The next morning I set off northwards towards Paihia, but not before visiting the real falls, which, it turns out, were about 3km away from the other one, on the other side of that forest...It really was quite a photogenic place and as I withdrew my camera and steadied myself for the perfect shot I realised that I’d left the battery back in the hostel. 20 minutes later I returned to finish the job.

On the way north I once again consulted the guide book and chose to follow it’s advice of a place to stop along the way, however this was the first time in my life that I’ve purposely gone out of my way to stop and look at (but not use) a public toilet building. The toilets in Kawakawa were designed by Hunderwasser, some kind of maverick Austrian architect who lived in the area (without electricity) until the 1970’s. I admired the slightly disappointing building from a cafe across the road, before reluctantly photographing it.

I made it to Paihia by lunchtime. A small town in the Bay of Islands, but popular with tourists due to its prime location a couple of kilometres from Waitangi, the place where the treaty was signed and modern day New Zealand was formed. I arrived just a massive cruise ship dropped anchor in the harbour and the town was overrun by tourists.

I baulked at the $25 admission fee to enter the Waitangi Treaty House and gardens, but instead had an excellent coffee in the cafe attached. The next morning I made my long-awaited comeback to water-based transport and hopped on the ferry to Russell, on the other side of the harbour. If I had been about 50 years older I may have had slightly more interest in the place, but it just appeared to be a bunch of old buildings. I visited New Zealand’s oldest church and then jumped back on the ferry back to Paihia, where the weather took a turn for the slightly-more-overcast and the afternoon was spoiled by heavy rain.

With the weather much better the following day I jumped back in the trusty Mazda and drove across to Ahipara a small village at the foot of 90 mile beach, which would serve as Base Camp for my assault on Cape Reinga the following morning. 

I set off for the Cape early, hoping to beat the rush of tour buses and cars and made the 120km drive up Highway 1. The lighthouse at the Cape marks the very northern tip of the country, and the point where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea, creating whirlpools where the two different currents come together.

On Thursday morning I drove three hours south to Dargaville (the sweet potato capital of New Zealand) and on to Matakohe, where I’d booked a bed in a holiday park. Matakohe brands itself ‘The Destination of Choice’, but given that the only 3 attractions were the holiday park that I was staying at, a museum about big trees and a cafe (that was attached to the museum), the choice appeared to be rather limited. I fooled the woman at the tree museum into thinking I was still a student and got a whopping $2 off the admission price, making it a still outrageous $15. To be fair, the museum was huge, just like the Kauri trees it was exhibiting, but it was still, essentially, a museum full of different bits of wood. The lady at the desk assured me that my ticket would also be valid for the next day as well, but I did not take her up on that suggestion.

I prepared the Mazda to make her final long trip of the 4500km journey and drove down to Auckland, and, perhaps as a sign of her disappointment that I would soon to be handing her back to the lovely people at Ace Rentals, the battery ran out on the central locking key-fob.

I walked into the city centre from the hostel, but not after insulting my 10^th Canadian of the holiday by asking her what part of the USA she was from. I headed straight for the SkyTower, New Zealand’s tallest building, mainly because it was the only place I could find without a map. I bought my ticket to the top, paying the full admission price having been rumbled by the man at the till who noticed that my student card expired 6 months ago. The weather was clear and so a spectacular 360 degree views of the city was possible, including Mt Eden and One Tree Hill (that of U2 song fame, not the vaguely basketball-related US TV programme), which no longer actually has a tree on it.  In the evening I watched New Zealand being demolished by Australia in the cricket World Cup.

Today I visited Auckland Museum, an impressive looking building hosting a variety of unrelated artefacts, ranging from WW1 and WW2 memorabilia to models of volcanoes, from Maori carvings to pictures of fish.

On Monday I will embark on my 33 hour long 24 hour period, leaving NZ at 3pm, crossing the date line and arriving in LA 9 hours before I took off.

Apologies for the delay in the update. I have not had decent enough internet to update it properly, so thought I’d wait until I could, and now I can, thanks to the free internet that I’m getting in the hostel in Auckland!

I left Taupo and continued up to Rotorua, stopping off at Wai-O-Tomo geothermal park to see more evidence of the heat and energy that lies beneath the ground in the region. Like ‘Craters of the Moon’, there were small bursts of steam emanating from various parts of the ground, however here there was more than just craters, but pools of water, and lakes with the water dyed various colours, depending on the element that was in the soil around it, with the walk around the park culminating in a view of a small pond who’s water was coloured the brightest green. Once again, the whole park had the smell of sulphur, which made the whole experience a little less pleasant!

