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| Our Holiday Home |
The chance to tour around New Zealand, especially down to South Island, had been an unfulfilled dream ever since we arrived here last season and this wish became one of the main reasons we braved the long and rather arduous trip for a second season.
For a while we thought it just wasn’t going to be possible yet again but fortune finally smiled on us when we were given the chance of a lifetime by our cruising friends, Helmut & Kerstin from Lopto. They had purchased a camper van for themselves and toured extensively from December through to February. Their trip home to Germany left the van available for the month of March so they offered us the use of it during this time. Wow, what a thrill!
The crucial issue of our new port lights which we managed to install before the end of February, allowed us to relax on the ‘leaky boat’ front. We threw a few items into the van and away we went.
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| Passing through Auckland |
The first leg of our journey took us south of Auckland through picturesque Cambridge and on to Lake Taupo, a beautiful region smack in the middle of North Island and a popular holiday resort for the Kiwis themselves.
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| Sea Plane landing on Lake Taupo |
Lake Taupo was created by a volcanic eruption some 26,500 years ago which is now considered to be dormant (hopefully) and this offered us a spectacular view of a snow covered Mount Tauhara from the town of Taupo itself. That’s the first time we’ve set eyes on snow for many a year.
The whole region of Lake Taupo through to Rotarua is an area filled with a myriad of amazing natural hot springs and, after one fairly long hike to the Haku Falls, we were able to relax in the hot waters of a small spring nearby. Very pleasant indeed. We also collected pumice stone which lies thick and plentiful along the shores of the crystal clear lake.
Leaving the central region, we continued on down to Wellington to catch the ferry to South Island. This route took us through miles upon miles of beautiful lush and fertile farmlands. I honestly think there's no such thing as an ugly or even boring scene in New Zealand.
It hadn’t been intended but we stayed for two days in the Wellington area as Paul had a serious toothache which he tried to have sorted out there and we also had an issue with the back door of the camper van; we simply couldn’t get it open so went off in search of a locksmith and the Toyota dealer in the hopes of having it fixed. In addition, we needed to visit the Papau New Guinea consulate to see what, if anything, would be required in the way of visas should we decide to go that route once leaving NZ.
Wellington struck us as a very funky town and we’d have loved to roam around a bit more but we had set our sights on getting over to Picton. All in all, we didn’t manage to sort out the tooth and we fixed the lock ourselves using a rather Heath Robinson invention but at least we could now get into the back to make tea and coffee in the mornings.
So as not to make this too long and tedious, I’ll break here with some photos of the journey to date and save Picton onwards for the next entry.
PHOTO GALLERY:
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| Our first stop at Cambridge |
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| Lake Karapiro near Cambridge |
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| It was a tad chilly |
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| Lake Taupo with Mt Tauhara in the background |
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| Haku Falls |
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| A great place to relax |
1 comment:
So good to hear what you're up to. Wish the tooth problem had been able to be fixed, but maybe a smaller community more accessible. I look forward to hearing the rest. Safe journey!
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