14 April Conclusions

It's taken three weeks to settle back in and reflect on the trip, but finally we have put some thoughts together.
We enjoyed the trip immensely, there wasn't been an anxious moment. New Zealand is without doubt a country with amazing scenery. It is very diverse, tall mountains, large lakes, tumbling waterfalls, sweeping beaches, rocky coves, towering forests, it just goes on and on.
Driving caused no problems at all, there are not any motorways as we would know them, but often wide roads with frequent passing lanes. The road surfaces are in good condition, not surprising as there was a large amount of road maintenance and resurfacing going on. All of the major roads and most of the minor roads are sealed and more remote gravel and dirt roads have been well graded, this in spite of washouts after heavy rain. The signposting is excellent, almost every road has it's name clearly displayed and directional information is accurate and well placed.
There is of course no language difficulty with everyone speaking English. The people are kind, friendly and very helpful. Everyone greets you, has time to talk and offers of assistance abound if, for example you are seen consulting a map or directions.
The camping experience was not what we expected and often disappointing, some of this was due to lack of knowledge before we arrived.  We were surprised by the number of motor-homes, both rented and owned by New Zealanders, although perhaps this was rather naive of us as we were aware of the large number of companies specialising in motor-home and camper van rental. We have to declare a dislike of caravans and motor-homes, somehow it goes against the spirit of camping and the enjoyment of being outdoors to take all your home luxuries with you. This is a bit hypocritical as when we decided to rent a car we could sleep in we chose a model with a small fridge running from an auxiliary battery. The adapted Toyota Estima, a long hatchback with the back seats taken out, was really neither one thing or another. Once the bed was made up there was no where to sit inside the car if it was very cold, (it frequently was), or it rained (it did). All cooking had to be done outside the car. With a tent you usually have a covered area where you can cook and sometimes even sit. As we were sleeping in the car we needed to park on level ground which meant that we were confined to the areas of the campsites used by the caravans and motor-homes, often enormous beasts capable of permanent occupation. With a tent it would have been possible on the Department of Conservation sites to pitch a short walk away, on grass lakeside verges or under trees.
Broadly speaking we found two distinct types of campsite. One type is categorised as 'Holiday Parks', which covers quite a range. There would always be flush toilets, hot showers and electric hookups, (the Toyota Estima was not equipped for a hookup so we weren't able to take advantage of one even if it was available) and a fridge. There would usually be a washing up and clothes washing facility. At the other end of the 'Holiday Park' range there were fully equipped kitchens, ovens, microwaves, kettles or hot water machines, toasters, cooking pans, crockery and cutlery, and freezers, laundry rooms with washing machines, games and TV rooms, swimming pools, etc., etc. Most of the Holiday Parks also had a range of other accommodation, from simple cabins, just a hut with beds in it, but sometimes a fridge and a kettle, to fully equipped, self contained luxurious units. Then, at the opposite end of the spectrum were the Department of Conservation sites, usually in beautiful settings, often quite a way down dirt tracks or unsurfaced roads. One or two, in prime tourist locations had flush toilets, but usually there was just a 'long- drop'. Some had cold showers or cubicles where you could hang up a solar heated water bag. Some had standpipes but often the water was not potable, on a couple of occasions we had to take a bucket to a stream or lake for all non drinking water purposes. None had electricity so we didn't expect them to be used by the caravans and motor-homes, but they piled in, using their auxillary batteries, even to put their TVs on!
When it rained, because of the rather cramped conditions in the car and the difficulty of keeping wet gear away from the bedding, we took a cabin. In retrospect we wish we had hired a car and bought or hired a simple tent. We would have done exactly the same things, used DoC sites in good weather and ate mainly cold, picnic type food, then occasionally gone to Holiday Parks for a hot shower and the washing and cooking facilities. Maybe we would have had a better camping experience.
The Department of Conservation is absolutely amazing, we could not believe the amount of time, effort and money which is spent keeping the countryside to a very high standard. It is efficient and well organised. Even the remotest DoC campsite had a daily visit by a warden to clean and replenish the toilets and make sure that everything was OK. They have responsibility for all the countryside apart from the fisheries. This too was extremely well managed, hiking paths were clearly marked and well maintained, it would be difficult to get lost. They have a programme of eradicating non-indigenous flora and fauna, so gorse and broom are sprayed with chemicals, trees which escape from the logging areas, presumably wind, bird and animal carried seeds, are poisoned. Traps are laid, clearly marked, to catch land mammals such as possums, stoats, weasels, rats and rabbits. On the one hand they are to be congratulated on their efforts to protect indigenous plants from invasive intruders, but on the other hand nature is dynamic and evolving and these measures mean that poisonous chemicals are being introduced into the ecosystems. The countryside was so well managed it was almost too perfect, like a giant Theme Park, with no sense of wilderness.
We understand from speaking to fellow travellers that the advantage of New Zealand is that it does provide a safe environment in which to experience other extreme activities. You can do five day hikes over mountains and glaciers, testing your endurance and stamina, but knowing that you wouldn't get lost, could always be rescued. There is bungy-jumping, white water rafting, climbing, caving, horse riding treks and so much more, but all in a safe and secure setting where the risk factor is down to you as an individual.  One of the things we look forward to when we travel is the opportunity to experience new and different cultures, to have our perceptions challenged and to increase our first hand knowledge and appreciation of the lives and livelihoods of other peoples. The trip to New Zealand did not provide that, the cultures are so similar we did not step outside our comfort zone, so this trip was not as rewarding as others we have made.

