Auckland and Rotorua (Roto-Vegas)

Thursday 11th October 2007

Internet router etc supposed to arrive, and phone to be connected. Erica goes shopping, I await the action.

Erica rings – the car won't be available in Auckland until Monday. As for the phone and internet, no-one arrives. Phone is, however, working, but the internet won't until someone delivers a router and line filter. Hmm. Check letter box – neither the post from Michelle, sent last week, and stuff from phone company haven't arrived.

I resolve to take stern action, by having lunch on the deck, and continuing to read Maxwell's “Frontier”, a history of the Maori land wars. It works for me.

Wednesday 10th October 2007

We stayed in New Plymouth overnight, checked out the museum, and then went looking for the Pa at Pukerangiora. Got lost, stopped at a winery for supplies and directions, then found the Pa. The sap where the British dug up towards the Pa is still there, as is most of the Pa.

Spent a fair bit of time looking over the place, and it was interesting how much remains – the sap in the picture is half filed in by sheep and time, but the ditches at the Pa where sheep have not grazed are still 9' deep, 150 years later.

The cliffs over the river that defended two sides are impressive, and make a lovely view out:

Upstream:

Downstream:

Drove back to our lair, stopped at Roto-Vegas and ate dinner, got home about 9pm, unpacked and crashed.

Tuesday 9th October 2007

As the car arrives Friday, and the phone and internet are to be connected Thursday, we planned a trip to Waitomo and possibly on from there, to be back Wednesday evening. Waitomo caves are cool, but the main tour is a lot of time and money for not much. Fortunately, Jim took a tour involving a wetsuit, a car inner tube, jumping or falling off underground waterfalls, grovelling through underground creeks, and lying on his back in a car inner tube floating gently down an underground stream looking up at the glow worms. Highly recommended.

Erica went and looked at shopping stuff, I think.

The we went to see Angora rabbits, and bought a Possum/Merino blend scarf for Erica and a similar beanie for Jim. Nice to see Possums being useful. Apparently, Possum/Merino blend is warmer and softer than straight Merino, so the price of Possum skins is about $100/kilo (about 10-15 skins per kilo)...given the cost of the Possum/Merino blend garments, this is understandable. It is currently possible to make a living as a Possum shooter or trapper, which is tempting. Might have to talk to some local farmers.

Waitomo kept reminding me of The Goodies – the Angora rabbit kept me speechless as I refrained from quoting “Flopsy no longer, my little friends – Now it is Big Bunny!”, and the main complex was opened by Dr David Bellamy (“Bellamy! Bellamy! It's a trap, Bellamy!”).

We didn't take any pictures, as the wet trip wasn't the place for a camera, and the mundane one did not allow pictures.

So we left the tourist (and Bellamy) trap and headed south towards Taranaki. we stopped to take piccies of a beaut bay and Pa at Tongaporutu, met a couple of wild goats while walking back to take piccies, no rifle with us. #$%@. Oh well. We hoped to see Taranaki (Mt Egmont) but couldn't see the mountain, and the locals told us you rarely if ever do, as the annual rainfall is measured in metres. Blurred photos of goats (I was in a hurry), and better shots of harbour and Pa:

Monday 8th October 2007

Went into Rotorua, did some necessary grocery shopping (significantly, chocolate, snacks and local plonk, but some useful stuff) organised garbage collection (involves collecting particular rubbish bags from the council), getting phone and Internet organised at the lair, organising getting the car from Auckland dock.

...This involves ringing the shipping company and a couple of motoring organisations who appear to be outsourced arms of the government, organised the car (now a bit later, Friday rather than tomorrow, probably due to strikes at Auckland docks), organising getting temporary NZ registration and the WoF (Warrant of Fitness, sort of like an NSW “pink slip” but separate from rego and licensing).

Also fended off a couple of comments (“pity about the wallabies, eh”), by pointing out that it was now France vs England, hardly a happy combination for the semi-final.

Went to to see the Buried Village this afternoon and Wairere falls. The Buried Village is a mixed Maori and Pakeha village which was destroyed in an eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. Interesting, but probably not worth $26.

The Wairere falls are where a creek from the Blue lake and the Green lake drain through to Lake Tarawera. A thirty meter waterfall in thickly scrubbed gorge, followed by a couple of smaller falls. Fairly spectacular.

The waterproofing of Erica's rainjacket apparently worked - Yay!!!

...and a nice view out into the valley:

Reasonable walk back up solidly uphill from the falls, which Erica did not appreciate. Lots of nice looking trout easily visible, waiting patiently in the creek for a fly...

Wedding anniversary, but we hadn't planned anything special, so just dinner at home watching out over the lake with the rain coming in across it. Very cool. Except the crater in the center of our view is the active volcano that last went seriously bang in 1886. Still, it probably won't do anything for years or centuries.

We need to be here Thursday morning for the phone to be connected, and Auckland Friday to pick up the Holden, so are planning to go and look at Waitomo tomorrow, possibly go on further (Mount Egmont, but it may be too far), and be back here Wednesday evening. That means Thursday will probably be another lazy day,washing and so on, and we will have to plan where to go from Auckland on Friday, assuming the Kiwis are not afraid to let the Kingswood roam their country. Either Coromandel, or perhaps south through Waikato again, if we missed Mount Egmont, or haven't seen enough to Waikato generally.

