John and Paula Go Touring New Zealand

8/9/2019 John and Paula Go Touring New Zealand

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John and Paula

go touring New Zealand



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January 14th 2010; we commenced our land tour of New Zealand by driving south fromAuckland to the Waitomo Caves. As soon as we could, we moved off the main roads ontothe scenic route and this was the way we operated for the next three weeks; we kept our exposure to traffic low; cruising sedately down the back roads.We elected to do a combination tour at Waitomo, first visiting the Aranui Cave, where

we knew we’d be allowed to take photographs of the fine, needle like, stalactites hangingdown from the roof. Then we moved on to the world famous Glow-worm Cave, where photography is discouraged and that is probably just as well because flash photography of glow-worms reveals nothing, you have to make a time exposure! The tour consists of a boat ride and takes place in almost complete darkness and the result is that you get toview the millions of tiny lights (produced by the Glow-worms), much resembling a finedisplay of stars on an exceptionally clear night. It was very beautiful and the tour wasvery well executed.

Waitomo was also our first visit to a “TopTen” holiday park and we were very

impressed with the facilities which werefirst rate; in fact this was such a good siteit would be nice to return there and dosome of the many other walks that are inthe area.

From Waitomo, we drove east to Rotorua doing a southerly sweep and entering via theWaikite Thermal Valley and the Mud Pools at Wai-O-Tapu. Our camp site was the TopTen at the Blue Lake (Blue Lake Holiday Park), which whilst quite good, was not a patchon the previous one, we soon discovered that you pay a premium for lakeside camps andunless you are going afloat or swimming, they are best avoided. We did however, havegood access to Rotorua and spent a day in town visiting the fascinating Museum.

Moving south we visited OrakeiKorako, a thermal area reputed to be one of the finest in the world. Asmall boat carries you across alake to where a path takes youaround the large, colourful silicaterraces to some geysers and afantastic natural cave with a poolof jade-green water.



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Not far south from Orakei Korako arethe ‘Craters of the Moon’, another Thermal Area run by the Departmentof Conservation (DOC) and thus

quite ‘unexploited’ when comparedto most of the Thermal Areasavailable to view; we had a goodwander around and very muchenjoyed our visit.

Across the main road from ‘Craters of the Moon’ is the Huka Falls, where the waters of

Lake Taupo crash through a very narrow gorge on their way down to the AratiatiaRapids. Here one can get a good sense of all the ‘water power’ that New Zealand hasavailable to power its Hydro Electric plants; it is an awe inspiring sight.

We camped at Taurangi Cabins, a site we’d used on our last visit when doing the AlpineCrossing, it was cheap, cheerful and in the right place at the southern end of Lake Taupo.

The next morning it was raining and we almost changed our route, fortunately we didn’tand we discovered that New Zealand was just as appealing and just as photogenic in therain as it was in sunshine. We headed into the Tongariro Nation Park and visited theWakapapa Village where we took in twoshort movies which gave us some insightinto the park’s formation. The i-centre alsohas some very descriptive and interactivedisplays that give lots of information on thisvolcanic centre and volcanic New Zealand ingeneral; its well worth a visit but I’m notgoing to recommend it for camping as theelevation causes it to be much cooler thandown in Taurangi and brings it into theclouds on a regular basis, this makes it coldand wet for the most part and not myfavourite camping conditions! We had beenable to spend time in this area on our lastvisit and walked most of the tracks, theweather had been better then and we hadmore time to linger; this visit was restricted by the weather however, it was still wellworth the visit as there is always somethingto do or see here.



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From the i-centre we drove up themountain to the Ski Lifts and wereimmediately ‘socked in’ by theheavy clouds and occasional heavyrain; it was dark, damp and

foreboding, on top of which, thelunar landscape looked like itwould be somewhat moreappealing were it to be covered insnow!

We didn’t hang around as the cooland damp breeze cut through our clothing, thus we were glad to descend into a little warmth and sunshine on the mainhighway around Raetihi. Luckily there were a couple of breaks in the clouds and we were just able to discern the outline of Mount Ruapehu, with its snow covered peak, before

leaving the area altogether.

Moving south once more we took the more scenic of two scenic routes to Wanganui, our route was the Wanganui River Road and it was somewhat of an adventure as the surfaceturned to gravel and then to something else which was not quite gravel. It also becamequite narrow and as we encountered a few heavy showers, there was a requirement for concentration which outweighed any scenic beauty we may have passed. Part way downthe road the weather cleared and we were rewarded with some fine vistas; a nice but basiccamp site was found at Ranana, it was a beautiful if somewhat remote place.

