Kathryn & Rick's Blog

We have reservations to go to White Island this afternoon. White Island is home to an active marine volcano. It last erupted in 2012 and steam issues continuously from the many vents and the central crater. We relaxed in the morning and left the camp ground around 10. We drove from Ohope Beach where we spent the night to Whakatane (note Wh in Maori is pronounced as an f), about a 15 minute drive. We stopped at Kopi Point Lookout in Whakatane and saw beautiful views of the shore. Here are some pictures.

We did our daily grocery run and when we returned to the van we called the tour company to make sure they hadn’t canceled. We learned that the seas were too rough for them to dock the boat and they had canceled the afternoon trip. We were disappointed. They were full for Saturday but had some openings for Sunday. We told them to refund our money but that we may rebook for Sunday. We decided to head to Coromandel. We  planned to go to Hot Water Beach which was about a 3½ hour drive.

Just outside of Whakatane we stopped at Julian’s Berry Farm and Café for strawberry ice cream, Rick’s favorite! While we were there we were talking to a lady about berries and somehow we got talking about Hot Water Beach. She said the next beach north, HeHai, had a really nice campground right on the ocean. She told us that the Hot Water Beach campground was not on the ocean, but on an estuary. So we took her advice and headed to Hehai. I know I have said this before but everyone is so friendly. They take the time to talk to us. They want to hear about our trip. They are willing to share their experiences with us. It’s really delightful.

We wandered through small towns and up and over mountains on very twisty, curvy roads eventually arriving in Hehai. We got to the campground and it had two beachfront sites available, so we took one. We have a nice big site that is close to the ocean but we can’t actually see the ocean. The beach is really beautiful. After getting settled I went for a walk on the beach.

When I came back I suggested Rick get his camera because the light was really good. After taking his picture he started taking to a nice couple, John and Ina, from Whakatane, who are staying in cabins at the campground. They invited us to visit them in Whakatane if we go back on Sunday. Rick talks to everyone and makes new friends everywhere he goes.

We had a nice dinner in the camper.

For once the weather forecast was right. We have had many days that were forecasted to be rainy which turned out sunny. But today they got it right and we woke up to rain. Yesterday we had tried to find rainy day interesting activities without much luck. So we have a leisurely morning. We washed our sheets because in this van they are brand new and scratchy. We left the camp ground around 10. We went into Rotorua and Rick got some breakfast (I had breakfast in the camper earlier). Then we drove to Te Puia which has a geothermal park and a Maori crafts school. We had done a geothermal park yesterday so we just wanted to be exposed to the Maori culture, but you couldn’t buy just a cultural ticket so we skipped it. We went into the gift shop and bought a Maori carved mask which will be our remembrance from the trip.

By now the rain had stopped and we decided to head to our next stop Ohope Beach. It was an hour and a half drive. We drove up and down hills, covered in what looked like a rain forest, lots of ferns and palms. We arrived at a beautiful beach. Our campsite has a lovely view of the ocean which was pretty turbulent today. We relaxed for a while and I went for a walk along the beach. It was quite windy and not that warm, it was probably about 62 or 63F.

That evening we had spaghetti for dinner.

We slept great, as usual, in our campervan. We expected to be up early but instead slept in. We left the campground for Lake Taupo around 9. Lake Taupo is an hour south of Blue Lake and it occupies the caldera of the Taupo volcano. The whole area is known for its geothermal activity.

We arrived in the town of Taupo, parked, and went to a coffee shop for breakfast. At the coffee shop we asked about a bakery and went there to get some bread. Then we went to the grocery store.  Here’s the view of the lake from our parking area.

After we finished our shopping we went to Huka Flls. Compared with some of the falls we have seen they were not very impressive, but they manage to generate 15% of the power requirement for New Zealand. The falls have over 200,000 liters of water per sec barreling over an 11 meter high waterfall. Here are some pictures.

