Today, the driving was all down, back down towards Auckland again.
We did manage to see a sunset last night, a golden, molten metal sort of sundown whereby the cloud was turned into a drip of hot furnace metal above the clear, shimmery grey water of the harbour. However, in being lifted up to take a good picture, I managed to whack my head on the roof which was unexpectedly hanging over the balcony viewing point. Doh. Now I have a lump on my head.
This morning, we left the campsite, waving goodbye to guitar man who has sat and played the guitar, constantly since we arrived yesterday apart from the 8 hour gap he took to sleep.
We drove round the hilly roads of Northland, marvelling how they went from windy and steep to impossibly straight and flat within seconds of each other.
We drove into the Kauri Forest first, the oldest habitat on New Zealand's shores. We stopped to trek in and gawk at Tane Mahuna, the Lord of the Forest. He was amazing, aweinspiring int he true sense of the word. You have never seen a tree this big. He was over 2000 years old, and in Maori legend is the reason the Earth exists, as it was his doing that pushed apart the Mother (Earth) and the Father (Sky) and so allowing people to come into being between them. His trunk was 13.5m circumference, 75m tall. Absolutely gigantic, especially in comparison with the other rainforest species. So large, you whispered in his presence.
We continued on through the thick rainforest, following the seemingly deserted road. Eventually, we broke out into sunlight again, the canopy no longer covering us in green light and bird calls.
We had a small lecture on Ancient Greek Theology in the car, as Alex asked about it and that fired off my blather mode. When we surfaced from the mug of ancient religious talk, we were several klicks further down the 'Coastal Highway' (still no coast to be seen! Lies!) and very hungry. We had lunch overlooking the entire valley and stayed there for a while feeling on top of the world. We passed back near the town of metal animals and then spent some time exploring down random roads. We found a lovely reserve that reminded me strongly of a lake I have visted in France a few times and we parke dup in the forest campsite for awhile, looking out over the lake and enjoying the surroundings.
Once we had peaced out, we continued onwards and eventually came to stop at a lookout for dinner. Here, we were hijacked by 10 varied and curious chickens, all beautiful, all highly interested in our car and us and all desperate to steal our food. They followed us about and made funny noises to each other, then started a rallying cry for reinforcements from the other side of the hill. We made dinner with the last of our vegetables (we have timed the finishing of food rather too well!) and made a run for it. The chickens all chased us as the car drew level with road again.
We continued on, looking for a campsite for the night. After looking for one that appears to have vanished from existence since the writing of our map, we turned tail and went in the opposite direction for a bit, managing to find one, nicely situated in a park of pohutukawa trees. We have yet to pay for this site, as the owner cannot get his card machine to work and so just waved us on through, so whether we have to do some heinous chore tomorrow to pay him back or not, we are not sure. In the meantime, our car now has a view of baby rabbits frolicking under the trees, so it should be a peaceful night.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Monday, 16 November 2009
Clouded
We set off from our idyllic seaside spot this morning into the Northland pastures new, clouded over and drizzling. As we drove, it thankfully began to clear up a little, so we were not forced to listen to the dreary whine of the windscreen wipers scrape across the glass.
We drove back though Whangerai, onwards towards Whangerai Falls. Here, we stopped for elevenses (alas, no more butter, we had dry fruit bread!) and took a walk down into the rainforest to have a gander at the Falls. These were brilliant, a full 27m drop of water, curtaining a basalt lava flow from some good while ago. The basalt had formed into 6-sided columns under the eroding effect of the water and vibrant green moss grew over the whole, adding to the 'depth-of-the-rainforest' vibe. We continued onwards, through the thickly growing trees, their roots twisted and curled upwards and over the soil. Ferns twirled and exotic sounding birds chirped. It was like being in a room with a 'rainforest sounds' CD. The water, after being churned by the falls had turned an odd, milky blueish tone and was slowly creeping on over rocks and pebbles in the way. The odd duck turned up and we spent some time trying to capture the antics of a wagtail on camera. It was oddly disturbing, the river water, reminding me of descriptions of the river Styx in Greek mythology. Never a good sign to feel as if you are heading deeper into the Underworld...However, passing out from under the trees, we found ourselves in a Springtime meadow, complete with daisies, buttercups and dandelions as well as cow parsley and tall grasses. We walked on for a while, in the sunshine that was valiently attempting to break the cloud cover, then returned (uphill) to the car.
