Looking for the roads less travelled....

    This photojournal from our 29-day February-March 2008 journey around the North Island has been posted in the hope that it will help others planning trips to New Zealand (there is also a simple itinerary posted). Although New Zealand is small compared to the region we're used to exploring (the Yukon, Alaska, British Columbia and Alberta), there is so much to see and do that fitting in even a fraction of what we would have liked to experience was not just a challenge but an impossibility. Once we accepted that fact, planning became much easier.

    Our focus when travelling, and particularly on this journey, is to see what's different about the country and to meet locals - to see what we can't see at home, and do what we can't do at home. Among many other things, that meant that the coast was high priority. We have little interest in cities, and passed through them quite quickly.

    For our primary printed planning resources, we used Lonely Planet New Zealand and the Globetrotter New Zealand Travel Map, both of which we recommend highly for their ease of use, both before and during the trip.

Prices quoted are in New Zealand dollars, which were trading for 76-78 cents Canadian during our trip. When looking at prices, we often mentally deducted 25% to get a better idea of the true cost, and another 15% on tours and restaurants, as the ridiculous system of tipping hasn’t caught on in New Zealand (as of April 1, the minimum wage is $12.00 per hour).

Click on each image in the journal to greatly enlarge it.

Day 1 - Friday, Feb. 15, 2008: fly out of Whitehorse, Yukon. We booked Air Canada Jazz to Vancouver and then Air New Zealand to Auckland direct - the fare with taxes was $1802.37 Cdn. Our flight to Vancouver was over an hour late, leaving at 14:50 instead of 13:40, but we had lots of free time in Vancouver and got a free beer on the flight so it wasn’t a big deal (some folks on the flight missed their connections, though).

It was +5°C, raining and dark in Vancouver - yes, I remember the Vancouver winters that I hated. At 8:35 pm, we boarded this new Boeing 777-200ER (Extended Range) for the 14.5-hour flight to Auckland. It was quite a shock to walk into this huge plane - the flight was nearly full, so there were almost 320 people, seated 3/3/3 across. The seating is quite tight - maybe that’s the case on every plane now. We got lucky and hit a good jetstream that cut an hour and a half off the flight, so we arrived just after 5:00 am. The entertainment system on the plane was excellent - it totally blows away any other that I’ve experienced on a plane. The cabin staff was great, the full meals very good (lamb curry for dinner, a mushroom omelette for breakfast). We both slept better than we had expected.

Day 2 - Saturday, Feb. 16: due to the oddities of crossing many times zones at high speed, this day just disappears out over the Pacific Ocean somewhere (on the way home, however, we get home 2 hours before leaving Auckland).

Day 3 - Sunday, Feb. 17: in Auckland We caught a shuttle to the Hyatt Regency downtown for $16NZ each, substantially cheaper than a taxi, which can run $50-90 depending on traffic - research pays off. My feeling as we drove along was that we were in San Diego - the trees and architecture are quite similar. Not surprisingly, we weren’t able to check in, so we put our bags in storage and went wandering. Cathy had read great reviews of the spa and fitness centre at the Hyatt, so we started off the day with a hot tub, swim and sauna. It truly is a gorgeous facility. We loved the hotel, but our room (1556) was a harbor view in the Residence (newer) wing - we have seen negative reviews on the Regency (older) wing. The property that we saw is beautiful, the staff and meals top notch. To the left is a wide-angle shot of the view from our little balcony. The wireless Internet access at the hotel, however, is 68 cents a minute or $25 a day - you can get access at cafes a mile away for $2 an hour. High prices don't bother me, but gouges do.

We then walked downtown and found this great little bar (the Belgian Beer Cafe) that was serving breakfast. There was a guy in rough shape having a beer already (maybe every town has its version of Whitehorse's "98"), but we had a good conversation with the other people there, Kiwis in town for a family reunion. Prices on everything in Auckland are high, similar to Alaska - my omelette was $14.00, and coffee at the Hyatt was $5.00. The architecture of the city is wonderful - I could spend a week there just looking at buildings!

There's a lot to do in Auckland, but we knew that we’d be jet-lagged, so our major outing of the day was a trip up the 328 metre high Sky Tower, the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s $25 for a trip up, but if you ask the right people, there’s a deal that they don’t promote - $39.50 for a seafood buffet in The Observatory restaurant up top, and that includes a half-hour to look around at the main observation level. In spite of some fairly poor reviews we’ve seen about the restaurant, we had an excellent meal, and if you consider it as costing $14.50 over the cost of the Skytower ride, it’s one of the better meal deals in New Zealand. The Kiwis are the world leaders in adrenalin sports, and our first experience with it was watching people dive off the top of the Skytower! I had thought about doing the Auckland Bridge Climb, but the bridge didn't look too impressive from the Sky Tower so I cancelled that possibility. After an afternoon nap, we finished off the evening with beer and nachos down on the waterfront.

