New Zealand

We’ve been busy since the last post!  Unfortunately we’ve both had colds, but they are pretty mild and haven’t slowed us down much.

Highlights include (in chronological order):

Hike from Hahei to Cathedral Cove.  This hike was in the rain, so we didn’t get any pictures, but the scenery was fabulous.

Exploring Karangahake Gorge.  This gorge was mined heavily and is full of ruins of mines and tunnels they’ve restored for people to explore.  It is also very beautiful.

The Gorge

Mining Tunnel Window

Exploring Tunnels

Orange Rocks!

We went on a hike that was along an old mining pipe and it reminded us of the old computer game Myst.

Follow the pipe

Bridge from the Mines

Camping at Matata DOC camp (I had the Lion King stuck in my head all night).

Exploring Lake Okataina and hiking up the Whakapoungakau Trig.  This was a pretty steep climb, but we got awesome views across the lakes.

Beautiful Lake View

View from the Top

Camping at Kakaho DOC Camp.  When we arrived here we thought we didn’t have the right change for a campsite so we asked some other campers if they could make change.  They let us know that a whole 4-wheeler club was coming in to the (at that time completely empty) campground and told us that 500 meters on there was another campsite.  We went to check it out and had it completely to ourselves, creek and all.

Jumping in the creek instead of a morning shower – this was COLD!

We drove into Taupo (a fairly large town) today to do laundry, get our pictures uploaded and so on.

We’re getting into the hang of living from the van.  It’s well equipped with kitchen tools and our little stove is great for making rice, baked beans, grilled cheese, tea, and the like.  We also have a little cold box that refrigerates our veggies and cheese and chocolate.  The bed is comfy and it’s quite cozy in there.

Driving on the left is not really a problem anymore, so we’re just cruising around taking in the sights.

Thanks to everyone who has left us comments.  We read them all and really appreciate keeping in touch with everyone at home!  I’ll add photos when they finish uploading.

So the good news is that I already have lots of awesome adventures to write about.  The bad news is that the internet I’m using will not allow any uploads, so pictures will have to wait for now.

Our first night in Auckland we were feeling pretty tired, but we stumbled out of the hostel and found a fun little brewpub type place which had some good live music.  Kind of like being back in Seattle!  They also had a deal where if you bought dinner they gave you a discount on beer – genius! 

The next morning we got organized and then headed back to the airport to pick up our van.  It was absolutely terrifying driving on the left to begin with, but we did some practice courses in a quiet area and then set off.  We found supplies at a giant supermarket and then headed for Thames which is on the Coromandel Peninsula.  Justin was a superstar and got us there without a hitch.  Once there we stopped at the info center (these are all over the place in New Zealand and make it really easy to figure out where to go) and then decided to drive up into the hills to a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite.  It was a long gravel road, but completely worth it because the campground was almost empty and in an absolutely stunning place.  We had a short walk and swam in a perfect river.  The only downside was the mosquitos, which I’m quickly learning to hate.

Today we drove up the coast to the town of Coromandel and stopped for Justin to sample some fresh oysters (he said they were wonderful!), I was brave and tried mussels for the first time and was pleasantly surprised.  The scenery driving up the coast was INCREDIBLE and there are beautiful places to stop everywhere.  There are also birds everywhere and it’s fun because we don’t recognize so many of them.  We kept on driving until we got to the Hot Water Beach.  At low tide this beach has one area that if you dig an inch or so down hot water comes out of the sand.  So people go there at low tide and make wallowing pools.  We were lucky because we hit the timing perfectly and were able to soak on the beach.  It was a fun contrast because the weather was cold and damp, but the pools were so warm.  Some of the sand was too hot to touch.

Tonight we’re staying at Hahei and tomorrow we will go to the Cathedral Cove and then head south again.  Thank goodness I’m getting better at this tricky driving thing, because there is a lot to see!

I’ll get photos up as soon as I can!

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We decided to go with Allways car rental for our New Zealand campervan.  This company, in addition to having vans when we called (who knew that all of New Zealand is also looking to rent a campervan in the middle of summer), has been really helpful with everything we need.  They had a super cheap deal on their older models going, $65 NZD/day or so, but in order to guarantee an automatic transmission we decided to upgrade to their premium model, the “Ferns” van, for which we could request an automatic.  This also has a stove and a fridge right in the van so making our own meals will be even easier!

We’ve been busy getting details worked out for the first stop on our trip – New Zealand!

So far we have booked a hostel for our first night in Auckland.  We’ll head there and crash the first night and then the next day we will pick up our sleepervan which will be our home for the next 6.5 weeks.  We will be cruising around in the “ferns” van which we can park at campgrounds and sleep and cook in.  There’s lots of great hiking, beaches, and scenery, so I don’t think we’ll be getting bored!  We’re also going to use our driving time to listen to tons of Spanish language tapes to get prepared for our next couple of stops.

We’ll have about a week on the North Island and then take the ferry over to the South Island.  The plan is to spend Christmas in Christchurch and this is the one place we’ve made camping reservations ahead of time.  There’s a place to camp just a few blocks from the Cathedral in downtown Christchurch, so we figured we’d give it a go.  This location also provides computer access, so we know for sure we can get some blog posts up at that point.

After a month on the South Island we’ll head back up north for another week and a half before we go back to Auckland for our flight to South America.  Pretty flexible all in all, but it’s nice to know that we have all of the important details set now.

Today we booked the first leg of our trip.  We’re starting out with a one way ticket to here:

NEW ZEALAND!!!

From there we will begin our Around-the-World Ticket and travel east for the rest of our trip.  So, just to get the excitement flowing about our first stop I’ll post a few more photos from my brother’s trip to New Zealand a few years ago.

All photos in this post by my brother, Thomas Ball – very inspiring!