Friday - Home

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.  Another 30+ hour airline marathon, which we handled as well we could.  Flying into Seattle, seeing the city spread out before me in the sunrise, with scenes of the Olympic Mountains, the Space Needle, the Kitsap Peninsula, and Mt. Rainier, I felt incredibly lucky to be coming home to a landscape so beautiful and dramatic, and that I get to enjoy every day.    The trip was a wonderful experience for our family (and, although we all had our moments, I think we got along pretty darn well considering we were together 24/21!).  We were all delighted with Coen's choice of New Zealand and have so many amazing memories of our trip.

Thanks to everyone for reading; I hope you enjoyed the vicarious experience of visiting New Zealand, truly a land of beauty, wonder, and adventure!

Wednesday – Crossing the Pass

The bridge was repaired and we were able to cross the pass without difficulty, although every river we crossed (and, as you may recall from my tale of all the one-lane bridges) was muddy, churning, and overflowing its banks.  We passed several areas where mud and rocks had been cleared from the roadway.  This looks serious.  Nevertheless, the campervan is returned and we are in Christchurch!  Staying at the Heritage Hotel, which is right on Cathedral Square.  The city is bigger than I expected, and since we are here until we leave on Friday, no more little NZ towns for us.  It’s rather sad, really.  I particularly enjoyed Hokitika and Nelson.  Christchurch is pretty, but just feels like a city.  We saw Rohit’s Indian Restaurant as we drove into the city—no good place to stop and get a picture, but we thought of Coen’s good friend Rohit!  And we had Indian food tonight in his honor.

Wednesday - Crossing the Pass

The bridge was repaired and we were able to cross the pass without difficulty, although every river we crossed (and, as you may recall from my tale of all the one-lane bridges) was muddy, churning, and overflowing its banks.  This looks serious.  Nevertheless, the campervan is returned and we are in Christchurch!  Staying at the Heritage Hotel, which is right on Cathedral Square.  The city is bigger than I expected, and since we are here until we leave on Friday, no more little NZ towns for us.  It’s rather sad, really.  I particularly enjoyed Hokitika and Nelson.  Christchurch is pretty, but just feels like a city.  We saw Rohit’s Indian Restaurant as we drove into the city—no good place to stop and get a picture, but we thought of Coen’s good friend Rohit!  And we had Indian food tonight in his honor.

Tuesday - Flooding!

We are ready to get the heck out of Dodge.  This rain seems just crazy.  I don’t know if it’s just here in the valley or what, but there is clearly no point in hiking up for a view of the glacier—we won’t be able to see a thing, and I suspect it isn’t really safe.  So we’re going to drive up to Hokitika.  This was the plan regardless, but we’re going early, and without seeing the glacier, which is disappointing.  However, we do have glaciers in Seattle, so it could be worse.  It’s just a big piece of ice, right?  Okay, so I’m imagining a giant ice cube right now.  Okay, now I don’t feel too disappointed.  Everything in the van is soggy.  All our towels are soggy.  I’m soggy.  Let’s get out of this storm!

The skies cleared as we drove further north, and after about 30 km we actually had some blue sky to admire.  I think we made the right decision.

Hokitika

Hokitika is a lovely little arts & crafts type of town on the west coast.  Beautiful jewelry and lots of jade work (they call it greenstone here).  The first thing we all wanted to do was to go to the Kiwi Centre:  time to see a kiwi!  We also got to feed giant eels, which was interesting and a little unnerving.  They are truly gigantic, growing to perhaps 8 feet long when they are 80-100 years old, as these were.  And yes, we saw a kiwi!  They are nocturnal, so the enclosure was dim, but we saw him come out and walk around for quite a while, eating and digging around for food.  He was larger than I expected, and so unusual looking!  Since they have no wings at all and no tail, they basically just consist of a body, two feet, and a head with quite a long, narrow beak.  Coen commented that it looks like half an animal—where is the rest of it?  We were quite pleased to see our kiwi, and of course Finn needed to get a stuffed kiwi to commemorate the occasion.

