Raglan, Te Arhoa, Coromandel

Feb 22 – Rotorua to Cambridge to Raglan

It was still raining on and off this morning. We weren't too bright last night either and left our camp chairs under the tarp so they were quite wet. We ate breakfast out of the back of the car then got packed up while trying to dry things out. We headed into town and did a quick internet weather check at the McD's. The weather doesn't look promising anywhere. Then we got on the highway and were headed for Raglan. Along the way we stopped off in the little town of Cambridge. Mom and Dad had suggested we stop here in my charm hunt but alas we had no luck. We made ourselves lunch under a covered BBQ area since it was still raining out. We then drove onwards through Hamilton into quaint little Raglan. We checked out the info center and got the details of the holiday parks in the area. We had a little walk around the town, it didn't take very long, and discovered free wifi at the library. It seemed faster than McD's so we'll try it in the morning to see if Beau can successfully update his site. We headed down the road to the holiday parks on the map and decided to stay and the last one we checked. They had a sauna, hot showers and were the cheapest. We had a nice sweat in the sauna then took a hot shower. We made dinner and enjoyed the rest of our wine sitting outside, it was a rain free and warm evening.

Feb 23 – Bridal Veil Falls and Te Arhoa

It had rained all last night but let up when we woke up this morning. We had placed the tarp over the back windows to keep some light out of the car. It of course was soaked so we had to mess around trying to dry it out. We had our breakfast and after the tarp was reasonably dry we got on our way. The weather was very grey and dreary. Not conducive to going to the beach to check out the surfers. We headed to the Raglan library so Beau could up date his website. We hung out there for about an hour, I read, and then decided to leave town. On our way out we detoured to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a huge water fall falling 55 meters. There were several view points and about 20min to the bottom or 200 odd steps. While the falls were beautiful it would have been more incredible if the water had been a nicer colour. It was a brown muddy colour from all the farms in the area. After the falls we drove back into Hamilton. We were pretty hungry and needed to pick up some groceries. We saw a Countdown and pulled into the lot, but instead of shopping on an empty stomach we set up our camp chairs on a grassy median and had our lunch there. After that we picked up a few groceries and continued on through Hamilton towards Te Arhoa. We found a reasonably priced camp ground and step up in the car there. They had free wifi, a lounge, and a spa, but sadly the spa wasn't open. While we were cooking dinner Beau noticed the beautiful sunset and grabbed the camera for a photo. Also at the camp ground a bunch of construction workers were staying here and Beau had a chat with a few of them while I was cooking. We ended the evening watching Project Runway and writing up the events of the past few days.

Bridal Veil Falls

Us at the bottom

Our sunset in Te Arhoa

Feb 24 – Back to Coromandel Peninsula

For breakfast we had a nice change and enjoyed eggs and potatoes. We were a little late heading out of the park and got a dirty look from the owner for it. It's not like we were in the way or taking up space since the lot was pretty empty. Our plan was to head back to the Coromandel and Cathedral Cove. We stopped into the Karangahake Gold Mines along the way. We went for a really nice walk through the gorge and saw the ruins of some of the buildings that used to be here. We also got to walk through some of the tunnels that the miners carved into the hillside. One part was quite interesting as the miners had carved “windows” into the tunnels so they could dump the goldless rocks out of them. We spent about an hour or two walking around the mines and then hit the road. We stopped into Matamata and had our lunch by the harbour and wharf. We then had a quick peek at the beach but decided to get closer to Cathedral Cove before stopping for the day. We reached Hahei (the little town that Cathedral Cove is in) and checked out the local holiday park. We felt it was over priced so we drove over the Cooks Cove for a price comparison and were appalled by their prices too. We opted for the first place since it was really close to Cathedral Cove. On the way back we stopped in Mercury Bay Estates and shared a flight of wine. It was another board of 5 wines that was brought out to us but they were sizeable tastings and we got to enjoy the beautiful view overlooking Cooks Cove. I really liked their Sauvignon Blanc but we didn't feel like paying $20 for a bottle. We checked into the Hahei holiday park then had a little walk on the beach. We decided to make dinner using our camp stove since the kitchen was a little ways away and was also very busy. We had a nice cup of tea after dinner and clean up and read our books in the car for a little while since it was chilly out.

