Hot stuff

I almost, almost, welcome travel days because I know we will be in the car semi-resting because when we have landed wherever we have landed wowzer, we are going to be all go, go, go!

I am including a map of the North Island so you have some sense of where we are and where we have been.  The ferry between the North and South docks in Wellington; we were only there for one evening and half the next day before pushing off for Tongariro National Park (3 nights, sweet lodge in the middle of nowhere, hiking- a challenging 10km with a gazillion, okay, not really a gazillion but over 100, flights of stairs.  Much communing with nature.). 

Follow Hwy 1 up from Wellington and you will see a big lake about midway- that’s where the Park is.

We don’t always have a plan for what we are going to do when we get where we are going, and this stop was no exception.  Day 1, or was it day 2, honestly, some things become a blur after a while!- saw us head out for a drive to check out the local scenery. We stopped at a horse statue, made entirely out of horseshoes, at a middle of the nowhere crossroads,  a crossroads where the other two roads were marked ‘no exit’.  I mean it, we were seriously off the beaten path.  And as we looked at the statue and the adjacent war memorial a little terrier came running up to us.  She followed us all around and then went to rest by the car, clearly making it known that when we departed, she was climbing on in.  I was lobbying to take her with us (!) because without a collar it seemed she was on the lam.  Lloyd wisely walked down the one and only driveway in sight and met up with Sharon, to whom it turned out Ruby belonged.  Apparently, Ruby has a history of jumping in vehicles including a tour bus that stopped at the corner one day.  Sharon calls her cute little dog a ‘car whore” and said the only thing that stops Ruby from going on the road with the courier delivery guy is that she can’t jump up far enough to get in the truck!  Besides entertaining us Ruby brought us the good fortune to meet her owner as we all stood around in the dirt driveway talking with Sharon for about 45 minutes, learning lots from a local about issues they are dealing with.  Issues of foreign ownership of the forestry industry and the challenges that is causing, escalating housing prices (sound familiar?), politics etc.  It truly was such a gift to be able to interact and get some insights for we haven’t had a whole lot of this on our adventures. 

The morning we left the Park area we stopped for a rare breakfast out at a café Sharon had recommended.  Check out the photo of the ginormous tea biscuit, filled with strawberry jam and topped with whipped cream.  We had pseudo healthy breakfasts but couldn’t resist ordering and sharing this local treat. Kind of like strawberry shortcake but the jam made it sweeter and gooier.  And not something I would ever think I would find on a breakfast menu in Canada.

That day’s travels took us to the Pacific Coast- on the map go up and right to the water and look for Whakatane.  (For the record Maori’s pronounce the ’wh’ wherever it is in a word as an ‘f’ meaning this large town is pronounced Fackatane.  And like little children we kind of giggled every time we said it……)   If you caught my social media posts you will have seen the photo of White Island, home to a deadly volcanic eruption in 2019.  Here the highlight was another coastal hike.  We had delightful hosts in our beautiful home; Mark had us leave our car in the oceanside village of Ohape, gave us a little local tour, and then dropped us off at the start of the hike so we would only have to plod one way.  Ocean views the entire distance (9km?) with a total of 14 km for the day.  This is not a trip for people who love to sit and soak up the sun!  It was so beautiful clambering along, looking out over and down onto the beautiful Pacific Ocean. The trail crossed over beaches at one point which required climbing over rocks from one cove to the next (which can’t be done at high tide) but it was well worth it just to have that whole hardly anyone else is here Robinson Crusoe sort of feeling. Hosts Debbie and Mark invited us to join them at their fishing club that night; although far from being a fancy place we were honoured as it is a members and guests only kind of place so once again, we were given a little peek into local life.  And here yet another bonus as their friends joined us; one a Canadian and her husband a Kiwi so we had lots and lots of informative and light discussions on a wide-ranging array of topics.

When we pushed on from there after three nights, leaving “our” beautiful home and pool behind it was off to Rotarua (can you find it?  It is inland and really not that far from Whakatane at all.)    The Saturday morning market, our first stop, was a dud (more a food truck market than anything, complete with two different churches offering fellowship) when we were looking for fresh local produce.  But no big deal as we really had this stop planned, not for the market but for the local sights, namely the random popping out of the ground of bubbling pools and steam.  You see the earth’s crust is thin here so all of the rumbling and gurgling and bubbling that goes on underground bubbles above ground too in this area.  You know you are close to such a site when you are out and about as the smell of sulfur hangs heavy in the air.  We went to a local park where there are lots of spots where the water is boiling and steaming.  The larger locations are all fenced off to prevent people from falling in and getting burned to death but there are also lots of little ones that have popped up along the path and that are marked by a pile of rocks.  You will notice this little pile and see steam coming out the top, take a closer look and see the hole where the middle of the earth is pushing its way out.  It’s a very visible sign that earthquakes are definitely a thing in this country as we have also been reminded by signs in many places.  On one outside an older building in Wellington cautioning us not to linger outside the structure because if there was an earthquake just at that time you would be in danger of the building coming down on you.  Now if that isn’t a jarring reminder that we are in earthquake territory I don’t know what it is!

Ok, that’s it for this post or it will simply be way too overwhelming with info.  If you have been bored and jumped to the end let me wrap it up with- the country is beautiful, the landscape diverse from end to end, corner to corner and the beaches beautiful and long and clean.  And the food is good!

xo