We had read that Rotorua was the most visited tourist area in New Zealand and were dreading it. It was fine! Nowhere we have visited yet has been very busy and Rototua was the same. We didn't do the Maori experience evening, but spent a fascinating couple of hours in the museum, walked by the smelly lake (sulphur) and went to a market cum boot sale in a nearby park where there were mud pools too.
At this museum we learned about the cultivation of the pumice lands around Rotorua. Formed by volcanic activity much of the area was set aside for veterans returning from World War Two. Whilst they were gifted the land, they had to work really hard clearing and cultivating it, building homes and making new lives. There was a lovely cafe here too.
Thank goodness for SIM cards, internet access and email! We easily met up with Brain and Mary and enjoyed a really lovely evening exchanging NZ experiences and catching up on life in general. It's a shame we don't do it more when we are all in the UK. Busy lives! We first met in 1982 when we all lived in France - how time flies.
The following day we set off for Hastings in the Hawkes Bay area, driving down the Thermal Highway. It is strange to see steam rising from the ground in all sorts of places. We visited Wai-o-Tapu, and saw a geyser, as well as a variety of pools and ponds, in a variety of colours depending on the minerals in the ground, all bubbling away like cauldrons.
We drove on through Napier, intending to go back the next day for a good look around but we were in need of an ice cream and Graham needed a break so we parked up and went for a wander. Napier is well known for its Art Deco buildings which were built following a severe earthquake in 1931. Before we got very far we came across a regular Sunday afternoon CAN performance (Culture and Art in Napier) and ate our ice creams whilst sitting in the sun listening to a Ukele band. One of those chance events that made a great impression.
The campsite at Hastings was deserted and we were allowed to choose our own pitch. This was very disconcerting - how to choose? Ramsey Street? Peyton Place? Corro Street? Someone watched too much TV! We picked Ramsey, with a tree and a bench, but no Neighbours.
We had booked ourselves on a Gannet Beach Adventure at 11.30, without really knowing how it worked, except that tractors were to take us along a beach to see a colony of gannets. It wasn't until we arrived at the start point that we found out it would last take four hours! Thank goodness, again, that we had the campervan and could rustle up a picnic to take with us.
Now, this really did turn out to be an adventure and there's far too much to tell here. Briefly, there were two tractors one with one trailer and one with two, that towed us 9km along a beach, which is only accessible at low tide, to the bottom of a path up to a cliff top where there were thousands of gannets. That was all fantastic. More interesting was getting very wet feet whilst being towed through the sea, getting our tractor and trailer stuck in sand which covered the axels and then the clutch breaking so we had to come back using a crash gearbox and a couple of shoves from the other tractor. It was great fun and the grumpy old men loved it, giving lots of, probably unwelcome, advice.
After all that excitement we only had a couple of hours left to visit Napier! which turned out to be more than enough. Whilst there are some beautiful Art Deco buildings they have been completely spoiled by shop facias and canopies.
We left Hastings early in order to get some wine tasting in at Martinborough, but stopped off for petrol, then pancakes and coffee, and then at Mount Bruce National Wildlfe centre to see a Kiwi breeding project. Despite every effort to protect them, these lovely, burrow living, non flying birds are still in decline and now there are various breeding centres which ensure eggs hatch and more young survive. The only mammals in NZ before the Maoris arrived in about 1300 were bats so birds like the Kiwi didn't need to fly. All the Kiwi predators have been introduced by the Maoris or Europeans - possum, stoats, rats, dogs, cats etc and they still catch them, or eat their eggs, if they can.
The kiwi below is 19 days old and is being fed liver. Young kiwis are not looked after by their parents, they just have to survive.
As the weather deteriorated we eventually arrived in Martinborough in the pouring rain and strong winds, so only made it to one winery. However, we did taste eight wines and buy a bottle. At the winery we were talking to some Canadians about our ferry crossing to South Island the following day. They told us that because of the very strong winds all ferries had been cancelled! So, our task for the next 24 hours was to try and work out what to do next! In the end, having gone via Specsavers in Wellington to have my glasses fixed (Graham sat on them!) we made our way to the ferry port expecting to be turned away. We had a choice of whether to get on our ferry and wait until they decided it was safe to depart or to rebook for two or three days later. So, here we are on a ferry crossing the Cook Straight in very stormy water for the next three and a half hours. More later..
No, that isn't us, just the view from the window!
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