The Eastern Cape

Before heading out towards the East Cape we decided to spend a couple of days in New Zealand's sunniest town Whakatane. We found a decent spot to "camp", fish and barbecue on Ohope Beach. Delphine took an early Sunday morning boat ride to find some dolphins. Look at Delphine's dolphin photos to assess her success! Meanwhile, Alister, Mattéo & Juliette caught a nice big Yellow Tail (fish) for lunch.
The East Cape is one of New Zealand's best kept secrets - very often missed by passing tourists opting for the short cut from Opotiki to Gisborne. It is a mixture of the wilderness of the South Island's West Coast and the beauty of the Coromandel Peninsula. Lots of impressive bays along the north coast (great snorkelling - Alister spent a few minutes alone with a huge long-tailed stingray) and breathtaking mountain scenery inland. The hills as well as the coastline are covered with lovely Pohutukawa trees - some giants were 400 years old.
We climbed 800 steps up to the lighthouse on the East Cape, which is about as far east as you can get (it is very near to the International Date Line).
Our journey down the east coast found us in the heart of friendly Maori-land, visiting their lovely buildings, churches and Maraes. More surfing in beautiful locations and more successful fishing on Tolaga Bay's 700 metre long wharf (a very beautiful - and tasty - Gurnard).
Now we have reached Gisborne - important Maori town (Kiri Te Kanawa's home), Captain Cook's first landing point and more surf beaches!

Kiwis, Maoris & Volcanoes

Having just completed one of the most touristic sections of our adventure, we now appreciate how well the New Zealanders manage their attractions ... with sensitivity, authenticity and a smile!

Since the last entry on this blog we have:

- Walked around the enormous Kiwi fruit farm at Te Puke (although nothing ripe just now).
- Seen the Rainbow Springs (and the giant Rainbow, Brown and Tiger Trout that inhabit its clear waters).
- Visited the fascinating Te Puia Maori Cultural Centre (in Rotorua) with its geothermal area, giant geysers, Maori woodcarving workshop and Maori concert in the "Marae". We even met our first Kiwis (birds - not people or fruit).
- Swum in, fished in, camped by and walked around beautiful caldera (collapsed) lakes with crystal clear warm water.
- Visited the remains of the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera including the "Buried Village" and the superb volcanic park at Waimangu (this was really the highlight of our week).

We have had a lot of fun in the Rotorua area, and now we are looking forward to getting back to the coast and the surf.

Coromandel Peninsula

After just a couple of days "rest" in Auckland (including a boat tour of the remarkable harbour), we decided to have a last excursion into the Northland. We drove about an hour to Leigh and spent two days (including New Zealand's national Waitangi Day) discovering the wild and gigantic Pakiri Beach and the marine reserve at Goat Island. This was like swimming in an aquarium despite rather large waves. In fact, the weather had become quite grey and blustery. We later found out that further north (where we had just spent a glorious week) there was heavy storms and flooding.
The grey windy tail of this storm followed us for a couple of days round to the Coromandel Peninsula. A beautiful coastal drive surrounded by Pohutakawas took us up the western coast to the charming little town of Coromandel itself. We checked into a campsite on the beach and noticed immediately a lack of young Kiwi families (the new school year had just started). Never mind - this gave Mattéo and Juliette the chance to refresh their German with some visiting Bavarian youngsters. While both Mattéo and Juliette have made fantastic progress in English, it was reassuring to hear them jabber away 'auf Deutsch'! We fished off the beach and finally broke with tradition and caught a little fish!! In the area we took a journey on a miniature train (the Driving Creek Railway) up through kauri tree plantations for a lovely view of the area and we also visited a water world park, full of fun games with water and interesting rides such as flying foxes and flying bicycles.

We drove across to the eastern seaboard to a breathtaking bay called Opito Bay where we spent 2 very fun days on the beach and almost non stop body boarding for all the family in the warm sea (25 dec C).

Then we travelled down to Whitianga for a pleasant evening meal in the "Fireplace" and Delphine, Mattéo and Juliette took the 1 minute passenger ferry to join Alister who had taken the camper on a 45 minute trip around the bay to get to the other side. We visited the splendid Cathedral Cove which is one of the loveliest in the North Island - we were lucky because in a few days the area will be closed for filming of one of the forthcoming Narnia films (Prince Caspian).

Down the coast to more fantastic surf beaches and the unique "hot sands beach" where, at low tide, you can dig a hole in the sand and stand or sit in piping hot water (around 65 deg C). We found a great spot in Tauria and had another lazy day of fishing. This time we started feeling like real fishermen since we caught masses of small fish for bait (using a secial bait catcher offered by the Stevens family) and several largish Tarhiki (not sure of spelling) fish on our rod and line - enough at least for lunch and dinner!!

Now we have left the Coromandel Peninsula and arrived in Tauranga. Whilst we were looking for an internet cafe - we bumped into Wayne and Mary Dorn (our hosts on the farm a few weeks ago) who are on hooliday here. Wayne Matteo and I will soon go fishing again.

Next stop Rotorua and then the East Cape.

Northland

We were all excited to welcome Helen aboard our 6 person camper van and before long we were crossing the Auckland harbour bridge and heading towards Kerikeri. Kerikeri is in the heart of the famous "Bay of Island" and is home to New Zealands oldest stone house ... in fact, the Bay of Islands is full of historical features, since it is the supposed first area of landing for the European settlers.

The Bay of Islands is indeed beautiful and we spent several days visiting Russell, Pauhia, Kerikeri, Waitangi (where the infamous agreement was signed) and many beaches.

It gave us the opportunity to spend even more time on and in the water - on kayaks, catamarans, body (or boogie) boards, and at last Delphine and Alister managed to do some scuba diving together.

Helen looked after Mattéo and Juliette for a few hours on a beautiful island in the bay, whilst Alister and Delphine took a virtually private guided diving trip to the Rainbow Warrior and Alister then had another fabulous dive off the Cavalli islands. We saw Sting Rays, Snapper, Desmoiselles, Blue MauMau, Big Eyes, Crayfish, multicoloured Nudibranchs etc etc. Great fun. On a seperate day, Alister dived at the world famous Poor Knights islands near Tutukaka for more fantastic underwater sightseeing.

We also took a trip further north to Taupo Bay (not to be confused with Lake Taupo) - which was absolutely stunning. Great surf waves, beautiful warm water, lovely beach, friendly families around night time campfires on the beach. Mattéo got quickly hooked onto bodyboarding and we could hardly get him out of the water. On the way back down we took a walk in a forest of majestic and gigantic Kauri trees.

I am writing this on Sunday afternoon (4 Feb) - we arrived back in Auckland last night and we spent a very nice evening (and barbecue) with Nick, Piper and Daisy (that we met at Antony and Sara's barbecue). Helen took her flight back to Wellington this morning and we even managed to pop into the campervan rental place to upgrade our van to a newer model.

We are now having a lovely lazy day with Nick and Piper and are making plans for our next adventures.