Oct 28: Hobbiton

No visit to New Zealand is complete without a visit to the newly-reconstructed Hobbiton. This place is a tourist mecca, so we got there early in the morning before the hordes of tour buses show up (and this is still low-season!).
It is amazing to see if you're any kind of fan of the books or the films. The detail is really something to see.
The set was torn down after filming Lord of the Rings, but they re-built with permanent materials for The Hobbit. Its all there, Bilbo's house, Sam's house, and a beer at the Green Dragon Inn is included with the tour.  

Oct 27: Hamurana Springs

This was an interesting short, easy walk to a cold-water spring. There was a grove of redwoods planted here in the early 1900's (they are doing well!).
Also a stream of the bluest water we've ever seen, with trout and ducks in it. At the end of the walk is the spring, of course with lots of pennies in it.

Oct 26: Rotorua, Waikite Valley Hot Springs

Rotorua is definitely a unique town. Steam comes out of the drains in the street, the smell of sulphur fills the air, and I hear bubbling mud pools are hazards on the local gold course. We stopped at the city park where they have boiling springs and mud pools, all with nicely manicured gardens around them.

We camped at Waikite valley, a hot springs resort south west of town. They have the largest boiling water spring in the country, there is an "eco trail"/easy walk to see it and it is quite amazing-  40 liters of boiling water per second gushes out and spills down a steaming stream. They pump some of the water up to the top of a cascade of rocks which cool the water as it flows down and is directed into one of many hot pools, all at different temperatures. Camping includes full access to the hot pools, so we had a good relaxing soak. I sat there wondering how nice it would be not having to ever pay for heating!

Oct 25: Beach Day! Homunga Beach

This beach is just a little slice of paradise. Soft sand, cliffs on either side that block the wind, and a natural waterfall-shower off the rocks onto the beach. We were there on Saturday of the NZ labor day weekend and there was 4 other people. Why is there not more people on this beach? probably the steep 45 minute walk from the carpark. Well worth it though, we finally lucked out with the weather and landed on the beach on a warm sunny day.

Oct 24: Broken Hills Goldmine Ruins

After our workstay in Kaipara, we hit the road again, loaded up with fresh picked lemons, limes and avocados. Our host was kind enough to lend me some plywood and the use of his tools to build a slide-out cooking table for van, it blocks the wind and slides under the bed when done; it has been working great for us so far, a huge improvement!

We drove to Broken hills in the Coromandel region, it was once a gold rush town in the early 1900's, now there's a DOC campground and you can walk around and look at the old mining tunnels. They are now full of Wetas, a giant insect native to New Zealand. Jill didn't like them at all!

Kaipara: Playing Fetch in the Lake

Kaipara: World's Most Competitive Dogs: http://youtu.be/Vci4u3OZREk

Oct 14-24: Workstay in Kaipara

All this fun and games is great, but at some point we have to go back to work! After our tour of the Northland, we went to Kaipara, about an hour out of Auckland- to start a Helpx workstay. Helpx is a website, similar to WOOFing, that connects traveling holidaymakers with locals that need part time help. Its a work for accommodation system, usually half a days work for room and board. Its perfect for us because we just want to save on living costs now and then, plus we get to meet some real local kiwis!

Our first stay was at a chestnut orchard. No chestnuts this time of year as its a fall harvest, but there were other trees- we had lots of fun picking lemons, limes and avocados.
Our host was very good to us, I helped him frame up a new living quarters for future helpxers, and Jill did some gardening, chestnut machine cleaning, and cleaned up the macadamias.
We got to explore the area as well, there were some nice walks nearby.  Our favorite part was his 2 dogs, they were brother and sister and loads of fun. These are the world's most competetive dogs, you throw the stick and they both pick it up and just fight over it, always trying to one-up each other.

Oct 13: Waipu Glow Worm Caves

Forget Waitomo, we're cheap and prefer these free self-guided caves! An added bonus is you can take all the pictures you want, however glow worms are notoriously difficult to photograph. They are like little blue LED's, but thousands, it really is like a galaxy on the cave ceiling!

We couldn't get any good shots, but no photo can match seeing them in person, the lights follow the structure of the ceiling, so you get a 3-dimensional galaxy of lights, just amazing.

Oct 11-12: Cape Reinga and Spirits Bay

Cape Reinga is a must-see tourist stop at the very northern tip of the country. It is a beautiful spot with a lighthouse, and you can watch the two oceans smash into each other.

