Van

Van is the Man. Let us just start there. He is decidedly a tough, Fiat Ducato who is turbo charged with diesel, and he kicks mountains asses. 

While he has a tough exterior, Van is a softie on the inside. He has all the makings of home, with a double burner stove, a refrigerator, a microwave, two sinks, a working toilet and shower, and most importantly, a couch and table that converts into a queen size bed that is amazingly pretty comfortable. Van has a good set of lungs, with air vents for circulation, as well as 3 sliding windows and a side door with screening. He can also breathe some heat on us should we get really cold, though we haven’t asked him of that yet. We felt it impolite. 

Van is also considerate, and is full of storage, and convenience, with easy locking cabinets and drawers for all the pots and pans, plates, bowls, glasses, mugs, cutlery, and mixing bowls and a strainer for our many pasta meals. Van even has a nice place to store our shoes, so we don’t muddy him up after our rainy hikes.

Van will have carried us 2600km and thus far (knock on wood) has been the consummate professional, and a good friend.

Day 3

Off to Hobbiton, but first a hike In the NZFrenzy we found a hike for the tallest waterfall in New Zealand.  It was on the way to Hobbiton and seemed like a great way to start off our day.  After packing up Van, which was much simpler then we imagined, we punch in the GPS coordinates to the Wairere waterfalls.  The drive was simple enough.  We played The Cow game until our eyes felt like they might burst out of our heads there were so many sheep and cows.  Carefully, we parked Van in the small gravel lot near the end away from the small bunch of cars already there.  Two locals were sitting in the back of their car drinking.  It was only 10am on a Sunday.  Crazy. This beautiful hike meandered through the fern tree forests over amazingly constructed plank ways that zigzagged over the river and in the end, up a steep hill. The staircase must have been almost 5 stories up in the middle of the forest.  As we walked around a bend we heard the rushing of water and there was the 150 meter falls crashing into the rocks below. 

After a few pictures, som  Our minds were thinking of Hobbiton and whether or not we would need tickets, the Connecticut tourists had tickets for the 12:30pm tour. 
e taken by some Connecticut tourists, we turned and headed back.

We tromped back down the trail, still in awe of the lush green around us.  At the bottom of the trail we saw the lot was starting to fill up.  We needed to make our escape soon or who knows how we’d get Van out.  With Owen at the wheel and my eyes closed we back out of the lot and were back on the road.  To Hobbiton! But wait, tickets?

Once we’d gotten into town, no longer surrounded by thousands of sheep and cow, we pulled over and check the internet.  Yes there were tickets left.  We decided to get back on the road and get to Hobbiton to buy them. None of this tangled online mumbo jumbo. As we reach the turn toward Hobbiton we see a sign, Hobbiton Tourest Farm.  Oh god how that summed up the feeling of being at the “base camp” of Hobbiton.  Yes, a tourist farm with green and gold matching buses, a café (but not serving hobbit themed food), a souvenir shop, and people from all over the world to see the set of The Shire. 

We bought tickets for the 1pm tour, bought some post cards with stamps, and got ourselves some lunch.  After some pictures of the local sheep it was time to hop on the bus to The Shire and land of Hobbits.  It was beautiful! 48 round wooden doors tucked in the lush green hillsides.  Bag End, where Bilbo Baggins lived, was in the top of a hill under this big oak tree.  It turns out the oak tree is fake, made of metal and plastic, with millions of leaves wired on to it.In one of the shots for the films the director didn’t like the color of the leaves and made the crew take them off, repaint them, and put them back on.  After the tour we had a drink at The Green Dragon.  The brews we had were quite good and we ended up buying a few bottles on our way out of Hobbiton. 

One might think the day was full enough, but to Rotatura we went.  Knowing that Rotatrua is a center for the culture of the native Maori people we wanted to immerse ourselves in that culture.  We dashed our way out of the green rolling hills of Hobbiton and to the iSite in Rotatura.  Oh the knowledge of the iSite! Here we got a reservation at a local campground, so we could plug in and get repowered up but also tickets to go to Te Puia. 

Our campground was everything we could want it to be.  We had access to hot showers, power, a pool and mineral spa, and even a full kitchen.  Sadly, we weren’t planning to use many of these amenities, but we did get a chance to take hot showers.  We did however on our search for a watch discover a store next door to the campground the read “Camping and Tramping”. We didn’t find a watch.

