Day 5

Well this was yesterday when I’m writing this – so lets see how we go…

Woke up nice and earlyish – this has more to do with the uncomfortable bed than any good planning – but regardless, I was packed and on the road by 8am.

 

More rural roads today. My GPS has decided that it’s more interesting to take the back roads than the main highway (must be slightly shorter). I happen to agree – but it does make the trip a bit longer than expected.

At one point I entered a town, took a side street back out of town, back in via the suburbs, and then rejoined the highway. Might have been shorted, but certainly wasn’t faster. At other points I travelled through dairy country backroads instead of staying on the highway – that was fun though.

 

One of the townships I came across had an awesome little park/playground in the middle of it. The centrepiece was a slippery slide made out of the body of an old WWII fighter plane. They had an awesome collection of play equipment for little tackers too – I expect it wouldn’t be deemed ‘safe’ in Aus.

 

Further down the road I found an old Anzac memorial bridge. This had been the main bridge, but when the bridge was replaced, they kept the old one as a memorial. This might not have been super interesting, except I ended up here for half an hour or so. I didn’t initially stop at the bridge, but just past it I saw my first Kiwi crossing sign, so wanted a photo. I did a u-turn at a small pull-over that was connected to the bridge somehow, and went back. I parked at the other pull-over on the other side of the modern bridge (besides the Anzac bridge). While here, I decided to check for caches – I found a close one and grabbed it. By this point I’d forgotten why I went back in the first place, so I drove past again, re-saw the kiwi sign, so did another u-turn and went back to the bridge pull-over. Grabbing my camera and tripod I went to cross the modern bridge, but it didn’t have anywhere to walk except on the middle of the road – so I returned to the Anzac bridge and crossed there – but couldn’t get back to the main road until I’d walked all the way to the pull-over on the other side (only about a 5 min walk but further than I’d expected). So then back along the road to the Kiwi sign for the photo. After almost 30 minutes of stuffing around, I decided to risk the modern bridge instead of walking back the long way. All in all, it was a long time for nothing much.

 

I was still pretty early for arriving in Wellington though. I knew Jason would want a look around the city on the following day, so wanted to leave some stuff for then – so didn’t mind taking a bit longer.

Then I saw a sign for a Kiwi enclosure at Mt Bruce.

I have now seen a live Kiwi!

Mt Bruce is a large conservation reserve. They’ve managed to clean out the introduced predators by a series of trap lines around the reserve (no fences) that get checked every few days. In additional to the reserve, they have a tourist section where you can see the animals. I didn’t do the entire park – but spent an hour or more here with the Weta bugs, Tuatara reptiles (not lizards) and the Kiwi. They normally have a pair of Kiwis, but one was at the vet’s – but the star was here.

Mt Bruce is famous for having the only white Kiwi on display. There are only three known to exist at all.

The white Kiwi lives in a dark enclosure so you can see it foraging (I assume they turn the lights on at night to make it feel like daytime). Not easy to get photos in the dark – but it was well worth the visit. The tour-guide (a rather cute Canadian) did a talk on both the tuataras and Kiwis while I was there – so I feel much more informed. A Kiwi can defend itself quite well against a feral cat once it reaches a decent size – and the Tuatara has a third eye for it’s first few months (not a full eye – but it can sense daylight and things with it).

 

 

Onwards to the town of Masterton. Spotted a Countdown supermarket that hasn’t been Woolies branded. Not sure if some have held out from the merger, or just haven’t been branded yet. Had lunch just out of town (more tuna in rolls).

 

I’d been told to expect interesting roads down this way – but so far it had been disappointing. At Featherston, I finally arrived at the pass. This was much more interesting as the road snaked up and down the mountains. Unlike similar roads back home, there was a lot of traffic on this run though. Unlike the run to Gisborne, this one went up and down on the hills – the Gisborne run was along besides the river. The Gisborne one was longer though, and had much less traffic. Still – I quite enjoyed this.

And then down past the town of Upper Hutt, to the town of Lower Hutt which is almost part of Wellington (like Legana to Launceston). This is where the Wellington Caravan park lives – so I checked in and erected our tents (so mine could dry). Mine is a $20 tent from Kmart in Aus, Jason’s is a $9 tent from The Warehouse here. They are both very lame tents – but the extra $11 makes a big difference. Mine is much wider so you can sleep diagonally – and more importantly, mine isn’t transparent. In the sun, you can see straight through Jason’s – so you can’t leave anything in it. In the dark, if he turns a torch on, everyone can see him too. His does have a better door though.

 

Left the tents behind, and headed into Wellington. I’m not sure how they compare in size, but it feels a lot like Hobart – except with tunnels.

