Day 14 - Waitomo

I was really surprised at how good the Waitomo Caves and tour was. We did the 9:30 tour which turned out to be great because the 9:00 tour had a bus load of tourists on it.  Our guide was excellent and our group of 12 was very manageable and even though there were 5 children they were all really well behaved and quiet in the boat ride section of the glow worm caves.  The guide kept them interested and was great with them. Very well managed, great caves (and I have seen Jenolan Caves in NSW) and the glow worms were exceptional.  We got a close up viewing of the glow worm threads then a view from the boat for the full effect, in total silence.  Great experience.
 Entry and exit to the caves. No photos inside unfortunately.  The glowworms are shy.

Drove to Auckland, dropped off the campervans and were driven to the Jet Park Airport hotel.  Great choice as my second choice turned out to be on the corner of two busy roads.

Dinner at the Te Maroro (award winning) Restaurant at the hotel and yatzee to finish the night.

Day 13-Tongariro NP

Very cold overnight, no snow in the Whakapapa Village in the Tongariro National Park - despite the fact that the official snow season finished last monday. Snow on Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings for those who are interested).

Whakapapa Village Campsite

Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom) see the smoke from the volcano?

On walk to Taranaki Falls and the falls below:

Mt Ngauruhoe letting off steam.

Walked for 6 km in 2 hours along the Wairere Stream and beech forest to the Taranaki Falls which tumble 22 m over the edge of a large lava flow, which erupted from Ruapehu 15,000 years ago. The waters falls so heavily they have created a circular boulder-ringed pool. Then over heath covered hills back to the Whakapapa Village. 
Walked to Tawhai Falls:

Tawhai Falls

Countryside on the way to Waitomo.

Stayed at Waitomo Caves.  Dinner at Huhu restaurant. 

Day 12 - Taupo

Started the day with the Canopy Tours Zipline in Rotorua.

Excellent experience with a brand new company that is trying to combine conservation and adventure and doing a great job.  They are trying to remove stoats, rats and possums from their part of the forest and are hoping to encourage native species to return.  Excellent day.

    View from the zipline

 Ronnie on the zipline, above and below

Drove up to the Tongariro National Park via the Volcanic Loop - Highway 47.  Stopped at a few lovely lookouts and waterfalls.

Dinner at the Tussock Bar.  

Stayed in the Whakapapa Village Holiday Park Beautiful place amongst beech trees and next to a rapid in the Waiere Stream.

Day 11 - Relatives

View we woke up to at the Tatapouri Motorvillage, we saw the sun rise on the 28th of October before anyone else in the world.

Lunch with Ronnies relatives in Gisborne at the Tatapouri Fisherman's Club.  Great day.  So wonderful to meet so many of Ronnie's relatives.

We drove on to Taupo and stayed at Reid Farm near the Huka Falls. 

Day 10 - White Island

Stayed overnight in Whakatane for the boat trip to White Island Marine Volcano. 90 minutes cruise on a huge motor cruiser which holds 90 passengers but today had only 40.  We arrived on the island via a rubber duckie tender and walked around on sulphur flats between steaming vent holes with sulphur melting and depositing as it hit the surface.  Also steam rising out of vents and the main crater and making mud pots where hot steam comes up through the mud. Like an amazing lunar landscape in the middle of the sea.

It erupted on August 24th when the boat was 200m from shore and they retreated 1.5 km off shore to avoid it.  It erupted again 2 weeks ago and covered the island in ash.  Amazing place.  We walked around the island with a guide for 2 hours, had lunch back on the boat and finished the trip with another 90 minute cruise back to the mainland.The sea was very rough both ways.  Luckily neither of us got sea sick but the same couldn't be said for quite a few passengers who all sat outside to get fresh air. Other than the rough sea the weather was great.

As usual my photos make it look piffling.  Ronnies will be better. 
Drove from Whakatane to Gisborne.  We're having lunch with Ronnie's relatives at the Tarapouri Fishing club, which I (foolishly) assumed would be in Tarapourim which it was, twenty years ago.  Now it has moved into the centre of town in Gisborne, so we've parked ourselves 10 minutes (this is what the brochure says and this would be accurate if you drove at 200 km/hr) out along the coast.  So we are staying in the Tarapouri Motorhome park so we can arrive showered and clean.  The park owner assures us we will be the first in the world to see the sunrise on Monday 28 October so we are pleased to be here!  Also have free internet which is a bonus.  Had Indian for dinner which was really nice.  

Day 9 - Whakatane

Looped around from Miranda to  Mt Maunganui - never, ever go there, it is much worse than Surfers Paradise or Noosa - to Rotorua outskirts to see various lookouts and do various short walks.

    Our Van

Mt Maunganui

Karangahake

  Okere Falls

                                                                             Okere Falls

      Redwood forest

Spotted some silver fern, the NZ emblem, which we were told is rare but we are now wise to the NZ sense of humour and guess it is as common as the Pukeko.

Saw some canoeists and rafters shooting rapids on the Kaituna River.  The Okere falls were the biggest falls. grade 4/5 rapids with one of the drops 7m.  The sort of thing Linden Brown does before breakfast.  The rafting companies have groups coming down all day with a professional photographer at each lookout to take photos of the event. 

The we visited a redwood forest originally planted for timber but in 1936 donated to the government in memory of the men lost in the wars.  The various different tracks are now used for walkers, horses and mountain bikers. They cross occasionally but are not shared. There are also some thermal pools i the park because they are near Rotorua.

Then on to Whakatane, where we stayed the night.

