Taupo ; Lake Rotopoumanu walk ; Tongariro National Park ; Raglan ; Waitangi Treaty Grounds ; Cape Reinga lighthouse ; Trounson Kauri Park : kiwi-hunting

(posted from Dargaville Library, Dargaville, NZ)
(This post covers 24 - 28 March, 2013)

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Thursday, 28 March -

With the moon nearly full now, I had no problem walking around a bit in the open areas near our campsite. The night was balmy, though mostly overcast. The moon still lit up everything, particularly the breaking waves, very nicely.
As I returned to the van I heard an eerie two-note sound. I suspected it was the morepork, New Zealand’s only owl. I dug out the iPad and started up the NZ Fauna app to double-check. It has recordings of the sounds each animal makes (if it does indeed make a sound!). The morepork is similar to our barred owl and makes a two-note song which supposedly sounds just like the bird saying “more pork”. The Maori call it the ruru, using similar logic. They say It sounds just like it’s saying ‘ru ru’!
We slept in a bit this morning, arising around 0830. After pack-up we drove back to the Cape Reinga lighthouse to see the area in morning light. The distant sand dunes were now lit from the other side.
We drove south to a side road to the Great Dunes and took a few photos. We were only there for the dunes but it’s also possible to drive the stream bed passing by the dunes to the northern end of Ninety Mile Beach. The beach isn’t actually 90 miles long but it is a very respectable 60 or so miles. Our campervan contract specifically prohibits us from driving on this beach and guidebooks recommend taking the bus! That too is a ‘thing’ here. A bus company runs day-tours from Awanui up the highway, then return via Ninety-Mile Beach. We met a couple from Scotland at the Treaty Grounds who had done it and said it was surprisingly good and gave us the inside dope---- take the bus from Awanui, not from Paihia like they did. They paid $150 each for the trip from Paihia but it’s $50 each from Awanui.
We weren’t interested in a drive on the beach and had other things we wanted to do.
We continued south to Rarawa Beach turnoff. After a 4K dirt road to the DOC campground there, we parked at the day-use lot and walked the short distance to the beach. This one is known for its white silica sands.
After lunch we continued south to Kaitaia and then down through out-in-the-country-country on narrow little roads and no services. At Kohukohu we boarded the ferry for a 20-minute crossing of the Waihou River.
The countryside changed from sheep and cattle stations to the Waipoua Forest and its massive kauri trees. We were rushing to get to our campground for the night at Trounson Kauri Park so we bypassed some good things along the way... including the Tahane Mahuta giant kauri.
Our intention was to see if we could join the night kiwi walk at Trounsen. However, upon arrival we found the tours with the guide don’t start until next week. That wasn’t mentioned in the guide!
After supper we walked the kauri trail for an hour, then took a break to wait for darkness.
At about 2130 we started our walk back into the deep, dark woods. We had a full moon and could see pretty well around camp but the woods canopy was too heavy. We had a flashlight with a piece of red cellophane over it so we wouldn’t frighten the kiwis.
We walked for ten minutes to the another trail entrance where we had seen a grassy area and pavilion and opened up the iPad to refresh ourselves on what its call sounds like. As we prepared to leave, we saw a light coming this way (always a creepy thing at night in the woods). It turned out to be the local kiwi expert and 20 of his customers. He had a large red light and was sweeping it back and forth, even out on the grassy area of the opening. The expert bid us a cheery “G’day” as he passed but the 20 people were eerily silent as they passed by, probably because that was their instruction--- no talking while kiwi-hunting!
We continued around the path, now very glad we had done the entire loop before dark. We could recognize locations we had seen before and judge where we were in the loop.
Our single light made the search all the more difficult as we’d each want the light to go one way or the other. We took turns with the light to remedy that.
We’d walk for perhaps five minutes, then stop for five, listening intently. Since the kiwi’s call is a mating call and it’s not exactly mating season now, we figured the best bet was to listen for the rustling sounds of a kiwi searching for worms and bugs in the dry leaves covering the forest floor.
We spent about an hour and a half making the loop and didn’t see or hear a kiwi. We did hear several moreporks (owls) and several night-birds we can’t yet identify. I tried to capture their calls on the video camera so I can try to identify them later.
As we came back around to the branch trail to our campground, we heard a tremendous noise just a few meters off the trail. It thrashed around in the bush, apparently trying to escape us, but we never saw the animal or any movement--- we just heard the thrashing about. We believe it was a possum... which is a very bad thing in a kiwi sanctuary. I tried shining my big, unfiltered light there to see it but the woods is too thick-- all leaves and shadows.
We returned to the van by 2300 and went happily to bed, unsuccessful as kiwi-hunters but having had a marvelous time in the kauri night-forest.

