New Zealand Part 2

Day 4 of our New Zealand vacation

Wednesday January 17th
We woke up with plans to drive directly to the Hawke’s Bay region on the east coast to Napier, but decided to change plans at the last minute and drive north to the Bay of Plenty area to see some of the coastal beaches there that Phil had his heart set on! We got up early and left our 6 roommates quietly behind. The air that morning was cool and misty, and we decided to cross the street before heading out of town to a park we were told about right next to the Backpackers. To our delight, we found a collection of steam vents, bubbling mud pools and hot springs right there in the center of town. Who knew? It explained the smell that permeated the air, and was a nice treat before heading off on our way. Before hitting the open road, we stopped for gas, coffee, diet coke, and some meat pies… truly disgusting… I know. Rotorua sits at the northeast corner of what is known as the central volcanic plateau of the north island, and the elevation there is about 1000 feet. The drive to Whakatane was about 100km or so to the northeast and took us into another beautiful world of scenery we hadn’t seen before. As we neared the coast, we started down the first, of what would be many, very windy mountain roads. It was amazing. The rises and valleys were covered with thick lush forest. Mottled throughout, were numerous tree ferns which gave the whole experience a tropical feel. It turns out these tree ferns are kind of a staple on both islands and really add a nice feel to the local forests. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cyathea_medullaris.JPG

We drove through the town of Whakatane which is separated from the coastal beaches by a sizable hill. We headed over without stopping in town, and were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the Bay of Plenty, the dramatic coastline in the distance, and Ohope Beach directly ahead. http://www.whakatane.com/ohope_beach.html

Sadly the skies were gray and there were patches of mist on the water, so we didn’t get the full experience, but it was still great in its own right. Ohope is one of the most beautiful and famous of the New Zealand beaches. The beach has 11km of unbroken white sand beach with views of the mountainous coastline stretching to the east, whale island jutting out of the bay less than 1km from the shore, and White Island, New Zealand’s most active volcano off in the distance. http://www.ohopebeach.info/white-island-bay-of-plenty.htm It was early when we got there, and because the weather wasn’t great, we had the beach almost completely to ourselves. It was perfect! I don’t think there is anything more relaxing than taking in a private moment on a beautiful beach, with the ocean breezes wrapping around your body, and the calming sounds of crashing waves and singing gulls filling your ears. Because the weather wasn’t cooperating, we decided to keep on moving, and continue our drive along the Pacific Coast Highway. Since it was 2 hours since our last meat pie, we decided we should stop and recharge at a local convenience store and got ourselves a few pies for the road! We drove another 30-45 minutes east through Opotiki along the coast towards “Eastland”, the eastern most region of the country, if you didn’t guess this by the name! It would have been a great drive, with mountains rising up sharply from the water, rocky coasts, and white sand beaches scattered throughout, but sadly the weather just wasn’t cooperating, and the road ahead was buried in low clouds and mist. Instead, we decided to stop at a lookout just outside of town and savor one last look at the beautiful views back towards Ohope Beach and White Island. Now allegedly, on said respite, there may have been a silly makeshift photo shoot highlighting the Holiday brand cigarettes we picked up the night before as a goof in Rotorua… but I’m not talking. After saying goodbye to the Bay of Plenty, we headed back towards Whakatane and then south towards Murupara along the Rangitaiki River. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangitaiki_River

The drive was quite scenic and completely different from the lush “tropical” forests we had seen less than 20km away. The road skirted the western border of the Te Urewera National Forest, http://www.newzealand.com/travel/destinations/national-parks/te-urewera/te-urewera.cfm which is the largest unspoiled natural forest left on the North Island. It started unassumingly with a casual drive through various open cow fields like you might see in Vermont, but in short order we were deep within gorgeous unspoiled pine forests. The drive took us over the river across a large damn, and then away from the river deeper into the forest. Once it opened up again, we found ourselves flanked on our left by the biggest mountains we had seen up to that point. It was spectacular, with the occasional glint of white representing a waterfall breaking through the foliage covering the range. It was along this drive that we saw our first Kahu, or Australasian harrier hawk. It is a pretty magnificent bird, and one of only 3 raptors found in the country. We learned quickly that it is a pretty common bird over there, and one that would become a common site along many of the roads we were driving.