One of the old batteries

Looking out a "window"

Looking down the gorge

Old mining parts in the river

Northland and Coramandel

We have been staying at basic campsites and using McDonald's internet to update our websites and check our e-mails.  You'll have to forgive us for the lack of continual updates.  We also are trying to charge all our electronics using a car charger.  It's amusing we were able to be more connected than in Asia.  I'll try to add pictures to this post at a later date, the internet is too slow to do it currently.

Feb 1 – Forest Giants

After dreams of kiwis danced in our heads we woke up to a fairly nice morning. We headed on out of our Trounson forest park and on to Waipoua Forest. This forest boasts the largest two kauri trees in New Zealand. We stopped at a look out but didn't really know what we were looking at besides a lot of trees. We continued on to the visitors center to find out where we should be going. After consulting their forest map we set off again. Our next stop was to see an area of young kauri trees. The younger trees were tall but quite skinny. I guess they fill out as they get older. Our next stop had several different trees to see. The first was called the Four Sisters and was actually 4 separate trees who's bases had fused together. The next stop of the walk was Te Matua Ngahere, the Father of the Forest. He is the second largest kauri tree in New Zealand but is also the widest with a 16.41m girth. He also has a volume of 208.1m3, a total height of 29.9m and a trunk height of 10.21m. He's huge!! On this walk we could have also seen the 7^th largest kauri but after seeing the Father of the Forest we didn't think it would measure up. A short drive later we stopped to see Tane Mahuta, the Lord/God of the Forest and the largest kauri. He has a volume of 244.5m3, a total height of 51.5m, a trunk height of 17.7m and a girth of 13.8m. He was gigantic. I wish the pictures could properly capture how immense these trees are. Unfortunately due to the delicate and shallow nature of the kauri roots you aren't allowed too close to the trees. We continued our drive and stopped for lunch at a picnic spot outside of the tiny town of Omapere. Slightly further on was Hokianga Harbour and there were some spectacular views from the top of the cliffs overlooking the harbour and town. Shortly after we continued driving we stopped to pick up a German girl hitch hiking. She was headed to the Far North too. We were taking the scenic drive and took a small car ferry across the Hokianga river at Rawene, We continued north for awhile and dropped our passenger off at a hostel in Henderson Bay. We checked out the beach there and had a little walk along it. This is a silica sand beach and if you shuffle your feet through the sand it squeaks! We made it to the DOC site just slightly south of Cape Reinga. We set up, had dinner and a nice walk along the beach. Beau had stuck up conversation with our neighbors who were Kiwi-Americans. They had been skin diving and caught some abalone. Unfortunately they had run out of gas to cook with but we lent them our stove and we got to try some of there sea food. It was soooo good, like a seafood steak. Yum!!! We talked with them for awhile and they got Beau into the hunter-gatherer mind set so we'll see how that goes in the future! It was a lovely clear night with a very bright half moon.

Te Matua Ngahere, Father of the Forest

Tane Mahuta, the Lord/God of the Forest

Henderson Bay

Feb 2 – Cape Reinga

The day started off beautiful with sunny clear skies. We had breakfast and hit the road to see Cape Reinga while the weather held. Cape Reinga is most North-West point of New Zealand, just a little bit east is the most north point. It is also a spiritual point for the Maori people as they believed all souls had to pass through Cape Reinga to reach their spiritual home land. Here is also where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea. Apparently on rough days the waves can reach 10m high, but our day was very calm. The views were breath taking with bright blue sky, puffy white clouds and turquoise waters. After taking tons of photos we hit the road and went to check out some sand dunes. We went to see the Te Paki Giant Sand dunes. They were huge definitely not expecting to see desert like sand dunes in New Zealand. Looking in one direction all you could see was sky and sand but turn around and there were green forests. You could rent boogie boards to slide down the hills but after our not so cool experience of sand tobogganing in Vietnam we decided against it. We walked along the dunes for a bit in a small stream. Beau was hoping to reach the sea but it was actually quite far away from where we were. So we headed back to the car. We drove to a 90 Mile Beach access and actually drove onto the beach. We took advantage of our little beach site and had lunch. We drove back into Kaitaia to pick up some groceries and borrow some internet. We also bought two camp chairs from the Warehouse since we had nothing to sit on last night. We head out to the Karikari peninsula to a DOC site there. The cicadas were super loud but our spot ended up being relatively shelter and quiet in comparison to most. We enjoyed a mug of wine with our steak stirfry.

