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January 15, 2006
The Beautiful East
For months Sinead and I anticipated the arrival of my family in New Zealand. After five months on the road, it would be great to see familiar faces and have family around for Christmas. The time spent with my parents was great, but it passed too quickly. Saying goodbye is never easy, but thankfully Craig and Karli were still around for another couple weeks to accompany us on our tour de force of the North Island.
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Maori carving |
Arriving in the tourist mecca of Rotorua in the evening was not a wise decision. Hotel after motel after backpackers displayed "No Vacancy" signs, and the outlook was bleak. Luckily, the people at the tourist information center will bend over backwards to find a room for you, and we ended up fourteen kilometres out of town at a gorgeous lakeside Bed and Breakfast complete with a private hot tub. Not a bad twist of events.
Built on a thermal field, belching geysers and boiling mud invade the town of Rotorua. Throughout parks and golf courses steam randomly seeps out of the ground and a lot of docile looking ditches are fenced off due to their dangerously hot temperatures. Walking through the town can be unbearable due to an overpowering stench of sulphur, but the locals don't seem to be too affected by it. The most impressive geysers have been protected and can be visited at thermal parks where, for a fee, you can walk amongst them and get a close up view of the bubbling mud and even check out a kiwi bird.
Like much of New Zealand, Rotorua is rich in Maori history and culture. Several opportunities are present to witness a traditional Maori performance and see the beautifully intricate Maori carvings, many of which are hand carved in Rotorua. Along with a hundred other tourists at Te Pui thermal park, we visited a replica Maori village and were treated to a concert complete with traditional Poi dances, a stick game, and the famous protruding of tongues, used as a defiant gesture to intimidate the enemy. Despite being a tourist marketed event, the experience was quite interesting and inspired us with the curiosity to learn more about New Zealand's cultural history.
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The luge rocks! |
New Zealand is known for it's extreme adventure activities, and just outside of Rotorua is the luge ride. The advertisement of a man with his toddler leisurely riding down the luge track in a go kart, doesn't give justice to the excitement of the luge and it's lack of safety precautions. Insider information would reveal that the luge was possibly more exciting and dangerous than white water rafting, so we had to have a go. Activities such as this one would just not be possible in Canada. You basically sit in a go kart and head unrestricted down a windy steep track, with carts passing randomly on either side. Just after we were questioning the safety of the ride, Karli missed a corner and flipped her luge, badly scraping her arm. Luckily, there was nobody behind her as she certainly would have been road kill. As usual, once it was determined that the injury wasn't serious, the cameras came out in full force to capture the aftermath.
From Rotorua we headed to the Bay of Plenty and the seaside town of Whakatane. In the Maori language wh has the sound of an F, so this name amused us to no ends, sending us into childish giggles whenever we heard the name or had to say it. It was chosen as a destination due to the possibility of swimming with the dolphins, but after checking into a holiday/trailer park that appeared to have let their cat roll in the sheets, we had to move. First, Karli became stuffed up, then Craig's eyes puffed out like a blowfish and on the way out Sinead was looking near death as her throat began to close up. After seeing our sorry state, the lady at the office refunded our money for the second night and we quickly sped out of there.
Packed into the car like sardines, we travelled up the coast to Tauranga. Another coastal city, Tauranga is only minutes away from Mount Maunganui, which boasts beautiful beaches and an artificial surf reef that will put the town on the global surfing map. After contemplating a job offer of picking kiwi fruit, Sinead and I decided that we just weren't ready to work and began making preliminary inquiries about flights to Asia. For our one night in Tauranga Sinead, Craig, Karli, and I hit the town to play some pool and have a few drinks in the empty bars. Karli's request for a martini baffled the staff, and they were soon on the phone trying to figure out how one is made. After she recieved one complimentary Martini glass filled to the brim with vodka, and then another very strong bluish version, we figured that Martinis are probably not the most popular drink in New Zealand.
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Beachfront thermal pools |
As a Christmas present from my parents, Sinead and I headed out on a boat excursion with about thirty others to track dolphins and possibly swim with them. Sightings are not guaranteed, and the captain informed us while navigating through the waters that the previous day they found absolutley no dolphins which was not encouraging. Our trip was different and within a half hour we located a pod of about fifty. As our boat cut through the waters, we were surrounded by dolphins that jumped all around the boat and swam right under the prow. Because the pod had babies with them, we weren't able to get in and swim with them, but the trip was well worth it regardless.
Up along the east coast is the jewel of the North Island, the Coromandel Peninsula. White sand beaches and amazing blue water are everywhere, and the pace of life is nice and slow. It was so amazing that our stay was extended due in part to the friendly hostel owners, who offered, free use of their kayaks, windsurfers, and even the hostel car. North up the peninsula are the picturesque beaches of Hahei and Cathedral Cove. Right off the beach you can snorkel where water clarity is excellent and sting rays are plentiful. Nearby is also Hot Water Beach, where at low tide pools can be dug in the sand to reveal thermal pools. On our first attempt we tried the 6:00 pm low tide, but arrived to find a hundred of people staking out their territory and waiting to dig their thermal bath. It looked impossible to dig without taking toes off, so I started digging randomly away from the crowd only to be told I was digging in completely the wrong spot. Next attempt was made at the 7:00 am low tide, and the experience was much more rewarding. With less than ten other people around, we practically had the place to ourselves and sat in our own private beach hot spring, watching the sun rise over the surf.
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Borrowing a car is always unsettling, especially from people that you hardly know. I was very paranoid about anything happening, and after three weeks without incident, our luck ran out. Driving along one of the many narrow, windy roads we ran over a mysterious black object puncturing not one, but two tires. With only one mini spare, and being at least 15 km out of town, we were in a bit of a predicament. This was the one time that the slow pace of life in the Coromandel was frustrating, as the only garage capable of fixing our tire in the small town was closed at 2:00 pm on a Saturday. The next town was 45 km away. To our rescue came Richard the police officer, who drove us all the way back to the car to see if his spare tire would fit, and when it didn't, he radioed his dispacher to get him to find us a garage. He then drove us all the way to the next town where we bought two brand new tires, and then all the way back to the car to help us change them. The friendliness of Kiwis never ceases to amaze me. It probably took two hours out of his day, and saved us a lot of money.
The Coromandel Peninsula is absolutely stunning, and it was agreed between the four of us that Cathedral Cove beach ranks as one of our worldwide favorites. Our trip from Rotorua up the east coast has given us a taste of how interesting and diverse the landscape of New Zealand can be, and we still had so much more to see.
Posted by brett at January 15, 2006 04:48 PM