"Old" hotel in Coromandel City

In New Zealand you don't find buildings older than 150 years or so. Before that people lived in wooden/reed houses (Maori).

This is an example of what the New Zealander calls a "historic site" and that's why I made a picture of it (had nothing else to do at the time).

Two days no internet

Today is Saturday, 28th November 2009.
Yesterday we camped on the seaside near an Island called Tiri Tiri Matangi. It was not a camping (just on the side of the road near the harbour) and we didn’t have to pay to stay overnight. There was water so we had everything we needed.
The reason why here was that we wanted to visit this island because there are very beautiful birds over there, but first I’ll write about our experiences on Friday 27th.

Since we are going north on the North island of New Zealand we passed a bay in which lies the Cathedral Cove. This cove is well known around here because there is a kind of big and rocky arch on the beach which looks like a cathedral and you guessed that already.
The weather was nice and warm and we took the hike to this beach and it was fun because of the good weather and the sandy beaches.
There were big signs next to the arch to be very careful because a part of it caved in lately. But we walked under it and nothing happened.

I must say that the country here is beautiful. Around - almost – every corner you can see something different and driving around here is nice. There are mountains, streams, beautiful forests, rocky coasts and white and black beaches, birds, cows and of course sheep although there are more sheep on the South Island and you knew that already as well.

I wrote a few times that the South Island seems to have much more sheep than here on the North Island.
Ankie read somewhere that there are 22 different kinds of sheep.
I can’t remember them all but here we go:
- black sheep,
- white sheep,
- black and white sheep,
- Merino sheep (the wool is very soft),
- dead sheep,
- live ones,
- small ones (lambs they call ‘m over here),
- big ones (they are called sheep),
- flat sheep,
- cooked sheep,
- steamed sheep,
- boiled sheep,
- grilled sheep,
- burned sheep (you don’t see these very much),
- and others of which I don’t now the names anymore.


For people who love sheep, New Zealand must be heaven (really).

There are lots of Possums too. The “Opossum” is a pest here in New Zealand and - if you wanted to - you could buy a gun and shoot as much possums as you can and they would love you for it.
There are two kinds of possums:
- flat and dead ones (you can see these on every road),
- live ones (you usually see these only at night).

Wildlife in New Zealand is very exciting and there are lots of other animals in New Zealand like:
- deer,
- cats (sometimes flat),
- cows,
- dogs,
- rats,
- mice,
- Alpaca’s (the wool of Alpaca’s is very soft and THE thing to buy here
in New Zealand is something of Alpaca wool in combination with
Merino wool and/or possum hair/wool. This is very soft material and of
course really expensive. I can understand this very well. Imagine you
have to drive along lots of roads, find the flat possums, skin them, mix
their hair with Merino and Alpaca wool and weave it into what you
want like:
- caps,
- sweaters,
- shawls,
- socks,
- etc.

We saw also a few Llama’s.
Ankie saw a shop with the name “Chipmunks” so they probably have those here as well.

Today we went visiting Tiri Tiri Matangi Island.
In Maori language this means: “tossed by the wind”. Luckily there was not much wind, the temperature was OK and now and than we even had a little sun, when walking on the island.
We went by boat (the name of the boat is “Tiri Kat”) and it took about half an hour to get to the island.
It is a bird sanctuary and they have kiwi’s ( the grey spotted kiwi and since they are night animals we didn’t see any of course), penguins (we found a dead one and Ankie made a picture of that bird because it was only the third penguin we have seen!! After two live ones on the South Island a few weeks ago) and they have other birds like:
- Whiteheads (we saw one),
- Kakariki (a green parakeet with a read head and I made a picture of two),
- Stitchbird (as far as I know we saw none and the Maori name is “hihi”),
- Takahe and when used to people it picks the food out of your backpack,
- and lots of other birds of which I don’t remember the names anymore.
It was a nice day on the island, we saw both sides of the island, we sat a few times on a beach here and there and we saw lots of native trees (brought back to the island after the old ones were cut down hundreds of
years ago by farmers, boat builders, etc.).

So today was a nice day and tomorrow we will be going north again.
About that I’ll tell more tomorrow or the day after.

Golf.
Practically every village and town has a golf course.
If there are 5 houses in a row you can bet your ass that there is a golf course around.

