Ahipara - Our two weeks as beach bums

Ahipara is a spot I had heard about numerous times as we prepared for our trip to New Zealand and while we were travelling around the country. I was very excited to see the place that had featured so strongly in Iain's memories.

En route to Ahipara we stopped for one night in Hamilton and one night on the outskirts of Auckland. It was a beautiful drive from Auckland into the Northlands through twisty roads and lush bush, fruit crops and sheep fields. There were so many fruit shops along the way we had to stop and grab a van full of fresh produce which we got for a quarter of the normal price. We ended up reaching the town of Kataia in the early afternoon. Kataia is the last spot to get affordable groceries before you reach Ahipara which is 14 kms away. Once we were loaded up we headed straight to Shipwreck bay which is where Iain had stayed the year before for 5 days.

Shipwreck Bay is the extreme south end of 90mile beach at the tip of the North Island. Right on the bay is a small Maori run campground with basic amenities we were hoping to stay at. Unfortunately, the campground was closed due to unforeseen circumstances, likely they had run out of water. So we drove down onto the beach to watch the surfers who congregate on the point break at Ahipara. Iain was itching to get in the water so he grabbed his wetsuit and board and hit the water, I hung out in the van, my vertigo had started acting up during my last few days in Raglan and I hadn't managed to shake it fully by the time we reached Ahipara. Just before sunset a wet and happy Iain got back to the van and we headed to the far side of Ahipara to the other campground in town. One very expensive night later we decided to look for more permanent diggs.

The previous night we had stopped at a fish and chips shop for Iain and a guy he spoke to gave him a tip on a place that was renting it's cabins out by the week. We drove back down to Shipwreck bay to inquire and ended up finding a great little cabin right next to the one we were originally interested in. For $300/week we had a hot water shower, cooking facilities, a big spacious room and a view to kill for. We were 20 feet from white sand and 30 feet from the high tide line. There were surfable waves to either side of us and endless miles of beach to explore. Heaven.

We spent two weeks in Ahipara. After the first 3 days Iain picked up a miserable cold so his surfing days were limited and when he began to feel better the surf died down to nothing. Most of our time was spent walking along the beaches searching for paua shells, watching movies rented from Kataia and reading. We read countless books, it was easy to slip into a totally relaxed lifestyle with no time pressures, to worries and no stress.

We did become friends with our landlord, Hugh. Huge was an older bachelor who had farmed his whole life but had moved to Ahipara for a change of pace when his mother died. He had taken over the rental cabins when his sister decided to move on to a bigger community and he had never looked back. He thoroughly enjoyed feeding us, both wonderful dinners and great stories. Sometime in our second week Hugh invited us to his house for a fish feast. While upstairs I got to poke around his space, namely I got to ogle his collection of china tea and coffee sets (he had to have 20 or 30 complete sets on display) as well as his enormous collection of Kauri gum. Kauri gum is a New Zealand amber that is collected from the swamps around the Northlands. Over the years Hugh had collected and polished the gum he'd found on his farm as well as that he traded from other people. When we left Ahipara he very generously gave us a large piece that Iain or I can polish in our spare time.

For the most part nothing exciting happened in Ahipara. We ate good food, drank a lot of good wine and little bad wine, watched the sun set over the water, played in the waves a little and walked the beautiful beaches. It was the kind of quiet relaxation few people get to experience and I will always treasure it.

Raglan - Surf City Here We Come

We took the road less travelled when we left Waitomo and headed to the coast. We ended up in a tiny little fishing town called Kawhia. We wanted somewhere to spend Easter long weekend with a little surf and sun and thought a small town would have a quiet spot for us. We underestimated the lure of a long weekend. Kawhia boasts a beach with hotsprings, some surf spots and endless possibilities for fishing and tramping. We spent one night in a tiny cramped holiday park near the hotsprings beach and moved on the next morning. As we drove out of town we watched car load after car load of people driving past us.

