New Zealand North Island March 8 - March 14

Our next destination was Goat Island. It was a long day at the wheel and we drove thru many little towns on the way looking for an RV dump station (very strange) and a place to park for the night. It seems those things are only around when you don't really need them. We finally found one in Warkworth so we took care of the RV, had a pizza for dinner, and drove straight thru to Goat Island for the night. Goat Island is the first New Zealand Marine Park Reserve. Since we were camped with the RV illegally at the reserve that night we were the first to arrive bright and early in the morning. We expected to have the place to ourselves but didn't realize its popularity and by 8:00 in the morning divers and snorkelers were already arriving. So we donned our snorkel gear and set ourselves afloat. We expected the water to be extremely cold because most people going in were in wetsuits but it really was not that bad and we had a great time snorkeling on a beautiful morning. Afterwards we started our drive towards the area in the Northeast called the Bay of Plenty and stopped about halfway at a beach in Matapouri (forever more called the Tom Wynne beach because his look alike was sitting on the beach reading his book).


At sunset we were almost the only ones there (one other backpacker van) and we barbecued up some New Zealand lamb chops with all the fixings and had a great night.

In the morning we had just a short drive left to the ferry that would take us to the town of Russell so we got there early, scoped out where we were going to spend the night on Long Beach and checked out the town. The town of Russell is a small compact cottage town much like Block Island. It has its own little harbor with small ferries shuttling back and forth to the main town of Paihai and lots of boat companies offering tours of the bay from the town dock. We went to dinner that night down by the dock in the bay to the Duke of Marlborough which is a grand old hotel with a great veranda facing west for the sunset. They had a bistro menu and we tried our hand at the local delicacy in northern New Zealand, green lipped mussels. All over the island, especially on the Coromondal peninsula, you saw people out "musseling". These things are the rage here. Pat just couldn't get enough of them!




In the morning we started our drive South along the east coast on the old Russel road. Most people do not take this road, especially in an RV as most of the road is dirt and gravel, 8 feet wide and on the edge of a cliff. But, the bays and the scenery along this coast were amazing. But this part of the road made the next section going to Helena Bay and the Mimiwhangata Coastal Park look easy. We had to drive up a mountain on the edge of a dirt road and then wind our way back down into a valley emerging at the coast where the park was. It was pretty intense. We spent the afternoon walking and swimming at the beach and then started barbecuing which was when the DOC guy and his wife (Department of Conservation) drove up on their ATV and told us "sorry, but you can't spend the night". That really sucked because there was no way we wanted to drive back out of this place at night. After a long conversation with Chris and Nadine..... about New Zealand, the USA, farming and cattle economics and politics, Chris finally said "now, I can't make you leave". We had a great meal, glass of milk (we stopped drinking.....) and woke up to a beautiful morning and a walk on the beach. On the drive out, we met Chris and handed him a bottle of wine with a note saying "thanks much, Cheers"! and continued our drive South.



Our next stop was Waitomo but that was too long a drive for one day so we took the scenic route to Phia Beach, which is a surfing hotspot in NZ, just West of Auckland. This was our first exposure to west coast beaches on the north island. Phia is an iron sand beach with great surfing waves and we were lucky enough to get a great spot to park the RV for the night where we could sit and watch the surfers.

We were also fortunate enough to experience another great sunset. This one was made even more spectacular by the color of the sand on the beach. In the morning we climbed Lion's Rock which is a hugh rock formation in the middle of the beach providing spectacular views and a good morning exercise before we continued our trip to Waitomo.


When we reached Waitomo there was really no place to free camp so, for the first time, we checked into a motor camp. It is amazing how the little things in life can come to mean so much.....We had electricity so the microwave worked but the most important thing was you could take a shower for as long as you wanted. The RV only holds about 20 gallons of water so you really can not call it a "shower", not if you wanted to have any water left afterwards. It was nice to be able to use as much water as you wanted. Waitomo is famous for its glowworm caves and it was the highlight of Tom's trip so far!!! This is another one of those touristy things that people claim you must do. First you walk thru a limestone cave and cavern and as far as caves go, it was pretty impressive. The tour lady wanted to prove how good the acoustics in the cave are so she asked someone to sing a song. This guy started singing Oklahoma and a chorus of Japanese people joined in.... It was like having goomba with us!! Then they explained to us for 10 to 15 minutes what a glow worm is, we still have no idea. Afterwards, they put you in a little boat on a river in the cave which is in the pitch black. You get pulled along in dead silence thru the cave by an attendant using a hand cable and look at the glow worms hanging from the roof of the cave. You have to be very quiet so you don't disturb the stupid little worms! All in all, a pretty useless experience and we were really looking forward to our next stop, Tongariro.