Hoped to get through part II of New Zealand efficiently, but this one goes for a while. In here is a new take on one of my standard bits that I'm mighty pleased with.
When we last left you, we were freedom camping in Matamata, which was a stones throw from our morning destination of Hobbiton. When planning our itinerary, asked Betty what was on her wish list and she had two things, both of which we will do this day. Her second biggest want was to visit Hobbiton, which is the movie set for the Hobbit (and maybe Lord of the Rings I guess). I'm not a fan of the genre, never saw the movies or read the books and didn't think it worthwhile to go far to see it, Turns out that it was sorta on our way, so why not make the Boss happy? Made a reservation for the first tour of the day and off she went. Babydoll (also not a Hobbit-maniac although I think she saw the movie) and I saved the not insignificant entrance fee and went back to sleep for a couple hours (another benefit of being in an RV).
An additional RV comment I left out yesterday. If I were to do a similar trip again, would consider doing it with a 5th Wheel. That way, you can set up shop and if someone didn't want to go on an activity, they could stay behind and let the car go off to do whatever.
Sounded like Betty enjoyed her time with the Hobbits (Hobbits are creatures, yes?). She said something about the books being inspired by the author's time in the trenches of WWI that sounded interesting. I read that the owners of the set were gonna tear it down but someone had the bright idea to charge 60 bucks a head to visit. It obviously rakes in the dough cause while it was quiet when we arrived, busloads of tourists were pouring in by the time we left. The guide told Betty as an aside that a lot of Chinese come in those buses but that maybe 1/2 of them have seen the movie. Her pictures showed that the sets were well maintained and it does look quaint.
You won't read this in any book or travel guide but...New Zealand is the Land of the Orange Cone. It would become a game of sorts pointing out random cones propped up in spots that had no Earthly reason to have them. There has to be some one in the government getting rich off their sale. I did a web search to see if it was just us or if there is some investigation into it. Nothing yet, but there is some smoke as I found this article from a local paper about how it is a good time to be selling traffic cones and how much money these companies are making. Company execs say that the cones aren't indestructible and become brittle and break over time. Plus, there is a lot of pilferage as students, yes he blamed students but politely left out 'drunken', who take them home and wear them as hats. Mark my words, someone is gonna blow the lid off this scandal and it is gonna rock NZ politics.
You know how they refer to a group of cows as a herd, or sheep as a flock? Why they decided to give each animal a name when grouped is probably an interesting story, and the people that were tasked with giving those names were obviously having a good time with the dictionary as they came up with clever titles ranging from a 'shrewdness of apes' to a 'dazzle of zebras'. Babydoll and I are sitting there marveling at how much noise these people are making and I come up with a name for a group of Chinese tourists. A Decibel of Chinese. Brilliant, no? I think so and am instantly delighted with my creativity. Even Betty (who was woken from her nap by this Decibel) and Babydoll, both genetically proven to be 100% Grade-A fresh Chinese, nod in agreement and start using the term.
It's time for our activity in Waitomo, which topped Betty's wish list. I had never heard about them until Betty said we needed to see them, but she said her top thing to see in New Zealand were the glowworms. Unique to this area of the globe, these worms inhabit caves and they glow. Know that sounds a bit boring, but upon research became equally excited about this place.
Looking at the options on-line, there are three caves that looked cool so booked entrances back to back to back this afternoon. The first cave (Aranui) didn't have glowworms, but the stalactites were mighty impressive.
I had never seen them in person, really can't recall to many visits to a cave before, but they are beautiful in shape, size and diversity. Mentioned last time how NZ was thrust up and its land is all sedimentary seafloor. That limestone rock is not hard and is easily eroded by water, which makes caves like these common in NZ. As the rock is porous, the caves leak and that produces the stalactites like these over millenia. Is impossible to get a photo with a phone camera that does them justice so take my word for it. We are about done with this cave, which is really long...at least 400 meters, and the dude leading us says that if anyone wants a family photo he would be glad to take it. I am typically OK passing, Babydoll hates her photo taken if it is not in the perfect golden hour lighting and even then has posing concerns, and Betty who rarely turns down such an opportunity, is not feeling the need this time and we say to the guy 'thanks, but we're fine'. We are admonished by another lady in our group who says 'You HAVE to get a family photo'. We are all stunned by this directive and are shamed into taking one.
