Through the Spigot

I would like to take a boat out to see the "Hole in the Rock" which is at the far end of the Bay of Islands, but as the boat cruises also include dolphin and whale watching, snorkelling, free coffee, a mail run (no kidding!), a manicure and pedicure and a free sheep at the end of your voyage, we decide against it.

For the prices they are charging, we should get all those things!

We meet Steve tonight down on the beach here in Waihi and he jokes with us about the cost of EVERYTHING here in NZ. "You're a tourist, give us your money!". He rubs his hands together and smiles. That does seem to be the attitude here. Everything costs money and every area of NZ has their tourist attractions - boat tours, a gold mine, hot springs, hikes and beaches. Everything for a fee.... well, actually the beaches and most of the hikes are free! It is somewhat discouraging that NZ has attached a price tag to most of its great attractions and wonders.

I would like to see the "Hole in the Rock". Apparently, the boat cruises right through it. But, not for $90 each!

So instead, we drive through Paihia and steel ourselves for a long driving day, down through the spigot that is Auckland and out the other side into the central North Island.




The drive back down is through much of the flooded land we tried to push through a week ago. How different it looks this time! Where before there was a lake with trees growing up from the centre, it is now again all pastures. Green and dry. We pass some of the houses we'd seen that were submerged, now with camper vans and contracting vehicles out front as the residents get down to the business of putting their lives back together.

We take a detour of the main Highway 1 to Waipu Cove for lunch, stopping at the beach for our Noodle Canteen take away and then afterwards, a swim in the ocean. The view of Sail Island is super. I tell Jenn that I want to hire one of those dolphin cruising/free sheep boats to take me out there. I don't care WHAT it costs! I imagine very BIG sharks swimming all around the black sail.




Our swim makes us late, but what the hell, it's the best part of the day. It means that we arrive in the spigot of Auckland at the beginning of rush hour and sit in traffic for longer than we intend. Too much like Toronto...

But, finally, we pop out the other side, heading along Highway 2 to the east coast. We alternate the driving and make a beeline for Waihi Beach, which has four campsites for us to choose from. Our good (expensive) taste leads us to the area called Bowentown and a campsite right on the long beach. Hot showers are fifty cents for six minutes. We are appalled, considering it is the priciest site we've encountered.

But then we see the beach...








Steve works at the campsite, having moved here with his wife from New Plymouth to "try something new". The long hours will keep them from staying on when their six month stint is over. He enjoys a day off now that the Christmas rush is over and we chat with him on the beach as he fishes. He has a rod that is about 12ft long and he uses squid for bait. He'll cast into the ocean as far out as he can and then set the rod into the sand as he chats, watching the tip for a sign of a nibble.

We inform him that we are good luck charms - we saw a kiwi in the wild! And then, as if on cue, his rod begins to dance and he hauls in a snapper - spiky, pink, and with large eyes and a row of sharp teeth that can chomp through clam shells. He decides to us give the snapper to us to toss back into the ocean. Which we do... with some trepidation! Within minutes he has another bite - an ocean trout. "He's guts'stit down," he says removing the hook from deep inside the fish. We also toss this one back, despite the fact that it is a "pannie" as he says (the perfect size for a pan fry!). His biggest catch ever out here was a snapper weighing 18 lbs.

The stars overhead are bright and a little unfamiliar in the southern hemisphere. It is a warm, muggy night and little crabs nibble at our toes in the wet sand by the shore. Suddenly, there is a VERY large chomp on the line and then nothing. Steve finds that his squid bait is gone when he reels back in.

Was it the big one?


-K

Just an example...

So here is slice of a recent conversation (negotiation) in the van:

K: You get in the back and change into your swimsuit. I'll get the keys... wait...where ARE the keys?
J: I can't change into my swimsuit because the drapes are open (starts the process of closing the drapes)
K: Hang ON! The tea towels are in hanging in the way (moving the tea towels to the front seat). Where are the keys?
J: In the front seat.
K: (sigh) All of our bedding is in the front seat.
J: They're under there. Somewhere.
K: (moving the bedding into the back) And where is the knapsack?
J: It's under the bedding - you just covered it.
K: You need to open the vents. It's hot in here.
J: I CAN'T open the vent. You're standing in the way.
K: The keys aren't up here. But I did find my wallet!
J: That man over there can see me changing. Close the drapes!
K: I've lost the knapsack.
J: It's under the bedding.
K: (moving the bedding to the front) Now I need my sunglasses.
J: I swear that guy can SEE me changing. You're glasses are in the front with the keys. Do you have a towel?
K: Where are the towels?
J: Under the bedding.
K: (moving the bedding back into the back) There are no towels here.
J: Oh. Whoops. They are outside on the line.
K: O.K. I just found the keys.
J: Something smells funny in here. Did you turn off the butane?
K: Yes. The butane is off. Now where is MY bathing suit?
J: Out on the line.
K: We should take the camera.
J: I don't KNOW where that is. It WAS in the knapsack but you moved it into the sink with the water and the bowl of fruit.
K: Maybe we don't need the camera...