Traffic.
We have been in traffic twice. Once when we got off the boat in Wellington (Friday evening around 5 o’clock in the afternoon) and yesterday (around three in the afternoon, passing Auckland up north).

Meat.
The best meat we bought till now was porterhouse steak.
You can get sirloin steak too, but the porterhouse was nicer.
In general (I think) meat here is cheap and I know why; lot’s of cows and big steers around (and sheep).

Houses.
Most houses in New Zealand are one story houses (only ground floor).
Most are built of wood with corrugated iron roofs.
Houses with two floors you don’t see often (maybe this has to do with:
- lots of building ground available,
- the possibility of an earthquake and a one floor house is more stable?
I don’t know.


You can buy a house in a packet (they are advertised everywhere).
We looked in to that (My wife’s third name is Aagje) and found out that you can buy a four bedroom house, with dining room and living room and all the garages and bathrooms and whatever, for lets say Euris 150.000,-- or 175.000,--. (this is apart from the land of course to build on).
And I think (apart from all kind of building regulations which apply in Holland) such a house in Holland would cost at least double the price.

Police
Not many police around and (we think) not much crime.

Shoes
Apparently a lot of New Zealanders are poor because lots of people don’t wear shoes or they don’t like ‘m.

Well this is it for today.
Tomorrow is another day.

The last part of my blog was about the waterfall at the burried village.

Ankie in hotpool in Waitake

Tawahi falls

Visiting the three Volcano's we made a hike to the Tawahi falls. Here you can see Ankie near the water.

Waimangui Valley

In the Waimangui Valley there are all sorts of volcanic sights. Steaming holes, little geysers, bubbling mud pools.

Helicopter near Mount Rahapehu

When we visited the three volcano's on the North Island we arrived at a ski village called Iwikau.

A helicopter was moving all kinds of construction materials from one place to another.

Active volcano on North Island

This is one of the three active volcano's on the North Island of New Zealand.

The mountain is so high that it's summit is in the clouds (clierwds).

Kiwi with Egg

Here you see a Kiwi (with egg).
The Kiwi is New Zealand's best known bird and since it is a night bird, you can only see it at night and...................it can't fly and it's sight is very bad and that's why it can't fly in the dark because otherwise it would fly into anything at once.
That's why.

On the road

When we driving around the North Island you can see these kind of mountains; all rather young volcanic mountains.

Today is 26th. November 2009.
We are not sure whether it is Wednesday or Thursday. We have no newspaper or something else to look what is the exact day today (I am writing this off line).
I know now; it is Thursday. (Dat was even schrikken).

Yesterday we were in the neighborhood of Rotorua, a well known place for:
- its Lake
- thermal baths
- scenic lookouts (you’ll find these everywhere)
- hot water springs
- steaming cliffs
- the famous “White and Pink terraces” destroyed in 1886 as consequence
of an eruption of Mount Tarawera (height nowadays 1111 meters)
- the “Buried Village” about which more later.

We camped in a place called Waitake, a camping with hot pools.
The camping was a nonety but the pools were nice (mostly 38 degrees C) and we lay in them all. No swimming, just sitting around in the nice hot water. But I wrote that already yesterday.

The “buried village” (I called it yesterday “ the hidden village by mistake”) was called “Te Wairoa” and I don’t know the reason.
In the same eruption of Mount Tarawera of 1886, this village was smothered under lava, hot ashes, rocks, etc. and some people died.
Nowadays there is a small hike through the diggings of this buried village and it looked like the Chinese gold digging village we visited a week ago on the South Island.
The difference was that lots of artifacts and utensils were grey (from being buried for a long time under ashes of the eruption) in this village and in the other village they were just rusted.
There was a waterfall too and I filmed that one.
But very interesting, of course like most of the events, functions, reserves, lookouts, parks, views here in New Zealand, and we were very, very happy that we didn’t miss this very interesting site.
The New Zealanders know exactly how to attract tourists.

Last night we camped in a place called Whangamata.
It has a beach with rather large waves and some guys were surfing and now and then they succeeded in surfing and that was nice to see.
The beach was very clean and the weather really nice, so we stayed for a few hours on this beach but we didn’t swim (much to cold).

