The next day was absolutely beautiful, with another completely clear blue sky. So I decided to do a recommended local hike up a far more reasonable mountain (only about an hour to the top). Sarah wasn't up for it (although I tried to explain the benefit of doing a short hike the day after such a huge one), so I had the whole hike pretty much to myself, including the summit with the usual fantastic panoramic views. Along the way up I passed an amazing profusion of Tui bird song, and had to take a short video just to capture the audio. There seemed to be millions of the beautiful birds all warbling away, and I got a great close up view of one of them belting away. After having a lovely leisurely lunch at the summit it was back to the town to visit the local museum, before heading to one of the local Irish bars for dinner and a well attended pub quiz - no prizes for us this time I'm afraid.
The following day beckoned with fantastic weather again, and so this time I really fancied renting bikes. Sarah was a bit reticent at first, but relented and we both had a great day riding around the whole area.
First stop was to have a quick look at the local bungy jumping setup, which was quite quiet but had a lovely setting. Then on to the very impressive Huka Falls just outside the town, after getting a little bit lost on the cycle track. We then continued along a pretty good bike trail alongside the river to a power station (with a fantastic lookout along a forest track (Sarah didn't bother with that short little detour though!)), and then we came back down the far side of the river, stopping off at the quirky prawn farm for a lovely big lunch of fresh prawns, obviously enough. Next stop was the nearby volcanic activity centre, which had some good short movies and displays about the regions many volcanoes, before heading back to the hostel just as darkness set in.
On our last morning in Taupo we popped into the local museum (which has an impressive Maori war canoe, which the attendent told Sarah was a 'waste of space', as it took up valuable art space!). Then it was on towards Rotorua, stopping off on the way at a very impressive thermal area. You need to get a short ferry across the river and then just stroll about at your own pace. Lots of lovely pools of bubbling mud, and steaming vents all over the place, mad mineral formations and a fabulously clear cave pool where you literally can't see where the water starts, it's so pure.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tongariro Crossing
One of the highlights of the whole Taupo region is a big hike - reportedly the best one day hike in all of New Zealand - the Tongariro Crossing. It involves trekking through spectacular volcanic landscapes with sulphuric lakes, picture-perfect volcano cones, seriously sulphurically-stinky steam vents, lots of snow and ice, and really wild, untouched wilderness (the main volcanic peak here was used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies, and it's active - i.e. still steaming away). The only thing that could have stopped me doing this hike was severe weather, so we went straight to the tourist place to check out the weather forecast and the various options for doing the hike. (Some good pictures here.)
Apparently most people book a tour, which means they bus a group of people to the start of the trek, guide (i.e. herd) them all the way along the trail, and then pick you up later in the day at the other end. Naturally enough I didn't like the idea of this at all, as it forces you to stay within a group, and the worst part is you have to follow a guide and wait for the slowest person in your group - which can be a nightmare of course. From experience I know a guide is never required on these hikes, especially on one of the most heavily trekked routes in New Zealand for goodness sake! The whole idea, to me, of a long, tough hike in the wilderness is the freedom to be able to do your own thing, stop where and when you want, explore off little side tracks, and basically to just make it up as you go along.
It would also cost NZ$100, which they tried to tell us was a great price, as the normal winter price is twice that. The Winter price is because you need a guide with Alpine experience and you'll probably need crampons for the snow and ice - but the weather looked good for the next couple of days, and there was no fresh snow on the hike, so the Summer price was being offered. But of course, that also implied, at least to my way of thinking, that you had no need for a guide at all, and that you also wouldn`t need any specialist equipment.
Anyway, I really didn't like the sound of this tour thing at all, and after a bit of a chat with the really friendly girl in the tourist office she informs me that we could just drive ourselves to the start of the hike, hike over half way along the track to see all the scenic highlights, and then head back the same way to our van and just drive ourselves home. This sounded just the ticket to me, and after a bit of debate with the Negator (who expressed a multitude of the usual fears and worries), we decided that we would just do our own thing.