Spirits and Sand

Cape Reinga marks the most northern tip of New Zealand. Well, actually it doesn't there is a point on the North Cape that is actually 2 km more north but it apparently doesn't count because it used to be an island that, over time has become attached to New Zealand through sand build up. Or something like that.




Cape Reinga is also where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific meet. From the point, you can see the two bodies of water mashing into one another in a froth of water. I try swimming at a couple of beaches - Tupotupoto Bay and then Spirits Bay, where we end our day and set up camp - and at both places there are weird currents. Water pulls at me from all sides. Waves come in from straight on AND the sides, colliding and creating Super Waves. Great for body surfing, but a little unnerving when they come rushing at you in a wall of water.



We get away by 10:05am today - a new record! Of course we have to stop three times along the road out as we forget first to lock a door, to bring the maps to the front, and to tie back a curtain that swings shut thus blocking the drivers rear view. Then it is time for a bathroom stop, and, oh, that is also when we discover the NEST OF ANTS LIVING UNDERNEATH THE DRIVERS FLOOR MAT. Blame that on the hairy sweaty man we are convinced was using the Scubby before us and dripping large plates of fish and chips all over the floor. Or something like that.

After a while you just have to come to accept the delays and that when we are leaving, we are not really leaving. At least not yet.

It seems that there is no one on the road to the cape. Just us.
And sheep.
And cows.
And sand dunes.
But, when we reach the tip the car park is full of cars and campers. Even a tour bus pulls in while we are there.

Cape Reinga is beautiful. The sun shine and the mist combine to give it an ethereal atmosphere. It is a Maori spiritual ground, the point where the spirit of a person departs the living world and enters the sea. There is a tree out on the tip that the spirits use to climb down into the water. In other places this tree flowers. This is the only tree that doesn't flower that should.



Jenn gets a shudder wave move through her while overlooking the sea, by the lighthouse. "It isn't a bad feeling" she explains, but it makes the hair stand up on her legs and arms and a chill shiver through her.



There is a walk down to the lighthouse and from there trails that head east, and west, along the cliffs. These walks are all part of the Coastal Trail that takes a few days to complete. We take the west trail and hike an hour or so down to a secluded beach (we are the only ones on it, despite the fact that it goes on for miles!) for a snack. The ascent back up is a bit of a grind but the views and cool breezes make it all worth it.


Below, the turquoise water is edged with whitecaps. It is quite serene and the sea air is easy to breath. Afterwards, we drive over to Tupotupoto Bay for lunch and a swim in the crazy waves. Both of us, while we are driving, note the funny smell which can be described as something like honeyed urine cooking in the sun. Hmmm. We realize that it is the manuka trees which are everywhere along the road.

Back down the road a ways are the TuPaki sand dunes which tower over us. Who knows how many hundreds of years it took to form these giants? We watch a few people do some sand boarding but it doesn't look as fun or as fast as winter tobogganing. I force Jenn to climb to the top of the biggest dune which makes our calf muscles scream in defiance. It's a workout. To say the least. We then "ski" down (sidestepping and sliding in the sand). Jenn has a minor freakout thinking that the dune is going to avalanche on her.













At our campsite last night Peter, Ray and Lynn raved on about the pink shell beach and DOC campsite at Spirits Bay so we endure the 16km unpaved drive to get to this exclusive paradise. It's a spot that is filled with a wonderful calming energy and we are glad that we made the effort. The rustic amenities are all new and smell like fresh milled wood (that makes even the cold water only showers much more bearable!).





Only a few campers are here - a swiss couple who pester us for cigarettes, an older couple who are on the other side of the camp, and a NZ father and son who go out night fishing (and spear fishing!!!) off the reef for snapper and 70kg kingfish...in their RUBBER DINGHY no less!