The next day we continued to followthe Wanganui River south but had notgone very far when we came across“The Kawana Flour Mill”. This was thelongest running and most successfulflour mill that operated in this valley atthe turn of the last century. The millhas been lovingly restored and is leftopen for visitors who wish to stop byfor a look. It was fascinating and filledus in on the history of the valley, itscommunities and river transport system

that was in full operation around the time that my Mum was born (not that long agoreally!). Shortly after leaving the Mill we regained the sealed road surface, for which wewere most grateful; however we continued with the twists and turns, inch by beautifulinch, all the way to the bottom. It was indeed a very picturesque gorge!



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We stopped off in Wanganui, a delightful little town and then drove east once again,working as many back roads as possible, our campsite for the night was at Ekutahura anddespite the fact that no one could possibly pronounce the place, it was very pleasant andhad great facilities for a very modest price.

From Ekutahura we went south once again as we had a scheduled crossing to SouthIsland from Wellington and there was no way to get re-booked. Fortunately, on route, wehad time to stop at the Mount Bruce Conservation Park which is run by the DOC, it is a bird and wildlife refuge where they rear endangered species before returning them to thewild. The park was interesting but unfortunately there was not a lot going on at the timeof our visit and what animals there were, were hard to spot in their large enclosures.

The drive over the Southern Ranges wasquite pleasant and we had some fineviews before descending into Lower Hutt where we were booked in at the

Wellington Top Ten camp site, this wasquite a nice spot, both handy to the cityand the ferry; it also had some nicefacilities. We pitched our tent and wentinto Wellington where we managed tofind an extortionate car park which sawus off for $15 and only a two hour stay….not one of our finest moments,however we did spend the two hours inthe Wellington Museum which was ‘Free’ and well worth the visit.

The next morning we were booked on the Blueridge Ferry for the 0800hrs sailing and had toarrive about an hour beforedeparture, we were very luckythat it wasn’t raining when we packed up our tent at 0600hrs butit was damp just the same. Therain started soon after we got onthe ferry and continued for therest of the day, giving way toshowers in the evening. We didn’tget much of a view of theMarlborough Sounds on the way

in and our time spent in Picton on arrival was mostly rushing about with both an umbrellaand a full set of oilskins. Moving out of Picton we decided to make some miles andheaded south on Route 1; there was no point in waiting as we had a lot of distance tocover and could only hope for better weather later.



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Once clear of Blenheim and the flatter wine producing areas of the lower Wairau Valley, the road tends back towards the east coast and there aresome fine views. We were soon

impressed with the scenery whichcontinued to improve around everyheadland of the journey; moreimpressive still was the appearance of many seals basking on the rockyforeshore along the way. We thoughtwe would have to wait till Kaikoura before seeing seals but they werealready thick in number by the time wereached Clarence!

The rain cleared awaycompletely as we approachedKaikoura so we went directlyto the Seal Colony at PointKeean and managed a few‘closer encounters’ withsome of these Animals. Iwalked some ways aroundthe coastal track to the GullColony but it transpired later that the Cliff top Walk was better value, giving stunningviews both seaward andtowards the snow cappedmountain ranges inland.

Whilst there are many things to do in Kaikoura, such as Whale watching, swimming withthe sharks and seals, tramping the trails or just eating the seafood at the many restaurantsin town, we decided to push on south some ways before camping for the night at GooseBay.

At the crack of dawn the next morning, there was a thick fog rolling in from a veryuninviting, grey sea just yards from our tent; it was decidedly damp and cold. We sat at a picnic table watching the first sunlight breaking through the mist to pick out the peaks of the Seaward Kaikoura Ranges. By the time breakfast was over, most of the fog wasdispersed and it was warming up; the tent was still wet, as usual, when we packed it away but, as usual, we got it dried out sometime in the day by draping it over the car during acoffee break when the sun was shining, which it did between the troughs and rainy periods!



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We had a fairly dry run down toChristchurch; however rain wasscheduled so I wanted to get our tent up before it arrived. We founda neat campsite just outside of

town and having pitched the tentwe moved off into the centre tomake the most of it before the rainarrived. There was a BuskersFestival taking place but as the rainstarted in earnest there were few performers around; we took in ashow at Cathedral Square,wandered around the Central Cityand the High Street, crossed theBridge of Remembrance and spent an hour in the Botanical Gardens. We walked the

banks of the River Avon in Hagley Park and despite the rain, managed to enjoy theatmosphere, taking a few nice photos along the way. We returned to our tent in the lateevening and it rained heavily all night whilst the wind blew our pegs out and threatenedto send us rolling down the campsite.

