Merry X-Mass dear friends and family!
It's been a while since our last blog so this one will be
extra good and long ;). Since our last blog some things have changed. Instead
of living in a hostel we now live in our AWESOME Van A.K.A. The General! It
took us a week to find a nice, reliable and affordable van. We couldn't have
gotten it without the help of our new friend Luke. Thanks to a post on couchsurfing,
Luke and Willemien got in touch. As a 52-year car fanatic, having owned more
than a few hundred cars and who builds his own Hotrods (!), Luke was the GO-TO
guy. He offered to drive us around Auckland to have a look at some cars so we
could get a feeling of what we wanted and what the market had to offer. After
some advice the hunt was on to find a nice Toyota Hiace. We spend several hours
in the library where there is free wifi and computers, went past hostels to
search for car adds, calling around and looking at different cars. At some
stage we also thought of building our own campervan from a regular van...And
then there She was on Trademe ( NZ marktplaats). A beautiful army green Toyota
Hiace '95 Custom, 21 inch rims, pimped up speakers with a ' sweet as' base,
fully equipped kitchen area, including a sink and water pump. Enough storage
space for all our cool gear and, not unimportant, the Food.
We got a quick reply and could have a test drive the next
day! We called in the expert Luke to have a look and test drive and a talk
about how much we had to offer. After some professional negotiations and
several visits to the bank we had bought our first car :D! Together with Luke,
who picked us up with his own made hotrod! We picked the van up and shopped
around for some essentials. We went for the Nature interior design including
tiger-print blankets and canopy design linen. Luke had some last checks and
repairs and then it was time to get on the road to explore Northland!
Our first night we spend at Muriwai Beach (West of Auckland),
a black sand beach from volcanic ashes, where a Gannet colony (birds for the
non-biologists) is nesting on the cliffs. We were quickly amazed by all the
plant and bird life here in NZ. Especially the Tui Bird which can make
electronic like sounds....weird! After this we drove up to the East coast of
Northland to Waipu and the Waipu caves where we saw glow worms. Most of the
time we were camping at DOC-sites (Department of Conservation). These are
cheap, basic campsites in remote areas. Our favorite campsite was at Whananaki
(yes we are also still confused about all the weird name places). The campsite
was next to the beach in a small and beautiful bay. Here we stayed a few days
to really relax. We made a very nice coastal walk and almost got a heart attack
by all the pheasants that fly screaming at your face from the high grass.
On the plane to NZ we met Linda who lives in Kerikeri. She
told us to drop by if we were around. So we met up with her and her partner
Graham after we visited the historical town of Russel. Russel used to be known
as the "Hellhole of the Pacific", where whalers and other scum came to
relax. We went to the tiny museum to learn a bit about the Maori culture. In
Kerikeri we stayed at Linda's and Grahams place for two days. They took us to
the rainbow falls and a native bush where there were some Kauri trees. These
are really old and really big trees which we of course hugged. Linda and Graham
gave us a list with places we had to see in Northland and helped us install the
last essential piece for our van. The plant trays with lettuce (and hitchhiking
caterpillars) and herbs!
Then it was time to really drive to the most northern tip of
New Zealand - Cape Reinga. This was a very nice drive through quickly changing
landscapes ranging from coastal 'dwarf' forests, to green hilly sheep-filled
plains, to huge unexpected sand dunes. From the top of the sand dunes we had a
view of ninety mile beach. The best part was running down the dunes in giant
gravity defying leaps! On the way down we stopped at a gumdigger park where we
could see how the gumdiggers used to live. In the 1800's the 'gum' (hars) of buried
Kauri trees was harvested from swamps and exported to England for use in varnish
and linoleum. As is always the case with European colonial peeps almost all the
living Kauri trees were quickly destroyed to get to this precious resource.
Luckily some big ones survived the carnage, including 2000 year old Tane Mahuta
(=Lord of the Forest), the most volumes tree in the world. With a girth circumference
of 13,5m and a height of over 50m all the other Kauri trees looked like match
sticks in comparison. We could camp on a DOC site next to a Kauri forest where
we went kiwi-bird spotting with a British couple. We used a red torch to spot
them as they cannot see the red light. Unfortunately we only heard them
scurrying around in the bushes... Mission failed :(.On the way back down to
Auckland we came across another Kauri-related natural phenomenon. The Kauri
trees' canopy is acidic causing rain to turn to acid and melt the stone
boulders beneath the trees. A kiwi-couple made a walkway through these giant
melted boulders in a native bush full of fern-trees. All these high
10-meter-plus ferns make you feel like a dinosaur could be right around the
corner!
