Coromandel

My vacation is winding down and so am I. I took it a great deal easier today, driving up to a very cool area called cathedral cove.  After a 45 minute walk I was rewarded with some stunning views of a limestone cliff that has been battered so there is a big hole through it in the shape of a cathedral. The cove also has a stunning beach and supposedly good snorkeling, but the water is cold and the surf and current were pounding. I walked back and stopped by this funky little winery that focuses on feijoa and citrus wine and booze. The owner was such an incredibly cool and funny guy, and he liquored me up really good then took my order for a pizza. I see his plan, quality over quantity. A pizza and a bottle of lemon gin set me back 75$ but I left with a smile on my face. 
He gave me the crazy idea to see if I can get feijoas to grow in Florida as they are cold resistant and love the heat and spit out fruit like mad.  Apparently they grow well in California.  It would be nice to have fruit trees in our area, and the flowers are a really beautiful starburst of red.
The drive up and down the coromandel peninsula is quite trying, with squiggly roads following the coast, however the views are nice. I visited coromandel town that didn't have anything I was interested in other than a smoked seafood shop.  I bought smoked mussels, smoked kingfish and some other local smoked fish.  I left and discovered where all those green lipped mussels come from.  There are huge aquaculture setups off the coromandel coast for at least 10 km.  Wow!
I had intended for the earlier parts of my trip to be intense, so now I'm willing to wind it down a bit. Rather than chug all the way to Thames I turned off at Tapu and am staying at a lovely clean campground next to a clear river.  Very relaxing. I am also the only non-permanent guest in the park and was invited to dinner by the camp owners at their house.  I prepared a bunch of boiled potatoes and carrots as an offering, and I'm going to give them the eggs and onions I know I won't eat before I drop the car off Saturday afternoon.
I am also going to run out of this funny kiwi cash exactly on schedule, making this an amazingly inexpensive holiday.  I converted 1500 USD to 1850 NZD and spent 600usd on the camper rental. And the cash covered all my dinners in Auckland while working!  I have had such an amazing time on the North Island that I am already planning 3 weeks on the south island in my future.  Does anybody want to go with?
So I just had dinner with Yannick and Rachel and they really were super nice to me and made me feel at home.  Yannick offered to take me mussel gathering and I am loathe to say no. Well low tide is at 5pm and I may actually come back here after a bit of exploring tomorrow. Otherwise, Rachel's mom runs a camper park next to the airport.  It is really nice to meet good people, and as usual the regret is lack of time. 
I am only an hour and a half from Auckland so we will see where the winds blow me tomorrow.  Rachel suggested a cool nature walk and then I can get a Thai lunch at Thames .  who knows, as long as I am having fun!

Rotorua

Yesterday was a bit too much apparently.  Last night I freedom camped in a parking lot where I was across the street from a Maori village with a whole river of steam from the geothermal activity. This whole town is like that.  Literally, dig a hole a few feet deep and you have found some heat.  There are a few little power plants in the town, and a bunch of parks.  I wanted to take it easy today so I ate some weebix for breakfast and drove to town center where I knew there was free unlimited parking. All the parking meters have a puck underneath the car that reports nonpayers.  This is a really cute little town and well laid out at the bottom of a big freshwater warm lake. Every direction you look you can see steam rising from somewhere and it all smells pretty bad.
I basically felt pretty run down today, been having too much fun and I can't handle too much more running about. As I made a cup of coffee before my walk I met a magister who told me that if I love mountain biking I simply have to go to the Redwoods and hire a bike.  Well I reall y love to bushbike( he pronounced it pushbike and I didn't understand for about 5 minutes) but I am just wasted and my legs and feet wouldn't agree to a try.  Instead, I forced them to walk around town shopping but nothing was interesting. I then meandered to a geothermal park with a multitude of pools and mud pits all steaming away.  I exited the park and walked along the lake and came upon another park.  I followed the lake until it became sulfur bay and there were thousands of birds enjoying the warm waters. I turned out of there and went into a lovely government gardens with bath houses and a museum, but an hour of sulfurous air and I was ready to get away.  I had nice Jom Phong  and talked a while to a nice Korean lady, then I drove to the redwood forest.
This is my first regret of this trip, and I hate regrets.  I walked into this amazing 120 year old forest planted for timber but then turned to a huge park. There is an 8 hour day walk as well as miles of hiking, horse riding and mountain bike trails. The forest was just too pretty, but I hadn't even walked a km when my knees were angry with me, my feet are threatening to blister, and my mood is poor and fatigued.  I considered staying the night just so I could go bushbike riding tomorrow, but that would jeapordize my plans to see coromandel.  Alas I left and felt bad the three hour drive it took me to get up to a little speck called Opotoure which has a lovely oceanside campground.  I arrived and immediately ran to the beach.  I took some pics then ran to my van to change into swim shorts, but I could have gone naked because nobody was there.  Actually should have!  Anyway I ran into the very cold Pacific and bounced and giggled in the surf and I remember why children get in the water when it is cold, something I should do more often lest I grow old!
However Mom didn't need to tell me to get out because my lips were blue, I was already shivering so I ran back to grab my stuff and hop in a hot shower.
Life is good, and I think tomorrow will be a lovely day to explore.

