Trip "up North", North Island, December 2006.

This post is written by John-Paul.

We found it time to go on a real holiday. Not just a long weekend to a town or city or only seeing friends and/or family; not a work trip; but a real "get away from it all". So we prepared ourselves for ten days (including two weekends) away from home. Since we don't own a car (no need for us, being Wellington city dwellers, and no free parking space in town available anyhow) we had rented one for entire duration of the trip. Earlier this year, we had visited my cousin Richard at his place near Tauranga (roughly 550 kms driving, North of Wellington), where his lives "rural" (as it's called), outside the town boundaries, with his partner Marie and their baby Sophie. After that (too short) visit we decided that it would be very nice to do it all over again, but this time a bit longer. They offered us to use their place as a "base camp" for trips in the area, which sounded like a marvellous idea.

Friday morning, we set off for our trip and headed North, away from cold, rainy and windy Wellington, where Spring refuses to start and Summer seems to be a long way away. We decided to keep driving until we were clear of the rain. We only stopped for a brief time in Bulls, to top up our liquorice supplies at the Dutch shop. The driving to escape the rain resulted in getting far more North than anticipated, since even Tongariro National Park (where we planned to do a nice walk around a lake) still was very wet. So we skipped that, but on the way we did stop for a coffee in an airplane. In the small town of Mangaweka an old DC3 had been transformed into a cafe. We'd seen this during our Overlander rail-weekend, a month ago, at which time we decided that at some stage we wanted to have a closer look. It was a nice stop and the coffee was good. Still trying to escape the rain, we at the end of the day ended up in the small town of Te Kuiti. The only other stop we did was briefly in Taumaranui, which is where our earlier rail-weekend ended and where we then spent the night. Today, from Taumaranui we roughly followed the rail road track, to find out that it traverses through more beautiful nature. Using our Lonely Planet Guide, we quickly managed to find a motel room in Te Kuiti. Nothing fancy, just a bed, bathroom and basic kitchen. Bea was able to swiftly prepare a decent meal, which we enjoyed, while looking at the sunset colours in the clear sky and seeing the almost full moon rise above the trees.

The next morning we were woken up by the sound of many birds, in the trees near the motel, but mostly on the roof of the motel room... We enjoyed our breakfast in the morning sun, while watching the Tui birds hopping on the tree branches and hearing them twitter. Then it was time to check-out and continue our trip. First goal of the day was a bridge. Te Kuiti is near Waitomo, famous for its glowworm caves, formed in limestone that is abundant in this region. On an earlier trip, we had already visited these caves. However, further down that same road, about half an hour drive past Waitomo, a similar geologic phenomenon can be found: a natural bridge. In the very distant past, this too was a cave, through which a river flows, just like Waitomo still is today. But with the passing of time, most of the roof of the cave has collapsed into the river. What is left of the roof is just one stretch of limestone rock, high above the river, reaching from one side of the former cave wall to the other. Pretty impressive to walk under it and being able to see the limestone formations still attached to the former cave ceiling.

The next stop today on our list, was paying a visit to our good friends Spark and Annemarie in Hamilton. They live in a nice place outside the city centre, with their two little daughters, and moved from The Netherlands to New Zealand, roughly a year before we did. It was good to catch up and to enjoy the late afternoon sun at their deck near their swimming pool. After saying goodbye to them and wishing them a nice Christmas time, our final destination for the day was Richard's place. We arrived there just before sunset. The weather had been very good that day, after a rainy period. While the sun disappeared behind the trees that surround their avocado orchard and the lawn started to become hazy of the evening damp, we chatted about many things.

Since this holiday needed for us to be a really relaxing period, the third day of our trip would be a leisure one. With our hosts we drove to the nearby town of Mount Maunganui, named after its hill. The town is growing rapidly, because of tourism, but also because of its sea port. The Mount has two main walking tracks: one around the base and one to the top. We decided to walk the base track this time, leaving the top track for a later date. So we did. It was sunny and warm, nearing 25 degrees. A welcome change in comparison with Wellington. Afterwards, we drank a coffee at Starbucks (our favourite cafe chain). The rest of the day was spent in and around my cousin's house, reading and relaxing.

