New Zealand North Island

Getting there

Rolls and I managed to book the tightest possible flight turnarounds on our trip to New Zealand thinking, I suppose, that it would afford us the least wasted time and get us there fastest. We spent less than two hours in Toronto where we had to clear US customs. At least an hour and a half of that was waiting in a long line with hundreds of other travelers as we slowly snaked through the queue to see a grumpy TSA agent. Over time, the agents would emerge from their booths to call people out of the line who were about to miss thier planes. It would go something like this:

1:35pm
US customs lady - "Anyone on the 1:40pm flight to Delaware?"
15 people dragging their luggage in various spots throughout the lineup - "ME!"
US cusoms lady - "Come on then"

Eventually our flight was called and we scurried through without any sort of hassle, rechecked our bags onto a mysterious conveyor belt, and boarded our plane to San Francisco, appologizing to the other passengers for their delay as we took our seats. San Fran was an even tighter changeover, with only about an hour but without the worry of switching our luggage, which we hoped was being automatically moved to the next plane for us.

Rolls and I both slept on the 13 hour flight to Auckland and arrived not terribly jet lagged at about 5am on Oct 20th - two days after we left Halifax thanks to the international date line. We drank some coffee and took a shuttle to pick up our car.


The rental car - Auckland and New Zealand first impressions

A pleasant older gentleman welcomed us to the rental car agency and showed us our new ride - a white 2001 Nissan station wagon with almost 200,000km and plenty of dents. She came fully equipped with a double foam mattress in the back measuring exactly 5'8", 10L water jug, butane camp stove, flying pan and pot, and a half tank of gas. Several days into the trip I named her Hillary, after Sir Edmund Hillary, acclaimed NZ alpinist and the first man to summit Everest. Rolls is nonplussed at the name but I intend on continuing to use it for now.

Auckland is a pretty city and we drove up to Mt. Eden, the tallest of the seven extinct volcanic mounds that dot the city. In its centre is a deep crater, scared to the indigenous Maori people and incredibly devoid of rubbish from the hundreds of tourists who adorn its ridge each day. We decide not to visit the Mt Eden quarry, a downtown rock climbing destination behind a private school around the corner and find out later that it is closed at present anyhow, thanks to the 7.0 earthquake that shook loose several large features from the cliff a month ago.

Driving. So much driving.

On a globe, New Zealand doesn't look much bigger than Nova Scotia. We naively thought getting from A to B would be a snap, but as it turns out, everything is a long drive. There are huge mountains everywhere and all the roads weave tight switchbacks around them. Although the speed limit is 100km/hr all across the country unless otherwise marked, it is rare to be able to sustain that clip for more than a couple minutes before having to decelerate to 25km/hr to make the next hairpin turn and avoid careening off the side of a mountain into the beautiful countryside.



All highways are two lanes and incredibly narrow with passing allowed at all times - you hardly ever see double yellow lines anywhere. Driving on the left side of the road has taken a bit of getting used to, but it seems pretty normal now. The part that still gets us is navigating and pronouncing the Maori place names which tend to sound rather similar to my Anglophone ear. Also "wh" is pronounced as "f" which led to much giggling when we arrived in Whakapapa.

Ninja camping



In some places it seems that half the cars on the road are rentals. Some are splashed with the names of their businesses or other logos and artwork, while others (and thankfully ours) just have the odd small decal or serial number to betray their status as a tourist vehicle. Initially when Rolls and I booked our car we were hopeful that it was a bottom line price; we would be able to sleep for free in the back of the car every night with no worries about paying for hostels and the like. It hasn't been quite that simple, although we've made a good go of it.

According to the locals, "free camping is dying out in New Zealand". There's been trouble in recent years with travelers not respecting leave-no-trace camping ethics (ie, making campfires, leaving trash around, pooping in the woods, etc) and the police and park rangers have been cracking down on it. This has resulted in lots of holiday parks popping up everywhere, charging $10-$25 for an unpowered site where you can park your car overnight and sleep in it. Obviously this is a rediculous expense we wanted to avoid.

Enter ninjacamping. The rules are simple; find somewhere off the beaten track where no one will bother you and sleep in your car. Luckily these places, by their secluded nature, tend to be beautiful places to stay. The typical winners are beaches, mountain-fed streams, hidden forest glens, and the occasional state-sanctioned rest area (like the one I'm sitting in now). This last category, although more public, tend to have toilets, fresh water, and sometimes security guards or park rangers who are invariably friendly and hospitable, just like every other Kiwi we've had the good fortune to cross paths with so far.

Big trees, lots of beaches, no internet



Rolls and I drove first to the Northland where we saw mountains, cows, enormous Kauri trees, private and prisine beaches, lots of birds, and absolutely nowhere with internet access. The Kauri tree is a special thing to many New Zealanders and there is a whole industry created around them. The trees live to be thousands of years old and can grow to be tens of metres around and every tall indeed. No one would dare cut one down anymore, but they used to be a source of timber for everything from furniture to wall clocks and their gum, or sap, was an important ingredient in lots of industrial products as well as driving the amber market in this part of the world. We went to see some of the biggest standing Kauris and were suitably impressed.



The North is also home to an insane amount of beaches. Everywhere you look there is an amazing beach. We didn't even go as far north as 90 Mile Beach because by the time we got up that way it was like "okay, I get it. Kiwis have heaps of beaches, enough rubbing it in already". But that didn't make them any less enjoyable. We headed to the Corromandel Penninsula and visited Cathedral Cove beach, an insane limestone archway that connects two perfect white sand beaches framed by aqua waters and thronged with tourists, but not too many thanks to the 40 minute approach. That was just an appertif while we waited for the tides at Hot Water Beach up the road where you can rent a shovel and dig a spa for yourself above a volcanic spring. Although pleasant, locating the hot water wasn't too easy and there were a million people there so we didn't stick around too long.

Climbing on limestone



Rolanda and I brought a rope, quickdraws, and our climbing shoes on this trip of course, and I was itching to sample the rock down here after an afternoon of getting spanked on this new and foreign rock at Ti Point outside Auckland. It did not disappoint. We rolled in to Wharepapa South and met up with the proprietor, Bryce of Bryce's Climbing Shop. He gave me the skinny on the area and we went to the sickest limestone sport crag called Frogget. This place blew my mind. Routes from 10(5.4ish) to 36(5.14+ish) and all superbly bolted. The rock was heavily featured and overhanging. Rolls and I managed to get in 15 routes in two days, including a handful of 3 star climbs, among the best I've ever been on and my hardest Aussie lead to date, Terror Incognito (18).

Tongariro crossing and summit


After a couple days we were starting to slow down on the rock and the weather was unrelenting heat and sunshine, we drove to the national park to do the famous Tongariro Crossing, supposedly the finest one day walk in New Zealand. After waiting out some bad weather in the mountains the first day, the gods shined on us and we had perfect blue skies for our hike. It was stunning. 6km of tramping brings you up the foothills, past the adjacent Mt. Ngaruhoe, and out of the lower craters onto the Red Crater ridge. We had a light lunch and pressed on a side trip to the summit of the understated Mt. Tongariro for 90 minutes before returning to the trail and passing the emerald lakes, sulfer hotsprings, and three separate ecosystems before finishing the 20km hike to be driven back to our car and barely making it to the campground before falling asleep.



Today was slower. We slept in and drove to Napier, another tourist town with an art deco twist. This will be our base for the tomorrow's wine tastings and the starting point for the next few days of winery tours before we jump on the ferry and head down to the South Island for lots more hiking and climbing. So stoked!