We would have spent longer in Christchurch had it not been for the weather but it wasstill raining heavily in the morning and not very inviting. By keeping a careful watch onwww.metvuw.com we were aware that it was clearing from the south and that if we wereto get going in that direction we’d soon run into better conditions. So the wet tent got packed away once more and we hit the road early; by lunchtime we were at Lake Tekapo,

the sun was shining andthe tent was drying onthe car. The lake wasvery beautiful but therewere some low cloudsobscuring the mountain peaks that wouldotherwise have gracedour photos, this mayhave been the reasonwe missed the very picturesque ‘Church of the GoodShepherd’……. got toleave something for next time around!



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It was most fortunate that theclouds cleared away as wemoved on towards Mt Cook andwe had the most excellent

conditions to view Lake Pukakiand the mountains of theWestland National Park and theSouthern Alps. This was a trulymemorable drive through someawe inspiring scenery and at theend of it we found a very prettyDOC campsite at the foot of themountains; once our tent was pitched we sat out in our chairsand revelled in the majestic beauty of our surrounds till the long shadows of evening, a

creeping coolness and those pesky little black fly’s drove us into our sleeping bag.

The next morning we were upearly to take in the dawn, as thesun rose in the east it firstilluminated the peaks andslowly worked its way down toour campsite; it was beautiful but we knew there were a fewshowers moving in with a fastmoving front, so we got thetent packed up whilst it wasstill relatively dry andembarked on a walk to theTasman Glacier. The light rainmoved in as we were half wayup the track but it still didn’t

detract from the beauty of the place. We tramped over the rough terrain, where eons of ice had flowed down this valley cutting away the surface and carving a path to the sea. Now many miles inland the glacier feeds Lake Pukaki and this in turn feeds other lakeson its way to the sea; Kiwi ingenuity however, has harnessed this water movement todrive some of the many powerful turbines of its massive hydro-electric scheme.

Suddenly, over a rocky and desolate outcrop we came into view of the foot of the Glacier where in a small glacial lake there were freshly carved ‘ice bergs’ surrounded by ‘bergy bits’. The enterprising locals were running boat trips out into the lake so that touristscould reach out and touch a berg…… not my cup of tea but the operation was anywaydwarfed by the magnificent beauty of the setting and nothing could detract from thisrugged and startling scenery.



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By the time we were ready toleave, the showers had passedthrough and the sun waschasing away the clouds givingus a perfect driving day with

great views as we moved alongto Lake Wanaka where wecamped at the Top Ten, thiswas another well run andimpeccably clean campsite.We spent a little time in theattractive tourist town with itslovely views across the lake toMount Aspiring National Park for which this is the gateway.

Next day we climbed Mount Iron (549m) and were rewarded by some stunning views, intruth it was not a hard climb, more a gentle slope to the top; none the less it was wellworth the effort. The shortest route to Queenstown from Wanaka takes you across theCrown Range via Cardrona, the road twists and turns up a gorge till it crests at a vantage point overlooking the Queenstown area, we stopped and took a short walk towards RockyPeak picking up some great views along the way.

Arriving in Queenstownwe stopped for lunchalong the waterfront andenjoyed the lakesideviews, after which, wemoved on to the SkylineGondola Ride which took us high aboveQueenstown allowingincredible views over thetown and towards ‘TheRemarkables’ and theEyre Mountains whichform a breathtaking backdrop to the town.Walking further up thehill we came to thelaunch pad for the Para gliders we had seen souring high over the town since we hadarrived’ it was fun to watch them take off and sour away from the cliff top.Back in town we wandered around the high street, taking in all the tourist dives and nick-nack shops; there was little that was cheap and even the excursions on offer all came witha hefty price tag. I got the impression that this was a rather ‘Yuppy’ hangout, youcertainly couldn’t afford to remain long without deep pockets!



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We moved on in the late afternoon and found a most agreeable campsite at Kingston,about thirty minutes drive south of Queenstown, here we flopped into bed early, worn outafter a couple of full days with nice weather.

The weather was still good as we

continued our drive, the next day,towards Milford Sound; our firststop was the Manapouri Lakesand then we moved north to TeAnau where we stopped for lunch overlooking the lake and agood look around the town. Thisis the gateway to the MilfordSound and a place to take both provisions and fuel if headed thatway. In the afternoon we drove

north following Lake Te Anauuntil the road curved off into the National Park and we found acampsite at Totara. This was a basic DOC site with little in the way of amenities however we were now situated strategically where we wanted to be with a fairly good weather window for our next leg. We did manage to explore a little around our campground, therewas a nice river running close by, however the black fly’s and mosquitoes were quiteactive so we took the opportunity of another early night.