 

 

 

 

Went to visit the Weta Cave. This is the public part of the Weta Workshops. These are the guys who made the armour, weapons, costumes, and effects for Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Narnia, District 9 etc. Had a look around the shop, and joined a tour of the workshop. It was shorter than expected – but I really enjoyed it.
 

 

Got to see (and sometimes handle) some of the props from the movies, as well as have the process that created them explained. By the time I finished, the shop was shut, but I was coming back tomorrow anyway…

Drove around for a bit – found myself in some tiny little streets on the hills around the Miramar peninsula. Two-way streets with parking on both sides, and just enough room to sneak between in the middle – if you met someone, you had to back a long way (I did twice). Was rewarded with some impressive views though.

 

Back down on the level, headed around the point of the peninsula to find a cache or two to mark my visit – and ended up recovering a Jeep!

 

That’s not something I’d expected on this trip – but a Jeep driver had done something foolish and gotten bridged, so I can gave him a gentle tow to get out of there.

More fish and chips for tea besides the water – and then just waiting for Jason’s plane to land. He’d flown down from Auckland to join me for a few days. Picked him up and then headed back to Lower Hutt for the night.

Day 6.

Woke up early – much to Jason’s surprise. Neither of us had slept overly well – but that’s expected by this point.

Headed into Wellington (the first Jason got to see of it in daylight). Had a look around the CBD while we were looking for the info centre (Google was confused). Had a look at a few tech shops, and a Whitcools (think Birchalls for a similar shop). Whitcools had shotgun lighters that I’d admired at Jason’s, so I got one too. Jason meanwhile drank 6 litres of free water (apparently he was dehydrated yesterday at work) before finally buying a drink as well to make up for it. He spent the rest of the day looking for toilets, but felt better.

At the Info Centre we decided to head to the local museum because it was free (and because it was raining).
Wasn’t bad – the most impressive thing was the body of a giant squid they have preserved and on display.

 

It’s looking a bit worse for wear now – but they also had footage of it when it was caught. It was good for Jason though – the toilets were convenient so he went three times while we were there.

 

 

After that it was back to Weta Cave so Jason could take a look and I could get some souvenirs. Jason wasn’t very impressed because it was all expensive, so he went off in a sulk to try and find some USB drives at a local store that had been advertised, while I stayed and watched a doco about the history of Weta – nicely complemented the tour I’d done yesterday.

 

 

After Weta, we headed out of Wellington. On the way out we did a detour to a little cul-de-sac Jason had found online called Jason’s Place so he could have a photo with the sign – and I took a photo of the series Landy that happened to be parked up the street.

 

The weather was clearing and the forecast looked like we should be able to tent again tonight.

From there it was more driving up to Palmerston North. Jason was trying to sleep, while I was trying to fight off a headache (apparently I hadn’t drunk enough either) but we made it. Had a quick look in town at the local Cash Converters before checking into the caravan park. Good thing the weather was getting back to normal (hot) – the cabins were all booked.

Put up the tents – and over the fence we could see the local pool – or more to the point, we could see the waterslides at the pool.  Jason could even see them from inside his tent (I said it was see-through didn’t I)!

So we headed next door and went to the pool. We only did the outside slides (the inside ones were shutting as we got there. One of the ones we did was a “speed slide” – basically a straight drop so you built up a lot of speed. Not my thing – too high – but Jason did it a number of times.

The other slide was sort of like being flushed down the toilet. It was as high as the speed one, but you went down on an inflatable ring through a tube and then got spun around a bowl until you slowed down, and then through another tunnel and out the bottom. Got some photos and took GoPro footage – hopefully they turn out ok. Lots of fun.

 

 

 

 

After messing about on the diving boards for a bit, we got dressed and headed into town again. Tea at Wendy’s tonight. Wendy’s is a burger joint over here, not related to the icecream shop back home (although they apparently have that too). Quite nice – and the large drinks are almost Abbey caff-pow size.

By this point Jason was feeling rather stiff and sore after all the water-sliding and swimming, so we went to Kmart so he could get an extra sleep mat for padding tonight. Not sure it will help much.

Then back to the camp – and time to update this log and record my spendings (ouch).

Oh yeah – back when we were first looking around Palmerston North, we had a look at a local Warehouse (I seem to have been in a lot of them this trip) for something or other, and I found a Lego Hobbit set (these are out of print) – so I now have a Lego Thorin as well as the one from Gisborne – rather chuffed about that.

Day 7 - Palmerston North to Rotorua.

Today half our party breakfasted on jam and toast, while the other (and oddly broker) half decided to try a café. So we headed into town and found a Café, but Jason panicked when they told him to take a seat and they’d bring him a menu. Apparently what he wanted was a bakery, so we found one on Google and headed for it – but apparently it was a commercial bakery rather than a foody one. So we tried another café/bakery but Jason then decided what he really wanted was to try some local cuisine, so he went to Subway.

