Ferry to the North
The ferry to North island from Picton travelled through Queen Charlotte Sound, beautiful, tranquil and peaceful! The ferry took 4 hours and we were in the centre of Wellington eventually!
Wellington
Our campsite had views over one of the bays around Wellington, and when we woke, there were some seriously dark clouds looming in the north. But as it was a Sunday, it didn’t deter us from being up early and ready to head into the city centre to explore!
Our first stop on our tour of Wellington was the famous Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. This museum is a very well thought out and modern museum that takes you into the heart of what New Zealand is all about. From earthquakes to interactive touch pad map floors, art to giant squid, its got it all! We could have easily spent all day here!
We then strolled along the art-lined harbour front to Civic Square.
We had a some lunch in the shopping and bar centre of Wellington, Cuba Street, which was full of entertaining buskers! Then we walked to the Cable Car that takes you up to the Botanical Gardens and has some of the best views of Wellington.
It was a long and steep walk back down to the city centre and by the time we got there, most of the tourist attractions were closing for the day, Sunday trading hours :( so we took a stroll past the government buildings, including the very strange and very ugly beehive, and then spent the rest of the day chilling in cafes, internet cafes and restaurants.
Tongariro/Taupo
Ok, this is going to be very brief. We were very much looking forward to Tongariro National Park, the setting for Lord of the Rings, skiing, mountaineering and many other activities we had planned on doing there. However, Mother Nature was not on our side, and the day we got to Ohakune (one of the villages at the base of the park) was one of the worst weather days in a few decades. Winds at over 100kph at ground level and driving rain meant that all tourist attractions in the north island were shut, and not just on that day, but for 3 days!!! We did hang around for 3 nights hoping the national park would be opened up or that we would at least be able to see the mountains but there was no such luck. By the end of the fourth day, we were in Taupo and very bored! Sad I hear you say, but unfortunately there is nothing you can do when the weather is against you. On the up side, we did stay at a fantastic DOC campsite for three nights just off the Desert Road.
Once at Taupo, as we only had 5 days remaining, rather than do the activities we had wanted to, we decided to move on closer to Auckland. But we have a very good excuse to come back to the north island one day in the future :)
Anyways, so we had lunch on Lake Taupo looking over Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro (we still couldn’t see Mt Ruapehu) and the lake.
Just up the road from Taupo is an incredible waterfall called Huka Falls. At the Huka Falls, the Waikato River which is normally 100m wide, is squeezed through a 20m wide gorge and over a 20m drop. Every second, up to 220,000 litres of water gushes through the gorge and shoots out over 8m beyond to create a lovely blue/green pool. The name Huka means ‘foam’ in Maori, which is very appropriate as the falling water and rapids definitely resemble foam. The noise at the Falls is thunderous!!!
Rotorua
Naomi was the only person really interested in Rotorua as it is all about the Maori culture and history here. When we got to town, we got a deal from the i-site for entry to Te Puia, the home of Maori arts and crafts and also the Pohutu geyser, the biggest geyser in the southern hemisphere.
Naomi left Chris in the car for a couple of hours and went and got Maori educated.
First up was a concert demonstrating many different traditional Maori songs and music, including the war dance of the Haka, performed by the local Maori tribe, Te Arawa. The concert was held in the Rotowhio Marae, a fully carved wharenui (meeting house).
From there we were taken to the Kiwi House, however, it was only when in the house and with an empty enclosure that our guide told us that kiwis sleep 18 hours a day, so it is quite rare to see them up and about!!!
Rotorua is famous for being a geothermal area and part of the main geothermal activity is within the grounds of Te Puia. There are the bubbling mud pools:
And the geysers; Pohutu (30m) and Prince Charles (10m) erupting up to 20 times a day:
We also got to visit the Carving and Weaving schools which still train Maori in traditional practises. All in all, a thorough enjoyable and very educational trip :)
Waitomo Caves
We drove over from Rotorua in the morning. A nice scenic drive through ‘Kings’ country, lots of greeness, arriving at Waitomo in time for lunch and ready for our caving tour!
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any cameras down into the caves :( so apart from this gorgeous picture of the two of us, we are just going to have to tell you about it lol!
So the tour was meant to be Waitomo’s most concentrated action adventure. We only did it because we had a 2 4 1 voucher ;) we started off with a little taster on dry land just to accustom us with the ropes and clips etc then headed down into the caves. From the off, it was all pretty easy going. We had a couple of abseils to get us down deep into the caves. From there we headed in and around some very interesting and very different caves, from the tiny to the huge, with lots of glow worms too! There were a few educational bits and pieces on stalagmites/tites, glow worms (or phospherescent maggot poo according to our guides lol).
Then it was back up again. We had a couple of simple rock climbs and then one that looked small and easy, but actually turned out to be a massive pain with us having to squeeze ourselves through a tiny gap. Chris looked like a funny fish trying to get his legs through when watching it from the bottom.