Today we would visited one of THE tourist attractions near the city of Coromandel (well known to the New Zealanders as a historic gold town). It concerns a railway (with a very small track like the rails are only 50 cm’s apart) of not less than 3 Km’s with lots of turns, tunnels (2 but 4 of you go back the same way!! which you have to, otherwise you have to walk down the mountain), bridges, wissels (I don’t know the English name, but I know the “wisselwachter” in German which is: Reichseisenbahnknotenpunkthinundherschieber) and lots of interesting things like:
- pottery along the track (the builder of the railway has a pottery as well),
- empty bottles as walls to keep the earth from burying the track,
- all kinds of rusted iron tools along the track,
- signs with names of trees (Kauri*, Muri, etc.)
- little station buildings built by the potter himself,
- a lookout tower which is called the “Eifeltower” and here too I don’t see
the reason and it does not look like the Eifeltower at all,
- etc.

* About the Kauri I could tell you some stories but I don’t.

After this awesome view in the life of a potter we set for the camping where we are now. We are in a place called Hot Water Beach near a place called Hahei. Hahei is well known for its Cathedral Cove, which we are going to visit tomorrow.
Well, you already understood that there is hot water on the beach.
When it is low tide and you dig holes in the beach near the waterline, water of about 60 degrees C erupts and mixing it with seawater, it should be:
- nice (if not to hot or to cold)
- very healthy because the water contains all sorts of very healthy
minerals like (salt, calcium and all other sorts of very healthy minerals).

The weather is nice today although we have lots of wind (I have never visited a country with so much wind and with so much sheep).
For people who love sheep this must be really heaven, especially the South Island.

Today is Tuesday, 24th. November.
We are in Waitike.
Waitike is well known for its thermal spring, the Waitike Thermal Spring.
But…….about this hotspring later.
First , when we were on the road from where we were the day before yesterday (that was in Wanganui, a dead holiday village on a beach with black sand en nothing more on the south west coast of the North Island of New Zealand; so that you understand where we were) to Motutere on Lake Taupo, there were some things I have to mention:
- no sheep (for people who love sheep, the North Island is certainly not
heaven, compared to the South Island which is really heaven for people
who do love sheep),
- three volcanos (still working) although the last eruption was - as far as
I know - in 1995 (the names of the volcano’s: Mount Ruapehu 2797
meter high, Mount Engauruhoe 2291 meter high - both with their
summits in the cliewrds – and another one of which I can’t remember
the name but not high enough to have its summit in the cliewrds)
- an iron train bridge - The Makatote Viaduct - (a bridge over the river
Kwai look a like) which collapsed during Christmas eve in 1953 during
an earthquake leaving about 150 people dead
- Iwikau village, a ski village, without snow (it’s supposed to be spring or
almost summer over here) and I must say, without much hope for snow
the next winter because of all the snow machines we saw.
This village lies in the Tongariro National Park (the first National park
in New Zealand).
Since there is no snow, the village was dead apart from a helicopter
which was moving construction materials from one place to another.
- the Grand Chateau (something like the large hotel near Lake Louise),
- a hike to a waterfall (Tawahi falls).

After this eventful journey we arrived in Motutere, a place on lake Taupo.
The weather was fine and we sat on the lakeside in the sun, drinking, eating and reading our books (after I did my chores, waste water, tanking water, etc. and cleaning the toilet). We also had a new roll of toiletpaper.

We slept well and this morning and we set for Waitike.
During our trip today we visited the Huka Waterfalls in Taupo, the Waimangui Thermal Valley (lots of hot springs and steam and the stink of rotten eggs), the Moon Crater National Scenic, Geothermal, wildlife and heritage Park (with steam out of fissures in the ground and a mud - bubbling - crater) and lots of other things like waterfalls, scenic lookouts, historic places and Maori whatever’s.

And in the end of the day (it was 15.00 hours) we found this camping with thermal pools, springs and spa.
The water is about 38 degrees and it’s nice to lay in the sun in such a pool.
Ankie did some laundry and we cleaned the campervan.

Now it is past nine and I am going to end this story of today and yesterday.
When you read this it will be Wednesday (no internet here in Waitike but they have sheep. (For people who love sheep, etc. etc).

All is well with us.
Tomorrow we will visit Rotorua with near by “the hidden city” a New Zealand Pompei but then here in New Zealand.
And after Rotorua (we will buy groceries there, I hope) we will drive to Waihi on the east coast of the North Island.