Despite our good weather forecast and an almost drynight, morning revealed somecloud over the surrounding peaks, this area is notoriouslydifficult to forecast and moreoften than not, it’s raining!

After breaking camp we droveup to ‘The Divide’ where thereis a large car-park and somefacilities marking the start of The Routeburn Track, one of the most popular tracks inSouth Island. As it would takea couple of days to do thistrack we chose for the easier option of climbing to Key Summit and although it was adamp start, moving quickly into the clouds, as the day wore on there was some clearingand some nice views availed themselves.



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There was a surprising little Nature Walk at the top of Key Summit where there weresome scattered pools(tarns) and some lushvegetation in places;the DOC had

thoughtfully providedexplanatory guide mapswhich you could takewith you as you walkedaround. It wasdecidedly cool up onthe top and one wasacutely aware of howfar south we were atthis stage; there wasn’tmuch land south of here

between us and theSouth Pole!

Moving on we soon arrived at the Hommer Tunnel where there are traffic lightsthat operate only during the day at fifteen minute intervals, this gives you a goodreason to get out and check out the local scenery. The local wildlife has adapted to

this proceduresensing anopportunity for a freemeal from the passingtourists and a coupleof the local Kea’s areusually on hand; parading up and downthe line of vehicles. Itseems somewhat oddto find a member of the Parrot family thatwas at home in thesnow and these cold, bleak surroundings.

Also, near theentrance to the

Hommer Tunnel, was a natural Ice Bridge where the compressed snow had been erodedaway underneath by the melting waters, it was a fascinating bit of natural architecture!



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When the lights went green we vanished into the Hommer Tunnel, a very eerie place….It is a testimony to the pioneering spirit of the men who toiled with picks and shovelsthrough 1.2 km of mountain from 1935 to 1953; there are no props and the surface isrough-hewn….. I reckon the guys who made it must have been rough-hewn also!On the other side of the Tunnel we stopped at The Chasm, where the Cleddau River

plunges through eroded boulders in a very narrow chasm; passing below a natural rock bridge to a waterfall….it was very pretty and our pictures could never do it justice.On our way into Milford Sound we were lucky to spot the Milford Lodge and call in to book our camping site for the night, this is the only place to camp in the Milford Soundarea and it fills up quickly by late afternoon. Once our position was assured we went ondown to the waterfront to check out our boat ride, which had been booked for the nextmorning and to take pictures of the scenery.

It was rather spectacular however wewere a little taken

aback by the MilfordSound Village whichhad very few amenitiesamounting to a fewhuts, a small andexpensive café, arunway (masqueradingas an airport) and amarine terminal whereabout a dozen ferries jostled together in acompetition to ‘put bums on seats’ for atour around the bay.

The Milford Lodge was quite nice and had good amenities for the campers, caravans andthose that wanted more solid accommodation; on felt however that this was the subtotalof what was here at night, you were either here or you were headed back the other side of the tunnel, looking for a place to camp.

We didn’t get much in way of rain during the night but the low cloud rolled in bringing awet and clammy drizzle so our expectations were somewhat low in the morning as wedrove down to the terminal for our 0900hr scenic cruise. We were lucky that the weather cleared somewhat and the rain stopped as we moved out, there was a buffet breakfast andthis also provided some ‘take away’ fruit… there were only a few on this early ferry,things start to get busy when the tour buses doing the day trips from Queenstown arrive just before midday.



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It was a nice cruise butafter all the scenery thatwe’d already seen, it wasnot as awe inspiring as itmight otherwise have

been….. we were however blessed with a very gooddisplay from the Dolphinsand the seals put on asmall show.

We headed back up the long road to Queenstown with a couple of stops along the way;the Mirror Lakes were interesting, the mountain range opposite reflecting in its surfaceand some neat vegetation ……

There were also a few places where Deer wereroaming close by the roadand Paula managed to getfew pictures; NewZealand is a big supplier of venison to the Far Eastand Japan so there aremany herds of ‘wild’Deer to be found in SouthIsland.

That evening we found alittle gem of a campsite, itwas the LakelandChristian Campsite (justsouth of Frankton) and was set in a great location with a great view; the amenities wereall sparkling clean and there was a huge fully equipped kitchen at our disposal.

We were also blessed with continuing good weather.



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The next morning our friends who were travelling in a large Camper Van, had to taketheir unit in for a service as there was an increasing problem with the steering. Thisturned out to be a deformed front tire; the inner belting was giving way and this lead to a‘square wheel’, a condition that could have been exceedingly dangerous had they proceeded further with it. Fortunately the local mechanics got it sorted out quickly and

checked the rest of the van over for good measure. We were back up to speed when weleft Frankton and headed east through the very pretty towns of Cromwell, Clyde,Alexandra and Ranfurly to Palmerston where we turned north before visiting Shag Point,a well known Fur Seal hang-out.

