Road Trip to Auckland

  New Zealand, Waikato, New Zealand Friday, January 16, 2015

We picked up our camper van from Apollo and were kept waiting around for 2 hours before we could finally get through the paperwork and leave. We were very impressed with the van as it was much bigger and more comfy than the grotty little Wicked camper van we had last time we were here. We had managed to get a fabulous deal too as these normally cost around 3000 $NZD (or £1500) for a 5 day hire. We took a relocation package which lots of companies do offer if you enquire as they have too many vans in one place (in NZ it's typically on the South Island as most people pick it up in Auckland and drive to South Island) so they need people to drive them back to Auckland again. The deal gave us 5 days to get the van from Christchurch to Auckland, 1150 km allowance, and $1 a day. Yes thats 50p a day! Amazing! Plus petrol of course. And being cheap-skates, we opted not to pay extra for the windscreen cover. We had worked it out that in the 5 days and with the mileage limitations we could go to the places we wanted to and in the timescale too which was perfect for us. As we were leaving Apollo, we were stopped by an Israeli family who had just finished their holiday returned their van, They had loads of food and cleaning things they had left over so kindly donated it to us which we very gratefully accepted. There were things like sugar, oil, crisps, honey, salt, pepper etc. Really useful as for only 5 days we didn’t really want the expense of buying great big pots of things. We left Christchurch and Karen behind and headed north - the plan was to get to the North Island as quickly as possible. Why? Well last time we were in New Zealand we were here for a month. We went from Auckland to Wellington in a week, then spent 3 weeks touring the South Island. So this time we definitely wanted to explore more of the North Island. We had booked the 6:45pm ferry from Picton and even though we stopped just outside Kaikora to see the seal pups on the rocks again, we made it in good time. Whilst we waited we took the opportunity to make up the bed and explore the van a bit more. It certainly wasn’t in the same class as our Wicked van had been. Everything was newer, cleaner and more comfortable. We had luxuries like bedding, towels, a toilet, a shower, a fridge a sink and a 3 ring burner on the stove. Wow! Necessities for some people we know - luxuries for us however. And we didn’t have to make the bed up if we didn’t want to. And we had cupboards to put 'things' in. It was overwhelming!! ha ha. The ferry from Picton to Wellington is supposed to be one of the most picturesque you can take anywhere in the world. However, today was a bit grey and miserable so although it’s a million times better than a commute on the M4, it didn't really live up to it’s reputation this time. We rolled off the ferry at Wellington (New Zealand’s Capital city for those of you who think it is Auckland) and headed to a car park we knew we could camp for free. In addition to the cost of renting a camper, there are charges for most of it campsites as they are privately owned. The Government is trying to eliminate freedom camping (which is what we did before) but as the cost of the campsites is quite expensive (even for just a hard standing - not even powered it can be £20 per person per night) we tried to avoid most of the campsites. The reason for staying in Wellington was Brayan had been liaising with Phil who lives in Wellington, and organises the Cook Straits Swim. For those not in the know, The Cook Straits is one of the 7 big swims that long distance swimmers elude to completing in their lifetime. (Adam who we met in Auckland later is one of the very few in the whole world who have done all 7). Bryan has the channel swim under his belt now so hopes at some point to add a few more. So the following morning off he went to meet Phil and get some advice on completing this one. Followed by a swim of course!Then the journey up North Island began. The scenery on the North Island is different to South Island. The best way to describe it is South Island is like driving through the glens of Scotland whereas the North Island is more like Devon, Wales, Yorkshire and the Cotswolds. It’s greener and yet still has it’s own dramatic landscapes (we believe is much prettier than the South Island too). We passed some beautiful scenery stopping occasionally for homemade ice cream by the side of the road, or a stunning view to linger over a bit longer. The views were just stunning as we went through the mountains towards Wangarui. It seems like every time it was Jody’s turn to drive, the roads got narrower and twister. Bryan probably conveniently timed it that way! And then just as Bryan was driving down a lovely long straight road, BANG! and ccrraacckk as a rock hit our windscreen. It was quite a bad crack but it didn't make the van undrivable so after a quick stop at a windscreen place for a quote we were wishing we had taken out the extra cover. So by our estimation 50p a day had now become £50 a day! Oh well, that'll teach us for trying to be cheap! We arrived in the quaint little town of Wangarui at about 5pm and picked up some maps and guides for the Tongariro crossing which we hoped to do tomorrow. It seemed we needed to push on and make it there before 8pm as they warned us we had to book a bus for it and we had to do it tonight. We pushed on and made it to the Discovery centre ok and booked our bus for tomorrow then headed for the free campsite. It was a little overcrowd but we managed to squeeze up behind some French tourists, blocking them in. But we let them know that we would be out of their way by 5:15am and they even moved their vans over for us a bit. The crossing the next day nearly killed us! we were exhausted. We had to leave the Discovery Centre as well as they wouldn’t let us linger and recover there, so Jody crept in the back of the van and snoozed whilst Bryan drove us on to our destination for the next night. Actually Bryan thought Jody was snoozing, Actually she had just lain down and couldn’t move again! (see all about the crossing in our separate entry) We arrived at our next campsite which was a very pretty location right by a river. There was a party going on as we pulled up and there was a group of German and New Zealand tourists all having a drink together. Actually they were quite drunk but we thought even if they partied all night, we were too tired to hear it. As it turned out, they all turned in around 9pm but we were already in bed. They were up early again the next morning though and on the red wine at 9am. So do you now have a picture in your head of a group of youngsters? Wrong, They were all around 55/60 years old! They had more stamina than us. Jody got chatting to one of them and we talked about where were heading. The woman said there was a memorial statue to her great great great (not sure how many greats here) Grandmother. Apparently she was the first white baby born in New Zealand! What a great story to have. We waved them goodbye and headed for Hobbiton which was just 10 miles up the road. Again you can read about Hobbiton separately. After Hobbiton we drove to Rotarua. Again this is somewhere we had been before but last time the weather has brought so much rain before we arrived, that all the bubbling mud puddles were washed away and there wasn’t much to see just a real bad stink over the town. This time though - no rain - no really bad smells - just a little bad smell - and lots and lots of bubbling mud! It was great to see it and it was quite mesmerising watching it pop and guess when it would spit. Our final night in the van was at Matamata. The town is really small and quaint but it has decent places for food - not all the fast food junk outlets we saw in Rotarua. KFC, Wendy’s, Subway, Dominos and the Jesters Pie shops are everywhere there. So we stopped at the Redoubt Bar and enjoyed their music and charged our cameras at the same time. Matamata is quite renown in the area as it’s i site is built like the Green Dragon Pub at Hobbiton so it’s quite a landmark here. Our Campsite was the town park car park so no stunning views in the morning. But we got a free alarm clock as they starting laying concrete at 7am! We really enjoyed our time on North Island. We both said that this time in New Zealand we got a much better impression of the country. Last time we just found it full of bossy old women telling us "you can’t do this", “you can’t do that”, “move over here”, "go over there” we were sick of it and their rules and silly ideas. None of that this time though. We just met lovely people who were always helpful and friendly. Maybe that’s another difference between North Island and South Island. We don’t know. Do you? [gallery columns="4" ids="10164,10166,10169,10170,10172,10174,10177,10181,10184,10189,10192,10193,10196,10199,10204,10207,10211,10212,10215,10220,10223,10229,10231,10238,10244,10249,10252,10257,10263,10277,10282,10291"]