New Zealand exist, in the middle of the ocean, because here two tectonic plates collide with each other. As as a result of this, New Zealand has earthquakes and volcanoes. Along the North Island, a chain of dormant and active volcanoes is situated from North East to the South West. The oldest ones are dormant. Of these, the most South Western one is Mount Taranaki (Mount Egmont). More to the North East, there lies the chain of Mount Ruapehu, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro. Even further to the North East is Mount Tarawera, which in 1886 violently exploded. As far as 50 kms outside the coast is White Island (Whakaari), which volcano still is active. All this volcanic activity leads on a smaller scale to thermal activity. This reveals itself as hot water pools, hot mud pools and geysers, located in several places in New Zealand. The most famous of these are in the Rotorua area. The more impressive of those Rotorua ones, Wai-o-tapu, was the next item on our travel plan.

Monday around noon, we drove in the direction or Rotorua, only an hour's drive from Tauranga. We passed the town of Rotorua and another half hour later we arrived at Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland. From afar we already smelled the for a thermal area typical smell of sulphur. The next couple of hours were spent gazing at splattering hot water fountains, bubbling mud pools, hissing steam vents, yellow/green coloured pools, and the amazing orange coloured and sparkling Champagne Pool. With our noses saturated with the smell of sulphur, near the end of the afternoon we left Wai-o-tapu, and drove back to Rotorua. In search for a meal, we ended up at Hells Pizza, a well known pizza restaurant chain in New Zealand. The food was good. Very satisfied of a successful day, we drove back to our "base camp" at Tauranga.

New Zealand is situated on the Southern hemisphere. This means that in comparison with for example Europe and China the more North you travel, the warmer the climate gets. A region in New Zealand that benefits from this is the Coromandel. It is a peninsula that is attached to the top of the centre North Island (not to be confused with the more to the West located Northland). The temperatures in the Coromandel are on average about five degrees higher than Wellington and the average weather is better than in the rest of New Zealand. From Tauranga it's only an hour's drive to the base of the peninsula. The Coromandel was our next destination. One day would not be enough to explore the high lights of this region, so using the Lonely Planet Guide we planned a two day trip.

Tuesday morning we hit the road and headed to our first stop, Whangamata. A small and quiet town, with a nice, large and empty beach, where we enjoyed a take-away coffee from a cafe in town. From there we started to follow a stretch of the Pacific Coast Scenic Highway, which winds along the coast line of the Coromandel, counter-clockwise in the direction of big city Auckland. Along the coast line, many inlets can be found. We chose to explore the one near Opoutere, by hitting a side road, North of Whangamata. A very quiet area again, with nice views over the inlet. In these parts of New Zealand, the difference between high and low tide is not very big and many coastal regions form estuaries, where often mangrove trees can be found.

Not to be missed is the Hot Water Beach, North of Tairua. As explained above, New Zealand has many thermal areas and this hot water beach is one of them. Hot water from the ground is pushed upwards to the surface and at this particular location the surface happens to be a beach. The beach is submerged by the sea at high tide, but at low tide the hot water emerges through the sand. It is so hot, that one can burn his or her feet, if not careful enough. Beach visitors dig their "personal" hot water pools on the shoreline; the combination of hot spring water and cold sea water produce a comfortable temperature to relax in. We did not dig our personal pool, but we did enjoy the warm water at our feet. Not far from the hot water beach, another interesting natural phenomenon can be seen: a large natural bridge, situated on a beach. Only a quarter of an hour more North, we parked the car at the trail head to Cathedral Cove. The walk takes 45 minutes and ends at a beach in a cove. There a huge gap is present in the rocks, which links two beaches to each other. Walking through the "cathedral" is impressive and offers scenic photo opportunities.

Our first Coromandel day was nearing to an end and it was time to find accommodation to stay the night. We found a very nice backpackers hostel in Whitianga, located at the esplanade, overlooking the scenic Mercury Bay. We were lucky and happened to have the entire unit by ourselves: bed room, bath room, living room and kitchen. Bea quickly prepared a decent meal, which we had for dinner, while enjoying the view. After dinner, we wandered through the sleepy town; the tourist season had not started yet. All was very quiet. After sunset (not viewable, since Whitianga lies on the East coast), the full moon rose above the bay; a marvellous sight. We watched it from "our" terrace. The temperature still was very pleasant, with hardly any wind. The weather had been good and still was good.

The next day we continued our exploration of the Coromandel. Goal was driving the Western coastline in Southern direction, ending up back in Tauranga again, late in the evening. First stop was the town of Coromandel, where we arrived around "coffee time". A very nice and laid back little town, which houses small shops (some selling souvenirs) and cafes. Not very busy, but again, the tourist season had not started yet. We chose a place to sit, ordered both a cafe latte, and observed the people in the town doing their usual things. Very relaxed.

