Auckland to Rotorua

We touched down in Auckland on a pretty bad day in New Zealand’s winter with very dark skies and a lot of rain. We found a shuttle into the city centre pretty easily and it would even drop us off at our hostel, the only downside is we had to put up with forty-five minutes of absolute crap coming from a group of Aussies in the seats behind us. To begin with it was amusing to listen to but nearer the end of the journey it just became draining having to resist correcting them on everything they believed. Apparently a bungy jump, which New Zealand is famous for, offers you ten seconds of free fall. How high are they planning on doing a bungy jump from? 3000 feet?

Before going on to describe our time in Auckland I have to get this out early. I enjoyed my time in Auckland but will forever only associate the city with one thing: it has the ugliest tower I have ever seen. It’s the first thing you see when you lay eyes on the skyline and, although they try and improve it with lights at night, there can be so few people in the world who think it looks good.

Ugly

Given the sighting of the tower, along with it being a pretty dreary afternoon, Auckland didn't get off to the best start aesthetically but on our arrival at the city’s Base hostel, where we would be spending two nights, it got worse. Apparently we had the wrong voucher printed off and they wouldn’t accept us despite having our names in the system so we were looking at no option but to pay for a night’s stay and then get onto STA (our travel agent) in the morning. However, in a stroke of luck there was a STA office round the corner but it was closing in ten minutes. I bombed it round in time to find a very helpful lad from Manchester who was able to get onto the UK system and print us off a voucher. I returned to Base and we were finally able to get to our room on the tenth floor of the building. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but the lifts were brutal as they shot up and stopped so suddenly your stomach would continue onto the next floor. Our room was fine although clearly not as good as the Base in Melbourne we had just left, but we had to settle for the only available beds on opposite sides of the room. We hadn’t got off to the greatest start in New Zealand but we headed out to find some dinner and it immediately picked up.

Having wandered around the centre of town, which was right outside our hostel doors, we chose a small Irish restaurant where Linz could calm herself down following a stressful hour with one of the greatest steaks ever. I had a very good fish and chips myself and we returned to the dorm in better spirits than we had left it, although the lift did its best to bring our meals back to us.

Just like in Australia our first priorities the next day were to find a sim card for our phone and then mobile internet for the laptop. We spent our morning stopping at all the phone shops the local area had to offer before heading to the Ferry Building to board yet another sightseeing bus. The bus took an hour and as usual took in all the sights of the City of Sails including the busy marina where Auckland got this nickname, the museum situated on a large grassy knoll, and off course the eyesore that is the observation tower. We decided not to get off the bus at this stop and go up the tower simply as a protest to its ugliness. We had a good chat with the driver who passed on a good few suggestions of where we should head after Auckland which was useful as we arrived in the country with absolutely no plan. The tour was good and allowed us to see the town which we both agreed was ok but nothing special, although it would have looked nicer if the weather wasn't still so terrible.

Following the tour we returned to Base to try out our new internet connection knowing that it hadn’t gone smoothly in Cairns when we bought our last mobile internet.  This time however, it went considerably better and we spent a couple of hours in the dorm using it waiting for the day’s main event. Despite being almost twenty-three I was unashamedly excited about the release of the final Harry Potter instalment having seen the first film ten years earlier, and we had our tickets booked for that evening a week before. Rather than just see it in a standard cinema like the seven films preceding it, we went the whole hog and shelled out on IMAX 3D. This is an amazing way to see a film as it takes up your entire spectrum of vision and the 3D makes it even better. As for the film it was unquestionably the best of the series as it ticked all the boxes it needed to, and most surprisingly the box which required the lead actors to actually be able to act. Usually good scenes are tarnished by having to put up with dodgy performances from Harry Potter himself but ten years down the line it turns out he’s not so bad after all.

That evening would be our last night spent in a hostel until the day before we leave, as the following morning we were up early to get to our rental company to pick up our second campervan of our travels. In Melbourne we had had a nightmare trying to book our van until the man on the Base tour desk got involved. We had tried to book a van but never got confirmation from the rental company so he took over and soon had a van for us which was better than the original but cost us the same amount. We had to make our way back to the airport so we could get the free shuttle to our rental company called Britz. The free shuttle was the first indication that this company was worlds above Traveller’s Autobarn who we had used in Australia. On arrival at Traveller’s Autobarn we had found a small two roomed building with an assortment of vans parked outside, but on arrival at Britz we found a massive office with a fancy reception, loads of staff, free hot drinks and hundreds of vans. Rather than being given a quick walking tour round the van we were given a portable DVD player with a pre-recorded video of how to use everything onboard. This was no budget company.