We drove on, leaving Whangerai and continuing Northwards. We stopped in Kawakawa to see the Hundertwasser toilets, a bizarre tourist attraction centred around an artist (Hundertwasser) who had lived in Kawakawa for the majority of his life and left a legacy of crazily decorated toilets. These were awesome, made up of broken tiles and handcrafted sculpture tiles, with inlaid bottles and pottery urn columns. It was very colourful and cool, the tiles melding into the ground in a curve and the whole thing vaguely reminiscent of Moroccan art work, with a twist.
We left Kawakawa with cookies in our hands (and soon our stomachs) and continued onwards. We reached Paihia, a destination we had long been looking forward to despite its tourist status focusing on cruise ships. Paihia was beautiful - long stretches of golden sand, calm inlets and islands covered in forest just out in the bay. These were the Porr Knights islands and are apparently excellent for diving. We parked up and took a wander round, exploring an arts market that happened to be showing its wares on the green in front of the ocean that day and also sitting for a while on the beach, enjoying the sunshine which had finally turned up.
Once the sunshine disappeared once again and the clouds came back in force, we left Paihia. The air in Northland is very humid, hot and sticky, which is at odds with its grey skies. We headed on to Hokianga, in the hopes that the weather might yet clear and we would be rewarded with good weather at one of the most spectacular sunset viewing areas in New Zealand. As such, we are parked up in Hokianga now, poised with a view over the entire harbour. Sunset is at about 8.15, so we have just had dinner and are settling down to do some constructive portfolio work before the possibility of a decent sunset occurs. The sky cannot seem to quite decide what it is doing, being oddly blue one moment and misty grey the next. Anything could happen. We shall see!
We drove back though Whangerai, onwards towards Whangerai Falls. Here, we stopped for elevenses (alas, no more butter, we had dry fruit bread!) and took a walk down into the rainforest to have a gander at the Falls. These were brilliant, a full 27m drop of water, curtaining a basalt lava flow from some good while ago. The basalt had formed into 6-sided columns under the eroding effect of the water and vibrant green moss grew over the whole, adding to the 'depth-of-the-rainforest' vibe. We continued onwards, through the thickly growing trees, their roots twisted and curled upwards and over the soil. Ferns twirled and exotic sounding birds chirped. It was like being in a room with a 'rainforest sounds' CD. The water, after being churned by the falls had turned an odd, milky blueish tone and was slowly creeping on over rocks and pebbles in the way. The odd duck turned up and we spent some time trying to capture the antics of a wagtail on camera. It was oddly disturbing, the river water, reminding me of descriptions of the river Styx in Greek mythology. Never a good sign to feel as if you are heading deeper into the Underworld...However, passing out from under the trees, we found ourselves in a Springtime meadow, complete with daisies, buttercups and dandelions as well as cow parsley and tall grasses. We walked on for a while, in the sunshine that was valiently attempting to break the cloud cover, then returned (uphill) to the car.
We drove on, leaving Whangerai and continuing Northwards. We stopped in Kawakawa to see the Hundertwasser toilets, a bizarre tourist attraction centred around an artist (Hundertwasser) who had lived in Kawakawa for the majority of his life and left a legacy of crazily decorated toilets. These were awesome, made up of broken tiles and handcrafted sculpture tiles, with inlaid bottles and pottery urn columns. It was very colourful and cool, the tiles melding into the ground in a curve and the whole thing vaguely reminiscent of Moroccan art work, with a twist.
We left Kawakawa with cookies in our hands (and soon our stomachs) and continued onwards. We reached Paihia, a destination we had long been looking forward to despite its tourist status focusing on cruise ships. Paihia was beautiful - long stretches of golden sand, calm inlets and islands covered in forest just out in the bay. These were the Porr Knights islands and are apparently excellent for diving. We parked up and took a wander round, exploring an arts market that happened to be showing its wares on the green in front of the ocean that day and also sitting for a while on the beach, enjoying the sunshine which had finally turned up.