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Wednesday, 27 March -

After breakfast we took our showers in the nice new shower-rooms at our expensive campground. We then drove to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds nearby for our touring site today.
The Treaty grounds is a big deal in New Zealand. It’s where a major treaty between the Maoris and English was signed in 1840. Also, this area is one of the first settlement areas for the English and was important for whaling.
When you read the treaty, you see the English made the case that this area has become settled by many English and the Queen’s agent tells the Maori that they purpose of the government is to preserve peace for both the English and among the Maori.
We toured the marae and the Treaty House. The former is intricately carved and the latter had case after case of interesting displays about the people involved and their lives.
The Treaty Grounds is wonderfully situated on the Bay of Islands and everywhere there’s a postcard view of blue water, islands, sailboats, parasails, kayaks, etc.
After lunch in the parking lot, we drove north to Kerikeri and visited the Stone Store. It’s New Zealand’s oldest stone building and is today still a store. However, it stocks many interesting period items such as hand-wrought nails, jute sacks, period toys such as tops, pennywhistles, draughts, etc,, garden tools, several nice folding knives, iron-work, period locks, etc. It also has its share of New Zealand kitsch but it was more interesting than most tourist stores.
We then drove north to Mangonui and a fish-and-chips shop we read about. We had an early supper of flounder-and-chips and a carafe of wine. I couldn’t believe the clerk when she told be the flounder-and-chips would be $6 given that we’ve paid twice that elsewhere but it was indeed true.
We continued across the island and turned north on Far North Highway. I think I had expected beaches on both sides of us but it was still mostly cattle country. We could sometimes see water off to the east but mostly it was winding through grassy fenced farms for miles and miles.
We eventually reached Cape Reinga Lighthouse, the almost-northernmost point in New Zealand. There’s a headland which can’t be reached by car a bit further east but talk of covering New Zealand from end to end normally cites Cape Reinga as the northernmost point and Bluff as the southernmost point.
We walked down to the lighthouse about an hour before sunset and took photos of the mixing of the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea. The Tasman is trending one direction, the Pacific another so where they meet has standing waves and looks ominous, even on a sunny summer afternoon like today.
We didn’t wait for sunset because we weren’t sure of our campground and didn’t want to arrive after dark. We drove a few klicks down a nearby dirt road to Tapotupotu Bay and a DOC camp. This one is basically open grassy areas along the beach for $6 per person a night. Good one!
Since we had already eaten at the fish-and-chips shop and we only had about a half-hour before dark, I took a folding chair and walked out to a beach overlook with two hard-ciders and watched the night come on. Ahhhh.....

