a pilot's journal: New Zealand, Day Eight--The Unbeaten Path

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

New Zealand, Day Eight--The Unbeaten Path

After a nice leisurely evening in our favorite camper site so far, we “pulled chocks” around 10 am. We were at a beautiful site in New Plymouth called Belt Road RV park. Our view was fantastic (reference day seven blog) and the facilities were great. We drove through the town center and headed north along the coast. It wasn’t long before we ran across “Mike’s” brewery. Without hesitation, we pulled in and enjoyed a delicious sample along with some tasty sausages. Mikes is a brewery that has been around a long time in NZ. I especially enjoyed their “Full Nelson IPA,” made with hops from Nelson (the town, not me).

Along the way further north we encountered a road leading to Damper Falls. It is billed as the tallest in NZ, at 70 plus meters, but apparently there are others taller. Before we knew it, we were barreling down a gravel one lane road and up and down some winding roads. After about a 30 minute ride and questioning wether or not we got on the correct road (we saw no other vehicles on our drive. Good thing too since the gravel road was rather narrow). We finally saw a sign and pulled our trusty Britz camper van into the spot. One other car was there, a lone Swiss tourist had just returned from the falls. It was a ten minute walk through sheep pastures, then into a gate that led down a well marked and prepped trail. The falls were beautiful and worth the drive. We walked back and spoke to a man having his lunch on the tailgate of his car. It's funny, but all the older men (read: my age) I have spoken with in NZ talk to you as if you are their drinking buddy of 20 years. It's funny and refreshing. The Kiwis are the friendliest people. Shortly after this, we had our "sheep encounter." Several men, two dogs and a young boy on an ATV, herded several hundred sheep past our camper van and into the field we had walked through to see the falls. It was classic New Zealand.

It was on our way back from the falls that we made an error in judgment, under estimating the time it would take to continue east along the smaller road and the conditions of the road in order to connect with the main highway, 4 which ran parallel to the one we left. We actually stopped and asked directions at one of the few houses we saw. I got out as my travel companion did not desire to and encountered "Rambo" (or Rainbow, I was never really sure. I still have problems understanding some Kiwis). He told us where the road that we were considering led to after looking at our map. I offered him a beer to thank him. He did not hesitate and Tanner got two cold Tui beers from the fridge for him. You would have thought he had just gotten a Christmas gift! Two hours later after some very treacherous driving on winding, narrow, mostly unpaved roads we connected with the main highway. We didn't see or encounter a single car along the way, but we did see three logging tractor trailers pulling dual trailers going the opposite way. One encounter was quite close as you can imagine on these narrow roads. I'm sure the driver was wondering what the heck was a 7 meter camper van doing there. We saw some of the most spectacular scenery en route and I am certain we broke new ground as far as tourist travels.

Continuing our drive, which ended up preventing us from seeing the Waitamo Glow Worm Caves, we headed towards Hamilton to stop in on our friends, Audrey and Stefanus who had driven to Rotorua on day one to meet us for dinner. It was a quick, but nice visit. They have a lovely home and Audrey is quite the gardener.

From there we drove to Auckland, the city we flew into, but did not spend anytime in. We got a nice RV site on the beach north of the city, within walking distance to bars, restaurants and other shopping areas. Tonight, Wednesday evening, we fly back to LAX landing on Wednesday afternoon.

I will write one more entry and edit my others with more details, photos and impressions.