24-10 Cape Reinga

Travel blog about our trip to New Zealand in October/November 2008
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Pieter
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24-10 Cape Reinga

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24 October 2008 - Ahipara, New-Zealand

First things first, Tanja, happy birthday to you, kisses from the both of us, you’re well on your way to 60 :lach1: . We don’t think you’ve got the birthday card yet although it is already a couple of days on the mail. Hopefully in Singapore they are quicker than here in New Zealand.

As the title suggests, we went all the way North, to Cape Reinga. Despite the weather forecast, they predicted rain, we had some fine weather. A bit windy maybe (outside, to avoid misunderstandings).
At the cape there was a 9 Beaufort wind, we had to keep each other tight to avoid being blown away. Luckily we could take some nice photos because when we returned to our campervan they unloaded a busload of visitors. Unfortunately the signposts were gone (blown away?) :lach2: , but we took a photo anyway.

The way up went reasonably well, only the last 20 kilometres is a unsealed road, although they were busy sealing the road all the way. Unsealed means a road with assorted broken rock, sealing it means spraying bitumen over it, covered by grit. No asphalt as we know it, we are spoiled back home in the Netherlands. We won’t be complaining about bad roads, when driving at 50 km/hr over unsealed roads, driving the sealed roads is like heaven.

The way back went even better, I know the road and am also getting used to driving the campervan, in a couple of days I’ll be driving as a local. This time we enjoyed the fish & chips at the company with those beautiful kauri tree stuff. They collect these trees from the peat and carbon dating shows that these trees are at least 45.000 years old. Of course they could be out with a couple of years, but hey, we don’t mind. At least it is the oldest workable wood in the world.
Too bad our budget isn’t big enough to buy and ship one of these magnificent tables and chairs, even a simple bowl costs a fortune.

We chose a campsite near Aripaha, where we arrived at 16:00 hours. Nicely on time, because tomorrow awaits a long trip to get south of Auckland. Naturally we want to enjoy the scenery and expect to arrive late in the afternoon at the next campsite.
As we are writing this story you guys are snoring like there is no tomorrow and we are enjoying our drinks. The rules apply here as well, alcohol sucks :knip2: . It has started raining, so we didn’t go out much, just for a smoke under the umbrella.
We’ve been to the toilets, or rather, “the crummy shithouse” with a nice quote on the door, please conserve water, while the only toilet leaks water like a stream. We save a shower for tomorrow, here the sand dunes are inside instead of outside, but we do have wireless internet!!
This is it for now, tomorrow is another day and we hope to keep you posted. (P)

Hello hello! Here am I again. Tanja: also from me a happy birthday with a big kiss X!
Today we stopped early, somewhere far up north. But after this trip all the way to Cape Reinga I’ve had it. We’re on a holiday dam it. That’s the reason we’ve stopped so early and hopefully we can make some metres tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. We’re trying to get south from Auckland in the weekend so we can travel to Rotorua on Monday. Here we want to visit a couple of sites and get some laundry done :sad1: …. In fact we are way behind schedule.

We will plot the map this evening up to today, so everything adds up again. But as said in the beginning of our trip: we are notorious for breaking schedules. Never mind, I already thought it wouldn’t be easy to keep up with things via internet, but hey, who cares.

We’ve read all the emails, but we don’t get to answering any, because we’re already way over our internet budget, it’s quite expensive over here. But for now we have a good connection and we’re going for it! Dyan, are you up Sunday morning 26/10 about 9:30? I’ll try to get a prepaid card for the telephone so we can call each other :knip1: . The time difference is 12 hours by than because of the switch to winter time. I assume this will be oke, if not, email us.
It still remains to be seen if we get internet, not all campsites are well equipped with a connection.
This campsite is a bit crummy, but it does have wireless, so we scored a card for 24 hours or 150 Mb, so this should work for now.

Oke, my impressions for today: what a country, very beautiful, crazy roads and even more crazy drivers, especially the truck drivers. It’s scary when a truck comes towards you! Cape Reinga was beautiful, the photo Pieter made from the rocks with a small tree on it is wow. This is the place (named Pohutukawa) where according to the Maori legend the spirits of the deceased leave this world. It’s a sacred place for the Maori people.
On a given moment I had the feeling someone helped me getting up the hill, weird, but true. The wind really blew very hard. At the start of the trail to the lighthouse stood a girl with down syndrome, she was leaning on her caretaker, crying, because she was very afraid of the wind. The poor thing, but very understandable.
All in all it was a special experience.

The plan for today was to get to Dargaville, but sometimes enough is enough. Today this point was reached for me. We are getting used to living in a campervan, but after today it looks like a pigsty!!
:lach1: . The next couple of days we’ll be traveling a lot of kilometres, but that’s wat it takes.
Tomorrow we want to see the big kauri trees and besides the smoke stops, it will probably be our only stop. Hopefully we’ll get past Auckland, if not, we’ll settle for a campsite in the city, plenty of them.
On Monday Rotorua. Here I should remember Tiny (as promised, but thinking already about her) and here we are going to visit a number of things. We’re planning on staying 2 days after which we hopefully pick up with the schedule again :knip1: . It’s all a bit hectic after the long trip (amazingly both of us don’t have any trouble adjusting), but we hope to see more of the south island, keeping it a bit calmer, because there lies out major interest.
Wow, beautiful, we’ve got a thunderstorm at sea. It rumbles and rains, but we can handle it. Today our new coats and new shoes did what they supposed to do, all in all it was a wet day.
Ow, Marc: the UV filter is now permanent on the lens, the light here is unbelievable bright around here, so we are very happy with it.
I see I’m jumping all over the place, but I can’t help it, so much impressions to soak up, they can’t all be written down in this blog!
Oops, time to close the windows and the hatch, the gentle rain stops, it’s pouring now. Even with photos!! The lightning gets more intense.
Dear all, I quit this story. Sorry if we don’t reply on all the email, but we want to make the most of our time here. We’ll keep in touch through this blog and reactions are more than welcome, we read them with pleasure. Thanks for following us on our journey.
Heit and Mem: do post a reaction!! You can ask Tineke to lend a helping hand :lach1: . Greetings from (M)

PS. At this time the hail is coming down :lach1: but we have lots of fun here :lach1:
Don't put your mouth into motion, before your brain is in gear.
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