Archive for the ‘North Island’ Category
September 16th, 2006 | 
Author: It was going to be a long period of travel to get to Lima in Peru. It was going to play havoc with our body clocks and include two changes of time.
The date of our departure from New Zealand was 4th August, but unfortunately the flight was not due to leave until 17:15 hours. You have to vacate the YHA hostels by 10:00 and we also had to drop the car off with the hire company at the airport at 11:00 so we decided to get the car dropped off and spend the remainder of the day at the airport.
As such our travel to Lima started when we got up that morning on 4th August at 09:00 hours, and left the hostel by about 10:15 hours. We had some bits and pieces which we wanted to send back to the UK but having rung the airport we knew that there was no post office there so our first port of call would be to stop at a post office on route to the airport. Read the rest of this entry »
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Our travels around New Zealand began in Christchurch on the South Island. Our journey took us southwards through Oamaru, Dunedin and to Invercargill via the ‘Southern Scenic Route’. This takes you along the South Island’s southeast coastline where there are a number of places of interest to stop. From Invercargill we started to head North to Te Anau, the staging post for both Milford and Doubtful Sound. Coming back inland we travelled to Wanaka via the adrenalin sports capital of Queenstown. Heavy snow falls and road closures forced a change of plan and rather than continue to Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo, we diverted to Franz Josef on the west coast. Highway 6 from Wanaka to Franz Josef was a lovely scenic drive and is one of a few which come recommended. From here we carried on further up the west coast until we reached Highway 73, the turn off for Arthur’s Pass. This is another fantastic wintertime scenic drive which takes you high up into the mountain ranges and Arthur’s Pass itself. Initially our intention was to stay at Methven and go ski-ing at Mount Hutt, however accommodation at the YHA hostel was fully booked (we should’ve booked ahead) so we continued that bit further and back into Christchurch. However, Christchurch was still only one and a half to two hours drive to Mount Hutt so we still managed to get a couple of days ski-iing in. From here and back on the east coast, the next stop was Kaikoura and the whale watching. Following this we took the ferry from Picton over to Wellington on the North Island. After a few days in the windy city we visited the Art Deco city of Napier before making our way across another nice scenic route via the Kaweka Forest Park to the YHA affiliated hostel near the Tongariro National Park. This route isn’t a highway and can be subject to road closures in winter so best to make enquiries before leaving. Heading north again next stop was Taupo, then Rotorua and Whakatane on the North Island’s northern coast. This was followed by a scenic drive around the Coromandel Peninsula which was reminiscent of the English countryside and Tasmania. Continuing around the Peninsula we stayed overnight at Thames before reaching the Bay of Islands, which was as far north as we went. Finally, our tour of NZ ended in Auckland where we spent a few days before flying out to South America. Read the rest of this entry »
From Paihia we drove back down to Auckland, where we booked into our last New Zealand YHA accommodation. There are two large YHA hostels in Auckland fairly close to each other. Unfortunately because we hadn’t pre-booked there was no car parking space available. As a result we had fun and games parking on the streets which, with the combination of time restrictions and ticket machines not working, proved to be a bit of a pain. I have to say that Auckland didn’t hold any special views for either of us. It was pretty much a case of a city is a city. Read the rest of this entry »
In the morning we drove to the Bay of Islands and to a town called Paihia, prounounced ‘Pie Here’. The weather had deserted us and had become overcast and started to rain lightly. Had the weather been clearer we would’ve taken a boat cruise around the islands but it wasn’t worth doing this whilst the weather was poor. We looked at a couple of motels and eventually chose one overlooking the bay which was quite nice if only the weather were to lift.