After Jason finally had breakfast, we found a cache and had a look around Harvey Norman while waiting for the local Toyworld to open – but nothing exciting in either so we headed out of town.

Along the road we can across an impressive looking valley so we decided to take a back-road and headed down into it. We then realised it was quite cool, so came back up to take some photos from the top – and then headed down again. There’s a nice camp site down here with access to the river so we poked around a little.

 

 

 

There was a one-lane bridge over the river and as the road had been dead quite we decided to take a photo – but had to bail twice due to cars that chose that particular moment to turn up – but eventually we got the shot.

 

As we travelled we checked the forecast. Not looking good for tonight, so we checked the net and a cabin at the caravan park wasn’t too much more than a tent site, so we booked one online.

Then up the valley and up a road that turned out was heading south again – so even though it looked like an epic drive, we turned around and took  anther (also rather cool) road up the valley and eventually rejoined the highway.

Had lunch at Macca’s in Taihape where I ordered a meat pie (not something you get down here).

 

Up the road at Waiouru there’s an Army Base and the National NZ Army museum. We didn’t go into the actual museum, but poked around the tanks outside. Unlike thee equivalent in Aus, there weren’t any “keep off” signs or fences, so we followed the example of some others, and took some photos with the tanks, and then visited the gift shop inside.

 

Just out of Waiouru we realised we’d entered the highlands. Awesome highland scenery (pains of highland scrub) and mountains in the distance. We’re not sure if it’s snow, clay, or even a glacier, but something on the mountains was reflecting rather awesomely.

 

I mentioned one of them might be the mountain they’d used as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings, so Jason checked Google and said it wasn’t. Discovered later that it was, and Jason was wrong.

 

It was quite an awesome drive through the highlands, and then descended slightly into trout country.

 

Seems trout fishing up here is a big deal with a Trout museum and lots of trout on signs etc. We drove around Lake Taupo which is really rather large and eventually arrived at the town of Taupo itself. We decided not to follow the GPS and headed into town for a brief look (drive-by tourism) and on the way out Jason suggested we follow the signs to Huka Falls, whatever that was.

The weather that was threatening finally broke and the rain came down as we arrived at a lookout and realised it wasn’t the falls (just a lookout over the town). We headed down the road a bit and found where the falls were and were debating if it was worth heading out for a look in the rain, but eventually decided to try. I broke out my cheap emergency rain coat (which I’d bought earlier in the trip) and we headed out – and it was well worth it!

 

 

The falls aren’t high, but the sheer amount of water going down is pure nuts. Apparently it would fill 5 Olympic pools every minute. We stayed around admiring the falls for a bit and then headed onwards to Rotorua.

Jason had been here before, so directed us off the road before we arrived at the town and down a muddy track to Kerosene Creek. This is in a Thermal area – so the creek is actually quite warm. So even though it was raining, we got changed and went for a dip. It’s quite popular with locals and tourists in the know – but certainly not commercialised, just a long-drop dunny and carpark and a rough walking track to the creek.
 

 

Half a dozen cars were here even though the day was miserable. Quite awesome, but warmer than I’d prefer – but worth it for the experience. As the water was moving quite fast down the waterfalls it was also stirring up a lot of dirt, so it wasn’t exactly a cleansing experience. We headed into town to find the caravan park and some showers.

 

On the way into town you could see steam rising from all the thermal vents around the area – more visible due to the rain – made for quite an interesting site.

 

We had booked a log cabin for the night – quite pretty, but just a wooden room with a bed and a couple of bunks – should be far better than recent nights in tents though. The rain has eased up now – but it’s still been a good call.

Headed into town to find some tea. Jason veto’d my idea to find a curry place and decided we should live on the edge and have some pizza instead. He’s a risk taker, our Jason.

Stopped at the bottle shop to try a few local brews. I got a Tui pale ale because I’d driven past the brewery earlier in the trip – and a Kiwi fruit cider. Both were quite nice.

Set some stuff out to dry and updated this log before calling it a night. Tomorrow it’s off to Hobbiton!

Day 8 – we’re off to meet the Hobbits…

Ah – the joy of sleeping in an actual bed!

Got up and underway in reasonable time today even with the more comfortable beds. Had breakfast at the caravan park and then headed into town. Jason wanted to check out the Cash Converters but it wasn’t open yet – so we headed out to the lake to find a cache. This was easily accomplished. We walked around the lake for a bit as it’s really impressive.

 

Rotorua is a very thermally active place, and the lake seems to be particularly prone. Lots of vents with steam coming out on the lake edge, and pools with boiling water and/or mud. Smells like someone dropped their guts, but very interesting.