Another two excellent meals (for most of us—Finn is eating mainly bread and fries…):  lunch at Café de Paris and dinner at Hokitika Cheese & Deli (or something like that…) with amazing food, a working hive with a glass window opening into the restaurant (you can buy their honey) and even their own little walk-in refrigerated cheese room.  I recommend both restaurants the next time you find yourself in Hokitika.  :^)

People weren’t kidding when they said a lot of things would be closed the week after Christmas.  Apparently Monday is a holiday, as it is the day people get off work due to the fact that Christmas was on a Saturday.  Tuesday is also a holiday, since that is “Boxing Day Observed.”  Even the drugstore is closed!  (I need contact solution, and have been looking for a drugstore for three days.  Finally found one in Hokitika and it was open for one hour today!  I am not kidding.)  Even on a regular work day, everything seems to close at 5 p.m.  One of those things I just take for granted in the U.S.—anything that makes money, the stores will do.

Later:  Found out that there was flooding all up and down the west coast yesterday and this morning.  Cars in Hokitika were actually swept away!  The bridge over Arthur’s Pass is closed, and that’s how we have to get to Christchurch tomorrow to return our campervan!  Yikes.  We’re supposed to find out in the morning if they manage to repair the bridge.  Lots of landslides, boaters in trouble, houses flooded…  AND, as if that isn’t enough, we also just found out that on Sunday there was an earthquake aftershock in Christchurch.  My goodness.  Fingers crossed.

Monday - Franz Josef Glacier

Sitting here in the campervan at Franz Josef Holiday Park in the pouring rain.  It started raining just a bit as we were driving into town, but obligingly stopped so we could unload and reorganize the van for the evening.  We have all been sleeping surprisingly well in the campervan—I can’t remember the last time I got 9 hours of sleep that many nights in a row.  Probably never. 

The rain started up again in the middle of the night.  I have always found rain very restful and relaxing in the middle of the night.  Less so when I wake up in the morning and need to use the bathroom.  I waited for about an hour, reading in bed, to see if it was going to let up before I made the trek to the ladies’ room.  No luck.  Three hours later, it’s still going.  We decided today would be a good day to stay holed up in the camper, get caught up on reading, blogging, and (for the boys) homework.  I imagine we’ll get stir crazy after a bit, for for now it seems cozy.  The idea of climbing up a glacier in this weather is less than appealing.

Later:  Still raining.  We went to the Glacier Hot Pools, which were simply delightful.  The tarps keep most of the rain out, and what comes through feels refreshing as we relaxed and played in one of three hot pools:  36°C, 38°C or 40°C.  My favorite was 38°.  Then we showered and had a pleasant dinner at Monsoon restaurant & pub.  Monteith is the local beer, and must be popular since I actually heard someone calling her son by that name!

Later:  Still raining.  The pot we left outside on the picnic table has been filled and emptied twice and is now on its third go-round.  We estimate 9 inches of rain has fallen. (!)

Sunday - Glow Worm Caves

Our activity the next day was the Glow Worm Caves in Charleston.  Coen and Lane opted for blackwater rafting, while Finn and I took the tamer walk through the caves (F wasn’t old enough or a good enough swimmer for the rafting option).  I had never really been through a cave like that before—to see all the stalagmites and stalactites, and contemplate the amount of time responsible to create them was incredible!   The glow worms were rather magical as well, although I actually preferred a place where the dark, dank cave opened up to the outside in a magical scene, with water gently coming through an opening in the ceiling to form a small pool in the rocks, and the wide mouth of the cave showing greenery and sunshine, framed by the cave walls.  I wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if fairies had flown in and begun flitting about.  This was quite a lot of fun.

On to Franz Josef to see the glacier!

Driving:  The west coast is amazing!  So wild and beautiful, with many more scenes of rocks and incredibly huge, crashing waves.  I have never seen anything like it.  We stopped at the side of the road a few times just to watch in awe at the power of the sea.

Saturday - Christmas at Bark Bay Hut

We had a special Christmas morning, waking up in the hut with our international hut-mates, breakfast of croissants and Nutella (yum!), and plenty of time to play on the beach before our 12:30 ferry pickup.  All I wanted to do was lie on the beach and read my book, so I chose a promising spot and got down to it.  Little did I know how quickly the tide was coming into the sand flats….the boys started calling to me, obliviously reading Pillars of the Earth, and I looked up just in time to see a wave soak my clothes (which I was using as a towel, since we didn’t have room to pack a towel for this little overnight trip).  I obligingly moved to higher ground, amazed at how the scenery had changed in the 20 minutes I had been engrossed in my book.  I settled down in a new spot for another 20 min, but the tide was relentless.  We had to cross quite a flow to get to the next sandbar, and then wade through rushing water to get back to shore…not sure I would make it without swimming, which would NOT have worked for my only set of clothes and our digital camera!  A bundle on top of my head and wading through waist-deep water, luckily I didn’t lose my footing.  It was pretty close, though!