One of Sarah's worries, which we'd heard from a couple of people, was that the car parks were not safe at all. But I simply heeded this warning by packing up all the stuff from the van into our ruckpacks (it seemed that I hadn't even seen my rucksack in over two months, as it had been buried under the bed in the van), and then storing the rucksacks in the safety of our hostel. The idea was to leave the van practically empty, with all the curtains open, and so make it clearly unworthwhile to break into.
So our plans set we got up early the following morning, 7am, made sandwiches and had a big breakfast and then headed off on the one-hour drive to the start of the Tongariro Crossing route. When we arrived and were about to start hiking we suddenly realised that we'd left all our food behind!
As we were leaving our hostel Sarah had left the bag of prepared food and snacks on the front seat of the van, but had then gone to the toilet. As I got into the van I looked at this bag and thought it was our general food bag (because I saw the breakfast stuff, sandwich making stuff like mustard and mayonnaise, etc., stuff we wouldn't need on the hike, and so I put it back into a cupboard in the hostel kitchen (since we were removing everything from the van so that it looked well and truly empty)).
So after much recrimination, swearing, and thinking we might have to abandon the hike for that day (and the weather looked perfect, which only made things worse), I started rooted about the van for any kind of food at all. Luckily I found some instant noodles buried away, and having our own cooker in the van meant I could easily and very quickly cook up the noodles. Feeling very much relieved, I packed up the lovingly cooked noodles and off we headed on the hike.
There isn't much point in describing the hike itself in detail, just check that website I pointed to already. But needless to say it really is stunning. The weather was intermittently cloudy, but we had lots of time, so by simply waiting at each location for a few minutes the clouds would inevitably clear and the full splendor of the scenery would be revealed. Interestingly though, at one stage as we were just sitting waiting for the clouds to clear, the group of people on the tour that Sarah had initially wanted to go with passed us by. As I had thought, they were an unwieldy big group being gentally herded by their guide, and so passed by the short stretch of trail quite quickly. Only one of their group waited behind with his camera though, and he was the only one of the whole group to see the spectacular view as the clouds cleared - everyone else on that tour missed that particular viewpoint completely, poor sods!
Having plenty of time, we also took the side trip up to the Tongariro Summit itself (I don`t think the tour groups take that option at all). This was a bit of an adventure in it's own right, as we took what seemed to be a shortcut path straight across the ice along a steep slope (we'd passed 3 English hikers coming back that way). But after Sarah had a scary wee slip (she wasn't in any real danger though, as we'd seen 2 of the 3 English guys deliberately slide down the same slope on their arses for a laugh!), the footsteps in the snow seemed to disappear. I think it was just getting a bit late in the day, and the previous footsteps were filling in with wind drifted snow, so we just turned back and took a different route to the summit. After a bit of a linger at the windy and chilly summit to soak up the vistas, we turned back and started the long hike back to the van.
It's an easy enough walk, mostly on the flat, but just very, very long (since we`d actually walked over halfway aong the entire trail and then turned back, we were actually hiking further than everyone else taking the guided tours). We were both pretty exhausted when we got back to the van, but it had been a truly fantastic days hiking. Driving back to Taupo I decided we well and truly deserved a stop-off at the local hot thermal springs.
This was possibly the most relaxing thing I've ever done, given the exersion of the day's hike - the naturally hot water was instantly rejuvenating, and I could feel my muscles being soothed immediately. But then a very friendly guy (not an employee, just another punter), came over and told us not to put our heads in the water (which I'd been doing constantly). He pointed out the rather indistinct warning signs posted around the place which did indeed warn of 'Amoebic meningitis', but they really were very subtle to say the least! Apparently the disease can only enter your system through the ears, so all you have to do to be safe is keep your head out of the water. He told us he'd complained himself the last time he'd been there that the warning signs were far too easy to miss, but they'd done nothing about it (and their website makes only a very passing reference to the issue). Anyway, heeding that warning (all natural hot springs have the same possible, but highly improbable, problem), I felt great afterwards, and getting back to the hostel I had a lovely dinner of the sandwiches we'd prepared that morning!