Tongariro crossing

Today I performed the Tongariro crossing, one of NZs great walks and one of the most spectacular day walks in the world.  I woke at 445 to get my car to the endpoint by 530.  I then made breakfast and awaited the shuttle bus which took me to the start point.  It was a chill morning. This walk winds between Tongariro and Nagaruhoe ( mount doom) and is 12 miles and took me 6 hours, but I am a little bit fit.  I believe truly fit kiwis do it in 5 or less.  I started in the first pack of 10 and was passed by about 20 more. I started walking at 7 and didn't really stop.  I had to climb up the mountain about 1000m which is hard work.  There were good steps in some places and sometimes you were just scaling a steep walkway.  As I ascended life became colder.  Unfortunately at the top, nearest mount doom the fog descended limiting vis to 10m and less.  It was just above freezing, like 3c.  I waded through the soup and came out in time for a great pic from top down, taken by a nice Korean kid who had been waiting 30 mins for the fog to clear. It was so cool to see a volcano that was active in 1895, 1975 and 2012 and how all the lava floes aged.  I took at least 500 pics.  NZ has rocks!  Wow I will post them later, the walk was an experience and not to be done by anyone not physically fit.  You can even climb mount doom but I was cold and vis was nil so I was uninterested.  Actually once I reached the summit all I was thinking was down.  OK after that I was beat, so I cruised towards Taupo city alongside lake Taupo which is a huge lake 70 km north south.  It is freshwater and clean.  I was dirty after my climb and wanted a shower, but it was too early to stop at a camper park.  I therefore devised a plan which was immediately successful.  I found a public park that was unoccupied and also had a little clear stream, stripped naked, grabbed soap and hopped in.  That water was above freezing, like 8c or so.  OMG but damn I was clean and then dry in 5 minutes, and not arrested for public nudity, this time at least.
Refreshed I drove north into Taupo and viewed huka falls, a very pretty sight.  I then went north to a flood area but they didn't flood it, winter hours bugger! It is supposed to be really cool, but I can't bat 1000. This is where the hobbit river rafting scene was filmed. Another interesting thing about Taupo, is it wasn't always a 70km long and wide lake.  It exploded out of the earth 2000 years ago, and the romans marked the month the skies went gray.  In this country you really feel the power of earth, and I have been thinking all day of the power of volcanism.  I might have another god that I might worship other than the sea.

Anyway I was not interested in the rest of Taupos delights so I drove another hour to routarua which is a thermal place.  There is steam rising everywhere and hot pools and nobody will notice if and when I fart because it already smells terrible. Anyway I found my way downtown and it is a lovely city that smells so bad.  I had a great Indian dinner then drove off to an area near a public bathroom to spend the night. There is steam rising from the waters all around me, and the car is sealed tight against the stench and bugs. Tomorrow I want a hot bath and more pictures, but I don't want to walk more than a km!
Cheers
Mike S