After we were all set up it was time to go to Te Puia.  With a not so quick bus ride we ended up at the school of the local Maori tribes.  Here we got a tour that explained the Maori culture, saw and participated in traditional dances, a buffet of honi, and tour of the local geyser. It was quite amazing.  Their culture is rich and they are a people very proud of where they came from and how they are keeping the culture alive today in an every changing world. 

Day three was a full day.  We had wanted to stop by the hot springs near the ocean side of town, about ½ a mile from camp but we were just too exhausted. 

Day 2

Day 2

We woke early at 6am and walked back down the road to get breakfast at the café next door to the Indian/Chinese restaurant. We discovered the while they make their omelets more to Owen’s liking than say, Californians, their toast leaves something to be desired. Soggy to say the least.

We waited an extra 45 minutes to be picked up by Wilderness to take us to our new home away from home… on wheels. After some negotiations over insurance, cell service, and GPS, we finally got a tour of the Van. Van is a handsome white camper. Tall, wide, and equipped with a microwave, toilet and shower to go along with a horrible tv and reasonable comfy bed.

 

With some trepidation Aundra got behind the wheel on the right hand side of the car, and off we went, dutifully following our GPS to our first location we’d picked out in NZFrenzy. Karangahake Gorge, an old gold mining gorge with plenty of info placards, rusted gear, and abandoned mines. The highlight was the 1km long train tunnel that we walked through. Seemingly endless, this almost pitch black tunnel gave us our first glimpse of a couple of glowworms on the ceiling. At the other side of the tunnel we found a cute winery atop the hill, run by a very nice German kiwi with ogre hands. We watched those hands write out recommendations of various things, including honni, which we made special note of as this reminded us of Lida’s recommendation of the same thing.

After the long trip back through the tunnel and along the gorge, crossing shaky suspension bridges, we climbed back in Van, and placed coordinates into the GPS for our first night on the road. We deviated to the northeast coast of the north island and grabbed a sample of sand from the Bay of Plenty. Using all the extra hours in the day we made our way back up a hill overlooking the bay. We parked, and cooked ourselves a decent pasta meal which we ate as the rain began to roll in through the bay.

Day 1

Day 1

 Landed in Auckland very early in the morning but felt rather well slept considering I had been on a plane for 13 hours.  After luggage and customs we called the hotel for a pick up.  Wait an hour.  No worries, we sat out side and enjoyed some fresh air.  Once we go tot the hotel we put our bags in the back and headed off to Auckland proper.  We didn’t have a rental car so we took the bus, a suggestion from the lady at the hotel. 

After a 20-minute wait and almost an hour bus ride, we were in down town Auckland.  Where to go? What to do?  It was still early, 10am, but we were hungry.  A crownut and tea did the trick.  Then we went off to the maritime museum.  There we got to walk though the hull of a ship that moved back and forth like it was really on the water.  This was suppose to be like the ships the first western immigrants took to come to New Zealand. We also saw models of a whole range of ships, both in type and age.  The most interesting thing was the hull of the America’s Cup sailboat.  It was a sleek black ship about 50 feet long, maybe more.  It was 30 feet in the air with the ballast boom at ground level. 

After the museum we went to the Sky Tower.  This is a 230 meter tower.  Some people jump from it, attached to cables of course. We walked around and took pictures. After that we were starving.  We walked to a mini mall like place to find a great café.  Some free internet meant we could connect to the world again and tell everyone we made it okay. 

Now it was time to take the bus home.  I thought I knew the way to go, but we ended up in an entirely different part of town and had to walk a mile or two more to get to the bus stop.  The ride home was crazy.  We weren’t sure which stop was our so we kept looking out the window trying to see if we saw anything familiar.  After some anxiety we made it to the stop across from where we got on.  We walked to the hotel, only to see the bus stop right in front.  Oh well, a bit more walking. 

We check into our hotel room.  It was a big room with four beds.  We cleaned up, planned our trip a bit, and walked to get dinner.  After a quick meal from an Indian place down the road it was time for bed.  Day one was done, but day two was when we knew it was all really going to get started.