We took a right turn at Mururapa back towards Rotorua and caught up with the Thermal Explorer Highway and took that south towards Lake Taupo in the heart of the Volcanic Plateau.
http://www.newzealand.com/travel/destinations/themed-highways/thermal-explorer/thermal-explorer.cfm/context/print.html

Before getting to Taupo, we were told by the couple we had met in Waiheke to stop at the Huka Falls before heading into town. We took a fortuitous wrong turn on our way and found a hidden treasure (at least for the foodies among us) We followed signs off the main road for the Huka Falls Jet boat thinking it must be near the actual falls. Um…not so much, oops! As we drove down the hill into the lot, we noticed a dozen or so large rectangular pools of water along the river’s edge that turned out to be the Huka Prawn Park! http://www.hukaprawnpark.co.nz/ This is an interesting place. Given the area’s significant thermal activity, the locals decided to use that to their advantage and constructed geothermal plants to harness this natural energy. Someone then came up with the idea of raising prawns using the heated waste water (not toxic waste, fear not) to warm more than a dozen fresh water pools we saw on our way in. It is quite an operation. You can go in and fish for them yourself, or you can just be a lazy glutton like we were, and choose to stuff your face and let someone else do the work! The sun started to peak through the clouds as we walked into the restaurant, so we grabbed a table outside on the spacious deck of the large restaurant they built for the immediate consumption of these tasty critters!! For those of you who are wondering, prawns, at least these prawns, are about halfway between the size of a standard shrimp and a one pound lobster. The deck gave us a great view of the beautiful blue waters of the Waikato River and the sheer rock cliff on the opposite shore. While stuffing our faces and enjoying a crisp glass of local Sauvignon Blanc, we got to see the brave souls on the huka jet boat race and spin their way up the river towards the falls, which it turns out were about a quarter of a mile down the road from where we were sitting… who knew?! The jet boat was several hundred dollars a person, so we opted to save our money and drive down to see the falls. We passed the Honey Pot and Heli-tour place on the way to the falls, and figured we’d hit them both up on the way back. The Huka falls are an amazing natural wonder and a kind of non-traditional water fall. They fall gradually over several hundred meters but with great force through a narrow granite canyon, eventually spilling out at the far end in a more traditional falls of about 35 feet or so. The sheer force and volume rushing by is amazing in and of itself, but the brilliant almost unnatural blue color is breathtaking. http://www.newzealand.com/travel/sights-activities/scenic-highlights/scenic-views/sh-huka-falls.cfm

After the falls, we drove back to the helicopter tours to try and get a last minute booking. I wanted to do a volcanic hike, but the scheduling just didn’t work out with everything we wanted to see so we thought we might take in a helicopter tour of the regions largest volcanic peaks instead. It turns out mother nature had other plans for us, as we were told by the tour guides that the flights were terrible that day! Since we were snubbed by the Gods, we decided to cheer ourselves up by stopping at the Honey Pot up the road. This was a really cute and cheesy operation serving up all things honey: including countless honey flavors (which were open for tasting!), moisturizers, oils, lotions, shampoos, even beer! They even had numerous working hives right on site, some of which actually snaked through the building in clear Plexiglas tubes. Sitting outside we enjoyed a honey beer in the warm patchy sunshine, and caught site of our first Tui. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tui_(bird) . This is a local bird that has the happy honor of being the poster bird for one of the more popular local beers. If you don’t see the bird itself, you are sure to see its face on at least one of the buildings in most of the towns you venture through. I think we have some video footage, so with any kind of luck it comes out clear enough to enjoy later.

We continued down to Taupo and stopped to walk around and to buy another memory card. Yes, we have problems; after only 4 days, we had practically burned through the 2G memory card we came with having taken over 700 pictures. Since there were almost 10 more days left in the trip, we had no choice! I left with another 1G card and met Phil at the car. (Incidentally, we would need to buy 2 more gigs of memory to get through the trip!) While I was in the camera shop, Phil explored the local shops.

Taupo is a cute little town that sits on the northern extent of the lake that bears it's name. Lake Taupo is New Zealand’s largest lake.
http://www.newzealand.com/travel/destinations/regions/taupo/taupo.cfm

It is quite beautiful, and on a clear day, looking towards the southern edge, you can get some nice views of some of New Zealands most dramatic large cone volcanoes.
http://www.bungyjapan.com/bungynewz/august/lake_taupo.jpg but we didn’t see them at all on this day. After the quick town tour, we felt compelled to stop at the McCafe on the lakefront. We were drawn to it initially because it had classic DC-3 airplane perched in flight mode next to the main building that was set up as a climb up and eat in cafe for the family! Kind of fun. Also, the idea of McCafe was intriguing, and we had to know what we were missing. Walking into the McCafe is a little disorienting. Straight ahead was the classic sterile looking environment of the familiar Mickey D’s, red tables and all, but to our left was a rather comfortable Starbucks-like environment with a wide array of much more delectable goodies waiting to be eaten… We were confused… healthy, high-end McDonald’s. Does not compute… does not compute. We just couldn’t wrap our minds around the concept and found ourselves running back to the car in fear! =)