Tongariro river rafting

Hello all,
This is shaping up to be a right good vacation, and one of these days my tablet shall connect to internet to be able to share my advrntures.
So the camper park I stayed at last night was fairly terrible, but I understand why now.  In the 60s Tauranga was a boom town because the NZ govt had sponsored a huge project to dig an underground river to feed a hydro plant. After the project finished most of the town died with just some remaining to support the tourist industry around Tongariro parks.  So I can't fault the campground, but I didn't want to stay either.  An annoying aspect is that they issued keys to keep "those damn freedom campers" from stealing free showers, and they I could not reclaim my deposit until 8.  Well at 645 I decided to visit a geothermal spring walk.  Very HOT and a bit stinky.  You can see the steam rising above the land here which is too cool.  I then went to a lake walk called Roto something because the lake is very round and rather high up a mountain.
I returned to Turanga and got my 10$ back and then went to my adventure.  First, I hired a mountain bike and went on a nice trail along the tongariro river, fed from mount tongaririo and other local mountains.  The river ride was really sweet and I also stopped for a walk at NZs national trout hatchery where they grow 120k trout a year to spread to rivers all over.  I tools some cool pics of some very big fish and lots of them.  I then continued my ride which was about 3 hours and got at one point to 300 m above the river which was really cool.  I rode back and thought that I was really tired by 11 am, but the day was young.  I rode to town to buy a mussel pie and a quiche and then back to don a wetsuit helmet and jacket and get ready to whitewater raft.
The area of the Tongariro that I rode around was very little rapids and class 2 at the worst, but our guide, a former Aussie, brought us much further up to where some right good waters are.  I didn't bring a camera but this was just fantastic, a few class 3 rapids with the rest solid 2s with very short pools in between.  We went down more than 60 rapids and this was just a total blast.  At one point we jumped off an embankment into the water.  Some stodgy old man inside me said don't get wet but I am still young and did the jump twice to spite him.  It was cold water, 7 or 8 C but not too bad underneath my clothing.  I was at the gfront which is also the most fun place to be because I was the one to get splashed the most and hit things.  Our guide was great and this was an incredible experience and well worth the dollars, more so than many other things.
However look over it as I did two hours later our trip ended with a cold bunch.  No worries! We were transported to the same thermal pools I had walked around in the morning, and they warmed us right up.  Afterwards, a hot shower and I was right as rain!
Back at the HQ, I had more impetus to scratch the itch of an all day hike, so I booked travel through the Tongariro crossing for tomorrow.  The staff also pointed me to laundry and food and wine(quite Important).  So I went to town to get my laundry done: I would need clean clothes and spares for tomorrow, got some very good prawns lo mein which were spectacular, and picked up a fine malbec.  And now, since I had already showered for the day I was willing to try out this freedom camping thing.  The staff pointed me towards this campsite 15 minutes from the start of my Tongariro walk so I drove there. When zi arrived I was just 2 other vans, but as time progressed it became 15 vans and cars with mostly poor high school and college kids avoiding the scant 15$ fees of a campground.  Or perhaps they are thinking convenience like myself, and we have to be at the parking lot before 630 to be picked up by a bus to be transported to the other end of the Tongariro crossing.  Anyway, tomorrow will be a good hike.
I have packed 4 l of water, 5 oranges, an apple, 3 granola bars, and a ham and butter sandwich, as well as extra socks for my feet and hands, my camp towel to use as a turban, a pair of exercise shorts as a neck gaiter, and an extra long sleeve shirt.  It had better hold me.  I have been told this crossing is no joke and conditions are unpredictable, max altitude just less than 2km so that makes me realize my other day on mount ruapehu.  
Cheers!

Climb mount ruapehu

I woke a and got rolling by 8, got a little lost but found myself by asking a nice Idahoan lady who runs a B+b in the wrong direction.  Turned around, I found my way up to the Chateau and Whapipapa village at the base of mount Ruapehu.  This is the biggest mountain of the chain at 2900 m high, with mount doom from LOTR next door about 20 km away. Mount doom is shorter but is very steep.  The base was 1600m high. Rather than ride the ski lifts I climbed the scree, first it was somewhat easy but then I started freeclimping and it was a good bit of work.  It became obvious that my mountain path planning algorithm was terribly deficient. I continuously chose paths that forced me to clamber up sheer faces. After getting up I realized I had missed the easy way. As I got higher I also had to avoid snow patches as my lightweight fitness shoes were fully permeable to water. After an hour I came upon the highest cafe in NZ.  I kept climbing to the end of the highest ski lift at 2250m an hour after that.  I continued to push myself, but I encountered a field of snow, and fog from clounds dropped the temperature considerably. So I turned around, well beat already, but going down was a different walk. The clouds reduced visibility to a hundred feet and I couldn't see the markers for an easier climb. My route planning software guessed wrong multiple times leading me to sheer clifs with 50' dropoffs where I had to backtrack. Once I climbed down loose scree and had a rough time going down the steep loose rock, and after surviving it I decided to be more conservative. This was very cool overall, but this Florida boy needs a software upgrade before doing this again.
I made tea at the van, and then I rolled off towards Whapipapa and took an hour and a half walk along some rapids which flowed down off the mountain. I then drove on a bit and took another walk to see a 5m waterfall.
By this time I was fully beat and drove poorly to Tuatpu where I pulled into the worst camp thus far. This place is really run down and almost uninhabited, and barely any of the appliances in the kitchen function.  The shower rooms were also poor, but I could be worse off. There are some German high school kids staying in a tent with no car whose misery is evident in that I watched them play on cell phones for 4 hours. While I showeresd, cooked and moved about.  When I asked them they said they spent all their money already and have enough food and cash until their departure flight in two days, but the did do the tongaruru crossing.  I am not feeling quite up to it after today, but maybe I'll change my mind.
Tonight I sealed up my van and let the sand flies eat me until they were full, and now they have left me alone.  Sleep soon,
Mike

