Who is crazy enough to take a 3 month old and a 2 year old on a one month campervan trip around the north and south islands of New Zealand? We are, that's who. We decided that it will be many years until we have a month off to spend the time as a family and explore. With buying a house, visiting family and "life" we ran short on planning time for the trip, so we set off with a campervan rental, international flights and a mind set of being flexible. Armed with a travel book and phone apps we hit the road.
Day 1:
We
started off the day at our cabin in Welches, Oregon. We had dropped off most of our stuff to
storage the day before, and after a breakfast of yogurt and coffee and a little
running around in the yard, we were off!
Mac took the dogs and the last run of stuff to the storage unit and
dog-sitters, while Crystal, Wes and Elliot followed after nap time. We met in the PDX parking lot and checked in
for our “awake” plane ride to SFO.
Following a slight delay in taking off, we landed and discovered that
transferring to the international terminal at SFO required you to exit
security, take a train and re-enter security.
We barely made our flight. We ran
and were the last people on before they shut the doors.
The
kids did great during the flight, Elliot actually slept 7-8 hours (a first on a
plane) and Wes slept at least 9. We had spent the week prior convincing Elliot that this was a "sleeping" airplane where she couldn't watch the ipad...it worked! We had a bassinet for Wes, bulkrow seats with plenty of leg room and 2 blow up leg rests that stretched out to an Elli bed. Crystal
and Mac managed to grab a few hours rest until we landed in Aukland at 5am, two
days after we left PDX (we crossed the international date line going
west).
Day 2
We
landed in Aukland after a surprisingly restful flight and were excited to get
rolling on our adventure. Until
catastrophe struck. The customs line was
INCREDIBLY long which, with a 2 year old who has just been traveling for ~20
hours, is very trying. We finally made
it through immigration only to discover that, in our tight connection, our bags
hadn’t made it onto the plane and were still in San Francisco. Crystal negotiated an extra NZD 400 from the
baggae agent to cover diapers / kids clothes etc. We were on our way out the door
for a shower, snack and nap at the hotel across the street, when the grape
police with their grape sniffing dog tagged us.
Bio
security in NZ is apparently a very big deal and there are signs every where
saying that if you get through immigration without declaring your fruit – you
face an immediate NZD 400 penalty. Turns
out they enforce this with dogs, who are very good at smelling grapes, and
excuses like “my husband forgot to take them out of the bag” actually don’t
work. When the dog initially smelled out the bag and they found grapes, we thought it would be no big deal and we sent Mac and Elliot on there way to pick up the
cash voucher for the lost bags. Wes and Crystal sat and waited for the nice officer who "only wanted to copy the passport." After waiting 30 minutes and seeing the people in front of us get a $400 fine for an orange it became clear what was happening. The officer told Crystal how to pay the ticket then went to write it. True
catastrophe was narrowly avoided as Wes began to cry and Crystal’s look of desperation
between the long flight, lost bags, crying baby and ticket must have been so
much – that they ripped up the ticket and let us go with a warning. They are NOT kidding around, however, as the
people in front of us got a NZD 400 (about $280 US) ticket for a single
forgotten orange.
We then
crashed in the hotel across the road for a nap, shower and a coffee. Thank goodness for having booked a hotel a walk across the street! Crystal ran to the store for diapers and some
extra kids clothes, while Mac and Elliot took a nap. After everyone was refreshed, we headed into
Auckland city.
Taking
a relatively inexpensive bus, we got off in downtown Auckland. After a relaxing walk along the water front
looking at boats (and a bagpiper), we grabbed burgers for lunch and then went
to the sky tower. A cousin of the Space
Needle, this is a landmark in Auckland. 50+
stories up to a glass observation deck with glass paneled floors. Mac and Crystal loved the views, while Elliot
loved the Wild West theme (?) and couldn’t get enough of the hats, coloring and
hula hoops. We then grabbed a kebab lunch that we ate in a park by the
Univeristy of Aukland and then back to the hotel for some much needed
rest.
Day 3
We
awoke to news, after some confusion, that our bags were indeed in
Aukland!! We grabbed a quick breakfast
at the airport (nowhere else to eat) and then our camper company picked us
up. As we got settled in the camper and
started to get the kids ready to travel, the bags arrived!! We tossed them in the back and headed out for
shopping. While Mac set up the cell
phone and the mobile hot spot, Crystal went mega-shopping. It was, of course, raining and in the absence
of a camper parking spot – we just tossed all the groceries in the back seat,
buckled the kids in and started driving (on the left). It took great cooperation between us to make sure we drove on the left side of the road!
We were
heading for the Coromandel peninsula and Cathedral cove. We arrived after a 2.5 hour drive to rain,
wind and a setting sun. The roads were twisty and turning, hard to navigate
with the rain and everyone was fairly stressed when we arrived. We arrived to Cathedral Cove car park to great views but rainy weather. Great thing about a camper...we cooked dinner and settled in for a warm nights sleep.
Day 4
We woke
up early, packed up the family and took the 30-45 minute hike from the
free-camping spot overlooking the beach to Cathedral cove. This is a beach with fabulous wind and water
carved caves and arches and, because it was 7:30am, we were the only people
there. We had at least 30 minutes on
this amazing beach all to ourselves and Elliot loved running through the
“tunnel” made by the huge rock sea arch.