Day 4 - Monday, Feb. 18: the city was very quiet on our first day because it was Sunday. Today was very different, but we weren’t downtown much anyway. At 9:00 we met the shuttle bus for Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World. This was one of Cathy’s must-sees, and I’m now glad it was. From a recreated polar camp to an incredible underwater viewing tunnel and penguin tour by snowcat, it was excellent, well worth the admission (discounted to $26.50 at the Skytower iSite, the New Zealand Tourism office). Picking which photos to show you in this journal is tough. I upgraded to a Canon Digital Rebel XTi (also known as the EOS 400D) for this trip, and shot 214 photos today. Although there were quite a few duds from Tarlton’s due to the tough shooting conditions (even at ISO 1600, hand-held down to 1/4 second in places), there were still 153 keepers at the end of the day.

After getting back to town from Tarlton's, we walked to the harbour and boarded a Fuller’s ferry ($9 return per person) for the 12-minute ride to Devonport, a charming seaside community with a few homes dating back to the 1880s. As you see here, the Auckland harbour is a very busy place.

A “toastie” and beer at a sidewalk table (at the Devonport Stone Oven Bakery & Cafe) got us ready for lots of walking, and we climbed up to the old military gun installation at North Head, then back down to Cheltenham Beach, where I used the camera's timer to take this self-portrait, with North Head in the background. Our internal clocks were still weirded out at this point. We laid down for a pre-dinner nap at about 6:00 pm, and woke up at 2:00 am - whoops. We finally figured out how to get the New Zealand mapset functioning on our new Garmin GPS, though. We were very much looking foward to picking up our campervan and getting into the country - as cities go, we love Auckland, but it’s still a city.

Day 5 - Tuesday, Feb. 19: Auckland to Hahei - ca. 180 km We got a leisurely start to the morning, enjoying this view from our room as we got ready. We had an excellent breakfast at the hotel, then Mike Holt from Tasman Motorhomes picked us up and took us to his lot to get our 2-berth campervan. We'd had an exciting few days to this point, and loved being able to “go with the flow” rather than trying to conform to a set-in-stone itinerary - it was already clear that this decision was going to be the right one for us.

After our orientation to the campervan we headed for Hahei, about 180 km to the east. This photo shows the motorway heading out of Auckland. While much in New Zealand is familiar to us, much is new. First and foremost, driving on the left side of the road is a challenge for a while - while my stress level about driving was pretty low within a couple of days, it always required my full concentration, especially in the roundabouts that are everywhere both in towns and on the highways. Kiwis love adrenalin sports, and their favourite seems to be driving - while almost always courteous, the normal speed is very fast. Unfortunately, the information on the government Road Code site is quite sparse, and you'll no doubt run into signs and highway markings whose meaning isn't clear - some we never did figure out even after a month. One-lane bridges like this one are very common even on the main highways. The approaches are well signed that one is coming up and indicating which direction has the right of way, but these bridges are one of the reasons that concentration is required.

At Hahei, we had reserved a "super sea view campervan site" at the Hahei Holiday Resort, located right on the beach, for 3 nights. This was our first look at what would become the norm throughout the North Island - beautiful holidays parks with excellent, spotlessly-clean facilities.

The fine sand of Hahei Beach was a 50-60 meter walk from our campervan. There were never many people on it - this too was to be the norm throughout our journey, as the peak season was over. The ocean temperature at most beaches was 20-22°C (68-72°F), which we found comfortable for anything but extended snorkeling outings.

Day 6 - Wednesday, Feb. 20: Hahei to Coromandel Town and back We discovered today why the Coromandel region is known for its tough roads - they are narrow, steep, and winding beyond anything I’ve ever seen as "an average road" before. People from North America really need to take everything they know about driving and toss it out the window, particularly when it comes to travel distances and times! This photo shows 309 Road, a 26 km long, mostly-gravel road which we took largely because of some groves of huge kauri trees that we wanted to see.

A well-developed track with footbridges, boardwalks and information signs leads from 309 Road to the Waiau Kauri Grove - though this is a distant view of the most impressive section of the grove, the track leads right to it (it's about 30 minutes from the carpark to the trees and back). There is also a short side track to the "Siamese Kauri", two trees with a shared trunk. The largest kauri tree here is about 600 years old and 1.9 meters in diameter, fairly young and small by historic kauri standards. According to the DoC signs along the track, the kauri on the Coromandel were heavily harvested between 1880 and 1930, and it's not known why this grove survived. When the government wanted to harvest these trees during World War II, however, the first conservation action group in the region was formed and successfully halted the logging.

