Happy Halloween!

Below is a Halloween Greeting from: Sharon, Nigel, Robb, Heather & Steph. We are off to a fancy dress party later - so no doubt photo's will follow!

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Sheep shearing, a little tremor and a very strange smell!

This weekend is a public holiday here - Labour Day, this is the start of summer in New Zealand. Steph, Mike, Nigel and I took oursleves off for a walk around Battle Hill Park. This is a reserve that is owned by the local council but was originally the site of a battle between the Maori and white settlers. Now it is a large country park with various routes that walkers and horse riders can use. After our last walk to the seal colony we have learnt our lesson with length of walks out here - we opted for the short 1 hour walk thinking it would take us at least 2 hours!

As you can see from the photo it is set in rolling countryside and full of sheep and possum traps. In Australia possums are an endangered species whilst over here in NZ they are rodents and everyone tries their hardest to kill the little blitters - they make great slippers apparently! Whatever walk you atempt in NZ it is never just a quick jaunt around a forest track - as you can see from the photo it is uphill and down dale - just as you get to the top of one hill its time to go down the other side and up yet another hill. All we could hear was sheep and lambs bleating, the odd Tui birds and Steph at the back moaning about another f......laming hill! This was the easy track - good job we didn't attempt the 4 hour one - we'd still be up there.

When we finally got back to the car park the Shepherd was rounding up several of the sheep for a short back and sides, they all went in looking like Bob Marley but came out looking like Telly Savalas.

On our way home from our road trip last Thursday Nigel and I stopped at a war memorial the other side of the Rimutaka mountain range. It was quite a strange little place, during World War I it had been a staging post for NZ soldiers before they left for Europe, part of their toughening up was a forced march over the range down into Wellington Harbour. In world War II it had been home to a Japanese Prisoner of War camp where the local folk had looked after them extremely well despite them being the enemy.

There are 2 unusual trees growing in the small park area, one is a Gallipoli Pine tree brought home in WWI by local soldiers, the other is an offshoot of a Camphor tree that had survived the nuclear blast at Nagasaki. Whilst we stood looking at the memorials I felt the ground shake under my feet - Nigel was mooching about at the time and didn't feel it. I mentioned to him that I thought we had just had an earthquake - I think he thought I was mad! But later on when we checked the local Earthquake Drums online they had indeed registered a quake. So now it is official - I have felt my first earthquake - even if it was just a small one!

One final thing I have to mention - remember our trip to 'Rotten Roa'? Well upon our return all our dirty laundry was duly washed - fabric conditioned and hung on the line. Whilst partaking of afternoon tea Victor decided to do the ironing, after about 10 seconds we were all looking round the room wondering who to blame for the 'strange aroma'. We have since discovered that you can take the girl out of Rotarua but you can't take Rotarua out of the girl's clothes.

Garlic prawns and a ghost town.

The drive from Rotorua to Napier involved a stop in Taupu for a spot of ‘Prawn Fishing’ with Rob and Heather. To say prawn fishing is an adventure activity in the slow lane, is an understatement. If you have never tried it, don’t bother, it is honestly as boring as it sounds; however it did mean with had some time with R & H. The only good bit is that they will cook all you eat (our ‘Pinchy’; that’s what I named him, was really yummy when lightly cooked in olive oil and garlic). R& H caught 2 – so we had 3 between 4 of us.

We then drove down to Napier which is in the heart of wine producing country, however nobody seemed to be in……..honest, the place was empty, we thought we had perhaps come across a town after a nuclear holocaust. Apparently the place is really popular as a holiday destination, however if you have petrol in your car, keep going. It’s very Art Deco and was a home of the Arts & Craft movement in the 1920’s – beautiful old houses but not somewhere I would like to settle.

Back to Wellington tomorrow.

Phot0's:

A spot of prawn fishing

Mt Rupehu from Taupo

Napier

A Fear of flying and funny coloured water

After a leisurely start to the day, we wander into town for a cup of coffee and a Danish however within 20 minutes we were sat in a helicopter, waiting to get airborne. I say sat in a helicopter, because nothing is ever as easy as it should be. Firstly we had the helicopter revving hard and about to take off (by ‘we’ I mean the pilot, because the only contribution I made was to grab the pilots hand for some peculiar reason) when air traffic control transmitted to say they had an emergency and hence we were grounded!

We shut the aircraft down (again the royal we) and waited to be told that it was only an exercise and yes we could go for a fly. Starting the engine for the second time was not quite as successful, the pilot flooded the engine and could not get it started for love nor money. Eventually an older guy who was doing some maintenance on the jetty wandered over and talked the ‘pilot’ through the engine start up routine and we were off (he assures us he has a full licence, however he didn’t do a lot to inspire confidence).

