Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Grandad and Mia were kind enough to watch the kidlets while we hiked the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19 kilometer hike between two volcanoes, with Uncle Nicholas and Aunt Julia. And thanks to Barry for giving us a lift to the trail and picking us up with beer on hand. The photos really speak for themselves.

Waimarino Adventure Park and Glow-Worms

Headed west from Papmoa Beach to the port city of Tauranga where we had breakfast at the Mediterraneo Café.

Spent the afternoon at the Waimarino Adventure Park on the Wairoa River. Purchase of a pass gets you access to all the kayaking, pedal boating, wall climbing, rope swinging, and obstacle coursing you can do in one day. Waimarino took every clever summer camp activity and put them together on the eastern bank of the Wairoa River. A local rugby team stretched out the amazing Blob. Watch what happens when your buddies team up and jump on the far end.

That night, Waimarino took us on an adventure glow-worm paddle on the McLaren Lake. Glow-worms are the larval stage of the fungus fly. They phosphoresce to attract prey and mates in the damp, dark caves and dells where they dwell. We watched the sun set on Lake McLaren while munching on cheese and crackers and swilling Marlborough-region wine. Twilight gave way to a clear, starry night. I can’t remember the last time I saw the Milky Way so bright. After paddling for about an hour, we reached a dark canyon so speckled with glow-worms it was hard to tell sky from canyon wall from water that reflected both.

Papamoa Beach

Enjoyed a relaxing day on Papamoa Beach. The kids had a ball playing in the sand and on the playground with new-found friends. Sawyer even made time to ride the go-carts with the older kids.

Ohakune to Papmoa Beach

Heading north through the desert we passed Mt. Ruapehu...


and Mt. Ngaurahoe, known as Mt. Doom to Lord of the Rings fans. We skirted Taupo and Rotorua and the lakes they sit next to. Rotorua has a distinct eggy odor from the volcanic activity underneath.


We briefly stopped at Huka Falls where all of Lake Taupo squeezes into New Zealand’s longest river, the Waikato. As you can see, it’s quite a pinch. Lots of tourist snapping pictures. We took a short hike to look at falls from several different angles.







Stopped at the Honey Hive for honey ice cream. New Zealand is a major honey producer and consumer.



We reached Papamoa Beach Holiday Park on the Bay of Plenty late in the afternoon. The kids went directly to the playground jumping pillow—a 30 x 50 foot inflatible rubber pillow. It pays to be the heaviest jumper. Ivy was nearly launched into the cabbage trees when I tried to do a front flip.



Papamoa Beach is long, white, sandy, and quiet. We backed our campervans to the edge of the bluff overlooking the beach and had great views of the surf and, at night, the stars.

Coach Road Mountain Bike

We took a bike ride on the Coach Road Walk to the Hapuawhenua and Toanui viaducts, the only two curved viaducts in the southern hemisphere. The Coach Road, competed in 1886, linked the gap in rail service between Auckland in the north and Wellington in the south. The railroad was completed in 1908 and the road was frozen in time. It is now a hiker/biker trail.

The trail goes mostly uphill through big sky rangeland. Everyone but me rented a bike. With Ivy on my back, I pulled Sawyer’s bike along with my belt. A little nudge is all he needed.
At the top of the hill the trail passes an abandoned railroad tunnel. We rode through the pitch dark tunnel to the gate at the end. It’s now fenced off so hikers aren’t creamed by trains traveling the new track which passes by the tunnel exit.

Past the tunnel entrance, the trail winds through a dark forest filled with mighty kauri trees. On the other side of the mountain the trail travels the old viaduct.

We had a nice lunch then pedaled back, going downhill mostly. “Yahoo! I love mountain biking!!!” yelled Sawyer all the way home. He was unaware he was mountain biking until we told him: “I am? I didn’t know I could mountain bike.” Oh well, last year he put “air guitar” on his Christmas list.

Here we are later having ice cream in our big campervan.

Palmerston North to Ohakune

With Grandad Ron and Mia following in their abbreviated campervan, we headed North to volcano country in the center of the north island. Not far from Palmy, the north island’s highest mountain and largest active volcano, Mount Ruapehu, came into sight, punctuating the farmland.