 

Took a million and a half photos of the mud boiling trying to catch one with a good explosion, haven’t checked them all out yet to tell if it worked.

The lake itself is cold (it’s rather massive), but there were sections of it bubbling due to thermal vents under the surface. Not enough to heat the entire thing though. Apparently if you dig a hole right beside the lake it will fill with water and start boiling – but we didn’t have any implements and it was too rocky to dig by hand.

 

Back to the car via a different route, and noticed the “danger” signs warning people not to go where we’d just been – whoops. Ah well, we didn’t fall in. Back into the CBD (we weren’t exactly far from it at the lake’s edge) and Jason had a quite look around Cash Converters, but there was nothing worth converting cash for.

 

Next up Jason was keen to show me SkyLine. It’s a tourist trap that’s only (publicly) accessible by a Gondola. So we bought our tickets and headed up the side of the hill. They have a few attractions up there – but the two Jason wanted to go back to (he’d been here before) were the Luge and Jelly Bean shop.

 

The Luge is basically a billy-cart track. You jump on the little sled things and coast down the track. As well as turning, the handle-bars control you braking and speed by pulling them towards you or pushing away.

When we got there, there were only a couple of other people about – so we headed down the “Scenic” track so I could learn how to drive the sled. Jason screamed past as he knew what he was doing.

At the bottom of the track you catch a chairlift back to the top. The chairlift also hooks the sled carts underneath in a rather clever mechanism that delivers them to the top without any intervention.

At the top there were quite a few more people – so we had to wait a bit before doing the scenic track again. I was much quicker this time, passing a heap of other tourists on the way (scaring a few of them) but Jason was still considerably faster.

Back to the top again only to find rather long queues and a 30 minute wait for our next attempt – this time on the Intermediate course which is much faster.

Another trip up a run down the Advanced Course. This is the fastest one and includes a slight jump. Lots of fun.

Our ticket had included a fifth run, but we were running low on time and the queues were certainly no shorter – so we gave the last one a miss.

While we were up there we checked out the Jelly Belly shop. It’s a Jelly-Bean shop that does a large number of flavours. Most impressively, it does a number of deliberately gross flavours like “Lawn clippings”, “rotten eggs”, and “boogers”. Think the all-flavour beans from Harry Potter. We stocked up on a few (both good and bad) to try later.

 

 

Down the Gondela to the car and Jason asked if we could go to a Burger Fuel for lunch (another burger joint). We did, but he decided it was too expensive, so instead spent a similar amount next door at the bakery. And then it was time to head out of town.

We’re going to see the Hobbits!

We’d booked out Hobbiton tour the night before, which was a very good thing – it was sold out for most of the day by the time we got there. We had plenty of time to visit the gift shop and things before our tour was ready. All the tour buses are named after dwarves – we were in Ori, but we saw Dwalin, Fili, and Thorin as well.

As a Lord of the Rings fan, the tour of Hobbiton was fantastic. It’s just an area of the local farm that was used in the filming of Lord of the Rings – but when they filmed the Hobbit there, a deal was struck so the Hobbit holes were built permantly rather than as temporary sets, so you can walk around Hobbiton and admire the different Hobbit holes.

 

 

 

 

 

They are different scales to accommodate the shots necessary, and look brilliant. Truly an awesome place to visit.

 

There’s a cat that lives here called Pickles – he’s a very patient cat, which is good given the thousands of tourists that pay him homage each day.

Bag End was the focus of the tour of course – with everyone waiting for a chance to take photos in front – we were no different.

 

 

 

The tour ends at the Green Dragon Inn – where you can try the South Farthing Ale which I thought was quite good – even if Jason couldn’t get past the first mouthful of his. The Green Dragon was an awesome Inn – and a great way to end the tour.

 

Back to the Hobbit shop to pick up the souvenirs we’d chosen, including some South Farthing Cider – not sure that will make it home (sorry Em).

And then it was on to Hamilton where Jason wanted to show me some go-karts that he really enjoys, but turns out they aren’t open on Mondays. We got some Fish and Chips for tea (as Jason hasn’t had any over here) and ate them down by the lake in town. Then back to Jason’s place for the night – and a chance to update this and recharge some batteries.

Tomorrow will be a quieter day while I work out where to head next.

 

So - in case anyone hasn't worked it out, I'm currently in New Zealand (not Isla Nubla). My mate Jason is working over here for a few months, so while I had the opportunity to crash at his place, I decided to take a trip to NZ. Jason had returned to Tassie to propose to his girlfriend (now his fiance) - so we traveled back to NZ together.