We actually did better at Moerakiwhere we turned off to find LighthouseRoad and took thewinding path out to

the lighthouse; herethere were not onlyseals but Penguinsand enough of themfor us to have our fill!

Our next stop, TheMoeraki Boulders, was a poor second to our experiences at thelighthouse but we did thetourist thing and got the pictures anyway….. Ithought I took the bestone of the bunch butPaula insisted I cheated.



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Our campsite for thenight was the OamaruTop Ten which was a bit over priced butgood. We went out in

the evening andsampled the local food;the town is ‘old world’and has numerousVictorian buildings leftover from when it was a prosperous sea port.

Unfortunately shipping moved with the times but Oamaru could not as its harbour couldnot be made deeper and could not accommodate the new vessels, so the trade movedelsewhere and Oamaru went into decline; fortunately the buildings remained and thewhole area has now become a tourist attraction.

The next morning after a brief look at more of the town and the discovery of a Penguinmaking its home near therailway tracks, we movedoff to the north. It wasanother great day for driving and after astopover in Timaru wemade good progressnorth. There were somemagnificent views of themountains as we droveacross the lush farmlandsof the Canterbury Plainsand then, in the lateafternoon we made our way up to Arthur’s Passand made camp oppositethe Visitor Centre. Wewere back in the cool, mountainous terrain again and the cheeky Kea were keen to see if they could beg, borrow or steal just about anything from us. As we ate dinner in our friend’s camper, they bounced about on the roof and attempted to pry the ventilationhatch off with their strong beaks. Their landings on the slippery rooftop were far fromgraceful and I should imagine they left a few ruts in the gel coat!



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The next morning we moved off early into Arthur’s Pass, probably too early as the sunhad not managed to penetrate the valley’s; still it was very beautiful and we could nothelp but marvel at some of the road construction that had taken place. We took a detour to Lake Brunner and Moana through very lush dairy farmland passing through Stillwater

before arriving in Greymouth. This was an interesting little town but we were unfortunatethat it was Sunday and there wasn’t much open; we did however have the good fortune tomeet up with some other old yachting friends, they somehow spotted and recognisedPaula as they were driving down the main street…. it was good to meet them as thereown boat “Baraka” was in Queensland (AUS) and they had flown over to do a campingtour. We exchanged data and blew the breeze for an hour then parted company oncemore…… the world is small and we are sure to see them again before we get too far.

Back on the road weheaded north towardsWestport, it was a

fantastic drive withsome unbelievablescenery; such was the beauty that we werestopping to take photos at nearly everyturn in the road! Westopped off inPunakaiki and thestrange PancakeRocks where the DOChave made anexcellent walkway andviewing platforms.From here, it was soclear that we could see right down the coast to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers and thesnow capped mountains of the Southern Alps…. it was a really magnificent vista!From Charleston the road swung inland towards Murchison but it still remained very pretty as it followed up the Buller Gorge whilst shouldering the Victoria Forest Park tothe south. It had been a great day with the temperature reaching 26 degrees (maybe alittle hot for driving); again we’d seen an awful lot of beautiful scenery and we werewondering how we’d ever remember it all!At Murchinson we pulled into the Riverview Campground, which was quite a nice spothowever there were a few blighters bighting where ever they could.

There was no rain overnight but again we had a heavy dew, the day cleared as we wentalong and we were soon back in the burning sunshine. We stopped in at Nelson and thenHavelock before taking the coast road (Queen Charlotte Drive) to Picton. This was alovely, though twisty, road following the coast all the way, there were some great viewsof the Marlborough Sounds and the Queen Charlotte Sound.



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On arrival at Picton wewent to Alexandria’sCampground and foundquite a good spot for the night with quite

good facilities. The restof the day was spentexploring Picton andwas completed with asample of the local Fishand Chips

We were up early againthe next morning, itwas Tuesday 2nd Feband time for us to

return to North Islandon the Blueridge Ferry; it was another 0800hrs sailing but we had to be there an hour before. Conditions were better than when we had come the other way however, eventhough there was no rain until we stood out into the bay, the cloud was low and theMarlborough Sounds did not look inviting.

We were ashore in Wellington for Noon but decided to push on north as we were now onthe return leg and it was somewhat of an anticlimax. We camped the night at MotuoapaMotor Camp on the banks of Lake Taupo and just had enough time for an evening walk down to the small yacht basin where we came face to face with a large gathering of Canada Geese (looking a bit lost and a long way from home).