We drove a dusty, washboard riddled road to the surfing paradise of Raglan. Imagine Tofino with a tropical climate and slightly more space and you've got the town of Raglan. It was beautiful. Unfortunately everyone and their kids and extended family agreed with us. We drove to the surfing beaches to check out the waves, drove past the various holiday parks and finally admitted defeat. There was no way we were going to find an affordable place to stay in Raglan over the Easter weekend and they do not permit freedom camping anywhere within the community. So, we agreed to do the opposite of what everyone else in the country was doing and we drove to the city of Hamilton to find a hotel for 3 days.

We stayed in downtown Hamilton in a cute little hotel with a ton of space, hot shower, internet and cable TV. For three days we hibernated, only leaving the room to forage for fresh food. It was a disgusting waste of a beautiful weekend but we enjoyed every minute of it! On Monday morning we checked out and re-entered the world headed back to Raglan.

Our first stop in Raglan was to the point break to watch the waves and the 'good' surfers for a while. It was an awesome sight as they ripped along the waves, the boards simply extensions of their bodies. There were tiny children skimming along the crests right next to seasoned adults, all of them fearless and gracefull. Finally we felt ready to hit the waves ourselves and we headed for the beach break to try our luck. Raglan beach is a long expanse of white sand with a few grassy dunes in front of a tall bluff. The beach is perfect for every activity under the sun and in the summer months is staffed by lifeguards to protect the swimmers from the rips.

In the skill of surfing Iain was far better than me, he was standing up and duck diving like a pro right from the start, I struggled to get on the board and catch a wave, but I did get up a few times and I had as much fun falling down as I did riding the waves in. After 2 hours our lazy bodies were exhausted and we dragged ourselves up the hill to the van and on to the Soulscape campground.

Our first night in Raglan was a bust. We were put in a gravel parking lot labled a camp ground. It had dirty cooking facilities and overcharged for it's amenities. It was a pretentious money grab posing as an 'eco retreat'. It also boasted a farmyard full of roosters next door. Who keeps 40 roosters? Sadists do. I swear those birds were competing to see who could start crowing the earliest. Both Iain and I were ready to kill a whole lotta poultry by 9am the next day.

We packed up our gear in the drizzle and headed back into town to see if the holiday park was any better. We were given a quiet parking spot along the back fence of the camp ground. We were right next to the tidal river and there was not a single rooster in sight. We had a few trees beside us for shade and privacy and we were feet away from beautiful facilities. We parked our van and there we stayed for the next week.

Our week in Raglan was pretty simple, we would get up and have a liesurely coffee. We would read for most of the morning or we would walk into town to check our email at the library. In the afternoons we would head to the beach to do some surfing. We would often watch the sunset from the lookout point above the beach and somedays we would head down to the point break to watch the pro's in action. It was laid back but active and a lot of fun.

Some of the weeks highlights included a trip to the recycling center where we found the BEST blanket for $5.00. A drive up a dusty washboard road to see another surf beach known only to the locals and a few lucky outsiders. Daily walks around the town and the evening glass of wine at one of the funky restaurants that line the main street.

Our days were idylic; white sand beaches, warm tropical climate, friendly people, good wine, great food and surfing. Unfortunately, the surf died out as it frequently does along the Kiwi coast so by the 12th when we left town there were barely any waves to ride. It did make it easier for us to leave, knowing that we weren't missing any killer surf in the immediate future.

Waitomo Caves

We had a slow start leaving New Plymouth, we got about 20 kms down the highway and stopped for fuel in the town of Stratford, when we started off again we were heading in the wrong direction. After 20 minutes we realized the volcano was on the wrong side of the van so we turned around and headed back. We got to Stratford the second time and headed off in what we thought was the correct direction...this time I got us all turned around and we had to head back a third time. Just outside the town limits we noticed passing vehicles flashing their lights and honking at us so we pulled into the first rest area we came across. Turns out we had no rear driving lights, only brake lights. This was not good, driving a slow van along the dark back roads in New Zealand surrounded by insane Kiwi drivers.

Alternating between confusion, disgust and concern we tried to figure out what was wrong with the lights. Iain was sure it was an electrical problem in the dash, so he crawled under the steering column and wiggled everything he could see. It turns out it was a loose fuse, and he not only fixed the tail lights but the entire dash light system started working again as well!

