Day 10 to 14, Bay of Plenty - Taupo, New Zealand

25 deg sun and cloud

We’ve changed from weeks to days now (the title). There’s just too many photos for a weekly update.

Kia ora - Welcome to New Zealand.

We arrive into Aukland airport. This is a shock after Fiji. After collecting baggage, 6 lanes of inspection and xray machines. Warning boards flash “Last Chance to Declare” “Last Amnesty Chance before Fines”. New Zealand is strict on bringing in anything foreign: food, plants, insects. We ask if a half eaten bag of peanuts is Ok? Yes, comes the reply. They’re after the real criminals, the ones with sand in their shoes or a stolen pine cone.

We collect the car - Toyota Corolla - and set off to the Eastern Cape. It’s busy, very busy, and not just in Auckland. It’s not what we were expecting (roads without fences, only car on the road, the odd sheep in the way). No. It seems the traffic explosion has overtaken road building. The road we take is mostly single carriageway with overtaking stretches on the hills and is full of large lorries. The towns are not by-passed so each town we encounter has large queues to enter whilst people turn right, park up, stop for pedestrians etc. whilst behind the queue to enter the town gets longer and longer.

We arrive after 7 hours (should have taken 4 1/2) after a couple of stops and a supermarket run and are shown to our studio room overlooking Ohiwa harbour. Now this is more like it. Views as far as you can see; mountains to the left, tidal harbour in front, and Pacific Ocean to the right. We do nothing but open a bottle and drink in the views, and watch worm wars. Three black oystercatchers gang up on a little dotteril (I think) who had just turned up a big worm. The dotteril tried to swallow it whilst running but couldn’t manage it and had to drop it to avoid a pecking. Dejected, he goes back to hunt for another.

View from our terrace (tide in - the blob in the middle is a kite surfer)

View at sundown of Whale Island.

Another view of the bay

Fri 11th Jan.

27 degrees and sunny.

The next day is a chill day. We drive into Opotika,  which no-one understands when we say it (evidently it’s Optka) for provisions and get a feel. The towns we’ve passed through are, how can we put it, shanty? wild west frontier? Houses look like park homes, streets are in a grid and lined with single storey (two at most) shops with shaded walkways underneath, parking outside the shops with built out pedestrian crossings. 

Optka is a lot nicer. Same layout but some older buildings. We park outside the town museum and go in. It is big. The biggest building in town. It was very interesting and enlightening. Lots of old pictures of early settlers, tools they used, how the town developed. Interesting, given how remote it is.

The town was basically settled by soldiers. What happened was: after a few minor skirmishes by Maoris which were tolerated, some out of town Maoris rebelled and killed a missionary, Reverend Volkner. This galvanised the Government into action and they sent a ship of soldiers (no roads in the 1800’s) to seek retribution. The guilty Maoris (not the local Optka lot) fled to the hills. Having no-one to fight, the Government offered the soldiers land to settle in for free - Maori land - that was the retribution - so many acres for a private, more for a sergeant, colonel etc. Most took up the offer, retired, and became settlers (and kept the peace). 

A few of the nicer Optka buildings which took our eye.

And a roundabout.

With a Maori carving at it’s centre.

We wandered around Optka and it seemed quite nice, in a shanty town kind of way. Carol shopped, back still in agony but won’t take any advice from the pharmacist - you know what nurses are like.

We also visited a gift shop - Maori owned - Carol was facinated by the shop assistant’s facial tattoos - but too shy to take a photo.

But did by some Manuka honey face cream- so expecting results!

 We visited the local supermarket and then drove back, stopping to look at the monument to the integration and development of the town which has been relocated to overlook a beach.

The beaches here are littered with driftwood. Tonnes of the stuff. As a backdrop all along the coast you will see this driftwood. A treasure trove for arty carpenters.

Birders Corner

(You can skip this bit if you like.)