We have a curious nature. Which leads us to interesting places. Not so much the drive from Coromandel to the end of the road, the more Northerly situated town of Colville, but more the fact that during that drive we passed a road sign reading "Driving Creek Railroad". When we saw the sign, we remembered seeing a documentary on it on TV, a while ago. A potter has built in his "back yard" (in this case more the hill in his back yard) a miniature size railroad. It could be described as a hobby gotten out of control. The railroad leads to a view point, high up on the hill. A round trip with a diesel powered miniature train, from the base station to the view point and back, roughly takes an hour and is well worth doing, as we experienced.

After the marvellous Driving Creek Railroad experience and a quick stop at Colville, it was time to start heading South, following the very scenic Western coastline of the Coromandel peninsula. Every curve in the road offers a new astonishing view of the shoreline with its very many coastal islands. Viewing West, in the distance the islands outside the Auckland coast can be seen, one of which being Waiheke Island, which we explored a month ago, during our Auckland week (at that time not a holiday, mind you; an Auckland work visit). We stopped often to take photos of the ever changing views. The town of Thames marks the end of this stretch of the coastal highway. We leisurely drove through the town centre and then we made more pace in Southern direction, since the end of the afternoon was nearing and we wanted to grab dinner in the town of Paeroa.

New Zealand has a number of attributes that makes the country well known. World famous all over the world are the endangered kiwi birds and the green and furry kiwi fruit. Travellers all over the world know New Zealand for its astonishing and very diverse nature. But "world famous" in New Zealand only is the soda drink "Lemon and Paeroa", L&P for short. The taste of this drink cannot be described easily, just as one would have troubles to describe the taste of a Cola drink. It is nothing like Cola or any other drink; it stands on its own. The origin of the drink is in the town that shares its name: Paeroa. While driving through Paeroa it is obviously clear from all the commercial signs: this is the place. As with many, this too is a laid back, sleepy country town, with an old-style main street. We decided to have a meal at the original L&P bar, recognisable by an enormous L&P bottle replica in front of the place. They had "all you can eat" pizza on the menu that day, which sounded good to us and indeed turned out to be good food. After leaving Paeroa the town of Waihi is a half hour's drive. Interesting about this town is its goldmine. Although already closed for the day, we were impressed by the huge mining truck that's been placed on display. After that, we had to cover another hour's drive, which brought us back at our "base camp", the place of my cousin in Tauranga. This ended a very successful two days' trip to the Coromandel.

We decided that Thursday should be a relaxing day. No travelling, just staying in the Tauranga area. So that's what we did. We had promised ourselves a walk to the top of Mount Maunganui (remember, a couple of days ago we only walked the track around the base of the hill). So that's what we set out to do. Furthermore, Bea wanted to visit the Dutch shop in Tauranga, to buy ingredients for genuine Indonesian cooking; she wanted to prepare this dinner for the four of us. The Tauranga area is growing rapidly. So on our way to the Mount, we unexpectedly ended up in a traffic jam. Traffic jams used to be very uncommon for New Zealand, but nowadays these appear more often. Auckland is a bad example of this, with its population of 1.3 million. During rush hour it takes ages to traverse the Harbour Bridge. But also in Wellington (population a mere 160 thousand), traffic jams more often occur, be it not that severe. Not that we personally suffer from it, being car-less city dwellers. But I digress...

Since the holiday season had not started yet (that would be next week), we quickly found parking space for our rental car, near the base of Mount Maunganui. We set out to walk the track. Three quarters of an hour later we stood on top of the mount. Not much wind, nice and sunny. The views are over the town of Mount Maunganui, the inlet, and the suburbs of Tauranga in the distance. We took some photos, had a nice chat with an American couple that was visiting NZ and descended back to the base again. We did not do much else in the town and headed to Tauranga for getting cooking ingredients at the Dutch shop. That evening we all enjoyed a genuine Indonesian style dish that Bea prepared.