Us at the Light House at Cape Reinga

Cape Reinga Lighthouse

The Dunes at Te Paki

90 Mile Beach

Feb 3 – Happy Birthday to Me

I started my 25^th birthday with an icy cold shower. Okay it wasn't that bad, it was nice to feel clean. Our plan was to go wine tasting today. We hit the road and found a winery right off the get go. Our first winery of the day was Karikari Estates where we shared a tasting platter of 5 wines. This is the north-most winery in New Zealand. The way they did it was a little unfortunate though because they had us sit down outside and brought us out our platter with a laminated wine info sheet. The view was spectacular but we missed being able to talk with the wine server. Their wines were good though but we didn't buy any. We continued on to our next stop which was an area called Kerikeri, it has most of the wineries in Northland. Our next winery was called Fat Pig Vineyards. It had decent wines but the proprietor was lacking some in the personality department. Personally, I would have thought the woman would be happy to tell us about her winery and how it started, but it was like pulling teeth. Their grapes were grown on the property but the wine was made in Kerikeri, nothing more than that. We did get to try our first port which was very nice. Our next winery, Marsden Estate Winery, was very different than the last two. It was more upscale but they had unlimited free tastings and very nice wine. The girl helping us was quite helpful but a little busy with helping a new girl in the restaurant. If we had had wine storage and more money I would have bought wine from them. Our last winery, Cottle Hill, was very good all around. The proprietor was an American who sailed over to NZ in '92 and opened his own winery. He was very helpful with his wines and also talked to us about things to see in NZ and catching yours own seafood. We did buy a bottle of Chamboucin which I think was one of the first times we tried this variety but it was delicious. He also gave us a tip for some nice Fish and Chips for lunch. We stopped for the Fish 'n' Chips in Paihai and ate them on a bench by the ocean. Once into the town center we had a little wander around. They had a little craft market going on in the town square but there wasn't too much of interest. We also checked out a dive shop and were very disheartened to learn it was $229 for two dives. A little out of our budget right now, I think we'll save it for Australia. We were trying to decided whether to head over to the town of Russell but it wasn't all that nice out so we decided against it. We headed down to the Whananaki DOC site which was actually about 30km from the main road but was a lovely seaside setting. My birthday dinner was a poor mans chilli but turned out okay, especially with our nice wine to accompany it.

Feb 4 – Whangarei and Waipu Caves

After another slightly dissatisfying breakfast of oatmeal and coffee we got talking with our neighbours. They were a middle aged couple from near Tauranga and gave us some more tips on where to go in the area. We headed out from the DOC site and went down the road a little further to check out a pretty nice surf beach. We watched some surfers fight with the waves to get out to sea and catch a few waves. We headed back to the highway and down to Whangarei. We wandered around the town some a checked out some shops for a Kiwi charm for my birthday. We also looked at the town basin and bought a delicious curry wrap from a street vendor. We picked up groceries, gas and propane so it was an expensive day. A little ways down from Whangarei was the town of Waipu which had some glow worm caves we had been told to check out. They were incredible! And free! We had to wade through some streams and duck under rocks. It was like looking at the stars except under ground. There were so many of them that it was light enough to see each other without our flashlights. It was amazing and free :) There was a DOC site right off the highway that we pulled into after the caves. It was super windy but we were able to find a good spot with some shelter. We also used the tent as a wind block for the camp stove. We cooked up some yummy pork meat balls with garlic chilli sauce and pasta. Our location didn't actually turn out to be perfect since we were setup next to a group of teenagers. They weren't too loud but they did leave a mess of garbage to blow around and for the birds to eat. Idiots.