Apparently most people book a tour, which means they bus a group of people to the start of the trek, guide (i.e. herd) them all the way along the trail, and then pick you up later in the day at the other end. Naturally enough I didn't like the idea of this at all, as it forces you to stay within a group, and the worst part is you have to follow a guide and wait for the slowest person in your group - which can be a nightmare of course. From experience I know a guide is never required on these hikes, especially on one of the most heavily trekked routes in New Zealand for goodness sake! The whole idea, to me, of a long, tough hike in the wilderness is the freedom to be able to do your own thing, stop where and when you want, explore off little side tracks, and basically to just make it up as you go along.
It would also cost NZ$100, which they tried to tell us was a great price, as the normal winter price is twice that. The Winter price is because you need a guide with Alpine experience and you'll probably need crampons for the snow and ice - but the weather looked good for the next couple of days, and there was no fresh snow on the hike, so the Summer price was being offered. But of course, that also implied, at least to my way of thinking, that you had no need for a guide at all, and that you also wouldn`t need any specialist equipment.
Anyway, I really didn't like the sound of this tour thing at all, and after a bit of a chat with the really friendly girl in the tourist office she informs me that we could just drive ourselves to the start of the hike, hike over half way along the track to see all the scenic highlights, and then head back the same way to our van and just drive ourselves home. This sounded just the ticket to me, and after a bit of debate with the Negator (who expressed a multitude of the usual fears and worries), we decided that we would just do our own thing.
One of Sarah's worries, which we'd heard from a couple of people, was that the car parks were not safe at all. But I simply heeded this warning by packing up all the stuff from the van into our ruckpacks (it seemed that I hadn't even seen my rucksack in over two months, as it had been buried under the bed in the van), and then storing the rucksacks in the safety of our hostel. The idea was to leave the van practically empty, with all the curtains open, and so make it clearly unworthwhile to break into.
So our plans set we got up early the following morning, 7am, made sandwiches and had a big breakfast and then headed off on the one-hour drive to the start of the Tongariro Crossing route. When we arrived and were about to start hiking we suddenly realised that we'd left all our food behind!
As we were leaving our hostel Sarah had left the bag of prepared food and snacks on the front seat of the van, but had then gone to the toilet. As I got into the van I looked at this bag and thought it was our general food bag (because I saw the breakfast stuff, sandwich making stuff like mustard and mayonnaise, etc., stuff we wouldn't need on the hike, and so I put it back into a cupboard in the hostel kitchen (since we were removing everything from the van so that it looked well and truly empty)).
So after much recrimination, swearing, and thinking we might have to abandon the hike for that day (and the weather looked perfect, which only made things worse), I started rooted about the van for any kind of food at all. Luckily I found some instant noodles buried away, and having our own cooker in the van meant I could easily and very quickly cook up the noodles. Feeling very much relieved, I packed up the lovingly cooked noodles and off we headed on the hike.
There isn't much point in describing the hike itself in detail, just check that website I pointed to already. But needless to say it really is stunning. The weather was intermittently cloudy, but we had lots of time, so by simply waiting at each location for a few minutes the clouds would inevitably clear and the full splendor of the scenery would be revealed. Interestingly though, at one stage as we were just sitting waiting for the clouds to clear, the group of people on the tour that Sarah had initially wanted to go with passed us by. As I had thought, they were an unwieldy big group being gentally herded by their guide, and so passed by the short stretch of trail quite quickly. Only one of their group waited behind with his camera though, and he was the only one of the whole group to see the spectacular view as the clouds cleared - everyone else on that tour missed that particular viewpoint completely, poor sods!
Having plenty of time, we also took the side trip up to the Tongariro Summit itself (I don`t think the tour groups take that option at all). This was a bit of an adventure in it's own right, as we took what seemed to be a shortcut path straight across the ice along a steep slope (we'd passed 3 English hikers coming back that way). But after Sarah had a scary wee slip (she wasn't in any real danger though, as we'd seen 2 of the 3 English guys deliberately slide down the same slope on their arses for a laugh!), the footsteps in the snow seemed to disappear. I think it was just getting a bit late in the day, and the previous footsteps were filling in with wind drifted snow, so we just turned back and took a different route to the summit. After a bit of a linger at the windy and chilly summit to soak up the vistas, we turned back and started the long hike back to the van.