Next we went to the spa thermal park, a public park where you can relax in hot springs. We walked to the water and put our feet in the water. It was probably about 90F and very relaxing. There were quite a few other people there. Here is a picture.

Our last stop of the day was at Orakei Korakogeo thermal park and cave. Hot water (as hot as 175C) boils to the surface and when it cools to 100C is deposits silica which form sinter terraces. Sinter is rock that is formed over time by the deposition of silica from thermal water. Colorful algae grows in the water. It was very interesting. I imagined it looked like the earth billions of years ago when life was forming in the boiling oceans (In my imagination I had to overlook the plants growing along the water). It smelled faintly of sulfur. We walked along a walkway which lead us around the sinter and to a thermal cave and boiling mud pits (which really smelled of sulfur). It was unlike anything I’ve seen before. Here are pictures.

Here are a couple of videos so you can see and hear the boiling water.

We returned to the campground and I did some research on White Island while Rick cooked. Some people we talked to at the thermal park suggested we go to White Island, an active volcano 27km out in the Bay of Plenty.

After dinner I went to see the glowworms in the woods next to the campground. I just walked a little way in and they were everywhere. It was magical, like an enchanted forest with fairy lights. The lights are so small that my camera couldn’t pick them up so sorry.

Here is our route today.

We picked up our new campervan this morning. It’s just like the last one. We ubered 1 mile from the hotel to get to the rental office. They were not very busy so we were helped quickly. Once the paperwork was done, we  unpacked our suitcases so we could leave them there. We were on the road by 9:15. We had booked tickets at Hobbiton for 1:00 which was about a 2 hour drive. We had a little extra time once we reached Matamata, the home of Hobbiton, so we stopped at the grocery store and stocked up the van.

Hobbiton is the movie set for the hobbit shire in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies. Peter Jackson, the films’ director, found the site by flying around the island in a helicopter. The alternative was “combining” several sites to cover all the shire scenes. When they found the site it was a working sheep farm. They built the set for the Lord of the Rings movies and then, per the contract, it was all removed. Then they decided to make the Hobbit trilogy so they rebuilt the whole thing again! However this time the contract did not have the clause requiring the site to be demolished. Since then the farm owners have turned it into a tourist attraction that draws up to 3,000 people per day in the summer. During the tour though the shire we learned about how they made the movie and how they made the hobbits look little especially compared to Gandoff. It was fun to see, now I need to watch the movies again. Here are pictures from Hobbiton.

We left Hobbiton around 3:30 and continued our journey. We had booked a campsite just outside of Rotorua, right in front of Blue Lake. We arrived and got checked in. We have a nice view of the lake.

That evening Rick made lamb steaks which were good but not as good as the lamb chops we had on the south island. I spent the evening doing more research on what to do and where to go. It seems to be a continuous process!

Here is our route today.

 

Today was a travel day. We had another leisurely morning. We finished packing up and then drove to the campervan office to turn in the van. The return process was very quick and efficient. We took the shuttle to the airport. Luckily our suitcases were not overweight. Our flight was easy and uneventful. We had booked a hotel room near the airport for the night since we pick up our campervan tomorrow near the airport. We ubered to the hotel. It was weird to be in a hotel after living in the camper for two weeks.

We were going to go into Auckland for dinner but the uber was going to cost NZ$42, or over US$50 round trip which seemed a little too expensive so we stayed in the hotel and had dinner there. We watch CNN that evening to get caught up on the news.

Here’s a map of our total route around the south island.

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We had a leisurely morning. We don’t have any sightseeing planned and just have a two hour drive to Christchurch.   We did laundry, took showers and Rick made eggs for breakfast. It rained overnight and the day started off overcast. We went to the Caroline Bay Beach in Timaru to have a look around but it was spitting so we didn’t stay long.

