New Zealand

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In late January of 2004 Kate and I explored the north island of New Zealand for a week on our way to Australia. It was our first trip to this small island nation and we thoroughly enjoyed our adventures. Mind you, it's not a tropical paradise -- I was expecting it to be much warmer, it was more like May in England.

We landed in Aukland and spent a few days exploring the city.

One of the very strangest things about Aukland is the Sky Tower. It's a tall narrow communications tower with a revolving restaurant and so on in the middle of the city that dominates the sky line -- sort of like the CN Tower in Toronto. We noticed that people were bungey jumping off it! Yikes! I think they invented bungey jumping in New Zealand but I wasn't expecting it smack in the middle of the city.

The Wintergarden is worth exploring -- a green house and grounds with lots of lovely orchids and other rainforest plants in contrast to the cool climate outside. At the museum we were impressed by the Maori carvings, meeting house and more. Aukland is on the water and we took a ferry across the bay to Devonport. A pretty Victorian area with great views of the city.

Onwards from Aukland we headed south west for a counter clockwise tour of the island. Our first adventure was to go the "Legendary Black Water Rafting" (as in the picture above) near Waitomo. This is something we'd really recommend. The idea is a conducted group of you follow an underground stream floating on a rubber tube. You need a wet suit as the water is very cold. A miner's helmet and light because you're undergound in a cave. There are parts you have to clamber over, falls that you have to jump over and other obstacles -- not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, as with many water adventures we've been on there's always someone who can't swim who manages to try. One of the really exciting parts to this adventure was to float in complete darkness with the roof of the cave lit up with glow worms. It looked very much like a night sky. If you get a chance -- do it!

Further to the south west we had a farm stay at the foot of Mount Egmount. We had a couple of farms stays on this trip and really enjoyed them. At this farm we got to meet some grazing sheep -- apparently there are more grazing sheep than people in New Zealand. Much of the island has been denuded, stripped of all natural flora, to make pastures for the sheep. It's a bit sad really.

We started a hike up Mount Egmount but ran into the cloud layer and turned back. Strong hikers go up and follow a path that circles the mountain -- we're no where near that hiking level.

At New Plymouth we did a short boat tour of some neighboring islands and shared our boat ride with a fishing dog. They had setup a baited line that the dog held onto. Apparently on some days he catches something. But I suppose it's just that he just likes the tug of the line. On shore we saw a fresh catch of the local lobster.

Our next stay was in the "Straw House" (yup, a house made of straw) in the town of Martinborough on the south east corner of the island. You will have heard of Marlborough on the South Island -- that's better known. Martinborough is a Pinot Noir wine region just over a mountain range from the capital of Wellington that Kate researched. It's an intensive wine region around a very small town. We had our travel bikes with us and were able to easily explore the wineries around the town. Great wines, not cheap, but well worth a visit. Comparable to Burgundy.

We did take a drive to the south east end of the island from Martinborough -- it's bleak, empty country. Barren, windy and cool.

Our next farm stay was near Havelock North on the east coast near Napier and the Hawkes Bay wine region. Our farm stay had an old horse "Archie" who would stick his head in the window to greet you. There were chickens to feed as well as the horse.

We did a quick tour of the town of Napier. It was famously destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt during the Art-Deco period so there's lots of good examples of that architecture.

We went on an organized wine tour of the area and made friends. At the end of the tour they all ended up at our farm stay (including the driver) where we finished a few bottles of the wines we had all just purchased. They got a kick out of meeting Archie. The next day we drove up to the top of the "Craggy Range" and then visited the winery of the same name.

At the bottom end of Hawkes Bay is the small town of Clifton and nearby is a huge gannet colony (those are sea birds) on Cape Kidnappers. It's a protected area, we went on a conducted tour. It's amazing to see such a huge colony of birds.

In the interior highlands we visited Taupo and Rotorua. Lots of volcanic activity, geysers, hot springs and such. At Rotorua we visited a living Maori Village and learned more about the native culture. We really liked that evening. There's some friendly greeting, where they rub noses. But there's also this challenge greeting where they make faces, stick out their tongue, make threatening gestures and general try to intimidate you. There's also those facial tattoos. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be threatening,  I don't find it attractive. Anyways, it was an interesting evening and we learned a lot about the Maori culture.

We returned to Aukland and flew from there to Brisbane, Australia for the next part of our trip.

Here's a photo album of our adventures on the north island.