The flight was great, over steaming geysers, sulphur springs, volcanic landscapes, scenes from ‘the Hobbit’, Maori burial grounds and the Blue and Green Lakes and we even managed to get back in one piece.

We then had a wander around the public park in the middle of ‘Rotten roua’; where they have Tulips, Wisteria, boiling ponds and steam vents all tastefully intermingled (I would love to see a British Parky try that one). Our health and safety ‘nutters’ would insist on a safety cordon of about 200 yards, whereas out here all that separated little Johnny from certain death was some pansies ( I don’t know about the other side of the world, more like a different world – the NZ approach would be ‘the little bugger would only do it once wouldn’t he’).

We finished the day with a drive out to the Blue and Green Lakes (probably to check that the colour wasn’t some trick of the light, played by a student masquerading as a competent operator of helicopters), and probably the tastiest Thai meal we had ever tasted (Nigel reckons the Thai waitress was probably one of the tastiest the had ever seen as well).

Tomorrow we are off to Napier, supposedly the capitol of the Arts and Craft movement out here, very Art Deco and a major summer destination. It is in the centre of Hawke’s Bay, you may not be familiar with the name but I bet most of you have drunk a wine from New Zealand that has originated form here.

Photo’s:
Fern Forest (these ferns are 40/50ft high)
Blue Lake
Backseat Driver
Maori Chief Burial Island by the Blue Lake

Chief Burton and The Ring of Fire

A short drive down through vineyards and kiwi orchards brought us to Rotorua or ‘Rotten Rua’ as it is often called due to the amount of sulphur released into the air. Rotorua sits on the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most active seismic area in the world. It’s in an area of outstanding beauty, surrounded by rolling green hills and extinct volcanoes, the town is situated on the shores of Lake Rotorua.

Our first stop was to Hells Gate thermal area which is Rotorua’s most active geothermal reserve. The bush walk took us past pools of boiling mud, steaming fumeroles and Kakhi Falls the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere. The falls are where Maori warriors used to bathe themselves from the blood of battle and to salve their wounds.

The Devils Cauldron has a mud temperature of 120*C, it is the only large mud volcano in New Zealand. Over a period of time this mud crusts over, inside the pressure builds up and after a period of 6 weeks or so it erupts spewing boiling hot mud up to 5 metres in the air – didn’t happen on our visit! Hells Gate is where the local Maori people came to cook their food, the pool temperature is constant at 98*C and can cook a whole adult pig in 2 hours. This whole area reeks of sulphur and gets so strong in areas that it’s almost vinegary.

At the end of our walk we checked into the Waiora Spa for some serious pampering, we partook of the mud baths and afterwards bathed in the mineral water pools. Thankfully you are given private pools, as the sight of Nigel and I wallowing in black mud like 2 warthogs couldn’t have been a pretty sight! I can only liken it to sitting at the bottom of your fish pond smothering yourself in black pond sludge that smells of rotten eggs – fun though! Especially the freezing cold shower afterwards to remove the disgusting stuff, we now have baby soft skin that despite several showers 24 hours later still smells of rotten eggs.

Our next port of call was a wild life park at Rainbow Springs, in an area called Paradise Valley (driving through the area soon makes you realise how it got its name; what a lovely, secluded place). Although there are no ‘exotic’ species in the park (New Zealand isn’t famed for its elephants), we had a good couple of hours walking around, meeting many of the indigenous inhabitants (and a few that were not quite so local).

The evening was something else again. We went to a local Maori Hungi in Mitai village, this is where your dinner for the evening is cooked in fire pits dug into the ground and you are entertained by the local chief and his warriors – a bit touristy but all good fun.

A person is chosen from the visitors to act as the their chief for the evening, this chief is then is greeted by the Maori Chief in a ritual war dance and challenge followed by the ‘hunga’ - rubbing of noses. This led ‘Chief Burton’ leader of the ‘14 Nation Tribe’ up onto the stage in front of 100 odd 3xpeople to accept the challenge and offer a speech in return on behalf of his ‘tribe’. All great fun for Nigel, I was appointed Chieftaness and we were treated like royalty for a few hours (Queen Bee again before any of you say it!). American tourists were coming up to Nigel asking for his photo – that’s his 15 minutes of fame folks! We also saw a performance of the Hukka, most of you will be familiar with this especially rugby fans, it is the challenge performed by the New Zealand All Blacks to their opponents but was originally performed by Maori warriors going into battle.