Time for an evening swim!














We think we've hit the jackpot...until darkness descends and millions of mozzies come out to try to sneak there way into the Scubby. Great - just what we need. First ants and now a steady stream of mozzies. How are these insects getting in?!?!

Shoot that's a lot of Sheep!

So... all those little dots you can see alllllllll the way into the distance? All sheep. Record numbers up here in the Far North!

Back to Front

We've yet to find a decent beer and we've tried more than a few. Some good ones include Monteith's Summer Ale which has a touch of ginger in it. The pilsner - not bad. Victoria Bitter, an Australian beer and one we'd hoped would be like a Fullers Best Bitter, but it's not... So we'll keep trying. Someone has to do the dirty work!




Another DOC campsite for us today as we head up to the Northern Tip, stopping at a beach site called Rarawa Beach. We've only driven for a couple of hours with a stop in Kaitaia for supplies from the Pak 'n Save and diesel from the CalTex. The DOC sites are a little more basic and cheaper too. Just $8-10 per person vs. $18 at the more established sites. Of course, at the established sites there are hot showers, kitchens, laundry, internet, power and garbage receptacles. At the DOC sites, just bathrooms and maybe a shower if you're lucky.

And a cold shower at that.

However, we're fairly self contained in the Scubby. The fridge can run on butane, as can the stove. We have a sink with water. There is even a port-a-john if we want to use it (we don't). The lights in the run van on the second battery which also powers the water pump. We're all good.

Our Rarawa site is just a short walk from the beach. We order some kumara fries for lunch at a take away joint in Pukenui and have those for lunch before suiting up and heading down to the beach. It is pristine white silica sand and good swimming in the ocean - great waves for body surfing. The tide is out and the water is an ideal temperature. It's a long walk from the sand dunes to the water, but it's worth it.










I tell Jenn that living in the camper van is like living in a space station. Everything requires coordination and systematic planning. To get at one thing you have to move five other things. Like playing pool, you have to think three moves ahead.

Everything takes time. And we constantly have NO IDEA where things are. It seems that we are always looking for something! Keys, the camera, the soap. You decide on a designated spot and think it will always be there, but then you realize that you've had to move it to get at something else you needed five minutes ago!

It's an exercise in patience. Neither Jenn or I want to be the first one to have a VAN-trum, but both of us have come close. Tonight I came VERY close. I had the VAN, but not the trum...

I have established the "front to back" method which is when we're not driving, everything gets shoved into the front seat. And when we are driving, we toss everything into the back. It's quite effective. Outta sight outta mind. Right now, for example, our front seat is overflowing with bed clothes, hats, pillows, and maps. Always maps.

The important thing to remember when you pack up to drive on in the morning is to close the air vents on the roof and lock everything down and switch everything off. We've only missed putting the air vents down a couple of times. Apparently, if you drive with them open they can lose their seal and start to leak. That or tear right off the roof. Oops. And, only a couple of times have we swung around a corner only to have the contents of the fridge clatter out onto the floor and roll into the footwell.

Live and learn.

As Jenn said tonight, "Our kitchen is our bedroom is our living room is our office is our transportation". When it rains you really miss the most important room in the camper - the outdoors.

There is great freedom in the camper. The sense that you can stay pretty much anywhere. Your home is with you. No longer are you tied to schedules, worrying if restaurants or hotels are open. If you are tired you can just pull over and take a snooze. Hungry? You can just whip up dinner!




It allows you to go slower and take your time. Soak up the country side. Absorb, is the key word.

Ray, the key cutter invites me over to his camper for a beer after dinner. A retired locksmith, he has a sign on the back of his camper van: Keys Cut Here. Five dollars for a house key and six dollars for a car key. "It keeps me in beer and gas money," he says. He gets customers at just about every camp he goes to. Really?! He has solar panels on the roof of his camper that charges his key cutting apparatus. Also present when I join Ray is Peter, a Brit from Milton Keyes in his mid 40's who has lost his job, his wife, and has decided to sell up and travel New Zealand. He has been here for four months. "I could be here for four years! There is THAT much to see".

Ray informs us that he and his wife Lynn just spent ten weeks in the NORTH part of the South island. They both laugh when we tell them we're doing BOTH islands in two months. "If you think the North island is fantastic, wait until you get to the South island" says Peter.

Maybe we'll be staying longer?

