Moving on...

We finally booked ourselves on a ferry to the South Island so drove from Taupo to Wellington one incredibly windy day. Thankfully Sean did all the driving but it wasn’t much fun with a loaded van. We spent a few days there and met up with Askea and Rea again. In Wellington we toured around a bit and saw the Botanic Gardens, had a spin on the cable car, saw the new and old St. Paul’s Cathedrals. We also took the mountain bikes out for a spin in Lower Hutt one morning. A free tour is run in the Parliament Buildings so we took that opportunity to see inside the “Beehive” and elsewhere. We learned something interesting on the tour too: when notices of pending legislation are put in the paper anyone, whether a national or just a tourist there for a couple of weeks, can write in and request an oral hearing where they can voice their concerns over the legislation. This cannot be denied, so when the cabinet are considering it the person can attend the entire meeting and has absolute freedom of speech while he/she is sitting in the meeting. Apparently it’s not abused, though I’m sure it might not run as smoothly at home!

And so, on Friday 25^th January, 3 ½ months after arriving in New Zealand, we finally boarded the ferry to the South Island.

On arrival, we slowly drove towards Nelson, stopping in Blenheim for breakfast and again in Pelorus Bridge for lunch at the side of the river. We couldn’t resist taking a dip too in the heat of the day. When we arrived in Nelson we went straight to Maree and Ross’ house as instructed! They are both Kiwi’s but Maree sometimes comes over to Ireland and works with Sean’s mum, so Sean met with her this summer in Ireland and she invited us to visit. They were great hosts as we stayed with them for a few days, doing more mountain biking and also going to the Da Vinci exhibibtion running in Nelson at the moment. It was really interesting as it had small models of his drawings together with computer graphics of how some of his machines worked.

We dragged ourselves away from Nelson and drove up to the base of the Abel Tasman National Park, another popular walking track. As we weren’t prepared for camping out overnight, we couldn’t do the 2/3 day walk all the way around the headland, so instead we arranged to get a boat to drop us about seven hours up the track at Bark Bay and we would walk out. The scenery was best from the water, but the walk was nice under the cover of the trees. We stopped for lunch at Stillwater Beach and had a swim before carrying on, the entire walk taking us about 4 ½ hours.

The next day we started heading further south to meet up with some other Irish paddlers. We stopped in Murchison, which is a busy centre for kayakers, but due to the lack of water there at the moment it was nearly deserted! Apparently it’s the best summer they’ve had for about 15 years, which is doing wonders for my tan, but not so good for the kayaking! As it was so quiet, we carried on to Greymouth that evening and met our friends in Hokitika the next day.

January 2008

Since New Years, and changing the van, we spent a while in Auckland doing up the interior, but we did manage to fit in a few fun things like going roller blading in Mission Bay – I didn’t fall! Once the Homy was ready to rock we went back down to Taupo.

One evening Sean, Jeanine and I walked up Mount Tauhara which is quite near Taupo and gave us great views of the lake and town. That was a warm up for the Tongariro Crossing, a popular walk through Tongariro National Park. The walk first climbs up to the base of Mount Ngaurahoe, which was Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films. We were tempted to go up Ngaurahoe until it got hidden in the clouds – as there is no track up it (and it’s quite a steep climb) people are advised not to do it unless there’s very good visibility. So we continued along the track through a remarkably flat basin before climbing again to the Red Crater. From there we decided to go up the side track to the top of Mount Tongariro, a round trip that is supposed to take a few hours but only took us one. Carrying on down the path we passed the Emerald lakes and some great scenery before arriving at the end just 6 hours 20 minutes after leaving the start. We only walked for about 5 hours 30 minutes in all on the track too, despite the guidelines suggesting what we walked should take over 10 hours! Sean was on a mission to complete the walk as soon as possible! It is a very good walk through some amazingly barren scenery.

Our new bikes arrived while we were in Taupo so we set off with Tim and some others one evening to go biking. With a little confusion about how far away the track was, we finally arrived at Ikawhenua Range two hours and 120 km later. It was getting dark but we hadn’t driven all that way to not go biking, so out came the bikes, and the two torches that we had between seven of us… It was good fun though, trying to keep on the track in the dark! Another day Sean and I took a spin in Taupo on the track between Spa Park and Huka Falls, which was a great easy run. Sean has to be patient with me, a beginner biker!