We had a few hours in Taupothe next morning and had anice walk around the town; itwas also a place to check our e-mails and weather forecasts. Itwas also nice to see thecoaches arriving and departingwith what seemed like mainlyEuropean youngsters, if there isany shortage of British (due tothe ever falling pound) this ismade up for by the increasingamount of eastern Europeanswho have discovered newfound wealth (or who alwayshad wealth but no means to spend it before?); the Scandinavian girls still stand out in thecrowd and New Zealand is a bit short in anything in way of competition!



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We drove along to thequaint little town of Cambridge and theCambridge Motor Park which was really first

rate. Once we had the tent pitched we all piled in thecar and I drove toHamilton Gardens whichwas just twenty clicksdown the road. I guesswe were just unlucky butit seemed like we hit theGardens at a bad time.Flowers seemed to be inshort supply and we were

anyway not impressedwith some of the ‘theme gardens’ as they were “flowerless”…… The Japanese and theChinese seem to like looking at strategically placed rocks amongst sparse foliage and thetraditional Kiwi garden seemed to resemble an old Indian Burial Ground. The EnglishCountry Garden was of the rambling type but it looked like it had recently been flattened by heavy rain…. I wasn’t impressed; there was only the Italian Renaissance Garden thatappealed! We returned to Cambridge to explore the town and look for a nice restaurant,that didn’t work either as we could find no middle ground between the ridiculouslyexpensive and the Burger King thing…… In the end we gave up and went to thesupermarket and bought sufficient material to make a nice BBQ back at the campground.It turned out to be a very pleasant evening.

Next day was the last of this tour, we got on Route 1 and went warp speed back toAuckland, our friends had to return their Camper to the depot close by the airport and wemade haste to “Mr John”, waiting for us with surprisingly dry bilges, in the WesthavenMarina.

It had been a great trip and we’d seen an awful lot…. perhaps we could have done with alittle more time and there were a few things we missed that we have some regrets about.We did however, form some opinions on where we would go should we be ever fortunateenough to return. South Island is a unique experience and no one should come to NewZealand and not see it; we will treasure the memories of those beautiful vistas for the restof our lives.

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The day after our return to Auckland we took our Canadian friends out in the HaurakiGulf and covered some of the highlights of this fantastic cruising ground; it was a goodway to relax and chill out following our rapid schedule, camping in South Island.



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When we finally got them to the airport, they had hundreds of photos and half a lifetimeof memories which they would have to put into some sort of logical order once theyarrived home. It had been a whirlwind tour and we had all seen an awful lot in a veryshort time.We however, we were ‘up and running’ with both car and tent, so we stepped up the paceand took off once more in search of more New Zealand.



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Our first stop on the roadsouth from Auckland, wasthe Pirongia Forest Park and took the walking track to Mt Pirongia going to the

summit of Mt Ruapanefrom where we hadfantastic views over theWaikato and “KingCountry”; the Waikato isone of the worlds richestdairy and agricultural areaswith miles of fertile plainswhich stretch as far as theeye can see.

We returned to the area of theWaitomo Caves which we hadenjoyed on our previous venture but had inadequate time to cover all that was on offer. Spending thenight at the superb ‘Waitomo TopTen’ campsite we were in anexcellent position to visit theRuakuri Reserve and NaturalBridge early the next morning;this turned out to be a beautifulwalking track following the pathof a river which runs, in places, below ground. There are manycaves on the route and some form part of the walkway; it is possibleto do the last section of this walk at night, getting a great display of the Glowworms.

Following our morning walk, wetook the Te Anga Road whichruns westward to the coast; it’s avery scenic route winding throughsome most interesting countrysidewith a couple of stopovers along the way.

The first was the Mangapohue Natural Bridge, a very impressive natural structure whichwas on such a massive scale it was difficult to capture in a picture.



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Further down the road we found the Marokopa Falls, there was a ‘pull in’ and a shortwalk through some dense native bush, then suddenly; a really beautiful waterfall. Whilstnot the biggest of falls in New Zealand it was certainly one of the best proportioned and photogenic!

The road continued to the coast at Marokopa, a small fishing village with a number of holiday homes which no doubt fill up during vacation periods.

From here we turnedsouth along the WildWest Coast, the road became a ‘slightlygravelled track’ withsome major ruts in places; it washowever, enjoyablyscenic and we lappedit up. There was alsothe chance toencounter some of thelocals and Paula madea concerted effort tomake newfriends……



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After about sixty kilometres of gravel we were very glad to get back on proper roadagain, I don’t mind driving on these back roads, even though they can be ‘slippery’ attimes; however our experience has shown that some of the locals, particularly theyounger locals, tend to drive too fast on these roads and we have had two close calls withteenagers going faster than their brains or pockets could cope with.

