FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2013
BACK STORY:
Kiwi Experience Tour
begins to the north and south islands of New Zealand!
Drive Auckland to Hot
Water Beach
BACK STORY:
Today “Scotty” our bus
driver and tour guide picked us up in downtown Auckland. He is a jovial,
intelligent, quick witted, well traveled and middle-aged “Kiwi.” In his 20+ years of doing this he has
developed an armor of opinions about the worlds population. He admits his
countries weaknesses, but easily makes fun of the rest of the world freely. It
is apparent that he is catering for the approval of the young majority with
jokes, sexual innuendo and poor language. Private conversations with us have
been on a different level.
The bus is a large,
luxury transport with reclining seats, air and lights for each seat similar to
an aircraft. The bus will comfortably take us all over the north and south
islands of New Zealand over the next month. Everyone is responsible for taking
care of their own luggage both is stowing it in the under bus lockers and
removing it when we get to our hostel destination.
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| Our Kiwi Experience Bus |
Our bus has 27 people
aboard, but that figure changes from day to day as people hop on and hop off
for their holiday exertions. The touring companions come from mainly Europe,
Australia, North and South America, and Asia.
We are again the “seniors” in the group that ranges down to college
age. Bruce has already met someone in HR
from the Philippians that shares a mutual friend. This is our first time of
meeting other US travelers.
Each morning our guide
explains the following days itinerary so that people can sign up for extra
exertions or activities available for added cost. Bruce and I are amazed at where the young
people get their money to do everything that they want. It is not inexpensive.
The traveling tour is
full of good music and commentary from our driver who is an avid reader and
adds quite a bit of details about history, geography and cultural facts.
Leaving Auckland today,
we headed toward the town of Thames on the north island to stop for lunch, and
a visit to a grocery store for food supplies.
This tour only provides transportation and discounts on lodging and
activities. We are on our own for meals, the cost of our guaranteed hostel
accommodation and any exertions. We were told that we would be staying the first
night at the Holiday Caravan park…which is a campground equipped with dorms,
laundry and kitchen facilities.
As we made our way over
to the eastern side of the northern peninsula to the town of Tairua and across
a pass to the ocean all traffic was stopped because of an accident. That gave us about an hour to stretch our
legs, walk to the beach and see a little of the town like all the other delayed
travelers. When the road cleared we
headed over to Hot Water Beach. As we passed the accident sight the police were
still there and there was a baby car seat sitting on the roadside at the top of
a cliff where the car apparently went over.
Later we found that five people had been airlifted (two toddlers and
four adults) to a hospital…all miraculously alive!
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| Tairua summer back-up |
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| Tairua offering |
Bruce and I have done a
lot of camping in our lives. This park
is the most elaborate and well organized that we’ve seen. The park accepts tents as well as
camper/trailers. It caters to families with large group kitchens where cooking
and cleanup is done rather than at the individual campsites. A sandwich board sits announcing the
activities for the day, which range from Bible studies to hiking.
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Our dorms at Holiday Park
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Campground activities
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Two college females
from Canada joined us, along with a father and two sons from Germany to do a
guided sea kayaking adventure. We were to paddle around Cathedral Cove. We were provided with transportation and all
kayak equipment for a three-hour paddle.
The sea was fairly choppy with the wind blowing against us so the paddle
in our double kayak was a good workout.
The rock formations jutting out in the ocean plus the watercolors were
stunning.
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Waters off Cathedral Cove (pic off brochure)
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Beaching the kayaks we
were able to walk through the tunnel at cathedral cove. It was huge and shaped like an arched
cathedral and we both mentioned that it was large enough to build an entire
village for the native tribes. Later we
saw pictures of high tide where seawater was inside the tunnel!
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Cathedral Cove (brochure pic)
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Our guide, Tom
surprised us by offering hot cappuccinos on the beach. The equipment that he
brought made delicious drinks that were very welcomed. Although we all had
spray skirts on the kayaks, everyone seemed to get a bit wet.
The ocean seemed a
little calmer paddling back. Bruce and I
purposely paddled slowly and we able to come within four feet of a blue penguin
that was on the waters surface! He seemed more curious of us than frightened
and never dove under the surface.
The only downfall of
our exertion was the fact that we didn’t bring a camera for the beautiful area
that we were in.The pictures that are posted are taken from a brochure and appear grainy, but I had to do something:)
New Zealand is a
country with active volcanic faults. Hot Water Beach is named one of the top
ten beaches in the world by Lonely Planet.
It is where we stayed for the night is aptly named. Hot water actually bubbles
up through the sand.
Visitors enjoy digging
holes in the sand with shovels two hours before or after low tide. The holes are dug in random areas to create
personal or group hot tubs in the sand. The water is very hot and must be
cooled with ocean water. It is therefore
very important to position the hole near where incoming tides can join the hot
water of the pool to avoid serious burns.
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Personal hot tubs in the sand
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Hot Water Beach
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We went down to the
beach after dinner to get our toes wet and take a few pictures. It seemed so odd to see people sitting or
laying in sand holes with steam rising around them. Someone set off a fire lantern at sunset
which was fun to see rise in the darkening sky.
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| Fire Lantern |
Our dorm room
experience was great. We had a double
bed with two sets of bunks in the room for our roommates. We apologized ahead of time for any snoring
that was heard. No one commented in the
morning.
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| Our Dorm Room |