Changing our van

We started hunting for a new van – the Emina is getting a bit too cramped as we gather more and more toys! We took a look through Taupo, Rotorua, Hamilton and Auckland and vans were few and far between.

However, just after Christmas we got a call from Jason saying he had found us a van, so we drove down to Taupo to check it out. It was a lovely clean high roof Nissan Homy with a tow bar that is running well so we quickly shook on the deal and trotted off to the bank.

After spending an afternoon cleaning up the Emina we drove both vehicles up to Auckland and checked the Emina into the Backpackers Car Market. After just a few hours patiently waiting a very tired and jet lagged Austrian arrived in with his son looking for a van that he and his wife could sleep in at night, but that they could also transport their two children in with them by day. Our shiny van stood out and suited them perfectly and so, happy with the $200 profit we were making on the van, we waved goodbye to the Emina and happily went back to the bank. As a tip for you all – shine up your vehicle before you try to sell it! Well worth the effort.

Having sold the Emina we turned our attention to the new Homy. We got tinting for the windows in the 25% off sale in Supercheap Autos, saving a few more pennies, and spent a day putting it on. It’s hard work but well worth it. We discovered that putting sudsy water on the tint and the windows works really well – next boat I put contact on is going to be brilliant!

Before getting the van we’d spread the word that we were looking for one, so our friend Greg who is a builder thought of us when his company were about to throw out some lovely plywood. We used that wood to make our bed in the back of the van. Another friend who is building a house also had some off cuts of wood around and we used them to make a chest and shelving as well.

The next step was putting in curtains, so we bought some great material for $3 per metre and I got down to sewing.

After all that, we’re pretty happy with the new van and happier still that we were able to buy some bikes (nicely discounted due to being “earthquake damaged”) and fit all our clothes, boats and bikes in the van!

Christmas and New Years

Dave and co. kept us good and busy over the festive period. We didn’t even get much time to think of what we were missing at home and the hot weather put it further from our minds!

On Christmas Eve, 7 of us went tramping in Waitakere, where we walked along the tracks to a dam and back in about 3½ hours, having a bite of lunch along the way. On Christmas Day Sean, Paul and I went surfing at Murewai Beach for a couple of hours. It did start to feel a bit more like home when we were sitting on the water in the middle of a solid downpour of rain! One way to clear the beach in seconds! On Boxing Day (that’s what they call it here so I’m allowed call it that at last!) a group of us went mountain biking in Woodhill. This time I got away with going a little slower though due to having the convenient excuse of having a child along with us! I’m getting fond of mountain biking now… The day after that we went surfing at Murewai again with Fuzzy, a little less rain that time though!

We took a quick trip down to Taupo also (to do with van hunting – I’ll explain later) and went sailing on the lake. Of course, the wind seemed to die once we were out on the lake again! I’m thinking I might be a bit unlucky with this sailing thing… Sean got to have a spin on Jason’s new jet ski though. Jason has been racing them for years and this is the most powerful one he’s ever ridden, so given that he can hardly hold onto it, I figured I wouldn’t have much of a chance!

On Sunday 30^th we joined Dave, Nic, Paul and Stacey for our first river in New Zealand (at last!). We paddled the grade 3 section of the Wairoa River twice before heading back to Auckland. There, we packed up and all went up to Matapouri for New Years in Dave’s parents’ motor home. As it was so late when we left Auckland, we only drove as far as Whangarei that night. En route, Nic and I got the pleasure of cooking dinner… Apparently it’s legal here, but I advise you all to never even attempt to fry sausages and steak in the back of a moving motor home, especially on the windy roads of New Zealand!

Safely in Matapouri, we went surfing again at Sandy Beach on New Years Eve and then rang in the New Year on the beach watching fireworks!

On New Years Day we decided to try a little experiment towing kayaks behind the prototype jet boat! Sean and Paul got to be the crash test dummies but I stuck to being photographer! Dave and Steve’s son, Brad, also tried it on a surfboard!