Feb 5 – On to Coromandel Penninsula

As we were finishing eating our breakfast it started to rain some, not wanting to pack up a wet tent we scrambled to get the tent down and out of the rain. Of course as soon as we had heaved the last of the pieces into the back seat the rain stopped. It did allow us to finish our coffee before we properly packed up the tent up sans rain. We drove down to Goat Island Marine Reserve which is supposed to have really good snorkeling. The place was packed but it is a Sunday. It was also windy and cool. Beau looked into renting us some fins and wet suits but was told the visibility was very poor today. The glass bottom boat trips were also cancelled for the day. It was suggested to us to return when the winds were not blowing from the north or north-east. We continued down the road and made a short detour when we saw a winery sign. We went down to Helios Winery that was run by an older gentleman. We talked with him for some time about his wine making operation and about the micro light aircraft he had. We got back on the road but hung a Louie when we saw another winery sign. This one was quite expensive to do a tasting but had a Fill Your Own Bottle deal going on for $10 so we filled the one bottle we had in the car. We stopped into one last winery that was directly off the highway and shared a lovely tasting from a very flamboyant guy. We also got a chance to taste their port as well which was very nice. We were about ready for lunch so we followed some signs down to a regional park and had tomato soup and crackers for lunch. We drove onwards down past Auckland and went to check out Hunua Falls. The falls were pretty nice but again the place was packed with people since it is a long weekend. We had a brief walk and took a few pictures. Next stop was the city of Thames for the night or rather a DOC site just out of town. We found the DOC site and set up at a camp site right next to a “BBQ” or as we call it a fire pit. We had our first camp fire in all of NZ and it was lovely. It kept us nice and warm although there were a few moments of rain to keep us on our toes.

Hunua Falls

Feb 6 – Super Bowl Monday

As we all know Beau is an avid football fan so watching the Super Bowl was kind of a big deal. We headed into Thames and found a bar that would be showing the game. We had a little time before kick off so we hit up a McD's for some free wifi then went into the Warehouse and bought ourselves some snorkeling fins. They are nice and short so packable and still helpful when snorkeling. We were running late for the game now and missed kickoff but we settled into the bar with a beer and some wedges. Beau was happy with the outcome of the game, if his team couldn't win then the team that beat them had to. Afterwards we went to the Pak 'n' Save for a few groceries and then drove to Coromandel Town. This was a VERY twisty narrow drove. I definitely took it slow. We arrived in the town and were looking into Holiday Parks. It was a painful $18/person but they had full facilities, showers were 50cents. We got set up and had our first hot shower since leaving Auckland! It was glorious. We also had a full kitchen to cook in, power for the computer and watched some of Avatar. We didn't get to finish the movie though as the room got closed down on us. We hunkered down in our tent for a good nights sleep, it was a little chilly out.

Scooting around Langkawi

Well plans have changed again, we are going to Kuala Lumpur on the night of the 22^nd since the buses on the 23^rd were sold out. It's frustrating because they tell you to just book the day before and if we had left it another day we might really be SOL. Fortunately our guesthouse owner here was very nice and refunded us the money we had paid for the night of the 22^nd. Now we'll be spending that night in a bus seat. Ce la vie!

Dec 19 – Scootering around Langkawi

We set an alarm this morning so we could be up in time to get one of the first scooter rentals from one of the travel/Mini marts. It was about 7 ringgit cheaper if you were there for in time for the first 2 scooters of the day. And we made it! Rentals are much more here but they also seem more legitimate than the ones we rented in Vietnam etc. We actually had to produce a passport and drivers licence and have insurance. We had some breakfast, then set off to the north to explore the island. Our first stop was Seven Wells Waterfall. This is right near the cable car, which would have a very nice view from the top I'm sure but we weren't willing to spend $10 each. We climbed up the many stairs to the top of the pools. From here we could continue to the peak, which we did. It was quite a hike up and a little disappointing when we reached the peak. The view was obscured by all the foliage, it was quite a jungley trek. It was also very hot and sweaty. On the way back down there were a bunch of monkeys in the garbage can and playing in the woods next to the stairs. They were fishing out water bottles and food wrappers. We went down to the waterfall and went for a dip in the pools below. It was very refreshing. We went back down the stairs to the bottom where we had a nice lunch of fried rice. We hopped back on the scooter and went towards the north west coast. We drove along the coast for a little bit then the road started to climb. We went past a couple of fancy resorts but then we could go no further as there was a gate blocking the road. I'm assuming the road continued onto the resorts private property. We turned around and headed back along the coast. We stopped at two beaches, Pebble Beach and Pasir Tengkorak bbeach, along the way to check out the view. We then headed towards the north east side of the island. Along the way we stopped at the side of the road for some photos then went to a craft center. The craft center was okay, it had some really pretty batik wall hangings. We then continued on to Tanjung Rhu Beach. At low tide you can apparently walk out to the limestone formations in the bay. Unfortunately we were there during high tide. We sat at the beach for a little bit then had a snack. We headed back into town for a shower and some dinner. Beau finally got to try Nasi Campur which is essentially Malaysian buffet. After we went for ice cream as per usual.

