ruth and ed in nz

In the afternoon, in Kaitaia (Gateway town to the Far North), we managed to faff splendously for about four hours – getting lunch, doing some internet stuff – before heading on our merry way back south along the west coast. We decided to stop in a layby (Mangamuku peak) at the top of a hill with a good view to eat our PaknSave picnic. As we stopped, we noticed a very large amount of water escaping from under the van…
Having noticed the irregular pool of water and gurgling hissing noises coming from underneath of the car, we decided to have lunch. Whilst consuming chips and dips we decided to call the AA. A 40-minute call out time was predicted by the lady on the phone and they made it too. The 40 minutes was just enough time for Ed to mess around trying to guess what was wrong. He correctly identified a ruptured cooling pipe (clever him). In the process, a discovery was made that not only the passenger seat flipped up to reveal the engine, but the drivers’ side did too. Something our dodgy Auckland dealer neglected to show us. Clever him – as the second hand car book had said something about a snakes’ nest of cooling pipes that tend to perish on older Nissan Serenas…
So, the nice man from the AA turned up with his Jack Russell. He popped his head under the drivers’ seat and his Jack Russell went off sniffing around the bushes. Ed’s diagnosis was confirmed quickly and the offending pipe was soon removed. We had luckily caught the problem in time before the engine cooked.
It was then up to Ed to negotiate two wheel ramps on to the truck. Done with only a raised eyebrow from our toothless Maori saviour and a loud sigh from Ruth. The Jack Russell had taken the rattle of chains and creaking sounds of the car as his cue to jump back in the tow truck cab. Ed and Ruth got in to the ailing Nissan on top of the truck for the very windy ride back down the hill we had earlier climbed. Driving this surreal and slightly scary roller coaster ride, the mechanic would occassionally give us a toothless grin over his shoulder and say something to the Jack Russell.
When in town the parts man provided the new pipe and clips which came to $18 and the mechanic fitted these at the yard and we were on our way south once more.

After a brilliant day of diving, we headed north and drove up to Maitai Bay – another isolated DOC (Department of Conservation – who have so far sponsored our trip) campsite at a stunning beach. We arrived as the sun started to go down so we took our camping chairs to the beach and drank beer by the water’s edge watching the tide gently come in over the rocks.
The next day we drove up to 90 Mile Beach (which is actually about 90km, not miles long) down a loooong dirt track – poor old Serena (that’s the van, by the way) is not happy with this…
We chicken out of actually driving ON the beach (as many do) for fear of getting stuck and Serena getting cross with us; also not sure that the AA will pick us up if we do get stuck… we are a long way from nowhere in particular.
While we stand on the vast, empty, windy beach, a sand boarder appears from nowhere, sails over to us and asks, “Do you know exactly where we are?” He was fulfilling a life long ambition to sand board the length of the beach and had a map but his friend (?!) had burnt half the night before so he didn’t know how far he had got or how long it would take him to get to the end. We offered our guess as to where we were and off he sailed – a surreal encounter…
Further north, we pulled in to the first place that rented ‘sand boards’. From the house/garage at the top of the hill where there were two gnarly hillbilly type dudes waiting to give us the low down on how do this “awesome thing”. After the battered old boogey boards came out the chaps gave us a quick lowdown on how and where to do it safely and off we went. Down to the dunes at the top of Te Paki stream. After a few more clicks down bumpy unsealed roads and quick cheese sandwich out of the side of the van we set off into the dunes. First few slides on the front down a nearby dune, digging toes in to slow down or turn left or right and doing a few tentative standing descents. Once happy with this we faced up to Big Bertha. About 130m high we think, it certainly took a long time to get to the top! After a few slides down the Bertha we wandered down to the wonderfully deserted 90 mile beach again. The walk took about 40 minutes from the dunes down a shallow stream bed and we were able to do the whole thing barefoot which was lovely.
That night we pushed on up the last section of State Highway 1 which is unsealed and bumpy. Cape Reinga – the very top of the road is a very spiritual place for Maori people as they believe it’s where departed spirits leave from. Now there is a car park and a light house there – a sure sign of western colonisation. However, it remains a beautiful place where two waters (South Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea) meet.

... the ship named by the Greenpeace plank holder after he had read a book about the Warriors of the Rainbow who would come down from the sky to save the planet once fish started floating in streams and birds ... [Continue reading this entry]

So as you can see, we are now well and truly on the road. We were soooo relieved to get out of Auckland where we had spent a rocky week looking for vans. We've since been camping on secret beaches ... [Continue reading this entry]

Stage One - fresh from the dodgy dealer Stage Two - seats out [Continue reading this entry]

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Apologies for the delay in adding photos up here - it takes ages to upload them so here is a link to the flickr website where we have uploaded the best ones so far. We'll try to do some ... [Continue reading this entry]

Flew out of Adelaide and went back to Sydney. We had planned to go up to the Blue Mountains for some camping but there were bush fires in nearly all the campsites so we postponed that and drove over to ... [Continue reading this entry]