The day before we arrived in Auckland we had our first car
trouble! The General had a small blip in its flawless and distinguished service
record resulting in the loss of our backdoor handle. Luckily we were only a few
clicks away from Auckland and the safe haven of Luke's garage. Again he helped
us out by leading the repair taskforce. New parts were obtained and inserted
into their respective slots, giving our faithful vehicle back its backdoor
function. As a bonus we also made sure the sink's drainpipe did not end inside
the car chassis (as before) but actually went through the car's bottom and ended
on the outside. After this some celebrations where in order. As it was also
Willemien's birthday (Jeeejjj 27!, woot woot best age evah!) a BBQ party was organized
and some cool people were invited. We even managed to get a Pavlova cake with
candles and party-poppers without Willemien noticing anything :D. As kind of a
birthday present we went to Tiri Tiri Matangi scientific reserve just off the
coast of Auckland. This island is cleared of all pests such as ferrets, rats
and wombats and subsequently used as a rare bird sanctuary. We spent the day
walking around the island and trying to spot as many birds as possible. Many of
them are almost no longer present on the two main islands :(
With the General all geared up we drove to our next
destination, the Coromandel Peninsula! Our goal was to find a job here during
the summer months of December and January as it is the prime tourist
destination during the summer vacation. On top of the list was a job in a nice
bar. This however failed as most bars already had either enough staff or did
not know yet if they needed any more. Or there was no room for the General.. We
finally settled on the idea of driving past all the fruit orchards in the area
and ask if they needed extra help. And this worked! We were hired by Seeka
(brand name Zespri), the biggest kiwifruit producer in New Zealand. This job meant
that we would work 10 hours every day (if the weather permitted it) until
Christmas. Fine with us! Bring on the $$$$! So the past 2,5 weeks we have
worked for 130 hours, doing vine training, male pruning, girdling etc. We're
complete kiwifruit experts now ;).
In between the job we visited Cathedral Cove, a giant stone
archway through which you can walk when its low tide. We also went snorkeling
near here and saw big snappers and a stingray which was taking a rest at the
bottom of the sea. Hotwater beach was also interesting. Here you can make your
own hot pool on the beach during low tide, because of geothermal spots underneath
the sand. Since this is a grand tourist attraction by day, resulting in hundred
people digging German style holes on the beach, we decided to dig our own hot
pool in the night with another Dutch couple we met at the campsite. As true
dike builders we made a nice warm footbath underneath the stars.
As the biologists we are we also contributed to New Zealands
wildlife by saving and naming several animals. The first was groovy Bill the
green walking stick that somehow managed to get into the General right through
the mosquito netting! Albert the Moth lived with us for some time. Also we
saved Hendrik from certain death! Hendrik, a blue flappy feeted Fairy Prion
(Google it), was shivering ourside in a storm. We put him (or her?) in our sink
with a towel and a load of toilet paper which he used to built his own nest!
aaaaaahhh.. After a night recuperating in the General's warm interior and a check-up
visit to the vet we set him loose with pain in our hearts. With some help and
directions from Willemien Hendrik found the seawater and swam away under the
surface. At the kiwifruit orchard we performed another daring rescue by putting
a fallen baby sparrow back into its nest.
The last two weeks we have been staying at The Seabreeze
Holiday park (hostel and campsite), together with a large group of friendly
Germans who worked on a different orchard. Together with them we had a nice
Christmas diner yesterday, consisting of homemade burgers on the BBQ :)! We
remembered that last year during Christmas we were in Minneapolis together also eating burgers on Christmas-eve...new
traditions? It is quite weird to celebrate Christmas when it's not freezing
cold and dark outside, but also nice that it is possible to sit outside and BBQ
in +20 degrees.
The plan for the next weeks is to drive to Rotorua (Vulcanic
area) and Lake Taupo where we want to celebrate New Year's. After that we want
to drive to the east coast to the apple area of NZ to see if we can find a new
job until the end of January. Because on the 28th of January we will be walking
the Tangoriro Northern Circuit - one of the famous Great Walks :D! This will
include a walk to the top of Mt. Doom - the one from Lord of The Rings. On the
4th of February we will take the ferry down to the South Island. We have
extended our stay here in kiwi-land until the 1st of May after which we will go
to Australia for 3 weeks.
Merry Christmas everybody and a happy new year!
Greetings - the curly couple
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