We love New Zealand

We spent our last night camping at an eco-retreat called Solscape that had a few campsites.  This is the view from the eating area right outside of reception:

Almost all of the campsites in New Zealand are in prime property.. the most beautiful locations in the area. It’s a wonderful gift to people who are visiting.

We felt very grateful to have a day of cloud cover. I hope I can remember this feeling in February.  We can spend more time outside when it’s cooler so we headed out to Bridal Veil Falls. We took a short a walk through a forest so we could view a 150 foot waterfall.

Our last morning, we had a vegan breakfast outside our groovy campsite overlooking the ocean. We cleaned up the van, then dropped it off and headed to the airport.

I have lots of impressions of New Zealand. I’ve been surprised by how British the New Zealanders seem to me. I don’t know why I am surprised since they are part of the commonwealth. All of their gossip magazines and “women’s” magazines had British royals on the cover. Prince Harry is getting married. Have you heard?

In the spirit of Britain, I decided to watch a documentary about the life of Princess Diana as told by HRH (his royal highnesses?) Harry and William while I was on the plane. 20 years ago, I thought it was tragic that Diana died but hearing the story from her sons was really heartbreaking. I cried throughout. I am curious now how those two people seem so decent. They give their mom all the credit. Anyway, royals.

So we landed in Australia last night. Perfect weather, water, palm trees and crazy spiders. We are happy to see our friends and have a different temporary home.

about RV camping

Most of our campgrounds have been really amazing. They are in prime real estate near beaches or lakes. For the most part, the campgrounds have been pretty empty but now that summer has started, there are more people here.

We pulled into Raglan, a beach town on the west coast last night around 5. We were put (as we often are) near the playground because of our kids. Since it is near the end of the school year here, there are many school groups traveling.. a common thing for high school students at the end of their third year.

Turns out the priorities of high school students and middle-aged parents are different. The students loved the playground and played their music loudly while jumping on the enormous inflatable pillow that is a feature of most campgrounds. Sonia loves to be in the middle of the action so she went out to jump too. 

Sonia, to quote one of my cousins describing one of my uncles, could make friends in a cemetery.  She immediately befriended some younger girls on the playground and for a while they danced to the explicit lyrics of some shitty rap song. I didn’t know how much of it Sonia heard and decided that in a different time, I would not have been paying any attention so perhaps Sonia could decide for herself what was right for her.

When I looked out the window again, Sonia was instructing one of the older girls to play a song she hears in her girl-power Zumba class so she could show a group of about ten people her Zumba dance. She did this for about a minute before she decided her crowd was not adequately impressed with her dance moves.

So the kids (high school students) congregated at the inflatable balloon and did their weird peacock dances and Ryan and I were annoyed as middle aged people tend to be so we moved campsites today.

Raglan is a well known beach town here. The beaches are expansive so the waves are really long and it’s popular with surfers. The town itself is a bit run down and attracts younger people on vacations. It also clearly attracts wealthy people because there are some fancy homes outside this town.

We spent today at a few different beaches. While Ryan surfed in the morning, I did homework with the kids. We do a little every day. It’s not going great. The kids don’t respond well to my teaching and since I am not a teacher, I am not very good at it. I can see why teachers don’t like parents to pull their kids out of school. 

After homework, we went to a grocery store and then headed out to a really beautiful black sand beach. I know it’s raining and cold in Seattle so I am not complaining when I say — it is hot here. I have started to pay attention to the UV index which you can find on the iOS weather app.

New Zealand has 4 million residents and 3.5 million tourists every year. This is why

another great beach

The water was Pacific NW cold but the sun is so hot you happily jump in with no wetsuit. 

Three weeks into our trip, we have periods where we are on each others nerves. Mainly the kids are on the parents’ nerves. I have banned them from asking me any more questions today. I do not intervene in their fights. 

It’s all part of the family vacation though. While the scenery is different, we are all still the same humans. 

Waitomo Caves

100 years ago or so, the town of Waitomo had one general store that supplied everything for everyone within a 50 mile radius (maybe less.. I am not sure). Business was good but as agriculture became more efficient people moved out of the area. Around that time, farmers started to discover there were large caves on their property. At first, farmers would lead tourists to the farms but private companies then came in, built paths through the caves, and leased them from the farmers. Now, the town of Waitomo is primarily supported by tourists who come to see the caves.

We chose a tour that was advertised as less adventurous than most. Many tours offer rides through rapids and caves leaving everyone soaked. So, our tour had mostly older people and then us with the two kids.

While our guide drove up about 20 minutes to the cave, he told us about the area. Our guide definitely missed his calling as an undertaker. His voice was so slow and melancholy that I started to get sleepy. The farms make most of their money from the caves on their property. They also make money from growing trees. The area used to be 80% trees and now look, hardly any trees.

