Marguerite
Active Member
I said I'd post eventually. It's late here, I should be heading for bed - but at least I have to give you the first instalment of our trip.
Travelling with a easy child and a much younger difficult child - definitely interesting. Plus easy child's BF1 can't cope if anyone vomits. So ANY risk that difficult child 3 was going to get carsick - easy child would panic. She wouldn't let him play his Nintendo DS in the car, which caused a lot of friction.
Anyway, to begin - we landed in Auckland and finally got out of the airport after dark. We got to the hire car and loaded it up, then sat there in the car park while husband tried to find the hand brake in the dark. It took about fifteen minutes or more - turned out to be a foot hand brake (what the...?)
We hadn't book accommodation - it would only have meant we would be scrutinising a map in the dark, trying to find a place which could turn out to be not what we needed. So we drove into Auckland, in the dark, trying to find something. Finally booked into a nice-looking place, unloaded our FIVE huge bags plus our FIVE lots of hand luggage, then walked to a nearby takeaway for our first meal - fish & chips (big fat fries). The best fish & chips on the North Island, they claimed. They could be right - it was great. Never had kumara chips before, though. Very sweet.
Next day, Tuesday - we'd planned to explore Auckland, but after getting essential stuff done (such as organising mobile phone cards) we decided to head out into the country. The car was loaded - we had a van (Tarago) but the 'middle' seat had easy child, BF1 & difficult child 3 across it, the back being full of luggage. We drove east along the coast, couldn't believe how amazingly emerald green the fields are there. Loads of fat-looking sheep, the fields surrounded by dry stone walls and hedges. Very hilly, very English-looking, absolutely beautiful. Ended up in a small seaside village called Thames, saw our first sign for hot springs. difficult child 3 beginning to panic about hot springs - vulcanism! Weather very cold, some faint drizzle and news of snow on South Island. Lots of feral brushtail possum road kill. Good. But so much is a worry - it indicates far too many still alive in willderness that can't cope.
Wednesday morning - we 'bugged out' early. difficult child 3 & I had done a science experiment on sedimentation (borrowed a glass jar from the landlady) and he did some science write-up. We got about 1 km down the road and found a BUTTERFLY FARM! Of course we had to explore it. Then by late morning we drove on, following the Coromandel Peninsula. Windy roads, sheer cliffs, windswept sea full of mussel beds (the famous NZ green-lipped mussels). One beach was too beautiful to pass, so we stopped and went for a walk. The beach was strewn with mussel shells and we saw a sign - "no more than 25 mussels per person per day". They were washing ashore, perfectly fresh. We collected huge handfuls then threw them back into the water - living like gypsies, we had no means to cook them. There was amber washing up on the beach, we met a lovely lady who told us a great deal about the area. Then we piled back into the car to warm up (it was about 6 degrees C on the beach) and drove on. We got to the village of Coromandel in time for a late lunch then discovered a train trip there which goes right up into the mountain top. We just made it onto the last train and spent a fabulous afternoon immersed in NZ wilderness.
We stayed the night there, after buying some smoked mussels and smoked fish. BF1 was enthusiastic about sharing the mussels with me - nobody else was. We noticed that in Coromandel, they seem to smoke EVERYTHING.
Oh yes, and they decorate shops with corrugated iron. Everywhere. At least on North Island.
Thursday - we drove the rest of the way round the Coromandel Peninsula. Incredibly winding road but impossibly beautiful country. Every turn of the road had us stopping to take more photos. We detoured to see Hot Water Beach but it was high tide and the hot water seemed to be underwater. We found out later that we COULD have dug down to it, it's always there. But we had to keep moving.
We paused for a picnic lunch at a truck stop and almost got mugged by a feral brushtail possum. I think it smelt my smoked mussel sandwiches. BF1 was no longer eating the smoked mussels and I was getting very sick of them.
One thing we were finding - it would get dark earlier than we expected. By about 3.30 pm we had to start planning on where to stay the night. By 4.30 it would be almost too dark to navigate and we were in unfamiliar territory. Maybe we needed to get up earlier in the mornings... we stayed in Tauranga, a large town, very cold this night, a large volcano (Mt Maunganui) to one side of the harbour...
Friday - the day we had to check in to our time share. We left the coast and headed south in search of Lord of the Rings territory. The town of Mata Mata, where Hobbiton had been built. Only it's since been mostly removed. The tourist information centre is made to look like a hobbit hole so we took lots of photos. We found that there is a bus tour to the green fields that once housed Hobbiton - little is left there. We bought a postcard to show us what it looks like now. The postcard was much cheaper than the bus tour, which was $80 a head, for two hours in the cold, about half that time at a farm watching sheep being shorn. Seen THAT before. So we skipped it. Sorry, Robby. But the countryside we drove through, with those amazingly green fields, huge crags of rocks and wide glacial valleys - Middle Earth.
We drove to Waitomo Caves instead - to see the famous glow worms. An amazing place. We took the short tour plus the boat ride. The light these glow worms cast is unbelievable.
Then another roadside picnic - more smoked mussel sandwiches. The others were making me eat downwind. The oil would drip through my fingers and I had to be thorough about cleaning up before I touched ANYTHING.
We finally got back on the road and were soon seeing steam in the fields and beside the road as we entered some very active volcanic areas. It was after dark when we arrived in our destination - Taupo. On the NZ map, you can see a lake in the centre, which is where you'd put a drawing pin if you wanted to spin North Island round its own centre of gravity - use a glass-headed pin and the glass head is the size of Lake Taupo, an absolutely huge caldera lake, still volcanically active. And we were staying right on the lake edge! We carefully said as little as possible to difficult child 3...