The second cave of the day was THE glowworm cave you see in the pictures. It is the biggest tourist one and they have the process down taking group by group deeper underground, telling corny/informational stories along the way, until you get to the boats. You get into the boats and the dude pulls you through the light less cavern with a rope affixed to the wall, and the ceiling is covered in the soft lights of the glowworm. Photography isn't allowed, and we are told the glowworms react negatively to noise so are told to keep silent. I think the noise thing was bullshit cause they wanted to keep it quiet so everyone can enjoy the spectacle on the ceiling, which is damn impressive to say the least. So impressive that even the Decibels are awed into silence. Again, no photos allowed, so we took one of the poster on the wall as an example. It was kinda like this.
We thought we had seen it all and didn't expect much from the third cave of the day, but the Ruakuri Cave experience was the best for us. The longest one you can walk (1.8 kms), we had a guide that was really enthusiastic and knowledgeable and made the place come alive. This cave had some Maori burial significance so they had to create a second entrance, which is an 80 foot descent down a spiral walkway similar to a parking garage with lighting that would make a great movie scene. At the bottom of this drop, they put a limestone slab that had water dripping on it constantly. In the 12 years since it was installed, you can see the effects of erosion.
The life cycle of these worms was fascinating too. Hard to see, but off their bodies are these long strings that dangle about 3-5 inches down. The light they emit attracts insect as they think it might be a way out, and the strings have a sticky poison that traps the bugs and becomes their meal. At the end of their life, the worms cocoon and a flying creature results. As they are in total darkness, they have no eyes, and these flies have no mouths either, so in the 2-4 day life they have left, they fly around the cave searching for a mate. The females then lay a couple hundred eggs in roughly 20 egg patches. The reason they do this is that the first egg that hatches then gets to eat the 19 other brother and sister eggs giving it the nutrients it needs to grow into a worm that creates light and the strings. Hakunafreakingmatada.
In this cave, we had to stop and turn our lights off as a group of black water rafters were passing by below us. We didn't do this activity, mainly cause I didn't know about it, but you get all wet suited up and float down these cave rivers in the dark. Sounds kinda fun. As a note to anyone interested in NZ as a destination, it is loaded with all kinds of these kinds of activities. Maybe in my younger days, before all the surgeries and blows to the head, I would be more into them, but if you like the grand outdoor stuff, you should get here before your body breaks down. They really have it all. Not only hiking of all varieties, but we saw bungee jumping, off road adventures, sky diving, any sort of water sport on top of or under water you can think of, etc. And it is all over, so you don't need to travel long distances to get your fill. Add in that there are natural things like what we saw that are neat, and that the natural beauty of everywhere stuns constantly and is mostly unimpeded by humans, and NZ is a fabulous place to go.
Grabbed dinner and after I watched the Super Bowl on the computer. Everyone said it was a crappy game, but I liked the defensive battle. Don't care for either team, so the outcome that they were both in a crappy game was fine by me. All in all, a very good day.
We had a couple more nights/three days in the RV rig. We had a lot of ways we coulda gone or things we coulda done, but we wanted to just 'be' for a couple days so decided to find a stretch of coast and meander with no set destination in mind. On the map, saw a bulging peninsula and in research learned it is called the Mt Taranaki region. It bulges into the ocean and the road that goes along the water is a 45km stretch called the Surf Highway. There were a bunch of articles about it that described the little towns with cute eateries and secluded spots to hit the beach. Sounded good to us and off we went.
Took an hour from Waitomo to hit the coast where we stopped for a breakfast...meat pies of course...in the little town of Manoko. It was more than just a one-dairy town and had the quintessential NZ stripmall combo of Museum/Art Gallery/Jail.
