So we arrived in Auckland, going from the 35C of a Pacific island to the autumn chill of a major city in a former English colony. I felt right at home, with an odd urge to make a mug of Tetley’s. After one night in an airport hotel, we took a cab into town to base ourselves at the Fat Camel backpacker’s hostel, a slightly grim place full of partying 18 year olds, which made for difficult nights, but we spent the daylight hours in bookshops and cafes, and catching up on the blog. Emmie bought some new trekking shoes and we sorted out our car, a Mazda Familia hatchback. Not the most stylish but it was functional. Seeing as we were going to spend 20 days driving around the countryside we got the full insurance cover.
We planned to start by going down to Rotorua, but I first wanted to see an osteopath about a pain in my hip I’d been having. We dropped into his clinic, and he took one look at me and said that I had one leg shorter than the other. The fix was to stretch out some of the muscles in my leg (among other things). While he was manipulating me, I closed my eyes, trying to feel the effect of the treatment, at which point he suggested that if I was going to be ‘in my body’ that I should ‘not look directly but rather out of the corner of my eye’. Oddly enough, I knew what he meant. At this point he was able to get a wider range of motion out of my hip. Strange but true.
At the end of the session he asks me if anyone in my family is a healer. I answered no. He asks me this because he thinks I have an aptitude to become one (I tried to ignore the ‘I am a Jedi‘ part of me in favour of the slightly sceptical ‘this guy is probably a loon but you never know‘ part of me). I don’t know if its in any way connected to the whole ‘corner of the eye’ experience… you can make your own conclusions. He then goes on to suggest that we visit some places in New Zealand with ‘strong spiritual energy‘, namely the Treaty grounds and the Kauri forest, both north of Auckland. Well, our plan was tentative anyway, and we are all for going where the wind blows these days, so that’s what we did.
So we drove and we drove, all the way to Waitangi to see the treaty grounds. Not too many people, since most of the tourists head straight to South Island. We camped at a nice quiet site, overlooking a little waterfall, sleeping beside the friendly ducks. The Treaty grounds themselves are the historical site of the peace treaty between the Maori and the British settlers. We spent a couple of days absorbing the place and the interesting history of New Zealand - the relations between the Maori and the British colonists, although not perfect, are one of the best examples of peaceful coexistence of natives and the colonial power. This is particularly noticeable after experiencing the French/Kanak debacle of Noumea. Its also noticeably better than the British/Aborigine situation in Australia.
From there we hurriedly passed through a town that we were told had a ‘Wolf Creek’ quality, and headed west to the Kauri forest, to meet Tane Mahuta ‘Lord of the forest’ - one of the largest trees in New Zealand and the most important place in the Maori tradition, supposedly the son of the Earth and the Sky. This tree is so impressive that when you walk through the forest path and finally come across it, you can’t help but be taken aback. The tree is so thick across and so immense that it gives you a sense of age when you look at it that actually makes you feel a little humble to see something that has lived longer than pretty much every living thing on the planet. We tried to capture it in a photo, but you just can’t. Maybe there is no lens wide angle enough, or maybe you just can’t capture an intangible sense of age digitally. You have to see it for yourself. We camped at a peaceful site right in the middle of the forest. The forest itself is also a place of great natural beauty, and is worth a few days if anyone reading this happens to be in that part of the world.
Back down to Auckland, and we were once again on our tentative schedule. First stop, Rotorua. On the way down we spotted the road to Matamata and we made a mental note to pay a quick visit to the Shire. We camped at an enormous campsite in Rotorua town - row after row of camper vans making it feel a bit congested and impersonal. The next day we visited the village built upon the natural hot springs (New Zealand is known for its volcanic activity). We did a tour with a Maori guide who introduced us to the customs and way of life of the villagers, who never get rheumatism since they continuously bathe in the hot water. Some of the volcanic water and mud is so hot that they use it to cook over, hanging bags of food over it like a natural oven. No need for electricity or gas here. She explained the importance of the town hall, where they keep their dead for several days after death, while relatives keep vigil. The villagers gave a performance of traditional song and dance which was fun, but was one of the moments that you really feel like a tourist. Still, its always good to see a haka performed live in New Zealand.
That afternoon we headed to Matamata where we met our guide to the Shire, who, rather appropriately, looked like a hobbit. We got to see a lot of the film locations of Lord of the Rings, which was cool, but actually the place is aesthetic in its own right. They are currently rebuilding some of the set for the filming of The Hobbit. Someone sheared a sheep for us as well. Why not.
The Shire
Bag End
The Party Tree
After one more night in Rotorua, we drove down to Tongariro via lake Taupo. Our plan was to do the 5 day Northern Circuit trek. Tongariro is a vast volcanic area and was the film location of Mordor in Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating, and with 80km/h winds on the high altitude pass of the Circuit, we weren’t able to trek. Disappointed, we left and headed down to Wellington. Well, its Mordor after all. Its meant to be difficult.
Wellington is windy. So much so that we gave up on the idea of pitching tent and took a cabin instead. Its a nice town, but not, in my opinion, as cool as Christchurch, which was our next stop. The square in Christchurch town centre has a giant chess set. Enough said. We visited the University and the lab of Ernest Rutherford, one of the pioneers in the search for the structure of the atom. We saw a great market and ate Souvlaki from a stall. Perfect.
Lake Tekapo, on the way to Mount Cook
From Christchurch we went to see Mt. Cook, or Aoraki to the Maori. We stayed at really remote campsite in nature, with great views of the mountains, and the next day we took a walk to the Hooker glacier. Beautiful. Check the photos. Next stop Queenstown where we camped at another one of the industrial, ‘row after row of campervan’ style sites. We spent a day doing wine tasting. The central Otago region is famous for its Pinot Noir, and we visited five different wineries. At each place we ‘sampled’ roughly four different wines, usually including a Pinot Noir, a Pinot Gris, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Riesling, sometimes a Gewürztraminer. By ‘sample’ I mean ‘drinking a small glass of’, so it’s a fair amount of drinking. Interestingly, despite planning to develop an appreciation of Pinot Noir I found myself liking the Rieslings. I’m not usually a white wine drinker. On the way back, we passed by the river that they used to Anduin in Lord of the Rings. I think this is where the Gates of Argonath (Pillars of Kings) was located. The giant statues were added digitally, or course.
The ford of Bruinen
From our tent, camping near Mt Aoraki/Cook
Hooker glacier trail, with views of Aoraki
Mount Aoraki from the car
We then drove down to Te Anau, the gateway to the Milford Sounds. By this point the fatigue of driving and camping was starting to kick in, so we hung out in Te Anau for two days before driving over to Milford Sounds. The weather was turning bad and it was getting cold and wet, but the rain made the place come alive. On the way down we saw a Japanese girl standing in the rain hitching a lift so we picked her up. Apparently she had been standing in the rain for two hours, and had been hitchhiking her way around New Zealand on her own. This struck us as really unusual for a Japanese tourist. Picking her up was also in a sense our way of repaying cosmic karma for all the Japanese people who helped us out in Yakushima island.
From Milford Sound we started heading back to Christchurch, stopping for one night in Dunedin where we stayed at a hostel that used to be a hospital during the colonial period. It was supposed to be haunted, but we didn’t see the ghost unfortunately. And then from Christchurch we gave back our now slightly battered car (thank god for the fully comp insurance), and took an internal flight up to Auckland before heading over the international date line over to Santiago… we were on our way home, only South America to go.
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