Monkey playing with garbage

Seven Wells Waterfall

One of our roadside picture stops

Tanjung Rhu Beach, at low tide you can apparently walk to these formations

 

Dec 20 – Back to the Beach

This morning started a little earlier than most with Beau skyping his buddy Ryan from Brockville. It was good to talk to friends from home. We went for breakfast and splurged a little on Eggs Benedict. It wasn't as good as making it at home but it'll do for now. Egg Benedict is going on the “to make” list. We headed to the beach to soak up some sun and some heat. It's a rough life sitting on the beach reading. Later we went down the beach for some lunch then continued down further to the Duty Free shop where we picked up some beers to have at the pool. Tall cans of Carlsburg cost 2.50 ringgit or about 80 cents. We hung out at the pool for a bit with our beers and goofed around in the water some. We got cleaned up and went out for dinner. We've developed a little bit of a routine: wake up, breakfast, beach, lunch, pool, dinner, ice cream. Like I said it's a rough life :P

Da Lat, Waterfalls, and Silk

We've had a good couple of days in Da Lat so far. The weather has been gorgeous although it cools off at night, reminds me of mid September in Kelowna. There is some beautiful scenery and many waterfalls. Da Lat has some interesting architecture, it's still French Colonial for the most part but the colours are not what you would expect. Many houses are very brightly coloured, lime green, sky blue, hot pink. Some have sparkly pillars and clashing roofs. The other thing I have noticed is there are more large houses, typically Vietnamese houses are skinny, tall and long, these much wider. I think it has to go with Western influence, a couple of houses could have fit right in anywhere in North America. 

 

Oct 30 – Da Lat

We were up early since we were told to be at the bus stop for 6:30am. We had Pho for breakfast and by the time we finish our hotel reception had actually opened so we could check out. We trekked down to the bus stop and waited and waited. The bus showed up at 7:30am and then we picked up 2 other people and set off for Da Lat around 8am. It would have been nice to sleep a little more instead of waiting for an hour for the stupid bus. Also there were only 4 passengers on the bus! We are now wondering if the bus was actually full yesterday or else maybe it would have only been us on it. We slept a little on the ride up but as we neared Da Lat, it's 1500m above sea level, there was some incredible scenery. The clouds were lifting from the mountains so it looked almost like it was raining up. Very Cool! We arrived around 11am, much soon than we had expected thank goodness. We checked into the hotel we were dropped off at, it was clean and I was being lazy. We had my computer issue to take care of, the power adapter stopped working last night. We found a computer repair shop very easily (I was shocked how easy it was) and while we had lunch the guy replaced to cord for under $5. SWEET! We had a nice leisurely walk around Lake Xuan Huong, the man-made lake in the middle of Da Lat. It was quite hot in the sunshine but nothing compared to the coast. There's no humidity here. Near the end of the lake are the Da Lat flower gardens. They were quite pretty. Da Lat is apparently known for it's plants and produce. We saw many green houses during the drive up. To cool off we stopped for drink at a cafe and thought the fruit syrup drinks sounded interesting. Beau got lychee and I got apple, they were very sweet, surprise its syrup. Beau watered his down so he could drink it. We cooled off a little too much in the shade. The nice breeze which cooled me while walking now made me cold. We nipped back to the hotel to get some sleeves on before finding some dinner. Dinner was pretty good, chow mein noodles with squid, but we got talking to the guy at the table next to us, he was an Aussie. We had a nice chat with him and walked around the night market a bit. There were some hot drinks being served at some stalls, it was hot soy milk. We had one that was peanut flavoured, it was tasty and weird. It had a fuzzy texture to it but I liked it.

