Monday 18th December
A reasonable night’s sleep for me, aside from the usual early hours visit to attend to the plumbing but I was awake early and decided not to waste the time, so made a cuppa and got started on the next part of the blog. It was still dark out but as dawn came – bless her – a heavy mist was apparent. Given the forecast for a warm sunny day I reckoned it would burn off, and so it proved. Within 20 minutes it had gone. After a long drive, the day before I was looking forward to staying local, and the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway was ideal.
Sandra takes up the narrative:
As many of you already know, it is something of a ‘thing’ for Richard and I and so we decided to pay it a visit that morning. A short 15 minute drive brought us to the railway station and it was full of customers tucking into chips at 10am in the morning!! We duly bought our tickets, had a quick look round about and photos were taken. We had a little time to wait, so a coffee and perusal of the information sheet passed the time until we were called to board the train. We were to learn, that despite the platform café being full of people, Richard and I were the only two passengers on that run, well at least until the Taumarere station where a mother and son boarded the train to go over the creek and back onto the cycle track the other side.
We spent the next 1.5 hours travelling in a semi open carriage – great seats but away from the sun beating down on our heads all the time. The two ladies who were acting as guards, gate openers etc., were happy to talk to us about the route and point out things of interest. It truly was a most enjoyable trip and a diesel engine too! Just a quick bit of history – it was mainly built for hauling coal in the 1800’s and closed in the middle of the 20th Century. It is now being reopened and they are extending the line to hopefully connect up with the NZ railway main line in due course.
What a thoroughly enjoyable morning its was. Warm but not hot weather, stunning scenery and helpful and friendly locals who really want you to make the most of and enjoy your time here. They have a lovely country and are rightly proud of it. New Zealand just keeps on giving.
Following that we returned to the apartment and made our usual sandwiches. We were slightly thwarted as the ice pack we had at that time would not fit in the freezer box of the fridge, (needed defrosting big time), anyway more of that later ….. We drove over the headland and managed to park up in a designated space just outside the ferry terminal. First though we found a shady spot to eat our lunch and watch the world go by. There was a small cruise ship in the area but even though it is their peak season, it was never busy. We went to the Tourist Information Office, right next to the terminal, purchased our ferry tickets over to Russell Island. I will leave Richard to tell you about that and the ‘infamous’ Duke of Marlborough pub – hmmm …
Russell Island was beautiful, even more laid back and the walk along the front was so calming. As Sandra said, it wasn’t busy, in fact nowhere has seemed particularly busy, given that it’s their summer holidays. I have to remind myself though that Christmas is just around the corner. Sandra found a hardware shop on the high street – took a chance and asked if they had smaller ice packs, they did! We were now sorted.
‘The Duke’ had come recommended by a couple of people - it was indeed lovely and a ‘must do.’ It had joined the Craft Beer carry on but as I’ve found out that mostly means pale and hoppy I.P.A’s, hazy I.P.A’s and A.P.A’s – none of which are my thing. There was a black lager which I sipped at – slowly. Cracking spot though.
Sandra:
We returned to the apartment and having espied a very nice pub/restaurant in the ferry terminal building headed there for dinner. We were to set off the next morning as respectably early as we could as we had a long way to go. Prophetic words.
The CBK – Craft Beer & Kitchen sat right on the waterfront and we had lovely views over to Russell. Sandra had the lamb which arrived on a (very) hot slab to be cooked to taste. I opted for an Indo-Malayan chicken, prawn and rice dish. Both very tasty and the inclusion of a couple of Porter’s on the menu was very welcome indeed.
Tuesday, 19th December
Sandra:
We awoke reasonably early and having worked out that we could reverse the car to the rear of our apartment, which was on the first floor at the front, avoid hoiking the luggage down several sets of steps.
We duly set off, heading across the peninsula to the west coast and the plan was to then head south towards Auckland and then finally finishing up in Rotorura.
We had a good drive, some heavy showers and then back into sunshine again. We stopped for coffee at another Tourist Information Centre with café attached and the toilets!!
The stop was at Opononi near the mouth of Hokianga Harbour. It is likely that Trev and I would have driven this road having dashed to make the last ferry after a day up at Cape Reinga.
Soon after hitting the road again, with Sandra now at the wheel we stopped again at a viewpoint near South Head. Stunning, obviously.
The journey south took us inland a little, through Waipoua Forest, a different yet still beautiful landscape with twisty, winding roads. Sandra was clearly enjoying driving the Elantra as much as I was.
We stopped at Dargaville to devour our packed lunch. Sitting on the banks of a muddy river it wasn’t initially appealing to the tourist but we followed the road up to the museum and found a nice spot to tuck in.