It's an easy enough walk, mostly on the flat, but just very, very long (since we`d actually walked over halfway aong the entire trail and then turned back, we were actually hiking further than everyone else taking the guided tours). We were both pretty exhausted when we got back to the van, but it had been a truly fantastic days hiking. Driving back to Taupo I decided we well and truly deserved a stop-off at the local hot thermal springs.
This was possibly the most relaxing thing I've ever done, given the exersion of the day's hike - the naturally hot water was instantly rejuvenating, and I could feel my muscles being soothed immediately. But then a very friendly guy (not an employee, just another punter), came over and told us not to put our heads in the water (which I'd been doing constantly). He pointed out the rather indistinct warning signs posted around the place which did indeed warn of 'Amoebic meningitis', but they really were very subtle to say the least! Apparently the disease can only enter your system through the ears, so all you have to do to be safe is keep your head out of the water. He told us he'd complained himself the last time he'd been there that the warning signs were far too easy to miss, but they'd done nothing about it (and their website makes only a very passing reference to the issue). Anyway, heeding that warning (all natural hot springs have the same possible, but highly improbable, problem), I felt great afterwards, and getting back to the hostel I had a lovely dinner of the sandwiches we'd prepared that morning!
Arriving in Taupo
So as we arrived at the outskirts of Taupo we took a short detour to visit the skydive centre where myself and Hanno had spent 5 days when we were travelling 8 years ago. The place hadn't changed all that much, although it does seem to have expanded a fair bit. Taupo is now regarded as one of the skydiving capitals of the world, and it wasn't hard to see why. The airport has three skydiving operations (there were 2 when I was last here), and the main one has a plane going to 15,000 feet (the highest legal jump altitude in the world), and taking 8 tandem jumpers per flight. All that is pretty impressive, but when I was looking at the credentials of their jumpmasters (the guys you get strapped to when you do a tandem), they were all amazingly experienced - a couple were national champions and the most experienced guy had an incredible 15,000 jumps! Anyone in Ireland with over 1,000 jumps is regarded as a SkyGod. So feeling just a tad out of my league there, we drove on to the town proper and got settled at the nice Burke's backpackers.
We stayed 3 nights in total, just relaxing the first night watching 'Blades of Glory' (which I was surprisingly impressed by). The second day we did the mighty Tongariro Crossing, which will take an entire entry all of it's own...
We stayed 3 nights in total, just relaxing the first night watching 'Blades of Glory' (which I was surprisingly impressed by). The second day we did the mighty Tongariro Crossing, which will take an entire entry all of it's own...
Getting to Napier
So we kinda thought we might make it all the way to Napier on our first day out from Wellington, but in the end I was using the Internet for most of the morning, and so we only managed to leave Ray and Amanda's place by early afternoon. It meant we wouldn't really get too far before dark, and so we decided to just stop off at the town of Greytown, while we still had daylight to have a look around.
The town itself is very small, but lovely and 'arty'. We very quickly and easily sorted out where we'd stay that night (a very basic campsite with just one other camper van), and then went back to the town for a coffee and a read of the paper in a really cosy little cafe. Then it was a drink and some free pool in the famous Greytown Hotel before heading back to the town's other hotel, the White Swan for a lovely dinner (they had a '2 for 1' offer that night, so the place was packed giving it a nice buzzy atmosphere).
One of the reasons I choose to stop in Greytown was that it is very close to another New Zealand wine region, Martinborough. So the following morning (after nobody ever showing up to take any camping fees from us), we drove to the town of Martinborough and did a few walks through some local vineyards before doing a tasting and having a gorgeous lunch at the Alana Estate Winery.
