Heading South in the North Island

Cathedral Cove

I get the bus back to Auckland straight after diving and stay with Susan and Pete again. Then catch the Stray backpacker bus on the 9th.

We head out to the Coromandel peninsula and visit Hot Water beach. Here, due to, lets call them, geothermal processes, the sand is heated and if you dig you can build your own spa pool. (Or wait for someone else to dig one then steal it) Actually I got so hot I had to go and cool down in the sea!

After that we stay at Hahei and walk along the coast to Cathedral cove- it's a beautiful day for a spot of coast walking and swimming.


Raglan- 10th Feb

Over to the West coast today via Bridal falls waterfall and then to surfing town of Raglan. I hire a board and head out- I catch a few and think my surf skills might be improving but it's a bit flat, I have a swim too which is a nicer temperature with the wetsuit on.


 

Mourea: 11th Feb

If someone had told me that today I was going to end today doing the hokey cokey in Maori I wouldn't have been terribly convinced. Audience participation I generally dislike...

But first. From Raglan it's not too far to Waitomo where there are some caves. This being New Zealand they've turned many of them into adventure destinations but I'm more interested in the gentle sights of the glowworm cave. It's limestone scenery outside suddenly reminding me of the Yorkshire dales. The glowworms are spectacular- especially seen from a raft gently drifting through. There's also a cave with some bones from a small species of Moa (all now extinct) which must have perished falling in there (proof, our Maori guide jokes, that the Maori didn't eat all of them!)


Our overnight stop is a cultural one at a working Maree (Maori meeting place). We're given a bit of a briefing first because our welcome is to be that which one tribe would give to another (having also tried to establish that there was no malicious intent). Briefed we follow protocol and there's a bit of ceremonial nose-touching whilst shaking hands with our hosts to negogiate. Things get a bit easier after this because it's dinner time. We're kept amused and taken for a quick walk to the waterfall some of the group are planning to raft tommorrow and told a bit about traditional medicines. Then they sing some songs, demonstrate the poi dance (a sort of tennis ball sized thing on a string that's twirled and caught) and then draw us in. The hokey cokey with Maori words for body parts which proves pretty funny, they then try to teach us females the poi dance and the males the haka (war dance). We bed down on mattresses in the Maree- where they also lay out the dead for 2 nights (luckily no one's died recently) and we sleep well.

Hot mud

Geisser

Rotorua and Taupo (12th)

The air was smelling a bit suspect already but as we reach Rotorua there's no mistaking the sulphorous volcanic gas. Whilst some more adrenalin-fuelled people are rafting, the rest of us have a look around Whakarewarewa (easier to type than say-and that's the abbreviated name-) a thermal village where local Maoris have always lived with the geothermal pools- and still use them for bathing, laundry, cooking and predicting the weather. There's a geiser at the edge but the larger one doesn't go whilst we're waiting.

Given that with steam cookers you can't burn anything I'm a bit jealous! However you'd never know when you had problems with your drains living there!

We stay in Taupo which smells a bit better.

Blue duck station, Whakahoro

Whakahoro- 13th Feb

It's off the beaten track a bit today out to Blue duck station in Whakahoro. A cattle/sheep station that have diversified into tourism. There's various activities but a few of us just decide to take a steep hike and are rewarded by beautiful views. It's a lovely spot, sleeping just near a river, fantastic stars in the clear sky.