the Lonely Planet guide and the CampeMate application on the Tom-Tom (no Internet here!) making plans for our last 4 days on North Island.
After sitting and enjoying the sunshine and the ocean view, we cooked our steaks on the exterior BBQ and ate them with a small side salad and a nice bottle of New Zealand Merlot (for me, Tracy drank the remainder of the Chardonnay from the night before). Sleep that evening came easy as we listened to the sound of the South Pacific Ocean just 30m from the front of our motorhome.
We wanted to ensure we were up ready for the sunrise, as Gisbourne is one of the first places on Earth to welcome the new-day sun. With no Internet access we were unable to check the time of the sunrise, so I set my alarm for 4:30am, but woke at 4:15am to pitch blackness. Resetting the alarm for 5:30am still saw me awake until around 5:25am when the first signs of light appeared, a dark burst of orange on the horizon. I woke Tracy and we clambered into the front seats and watched the horizon as the sun slowly made its presence felt, turning the length of the horizon orange before this gradually faded to yellow as the sky around it changed from deep navy to light blue.
Satisfied that we'd witnessed the day's sunrise before most of the planet, we retired back to bed and slept for another hour or so, before getting up with the day now fully dawned. Outside in the early morning surfers were making their way out to enjoy the incoming swell, although most seemed content to bob up and down in the waves 40m or so from the shore.
After another leisurely breakfast and a 2nd cup of tea whilst watching the surfers, we packed up and hit the road,
heading south on the Pacific Coast Highway (HWY2) to Napier. The road was not the awe-inspiring one its name conjours
up, spending a considerable part of its length going up and down and left and right trhough the Mahako Forest and
away from the coastline. The guide book had warned us this would be the case, stating the only highlight was the
railway viaduct the road passed under. When we finally reached this supposed highlight
, we slowed to take
photos of a bridge made of girders that resembled my early attempts at bridge-making with my Meccano set as a 6-year
old!
The town of Napier, however, was a real treat. Originally destroyed in a devastating earthquake on 3rd
February 1931, it was completely rebuilt in the architectural style of the day. The result is a town full of
beautiful Art Deco style buildings, which not only line the ocean-front, but also the grid-like streets of the
main town. We found somewhere to park on the front and went into a food shop called Hunger Monger
, which
initially looked like a fast-food joint but turned out to be far more artisan. We opted for soft drinks - Gineralla
for me and blood orange juice for Tracy - and the fish and chips, with a side of muchy peas. Being a proud
Blackpool lad, I know my Fish and Chips, and I have to say, this was the best I've had outside the U.K., with the
exception of the bus at Hyder, Alaska. The batter was wonderfully light and thin, the fish firm and meaty with a
lovely fresh flavour and cooked to perfection. The mushy peas, however, tasted as though they'd been cooked in
the water used to clean the fish - they were truly disgusting!
Once lunch had been consumed (except for the peas!) we drove around town admiring the architecture of the buildings
and then we headed further down the coast to Hastings. Here we'd reserved a pitch at the Top-10 Holiday Park
campsite. First we found a supermarket to stock up on supplies, then had a drive around town, a disappointment after
the beauty of Napier, despite also suffering from the 1931 'quake. Arriving at the campsite early afternoon
afforded us plenty of time to relax and read, but the heat and intensity of the sun took the edge off this simple
pleasure. Dinner was simple - burgers in buns - and Tracy even had a full dry day
, whilst I only had a
couple of beers...
Waking up on a municipal campsite, surrounded by other campers in motorhomes, caravans and tents, we could have
been anywhere in the world. This was such a contrast to the previous morning that we agreed to try to freedom
camp
when possible and practical.
After breakfast was prepared the van for just such adventures, filling up the fresh water tank, emptying the
toilet and waste water tank and even trying to clean the bugs from the windscreen. Then we hit the road again,
heading back north on the Thermal Explorer Highway
(HWY5) to Taupo. Our first stop was the Huka Falls
where we fully expected to see another waterfall, but instead found a very fast-moving river flowing through
a narrow gorge. The sign at the entrance declared today's water flow to be 100m3/second - or to put
it another way, 100,000 litres per second! Whether this was accurate or not I'm not qualified to say, but it was
impressive enough, with the green glacial river-water thundering down and turning white as it churned its way
under the observation bridge before entering the narrow gorge and then the wider river beyond.
From here we drove down a narrow road to investigate a sign we'd seen for Huka Prawn Park
that had caught
our imagination. We could not work out what it was - our guesses that it was a playground for the world's rich and
famous prawns were wrong. It was actually a fishing ground with several small ponds where tourists could hire a rod
and go prawn-fishing! The sign at the entrance road read Catch 'em, Cook 'em, Eat 'em
. Despite such an
inviting offer we declined and made our way on to the next stop on out itinerary, Craters of the Moon
.