It wasn’t long before MtTaranaki (formally Mt.Egmont) hove into sight;this is one of the more perfect volcanic cones in New Zealand and is oftencompared with the morefamous Mt Fuji in Japan.As we got closer wecould see more and more,

we were very lucky tohave a settled weather period which gave ussome great views of themountain.

We stopped the night at a campsite within walking distance of New Plymouth, a lovelytown with lots of character; the next morning we were ready for an assault on Taranaki.

We were blessedwith the best of weather and a beautiful daywhen we drove upto the NorthEgmont Visitor Centre; the sunwas hot but at thisaltitude theconditions werecool enough tomake for somevery pleasantwalking. Weelected to go straitup and theSummit Track wasthe only way togo…….



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It was a great trek; a little hard at times as we went up the ‘Puffers Track’, which wasaptly named, we werecertainly puffing by the timewe reached the top……Theviews were magnificent all

the way up, below the sparseclouds we could see acrossmiles of fertile plain andabove the cloud we could seeacross a fluffy white blanketto the solitary peak of MtRuapehu in the Tongariro National Park which, likeTaranaki speared the cloudsreaching for the sky; it was avery impressive sight!

After another night in New Plymouth, resting our sore muscles, we found our way toPukekura Park (which is almost ‘down town’). Apart from this being a great park withover twenty kilometres of walking tracks and lots of beautiful features, it is also home tothe Brooklands Zoo; a small but impressive enclosure where one can get up close to aselection of wild animals. We particularly liked the Avery, which allowed visitors towander inside and have the many varieties of birds fly around them.

From New Plymouth we took the “Forgotten WorldHighway”, which is Route 43and winds its way throughsome spectacular scenery.Along the way it passesthrough the ‘Republic of Whangamomona’ and in thetown of this name we foundan ‘old world’ Kiwi Pubwhere we stopped to refreshourselves……. unfortunately,due to the driving, I wasunable to sample the beer butthe ice-cream was good (if alittle expensive!); it was wellworth the experience though.

Further up the road, having passed over a few saddle’s, all blessed with panoramic views;we passed through the Moki Tunnel and the Tangerakau Gorge where the road turns togravel for about twenty kilometres. Again we were faced with a situation where photos



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would never do the subject any justice and we will just have to rely on our memories to paint the picture; this is a ‘must do’ drive for anyone passing through eastern north island.

The road ends at

Taumarunui butwe found a DOCcampsite just afew miles short of town and spent a peaceful nightcamped on the banks of theWhanganui River.

After visiting Taumarunui we headed south on Route 4, taking time out for the PirakaLookout where there must have once been a settlement of some sort, all that remainednow were the apple trees of the abandoned orchard and these grow temptingly close towhere the lookout is located. A little further down the road we did a detour to Kakahi andon to another gravel road that took us through three scenic reserves. Once down at National Park we had some stunning views of Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro wherewe had walked the previous year “across The Plains of Gorgoroth” and the AlpineCrossing. On our way back from South Island these mountains all had their ‘hats on’(heads in the clouds), but now they were in the clear and we could at last get some of the pictures we’d been looking for.



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We called by Raetihi, a historic logging town which still looks like something out of the‘wild west’. Nothing much happens here at the best of times these days but there is a littlemore life when the winter skiers arrive…. or so I would hope. We checked in at theOhakune ‘Top Ten’ for the night as this was pleasant little town on the southern face of

Ruapehu, which we had yetto climb.

The mountain dominates theskyline from this quaint littletown and the surroundingcountryside so our charge upthe Ohakune Mountain Roadthe next morning wasn’twithout direction.Unfortunately, it transpired

that the DOC had decided toreplace a bridge about threequarters of the way up andthis put paid to our attempton the summit; there justwouldn’t have been enough time in the day to complete our walk from the point at whichwe’d got bogged down. We did however get some quite good pictures of the summit!

As a consolation we took a hike out to Lake Rotokura and the Karioi Lakes where we hada nice little picnic before moving on. Just south of Waiouru we found the Erewhon Roadwhich runs east from Taihape to Napier; this is no expressway and for most rentedvehicles it’s off-limits! It is however a most scenic drive through some fantasticcountryside; not quitea road in many places but a ‘work in progress’ as theKiwi’s try hard tomove their roadwaysystem into thetwenty-first century.