Couple of narrative detours at this point. We've been eating a lot of meat pies, but also at these shops they have coffee. You'd think it'd be more of a tea consuming country as they are vassals of the monarchy, but coffee was everywhere. And good coffee too. My drink of choice is a double cappuccino with a dash of cinnamon on top and it is hit and miss around the globe that the coffee place will even have cinnamon. In NZ, they always asked if I wanted cinnamon or chocolate, like it wouldn't be a cappuccino without it. Total respect to them as that is the absolute correct way to serve that drink. Must be a South pacific thing cause it made me recall the first time I ever drank coffee. Had to have been March or April 1983 and my friends from school in Frankston, Australia took me to the shop across the street and just ordered me a coffee. It was a double cappuccino with cinnamon and I fell in love/had a chemical bond with it immediately and obviously forever. I am drinking one right now.
The other thing I jotted down at this point of the trip was the attractiveness of the locals. Babydoll and I are sitting on the deck of the café (Betty had gone to take a photo or something) sipping cappucino and eating meat pie while looking across the highway at the above strip mall, and some young folks walk by. I blurt out something to B-doll about how ugly the people are in general and am expecting to be reprimanded by her about how I shouldn't judge people on appearance or something, but she replies with a knowing, "Right?!". They aren't obese like Americans and would say they are more fit thant most. Just something about their faces and overall appearance...like they just didn't care how they put themselves together and that they really needed some help. Could never quite put my finger on it and still can't. Googled 'New Zealand supermodels' and of course there are some, but take a look at this recent article about Five Kiwi models who made it big internationally and tell me if you are impressed. Penciled a Westminster Dog Show comparison but erased it as it was way too harsh.
Couple more people notes. I was asked repeatedly where our accent was from. Being an Angeleano and having the accent of television, thought it obvious it was American, but we figured that it could sound Canadian to them. A younger lady in a shop, who was of English origin, hipped is to this fact and added that Canadians hate it when they are assumed to be Yanks. Fair enough. We get into a bit of society sparring and I say to her that stepping off the plane in NZ is like gong back 20 years in a time machine. She says that is exactly what her English mother says to her too adding that she thought it was also true that they are 20 years behind the States in racism. Again...fair enough.
Also, in places outside of the bigger cities, the locals have a gait and demeanor that gave me the undeniable feel of a rural southerner, or the people from the Pepperidge Farms/Bartle & James commercials.
It was another hour to our destination and on the way saw one of those fire warning danger level signs, but this one said "Facial Eczema Warning" and the needle was pointing to yellow. Never saw another one to grab a photo, but had to look it up cause I thought it was a joke or advertisement for some new drug.
Apparently, facial eczema when eaten is harmful to the liver of livestock when eaten. I couldn't tell from that article if the eczema was from humans, cows or something else so had to dig deeper. Am still not sure as this article from the NZ Dairy association uses terms that are industry specific, but gathered that if overnight temps stay high enough over 3 nights, the spores grow on grass and if eaten in sufficient quantaties, then the cows will get symptoms like a rash, lowered milk production, propensity to lick their udders and at worse, attacks their liver and they can die. Wha?
At the north end of the Surf Highway is the major town of New Plymouth. For perspective, New Plymouth has 74 thousand people, so that constitutes a major town. They had a beach there, but we stopped only to reload our food supplies and went a few kilometers south as we identified a beach side campsite in the much smaller town of Oakura (1,300 residents).
We got really lucky and this was just the spot we were looking for. This is our view of the beach from the rig. Steps to the sand and the ocean here was cool, but not cold, and just perfectly calm for a dip. Even the girls, who are decidedly not lovers of heavy surf, were happy going in here.
We broke out the table and chairs and had a scrumptious meal on the beach. We had been looking for this particular buffalo mozzarella since we landed and found it earlier in New Plymouth. Really, we have been searching for perfect buffalo mozzarella since a magical experience in Italy several years ago and it might be one of those things that can never be repeated. The buffaloes producing this were brought in from Italy (which were brought to Italy from India 2000 years ago), and it was from a farm not far away, and while good, it left us longing for the past.
The bulging peninsula area we are in is dominated by Mount Taranaki. Really, it was created by it. Taranaki is a volcano and has the look of Mt Hood. It rises sharply and the terrain around it is surprisingly flat. Here is a great aerial image for perspective...that ring is the natural division between elevation and flora and is amazing in its uniformity
Mapping it out, if you drive along the perimeter, you can circumnavigate the whole thing in only 2 hours. That's the plan for the day...wake up late, drive slowly down the Surf Highway seeing what's what, and then heading home for more relax time.