There are times of arriving and times of departing. Friday would be one of the latter. We wanted to allow ourselves enough time to travel home to Wellington again. Three days would be sufficient to not make it into a rush trip. Besides, there were some places on the way home that we wanted to visit, which would take up some time. After breakfast we loaded our stuff in the boot of our car, closed off Richard's and Marie's home (they already had left for work) and set off in the direction of Rotorua. We had booked a trip with a float plane, taking off from Lake Rotorua and flying over Mount Tarawera. Sadly, we got a telephone call from the company that carries out the flight, informing us that because of deteriorating weather conditions the trip was cancelled. Well, there always will be a next time. When we arrived at Rotorua, instead we took the sky tram up a hill and enjoyed there a coffee with a view. Indeed Mount Tarawera was shrouded in clouds.

Leaving Rotorua behind us (and following the road around Lake Rotorua), we headed North East and had a quick stop in Kawerau. Since we wanted to see a bit more of the Bay of Plenty, we drove to Whakatane where we had a quick lunch. Once again this route covers another part of the coastal highway. We drove a nice local detour: a scenic road that follows the coast line and offers many views on estuaries with mangroves. At Opotiki we left the coast and headed inland. Traversing the ascending gorge road, sometimes was almost too much asked from the engine of our car. Going up-hill with 60 kms an hour and constantly needing to make use of the "slow vehicle lanes" to let other traffic pass, was not our idea of a pleasant drive, although the scenery of the gorge was impressive. The road follows a river, that had made its way through the mountain range during eons of time. While driving, we observed the river changing from wide to small, until it disappeared completely, and we had to cross the pass that marks the highest point of the road through this mountain range. From there it was all down-hill. At the end of the afternoon we arrived in Gisborne, where we as usual referred to our LP Guide in search for accommodation. Since today the holiday season in New Zealand had started, almost every place was booked full. When at last we found a motel with vacancy, we got the last room. But we were lucky: it was quite a luxurious room. We like budget accommodation but every now and then it's good to treat oneself to some comfort. After checking in at a motel, we decided that we wanted Indian food. We wandered through the main street of town and ended up in Bollywood. The service was friendly and the food was good. When we left the restaurant, it had started to drizzle. The first bad weather since a week. Bummer.

The next morning we quickly left Gisborne and headed South in the direction of Wairoa. As soon as we hit the coastal mountains, rain started pouring down and made the wind screen wipers do overtime. We had a quick stop at Wairoa and continued to Napier, where we arrived early in the afternoon. The rain had changed from down pours into showers. We had been in Napier before on an earlier trip. That time we liked it so much, that we decided it's worth another visit or at least a stop on the way. In 1931, Napier suffered from a very heavy earth quake, which destroyed almost the entire city. When it was rebuilt, the architectural fashion of that time was Art Deco. The centre of Napier is almost entirely built in this style. After having drank a coffee at Starbucks (yes, again) we wandered through town, admiring the very many buildings built in Art Deco style. Because of the rain, we constantly had shifted our travel plans. By now we had decided that we wanted to reach Masterton by the end of the day. We left Napier and in the beginning of the evening we arrived at Masterton and checked in at a motel. Bea prepared a meal and we had a good night's rest.

Sunday, the final day of our trip. The weather was still dry, but the clouded sky was threatening. Main goal for today was visiting Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre. Here very many native birds can be seen, in aviaries as well as in the wild. High light of this visit turned out to be a peek in an artificially created natural habitat of the kiwi bird and indeed in that habitat seeing two kiwi birds being very active with feeding. The kiwi bird is nocturnal. This means that in order to be able to see the bird during our day time, the artificially created natural habitat must have the day and night cycle reversed: it's dark during day and light during night. To be able to see the birds in their dark environment, one needs to have the eyes adjusted to the dark, so entering the habitat is via several stages, which get more dark when approaching the habitat. To help spotting the birds, their night is not completely dark, but very dim red coloured. The birds won't notice the light and our eyes when adjusted to the dark are able to distinguish the birds from the environment. Taking photos alas does not work: even for the most sensitive film, the birds move too quickly to get a sharp image. But the experience of seeing the birds was inspiring.

After having continued our final drive South again from Mount Bruce, we stopped at Carterton for a quick coffee. Since it still was early in the day, we thought it would be nice to pay a visit to our friends Pete and Ruth in Martinborough. We verified that they were home and three quarters later we dropped in at their place. It was good to catch up and we enjoyed a cup of tea, while chatting about many things. Then it was time to leave, for the final stretch over the Rimutaka Hill, through the Hutt Valley to Wellington City. At home, we unloaded our stuff from the car and finally dropped off the car at the rental agency. This ended a very relaxing, very pleasant and very diverse ten days' holiday up North.