New Zealand - North Island

I am sure they  are wonderful places to live but the cities in NZ don’t have much to offer the passing tourist, for example in Wellington, the only building mentioned in the Lonely Planet was a ‘Beehive’ government building which was very disappointingly - not much like a beehive at all. Also a pole that squirted out water on the hour, lit up to give it some interest.  So our trip to Wellington consisted of curry in the evening and a quick jog around the harbour in the morning, blah d blah.....

Back on the road we decided to head up the east coast towards Gisbourne.  Stopping at a few nameless but very remote and pretty DOC campsites we arrived in Gisbourne. A bit of a seaside town, is probably lovely in the summer  but with gale force winds and rain we moved on quickly and made the longish journey to Rotorua.

A completely deserted beach in the middle of nowhere near Napier on the east coast

Cooking dinner in the van



Hungry children

Rotorua is the most touristy place in the North Island because of the hot springs and general thermal activity of the area so was pleasantly surprised on arrival that there weren’t too many tourists in town.  Fancied a bit of a change from van and stayed in a hostel a couple of nights out of our 3 there, so the kids caught up with some telly and parents sampled the local ales.  Steve took to the Red Wood mountain bike trails for a few hours which was great fun and quite challenging, Bob tried the bike jump park! Got a few bruises. 

V. smelly in Rotorua thermal area

More smelly steam at the park in Rotorua

and more .........

From  Rotorua we stopped at a nearby campsite with in house thermal pools included, 9 of them with temperatures up to 42 degrees C and all natural – fantastic,  then on to the Karangahake Gorge and then the Coromandel  where we went on some nice long tramps along disused mines (walks to you). Worst toilets so far go to the Wentworth DOC campsite in the Coromandel which not only smelt awful but were compost toilets with no seat lids and a nest of flies in wait!

Nice beach at Waihi near The Coromandel

Down aan old gold mining tunnel at Karangahake south of The Coromandel

Moving on we went through Auckland and north to some amazing beaches, a train ride on Gabriel the steam train that travels along the high street, the oldest tree (a Kauir) in New Zealand and I would guess in the world at over 1500 years old.

Amber sets the train off at Kawakawa



Bob gets up to drive the train (well he blew the whistle a few times)

ooh whats in ere?

a 1500 to 2000 year old Kauri tree

All in all the North Island was not a patch on the South for scenery and would guess it would be great for beaches and water based fun in the summer so glad we spent most of our time in the south.

Back into Auckland again for our flight to South America.  We left ourselves a couple of days to enjoy the city.  First night we camped in the north, not a very nice place, the tv was pinched out of the tv lounge the night we were there and no it wasn’t us.  Second night we camped in the south, much nicer area, the tv lounge smelled of sick this time but there was a tv.  We enjoyed visiting Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium and antartic experience – poor Kelly Tarlton, we had never heard of him, some genius diver/inventor chap that after several successful and failed dives on past shipwrecks to recover treasure, he set upon building this aquarium place in the sewers of Auckland, must have cost him a fortune, poor guy, cost him his life – died of a heart attack just as he opened the darn thing!

One Tree Hill in Auckland (with no tree anymore, just a large obelisk) and lots of sheep

A funny picture of Bob

Dropped off the combi to Lyndon, thanks very much, and caught our flight to Santiago.