Random adventures in the North Island
of New Zealand, February 2013
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A familiar troll in a Wellington museum,
and a character from the hobbit. |
Our first impressions of the North
Island weren't great. It was a windy, rainy ferry crossing, with low
cloud completely obscuring the scenery of the Marlborough Sounds as
we left the South Island, and the pungent aroma of a lorry full of
pigs wafting up to the ferry's viewing deck.
We arrived in Wellington, New Zealand's
capital, at rush hour and found ourselves in traffic on a
motorway (or as close to a motorway as NZ gets- there was more
than one lane). That night it rained so hard that the campsite
flooded and we had to wade across to the toilet block. It wasn't a good start.
Luckily there
were some good museums in Wellington to pass a very stormy day here,
but even as the weather improved our first few days travelling up the
North Island didn't bring any highlights. We wondered if it was a
mistake to be spending a whole month here. The mountain
scenery we loved in the South Island had all but gone and settlements marked in bold on the road atlas, which would have meant a farm and a petrol station
(if you were lucky) in the South Island, were sizeable towns here,
with shopping malls and traffic lights. However, this sudden dearth of
mountaineering opportunities led us to seek out new adventures, and
we soon found ourselves back out having fun.
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| Cape Egmont lighthouse and Mount Taranaki |
First stop was the ridiculously conical
volcano of Mount Taranaki. This peak rises straight out of flat
farmland, like a child's drawing of a volcano. It is 'The Lonely
Mountain' of Lord of the Rings, and features in almost every set of pictures you see of New Zealand, but is far enough from any other attractions that not
too many people travel to it. The peak is ringed by 'Surf Highway
45', so the appeal of both waves and volcano views was too much to
resist.
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| Waves on 'Surf Highway 45' |
We camped by a picturesque
lighthouse out at Cape Egmont, and Karl surfed the clean lines of a barrelling, shallow wave there, as well as the famous and popular 'Stent Road' break (so iconic a surf spot that they've
replaced the road sign with a boulder as it kept getting stolen).
After K's morning surf, we headed inland and up the jungle covered
slopes of Taranaki itself. The tramping here was tough but fun-
climbing steeply through dense vegetation, but topping out with great
volcanic views. We 'speed tramped' a 3 day route in a day and a
half, camping in an incredibly photogenic spot by a tarn. From
inside the tent we enjoyed a perfectly framed view of the volcano
reflected in the waters of the tarn. It was a much better walk than
we expected, and led us to realise we had been hasty in our
initial judgement of the North Island.
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| Camp with a view |
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| Tramping in Taranaki National Park |
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| Tropical scenes reminiscent of Fiji |
From Taranaki we travelled to the rural
Whanganui river region where Waitangi day celebrations were underway,with
river boat races, food and music. It was bizarrely similar to Fiji
day- another celebration of freedom from British rule that we'd
enjoyed back in October. There is a much greater Maori population on the North
Island and this is reflected culturally. The people, buildings and even the
scenery look very similar to what we experienced in Fiji. It's strange but true that New Zealand manages to remind us of both Scotland and the South Pacific islands!
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| Tongariro's Emerald Lakes |
Next we travelled inland to another
volcano system. The famous Tongariro Crossing is dominated by the
cone of Mount Ngurahoe, which looms over some classic volcanic
scenery and the pretty, brightly coloured Emerald Lakes. It's a very popular day trip area, so
we needed to find a way of beating the bus loads of people that would
arrive mid-morning. The answer; a long walk in the evening before, a
wild camp on the volcano and a dawn start- the lengths we go to avoid
a crowd!
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| Mount Ngurahoe from Tongariro |
It must be one of the most surreal places I've spent a
night- on the black sand beach of a solidifed lava slope, with weird
knobbly rocks all around us, like strange creatures turned to stone.
We had a magical view of the low clouds over the farmland below, with
the peak of Mount Taranaki floating above them far away, looking
every inch the Lonely Mountain itself. It was an amazing volcano camp
experience.
The Tongariro Crossing walk itself was good, but a little
over-rated compared with most of the much less well known walks in
New Zealand. This is THE tramp that most visitors to New Zealand tick
off their list of must have experiences- we can't complain as I
suppose it keeps everywhere else so very quiet!
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| Tubing the Mangetopopo |
Whilst in Tongariro, we'd hoped to
catch up with some friends we'd met while mountaineering in the South
Island. Helen and Niv work at an outdoor pursuits centre here, and
had promised to show us some off the beaten track adventures in the
area. Unfortunately, when we came through they were both busy on
expeditions, but their colleagues soon had us set up with maps and
instructions for a day's tubing on some nearby rivers. Our truck
inner tubes hadn't seen much action for a while, but all that was
about to change! The rivers were a little shallow, but it was still a
really fun day travelling through some lovely clear waters populated
by the rare Whio, a native duck. It gave us a taste for this
minimalistic style of river journeying, and we found ourselves
pondering how we could take tubing a step further...
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| Starting our 'tramp'n'tube' trip |
The answer came in the dog-eared 1986
'Classic Kiwi Adventures', a pocket guide we'd found in a second hand
bookshop, which introduced us to the unusual sport of 'tramp'n'tube'.
The idea was simple enough- hike with your inner tubes and gear
upriver, pump them up, tie them together to build a raft, then float
back downriver. We had the time, and we were certainly up for the
adventure!
