Waitomo Caves

The Waitomo Caves were a place that we were going to be passing on our way to New Plymouth so we decided that it is one of NZ's iconic tourist places we should visit. We camped the night in Otorohanga so we could be there, with ease, by mid morning.

We booked into a Combo package @ $68 each and this gave us a tour of the Glowworm Cave and the Aranui Cave.

The Glowworm Cave is the showcase cave, with over 2000 people a day during the high tourist season, going through this cave.  Our group of around 25 people was guided through the cave which highlights all the features of a limestone cave as well as an amazing grotto of glowworms, seen from a small boat.  I think that we were the only NZ's with most being of Asian descent.
Unfortunately no photos are able to be taken in this cave.

Our second cave, the Aranui, is another further 2km up the road, and the group was much smaller. This cave is both smaller and different. There are no glowworms here, as this is mostly a dry cave. It is only after heavy rain that any water moves through it. We were lucky to see it in this state and it highlighted many of the features.  Photos were able to be taken in here though it is difficult to capture the sheer wonder of the limestone features.

Unfortunately all of the caves suffered damaged during the early days when visitors were allowed to take pieces of the stalactites as souvenirs.  These limestone features take 100s of years to grow so it is pleasing to see that the Trust that runs the caves goes to great efforts to make sure this practice no longer happens.

We were very pleased we had made the effort to visit this well known tourist icon, and they certainly hold their own when compared to the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains that we visited last year.

Website for Waitomo Caves

Hamilton Gardens and Museum

One of the places we were very keen to visit the Hamilton Gardens. Word has it that they are well worth the effort and we certainly weren't disappointed. In fact it is a place that we definitely would recommend for anyone visiting the area.

We started at their information, collected a site guide and headed off out to the diverse range of gardens. The gardens are divided into five main features with three of these areas leading off a central hub.  We started with the Productive Garden Collection which is divided into four sections: Te Parapara Maori Garden, Kitchen Garden, Herb Garden and Sustainable Backyard Garden.  There was something here for everyone. The Kitchen Garden was based on the English Walled Vegetable Garden and even in winter, had a number of vegetables still growing.  The Sustainable Backyard Garden was set up using permaculture principles and is designed to encourage and provide information for the home gardener. The Herb Garden was very much in hibernation but is also a wonderful resource for anyone wanting to learn or improve their knowledge of herbs. I don't think I have ever seen such an extensive collection of well labeled herbs.

One of four herb gardens

Walled Kitchen Garden

The other two major collections coming off this hub were  the Paradise Garden Collection, and The Fantasy Garden Collection. The landscaping and planning of these areas is very clever. We moved from an Italian Renaissance Garden, to a Japanese Garden of Contemplation to a Chinese Scholar Garden plus many others all side by side, but without one intruding on the other.

Link to garden collections

After a lunch break at the on site cafe, we walked further afield to the Cultivar collection which included a Rhododendron lawn, Camellia garden and a Victorian flower garden. By this stage the weather had beaten us so we retreated to the car and went in search of the museum.




The Waikato Art Museum is yet another treasure in this city and we were treated to an exhibition displaying the weaving leagacy of of Dame Rangimarie Hetet and Diggeress Te Kanawa. What made this exhibition particularly interesting for us is that we are friends with one of Diggeress's son's Mahina, and my friend Penny's partner. Penny once spoke to us at Herb Society about the work of these two women so it was a real bonus to be able to see so much of their work on display.  Photos courtesy of Penny.

Link to Waikato Art Museum

Gold mining

Waihi is definitely the centre of gold mining in our country. The huge hole (300m deep) in the centre of the town is ginormous.  It is from this hole that the open cast mine operates though underground mining is back operating again. The Favona and Trio underground mines are both operating right under the town.  Over the last 100 years or more gold has been mined here in Waihi. The museum has a very clever model that shows just how extensive the tunnels under Waihi were.

We walked the 2km around the top of the mine.
Stephen looking on at this redundant dumpster.

Link to further information: Martha Mine

The Karangahake Gorge is between Waihi and Paeroa and has also been the scene for a large gold mining operation in the past. It always amazes me, how once the gold has been removed and it is no longer profitable, much of the equipment has been left to rust and rot away. Of course, that discarded mining equipment is now 'historic' and provides tourists and people like us, a place to visit, walk among the ruins and soak up a bit of the history.

Looking down towards the car park and information area.

The entrance to one of the many tunnels.

A special feature of the tunnels we walked through are
these 'windows', built to be able to throw waste rock through
down into the river below.
 

Looking out one of the 'windows'. 