After taking our ferry back to Kaiteriteri, we settled back into the campervan and set out to drive to Westport.  We had been warned that nothing  would be open on Christmas Day, but thought at least we would pass a fast food restaurant or two.  Nope.  Nothing of the sort.  We had cereal and milk at a picnic bench on the side of the road.

Christmas Dinner

Our guidebook recommended a terrific restaurant near Westport, so Lane called and they were serving a prix fixe menu for Christmas dinner.  After several days of cold, makeshift meals, it sounded terrific.   As we approached the restaurant, The Bay Café, we got our first glimpse of the wild, gorgeous west coast of South Island.  We got out of the car, stood and stared, open-mouthed.  A mountainous boulder, with huge waves crashing around it and the sun dipping low in the sky…the sight and sounds were mesmerizing.  Our table had a perfect view of this scene, and the food completely lived up to the scenery.    Coen enjoyed a  smoked bacon salad, Turkey “bon bon” (wrapped in phyllo), ham with roasted vegetables, chocolate fudge cake, hot cocoa, cushions, and of course the view!  It was a Christmas dinner for the memory books, that’s for sure.  I can’t remember when I’ve felt more suffused with well-being.

 Coen in the middle of Split Apple Rock, Tasman Bay.

 Alaine and Coen kayaking in Tasman Bay.

 One of many humorous signs seen on our trip. 

This one was on the ferry taking us across Cook Strait.

 Lane, Finn and Coen at the beginning of our hike up an extinct volcano.

The first hour of the hike was through sheep and cow pastures.

Hiking on the Abel Tasman Coast trail, Dec. 24.

Friday – Christmas Eve – The Coast Track

One of the things we really wanted to do was hike part of the Abel Tasman Coast trail.  There are several huts judiciously placed along the trail, and some folks hike the whole thing, in five days or so.  We weren’t quite that ambitious, but definitely wanted to hike part of the trail.  We got the last 4 spots in Bark Bay Hut.  This is how it worked:  a ferry picked us up from Kaiteriteri Beach and brought us up to Anchorage (not the Alaska one!), about a 30 minute ferry ride.  There we hiked along the trail to reach Bark Bay and our sleeping hut.  The trail winds along in the woods adjacent to the coast—lovely!  We got drizzled on a bit at first and couldn’t figure out where the rain was coming from, as the sky was blue!  This path is 12 km and was advertised as a 4 hour hike.  Add in a swim break at Cleopatra’s Pool, lunch, snacks, and two children, and it took us….any guesses?  You win if you said 7 ½ hrs… Yes, we were all pretty tired, and very glad to see that hut!  (really a cabin, with three rooms, each with big rows of bunk beds). I don’t think I mentioned that we found out yesterday there are no cooking facilities at the hut, so we won’t be having a hot Christmas Eve dinner.  (Camping stove was not one of the items we packed for NZ!).  Peanut butter and jelly it is!

Photos

 Coen and Finn at the Pancake Rocks

 Coen the Mer-Boy on Kaiteriteri Beach

  More Pancake Rocks - I loved them!

 Coen and Finn in the glowworm caves in Charleston

Alaine catching some rays on Christmas Day.  Bark Bay, Abel Tasman Park.

Flora & Fauna Sightings

Kingdom Animalia

• Cows.  Lots and lots of cows.  Calves, too—as it is late spring here, the calves are about four months old, which is when they start eating grass.  They are adorable.
• Sheep.  Lots and lots of sheep.  Lambs now too.  In the North Island, most have been sheared, but they’re still fluffy on South Island.
• Alpacas, from time to time.
• Deer—we saw a deer farm at the side of the road!  Not sure what that’s all about.
• Black feathered, red-footed –beaked and –eyed, oyster catchers.  The black/red combination is dramatic
• Cormorants – I love their large black fan tails
• Little blue penguin (deceased)  L
• Shorebird with incredibly long legs for its size—ten inches long perhaps, with a  body slightly larger than a robin’s
• Bird that, at first glance looks like a duck, but doesn’t have webbed feet or a broad bill, and doesn’t seem to use its wings at all.
• A bug that looks like a centipede but it is about 6 inches long
• Extremely large, extremely fuzzy bees with white bottoms.   If they didn’t buzz so loudly, and not right in my face, I’d say they were downright cute.
• No kiwis yet!

