NORTH ISLAND (other), NEW ZEALAND

Auckland, being a city of a million people, is quite large so the suburbs stretched many miles to the south. There is a supposedly nice part of the North Island on the large peninsula that is north of Auckland, but I wouldn’t have time to do that if I wanted to make it to the South Island. I wanted to stop off at a large grocery store and pick up supplies while I was on the outskirts of Auckland. I assumed the stores would get smaller and more expensive the further away I got. About 20 miles on I decided to pull off at what seemed like a populated area, but I couldn’t find a grocery store so I doubled back to the freeway after a few miles. Even though this thing took diesel fuel and got decent mileage, I was still conscious that it was costing me something like a dollar every 4 miles or so.

It was close to noon by the time I was completely out of town. I wish it were a little earlier, but it took some time to check out and figure out how everything worked on board. My plan was to see the glowworms at the Waitomo Caves and then make it all the way to Rotorua to camp for the night. New Zealand has an amazing amount of tourist attractions and many of them involve dangerous stunts, but the glowworm caves sounded up my alley.

I barreled on in the camper heading south. The freeway soon turned into a two-lane highway and every 10 or 15 miles the speed limit would drop precipitously as you entered a small town. It was extremely nice just cruising along. I have heard and read that in their summer (November through February) the highways are completely jammed with tourists in campervans, but this time of the year I practically had the road to myself. New Zealand, by the way, has what they call a “maritime climate”, which is heavily moderated by the water on all sides so it never gets too hot or too cold. It was probably in the 60s during the day so it wasn’t like I was making a huge sacrifice in going off-season.

The scenery was nice, but nothing to extraordinary yet. It was after 3 pm when I arrived at the Waitomo Glowworm Caves and the last tour goes at around 4 pm in the winter so I didn’t have much time to spare. I parked in the lot across the street and paid my (about $15 admission) and went in just as a tour group was starting.

The tour begins with a guide explaining the historical significance and whatnot and then leads the group into the caves. It’s pretty striking when you arrive in the large section with stalactites and stalagmites coming from the floor and ceiling. It was quite dark and the tour guide had a flashlight to point things out. She enthusiastically pointed out various formations that supposedly looked like things, but I found that very few of them looked like those things to me and this part of the tour seemed silly.

We arrived in a section that the guide said had perfect acoustics for concerts and she explained they actually held local choir concerts in there periodically. She asked if anyone in the group could sing, but there were no volunteers. Just as she had given up and we were moving on a young woman started belting out a verse of Shania Twain’s From This Moment On. I love that song and she did a good version of it. I was tempted to join in with the harmony part during the chorus, but I was too self-conscious. We applauded and she sang nicely, but the cave didn’t really have a magical sound quality to me.

Next up we all piled into a boat and were told to be absolutely silent. I was surprised by how well people followed that direction. About 20 of us were loaded into an unpowered boat and the guide started pulling us through a river in the dark cave using a tight rope above that runs the length of the cave. We went around a corner and suddenly we could see the walls and ceiling were completely covered in glowworms. They don’t glow very brightly, but it’s still very interesting to see them in their natural habitat. The boat was completely silent the entire time, which was a bit unsettling. After about 10 minutes the guide pulled us to the end of the cave and to an opening where we got out of the boat and were on our way. It was interesting, but I’m not sure I would recommend it as a “must see” attraction.

I was back outside around 4 p.m. and back in the camper. I picked out a holiday park (which is what they call the campgrounds with facilities there) in Rotorua called the Cosy Cottage Holiday Park and I was on my way. I had to backtrack for 30 miles or so to get to the highway that goes to Rotorua, but I wanted to spend my first night there so it was worth it. The sun went down and it rained some on the way. It felt a bit dangerous driving at night on the wrong side of the road in the rain so I vowed from that point on to minimize my driving after dark.

I arrived at the Cosy Cottage Holiday Park around 8 p.m. and checked in. For about $US10, I was assigned a parking space and told where the community kitchen and other facilities were. Rotorua is famous for its thermal pools and hot springs and one great feature about the Cosy Cottage is that its set on thermally heated ground. I parked and got myself organized, but I was unable to figure out how to hook up to the power supply outside. I bought a steak and some broccoli at a store early in the day so I decided to try another New Zealand oddity called Hangi style cooking. I think it’s something the local Maori people have done for centuries. Basically it’s a chamber about the size of a large backyard BBQ filled with rocks, and natural steam heats the whole thing 24 hours a day. Metal lids for each section keep the heat in, so I put my steak and veg in a pan and left it there for about an hour. The girl who checked me in gave me some foil to use and explained how I should do it and I must say the meal turned out great.

