New Zealand, 1994
NOTE: Clicking on any day's title will take you to the
corresponding photo page.
8 Jan, Saturday
Up at 7:30 so that David could have a go in the spa. J &
B joined him - it was fun!
After a big breakfast in the motel (David had a double serve,
but couldn't eat it all), drove across the Auckland Harbour
Bridge (the Nippon Clippon) and detoured to Mt. Victoria for
an excellent view of Auckland across the harbour. Then headed
north for Wakworth, Willsford and Whangarei, arriving in
Paihia about 5. Checked our bookings for the cream trip and
got directions to the motel, where we had a swim in the pool.
Dined at the Islands fixed price restaurant, with an
all-you-can-eat mode, which Nathan enjoyed! Back to motel
(very hot) and watched The Terminator on TV, before bed.
Leisurely start to the day. Off to Paihia wharf at 0845.
Looked around a few shops to start with - David bought a small
wooden kiwi and Barb some postcards. Went to get on boat at
0915, but discovered that it was the wrong boat, after N and D
had already raced ahead and got on without us! Barb had to
get on and extract them!
Our boat started boarding at 0955 and we were away shortly
after 1000. The day was perfect. The weather was warm but
not hot, with a refreshing breeze. The skies were sunny, with
lovely fluffy clouds on the horizon, not overhead. Only bit
hassle - I got sunburnt on the forehead and neck, where I
didn't sunscreen up adequately.
There is no way I can describe the trip itself - so I took
lots of photographs. David was a little miffed that we
wouldn't let him use the new camera, but he eventually calmed
down and used the old Kodak compact camera. We landed at
Otalaia Bay (sp?) and went on the "Nautilus", an underwater
viewing boat, and saw lots of fish. David loved that.
Lunch took more time than we had bargained for, so N. ran up
the hill that we had all been recommended to climb and took a
360 degree panorama with the new camera. Then back on the
boat for more idyllic cruising of the Bay of Islands. We
called into a number of sandy bays, all dotted about with
yachts. Oh to be rich!
On return I dropped 3 films off at a 1hour place while B &
D went for a walk on the beach. Then N & J went train
chasing across to Opua, where we saw the 4pm train just
arriving. Took some departure shots, then chased to the next
road/rail confluence for a couple more. Then back to hotel
for D to get changed and go for a swim on the beach. After
1hr, I collected the films ($53!) and we looked at them
together.
Went to La Scala restaurant for tea, but none of us were very
hungry, so we just had 1(J)/2(NBD) courses. Then back to the
motel to watch Ghostbusters II (not as good as GBI) and bed.
Odometer reading 16150
10 Jan, Monday
Left Bay of Islands at around 0800 after breakfast of variety
cereal packets and OJ. Retraced our steps (revolutions) as
far as Wellsford, where we turned off to take the "scenic
route" via the western coast. It was slightly more scenic, but
David was feeling car-sick, so it was of mixed benefit. (We
rationalized that he would have felt sick going the other way,
too.) Stopped for morning tea/lunch at Helensville, where
Nathan dropped his pie and made everyone (particularly John)
snappy: "but it was your fault loading me up so much". Also
found some fascinating uni-sex loos!
Went straight through Auckland, and made good progress along
route 2 and then 5 straight through to Rotorua, getting there
about 1530. After dropping off luggage at motel (the
"Braeside", next to a cute Scottish style stream), headed for
Whakarewarewa and took the 1600 guided tour over the Maori
village, geysers and hot springs. Saw Pohutu squirt, but not
as impressively as during my August visit. Walked back by the
southern path, which I hadn't done before, but not as much
worth seeing as on [the] main path.
Back to motel to think about dinner, and eventually decided on
the Steak House, to which we went. Had some excellent
mussels, then a "blue" piece of fillet, very tender. Followed
this by an icecream at the icecream palour, then back to the
motel and collapse.
Breakfasted at McDonald's after some debate about where to
find it, Barb winning the extra hash brown for spotting it!
Then to bank to get some more cash (where's it all going?),
and out to Hell's Gate. This was judged to be better than
"Fucka", except in the geyser dept. Took lots more pictures,
and back to exit and tea rooms about 12, where we had
"morning" tea.
Drove out to Lake Tarawera to find the photograph on our place
mat, which we did, but only after some searching!
Then on to the Wairmanga volcanic rift valley, a quick bite of
a sandwich on the run, and then a long (>1hr) walk down the
path, past many steaming holes and fizzing water holes to Lake
Romohata. Saw the spectacular Echo Crater and Frying Pan
Lake, the temp. of which is only 55 degrees, but is very large
and steaming (the largest in the world), and the impressive
Inferno Crater with its very blue water, also steaming and
somewhat hotter (87 degrees?). At the end of the trail, we
caught a small ferry for a cruise around part of Lake
Romohata, and a magnificanet view of Mt Tarawera.
Back to the car by bus (up the hill) and a 2.5 hour drive to
Waitomo, via Taurini (?) and Cambridge and some beautiful
scenery. Dropped our bags and the boys at the motel (on the
main highway) and drove out to Waitomo to check it out. The
Information Centre said that there was a flying fox running at
8, so I drove back to the motel (8 kms), collected the boys
and returned. David and I had a go for $6 each, he got two
trips, I had one and a free beer! It was sheer thrills, apart
from the huge jolt you got when pulled up by a bungee cord.