Strand Wanganui

Ankie near a big treetrunk on the beach of Wanganui. The picture is a little dark, but that is because the sand is black.
This is a volcanic area and that's why there is black sand.

Sunday, 22nd. November 2009,
Castle Cliff Seaside Holiday Park Wanganui.
Wanganui is on the west coast of the North
Island.
It’s mostly flat country here and on the seaside
there are dunes (black sand).

This is the camping where we are now today.
As you understand we are near the seaside.
Only a two minute walk from the camping to
the sea.
The road from Wellington (as a matter of fact
it was a township near Wellington called
Lower Hutt) to Wanganui was uneventful,
although we had a piece of road of about
30 Km’s with only one lane, with lots of
hairpins and other corners. This was a tiring
piece of road……. and you never knew
whether somebody else was driving in the
opposite direction.
So I honked a lot as a sign that somebody was
coming: “us”.

We started with rain and after a while it
dried up, the sun showed now and than
(we bought groceries in a place called Levin)
and when we arrived we sat in the sun,
next to our campervan, reading our books.

We had lunch on the beach of Waitarere
(I will never remember these names because
of Alzheimer, Korsakov and the
unspeakable names of the places here).

About places with difficult names.
On the North Island is a village with a
name which has at least 100 letters or more.
I wonder whether people are able to pronounce
this name even if they live over there.
It starts like:
Taumatawhakatanghihangakoaauauotama
and so on.

This village lies near Porangahau, on the south
east coast of the northern island.
If you don’t believe it, look it up on the map.

We made a hike to the sea and on the beach
for a few hours this afternoon.
There was not much to see (besides the sea and
waves, black sand, all kinds of trunks on the
beach and not too many shells and the sky)
and almost no people on the beach.
And there are floating stones (If you don’t
believe this, ask Ankie) a sort of lime stones,
with lots of holes in them like cheese.

After we returned we drank something and
ate something like cheese and salmon on
toast and we swapped books with the camping
library.
In half an hour we’ll have dinner, Ankie will
do the dishes and we’ll read again for an hour
or so and go to bed.

Nothing much to remember but for us a good
day of our vacation.

About vacations.
Lots of motels and B & B’s have vacancies.
Must be lucky people to have their holiday
when we are here.
And then there is something else; when they
have no holiday they have a sign which says:
“no vacancy” which means they are at home.
Strange people those New Zealanders.

About cars.
On the southern island we mostly saw Toyota’s, Datsuns/Nissans and Fords. Almost no other car brands.
On the northern island you see the same but more other brands like VW, Saab and even, now and than, a Volvo.

About Supermarkets.
Most supermarkets are open on Sundays.


About sheep.
People who love sheep have to go to the
South Island of New Zealand.
As far as I can see on that island are the
most sheep.They also keep sheep on the
north island but there are much more sheep
on the South Island (as far as we can see in
two days).
For people who love sheep the South Island
must be really heaven.

So this is it for this Sunday.
I’ll try to get this on my blog tomorrow-
morning, which is then: today.

Sheep

In Wellington there are no sheep (at least we saw none).
For people who love sheep, Wellington is certainly not heaven.
Today is Sunday.
We are on our way now north on the North Island, direction Upper Hutt (I think).

Ankie doing her favorite chores

Ankie in the camper, doing her dayly favorite chores.

Wedding pictures near Te Papa, Wellington

Leaving the museum there was this couple having pictures taken in front of the museum.
This is certainly something else than seals or flowers.

Ankie by a large GREENSTONE in Te Papa

Ankie near a large piece of greenstone, the material of which the Maori made jewelry, weapens and utensils.

This picture was teken in the National Museum Te Papa in Wellington.

Wellington

On Saturday November 21st. we stayed in Wellington.
It rained almost the whole day (“We are going on a summer holiday” after Cliff Richard) and this was a good reason to visit the national museum of New Zealand, the Te Papa National Museum of New Zealand.
Ankie wanted to see this museum anyway, so we went.

The outside is OK but not as spectacular as, for instance, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (well known by some people as the Koekenhijm Mjoesieum).
I know one can differ about art. So I won’t indulge in the things lots of people call art in the Koekenhijm in Bilbao and, since we are in Wellington I’ll keep to the artifacts and art and all they show here in the Te Papa Museum.