Kingdom Plantae

• Ferns as big as trees (Coen and Lane used their “branches” as walking sticks)
• Ferns with huge black vines
• Ferns with lovely, gigantic, fractal-like fiddle heads (learned that NZ has over 160 species of ferns)
• Coen is especially fond of all the purple flowers Kiwis put in their front yards

 

Thursday - Kaiteriteri Beach

Loving Kaiteriteri Beach!  Bright sunshine, warm weather, lots to explore.  This is a busy holiday park—clearly a favorite of the locals.  They bring these huge trailers, then set up a tent next to it, then a patio next to that, for a set-up with five or six rooms next to our puny little piled-on-top-of-one-another campervan.  It seems a little bit ridiculous, but that doesn’t stop me from being jealous of all the space!  Apparently whole neighborhoods come down here together every year and stay for a couple of weeks, sort of an extended off-site block party.  It does sound like great fun. Again, our measly three days seem paltry.

We have met people from:

• New Zealand (lots)
• Australia (ditto)—New Zealanders seem to think of Australians as cousins, definitely one of the family 
• Great Britain
• France
• Germany
• Switzerland
• Israel
• Poland
• Canada
•  

And, surprisingly, just one other family from the U.S.  I thought Americans would be swarming around here.  It is cute, though, how everyone can recognize our “American accent.”  Do you think of yourself as having an accent?  I didn’t think so.

Had the most fabulous afternoon!  25°C and “fine” today—perfect kayaking weather!  We signed up for a half-day family guided tour around Tasman Bay and got an amazing guide named Regan.  In his thirties, with the NZ-style dreadlocks I’ve seen here and there, the sort of fellow to call everyone “mate” (equivalent of “dude” stateside).  He was funny, knowledgeable, and (with an 11 year-old boy at home) knew exactly how to relate to our boys.  Kaiteriteri, by the way, means ("eat quickly quickly" - this has a funny story about Maori tribes)  The view was, of course, stunning.   I enjoyed a quiet inlet only accessible at high tide and the great stories of Abel Tasman that Regan told that included drawing maps in the sand with a stick—incredible storyteller and I was spellbound!  Maybe time to include the story later—or ask Coen about Abel Tasman and what happened when he “discovered” NZ next time you see him!  On to Split Apple Rock (great photos of Coen there, coming soon, I promise!)

After the amazing kayaking trip, we stood dazed on the beach and Regan came over to ask what was up.  “Not sure how to top that,” I replied.  “Have an ice cream from the shop just up the road,” he suggested.  Perfect.

Wednesday – Nelson, Kaiteriteri Beach

A beautiful day dawned today—at last!  We had a fairly short drive to Nelson, one of NZ’s oldest cities, located near the water (as almost everything is here—the farthest you can be from the sea anywhere in NZ is 90 km).  I thoroughly enjoyed the size, charm, and setting of Nelson—it was easy to picture living there.

We spent over an hour in the information center in Nelson doing some thinking about what we wanted the remainder of our trip to look like.  All agreed that there had been too much driving and rushing about and not enough time actually doing things in New Zealand.  We spoke to the experts at the info desk, checked brochures, and with great reluctance) decided to cut Wanaka from our trip and use the three extra days to take our time elsewhere.  Specifically, three days at Kaiteriteri Beach, located on Tasman Bay at the north end of South Island.  This will give us some more beach time, which we all love (to my surprise, I am becoming more of a beach person as I grow older), let us do a kayaking trip, and—one of Lane’s fondest desires while we are here—embarking on one of the famous Abel Tasman Coast walks and spending Christmas Eve in a shared “hut” (cabin) on the beach.    Abel Tasman was the Dutch explorer who “discovered” New Zealand and named it after Zeeland in the Netherlands; a supposedly very lovely park in this neck of the woods is named after him.

Okay, this will be an adventure!

While in Nelson, we enjoyed a little civilization and the opportunity to fill up the tank, go grocery shopping, and sneakily purchase a few Christmas presents to surprise the boys with.  We told them well ahead of time that the NZ trip was their entire present—but a few NZ souvenirs seem very appropriate.  And some chocolate, of course!  Also bought some new beach shoes since my Tevas were literally falling apart (Coen is extremely jealous of how stylish and comfy my new ones are and, unfortunately, his feet are now big enough that his threat of stealing them actually means something….) and some yummy NZ freeze-dried camp food for our Christmas Eve dinner.  Had some delicious pizza in Nelson in a funky little second-story Italian restaurant located above the first movie theater we have seen in NZ.  The restaurant was decorated with old movie posters, which provided plenty of lively conversation, especially as our table’s poster was Goodfellas, and Lane got to try to explain to Finn how the Mafia worked.