We left Timaru and headed to Christchurch. By now it was consistently raining. We turned off the main road onto to a scenic drive, very pretty pretty but the sights were similar to much of the east coast, fields of sheep, lambs, and cows.  We had a nice lunch in a rest stop listening to the rain in our cozy van.

We arrived in Christchurch around 3. We went to the campervan office and picked up our suitcases. Then we drove to the campsite.

It was raining pretty hard so we stayed in the campervan, relaxed, worked on the blog and packed. For dinner we tried to finish up our food so Rick has a salad and I had chicken parmesan. We didn’t have much food left over but what we did have we put in the kitchen and hoped someone else would be able to use it.

Here’s a map of today’s journey.

Unfortunately we left the campground this morning before Edward and Diane were up so we didn’t get to say goodbye. We traveled about 3 hours to Timaru. Along the way we were commenting that the east coast looks lot different than the west coast. The cities on the east coast are bigger and have more facilities. Generally on the west coast the roads wind along forests and up and over mountains. The east roads are lined with fields of grazing sheep and cattle. We drove along the ocean for a while and it is turquoise in color. In the Caribbean the water is turquoise because the bottom is sand but that’s not the case here.  I asked about it and the guide told me it is because it is rich in plankton.

We stopped for some breakfast. I also got a pie. They seem to make dinner pies filled with a variety of fillings. I’ve wanted to try one so I got a steak, bacon, and cheese pie for dinner.

We got to Timaru around noon and checked in at the campground. Yesterday we purchased tickets to the Maori Rock Art museum. We haven’t been exposed much to the Maori culture so we wanted to take this opportunity to learn. In addition to viewing the exhibition our tickets included going to see the actual rock art. We were supposed to be at the museum at 2 but we received a call saying that the weather was changing and it would be good if we got there early, so we packed up and drove to the museum.

There we were greeted by Wesley, a Maori man in his 20s. He told us about the Maori people and their culture. Here are some of the things he told or we learned via the exhibitions

• The Maori arrived in New Zealand somewhere between 700 and 1000 years ago. DNA suggests that they were a mix of various Polynesian backgrounds. He suggested they may have followed birds or whales to the islands.
• They lived in small tribes on the North and South Islands. The tribes on the north island were more aggressive while those on the south were more cooperative with each other.
• They live on fish, birds, and vegetables.
• Older people had their faces tattooed, women only tattooed their chins while men tattooed their whole faces.
• Maori legend says that mother earth married the sea but then the sea left and she thought he was dead so she married the sky but then the sea came back and fought the sea. The sea won and the sky fell on mother earth. When one of mother earth and the sky’s children stepped in and separated mother earth, the sky, and the sea. Another legend says that mother earth’s sons traveled and on their return journey their boat capsized. The brothers died and turned to stone, forming the islands of New Zealand, specifically the southern alps. There is a fault line under the alps which have resulted in earthquakes but the early Maori thought it was the brothers fighting that caused the earthquakes.
• The Maori of the south island banned together and arrived at a settlement with the government about 20 years ago. According to another Maori woman there the settlement has really benefitted the Maori of the south. The Maori from the Northern island never unified and still have not reached an agreement with the government.

After talking to Wesley and looking around at the exhibits, we followed Wesley to the cave with the art. It was in a small valley that the Maori were trying to return to its natural state. They had planned 7,000 trees and planned to plant another 43,000 trees. It was an ambitious project. We walked to the cave which was fenced off. It was hard to see the art work as the pigment was very faint. Here are pictures of the cave and a graphic clearly showing the art.

Here’s a picture of Wesley.

We said good bye and good luck to Wesley and returned to the campground. Rick made dinner and I had my pie which was quite good.

A good day.

We were up early because we were on the 7:45 glowworm excursion. We started by taking a 20 minute boat ride across Lake Te Anua which we later learned was named after the daughter of a Maori chief.  Here are pictures of the lake.