A great time had by everyone there and finished by a moonlight walk through the glow worm caves – who as they get hungrier their bums glow more brightly - speaking of which my bum must be glowing as its breakfast time and I’m starving!

Chief Burton and The Ring of Fire

A short drive down through vineyards and kiwi orchards brought us to Rotorua or ‘Rotten Rua’ as it is often called due to the amount of sulphur released into the air. Rotorua sits on the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most active seismic area in the world. It’s in an area of outstanding beauty, surrounded by rolling green hills and extinct volcanoes, the town is situated on the shores of Lake Rotorua.

Our first stop was to Hells Gate thermal area which is Rotorua’s most active geothermal reserve. The bush walk took us past pools of boiling mud, steaming fumeroles and Kakhi Falls the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere. The falls are where Maori warriors used to bathe themselves from the blood of battle and to salve their wounds.

The Devils Cauldron has a mud temperature of 120*C, it is the only large mud volcano in New Zealand. Over a period of time this mud crusts over, inside the pressure builds up and after a period of 6 weeks or so it erupts spewing boiling hot mud up to 5 metres in the air – didn’t happen on our visit! Hells Gate is where the local Maori people came to cook their food, the pool temperature is constant at 98*C and can cook a whole adult pig in 2 hours. This whole area reeks of sulphur and gets so strong in areas that it’s almost vinegary.

At the end of our walk we checked into the Waiora Spa for some serious pampering, we partook of the mud baths and afterwards bathed in the mineral water pools. Thankfully you are given private pools, as the sight of Nigel and I wallowing in black mud like 2 warthogs couldn’t have been a pretty sight! I can only liken it to sitting at the bottom of your fish pond smothering yourself in black pond sludge that smells of rotten eggs – fun though! Especially the freezing cold shower afterwards to remove the disgusting stuff, we now have baby soft skin that despite several showers 24 hours later still smells of rotten eggs.

Our next port of call was a wild life park at Rainbow Springs, in an area called Paradise Valley (driving through the area soon makes you realise how it got its name; what a lovely, secluded place). Although there are no ‘exotic’ species in the park (New Zealand isn’t famed for its elephants), we had a good couple of hours walking around, meeting many of the indigenous inhabitants (and a few that were not quite so local).

The evening was something else again. We went to a local Maori Hungi in Mitai village, this is where your dinner for the evening is cooked in fire pits dug into the ground and you are entertained by the local chief and his warriors – a bit touristy but all good fun.

A person is chosen from the visitors to act as the their chief for the evening, this chief is then is greeted by the Maori Chief in a ritual war dance and challenge followed by the ‘hunga’ - rubbing of noses. This led ‘Chief Burton’ leader of the ‘14 Nation Tribe’ up onto the stage in front of 100 odd 3xpeople to accept the challenge and offer a speech in return on behalf of his ‘tribe’. All great fun for Nigel, I was appointed Chieftaness and we were treated like royalty for a few hours (Queen Bee again before any of you say it!). American tourists were coming up to Nigel asking for his photo – that’s his 15 minutes of fame folks! We also saw a performance of the Hukka, most of you will be familiar with this especially rugby fans, it is the challenge performed by the New Zealand All Blacks to their opponents but was originally performed by Maori warriors going into battle.

A great time had by everyone there and finished by a moonlight walk through the glow worm caves – who as they get hungrier their bums glow more brightly - speaking of which my bum must be glowing as its breakfast time and I’m starving!

Tuaranga & Mount Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty

Our drive today took us south out of the sprawl of Auckland and towards the Coromandel Peninsular and the Bay of Plenty, our destination was Tuaranga and Mount Manuganui. The name ‘Bay of Plenty’ originated with Cook during his 1769–70 exploration of New Zealand, who noted the abundant resources in the area.

Mount Maunganui is a town in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, located on a peninsula to the north of the neighbouring city Tauranga. It is also the name of the extinct volcanic cone which rises above the town which is now officially known by its Māori name Mauao. According to Maori legend, this hill was a pononga (slave) to a mountain called Otanewainuku.

This afternoon we walked for miles along the sands, watching the surfers catching the curls and once again collected some shells. I’m gradually turning Nigel into a ‘shellseeker’ – even he can’t get over the diversity and sheer quantity of shells lying washed up on the sands. Even though it is the beginning of Spring there are loads of holiday makers around and once the Summer gets here this place will be packed with tourists. A shame really as the remoteness and quietness of this area is what is most attractive about it.

This evening we ended up eating in a Turkish restaurant along the strand in Tuaranga, it felt quite odd – sitting looking our of the window onto palm trees and white sand, listening to Turkish music we could have been in Kusadasi on the shores of the Aegean coastline.

