Day 16: The last day

Today was all about the driving. We stopped at a few spots along the way to stretch our legs and exercise the camera. In order of appearance:

Craters of the moon is a volcanic thermal field that was somewhat active until the 1950s when a nearby geothermal energy plant went online and lowered the underground reservoir and thus it became less violent and geyser-y and more steamy and bubbly. It made sense when I read the informational signs but now that I’m typing it out the logic kind of defies me. It had something to do with the lowered water levels in the reservoir that changed the pressure coming out of the fumaroles and other such vents. It was pretty cool though. There were all these craters and rifts in the ground that had steam billowing out and boiling mud at the bottom. All the plant life was green at the tips but had a charred appearance otherwise. It was very weird that plant life could live in such an environment with the heat and the soil that was loaded with phosphorous and sulfur. (see the full set of photos here.)

We drove a little further and came upon a sign advertising another thermal field so we pulled off and drove down a dirt road for awhile before we came to some campground with alpacas, chickens, peafowl, and a sheep running around. We decided that feeding the random chickens and peafowl the remnants of our French bread from last night would be more fun than seeing another thermal field. Yep, you can tell we’re city folk, we live in an inhospitable environment but chickens are something new!

From there we proceeded up the road to the tourist city of Rotorua which you can smell before you actually enter. It is also in a volcanic region and the smell of sulfur hangs over the town. Our guidebooks indicated that the overseas tourists typically stayed in Rotorua which stank and was pretty tacky with the tourist trap clutter while the Kiwi tourists stayed in Taupo which had beautiful vistas and was generally a little sleepier. Unfortunately the weather made short work of those vistas as it continued to rain all day. We tried.

Anyway we stopped for lunch in Rotorua eating at The Fat Dog. Their menu seemed limited so I ordered the burger which ended up being ridiculously big and vertically unstable. It had two beef patties, lettuce, bacon, mayo, carrots, cole slaw, a fried egg, and string beets per the tradition down here. I would like to report that they’re onto something down here, beets on a burger is actually really good. I can’t really describe it and I admit that I don’t like beets, but trust me, it works. Kirsten got a disappointing chicken fettucine thing that really ended up being chicken noodle soup. After lunch we walked around town a bit and found a little ice cream shop. Even though it was raining and cold we got some more hokey pokey ice cream because it was worth it. I also picked up a bottle of RC Cola (I know, exciting right!?) that was strangely bitter. As we tried other sodas in New Zealand it became apparent that the Kiwis don’t seem to like them overly sweet as most of them had quite a bite to them, including the Coca Cola.

We then drove up to the North Coast and a little town called Waihi Beach which was very pretty and cold. There were also hundreds of shells washed up so we picked up a good collection while we minded the giant sand fleas that were everywhere.

Our final stop before it got dark was a nice little waterfall along the highway that had a turnoff and shortly beyond that there was a very impressive canyon through which the highway wound its way along the bottom. In fact we hadn’t planned to stop but once we passed the water fall and went through the canyon we decided to turn around and go see them again this time from a speed of zero miles per hour.

From there we drove straight into Auckland where the fearless mountain goat drivers suddenly turned into timid lambs on the multilane freeway and drove SO SLOW. We stayed in a high rise hotel on the north shore that ended up being one of the nicest hotels of the honeymoon. It was a huge suite on the 13th floor overlooking the ocean with an all glass balcony, a full kitchen with a dishwasher and laundry facilities, and a pool up on the roof of the low rise portion of the facility that we enjoyed that night after a nice lamb dinner from a restaurant up the road called Aubergine. Too bad we were only here one night as it could have been a nice little base to check out Auckland.

Tomorrow we have a couple hours to spare to check things out but not enough time to jump off the sky tower. They have one of those freestanding observation towers here where you pay about $20 and go up and enjoy an amazing view and attached to it they have something called the Sky Jump which looks pretty cool. You’re harnessed in to a cable system and jump off a diving board on the roof. You glide rappelling style down the cables and come to a controlled stop at street level. The videos all show the happy passengers landing square on their feet on a platform above the sidewalk. Looks awesome! I’m told that Las Vegas is to get a similar system sometime in the next few years so perhaps I’ll get my chance whenever I get over there again.

Anyway, for now – goodnight!

Day 14: Over the mountains and through the forests. . . .