Although we had initially hoped to do several things on the Coromandel peninsula, the Driving Creek Railway and Potteries was the only major thing we got done. Next time, we'll allocate a week or so just for the Coromandel. The whole Driving Creek facility kept us shaking our heads in amazement that one man could accomplish this. While we usually think of railways as industrial projects, this one is more of a whimsical work of art that you truly have to see to believe. To climb the mountain (that is being replanted with native trees) with a train requires 2 spirals, 3 short tunnels, 5 reversing points and several large viaducts. There are smaller artworks are everywhere you look - incorporated into walls, hanging from trestle beams and set in the forest. The Double-deck viaduct seen in this photo is one of the notable engineering accomplishments on the line.

The view over the Hauraki Gulf from the No. 5 reversing point on the railway (seen here), and at the Eyefull Tower at the end of the line, is wonderful. From the point on that trestle where the train stops, though, it's a long way down!

Day 7 - Thursday, Feb. 21: in Hahei Cathy and I got married at Cathedral Cove, one of the most spectacular remote beaches in New Zealand. While we were sorry that we couldn’t have had some of our family and friends with us, it was a perfect day - Cathedral Cove is both a spectacular and a spiritually powerful place, and the JP, his wife and our witnesses (a couple from Denmark) were wonderful to share our day with. We've posted an album of 20 photos of the wedding here.

Using this 4x4 bus cut the usual 45-minute hike to Catheral Cove in half. It's operated by the farm that used to own Catheral Cove. We celebrated that evening with a superb meal at a historic church that now houses a restaurant, The Church. My beef filet and Cathy’s rack of lamb were both incredibly tender (my filet was served with a butter knife to cut it, and it worked just fine).

Day 8 - Friday, Feb. 22: Hahei to Mount Maunganui As we were leaving Hahei, we took a slight detour to the carpark where the track (hiking trail) to Cathedral Cove begins - this photo will no doubt explain why another week or so here would be most welcome.

We had planned on stopping at Hot Water Beach, which is best seen 2 hours either side of low tide, but cut it so we could spend more time hiking at Karangahake Gorge. As you can see in this photo, we arrived there to find torrental rain, however, so continued on to Waihi.

At Waihi we took a ride on the Goldfields Railway ($15 pp).

At the recommendation of the guide on the train, we stopped at the Martha Gold mine, which is in the middle of the town of Waihi (see these aerial photos). The visitor centre (the Golden Legacy Centre) was closed so it was a short stop, but still worthwhile.

Continuing on to Mount Maunganui, we booked in at the Beachfront Holiday Park. This is an excellent park which cost $34 per night for 2 people on a beachfront site with power. Wireless Internet access with good speed throughout the park is $8.90 per hour. That’s our rig on the right of the photo. We were greeted by a "tropical depression" that intensified to a "tropical storm" and brought high winds and rain, but we still went for a walk on the beach to watch surfers trying to ride the wild waves. That evening we discovered an excellent classic rock station, Radio Hauraki, that we would enjoy for most of the rest of our trip (and I'm listening to it online as I write this journal).

Sitting in our cozy little motorhome that night, on the edge of one of New Zealand’s best surfing beaches, listening to the surf, the wind and good music, life didn't seem too bad at all despite the weather.

Day 9 - Saturday, Feb. 23: in Mount Maunganui We awoke to screaming winds and occasional rain showers, but I got my blood pumping by climbing “the Mount.” It's only 232 meters high, but on a very impressive track. The views are worth every step, and it's very popular with locals.

When I got back down to the camper, Cathy and I watched a big surfing competition for a while.

Though the wind was screaming, we walked the beautiful and varied 45-minute trail around the base of the Mount. The surf was very impressive on the windward side of the Mount, and even on the lee side the water was being churned up pretty good (although it didn't bother this famly in the least). Shortly after we got back to the camper, a heavy rain was added to the wind, so with the rain coming down sideways, it was a good time to do some laundry. After dinner, we went to the hot saltwater pools next door, but it was far too crowded so we didn't stay long.

Day 10 - Sunday, Feb. 24: Mount Maunganui to Rotorua (78 km, 1 hr) The storm intensified overnight, and waking up in Mt. Maunganui was not a particularly pleasant experience. There were still lots of joggers on the boardwalk in front of us, though - the locals seemed to be little bothered by a tropical storm. Although it didn’t cause us to miss any activities, by 09:00 we were on our way a half-hour west to the pick-up point for rafting the world-famous, Class 5, Wairoa River.