The new wheels

We had heard of the massive amounts of snow the South Island were currently dealing with so decided it was sensible to upgrade to one of their insurance options rather than going without. The lady dealing with us clearly felt a little for us so threw in an extra blanket and snow chains for free. The van was a 2.5 litre automatic Mercedes with a shower and toilet as well as considerably more storage than the old van, however all this extra space came with a downside. Our old van had been a mere 4.9metres long where as the new one was a 7.2metre beast. Another great feature of the new van was the ability to walk between the cabin and the living area meaning we no longer had to get out of the van each time we want to get into the back. There were so many reasons to love this new van but the indicator lever being back on the correct side of the wheel did it for me.

Having successfully not hit the gate with our limousine length campervan, we left the Britz office and headed off to find a supermarket where we had our first issue with the van. In Australia, as I think I mentioned in earlier blogs, we had some issues parking due to the height of the van, now we had issues with the length. If we parked normally we stuck so far into the road we almost blocked it, so had no choice but to take up two spaces and hope no one needed it while we were gone.

No one seemed too bothered with our length requirements and we left Countdown (the New Zealand name for Woolworths) and headed south out of Auckland in search of our first powered site for the night. In Australia Linz had become used to her selection of maps and campsite books so was thrown into a whole new world here but managed to find us a good site not far from the city. Strangely there was no one in the office when we arrived so we parked up in a site and planned to pay when they returned in the evening. We got a knock on the van door later on and assumed it would be the owners requesting money but it turned out to be a neighbour of ours offering us free food as they were returning their van the next day. Although we had little interest in instant pumpkin soup and Bran Flakes we did get some use out of the various homebrand sodas they had. The low point of the evening came when we established the heater wasn't working and during the New Zealand winter this is an essential piece of equipment. We immediately got onto Britz and sorted out taking it into a garage in the town of Hamilton the next day. So that’s how my birthday was going to be spent.

We woke up and left our holiday park in search of the Hamilton garage when the world took the chance to give me a birthday present in the form of a stone at 100km directed at the windscreen. We now had small chip in the glass to deal with today. On arrival in Hamilton we found the garage relatively easily and prepared ourselves for a long and boring wait while the heater was fixed. However, surprisingly he had it fixed in no time which seemed odd given how complex the solution was. He had to turn a switch from the off position to the on position which was seemingly a process well beyond our own capabilities. So in no time we were back on the road heading south towards the Waitomo Caves. We decided not to get the window fixed yet as a weekend call out was far too expensive so decided to wait until Monday.

Big animals in the road was pretty common. Cows look funny running

Unfortunately our stop in Hamilton meant we weren’t going to make the caves in time to see them that day so would have to find somewhere to stay on the way. It seemed a change of country had no impact on Linz as she soon found us a roadhouse in the town of Kawhia where we could park up for free. It had already got dark by the time we approached the roadhouse so I had to tackle the winding road in far from ideal conditions and I could have gone without a possum making a near suicidal run into the road. The roadhouse initially had a rather creepy vibe and I was unsure who actually worked there and who seemed to be just visiting. We were approached by someone who ran through the usual questions about our travels before offering us not only a place to park but also power for the night for free. A great find as I needed power to charge the laptop or I’d have missed my own Skype birthday party.

It was the following morning when New Zealand first revealed to us just how amazing it looks. The night before we had driven to Kawhia in the dark so hadn’t seen the views we were missing out on, but as we had woken up to our first perfectly clear day in the country we could enjoy them all the way to the Waitomo Caves. The winding road passed round perfectly green rolling hills for mile after mile and at first we were unaware how high we were, as later we came over a hill to find the valley below us filled with white clouds.

Our first of many amazing views in New Zealand

About an hour and a half south of Kawhia are the Waitomo Caves which were discovered by Maori people almost 500 years ago, but weren’t first explored until 1887. The reason we chose to come here is because these caves are the home to thousands of glow-worms which neither of us have ever seen before. Our guide first walked us through the first of the caves which have no glow-worms so are fully illuminated so he could point out various formations which resembled everything from a lion to a pipe organ. There was one slightly odd moment as our guide explained how one of the caves offered such good acoustics that they often held carol services in there. This wasn't the odd aspect however, as he then offered anyone to try singing something to test out the acoustics. I'm not sure he was actually expecting someone to take him up on this, but in no time an American lady had broken into “Amazing Grace” forcing us to all to stand there and listen to an entire verse of patriotism. The guide may not suggest this again.

From here were delved deeper into the cave where we came across an underground river. In two groups we would board the boat and set off into this pitch black part of the cave system to find the glow-worms. We had to wait until second but it was easily worth it as when we drifted away from the small jetty we came into a slightly larger area lit by the blue glow of thousands of tiny lights. Although being just a couple of metres higher than us, the effect of these small worms is similar to looking up into a clear night’s sky which is stunning. In addition the reflection of the glow-worms in the water below and the dead silence made for an incredible experience. The silence was only temporarily broken when an Asian tourist fell off her seat.

