Week 16 – Departing Spirits and Beach Rescue

Our last week in New Zealand and fittingly, our next stopping point was Cape Reinga, where the Maoris believe the spirits depart from when leaving this world. It is also pretty much the northern most point in NZ.

Nearby were some huge sand dunes and we had a lot of fun playing in the creek and trying to ride down the dunes on a broken bodyboard that we found.

The following day we paid a visit to 90 Mile Beach. Despite turning the van around before getting to the beach, we still found ourselves stuck; bogged in the sand in the carpark. A local guy kindly informed us that it happens everyday and they were just waiting for Council to fix up the carpark. Then he charged us 50 bucks to tow us out with his 4WD. Not really sure how keenly they are awaiting the council to fix up the carpark if they get a couple of hundred a day from hapless tourists getting stuck ;-(((

Any way, we got back on the road pretty quickly and had a long drive down south where we stopped of to see the huge Kauri trees and visit the Kauri Museum. The trees are truly impressive in size, but the real highlight was the museum. The quality of the pieces and the set-up meant that even the self-professed “Museum Hater” Tina had a great time there, and we all learnt a lot about the gumdigging past of the area, as well as the history of NZ as a whole.

After such a hectic time ;-), we decided to spend 2 days in Orewa, before going back for a final night out near the airport so we could get a quick start on the morning of departure. Orewa is about half an our north of Auckland and is a cute beach town. While we were there it blew a gale and drew out all the kite surfers.

The wind stayed with us on arrival into Auckland, and provided a few hairy moments up the top of Mt Eden where we really thought the van might be blown over. It was swaying from side to side so bad that it was a relief to get off the peak, after a quick look at one of the volcano craters that the city is built on (about 200 in total I think they said). We also managed a quick trip to One Tree Hill, but the weather was awful and in the end we just headed out to the campsite with plenty of time to pack up and get ready for the early start in the morning and the flight over to the Cook Islands.

All in all, NZ has been the highlight of the trip so far. Rather than being cramped (and despite the bad image you get of campervans from living on the Dutch border) we all really enjoyed the freedom and versatility of the van, as well has having a sense of consistency and the same bed each night. Best of all was having a toilet whenever you needed it and the ability to cook up a quick feed no matter where you are.

In rating NZ, it is probably best to split the country into North Island and South Island. While I probably won’t ever get to the North Island again, there is nothing there that would really draw me back. Despite that, it is well worth a look and gets a 7.5/10 from me.

On the other hand, the South Island made such and impression I would have to recommend it as a “Must Do” destination to anyone, and I will certainly be happy to come back for a visit anytime. Hell, I’d even come here to live; if there was a decent living to be made. They don’t call it GodZone for nothing. A well deserved 9.5/10 for the South Island. Easy to travel in a fortnight, but you could occupy yourself for months with the wide variety of things to do and see. The only reason it doesn’t get a ten is that some of the things just cost so much that you go broke before you were done trying everything you wanted to.