We drove a long gravel road to get to Spirits Bay DOC campground for the night, and it was so nice we decided to stay an extra night and relax. Amazing hills, beach, and a tree full of what I think were Pied Shags.
The roaming horses were strange though, they were right in front of the van when I went to the washroom in the middle of the night!

Te Paki Dunes

Further north is Te Paki dunes- some massive hills of sand. The popular thing to do is rent a boogie-board and sandboard down the hills. But instead we did a walk through the dunes to the hidden lakes on the other side. The dunes were harder than they look to cross- really massive hills and blowing sand, just like being in the desert!

Oct 10: Ahipara

Ahipara is a famous surfing beach, and was featured in the movie "Endless Summer" from the 60's. We stayed at a hostel called Endless Summer, it is one of the nicest we've seen yet, It's an old Kauri villa, with a view of the ocean right out our room window. The owners said it was the coldest day of the year at 10 degrees- we're Canadian, so we'll take anything above zero! It was still good weather for a beach walk to see Shipwreck Bay, and the pipe sticking out of the beach from an old shipwreck.

Waiotemarama Bush Walk

A nice little walk to a waterfall, through more old-growth Kauri forest. Its still spring, the water's ice cold, but the waterfall pool just looked so inviting, I couldn't resist a quick shower!

Oct 9: Waipoua Forest Kauris

This forest holds some of the largest existing Kauri trees- these trees get fat, they put our big Canadian pines to shame in the girth department! Tane Mahuta (the biggest one) is 13.77m/45ft around!
We stopped at the Kauri museum a few days earlier for some learning since all the Kauri stuff is new to us. There's a long history of logging and gum-digging. The small museum was surprisingly impressive, they have way more than just tree stuff, all sorts of NZ history and artifacts/collections.

Manganui Bluff Track

This was a beautiful coastal hike on the north-west coast. A lot of elevation though, not really scrambling over rocks like in some places, but a steady 25 degree incline seemingly the entire way to the top. After a tiring climb from sea level to 380m/1240ft (thats almost 2 Calabogie Peaks!) we were rewarded at the top with endless views to the north and south. The ocean looks like from a plane up there!
When we got to the bottom it was low tide so we grabbed a dozen green-lipped mussels of the rocks, back at camp we had some rice so we whipped up a trailer park paella; add some cheap Kiwi sauvignon blanc and we were glamping!

Oct 7-8: Trounson Kiwi/Kauri Reserve

Trounson is a small island of old-growth forest surrounded by pastureland. It has a DOC campsite at the forest entrance and is managed to control pests. DOC (Department Of Conservation) is the ministry of natural resources here, and they maintain cheap campsites all over the country, usually with at least toilets and water supply, and usually in stunning locations. Most have no one onsite, just an honor box to drop your fees into. I'm sure some take advantage, but there's really no reason not to pay the fees, its usually only $10-15 per person per night, and if it keeps these places open its well worth it.

In the daytime we walked around the forest trail to see some huge old kauri trees in the thick bush. But the real attraction of this place is that thanks to intensive predator trapping, the forest supports a healthy population of Kiwi-birds. But they only come out at night as they are nocturnal feeders, so we went out after dark with our red-lens headlamp and slowly tiptoed through the trail. 10 mins in we heard some strange grunt-like noises, so I shone my low-powered headlamp and there was a huge Kiwi. They are big like a chicken and just peck around the forest floor looking for grubs. We were thrilled to see one so soon as they say many don't see them at all!

The next night we thought we would try our luck again, so we went out at dark under bright moonlight and walked around for about an hour. We saw an eel in the river and a couple glowworms on a huge stump, but no Kiwi so we headed back. There we lots of people in the trail this night, some were tramping through the bush with high-power flashlights blazing, running in the direction of the Kiwi-calls, there were groups of people on guided tour, we thought there's no point with all the lights and noise.
But on our way back, right near the gate out of the forest we heard some rustling to our left- we stopped, I shone the dim light and there was another Kiwi! This time we were dead-quiet, so the Kiwi didn't seem to know we were there, it just went about its business and we got a good 2-minutes to watch before he wandered off.
It is great to see the famous bird so soon in our travels- we put it down to our Kiwi-spotting technique- just be quiet and don't blind them with your high-power flashlights!