BIG trees

We've discovered that Jenn cannot sleep in (much to Keir's annoyance). Once she hears a noise (ANY noise) in the morning, she is up.

However, we still seem to be the last people to leave the campsite (ANY campsite) because we end up chatting to different co-campers. Today for example we didn't get on the road until about 11:30am having spent the morning pouring over maps of NZ with Frank and Eva who had many great suggestions for where to go and where to stay (and where not to get robbed). Whenever Frank mentions some story of theft Eva playfully laughs and rolls her eyes at him. We understand his concern though as he is carting around a very expensive bike in their van.

Side note: Frank and Eva were with us on the kiwi walk and were overjoyed to see one. Despite being avid campers and nature enthusiasts this was their first ever kiwi spotting. They claimed that we were their good luck charm, but we were sure that they were ours!

We could have spent days talking with them. Frank is so knowledgable about the native flora and fauna and he and Eva have travelled extensively (throughout the world and NZ).

We head north towards the Waipoua Forest which is home to some fabulous walks and to some very large and VERY old kauri trees. We start with a two hour hike to a lookout point (conveniently called Lookout Track). The trail heads up, up, up for the first hour, through some young kauri forests and manuka trees. It comes out at a high point that overlooks the entire forest and delivers us views all the way to the ocean.







Our next hike leads us to Te Matua Ngahere (or "Father of the Forest" in Maori). This tree is the second largest living kauri. At nearly 17 meters (yes METERS) around and 1500-2000 years old this is SOME TREE. We sit there for about 20 minutes taking in the impressive view. Nearby are the Four Sisters. Four inseparable kauris that have naturally grown this way. All around these trees are boardwalks so that you cannot step on the shallow and delicate roots. It is difficult to imagine trees this size having shallow roots!









Mere minutes down the road from the Kauri Walks we again pull over. This time the walk is only a few minutes long, but it takes us to the mighty Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest). Maori legend says that Tane Mahuta was the son of Mother Earth and Father Sky. He broke apart their eternal embrace bringing life and abundance to the earth. Tane Mahuta is over 2000 years old. Sitting in the presence of this great tree Jenn is almost brought to tears at all that the tree has lived through. A nearby woman comments along the same lines, saying, "I get the sense though, that he knows about everything that's gone on over that time".




From there it is a long and very winding drive through hills and pastures, by cows and shorn sheep, alongside several mountain groupings, and around mud slips of earth that spill out onto the road (aftermath of last Friday's cyclone). We are headed to Rawerie to try to make the 5:30 ferry to Kohukohu. We do, just in the nick of time!






Onwards we drive to Ahipara which is the entry point to the 90 Mile Beach and towards Cape Reinga (the most northerly part of the island). We find a super campsite, tuck into some quick noodles and leftovers and head on down to the beach to see the dunes and enjoy an evening swim!

We saw a a kiwi!

A real live kiwi! Just doing it's little kiwi thing. Actually they are bigger than you think. And fast!

It was at about 10:45pm and we were doing a night hike from our Department of Conservation campsite in Trounson Kauri Park. We'd already been very surprised and pleased as we'd seen eels (small, medium, and LARGE), crayfish, glowworms, and the giant snails. Fortunately we did not see any large weta - only small ones (they are the sometimes GIANT cricket-type insects that look terribleawfulnasty but are not).








I remember laughing to Keir that there is no way anyone could actually see a kiwi in the pitch dark of the forest night. "They must be kidding." I snickered, "It has got to be a money grab for the folks who run the 'official' night walk" (that we were officially NOT on).




We had bumped into our new German friends Frank and Eva coming the opposite direction and were whisper-chatting on the kiwi spotting boardwalk when we heard a rustling in the bushes. Couldn't be, we thought. With our dull red lights (so we wouldn't hurt their sensitive eyes) we started scanning the bush, and there, just plucking along, was the brown kiwi. I had to clamp my hand over my mouth so I wouldn't squeal with excitement (I just get SO excited!). The four of us tracked it, sometimes slowly sometimes quickly, along the boardwalk. It was completely nonplussed by us which is part of the problem - they are not predator wary. BTW the photo below is NOT ours! I'm not sure how anyone gets a photo of these little creatures given that they are nocturnal and tend to live in PITCH BLACK FORESTS!!!!)



Returning to the camper van and snuggling down into bed I wondered how I was ever going to get to sleep knowing that there actually were kiwis out there! I could hear them calling as I closed my eyes.