Rafting the Wairoa with Wet 'n' Wild was an incredible experience, as much for the spectacular beauty as for the world-class whitewater. Not having a camera at the put-in location at the foot of McLaren Falls (a Class 6) made me a little nuts - it was a slot canyon drenched in rain and full of very colourful rafts, kayaks and people. The river can only be run for a few hours on 26 days each year when water is released from a power dam. The river is very different from others I’ve run, in that you have relatively calm pools below each set of rapids or waterfall. Thise photo was shot by James of Adrenalin Shotz - a CD of 40 high-quality photos was $60NZ, pricey but a must-have (I’m in the front of the raft on the left, our guide Dan on the right).

A short drive through beautiful country brought us to Rotorua, a city of about 70,000 people, about 35% of them of Maori ancestry. World famous for its geothermal features (large-scale tourism development began here in the 1880s), in more recent years a host of other activities have been added, and we knew that our time would be both packed and expensive. We had reservations at the Top 10 Holiday Park, but before checking in we stopped at the iSite and made reservations for a few activities over the next 24 hours. Outside the particularly impressive iSite is the geothermal footbath seen in this photo.

We just had time to get the campervan set up at the park before a shuttle bus arrived to take us to the Mitai Maori Village. Mitai is highly recommended by other travellers at TripAdvisor, and despite the rather high cost ($92 pp), we now agree. An extremely good and varied series of presentations and dinner went on for almost 4 hours. It ended with a long walk through the forest to see glowworms, which I thought might be silly but was actually very cool. We had some rain, but nothing too heavy. Although there were short periods when being herded around with hundreds of other people didn't feel good, those periods didn't last long.

Day 11 - Monday, Feb 25: in Rotorua It rained heavily most of the night, but under clearing skies this morning, Cathy and I took a walk to the city park (Kuirau Park) next door to see what initially made Rotorua famous - the hot water in its many forms. It’s quite a sight to see steam coming out of everything from ponds to storm drains and people’s back yards! There is no admission charge to the park.

Then I went back into crazy mode with the folks from Wet & Wild, this time running the Class 5 Kaituna River with its 7-meter-high Tutea Falls, the world's highest commercially rafted waterfall. This photo shows us in mid-drop - although I have the photos (by Adrenalin Shotz again, but I got a large discount for my 2nd purchase), I’ll leave it your imagination to see what the raft looked like a second later at the bottom, upside-down. With the crystal-clear water at about 20°C, going swimming is part of the fun, though - even if “the ‘Tuna” does have lots of big eels in it (Kaituna means "eel food")! Behind and around the waterfall are caves that were used to hide women and children during Maori wars (they're now home to millions of glow worms), and when Chief Tutea died his body was placed at the bottom of the falls.

Not quite finished with silliness, we then drove a few miles out to town to try one of New Zealand’s signature adrenalin attractions - zorbing. You simply slide yourself into a large inflated plastic ball with a few gallons of water in it, and roll down a big hill. The price is as ridiculous as the sport ($42 pp for one roll down the hill), but we both loved it! The Polynesian Spa was the scene of our “final event” of the day (a particularly decadent one and $140 pp) - a long soak in the hot pools and then a hot stone massage for Cathy and a mud detoxifying body wrap for me. Aaaaaah... Dinner was at historic Hennesey’s pub - very good dory (a local white fish) and chips for $14.90 pp.

Day 12 - Tuesday, Feb 26: day in Rotorua, to Ohope Beach late (85 km, 1.25 hr) Our first stop today was the famous Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland ($27.50 pp admission), and our arrival was timed to get a good seat for the assisted eruption of the Lady Knox Geyser at 10:15. Here the ranger is about to get out of the way after pouring soap into the geyser's mouth. There is a wide variety of geothermal features at Wai-O-Tapu - we hiked all of the trails, and spent just over 3 hours total there.

After leaving Wai-O-Tapu, we got to enjoy the beauty of State Highway 5 (SH5) between there and Rotorua again, before heading for Whakatane on SH30.

We made another stop near Rotorua, at Tikitere (more commonly known as Hell's Gate), a 50 acre park with a large variety of geothermal features. The basic park admission is normally $25 pp, but we got free admission with our tickets for the Mitai cultural performance. We spent a little over an hour taking the long walk, but there are many other things to do at Tikitere that could make it a longer (and more expensive) visit. This photo shows Murray looking over The Devil's Cauldron.

Day 13 - Wednesday, Feb 27: tour to White Island A walk on Ohope Beach was a superb way to start the day (this photo was taken just after 8:00 a.m.).

Driving the 7 km back to Whakatane, we checked in at the tour office, then walked across the road and boarded the PeeJay V for the trip to White Island, a privately owned active volcano (6 hours total, $160 pp). It was astounding, totally blowing away anything that much more famous Rotorua has to offer.