More news next instalment...
Marg
Travelling with a easy child and a much younger difficult child - definitely interesting. Plus easy child's BF1 can't cope if anyone vomits. So ANY risk that difficult child 3 was going to get carsick - easy child would panic. She wouldn't let him play his Nintendo DS in the car, which caused a lot of friction.
Anyway, to begin - we landed in Auckland and finally got out of the airport after dark. We got to the hire car and loaded it up, then sat there in the car park while husband tried to find the hand brake in the dark. It took about fifteen minutes or more - turned out to be a foot hand brake (what the...?)
We hadn't book accommodation - it would only have meant we would be scrutinising a map in the dark, trying to find a place which could turn out to be not what we needed. So we drove into Auckland, in the dark, trying to find something. Finally booked into a nice-looking place, unloaded our FIVE huge bags plus our FIVE lots of hand luggage, then walked to a nearby takeaway for our first meal - fish & chips (big fat fries). The best fish & chips on the North Island, they claimed. They could be right - it was great. Never had kumara chips before, though. Very sweet.
Next day, Tuesday - we'd planned to explore Auckland, but after getting essential stuff done (such as organising mobile phone cards) we decided to head out into the country. The car was loaded - we had a van (Tarago) but the 'middle' seat had easy child, BF1 & difficult child 3 across it, the back being full of luggage. We drove east along the coast, couldn't believe how amazingly emerald green the fields are there. Loads of fat-looking sheep, the fields surrounded by dry stone walls and hedges. Very hilly, very English-looking, absolutely beautiful. Ended up in a small seaside village called Thames, saw our first sign for hot springs. difficult child 3 beginning to panic about hot springs - vulcanism! Weather very cold, some faint drizzle and news of snow on South Island. Lots of feral brushtail possum road kill. Good. But so much is a worry - it indicates far too many still alive in willderness that can't cope.
Wednesday morning - we 'bugged out' early. difficult child 3 & I had done a science experiment on sedimentation (borrowed a glass jar from the landlady) and he did some science write-up. We got about 1 km down the road and found a BUTTERFLY FARM! Of course we had to explore it. Then by late morning we drove on, following the Coromandel Peninsula. Windy roads, sheer cliffs, windswept sea full of mussel beds (the famous NZ green-lipped mussels). One beach was too beautiful to pass, so we stopped and went for a walk. The beach was strewn with mussel shells and we saw a sign - "no more than 25 mussels per person per day". They were washing ashore, perfectly fresh. We collected huge handfuls then threw them back into the water - living like gypsies, we had no means to cook them. There was amber washing up on the beach, we met a lovely lady who told us a great deal about the area. Then we piled back into the car to warm up (it was about 6 degrees C on the beach) and drove on. We got to the village of Coromandel in time for a late lunch then discovered a train trip there which goes right up into the mountain top. We just made it onto the last train and spent a fabulous afternoon immersed in NZ wilderness.
We stayed the night there, after buying some smoked mussels and smoked fish. BF1 was enthusiastic about sharing the mussels with me - nobody else was. We noticed that in Coromandel, they seem to smoke EVERYTHING.
Oh yes, and they decorate shops with corrugated iron. Everywhere. At least on North Island.
Thursday - we drove the rest of the way round the Coromandel Peninsula. Incredibly winding road but impossibly beautiful country. Every turn of the road had us stopping to take more photos. We detoured to see Hot Water Beach but it was high tide and the hot water seemed to be underwater. We found out later that we COULD have dug down to it, it's always there. But we had to keep moving.
We paused for a picnic lunch at a truck stop and almost got mugged by a feral brushtail possum. I think it smelt my smoked mussel sandwiches. BF1 was no longer eating the smoked mussels and I was getting very sick of them.
One thing we were finding - it would get dark earlier than we expected. By about 3.30 pm we had to start planning on where to stay the night. By 4.30 it would be almost too dark to navigate and we were in unfamiliar territory. Maybe we needed to get up earlier in the mornings... we stayed in Tauranga, a large town, very cold this night, a large volcano (Mt Maunganui) to one side of the harbour...
Friday - the day we had to check in to our time share. We left the coast and headed south in search of Lord of the Rings territory. The town of Mata Mata, where Hobbiton had been built. Only it's since been mostly removed. The tourist information centre is made to look like a hobbit hole so we took lots of photos. We found that there is a bus tour to the green fields that once housed Hobbiton - little is left there. We bought a postcard to show us what it looks like now. The postcard was much cheaper than the bus tour, which was $80 a head, for two hours in the cold, about half that time at a farm watching sheep being shorn. Seen THAT before. So we skipped it. Sorry, Robby. But the countryside we drove through, with those amazingly green fields, huge crags of rocks and wide glacial valleys - Middle Earth.
We drove to Waitomo Caves instead - to see the famous glow worms. An amazing place. We took the short tour plus the boat ride. The light these glow worms cast is unbelievable.
Then another roadside picnic - more smoked mussel sandwiches. The others were making me eat downwind. The oil would drip through my fingers and I had to be thorough about cleaning up before I touched ANYTHING.
We finally got back on the road and were soon seeing steam in the fields and beside the road as we entered some very active volcanic areas. It was after dark when we arrived in our destination - Taupo. On the NZ map, you can see a lake in the centre, which is where you'd put a drawing pin if you wanted to spin North Island round its own centre of gravity - use a glass-headed pin and the glass head is the size of Lake Taupo, an absolutely huge caldera lake, still volcanically active. And we were staying right on the lake edge! We carefully said as little as possible to difficult child 3...
More news next instalment...
Marg