Kerosene Creek & The Craters of the Moon

At or recent campsite, the DOC camp warden recommended that we check our the natural hot springs of Kerosene Creek just south of our location.  We went on a dodgy gravel road and came across it on the right.  A sign mentioned that it was safe to swim, so we put our suits on and walked along the creek to the pool at the end where there was a beautiful waterfall and rocky overhangs.  We had to wait for a naked guy to finish his bath before we ventured in, and then I had to wait for Syd to steel up the nerve to get into the hot water. 

To be fair, the water was probably 100-105F, and Syd has a tough time with hot water at the best of times. He was glad that I coaxed him in eventually as the mineral water was good for his skin and he enjoyed the hot waterfall.   The only annoying thing is that a tour group came by just after we got in and we felt like spectacles - hey look at those people swimming in the hot spring!

After a quick dry off, we were back in the van and heading south to Lake Taupo.  The Taupo region itself is the most geothermically active of all regions in New Zealand and as a result it had many activities.  We checked out a geothermal plant, which from afar looked like a nuclear reactor but Syd said that since they are anti-nuclear here , it must be a geothermal reactor.  So neat how they are able to harness the energy underneath the earth to heat the homes across the region.

The one activity we chose to partake in was to walk on the Craters of the Moon hike - which is essentially a protected geothermal area that had large craters and fissures.  The area still has eruptions due to pressures under the surface, and the last eription was only in 2002!  We enjoyed this walk though it was mad hot - but gave us more incentive to enjoy a picnic and swimming in the clear freshwater Lake Taupo.

Lastly, we checked out a highly voluminous waterfall called Huka Falls.  The water rushes super fast (290 cubic meters per second) down a narrow channel with a 10m set of falls at the end.  Though they are not high the water is blasting over the drop so quickly its pretty amazing.  Kayakers attempt this every often, though they wait until after 8pm when the water flows are lower (since less water is being redirected for hyrdo generation further down stream, since it is no longer peak time for electricity uses).  But I was just pumped about the colour!

Astrid.

A Living Maori Village Among Steaming Fissures & Pools

After much deliberation we decided to forego visiting Hobbiton (Matamata) in favour of spending more time in Rotorua.  Everyone we seemed to meet implied that the tour of the shire was expensive and not very worthwhile, so we gave it a pass.  I knew I would see Mordor in a few days so resolved my guilt (as an LOTR super-fan)with that.

When we entered Rotorua proper we could instantly smell the wafts of sulphur (aka rotten eggs) and saw plumes of steam everywhere we looked. Since we have been in the country for a week by now and still didn't know much about their aboriginal (Maori) culture, we opted to go the to a living Maori village in Rotorua called Whakarewarewa. 

This town was well worth the $41 price as we had a fully guided tour of Maori life, a cultural performance, and their steamed cuisine for lunch called 'hangi'.

The town itself was blazing hot as there were hot fissures (fumaroles) of steam and geothermal activity everywhere amongst the buildings.  Maori people settled there over a hundred years ago because they were drawn to the heat and energy given off from the earth's core and the heat under the homes would keep the homes warm throughout the winter.  They were able to use this energy for their daily lives including using it like an oven to steam cook their 'hangi' and the hot pools were used to boil foods such as corn. 

The main pool (pictured above) had a Maori name which meant murderous rippling water as it is so pretty to look at it but to jump into this bottomless pool would surely be death as temperatures can get upwards of 130C!

The water from the hot pools were also channeled into pools that the community would use for bathing at the end of the day when the water had cooled  down sufficiently.  As you can tell, it wasn't nearly cool enough yet!

We took a very hot walk around the neighbouring geothermal area to see many lakes, fissures and boiling mud pools.  It was neat to see such natural energy constantly brewing.  We were also able to see the Pohutu geyser from one side of the village, which is a continuous natural geyser that can shoot steam/ & water up to 60ft high.

We quite enjoyed the cultural show of singing and dancing with sticks and small round beanbags to show the flight of their native birds and butterflies.  The warriors also came forward and performed the haka, which is a traditional warrior dance meant to scare the enemy as they use a lot of exaggerated eye and mouth movements.  We knew of this from watching the NZ rugby team - the All Blacks - perform this before each match when we watched in the UK.