After a
quick breakfast, we packed up for hot water beach. A unique hot spring that comes out of the
ground below the high tide line, but above the low tide line – hot water beach
is a hot spring you can visit only +/- 2 hours of low tide. As the water comes out scalding hot, you rent
a shovel, dig a little hole and mix just the right amount of hot spring water
and cold ocean water for your tastes.
Elliot and Crystal got to appreciate the waves in a warm bath, while Mac
got to indulge his inner child and build elaborate bulwarks against waves and
to control the amount of hot water coming in.
Wes slept like a baby (unsurprisingly).
Next we did the Tunnels walk in the Karanghaki Gorge. You can walk through old mining tunnels with windows out into the gorge to over look the river. Lots of cool mining history, Elli loved the tunnels, great scenery and added bonus...GLOWORMS! We didn't realize they were in the tunnels at first, then the ceiling started light up with them! They are pretty amazing.
We
spent the night at a Macadamia nut farm that hosts visitor on the edge of the
eastern coast of the North Island through a program called Okay2Stay. The
host texted us “help yourself to oranges” and he wasn’t kidding! The road into the site was lined with at
least 20-30 orange trees, all loaded with fruit. We picked and ate until our hearts
content. The host was so welcoming! Elliot loved picked the off the
trees and even found a few lemons for mom to make lemon water with. We bedded down for a quiet night after a dinner
of fajitas.
Day 5.
We woke
up and, after picking more oranges, headed down to Rotorua – a hot spring and
Maori cultural city. We stopped at the
Agrodome where we got to watch a sheep show and go on a farm tour. Elliot LOVED the sheep show. A very entertaining host brought on 15 or so
different types of sheep to show us all and then selected one for a
shearing. It was amazing to watch him
shear the sheep with such ease and Elliot could barely contain herself. When the cow, lambs and sheep dogs came out,
she was jumping up and down with excitement, screaming along with the rest of
the kids.
The
tour, if its possible, was even better.
We stopped several times to feed sheep and alpacas and, while they were
a little pushy, Elliot couldn’t get enough.
She would chase them down to try and get them to eat more treats. While entertaining with adult sheep, when she
decided that two lambs hadn’t eaten enough treats – all bets were off. She chased these poor lambs shouting “hey
guys….hey guys…come here…hey..come here” for several minutes that resulted in
peals of laughter from all of us and perhaps one of the best Elliot videos to
date. Even the Korean tourists thought it was a hoot.
After
the farm tour, we headed to the Zorbing center.
This is an event where they put you inside a gigantic plastic ball and
then roll you down a zig-zag hill course.
While Wes, Elliot and Mac watched, Crystal took two rides, emerging
laughing, wet and happy each time! Elliot was greatly disappointed that she couldn't go in the ball and we assured her when she was 5 she could.
We next
headed to the Redwoods forest in downtown Rotorua for a family walk. A quiet
walk in the woods punctuated by sulfur tinged team clouds from the ever present
hot springs. That night we spent at a
Holiday park (think fancy RV park) in downtown Rotorua, where Crystal and Mac
took turns taking hot showers.
Day 6
Waking
up the holiday park, we had a breakfast of eggs and toast before heading to
Whakaterewarewa, a living Maori village perched on top of hot springs. I hadn’t appreciated this before, but Maori
history is recent enough that individual tribes still trace their lineages to
individual voyaging canoes that arrived in the 13th century, and
they know the names of those canoes!
The
experience at the village started out with a song and dance performance.
Elliot, again, was enthralled! She loved
the Haka and the welcome challenge but was really taken by signing the
Hoky-Poky with Maori names for body parts.
During one song, Mac asked her a question, she turned to him, put her
hand on her lips and said “daddy – you have to be quite” before turning back to
the music. So little and so
opinionated. This show was followed by a
tour of the village, where they cook in communal ovens built of steam vents and
bath in communal baths fed by geysers. A
snack of corn cooked in the hot spring and then we were off! A side benefit of this trip was that while we
were loading the car, we got to watch the Rotorua fire department practice with
their ladder engine – opening and closing the ladder and moving it all
around. Elliot and Mac were in heaven!
We
spent the night along the shores of Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ at 5 mile recreation site. A windy shore made grilling steaks and
asparagus difficult, but it was more than made up for by the blustery and
beautiful walk along the lake shore. We
had stopped earlier in the day to grab Elliot some toys and while Mac carried a
sleeping Wes, Crystal and Elliot took turns throwing and chasing a bouncing
ball along the shores of the lake.
Sometimes the most fun is the simplest! It was a relaxing night enjoying the views of the lake with the mountains in the background. We settled in for a nights sleep, Mac convinced that the camper was going to tip over from the wind.
Day 7
When we awoke the wind had settled and again there were beautiful views of the lake and mountains as we drank our coffee. We were able to re-supply groceries and we were off to Tongoriro National Park. We are starting to get the routing of when to drive to coordinate with naps for maximum kid and adult tranquility and happiness. On arrival to the Whakapapa Village we found a lovely spot at the Whakapapa Holiday Park between the beech trees where we could hear the stream below. Its was a lovely holiday park, and to boot at check in we were given 8 GB of wife....hence why we can update the blog right now!
The visitors center and DOC center were right next door and had lovely information on the active volcanos in the park. We took a great 2 mile hike from the village to Taranaki Waterfalls. A light and easy hike for the day. On return we took Elli on a nature walk, played with Elliot's new toys with some other children in the holiday park, enjoyed hot showers.
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