Then we drove on towards Napier, but only made it as far as Waipara. We'd stopped off along the way at a wildlife rescue place that is helping to build up the numbers of native Kaka birds and that also had a Kiwi enclosure. Being nocturnal creatures, the enclosure was in darkness, but once your eyes adjust we got fantastic views of the two resident kiwi's as they foraged around. At one stage (Sarah had gotten bored and wandered off), one of kiwis came right up to the glass front of the enclosure and was poking around literally millimeters from my face - you literally couldn't ever get a better view of these shy creatures, it was great!
So our campsite in Waipara was actually a little scary. It was quite run down and seemed to be a bit like an American trailer park, where people live full time. There was a group of pretty rough looking Maori drinking and playing a dice game in the kitchen as I was cooking, but they were really friendly and tried (unsuccessfully) to explain the rules of their game to us as we ate dinner.
Next morning we explored around Havelock North and Hastings, just South of Napier. Another nice small town that has the look of lots of money, and a great lookout from the big hill that dominates the town. It was actually very cloudy as we drove up the hill, but of course, with a bit of patience it all cleared up lovely.
After the lookout we stopped off at a honey farm, which I thought was brilliant. Loads of information on bees (they really are mad yokes altogether), with transparent hives so you watch them working away, and of course lots of honey tasting. Naturally I bought a slab of honeycomb, which takes no processing at all, it's just straight from the hive, and therefore the cheapest and in my mind the tastiest (although at home, is honeycomb more expensive than blended honey? If so, then I now know that it`s a total rip off).
So we finally arrived in Napier after taking 3 days to get there (I think Ray told us it was a 4.5 hour drive!), and after getting settled in Wally's we strolled about the town for a bit. That evening we just cooked in the well equiped kitchen and watched a DVD in the large comfy common room.
The next day we hired bikes and rode up to the town's lookout point to view the small working port and the long stretch of beach front. Then on to the neighbouring area of Ahuriri, where we took refuge from a downpour in the waterfront hotel before heading back to Napier and getting caught in another downpour! But no matter, for after dropping back the bikes the plan had been to go straight to the neighbouring outdoor hot pools - which were brilliant. I think I stayed there for about 4 or 5 hours in all, just constantly alternating between the hot pools, the cold pools, the steam room and the sauna (Sarah had headed off early for a haircut).
One of the highlights of Napier though was a great Indonesian dinner. Apparently the restaurant has been there for 20 years or something and has a great reputation (although the owner guy is now trying to sell it, as he has a new family and wants out of the restaurant scene). It was the first Indonesian meal we've had on this trip and was a nice change - and I was well impressed with it's authenticity.
The next morning we popped into the local museum, which has a great display about Napier's famous earthquake in 1931 that practically destroyed the city (and the guy at the desk asked us if we'd felt the earthquake that had occured at 3am the night before - apparently it was quite a big one, and had woken him and lots of other people, but we never felt anything - probably due to the fantastic suspension of our van!).
So after the museum we were off to Taupo.
The town itself is very small, but lovely and 'arty'. We very quickly and easily sorted out where we'd stay that night (a very basic campsite with just one other camper van), and then went back to the town for a coffee and a read of the paper in a really cosy little cafe. Then it was a drink and some free pool in the famous Greytown Hotel before heading back to the town's other hotel, the White Swan for a lovely dinner (they had a '2 for 1' offer that night, so the place was packed giving it a nice buzzy atmosphere).
One of the reasons I choose to stop in Greytown was that it is very close to another New Zealand wine region, Martinborough. So the following morning (after nobody ever showing up to take any camping fees from us), we drove to the town of Martinborough and did a few walks through some local vineyards before doing a tasting and having a gorgeous lunch at the Alana Estate Winery.
Then we drove on towards Napier, but only made it as far as Waipara. We'd stopped off along the way at a wildlife rescue place that is helping to build up the numbers of native Kaka birds and that also had a Kiwi enclosure. Being nocturnal creatures, the enclosure was in darkness, but once your eyes adjust we got fantastic views of the two resident kiwi's as they foraged around. At one stage (Sarah had gotten bored and wandered off), one of kiwis came right up to the glass front of the enclosure and was poking around literally millimeters from my face - you literally couldn't ever get a better view of these shy creatures, it was great!
