New Zealand, North Island
Once we got to Wellington we drove around the city for what
felt like hours, trying to find somewhere to park, so we could do some
sightseeing before a meeting I had arranged later that afternoon. We finally
headed a few km out of town to a car park next to a marina where we were
actually going to camp that night, and got an uber back into town. I left Baby
D to explore Te
Papa museum and I went off to my meeting.
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| Gallipolli exhibition |
Te Papa is the museum of New
Zealand and is excellent, especially as it’s free entry. It is home to a
colossal squid – the only one on display in the world, and a fabulous, moving
(as in emotional) exhibition on NZ’s part in the first world war, focusing on Gallipoli.
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| Giant squid in Te Papa |
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| Pub in Hobbiton |
We didn’t get to spend much time in Wellington sadly,
because of the distances we wanted to cover in the short time we had in New
Zealand, but it is a lively city with a nice artsy vibe. I have been before and
it is well worth spending a few days there, riding up the cable
car and walking back down through the botanic
gardens, visiting the Wellington
museum which is a local museum on the waterfront that I found really
interesting, and checking out the pop
up village and underground market.
Away we went to Hobbiton
the next day (happy birthday to me). This is where they filmed some of the Lord
of the Rings and the Hobbit movies. At first we were the only ones on the tour
but we were eventually joined by a crazy Japanese girl, so the three of us had quite a
personalised tour of Hobbiton. Before filming commenced, Peter Jackson, the Director, had already
earmarked 15 sites around the world for Hobbiton but one of his scouts had had
a helicopter ride around the town of Matamata,
and spied a huge 1250 acre farm, with rolling hills, sheep and trees – perfect
for the setting of the Hobbit village.
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| Hobbiton |
The site only has the front of the hobbit holes – you can’t
actually go inside because there’s nothing behind the façades, but the whole
place has such great attention to detail. In the middle of the village is a
vegetable garden, which is meticulously maintained by a team of gardeners, and
where they grow real veg (which they get to take home). There is washing on the
lines outside of some of the hobbit holes, and a few of the homes demonstrate
the job of the resident – outside the beekeeper’s hole were jars of honey for
sale and beehives for instance.
We were told about how some of the scenes were
filmed – some of the hobbit holes were bigger than others and this was all to
do with perspective when filming - to make the hobbit look smaller on screen or
to make Gandalf the Wizard look larger. They employed a lady to walk up and
down to the washing lines so that a path was trodden in, to make it look more
realistic than putting an artificial path in. They removed all of the native
sheep and replaced them with sheep from the UK, more in keeping with the
British-esque landscape of Tolkien’s books. They used an eagle to keep the
native birds out of shot, and someone was employed to keep the local cat,
Pickles, out of the way.
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| Hobbiton |
Included in the tour was a drink in the pub, the Green
Dragon. It was a great tour, even for those that aren’t particularly into the
Lord of the Rings films. We were gutted to miss out on the evening banquet as
it was fully booked, so we went for ribs and chips special in the pub instead!
We had a long drive up to our next stop, the Bay
of Islands. This is a beautiful area in the north of the north island, with
over 140 islands of varying sizes. We got the car ferry over to the town of Russell
and visited the museum and did a beach/bush walk, keeping our eyes peeled for
wild kiwi (didn’t see any) before getting on a 3 hour cruise of the bay,
keeping a look out for dolphins (didn’t see any of them either).
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| Lighthouse, Bay of Islands |
We headed up
to the ‘Hole
in the Rock’ via various different sites, many of which were named by
Captain Cook when he sailed in on his ship ‘Endeavour’. The Hole in the Rock is a hole in the rock
actually, created by being battered over hundreds of years by waves and wind.
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| Hole in the rock |
Russell is a lovely little beachside town, with a population
of 1000. Its residents were previously all Māori
until the settlers came and caused warfare between the 2 groups.
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| Russell |
It then turned
into a rough port full of brothels and boozers, known as the hellhole of the
Pacific, until it was sorted out by the Christians and the temperance society,
and it finally became the picturesque, quiet town it is today.
In the morning, we set off towards Auckland,
via the Kawiti Caves. This family-run place offers
a guided tour of one of the caves on its property which is full of legend…and
thousands of glow worms. We were told by our guide that the caves were discovered
in the early 17th century by the chieftainess of the local Māori tribe, who
noticed smoke coming from the cave. When she explored further, she found a
woman in the cave tending a fire. It turned out the woman was a runaway from a
neighbouring tribe. The chieftainess ordered her return to avoid conflict
between the two tribes.
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| Bush walk, Kawiti caves |
We walked through to the middle of the cave and we were told
to turn our lanterns off and look up. We waited for our eyes to adjust and
after about 5 minutes I still couldn’t see anything. Finally, hundreds and
hundreds of glow worms were visible. We walked deeper into the cave while our
guide told us about the glow worms – they glow brighter when they are hungry –
to better attract their prey. They are only found in New Zealand and parts of
Australia. Further in, we again turned off our lamps and all around us we could
see thousands more glow worms. Our guide told us a bit about Māori culture and
traditions including the funeral arrangements of the Māori in days gone by.
The
dead were hung from the trees and their bones were hidden so that other tribes
wouldn’t claim them. Even now, Māori don’t cremate their dead; they are buried
now but in the past, the bones would sometimes have to be moved to stop the other tribes
stealing the bones.
After spotting one of the eels that lives in the cave, (the
other being 3 metres long!) we did the short bush walk up the hill.
The tour was $20 and lasted around 30 or 40 minutes. It was
great because it was in a very natural environment and we were the only visitors
for that particular tour, so we got a really personal experience.
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| Auckland's Sky Tower |
Finally, we reached Auckland; our last stop on this continent.
We parked up at Half
Moon Bay opposite a pub and headed across for some wine and oysters. We
intended to go on the ferry to Waiheke
Island but unfortunately ran out of time so we got drunk instead. We camped
out on the shore and drank wine, watching the sunset. The next day we found a
campsite, and we headed into town – Baby D visiting the Transport
and Technology Museum, which he raved about, while I got my hair cut.
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| Half Moon Bay |
We had to say goodbye to the camper once we had filled it up
with diesel and LPG (nearly missed our flight looking for LPG!) and we were off
to the airport to fly to Fiji.
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| Half Moon Bay sunset |
The camper was fun but stressful sometimes – driving
in circles around town trying to find water, dumping waste water, looking for
somewhere to legally park up for the night, and it was hard at times for us to
get on in such close confinement. Plus it was freezing. Having said that, I
would definitely recommend it as the best way to see New Zealand and the cheapest.
I wish we had more time to see more places and hopefully we
will get a chance to return one summer. Goodbye gorgeous New Zealand.
#newzealand #northisland #wellington #tepapa #halfmoonbay #auckland #russellnz #bayofislands #holeintherock #hobbiton #kawiticaves
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