Day 46: The Bay of Islands, The Bay of Plenty and Rotorua
Picked up the van, a ‘compact’ Nissan Vanette…
It might be small but it has everything we need, and is home for the next 7 weeks. Picked up a few bits and pieces we needed for the van in Auckland, and then drove out of town to an outlet mall to try and find some running shoes (need to lose the America weight!), we found some shorts, but alas no shoes that we wanted. Got used to driving the van. Once on Top Gear they all had vans for some sort of challenge, Hammond had a little Bedford Rascal and tried to do a ‘Scandinavian Flick’ and rolled it…. that’s my new constant fear when I’m driving this thing.
Got packed up then hit the road, heading north aiming for the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland. We decided a short first day was a good idea and stopped about halfway at a place called Whangarei, found a campsite for the night and tried to organise the van a bit and unpack. Took a wander into the town, but it was a Saturday night and the place was like a ghost town, we decided we didn’t want to hang around.
In the morning we were back on the road heading North, stopped at a waterfall just outside Whangarei which was cool, probably the first of many waterfalls we’ll see, bit cold for a swim though. Took a scenic road to a town called Russell, by scenic I some of it was a gravel track, which was a test of what the vanette can do, but we made it, really nice drive as well. Had a wander around Russell, it’s the oldest town in New Zealand, but there wasn’t much to see (sounds familiar now…). Headed a bit south to Orongo Bay and got a campsite for the night. BBQ for dinner was the highlight of the night.
The next day we got a ferry across the bay to the town of Paiha and drove a bit more up the coast to see more of the bay. Really scenic and great views, but apart from a nice photo there wasn’t much to offer. The afternoon was a long drive back south of Auckland, stopped at a placed called Ramarama (I’m not making any of these place names up by the way) and got a campsite for the night.
Up early the next day - don’t think you get much chance for a long lie when you live in a van, and headed east for the Coromandel Peninsular. Pitched up in a town called Whittianga and sorted out a campsite for the night. Had a wander round the town but as usual there was nothing special on offer bar nice views. Went to ‘Hot Water Beach’ in the afternoon, a really nice beach on it’s own, but at low tide there’s hot spring water under the sand, dig your feet in and you can feel it, really warm! You can hire a spade and try to dig yourself a little pool, we tried but with limited success. Some people dug really big holes further up the beach, but we’re pretty sure they were just full of sea water and they were pretending to be warm. Another quiet night in the van.
Woke up to rain the next day and set of south, as we were driving the weather lightened up a bit so we stopped at a place called Cathederal Cove, a really secluded beach about a 40 min hike from the nearest car park. Amazing beach, postcard perfect and really clear sea. Went for a swim there then another 40 min hike back to the van, followed by a 5 hour drive south to Rotorua. Stopped in Tairua for lunch, the same as we had on the way down, windiest place ever, this time we decided to stay in the van while we ate.
Found a campsite in Rotorua we thought looked busy (for a change) but it wasn’t really. Another quiet night as standard. Rotorua has a lot of geothermal springs and stuff nearby, it means the whole place smells of sulphor all the time, which is a lovely smell to wake up to.
Moved to a different campsite in Rotorua in the hope of finding something more lively the next day. The campsite was a lot busier but mainly older couples in big nice campers. Did some shopping and picked up some of the much discussed running shoes. At night we went to a bar beside the two hostels in Rotorua, which ended up being a pretty busy night. There was a wet t-shirt contest on, which was a a good way to see the sites of the town.
The next day after a morning doing nothing but being hungover we rafted the Kaituna, a grade 5 river with ‘the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world’. Was a really good afternoon, when we went over the waterfall G and I were the only two people, along with the guide, to stay in the raft, which was entertaining…
(I’ll put some some photos in here when I get the chance!)
Some of the river was quite tame though, only makes us want to do more, which we probably will!
Leaving Rotorua tomorrow and heading South to Lake Taupo.
