north island – Jewells On Tour

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Friday 27th September

By admin on Friday, September 27, 2019

Day off today, relaxing and packing ready for our 7am flight to Sydney tomorrow. We are staying in a hotel tonight in a suburb of Auckland they have a free shuttle service to the airport.

Auckland, based around 2 large harbours, is a major city in the north of New Zealand’s North Island. In the centre, the iconic Sky Tower has views of Viaduct Harbour, which is full of superyachts and lined with bars and cafes. Auckland Domain, the city’s oldest park, is based around an extinct volcano and home to the formal Wintergardens. It is the most populated city in New Zealand with just over 3:5 million residents.

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Thursday 26th September

By admin on Thursday, September 26, 2019

A sad day. We have to hand Lucy back. We have loved camper van life and touring New Zealand. It’s a truly beautiful magical place. It’s landscape and coast has something for everyone. So many trees I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many trees. And living in a camper for the last month has inspired us for future road trips.

Bye bye juicy Lucy going to miss you. We have tomorrow off to get ourselves sorted and will be flying to Sydney early Saturday morning. Time to get back on the bikes and continue our cycle tour. A new chapter bring it on.

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Tuesday 24th September

By admin on Thursday, September 26, 2019

Alarm set for 5am,spade hired for a mere $5 just under £2.50, weather forecast and sunrise checked. We asked the receptionist whether the sand fly was a problem in the area she assured us that they weren’t so no repellent needed we settled down for the night.

We got rudely awakened at 4:30 am by heavy rainfall. We lay there listening to the sound of rain on our metal roof. The wind joined in for good measure making poor Lucy rock. The alarm goes off. We both looked at each other and say no chance! I don’t think it’s going to get light let alone have that wonderful sunrise I was dreaming of,darn. I pulled the cover up and around me and went back to sleep.

What to do on a wet windy day on the coast. We were both disappointed as you can’t come to hot water beach and not dig yourself a hot pool.

We went to reception and checked the tide times. So tonight at 8:30 is low tide it gets dark at 6pm a moon light hot pool star spotting sounds good. Or in the morning at 7:30am. We decided to stay another day.

So rain coats on we set off for a walk.A one hour walk to Cathedral cove.

Named for its majestic arched cavern that passes through a white rock headland to join two secluded coves. The sandy beach is lined with pohutukawa tree otherwise known as New Zealand Christmas tree. Photo taking from instagram as weather so bad to get a good one!

On the walk down we passed some grazing goats.

A little way of the shore is a large pumice rock known as Te Ho Ho. Over time it’s been sculpted by the wind and rain and it’s said that it looks like a pros of a large ship heading into shore.

Cold wet and sand blasted we then turn around and walk the hour walk back. Along the cliff path it’s a steep climb back I’m going to feel that later.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the campsite. The weather didn’t improve all day so no hot pool tonight. We have one more chance in the morning.

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Sunday 22nd September

By admin on Tuesday, September 24, 2019

We looked around the town of Rotorua known as New Zealand’s heartland of Maori culture.

The afternoon was spent walking around tuapiro reserve a beautiful peninsula with soft sand and warm water.and daisy filled fields.we ate our dinner here and spent the evening reading in the warm sun and , When the sun had set we moved on to a place that we were allowed to wild camp.

no camping was allowed within the reserve

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Saturday 21st September

By admin on Monday, September 23, 2019

More driving, more twisty roads I don’t think there’s a straight road in New Zealand. We want to explore the thermal pools and springs in waikite valley. Where boiling hot water bubbles up out of the ground in natural hot springs forming warm waterfalls and rivers.

We spent the night in a campsite that used the hot water to fill up hot tubs to various heat levels. We made the most of it and stayed in the pools until kick out at 9pm just a bit crinkled

The water is run over a series of cascades until it has cooled to a comfortable 35 degrees Celsius. Each pool was a different temperature we found our favourite one and relaxed. bliss.

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Friday 20th September

By admin on Monday, September 23, 2019

A 3.5 hour choppy ferry ride took us back to the north island. Landing in Wellington just gone midday. We followed a really twisty road up the coast through tight mountain passes with lots of switch backs that did nothing to Seattle our already upset tummies 🤢. The views made it worth it.

As always in New Zealand it’s stunning. We pushed on today as we have to be in Auckland by Thursday and we’d already spent time in Wellington and would like to explore somewhere different before we run out of time.

We spent the night at hawks Bay full of vineyards it’s one of the major grape producing area. Manly for wine not fruit bowls.

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Wednesday 28th August

By admin on Thursday, August 29, 2019

Lucy served us well last night, it was a rather windy night and you could feel her being pushed around but she stood her ground. New Zealand is in the path of the roaring forties, winds that circle the lower part of the globe.

Again today was mainly sat in juicy Lucy heading south to Wellington. Stunning views treated us as we traveled down.

We have named our camper juicy Lucy as the hire firm is called juicy and they have a pinup girl logo. Maybe the founder was Lucy.

Our highway took us through small towns, Turangi a small fishing town it had trout logos on pretty much every sign. It’s situated on the banks of the southeastern end of Lake taupo and has world famous trout fishing. The best time to fish is from May to October.

Once we got passed lake Taupo we started to climb. The mountains that looked so far away are now next to us, stunning snow peaks on both sides.

We pass through the Rangipo desert on the east side of the volcanoes a desolate gravel landscape used for military training and we were treated by planes practicing acrobatic flying above.

Finally we arrived at Wellington New Zealand’s capital city and where we are to catch the ferry to the South Island. Our ferry is booked for 8am tomorrow so time to explore. We park up for the night in a car park close to the ferry terminal and go for a walk.

The Harbour front has houses built into the hills with very steep steps leading up to them, beautiful views across oriental bay. They were built by early settlers as their was a lack of flat land. I’m not sure I could cope with the steps every day.

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