Day 1

Made it to New Zealand without much difficulty myself – although Jason had some trouble in Sydney going through security. They pulled him out of line to go through the xray machine (probably random or maybe he looked dogey) which was fine – but when he collected his gear again, he somehow forgot to get his phone and iPad. We realised a few minutes later – but the security guys couldn’t find them. After about 10 minutes of Jason panicking and me constantly trying to call his phone in case someone had it by accident, the security guards found them. They had stayed in a tray and ended up in the pile of empties (even though they said they’d looked).  Jason relaxed a bit after that – Jason without a phone would be like me losing my glasses and both feet.

Just as we were boarding, Jason got a message from his boss that sort of messed up our plans. His boss had been going to drop a car at the airport for us – but the car was broken down so he offered to collect us. That’s extremely nice of him, but with the car broken down (it’s the car Jason has been using) that would stop us from getting back to Auckland on Monday to pick up the rental. The rental car I’d booked was from a smaller (and much cheaper) rental place – which wasn’t open until 8am. So we asked Jason’s boss to try and book us a 1day rental – but then the announcement came to turn phones off – so we didn’t get a reply. Jason’s Aussie phone had run out of credit, so he’d sent the last messages on mine – which turned out to be an issue.

The flight itself was fine - one of the smoothest flights I’ve been on. And yes, we had the awesome AirNZ Middle-earth flight video that’s been on the net for a while. We were a little worried about what we’d do for a car, but distracted ourselves playing Catan on Jason’s iPad. I occurred to me part way through that comments like “I need some sheep” might have been taken as an inappropriate NZ joke – but no one commented.

We landed in Auckland at midnight. Apart from the artwork it felt like any major Australian airport. Went through customs and declared my brand new tent (you have to declare hiking stuff) which was fine. Picked up our bags which were already on the belt (normally I have to wait) – and then on to the pick-up area.

 

As we weren’t sure what Jason’s boss had managed to arrange, we weren’t sure if he’d be here or organized a car or what. Both my phones didn’t have international roaming, so if he had replied to my Australian number, I wouldn’t get it.
After hunting for him in the crowd, Jason gave him a call. He’d tried to book a car for us, but needed license details. He’d replied to me (which we didn’t get). So we were stuck at the airport with no transport.
We hit the rental desks. Most were sold out – but we did manage to get a Corrolla for the day. Almost a third of the price of my rental for two weeks! But it was necessary – so we rented the car and said we’d return it that afternoon (it was about 1am).

So down the dark motorway and rural roads to Jason’s place. Not that different to Australia – even the signs look mostly the same – and you can’t see much else in the dark. Arrived at Jason’s and called it quits for the night.

In the morning I got my first look at NZ in daylight. It’s a farming area with lots of hills. Could be Tassie – but with twice the number of hills in the paddocks.

 

After we got sorted, we went to Pukekohe for a look around and to get some groceries. Jason shops at Pak’n’Save which is a cross between a supermarket and Shiploads. Basically it has all the supermarket stuff – but arranged like Shiploads. Jason is also apparently allergic to vegetables.

We called into ‘the warehouse’ which is a Kmart-like shop. Jason scoffed at the $30 tents as too expensive and decided he’d get a $15 one at Kmart. I got a sim card for the Skinny network over here so I could use my phone.
Pukekohe seems about Devonport size – although Jason says it’s growing faster than the town can really handle.

So back to Jason’s place to unload, have lunch, and then we headed into Auckland. We had a few things on our list – and managed to do a couple of them…

 

Pointing out the sights as we went (even the ones where he was entirely wrong) – we headed to the north shore of Auckland for a geeky nerd shop that Jason wanted to go back to. Like most of those shops, it was packed with geeky awesomeness. I got some badges, a book, and a keyring – Jason bought some DC glasses (the drinking kind, not the seeing kind). I’m not sure if he thinks he’s a DC fan or just wants to be like Sheldon…

 

Next stop – Devonport. There’s a nice suburb on the north shore called Devonport so we took a look. I might have to go back next week and catch the ferry somewhere – just cause it’d be fun.

By now it was after 4 and we hit Auckland’s famous traffic. We’d been planning to hit ToyCo before heading to swap hire cars – but that went out the window. By 4:30 we hadn’t crossed the bridge yet, so I rang the car rental place and said we’d be late (the pickup was scheduled for 5). According to Google, we’d get to the rental place by 5:30 (google knows the traffic state). Turns out Google was pretty much spot-on, so I went in and signed my life away at the rental place while Jason waited with the Corrolla. According to the booking I was getting a Corrolla-like vehicle, so was rather surprised when I ended up with a Mitsubishi Outlander. If I’d booked that, it would have been almost double the price. It’s an auto, but otherwise seems fine.

 

So onward to the petrol station to fill up the Corrolla. It was about 4km, but took over half an hour. Got the fuel, and then hit Kmart as it was just up the road. No cheap tents for Jason. Subway for tea, and then back to the airport (traffic had eased by now) to give the Corolla back. No issues there, and then back to Jason’s place for the night.

