24th-27th October 2008: Great Barrier Island

It was the labour day bank holiday weekend in New Zealand. We heard the traffic was likely to be terrible so we took a ferry to Great Barrier Island for a three-day walk. Photos here.

Great Barrier Island reminded us of the Isles of Scilly. With a population of around 800, it has a small-community feel, very few roads, and a laid-back attitude to bus timetables. Fortunately we fell on the right side of this with a lovely chatty lady called Christine of Great Barrier Travel who drove us to and from our walk and was happy to stop at coffee shops and view points for us. She also took advantage of our trip to distribute fresh bread around the island, flown in that morning.

Friday - stayed at Stray Possum Lodge, cheap lodge/backpacker accommodation. We were pleasantly surprised that the landlady took us at our word when we asked for our steaks very rare.

Saturday - walked from Windy Canyon to Kaiaraara Hut, via Mount Hobson and a spectacular kauri dam on Kaiaraara Track (photo). Took 5 hours or so and included a few steep slippery bits that had us pretty well climbing down trees at the side of the path. The only other hut occupants were a lovely couple, Angie and Tim, who gave us some good pointers on where to go next in NZ.

Sunday - Kaiaraara Hut to Great Barrier Lodge via the old Forest Road, around 5 hours again. The track passes two huge old kauri trees - a rare sight since most of the big kauris were logged a hundred years ago - which made Tim very happy. (photo)

Great Barrier Lodge was lovely - a simple room with a huge comfy bed and sunny view of the harbour. That, combined with a couple of lamb racks and a big breakfast, was exactly what we needed after 2 days' walking.

Monday - 3-hour walk out to the road via the Kaitoke Hot Springs, natural thermal pools in a stream. Really cool to be in proper natural pools, though we weren't sure about the amout of wildlife we were sharing them with. (photo)

Another win for the Lonely Planet - the walk route was taken from its Tramping in New Zealand book.

18th-19th October 2008: Skiing on Mount Ruapehu

Drove down to Mount Ruapehu for a weekend's skiing with Claire, Graham, Jane and Brian. It was a bit late in the season: Saturday's weather was cloud and some freezing rain, but on Sunday the sun came out and we had some great spring skiing.

The Turoa ski area, although supposedly one of the largest in NZ, was tiny compared to what I'm used to. There was only one decent lift to speak of! I guess I have been spoilt by the likes of Val D'Isere and Meribel. Still, the slopes were wide and the snow was good. Amusingly there's only 7km (by road) between snow and palm trees. Something to do with having a single big mountain sticking out of an otherwise lush and flat landscape.

We stayed in the Waireka lodge, which was very well equiped and comfortable. A hot tub to relax in after skiing is always welcome.

The mountain is an active volcano, although it's pretty quiet at the moment. No eruptions to report.

10th-13th October 2008: Bay of Islands

Chartered a yacht for a long weekend's sailing in the Bay of Islands. Freewheeling was a Davidson 28 of circa 1980. Sturdy and easy to sail, with vintage decor and yellow patterned glass windows on the lockers. Fairwind Charters were helpful and efficient and we will use them again.

Had a fantastic weekend with perfect easygoing wind of 10-20 knots. The Bay of Islands could have been designed for sailing (Slartibartfast, was it you?) crammed with pretty bays - always one available to shelter you from any angle of wind.

High spot of the weekend was finding a pod of dolphins, we think 6-10, who swam and played around our yacht for several minutes. We were also offered some uber-fresh snapper by a fishing yachtie in one cove, but preferred chilling out with some wine to attempting to gut fish.

Great chilled-out weekend, and good for Sophie's sailing skills to be one of two people rather than the usual one of 6 or so. Photos here.

Itinerary:

Friday: collected boat 5pm, motored from Opua wharf to an anchorage in Pomare Bay.

Saturday: sailed to Motuarohia Island and climbed the hill. Sailed around Piercy Island and back to Oke Bay for the night.

Sunday: through Albert Channel and drifted round Urupukapuka Island. Played with dolphins in Paradise Bay for a while, then sailed round some islands and anchored in Opunga Cove.

Monday: North around Tikitiki Island. Anchored for lunch west of Te Pahi Isles. Through Kent Passage and back to Opua about 3:30pm.

3rd-5th October 2008: Rotorua

Finally made it to RotoVegas, after threatening to go about every weekend for the last six.

Stayed two nights in Treks Backpackers, pretty much in the middle of town. Cheap, clean accommodation with a comfy bed and a decent shower, though there were a few comedy reception-desk moments including a 2am phone call checking whether we had arrived safely. Good value at $74 for an en-suite double.

On Saturday we started with a light bacon and egg breakfast in a small cafe, then drove to Te Puia (photos). Saw the impressive Pohutu geyser as well as lots of bubbling mud and a boiling spring in which they were cooking corn on the cob. They have two kiwis in a special dark kiwihouse, where they seem to keep the birds perpetually jet-lagged so they're active during the day. Also saw a Maori cultural show, which was interesting and only a little cheesy.

From there to some thermal pools to swim. We decided to go to Waikite Valley, which looked a bit nearer to nature than the town-centre offerings. It turned out to be a good choice - amazing boiling river feeding half a dozen pools of different temperatures, all in the middle of a beautiful green valley. Much better than Waiwera which was twice the price and more pretentious without being better.

After that exertion we were in need of a slap-up 3-course dinner, provided very competently by Lewisham's in central Rotorua. Delicious food, excellent service, tasty little South African gooseberries. (Oh, and gluten-free walnut cake.)

Sunday started with a feast of a breakfast in the Fat Dog Cafe, which we sorely needed after such a light dinner. Soph had "veggie works", which seemed to contain about 7 eggs scrambled and a kilo of fried potatoes and other goodies. This kept her going without lunch, for about the first time ever.

We then drove to see the blue and green lakes, which turned out to be more green and grey, but perhaps that was due to the drizzly weather. The Buried Village museum was interesting, and had a stunning waterfall in its grounds as an unexpected bonus. There were also some rainbow trout in the river, looking sleek and tasty.

We then headed to the Agrodome for some "extreme fun". Sophie thought the Zorb was silly, but enjoyed it anyway. (You dive into an inflated sphere with a bucket of water and roll down a hill. It is silly.) Finally, we watched the sheep show, which was unexpectedly good and worth catching.

Now we have to sort through 100 photos of bubbling mud and see if any of them caught it mid-bubble... UPDATE: One did!

28th September 2008: Auckland Museum

We decided to have a quiet weekend in Auckland, before the next four weeks of frenzied activity...

Had a nice walk in the warm sunshine to the Auckland Museum, which is in the middle of the Auckland Domain. It's nominally a war memorial museum, but has lots of other exhibits too, including some interesting Maori stuff and a good section on volcanoes. There's a clever audio-visual presentation on what would happen if a new volcano erupted in the Auckland region.

We saw about half the museum - need to go back another time.

24th September 2008: The Dentist's Chair at Sky City Theatre

The Dentist's Chair was a nice little comedy about adultery, dentists, murder and the electric chair. Organised by Justine, and with the usual CHP suspects.

The cast was about half a dozen people including two musicians (one double bass, one banjo, one occasional clarinet). The guy who played William Kemmler (first person ever to be executed in the electric chair) was particularly good and had a lovely singing voice. Music refreshingly un-Lloyd-Webber-ish too, more veering towards a sinister Deep South/country style.