We have our plan:  on to Kaiteriteri Beach to soak up some rays!

Tuesday – Crossing Cook Strait

We arrived in Wellington late on Monday and spent a quick night at a holiday park before setting into town the next morning.  We navigated our way through the city, fighting a fierce gale.  The wind was so strong is blew us sideways when it gusted.  Wellington is the capital of NZ, and looked the part, with tall buildings and busy streets.  We had very little time there, however, just long enough to walk around the waterfront and let the boys blow off some steam at the playground before catching our ferry.

The crossing—Cook Strait is a three-hour trip by ferry—was very rough. I saw more than one child with a sick bag, and felt as though I might join them for most of the rocky tip.  Then, about forty-five minutes out of Picton, the clouds parted, the waves calmed, and the sun shone.  It was a beautiful sight.  Amazing scenery, of course—trying not to take it for granted, but it is everywhere!—but different, brighter in the sunshine.

The ferry was quite cushy, with big padded seats and tables for those who got above the parking area early.  This didn't include us, unfortunately, as Coen took a long time to get his activities together; however, we still got seats and a table together.  The ship was apparently made in Sweden, as all signs were in both Swedish and English, which we all found quite humorous.

I have an excellent photographic collection of humorous signs to share at some point!  (Uploading pictures always seems to take more time than I have available).  We played the Lord of the Rings board game during the crossing--Lane thought it would be quite fitting, and I suppose it was. Quite fun, too.

Delighted to be on South Island in the sun!

Monday – Sheep Farm!

We were fortunate enough to have a connection—again through Carol, mom to one of my students—with a real Kiwi family.  Anna is an author of young adult novels and her husband Hamish runs a sheep farm.  Their son is starting university in February (when school years start around here) in Christchurch (we now have an appreciation of how far away that is—more on that later) and both are on summer break now.  They live 20 minutes from town, which, their daughter said, is too far to get together with friends as much as she would like and also means a one-hour bus ride each way to get to and from school.  But it is so incredibly beautiful.  So much room for a lovely garden, yard to play in, patio and the requisite trampoline.  Coen loves the trampolines that are ubiquitous here. He can just bounce and bounce and bounce.  It seems good for him.  It is funny how many there are here, though.  Almost every single holiday park we’ve stayed at has had one, and a good number of houses whose yards we can see into.

Anyway, back to our visit.  We left Napier for Wellington, and Anna’s house is on the way.  Although I met Anna only once before, when she and her family were visiting Seattle last year, they welcomed us into their home, gave us a wonderful homemade lunch and then took us on a tour of the sheep farm.  Hamish has thousands of sheep and hundreds of cows—we saw just a few dozen going through a spraying machine that helps keep the flies from breeding in their wool.  Also drove a little way to the main wool shed (I think that’s what they called it)—a big old wood building on two levels, over 100 years old and still used for packing the fleeces (I didn’t realize the fleece actually comes off all in one piece when they shear the sheep and the fleeces are packed in these huge sacks that contain—I think it was—240 fleeces).   

Anna said 70 (?) years ago, one bag of fleeces was worth enough that you could buy a car from Britain and have it shipped over to NZ with what you made from it. But no more, since artificial fabrics are taking over.  She was also dismayed at how many old barns she saw in the U.S. that were falling down, and our attitude of “Hey, it’s old.  Let’s build a new one.”  Kiwis are much thriftier and, living in an island nation where many things are scarce or expensive to obtain, get used to repairing, reusing, and simply having an attitude of taking care of things.  It’s striking to me to see how much this is just part of the culture.

Musings on Driving

We have gotten used to driving on the left side of the road pretty quickly, although both Lane and I tend to shy toward the far edge of the road—as much to do with driving a campervan as being on the opposite side of the car, I imagine.  More difficult to get used to is the speed limit—100 kph in most places, which I find terrifying.  Many of the roads are so twisty it’s a wonder everyone in the country isn’t carsick all the time.  I have never been on a single road as curvy as these, and have done at least four or five stretches of 30-40 solid minutes of S-curves getting from one place to another since we’ve been here.

We hit 1000 km on the odometer today.  Whoo hoo!

