When we arrived in Auckland, we were surprised at the warmth and humidity. We began to wonder whether we had brought the right mix of clothing for the weather. Our Hilton hotel was perched at the end of a pier overlooking Auckland Harbour. Boats were always coming and going especially the water taxis. While we were there, two cruise ships docked outside our window. The first was a large ship and the second was a small, more intimate ship. Our first afternoon in the city was taken up doing errands in preparation for the driving part of our vacation. We visited the AA, the NZ equivalent of the AAA here in the US. We also visited several bookstores, including Borders and what was to become our local favorite, Whitcoulls, and a local Starbucks. The next day was filled with seeing some of the sites of Auckland. We used a local bus service called the Explorer Bus. It is a service that drives to a variety of sites where your day pass allows you to get on and off at will.
One of the highlights was a visit to the Auckland Museum in the Auckland Domain, or park. We saw a performance of Maori singing and dancing and the museum's extensive collection of Maori and Polynesian artifacts. This was where we saw the first of many examples of Maori carving. They are incredibly detailed and often have red and black stains on them. The red structure at left is a Maori raised storehouse, or pataka. One of the most impressive artifacts on display is a carved Maori war canoe. It is 25 meters long (80ft) and can hold up to 100 warriors. The bow and stern are decorated with ornate carvings.
Another location that we visited was the top of Mt. Eden, which is the highest of the many volcanic cones that dot the Auckland landscape. It offers panoramic views of the entire city.
That evening we visited the Stardome observatory at One Tree Hill, another park in the city. There we saw a planetarium show that focused on what we could see in the local night sky. After the show, weather permitting, local volunteers have telescopes set up in a courtyard outside. Unfortunately, the clouds did not clear until very late in the evening that day. We met a number of very nice people there, with whom we chatted about astronomy and who put us in touch with two other groups in NZ who were doing astronomy tours.
On Sunday, the 19th, we picked up our RV. It was a small (6 meter) diesel RV made by a local company on a Ford chassis. Our first adventure was getting slightly lost while trying to get onto State Highway 1 North out of the city. Luckily, we found the highway without too much trouble. Driving on the left did not seem to be much of a problem. This was one of the only times that we were driving on what would be like a freeway here. Most of the roads in the rest of the country were two lane.
We stopped at the Dome Forest Overlook trail and took at hike up to see it. The trail wound through lush semitropical forest. Two things were everywhere--the sound of cicadas and tree ferns. The sound of cicadas was deafening. There seemed to be an ebb and flow to the sound. Sometimes merely loud but other times it would build to a crescendo which was amazing. A local told us that the arrival of the cicadas was how they knew that summer was here. While we could hear the cicadas, we really hadn't seen any until we came to one tree on the side of the trail. It had several cicadas just sitting on it. As we went along we would occasionally see them zooming from one tree to another. Late in the trip, we learned that the tree ferns are the silver fern, which is a symbol of New Zealand.
As we drove north on SH1, we decided to turn off the main road and see some of the countryside. We turned off and drove towards Mangawai Heads on the road to Waipu Cove. The countryside was lovely and when we arrived at Mangawai Heads, we had a nice view of the Pacific Ocean with the Hen and Chickens Islands in the distance. From here we drove on until we rejoined SH1 on the way to Whangarei where we would spend our first night in the RV. It would also be our first experience with the Top 10 Holiday Parks, a group of camping parks that cater to tenters, RVs and even have a number of rooms for rent. They have communal bathrooms with showers, a communal kitchen and laundry facilities along with other amenities.
The next day, we did more errands in the morning before setting off to visit A H Reed Forest Park where we had our first view of kauri trees, a once widespread tree on the North Island that is highly prized for it hardness and grain. Kauri trees are the second largest tree in the world after the California Sequoia. Their wood is very resistant to decay, similar to the redwood and they have even found remains of ancient forests buried in muck, where the wood was still usable.
Later, we visited Whangarei Falls before heading north to the Bay of Islands.