Once the sunshine disappeared once again and the clouds came back in force, we left Paihia. The air in Northland is very humid, hot and sticky, which is at odds with its grey skies. We headed on to Hokianga, in the hopes that the weather might yet clear and we would be rewarded with good weather at one of the most spectacular sunset viewing areas in New Zealand. As such, we are parked up in Hokianga now, poised with a view over the entire harbour. Sunset is at about 8.15, so we have just had dinner and are settling down to do some constructive portfolio work before the possibility of a decent sunset occurs. The sky cannot seem to quite decide what it is doing, being oddly blue one moment and misty grey the next. Anything could happen. We shall see!
Saturday, 14 November 2009
North
Well, we have been relentlessly moving on up North from Miranda. After some more quality time in the heated pool, we left Miranda Springs and started back along the Coastal Pacific Highway after reading that it was a 'Thing to do before you die' route.It was nice and all, but really? A must-see? Alex and my official stance on this particular route is that it is mostly propaganda anyways - it is nearly always away from the coastline, and it merely rambles through pleasant green countryside.Not to mention, I was pulled over by a completely scary-looking bunch of police officers, who wanted me to speak my full name aloud, before letting me go on my way. Alex and I were mystified by the whole thing until we turned the radio on and realised NZ has just passed a law for the police to do random drugs tests on drivers. So yeah, that box I spoke into? Not a dictaphone recording my name as evidence in some heinous crime, just a drugs detector! Nice to know NZ police think I look high. Humph.
We eventually came to the point where we had to go on through Auckland. We stopped in Manukau first and were bowled over by the amount of people and civilisation that awaited us there. We were actually in awe of the mall, just because we have been away from such things for a good long while. They had 'Sooshi' - fruit icecream rolled up in dried fruit and then fruit jelly added to it to look like, you guessed it, Sushi. It fascinated us. They had whole counters devoted to baked goods. We sniffed the baked goodness as it wafted around the foodcourt. They had skate shops and games shops which drew Alex towards them with unholy power. I was attracted, as if I was something metallic looking at a magnet, towards shops with shoe sales and sparkly things. It was quite fun, if a bizarre way of spending an hour.
We battled it through the busiest traffic we have ever come across in NZ, along the 3-lane motorway across Auckland's Harbour Bridge. We sighted the Skytower and it was like coming home, as it was the first thing we saw when we first arrived in NZ. Such an odd feeling!
Within 10kms of Auckland, the traffic had thinned right down again, no cars were to be seen apart from the odd truck. It was as we were drifting up into the Northland, that we saw the sign. 'SheepWorld' it blared out at us. We had to stop and see. It was mandatory, having seen the sign. That was when we saw them. We had parked in the carpark, we were about to go in and have a look at prices, we heard a 'baaa', we turned.
An entire field of flourescent, bright, radiant pink sheep stood on our right. Pink sheep! They were day-glo! They were spectacular.
We wandered around the shop for a bit, but decided to skip the park itself (despite their having alpacas) as the ticket was quite pricey and included events that had long since finished by the time we rocked up at about 2.30. But still. We saw pink sheep, and that was hilarious enough to entertain us for quite a while.
We carried on going, aiming for Whangerai, but eventually stopping at Mangawhai Heads Beach Reserve instead.
(Sidenote: I keep forgetting to add this - The Maori pronunciation of these words is very different to how we see them spelt. 'Wh' = 'F' sound, the 'g''s are soft and bouncy sounding and you pretty much slur it all together then make it sound musical. Go with it. As such, 'Whangerai' sounds more like 'Fang-er-AY'. Its fun to play with, although you mostly get odd looks if you do it in public).
We stayed at the Beach Reserve for the night, as it was an empty car park with pretty cool views. The carpark was crazy, it had some weird parking system that no-one could actually figure out, so everyone in it was parked ina different way, at odd angles. It was quite amusing, especially when one elderly couple in a massive campervan started audibly complaining outside our window this morning that they were unable to park correctly, because of where we were parked. I should point out at this time that the carpark was huge, and at this point occupied by only three cars, including us.