Whilst the weather wasn’t up to much it was the ideal time tovisit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. The Waitangi Treaty Grounds owe their historic importance to the aplty named Waitangi Treaty which was signed here on 6th February 1840. Read the rest of this entry »
The following day after the swimming with dolphins experience which turned into a swimming with a seal experience, we headed for the Coromandel Peninsula. The drive around the Coromandel was quite picturesque and quite reminiscent of England. Our original plan had been to stay overnight in a place called Coromandel itself on the northern part of the peninsula. However, when we got there we weren’t particularly taken by the place so we decided to carry on to another town called Thames. It was early evening and dark by the time we arrived. We checked a couple of motels before choosing one to stay in. It was just on the outskirts of the town so we didn’t go out in the evening, we just cooked a meal and watched TV. The Coromandel Peninsula was quite a nice scenic drive but I think we’d already seen plenty of scenery and were probably on overload so it was a case of seen it, done it.
Having finished with Rotorua we got ready to head to Whakatane on the North Island´s northern coast to do a spot of swimming with dolphins. Just as we were about to leave we got a phone call from the dolphin company to say the boat´s engine was broken and therefore the trip would be off. After a bit of discussion we decided on a change of plan and started driving to the Coromandel Peninsula and the Bay of Islands. We were well into the journey when the dolphin company called us back to say they had sorted out the engine problem and they would be on for the following day, if we still wanted to go. Despite being quite out of our way we turned back and headed to Whakatane. When we arrived we looked at several motel types of accommodation and in the end found a nice place with a split level set up, run by a lovely Kiwi couple. Read the rest of this entry »
It has been a real struggle to find out and pick up information on the Maori culture and when we reached Rotorua our hopes hinged on a place known as ‘The Tamaki Maori Village’. Set up by two brothers of the Tamaki family they set about their aspirations to build a Maori village and offer tourists a Maori experience which was authentic. Similar tourist attractions existed at the time which they felt did not protray the Maori culture in the best way. Booking into a hotel to see Maori traditions performed on stage was not deemed a particularly good way to educate the visitor. From humble beginnings the two brothers have long since fulfilled their dreams and have built a successful business which has been firmly established over the years. Read the rest of this entry »
Not far from Rotorua’s town centre (29km) is Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. Somewhat larger than Orakei Korako, you´ll need about an hour and a half to cover the entire site. You could say the star attrraction of this site is the Lady Knox Geyser. At 10am every day the Lady Know Geyser is given a helping hand in order for it to burst into action. Geysers left to their own devices will generally respond unpredicatably so they do this to put on a show. On arrival you pass the ticket office and park five minutes away in a car park on the left just a little further on. Once you’ve got your ticket you then need to jump back in your car and drive to the site of Lady Knox which is about five minutes away. Because of this you need to arrive at Wai-O-Tapu twenty minutes or so before 10am, else you might miss the display whilst faffing around getting tickets etc. Read the rest of this entry »
After the excellent scenic flight we drove to Rotorua in search of some Maori culture. It wasn´t far to reach Rotorua from Taupo, about an hour or so I recall. When we started to get into Rotorua we were a bit disappointed with the town itself as it lacked any character which we were expecting. We drove around for a while looking for the affiliated YHA accommodation. Once we found it we checked it out, but just like the other affiliates it wasn´t much cop. On the way in we´d seen plenty of motel accommodation so we thought we´d give that another go. We looked at a number of places before finally settling on a place called The Rob Roy run by an Indian couple from Fiji. Whilst a little dated the room was spacious, en suite, had cooking facilities and TV. Not bad for $5 less than the YHA affiliate at $65 per night. Rotorua we thought would be the epicentre for Maori culture however this turned out not to be the case.
Obviously I had been without Alison when I had done the Tongariro Crossing, which was probably a good move given her dislike for heights. However, we were both keen for her to experience the volcanoes too. We had planned that I would do the crossing one day and we’d do the scenic flight the following day. Just as well I did the crossing first when we were bathed in glorious sunshine because the following day the weather turned again, being grey and overcast meant it wasn’t a good day for a scenic flight. Fortunately, the following day the weather changed again being a right pearler, with a clear, bright blue sky and glorious sunshine. Read the rest of this entry »