Six Go Mad in Tongariro - Part 1

We've just spent a magical but exhausting few days in Tongariro National Park with Lionel & Irene (Kiapa) and Damian & Kerry (Sel Citron). We shared a great little holiday house for three days in a village called, slightly confusingly, National Park.

No 12 Railway Cottage

The name of the house should have probably tipped us off as to the proximity of the main rail line from Auckland to Wellington but the noise of five huge freight trains each night meant that we weren't completely rested for the rigours of the outdoor events that lay ahead.

Tongariro National Park lies south west of Lake Taupo in the middle of North Island and is an active volcanic region. In winter it's a great skiing area and in summer thousands of people come to attempt the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which has become known as New Zealand's finest one-day hike (some superlative in a country full of wonderful hiking tracks). Good weather is vital for the Crossing, which peaks at 1850m altitude, so we decided that Wednesday would be our day to attempt it and that we'd hire mountain bikes on the Tuesday.

Irene, Damian and Graham took the brave pills to ride 'The 42', a 44km route that's described as 'demanding'. Actually, Irene told us that it was 'mostly downhill' so the profile map at the start of it came as a bit of a shock:

Mostly downhill, huh? What about those uphill bits, Irene?!

At the start, no turning back now as the van & trailer departs

Graham on one of the river crossings

It was certainly a tough cycle, with rough tracks and slippery surfaces but was Graham's best -ever mountain bike experience.

Meanwhile, the Sensible Crew (Lionel, Dianne and Kerry) decided it was more important to have arms and legs in one piece ready for the following day so did the slightly less demanding but wonderfully scenic Fishers Track, which took about three hours to complete.

This really was mostly downhill!

A driftwood sculpture by a British artist at the end of the trail

The two parties returned to the house for showers, supper and an early night, hoping (in vain, as it turned out) for a less train-disturbed night before a very early start on the Tongariro Crossing. More to follow on this adventure in Part 2.

Old friends and new - the Gatehouse of Fleet connection

We had a super weekend in the town of Tauranga, about 3 hours drive from Auckland on the east coast, staying with Shona and Malcolm. They are friends from the UK, working out here for two years and Graham first met Shona about 40 years ago, holidaying in Scotland near the town of Gatehouse of Fleet where his parents now live.

They took us on a beautiful five-hour hike through the forest around Lake Tarawera, near Rotarua. The walk ended at Hot Water Beach for a swim and to discover the reason for the name; the whole area is still very volcanically active and the sand a couple of inches below the water, when we dug our fingers into it, was too hot to touch!

Post walk wallowing

Shona and Dianne on the high-speed water taxi across the lake back to the car

With us on the walk were Roger and Janet, originally from Suffolk but NZ residents for the past 11 years. They own a Kiwi Fruit orchard and we joined them for a bbq in the evening. In the course of the day we discovered that Roger not only knows Gatehouse of Fleet very well but is great friends with the next-door neighbours of Graham's parents!

With Roger in his orchard

A good crop, which will be picked in May

 On the Sunday we walked up the Mount which guards the entrance to Tauranga Harbour for great views of the town and beach. 

Looking south towards Te Puke

The harbour entrance - the biggest container port on North Island 

Many thanks to Shona and Malcolm for a fun weekend and for good training for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike - details to follow.

The magnetic attraction of lighthouses

For us sailors, lighthouses are the road-signs of our coastal sailing. We try not to get too close, as they usually mark a rocky point or shallow patch best avoided but they are reassuring landmarks for us. At night we count the number of flashes to check their identities and are reassured that they confirm the position given by our (mostly) infallible GPS chart plotters. No doubt some Whitehall bean counters will suggest they be abandoned as redundant, last-century technology but let's hope that sense prevails.

When we're on a coastal walk, we're drawn to walking to lighthouses, to admire their open views of the sea and to think about all the other mariners who've sailed safely by. In our little road trip of the past week we've visited the most northerly light at Cape Reinga and, a couple of days ago, a redundant light at the entrance to Kaipara Harbour on the west coast.