We woke up to a beautiful Wellington morning today, so we rolled over and went back to bed. I blame the generous check out time of 11. All the other hotels we’ve stayed at have had checkouts at 10. So given the late morning, compounded with a need to run to the drugstore for some contact solution to get us through New Zealand, we got off to a late start this morning. Not a problem now, but it would prove to be an annoyance later.

After our pharmacy run (back to using the word pharmacy rather than chemist) and a short navigational and “you can do it” pep talk, we made our way through the city to the peak of Mt. Victoria which is sort of smack in the middle and has fantastic views in all directions. You can even see the entire airport and just how much runway the pilots have to contend with. Once you get out of the flat bit around downtown the roads are extremely narrow and are often times just wide enough for one car – yet they’re two lanes. Several times I had to pull part way into a driveway to get out of the way of cars coming the other way. We’re driving a runty model Corolla too, I can’t imagine trying to take Bernie through this town. The views from the top were magnificent once we made it up there and seeing some of the lots people built their houses on were impressive too. Some homes had their own incline railways that had garage door motors attached so they could get from street level up to their front doors. Others just had hand cranks.

After Mt. Victoria we went down and back up to the Wellington Zoo, mainly to see their one-legged kiwi. He got it caught in an opossum trap and had to be amputated. He seems to get around just fine now though. It seems that opossums are a serious pest in New Zealand though. The zookeepers also sternly admonished us to keep our cats indoors and dogs on leashes so they don’t eat the native wildlife which is also a big problem here. The kiwis are nocturnal, flightless birds that are quite endangered and difficult to spot in the wild but after seeing photos of them in our guidebooks, we really wanted to see one. We didn’t see much else in the zoo aside from some more fruit bats. They weren’t as large as the ones we saw in Brisbane but it was fun to get up close to them.

From here we meant to head on out to Napier and the wine regions to do some tasting and we got on the main road that took us around Mt. Victoria and into downtown but unfortunately once we got into downtown the road forked and we were in the wrong lane and ended up going back over Mt. Victoria because there wasn’t any place to turn the car around. Once we got back on that main road we made sure to get in the proper lane. Before we got on the main highway out of Wellington we passed the parliamentary buildings of New Zealand which were pretty cool looking. They call one of them the Beehive. I’m assuming because of the shape and not because the New Zealand politicians are as busy as bees, although they might be!

The two-lane highway up to Napier goes over the Tararua Range in a long stretch of looping, twisting switchbacks up and over. It made for a very exciting beginning to the drive. I was driving at what I thought was a slightly uncomfortable rate but the Kiwis have no fear at all! They were taking those corners like they were driving miatas while on drugs. Even the truck drivers!

I should also note that kiwi refers to New Zealanders, a flightless bird that is a national symbol, and a tasty fruit. Try to keep track as all three will be mentioned at some point.

After leaving the mountains there was little interesting aside from sheep everywhere we looked. The drive also took much longer than we anticipated and we arrived in Napier well past 7:00 and well past closing time for the wineries. That ended up being fine since they seem to take drunk driving very seriously here and we actually went through a checkpoint where they checked my breath. Of course I, being American was expecting to blow into a little tube like they show on the movies and when the police officer holds this machine up to be face I start blowing at it even though there was no tube while the police officer asks me my name and address. Since I was in mid blow I didn’t respond quickly enough and Kirsten starts yelling at me in an inarticulate and panicky sort of way. Startled I turn toward her and shout out my name and the beginning of my address before lowering my voice and turning back to the device the cop was holding in my face which promptly blinked out the verdict of “No Alcohol.” Apparently it can detect it from speech and there is no tube involved. I look up at the cop who was laughing at us and wished us a nice holiday. We thanked him and drove on, but not smoothly as I overcorrected in lining up with the turn and slammed the left front tire into the curb.

Driving on the left eventually got easier and the only problems I was having was maintaining my side of the car on the right side of the lane. Even though I knew I was supposed to be in the left I still wanted to be on the left side of the lane. I gave the rumble strips a work out.

Once we got to Napier and settled in at the Green House Bed & Breakfast, we walked down the hill that the house was located on and into town. Dinner was at a place called Lone Star and seemed to be the best option open for dinner. I had the lamb and Kirsten had some sort of delicious bean dip. We ambled around town a bit more before staggering up the big hill back to the B & B for the night.