NZ is a lot more compact than Australia, but still a reasonable size, so it is hard to cover a lot. We still haven't seen a lot of things in Rotorua, although some of the weirder stuff like Zorbing (get inside a clear plastic sphere and roll uncontrolled down a hill) and the Bungee thrower (you start on the ground and get bunged into the air, if that makes sense to anyone), and the laser clay pigeon shooting (why bother) - well, I can leave this stuff alone.

I think this is why the Kiwis refer to Rotorua as Roto-Vegas, which rather spun us out when we first heard it. That, and a “trundler-park” is not what you think...the locals don't think we have accents and are surprised when we say we from Australia.

Also note that “trailer-sailers” in NZ can be a bit bigger than we are used to – this one was on our way into Roto-Vegas this morning:

However, the big sheep here isn't much. It makes you want to pull the Big Merino out of a side pocket and say “That's not a Big Sheep. This is a Big Sheep...” Didn't even bother photographing it. It is about the size of a cow.

Sunday 7th October 2007

Lazy day, did very little. Erica read books.... I went for a look around the lake shore.

Saturday 6th October 2007

Shopping for necessities we had missed, including toaster, electric jug, doona, kitchen stuff that we hadn't picked up in Op Shops, oil column heater, getting the place sorted out.

Celebrated with a lamb roast (no you can't get one in most restaurants or pubs, they want to sell you lamb rump with french weirdo drizzle, or shank roasts a la somethingorother, or God knows what - tarting up perfectly good lamb with strange s##t!) and some of the red we got on Waiheke island, looking out at the view. I may have to get a small boat...

Friday 5th October 2007

Drove from Auckland to Rotorua, and moved into our new place – best described as our eviloverlords' lair above a volcanic crater lake.

Small and comfortable two bedroom plus a sleep out behind, with a nice deck, looking out over Lake Tarawera. View to die for, nice spot, a couple of shots of the lair and part of the view from the deck:

Looking out over the lake:

Lots of stuff we have picked up at op shops, but lots we haven't. Bought a gun safe and bolted that into the garage. Unpacked stuff. Did urgent grocery shopping.

Thursday 4th October 2007

Maritime Museum in Auckland in the morning. Really dodgy-looking weather and high winds on the way in, solid rain flying horizontally while we were there (inside, anyhow) and hail on the bus on the way home.

The Maritime Museum is pretty good, there is a lot of early stuff and pacific canoes and outriggers and things, some 1950's style beach setups, and some lovely small yachts. And you get to wander around a floating crane-boat. No bookshop to speak of but the cafe/bar thing there services the city for lunch as well as the museum and is really lovely.

Stopped off the bus on the way home to see Kelly Tarletons Antarctic and Underwater World but the queue (mostly families with small children) to get in had a 20-minute wait warning on it and the children were noisy, so left it for another day and went home. Lovely dinner at Annabelles at St Heliers.

Wednesday 3rd October 2007

Auckland Museum

Getting to the Auckland Museum, if you take the city Loop bus, its 2 stops, not 1 stop, past the Cathedral. The distance between them is all uphill which Erica did not appreciate. Its actually a fair way out of the city centre with free parking so car is the best way to get there.

Its a good museum and a lovely building, very high ceilings and polished marble floors. Would have been a lot more restful and not so overwhelmingly noisy with fewer small children. Apparently it has an aggressively-marketed school holiday program so unless you have small children avoid school holidays.

Some of the lower-level galleries are a bit weird (temporary exhibition of Lolita-Goth dress styles), the middle level (nature stuff) is lovely and the top level is effectively a war memorial with research centre, hall of the dead, exhibits of wars from Boer onwards including a spitfire and a zero.

OK coffee shop and good bookshop. Souvenirs were not that exciting though.

After the Museum Jim saw what I meant about one Museum a day being enough and the Maritime Museum got left until tomorrow.

Tuesday 2nd October 2007

Quiet day. Erica continued to attempt to re-waterproof her rain-jacket with another layer of wash-in goop.

Monday 1st October 2007

Internetting. Shopping. Etc etc. Erica went to look at Devenport, a 'village' (that has now become a suburb) on the North Shore. Ferry rides were included in her all-day $11 bus ticket (Jim's didnt have ferry coverage and his cost $7.50). Then she went shopping for boring stuff like shampoo, a brolly (her rain-jacket is out of commission while its wash-in re-waterproofing hopefully takes effect), and a day-pack.

Sunday 30th September 2007

We have signed up for a lease on a volcanic crater lake lair. We looked around the Rotorua area looking for a suitable evil overlords' lair, but there is a shortage of mad wizard's towers and undersea bases. We settled for the side of a volcanic crate lake. Looks good. Will move in Friday, once we have some essentials – like a frying pan, a saucepan, plates and eating irons. Op shops, here we come. Oh, sheets and blankets would be good. And a gun safe. And a few other things.