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Tuesday, 26 March -

After pack-up at our suburban ‘campsite’ we set the GPS for a K-mart near the Auckland airport. I had seen a wheeled duffle-bag at the Riccarton K-mart the day we arrived and thought it would be perfect as a way to maximize the carrying capacity of our checked bags (in order to avoid the extra-bag charge we had to pay on the inbound flight). However, the theory was abruptly brought to a halt when I found the K-mart here doesn’t stock the bag. The manager knew the bag I was speaking of and said they hadn’t carried it in about a year. Oddly, she couldn’t tell me whether any other K-marts might have it nor could she look it up online without a bar code (!!!!). She helpfully gave me directions to a competitor’s store but they didn’t have the right bag either.
We decided we’d better check our local camping options for our last day here so we drove to a campervan overnighting facility right at the airport. This was an odd little place in that it was a parking lot with a credit-card machine out front to work the gate. For $40 you can get past the gate and inside they have power points and toilets with pay showers but no tables--- just up-against-the-next-guy parking spots. I was put off by this place and moved on.
We drove on another ten minutes to a regional park where we could camp in a field for $24 but at least it doesn’t look like an airport parking lot. This one, oddly, requires you to push a button on an intercom to talk to someone at Auckland government council to book a site. That’s fine but the phone puts you on hold listening to a recording until someone picks up. Then after you start talking to the person the phone goes dead. We called back and learned that’s how the phone works--- it times out after a few minutes! We made our arrangements and paid our bill with the second person and just as she started to read off the gate code to get in the gate, the phone went dead again. When I called back AGAIN, another person answered and they had to juggle phones to get me to the right person for the gate code!
After we made our reservation we had lunch and then had a packing session on our picnic table. Our secret weapon is a zip-out compartment in the one bag which enlarges it quite a bit yet only takes it to the maximum size. We hadn’t used it on our other flight. Also, one of the backpacks has metal stiffeners which can be removed, allowing it to be squished down to a minimal size. With these two tricks and a decision to leave behind most of our touring books, we should be able to just make it and avoid the extra-bag charge.... not to mention the extra expense of the rolling duffle we thought we’d need ($39). In any case, this little exercise was well worth it. We know where we’re going to stay the last night and we have plenty of time allotted for our packing and prepping for the flight and are reasonably sure we aren’t going to have a last-minute panic as we pack on the day of our flight.
We then started north. I set the GPS for Whangerai to get us through the city and up Highway 1. When we reached there around 1600 we set it for our goal for the day at Waitangi.
Our luck with cheap campsites ran out around Waitangi. There’s nothing reasonable along the way or within an easy drive so we ended up staying at a commercial site for $30 for the night. We have nice clean $2 showers and a few other little amenities and this is a high-rent area. Thanks to the number of freebies we’ve gotten before tonight, though, the $30 isn’t a big deal.
We spoke at some length with the owner who toured the US on a Harley a few years ago and then had a supper of lamb sausage and salad washed down with Isaac’s Cider.
After dark we both got busy on the laptops and in reading our guidebooks.

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Monday, 25 March -

As I looked out from time to time overnight I saw the sky was overcast. The moon is nearly full now so its light behind the clouds still brightened things but we didn’t see a star. This morning the clouds covered the top of the Mount Doom volcano but not long after breakfast they cleared as did the cloud cover in general.
We had expected a cold night and in fact had been warned our night would be cold up on our mountainside camp. But the thermometer showed it was a comfortable 52.... good sleeping weather.
After pack-up we drove down to the Whakapapa Visitor’s Center and learned about the nearby volcanoes.
We then walked on down to the fancy Chateau and walked through the massive common area with it’s 16-ft ceilings and massive chandeliers. As we looked out the feature window at the volcano’s cone, I noticed something scampering across the lawn. It was a stoat! We know it as the ermine but this little guy is public enemy number one in New Zealand. Near the walking trail we took yesterday, there are 1100 stoat and possum traps, each baited with either one or two eggs. The stoats and possums prey on birds and the flightless birds like the kiwi are particularly vulnerable. Both stoats and possums are non-native species introduced from Australia. The stoats were brought over to stop the rabbits from over-running the country and the possum was brought in to establish a fur industry.
There’s a huge controversy over a poison known as ‘1080’. Its purpose is to reduce the stoat and possum population and in many areas it’s distributed by large bucket-style spreaders suspended under helicopters. In the South Island we saw many, many signs protesting the use of 1080 and many of the trails we walked had signs warning of the presence of 1080 pellets in the area.
After Whakapapa we drove through the odd-looking country around the volcanos to the crossroads of National Park and joined Highway 4 running northwest. We spent the rest of the morning and half the afternoon driving through to Raglan, a west-coast surfing town which had a cameo in the well-known surfing movie ‘The Endless Summer’. It’s a small town at the edge of dairy country but is well-known to surfers for it’s beautiful beach on the Tasman Sea.
We drove through Raglan to the beach and took a few photos of the surfers and the waves, then checked out a nearby campground. We could stay cheap enough but we weren’t really into the surfing scene so we moved on.
We spent the next several hours driving up Highway 22, a winding and narrow country road through sheep and dairy country. We set the GPS for a free campsite at Pukehoe and found it with some difficulty. The site is a suburban sports park with tennis courts and field-hockey paddocks but we have a nice section of the parking lot all to ourselves.