Day 14 - Thursday, Feb 28: Ohope Beach to Oruaiti Beach
For the Pacific Coast Highway from here around East Cape and down to Napier, there is an excellent guide available. The 62-page booklet, called "Pacific Coast Highway, Free Traveller's Guide 2008", has far more information than any other we saw. You can pick it up at iSites in the area, or it's online at the Opotiki iSite Web site.

We stopped for the night at the Waihau Bay Holiday Park. Though in a good location right across the road from Oruaiti Beach, this was the roughest, and at $38 the most expensive holiday park we stayed at on our entire journey - Cathy wouldn't even use the showers. The path from Oruaiti Beach to the park runs beside a large pohutukawa tree.

Day 15 - Friday, Feb 29: Oruaiti Beach to Gisborne A morning dip in the surf at Oruaiti Beach.

Hicks Bay is described in our Lonely Planet guidebook as "...a real middle-of-nowhere town with a fabulous beach." Like almost all small New Zealand communities, we found it charming, but other than a general store, and a horse trekking operation for beach riding, there are no services. This 2-photo stitched panorama was shot from a viewpoint on SH35.

It's supposed to be very cool to see the sun rise at East Cape, the most eastern point of land in New Zealand, but we were happy to just see the cape, and I wanted to climb up to the lighthouse. It's 21 km from Te Araroa to the lighthouse trail parking area on a road that is mostly gravel, and takes about half an hour. The views along the road are stunning.

Although there's a sign asking hikers to respect the private land that the track to the lighthouse crosses, the start of the track is very poorly marked. Once you do find it, another sign warning that it's a steep climb turns away some people, we found. Cathy stayed in the campervan while I made the trek up the 755 steps (yes, I counted them on the way down).

East Cape Lighthouse and East Island (known to the Maori as Whangaokena). A lighthouse began operation on East Island in 1900 (it took 2 years to build it due to harsh conditions), but earthquakes and landslides caused it to be moved to the mainland in 1922. To the Maori, the island is tapu (sacred), and some believe that the earthquakes occurred to drive the invaders away (earthquakes and landslides on the island have apparently stopped). In the 22 years that the lighthouse on the island operated, 3 lighthouse keepers and their families lived there. Three of their children and 5 victims of shipwrecks were buried on the island during those years. The current cast-iron tower is 14 meters high (shorter than the original) and 154 meters above sea level. It was fully automated in 1985.

Waipiro Beach was reached by a narrow side road a few miles long, and made a superb lunch stop.

The Tolaga Bay Wharf

the Waikanae Beach Holiday Park

Gisborne - Waikanae Beach

Day 16 - Saturday March 1: Gisborne to Waipukurau

Don't be put off by the look of some of the little roadside takeaways - places like the Nuhaka Fish Shop offer excellent food at very low prices. This shop on SH2 where the road to the Mahia Peninsual intersects is where we discovered that 2 can eat a hearty fish-and-chip lunch for $10 total.

This view of the road was shot just east of Black's Beach, apparently well-known by surfers for its right-hand break.

Mahia Beach

I think we drove every back road on the peninsula, hoping that it would quit pouring so we could enjoy this place. But, that never happened - it kept raining so hard that just getting a photo put my camera at risk from water damage.

At Lake Tutira, we found hundreds of black swans, and stopped a few times along the lake to watch and photograph them. Lake Tutira was declared a bird sanctuary in 1929 (at the instigation of Scottish farmer/author/ornithologist William Herbert Guthrie-Smith, who once farmed neighbouring Tutira Station) and has a popular DoC campground.

We had planned on spending the night at Napier, famous for its Art Deco architecture, but every space in town was filled due to the fact that Tom Jones was performing that night at the Mission Estate Winery Concert. After much discussion with the friendly folks at the Kennedy Park Top 10, we continued on another hour to Waipukurau, where we got a space at this holiday park- very basic but neat and clean.

Day 17 - Sunday, March 2: Waipukurau to Wellington We awoke early this morning to the cackling of some truly ignorant women on their way to a dog show - there were lots of dog show folks staying at the park, and a few noisy dogs, but those 2 made more noise than all the dogs combined. The best thing about the park (other than the fact that it was far better than "freedom camping" on the side of the highway) was this red deer who showed up in the morning. This white variety is apparently very unusual.

We made a stop at Pukaha Mount Bruce, the National Wildlife Centre for conservation of some of the country's most endangered wildlife. kiwi

Soon after arriving in Wellington and getting settled in at the lovely home of friends in the historic Seatoun district, we we went on tour. As we had decent weather, an early stop was Mt. Victoria. Although only 196 meters high, it offers superb views of the downtown core and the airport in particular.