There were some‘trying bits’ but it wasmore than worth it for some of the veryrewarding views.



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We camped outside Napier and spent the next morning looking around this famous “ArtDeco” city. Maybe it was the weather, which became showery; or maybe it was just us,however we were not too impressed with “Art Deco” and moved off northwardsfollowing the coast to Wairoa where we stopped for the night at a small but delightful

caravan park.

The next morning we leftearly and made our way toLake Waikaremoana(which means somethinglike ‘Sea of RipplingWaves’…… due to the factthat the wind whistlesacross it and rarely stops!).It’s a magical place and the

drive up is also very pretty;on the negative side, it’squite high up andnoticeably colder than onthe coast, also the altitudegives cause to some rather unpredictable weather….most of which is wet!

We were lucky to get anearly walk in to Lou’slookout, the trek takes youthrough an area thatsuffered an earth quakesome time back in historyand gave way to manycaves, nooks and cranniesdue to fallen boulders.From the lookout there wasa great view across the lakewhich has one of NewZealand’s “Great Walks”around its perimeter……this is a five or six daywalk and we certainly didnot have time to participate. Instead we trundled along to the Visitors Centre and thenhiked up to Papakorito Falls, which would have been so much better had the sun notvanished! We drove around to the Mokau Falls and the campsite of the same name, wewent up to the Bluffs where we could get a view along the Whanganui Inlet, a narrowand scenic arm of the lake. Unfortunately the weather was going downhill fast and we



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were now getting heavy, almost continuous, rain showers; a situation that seemed likelyto get worse rather than better. We checked out the not so impressive DOC campsite andwatched the rain getting driven up the lake whilst deciding whether to pitch our tent or not……The situation didn’t improve and we moved on.

We stopped a night in Gisborn and were very impressed with the town, its wide openstreets were well decorated with flowers and there were a multitude of shops along a veryreasonable High Street. From here we followed the Pacific Coast Highway north alongone of New Zealand’s most memorable drives. Along the way we stopped to do thescenic walkway to Cooks Cove and then checked out the Longest Pier in New Zealand atTolaga Bay. Only the imbedded railway lines in the concrete surface, tell of the network of lines that converged on this jetty from the surrounding countryside where farmers weredetermined to get their produce to market and beyond.

Further north we detoured down to Anaura Bay, which had a magnificent setting andanother ‘walkway’… however the walkway was somewhat of a disappointment. Wemade another detour down to Waipiro Bay where we discovered more remains of thiscoasts wonderful heritage, the old Waipiro Bay Trading Company was no doubt once afine establishment and during its time would have experienced some of the riches thisarea at one time produced. Now in ruins; it is a testimony to the pioneering spirit thatdominated this country not so very long ago.

That night we camped almost at sea level, at the Te Araroa Holiday Park to the west of East Cape; it was a park which had seen better days! Around 0445 hrs the next morningwe were awoken to the sound of rushing footsteps and someone outside our tent telling usto wake up as there was a Tsunami coming! We were not impressed but gathered whatwe could from the tent and threw it quickly into the car before taking off for higher ground. We spent the next four hours in the company of many other ‘evacuees’ at ascenic overlook on the hillside above the campground.



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We all listened to our radios for news andconsidered our selveslucky we were not inChile, where they had

experienced amassive anddevastatingearthquake; we werenot alone in our evacuation, peoplehad moved or weremoving to higher ground all around thePacific Basin as theTsunami warning was

passed on.When the local policeman gave us the all clear we were free to return for our tent however the warningswere to avoid the beaches and areas of low land….. We packed the tent away rather quickly and vacated the campsite just as soon as we could!

We were on our way back to Auckland now but had time to explore along the way, wecalled in Whitianga, a nice little sea side resort; then Whakatane which was a mostimpressive town. From here we went inland to the northern shores of Lake Rotoruawhere we again camped for the night, the good weather was back again but rain wasalready moving up South Island in our direction. The next day we took the most scenicroute we could back to Aukland, the best bit of which took us along the Old Te ArohaRoad past the Wairere Falls.

We were pretty much ‘camped out’ by the time we got back to the boat which seemedquite palatial and luxurious after what we’d been doing. It had been well worth the efforthowever, as we’d certainly collected some more unforgettable memories and coveredsome parts which we had really wanted to see.

Just a few days after our return, I put a ‘For Sale’ notice on the car in the morning and bythe end of the day we had a buyer. It was all a bit quick but I think it was for the better that way, we do of course miss not having transport but now we are able to concentrateon getting the boat ready for heading north…… before we get frozen in and before wefall so much in love with the place we cannot leave!!!!!

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John and Paula Go Touring New Zealand