As with the Prawn Park
, the name doesn't accurately reflect this sight, largely because it's not like the moon
in any way (or at least, that we could see)! It is an area of intense geo-thermal activity, however, with steam
erupting from the landscape everywhere. There's a lovely 45 minute walk through the grounds on a gravel path (cost NZ$8),
some of which is on raised wooden planks. Either side of the path, stretching as far as the distant forest, is hardy
heather and other scrub plants. Interspersed here and there are larger craters, where the pressure built up too much
for the small jets of steam to alleviate, resulting in an eruption which then collapsed in on itself. Even these
craters are emitting constant jets of acrid, sulphur smelling, steam. The one and only mud crater had dried out,
so there was no bubbling mud of the type we'd seen at Rotorua, but it did have a large vent from which steam rose
20-30 feet whilst making a loud noise akin to the sound of a jet engine on full thrust.
After leaving the Craters of the Moon we drove via downtown Taupo, which was heaving with people enjoying the
Waitangi Day holiday, and then drove round the lake to a freedom campsite I'd found on the excellent CamperMate
application, called Five Mile Bay Amenity Area
. Situated right by the lakeside, it was very busy, but we
managed to find a suitable space on a raised bank overlooking the lake. As I write this (5:45pm) there must be
around 50 campers all parked up enjoying the sunshine, whilst others keep arriving and trying to find a space
to stop and join the fun.
Dinner tonight was a chicken madras curry and rice - made the same way as at home using a Patak's curry sauce we found in the supermarket a couple of days ago. Delicious, even though I do say so myself! After dinner we both wandered the few metres to the lakeside to watch the sunset and take a few photos, before retiring to bed and an earlyish night.
I woke after a solid night's sleep around 7am, put the water heater on and returned to bed for the 20 minutes or so it takes to warm up. After an onboard shower and breakfast we drove off the steep slope of the embankment, the nice shallow route we used to get up yesterday now blocked by another large motorhome that arived after us and parked close in front. Then we were on the road again, heading south on HWY1 along with several slow-moving trucks and a few badly-driven cars. The route was largely uninspiring, across a vast plain at an altitude of just over 1,000m. After many kilometers the plain ended and we descended onto farmland, with obvious signs of past geological upheaval, as to our left the plateau was raised almost 50m higher and with a large canyon (Gravity Canyon) between these two flat lands. After a stop for fuel - both for the motorhome (diesel) and us (coffee and carrot-cake) - we continued on, arriving in the small oceanside town of Foxton around noon. We drove through town as it looked interesting and it was, with a windmill next to the Dutch Kitchen café and several buildings dating from the 1860s, not long after the Treaty of Waitangi.
From here it was a short drive to the town of Shannon, a place we'd chosen to visit not only because it afforded
us the chance of a photo-op we could put on FaceBook for Tracy's neice of the same name, but also because of a place
called Owlcatraz
. How could we miss that? It promised to be an experience, with the Lonely Planet describing
some of its features, including Owlvis Presley
and Owl Capone
. Simply too good to miss! Except, it was
closed. Seems the owners needed a holiday (perhaps one in a padded cell?).
Disappointed, we drove on to the town of Levin, where I had discovered the RJ's Liquorice Factory. But first we
stopped for a picnic lunch of packet cheese and biscuits bought from the garage when we stopped earlier. The
liquorice factory didn't have a tour we could take, which was another disappointment, but the shop sold all of
their many products (including cheap rejected ones) and so I bought a good supply plus a book on the history
of my favourite black confectionary. Or I tried to, but my travel card wasn't accepted and I didn't have any
cash, so we had first to hunt out an ATM! After returning and collecting my booty and allowing Tracy to take
my picture outside the factory, we drove back into town. Our next stop was added to the itinerary after I saw
an advert for it at our lunch stop. Called Swazi
, it claimed to produce the most durable outdoor clothing
in the world and in the advert the factory shop looked huge and full of bargains. This was to be our 3rd
disappointmentof the day as the shop was tiny and there wasn't a bargain in sight!