Day 18 - Monday, March 3: in Wellington Wellington is a charming city - shrinking San Franciso and then scattering it around a rugged and complex piece of coastline will give you a bit of an idea what it looks like. The spot shown here is just a few minutes from the office towers of downtown.

The legislative offices of the New Zealand Parliament are housed in the building to the left in this photo. It's known as "the beehive" for obvious reasons - it's a name that's caught on to the point that even the government Web site is beehive.govt.nz. Designed by British architect Sir Basil Spence, it opened in 1981.

Te Papa

Day 19 - Tuesday, March 4: Wellington to Taupo

Heading north from Wellington on Highway 1, we had hoped to take a boat trip to the Kapiti Island Nature Reserve (9:00am-4:00pm, $54 pp), but it didn’t work out, so stopped at a charming roadside cafe (The Red House, at Te Horo) for a breakfast that included free range eggs with bright orange yolks and other ingredients that all tasted like they were harvested in the back yard of the place.

The weather started to clear, so we headed west a few miles to Waitarere Beach, where we had to share the 8 kilometers of beach with about 6 other people. A sign at the ramp onto the beach said that the beach is a road, so we drove 4 or 5 k down it - the fine sand packs down like concrete.

Obe of the attractions of Waitarere Beach is the wreckage of the sailing ship Hydrabad. She was hit by a heavy storm in the winter of 1878, and Captain Holmwood eventually drove her onto the beach in a successful attempt to save his crew and passengers (see a story about the stranding). Although it's not too impressive now, a 1909 photograph shows an impressive sight that drew many visitors. In 1905, the steel hull still offered interesting exploring. Note that the location of the shoreline has changed by hundreds of meters in the past century.

We tried to get some sun at Waiketere, but the wind was still howling so that didn’t last long, and we decided to go inland to Taupo, one of the most popular holiday destinations for Kiwis. The weather turned sour again and the scenery along the highway is seldom anything worth writing home about, though there are some impressive railway trestles.

A sign along SH1 outside Mangaweka that simply said "HOT COFFEE, COOL PLANE" caught my attention, and this cool plane got me to stop for photos and a tank of diesel for the campervan. A Douglas C-47B-DK (c/n 34227), she began service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1945, had a varied career including being configured as a DC-3D passenger liner (ZK-APK), finally being converted to a cafe a few years ago - you can see historic and current photos of her at JetPhotos.net.

We pulled into the Taupo Top 10 Holiday Park and went for a dip in the 39-degree hot tub, a great way to end the day. This was the nicest park we’d stayed at yet in terms of facilities, for $32NZ with our Top 10 membership discount.

Day 20 - Wednesday, March 5: Taupo to Waitomo

It rained buckets overnight, and in the morning the camper was sitting in quite a little pond. Cathy wanted to take a run with one of the jetboat operators, but the only trip would have required us to commit to another night at Taupo so we just went to beautiful Huka Falls (the country’s highest-volume waterfall) and then pointed the van in the direction of Waitomo and its Glowworm Caves.

The majority of the route to Waitomo is extremely pretty and some of it is Lord-of-the-Rings dramatic. Along the way we met these wanderers happily trotting down the empty road toward us - meeting the locals is always fun!

We’d read many times online that the Waitomo caves should be on everyone’s “must-see” list, but we almost decided not to make the lengthy detour. We’re now very glad that we didn’t blow it off - there’s a very good reason that this town of 41 permanent residents is able to attract 500,000 visitors a year. As always in New Zealand, there are lots of ways to see the caves (there are over 100 surveyed cave systems) - we opted for the “Spellbound” tour, and it was superb. We first rafted into a cave with millions of glowworms, then walked into the dry cave seen here. Our guide, Norm, was professional, very knowledgeable, and friendly. When a couple of stupid Belgians guys in our group of 12 took off on their own, however, he made his displeasure abundantly clear.

The weather tonight was cool but clear - the forecast was looking very good, so we decided to head for the beaches at the northern end of the island in the morning.

Day 21 - Thursday, March 6: Waitomo to Pakiri Beach The Waitomo Top 10 Holiday Park is beautiful, and we wished we could stay a bit longer (yes, we were saying that a lot), but we had a lot of ground to cover so were away by 9:30.

Norm (our cave guide yesterday) recommended that we take a 3-kilometer detour to the bush walk at the Ruakuri Scenic Reserve, and although it only took an hour for the hike, it turned out to be one of our favourite locations in New Zealand. To quote the DoC, "the reserve contains beautiful native bush, classic limestone outcrops, caves, tunnels, gorges and cantilevered walkways high above the rushing water. It is also a place of strong historical, cultural and spiritual significance." We were simply captivated by the drama of the place, highlighted by the large natural cathedral seen here (with Waitomo Stream running through it). There is no charge to use this track.

