The Travelling Boomsticks

Most people have a restless night before needing to get up early for a flight. I do every single time and last night was no different. Auckland with current daylight savings is 3 hours ahead of Townsville – our hometown. We fly out of here at 7am which means a 4.30am check-in. I awake at 2am and make a final check and clean out of our luggage. We catch the 4am shuttle service from our motel to the International Airport. It is very busy (Qantas) when we arrive. There are two flights scheduled to leave for Australia prior to ours.

It is also school holidays here – the first week. The departure lounge is full of students and sports people. There must have been some South Pacific Veteran Games on. The island nations include New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands. Seeing these teams also make me wonder whether a team from Samoa is here. The New Zealanders have a strong connection to Samoa and are feeling the effects of the recent tsunami exceedingly so. After some quick duty free shopping we sit down to watch Brazil be awarded the summer olympic games in 2016. I was surprised by that decision, but the IOC have always liked to be different.

Our flight was pretty uneventful. We have a U12 Rugby Union Team onboard that is on tour. Noisey little buggers! The plane has on demand entertainment so I get to enjoy one and a half movies before landing in Brisbane. After we land we are stuck on the plane for a short duration as the skybridge wouldn't operate and it takes some time for a set of stairs to be delivered. Customs and Immigration are uneventful and we move quickly to drop our luggage off to be sent to the domestic terminal. We take the opportunity to have lunch during the short layover. In the end our flight is delayed 30 minutes. It is hot here and we feel sad to be out of the comfort of the mild New Zealand weather.

When we get to Townsville it is very dusty and hazy. It is also very hot! We have to wait long for a taxi so we all pile in for the short drive home. The 7 minute drive ends up costing $17, I think this is steep. With the luggage upstairs, we open our house to find it covered in dust from the recent dust storms. It takes us nearly three hours to tidy up and it is a rush job. That said, it is great to be home. It is also sad to see how very dry and arid the city looks. Twelve hours ago we were in rainy Auckland....I hope it rains here soon.

It is a week after we have returned home - this was a wonderful last day in New Zealand a day trip to the beach in our bago.

No rain last night. It was cool, but not cold and we all had an early night. The last couple of days on the road and the unsuccessful trip to downtown Auckland are put behind us. We are excited at the prospect of one last little journey before we return the bago this afternoon and check into our motel. The first hour after breakfast is spent doing a final cleanout of the motorhome, leaving any unused or unfinished provisions in the campground kitchen for other travellers to use and packing of our belongings for the trip home.

This is particularly hard for my two little boys as they have collected a "few" items in their travels that they will be unable to take home due to quarantine restrictions. For Sam it means leaving behind a pine cone that his Dad gave him during a walk around Wai-O-Tau. It was closed when it was picked from the forest floor. The warmth of the cupboard that it was stored in the motorhome has since seen it open. This was an amazing tranformation to the boys. Sam was not sure at the start that this was indeed the same pine cone, but Dad managed to be convincing in the explanation eventually. I am an avid shell collector and Sam brought home a bagfull of large pippy shells after a walk along the beach at Otaki. They too have also been in the cupboard for the last week or so. Pat is a keen collector of sticks. He call them his guns and likes to pretend to shot things with them. So as we prepare to leave the boys decided to set up a pretend museum to display their prizes before the sad task of leaving them for others to enjoy. All of us adults were quite impressed with the display and the boys were very proud of their handiwork. As we drove off for Piha the tears flowed - damn quarantine rules!

While Piha is only approximately 45kms from Auckland, it takes us 45 minutes to get there. The drive takes you over and through the Waitakere Ranges on a narrow road with lots of sharp curves. There is a famous advertisement in NZ about the mini cooper and the enjoyment of driving to Piha. While I can't be sure on the number of curves on the road it is not great for those with weak stomachs like myself.

I didn't really know much about Piha but I had seen the photographs and that was enough to draw me here. I have since read alot about the beach and it's appeal to Aucklanders. It is a very popular holiday spot and I would not be over stating things by saying this is the Bondi of Auckland. Boardriding was introduced to New Zealand by two Californian lifeguards on this beach back in 1956, and the first surf boat in the country was owned by the Piha Surf Club.