We knew from previous conversations that this day (February 6th) happened to be Waitangi Day. I didn't know about it before, and if you are interested in history, New Zealand, or relations between indigenous/colonial peoples, you should investigate as it is quite interesting. Here is a decent introductory podcast about it.
I am still studying it and will try not to make judgment in the pithy way I do most things cause it is still confusing at this point, but basically, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed this day in 1840 between the Brits and Maori people. Many/Most of them at least. It is cited as the most beneficial to the natives of these types of agreements in the world, but as all of those kind of agreements were disastrous to the native populations at best, and often led to genocides in many, don't think that anyone should be patting themselves on the back. And they really aren't in NZ as this isn't a holiday that has wild celebrations and is almost ignored.
Going further back, and again this is new history to me, but the Maori people arrived from other parts of Polynesia around 1250AD. My presumption going in was that they had been there far longer, maybe because the Australian Aborigines arrived somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. Every time it came out that we were living in Taiwan, someone would remind us that Maori are genetic descendents of the Taiwanese as are many Polynesian cultures. At the time the Europeans arrived in the 1700's, they estimate about 125,000 Maori were living in NZ
I could be dead wrong, but it feels like the apparent decent relations between the Maori and the Brits is due to the fact that the Maori had only been there for 500 years and not eons, and also that there just aren't that many white folks in country means that the pressure to take all of the land is not as great as elsewhere. There are tons of examples of land grabs and attempts at burying the Maori culture and language, and I have no doubt that racism is rampant, For example, everything we had seen of the Maori in pop culture going in is that they are big people and the folks at the village we went to had a bunch. We were walking around with our guide and in looking at old photos from the 1800's, the Maori looked fit, trim and short. The guide kinda starts off by saying that "the Maori like their bread and alcohol" but as we broke it down, she conceded that the introduction of flour and sugars to their historical diet of fish and vegetable, without modern knowledge of what the carbs do to you, was the cause of them becoming giant and having all of the medical ailes that go along with it. As with most societies now, they are coming to realize the affects of what they eat and strides are being made for a better diet. So there is that streak of racism but also a self realization of it at the same time. Does that make sense? All in all, the cultures seem well integrated and disputes are handled relatively peacefully. I could go on about this, tying myself in knots all the way cause it is so complex and my knowledge so shallow, so will leave it at that for now, but will say that all the Maori types we met all had big smiles and a very friendly nature.
Anyhoo, Waitangi Day isn't a giant holiday cause like all things NZ, they like it about themselves but don't love it. It is a day of school and government closure so our drive around was met with few people and many closed businesses. It also got overcast in that beachy sort of way. As this was a long stretch of coast, had wanted to check out beaches and surf spots, but the weather didn't cooperate. While good weather probably would have been better, I still love the beach in this way almost as much. Laid back. We had a brunch spot in mind from research and had a great meal at the Sugar Juice Cafe in Opunake. Betty says to me that she wants to get the meal called 'The Dump' and could I help her eat it cause it was gonna be big. Sure...so I get a sausage roll and plan on sticking my fork onto her plate. Big mistake cause all I got was some hash brown remnants and a little crust of bread. No problem cause my sausage roll was big and might have been the best one I've ever had (and I have had a lot).
It is a freaking burrito wagon run by two lovely girls of Austrian and Mexican heritage. Their trailer was adorable and they rolled us up some damn fine burritos. I did have a dispute with the Austrian girl with the New Zealand accent about the proper pronunciation of the word 'cilantro'
Staying north the extra day made our drive back to Wellington to return the rig a bit longer than anticipated (5ish hrs), but gave us the chance to commune with the road one last time. We had to go past Mt Taranaki again and as it hadn't yet peaked out to give us a view of her beauty, we hoped today would be the day but sadly, all we could see was her flank.
After a week in the rig and communal showers, there is nothing like a nice hotel bathroom, but not wanting to miss a chance to see a little Wellington, we took a stroll about town first. Cute and new, with a population of 200k. The waterfront is well done as they have taken most of the old piers and turned them into beef halls, climbing rock centers, etc. Was a warmish day and lots of folks were out having picnics and jumping into the bay.