This spot is certainly well worth a stop. There is plenty of parking space, plenty of interpretation panels outlining the history and several walks of varying lengths.

Further information about  Karangahake Gorge

Coromandel Penisula

Lots of narrow winding roads formed our first impression of this area. I don't think we really had thought about what to expect but it certainly is much more mountainous than we had thought. The road from Thames to Coromandel Town is very picturesque, hugging the coast line along very pretty bays but it is also very slow and windy. The state of the roads leaves a lot to be desired and we arrived in Coromandel Town feeling somewhat fractious. The town is very much a summer resort, with much of it shut down for the winter. We did a good walk up the Kauri Block track to the look out, the next morning before heading off to Whitianga.

A mussel farm in the Coromandel bay.

Kauri 2000 project.

Hundreds of young kauri have been planted on this
hill as part of the Kauri project. At present this area
is really only at its best scrub, a far cry to the beautiful
kauri forests that would have been here before European
settlement and their mining exploits.

The view from the highest part of the road over the top
to Matarangi and beyond.

Excellent views of the area can be seen from the top of the bluff that you climb out of Coromandel.

Matarangi Beach.

We drove down into Matarangi, a holiday makers township, and found a gorgeous beach to look at while we ate our lunch.








Whitinga is definitely a summer resort town too and although busier than Coromandel Town it was also in 'winter mode'. We had a good fossick around the water front area before finding our camp site for the night - this time the Mercury Bay Golf Club. It was quite a shock to wake the next morning to find there had a been a good frost overnight - the first we have experienced since crossing Cook Strait.

This photo doesn't quite capture the degree of this frost.

 With a frost, of course, usually comes a beautifully clear sunny and we weren't disappointed. Our destination was Hot Water Beach.  We managed to get the tides just right as the best time to experience the hot water is between one two hours either side of low tide. We arrived on the beach at 10.40am, exactly an hour before low tide. We had befriended a couple of West Aucklanders, Dominic and Johann, and between us we managed to build ourselves a very respectable spa.

The boys digging out and forming our spa pool.

A little engineering skills were needed to bring the
very hot water down into our pool.

Enjoying our 'spa.'

As the morning rolled on, quite a crowd arrived making it much busier than I would have thought for this time of the year. Though talking to others winter is the best time to experience this beach and being a Sunday with a low tide at midday probably helped with the numbers. This place would certainly be high on our lists of 'must dos' for all of you out there yet to explore our own country!

Hahei is only about 10km north of Hot Water Beach and it was here that we wanted to spend the night so that we could walk to the famous Cathedral Cove. We had seen lots of boat rides advertised but our trusty book of Short Walks told us it was an hour and a half return walk which suited us just fine.

A view through the arch to Cathedral Cove.

Cathedral Cove arch.

The view across the bay at Hahei from the Cathedral Cove
car park.

Once again we we quite surprised at just how many people were doing the walk, late on Sunday afternoon though judging by the size of the car park we shouldn't have been surprised. One piece of information that was missing was that visiting this cove closer to low tide would be better as you could then walk right through the arch. Fortunately the tide wasn't too high but we were only able to view the adjacent bay. In saying that the beaches are truly beautiful with the white sand and blue waters. Even though we haven't been able to enjoy a swim we feel that we have had quite a different experience than had we been here in summer and had to share it with thousands of holidaymakers.

A view of Hahei from the Te Pare Historic Reserve
we walked up to in the morning.

Our final spot was Whangamata. We initially had only intended to stop here for lunch, but on pulling up on the water front we found a sign that said freedom campers could stay one night. It was such a pretty spot that we decided to stay. Our outlook was across the estuary to the channel that all the boats and yachts used. Just like Whitianga, Whangamata is a holidaymakers mecca with large numbers of baches to accommodate the population that swells during the summer months.

Posted with Blogsy

Miranda

Miranda - not to be confused with the TV character, this small settlement is home to the Shorebird Centre, an internationally important wading bird reserve. It is home to over 4000 Bartailed Godwit that arrive from their breeding grounds in Alaska for our NZ summer.

Initially we had thought we would stop off at the natural hot springs in the holiday park/campground but after pulling up at Ray's Rest just north of the Shorebird Centre we weren't keen on moving. Ray's Rest is a freedom camping spot right on the beach where you are allowed to stay two nights.