Piha is a dangerous place to swim. It has infamous rips and currents and only nutters with no sense of self preservation swim outside the flagged patrolled areas. After competing at Piha against a New Zealand surf team in 1950, an Australian surf life saving team said they never wanted to compete on the beach again - and they haven't. In 1997 when Uncle Toby's Iron Man contest was held at Piha canoes were snapped in two. Today the water is too cold and I am far too interested in walking along the beach, taking some photos and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

The scenery here is breathtaking. The black iron (volcanic) sand is a welcome change like Lake Taupo to what I am used to seeing. It also boasts rugged cliffs and the dominant Lion Rock standing guard over the beach. The beach is then backed by sub-tropical forest. Other than the crashing of the waves, it is so very quiet here. I could imagine the thrill of surfing these waves in surf a place must be exhilarating. Personally I was taken by the amount of flowers growing on the upper dunes beside the road. This place is very unique.

We spent some time here doing all of the things that we all like to do at the beach. It would be so easy to stay here all day. Lunch was spent at the eclectic Piha Cafe, which seems to be what Piha is like in essence. It's a surf beach with a very small permanent community who are determined to keep development and radical change at bay. I wish them the best of luck.

After the morning at Piha we headed back to Auckland. Paul helped us unload and we checked into our overnight motel while he took the bago back to the rental company. It was a quick goodbye, but the thought of a big room with a large bed for each of us, drew us all inside. Tomorrow morning at 7am we would be flying out of Auckland to journey back home.

It rained intermittently today, with a bit of wind to keep things interesting. We caught a bus downtown this morning from the camp ground, which took an hour. It was an interesting drive in that we sat amongst the locals going about their business. There were lots of uni students on the bus and all of them got off at the Auckland University City Campus. The campus is in the city centre and is a hustle and bustle of activity with busy city streets intersecting the different buildings.

We got off at Customs Street and walked directly to the most prominent building in the city – the Sky Tower. It took us about 15 minutes or so to get there with the kids. What an amazingly good looking tower it is too.

The Sky Tower is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, at 328 metres. The main observation level is 186m from the base and the Skydeck viewing platform is at 220m. It is just below the Skydeck that idiots can pay money to bungy jump off for an adrenaline rush. My boys loved watching people bungy off the edge and watch them land at the bottom. As I am not a fan of heights I didn’t peer over the edge to see whether they landed safely. When we first got there, only a handful of us were admiring the view. Within half and hour the decks were getting crowded and noisy with school children on holidays. I was glad it just wasn’t my own being rowdy for a change.

I really took time to enjoy the building and it’s concrete construction. It is pretty windy up at the top and I can imagine the stresses and strains on such a structure are immense. It cost us $80 to check it out which isn’t cheap, but you can’t not go and have a look either.

Auckland City unlike Wellington is very spread out. This was to be our downfall. Other than the Sky Tower we didn’t get to do much else other than eating and shopping. The boys were tired from walking and Beedo didn’t feel much like it either. In hindsight we toyed with a tourist day trip and decided it was too expensive ($80). It would have taken us to all the major sights and was also a get off and get back on at anytime arrangement. The bus into the city cost us $22. It has been a very busy nearly three weeks and the sprawl of Auckland was our undoing. So, we got an early afternoon bus back to the camp ground and started to pack up and tidy the motorhome. Tomorrow we hope to take a quick drive out to Piha before handing the motorhome in and going to our motel for the evening.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in New Zealand. Bummer!

The rain throughout the night meant that our last night spent in Rotorua was quite warm. It is still a pain though, but I guess if it didn’t rain New Zealand wouldn’t look as lush and bright green as it does. Plus all that water I see has to come from somewhere. Speaking of water, the drinking water is unbeatable. We’ve only brought water once when we first got here. We’ve been drinking tap water ever since. You can’t tell the difference. It is divine. Even my cups of tea taste better for it.

We got on the road early today (before 9am) and started our journey northwards to Auckland on Hwy No. 5 (The Thermal Explorer Highway) and in the Rotorua District. We drove through about half a dozen districts today (i.e. BOP, Waikato, Franklin, and ended in Manukau) and almost as many different highways. At the junction at Tirau we changed highways and the farming changed almost immediately. It was more stud farming and there were some thoroughbred race horse studs. The farm houses were bigger and better maintained as were the farms hemselves. There were lovely hedges clipped neatly at different heights and it was noticeable just by the European cars parking in the towns streets that these were more well off areas.

