Very picturesque and REALLY windy (seriously, we have been
living in Ireland here) ferry ride later we landed in Wellington – the capital
of New Zealand. And since we totally avoided Canberra we didn’t expect a lot.
Basically, more of the same type of
towns as we saw in south island: quite empty (where was everyone???!!!) and
tailored for solitary type of people (word Nives would like to use is bland). It came to a fantastic surprise that
Wellington was not only nice, but actually felt very liveable kind of place.
Arriving for a hustle and bustle of weekend helped to seal the perception, no
doubt. But still, not only is there a pulse to the place (which is a rarity for
New Zealand!), but it is a pleasant one! Looks like towns in north island will be quite
different to their south counterparts.
Above all, Nives was delighted to be in the city again and
some much needed retail therapy was the thing. Katmandu 70% sale came (again)
at the right time and we bought some fantastic clothing at hand-out prices,
while blissfully ignoring how we will get all this gear back home (ups, but more
on this later).
After a weekend in the city it was time again to head back
to nature and vineyards – would we have it any other way? Tiny wine region of
Martinborough (established by an Irishman) was on the way and we just had to
stop there – for a couple of days. What Martinborough has is close proximity of
all the wine cellars and we were able to walk the wine trail and try wine together
at the same time. It was the time of harvest and it brought back many happy
childhood memories for some of us and pretty hazed student memories for all .
Luckily they all close down at 5pm and we were just about able to find our way
back to hotel. Looking at our tasting notes, we found north island wines are
more fruity and less acidic than their Marlborough cousins. They also try to
get that Europan flavour more than in the south as well. Hey, we do take this tasting seriously you know.
We repeated the known wine tasting pattern shortly, just a little bit further north – Hawke’s bay.
It’s New Zealand's oldest and second largest wine producing area. They even did
the new world unthinkable – they granted one area an appellation. Gimblet
Gravels it is then! We just had to stay and validate the quality of the produce
(surprised, hey?)Up until the late 1980's the area was regarded as the poorest
and least productive land in Hawke's Bay. It’s comprising of stone and gravel
deposited by river before it changed it course in late 19th century.
Then somebody decided to plant a vineyard on it. Today is some of the most
sought after piece of land in New Zealand. Guess that people who gave it away
then are now either crying daily or being quiet about it in shame. Well, we
sympathised a bit while sampling some of the best New Zealand red wines (not
for long thou).
Sadly, we started to feel the time pressure of rent a car
return date and the pressure was on to leave the wine behind us (and this is a
said point – Nves felt this is the best part of what this country has to
offer!) and head north east into Maori populated area (and promise of scenic
costal drives). We put common wisdom that the north island is not as pretty as the
south island to the test. And we can confirm that east cape costal route was
indeed not very picturesque at all! Once again we felt like suckers played by
the New Zealand tourism board (but this happened so many times by now that we
just got used to the feeling). So, we
shifted our focus to Maori population. This is supposed to be part of the
country with strongest Maori influence. Well, it wasn’t like in the movies with
tattooed warriors on every step. But still, you could see that they are very
outdoorsy people. Most of Maori we saw have enjoyed riding their horses and
fishing. We did see one “proper” Maori warrior with face tattoos riding past us
on his horse – it was a beautiful if slightly scary sight and we froze without
taking a single picture.
What we did encounter on the way was some beautiful Maori
art. It is part of everyday life: in meeting houses, schools, churches… And
every single peace is a story. As Maori didn’t have a written language before
the Europeans came this was a way to preserve heritage and tradition. And it
indeed is exceptional and beautiful. To be honest, probably only art worth
looking for here (and that it definitely is – one of the highlights of New
Zealand). And this includes the famous Maori dance. Yes we did go for the show…
and liked it! Warrior dance Hakka didn’t have the intensity and emotional
charge of the All Blacks version (New Zealand national rugby team), but still a
very enjoyable experience.
One thing that North island has in abundance are thermal
pool, geysers and volcanos. With winter approaching (what the Hell are we doing
here???) we appreciated the free hot pools in the camping sites. And if you
were wondering - Yes, we are back to sleeping in the car to keep within the
budged. Definitely not as pleasurable as Oz (temperatures are in different part
of scale here!). What camp sites do have are nice bqq areas. Needless to say, we
were obliged to use them and match steaks with some local wine – just had to be
done. We were surprised how hard it was to get anything not beef/lamb/pork or
chicken in New Zealand with all dear farms we passed on the way. We are missing
Skippy (kangaroo) very much indeed (and yes, we do feel bad about liking it so
much).