It was high tide when we arrived so the view was very picturesque across the Firth of Thames to the Coromandel Peninsula.  Next morning the sunrise was spectacular and the bay was full of wading birds feeding in what is an extensive estuary.  Unfortunately by the time we got ourselves to 'the hide' to view the birds feeding it was low tide and they had all disappeared. We also never got to the Information Centre because there was no where to park our long rig but the following link gives you lots of information about the area.
Miranda Shorebird  Centre

Rest and Recreation

We are arrived back in Auckland on Sunday afternoon and headed to our camp site at Tui Glen Reserve. When we were there two weeks ago we had the place mostly to ourselves but this time it was a much busier place, but still space for us all.

Catching up with Leigh

We were keen to catch up with Leigh, visit some friends and family and have a rest.
Well we visited some friends in Torbay, and some family in Balmoral, as well as spending our evenings with Leigh. He was busy working on a short film project.

Leigh working on the short film.

Unfortunately we had some extra rest forced upon us. On Tuesday morning, Stephen hurt his back. Just a simple action of lifting the generator out of the car. This has happened before and past experience has taught us that rest, and an anti-inflammatory like Voltaren usually helps.  Fortunately this proved to be the case this time too and by Thursday morning he felt he was ready to be able to drive again. As I don't have my heavy traffic licence I am not able to drive the bus and I am not keen to anyway. But it does make us realise how dependent we are on Stephen.
We were able to drive down the motorway and out of Auckland without any mishaps and are now enjoying the quieter roads in the Coromandel area. Stephen's back is still 'delicate' and he will need to be careful but hopefully it won't cause us too many more dramas. 

Day to day practicalities of being on the road

Living on the 'road' in the bus has a certain number of issues that need to be addressed on a regular basis. We are fully self-contained in regards to fresh water, waste water and electricity but they all need to be monitored closely.
We carry about 140 litres of fresh water and it will last a couple of days if we are careful.  We have both got a shower down to a fine art and if really careful can use not much more than 10 litres each if we aren't washing our hair.  I have heard of a shower like this being referred to as a bird bath. I prefer to think of it being more like a Greek shower. You wet yourself down, turn off the water, soap up and then turn the water back on to rinse off. This type of shower is more than adequate but best practised in a warm environment.
Getting a supply of fresh water can sometimes be an issue as not all our campsites have a supply.
Most of the dump stations for our black water waste also have potable water but not all. Fortunately most of the NZMCA site do. Failing this Caltex Service stations all provide fresh water for NZMCA customers.


Our black and grey water tanks last about a week though we try to get rid of this every 3-4 days. The public dump stations are listed in our Travel Directory and there is usually one in every town and are very clean and accessible.

The national symbol indicating a waste dump.

The bonus at these sites are those that provide potable, fresh water and a rubbish bin for our kitchen waste. We find our kitchen waste can be a real issue as most towns don't supply receptacles for this.  Litter bins are just that are not suppose to be used for household waste. We have found that if we put out small amounts these are what works best even if we aren't all that comfortable with it.  Some areas have large recycling bins (which we do like to use if possible) but unless they are well signposted they can be difficult to access.












Keeping the power up to our batteries is a daily chore. We have three solar panels on the roof and provided the sun shines our house batteries are full. Of course Stephen has developed more than one system for providing our power and I do struggle to understand how it all works. All I know that we do have to be careful or by bedtime we have to resort to using the 24 volt system which can then mean the bus engine won't start in the morning!! Keeping our electronic devices charged up and running also takes careful management.  The iBook doesn't like the 12volt system so charging it while we are driving is the best option.  Our next purchase is going to be a solar charger that will work with the iPad, iPod and the mobile phones.




Condensation at this time of the year can be a problem in the mornings, even up here in the north of NZ. My 'Scoopy' that collects it off the windows is proving to be an essential 'bus' item and I can collect up to 200ml of water some mornings.









Laundromats can be found in most towns with some of them listed in our Travel Directory and others on 'Camper Mate.'
We find we can manage by doing a wash about once a week,  and the costs vary depending on the business.  The laundromat close to us here in Henderson is very good value for money. They charge $5 for a large machine load, and then another $5 to dry it.








We like to keep the fuel tanks in both the car and bus well topped up but even a simple exercise like this takes some thought. We can't believe how much the price of fuel can vary from one service station to the next. At the moment Mobil fuel is $2.08 for 91 petrol, and $1.38 for diesel. At the Z station only but metres away it is $2.21 and $1.47 for diesel.  And then there is a range within this.








We are always on the lookout for firewood for our wood-burner.  We are always keen to collect fire cones when we can, but failing this we purchase fire logs from the Warehouse. These logs are very compact and give off a great heat.






Even up here in the north, we find we are lighting the fire most nights. It keeps everything nice and dry, as well as giving us a cosy feeling.  It is also very good for cooking on or boiling the kettle.