After a short flight from Sydney, we arrived at the Auckland airport, on New Zealand’s north island. They were hit very hard by cyclone Gabrielle last month that flooded many areas, washed out roads and damaged property. They are calling it the most expensive cyclone in history because of how much infrastructure and property it damaged – over $8 billion estimated so far. The international airport got flooded with a couple feet of water. Amazingly, they were only closed for a couple days as all the staff rallied to clean up and get it operational. When we arrived, you could still see where the flooding was as all the sheetrock was removed at least two feet above the floor.
New Zealand takes their bio security seriously. Everyone passes through several checks to make sure no one brings any pests, diseases or invasive plants. Because we had traveled to Indonesia where there were reports of livestock disease, all of our shoes needed to be disinfected. This was a pretty quick and easy process. We stayed at a motel near the airport and ate at a little neighborhood Indian restaurant while we planned our route. It was maybe one of our best meals of the trip! We also noticed the air felt really good in New Zealand, cooler, lower pressure and humidity. It’s the beginning of fall here, so that may be contributing. Sophie found a pretty hibiscus by our hotel.
The next morning, we picked up our rented campervan, which would be our home on wheels for the next eight days. It was perfect for the two of us. It was a high-top, so we could stand up in it, but it wasn’t too long so it was easy to maneuver. There was a little kitchen in the front behind the cab, and long bench seats in the back that converted into our bed at night. During the day, this was our dining area and living room. There was no bathroom or shower in our van, but there was a little chemical porta-potty. This would allow us to “freedom camp” if we chose to camp somewhere outside a campground. Traditionally, you could camp nearly anywhere you wanted in New Zealand in public spaces and parks. Unfortunately, things started getting out of hand around the most popular areas so they now regulate it more and limit spaces. We ended up staying in campgrounds with amenities like hot showers and bathrooms our whole stay, so never tried freedom camping. Maybe on our next trip…
Not only was this the first time we had ever driven a camper, this was the first time I had ever driven on the left side of the road. It definitely required some mental energy to keep reminding myself – especially when turning on or off roads. The van was automatic, so that gave me one less thing to worry about. The thing that kept tripping me up the most was that the turn signal was on the right side of the steering column. The first two days I turned on the windshield wipers nearly every time before realizing I was hitting the wrong lever. By day three I felt pretty comfortable, though. Hopefully I can still drive the right way when I get home!
As I mentioned before, the cyclone damage caused us to reconsider our itinerary. We ended up driving south of Auckland less than three hours to the town of Rotorua hoping for the best. Rotorua is a super unique town. It is on the edge of a large freshwater lake, is surrounded by volcanoes and geothermal activity, and has some of the most amazing forests we have ever seen. We booked one night at a campground at the edge of town and ended up staying three more nights.
It was raining the day we arrived, so we used our time to get settled, buy groceries and do some research on the area. We also cooked our first meal in our camper, making a quick fennel salad, with some pizza bread, cheese and fruit. We also picked up a New Zealand sauvignon blanc which was the perfect accompaniment.
The weather cleared the next day so we decided to tour a local Māori village that was built on top of an active geothermal valley. Māori is the name for the Polynesian people who first visited New Zealand some 800 years ago. These tribal people populated thousands of islands in a triangle from Hawaii to New Zealand to Easter Island. They now number over 600,000 in New Zealand amongst many different tribes and sub-tribes.
The tribal village we visited was called the living Māori village of Whakarewarewa. It is a real village with people living there, but they open it up to small guided group tours during the day. The smell of sulfur was noticeable here, as it was in many areas throughout Rotorua. They say you get used to it. The villagers took advantage of the many benefits of all the thermal springs and pools. In addition to heating, they used it for cooking and bathing. They planted gardens in raised beds since the ground was too warm. And historically, they built little raised buildings to store supplies to keep them from getting too warm. They built communal steam ovens out of wood with a cover which villagers could use whenever they wanted. You just lifted the lid and put your casserole of meat or vegetables on a rack and closed the lid. The temperature could get to over 450 degrees, and vegetables would cook in under an hour while meat could stay on longer to get soft and tender. This was called Hangi cooking and it was like a natural pressure cooker. There was also a bubbling hot water pool they used for boiling food. We tried corn on the cob they had cooked in it which was delicious. They put vegetables in a cloth sack and simply suspended them in the boiling water. The water had lots of minerals which gave the food a good flavor.
At the edge of the village was a plateau that had four different geysers that spouted every 45 minutes to an hour, with one of them periodically reaching 90 feet high. We stopped and watched them for nearly an hour, and saw several little ones, but never the big one,
After visiting the village, there was a nearby forest called Whakarewarewa Forest where we could go hiking. Boy were we in for a treat! In the early 1900s commercial foresters planted 170 species of trees as an experiment to see what grew the best. California redwoods and giant sequoias were among them. The redwoods did so well that they are now protected from harvesting and have been turned into a fantastic network of trails for hiking, mountain biking and horse back riding. We have visited the redwoods in Northern California, which was a spiritual experience. This was similar. After over 100 years, the trees are soaring and majestic. The hike loop we took started in the redwoods, then wound its way up into an area with an amazing variety of upper story and understory trees and vegetation. There were giant eucalyptus trees, plane trees, different pines and more towering above, and the understory was filled with native plants, particularly humongous tree ferns that grew over 50 feet tall! Sophie and I could not stop taking pictures even though there was no way a picture could capture it all.
The next day we headed back to the Whakarewarewa Forest to do a 20-mile mountain bike loop around the forest. This was the highlight of our trip so far for me – hands down! I can’t even begin to describe how incredibly scenic and exhilarating it was to bike through this amazing landscape! We started again in the redwoods – we were actually weaving around and up and down these giant trees! It was almost prehistoric. We passed a bubbling mud pool at one point that added to this feeling. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a dinosaur around the next turn!
Like the hike, we climbed through lots of different forest and fauna. It was not easy going as there were lots of climbing and lots of switchbacks. But it was so much fun! We went by two beautiful lakes on the trail. The first one was called blue lake, and we stopped on its shore for a snack break. Some people were swimming in it as there were some warm spots from the thermal springs.
The next lake was larger and was called green lake. This lake is privately owned by one of the large tribes so we could only see it from the steep mountainside trail. The completely undeveloped views of it, though, were incredible.
The last third of the trail was easier than the first part as it started to flatten out a bit more, and even go more downhill. The final 7 kilometers in fact, were on a paved trail and almost all downhill. Sophie and I were both ready for that! Sophie was an absolute trooper to go along with me on this ride. It was challenging for both of us and we are happy we accomplished it.
To help ease our tired muscles, we headed into town to the Polynesian Spa, which had a series of thermal mineral pools we soaked in right alongside the lake. They also had a cold water plunge pool that we dipped in several times. We were pleasantly surprised the next morning that our legs were not more sore. We think the spa really helped. We were so tired that night that we skipped cooking in our camper and stopped at McDonald’s for well-deserved burgers, fries and ice cream.
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