One-Lane Bridges

I absolutely adore the one-lane bridges.  On North Island, they seem to pop up every five minutes or so (on the lowland roads, anyway)—there must be a lot of little creeks and rivers about.  There is a sign that a one-lane bridge is approaching.  Then there is a sign with symbols that indicate if you have the right of way or not (the family cheers when we have the right of way and grumble when we don’t, even though 99% of the time there isn’t another car in sight anyway).  The best part is that every single bridge is named.  It could be a little ten-foot long culvert, but it will have a little yellow sign on the left reading “Makateri Bridge” or somesuch.  I just love it!

Our driving is taking up too much of our trip, and is wearing on me a bit.  I wish we had more time in each place—too many difficult decisions to not do this or that.  Also, I must confess, the rain is getting me a bit down. It has rained every single day, often for a goodly part of the day—and it’s supposed to be summer here!  (Okay, starting very soon it will be summer….)  We brought our raincoats, but didn’t suspect they’d be getting such a workout.  Sunshine, where are you?

Next time:  Wellington and crossing to South Island

Saturday to Monday - Napier Beach House

I write this sitting in the living room of the most charming beach house, looking out at the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean that separates me from most of you reading this.  I have never felt so remote, protected, and content all at the same time.  Many thanks to Carol for arranging this for us—it is incredibly comfortable, perfectly situated, and with every amenity one would want for a getaway.  I do wish we could stay longer.

The beach house was constructed twelve years ago as a temporary dwelling—it is actually a tent, of sorts—it has a sturdy tent roof, but actual walls and windows, electric outlets and even a huge fireplace in the center, with everything held up but stout poles that Lane says look like reclaimed wood. It's perhaps 1500 square feet.  There are three bedrooms, with two overlooking the beach—Lane and I claimed the master bedroom and the boys the kids’ room (it has a queen sized bed in the center and two sets of bunk beds behind, and its decorating somehow reminds me of something out of The Sound of Music (which, for the record, there is absolutely no evidence of me singing when we were at the top of those hills at the hike in Taupo—Lane’s word is considered hearsay!) 

We have explored the beach, with its interesting inlets and driftwood, volcanic boulders all along one side covered with tiny mussels, tidepools with legions of the smallest snails I’ve ever seen—only about 1 mm across!  Although the day was overcast, everyone got a bit pink yesterday: we were warned that the sun is fierce here.

Wendy, the caretaker of the place, stopped by to say hello and make sure we were settled in all right.  She told us that dolphins and whales can sometimes be seen in the area, but no luck so far.  We can see the lights of Napier twinkling across the water about 15 km away.

Although the plan was to go into Napier yesterday, we couldn’t tear ourselves away from the beach house, so here we stayed.  We’re going to pack up early and at least take a driving tour of Napier on our way to Anna Mackenzie’s house and tour of her husband's sheep farm, where we plan to stop for a few hours before continuing on to Wellington.

We have been here for a week, and I’m so glad we decided to do three!

Friday & Saturday - Lake Taupo

Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ—I think we decided it’s about 10 miles across—and extremely beautiful (as almost everything seems to be here).  Taupo is a resort town, but also borders the Tongariro National Forest, reputed to be an amazing place to hike.  The Tongariro Crossing is billed as “The Best One Day Hike in New Zealand.” Our plan was to hike it (7-8 hours one way, you get dropped off at one end and picked up at the other), but the weather was not conducive, and the crossing is difficult enough that you simply don’t do it if the guides say not to.  Lane was especially disappointed about this one.  Our consolation prize was hiking up a nearby extinct volcano. 

This was billed as a 2.5 hour round-trip hike.  Hmm.  It would be difficult to sprint on this terrtain….  The first hour and a half was up through some of the iconic rolling hills, past a herd of cows and up and up and up.  Lane and I chose the high road; Coen and Finn chose the low road, hiking through a valley they dubbed “The Valley of Spiky Things and Purple Flowers.”  After crossing a few fences (stiles were helpfully provided), we left the meadow for the sudden cool damp of a misty forest trail.  This continued for another hour before we finally emerged at the top to the promised 360° view….of fog.  Fog, fog fog.  Back down, this time through the valley, with C & F as tour guides.  Eating apples under a picturesque tree, then, tired and wet, back to our campervan park for the evening.  Our 2.5 round trip hike took 3.5 hours up and 1.5 down!  Maybe “round trip” means something else in NZ?

We stayed at DeBrett’s Hot Water Spa & Resort, which we loved.  Great facilities, and for a nominal price (about US$23) we got three days unlimited use of their geothermally-heated hot springs and water park.  This is where the photos of us in the private pool and Coen coming down the water slide were taken.  Soaking in the tubs was extra-welcome after our long, chilly hike up and down the volcano.  The water for all the attractions is naturally heated from underground and they actually have to cool it down before putting it in the pools, ranging from 38 to 42° C (look it up).  Even the kids’ area is full of warm water!