We arrived on the other side and were met our guide. He took us into the cave. We walked on walkways over raging water. The water was really loud and so clean we could drink it. I think caves are cool and this one did not disappoint. It was beautiful, but unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures. We started seeing glowworms as soon as we entered the cave. We walked along for awhile and then got into a small boat.  It was completely dark except for the glowworms and our guide pulled us through the grotto on a line strung overhead. Our guide asked us to be silent and it was very cool to be in this dark, quiet space peering at the phosphorescent lights emitted by the glowworms.

Insects are sweep into the cave by the raging water that flows into and through the cave. Glowworms are about an inch long, look like slender slugs and have an organ on their tail which emits light. They create “fishing lines”, threads that hang down from the ceiling of the cave covered with a sticky substance. They use the light in their tail to attract insects.  When one gets caught the glowworm reels it in and injects enzymes into the insect’s eyes to start the digestion process.  No surprise what comes next… Yuck!  After the worm has matured a bit it pupates and emerges into a moth-like creature to mate.  They only live long enough to mate, males live for 76 hours and females live for 96 hours, just long enough to create the next generation.

After the cave we headed back to the visitor center for a short lecture on glowworms. Then back on the boat to Te Anua.

Here’s an interesting story that we heard on the way back across the lake that gives a little insight into the New Zealand psyche. Milford Sound is just a little north of Doubtful and very popular with tourists because it is close to Queenstown. Parking was a big problem and the government considered put up a three story parking garage. However people balked, saying this is about nature not commerce, we don’t want all these cars here. So they increased the price for parking to $10 per hour and improved the public transit system.  New Zealand logic!

Once back on dry land we went to the grocery store and got some pastries for breakfast and got underway. We planned to drive to Dunedin. The drive was mostly across a plain surrounded by gently rolling hills, covered by sheep and cows. I know I keep saying this but it looked like Switzerland!

We stopped to take a picture and met up with Edward and Diane, our friends from Te Anua. Rick had started talking to them in the supermarket parking lot and later that day they appeared at the camp ground we are staying at. They are Dutch nationals currently living in Norway. He is a fishing guide and they own a campground near their home. They have spent a lot of time in New Zealand previously and told us about a nice campground on Otago peninsula. We followed them there, making a number of photo stops on the way.

We arrived at the campground and Rick and Edward had a beer  and talked for a while. Meanwhile, I was investigating things to do. We decided to see the blue penguins at the Royal Albatross Center. After dinner we headed northeast about 10 miles to see the penguins. Blue penguins are the smallest penguins in the world, weighing about 2 pounds. They go to sea all day to feed and return to their nests as it is getting dark. There is a colony of them next to the Royal Albatross Center. At 8:30 our group headed down to a viewing platform next to the beach. The penguins assemble in the water and come ashore in large groups called rafts. We saw a total of 155 penguins which came ashore in 6 groups. They climbed the penguin highway and headed back to their nests. We didn’t get great pictures because it was dark and we couldn’t use a flash but they were very cute and fun to watch.

The staff warned us that as we drove away to be careful of penguins that had wandered to the road. We were driving cautiously and sure enough three penguins wandered in front of us. We stopped and two of them walked back to the edge of the road. The third one stayed under the van, a little shocked and very afraid about joining his buddies. There were probably a dozen cars behind us all stopped waiting for this penguin to get out from under the van. Finally he decided to move on and we continue back to the campground without another penguin sighting.

 

 

Today we are going to Doubtful Sound. It was a beautiful day and the rain that was predicted did not materialize. We were picked up by a bus at the campground which took us to Lake Manapouri, about a 20 minute ride.

We have seen signs about banning 1080 and didn’t know what that meant. A lady on the bus and the bus driver explained it. The only mammals indigenous to New Zealand are bats, all the other mammals were introduced by humans throughout the islands 800 year recorded history. Today they have issues with over population of many of the mammals humans introduced; rabbits, weasels, rats, deer, just to name a few. The government is trying to manage the situation by dropping a poison called 1080. Many people want the government to stop using it because it indiscriminately kills everything that touches it.  There’s also concern it will poison the water supply.