Once we arrived in the Bay of Islands, we found ourselves near a wharf where tour boats leave to see the sights of the bay. Since we were too late for a tour that day we arranged for one the next morning on King tours and settled into our holiday park just south of Paihia, the main town on the bay. Here we ran into a family that we meet at the holiday park in Whangarei. We also met some nice girls from Wales. We were staying on the water but not on the main part of the bay. Paul tried to swim but the bottom was muddy, rather than sandy and he gave up.
The next morning we made our way back into town and onto our boat. There were seats inside and an area on the front of the boat where people were standing. We weren’t that happy with the view from where we were sitting so we decided to stand on the front of the boat. It was a beautiful morning on the Bay of Islands. First, we went to across a small part of the bay to the town of Russell to pickup more passengers. Once they were aboard we headed out towards the “Hole in the Rock” at the entrance to the bay. As we went we passed several islands that had been visited by Captain James Cook. You can’t throw a rock in New Zealand and not hit something visited by or named for or by Cook. Once we got to the “Hole in the Rock”, the seas got a lot rougher. In the picture you can see a wave breaking in the middle of the hole. If the seas had been calmer, we would have gone through the hole on our boat. Some of the companies that run boats out to the “Hole in the Rock” use what look like power boats that can get there quickly and probably have an easier time going through. After the “Hole in the Rock” we headed across the mouth of the Bay to where there was a pod of dolphins. The water was very clear and we could see them swimming under the front of the boat. This area is one of several in the country where it is actually possible to swim with the dolphins. After seeing the dolphins, we made our way back to Paihia.
Leaving the Bay of Islands behind, we drove north to a town called Kerikeri, which is know for its crafts. We stopped at a kauri wood art gallery but didn’t buy anything. We lunched in the town at the Fishbone Café, which was one of the first of many excellent restaurants that we came across as we drove around the country. We could be in the middle of nowhere and find a restaurant with excellent food.
Driving north, we were heading for the base of a narrow cape that juts out of the North Island separating the Pacific from the Tasman Sea and having as its tip, Cape Reinga, the furthest north point in New Zealand. On the way, we stopped at Cable Bay on Doubtless Bay and Paul took a swim. It was lovely. Captain Cook made a notation in his log as he sailed by, saying “Doubtless a bay,” hence the name. We called ahead to see about staying at a Top Ten Holiday Park at Waipapakauri Beach. Unfortunately, there was a major fishing competition going on near there and they were full up. This was the first and almost only time that we weren’t able to stay at our first choice even though we usually called the same day. We ended up staying at Houhora Heads closer to Cape Reinga instead.
The next morning early we set off for Cape Reinga, the furthest north point that we would visit in New Zealand. One thing that you notice as you drive around the country is the lack of traffic. This was especially true on the road to Cape Reinga. There was hardly any traffic. As we drove neared the cape, we reached a point where the road changed from being paved to being gravel. The last 21 kilometers (around 13 miles) is unpaved. Finally, we arrived at Cape Reinga. It is a sacred place to the Maori, who consider it a jumping off point for souls entering the afterlife. As a result, they ask that visitors not eat there. From the parking lot, we took the short hike down to the Cape Reinga lighthouse. From here you can see the Pacific and Tasman Sea meeting. At first, we didn’t see anything special about this, but then we noticed that there were waves breaking in two different directions at the same time. Near the lighthouse itself, there was a signpost showing the direction and distance to other places in the world. On the picture you can see that Los Angeles is over 6500 miles away. You will also see the distance to Bluff at the south end of the South Island that we visited later in our trip.
There was hardly anyone at Cape Reinga when we were there, which is surprising. Along the west coast of this part of the North Island is a heavily visited tourist area called “Ninety Mile Beach”, a stretch of beach that is actually less than ninety miles long that tourist buses drive along before visiting Cape Reinga. Luckily, we arrived at the cape before any of the buses for the day. Not being able to stay at Waipapakauri Beach was really a blessing in disguise as we ended up staying closer to the cape and arriving earlier in the day when fewer people were there. If you are visiting Cape Reinga, I suggest that you do the same so you don’t have to share it with busloads of other people.