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Sunday, 24 March -

We woke to a foggy morning but it was only a ground fog in our little river valley. After pack-up we drove only two or three minutes to emerge from the valley to a viewpoint overlooking the township (town) of Taupo and the north end of the lake on a sunny-bright morning.
We then drove into Taupo and found a Countown grocery. We’ve been partial to New World grocery stores but thought we should try it. It’s similar in nature but carries slightly different lines.
We then hit the nearby town park for our dump station chores and re-filling the water tank. For the most part water has been very good. We’ve only encountered a few places where the water isn’t potable. The number of public toilets and dump stations has been a welcome change from home. Nearly every little town has public toilets and most have a nearby dump station for campers passing through. Often the dump stations are located at a town park or, surprisingly, a refuse recycling station. The great, great majority have been free, even when hosted by a petrol station. We did run into a few which required a $2 payment but we just moved on. And at Fox Glacier we paid a $5 fee at a private campground because we had a full grey-water tank. We’ve subsequently learned the grey-water tank isn’t vented properly and was fooling us into thinking the tank was drained when it wasn’t and we’d end up with a full tank even though we hadn’t used much water in the sink.
We then went into town to a coffee shop with free wi-fi. I uploaded the blog and Labashi did some research on the web and we both retrieved our email.
We then drove around through Taupo just looking around before heading down the east side of the lake.
At Three Mile Bay we found a nice spot for lunch near the boat ramp. I noticed racing boats nearby and walked over to check them out while Labashi made lunch. It turned out this was a racing event for the New Zealand Water Skiing Association. The boats not only race, they pull a water skier at the same time!
While watching a race event I heard a familiar sound overhead and sure enough it was a parachute. We were close to the airport and sky-divers were jumping. Also, a floatplane flew over and circled at the Taupo end of the lake before making a water landing.
After lunch we drove on down the lake and on to our walk for today at Lake Rotopoumanu. This is a two-hour walk around a very pretty lake hidden away in the mountains. The path is through giant rimu and beech trees and is wide enough for two to walk abreast. Every 20 minutes or so, you come to a short trail to a small beach and it makes a nice break to just take a few minutes and listen to the silence. We saw only one robin, one fantail, and a dozen or so ducks (mallards, I think) but the trees were magnificent.
We then drove south on 47 and took photos of the volcanos. One is newly active since November 2012 and was actively steaming away today. Another, Mount Ngauruhoe, is a perfect cone and is spectacular. It starred as Mount Doom in the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’.
We continued on to Whakapapa Village and on up the ski-village road to our ‘campsite’ at Scoria Flat. We missed it at first because it’s just an extra-wide place in the road. We didn’t recognize what it was at first but we had chatted with a local before heading up and he mentioned the Scoria Flat area is the chaining pulloff in the winter for cars going up to the ski village. In any case, we had it all to ourselves and had both a sunset to our west and the moon rising over Mount Doom to our east. We are parked among a moonscape of lava with very odd white, spongy growth and a few colorful flowers.
As sunset progressed we were treated to a light show to our west, then the sky clouded over. Yet off to the east we can see Mount Doom with a wreath of cloud lit by the nearly-full moon. What a special place! Labashi says this camping spot is second only to our spot under Mount Cook.

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