Between the years

Acting as if you could see anything

We spent Christmas day driving up to the northern tip of NZ, hoping to catch a glimpse not of Santa (it is not that far north...) but of the turbulent waters at Cape Reinga where two Oceans meet. The place is of high significance to the Maori as they believe that the souls of their dead go there to take off on their journey to their homeland. When we got there, a pacific storm was right over Northland so we didn't get to see the oceans or anything else more than 2 meters away from us, but at least the thick fog made for a very mystical atmosphere on the walk through the bush down to the cape's lighthouse that made it easy to understand the Maori's stories about the area. When it started hailing when we reached the lighthouse we even had a white Christmas of sorts - a perfect day that we finished off with my very own first driving experience down to still rainy Ahipara with stops at stormy 90 Mile Beach.


Tane Mahuta

From there we started early the next morning to drive down the beautiful west coast, so called Kauri Coast. Kauris are native trees that once covered huge parts of NZ but were then cut down for their wood, their gum etc. Now the NZ people protect these beautiful trees and try to grow new ones in designated Kauri forests. Some old Kauris have survived, many of which can be found in the beautiful Waipoua forest that we took a couple of walks in on our way. We saw the magnificent Tane Mahuta, which is named for the Maori forest God. It is the largest living Kauri and thought to be about 2000 years old. We also saw the second tallest Kauri, Te Matua Ngahere ('the father of the forest') which really is only shorter but much fatter, and the Four Sisters, a group of four huge Kauris standing very close together. Kauris' feeding roots are very close to the surface so in order to prevent diseases visitors of Kauri forests have to brush and wash their shoes when entering and exiting the forests.

Protecting the forest

You find bottles of special soapy water and a brush lying around for your use almost at every corner in the area. Before arriving in Matakohe, our stop for the night, we climbed up a steep hill that looked like a dwarf's hat and caught a beautiful view over the Wairoa river and the plains.
The next morning we started with a beautiful bushwalk up the hills to an historic Pa. Pa were the fortified villages of the Maori back in the days. On many hills throughout NZ you can find what's left of them, mostly food pits. The one we visited this morning was huge with over 160 pits. The Maori only came up to this Pa during wartime, the rest of the time they lived scattered around the fields on either side of the river. After this morning walk we jumped into our van, aka. Rolling Rolf, and drove him back to where he came from in Auckland to get him fixed (no worries, nothing bad, just a broken power cable, he is fine now...).

We went on to Thames on the Coromandel Peninsular and drove down deep into the Coromandel Forest Park where we stayed in the Kauaeranga Valley for the night.We went for a half day tramp the next morning that lead us up the mountains into thick rain forest. It started raining pretty heavily shortly after we took off on the hike and the ways soon turned into slides of mud and real rivers a little later. Since we were soaked already, we didn't care anymore and went through with the whole walk. Picturesque waterfalls, breathtaking views over the valley and absolute solitude on the walk rewarded us for the hard work and we enjoyed every bit of it. (The key is to not let any of it bum you out but take it as an adventure.) The cold air and wet clothes took their toll though, and when we got back to the car we were ready for some nice hot water to warm us up. Nothing easier than that in a place like NZ!

We just went over to the eastern coast of the Coromandel where we stuck our feet into the sand at Hot Water Beach. A thermal area close to the surface heats up stones that heat up ground water in turn so that during the 4 hours around low tide hot springs are accessible for building ones own personal spa. We were too late for the treat this day but returned the next day, carrying our own little shovel to dig our hot hole. The weather was perfect for a beach day so after our hot bath we needed to cool down and went for a swim in the icy ocean before taking off to Hahei Beach and the coastal walk from there to famous Cathedral Cove. The cove is beautiful but was so crowded that we didn't stay for long. Instead we made our way down south through the scenic Karangahake Gorge where we learnt a lot about the early local business of goldmining on yet another bushwalk. Then we went straight to Matamata, where we had a date the next day.

The date was with Mister Bilbo Baggins at his beautiful home town of Hobbinton. We went there and took a great tour of the film set that lead us from the Party Tree over Bagend right to the Green Dragon, through colourful gardens and over rolling green hills. We recognized so many places from the movie and heard great anecdotes from how the set was put up and the movies were actually filmed. It was great fun - only downturn: Bilbo never showed up to our date...

After this we were up for an adventure and went on to Waitomo where the remarkable Waitomo Caves are located that are most famous for their glowworms. We spent the last day of the year tramping, climbing and tubing through the ice cold waters of the deep and dark Ruakari cave - we went Black Water Rafting.

We had the greatest time. From picking out the right caving gear to finding the fitting inner tube (you've got to stick your behind right through it and make a little dance) over test jumping for the waterfalls the preparation were already fun. When we actually entered the cave through the tiniest hole in the ground and found ourselves in a pitch black environment, ready to jump off a couple of waterfalls into a cold unknown river it started to be a real adventure. At the end of three adrenaline high hours we floated through the massive caves in our tubes and just looked up to the ceiling that was covered with beautiful blue shimmering glowworms that made it look like a stary sky - pure magic! For more New Years eve magic we made our way over to Rotorua afterwards, where we had a blast going out to the street party. A sparkling firework over the lake saw us into 2013.
We hope you all had a great last week in 2012 and safely made it into 2013! Our computer broke down so blogging is hard and pictures impossible right now but hopefully we will find ways to keep you posted!