The countryside became flatter in these parts and the rolling hills or volcanic mounds that we were used to seeing were only on the horizon. Paul commented that he didn’t like this area. It’s far too flat; no view, only to the neighbour and definitely no ocean views. We do love our ocean views we Petersen’s! I enjoyed the change. I often get car sick in mountainous areas, and the North Island has very few relatively flat landscapes. The South Island seems to be 50/50 percent. Here it is more 90/10.

It was also around Tirau that the windscreen wiper in front of the passenger broke again. It has been doing so for the last 2 weeks. I have been pestering Paul to fix it and today during some heavy rain he buckled. You wouldn’t believe it by looking at the repair job, but it worked and is still doing so.

I really enjoyed our last drive through the North Island farmlands. I took lots more photos of the different barns and sheds today. I will miss all the livestock yards. It was lambing season in August so there are young lambkins running around everywhere. They are so cute. It was also calving season so the beef and dairy offspring like the lambs are enjoying the plentiful conditions. They even look happy in the rain.

In the pic above the words on the trucks trailer read " a good road is a beautiful thing" and it is too!

Now we are in Auckland there is not much to do but to plan our trip to the city tomorrow. There is a bus stop that goes downtown across the road from where we are camping tonight. We are going to ride in on it in the morning and explore the sights of the city and harbour. It is still raining, but I think we are used to it almost.
One more night after this in the bago and we will have to hand her back in. Lets hope the wiper holds 'til then!

We had a rain free 140km drive to the Whakapapa Villlage in the Tongariro National Park. The drive took us through lots more farmland and past quite a few small hydro-electric stations along the way. It was cloudy so we didn’t really see Mt Ruapehu as we were closing in on him. His cone like slopes was the only sign giving him away. In fact that is all we got to see of this famous mountain.

The Tongariro National Park was the first such park in the country and has dual World Heritage status. In 1887 the government of New Zealand were given the three active volcano peaks of Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro by Tukino Te Heuheu IV, a Ngati Chief. These mountains and surrounding areas are important sacred areas. This is why this park was the first in the world to earn dual UNESCO World Heritage status on both its natural and cultural value. Being a sacred place to the Maori, visitors were once discouraged from climbing its slopes. Today it is the largest ski area in the nation and is world renown for it tramping walks. The one day, one way Tongariro Crossing (18km) is a must (apparently) in Summer. The fact that such a sacred site is allowed to be accessed in such a way is interesting considering in Australia the Northern territory Government if looking at banning people from climbing Uluru on the grounds that it is a sacred site to the indigenous locals whom live nearby.

We stopped in at the Whakapapa Village Visitors Centre to get advice. It was here that we gained a background on the park and its three famous mountains. You also get advise on walks, tours, etc. We had a good look at the weather forecast, which was bad. No mountain views for days due to there being too much rain about. The ski fields were open, so we decided to drive up and have a look. We saw very little, through the cloud. We drove up to the chairlift but never got out of the car. Visibility was only about 50m at best. That said, there were still hundreds of cars in the carpark with lots of people heading up and coming back down. It would have been nice to see the peak of this active mountain. It last erupted in 1995/1996. We got a quick glimpse (not long enough to stop and take a photo though) of the cone shaped Ngauruhoe and it’s snow, but we only ever saw a small section of the base of Tongariro (like Ruapehu).

The boys were disappointed, but it was an eerie landscape. Mt Taranaki had a lush mountainside. These were more martian in appearance. Ruapehu had very low growing vegetation growing over him. The volcanic soil was interesting. Some of it was very new in age.

After a brief stay in Tongariro National Park, we headed back to Lake Taupo. After a day of mostly driving we spent some time by the lake and walking around the shopping district. The lake was very calm unlike last week when we were here. The sand is black like all things in the volcanic zone. I was amazed to find the shores littered with white pumice. I have never seen white pumice before.

We then moved on to Rotorua. Daylight saving allows us to spend alittle more time on the road. We want to be in Auckland by Wednesday afternoon, so we’re pressing on. The rain starts again in Rotorua. The sulphur smell isn’t so bad this time around for me. I am not looking forward to leaving the countryside for the city. I love the smaller places much more. I will miss the sheep, dairy cows, cattle, pigs, alpaca and deer. I also have barn envy. I want a barn! So give me the country any day, especially here in New Zealand. Tomorrow it’s back to the urban jungle and way too many people.