Facing The Fading Light
Winter may be setting in but that doesn’t mean I’m not ready to hit the road for some more adventures way down south!
Well, we've just crossed the solstice here down south and are now well and truly into winter, all things considered I'm learning a lot about myself. Most importantly that a winter without any ski access will slowly drive me insane, and lead me to make some questionable decisions with how to spend my time. It is far from a Colorado winter with an average daily temperature of 52, and only the wind and rain (of which there is plenty) decide how pleasant the day will be. To my untrained eyes this leaves everyday open for outdoor opportunity, only to leave me frequently caught out in gales and downpours. But rainy forecasts and short days won't keep me down! While Meredith has been working away in Parliament (at her new temp gig) I've been loading up the RAV and heading out to check out some North Island staples.
It took me nine months but I've finally made the mountain biker's pilgrimage up to Rotorua and Taupo. This tourist epicenter is located six hours north in the heart of the North Island and is well known for it's Maori culture, geologic activity, and endless mountain bike trails. Much of what makes the island geologically interesting lies in this one zone starting with the towering Mt. Ruapehu (which Mitch and I checked out in my last post) continuing north to the gargantuan Lake Taupo which then feeds NZ's largest river the Waikato, and ending in a thermal hotspot between Taupo and Rotorua. I was most appreciative of this last feature when I rolled into Taupo on a positively miserably rainy afternoon. After one look around I immediately headed to the nearest hot spring and soaked away my worries in some of the most extensive thermal pools I've ever visited, complete with a towering hot spring waterfall. My recent discovery that I can in fact fold the seats down in the RAV for a serviceable bed for one also saved the day.
The next morning I was on the road bright and early to get plenty of time in at the legendary Rotorua Mountain Bike Park. They claim the park has over 100 kilometers of bike specific trails in it and I wanted to ride as much of it as possible. It did not disappoint. The front part of the park is defined by trails through the towering redwoods that have taken over the hills surrounding town, it makes for great riding any time of year. From there you enter enduro-central where shuttle buses haul lazy riders to the top of a truly epic series of tracks carved through deforested hills. Which is where I will lodge my one gripe against Rotorua riding, much of it is set up for bike haul on these over sculpted tracks to the detriment of ride-both-ways purists like me. There, Rotorua gripe done. From there you can head off into the true back woods with barely scratched out trails sprawling out into the native bush. In two days I was able to put in about 40 miles, and never rode the same trail twice. Not bad for the middle of winter.
It wasn't all riding up on the central island there were also sights to be seen. First stop, an evening trip around the local arboretum to check out how massive the redwood forest truly is. They've gussied it up a bit with an elevated walkway swinging in the treetops complete with artful lighting hanging along the way for when the sun goes down. I contented myself with exploring along at ground level as the sun dipped low, filling the forest with deep red light. The next morning I was back off to check out some more thermal action. As you can imagine much of the best stuff is walled off in thermal parks with high entrance fees, but the area is so geologically active even a cheap-ass like me could see some cool stuff. Renegade hot springs, giant farty mud pools, and geysers galore dot the landscape between Taupo and Rotorua it all made for a splendid morning of sightseeing even if three days of constant sulfur smell was getting a little wearisome...Yum.
Given my slowly oncoming insanity due to lack of skiing, the next week I decided to head out again into the nearby Tararua range for a couple days of tramping. This scraggy range runs due north from Wellington and is well known for both high winds and heavy fog. I scouted it out and believed that I had found a miracle couple of nice days here in mid-winter to do a two-day circuit hike...That did not turn out to be the case.
As I pulled up to the trailhead on day one it was becoming quite clear that the rain wasn't planning on letting up anytime soon. But no matter, if you won't go out in the rain in NZ well you just won't go out much. Besides the first day was just the climb day two held the main mountain crossing. So, I packed up and sauntered along through the mists up and up and up through beautiful beech forests much like what Mere and I experienced on the Hump Ridge. But boy oh boy after hours of marching through the wet I had never been so appreciative of the New Zealand hut system. Rolling up to a dry, wind-free hut with a wood burning stove makes ill-advised tramping adventures much more enjoyable. I was all alone for the evening so I dragged a mattress next to the stove, barricaded myself in the kitchen with a couple spare mattresses and let the fire roar, as that fine kiwi rain turned into something I'm much more familiar with in the mountain winter. Snow.
I woke up the next morning to a storm that was refusing to break. A fine dusting of snow- but mostly ice- covered as far as I could see, which admittedly wasn't very far in the fog. The plan had been to summit the mountain then hike the ridge to a neighboring peak before descending. I hiked a little ways up above bush line before deciding that trudging for hours through the icy mists with no prospect of a view in sight was not worth the effort. So, I turned tail and pleasantly was treated to a fairly serendipitous hike on the way back down. Beech forests covered in snow are indeed a sight to behold.