Northland is rainforest extradinaire and as such, it has been humid and drizzly since we arrived. Doh. We continue however, in the knowledge that we have but one week remaining and Northland is the last part to tick off on our roadtrip.
On our drive, we came across a rather disturbing and unusual aspect of this area. Near Warkworth, the whole country side is peppered with metallic sculptures of farmyard animals. This is patently uneccessary, as NZ has more than enough real-live farm animals to maintain. Despite this however, we have seen metal chickens, goats, sheep, alpacas, cows and one very scary, freakish goat/cow hybrid monstrosity that lurked out suddenly from its vantage point of a hill and caused us to fear what we would find aorund the bend in the road.
This morning, we set off for Whangerai, looking forward to what the guidebook painted as a pleasant little seaside town with many free distractions for tourists. However, driving through it, it was more of an industrial town, with confusing roundabouts. We went to Pak 'n' Save for muffins and abandoned the place, heading out to the coast to find a campsite. We have the need to feel a bit more grounded at the moment, less transitory. We have lucked out with a lovely green place, cheap and fully kitted out with kitchens and bathrooms. The sea is breaking on the bay not ten metres away from our car and we can see right around the headland, following the curve of the land.
We have, in a moment of foresightedness, planned our itinerary for the remaining days in Newt (*sob*) and shall therefore, hopefully, be able to take things easy and absorb the best of the Northland.
We've added a new batch of pictures to Flickr, so feel free to check those out!
We eventually came to the point where we had to go on through Auckland. We stopped in Manukau first and were bowled over by the amount of people and civilisation that awaited us there. We were actually in awe of the mall, just because we have been away from such things for a good long while. They had 'Sooshi' - fruit icecream rolled up in dried fruit and then fruit jelly added to it to look like, you guessed it, Sushi. It fascinated us. They had whole counters devoted to baked goods. We sniffed the baked goodness as it wafted around the foodcourt. They had skate shops and games shops which drew Alex towards them with unholy power. I was attracted, as if I was something metallic looking at a magnet, towards shops with shoe sales and sparkly things. It was quite fun, if a bizarre way of spending an hour.
We battled it through the busiest traffic we have ever come across in NZ, along the 3-lane motorway across Auckland's Harbour Bridge. We sighted the Skytower and it was like coming home, as it was the first thing we saw when we first arrived in NZ. Such an odd feeling!
Within 10kms of Auckland, the traffic had thinned right down again, no cars were to be seen apart from the odd truck. It was as we were drifting up into the Northland, that we saw the sign. 'SheepWorld' it blared out at us. We had to stop and see. It was mandatory, having seen the sign. That was when we saw them. We had parked in the carpark, we were about to go in and have a look at prices, we heard a 'baaa', we turned.
An entire field of flourescent, bright, radiant pink sheep stood on our right. Pink sheep! They were day-glo! They were spectacular.
We wandered around the shop for a bit, but decided to skip the park itself (despite their having alpacas) as the ticket was quite pricey and included events that had long since finished by the time we rocked up at about 2.30. But still. We saw pink sheep, and that was hilarious enough to entertain us for quite a while.
We carried on going, aiming for Whangerai, but eventually stopping at Mangawhai Heads Beach Reserve instead.
(Sidenote: I keep forgetting to add this - The Maori pronunciation of these words is very different to how we see them spelt. 'Wh' = 'F' sound, the 'g''s are soft and bouncy sounding and you pretty much slur it all together then make it sound musical. Go with it. As such, 'Whangerai' sounds more like 'Fang-er-AY'. Its fun to play with, although you mostly get odd looks if you do it in public).
We stayed at the Beach Reserve for the night, as it was an empty car park with pretty cool views. The carpark was crazy, it had some weird parking system that no-one could actually figure out, so everyone in it was parked ina different way, at odd angles. It was quite amusing, especially when one elderly couple in a massive campervan started audibly complaining outside our window this morning that they were unable to park correctly, because of where we were parked. I should point out at this time that the carpark was huge, and at this point occupied by only three cars, including us.