So our campsite in Waipara was actually a little scary. It was quite run down and seemed to be a bit like an American trailer park, where people live full time. There was a group of pretty rough looking Maori drinking and playing a dice game in the kitchen as I was cooking, but they were really friendly and tried (unsuccessfully) to explain the rules of their game to us as we ate dinner.
Next morning we explored around Havelock North and Hastings, just South of Napier. Another nice small town that has the look of lots of money, and a great lookout from the big hill that dominates the town. It was actually very cloudy as we drove up the hill, but of course, with a bit of patience it all cleared up lovely.
After the lookout we stopped off at a honey farm, which I thought was brilliant. Loads of information on bees (they really are mad yokes altogether), with transparent hives so you watch them working away, and of course lots of honey tasting. Naturally I bought a slab of honeycomb, which takes no processing at all, it's just straight from the hive, and therefore the cheapest and in my mind the tastiest (although at home, is honeycomb more expensive than blended honey? If so, then I now know that it`s a total rip off).
So we finally arrived in Napier after taking 3 days to get there (I think Ray told us it was a 4.5 hour drive!), and after getting settled in Wally's we strolled about the town for a bit. That evening we just cooked in the well equiped kitchen and watched a DVD in the large comfy common room.
The next day we hired bikes and rode up to the town's lookout point to view the small working port and the long stretch of beach front. Then on to the neighbouring area of Ahuriri, where we took refuge from a downpour in the waterfront hotel before heading back to Napier and getting caught in another downpour! But no matter, for after dropping back the bikes the plan had been to go straight to the neighbouring outdoor hot pools - which were brilliant. I think I stayed there for about 4 or 5 hours in all, just constantly alternating between the hot pools, the cold pools, the steam room and the sauna (Sarah had headed off early for a haircut).
One of the highlights of Napier though was a great Indonesian dinner. Apparently the restaurant has been there for 20 years or something and has a great reputation (although the owner guy is now trying to sell it, as he has a new family and wants out of the restaurant scene). It was the first Indonesian meal we've had on this trip and was a nice change - and I was well impressed with it's authenticity.
The next morning we popped into the local museum, which has a great display about Napier's famous earthquake in 1931 that practically destroyed the city (and the guy at the desk asked us if we'd felt the earthquake that had occured at 3am the night before - apparently it was quite a big one, and had woken him and lots of other people, but we never felt anything - probably due to the fantastic suspension of our van!).
So after the museum we were off to Taupo.
Wellington
So the ferry journey from Picton to Wellington was a very pleasant 3 hours indeed, and we arrived spot on time. Ray was waiting at the Wellington ferry terminal for us, and we picked him up and headed straight back to his and Amanda's house in the not-too-far-away-at-all suburbs. We had a great night catching up over another great home-cooked dinner thanks to Amanda, with myself and Ray burning the candle at both ends.
Ray and Amanda were off to Auckland for the weekend the following morning, so after Sarah dropped them to the airport (only 15 minutes away), we had the house to ourselves for the weekend. On the Saturday we packed up Ray and Amanda's bikes in the van, drove down to the coast (it's a vicious climb back up to Ray's house), and spent the glorious afternoon cycling along the lovely coastline and back around to the van via the North of the city.
When Ray and Amanda got back from Auckland on the Monday, Podge had arrived from Ireland for a week's work in the city. I was cooking that night, so I cheekily took it upon myself to invite Podge around to join us, and another late night was had.
Over the two weeks in Wellington that myself and Sarah invaded poor Ray and Amanda's tranquillity we all rotated turns in cooking (Podge taking his turn too, producing a great Mexican banquet). I think we only ate out in Wellington 3 times, and two of those times were when we went to comedy shows. We'd timed our arrival in the city well, as the Wellington Comedy Festival was in full flow. Amazingly we didn't need to book in advance for the shows we saw (imagine that at the Dublin theatre Festival, or the Kilkenny Comedy Festival), and apart from the odd wayward performance I was well impressed with everyone we saw - including two female Maori comedians, both of whom were the best female comedians I've ever seen.