As an aside, both the Outlander and Corolla have pathetic high beams.

Day 2 – Tuesday

Jason had left for work by the time I woke up this morning. Did some stuff around here (including writing the above) and some research on where I wanted to go today and beyond before heading out back to Auckland. On the way back to the motorway I saw the police and a crane that had just retrieved a car from going over the bank. The rural roads around here mostly follow the ridge-line of the hills, so you often have drops on both sides of the road. Almost a spine-crawl, but not quite.

Today’s mission consisted of the two parts that we didn’t get done yesterday. 1 – find Jason a tent. 2 – pick up a Lego spaceman I’d ordered online from Toyco.

Part 1 supposedly consisted of finding a “the warehouse” store and picking up at $10 tent they had advertised. Not quite that easy – as I discovered after the third “the warehouse” that didn’t have any cheap tents.

 

Part 2 was easier. Found my way to ToyCo – which happens to be the only place on the globe I could find still selling the classic spacemen led lamps that I wanted. I collected the one I’d already purchased online last week – annoyingly the remaining ones were now on clearance – but I’d already paid for mine. It’s a pretty cool thing if you ask me, but I doubt everyone would agree.

 

I was also on the lookout for a cheap fan because Jason’s place is rather warm –stupidly hard to find though – Warehouse, Kmart, Bunnings etc all don’t stock them. Was starting to think they might be illegal over here for some reason, but Jason says he’s seen them at a hardware before.

Found some lunch in the ‘hot food’ section of a Countdown (which is the local name for a Woolies). Countdown is very much the same as a Woolies – but where we have hot BBQ chickens, they have a bit more of a range of hot stuff.

After another warehouse or two (no tents), I headed back towards the airport for something I’d seen the previous day as we crawled past in traffic. It’s a place called Butterfly Creek that has (strangely enough) butterflys, farm animals, and things of that nature. But it also has just opened an exhibit called “Dinosaur Kingdom”. I’d done some research in the morning and it sounded good – so I wanted to have a look.

Basically it’s an enclosed area with a heap of animatronic dinosaurs. I was only there for 40 minutes or so – and only because I was taking a lot of photos – if you’re not a dinosaur fan you’d probably get sick of it after 15 minutes – but I really enjoyed it. I’m just regretting leaving my tripod in the car (I used a stone under the lens). I also need to set up my camera to swap between standard and time-delay photography on a button like my old one. It does it fine – but it’s annoying to do it via the menu each time.

I managed to get a few photos of myself with the dinosaurs though, so I was happy.

 

I then headed to the nearest Bunnings that Google could find (I personally know there is a closer one that I’d been past the day before – but I couldn’t find an address). At Bunnings I finally found a tent cheap enough for CheapskateJason to afford. He is now the proud owner of a $9 tent and a $4 tarp to try and make it water resistant.

After all that, it was late enough that I missed the traffic jams coming home – and arrived back at Jason’s about 7.

Tomorrow should be more interesting though – as I’m branching out east. No more day trips to Auckland, it’s time to explore!

Oh a side note – I’m finding it much easier to recognise the Outlander in carparks than I was with the Corolla – didn’t stop me opening the boot of the wrong one today though. The owner was friendly (although a little startled) and offered to take my shopping if I wanted to give it away.

On another side note - posted a photo of myself with the Raptor on facebook. Most people still don’t know I’m in NZ :)

Day 3 – Eastward and down

Today was the start of my southward wanderings. My aim was to reach the town of Gisborne.

Many people have warned me that the roads are slow and it takes longer to get places than expected – and they are true, but that wasn’t much of an issue – my problem was getting going in the morning.

Did some emailing, dishes, hung the washing out, and packed the car. Shouldn’t have taken long – but it did. This delayed my trip into Pukekohe to get the groceries, which delayed my final leaving.

Anyway – I turned the wrong way out of Jason’s driveway because the GPS wasn’t really awake yet – and it decided that I could go the back way, which was interesting. Bit of gravel and back roads until I ended up somewhere I recognised. Quite enjoyable, probably didn’t help my lateness though.

Made it into Pukekohe and did my groceries (things for lunches etc). Filled the Outlander with petrol (ouch - $1.70 a litre here!). Before I left I pick up a Kiwi all-blacks fan who wanted to take a look around the country. His name is Kevin and he joined me for the day’s adventures.

 

So back to Jason’s to get the washing off the line, only to find that his boss’s wife was blocking the driveway because she was doing the lawns (Jason doesn’t have a mower). Introduced myself, grabbed the washing, and left again.

Midday – the journey begins.

