The R&R Big Adventure

November firsts

Yesterday morning was gloriously sunny, and it inspired R to go for a long run along Whitianga beach. Not the usual start to a late November Monday morning. As we were handing over the keys to the owner of the motel, he recommended we stop off at Hot Water Beach on our drive to Rotorua, so named because of the geothermal activity under the sands. As we duly walked across the sands, hired shovel in hand, we could see a crowd of people either digging holes, or lying in what looked like giant sand castle moats, but which must have contained the hot water the beach was famous for. After digging in at least eight or nine different places (it was trial and error to find the hot water streams near the surface of the sands) we were beginning to think this was a PR stunt by the ‘Hot Water Beach Cafe’, but eventually our efforts paid off, and our shovel struck gold, or rather hot water. Some of the pools were too hot to stand in, and it was a case of alternately stepping into the cold sea water, before plunging the same foot into the hot pools seeping into the freshly dug holes.

It was time for breakfast after all that morning’s activity, so we stopped further along the coast at Tairua for a bite to eat. We have noticed how every town here seems to have very clean and well maintained public toilets: compare and contrast with the UK, where they are either non-existent, or vandalised / covered in graffiti. And not just clean toilets, but well maintained flower beds and grass verges – everywhere is immaculately mown – no ‘re-wilding’ as an excuse for lack of local council budget here. We’ve been following agapanthus coming into bloom in the southern hemisphere as we have been doing our travels: we first noticed them out in Colombia in early October; they bloomed later in the cooler lake district in Chile in early November, and now in late November they are out in force in New Zealand. The yellow gorse that borders the country roads is looking especially colourful in the bright morning sunshine’; the ‘New Zealand Christmas Tree’, Pohutukawa, so called because of its bright red flowers which come into bloom around this time of year, is also looking lovely. It’s so nice to be enjoying late Spring flowers in what is normally a dark and dreary time of year for us.

Next stop a couple of hours down the coast was Mount Maunganui, a beach suburb with an extinct volcano overlooking the beach. It was possible to walk up it, which we duly did in an hour; our bodies hadn’t quite forgotten the training from the Inca Trail. From the summit you could see large acres of forestry, a major industry for New Zealand. There were also large numbers of kiwi and avocado fields in this region – identified by the extremely tall hedges running by the sides of the road, to protect the crops from frost and winds.

They say you smell Rotorua before you see the signs, and we certainly got strong sulphur whiffs coming from the geothermal activity as we approached the town. I remembered reading about this before asking R if he wanted to lower a window in the car. Bubbling sulphurous pools sit between the town and the lake, and are free to walk around, albeit with fences and large signs everywhere warning of the dangers of getting too close to them.

Yesterday morning we went to the Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland, half an hour from Rotorua. The day starts watching the Lady Knox geyser erupt – I thought this was a natural phenomenon, but it has to be kick-started by an employee pouring detergent over the geyser, which causes a plume of water to shoot a few metres in the air for a couple of minutes. You can then walk round the reserve seeing various bubbling pools of water, mud and steaming lakes. Quite a natural spectacle. Back in Rotorua, and a nature of a different kind, as we went on the Redwoods Tree Walk. As the name would suggest, this is a series of rope walkways and platforms, suspended several metres above the ground, that enables you to walk high up amongst the large forest trees. There were few people around at lunchtime, which made for a very peaceful experience for the two of us.

After reaching Lake Taupo, our next overnight stop, we decided to get up close to the thermal activity of the region, so spent an hour or so at The Wairakei Thermal Terraces nearby. Essentially a series of geothermal outdoor pools, at varying temperatures, bathing in them is supposed to help rejuvenate the body. Not sure if it was the minerals in the water, or just having a hot bath, but our legs certainly felt better for it afterwards.

Our motel for the night was on the waterfront of Lake Taupo. We were planning on going out for a curry that evening but thought given we are in a motel we could order food in rather than sit in a soulless (and badly lit) curry house in the back of town. Yet another first time experience for us: a Tuesday night in November, having dinner sitting in shorts on a balcony, watching the sun set over a lake :)

The forecast for today is good again so we are planning on visiting a couple of waterfalls en-route to Napier, famed for its art deco buildings, and our next stop on our North Island tour.