We drove through Stratford for the third and final time at about 9pm that night, got back on the Forgotten highway and headed towards the Waitomo Caves and the glow worms. We stopped for the night at another roadside rest area in an empty little valley beside a cow pasture. It was a very quiet and we had a restful night and a relaxing coffee in the morning.

The Forgotten highway wound it's way through old forgotten sheep stations, native bush and kilometer after kilometer of pasture land. We also saw lots of limestone outcrops which tantalized us with their climbability.

We pulled into Waitomo at 10:30am. Waitomo is famous for its glow worm caves and Iain assured me it was an experience I shouldn't miss. So I signed us up for a double tour and we headed down into the caves. The first tour focused on the limestone formations; stalactites and stalagmites and information regarding the glow worms themselves. It turns out that the worms are in fact maggots, or fly larvae. The larvae hatch and cling to the roof of the caves feeding on other insects. Each larvae lowers between 10 to 20 sticky saliva strings which dangles beneath it to catch insects that get lost in the cave system. The glow in the glow worm is bioluminescence, a byproduct of digestion. The glow acts as a beacon to lost insects as it looks like a light source or route out of the cave. The confused insect gets trapped in the sticky string as it flies towards the light and is reeled in by the lucky worm. The bioluminescence created by the food helps to lure in other confused bugs. It was a very cool process. We were lucky enough to see one of the flies which had just pupated. After 9 months in it's larval form it had emerged from it's 13 days suspended in a cocoon. It had a ridiculously short time to live (no more than a few days) so it could mate like crazy and lay eggs (about 120) before it died. The fly's lifespan is so short they do not have mouths.

The stalactites and stalagmites were stunning, the caves were very well preserved and in places were more like underground cathedrals than caves. The formations grow at a staggering 1 cubic centimeter every 200 years. In the time it takes the average person to live their entire lives these formations will remain unchanged to the human eye and yet we were seeing fan formations that were meters in length. The tour through the caves took about an hour and was definitely worth the visit.

The second tour was specifically to see the glow worms in all their splendour. We were escorted through a second set of caves and shown more beautiful rock formations then ushered onto a large aluminum boat that floated on an underground river. For 15 minutes we drifted through the glow-worm cave in absolute silence. No one breathed a word, we all just stared at the ceiling in awe. It was like watching the night sky on the clearest night you can imagine. There were millions of tiny blue-white lights scattered across the cave. Some were brighter than others, some formed clusters like distant galaxies...the illusion of the night stars was so real it made my imagination run wild...what am I really seeing when I look up at the stars at night?

We left Waitomo in the afternoon, very happy to have experienced such a lovely natural phenomenon.

The road to Taranaki - Bulls to New Plymouth

We dropped our wayward hitchhiker on the side of quiet highway on the outskirts of Bulls, a town that can boast the largest bull in New Zealand. Wow. With a last wave at the North-coast Canadian boy we headed towards the black sand beaches of the Taranaki region.

The Taranaki region is renowned for many things; world class surfing, dairy cattle, oil and gas fields and abundant crops. The entire region centers around the huge, solitary cinder cone of an extinct volcano. Even on a clear summer day the top of the mountain is glazed with powdery snow and wreathed with puffy clouds. The dense New Zealand jungle rings the bottom half of the mountain and eventually gives way to the fertile flatlands that stretch out to the renowned coastline.

We drove until the deepening twilight forced us to pick a campsite for the night. We found a small holiday park on the edge of a national park and parked the van on a grassy knoll where we could hear the waves crashing below us. After the craziness of Wellington the quiet of the countryside was a welcome relief.

Morning brought rain squalls and howling winds although the light proved to us we had chosen a perfect spot to spend the night. From the van we looked down a small bluff to a narrow river running towards the beach between grass covered dunes. There was a Maori family fishing off the bridge that spanned the river, the kids playing games of tag while the adults patiently waited for their lines to yield dinner.

Iain and I headed down to the beach, winding our way cautiously along the eroding bluff. There was definitely surf in the area, but the winds and foul weather were making absolute chaos out of the waves. We decided to head up towards New Plymouth rather than spend more time at the charming camp ground. We needed more books to read and Iain was searching out surfable waves.