Northland is rainforest extradinaire and as such, it has been humid and drizzly since we arrived. Doh. We continue however, in the knowledge that we have but one week remaining and Northland is the last part to tick off on our roadtrip.
On our drive, we came across a rather disturbing and unusual aspect of this area. Near Warkworth, the whole country side is peppered with metallic sculptures of farmyard animals. This is patently uneccessary, as NZ has more than enough real-live farm animals to maintain. Despite this however, we have seen metal chickens, goats, sheep, alpacas, cows and one very scary, freakish goat/cow hybrid monstrosity that lurked out suddenly from its vantage point of a hill and caused us to fear what we would find aorund the bend in the road.
This morning, we set off for Whangerai, looking forward to what the guidebook painted as a pleasant little seaside town with many free distractions for tourists. However, driving through it, it was more of an industrial town, with confusing roundabouts. We went to Pak 'n' Save for muffins and abandoned the place, heading out to the coast to find a campsite. We have the need to feel a bit more grounded at the moment, less transitory. We have lucked out with a lovely green place, cheap and fully kitted out with kitchens and bathrooms. The sea is breaking on the bay not ten metres away from our car and we can see right around the headland, following the curve of the land.
We have, in a moment of foresightedness, planned our itinerary for the remaining days in Newt (*sob*) and shall therefore, hopefully, be able to take things easy and absorb the best of the Northland.
We've added a new batch of pictures to Flickr, so feel free to check those out!
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Still
Ahhh. Today has been good! In a manner in which I'm sure no-one will sympathise, Alex and I were tired of moving on every day, always pushing on so as not to miss anything. So we took a holiday from our holiday, as it were.
Yesterday evening, we stayed in the hot mineral pool until it closed at 10. We were in it again this morning at 7. After much steam and thought on the subject, we decided it would really be best if we remained in the holiday park for a day longer. Time to recuperate from the road, we said. Time to relax from our constant travelling. Just one more day.
Sp, instead of packing up and leaving our glamorous campsite this morning, as we were meant to, we instead stayed. We soaked in the pool. We consumed breakfast (crazy 'Weet-Bix' made up of five different things...including puffed rice? It is like eating popcorn, ricecakes and weetabix all in one compact, rectangular cereal). We donned our sports wear (or what passes for it from our lugguge) and got rackets from reception, and spent the rest of the morning playing tennis. Once we had our eyes programmed to the yellow ball instead of a red one, we got some good rallies going, played out our own little Wimbledon. I won one set, Alex the other.
Having downed an energy drink to make it through the tiring rounds of tennis, we were both still raring to go. As such, we spent a good long while on the trampoline, to the amusement of random other park denizens, who wandered past, bemused at the activity.
After lunch (last nights left-overs) and fruit bread (a friendly sparrow came within an inch of my hand to steal mine. An inch!), we went back in the pool. Three times in under 12 hours is no bad thing...
We spent some quality time with the tv and watched Fraiser, while checking emails for job replies. Now we have an action plan, which will hopefully work out. No-one can commit to giving us jobs and all recommend asking the day before we want it instead of three weeks in advance. Yay for organisation.
Then, it was a return to the trampoline. This time, we took the camera in order to share some of our crazy flying-high moves.
We had dinner (a terrible combination of chilli beans, sweetcorn, potato, carrot and the evil ingredient - tuna) and copious amounts of chocolate afterwards to ward off the tuna.
Then we have been having our 'Work' hour, where we both work on something to put in our portfolio of skills and so hopefully attract employers towards us.
I'm reckoning the pool or the trampoline will probably see us again before the day is through...There you have the run-down of our day. Hope you all have a good day too! Let us know how its going! :)
Yesterday evening, we stayed in the hot mineral pool until it closed at 10. We were in it again this morning at 7. After much steam and thought on the subject, we decided it would really be best if we remained in the holiday park for a day longer. Time to recuperate from the road, we said. Time to relax from our constant travelling. Just one more day.