Lake Xuan Huong

 

Da Lat Gardens

Oct 31 – Elephant Waterfalls and Silk Center

One of the handy things about our hotel is free breakfast. We had “Egg Bread” and coffee; it was scrambled eggs and a baguette. While we ate the motorcycle Beau had rented for us the night before was dropped off. It was only $3 for the day, I guess we've be getting ripped off for $4-5. We knew we wanted to check out some falls and a silk center near Nam Bam village. We set off into the countryside. It was a lovely drive, very lush and scenic but quite a winding road. We stopped a few times for pictures, there were coffee plants growing everywhere and some other big shrubs that looked similar to poinsettias. We saw some easy rider bike pull into a house just outside of the village so we pulled over too. There was sign out front about rice wine/whiskey making and coffee. We tacked on to their little tour about how to make the rice alcohol. The guide poured a shot into a metal pan and lit it on fire. There was a huge flame and all the liquid burned off till the pan was dry again. Pretty potent stuff. In another area the guide showed us were the people kept weasels. They had quite a few of them. The reason for the weasels is because what they call Weasel Coffee is a delicacy. The weasels eat the coffee beans and poop them out. The beans are collected from the poop and then dried and roasted. The price of weasel coffee is about 5 times that of regular coffee. At this same place a couple that had been on our boat trip in Nha Trang came in. We got talking with them and their guide and the guide said we could follow there car to the silk center and Elephant Waterfall. We followed them to the Cuong Hoan Traditional Silk Center. It was so cool! There were all the silk worm cocoons and we could watch the process of making silk. They boil the cocoons, then spin them on to large wheels, the wheels are then spun to dry the threads, the wheels are then spun on to spools and the spools are used in the looms to make fabric. On the looms are these bamboo sheets which are the pattern for the fabric, they tell the loom, mechanically, how the fabric should be woven. I was in a little bit of heaven and they sold fabric... I bought myself some to make a dress. I couldn't resist but the fabric is beautiful and how often do you get to buy silk from the manufacturer which is a traditional silk center in Vietnam! While I was trying to pick fabric the other group had left but we got directions from one of the workers to Elephant Waterfall. Turns out it was just down the road. It's an awkward climb down to the bottom of the falls but the view was spectacular and worth the muddy hands and shoes. You could get quite up close to the falls but you got quite wet too. Beau got up close and wet while I didn't. It didn't take long for him to dry. We got some great photos. There was also a little restaurant at the top by the parking lot. We had some yummy Pho soup, it would have been even better if it was made with rice noodles not instant noodles, they use those a lot here. Next we continued along the road for a bit till we found another waterfall we had read about, Lien Khuong Falls. We stopped at a cafe that over looked the falls while we enjoyed a beer. There was yet another waterfall on Beau's list that was close to Da Lat, Datanla falls, so we decided to stop in there on our way back to the city. The falls were nice but there was this weird roller coaster type thing that could take you up and down through the trees to get to the falls. There were about 6 water falls in the area but only Datanla Falls was accessible by foot. Two others could be viewed from a cable car but we weren't willing to pay. Datanla was a nice looking waterfall, there was a couple there having wedding photos taken. We went back into the city and stopped at the Hang Nga Crazy House. It's this guest house built by some lady architect that is just totally bizarre. It has weird passageways, odd shaped rooms, caves, awkward bridges. It's described by Lonely Planet as Alice-in-Wonderland like. It was very odd and definitely crazy. We got some dinner at a place that advertised the vermicelli bowls I love. Unfortunately for Beau, they only had enough left for one serving, so he had some sort of rice dish with egg and pork. We got some of the hot soy beverage again, although this time we were told it was coco flavoured but tasted like the one last night. We picked up some dried fruit and nuts for a hiking snack for tomorrow. We are going to tackle Lang Bian Mountain, it's going to be a 4hr hike round trip. I think we are going to pick up something more for lunch in the morning.

 

Our Scenic drive from Da Lat to Nam Bam

Boiling the silk cocoons and spinning the silk treads

The Loom, the upper left is the fabric pattern

Elephant Waterfall

Beau getting wet next to the falls

At the bottom of the falls

Elephant Waterfall

Hang Nga Crazy House