According to the “Birds of the Eastern Bay of Plenty” written by the local club, we have seen of note: Australasian Harrier (one only), Fantail (chuffed about that one), Tui (liked him as well - very musical), Caspian Tern, Pied Stilt, Reef Heron, Variable Oystercatcher (black - very pink legs), North Island Fernbird, Northern NZ Dotteril, White-fronted Tern, Curlews, and also what looked like swallows.

Botany Corner.

Ditto..

It’s amazing that shrubs and plants we pay good money for in England grow in the bush and along the shoreline as wild as they come!

Hydrageas, Hebes, and Agapanthis,

And 

Those orange lily like plants we’ve forgotten the name of...

And this is a Teatree bush - famous  for it’s antiseptic qualities

And the abundance of lovely ferns in all shapes and sizes.

After lunch at our lovely studio we walked to a Regional Park through a bush walk to a beach and back.

The bush walk was stunning. We passed an area where you could see gloworms but as it was not dark it was a no show.( we have booked a glow worm viewing trip in the South Island so fingers crossed we see a good display then)

  A view after the bush walk on the way to the beach

We finally reach the beach - Graham shed his togs and hit the sea just after this pic!

Carol sulked in the dunes nursing her sunburnt back - lesson learned -factor 30 just does not cut the mustard.

Saturday 12th January

26 deg or so, warm again!

We set off for Taupo. Contrary to a couple of days ago, the road is nice and quiet. It’s the same road but further down - so the same road name ( SH2) but  not the same stretch. Saturday - everyone at home? Anyway, this is more like we expected. It’s a nice drive to Taupo. Not stunning, but nice. Lots of forests and bumpy landscapes, hillocks I guess you’d call them.

...but no recycling points. Looking back on the bottles of beer and wine we consumed over 2 days we, or at least Graham, feels guilty about leaving them for Lindsey. Surely there will be recycling points at a supermarket or rest stop somewhere en route, but no. So this is strange - we thought NZ would be at the cutting edge for ecology and recycling but it appears not. Pick your own fruit and veg is wrapped in single use plastic, big V8 pickup trucks, and no recycling bins anywhere to be seen. Hmmm.

We break the journey at Hell’s Gate. No, not a motorcycle shop, but a geothermal hot springs visitor attraction.

Apparently named after comments said by a visiting George Bernard Shaw in 1900 - he said that this area must be the gateway to Hell in which his theologian colleagues said he would pass through if he did not change his atheist ways. The local Maori were so taken by him that from this time they allowed the area to be known in English as “Hells Gate”.

Geology Corner.

The main heat source driving the Hells Gate geothermal reserve is thought to be a magma spike that protrudes up from the Earth’s core. Over the top of this spike are a number of chambers of super heated steam under pressure along with a number of gases including carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. These chambers allow the entrance of the water which is immediately flashed off into super heated steam which can have temperatures in excess of 300 degrees C. Above these steam chambers are a number of underground water reservoirs that are heated by the steam and surrounding ground heat.

The various pools on the surface are fed from the underground water reservoirs by way of cracks or fissures in the rock. The chemical properties of these pools differ due to the source of the surface water and the input of steam and gases from below, the material surrounding ,the underground reservoirs and the heat input.

The reservoir is a series of different pools and rock formations each omitting it’s own display of steam, bubbling pools, plopping mud of differing colours and the same eggy sulphur smell throughout which we believe we will have to get used to as it seems to linger throughout the local area!  Wonder if the receptionist has eggy sandwiches for his lunch packup?

This little volcano looking geyser spews out black mud almost constantly.

There’s lots of different pools with different names, some black and bubbly, some yellow and sulphury. One is called the cooking pot and can cook a whole pig in two hours. Evidently the smell of the pool doesn’t affect the cooking of the pig but its not on the menu in the café.

We passed by the Kakahi Falls - the largest natural hot water fall in the southern hemisphere. This is where warriors bathed to salve their battle wounds and remove the “tapu” of war. The signage had pictures of muscle bound young men doing their warrior stuff - Carol thought that to improve our experience real live warriors should recreate this.....well one can dream...

