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.