Quotable

Lane, commenting on the speed of the Dragon Slide at DeBrett’s:  “Yes, it’s fast.  It was clearly designed without consulting with any lawyers.”

Another drive and (smaller) hike through Tongariro National Forest rounded out our time in Taupo. 

On Saturday we drive down to Napier, to the beach house.  More on that next time!

Thursday, December 16, 2010 – Hell’s Gate, Rotorua

We’re keeping to a full schedule here, so on Thursday we made a quick stop in Rotorua on our way to Lake Taupo.  As Finn remarked as well pulled into Hell’s Gate: “This place smells really bad.”  The entire area is quite geothermally active, so the air is full of sulfur and the smell of rotting eggs. You get used to it after a bit, though.

The picture of Finn posted earlier was taken at Hell’s Gate, where we wandered around for an hour taking in bubbling pools of mud, eerie otherworldly landscapes, a hot waterfall, and the cleansing pool Maori chiefs would bathe in to prepare for battle.   We got to squelch through a mud pool and stick our hands in the sulfur pool.  It’s amazing that all of this just burst through the earth!  We all thought Hell’s Gate lived up to its name--in a good way!

Quotables

Alaine, on the weather:  "It's like Seattle, only wetter."

Yes, it has rained a lot since we have been here.  Temperatures are mild, but we are definitely wet!  The campervan parks are terrific, with commercial-size kitchens, dining areas, barbeques, laundry facilities, nice hot showers, and everything very clean.  We love the signs of things said differently here!  My favorite so far:  Trolley Park  (where you put shopping carts when done with them).


Coen, on the scenery:  "It's awesome!"  (used appropriately, for once, Sharon!) 

Our jaws keep dropping as we turn one corner after another for an amazing scene with more shades of green than I knew existed, usually dotted with cows or, less frequently, sheep.  Rolling hills everywhere, some areas suddenly looking tropical and prehistoric, amazingly large ferns, and birds that sound very different from those at home.

Coen says he wants to live here!  He is very appreciative of how environmentally responsible the Kiwis (New Zealanders) are:  dual-flush toilets (depending on what you have deposited therein), electric outlets that you turn off when not in use, etc.

To report on next time:  Hell's Gate, DeBrett's Thermal Hot Springs & Spa, climbing an extinct volcano.

Tuesday & Wednesday - Campervan!

The campervan can be described in all of the following ways:  automatic transmission, pop-up, small, cozy.  We are renting a Volkswagen RV (which they call a campervan), and the only type they had available in automatic transmission is this size. It is about the size of a regular van, and the back seat folds down to make one bed and the other is in the pop-up.  So, every night we have to do many things to get ready for bed: make sure all the dishes are washed and put away (because you can’t access the cabinets after the bed is set up); put down the lower bed (while the upper bed is pushed up, b/c then you have more headroom); move all the luggage from the back (which is now part of the lower bed) into the front seat (which you won’t need while you’re sleeping); make the lower bed; pull down the upper bed and make the upper bed; put up all the privacy screens in the windows and pull the curtains; get ready for bed….and then do it all in reverse in the morning before we get going!  Kind of fun, kind of a pain, definitely a family bonding experience!

Tuesday night we drove to Orere Point Holiday Park, about an hour southeast of Auckland.  A nice little park within walking distance of a rocky, lovely beach where we found swarms of tiny, half-inch long black crabs scuttling under every rock.  This was really just a convenient place to stay between Auckland and our next night…

Hot Water Beach – Coromandel Peninsula

After a few more hours of crazy driving (seriously, 2 of the 3 hours was entirely made up of S-curves which also went up and then down a mountain) we arrived at the world-famous Hot Water Beach.  You walk about 10 minutes to the beach, bringing a shovel (ours were borrowed from the holiday park) and supposedly dig your own hot tub on the beach during low tide.  The beach is located on underground geothermal springs that heat the water as it bubbles up into your pool.  The day we were there, low tide was 9 p.m., so we headed over at 7:30. About a hundred of us were there on the beach hopefully digging, only to end up with holes full of cold water.  We eventually figured out we had to actually walk around, dig a bit and test it before committing ourselves.   We found some hot spots all right, but the tide never went far enough down for anyone (except for one group of twenty-somethings) to actually dig a pool that kept hot water in it, rather than filling up with tide water every 2 minutes. Still, it was pretty neat (once we abandoned our “cold tub”) to find a warm spot, wiggle our toes down into the sand, and feel them warm up. Finn even burned his toe (a little bit), it was that hot!  It must work best if you come when low tide is really low, but we didn’t have much choice about that.