On the days that I did check out the city itself, we had a tour of the parliament in the famous beehive building followed by lunch at the famous backbenchers pub across the road. I also checked out the impressive Te Papa museum twice, the second time meeting Podge in the atmospheric cafe.
But of course, it eventually came time to move on, as we`d spent two and a half months in New Zealand by this stage. We only had another two weeks left on our holiday visas and so we needed to get a move on to see a few of the highlights of the North island (it seems strange writing this that most people`s idea of a complete long holiday, ie. two weeks, could seem incredibily restrictive after you`ve been on the road for a good while). Anyway, our initial plan from Wellington was to make it up to Napier, but of course, true to form for this entire trip, it ended up taking us three days to get there...
Ray and Amanda were off to Auckland for the weekend the following morning, so after Sarah dropped them to the airport (only 15 minutes away), we had the house to ourselves for the weekend. On the Saturday we packed up Ray and Amanda's bikes in the van, drove down to the coast (it's a vicious climb back up to Ray's house), and spent the glorious afternoon cycling along the lovely coastline and back around to the van via the North of the city.
When Ray and Amanda got back from Auckland on the Monday, Podge had arrived from Ireland for a week's work in the city. I was cooking that night, so I cheekily took it upon myself to invite Podge around to join us, and another late night was had.
Over the two weeks in Wellington that myself and Sarah invaded poor Ray and Amanda's tranquillity we all rotated turns in cooking (Podge taking his turn too, producing a great Mexican banquet). I think we only ate out in Wellington 3 times, and two of those times were when we went to comedy shows. We'd timed our arrival in the city well, as the Wellington Comedy Festival was in full flow. Amazingly we didn't need to book in advance for the shows we saw (imagine that at the Dublin theatre Festival, or the Kilkenny Comedy Festival), and apart from the odd wayward performance I was well impressed with everyone we saw - including two female Maori comedians, both of whom were the best female comedians I've ever seen.
On the days that I did check out the city itself, we had a tour of the parliament in the famous beehive building followed by lunch at the famous backbenchers pub across the road. I also checked out the impressive Te Papa museum twice, the second time meeting Podge in the atmospheric cafe.
But of course, it eventually came time to move on, as we`d spent two and a half months in New Zealand by this stage. We only had another two weeks left on our holiday visas and so we needed to get a move on to see a few of the highlights of the North island (it seems strange writing this that most people`s idea of a complete long holiday, ie. two weeks, could seem incredibily restrictive after you`ve been on the road for a good while). Anyway, our initial plan from Wellington was to make it up to Napier, but of course, true to form for this entire trip, it ended up taking us three days to get there...
Picton
On our way to Picton from Nelson we stopped off at the tiny town of Havelock, which has an apparently fairly famous restaurant, well cafe really, called the Mussel Pot. We booked a table for a bit later and then headed across the road to the nice Scottish pub, the Clansman, but the dinner wasn`t anything amazing at all really.
Due to the stopover though, it was dark when we wanted to continue on towards Picton, so we didn`t bother taking the scenic Queen Charlotte route. But over dinner we`d met another diner who told us about a great restaurant down by the marina in Havelock, so the next day we drove back via the fantastically scenic mountain route and had a brilliant seafood chowder at the Slip Inn.
On the way back to Picton after lunch along the same route we stopped off at the best viewpoint, positioned the van so that the side door when opened faced the wide open sea view, and I could just lie back on the bed, sip a chilled beer and soak up the panoramic vista in front of me (while Sarah sat in the front reading her book). It was simple moments like that that were certainly one of the overall highlights of the whole New Zealand trip for me - having the freedom of time, and having our own van that we could stock up with food and beers, and then whenever an amazing view came along we could just park up, sit back and soak it all up for as long as we liked. And of course, New Zealand provided plenty of opportunities to do just that.
Anyway, we had a few days in Picton before our ferry trip across to the North island, so we just chilled out at the Sequoia Lodge Backpackers (with more free chocolate pudding, free decrepit bikes, a lovely roaring fire and an outdoor hot tub that I only used once). And then before we knew it it was time to get the ferry across to Wellington and meet up with Ray and Amanda.