We stopped for burgers at the aptly named Aeroplane Café in Mangaweka. To Sawyer’s dismay, the DC-3 parked outside was closed for maintenance.



We also stopped several times to take pictures of the beautiful landscape. Sheep, cows, grassy hills, steep valleys, mountains, endless horizon… “Can you believe we’re in New Zealand!” I said to Hillery.





We stopped for the night at the Ohakune Top Ten Holiday Park. Ohakune is a little ski town south of Mount Ruapehu. The town was pretty quiet: past the summer holiday season and before the winter ski season. We took the two campsites next to the playground. The kids bounced so long on the trampoline I was afraid their retinas might detach.




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Wellington to Palmerston North

I took the train from Wellington Station to Plimmerton to fetch our Pacific Horizons campervan. The van had an air of familiarity after our January south island trip. This one is slightly bigger than the last. I drove directly to the Kilbirnie Pak ‘N’ Save to load up on supplies, leaving the children with the babysitter while Hillery worked.



Back at Chevening, Sawyer helped me load the van while Ivy slept. To distract him and keep him quiet, I let him play in the van, which was parked on the sidewalk. From the living room windows, I watched him pretend to drive and shoot pedestrians with his imaginary pistol.

I strapped the kids into their seatbelts at around four-thirty and headed toward downtown to collect Hillery. Rush hour traffic was heavy. State Highway 1, the major artery to Auckland and points between is a winding two-lane highway, but a scenic route it takes to the Kapiti Coast before turning inland to farm country around Palmerston North. Sharp, mostly bald hills shape the landscape. Autumn is here and more evident away from coastal Wellington.

We stopped at La Casa Romana, a little cheese shop and café in Otaki, for pizza.



We arrived at Aunt Julia and Uncle’s Nicholas’ lovely house on Savage Crescent in Palmerston North at around 8 o’clock. The grown-ups had decaf espresso with Baileys. Uncle Nicholas again tried to explain rugby to me.



We fell into our campervan routine with relative ease. Sawyer slept in the loft, Hillery and I slept in the stern, and Ivy slept in the middle berth.

“Palmy” is on flat land. The streets are wide and straight. The houses sit in neat rows.

After a quick breakfast the next morning we went to nearby Fitzherbert Park to play on the playground, have a break at the café, and tour the wonderful-smelling rose garden.




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Easter!

The Easter bunny left a trail of eggs down the stairs and to the backyard.

“In America, the eggs are plastic and you can open them up and there are chocolates inside,” said Sawyer. In New Zealand, brown eggs are full of Dad’s hot air. I narrowly escaped giving myself a cerebral aneurysm blowing out the yolks.



Hillery’s folks visited for the weekend. Hillery’s parents arrived in New Zealand last Wednesday. Uncle Nicholas and Aunt Julia brought a delicious ham from a butcher near their home in Palmerston North. We watched the NCAA final four tournament online while the baking ham’s delicious aroma filled the building, leaving the Wellington wind to huff and puff outside. Go, Butler!





Celebrated Ron’s 29th birthday with a carrot cake that Hillery, Sawyer, and Ivy baked. Tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Zealandia

Zealandia opens. As members, we took advantage of a sneak preview. Very cool exhibit of what New Zealand looked like before humans arrived. Zealandia, now known as New Zealand, was part of the Gondwana supercontinent, which included Africa, South America, Australia, India, Madagascar, and Antarctica.

As illustrated in the very cool, computer-animated movie, humans really screwed up a habitat cut off from the rest of the world for millions of years when they brought rats, dogs, pigs, shopping malls, decaffeinated coffee, etc. Zealandia is part of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. An 8.6km vermin-proof fence protects native endangered species, including the tuatara reptile, kiwi bird, and the giant weta beetle. The fence even keeps out mice. Visitors are asked to leave their vermin outside the fence.

We had a picnic, watched the shags hang out on the pond, and looked for kiwi.



As we later learned, kiwis are extremely territorial. I do not recommend calling outside their burrows.




We rode the bus home. That night before bed, Ivy and I read Who Sank the Boat. Do you know who sank the boat?