We walked into the very dark cave and onto a wood pathway. The guide turned on the light and the cave was HUGE and covered in stalagtites and stalagmites.  We saw lots of bones from animals that had fallen into sink holes while on the farm. The land is covered in sink holes. It's amazing that under these farms are extensive networks of caves. After walking through the first cave and hearing about how New Zealand has 5 or 6 earthquakes a day, and the guide was even in the cave during an earthquake, we went to a second cave. We traveled through the second cave in a raft. The ride was completely dark so we could see all the glowworms on the walls. Like the earlier cave we saw, the glowworms make the ceiling look like the night sky.

leaving the first cave

getting ready for the second cave

Mt Maunganui & Rotorua

We drove about an hour south to a port town called Mount Maunganui. The port is huge and that area was quite industrial. We were surprised when we arrived at our campground that there is a nice beach town. It was unusual in that there were many 10 story condos lining the beach. Our campground was just a the end of the strip of condos.. a beautiful spot at the base of the 223m mountain called Mt. Maunganui.

We made an amateur mistake arriving to the town hungry at dinner time so we ended up eating crappy Italian food for dinner. The kids loved it.  There is a really nice walk at the base of the mountain. Ryan and Sonia walked around that path. Jack and I climbed some volcanic rock on the beach.

The next morning I woke up early to take the steeper route to the top of the mountain.

Sheep!

Lots of murals in NZ

When the kids got up, we visited some hot water salt pools nearby. The warm salt water comes from the volcanic rock. It was an outdoor pool that had some cool kid features. One thing I love about New Zealand is every where you go, there is a family rate. There are individual adult and child rates but the family rate is always a little bit less. It's a nice gesture.

Ryan surfed while we were at the pools. We headed out to Rotorua, our first inland town for a while. When we arrived we were immediately surprised at the size of Rotorua. We thought it was a small town. It isn't compared to the places we have been. There's a large hospital, forestry companies, consulting companies and all the American fast food I would never want. We dropped off the van at the campsite and walked into the town as it was only supposed to be 10 minutes away.

So again, we were now hungry. It was very hot. Jack was really struggling because we did not have a firm plan. Sonia developed hay fever and sneezed at least once every 5 minutes. It was Monday so we couldn't find anything to eat because everything was closed and then finally settled at some crappy place. To add to our unhappiness, someone decided it was important to drill into metal while we were eating. 

After the food, things got a little better. We created a plan. We visited a park but only briefly because of the heat. We went to a bookstore. I'd bought Jack a kindle before we left because he loves to read and I didn't want to haul a bunch of books around. Sadly, the kindle has never worked well so he has been without anything to read. The bookstore was great. Then we went to a pharmacy for Sonia. We returned to the campground to get the van so we could go to Skyline Rotorua - a gondola that takes you up a mountain so you can see the whole town AND a place that has a luge course so you can ride a luge with a break and steering wheel down a hill and take a lift back. That lifted everyone's spirits.

We visited a grocery store so we could eat dinner at the campsite. Our campsite had a playground, swimming pool and mineral bath. Rotorura is filled with mineral baths because of the rock underneath it. 

thermal pools at a park near the campsite

 Today, we visited Te Puia, a thermal reserve with more than 500 springs. It is also a sacred place for the Maori so there is a Maori cultural center and performances. They also have a Maori weaving and Maori carving school on site.

We wandered around checking out all the bubbling mud springs and huge geysers.  

a field of boiling mud

geyser that goes off twice an hour

I made Sonia hike up to this spot by telling her that we've flown 10,000 miles to get here so she could walk a little farther. She is giving you an ironic-I-am-impressed face.

We ate lunch at Te Puia with tourists from all over the world. It's really incredible how many different people there are here -- Chinese, Korean, South Asian, German, French, and those were the people I could identify. 

We then visited a New Zealand Redwood forest. They built a suspended walkway combining 21 wooden bridges between 116 year old Redwood trees. In the late 1800's, 170 different tree species were planted. I suspect people noticed how quickly the trees were disappearing. Turns out the California redwood grows really well here. The latitude of San Francisco and New Zealand are similar. Their climates are both temperate. The NZ version of the tree has softer wood but otherwise looked exactly the same to me. It occurred to me that my kids saw the NZ redwood forest before the California redwood forest. We agreed we'd try to visit the one closer to our home soon.

Why don't I hear Crowded House more often?

Here are a few cultural mysteries I've discovered here:

I have seen many people walking around barefoot in places you do not expect it:  grocery stores, gas stations, just walking down the street in a town. I know there is nothing wrong with being barefoot but I find it odd. We do not do this in the US or if we do, it's weird. A grocery store? For some reason, this seems gross to me. 

There are not dogs everywhere. They are not allowed on many beaches and parks. This is not a problem for me, it's just something I am not used to.