Our last experience of this unique culture was to try their Hangi. IT was basically root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, kumara/sweet potato), corn, cabbage, corn beef and chicken.  The flavours were very natural, and the gravy they used on the fall-off-the-bone chicken was fantastic. 

We ended this day by stopping at Zorb Rotorua, to have a go at this NZ invention - zorbing!  Essentially you get into an 11ft ball with a bit of water, and the ball rolls down the hill while you roll around inside.  Syd and I both chose to do the zorb zydro coarse, which basically goes down the hill in a zigzag pattern so its quite disorienting - you don't know when you are up or down!  It took about 2 minutes to get down the hill and it was soooo fun!  Syd was dubious at first whether it would be worth the $40 price tag- and later admitted that it totally was!

Astrid.

The Yeti Within

So my sister-in-law Nyla began calling me 'Yeti-Syd' before I had even left for our Down Under Adventure.  In response to this, I wanted Nyla to know that I haven't shaved since Calgary -- quite an accomplishment (well not really, since being lazy is pretty easy :)).  But Astrid has had enough, at least of the complete non-shaving thing so alas I must give it a trim.

Anyhow, here's a shot thus far -- Nyla, i'll keep you updated with the progress :)

It seems growing a beard is taking forever... I'm going to give it another few weeks but I'm thinkin' the whole facial hair thing will have to go before we hit Australia...

Syd.

Blundering Through Black Caves

Today was a day we have been looking forward to for quite some time.  We had been told by many to visit the Waitomo glowworm caves to do blackwater rafting.

On the way we stopped to do a quick bush walk to visit some famous falls called Bridal Veil falls.  I could see why they called them that, because there was just a small volume of water cascading over a 55m (170ft) high cliff, such that it did look like a veil.  It was very pretty and majestic.

We did our rafting with a company called the Blackwater Rafting Co. and chose the cheaper option of the Black Labyrinth 3 hr tour.  This was a slick run operation.  We were with a group of 10 (two families whose parents were friends since uni), and were all suited up together in 5 ml wetsuits, shorts, boots and helmets.  We looked (and felt) like a bunch of ducks. It was great!

We all piled into a van with two guides and drove to Ruakiri cave - which in Maori stands for the 'den of two dogs' and is a major cave with a series of underground walkways and rivers.  Thankfully we all had lights on our helmets to manoeuvre through the dark caves.  It was eerie when you looked around to think that you are underground and all you hear is the rush of water and the sounds of those in your group.  We had individual inner tubes that we used during certain parts of the tour where there was lots of water.  The best part was jumping backwards in our tubes from small waterfalls and landing in the frigid water below. 

At one point in the tour they had us form an eel, where we basically formed a line and held onto the feet (boots) of someone behind us.

Then they asked us to turn off our lights as we waded down the dark river and looked at the line of glowworms in the cave ceiling well above our head.  It was so neat!  The guide explained that they actually aren't worms at all but fly larvae with glowing excrement that they emit for 9 months in order to attract bugs up to them that they then eat.  They are also carnivorous as they not only eat their prey, but also their less fit siblings.  Then they sleep for 3 weeks in cocoons, and then spend last 3 months of their lives producing for the next generation.  The guide says he wouldn't mind the life of that fly - you're born, you eat your siblings, you fish for 9 months, sleep for 2 weeks, then shag yourself to death!  ;o)

Following that, they took us on another walk where it got too shallow and then as we got back into the water they told us yet again to turn off our lights and find our own way out of the tunnel by following the trail of the glowworms. 

It ended up being a much tamer trip than we thought (there weren't rapids or anything and it was more like a lazy river), but it was definitely unique and interesting, and not something we could do at home.   

Astrid.

Last of the Kauri

Kauri trees are a massive variety of pine trees native to New Zealand.  They are slow growers, and hence often die out as saplings to other faster growing fauna, though they succeed very well at growing in tough areas such as steep mountain slopes that are damp and dark.  For this reason, the areas where Kauri trees were limited.  When the European loggers found these trees, they were like a dream:  huge amounts of timber, knot free, and not prone to warping.  This lead to the vast majority of giant Kauri being logged, leaving the country with only a scarce few remaining.  The oldest in the country is around 600 years old and to give you an idea of size:  these things are 8-10 meters in diameter, and some 16 meters before the first branch.  My guess is that there is likely only about 50 big Kauri left on the North Island, though its hard to say how many i don't know about.  I do know that they have special walking paths just to go see a single Kauri tree.  We went to the Kauri 'grove', which consisted of about 8 or 10 trees.