The first part of the journey was the same as the other roads near Jason’s – fairly windy with lots of hills. But once I got past the motorway it got flat and straight. It was actually flat and straight for ages. Still felt fairly Tassie-like, except the motorways are only 100km when they should be 110.  Roadworks slow down to 30km which is painful.

Stopped at a rest stop for some lunch (rolls and meat paste and cheese) and again at a little town to use the amenities, only to discover that the particular park is apparently the centre of the North Island.

Had an enjoyable but uneventful drive to Mattamatta which is somewhere I think I’ll be back to later for the Hobbiton tour (at least I think it leaves from here). I stopped there briefly because there was a Toyworld and Toyworlds often have old stock of Lego. A couple of Hobbit sets, but not the ones I wanted.

After Mattamatta things got interesting again. The motorway goes over a range – and it suddenly gets very twisty. Almost like one of the passes in Tassie but shorter, and it’s a three-lane highway with traffic instead of a quiet narrow road. It was actually a lot of fun passing a heap of trucks climbing over the range – but I missed what should have been a pretty good lookout because I was in the passing lane at the time.

Over the range things settle down somewhat – but it’s still more interesting than it had been. The GPS was guiding me but I didn’t really know where I was in relation to anything, so I was a little surprised when the coast turned up unannounced.

 

I had originally planned to head via the coast but had decided to go straight to Gisborne since it was later than I’d planned – but apparently the GPS decided that was the better way anyway. So I went along the coast from Tauranga to Whakatane to Opotiki. It felt rather like the northwest coast of Tas.

 

Along the way I found a giant kiwi fruit so stopped for a photo and visited the shop. Bought a “Liquid Kiwi” drink which was awesome – but had Kevin a little worried.

 

At Opotiki I turned inland to cut the corner off the journey (although it would have been awesome to visit the east-most point).

The Opotiki to Gisborne road is awesome. Truly epic. It’s like the West Coast roads at Savage River or somewhere, but it’s longer. If you don’t like corners, don’t come this way – but if you like to drive, it’s fantastic. Would have to rate among my best drives I’ve done. Takes an hour and half or so – but well worth it.

 

 

 

Arrived in Gisborne at 7 after a thoroughly enjoyable trip, and found the caravan park. Took a lap until I found the office and checked in, but got there eventually. Erected my $20 tent – which is somewhat embarrassing. I’ve always believed it’s worth having decent camping gear – and this certainly isn’t. I even added a tarp to keep off the dew. But it should do for a night or two.

 

 

Left the tent to it’s own devices and headed into town in search for some food. Finally got my fush n chups! Ate tea while sitting on the beach watching the sun set, which was great until the mozzies decided to eat me in return.

 

Headed back to the caravan park and threw some stuff in the camp fridge (with my name on the bag) and then retired to the games room to update this log. We’ll see how the tent goes tonight.

Day 4 – travelling

Another day – another few hundred ks.

I slept on and off last night. Unfortunately the cheap tent doesn’t really suit people as tall as me – so I have to sleep diagonally with my pillow hard against one corner and my feet at the other. If you’ve ever done any camping you’ll know that touching the walls of the tent is a bad idea.

Thankfully it didn’t rain – but there was a heavy dew like there always seems to be. My cheap leave-behind pillow that I’d bought the other day was a little damp, but that was the only casualty. I’ve bought a couple of extra tarps today to try and assist.

Not sure why – but I kept waking up every few hours. Seriously missing my proper tent and stretcher etc. The cheap tent and hiking lilo just aren’t the same.

Anyway – got up – had a shower – cooked toast in the camp kitchen and waited for my tent to dry. And waited, and waited. By almost 9am (which I think is check-out) the tent still wasn’t drying, even though the sun was fully on it. So in the end I gave up and just bundled it into the car on the back seat.

While I was cooking toast I was chatting to a New Zealander guy who said there’s an Art Deco festival on in Napier this weekend, which is why there are so many classic and antique cars around. There were three very old cars and a couple of classics sharing the caravan park with us – and I saw more during the day.

I headed into Gisborne proper looking for a souvenir shop hoping to get a hat badge. I’ve collected hat badges on a few trips now (Great Geek Migration with Klutz from Mt Isa to Tassie, Europe trip with Emma, a few family holidays) and thought I’d try and get a badge each place I stay. Well turns out that souvenir shops aren’t very common in Gisborne which is odd considering it’s a rather touristy spot. The only actual souvenir shop was shut when I went past – so I googled and ended up at the information centre. They were very friendly but had very little for sale – they did suggest I go up to a lookout which I did later. I tried the newsagents and the 2 dollar shops, but no luck. When I was coming back I noticed that the souvenir shop was open so I stopped there too – but they didn’t have much apart for shirts. So much for my hat badge idea…

I did go into the local ‘The Warehouse’ – wouldn’t you know it – every tent imaginable (ok, so that’s a stretch) including the cheap ones – why couldn’t any of the Auckland ones be like this?