Roundabouts on the roads: they are everywhere and we can't seem to figure out the right-of-way rules

There is always music playing in every campground bathroom I've been in. This seems like a rule. The music I hear is very familiar but I feel like I should hear more Crowded House or Neil Finn. Also I like being in a country where the national newspaper had a big story on what is wrong with the New Zealand music scene. I like that as a problem that needs national attention.

Driving on the left side: why?

This is no mystery but the US should start using the metric system.

It turns out that tourism is New Zealand's number one industry. They seem to be like Costa Rica or France in that they figured out their most valuable asset is their land and their people. The entire country seems to have a small town sensibility. It is such an incredible change from being in the US. if New Zealand is the Big Sur of countries, the US is NYC in comparison... we all seem agitated while they seem relaxed.. so relaxed they don't wear shoes. 

Cathedral cove

We woke up early for a guided kayak trip to Cathedral Cove -- the scene on the cover of our guide book.

The kids were whiny at first but they were quickly converted. The sky was clear blue. We had a light breeze and it was probably around 70 or so.

We learned quite a bit about the area. We started in the town of Hahei which is 98% vacation homes. The guide said he thought most of the owners were from New Zealand. He said the winter population is about 300 and summer population around 5000. It's that kind of town. The beauty is so incredible and the location so desirable that people come from all over the world will pay lots of money to be here. I am sure globalization changed Hahei a lot. It is still amazing though. I also learned that the New Zealand Christmas tree is not the same tree as the bottlebrush tree which is Australian.  My pictures are of the Christmas tree (flowers with red blooms). Who knows which tree is the Australian bottle brush.

Cathedral Cove was named by James Cook when he came here in the late 1700's. He seemed to get along well with the Maori who were here. He had brought sailors from Tahiti with him and they could communicate with the locals. Something must have gone terribly wrong in Hawaii where the native people killed him.

I asked the guide which country most of the tourists were from -- he said Germany. There were some Germans in our group and he asked them if anyone was left in Germany right now. They all seem to be here.

Our tour included coffee, hot chocolate and cookies at the beach. Never too hot for such snacks. Sonia hung out with the guides.

New Zealand is a big park

We left our camp site for a town with access to food and stopped in Coromandel Town which is more of a village than a town. We found a place with great coffee and very nice tables. There are a lot of beautiful wooden tables here. This was a also a place that was once covered with trees and now there aren't that many considering how many there were. They've made a lot of nice tables.  The government has put 1/3 of the land here into reserved status so it will not be developed. 

The guide book mentioned a beach off the road we were taking as one of the best in the country. We visited and there was no one there, and it was amazing. There were a few houses around and it looked like there was some development going on a bit to the north but otherwise, it was very quiet.  We swam and had a picnic.  

After a few hours we moved on to Whitianga where we were told there was a very cool cafe / swimming pool that had indoor caves. Great for kids, the guy told us. We arrived to Lost Springs to see a sign that said NO children under the age of 14 allowed. 

We contemplated leaving the kids in the van. Just kidding. Not really. Well sort of.. well you decide.

We moved on but before we reached our destination, we saw a sign for a produce stand.

This place had amazing produce-- especially boysenberries which Sonia insisted on calling poisonberries. I told her there is no way someone would name a food poisonberries. She agreed with my logic finally.

Then on to our final destination for a couple of days: Hot Springs Beach. The unique draw of the beach is that at low tide, you can pick a spot on the beach, dig down a few inches and hot water will come out of the sand.  You dig your own spa. 

cool path from the campground to Hot Springs beach

When we arrived in the afternoon, we’d learned we missed low tide so we hung out on the beach for a bit. Unfortunately, the beach is very rough with a lot of rip tides so I didn’t want to swim with the kids. We returned to the campground and played out there.

This morning we woke up and walked over to the beach at low tide. It’s the second day of summer and this is a popular spot. Our campground is far from full but this is the most people I’ve seen in any campground. I heard several Americans, lots of Brits, and as always, many, many Germans.

We had a great time hanging out in our little spa. There are two hot springs that run under the beach due to a volcanic "intrusion" 5-9 million years ago. The heat is a result of magma that has moved closer to the surface. The hot water is over 160 degrees so it was scalding if you touched it. Our pool had a little hot water and lots of cool water so it was just a warm pool -- not a burning pit.

We jumped into the water too. Ryan took the kids out as he is less nervous in rough water. 

The sun was really shining today and while I think it’s only 70 or so it feels a lot hotter when the sun is out. After a few hours in the sun, we were done and headed back to the campground.

We went to another nearby small town called Hahei to check out the beach where we’ll be going kayaking tomorrow and to have lunch. We are going to a place called Cathedral Cove which is on the cover of our guidebook. By the time we finished lunch and got to the beach it was 4. Our kids wilt in the heat so we didn’t stay long. 

They’ve revived though and now they are out go-carting again.

We returned to the beach to see what had happened to all the mini-spas.

all smooth again. only one or two holes remained.

Good night!