Sp, instead of packing up and leaving our glamorous campsite this morning, as we were meant to, we instead stayed. We soaked in the pool. We consumed breakfast (crazy 'Weet-Bix' made up of five different things...including puffed rice? It is like eating popcorn, ricecakes and weetabix all in one compact, rectangular cereal). We donned our sports wear (or what passes for it from our lugguge) and got rackets from reception, and spent the rest of the morning playing tennis. Once we had our eyes programmed to the yellow ball instead of a red one, we got some good rallies going, played out our own little Wimbledon. I won one set, Alex the other.
Having downed an energy drink to make it through the tiring rounds of tennis, we were both still raring to go. As such, we spent a good long while on the trampoline, to the amusement of random other park denizens, who wandered past, bemused at the activity.
After lunch (last nights left-overs) and fruit bread (a friendly sparrow came within an inch of my hand to steal mine. An inch!), we went back in the pool. Three times in under 12 hours is no bad thing...
We spent some quality time with the tv and watched Fraiser, while checking emails for job replies. Now we have an action plan, which will hopefully work out. No-one can commit to giving us jobs and all recommend asking the day before we want it instead of three weeks in advance. Yay for organisation.
Then, it was a return to the trampoline. This time, we took the camera in order to share some of our crazy flying-high moves.
We had dinner (a terrible combination of chilli beans, sweetcorn, potato, carrot and the evil ingredient - tuna) and copious amounts of chocolate afterwards to ward off the tuna.
Then we have been having our 'Work' hour, where we both work on something to put in our portfolio of skills and so hopefully attract employers towards us.
I'm reckoning the pool or the trampoline will probably see us again before the day is through...There you have the run-down of our day. Hope you all have a good day too! Let us know how its going! :)
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Lost
After waking to an overcast day, we embarked on a roadtrip round the coastal highway route of the Coromandel Peninsula instead of heading down to the beach again.
Now, this was purportedly a trip to admire the gorgeous coastline and discover secluded beaches...what it in fact was, turned out to be a trip down a road where houses had been built on either side, thereby obscuring the view! Admittedly, the houses were multi-million dollar mansions, which mad eup for it slightly as we plotted ambitious designs on how to secure these houses for our very own.
Once we had finished our trip around the entire peninsula however, we were still only in the early afternoon - we get up way too early! We explored the 'Warehouse' shopping centre, pawing at all the Christmas decorations and checking prices to see if we'll be able to have any tinsel adorning our Kiwi Christmas. Its weird, being out South Hemisphere way for Christmas.
After reading books we hadn't bought sneakily in the back of the shop, we moved on, and found the 'Miranda Holiday Park'. Having shaken the sheets out this morning due to the uncomfy exfoliating effect of having over half the beach inside the car (I have no idea how we trugged that much sand up the cliff back to the car, but somehow, it got in), we decided more showers were in order to rid ourselves of the sandy hair syndrome.
Now, we are enjoying some serious creature comforts in our holiday park full of random tourists who appear to have settled here.
We have sofas, tv, a kitchen, tennis courts, pentanque and (get this) our own heated mineral pool, fresh from the hot springs down the road! Good stuff! We now need to use as much of this as possible, in order to have justified our spending of ten whole pounds each for the night. Excellent!
Now, this was purportedly a trip to admire the gorgeous coastline and discover secluded beaches...what it in fact was, turned out to be a trip down a road where houses had been built on either side, thereby obscuring the view! Admittedly, the houses were multi-million dollar mansions, which mad eup for it slightly as we plotted ambitious designs on how to secure these houses for our very own.
Once we had finished our trip around the entire peninsula however, we were still only in the early afternoon - we get up way too early! We explored the 'Warehouse' shopping centre, pawing at all the Christmas decorations and checking prices to see if we'll be able to have any tinsel adorning our Kiwi Christmas. Its weird, being out South Hemisphere way for Christmas.
After reading books we hadn't bought sneakily in the back of the shop, we moved on, and found the 'Miranda Holiday Park'. Having shaken the sheets out this morning due to the uncomfy exfoliating effect of having over half the beach inside the car (I have no idea how we trugged that much sand up the cliff back to the car, but somehow, it got in), we decided more showers were in order to rid ourselves of the sandy hair syndrome.