 

The falls sans warriors..

Just as we approached Taupo we saw the sign to Redwoods Whakarewarewa Forest. A great place for a picnic spot.

We picnicked under the ginormous redwood trees. The redwoods were imported from California along with lots of other species as a test to see which trees grew best in NZ. Logging is the number 1 export activity for NZ.

And then decided to go for the Redwoods Treewalk - a suspended walkway combining dozens of wooden or see through metal bridges between the century old trees.

Just about to commence the adventure

It was amazing looking down on the trees and ferns

Apparently you can visit at night when the treewalk is illuminated by designer lanterns suspended from the trees.

On to Taupo, our destination for the next 2 nights. Taupo looked daunting at first, a big resort round a huge lake (Lake Taupo), but the only bit we’re interested in is the long 2 mile stretch which borders the lake off which are boat hire, sailing clubs and swimming platforms. Park your car, walk 5 metres across the grass and go for a swim. It’s quite nice. We book in to our accomodation at about 6pm, which is only a stone’s throw away and make our way down near the dinghy sailing club, plonk ourselves on a bench and watch the world go by. 

We see a few blokes come down from the housing estate behind with dogs on leads. They unleash the dogs, strip off to their trunks and both go for a swim. This is walking the dog Taupo style. A family to our right is enjoying an afternoon lakeside, kids swimming, mum and dad in deckchairs, dog milling around and their son 250 metres away on the lake in a kayak, fishing. A few minutes later it’s time to go. Dad hollers to the son, no movement, hollers again, no movement. He dons a life jacket and starts swimming out. 50 metres, this is further than he thought. Starts hollering again - no response. More swimming, 100 metres out now hollering. No response. The yacht club safety boat thinks he’s in trouble and heads out, drags him aboard and then sets off for the kayak. Son has no option now but to be towed in. Straight to bed with no tea no doubt.

Sunday 13 January 

23 deg C. Cloudy - a bit cooler today.

Carol has again planned a full itinerary, walk to Huka Falls with a picnic, followed by a boat trip later afternoon. After a false start we find the correct starting place and set off. The start is where some hot springs join the river and then 4kms downstream the walk ends with a waterfall.

The walk is glorious (and warmer than it looks). An easy track alongside the river Waikato with fantastic views, tropical trees and a great soundtract of birds and insects - the sound is almost deafening. It takes about an hour after which there is a waterfall, rapids viewpoint.

We picnic at the rapids and watch a tourist boat take people up to the rapids as near as he dares for a photo before veering off and trying again. After about 3 goes they turn back and continue the cruise down river.

At the end of the return leg we reach the hot springs again. Quick change and in we go ( well Graham does, Carol continues to nurse her sunburn - but it is getting better....) 45 deg C - bath temperature gushing out of the side of the hill into the river.

Someone embracing the full shower experience in the bathwater hot waterfall at the top thermal pool.

Graham having a Timotei moment in the hot spring.

Sadly the area was far too well known in our opinion - the river section was teeming....

After a quick cuppa at our rental studio we head off to the marina for our boat tour.

We took off on a large motor catamarran to tour Lake Taupo - the biggest lake in Australasia - the same size as Singapore! Yes, Singapore! We don’t know how big that is either. Now, if they’d have said Wales... ( the guide book says it’s 600 sq km)

As we motored southwards on the lake we could see three mountains - which are actually volcanoes - Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe - we will be staying in the National Park near Tongariro in a few days time.

We took in the views and  headed for the famous maori rock carvings - 

At the side were other carvings done by local artists

A team of Maori artists spent 4 years on the works completed in 1980. The guide on our boat said that they wanted to leave a mark of their ancestors on the landscape beside the increasingly European looking lake. Although they succeeded, it has , like everything else on the Volcanic Plateau, become another tourist attraction. 

Tomorrow we head back up to Rotorua.. If I was a child, I would love to grow up in Taupo.