We left Taupo in the mid-afternoon, and continued down the Thermal Explorer Highway to the southeast towards Napier in the Hawke’s Bay Region of the country. This area is famous for its extensive wineries, restaurants, and beautiful beaches. This section of the drive took us over the beautiful Maungaharuru Range and down to Napier These mountains were again quite different from any we had seen up to that point. The thick forests we had seen most of the day gave way to wide open treeless fields as most of the land here had been cleared for farming. Even the mountain peaks had little more than a smattering of trees. In their place though was the greenest of grasses, which in the last remaining sun we got that day made for a stunning visual effect! We almost felt like we had been transported to Ireland! The beauty of this drive, and many like it over there, is that there is virtually no commercial life between Taupo and Napier. The problem one might have with this drive though, and many like it over there, is that there is virtually no commercial life between many of the cities. If you can’t see where this is going, here’s the note to all NZ travelers: when driving around, if there is any doubt at all when leaving a town where the next gas station might be, top off your tank at the town you’re in! This tends to prevent unnecessary gastric ulceration and colonic upset! I learned my lesson! I was so distracted by the scenery, I forgot to watch the gas. We had a bit of scare when we had been driving for a few kilometers on empty and pulled into a self-serve gas station with great hope and relief, only to find that we couldn’t use their machines with our typical credit cards! SHIT! We had a mild panic attack but managed to coast into a local gas station on fumes and fill her back up!

Napier is an interesting city. There is an industrial port side to the north and the historic art deco side to the south. http://www.napier.nz.com/ , http://www.artdeconapier.com/ . I have to say, it is one of the most charming cities we drove through though, and it was kind of bummer we got there when we did because it would have been fun to explore it a little more. Note to the NZ traveler: Napier is not a hotbed of activity on a cloudy midweek day after 6pm! We found that the whole damn city pretty much shuts down after that! Of course we didn’t find this out until we started to walk around later. The waterfront strip in Napier is beautiful, and we stayed right on it at one of the YHA Hostels. Incidentally, this is a great company if you are looking for accommodations on the cheaper side, and they have hostels in most of the bigger cities in NZ. New Zealand, as we learned, lacked in high end accommodations. Oh well, we made the best of it. Again, the weather didn’t really cooperate, so our views weren’t what they could have been, but it was a great location nonetheless. We parked out front, pre-packed a small overnight bag, and brought only the essentials in because we had a doozy of a wake-up! Our goal was to catch the 10am ferry in Wellington, and we were looking at a 5 hour drive south, so we needed to get up at 4am in order to give us enough time to return the rental car in downtown Wellington and get back to the ferry before it left! Yeah, I’m not sure what the hell we were thinking! The other dilemma was that we had been buying little things along the way, and suddenly found ourselves overstuffed and in desperate need of another bag!!

Yes, I know… it’s only the 4th day! After settling into our room, we headed out to the beach and then wandered through the abandoned streets in desperate search for a bag and a meal! There were no stores open at all and the only real restaurant we found was a steak house named Charlie’s. It looked very cute from the street, with handsome dark wood walls, sharp looking black and white tiled stairs leading up to the second floor, and pictures of old Charlie Chaplin movie posters on the walls explaining the restaurant’s name. Of course, when we got to the 2nd floor, we learned that they must have run out of money on the entrance charm and had to do the dining room on the cheap! At the top of the stairs we found ourselves in a somewhat ghetto fabulous plain room with high ceilings and beautiful-ish mint green walls with dark green/brown carpeting that was kind of through down haphazardly not quite fitting cleanly against the walls! The tables had metal legs and black plastic tops, and every table had a tiny arrangement of fake flowers. The other surprise was that the whole place was run by an Asian family whose cursory knowledge of the language left me thinking that hadn’t been there too long! Good times. At least we had a sweet view of the deserted street below! The only activity on the street that night in fact, was the local maintenance crew finally taking down the Christmas decorations. I guess they celebrate it longer over there! The dinner actually turned out to be pretty tasty though, and we wrapped up the evening with a glass of wine at the hostel. Then it was off to bed, as we had a big date with the ass crack of dawn!

More to come......