The suggested spot was well off the
beaten track, with a 60km drive on a gravel road, winding between dry
grassy hills and forest. Arriving in the late afternoon, we started
the 4 hour walk up the Mohake river. We packed a rucksack
as light as we could, bearing in mind that everything we carried
would be coming down the river with us. The walk took us up, through
scrubby forest and above high cliffs over the gorge-like Mohake
river, to the tubing start point at some geothermal pools,
where we arrived just after nightfall. We pitched our tent, and
slipped into the water. Lying in a hot pool drinking wine, listening
to the flow of the river, a view of the milky way above and the
star-like twinkle of glow worms in the grotto like surroundings; it
was an improbable start to the adventure that was to come.
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| Little raft, big river |
The next morning it was time to build something vaguely resembling a raft. We tied together our 3 inner tubes, loaded it with our
rucksack, pulled on wetsuits and then- the moment of truth- dragged
the whole contraption into the river to see if it would float!
Luckily it all worked remarkably well
and we started our rafting journey. On our walk in we had only gained
glimpses of the river below, as the path winds between forested
bluffs and high cliffs, but we did know there was no shortage of
white water. We ended up losing count when we reached over 20 sets of
rapids. They were all supposed to be grade 1 or 2, but we're pretty
sure a few of them crossed into grade 3.
The advantage, or
disadvantage (depending on your outlook), of tubing compared to more
conventional rafting is that you're actually in the water. This
doesn't give you much opportunity to view the river ahead or scout
out the coming rapids, but it does make for a very fun ride. Mostly
it was a case of going with the flow, clinging on and hoping for the
best. Surprisingly stable, we only capsized on a couple of occasions,
although we did hit more than the odd rock.
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| Negotiating a shallow rapid |
It was one of the craziest things we've
done in New Zealand, and we wouldn't have set out without the
knowledge that the rapids were manageable, and crucially that there
were no surprise waterfalls downriver. It was also very comforting to
have a commercial rafting company there, by chance. They were doing a
rather more expensive version of our own trip: heli-rafting! They
were amused by the bewildering sight of 2 people floating down the
river on tubes, alongside their fully kitted and loaded raft. Apart
from the odd taunt, 'Is this how you conquered the empire?', they
were very gracious to share the river with us. It took us about 5
hours to complete the journey, only a little longer than their big
raft. The team even stood on the bank to cheer us as we finished,
extremely handy as otherwise we would probably have missed our exit
point and continued all the way to the sea. I'm not sure quite how
much heli-rafting comes in at, but we're pretty smug that our
adventure cost a total of £10 (tubes AND pump!), and we're certain
that our river journey was more fun!
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| The professionals show us how it's done! |
The river exit point and that night's
camp were brilliantly situated next to another set of free geothermal
hot pools, on a wooden deck overlooking the valley. It was the
perfect spot to spend the evening relaxing and soothing those rafting
bruises. We were left with the conclusion that tubing is a very much
under-rated sport!
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| Celebrating our survival in a hot pool at the end of the day |
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| Exploring the Abbey Caves |
The rest of our time in the North
Island has been a little more conventional. There's been no shortage
of things to see and do, and it's not been at all difficult to keep
away from the more touristy and commercial spots. Even in the very
developed thermal resort of Rotorua there were lots of steaming holes
in the ground, bubbling mud pools and surreal boiling hot waterfalls
that could be reached without paying the high entrance fees of the
various 'geothermal villages'.
There have also been undeveloped caves to explore,
and the magical experience of turning off our torches to experience
the light of the glow worms which can cover the cave ceilings. These
little worms and their twinkling threads look so much like stars you start imagining the constellations above you. We've also enjoyed
many clear nights gazing at the southern night sky, and learnt a
little more about it from an astro-photographer staying in the same
campsite as us, who gave an impromptu talk on what was up there.
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| An empty beach near the Bay of Islands |
The coastal scenery as we've travelled
through the north of the country has been outstanding, and we
especially love some of the beaches of the Coromandel peninsula, just
south of Auckland, and the Bay of Islands area a little further
north. We've done some excellent snorkelling amongst kelp forests,
especially in Goat Island marine reserve, where we were surrounded by
large snapper and had sting rays glide by.
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| Stunning Cathedral Cove, reached through a sea arch |
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| Karl hugs a young Kauri tree |
Cape Reinga, at the far
northern tip of the country, has a real 'journey's end' feel to its
lighthouse and huge sea views. Up here in Northland everything seemed big- from the horizons to the trees. There are giant sand dunes; beautiful golden mountains with clouds of sand swirling around their
peaks and ridges, where we tried a spot of sandboarding. In
the northern forests huge kauri trees survive in protected pockets. These trees
can live well over a 1000 years and the largest, Tana Muhata, has a
trunk girth of 13.8m!
Apart from those first few days in 'Windy Wellie', the weather has been amazing for us throughout our
month here- it's actually been proclaimed a drought, with a nationwide
fire ban and water restrictions.
We have loved travelling in our van
and have camped in some beautiful spots on the coast and at lake
shores, swimming almost every day. There have been quite a few waves to surf and body board, and the end of summer water has been
warm enough to leave off the wetsuit.
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| Giant sand dunes of Northland |
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| Enjoying campervan life |
So, there might not be any proper
mountains in the North Island, and our walking boots have barely
got any use, but we were so distracted by everything that there is
up here, we stopped noticing!
The days have flown by, as they have a
tendency to do, and before we knew it we found ourselves with just 2
weeks left in the country and a campervan to sell...
Time to head to
Auckland.
Harriet
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| On the beach in Coramandel |