Not being used to either heavy traffic or multi-lane highways anymore, we both dreaded making our way through greater Auckland on the motorway again, and across the Auckland Bridge. As you can see here, the addition of 4 lanes in the early 1970s (2 on each side) unfortunately ruined what had been a beautiful bridge.

Our first major stop once we got past Auckland was the Goat Island Marine Reserve, where we finally got our snorkel gear wet (that’s Cathy in the picture). This was the first marine reserve established in New Zealand (in 1975) and is a great diving/snorkelling location, with lots of large fish coming almost within reach (though illegal, apparently they get fed by many swimmers).

The road from Goat Island to Pakiri Beach is exceptionally scenic.

Day 22 - Friday, March 7: at Pakiri Beach Morning on Pakiri Beach. Although we had only planned to spend one night at the Pakiri Beach Holiday Park, before we left for Goat Island we reserved a spot for another night.

Back at Goat Island, we took one of the better tour deals in the country, a 45-minute trip around the island in a glass-bottomed boat, for $20 pp. The captain, Ivan, is passionate about the reserve and was great to travel with.

I got a fair number photos of diferent types of birds - these pied cormorants (also known as yellow-faced cormorants or pied shags) were right at the parking lot at Goat Island.

Returning to Pakiri Beach, we hiked down the beach a bit and had a fabulous afternoon of doing nothing but laying on the empty beach and playing in the surf. We thought about taking a horse ride on the beach as the people in the photo are doing, but were in super lazy mode.

Day 23 - Saturday, March 8: Pakiri Beach to Russell This is Whangerei Falls, 26 meters high. The falls, located 5 k north of the city of Whangerei (population 46,000), are surrounded by a wonderful little park that's been ruined by vandals - even the trees along the walking paths have been spray-painted with garbage. We’ve been surprised and disappoined by the amount of litter and graffiti in some areas.

Meeting more locals - this happened twice in a few miles around dinner time today.

Although you can get to Russell by road, it was recommended by several people we met that we take a shortcut via the ferry at Opua, so we did. (see tickets)

Day 24 - Sunday, March 9: in Russell

That evening, we went on Darryl's Dinner Cruise ($78 pp), a 2½ hour cruise from Paihia, up the Waitangi River to Haruru Falls and back on board the vessel Ratanui. It gets very good reviews, and it was a great evening - about 25 people in a very casual atmosphere, with excellent food (after prawn/mussel starters, your choice of steak, lamb or fish). There's a full bar, and we took advantage of the BYO wine option for dinner. I don't know what Darryl was fishing for, as nothing ever came on board from the pole seen in this photo of Cathy and I taken at Haruru Falls.

Day 25 - Monday, March 10: Russell to Whatuwhiwhi Waitangi National Reserve

Matauri Bay

Maitai Bay

Day 26 - Tuesday, March 11: in Whatuwhiwhi Today was a “down day” with no plans except to relax, and it was wonderful. The day began with rain, and showers were forecast to last all day, but after some indecision we decided to go back to Maitai Bay. A school group was there, but we hiked to the far end of the right-hand cove and were alone the whole time. On the walk we encountered this poor little stingray, dead (very recently) just above the high tide line.

The tiny cove where we stopped now has our vote as the best all-round beach in New Zealand - the scenery, the water temperature and clarity, the ability to be alone, and the combination of great swimming and great snorkelling side-by-side surpass any other beach we’ve spent time at. The Free Beach Group calls it one of the best nude beaches in the country.

At about 2:30, we stopped in at the nearby Karikari Estate winery for lunch and a tasting ($10 for samples of 5 wines). The food and 2 of the wines in particular were superb, as is the location - we bought a bottle of their Gisborne Chardonnay to enjoy more of later.

Back at our holiday park on the beach at Whatuwhiwhi, I went snorkelling for a while. Though I never did find clear water, I got very close to several mergansers, so the swim was worthwhile. On the wade back to shore, I came within a foot of stepping on a stingray, though - damn muddy water! Luckily, the large swirl of water beside where my foot had landed was the only indication I had of what had happened

Day 27 - Wednesday, March 12: day tour Today we let someone else do the driving, and that decision gave us a much better experience than we could have gotten on our own. The tour, with Paradise Connexion, was to Cape Reinga, the furthest-north point of land that's accessible by road. The minibus picked us up a few feet from our campervan site, and only cost $62 pp, far less than some similar tours we'd been looking at. Along the way we had a drive up 90 Mile Beach and got a fairly close look at the first day of the $250,000 Snapper Classic. This is the adrenalin sport of fishing, and we drove by almost 1,000 people on the beach. The heaviest snapper this year weighed 9.315 kg. Turning off the beach, we drove up Te Paki Stream (a.k.a. "Quicksand Stream") in our 2-wheel-drive bus, and along it went dunesurfing, or sand tobogganing. It was great fun!