The caves would be our most southerly point for a while as we headed back north to the town of Rotorua. Just like how Auckland will always trigger memories of their tower abomination, Rotorua will always be remembered for its rather pungent smell. However, this isn’t a negative point as it is caused by the town’s proximity to a considerable amount of volcanic activity such as geysers and hot springs giving the town a constant smell of sulphur. It was getting late in the day by now so finding a campsite for the night was our first priority and what we found was spectacular. Our site backed directly onto Lake Rotorua giving us incredible views of the lake and mountains in the background. That evening we spent in the van just watching the sunset around this huge lake wondering is New Zealand will look this good for the whole month we are here.

What a campsite

Another issue with the van arose the next morning when we went to empty our “grey water”. Grey water is everything which goes down the sink which is stored until you can reach a dump point to drain it into via a hose. Our hose didn't completely seal at the van end so half the water successfully reached the dump point where as the rest merely drained all over the campsites grass. We decided to make a rather sharp exit.

Our first stop was at Smith & Smith, which is New Zealand’s equivalent to AutoGlass, to get our windscreen fixed. Here we experienced our first rugby based aggression from a local. In preparation for this year’s rugby World Cup held in New Zealand, England had just released their alternate kit which is all black. To say this annoyed Kiwis, and their infamous All Black rugby team, is an understatement as the man who fixed our windscreen was not the only one to mention this as soon as we mentioned our nationality.

New Zealand makes it very easy for tourists to find out about different towns by placing an I-Site in every town and city likely to see tourists. From Rotorua, these I-Sites became an essential first stop for any new town we visited as the people in them know the area so well and they always know the rules regarding freedom camping (spending a night in a campervan outside an official campsite i.e. on the roadside). Having found a parking space which catered for the van, we found the I-Site to help us decide which of the four major volcanic activity sights we should visit. The lady was fantastic  and we chose Wai-O-Tapu which is approximately half an hour south of town. However, seeing as one of its prime attractions called the Lady Knox Geyser, which erupts every morning at 10:15am, had already erupted for the day we decided to leave it until the tomorrow and explore the town instead.

Firstly we had a wander down to the lake as it was a perfectly clear day before walking back through town towards the van. After this we headed over to Kairau Park which has a number of bubbling mud pools which is free to walk round. The sulphurous steam coming off the pools can make seeing the pools, or even just breathing, rather difficult but being able to see the activity so close to the centre of town was great.

Linz on the far side of one of the pools in Kairau Park

We called it for the day after the park so headed off around the lake in our van to the small village of Hamurana where the very knowledgeable lady I the I-Site had suggested we could freedom camp. The spot we found was even better than the campsite we had the night before. We now had Rotorua directly opposite us on the lake and could walk out on a short jetty to get some stunning views of everything around us.

An even nicer view than the previous night

We had mild concerns that someone may try and move us on but the only person who came anywhere near was a boy-racer who used our spot as a place to practice some spins in his car. We had a fairly early night as we needed to be packed up and leaving the next morning around 9am to get to the geyser for its daily eruption at 10:15am. We would have loads of time providing we didn't oversleep.

The next day we overslept. We woke up at 9:15am giving us exactly one hour to get dressed, pack away the van, travel half an hour back to Rotorua and the another half an hour onto Wai-O-tapu before Lady Knox erupted. We ditched any ideas of having a clean campervan or even clean selves and just got driving immediately, and somehow we made it. We came hurtling into the geyser viewing area like two school kids late for class with a couple of minutes to spare, however to be honest the geyser was a bit tame and not as impressive as photos had made it out to be. It spurted water quite high but given the cold morning temperatures created so much mist that it became hidden.

Didnt have times to ditch the glasses that morning

Although the geyser had been a little disappointing the rest of Wai-O-tapu was very interesting. It is an area of around two dozen different sulphur pools and mud pools which takes about an hour to walk around. We had a leaflet which explained to us all about the different colours we could see in the pools but it went well over our heads and we decided just to entertain ourselves with the pretty colours. The centrepiece is the Champagne Pool which apparently is a massive blue pool with various different colours but steam created by it made it impossible to see further than a metre. Consequently we had to finish our walk with makeshift gas masks created out of scarves and hoods.

The most colourful of all the pools

Following Wai-O-tapu we drove north beyond Rotorua in the direction of Opotiki on the coast and once again New Zealand offered stunning scenery on the way. This time it was in the form of Lakes Rotoiti and Rotoma which, like so much of the country so far, just cannot be justified in words. I had enjoyed driving around Australia but already I know New Zealand is going to be infinitely better as it just continues to look more amazing. They could do with a new tower designer though.

One of New Zealand's many volcanoes