Rain slog south

KIA Ora,
I really wish I could say I had fun today, but it was a wet slog south through the country. I was very sad to drive by waterfalls and nature walks and why? Because the whole north island was enveloped by a cyclonic weather pattern that dropped endless rain. I took frequent breaks, and I was very happy to find that the west side of the island was much more flat so the driving was much easier.  However after seeing the grand beauty of the native rainforest I am saddened to see so much of the country deforested and converted to pastures for cows and sheep. Progress is a terrible thing everywhere it would seem. 
After about 6 hours of driving here I am as exhausted as about 10 in Florida, and I only moved a fraction of the distance with a strict 100kmph max and everybody drives slower, sometimes much slower in the rain.  
Anyway I finally arrived at a camper park in Taumarunui and met six retired couples from Australia on a joint camper van adventure for a month.  It can be nice to be retired! 
After my poor dinner last night and also facing scrutiny that I eat well enough in front of several motherly ladies, I cooked a dinner that was delicious and healthy. A new your strip, some peanut chicken kebabs, a salad of tomato cucumber and tangerine, and a potato and carrots.  Not bad for for traveling in a minivan.
In the north there were more cows than sheep, but in this middle country sheep dominate and are everywhere!  Conveniently most are inside fences but I saw many escaped sheep and cows eating grass alongside the roads. I look at them and wonder if all they do all day long is eat grass.  I also saw goats that may have been wild. I have also seen rabbits and quite a few large red hawks.
Cheers,
Mike