We spent a quiet afternoon driving along the coast, checking it at various beaches and making plans for places we could stop, but in the back of Iain’s mind he planned for us to spend a few days at Kati-kara. We picked up an armful of books in New Plymouth and promptly turned around to head up towards the volcano in search of the Kati-kara commune Iain had visited on a previous trip to New Zealand.

I shouldn’t call Kati-kara a commune, in fact it is a land co-operative that has seen many glory days in the past but has since fallen into disrepair. When we wound our way up single lane roads, past old washouts we found the current ‘owners’ who gave us access to one of the dozen or so buildings on the extensive property. The house was obviously a building that had been evolving slowly over decades. The folks Iain spoke to about staying at the place were in the process of renovating the building to make it livable for a group of troubled teen girls. They wanted to use the property as retreat space for workshops. We were told that for a few hours of labor we could call the place home for as long as we liked.

The best part of the property was the view(which we didn't take any photos of). We were surrounded by jungle on three sides with the Mountain looming right behind our heads. The property was about one third of the way up the volcano's side with no tall trees or buildings to obscure our view. We could see clearly all the way to the coast, we could watch as the sun sank below the horizon igniting the ocean with red and orange fire. Kati-kara was a balm for the soul.

The only fly in the ointment was my vertigo. It had once again reared its ugly head and I spent most of the next 2 days drinking ginger tea flat on my back. In fact I didn’t leave the van at all the second day we were there. Iain spent the day working with the co-op folks, painting windowsills and sanding doorframes, paying for our keep.

After two days we decided to head towards water once again. Raglan surfing was calling our name and I had itchy feet. We wished the Kati-kara folk good luck and headed back towards New Plymouth for one more stop before leaving the Taranaki region.

We stopped in New Plymouth to use the internet at the public library and meet up with Iain’s friend Te-wai, an absolutely wonderful woman who I will always count myself lucky to be friends with. We spent a delightful afternoon with Te-wai and her niece, visiting and swapping stories about Canada and New Zealand. It was the highlight of my trip to the region and I hope that we get the chance to see Te-wai again in the near future.

We left New Plymouth with happy hearts and full bellies thanks to the pure pleasure of Burger Fuel (BURGER FUEL!!!). We headed inland and north onto the Forgotten highway to continue our adventure.

Wellington

We spent 3 days in Wellington, catching up on laundry, doing errands and visiting with Illaria and Larissa. It was a hectic and busy few days, but highly enjoyable after all the lazy days that preceded it.

We enjoyed a few more feasts courtesy of Illaria and Iain, an antipasto type brunch our first day in town thanks to Illaria and Iain created the most decadent crepes for us the second day. My mouth still waters when I think about them.

Our first day was filled with souvenir shopping at an amazing store just past Balena Bay, incredible wool goods at factory prices. Once we had loaded up on our woolly wonders we figured it was time to send a few things home. It took a few hours to organize the van, ourselves and our shipping box, but we had so much glorious space when we were finished!

We wanted to be close to town for the next few days so we parked for the night in the Te Papa Museum overnight lot and went out to explore Wellington; something the weather had prevented us from doing on our previous visit. We discovered that the downtown area frowns upon campers, although they don't outright ban them. Instead they make it very inconvenient for us by closing ALL the public toilets at 9pm. Of course it's not just because of the plethora of campers that park at Te Papa, but it did feel like we were being targeted. We pondered our options as we walked back to the van and discovered a few creative options that made the next few nights at Te Papa much more agreeable. Of course, I'll never tell what they were!

We set the alarm and woke up early and got our parcel shipped home for a fairly reasonable rate courtesy of Kiwi Post. Once our chores were done the day was filled with pleasure seeking. We enjoyed the crepes with Illaria then beer and cider on an ocean side patio in the sunshine followed by three hours exploring the phenomenal exhibits at Te Papa museum. Our first trip to the museum I had only managed a taste of what it held, I wanted to explore every nook and cranny on my second trip. I enjoyed modern art, ancient history, naturalist displays, the history of the earth and New Zealand culture among others. I could spend days there and not get bored, it is a marvelous museum. There was one painting, 'The Widow' done by Charles F. Goldie in 1902, that had me spellbound for quite some time. It was undoubtedly the most memorable object in the museum for me after the full size meeting house in the Maori exhibit.