The next day Steve brought us to Poor Knights Island in his bigger boat and we went snorkelling. It’s supposed to be one of the best diving destinations. This time I only swam away from jellyfish at speed! I also got to swim right up to a blue penguin – it was only about a foot long and sooo cute! That evening Sean tried out Steve’s surf-ski at Sandy Beach before we headed back to Auckland – Dave and Nic had to go back to work!

Mid-December

We got back to Taupo in time for another barbeque. We brought a sea-kayak down to the canoe shop there for Dave, which we delivered first thing Monday morning, and met some friends from home in the shop! Askea from UCCCC and her sister Rea have been here for months, and her boyfriend Liam, also a UCCCC member was over for December. The next day we joined them in Rotorua and had a great time racing each other on the luges. We also finally managed to buy a couple of paddles at last!

A week later we met up with them again when we went to the Waitomo Caves together. We took a great trip with one of the many companies that do tours there, Rap, Rock and Raft. Combined we spent about 6 hours abseiling into the cave, walking upstream and floating downstream on rubber inner tubes looking at the glowworms lining the ceiling and walls of the cave, squeezing our way through small gaps, and finally climbing back out again. Well worth the trip!

We made our way from there slowly up to Auckland again, arriving in time to join the polo club in playing a few demonstration games in a pool that was just opening in the city. We had a bit of fun getting the kids to try out the boats in the pool afterwards too.

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas!

A bit more travel

A friend from Limerick organised to come to Palmerstown North for a conference, so we agreed to meet up with him there. On the way we spent a night in Taupo and picked up a down river racing boat for Sean that a friend in Auckland has given him. Sean also got a much needed swimming lesson from Jeanine in Lake Taupo before we tucked into a barbeque in the evening sun by the beach!

We met up with Mike in Palmerstown North and over the next couple of days discovered that there’s not much to do there bar visit the rugby museum, drive through Manawatu Gorge and play pool!

When Mike left, we drove up the west coast to New Plymouth with lovely views of Mount Taranaki on the way. While there we went on one of the numerous walks around the base of the mountain, we weren’t feeling quite energetic enough to walk up it!

Further along we stopped in Hamilton and had a walk around the Hamilton Gardens, which are really pretty but had at least 4 wedding parties there at the time having their wedding photo’s taken! Deciding there isn’t much else to do in Hamilton, we carried on up the road to Auckland where we were going to play in the clubs Christmas Polo Comp. The comp was on Sunday morning, and by lunchtime I’d played 7 games, including one of teams from the south side of Auckland versus the north side. Apparently I’m now from the south of Auckland… And I thought being from the Northern Hemisphere would have put me on the north side!

As the competition was finished by lunchtime we went mountain biking in Woodhill Park for the afternoon. It was my first time ever on a bike off the road, but thankfully the others were nice enough to wait for me and put up with my hands being firmly attached to the brakes at all times! The park is a great location for mountain biking, but I’m more used to being on a horse when crossing country! After that energetic day we went back to Dave’s to a massive barbeque and a sleepy evening!

On Tuesday evening Dave was doing a kayaking race so we went along to cheer him on. We weren’t expecting the crowd though. The race is part of the Takapuna Beach Series on every Tuesday evening over the summer. They had 388 competitors that night with 3 different events running at the same time. There was a 5km kayak, a 5km run and a 1km swim. Sean and I have been doing a bit of running since we got here so the next day we ran the 5km course, not quite in the winning time of 15 minutes 39 seconds but we were happy!

That evening we went with Dave to watch him play underwater hockey. Not being much of a spectator sport we went swimming ourselves after about 2 minutes of watching! The game is 6 a side, with all the players wearing snorkels, masks and fins. They have a little stick and the puck is on the pool floor. From the top all you can see is them all diving for one spot in a flurry reminiscent of a tank of piranhas!

The weather wasn’t great for the week, so the next day we went for a drive up Mount Eden and One Tree Hill, two of the extinct volcanoes in Auckland. Despite the weather there was a good enough view, though with Auckland being such a sprawling city all you could see was buildings and water. On Friday we drove over to Marewai Beach on the west coast known for the gannets nesting there.

