ruth and ed in nz

28th December 2007
A walk around Lake Tutira to kick off the morning (a very sunny morning typically – as we had chosen not to do Tongariro due to bad weather yesterday) before a long drive to Gisbourne (Gizzy to the locals) where we asked in a garage about the ‘jingling’ noises coming from the wheels when we go over bumps. Yep – the shocks are wearing out and it’s $500 to fix. Can it wait a few weeks? Yes – safe to drive – ok we’ll sort it in Christchurch once we have jobs.
Quick food shop and continued round the cape and up to Tolaga Bay. Stopped at Cooks Cove and walked over farmland, down in to some lush forest (about 350 steps down) to more farmland and the sea. The tide was out so we walked over the rocks (past a very smelly dead cow) round the corner of the cove where we could see the wharf at Tolaga Bay – NZ’s longest pier! We walked to the Hole in the Rock – a natural archway formed out of the limestone rock.
Took a walk as the sun was setting along the beach at Tolaga Bay and merrily found a pub at the end for a quiet drink before walking back in the moonlight. Spent the night free camping kiwi-style on the beach.

29th December 2007
Drove up to the top of the cape (Te Araroa) and found NZ’s largest Pohutukawa tree in the grounds of a local school. Pohutukawa trees are also know as the NZ Christmas tree as it flowers red around Christmas time – they are huge and get really old and knotted. They don’t grow so tall, but they wind around and their branches hang down to the floor. They’re really beautiful and this one was massive.
Drove round to Hick’s Bay in the hope of getting a fishing charter but he’d already gone out for the day. Found a beautiful hidden bay and swam for as long as the cold water would let us. Continued round the top of the cape to Hawai – a long stretch of grey sand covered with driftwood and chilled out at the campsite in the sunshine for the afternoon.

30th December 2007
Drove round to Opotiki – a relatively large town – for some internet and, on the off chance, called my mum’s work friend, Joan, who lives in Ohope for the best 6 months of the year. Ohope is a small town just west of Opotiki looking over the Bay of Plenty. Joan was very welcoming – especially as we had called an hour before we turned up on her doorstep – and took us for a walk along the beach which was totally deserted, then fed us a yummy lunch.
We got on our way again after lunch as we wanted to walk the Tauranga Track in the Waioeka Forest. It followed a river along one side through forest, offered us a ‘boots off’, refreshing river crossing, then a meadow walk back along the other side. We spent the night in the Manganuku Gorge courtesy of another DOC campsite.

27th December 2007
Well we drove to Whakapapa Village, the start of the infamous Tongariro Crossing with emerald lakes and scenes from Lord of the Rings. As we drove, the clouds got lower and the rain worsened. Fearing the crossing would be rubbish, we asked at the visitors’ centre and were told that, yes, the winds were ‘gale force’ on the mountain – strong enough to rip branches off trees – and there wouldn’t be much to see up there.
After much umming and ahhing over whether we were ‘wimping out’ or being ‘sensible’ we decided to give it a miss and spend the time driving around the East Cape instead. So we headed up towards Hawkes Bay via Whanganui and spent the night on the shores of Lake Tuiteri.

CHRISTMAS EVE It's always going to be a weird one - Christmas when you don't really know anyone or have anywhere in particular to go. New Zealand definitely does Christmas, as do the marketing companies, but not quite to the extent ... [Continue reading this entry]

23rd December 2007 Have you ever done something on a whim and then wondered why you did it? My thoughts exactly on seeing the faces of the morning group who had just finished their Black Abyss trip down into the Waitomo ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hbbiton aka Matamata is where this fairy tale begins. In actual fact waking in a holiday park that had free thermal baths so we had a dip in these before heading into town to shoot up the elves... Matamata was ... [Continue reading this entry]

Black sandy beaches and turquoise seas awash with ancient, gnarly Pohutukawa trees blossoming huge red flowers... it looked exactly as the tourist brochures described it, all the way round the coast - just beautiful. We started in Thames - a ... [Continue reading this entry]

We continued after our AA episode back down the west side of the north, north bit. Through a beautiful natural harbour called Hokianga Harbour and down in to the Waipoua Forest, home to the world's largest kauri tree. We stayed ... [Continue reading this entry]