Moral of all these stories: it's time for me to hit the kiwi slopes.
Our Route:
As Far South As South Goes
We kicked off our New Zealand adventure with a trip to the south, the deep south. All the way from Auckland to Dunedin.
A Few Days In Auckland To Get Us Started
Our adventure began with likely the easiest international flight we will ever experience, no joke. Meredith will be sure to expound on the virtues of the Air New Zealand Sky Couch to all within earshot, for good reason. We slept a solid 9 hours of the flight, leaving just enough time to drink a few free Steinlagers, watch a movie and fill out our customs forms. The funny thing about flying around the world, at least this way, is that between sleeping on the plane and a 6 AM arrival time, you weirdly wind up back on the right schedule.
The first 5 days off the plane were to be spent in Auckland with two major points on the agenda: sightseeing, and (somewhat more critically) car shopping. On day one we really proved that while Auckland may have unparalleled levels of suburban sprawl you really can walk around most of downtown in one day. We shacked up with the Airbnb hostus-with-the-mostus, Phil. A designer whose company and trendy place in Grey Lynn made us question why we were in such a rush to get out of the city. On our sightseeing adventures, we got some good time down by the harbor, checked out some sweet art galleries (including the stunning Toi o Tamaki gallery with Phil), and (unsurprisingly) fell in love with the Ponsonby neighborhood- Auckland's RiNo Arts District (TM).
Unfortunately, a good portion of our time in Auckland was spent in used-car-buying hell. We spent a truly unseemly amount of time learning the city's transit system as we visited far-flung suburbs around the area on the hunt for my ever-sought-after Toyota RAV4. I'll spare you the nitty-gritty details, but after rounds of test driving and mechanic inspections we bought a beautiful, cerulean 1995 RAV; we named her Baarbra Ann, and she has yet to miss a beat.
With our new whip loaded up with our heaps of bags (how exactly does one pack for a year of traveling?), it was time to bid the big-city adieu and begin our trek south.
A Verdant Route Down The North Island
First stop, naturally, for any new kiwi explorers. Hobbiton. Yes because we had to, and yes because it was awesome, but also because we weren't sure we'd make it back that far north in our travels. The movie set is just an hour south of the city so it made a pretty good first stop. They have that place running like a clock. Coach buses cart tours on the half hour to the guided jaunt around all the hobbit holes, where you sadly learn that, yes, it is just a movie set. Not much more than a bunch of round doors stuck in the hills. For all that, though there were great touches around every corner, and we got to learn how much of dick Sir Peter Jackson really is on set (Meredith says "he's just PARTICULAR!"). At the end of the tour, they bring you into the immaculately done Green Dragon Inn for a pint of their exclusively brewed beer. We stepped into the inn right as it started pissing down rain, which really added a nice touch to the experience.
Our first night out of the city we decided to ease into the whole camping thing and stayed at the Waikite Hot Springs outside of Rotorua. A mistake, it was not. Turns out September really is winter still in New Zealand and things got a bit chilly. Luckily our tent was pitched next to steaming pools for us to chase away the chill in.
The next day we took a true turn off the beaten track as we headed through Te Urewera (Maori for 'burnt penis', no joke) National Park. This little escapade took us into some of the North Islands highest mountains and past a truly spectacular lake. It also took us far away from sealed roads, into the depths of an unreal hailstorm, and into a full appreciation for our trusty new 4wd whip. I foolishly had thought we might actually be able to camp up there, but the reality of weather sent us quickly scurrying for lower elevations. In all, we wound up at the gorgeous Lake Tutira Campground (arguably the best campsite we've visited) where we got to look back at the snowy mountains rather than sleep in them. Let's chalk that up as a win.
From Tutira we blazed trail south through Hawke's Bay and down to the southern tip of the North Island. After a quick visit to the Martinborough wine region, we headed to the Putanguira Pinnacles. Ya know, the place where Aragorn walked into the mountain to meet the army of the dead? Yeah, we were picking camping spots based on LOTR filming locations - what of it?! It was a cool spot where we earned a healthy amount of respect for the amount movie magic can accomplish (read: it looked nothing like the movie). It all kind of paled in comparison to the next day though where we went to the true southern tip at Cape Palliser and Meredith had a chance to enter seal nirvana with the local colony. It's not every day you get to see seal pups splashing around in a tide pool, the lighthouse in the background was just for bonus scenery points. After that, it was off to lunch in Rivendell (shooting location) where we gained even more respect for movie magic and a fair bit of wonder at the NZ governments willingness to say "Sure Peter, you can cut all those trees down for that shot". Basically, it was sightseeing until we headed to our Airbnb in Wellington.