Our driver, Bob, was excellent. Among other things, he kept us ahead of the other tour buses - we usually saw empty road ahead of us, and as they arrived en masse at a place, we left. Cathy and I had the seat right behind Bob, giving us exellent photo ops throughout the day. This is State Highway 1 a few k from the north end, where some sealing (paving) of the gravel road is being done. A major reconfiguration of the Cape Reinga carpark and walking track is also being done - that will cut the walking distance to the lighthouse in half. Up to 1,300 cars arrive at the carpark per day during peak season!

The views of Cape Maria van Diemen from the track to the lighthouse are stunningly beautiful. The cape was named in January 1643 by Abel Tasman, after the wife of his patron, Anthony van Diemen, Governor General of Batavia. Cape Reinga is sacred to the Maori, who know it as Te Rerenga Wairua. Tradition says that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead leave the earth.

Cape Reinga Lighthouse was the last manned lighthouse to be built in New Zealand. First lit in 1941, it replaced a light that had been built in 1879 on Motuopau Island, seen in the photo above off the tip of Cape Maria van Diemen. The Cape Reinga Lighthouse, whose concrete tower is 10 meters high and 165 meters above the sea, was fully automated in 1987. Just out of sight to the left of this photo is the turbulent line where the blue Pacific Ocean meets the green Tasman Sea.

After leaving the cape, we stopped at gorgeous Tapotupotu Bay for lunch, and a few of us went swimming in the surf. The approach to the bay is seen here, looking over Bob's shoulder.

One of the events we'd been hoping to experience was a sheepjam, and we got our wish on SH1. An ATV ahead of the flock carried a large sign warning that there was "Stock Ahead", and a one-lane bridge added to the congestion (and the quality of the experience for us!) at this point. This turned out to be one of our most memorable and most-photographed days of the entire journey, with 238 images now in our "keeper" file.

Both going to and returning from the cape, we stopped at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom facility (as well as being interesting, it's a handy toilet stop). This company extracts kauri trees that were buried in swamps up to 50,000 years ago and processes the preserved wood into everything from bowls and wine stoppers to furniture of all types. This kauri staircase gives you an idea of what can be done - with a couch priced at $45,000, the staircase would certainly be worth several hundred thousand.

Day 28 - Thursday, March 13: Whatuwhiwhi to Matakohe At Awanui, where we turned off SH10 onto SH1, we detoured north a few hundred meters to get some photos of a church we had seen on yesterday's tour. St. Joseph's Anglican Maori Church was built in 1887. In the second row of headstones is one with a mailbox beside it - we don't know the significance of it.

We stopped at the historic sawmill and shipyard community of Kohukohu (which now has a population of only 220) for a look at some of the old buildings, then continued 4 k to the ferry to Rawene. The ferry runs on the hour from the Kohukohu side, takes under 15 minutes for the crossing, and costs $14 for car or small campervan and driver, $2 for passengers.

Today was mostly about kauri trees, driving south on SH12 along the Kauri Coast through the Waipoua Forest, the best place in New Zealand to see large untouched stands of the trees. We saw Te Matua Ngahere ("Father of the Forest"), one of the largest remaining kauri, in torrential rain. On the walk to it, I commented about another large tree (a rimu, I think), then turned a corner on the track and was stunned by the sight of Te Matua Ngahere - it has a circumference of over 16 meters (52 feet). In the enlarged photo you can just make out a person at the base of the tree. I all of a sudden developed a bad cold last night, and getting soaked on that walk certainly didn't help (it took over 2 weeks to get rid of it).

The Kauri Museum

Day 29 - Friday, Mar. 14: Matakohe to Auckland Sheep World

drop motorhome, fly home... We left Auckland on an Air New Zealand 777-200 at about 8:30 pm, arrived at Vancouver same day at 1:00 pm.

We then boarded Air Canada Jazz at 5:00 and arrived at Whitehorse at 7:15. This photo was taken just after we started our descent into Whitehorse - around Atlin, I suppose. Although we’re going to miss the white sand beaches, yes, we did miss this too. It felt good to be home, particularly because Winter appeared to be over. Although it was -25° the next day, it was gorgeous. My cold was worse, but our MIA suitcase was sitting at the airport first thing in the morning (it got lost at Vancouver), waiting to be picked up, so I headed out into the sunshine anyway. I brought back 2 or 3 pounds of paper of various types as part of the journey documentation, and in creating this photo-journal I got to re-live the trip over and over.