Tomorrow we are off to Rotorua home of the world famous thermal baths and springs, if we are lucky enough we are hoping to visit a Māori village and attend a Hungi in the evening – a bit touristy but hey we’re tourists!

Oc

Pretty much a full-on day. After an initial walk around the city centre first thing, we caught the ferry over to Devonport; which is on the other side of Auckland Harbour. The forecast had been for heavy rain all day, however as it was still dry, we decided to give it a go. It was very much like the north eastern coastal states of the USA and gave us the feeling of being back in a New England seaside resort. For those of you who have been there it’s a bit like the Marblehead area and just as pricey – very kitsch.

Upon returning to the capital we jumped aboard one of the Team Emirates Americas Cup yachts for a sail around Auckland harbour. It’s not often you get the chance to sail a world class racing yacht and we couldn’t turn down the offer!

These boats are pure racing sleds, they accelerate very quickly and loved the 10 knots of breeze that was blowing, however things got rather more exciting when the wind went up to 32 knots (they are not designed to sail in winds stronger than 21kts, so we had to double reef in pretty quick order). The ‘Rock Stars’ of the America’s cup won’t take these things out in more than 21knots – so hey we out-rocked the Rock Stars today! This being said, they remained very light on the helm and were never difficult to handle. Both Nigel and I got a shot on the helm, however I declined to ‘grind’ – didn’t think my health was quite up to it. As we were returning to the harbour, the promised downpour happened and we got soaked through.

We can see why they call this the City of Sails – wall to wall yachts and I bet on a summer’s day this place is even busier than the Solent - and that’s going some. For the guys at YRS, I gave the rigging a once over, they need new sheets and a new carbon mast and that comes in at $1 million – hey Dave think of the mark up on that!

It was so nice to be back out on the water again

Have just come back from seeing Mamma Mia at the theatre – had a great time - sang and danced all the way through! Saw some real sights tonight, some people dress up for the theatre out here - others don’t! Saw clothes that looked like they hadn’t been out of the wardrobe since the 50’s let alone the 70’s. Have to tell you about one old boy – dressed up to the nines in his best suit but looked a bit ‘country’, as he took his seat (right in the middle) he said ‘Good Day!’ to everyone he passed. Kind of reminded me of Mick ‘Crocodile’ Dundee as he walked around New York – he had a great time.

Anyhow today has been absolutely great and I have had a big smile all day – bombing around Auckland Harbour in an America’s Cup Race boat and dancing in the aisles at my favourite musical. As they say out here – ‘Sweet As Bro!’

Photo’s:
Andy, Robb & James setting up NZ 1 America’s Cup Boat 2002
Nigel on the helm
Me – coming off the helm at the end of a downpour (looking like a drowned rat- but happy)

Auckland

We drove south today back to Auckland via Kaipara Harbour on the west coast of the upper North Island. The scenery consists of rolling green hills dotted with farmsteads and distant mountains.

We took a slight detour to Lang’s Bay which looks over to Great Barrier Island, if any of you are familiar with the sight of Bora Bora then this is a similar sight that greets you. Unfortunately it was so hazy that the photo’s we took don’t do it justice – but it is pretty spectacular! The beach was white pristine sand dotted with shells, of which I resisted the urge to collect (my collection is growing fast).

Spooky old thing this – Lang’s Bay is home to a large Scottish community who sailed here in 1851 from Nova Scotia (our old home in Canada). Obviously times must have been hard as the whole community spent 2 years building a boat to sail to Australia but landed here instead. Most them of them were from the Mccleod clan (the yellow Rupert Bear Tartan) the clan that my brother in-law Brian is akin to. Even the local pizza delivery shop delivers their pizza in McCleod Tartan boxes.

As we neared Auckland the scenery changes from spectacular to urban, Auckland is a massive suburban sprawl ( I think half the population of NZ lives here??).

As Nigel and I are treating this as our joint birthday weekend we have splashed out on a rather nice hotel and intend to spoil ourselves for a couple of days – before coming back down to earth in a Backpackers Hostel (which by the way are great – so far).

Many people aren’t fond of Auckland and I guess it is a pretty busy city but what I have seen so far I quite like – especially the waterfront – but then again its full of yachts so that’s probably why. Thought of Dave and the boys at YRS today, saw 4 riggers folding the huge mainsail on the Alfa Romeo racing sled in Auckland Harbour (Dave would have been the one sitting on the end of the boom issuing orders – swinging his legs as they would have been 6 foot off the deck at least).