Today’s game:  take turns going through the alphabet naming things that have to do with New Zealand.  A is for Auckland, B is for baches (beach houses), C is for cows (I have probably seen 10,000 cows in the last 3 days), D is for Dunedin, etc.

Thursday:  A quick stop in Rotorua on our way to Lake Taupo.

Auckland! -- Tuesday, Dec. 14

Arrived safely and settled in our Auckland hotel for one night.  We went to Hell for pizza last night--hopefully pictures posted soon.  Great pizza and you can guess the theme of the decor.  We wanted to reassure Coen that yes, NZ does have pizza!  (also, we were hungry and it was pretty close by).  Our hotel has a nice view of the city--except it's raining. Wah.  Feels like it's in the upper 60's out there today (or about 20 degrees C, as we better get used to thinking of it!).  Not sure how the rain will affect our plans.

New game:  everyone in the family gets a point for spotting something different here (units, vocab, spelling, etc.) than at home.  Differences spotted so far:  speed on most streets is 100 kph, flavour, colour, centre, gas sold in liters--oops, I mean litres.  (Lane thought gas was really inexpensive here until he remembered)

Mistakes and problems so far:

1)  Lane put the plug-in electric kettle on the stove ("hob" -- 1 point to Alaine) and turned it on.  Oops.  Burning plastic doesn't smell very good.

2) We brought both plug converters and voltage converters; however, the combination of those two big plugs and hte gigantic plugs that seem to come with all small pliances means that the hwole plug-Rube-Gol;dberg-thing just falls over and needs to be held in place with a tower of phone books under the ppliance.  Hairdryer I gave up on...

3) I think I made two reservations for campsites tonight at different places, one an hour north of Auckland and one an hour south.  Orere and Orewa--not confusing at all right?  Will try to clear that up when we get internet access later today.  I definitely meant the south one, as we are headed to the Coromandel Peninsula the next day.

4) Coen may have lost our second room key.  They are some kind of new-fangled thing with a shiny electronics window that gets scanned.  It says right on (our other) card that it costs $50 if you lose it.  Keep looking, Coen!

Update:  Coen found the missing key.  It stopped raining. I did make two reservations for the same night and cancelled one.  Still trying to figure out how to check messages on the NZ cell phone.  You have to push a "hash" key to do it and none of the keys seem to be that one!  Must ask a Kiwi....

En Route - Dec. 11 & Dec. 13

We enjoyed two perfect connecting flights through Virgin Airlines--can't recommend them highly enough.  On our first flight all the ambient interioir lighting in the cabin was purple, which we tried to convince Coen we had arranged especially for his big trip.  He didn't believe us, of course, but definitely appreciated the purple! 

The plane looked brand new, the seats were extra-comfy, and we had fun playing games on the onboard consoles.  We had a 5-hour layover in Los Angeles, so we walked around outside the airport; the boys had a surprisingly good time investigating seemingly mundane things like birds-of-paradise, towers that change color, and paths between the shrubs--and we all got to stretch our legs and get a little exercise before our 15-hour flight to Sydney.

The entertainment center on that flight (free games, movies, TV shows and wifi) kept everyone happy and busy during the hours were awake (which was most of them.)  Don't tell Lane, but I used almost all my screen time to watch the entire first season of Glee.  They even served us two meals during the flight!  I didn't know any airlines did that any more.  Can't wait to catch our last flight, to Auckland.

Itinerary

We will be flying into Auckland on Dec. 13 (We leave on Dec. 11 and cross the International Date Line, so for those of you in the U.S., it will still be Dec. 12 when we arrive).  We spend 8 days on North Island and the rest of the time on South Island, flying out on Dec. 31 (and arriving home on Dec. 31, again thanks to the IDL).

Plans for North Island include visiting Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua (volcanos, hot springs), Lake Taupo (a big lake, beautiful hiking, national park), Napier (town was burned down in the 1920s and built again all in Art Deco style), Wellington.

We take a ferry from Wellington across to Picton, drive to Nelson and spend the next two days around Abel Tasman before driving down the west coast of South Island.  Franz Josef Glacier, Wanaka, Mount Aspiring and Christchurch round out the trip.

New Zealand Map