Sandra:
We continued on south making for the Albany Retail Centre as we needed fuel and some further supplies, especially now we had proper sized ice packs and keeping food cold and safe was now possible. Traffic was beginning to build, as befits a work night rush hour but little did we know, as Richard took the next turn that we would spend close to 2 hours traversing a length of motorway which ordinarily would have taken 45 minutes or so. A mixture of rush hour and big roadworks, (more of that later), saw us stop start for miles – I felt awful for Richard – thank goodness we had an automatic, that did at least help a little. A discretionary call to stop at the next available service centre, which hopefully had either a McDonald’s or KFC proved to be a good call and a quick dinner was consumed before swapping drivers again. Google Maps showed us that we would not make the stated time to arrive before 8.30pm by at least an hour. We have happened upon a NZ app – AGODO, purely by chance, and it is giving us some really good deals on accommodation, it also has a message function to alert the owners that you may be late.
I was indeed very grateful for the auto box, or more accurately, no need to keep depressing the clutch. Whilst in the traffic we perused the vehicles around us, noting that while many were familiar shapes, the names were different, and some we haven’t even seen on UK roads at all.
Sandra:
Fortunately, the road started to ease and shortly afterwards the 110kph sign appeared, the road was relatively quiet, so foot down, cruise control on and let’s eat up those miles thinks me. I was doing really well and the arrival time on the Maps App was coming down steadily. Uh oh, we passed a sign that said motorway is closed between 7pm and 6am tonight. So my progress was again thwarted. Still by now it was nearly dark and the road was empty so 100 kph it was and I drove onwards. We eventually arrived or, in my case, stumbled into Rotorura at about 9.40pm. Fortunately, the owner was still about and he let us in to our apartment. A cuppa and a very funny episode of Last of the Summer Wine was enough to let us decompress and lights out and we were soon fast asleep.
We were both very relieved to have arrived. It had been an enjoyable if long day, the traffic was annoying but that’s the first time we’ve encountered any of note. We were booked in for three nights so there would be no early start in the morning. By the way, in case of any doubt, I had a beer not a cuppa….
Wednesday, 20th December 2023
Another decent nights’ sleep – aside from one night I’m pleased how I’ve adjusted to the time difference.
Sandra:
After such a long day yesterday, the thought of piling into the car again first thing was not appealing, so a quiet morning was definitely on. Equally, I needed to do some laundry and the 3 night stay would make that very doable too. Equally, the laundry here was far more serviceable. Laundry completed, the lounge of the apartment did represent Aladdin’s, ‘Wishy Washy Room’ for a while but the increasing temperatures meant that most things were dry and I was very glad to have a full complement of clean clothes to choose from.
A couple of naps were taken and cups of coffee and tea drunk and it was soon starting to approach late morning – time to get moving. We had noticed, even at the late hour the day before, that there was a Gondola ride on the entrance to the town. We had a made a weary note of the name and today we searched the good old web and found it. Briefly, we made lunch to take with us and proceeded to ride the cable car up to the top – about a 20 minute ride each way, so very happy with the cost of the trip. Truly magnificent views were to be had and we found a convenient spot to sit – unfortunately not in the shade and quickly made light of the packed lunch which, despite the heat, was still nice and cold. We could not resist an ice cream and felt we could now sit at the tables under the parasols to eat them. A few more photos and a perusal of the obligatory souvenir shop and we needed to start to head down again. However, there was a certain amount of leg pulling as Richard had espied the luge downhill course and we both remarked on the fact that it was nowhere near as fast as we had anticipated, we were obviously thinking of the Olympic sport of luge running on the ice!! He did seem tempted and I did my best to encourage him to have a go. To be truthful, we have to be careful as Travel Insurance would probably not cover you for that type of activity.
Yeah, I initially discounted a go on the luge - my thrill seeking is more fairground Waltzer – but it did look fun, the zip wire and sky swing less so but clearly popular with others and the whole set up looks a good money spinner.
Whilst we were up at the top of the mountain, we had looked at various roads and worked out one which we thought would take us down to the Rotorura lakeside. We set off and we drove, partly by accident and partly by design, through some residential areas on the lakeside. There were some obviously very expensive properties with commanding views and then the normal run of everyday housing. Most of the property is single storey here – apparently made from wood or composite materials – this would, I suspect, make two stories or more somewhat dangerous from a weight point of view. Equally, we are in earthquake territory – a wall of wood will do far less damage, hopefully than a brick wall for example.