We also went up the Sky Tower – can’t say that poor old Nigel enjoyed it. This is the man that has climbed mountains all over the world but hates heights – but he went up because he knew that I wanted to do it (you’ve got to love him for it as this would be like me going into the reptile house at Auckland Zoo). While we were up there some mad fool threw himself of the edge – you think bungee jumping is a rush – well you aint seen nothing ‘till some mad b*gger launches themselves off the Sky Tower. Just for an instance they are held outside the viewing gallery for everyone to see before plummeting to the street below. I could have done the Sky Walk around the top – but I don’t think I could have thrown myself off the edge like that mad devil.

Got a couple of things planned for tomorrow but they are all weather dependant - so watch this space!

On the Road Again!

As the Fast Show would say 'Today we have mainly been in the car!' Not too much to report as we have had a long day travelling - got some great photo's but haven't got great internet access to uplink them - so will put some on tommorrow.

We have travelled North of Auckland to Whangarei but have decided because the weather is not great that we will give the Bay of Islands a miss until we can get back up here for good weather. You really need to have sun and fair weather to appreciate the beauty of this area.

So tommorrow we have booked in to a Gucci hotel in downtown Auckland with a spa bath that has city views. Will probably do a trip to the Sky Tower if I can persuade Nigel to go up there.

Anyhow will uplink photo's tommorrow.

Craters of the Moon – Lake Taupo

Well despite the gloomy weather forecast we decided that we would risk a road trip to Northland, although we decided against the campervan as we thought that we didn’t fancy being stuck in a campervan in the pouring rain. So we have rented a delightful Nissan Sunny (little honey!) and set off North, our first stop being Taupo on the shore of Lake Taupo (of course).

Our journey today took us along Highway 1 which is the main arterial road down from Auckland to Wellington which carrys on down onto the South Island once you get off the ferry at Picton. Part of the trip today was along what they call the ‘Desert Highway’, and they aren’t wrong with the description desert either! At one point we could see what we thought was a rain storm coming but as we got closer it turned into a sand storm with sand blowing down the valleys and across the road. This is all part of the national park that surrounds Mount Ruapehu an extinct volcano. The peak of it is still covered in snow, in fact all along the desert highway snow is still piled alongside the road.

The drive alongside Lake Taupo reminded us somewhat of Loch Lomond our home for 24 odd years in Scotland, in fact there are so many areas of New Zealand that have reminded us of our former home.

Our first stop at Taupo was the Huka Falls. When we first got to the falls there was a small steady stream flowing over the rocks into the river below. Above the falls is a dam where the water collects and every 2 hours the dam is opened and the water cascades down the gully – pretty impressive I can tell you! Taupo is in one of the most volcanic areas of New Zealand and while the water cascades over the rocks there is a very strong smell of sulphur.The pictures are the before and after.

Our final trip was to ‘The Craters of the Moon’. This is an area where there is a thin crust of rock over thermal pools where the temperature of the water today was 98*. Amongst the vegetation and bush steam rises from vents in the ground and mud boils in craters all around you. Wouldn’t want to be there in an earthquake – but its pretty impressive despite the sulphurous vapours!

Ok – we’re off to catch the weather forecast - rain on the way!

Some more photo's!

Thought that I would put some more photo's on. Incase you're wondering about the post boxes - the postmen are the fittest people in New Zealand - they need to be! Everyone lives on a hill of some type here - hey Ben fancy emigrating?

End of the World Beach

After a few days of bad weather, it was good to get out again. After shopping at the outdoor Sunday market (a farmers market really) we went to the 'End Of The World Beach', which is to the south east of Wellington, at the tip of Palliser Bay.

The gales of the last few days meant that there was still a good swell running in the Cook Straits and the breakers were quite impressive. The beaches were isolated; desolate would perhaps be a better description and quite frankly unlike anything you would ever see in the UK. After the usual 20 mile walk (well it felt like 20 miles anyway); we got to the Seal colony that was still inhabited by a few Fur Seals. I believe they use the area during the winter and then move out to sea as the weather improves. They lay around soaking up the sun and allow you to get quite close before they get agitated (some of them are big buggers and you wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley on a stormy night).

By the time we got back to the car, everybody was ready for a rest, so we got Victor to drive us home so we could all have a nap in the car (who said grumpy doesn't have a use).

We are watching the long range forecast at the moment as we are keen to go up to Auckland for a week or so in a campervan. We would like to tour Northlands and Ninety Mile Beach which is to the the north of Auckland, we are really keen to go to The Bay of Islands which from the picutes looks subtropical with beautiful white beaches. The past 2 weeks has seen snow, sleet, hail and plenty of gale force winds - welcome to spring New Zealand style!