Rotorua was different from all the other big towns and cities I’ve visited, it is a lot smaller, and most importantly, there was somewhere to park the car! Again it was by the side of a lake and the odd whiff of sulphur spread across the town every now and again. Much of what the town had to offer was based in Government Gardens, including an odd museum set in an old Bath House, part of which was dedicated an exhibition which showed how the old baths were used for healing, and paying homage to the Royal Mineral Water Hospital in Bath, from where, apparently, they got the idea.

Initially I had planned to head south-east down to Napier and then up the coast to Gisborne, but after some suggestions from other people I decided not to bother, and instead drove up to Whakatane, at the eastern end of the Bay of Plenty. From here it was a short drive to Ohope, where the beach was long, sandy and deserted. The next morning I had booked myself on a whale and dolphin watching boat trip out into the Bay, around Whale Island. I wisely decided to buy some sea-sickness tablets ahead of the trip, which turned out to be a good idea, as the moment we left the calm of the harbour the sea became very choppy, so much so that the people who had booked to swim with the dolphins were unable to do so when we finally managed to find the creatures out in the Bay. The dolphins swam around and under the boat for about 10 minutes, before we lost them again, prompting another hour long search for them but to no avail. By this time, however, the pills I had taken had either worn off, or simply not been strong enough to deal with the conditions, prompting me to be quite ill, narrowly avoiding a small Norwegian boy...

When the side-effects of the pills had worn off I drove 90 minutes along the Bay to Mount Maunganui, a small town a few kilometres away from Tauranga. I hadn’t initially planned on visiting the place, but decided to after it was recommended to me by someone in Nelson, and I’m glad I did, for it is the best place I’ve visited so far. Set on a mini peninsula it was surrounded by a harbour to the west, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. At the very end of the peninsula was ‘The Mount’, which I climbed, giving spectacular views down the golden beach and the Bay of Plenty to one side, and Tauranga and the Coromandel to the other. The place is a haven to surfers in New Zealand, with an artificial reef on the sea bed causing good waves along the main beach. The town had a laid-back atmosphere, with no-one in much of a hurry to do anything...my kind of place!

Two days later I reluctantly set off westwards, towards Thames on the south-west corner of the Coromandel peninsula. Someone had told me that the hostel there was good, which to be fair it was, but there seemed to be a lack of anything to actually do there unless you are into mining, rocks or birdwatching. Drawing blanks on my ability to conjure up any kind of enthusiasm to interest myself in any of those things, I decided that I would use it as a rest day, although the presence of 4 different people snoring in the dorm put paid to that idea, resulting in a sleepless night.

I had accidentally booked myself into the wrong hostel for the next night, meaning to book it for the following night, but I couldn’t be bothered to actually change it, so I was left with a 4 hour drive to the Northlands, through a busy Auckland, up to Whangerei, on the east coast. The hostel was excellent, if a little remote and with an outrageously long and steep driveway. Not wanting to faff around finding somewhere to park in the city centre, I instead decided to head for the Whangerei Falls, reputedly the most photographed waterfall in New Zealand. My sat-nav lured me into a carpark and told me to continue 3km through what was quite clearly a forest...I decided to walk. A man in a fluorescent jacket told me he was there to make sure no-one broke into the cars and that the waterfall was a 15 minute walk through the forest. When I reached it I could not quite work out what was so photogenic about it, for it appeared to be just a trickle of water down an overgrown rockface. I photographed it anyway. It was only when I returned to the hostel that I was told that I’d gone to the wrong one.

Start of the North Island

Took the scenic route on the drive from Motueka to Picton, going down Queen Charlotte Drive, which cut across from Havelock, along the top of the island, instead of going all the way back down to Blenheim. Nice views on the drive, over Pelorus Sound and Marlborough Sound. The road itself was about 35km long, with over 300 bends as it meandered up and down hills, which, rather than destroying my clutch, as feared, it just destroyed my left knee, with all the gear changing!

The hostel in Picton was located next to the cemetery, but they took advantage of this, calling themselves Tombstone Backpackers, with a coffin lid front door. Nice waterfront in the town, looking down Marlborough Sound. Got on the Interislander ferry the next morning, a boat that in its previous life was the Pride of Cherbourg operating out of Portsmouth...small world. The crossing took 3 hours, leaving behind hot and sunny Marlborough, arriving in cold and rainy Wellington. I paid the price for booking myself into a hostel based on the fact that it had off-street parking, because the hostel itself was an absolute hole. It hard for both the days I was in the city. Spent Monday morning in the awesome Te Papa museum, which was huge and encompassed pretty much everything to do with New Zealand. Spent the afternoon in an American bar watching the Packers win the Super Bowl, felt strange watching the game at 1pm with people on their lunch break, instead of 1am like in England...