After leaving Cape Reinga, we stopping at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a wood gallery that specializes in ancient kauri wood, near Kaitaia. Here they have beautiful kauri wood items for sale. They also have a most impressive staircase from a single kauri log where the log’s center has been made into a spiral staircase. The kauri wood that they use is found preserved in bogs. Carbon-14 dating indicates that the wood is between 35 and 50 thousand years old. After treatment to dry the logs, it can be used like normal wood. Some of their most expensive items are tens of thousands of dollars.
We continued south on SH 1, the same road that we had trouble finding in Auckland and the same road that begins at Cape Reinga. Turning off the main road at Mangamuka Bridge, we made our way towards the part of the west coast of the North Island known as the “Kauri Coast”. As we drove south into this part of the island, we found it to be incredibly lush. There were times when it seemed as if we were driving through a green tunnel. We stopped and saw the world’s largest kauri, Tane Mahuta, which means “Lord of the Forest” in Maori. It is 169 feet tall and 45 feet around and is thought to be over 1000 years old and may be over 2000. We were heading for Baylys Beach on the Tasman Sea for the night. We had been told of a woman who was doing astronomy tours with her telescope there. We had contacted her and arranged a tour for this evening. This day had been rainy off and on and was to demonstrate one of the things we noticed about this part of the trip. Even though it was rainy in the late afternoon by the evening it had cleared up beautifully.
The woman, Deborah, was running an astronomy tour business from her home in Baylys Beach. In fact, it was only a few houses down from the holiday park where we were staying. We had a nice chat about astronomy with her before arranging to use her 8” Meade telescope for the evening. We set up her telescope in her backyard where we spent the next few hours observing the southern skies. The skies of Baylys Beach were very dark. We could easily see the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, small satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way galaxy. We would strongly recommend anyone interested in astronomy who is visiting this part of the North Island contact her and take one of her astronomy tours. She can be contacted through her website at http://homepages.igrin.co.nz/astronomy/. She has finished installing a new 14” telescope and acquired a CCD camera if you want to use it.
The next day was one of our first really long drives in the RV. We left Baylys Beach early and then turned south at Dargaville on Route 12 eventually making our way to Route 1. This was north of where we had turned off on our first day in the RV so we were seeing new parts of the country. Eventually we reached where we turned off and since we had already seen this road we decided to turn off at Wellsford on Route 16 to see some of the west side of the this part of the North Island. We continued south until we reached Auckland, passing some of the same sights we had seen when we spent our time there. Driving through Auckland was the only time that we were driving on what we would consider a highway here in the States. After leaving Auckland behind, we continued south until we reached the turnoff for the Coromandel peninsula on the west coast. As we drove, the wind had come up and it was one of our first experiences dealing with the RV under the gusty conditions that are often found in New Zealand. Another thing that we experienced a lot in New Zealand was the one lane bridge. We crossed a long one on this road as we drove across the south end of the Firth of Thames, a large bay of the Hauraki Gulf, the major body of water seen from Auckland. We turned off the road right after reaching the end of the bridge and stopped for lunch at a Subway in Thames. Continuing over the winding road to the coast, we finally stopped for the night at Hahei just south of Mercury Bay, where Captain Cook observed the transit of Mercury on the 9th of November 1769. The holiday park was very nice and our site was literally a stones throw from the beach. This evening was my first to really use my telescope, which I used to take pictures of the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, satellite galaxies of our Milky Way galaxy.
The next morning we made our way to one of the local “hot spots”, Hot Water Beach. This is only a few miles from Hahei and is famous for a hot spring that comes up right under the beach. People dig holes in the sand, hot water wells up filling the holes, which become handmade hot tubs. You can rent a shovel at a nearby business and go dig yourself. When we arrived, there were lots of people and we began to dig our hole. Others were doing the same with not much luck. Someone then made the comment that they had heard that a storm had changed the amount of sand on the beach and made it impossible to reach the hot water at that time. If you are going to visit Hot Water Beach, it is important to go within 1 to 2 hours of low tide. Outside of these times, the parts of the beach that you must dig in are covered. Because we couldn’t reach the water, we decided to press on to Waitomo caves and see the glowworms.
The drive to Waitomo caves had only one interesting moment. When we drove through Hamilton, we decided to stop at a fast food restaurant that had a small parking lot. Unfortunately, when I pulled into our parking spot ,...