That night we enjoyed a few more drinks on a patio on Cuba Street downtown then headed off for the visual feast that is Alice in Wonderland. We saw the movie in an old converted opera house, there was a wine bar upstairs and lovely plush seats to relax and enjoy the film from. So much fun!

Our second to last day we spent most of in the internet cafe, Immigration offices, I-sight and DOC offices. We had to change our airline tickets and extend our visas so we could spend extra time exploring the west coast of the North Island. It was occasionally tedious but successful, we were granted a month long extension and Air Canada changed our flights with no problems.

We had arranged to meet up with Illaria when she finished work and we greeted her on the dockside patio of the Mac's Brewery and Pub. We had a cold pitcher of beer and seats in the sunshine; it promised to be a good afternoon. After chatting and drinking for a few hours we convinced Illaria to stay out with us and we moved our party to Cuba Street where another pitcher of beer and a few cider were imbibed on a patio in the middle of the street. Cuba Street is similar in feeling to Gas Town in Vancouver, a narrow street with lots of shops and restaurants and trendy pubs. Street buskers appear every hundred feet; some with phenomenal talent others sadly lacking any. We were accosted by a drunken trombone player who sidled up to our booth to bum a smoke, he perched on the ledge beside our table and made incoherent conversation until our laughter drove him on.

Around 7pm Illaria pulled us to her restaurant, the Olive Cafe, to meet up with Larissa and a few other friends. We transitioned to wine and started learning the history of our new acquaintances. The only person I remember is a fellow traveller, Tyler from Prince Rupert, who ended up needing a ride towards Taranaki. We drunkenly arranged to meet him at the Olive the next day as we were heading the same direction and could take him with us. People came and went, more wine was drunk and eventually we were the only rowdy and boisterous group remaining at the cafe. It was late and the staff wanted to go out to enjoy their own Friday night so we were kicked out into the street to either head home or find further entertainment. I was ready to sleep so after a brief stop at a kebab shop Iain and I staggered back to the museum and the sanity of our van.

The next day was rough, as they always are. Breakfast was foraged at the local grocery store where we gratefully clutched our fresh coffee. We ate on a bench overlooking the docks, and watched in fascination as a serious of million dollar speed boats were lowered into the water by cranes. Apparently there was a competition that weekend and people with futuristic looking and fantastically fast boats from all over the country came to compete.

Neither of us had much energy so we killed time at the internet cafe before our meeting time with Tyler at the Olive Cafe. We also stopped at my new favorite restaurant - Burger Fuel. I could get a tasty and totally edible gluten free burger with kumra fries and Iain could enjoy a normal burger and fries for under $25. Heaven!

We said goodbye to Illaria and Larissa at the Olive, grabbed Tyler when he arrived and after a few wrong turns headed out of Wellington.

Back to the Northlands

We drove through beautiful pastoral land on our way from Christchurch up towards Kaikoura where we planned to spend the night. The purple light lengthened the shadows of the world around us and I daydreamed while Iain drove. It was long past dark when we pulled into Kaikoura. We both had the itch to keep driving, so after a quick dinner at Subway we hit the highway again looking for a free rest area to camp for the night.

The road was full of curves and sharp bends, one side was a rock wall and the other the pounding ocean surf. Huge semi-trucks with double and triple trailers would scream past our little van like banshees in the night. I was very relieved when we pulled off the highway into a semi sheltered picnic area beside the beach.

The night was pitch black, pierced occasionally by the headlights of a passing motorist. What we couldn't see we could hear; the screaming of a gull colony on the rocks, the rhythmic pounding of the surf and the occasional grunt and splash of a nearby fur seal. I stepped outside the van to brush my teeth and could swear there was a fur seal grunting in the sea grass next to us...I didn't leave the van again that night! We fell asleep enjoying the tranquility of a remote beach side bed.