Rain continued the next day on the drive up to Palmerston North, 90 mins north of Wellington, where I'd booked in 1 night due to there being the NZ Rugby Museum in the city, a museum that was in the process of being moved, so not much was on display. The sun returned on Wednesday as I headed to Wanganui, another 90 minutes north-west, which, by sheer coincidence, was staging the NZ Master's Games at the time. A quick read of the local newspaper told me that events such as Woodchopping, Salsa Dancing, Croquet, Dog Handling and Texas Hold'em Poker were happening that very day. I went to none of them, but instead spent most of the day contemplating whether being over the age of 50 would make any difference in 'sports' such as poker or dog handling...?

Nice drive on Thursday, along the left hand side of the Tongariro National Park, with views of Mt Ruapehu, an active volcano and highest peak in the region.

 Stayed in Turangi for the night, and did a 90 minute walk around Lake Rotopounamu on the way to the town, followed by a 3 hour walk along the Tongariro River walkway from the town centre, a walk where, ironically, I could barely even hear the river, let alone see it for the majority of the walk, which made it rather pointless.

Drove 50km up the right hand side of Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ, to Taupo. The lake is, apparently, the size of Indonesia, a country which has the same population as NZ, which is just one of the 'interesting' facts I've learned along the way. Visited Huka Falls, a short drive from the town, where thousands of litres of water every second are funnelled down a narrow passage in the Huka River, and shot out over little ledge at the end.

From there I went the short distance to the Craters of the Moon, a large open space of active geothermal land, where geysers, mud pools and steam holes have been popping up for the last 50 years, and it was cool to see steam just erupting from the ground all over the place, despite the strong smell of rotten eggs.

Up to Rotorua tomorrow, followed by the Bay of Plenty on the north-eastern coast.

Greymouth to Motueka via Christchurch

Gladly left Greymouth on Friday morning (28th) heading cross country to Christchurch, on what I thought would be a nice relaxing drive. I was not, however, prepared for the ridiculous hill climb up to Arthur's Pass, where I'm pretty sure I waved goodbye to the clutch and gearbox, crawling up the hill in 2nd gear. Since then my driving has become pretty terrible, with the constant fear that the clutch will just give up! Got a shock when I arrived into Christchurch, where I encountered the first traffic I'd seen in 2 weeks, and where there's traffic, there's also traffic lights and pedestrians, which took a bit of getting used to. The hostel was located in the city centre, a short walk from the cathedral, however that meant that there was nowhere to park the car, so I had to leave it 30 minutes walk away on the other side of Hagley Park.

Not a big fan of the city itself, too many people, and I was there during the Buskers Festival, which meant that there were temporary stages put up around all the main areas, somewhat spoiling Cathedral Square. Planned to go to the NZ v Pakistan cricket match at AMI Stadium on the Saturday, however the torrential rain in the morning put me off, yet the match still went ahead.

Left on the Sunday heading up to Hanmer Springs, 90 minutes north of Christchurch, where there are hot springs, and a spa resort with a series of hot pools and aqua therapy bath things, which I arrived at just as two big tourist buses pulled up outside, so I decided not to go in...Drove another 90 minutes up to Kaikoura, where there is an abundance of marine wildlife, such as whales and dolphins. Was going to do a boat trip to see the whales, but the bad weather meant that it was cancelled. Nice hostel again, run by a young couple, which had a BBQ on the first night I was there.

Drove up to Blenheim on Tuesday, in the Marlborough wine district, but no wine was tasted, to comply with the whole 'road safety' thing. Visited the excellent Aviation Museum, which is owned by the chap who directed the Lord Of The Rings films, so his film studio had set up the exhibits in a film style environment, including a scene depicting the death of the Red Baron.

 Left the next morning to go to Nelson, about an hour up the road, another busy city, and another place where I had to park miles away from the hostel. Not really much of interest in the city itself, except for the site of the first ever NZ rugby match, and the deceptively steep hill, which marks the (unofficial) centre of the country, which gave good views out over Nelson and further afield to the Abel Tasman National Park

With the intention of not killing my car before reaching the North Island, I decided not to drive all the way across to Golden Bay, right on the north west coast, a drive which involved, in the words of the Lonely Planet guidebook, 'a stomach churning meander over Takaka Hill. Instead I drove 50km west of Nelson to Motueka, via Rabbit Island, which would have been lovely if the sun had been out...by the time I reached Motueka it was sunny and very hot. Not much in the town itself, so I drove another 10km to Kaiteriteri (or just Kaiteri to the locals) where there were golden sandy beaches and a warm sea.

Hostel is the best one yet, 5km north of the town, surrounded by orchards and full of people from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (and Germans...), as well as a rainwater swimming pool and nice decking to eat dinner on. Shame I'm only here for one night!

Back eastwards tomorrow, to Picton, where the Interisland ferry will take me to Wellington on Sunday.