Shakespear, Auckland, & the long trip home: Days 183-187

We headed to Auckland for our last night in the campervan and the last few days of our trip before we head home. We stayed at a regional park north of Auckland, Shakespear (named after a family that farmed the land and donated it for a park, not the writer) that was on a beautiful peninsula and a home to lots of birds (including peacocks), sheep, cattle, etc.

The peacocks were very curious and friendly.

The park had a lot of nice hiking trails.

There was a picture perfect veiw.

Across the bay, you can see the skyline of Auckland.

Part of the peninsula was a military base.

The coastline.

The beach at our campside from the track we walked through the park.

The morning we left, a herd of sheep were driven through the campsite by a few rangers on ATVs and one dog that mostly rode on the back of the ATV.

We then turned in our van. It is the one on the right, missing a hubcap. Not sure how that happened or if it was there when we picked up the van. We first noticed it the first day a few hours after we started driving.  

Our first night in Auckland, we were invited to dinner with Toni and Nick. We first met them in Rome when we were buying tickets to a Roma soccer game. We also saw them after the game when we were all trying to find a bus from the game back to the city. About four months later, somehow, we ran into them on a street corner in Sydney. They happened to be making a short visit to Sydney and were on the same street as we were. Very strange! We exchanged emails and decided to meet when we made it to Auckland. Toni and Nick were excellent hosts and Toni made a delicious dinner. 

Although our time in Auckland was very brief, we did visit a very interesting art museum.

At Albert Park, there were many nice statues and incredible trees.

A view of the Sky Tower from Albert Park.

We thoroughly enjoyed New Zealand. We ended our adventure with a long trip home. Thanks to the magical date line, we departed Auckland at noon on Thursday and arrived in Los Angeles at 9:30 Thursday morning. Tomorrow we have two flights to get back to KY; hopefully it will be an uneventful day. We can't wait to get back and see everyone!

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NZ6 Whangarei, Kawakawa, Paihia Days 179-182

Next we headed to Northland, which is the peninsula north of Auckland. We camped at a great department of conservation site on Uretiti Beach.

The campground

Uretiti Beach

Part of Uretiti is a nude beach.

Sand dunes between the camp and the beach.

The next day we drove to Whangarei and walked around the town. There were lots of carved poles near the library called Pou'that represented the different cultural groups.

We then headed out to Abbey Caves, which are undeveloped. We checked out three of the caves but didn't manage to find any glow worm grottos.

Rock formations in the fields near the Abbey Caves.

Before leaving Whangarei we stopped by the Whangarei Falls and walked along the river track,

The river track lead to a tree top track that had some huge trees.

Next we stopped at Kawakawa to see New Zealand's most famous toilets. They were designed by Hundertwasser.

Another veiw of the toilets. There are gardens on the roof.

Our next stop was Paihia. It is a cute little beachside town near Waitangi, where the Waitangi Treaty was signed. We wandered around the town, did a hike near the treaty grounds and enjoyed some fish and chips near the beach.

Cute little church in Paihia.

The Paihia Wharf.

Todd climbing a tree on the Haruru Falls track next to the treaty grounds.

Mangrove forest on the Hururu track.

Haruru Falls, a little underwhelming compared to some of the falls we've seen in NZ.

We spent our last couple days in Paihia relaxing at the campground, reading in the sun next to the water. Next we head south to Auckland, where we have to turn in the sleepervan. =(

NZ5 Taupo, Matata, Coromandel: Days 177-178

Next we headed to Lake Taupo, which has hot springs running under parts of it. We stopped at Acacia Bay and Hot Water Beach but we didn't find any water that was actually hot, only a couple of warm spots and those may not have been caused by thermal springs...

Lake Taupo was tepid, but not hot.

We then traveled on to see Huka falls. NZ's longest river, Waikato, originates from Lake Taupo and passes through a narrow chasm to the falls. 

The river rushing to the falls from the lake.

The Honey Hive is north of Lake Taupo. They have a hive inside that you can see into, along with a very interesting film about honey bees. They make and sell mead, liquor and wine made from honey; as well as lotions, balms and other medicinal things made from beeswax. They sell honey, too. 

Our next campsite was at Matata on the Bay of Plenty. It was another DOC campground on a great beach.

View of the beach from our campsite.

We next visited Waihi, a gold mining town that is still mining. From this hill one can view the small, cute downtown and on the other side of the hill. . .

there is a 600 meter deep hole. This is Martha Mine and is a working mine. They expect it to stop producing in a decade or so and plans have been made to fill the mine with water to create a recreational lake. The town had a very interesting, nice museum about the town and the mine.

Statues throughout the downtown depict life in the mining town. Water from the mine would run down the streets and the children would put their feet in the water to warm their feet in the cold.

We made a brief stop in Paeroa, which is famous for the L&P soda. We stopped and had lunch here and admit that it is a tasty beverage.

We drove up through the Coromandel Peninsula through Thames, Coromadel Town and Colville; eventually camping at a DOC site at Waikawau on the beach.

The countryside is very Shire-ish.

The beach at our campsite. You may not be able to see the guy climbing on the rocks in the distance, but this was one of our neighbors gathering mussels from the rocks. His wife brought us a dozen or so for us to steam open and eat. We added some mussels to the vegetable soup we had already made.

Dusk at the campground.

Coromandel scenery.

Next we head to the Northland and Bay of Islands north above Auckland.

NZ4 Wellington and Tongariro, Days :173-176

We arrived in Wellington and quickly found the only campervan park in downtown. Most of our campsites so far have been in beautiful rural settings. Our site in Wellington was in the middle of a parking lot near the wharf. It did have bathrooms and showers and was in a great location. After settling in, we took the old cable car to the top of the botanical gardens. The gardens were beautiful and had an interesting sculpture walk. Our second day in Wellington, we headed out to see some of the landmark buildings and hit a couple of the museums. The Te Papa Museum was quite impressive and had some interesting information on the Maori. The Fringe Festival was also taking place, so we ended our night with an outdoor acrobatic/circus show. On our way out of Wellington we visited the Weta Cave, which is a tiny little museum set up by Weta Studios. Weta Studios did some special effects and costuming for King Kong, Lord of the Rings, and Avatar.


Next we headed north to Tongariro National Forest. We hiked about half of the Alpine Crossing and climbed up Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom for you LOTR fans).

The cable car from the botanical gardens.

Wellington is the capital of NZ. This is the Parliament House, called the beehive, adjacent to the Parliamentary Library. 

Downtown Wellington buildings at the Civic Center and art gallery.

View from the art gallery towards the wharf.

Te Papa Museum

An Orc from LOTR at Weta.

And Gollum.

We climbed Mt. Victoria for this view of Wellington and its wharf. We really enjoyed our visit to Wellington: nice museums, buildings, waterfront, restaurants and pubs.

Tongariro on our way to visit Mt. Ngauruhoe, which is an active volcano.

The hike was about 16 km total, and mostly uphill. We passed some waterfalls.

The last part of the path up Mt. Doom was very steep, and unmarked.

We made it up to where the clouds were that day, just below the summit. A nice view from the top.

View of the Southern Crater from Mt Doom.

Mt. Doom from the bottom. The summit is just above the cloud line.

In front of Mt. Doom.

That night we camped at a very small site in the Kaimanawa park near Tongariro. There were only two other campers. Our van looked very lonely and small.