The cable spanned 100 metres or so, aver a 30m deep valley, so
it wasn't just any old flying fox! Strangely, Nathan asaid he
didn't want a go, so we didn't press him. He said he wasn't
chicken, he just didn't want to do it. I must say that the
"free" beer afterwards tasted even better for the experience!
Dinner was a hamburger and chips at the Waitome Tavern (where
the flying fox was situated), then back to the motel for
another quiet beer while the boys played on the pool table.
Then to bed.
Breakfast in the motel restaurant, another cooked breakfast
job. David preferred to play pool rather than eat breakfast.
Since we didn't have to get going early, took the time to
catch up on a bit of writing, me to this diary, the others
writing postcards.
Off at 09:30, heading for Otorohanga to buy Barb a towel for
this afternoon. Saw a sign saying to the Kiwi House,
so we went there, and spent the rest of the morning looking at
kiwis, keas, kakas, and kakarikis (but no kakapos!) - most
fascinating, and quite a bonus as we hadn't planned it.
To Waitomo via back roads and then: Black Water Rafting! It
was generally agreed afterwards that this was the highlight of
the trip, even before seeing the second half, and it would be
hard to imagine a rival experience. What can I say? Wet
suits, inner tubes, helmets, lights, cold water and pitch
darkness - all except for the glowworm grottos. Floating
through these caves, lit sufficiently by the light of the
glowworms to actually be able to see was an erie experience
indeed! An additional hightlight was the jump over the
waterfall, from a couple of metres into a pitch black hole,
right in the middle of the cave.
All too soon there was light at the end of the tunnel, and we
scrambled out over some rock falls to emerge to daylight. But
there was further "floating down the river", before we were
back to the starting point. A short drive back to the depot,
showers and hot soup and toast, and it was all starting to be
memories.
Drove on that evening to Taumarunui, staying in the "Hilton"
Motel. The owner was mad on trains, so we had something in
common. He played two steam train tapes for us, one after we
returned from a meal in the "Williams" restaurant - pleasant,
nothing fancy, mind - although the mussels were good!
A day of driving. Setting off from Taumarunui, we headed south
in heavy overcast conditions, and steady drizzle. Our first
stop was at Raurimu, to inspect the railway spiral. The
Rotary Club had installed a lookout, plus model, to show the
spiral construction. We drove down some narrow roads to get
to the spiral itself, but unfortunately there was nowhere
reasonably accessible that gave gave a complete overview.
Then on to National Park, where we turned off for a detour
around Mt Ruapehua (which was hidden in cloud!) Drove up to
Whakepapa village and skifield (what a name!), but as the
cloud didn't look like lifting, decided not to take a
chairlift any higher. Still, the scenery that we did see was
impressive. On to Tauranga (in the mist) and glimpses of Lake
Taupo, then south on Highway 1, with lots of traffic. The
weather cleared as we got out of the mountains, and we saw
very nice mountain/river/farmland scenery along the Rangitikei
valley. Then just mountain/farmland scenery down the coast to
Wellington, save for an extra nice view of Parirua Harbour.
After finding the motel in Johnsonville (no mean feat, I might
add!) drove into Wellington proper twice, firstly to check out
how to get to the ferry and visit Mt Victoria for a
spectacular 360 degree view (took a 10 photo panorama), and
secondly, after returning to the motel for Barb to change, to
go to dinner at the Tug Boat, a tug boat restored as a
restaurant on the waters of the bay, and with a magnificent
view of the harbour. We had a seafood platterfor 3 to share
between the 4 of us, and everyone had enough! The service was
a bit slow, though we hardly noticed, and the management gave
us a 10% discount with which we did not argue, especially as
it was cheaper than we were expecting.
We all flopped easily and heavily into bed on returning to the
motel.
Up bright and early for breakfast, though some of us were
still full from last night. Drove into the city and found a
MacDonald's - Barb and I had a hash brown and orange juice for
breakfast, and Nathan had only hot cakes - that's how hungry
we were! Then caught the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens
for a look at the view and a quick stroll through one tiny
part of the gardens, seeing the "sundial of human involvement"
and the Australian gardens. Then down the cable car again,
and had to wait until 9 for the banks to open. Cashed up, we
drove to the ferry, dropped off the Toyota Camry and boarded.
Departure was late, about 10 minutes, caused by the train
shunting wagons on. Once under way, the views were superb,
although a trifle windy! The crossing was about 3.5 hours,
arriving in Picton about 1330. We had collected our luggage
and the ew car, a Nissan Maxima, and we were on the road by
1400.
A fairly long drive to Greymouth, punctuated with views of
1000-1500m high mountains, wide rivers amd deep gorges. Had
to keep stopping to cool the camera down, and remove old rolls
of film from their works. Nevertheless, made good time, and
were in Greymouth (aptly named, too, by the way!) by 1930.
Ate at the Paroa Hotel just down the road from the motel.
A rotten day, weatherwise. Rained all morning, but did ease
off about 1. A slow start from Greymouth, since we did't have
far to go. There was not much stopping for photos either, as
the rain did not let up until we were almost in Franz Josef.
Checked into motel at around 1315, and the manageress told us
tp go and see the glacier while the weather was clear. So we
did, ignoring lunch for the nonce. That proved to be bad
advice!
We arrived in the car park with some patches of sun, and could
see the glacier in the middle distance. Also saw some keas in
the car park, mooching around, looking for trouble! Set off
for the glacier in our rain gear, which was just as well, as
just after we got to a sign saying "DANGER do not go beyond
this point after heavy rain", the skies opened up again (it
was now almost exactly 2pm).