It was what it was so what to do? There are a couple ways to get to Christchurch. Fly, which is short and relatively cheap, or ferry from north to south and then take a train down, which was not cheap. Christchurch sounded OK, but you don't go to NZ for the cities, plus it was hurt badly by a 2011 earthquake and read that red tape and such has left it only partially rebuilt. The ferry/train sounded like an adventure, so we did that.
Ferry from Wellington to Picton (on the north end of the South Island) takes a little over three hours. An hour navigating out of the sound in the north, an hour crossing the strait, and then another in the south island sound.
Then it was time for the train, which was a 6+ hour endeavor. This ride, while long, was billed to be scenic. The car behind the engine was open so folks could mingle and watch the world go by.
The last 3 hours or so was spent riding through countryside with the Southern Alps off to the west All of the North Island was green as the mountains are not super high, but in the south, the spine down the country is high and rain is dumped on them leaving the eastern plain much drier and in the middle of summer, brown like you see in California (hence the wildfires mentioned earlier)
The sun was going down so I go to the viewing car to soak up a bit of sun and commune with the scenery. As the ocean was behind us, not as many folks were standing out there and it was just me looking out at the mountains. All of a sudden, the train blows it whistle two times. Loud. It hadn't done this before and can then feel the train slowing down. I see something fly off to the side of the train that looks like a bag of garbage. Train then stops and the conductor comes up to the front. A couple of people had gathered by this point and he tells us we hit a cow (the bag of garbage). He says that cows were on the tracks here a couple days ago and they had told the owner of the property they had a problem with their fencing and that the owner could now be cited with some offense of neglect and public endagerment. He then gets on the walkie talkie with the train engineer in a deleted scene from Flight of the Conchords.
Conductor: Looks like you got one
Engineer: It was a clean kill
Conductor: You're very efficient
Both: Ha ha ha
It was dusk by the time we arrived and took a taxi to the hotel near the airport as our flight home was early early the next morning. Didn't get to see any of Christchurch but did admire their clever dual use mentality. The 24/7 DIY Car & Dog Wash.
The trip was almost over and was feeling pretty damn good about my planning and the execution of it. I mean damn...I just navigated a huge rig for hundreds (thousands?) of kilometers, driving on the opposite side of the road without getting lost or even hitting a low hanging branch or traffic cone? OK, I rolled over the side of one once but didn't knock it over. Could I have just raised my rating up from 4.0? We pull into the hotel to check in and the lady manning the desk is about to leave and is there with the guy (named Kip) that drives the airport shuttle. She is not expecting us even though I had made a reservation, so what's up? Seems that I botched the arrival date and booked us there in December (12/2 instead of 2/12, which in Commonwealth terminology is 2/12 instead of 12/2). Shit...the boss isn't gonna like this.
The folks are good natured and am trying to make light of the situation with jokes. Tell the hotel folks that I blame them for the error as we Yanks tossed out our overlords and if the Kiwi's were not still paying fealty to the Queen with their archaic date writing techniques, this wouldn't have happened. Stuff like that. They do have a room fortunately and not only do we have to eat the cost of that missed reservation, Kip is gonna take us to the airport in the AM so I tell him to look at my face to confirm that I have no marks or bruises cause the Boss is not happy and I am in real fear. I took the hit to my TripAdvisor rating accordingly. I thought it'd go to 3.5 but saw a note written in refrigerator magnets that it now stands at 2.0.
Kip is taking us to the airport in the morning and I want to make one of my little comments along the lines of how last nights reservation snafu is not something that a spouse will bring up every day for the rest of his/her life, and lead into it by asking him if he was married cause any married person would get the gag. He replies, "I'm not, but my wife is. I have no idea what that means and am totally thrown off.
A damn good meat pie at the airport and we are off to Taiwan. Great time for sure. Not sure I really need to go back anytime soon cause I felt we did it right, but wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone considering.
A damn good meat pie at the airport and we are off to Taiwan. Great time for sure. Not sure I really need to go back anytime soon cause I felt we did it right, but wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone considering.
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