After being cooked alive (or as close to it as possible
still to survive), it was time to head north past Auckland into north of north
island. This is where Auckland people come for their summer holidays. Blue
water and sandy beaches on every corner. As you probably guessed best viewed
from the car. It is all very nice, but water temperature doesn’t rise much
above 20c, way too cold for us to enjoy any water related sports. But this
being a thermal island, we soon found a solution: hot pools on the beach – not
really on the beach, but under the water at high tide. So, you have to wait for
low tide and then dig (yes, sadly you did read this correctly) a hole for you
own personal hot bath with sea view. Well, anyway this is what they said in
brochures. In reality, hordes of people (apparently it is even worst in the
high season!) fight for their little patch of sand. In reality, you don’t need hot water after 30minutes (at least!) of
digging in the sand. It’s the ultimate play in the sand for adults experience
(Nives hated it, Dejan loved it). Anyway, water comes out at about 60c and is
way too hot to enjoy – you are boiled from the bottom and chilled by the wind
on the top. Perfect combination to go crazy. Somebody should have told us (well, warned us, really) before we went on a digging expedition. With
red bottoms and sniffling noses we ploughed on.
We ignored the cold water and booked a day diving at premier
diving location of New Zealand (probably all the sulphur in the springs somehow
impaired our sanity) – Poor knights. Totally mixed felling about this one.
Dejan actually really enjoyed the experience, Nives could only agree on that
indeed it is Poor. Water is 19/20 C (definitely not warm enough for Nives),
visibility not bad (15-20 m), fish life so so. Worth the effort of putting on
the full wet suit on – definite yes from Dejan and absolute no from Nives. We
both agreed that it is NOT one of the best places to dive in the world
(probably another stint by over-productive local tourist board). We have been
very fortunate and our dive guide was a local legend who has been diving here for
over 50 years. She actually named most of the dive sites. Final decision: diving
here is very much like in the west coast of Ireland (but no good pubs to go to
instead of diving – regular practice in Ireland). Plenty of kelp, but perhaps
better fish life. And adding a stingray or two made some of us forget the cold water (perhaps that is a bit
of an overstatement).
We made a quick stop in beautiful bay of islands (this one
was actually nice) and sand beach heaven of 90mile beach (which is in fact only
60mile long – yeah, we know… tourist board again) during our quick circle of
north. All this last minute rush to get all the sights in before departure
started to show wear and tear on us. We ccouldn’t wait enough at this point to
return the car and slow down – at least for a few days.
But before we did that, Dejan just had to try local surf on the
outskirts of Auckland – Piha. Seems surfing lesson was a way to go, and for the
first time Dejanenjoyed significant time on the board (previous record was
about 2 seconds now increased to 5 seconds). Surfing could become Dejan’s new
addiction (totally supported by Nives! Time for R&R!).
Last thing we just couldn’t resist before returning the rent
a car is visiting – you would never guess, our last New Zealand wine region.
Just on the outskirt of Auckland lies Kumeu, which is Croatian expat
established wine region. Nives did try the Croatian language, but that didn’t
get us far. Looks like seconds and third generation has already blended into
New Zealand. We noticed one exception, 90+ years old grandmother of one of wine
owners was flying a Croatian flag. As wines go, this area reminded us of Hunter
valley in Australia. Many big producers are present here, but no wine is grown locally.
We heard that the conditions are to humid and grapes are imported from other
part of New Zealand. Cheating? Perhaps, but we loved the vino.
We spent too much time outside of Auckland that we ended up
with no time for anything. Well, almost no time for anything. We did a 5 hour
whale tour out of the harbour (no whales seen obviously) with fantastic vistas
of Auckland city and some playful dolphins. Nothing else left, but to pack 4
months’ worth of accumulated junk during our road travels into our limited
backpack space. Or we thought we would. In the end, we had to send a package full of Kathmandu
clothing to Ireland (as you can see packing was relaxed and easy) and we had to
let go of all our essentials: eski cooler bag and many cooking utensils and
plates. Back to street food! With no more car, we are after 20000km driven in
Australia and New Zealand, back to our backpack. It feels fantastic! We have really
been sick of the car for the last few weeks.
Enough of cold climate – South Pacific here we
come! First stop: New Caledonia.
Some more pictures here.