All in all it was a fun afternoon. We would have been upset if it had cost us $430, but as it only cost half that, we were happy for what was more a taster at caving than anything serious!
Afterwards we had enough energy to drive for an hour to Hamilton and set up camp, ready for the drive to Tauranga the next morning to see Chris’s family friends.
Tauranga
We met the Warner’s for lunch in Mount Maungarui, a very nice suburb outside Tauranga (not expecting to see them until the early evening but with Jason’s parents insisting) and having a feeling we had interrupted an important lunch, we found out we were there to celebrate Jason and Sinead’s engagement. BIG CONGRATULATIONS :) which also meant there was going to be a lot of drinking involved. A lunch time drink progressed into afternoon drinks chatting, and then onto the social club in the evening for food, entertainment and you guessed it, drinking. We had great fun, and it felt like the NZ version of the Wythenshawe Cricket Club lol!
Karangahake Mines
We had arranged to meet Jason and Sinead in Auckland in the evening, so until then we had plenty of time to enjoy the drive to Auckland and stop off at the mining gorge on the way. The historic walkway at Karangahake Mines takes you through 1km of old gold mining tunnels, stunning gorge scenery and into the ruins of the old powerhouse. This place was up and running from 1889 to 1919. This was one place where Chris really didn’t mind walking lol!!
We did epically fail though on a rather large detail of visiting the mines. Chris had been told by Sinead the previous evening to remember to take a torch up to the mines as they are pitch black. Chris only remembered as we were about to enter them, so it was the blind leading the blind. The only source of light we had for the mines was from our flash on our camera lol! Made it more fun though!
Auckland
After the mines, we drove into Auckland and we had a little time to kill before we were due at Jason’s house. It was a nice day, so we headed up to Mt Eden to get the fantastic views over the Auckland Basin :) Mt Eden is the highest natural point in Auckland and it is a dormant volcano with a bowl-like crater 50 meters deep. You can not go into the crater as is a sacred site for the Maori.
That evening, Jason and Sinead had a small gathering of friends at their house, so a few wines and a chinese takeaway later and we were fast asleep in our campervan for the last time :(
Next day, we had to drop our things off at the hostel for the day and then go to the Spaceship depot and drop off Mulder in the morning. Depressing times! There had been talk over the weekend about Chris possibly doing a Sky Jump off the Auckland Skytower, but as we hadn’t heard anything, we didn’t think anything of it! But on our way over to the depot, we got a message from Jason to say the Jump was all go for midday! So we had a mad rush to get from the suburbs to the city centre in less than an hour. We grabbed a taxi and were on our way!
The Sky Tower is 362m tall but the actual height of the jump is 192m. It is the highest jump in NZ and also one of the fastest as you travel at 75kph.
Before doing the jump, we got to go up to the lookout deck and check out the scenery.
Then it was time for the big plunge!!!
As you step in the elevator , everyone that is going is the viewing deck wants to all of a sudden want to talk to you because you dressed like a lemming . as they step off to the viewing deck i continued up the skydeck , as you step of the elevator all of sudden you realise that you have willing decided to jump off 192m skyjump ….mint , As you walk though the glass doors to skydeck 2 lads are stood there waiting to hook you up to the safety line , just as the check everything is secure on you , the reason they do this ,is some people have an urge to throw them self’s off with any safety equipment , meaning certain death …. :0 So everything is checked over i headed the jump area and i can only describe this as walking the plank , you have to hold on to 2 poles with 2 stretched out poles in a cross like position and just wait for them to say ……. jump , now as you stood waiting for this moment , quite a lot goes through your mind , did he really attach me to the safety gear or did he have a heavy night last ??
3 2 1 GO , happily i threw my self off downwards to the target at the bottom within 11 seconds i was at the bottom , feeling a little wind swept but all good , as i hit the bottom , the young lad at the bottom asked if i wanted to go again , well why not .
I really enjoyed this part of Auckland , thank you Mr Warner
Chris getting ready and the landing spot below the towering drop!
Here’s a link to the video of the jump:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R0dDIfDwZo
After an exhilarating and exhausting morning and afternoon, we wandered around the city centre and eventually rested on a little Irish pub for a good feed! A kind of touch of home! The rest of the day we spent taking a look around town and enjoying our last day in NZ!
That evening and for the morning of our departure day, we sorted out our bags trying to get the weight down as much as poss! Local charity shops loved us!!!
Unfortunately our flight was delayed by 6 hours, so we had fun keeping ourselves entertained and awake for our now evening flight to Santiago, Chile!
Thank you to NZ, the wonderful friends we met and the new friends we became acquainted with! Had a wonderful time for our 5 weeks and look forward to going back to do all the things we couldn’t this time!
:)
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