We also checked out the Siamese Kauri... this was 2 separate Kauri who grew together as one base when they ran out of room in their younger years.  Very cool to see.

We also visited Hamilton's Botanical Gardens (yes, this Hamilton has gardens too!) - which used a serious amount of effort and gardening to create 6 paradise gardens modelled after different countries (Japan, England, China, US, Italy and India).  Each was separated by gates to give each on an individualised experience.  I think we were most impressed by the Italian renaissance one, but liked the maze that the Chinese Scholar Garden was..

We ended the night at Raglan, NZ's largest and most famous surf beach - know for the longest left handed waves (breaks) in the world!  We wished he had a boogie board to take in the sweet waves, but were content jumping in them instead and being pulled by the undertow.  The beach itself was called Ocean beach and the sand was so soft it was like silk under the toes! 

Hangin' with the Jellies

After diving and playing with the water slides, we headed for the Coramandel Peninsula, home of the hot water beaches and big Kauri trees.  We had to make a pit stop in Auckland at the Apollo place we rented our campavan since our fridge wasn't working and we weren't keen on buying ice the whole trip (actually,the fridge was a big differentiater to why we chose the Hippie Camper over say Wicked Van, Back Packer, Spaceships, or Juicy (yes, there is a huge market for campervans here so lots of companies are in the game!) -- less money on ice means more money for the stuff the ice is keeping cool -- aka, beer :) ).  Anyhow, we were sorted out in Apollo within an hour or so, and headed on for the big drive.

By the time we got up the peninsula, we decided to leave the trees for the next morning and book it straight for the beach -- we didn't know the tide times but were up for some chill time anyhow.  2 hours on either side of low tide you can dig a hole on the beach and it will fill with hot water that seeps up through the ground, making your own dirty hot tub :)  However, tide was at 10:30pm that day, and we didn't have a shovel so we checked out the beach nonetheless but opted out of the self-made-mud-tub.

When we were walking along the hot water beach (btw, the water isn't hot -- its called that due to the digging your own hole/tub thing) we saw the coolest things right near shore:  huge magenta coloured jelly fish.  These things were so big and perfectly made they almost looked like plastic toys... except there were tonnes of them.  It actually made us a bit scarred to go swimming, even though we were told that they're stingers weren't that dangerous.  I managed to snag one that floated up close to shore and captured the pic below. 

This was a good sized jelly, but there were certainly larger ones ... with the largest probably being about 18" in diameter.  And these things are _thick_.  I always thought jellys didn't have a shape of their own and needed water to maintain their shape... but not this variety... these things were solid goo.  Another dead one washed up so we were able to poke and prod it.  If you walked along the beach for a couple of minutes, you'd likely see 5 or so jellys on average.  I think all told, Astrid and I saw about 30 of these bad boys in the couple hours we spent on the beach... very cool hanging out with them indeed.

That night we "free-camped" (basically where you just pull into a field that has little-to-no facilities and sleep the night, for free of course :)) on the coast with a fantastic view.  We even had a little fire pit which was a nice reminder of camping back home.

Syd.

Our NZ mobile...

We're now in Wellington and have loads of pre-blog posts to get online -- should be up within 24 hrs from now.

We also have an NZ mobile, so txt us as we'd love to hear from you!

+64 211 776 408

(or 01164 211 776 408 for those that have issues with the '+' key :)).

An Underwater Forest and Warm Waterslides

We leisurely walked from our van to the dive boat in the same marina on Tuesday morning for our 8am dive departure.  It was with a small company called Knight Divers and there were only 6 of us diving, as well as 2 dive masters, so it made for a nice and personal dive experience.

It was a chilly and choppy 45 min ride out to the Poor Knights islands, which are a protected island reserve where they are breeding huge crickets (9inches long) and lizards.  It also means that no one can go ashore or they get a huge fine.  The islands were basically huge rock faces with crevices, arches and caves and we even drove the boat into the largest cave called Ricoh cave.  The skipper blew the boat's horn and it made a loud reverberating echo in the cavern. Very neat!  Apparently its also a good dive site but not that day, due to choppy waters. The pic below is an English couple (we only dove with Brits), and the skipper is describing Rikoriko cave, which is the largest cave in the world.  During World War II, a Japanese submarine tucked itself away in this cave for two weeks whilst undergoing repairs.