A week in the life! 17-25 Nov

Saturday 17^th November we hit the road again. First stop was at the Huka Falls Jet where we were only charged the special “locals” discounted price of $20 instead of the usual $95. Perhaps it’s a sign that we’ve already spent too much time in Taupo but we weren’t complaining! The jet goes between Huka Falls and Aratiatia Dam at up to 80kmph, including a few 360^o spins on the way. It was great fun, but I’m glad I wasn’t paying full price!

Then Sean, Jayne, Mike and I carried on up to the Coromandel Peninsula enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way. We stopped in the tiny town of Hahei and from there walked to Cathedral Cove, where a gigantic arch has been cut out of the limestone along the beach. On the way back we also saw Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay (we kept out of the water there). After our walk we went to the famous Hot Water Beach, which was quite an interesting experience. There was a large, quite nice looking beach that was nearly deserted bar one spot where over a hundred people were grouped together. On going closer you find that it’s quite a busy spot as most of the people there are busy digging the beach up with their shovels – you can dig a little pond in the sand which fills with hot water coming up from the volcanic activity below. Then, once you’ve checked it’s not too hot with a tentative toe, you lie down in your own hot pool and relax. That is, if you can relax in the midst of all the madness! We were also there when the tide was coming in, so got a great laugh when the outermost pond was breached by a wave coming in much to the disgust of the people in it!

The next day we drove down the west coast of the Coromandel Peninsula and stopped along the way to enjoy the beauty of the area. The sea was calm and the sun shining - it was absolutely beautiful. We had a bit of a whirlwind trip around the Coromandel because Jayne was flying home on Monday. On Sunday afternoon Jayne and Mike left us to go to Auckland. We continued driving around the Firth of Thames as far as Maraetai where we decided to stop for the night. For the first time we had a bit of difficulty finding a campsite, but after a few enquiries we got booked into Omana Regional Park campsite, which turned out to be a long drop toilet in a field which we only had to share with a few hens. It was a beautiful spot though where we enjoyed the sunset and got a great night’s sleep without any distractions! The next morning the park ranger came around looking for the hens as they apparently shouldn’t have been sharing the field with us at all – I think they must have known he was coming though as by that stage they’d completely disappeared!

We decided to go up to the Northland next, so we had to go through Auckland. As we were passing we thought we’d pop into Dave’s factory again to say hi. That trip resulted in us getting the keys to Steve’s bach (holiday home) and driving a jet boat ourselves! They’re making a prototype jet boat and were bringing it out for a test run, so we got to go along too. They brought another older jet boat out to video the new boat, so we went out in that first and got to drive it for a while. Then we had a spin on the new boat, which was just scary! It’s so fast! It was brilliant, and sooooo much better than the Huka Jet!

After that excitement, we were a bit late to go too far North that day so we pulled into a campsite at Sandspit. It turned out to be quite an unusual campsite, with an open museum around the office. We had fun playing an after dinner game of snakes and ladders on a life-size board!

We then carried on to Goat Island where we went snorkelling, which was really good, once I got over the shock of the huge Snappers (fish) that had no fear of me, and seeing a ray of some sort! Sean had his waterproof camera with him so has a few good pics.

After that we carried on up to Matapouri to Steve’s bach where we had a few great days enjoying the beautiful scenery, we even took a go at sea-kayaking. Thanks Steve! Our time there was cut a bit short by an invitation to go jet boating on the Wanganui River for the weekend, which we couldn’t refuse! We got a lift from Auckland with Dave and got on the river near Taumaranui. From there we drove downstream for a couple of hours, overtaking the slogging kayakers on the way, as far as the Bridge to Nowhere Lodge, where we tucked into a fab venison dinner. We had a great weekend there, enjoying living it up! We went to see the Bridge to Nowhere – we had to walk 20 minutes through the bush to find it – a solid bridge in the middle of nowhere with nothing but bush on either side of it with a walking trail through it.

On Saturday our boat got a pebble caught in the grill of the engine (or so we thought) leaving us not able to put the revs over 4,000 for the trip back upstream on Sunday. The extra time it took us to get back up caused us to run out of petrol 3 times, the last time just 100m short of home! When we got the boat out of the water and did a bit of investigation we found that a fist-sized stone had got past the grate (which moved up and down, rendering it really useless for river use) and had been wearing down the propeller all the way home!