Wellington, well what can I say? Meredith will tell you it's like if Seattle and San Francisco had a kid, but that kid was a little person. We loved the harbor town in the short time we were there, and we'll likely head back at some point. Very scenic, very hilly, with a ton to see and do in a very small space. We headed out to the (kind of bogus) Weta Workshop tour to get even more of our LOTR nerd on. But even the guide there pointed us in the right direction to Te Papa, The Museum Of New Zealand, where the latest exhibit Gallipoli was causing quite a stir.
Us uneducated yanks quickly learned that Gallipoli was kind of the breaking point for New Zealand and Australia from the British Empire during World War I. Where poor decision-making by British generals cost thousands of Kiwi and Aussie lives in an ultimately pointless, and failed, campaign. To bring this story to life the team at Weta took stories from the battle and recreated the soldiers in stunning detail. And at three times human size. In each room , you'd marvel at these physically larger than life sculptures as their story was told. Even for two people who'd never even heard of the battle it was a powerful experience, and the best museum exhibit either of us had ever seen.
We filled the rest of our time in Wellington sampling local craft brews, putting the finishing touches on our camping supplies and getting ready to take the ferry south.
Sunny Days On The South Island
The Cook Strait ferry crossing is quite the experience in itself. We booked on the early morning sail and arrived with Baabs loaded before the sun was up. The ferries are huge so they'd spent hours before loading passenger cars putting a line of semis onto the parking decks. We just zipped right on and headed up to the passenger deck for the crossing. We luckily got a very calm day with only enough clouds to add a little visual interest to the view. The crossing takes 3.5 hours and only a little more than an hour of which is actually out in the straight, turns out it's not that far between the islands and ambitious folk swim it like the English Channel. The rest was spent navigating the lovely Wellington Harbor, and more notably cruising the awesome Marlborough Sounds to Picton.
After stocking up in Picton we headed into Marlborogh Sounds National Park proper for a doosy of a drive and some spectacular views. Getting anywhere in the sounds takes way longer than one might think when looking at a map, as the roads wind endlessly down the walls of the glacier-carved sounds. Not that we minded, the views around every bend were unreal. Unfortunately, after a clear morning, a heavy storm moved in which sent us running to a backpackers hostel. On the plus side, we wound up in the lovely Mistletoe Bay with a whole house to ourselves and a fire to cozy up by as we thanked our lucky stars that we decided not to brave the rain.
The next day would likely be the most stunning drive of our road trip south. From all the way up in the sounds (basically the northernmost tip of the island) across the Southern Alps and down to the little mountain town of Hanmer Springs. The morning was spent traversing the famous vineyards of the Marlborough region as they reached higher and higher into the hills. A quick lunch at some roadside falls, and we drove up and over the range nearly all the way to snow line before heading to Hanmer for a little warmer camping.
In the morning we got back on the road and strategically took the scenic inland route avoiding Christchurch for more epic vistas of the snowy mountains and VERY Rohan-ish plains. We were really putting the pedal to the metal in trying to keep to our timeline, so mostly we were driving, soaking in the sights, and making pages of notes on trips we would make once we had our home-base setup.
Finally, after two weeks on the road, we arrived at our new hometown of Dunedin, Otago. A college town at the end of the incredibly scenic Otago Harbor near the southern tip of the island. It's a fun town surrounded by stunning (albeit cold) beaches and rolling hills, plus it puts us in a great place to venture around the South Island on long-weekend trips.
So, that's the plan. Work a couple days in a row and then get out of dodge, taking 3-4 day trips to every corner of the island. We'll be taking plenty of pictures along the way and my goal is to keep you updated about every two weeks with where we've gone and what we've seen. More to come very soon!
Our Route
Tips For Prospective NZ Travelers
In case (by some miracle) you stumbled upon my blog and are traveling to New Zealand, here are some insights we've learned along the way:
- If you're on a Working-Holiday Visa, really all you need in hand is your visa to get through customs. Even then it's all computerized so you might not even need that much.
- In customs, you'll hear that they want to take a look at your camping equipment. Declare it all, even if they bring it in for further inspection it only takes like 20 minutes. Also, pack it so it's easy to take out.
- Ubers are WAY cheaper than taxis here, at least in Auckland and Wellington where they currently operate.
- Kiwi Bank will let you open an account from them while overseas, and while it is a pain in the ass it's actually easier than doing it once you're here and have no permanent address. Sidenote: Kiwi Bank is a branch of the NZ postal service so all their branches are in Post Shops, it's weird but actually really convenient.
- When you do need to have items sent to you while you're moving around you can do counter delivery at NZ Post Shops. It works quite well actually. I did it to get my ownership paperwork for the car, worked like a charm. You can even pick a post shop for a place you will be and just roll in when you arrive.
- It takes way longer than you'd think to drive anywhere. Add 1.5-2 hours to any day-long drive from the Google Maps estimate.
- Related, download all of NZ map data to your offline Google Maps while you have wifi. You won't have service in many places.
- September is still winter down here, it will be rainy and pretty cold. Duh.