With a work email coming in that required my attention, we decided to find a campsite with wi-fi, the onboard system proving to be very unreliable. But after looking at options on CamperMate and reading the customer comments, we decided to opt for another night of freedom camping and to buy some data roaming on Tracy's phone instead. With a few locations listed on the coast, but only having room for 2-3 campervans we knew we'd need to be lucky to find somewhere. Nevertheless, we set off for the coast again. The first site, Fields Way, had 1 camper already set up and a car parked in the only other space, which had an old woman slumped in the passenger seat. We stopped anyway and I had a brief conversation with the campers who told me another woman had driven up in the car and then taken her dog for a walk on the beach, leaving the other woman sat there in the sweltering heat - over an hour ago! Reasoning she had to return at some point, hopefully before her passenger died of dehydration, we parked up nearly and waited. Eventually, after perhaps another 15 minutes, she returned and they left, allowing us to claim the second pitch, right next to the river and with a view of the beach and ocean.
Once I'd dealt with the work email, I took a walk to the water front, where I had a paddle whilst keeping a close eye on the many Portugese Man-O-War jellyfish that were scattered all around. Returning to the van, I opened some beers for Tracy and me whilst preparing dinner of Hot Tuna. Only without fresh chillies and with ground dried chillies as a substitute, I got my measurements wrong and we ended up with F-Hot Tuna! Too hot for Tracy, sadly, so I felt guilty once more. Not enough to break my good mood, though, as we laughed about it all whilst finishing the bottle of Chardonnay we opened yesterday.
Another great spot to stop on our penultimate night on North Island, tomorrow we head to the capital, Wellington, and its famous Te Papa museum. I just hope that's not closed too!
We woke at 7am as normal and snoozed whilst waiting for the water heater to work its magic, then showered and hit the road around 9:30am. The drive to Wellington didn't take long and so we drove to where the ferry departs to check it out for the following day, thhen made our way into town, parking up at the Te Papa Museum. This had been recommended by Michael, our City Tour Guide in Auckland, and we were pleased to find it was free to enter. First stop inside was the café as we'd skipped breakfast earlier due to a milk shortage. Tracy opted for home made crumpets, whilst I had scrambled eggs on toast and a side of crispy bacon. All very civilised!
The museum had a special exhibition running on at the time, all about the Gallipoli campaign during WWI, and having recently discovered my great-grandfather (my mum's mum's dad) was killed during the campaign, this was a must-see. It was absolutely brilliant. The first thing we encountered was a large and very lifelike statue of a soldier lying on his side with his pistol in his left hand, grimacing in pain. Next to this was his story - a true story of an individual soldier (I forget his name, sadly) who was shot in the right arm and so was forced to use his left. The story of the campaign was then told via various wall signs in multiple languages, from the landings in April 1915 through to the main offensive on Chunuk Bair in August 1915. This explained that on the night of 9th August, the depleted New Zealand and Australian forces wererelievedby 2 batalions (or regiments it wasn't clear) of British, who were inexperienced, ill-prepared and so ineffective. This would have been around the time my great grandfather was killed, and I suspect he was part of this British force. It then went on to explain the failed September offensive and the final withdrawal in November 1915. The stories were brought to life through the individual stories of several Kiwi soldiers, and illustrated by more dramatic larger-than-life dioramas. One depicted 3 men and a machine-gun; another a medic, head bowed over a dead soldier; a nurse reading her letter to her brother that had been returned undelivered and stamped
killed in action, the tears running down her cheeks particularly life-like; and finally a solitary soldier in full kit wading through a field of poppies. It was all very emotional.
Having spent over 2 hours on this one exhibit, we rushed through the exhibition explaining the geology of the islands, stopping to top-up our knowledge where necessary and to stand in a mocked-up house whilst it experienced an earthquake. From here to the stuffed animal exhibition, where there was a collosal squid on display, accompanied by a video of its story from being caught in a fishing net in the Antarctic to the museum. By now we were starting to get tired, so headed to the café for a brew before going to the temporary Lego exhibit, which we were disappointed to discover was NZ$19 a head to enter! We took this as an omen and skipped it.
I forgot to mention the first thing we encountered on entering the museum, which for me was very exciting. On display was one of only 10 Britten motorcycles ever made. The designer and builder, John Britten, was a Kiwi engineer and the bike features many innovative parts all designed and hand-built by John and his team. I've read about these bikes in countless magazines and all those lucky enough to have ridden one rave about their performance and handling. It's also Guy Martin's favourite bike. Sadly, John Britten died aged just 45 of cancer, and so there will be no more bikes like this one ever made.
After leaving the museum we drove back to the ferry terminal once more before then driving to the Top 10 campsite we'd booked, timing the journey in preparation for the morning. It only took 10 minutes, long enough for us to decide waht we wanted for dinner that evening. Having checked out the journey and now the location of the campsite we drove into town to find a supermarket and bought the necessary for the next 3 night's meals, before returning to the campsite and checking in. Dinner was a prawn salad, although the seafood dressing we'd bought was a major disappointment, washed down with a few bottles of summer ale.
Killed in Action