Here’s the story of one mammal that was brought to New Zealand. Deer were brought to here in the late 19^th century for sport. They spread rapidly as they had no predators and plenty of food. Starting in 1920 the government employed cullers to shoot the deer because they were damaging pastures, young exotic trees in plantations and native forests. Eventually the farmers realized they could capture the deer and raise them for vension (I think most of the vension is exported to China). So then they started hunting from helicopters.  When a deer was spotted they would jump out, wrestle them to the ground and then transport them to a farm. There are obvious problems with that methodology so they developed a dart that they shot at the dee.  The dart contained a net that entangles the deer and provides the means to capture and transport them to the farms. Today the farmers have enough deer to sustain their herds so the deer population is once again exploding.

Back to our day, we got on a boat which took us across Lake Manapouri. Here are pictures from Lake Manapouri.

Next step, onto a bus which traveled through the Fiordland National Park to Doubtful Sound. The only way to access the road we traveled on was by boat. It was built in the 1960’s to transport equipment to the edge of Lake Manapouri where they were built a hydro power station. Here are some pictures from a scenic stop on our bus ride.

Once we reached Doubtful Sound we got onto another boat which took us out into Doubtful Sound. We checked out some of the “fingers” along the way. The trip out to the end of the sound, where it meets the Tasman Sea, took about an hour and a half. We had ordered box lunches which we enjoyed en route.

We saw quite a few waterfalls both from the bus and from the boat. If it had been raining, which it does on two out of every three days, we would have seen more, but we were thankful for the glorious weather. The weather was great for most of the day but as neared the Tasman Sea it became cloudy, foggy and it started raining.  Fortunately the bad weather didn’t enter the sound and our return trip was sunny and warmer.  Here are pictures from our Doubtful Sound boat trip.

While en route a guide described the area.  The reason Doubtful Sound is named as such is that when Captain James Cook came to the mouth of fjord he observed that the wind was always blowing west. He knew he could sail into the sound but was DOUBTFUL that he could sail out. Therefore he never went into the sound and wrote the word Doubtful on a the chart he created.  In this area they have tree avalanches. What’s a tree avalanche? In much of Fiordland, as the area is called, the forest clings to steep faces of hard rock covered only by a think layer of rich, peaty humus and moss. The roots of the trees anchor into the roots of other trees so there is a huge network of roots holding the trees onto the rocks. Occasionally the trees grow too tall and the fragile root system can no longer sustain their weight. Once one tree goes it rips through the root network and a number of trees are ripped from the landscape, ie., a tree avalanche.

We saw fiordland crested penguins, but only at a distance. They were on rocks on an island just on the outer edge of the fiord. Their population is declining due to various predators, dogs, cats, rats and weasels, all mammals introduced by man. They are also vulnerable to human disturbance, fleeing nests and leaving chicks exposed to predators.

On another nearby island New Zealand fur seals were lounging on the rocks. We learned that female seals get pregnant 8 days after giving birth to the last seal, so basically they are perpetually pregnant!

It rains all the time in Doubtful Sound, in fact they get over 26 ft of rain in an average year. The rain travels down the hill, picking up tannins on the way and  turning the water brown. The water is less dense than the salt water so it sits on top and filters out the sunlight. Therefore many deep water species grow in comparatively shallow water.

At the end of our Doubtful Sound trip we returned to Te Anua the same way we came. In the course of the day we took four bus rides and three boat rides. Wow! The trip to Doubtful Sound was definitely a highlight of our New Zealand trip.  Here is a map of our travels today, Blue is by bus and green is by boat.

We were dropped off that the booking center and booked a trip for tomorrow morning to see the glowworms that live in a near by cave. Of course on the way back to the campground we had to stop by the grocery store.