Cape Reinga light - built in 1941 and automated in 1987

Kaipara light

The waves breaking in the distance show the location of the dangerous bar

Kaipara was, and still is, a treacherous place to navigate with a huge sand bar in the entrance and ever-shifting shallows within the harbour. If you have Google Earth do have a look at it, the sand dunes and coast are amazing - the coordinates are:

36 deg, 23.25 mins south
174 deg, 7.24 mins east

The first charts were drawn in the mid-1800's and the lighthouse was built around 1900. A small but busy community was built at Pouto Point which became a loading wharf for Kauri timber hauled from the huge forests to the north. The arrival of a railway to the town of Dargaville, some 60km further up the harbour, in 1947 spelled the end of the commercial activities in this remote village and the light was abandoned in the 1970's. Today the structure is maintained by volunteers who have to dig the encroaching sand dunes away from it fairly regularly.

Pouto campground

Our campsite in Pouto is our favourite to date. A small, level area of grass is big enough for perhaps 12 campervans and tents and the wooden hall, built as NZ's first customs house in the 1870's provides a great kitchen, showers and toilets. The place belongs to the community with volunteers running it as a not-for-profit entity; all the proceeds are ploughed back into maintaining the historic building. We'll definitely come back here. 

Swimming in two seas

Our trip up to Cape Reinga at the northern tip of North Island has been pretty awesome - some great campsites and some strenuous hikes with wonderful views. Graham even managed to swim in the Tasman Sea (west side of the cape) and the Pacific Ocean (east side) on the same day. Di focused on the surf on the Pacific side, which was a challenging and exhillerating swim. Here are a few photos:

Sunset at a lovely beach-side camp, 5km east of Cape Reinga

A view of the camp, with its own surf beach, as we hike up towards the cape

The lighthouse. The promontory to the right is sacred to the Maori - it's the place where their spirits slide down the roots of a Puhutukawa tree to their spiritual home Hawaiki

Less spiritual work, perhaps. A Maori workman scrapes stickers thoughtfully added by backpackers and tourists to the inevitable signpost. London is, by the way, 18,029km as the crow flies.

The dramatic west coast, at the entrance to Hokianga harbour

A playful seal entertains us at our latest camp, on the southern tip of the northern entrance to the Kaipara harbour

We've driven south along the west coast, known as the Kauri Coast because some of the best forests of these imposing trees remain here after years of logging operations that almost wiped them out elsewhere. Tomorrow we'll stop at one of the surf beaches further south before heading through Auckland to meet up with friends in Tauranga. Thanks to the good weather and plenty of practice, camping on top of Horace the Honda has been a doddle and we've cooked some great suppers on the two-burner gas stove. We are now almost half-way through our self-imposed Alcohol-Free January and are coping remarkably well. However, judging by the photo below, Di's OCD is kicking in a bit:

Land-cruising aboard Horace the Honda

We're off camping again in the car-tent combo, this time heading for the far north of North Island in (so far) wonderful sunshine.

First coffee of the day, Puketi Forest

A roadsign to make Dianne happy, Mangonui

The stunning Matai Bay, Karikari peninsula

Pahutakawa tree in full blossom

Di's being experimenting with her birthday present, a Lumix waterproof camera and is enjoying the challenge of both mastering it and trying to get a photo of Graham without his eyes closed

Looking slightly rugged after a few days' camping

We'll be on the road for a couple of weeks so will try to post some photos of new bits of NZ. Tomorrow we'll be at Cape Reinga at the very north tip of the island.

More photos

A little selection of photos from the past few days:

Wonderful NYE / Birthday lunch at Te Motu winery, Waiheke

With Kerry and Irene aboard Sel Citron

Busy anchorage at Man o' War Bay, Waiheke. Sel Citron in foreground.

Kiapa departs, with 'arty' setting on camera.

A Blue Penguin - we saw about 40 on passage to Great Barrier Island

Approaching Great Barrier Island

Playing with the panorama setting on Di's birthday present

With Adam and Cindi

Great Barrier Island

On Friday we motored, across a very glassy sea, the 30 miles to Great Barrier Island. We were here last January in rather wild and windy conditions so it's lovely to be anchored in bright sunshine and still waters. We're at 36 degrees, 11 mins south, 175 degrees, 20.3 mis east.

We met with Adam & Cindi on Bravo here (great friends from our Fiji travels) and yesterday kayaked around the anchorage then did a lovely walk on Kaikoura Island up to the viewpoint. En route we met a beautiful More Pork Owl (so named because it's call sounds like it's saying 'More Pork'!) which happily watched us from a branch 15 feet above our heads.

We'll have another day or so here before sailing north back to Opua for some last boat jobs before we head off with car and tent for a couple of weeks – exploring parts of North Island we haven't already seen.