Now, we are enjoying some serious creature comforts in our holiday park full of random tourists who appear to have settled here.
We have sofas, tv, a kitchen, tennis courts, pentanque and (get this) our own heated mineral pool, fresh from the hot springs down the road! Good stuff! We now need to use as much of this as possible, in order to have justified our spending of ten whole pounds each for the night. Excellent!
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Coromandel
After a hair-raising drive along a clifftop road, we entered the Coromandel Peninsula through a gravelled road that allowed us to bypass the blockage we had thought would prevent us from seeing it.
Wow. It is truly beautiful here. The sea, that reaches out as far as you can see is an aquamarine/deep blue, calm and endless. Scattered amoungst the waves are clump-like islets covered in rainforest. The beachs and golden and sandy. There are pleasant boulders grouped up along the shore.
After parking, we tramped the hour walk to the Cathedral Bay beach we had heard was the best. Oh, was this walk beyond tiring. Good thing there was a beach at the end of it! Considering we have survived glaciers with no ill-effect, and done much else physically demanding in the course of our travels, this track caused the disquieting feeling of one's heart expanding and attempting to leap from your mouth. Exhausting.
The gorgeous beach made up for it, as did the sunshine, heat and shady pohukatawa trees climbing the cliff faces. We lay out on the sand, composed of tiny pink pieces of shell and golden speckles, and paddled in the (freezing) clear blue water of the bay.
Having returned to the spaceship, we cooked up another brilliant stew and are now sorting through job applications and all that jazz. Exciting stuff.
I forgot yesterday, to mention some of the people we have been coming across...
In the Pak 'n' Save carpark yesterday, we managed to attach an odd elderly man to us when he noticed our car had 'Spaceships' scrawled on the side. His innocent seeming remark - 'Been far in space then?' turned out to be the start of a UFO conspiracy conversation which Alex and I just nodded along to as he vehemently declaimed the government and 'the people in charge'. He went to the extent of fetching out corralating paperwork evidence from his car to show us. Slightly concerning, but after about 30 minutes or so of in depth alien space theory, he wandered off with his trolley and engaged some staff members in conversation instead.
Alex also came across someone who freaked him out utterly, at the campsite. The women at the front desk acted rather robotically and kept having heart palpitations and wandering off during the transaction!
Wow. It is truly beautiful here. The sea, that reaches out as far as you can see is an aquamarine/deep blue, calm and endless. Scattered amoungst the waves are clump-like islets covered in rainforest. The beachs and golden and sandy. There are pleasant boulders grouped up along the shore.
After parking, we tramped the hour walk to the Cathedral Bay beach we had heard was the best. Oh, was this walk beyond tiring. Good thing there was a beach at the end of it! Considering we have survived glaciers with no ill-effect, and done much else physically demanding in the course of our travels, this track caused the disquieting feeling of one's heart expanding and attempting to leap from your mouth. Exhausting.
The gorgeous beach made up for it, as did the sunshine, heat and shady pohukatawa trees climbing the cliff faces. We lay out on the sand, composed of tiny pink pieces of shell and golden speckles, and paddled in the (freezing) clear blue water of the bay.
Having returned to the spaceship, we cooked up another brilliant stew and are now sorting through job applications and all that jazz. Exciting stuff.
I forgot yesterday, to mention some of the people we have been coming across...
In the Pak 'n' Save carpark yesterday, we managed to attach an odd elderly man to us when he noticed our car had 'Spaceships' scrawled on the side. His innocent seeming remark - 'Been far in space then?' turned out to be the start of a UFO conspiracy conversation which Alex and I just nodded along to as he vehemently declaimed the government and 'the people in charge'. He went to the extent of fetching out corralating paperwork evidence from his car to show us. Slightly concerning, but after about 30 minutes or so of in depth alien space theory, he wandered off with his trolley and engaged some staff members in conversation instead.
Alex also came across someone who freaked him out utterly, at the campsite. The women at the front desk acted rather robotically and kept having heart palpitations and wandering off during the transaction!