Day 8 - Miranda

Drive from Paihia to Auckland, drop off the van and pick up campervans.  Pick up Bob from the airport as he had to work an extra week and head towards Rotorua.

They are predicting rain today.  We have had such beautiful weather so far it has been a bit of a miracle.  Hopefully, the rain will be just today while we are travelling.  

We got a free GPS with the campervan but it didn't work and you definitely need one so glad we brought our own.  Friday night traffic on a long weekend in Auckland is like Sydney : (.  We got as far as Miranda on the Coromandel Peninsular. 

Day 7 - Paihia

Our last day in Paihia.  Waitangi Treaty grounds:

Waitangi treaty house with a close up of one of the tribal totems on the wall.


Ngawha hot springs, car cleaning and dinner in a restaurant that is in an old ship on the water's edge.  Shippy's - fish and chips.

Day 6 - Paihia

I am really enjoying the 60's music that seems to be the favourite of the Kiwis.  : )

Caught the ferry to Russell for lunch, saw the Russell museum and Pompallier Mission Adobe Heritage Printery.  Great site where we learnt the meaning of quoined a phrase, cut to the chase, paper boy and many others.

 Pompallier Mission                                              Duke of Marlborough Hotel

Caught the ferry back to Paihia and kayaked to the base of the Haruru falls.  Great photo opportunity but we were a bit early in the spring for the night paddle so missed seeing the mysteriously lit waterfall and missed seeing a kiwi, yet again. We have, however, heard the call of the female and male kiwi in a shop when we squeezed a soft toy - apparently authentically close to the real thing.

Day 5 - Cape Reinga

Up early to drive to Kaitaia to meet Harrison’s Caper Runner Bus to Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island.  

Stopped to see Ancient Kauri Kingdom’s 45,000 year old tree and woodwork extracted from the local swamps. Photo of Mauri carving at Houhora Harbour where they used to whale and Mt Camel (named by Cook) a volcanic outcrop headland.  Stopped at very white sands Of Rarawa Beach (don’t think they’ve seen Australian beaches which are all white!) Te Kao store for “best icecream on the north island” (and they really are the creamiest we’ve had so far – I am not hugely into icecream but it is good in NZ). 

Tapotupotu Bay sandy beach where Rosie had a swim and the rest of us had lunch.  Cape Reing which the Maori believe is the departing place of the spirits of the recently dead and the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet.  

Cape Reinga has changed a bit since I was there last.  You can't buy and post a card from the lighthouse but it is still there.  Great view, fantastic weather.  Then we drove the bus along a creek, climbed a huge sand dune and tobogganed down the slope.  

Then drove along the 90 mile beach.  

At The Bluff another operator's bus got caught in the water, even though he was an experienced driver.
 Passengers from another bus who arrived just before us tried to pull the bus (it was small) out but to no avail. We rescued the poor soaking wet passengers to take them back to Kaitaia.  As we continued down the beach the police went to the scene and our bus company brought out an excavator on a float (all with Harrison's emblazened on the side - maybe this has happened before?) to rescue the other operator's bus.  Exciting day but so sad for those involved, even though no one was hurt, all their gear was wet including mobile phones and cameras and some were pretty upset by the ordeal.

We all held our breath going around the bluff even though the tide had dropped a bit more by then, but we made it around ok.

Fish and Chips for dinner at the “North Island’s best fish shop” in Manganoui.  Only fish they had was Blue nose (grouper).  Tourist special "fishermen's basket" 1/3 piece of Blue Nose fish and small chips with lemon, tomato sauce and tartare sauce for $15.50 OR "fish and chips" 1/3 piece of the Blue nose fish and large chips for $10!

Day 4 - Paihia

Drove to Kerikeri and on the way saw Haruru Falls.  There are two horseshoe shaped waterfalls in the world Niagra Falls and Haruru Falls. Spectacular. 

   

Then onto Puketi Foresst of Giant Kauris where we did the Manginangina Kauri Walk and saw awesome ancient Kauri. The kiwi, giant snails and all the birds except the fantails were all asleep.  I didn’t know so much of the NZ wildlife was nocturnal.   

Then we stopped at Rainbow falls and lo and behold a rainbow formed at the bottom of the really spectacular falls.  Not horseshoe shaped but really massive with a fantastic cave behind the water.  Drove through Kerikeri and back to Paihia for lunch. 

Jack and Rosie went to play golf on a spectcular course overlooking the bay.  We went shopping and had pizza. beer and wine for dinner. I forgot to mention the ice cream, which of course, we shared.

Day 3 - Paihia

Started early and walked 16km from Paihia to Russell via beaches, boardwalks through mangroves, tracks through kiwi country (if they had been awake we would have seen them but being nocturnal little animals they didn’t come out and say hello). 

We crossed the bay on the vehicular ferry, saw where the first Europeans settled, The first capital of New Zealand (Okiato) and saw our first Pukeko (cute, rare NZ bird) and continued walking until we got to the Duke Of Marborough Hotel where we had a well deserved drink. 

Pukeko - a very rare bird in NZ. Since we rarely see birds (other than seagulls) they all seem rare but this has such a cute name, I am sure it's rare. 

Caught the ferry from Russell to Paihia and had dinner at Jimmy Jacks Ribs again because it was Sunday night and the beginning of the tourist season and not many restaurants were open. They love us there now, we can tell, because we got half price beer and wine and free chocolate sundaes for dessert.  We had a very peaceful day which turned out to be a great day to do the walk because a cruise ship came in and 4,000 tourists arrived in Paihia while we were away.  That put a smile on the tour guides faces.  Had another ice cream and went to bed fairly early.