Sunday 17 March

Whangarei
We are back in Whangarei, which is actually pronounced Fungarai. It seems that the Maori words which begin Wha are all pronounced Fu... I can't begin to work out why, because until the European settlers Maori was not a written language and I think I can remember hearing or reading that one of the Maori chiefs went to England, to Cambridge University to work out an alphabet for it. So how and why it was decided to write the sound 'fu' as 'wha' seems very strange.
The promised rain came in small quantities at intervals during last night and then in earnest about 07.30 this morning, and lasted for about three hours. For the rest of the day there has been short periods of drizzle, not a lot in volume, but very wetting. We are settled into a small but perfectly adequate cabin at the Campsite here in Whangarei where we stayed nearly a week ago. It is a comfortable and quiet campsite and the cabin has a nice bathroom with a shower and a kitchenette with fridge, toaster, kettle, sink and crockery and cutlery. We have decided to spend the last two nights here. We were going to go further south tomorrow, closer to Auckland, but we are comfortable here, it is only about two hours from Auckland and we can sort out the car and our re-packing at our leisure. In fact we did quite a lot this afternoon, between the showers. We have got everything dry and as we aren't going to sleep in the car anymore, I can start getting rid of some of the throw-away things I brought from the U.K. we are also re-distributing some of the things we won't use anymore, things like cling film, aluminium foil and washing up liquid.
We walked into Whangarei this afternoon between the showers, it's difficult to judge a place on a Sunday afternoon in not very nice weather, but the centre looked a bit sad and maybe a bit run down,  but there was a very nice harbour, wharf and marina, with a pedestrian walkway and some cafes.
I wasn't aware that today is St Patricks Day until we saw the street party going on outside an Irish Pub. They had possibly the worst Ceilidh band I have ever heard, but it sounded a bit better after a good pint of  Guinness.
It is difficult not to make racial stereotypes, but practically all the Maoris we have seen have similar physical characteristics. They are very solidly built with heavy shoulders and torsos. The men particularly have very thick necks, in fact they all look like props. We have had some interesting conversations with several Maoris and what comes across without exception is their pride in who they are and their heritage. When they speak of the past and their ancestors they use 'we' rather 'they', and frequently refer to 'our people'. We were told, by a Maori, that much of their history, their beliefs and customs is still unknown and has not been fully shared, because they choose not to, it belongs to them and them alone. He told us that the Spanish were the first people to come ashore in the area around the Bay of Islands, but it was never recorded because they didn't survive. Somewhere there is a cave where the Maori hid their suits of armour and other remains, but it will never be revealed. All very interesting stuff.

