Top of the North

Sunset at Cape Reinga

Finally it is my turn at the keyboard. Mark is helping his father with a tractor, so my job for the day is to write a bit about our trip, so you can follow where we have been. Unfortunately I am not as fast at the keys as Mark and therefore I will probably skip a few details you would have gotten if it had been Mark, but I guess little is better than nothing.

Spirits Bay

Amazing, we have already been here for two months; time is flying so fast. Well since we wrote last time on the homepage we have seen lots of things; finished our trip in the North Island, catched up with Jeff, Patty and Ant from San Francisco and been around the top of the South Island. Now we are back in Timaru at Marks Parents place. We will be here till Thursday next week where we are heading up to Christchurch for Owen and Tracey’s wedding (5/3) and sometime early in the following week we will be heading south. This will be the last trip and cover as much of the southern part of the south Island as possible; it should be a trip dominated by glaciers, mountains and hiking :-)

Spirits bay "sand"

After leaving Auckland we went north to have a look at the big and impressive Kauri trees, once very common in NZ, but now quite rare due to the great timber and beautiful gum they provide. A few major once are easily accessible in the Waipoua Kauri Forrest and a very good museum describes the history of the trees in NZ. How lucky the redwoods in California are being useless as timber and therefore still existing in such large numbers. We continued up to and along the Hokianga Harbour and crossed on the Rawene ferry, drove through farmland and arrived at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach (Ahipara). After spending the night and having great problems getting the car started (not first time) we headed for the very northern point of NZ. Ninety Mile beach stretches almost all the way to the top, it is a wide golden sandy beach that just seems to go forever – very cool. A stop in spirits bay turned out to be a nice surprise – the beach is actually not filled with sand but with small pieces of shells that have been polished by the water, mainly in pink and purple colours, an extra treat that probably makes spirits bay our favourite bay. In the afternoon we got to Cape Reinga (the most northern point in NZ for tourists) where we enjoyed the view of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean while the sun was setting. As our car was not cooperating we decided to head back to more populated areas, and therefore our stay in the very north became shorter than expected.

Dorthe gets into the Fish and Chips at the Mangonui Fish and Chip shop.

The next week of our trip was dominated by beaches and bays. Heading south from Doubtless Bay, through Bay of Islands to Leigh we saw one lovely bay after the other. All very exotic with green water, white sand and a few Palms. A holiday paradise where we managed to become suntanned, have fresh fish and chips on the beach and be invited for breakfast by an old couple that camped next to us, both 82 years old.

The Champagne Pool in Rotorua. This hot pool is at 72 °C, and bubbles from natural CO2 effervescence.

After a quick stop in Auckland at Janette and Steves place, we were on the way to Rotorua, a geothermally active area. Boiling mud, steaming pools, geysers, and lots of iron and sulphur to colour it all – a very interesting area created by a volcanic zone running through NZ. Last stop in the North Island was Napier where we stayed with Matt Nicoll, unfortunately the weather was not as one could have hoped, lots of rain, which took a way a bit of the charm of the town located right at the water front. Napier is famous for Art deco (an architectural style) and we went on an interesting tour around town. The large amount of houses all in the same style is due to an earthquake in 1931 which destroyed most of the existing houses and the centre of town was completely rebuild creating a hole city centre presenting the building style of that specific time period.

The rest of the trip mainly consisted of driving, only broken by a ferry crossing, before we were back in Timaru at Marks parents place. I think this will be enough for now - you are tired of reading and I am tired of typing, so I will finish here :-).

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(Post published Feb 27th 2005 and backdated)