We started the next day slowly, feeling no need to rush as our ferry wasn't until 10pm the next day. We drank our coffee sitting behind the van, soaking up the view of what we had only heard the previous night. The coastline was jagged with huge shards of rocks emerging from the sea, frothy white waves smashing them over and over again. Stone that was below the water line was smooth, worn down over time by the relentless sea. There was abundant sea life, oystercatchers, shags, herons and a variety of gulls perched on exposed rocks or bobbed on the waves while sea lions lolled on the rocks soaking up the sunshine. With all the wave action, beach combing absorbed me for at least an hour, finding paua shells, periwinkles and a myriad of others.

Eventually we repacked the van and headed on towards Picton, our departure point for the Interislander ferry to Wellington. It was drizzly and grey as we navigated the corkscrew road which made it more difficult for Iain but didn't diminish the scenery watching for me. What a stunning coastline! We passed fur seal colonies and rocky beaches, surf spots and scenic view points.

We arrived in Picton and split up to do some shopping, there were a number of cute little tourist shops with unique items and I enjoyed poking around for a few hours. Iain rented us a room in a downtown hotel and we spent the remainder of the day relaxing and exploring the tiny town. We found a wonderful Irish pub where we enjoyed a few pints before dinner then called it a night.

Our last day in Picton was beautifully sunny but dreadfully windy. The wind howled into town off the water all day making sitting outside to enjoy the sunshine almost impossible. We did a little more shopping but I spent the remainder of our time reading in the van while Iain went to a movie in the grand Picton Theater. It was nice to get on the ferry that night.

We once again experienced a night sailing - one day I would like to see the crossing between the North and South Islands, but the dark of night fit our budget. We got on and quickly snagged the cushioned bench seats beating the other inexperienced van-folk! The crossing was rough, very, very rough as the wind and waves pounded us for 3 hours. We each managed to get a little sleep enroute but I was looking forward to parking that night.

When we finally docked in Wellington it was with great relief that we disembarked. We headed back to our old home in Balena Bay in the suburbs outside Wellington but the wind was howling so badly that the van was rocking, the windows shuddering and every crack in the vehicle was emitting a discordant whistle. I asked Iain if we could find somewhere else and we managed to find a quieter spot along the road into town. We gratefully sank into bed and slept like the dead.

Christchurch and baby Téa

We enjoyed a few days in Christchurch before we headed north to Picton to catch the ferry back to the North Island. After a restful sleep in Sumner we headed to the library next to Sheena and Joel's to catch up on some email, while I worked on the blog Iain went next door to meet the new addition to their family - Téa.

Téa had been born ten days previously while Iain and I were on Stewart Island. We had hoped to meet her before we left New Zealand and we weren't disappointed, she is beautiful! We were invited to stay for dinner that night and to be honest neither Iain nor I wanted to let Téa go. We each had a chance to hold her, she was so tiny, barely a handful in Iain's arms. The new parents were radiant and exhausted but the family looked beautiful together.

We parked the van in the driveway for a few nights and enjoyed the hospitality of the Nordman clan while we did some touristy things in Christchurch. We headed to the weekend market in Cathedral Square where Iain picked up a few souvenirs then we wandered past the river Avon to poke around in the artisans market. We checked out some sheepskin stores and focused our time on finding souvenirs and visiting.

Our last day in Christchurch Sheena and Joel took us to an outdoor climbing wall on the edge of the city, a place we had visited before. Sheena had Téa all bundled up on her chest as we made the short hike into the wall and I imagined the many adventures in store for her in the future. Sheena's mom accompanied us to give climbing a try and proved to be an excellent beginner! Iain, Joel and I each climbed two routes, and while I am very rusty I truly enjoyed the challenge.

Leaving Sheena, Joel and Téa was very difficult for Iain and I. Their home had been opened up to us and had become our home in New Zealand. We knew it was the end of our time on the South Island which had been utterly magical for the both of us. It was a mixture of excitement and sadness that filled my heart as we hugged Sheena and Joel goodbye. Excitement because we were off to explore unseen territory and sadness because it may be years before we see each other in person again.

We drove out of Christchurch towards Picton for the last time in 2010 on a warm but cloudy afternoon. There was still so much to see!