We found our first dive spot next to a large arch called middle arch. And when we got to the side of the arch's wall we saw literally an underwater forest!  There were swaying plants everywhere and a myriad of fish, especially blue ones.  What we liked best about this wall/reef is that ith was like a little mountain underneath, with lots of levels to swim through and around.  The cool bit was a cave (about 50ft under) that we went into that had an air pocket at the top of it where we could remove our regulators and chat as a group.  Syd says that he saw three huge sting rays on this dive and they looked really majestic, but I didn't see any - boo!

After a 1 hr rest stop we went on a second dive on the other side of the island which was similar to the first one - except there was a crack that we could swim into called 'Mac's crack' where there were loads of fish.  Syd came face to face with a stingray here, but again I missed it!  Ah well. Good times anyway.

After having a much needed lunch at the end of the trip and a hot shower in the marina, we headed back south to camp for the night.  On the way we stopped at some falls near the highway called Whangarei falls.  Nice picture opp.  Plus a chance to visit an orchard nearby and get fresh fruit and sweet corn!

  We drove on the west coast to our motorpark campground and the views on this side of the northland were stunning.  Syd got a sweet shot from a lookout site.

We stayed in a park with thermal hot pools that night. It was called Parakai Springs Aquatic Park and it had public pools (half price for campers) and even waterslides!  The pools were heated with geothermal water from natural springs and were really warm.  The indoor pool was almost unbearable for Syd (wuss!) at 38C, and the outdoor pool was a cool 32C. ;o)  The most fun part is that there were WARM waterslides too! Two big ones that Syd and I ran continuously up and up and up and raced each other down.  The water actually rushed quite fast inside the tubes and I almost flew off my mat upside down a couple times!  The best part about it is that the water was warm, as usually the most unpleasant aspect of waterslides back home is initially sitting down in the frigid cold water to start the slide. These slides alone made the entry fee worth it (but not bad at $8 each). ;o)  Our campsite was powered so we finally go to use our appliances such as our fridge and kettle - and most essentially, we could charge our dead laptop so we could write this blog! 

Astrid.

A Glow Worm Wonderland

We picked up our awesome 2007 Mitsubishi campavan (that's what they call them here) just outside Auckland and went for a quick grocery stop to stock up and then headed north to the beautiful northland - bay of islands.  Our goal was to get up to a marina at a town called Tutukaka to go on a dive trip the next morning. 

On the way up we stopped at some caves called Waipu caves.  They are a DOC (Department of Conservation) trail (aka track) so are thus free.  Syd and I thought this was the best free activity as it was a rustic cave, virtually untouched, oh and the best part is that we had the cave all to ourselves!  We wore our head torches and water sandals (or jandals as they call them here) and trekked into the darkness.  The water in the cave was so clear and clean, and the stalactites looked like smooth mud.  It was weird when you touched them because it looked like wet mud, but they were actually hard and smooth.  So neat! 

We rounded a corner to the left and I told Syd to turn his torch off.  We looked up and there was a trail of lights on the ceiling, kind of like a wide line leading the way.  The light given off by this strange phenomenon was of an iridescent blue.  They were NZ's infamous glowworms! We followed the train that they set out for us and came to a large cathedral sized cavern where they were all over the ceiling.  It looked like we were looking at a night sky, and we felt like we were in our own personal glowworm wonderland!

After that, we made the 2 hour trek to Tutukaka and viewed some great hills and seascapes on the way. 

We camped for free in the marina at a  parking spot (picnic area) right on the bay.  Our first camping meal experience of stirfry on the campstove was very successful and tasty too!

Observations:

Weather has been really great here. Temperate with sun and cloud and around 23C.  The weather reports consistently say that the weather is fine, just fine.  We find it quite humourous.

Driving in Auckland is so cool.   One minute you are next to rolling hills and farms (with heaps of sheep!), the next minute you are driving up a mountain range and overlooking a gorge or the amazing coastlines.  The trees here are very tall and of various varieties - from pine trees to weird deciduous trees that are all branch until some vegetation at the end of each branch, to palm trees, and exotic ferns that look like palm trees!

There are generally only two speed limits - 50 and 100 km/hr.  90% of the turns have a suggested speed limit on them (i.e. 65Km, which makes Syd slow down to oh, about 80!).

