After spending a week on the boat and generally messing around in  Whangarei it was time for us to start our New Zealand road trip. We bought a junker van and camping gear and set off on a short trip up to the top of the North Island.  Unfortunately we didn't get to the top of the first hill 20 kms out of town before the engine blew its head gasket.  Horrors!!!! I guess the van was too much of a junker and Peter really did get taken.  After a few days of anguish Peter decided to fix the effing thing, so it took a week to strip the engine and rebuild in the parking lot.  What a start to our anticipated tour of New Zealand.  Quote of the day - " I'm to bleeding old for this shit, car park mechanics are for school kids!"

So yes, the van got fixed , and has performed well since our shaky start. A big thank you to Ric from Dikenja for  huge helping hand and moral support on the strip down and rebuild.  

Now we were ready for a long awaited road tour.

The night before we left we had  a visit from an old Kiwi friend from our Fiji days, Mel Eden, who we hadn't seen in 25 years!!  We were in Fiji with him and it was really good to see Mel again. We caught up with family and old friends and had a great reunion. Bob from Twixt showed up with a six pack also. How can four people get through a six pack, 2 bottles of wine courtesy of Mel, and a flagon  of wine and still be coherent.  It was an enjoyable evening.

So, off we went on our first trip in New Zealand. We journeyed down the SH1 past Auckland and by-passed Hamilton on our way to Rotorua.  Peter was on a mission - fishing of course, it was one of the reasons we had come to New Zealand because he had been told that there were loads of Rainbow and Brown trout in some incredible rivers all over New Zealand. This trip we intended to see as many of these rivers as possible.

Rotorua is one of the world's most concentrated and accessible geothermal area.  Steam rises with boiling and bubbling mud in some places quite a sight!  Before you reach Rotorua you can definitely smell the hydrogen sulphide, it smells like rotten eggs.

Our first stop in Rotorua was at the Fletcher Challenge offices to collect the permit to fish in a active logging area nearby so that he could fish the Rangtitaki river which was one of the rivers on Peter's hit  list. So we  headed for Te Urewera National Park to fish the mighty Rangtitaki

The campsite had few amenities but a fabulous spot near the river. We spent four  days there and Peter caught some fish which made him happy.  While Peter fished the Lakes, canal and river I just immersed myself in the beauty of the landscape and was amazed at the Tu Tu's ( a form of Pampas Grass) strewn along each side of the river. See the photos.

 Lake Aniwhenua  was our next port of call, which was quite busy with Kiwis on holiday fishing.  The weather was sunny and very warm and I  had a pleasant time just hanging out while Peter fished, really good sight fishing to brown trout, managed to land few 3 or 4 pounders (so her says) .  After 3 days we set off on a sight seeing tour of the central eastern part of the North Island. We saw Beaches, Towns, Maori villages and incredible landscapes. We even got caught up in a New Zealand traffic jam - Cows everywhere on the road with no car able to move for five or ten minutes what a sight especially on a main road!

Lake Waikermoana (Waikermoana means in Maori "sea of rippling water") was our next stop where we spent a few days fishing and hiking.  There was good camping in scenic areas. The weather didn 't co-operate so we decided to move on and ended  up at the Ruakituri river which is supposed to be an International renowned river for rainbow trout.

Peter spent three days hiking (the only way to fish this river) and fishing the river and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and as an added bonus he caught quite a few rainbows!! Our campsite by the river was in some of the most incredible scenery New Zealand has to offer. We were the only ones around at the time we were there.

We left the Raukituri river for a few days sight seeing.  We arrived in Napier which is a beautiful Art Deco Town.  The town had been devastated with an earthquake in the 1930's so they decided on a theme of that era, which was Art Deco , for the rebuilding of Napier.  A wise decision their buildings, beautiful gardens and parks are a tourist haven. Hawkes Bay which is the area where Napier and Hastings are situated has a Mediterranean climate so they grow oranges, lemons, olives, kiwi and other assorted fruits.  Their vineyards are some of the best in the New Zealand wine industry.  We toured vineyards, spent time in the Botanical Gardens and hung out around Napier and Hastings.

We left Napier after a few days to start our Journey back to the boat.  We had been Van camping  for about 3-4 weeks and were anxious to get back to the boat.  On our way back we went to Tauranga to see our Canadian sailing friends, Sandra and Dennis.  They had rented and apartment and were working on their boat in the Marina.  It felt very luxurious sleeping in a bed, a stand up shower, an d a real table to eat at,  in a house after the boat and camping. Thank you Sandra and Dennis. What  luxury!

