The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

Well, we’ve made it down to the South Island of New Zealand and if possible it’s even more beautiful than up north!

The last week has been very busy as usual. We reluctantly left Taupo and headed south with the plan to head to Wanganui for 1 night and then onto Wellington for 1 night before taking the Interislander ferry to the south island. But, plans changed once again as they’ve been having a tendancy to do!
The beginning of the drive was gorgeous, passing Tongeriro National Park with it’s snowcapped peaks and then going through the Rangriro desert…a bit of an oddity to have no trees except scrub brush for about 40miles and then back to trees and rolling farmland. From there to Waganui was a beautiful but harrowing drive..there is not a single straight road in this country and this was the worst of the bunch! Very narrow, very twisty, quite a few trucks and the occasional sheep or cow in the road. We did reach town safely after about 3hrs but upon seeing it decided we didn’t really want to stay there..it’s was ok but just a working class town with nothing much to see or do. After lunch we decided to push on to Wellington and I took over driving for the first time. We had both been nervous about shifting with our left hand , driving on the left, etc. but it really isn’t too big of a deal once you’re doing it.

At Wellington we stayed at a completely non-atmospheric campground which was basically some electrical hookups outside a hotel but it was only 10minutes to downtown so a great locale.
We took the bus downtown the next day and took the cable car to the top of the hill and then walked down through their botanical gardens. It was really very pretty but we were having rain and occasional gale force winds so our day in Wellington wasn’t fantastic. Lunch at an Irish pub and about 4hrs of walking around and we headed back to do some laundry, have dinner and get ourselves ready to head south. Even the residents of the north island all told us how much prettier it was in the south so we were primed!

Sat. we took the ferry crossing which took about 3hrs and was absolutely gorgeous, especially coming into the Marlborough straits before we disembarked in Picton. We only had about a 25minute drive to Blenheim where we wanted to stay for 2 nights and get in some wine tasting which the area is known for. The campground was, luckily, walking distance to everything in town and to 3 really great restaurants all of which we tried. The first night dinner at Rocco’s italian restaurant for some really great pasta and wine. Lunch before wine tasting was at Whitehaven restaurant around the corner and was a hearty pumpkin soup and garlic bread with yes, more wine! We took our wine tour with a lovely 70-something year old man named Ray. He and his wife Tonia run Highlight Tours and he was a great host…all the winery people were familiar with him! He not only shared the history of the area and how the wines were made but dished out marital advise too!
About 5 hrs of wine tasting passed quickly and loaded down with bottles we headed back to camp to take a nap before heading out to the Black Creek pizza restaurant which is attached to Whitehaven restaurant. The brewery end of things is run by 2 guys from San Diego and we had some fantastic beer (their label is Renaissance) and pizza to end another great day.

Today, Monday here, we headed down the coast to the little town of Kaikoura. It’s about 68 and sunny and we stopped a few times along the way for pictures and once to pick up some crayfish, one of the local specialties…..a very good lunch! One again the top 10 camp park is walking distance to town which makes it awfully nice.
This town is just fantastic in that it’s on the Pacific Ocean but is backed by the beginning of the southern alps…about as scenic as you can imagine. We took a 2 1/2 hr hike around the bluff to see some fur seal colony’s and get in some fresh air. Tomorrow we’re heading inland to Hanmer Springs and hopefully for Jim to do some snowboarding. Cheers and more later!

We have been having the most fantastic time here in New Zealand! This may be the most beautiful country ever and the scenery just improves around every corner. Distances are quite short so driving is a breeze and there is almost no traffic.

The last few days have been adventure filled. After leaving Rotorua we headed West to Waitomo planning on spending 1 night to see the Glowworm caves. All throughout New Zealand there is one group of campgrounds called Top 10 Holiday Parks that offer a 10% discount if you guy one of their cards. Since this was our only choice in the tiny hamlet of Waitomo we stayed there and glad we did as it was a very nice park. Great laundry, kitchen, and bathroom faciities, right next to the store, tavern and 1 nice restaurant in town and with very friendly owners (as is the norm everywhere here). We had originally planned to just do the glowworm cave and head on to Lake Taupo, however, after checking our options we did the 2-cave option of glowworms and Ruakuri cave. The NZ glowworm is an oddity. They have 4 stages of their life cycle (the adult form looking like a mosquito but with no mouth) and when they are in larvae stage they glow. After climbing down into the caves we boarded a boat where we were asked to be silent , all the lights were shut down and we drifted along looking up at what appeared to be the brightest starry sky you’ve ever seen but was, in fact, thousands of glowworm larvae. For food the worms hang down spittle threads about 4-6 inches long to catch bugs…truly bizarre creatures that seem to have no point in life, except making money for the locals in this area!

Next we headed to  Ruakuri cave for a 2hr walk through the cave. This entire part of the country is covered with hidden caverns and caves and in this cave they recently built a circular walkway 200ft down into the cave with pressurized doors on each end to keep the environment within the cave as natural as possible. Our guide was 5th generation in the area and had been playing and working in the cave his whole life and was part of the staff that added all of the recent improvements, at one point being part of the crew that had to swim with their gear to work everyday within the cave because that was the only point of entry at that time.

The interior was just gorgeous (don’t worry, we’re having some issues getting our photos onto flikr but we’ll add the link as soon as we can!) and included some glowworms of it’s own as wel as stalactites, stalagmites, columns, fossils, etc. The Waitomo river runs through the cave so the sound of rushing water added to overall ambience. It was nice to see that they were taking such care to preserve the caves rather than letting them be overrun by destructive tourists. That tour was well worth the price.

We decided we needed some fresh air so headed out on a short walk along the Waitomo river through forestland very similiar to Oregon except for a fewer different types of plants, most specifically the tree fern. The trees range from 5-8ft tall and have fern type tops. In many areas we’ve seen the bases used all in a row a fencing & bought a candle holder in Rotorua made of the wood of one and they have an amazing natural pattern in the wood. With all that we decided to spend another night in Waitomo rather than leaving late to Lake Taupo.

The drive to Taupo was as gorgeous as the rest of the journey so far, lots of livestock, very few other cars, and great scenery around every corner. I have decided that baby lambs are the absolutely cutest thing on earth (and I”ve seen a lot of them lately!)

Lake Taupo is a huge lake set in the center of the North Island. Taupo itself is a very nice little town with a very outdoorsy feel to it similier to Hood River for everyone back home. Lots of fishing and hunting stores, loads of pubs and cafes, etc. Today we spent all day fly fishing on a river with the clearest water I’ve ever seen. Lake Taupo is extremely clear a well and even driving along the roadside you can see the bottom up to about 15ft off shore. Tonight we’re just going to BBQ and hang out at camp. Life in the campervan is so great that we’ve actually extended it for a few more days so will be living out of it until 3 Oct.

We’ll try to get those pictures on line soon and tomorrow heading south to Waganui.

Cheers, Jim & Rhonda

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