on to south island

After Xmas now and we've finally managed to get on line to upload this blog. Hope all our readers had a great Xmas day and we wish all of you a very happy new year. Lin and Brent

Wednesday 17th Dec – Lin here
Well the Dargaville site didn't live up to expectations: described in the book as having a hot tub, which would have been very welcome after our soaking, it was a bit ropey. Still we slept ok and headed off this morning. I wasn't feelng too brill..icky tummy... so Brent did all the driving today. The scenery was once again splendid and although the traffic was heavier in Auckland, it wasn't problem. By the time we'd come through it we were really ready for a stop, but there wasn't even a lay by to stop in until just after 3.40 when we spotted a cafe. As we drew up we realised that the closed sign was being put up! 2 women in front of us poked their heads in and were given the oK to get a coffee and we swiftly followed them in. The coffee and cake were very welcome take-outs. We finally hit the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula, our destination. I'd spotted a site described as paradise, in the book ( guess this was becoming our bible.Brent was very tired, and the windy roads needed full concentration, but we managed to reach it around 7pm. The Ha Hei holiday resort was just great, although we shouldn't have
paid an extra $2each for hilltop site, as all the pitches were brilliant – except those on the far side of the dump! Anyway we got rid of our waste, filled up with water and hooked up. I rushed off to explore the beach. Right near our pitch we could cut through to where 2 rope swings had been set up, overlooking the most beautiful beach...it really was like paradise: turquoise waters, with green islands and white sands. The water was freezing though, so we only managed a paddle before dinner. Then we headed to the internet room where we uploaded the last blog entry and tried out our phone card. This proved unsuccessful and after a day of griping stomach I have to admit to going to bed feeling a bit weepy and homesick!

Thursday 18th Dec
Wow! Woke up to the most beautiful morning and no stomach pains. Hurray! Managed to phone home too and booked ourselves in for an afternoon of kayaking. Decided to have an hour on the beach relaxing...it was absolutely boiling and we enjoyed the comfort of our thermorest seats. Around midday we climbed into the van and took the ferry over to Whitianga, where there was a bank and a nice shopping area. Back at the site we grabbed a sandwich b4 joining the kayak group. We'd been getting a bit fraught with each other...guess after 3.5 months together this wasn't surprising but we'd been looking forward to some time in our own boats. Oh dear! upon arrival it turned out we were all in double kayaks. I'd quickly said I'd prefer to be in front..otherwise I wouldn't see past Brent, when our guide, Mark ( drop-dead gorgeous young man) said it was wisest for the most bossy of the pair to be in the back where the peddles were! What could we do? We're both teachers and both bossy! In the end we stuck with plan A and it turned out a great afternoon. The weather was perfect and we were able to explore caves, go through tunnels and enjoy close up views of cormorants, or shags as they're known here. The company was good too,with a very friendly German couple, who we'll contact via email, a lovely Spanish girl travelling with her Canadian boy friend and a couple of women, one Canadian and one New Zealander. We stopped off at Cathedral Cove, where we had a swim and a drink and biscuit, then we moved out to the nearby islands and Mark told stories about the history of the island... apparently a Polynesian explorer was the first to discover the Bay ..it's original name is complicated but when captain Cook 'discovered' it later on he named it Mercury Bay, (something to do with an eclipse at the time and its relationship with the planet, Mercury). .. Back to Hei.. the story goes that at that time an explorer would walk to the highest spot and claim all the land he could see. Also the island where he first landed was said to resemble a part of his body... his nose in this case! Anyway a good time was had by all and we were all very reluctant to land our boats at the end of the allotted time. However after landing we realised that we had time to catch the renowned Hot spring beach just up the road. Here at low tide only you can see natural hot springs rising from below the sand, where a larva bed is buried. It was amazingly hot and quite funny to see a crowd of people with spades busy digging holes and sitting in the hot waters! Altogether a brilliant day.

Friday 19th Dec
So this morning we decided to drive around the peninsula and then head down as far as possible towards South Island. It was a long drive, but we ended up on a very nice site on Lake Taupo. En route we passed some beautiful countryside.

Saturday 20th Dec
Got up early and tried to take the direct route to Wellington, only to find that there'd been an accident and we had to take a detour. Still once again the sights were lovely and we still arrived in plenty of time for our ferry at 6.15. The crossing was just lovely and we sat next to a lovely couple from christchurch, who gave us lots of good advice.

Sunday 21st
Drove from Picton to near Greymouth. We'd intended to visit Nelson ( as per the advice yesterday) but the first part of the drive was along windy roads and we opted out for a more direct route along the coast towards Westport. Called in at lWestport for diesel and then enjoyed the spectacular coast road to Greymouth. After a good night's sleep we headed for the local supermarket to do a quick shop, only to be accosted by the local mouth...her words! She spotted Brent and hurried over to say: Where did you learn to shop? Brent thought she was being aggressive and was somewhat taken aback! Needless to say 20 minutes later she was still chatting... and on to her rude jokes eg. why don't single women fart? Cos they haven't married and got an arsehole yet...oh dear!
Have to say we've found the New Zealanders of all ages totally unpretentious and friendly.

Monday 22nd
After shopping drove to a nearby centre for Jade, Hokitika. A lovely little town, where we found frozen yoghurt compatible, but not quite as good, as what we'd had in Italy. Moved on to find the Franz Joseph glacier. It was cloudy weather, so we couldn't see the tops of the mountains and decided against the helicopter ride..tee hee. By the time we reached the glacier the weather was improving. We were just too late to join a walk on the glacier, but did walk to the foot of it...first time Brent had seen a glacier and it is pretty special. On to Fox Glacier, where we found a lovely site with great views of the snow capped mountains...yes, the clouds had disappeared! Do we deserve this? oh yes! Got talking to a young couple who'd been waiting to sky dive all day and had rang up at 6pm when the weather was fine only to be told they'd have to wait until tomorrow. They'd been drinking all day and were well fed up...felt quite sorry for them. I'd sort of love to do a sky dive myself but their experience and the thought of doing my back / eyes in put me off and we decided to stick with eco friendly walking. Brent had commented earlier in the day about the contradiction of the beautiful scenery and the helicopter flights going over every few minutes and disturbing the tranquility of the place. Quite right. Anyway after dinner we tried to drive to lake Matheson? check while the sun was shining. Unfortunately it was so bright that we missed the sign to the lake and ended up driving several miles up a dirt track... oh dear, proved a bit stressful at the end of the day, but we did get to the viewpoint where we had quite magnificent views of the mountains.

Tuesday 23rd Dec
We got up early today so that we could do a walk before moving on.