I was a little bit skeptical about this museum and my expectations weren’t very high, I must admit (according to the museums every village and every town here boasts). But, I was really amazed about what we have seen here today.
If somebody writes (or says): “You have to go to the Te papa” than he is so right! I have seen some museums around the world and this one is in my top 5.
I have never seen a museum which is so informative about all kinds of different matters like:
- how New Zealand was created as the consequence of the coming
together of two tectonic plates accompanied with a virtual ride to a deep
sea volcano,
- the New Zealand treasure of the “Greenstone” of which the Maori made
beautiful artifacts like weapons but jewelry (lots of pendants) as well,
- the geological forces that shape New Zealand’s landscape (including a
visit to a house which shakes during an earthquake; it’s awesome),
- the amazing variety of New Zealand’s animals and plants (with
skeletons of all the animals and birds who live in and around New
Zealand and lots of dioramas about wildlife)
- lots about the Maori (how they lived, how they warred, how they
survived in the hostile environment on some coasts of New Zealand,
their houses and meeting places (nowadays we call ‘m community halls),
their ships, their tenacity in both world wars, etc.
- modern architecture with beautiful pieces of work (we have “Manhattan
on the Maas” but you should see Wellington),
- contemporary art (we even thought we saw one of Lex’s paintings but
there is apparently a painter who made “written paintings” as well),
- (They have Rembrandt’s too!!)

- a large exhibition about the Treaty between westerners and Maori to
create New Zealand as it is now (politically),
- Tapa (bark cloth), the traditional clothing of the Maori,
- lot’s of information for kids with workshops, etc etc.
- lot’s about the islands around New Zealand in the Pacific which we call
“Oceania” , the people and living over there, etc.
- an exhibition about people from all over the world who made New
Zealand their new homeland (Hungary, Scotland, Ireland, India,
Holland, China - of which we visited the remains of their
gold digging village on the South Island a week ago - and lots of other
countries),
- an exhibition about household utensils (like Boymans has too),
- an exhibition about modern silver and gold jewelry,
- an exhibition about the biggest squid ever caught in the sea with
beautiful movies about the catch, how they examined the beast, etc. etc.
- etc.etc.etc.

We were almost four hours at they museum and we didn’t have the time to see everything and all.
In short, it was worthwhile and really nice.
Now we are back at the camping.
I did my chores (clean water, getting rid of the grey and other water, etc.) and again I am hammering away.
It is still raining.

Our food.
If we don’t eat we will starve, so we buy groceries almost every day.
In larger towns, like Wellington, there are lots of supermarkets and big ones.
In smaller towns and villages sometimes there is only one shop (and this not seldom the local gas station as well).
In the big supermarkets you can get everything you want (they are bigger than Albert Heyn in Holland but about as big as the Sobey’s in Nova Scotia).
When we are in a bigger city we buy more and in ten villages we only (often) buy the things we really need.
What do we eat?
- In the morning: breakfast.
Bread with cheese and jam, honey, strawberries, cereal (Ankie), tea.
Ankie makes also coffee for “on the road”.




- Lunch around 13.oo ‘o clock.
If possible I try (we try) to find a nice place with a view (and often we
Succeed doing so).
We eat bread with cheese, some meat like salami, honey, ham, roast
Beef, salmon (tinned), tomatoes, honey.
We drink milk (usually).
- Before dinner.
We eat toast with cheese and smoked salmon and or soup.
We drink wine or some other spirit or so (whatever we have with
alcohol).
- Dinner.
Ankie always makes dinner.
Meat (Porterhouse or Sirloin steak or schnitzels – pork - or chicken but
Also salmon and, for instance tomorrow chicken liver, ha, ha, ha, ha)
and vegetables such as beans, broccoli, spinach, maize, carrots, etc. and
a salad of some kind.
And we drink a glass of wine (or two).
The day before we had a good wine called “Jacob’s Creek” from
New Zealand (Very good stuff).
For desert we often have yoghurt or fruit.
When we are driving we eat KitKat, fruit and other sweets.
In the evening we drink a glass of tea.

This is it for today.
It is still raining and we hope that the weather will be better tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will go somewhere else, but I don’t know where (Ankie will decide).