Before leaving Gisborne I wanted to find a geocache. There were two on the beach right near the campsite – but I struck out on both.

So I headed up towards the lookout. I wanted to see the lookout, I wanted to take a photo for Emma, and there was a cache up there. Apparently this hill is a women’s only exercise area. Not officially or anything – but I passed probably 30 people jogging up and down the hill – but they were all women (except possible some of the kids being pushed in prams).

Anyway – I got to the lookout and quickly found the cache – my first one overseas! I also took my photo with Thorin for Emma. I’ve emailed it to her and she appreciated it – not sure if anyone else would get the joke though.

 

There’s a statue up there of some bloke who’s not Captain Cook. Basically that’s all they know – he’s not Captain Cook. As Gisborne is where Captain Cook first landed on NZ, some well meaning person decided to make a cast of a statue of Captain for them. Some he took a cast of the original, and made a bronze statue for Gisborne. Unfortunately someone realised that the statue was wearing the wrong uniform and looked nothing like Captain Cook. So they have a statue of some random captain (probably Italian) on their lookout.

 

Back into Gisborne for fuel (ouch – it’s $1.84 here) and then finally hit the road.

 

There was a lot of driving today – but it wasn’t as awesome as yesterday. They were still nice roads – but nothing to write home about (except I guess I am). After Gisborne the next town is Nuhaka which is a small town with a shop and mechanics and about 20 houses. It wouldn’t be memorable except it’s the only thing for ages. I did a couple of laps looking for any interesting old 4wds, but didn’t find anything. Sort of like Gladstone – except on a more major drag.

 

Had lunch besides the river at Wairoa a while later. This was a bit larger town (Campbelltown size). While walking along the street I spied a fan for sale – they do exist over here! I hope I mentioned that earlier or it’ll make no sense. I’d been looking for a fan because Jason’s place is very warm and couldn’t find them anywhere. This one was expensive, but at least it proved they do exist.

Just to keep things interesting on the drive, I stopped a few times to take photos – sometimes in a logical spot –sometimes not. Sometimes it was scenery, sometimes it was 4wds. I thought I’d spotted a G60 at one point and did a quick uturn only to find it was a series Landy. Nothing wrong with Landies, but it’s not a G60. I think I ended up passing the same truck three times due to my erratic stops.

 

 

Eventually I arrived at Naipier. I almost drove straight past, but figured I should take a look. Drove around the town a bit (it’s quite large) and did a little shopping. I found a cheap fan in a hardware shop – there were lots of them – maybe they’re only outlawed in Auckland? Lots of old cars to admire too – but it was the Pajeros that had me doing blockies to take photos. Gen 3 shorties – not at all common back home, and Gen 2 shorties (like mine) with some of the Evo body-kit. They might even have been full-on evos, but with some of the trim removed. I know an Evo is generally a Lancer back home – but Pajero Evolutions exist too – just not in the Australian market.

 

 

From Napier it was only 30ks or so to Hastings. Smaller than Napier, but still decent sized. This was my destination for the day. It’s not quite half way to Wellington – but I arrived in time to have a look around tonight – so I should be able to get away earlier tomorrow. Found a cache so I can tick this off too.

 

The caravan park is a little dearer than Gisborne but has a pool and things. It’s quite nice, apart from the coin-slot showers. I’ve decided not to bother with the tarp over the tent tonight – I don’t think it helped (I’d do it if it was raining). I threw the tent up first thing when I got here – so it’s nice and dry now. I expect tomorrow will be similar, so I won’t bother waiting for it to dry.

Had tea at a restaurant called Carl’s Jr. It’s just another burger chain – but one we don’t have back home.

 

One a side note – the Outlander is making me glad I got a Forester instead. It’s ok to drive, but the Forester is much more fun. Less power perhaps, but seems to be more responsive anyway. The Outlander has a keyless key that you just have to have near the car to start, which is fine, but I keep reaching for the key to turn it off – the button is on the other side. I don’t know why they wouldn’t put the button on the same side as the key normally goes. I’m getting more used to the auto now – I don’t think I’ve double-foot braked today.

When you lock the car, the mirrors fold in. It’s not terribly useful, but it gives an easy visual way to see if the car is locked.

Another note – I bought myself a cheap LED lantern at the start of the trip. It worked ok last night – except when it’s turned off it has a very annoying and bright blue LED that pulses on and off. I can only assume it’s so you can find the torch in the dark – but it keeps you awake. I haven’t worked out how to turn it off – so the torch lived in a sock last night. Today I got some tape and the light shouldn’t bother me now.

Tomorrow it’s onwards to Wellington – the bottom of the top!