Syd's deep thought:  Petrol (they use the brit term here rather than gas/fuel) prices are $1.48/litre, roughly $1.05/litre Canadian.  Regular is actually equivalent to medium/premium back home with an octane level of 91.  Oddly, diesel is much cheaper here...1.04 NZ/litre (40% less than petrol).

In and Around Kiwitown

The rest of the weekend flew by exploring what Auckland had to offer.  We made the best use of our bike rental by riding (okay, walking uphill most of the way) through Auckland domain.  This was essentially Toronto's High Park meets London's Hampstead Heath.  It had established paved trails and a duckpond, a greenhouse and museum at the centre (top), though otherwise it was kindof a big forest.  Very neat nonetheless.

We also went to an alehouse in the city that is ranked top in New Zealand (and a must see for beer lovers in our guidebook).    It was called Galbraith's alehouse and they are a craft brewery that makes about 8 different types of beer based on English Ales and German/Czech Lager recipes.  We elected to do a tasting menu of 4 different types.  I really liked the Bohemian Pilsner as it kind of had an apricot taste.  The wheat beer was also very interesting and memorable as it smelled like bananas (and thus tasted a bit like bananas too!).  Unfortunately we had to get the bikes back or we would have explored more ales!

Saturday afternoon I really wanted to check out Ponsonby - which is an artsy suburb of Auckland that we grabbed a bus to.  It felt like the wild west the way the buildings were designed, like those below.

The shops and cafes and bars all lined one street called Ponsonby road, and it had quite the kitchy feel to it - lots of very unique shops, and even some risque diners like this one - murder burger.  The marketing of this place was very humourous, basically taking the piss out of eating meat.  It made us think that it was meant to be a vegetarian burger joint, but oh no! Quite the contrary.  Very interesting and humorous in any case.

 

On Sunday we got up and did the quintessential backpacker tasks -  made brekkie & tea and did a load of laundry.  Our bungy-like travel clothesline was genius and came quite in handy in our hostel room.  We then packed a lunch & our snorkels into a bag and headed to the pier to grab a ferry over to a neighbouring island for the day called Waiheke island. It is an island of Auckland where 8000 people live and 1000 commute to work every day, and also where mainland Aucklander's holiday. 

The island had a number of beautiful beaches and wineries and it was easy to lose ourselves there for the entire day. 

Thankfully Syd had his M license so we were able to rent a motorbike (250 cc) and bomb around the island.  As it was my first time on a real motorbike I was quite nervous, but equally excited.  It was such good fun!  I didn't know the protocol about getting off to the left of the bike, and naturally got off on the right (I am SOOO right brained).  Well I paid for that mistake as my shin was singed against the hot hot muffler!  ouch! that stung!  It ended up forming a perfectly oval burn mark on my leg, that at the moment looks like a massive birth mark. Great. Right before my diving trip and a wetsuit in 2 days!  doh!

That blunder aside, we really did enjoy all the lookout points on the island, hanging out in the sand on Oretangi beach, tasting wines at Obsidian winery, and snorkelling in a serene bay called enclosure bay.   I found it strange for the size of the bay that we saw no fish! Nice to have some clear waters though, given that every other beach had choppy waters.

In classic Millett style we rushed the bike back to return it just before the ferry departed for Auckland.  We enjoyed a good dinner with live music in an Irish pub that evening at the pier (called the Viaduct) before calling it a night to prepare for the next stage of our adventure - the campervan!

Observations: 

Our hostel was located on a dodgy street.  We would sit out on the patio section and just watch homeless people pick through the rubbish bin right near us, or try and bum smokes.  Then, we'd turn and see bunches of guys in search of nudie bars - but they didn't have to look far as there was one right beside our hostel, and 2 just around the corner! 

All of the sidewalks in the CBD (Central business district) of Auckland are covered by permanent awnings.  I found this quite weird and somewhat claustrophobic inducing in the first day or so.  But I then appreciated it on Sunday when we got off the ferry and it was raining, but I didn't get wet on the entire 5 minute walk home as I was completely sheltered!  Genius!

Why are all Irish pubs the liveliest places in any country we visit? They always tend to have decent food, good beers on tap, live music, and crowds of people, regardless of location.  I don't know what they do, but the Irish have this all figured out.

Astrid.