Bay of Islands

Saturday 16 March

Russell, Bay of Islands
We have had a really great day. We spent it on Lion New Zealand, the 80 ft yacht that Sir Peter Blake used in a round the world race about 25 years ago. He came second! In his previous attempts various bits of his boats had broken off so Lion was specifically built to be much stronger and sturdier, with the result that she was much heavier. He then commissioned another boat and went on to win loads of stuff. Lion is now used to take small groups of people sailing in and around the Bay of Islands. It is the most beautiful boat and we had a fantastic day with Dave, the skipper (who was born in Norwich when his father was stationed at RAF Watton) and Kerry. The experience as well as the actual trip was very good because they involved people in the sailing process, winding (grinding) sails in and out. There were some scary moments as we take led and the boat was at nearly 90° with the sea, or so it seemed to me. We could have done a motorised tour of the Bay and the Islands, just taking in the sights (sites), but this was so much better.
The rain still hasn't happened but it's quite overcast. We really are on countdown now with just two more full days to go. Off to Whangerei tomorrow, then probably on to Auckland and home.

Thursday 14 March

Kerikeri
It was a bit cloudy when we left Ahipara this morning, but soon cleared. We have decided that this few .last days will be slowly-slowly. What we haven't seen now will not be seen. We have ticked off practically everything on list of things we really wanted to do, and there is no way we are going rushing off for something else now. So we will make our way back to Auckland in a number of small hops.
We took the northerly route from Ahipara, back through Kaitaia and hugging the coast. It was beautiful, we stopped in Taipa for a coffee, at a cafe looking out over the bay, so quiet, so peaceful. We took a side road to investigate Taupo Bay, a popular summertime destination for Kiwis, it was just too quiet. It felt as if everyone had gone home for the winter. So we retraced our footsteps back to the main road. The road sides had been bordered with Mangrove Swamps for some way in places the water almost lapping onto the roads. In Taupo Bay there were signs giving information about Tsunami Evacuation procedures and pointing out an escape route. We have heard so much about how sparsely populated the South Island is and how rural, but these parts of the North Island seem more remote than anything we saw there. Amongst the rolling hills we came upon groups of grazing cattle, mostly cows bit some sheep, and the occasional homestead. There were signs with the names of various cattle stations on them, similar to signs we had seen yesterday so we thought that these ones were also government owed Stations with farm managers and some staff running them.
We turned inland into The Puketi Kauri Forest, to a DoC site. It was nice enough, but deserted and there were heavy clouds n the sky and occasional drizzly rain. We decided to head back to he coast and go to Kerikeri, which according to the RG has several things of interest.
We are pitched on a lovely Campsite on a terrace slightly raised above a stream. It's not busy and very quiet, maybe half a dozen other tents and small vans. All the big Motor Homes are on a higher terrace behind us, away from the stream on powered sites. We walled onto Kerikeri this afternoon, to the old settlement and had a very interesting trip to a mock-up of an original Maori fishing village and a garden of indigenous plants. 'Mock-up' might sound a bit naff, bit in fact it was excellently done, encorporating a lot of original items, a carved stone anchor and some old dug-out canoes retrieved from the mangrove swamps amongst others. It was also very informative, with detailed histories of the first missionaries who landed on the Bay of Islands and their relationships with the local Maori tribes. I didn't realise that the Bay of Islands was he first place that white people came fl settle and that those first people were missionaries, although I suppose I might have guessed! Tomorrow we are moving on a very short distance to the southern shores of the Bay of Islands, which also has remains of early missionaries.

Friday 16 March

Russell, Bay of Islands
After leaving Kerikeri we took a back road to Russell, it started off on a sealed road and then became a windy gravel road (once again), up and over and round a headland. It seemed to be almost completely unnpopulated. This time there didn't even appear to be any cattle stations, it was just bush, hugging the mountainsides. There was a little rain on the way and there has been a very little more since we arrived here. The sky is overcast with thick black clouds. In England I would be positive that there will be rain, however here I am not so sure, not at the moment anyway.
Even in dull and cloudy weather Russell is a charming place, it is like stepping back more than a hundred years. Around the Bay, close to the shore there are some beautiful houses, in an excellent state of repair, preserved exactly as they would have been at the end of the 19C. Russell started off life as a depot for whaling and sealing crews, all male groups,! as the boats put in, a rowdy,  lawless place. Today it is a picture of gentility, beautiful houses, so very expensive, and beautiful people. Newer houses have been built higher up, tucked into the mountainsides, also looking so very expensive. Tomorrow we will take a cruise on a sailing boat, around the bay and among the islands. We hope the rain holds off a bit longer.