Due to the stopover though, it was dark when we wanted to continue on towards Picton, so we didn`t bother taking the scenic Queen Charlotte route. But over dinner we`d met another diner who told us about a great restaurant down by the marina in Havelock, so the next day we drove back via the fantastically scenic mountain route and had a brilliant seafood chowder at the Slip Inn.
On the way back to Picton after lunch along the same route we stopped off at the best viewpoint, positioned the van so that the side door when opened faced the wide open sea view, and I could just lie back on the bed, sip a chilled beer and soak up the panoramic vista in front of me (while Sarah sat in the front reading her book). It was simple moments like that that were certainly one of the overall highlights of the whole New Zealand trip for me - having the freedom of time, and having our own van that we could stock up with food and beers, and then whenever an amazing view came along we could just park up, sit back and soak it all up for as long as we liked. And of course, New Zealand provided plenty of opportunities to do just that.
Anyway, we had a few days in Picton before our ferry trip across to the North island, so we just chilled out at the Sequoia Lodge Backpackers (with more free chocolate pudding, free decrepit bikes, a lovely roaring fire and an outdoor hot tub that I only used once). And then before we knew it it was time to get the ferry across to Wellington and meet up with Ray and Amanda.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Nelson
So yes, Nelson is yet another lovely small town (in fact I don`t think there was a single New Zealand town I didn`t like in some way). After another wee bit of a search to find a place that would let us sleep in our van we found the Tasman Bay Backpackers, another wonderfully comfortable backpacker place, this time serving free freshly baked chocolate pudding every evening.
They also provided free bikes, and good ones too, so needless to say we used those to explore all around the town for a couple of days. The first day we checked out the impressively large local weekly market, had lunch out by the quite airport right by the sea, and then visited the pretty cool WOW museum. Sarah headed back to the backpackers while I went for a spin outside the town to the old Mac brewery (now closed), and then rode some great cycle tracks back to the town centre to explore all the back streets, and finding the jewellers given the job of creating the actual rings in the Lord of the Rings movie!
Another day we used the bikes to check out the local Sunday flea market (and getting free hotdogs at a car market promotion we just happened to be passing - little did the really friendly car salemen know of my feelings with regard to cars in general, but their sausages were lovely!), then the local micro brewery and musuem at Fosters place (which had a cool old aircraft you could crawl all over).
Had the best Indian dinner I`ve had in New Zealand at the newly opened Indian Cafe restaurant, which we just stumbled into, followed by a good night in the Mean Fiddler Irish bar (again it just happened to be an Irish bar that had the most life at that time of the evening, and we had a really cosy spot right next to the wood stove too).
So after the few days chilling out in Nelson it was time to bounce on to Picton, from where the Interislander ferry departs for the North island.
They also provided free bikes, and good ones too, so needless to say we used those to explore all around the town for a couple of days. The first day we checked out the impressively large local weekly market, had lunch out by the quite airport right by the sea, and then visited the pretty cool WOW museum. Sarah headed back to the backpackers while I went for a spin outside the town to the old Mac brewery (now closed), and then rode some great cycle tracks back to the town centre to explore all the back streets, and finding the jewellers given the job of creating the actual rings in the Lord of the Rings movie!
Another day we used the bikes to check out the local Sunday flea market (and getting free hotdogs at a car market promotion we just happened to be passing - little did the really friendly car salemen know of my feelings with regard to cars in general, but their sausages were lovely!), then the local micro brewery and musuem at Fosters place (which had a cool old aircraft you could crawl all over).
Had the best Indian dinner I`ve had in New Zealand at the newly opened Indian Cafe restaurant, which we just stumbled into, followed by a good night in the Mean Fiddler Irish bar (again it just happened to be an Irish bar that had the most life at that time of the evening, and we had a really cosy spot right next to the wood stove too).
So after the few days chilling out in Nelson it was time to bounce on to Picton, from where the Interislander ferry departs for the North island.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)