After dinner I took a dip in one of the 3 thermal pools near the kitchen and relaxed for a while, but the water wasn’t really as hot as it could have been so it was just okay. I dried myself off and called it a night.

The next morning I woke up early in the rain and went looking around the holiday park. Right next to the area where the campers park is a thermal river. It’s a small creek, but the water is like 150 degrees or something so all the signs warn you from touching the water. A little farther is the shore of the lake that Rotorua is on. It stopped raining long enough for me to get a good look around and I was really enjoying myself.

My plan for the day was to visit the famous Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. With a name like that how could I resist? I drove out of the holiday park and got my first look at the actual town of Rotorua. All the guide books tell you you’ll know you are there due to the sulfur smell in the air, but I didn’t smell it at all at the Cosy Cottage. Once I got into town I definitely smelled it though. They say you get used to it pretty quickly, but it wasn’t as offensive as I was expecting. Rotorua seems like a nice town, but I just drove through on my way to the Thermal Wonderland about 15 miles outside of town.

I arrived at Wai-O-Tapu, parked, and paid my admission fee. It was fairly expensive (about $US15), but this was unique and I knew I wasn’t going to do too many more of these sorts of things in the week that followed. Once inside the place you go on a self-guided tour with three levels of difficulty. I did the most difficult, but it was nothing. The booklet explains what everything is in sufficient detail. I spent about an hour in there and I found it fascinating. I’d never been to a place like that before and unlike the glowworm caves, I would rate this one as a “must see” attraction.

It was overcast and even raining a bit so the colors of the thermal pools weren’t quite as vivid as they might be in the sun, but it was still very impressive and thoughtfully laid out. Pools of mud were boiling and steam was rising from the oddest places. Certain sections were yellow from the sulfur deposits and various other chemicals caused other colors in other places. It was very nice.

My goal was to make it on the ferry the following day so I had a long way to drive yet on this day. The ferry leaves very near Wellington (the capital), but when you are in a campervan the last place you want to stay is in a big city. I looked on the map and decided on a route in that direction and was going to go as far as I could go before it got too dark. The scenery as I drove through the mountains in the center of the island was gorgeous and the whole experience was aided by the fact that there were so few other vehicles on the road. The camper would go a reasonable rate of speed, but I was still one of the slower vehicles on the road and that was fine with me on a trip like this.

After coming down from the mountains I emerged onto a desert plain that really took me by surprise. People said the South Island was so much more scenic than the North Island, but this was very impressive. A few hours later I made it to the west coast as the sun was setting. I found a holiday park in my book that sounded nice about 60 miles further south so I decided to press on even though it was dark and I really didn’t like driving that thing in the dark.

I made it to the holiday park in Otaki Beach, but it was very complicated trying to hook up my electricity again. I found out how it was supposed to be done, but the first spot I chose not only had a non-working power outlet, but I also got shocked when I was futilely plugging in. I moved and plugged in properly and my problems were solved.

I, of course, had my laptop with me on this trip and it was really great having it in the motorhome. During the New Zealand summer when the sun is out until 9 pm and the weather is warm I’m sure it would be easy to find things to do in the evenings at the campgrounds, but it was getting dark a bit after 5 and the places were pretty empty so I was on my own. Fortunately I had purchased a bootleg DVD while in India that contained all 3 Lord Of The Rings movies on it. I had never seen these movies and was never too interested in them to be honest, but they were famously filmed in and around New Zealand so I thought it would be interesting to watch them at night while I was there. After dinner I would get the bed made up and then watch some LOTR until I was tired.

The next morning I woke up early, made some eggs and bacon for breakfast and was on the road again. It took about 90 minutes to get to the Wellington area, but fortunately the port is not in the middle of everything so I just followed the signs for the ferry and before I knew it I was in line to drive on board. The ferry only leaves twice a day (I think) so you have to be there on time. I was early so I had plenty of time to get organized. The rental place had faxed me a confirmation letter for the ferry so I presented that to the person in the booth and soon drove on board along with dozens of other campervans, but mostly freight trucks.

The islands are close together, but the Cook Straight, which separates them, is quite treacherous and the port on the South Island is well into an inlet so the journey takes a few hours. You can’t stay in your vehicle during the journey so we all went inside. Normally no one would want to stay in their vehicle, but when you have a fully equipped camper van it’s not that crazy. I could have spread out in the back, cooked food, and watched a DVD in bed if I wanted, but the ferry was very nice inside. I’ve now been on a lot of ferries and a few of them are very basic, but I must say most are far more luxurious than they need to be and this was no exception.