Our boat when we arrived back was OK.  We spent a week doing chores and set off on another road trip.

This time we headed straight for Napier where we had finished on the first trip and headed up to the Mohaka River 60 km to the west of Napier in the middle of the Mountains. We had to go up to the upper reaches of the river. Some of the river is unfishable because of very deep, inaccesable gorges and lack of public access..  We had read that there was a road into the remote areas where Peter wanted to fish and headed towards the Blue Gum  Hot springs area to spend some time hiking, sitting in the hot springs and of course fishing.  Peter spent a few days along the river about a half hour hike from  our campsite.  On one of the days he went on a three hour hike up to one of the DOC (Dept of Conservation) huts to fish that area of the river. Unfortunately Peter wasn't successful in nabbing the famed  big trout just some small ones but the experience was well worth it and if he had caught a big one that would have been a bonus.                                                                                                                                               

We headed down the river to a fork in the road to fish another river.  We had to cross a ford or travel 70 kms around to get to the next river.  Now that sounds easy doesn't it?  Well we got caught in the ford (or should I say river).  Our poor van was up to its floor boards  in water and we had been stuck for about 3 hours when some farm hands were coming for a swim because of the heat, and they dragged the van out of the river. See the picture below for a laugh!! I was stressed that we would not have got out of the river and had to abandon the van so my relief when I had prayed for someone to come was very evident.. We camped on the other side of the river and Peter of course went fishing.

We traveled to a few more fishing spots before returning to Napier.  At Napier there was a board meeting and a decision was made that we would travel down to Wellington.

On our first night enroute we had a fantastic camping spot in one of NZ's forest reserves.  They have great campsites for the traveling tourist which we were for ever grateful for all through our journeys around the North Island. The next day we stopped enroute  for Wellington at the Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre for breeding threatened species. We saw some of New Zealand's threatened native birds learned how their captive breeding research contributed to the survival of threatened species.  We saw two kiwis in a nocturnal house, it took us about 20 minutes for our eyes to get used to the darkness so that we could see the kiwi. That would be one of the highlights of our New Zealand travels. We walked through a primeval forest, saw eels that after 60 years in a stream made a 1100 mile journey to Tonga to breed and then die.  The young eels travel back to New Zealand cocooned in a leaf which floats back and just at the right time transforms into a young eel to navigate back to the original stream from where its parents had left.  Quite a magnificent life cycle we thought.

Off again on our travels we ended up on Wellington waterfront at one of the marinas.  Our friends Mike and Victoria had their boat on a dock there while Victoria worked on the scenery of a Peter Jackson film "King Kong". We spent the days touring Wellington seeing New Zealand's National Museum, Te Papa Museum, Botanical Gardens, The Museum of Wellington City and Sea and hanging out around Wellington.  The nights we spent in the parking lot of the Chaffers Marina (they had a parking pass) courtesy of Mike and Vicky. The Museums were free and really well worth a visit we spent nearly a whole day in each of the museums and certainly a whole day at the Botanical Gardens which were magnificent.  The Te Papa is Wellington's star attraction and occupies a purpose built  building which opened in 1998. The hub of the museum is on level 2 where they have interactive section on earthquakes.  You can experience a mild earthquake in a house and watch a  volcanoe erupt. on massive screen. The Botannical Gardens are perched on Mt. Victoria and could be reached via a cable car or by walking.  We took the cable car to the top and walked all around the theme gardens. A few photos will explain the beauty of the place. The City and  Sea museum was housed in a Victorian bond store and the history of Wellington unfolds through well-executed displays  on early Maori and European settlement and gives a feeling of the strong seafaring heritage.

We left Wellington after five wonderful days to set off back via Palmerston North to Hamilton to see our friend Mel again and onto Auckland to visit our friends Brenda and Trevor Dunn who we hadn't seen in 15 years. We had a great time with our friends and spent a few days with them.  Peter even got the opportunity to race on Trevor's boat in the Hauraki Gulf and saw the America's Cup boat being towed into harbour after some sea trials.

Again it was time to return to the boat.  Now the grunt work starts and fun times are over.  We did a solid  2 weeks hard work  preparing the boat for our trip to Fiji.  We hauled the boat at one of the local boat yards and put a few coats of anti-foul paint on the old girl's bottom, redid the non slip coating on the decks, and checked everything for wear and tear before putting it back in the water.  I managed to make new cockpit cushions and cleaned and polish the stainless steel.  Now that sounds easy but like anything on a boat its not. Below are a few pictures of the haul out.

 Matarua back in the water!!                                                                                 Green Man and friend Rik

Our next passage will be Fiji via Minerva Reef.