Kia Ora boat trip and rainforest

KIA Ora!
First I must say this is an amazing country that drives my imagination wild with its outdoor wonders. The weather has been mostly good and on the cooler side which is appreciated as much of my exertions are ascending or descending hills or mountains.
Last night I stayed at a very nice campground right on the water up in the Bay of Islands north of Auckland. It was very pretty and god luck because honestly I can barely handle driving here after dark.  Florida flatlandia has not prepared me for this country!
Yesterday I took a bus from downtown to the airport and picked up my camper van.  This is a sweet little thing, like a small Toyota minivan, but the aft area has a sink and 25 gallons of water with a manual pump and a DC powered fridge on a separate battery.  It also has enough dishes and pots and pans and a kettle and a cute slide out butane stove and led lighting. The area behind the two front seats turns into a bed or a little table, and the van comes with fresh linens and pillow top and pillows as well as cleaning stuff in the galley area.  This is such a cute layout and reminds me entirely of cruising on my Catalina 22.  That is complete with the annoyance that you have to move anything to access anything.  But after so many years living on a boat it just makes me laugh and smile.  I am loving it. Anyway I went to the local grocery and bought breakfast and lunch foods with a few freedom camping dinners.
I then drove north because I wanted to see the Bay of Islands that was visited by THE Captain Cook at the time our country was having its first civil war. I stopped at a cute nature walk and was accosted by a cock looking for handouts.  The cheeky bugger was tight on my heels for 100 meters hoping for food.  The flora astounds me, with a multitude of ferns from miniscule to gigantic.  The big ferns are like palm trees. After seeing a waterfall I drove onward to Waipu caves, found after talking to helpful locals.  The array of hills and valleys make cell coverage very poor, and I was lost save for to pull over and ask directions. 
After 30 mins of I tense driving on gravel roads I found the waipu caves, and I went on a 2 hour hike up and down a mountain.  I saw some fantastic rock formations and met a wild goat. After my hike I was ready for the caves and met a Frenchman who had just spent 3 hours in there and he gave me advice.  I went in with only a led torch and crawled in about 45 mins until I felt I was way out of my league.  Let me tell you this is a cave as nature intended.  No lights, no handrails, and a multitude thousands of glow worms on the ceiling.  I frequently turned my torch off and watched the banded constellations of worms.  My camera could not capture it, so the alien galaxy I saw will only reside in my head, but it was fantastic!  And difficult too!  This was a real cave complete with mud and a small river, so I was very careful.  After my spelunking I met the same Frenchman as he was changing to cleaner clothes.  He explained that he graduated university and got a one year work and travel visa.  He had enough money to buy a camper van and a few months of spending money, after which he would work wherever and then travel.  I loved his plan, and tolh him about my boat stuff.  Anyway those caver were an awesome experience, and the best part was no chaperones, no big brother, no safety, just the land as it is without us.
After the caves I drove the Whangarei and stopped for early dinner.  I saw and Indian place and parked but found out it was closed.  I knew I had to eat and run so I hopped across the street to a Malaysian place that looked crappy.  Well I was incredibly surprised to have fantastic noodles with pork beef chicken and shrimp for 10 ndz!  Anyway after that lovely dinner I scooted north to my fortuitous discovery of a campground.
Whilst this camper is lovely, I was so happy I brought my ng bag because it was cold last night!
A beautiful sunrise woke me and I dashed out to set up my camera with the timer, laid it on a picnic bench and went back to bed.  About 45 mins later I woke up properly and I have a beautiful sunrise time lapse of this lovely country.  I cooked breakfast out of the back of my van and used the communal sink to clean up. Yesterday I told myself the definition of fun was a 5 hour walk around this bay of islands area, but when I woke up and saw the water I said 'boat trip'.  So I got out of the campground too quickly, it really was lovely, and drove the 2 miles to Pahia and got a ticket for a 4 hour ride to depart in 30 mins.  The boat ride was lovely and the area is so pretty with 150 islands.  We stopped at one and I ran up a hill and down and up another hill to take pictures, then back on the boat to go eventually underneath a hole in a big rock.  I also saw a seal, blue penguins, and dolphins and a bunch of fish!  The other island we stopped at was named 'delicious blue penguin' in mauri haha!
After leaving the boat I drove to Haruru waterfall.  I went on an hour hike along a river before turning around.  I made lunch and was pestered by a flock of chickens.  They kept on getting on the picnic table and I had to shoo them.  They were cute though especially one fancy breed.
I took off there towards the west side of the country to see the country's largest tree. The landscape is very rural and still very twisty.  It is a lot of work to drive. Anyway after an hour I stopped at a winery and bought a bottle that I am sipping as I write this.  Well OK I drank the whole thing by now but srsly it takes a long time to type on a tablet.
OK so I decided to return south via the west side of the country, and I am glad I did.  I got to a magical area, the pass of a gigantic bay to the sea.  Across the bay was a sand dune of a peninsula rising 1000' which was an awe inspiring sight.  The bay also was beautiful but obviously shallow, perhaps to walk across.  But the water is just too cold.  I hot my feet wet and moved on.
South into Waipu forest and I had entered Jurassic Park.  The Mage Ferns towered, and wide ancient Kauri trees were everywhere.  This was also a very twist bit of road, the Waipu forest.
This is a true rain forest, but it never freezes while remaining quite cool most of the year.  I stopped at a walk to see the king of the forest, biggest tree in the country, 13m in diameter, it made me say w o w when I saw it.
OK this email needs to end soon. I was done with driving so I went a gfew km south to the parks campground. I am the only one here, and there are cabins and campgrounds for about 50 people.  It is also right next to s river.  Anyway it was a lovely locale until Florida's state bird appeared.  Conveniently it is cold and they are not aggressive, but I had to seal up the van and kill the laggarts inside.  I sleep among about 100 of their carcasses, so hopefully I sleep well.
And FYI, there are no Internet's here, no cell phone, and not even FM radio. I love it.
Cheers, 
Mike

A trip to New Zealand for business and pleasure

While this isn't a sailing post, New Zealand is a sailor's mecca and I wanted to post my latest fantastic vacation to that wonderful land.