We continued on and came to a dead end – we had read about the paddle steamer having been lifted out of the lake in October just gone and sadly 15 people were made redundant, post COVID doldrums seemed to be the reason behind the decision. She was sitting there on wooden sleepers – even after this short time, she look tired and we suspected that she was probably in need of a substantial overhaul and lack of custom had made this prohibitive. She is clearly for sale, so if anyone wants a paddle steamer in NZ and has the $$ and wherewithal to get it going, then she is waiting for the right buyer to come along. Anyway, I digress – we got out, mentally holding our noses – we were at the corner of the lake where the most geothermal activity takes place, sulphur was much in evidence!! There was a little jetty and I ventured along it to take a couple of photos for posterity and a funny selfie too. By the time you are reading this you will have seen my unfortunate ‘sun hat hair do.’ One thing NZ’s take very seriously and that is the sun, hats are almost mandatory and most people wear them for large parts of the day. My hair style does not lend itself to be squashed in a hat, plus humidity are not good.
We then returned back to the motel via some gardens we had driven through on the way down to the lakeside – Richard took some great photos so it is over to him.
The name Government Gardens hardly inspires excitement but it was a very pretty area, the former Tudor style bath house, having spent some time as a night club, now houses the museum, although sadly closed whilst structural repairs take place following an earthquake. There’s bubbling thermal pools which are particularly odoriferous.
Sandra:
On returning to the apartment we needed to get the next two nights booked – firstly it is getting very close to Xmas and secondly we are already booked into Wellington for 3 nights over the Xmas Day period. Various routes and locations were discussed and AGODO came to the rescue once more.
On our circuits of town – set out like an American town, so several blocks can be driven round or past before you realise you have missed the destination right in the middle. Anyway, we decided to have dinner in town at Super Casual Bar & Eatery.
Once again, beer wise it was lager or heavily hopped IPA’s so I opted for a Merlot – local of course. Food wise we both opted for pasta which was delicious.
Sandra:
We returned to the apartment nicely fed and relaxed, it was still early and given the late start and naps in between, we opted to do two things – firstly I hit the laptop and brought the blog up to date, or as near as possible. Richard will do his bit and usual editing later.
Before we left the UK we had watched the first half of a Trial and Retribution so it nicely fitted in to watch the final half that evening. A bit of a confusing ending – but then some writers like to leave you to make up the final bit. For me, personally, I prefer a nice tidy ending – not necessarily happy, but at least knowing who did what at least – if we are talking about detective style programmes.
A very pleasant and relaxing evening – a continuation of the whole trip so far and we had two great trips planned for tomorrow. Fortunately, Richard had done neither of them before too.
Thursday, 21 December 2023
Wow, best night’s sleep for ages – maybe I’m finally starting to relax. To be honest I felt quite groggy – almost as if I’d overdosed on sleep! The usual cuppa helped and with our first booked activity not until 11am ablutions were leisurely. Sandra prepped lunch – our usual smoked ham baps – whilst I chased letters around the keyboard.
First up was a pharmacy – antihistamines and bite cream needed. We’d located one on the map but didn’t bother putting it into Google Maps and it seemed like we drove around most of the CBD before finding it! Lesson learn etc.
How much do you reckon for a pack of generic antihistamines and a small tube of bite cream? Twenty quid here. Twenty! I nearly asked for some tranquilisers to get over the trauma but the cost of them would probably have finished me off! Whilst many things here seem similarly priced to the UK, these certainly were not.
Whinge over, we easily located our next stop – the offices and starting point of the Duck Tour. Yep, duck tour.
The Duck – there’s two ‘em here - are American amphibious landing craft from WW2. The first part of the tour takes you around a part of the city, and the second onto a couple of lakes.
Well it was a very entertaining hour and a half; the best bit of course was when we first hit the water – slightly disconcerting initially but very good fun. The driver and guide was knowledgeable and entertaining, explaining how the area was formed many thousands of years ago due to volcanic activity, dispensing a few yarns along the way. Light-hearted but engaging and informative too.
We popped back to the motel for our usual lunch – being able to prep our own is certainly saving a few dollars a day – then headed out again, following the route out of town that the Duck took, past the two lakes we visited to the Buried Village of Te Wairoa.
In the early hours of 10th June 1886 the volcano Mount Tarawere erupted bombarding the village eventually burying it under thick volcanic material. A small museum sets the scene then there is waymarked walk around the site of the village. A very peaceful place now – and very pretty – one can only begin to image what it was like that night. A fascinating visit on what has been the hottest day of the trip so far, with the mercury touching 30.
Back at the motel we both had a nap then after a bit more keyboard bashing headed out for a quick KFC and to stock up on some groceries.
Our time in Rotorua was coming to and end, next on the list is New Plymouth over on the west coast as we make our way south for Christmas.
As always, thanks for reading. We’re both really enjoying documenting this fabulous trip.