Monday, 9 November 2009
Rumble
There are weird, painted lines along some of the roads here and often, in order to cross and turn right, you are forced to run over these lines. They make horrible, scary rumbling noises and the whole cars makes sounds as if it is about to collapse. It is unnerving.
What is also unnerving is that we have travelled all the way up the East Coast of North Island, to see the Coromandel Peninsula, only to discover that the single entry into the National Park has collapsed and the entire Peninsula is inaccessable. Doh.
We drove from Napier to Taupo after a disquieting run-in with some threatening looking locals who scared us by following our car around and making weird gestures at us. So we ran away. On wheels.
In Taupo, we revisited our lakeside parking spot and enjoyed a truly relaxing Sunday. You may be wandering, what have we done recently that is so stressful as to deserve a relaxing Sunday? It is a valid question, but in reply, we have done lots of driving. It was Sunday, traditional day of rest...Okay, obviously those are no-fly excuses. It was sunny, we were by a gorgeous lake, ice cream became involved, who were we to argue with the idea of staying put for a day? For the record, I had passionfruit and malaga, Alex had kiwifruit and boysenberry. All four were sumptious!
We walked round some of the lake, took about an hour. It was very hot and sunny, the water was sparkling and all of Taupo's boat-touting residents crawled out of the woodwork and started displaying their machines. Bizarrely, some of the streams feeding the lake are boiling hot and steam as they run into the lake.
We have been listening to the New Zealand radio stations for a while on the longer drives - they are hilarious. They are in no way as PC as English radios are, although sometimes they just go too far. They swear, they make illicit comments, they insult everyone and yet, they remain hysterically amusing. They have terrible competitions ('What are your King or Queen of?' - 'Sausages', 'Stripping', Deepest Voice' being some of the answers) and crazy headlines - 'Seven Year Old Reicarnated Buddhist Monk'. The Dj's are not in any way reserved, speak their minds and spend a lot of time phoning random people up for no apparent reason. They also have a serious need to mock females. Like I say though, fuuunnyyy!
Anyways, we are currently in a random place (Waihi) at a campsite for showers! Yay! We are trying to work out our next move, now the Coromandel has seemingly collapsed...
What is also unnerving is that we have travelled all the way up the East Coast of North Island, to see the Coromandel Peninsula, only to discover that the single entry into the National Park has collapsed and the entire Peninsula is inaccessable. Doh.
We drove from Napier to Taupo after a disquieting run-in with some threatening looking locals who scared us by following our car around and making weird gestures at us. So we ran away. On wheels.
In Taupo, we revisited our lakeside parking spot and enjoyed a truly relaxing Sunday. You may be wandering, what have we done recently that is so stressful as to deserve a relaxing Sunday? It is a valid question, but in reply, we have done lots of driving. It was Sunday, traditional day of rest...Okay, obviously those are no-fly excuses. It was sunny, we were by a gorgeous lake, ice cream became involved, who were we to argue with the idea of staying put for a day? For the record, I had passionfruit and malaga, Alex had kiwifruit and boysenberry. All four were sumptious!
We walked round some of the lake, took about an hour. It was very hot and sunny, the water was sparkling and all of Taupo's boat-touting residents crawled out of the woodwork and started displaying their machines. Bizarrely, some of the streams feeding the lake are boiling hot and steam as they run into the lake.
We have been listening to the New Zealand radio stations for a while on the longer drives - they are hilarious. They are in no way as PC as English radios are, although sometimes they just go too far. They swear, they make illicit comments, they insult everyone and yet, they remain hysterically amusing. They have terrible competitions ('What are your King or Queen of?' - 'Sausages', 'Stripping', Deepest Voice' being some of the answers) and crazy headlines - 'Seven Year Old Reicarnated Buddhist Monk'. The Dj's are not in any way reserved, speak their minds and spend a lot of time phoning random people up for no apparent reason. They also have a serious need to mock females. Like I say though, fuuunnyyy!
Anyways, we are currently in a random place (Waihi) at a campsite for showers! Yay! We are trying to work out our next move, now the Coromandel has seemingly collapsed...
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