Kerikeri

90 mile beach

Wednesday 13 March

Ahipara
The trip today was excellent. Our Maori bus driver/guide was funny and entertaining and also had a very good singing voice. He entertained us with Maori songs during the journey. We went up the spine road towards the very tip of North land, making several stops on the way. We went to a workshop where  45,000 year old Kauri trees preserved in a peat bog where being carved. The history here is intriguing and when I get home I want to try and find out more about it. In the early 19C migrant workers from Yugoslavia came to New Zealand to work extracting gum (resin) from the old Kauri trees. They had to dig down into the peat bog in order to do this, it must have been terrible work. In age before synthetics, the gum was in great demand for polishes and paints, at one time it was worth almost as much as gold. There is an area in the north where their descendants have settled and continue to live as farmers. They are called the Dalmations, it explains why I saw a sign in what I thought looked like Polish as we travelled here yesterday.
The scenery was a surprise, I expected the north to be more of a sand-spit but it was rolling countryside with cattle stations. The amazing thing is that the soil is almost pure sand, yet able to support grasses for pasture and trees and shrubs. The coastal scenery was beautiful, long sweeping arcs of beaches, on the eastern shores white, silica sand and on the western side golden ochre sand. We stopped at Cape Reinga, right at the northern most tip and watched as the Pacific Ocean collided with the Tasman sea, the waters swirling together in beautifully coloured and sandy sweeps and pools.
The trip ended with the return journey driving the length of 90 mile beach. We saw how human endeavour had planted hundreds of thousands of trees to form natural boundaries and create dunes to prevent the strong prevailing westerlies from blowing sand completely over the peninsular, and retaining it for agriculture. It is a continuing battle as these are being eroded and cut back.
I'm not sure about Jeremy Clarkson, evidently he was on TV this morning saying that he has finished filming here, but he likes it so he might stay on a while. As we left the beach this afternoon a few local Maoris were holding a demonstration, but their argument is with the local council for they way that the correct channels were not used to obtain permission, rather than with the BBC

Tuesday 12 March

Ahipara
It rained in the night. It was hot and I had the side unzipped and a little rain came in through the mesh. There wasn't a lot but it was still overcast and almost drizzling when we left Whangarei this morning. We have booked a cabin back on that sir for Sunday, which is the day the heavy rain is expected. It might not happen, but getting back there by Sunday minimises our options and gives us something to aim for. Having a cabin will also mean that even if it is raining we can start to rationalise what we have, think about what and how we intend to take home and start to sort the car out.
We kept to the plan we put together last night and came across country to the west coast and to the north. The objective is to take a bus trip up to Cape Reinga and back along 90-mile beach tomorrow. We looked at a Camp Site at Whaipapakauri first but it all looked a bit sad and grubby so we came back to Ahipara, to the Kiwi Site, which looked much nicer, with some trees and shade.
Looking for shade is a really odd thing here, because it's not hot. I don't think the temperature has gone over 30C since we left Auckland on the 26 the of January, and most of the time it's been much lower than that. It is hot in the sun, but once out of the sun, particularly if there is a breeze it has been cool. Even here in the far north, which I thought had a 'sub-tropcal' climate it is not so very warm, even in the sun. It is humid, which makes it sticky and close.
Earlier on this evening I had a terrible shock, which fortunately has not materialised, so far. We bought an ice-cream on the way here today and I was amazed to see a photograph of Jeremy Clarkson on the front page. I just thought 'OMG'. Then somebody here told me that an Episode of Top Gear was being filmed here, that JC would be driving some atrocious car on 90-mile beach and all the film crew would be staying at this campsite. Low tide has been and gone and the sea in on the way in again, and nothing has happened. I just hope it isn't being planned for tomorrow. Evidently there had been some problems because the BBC hadn't asked permission from the local Maori elders  to use the beach. A special meeting had to be called with the elders of the 3 Maori tribes who live in this area and have rights over the beach and it's use. Maybe it hasn't been settled yet. I can only hope.
We walked a short way along the beach in the late afternoon, and it does appear to go on for ever. An enormous sweep of golden sand backed by dunes. The tide was still going out, leaving lots of shells in the ebbing water. Too late tonight I realised that the sun sets over the sea here on the west coast, and there will be nothing in it's way, it will disappear into the sea. I hope it is a clear evening tomorrow when we get back from the bus trip.

Coromandel

Port Jackson