Summer in NZ

Tuesday was a typical British summers day 15C and non-stop rain so after an initial attempt to see the  local sites I retired to my warm dry motel room for an enforced admin day.
The following day I took off to investigate the Forgotten World Highway of which I had seen a mention on a road map but nothing in tourist information, I loved it, a one hundred plus mile drive through beautiful countryside with very few vehicles or tourists and some really olde worlde villages en route. I detoured to take in the Mount Damper Falls which were for a change actually worth going to, and visited the Republic of Whangamomona as well as meeting some herders moving a flock of a few hundred sheep up the main road. Lots of photos were taken. The highway ended in Taumarunui which looks like a frontier town, the steak I had at the local RSA club would have made a good boot sole for one of the local Cowboys.
Today was just a short 100 mile drive up to Kahwia and due to its remote location it is a lovely quiet spot with black volcanic sand beaches where again you can take a hot bath on the beach but without all the hordes that there were on the Coromandel at Hot Water Beach.
I have been on my best behaviour and I try to pull over to allow locals to pass me rather than get airiated whilst driving behind the #$**dy tourist doing 35 miles an hour, they do seem to appreciate my courtesy and I get the occasional flash of the 4 ways or a toot on the horn which makes a pleasant change from the glare I can often see in my rear view mirror of the guy three inches from my rear bumper.
Well I have been lucky with the weather no rain for the last two days even though it was forecast, I just hope my central heating system at home is coping with the horrendous weather back in Wales.

Too cold.

Yesterday I had a pleasant walk up to the Huka Falls, looking at the water flowing boisterously through the narrow channel to the falls I thought it would be the ideal place to go tubing but in retrospect it would have been an admin nightmare for my family if things went badly wrong so I will leave that to some other intrepid adventurer. After lunch I spent an hour or so relaxing in the naturally heated pool on the campsite watching England v NZ cricket on the big screen, a great way to finish off a walk.
Last night the temperature in my little van dropped dramatically and I awoke in the early hours freezing, that's it I am going back towards the coast away from the hills, I may even indulge myself with a hotel.
Later.......
well I got halfway to my next stop in New Plymouth when the rain started and the forecast for the rest of the week doesn't look brilliant, what a good decision it was to go for the hotel. The local dining options are not very inspiring, McDonald's, Kentucky, Thai or sushi so it was home cooked souvlaki, salad and hummus tonight.

Giving up the coast.

When they smelled my hot cross bun this morning at breakfast I had two turkeys around looking for crumbs, they belonged to the campsite owner but I have seen turkeys with young ones far away from habitation so they must be feral the same as the pigs which one of the locals told me that he hunts with friends. Yesterday I had company for breakfast when a scruffy looking blackbird came over to share my fried egg rolls he was not shy at all and on closer inspection I could see that his yellow bill was actually a crossbill so he was not a UK import.
I drove the length of the coast of the Bay of Plenty this morning as far as Whakatane but for some reason I was not encouraged to stay there so I headed south and I am now at a campsite 3kms north of Lake Taupo town, the journey down was very scenic with natural forest on both sides in places and the road actually skirts lake Rotoma which is in a beautiful quiet setting.
Later........
I walked into town looking for some action on a Saturday night but all I met were street restaurants full of tourists which I knew without asking did not have a table for one but I wasn't there for that so I went one street back and found Flynn McCuhal's a low rent Irish pub which served me "twice baked lamb shank pie" with lashings of gravy, mash and mushy peas washed down with pints of Speight's Bitter, then I joined some of the locals to watch the Chiefs get battered by the Crusaders at Super Rugby after I had commiserated with the guys the live band kicked off. I wasn't expecting too much from a reggae band with five keyboards but Buffalo Soldier, I shot the Sheriff and No Woman no Cry etc came over just great and I managed to walk the mile and a half back to the campsite with only one stop. A good first day in Taupo.

Observations and reflections.

I have now spent a few days on the Coromandel peninsula because I had heard that it was the destination of choice for Aucklanders, it is certainly a magnet for tourists every other other vehicle on the road seems to be a caravan and that doesn't include the hoards of backpackers, mind you up here there are no theme parks tourism is centred on natural sites and geological features such as Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Bay where you can dig a hole in the sand and have a geothermally heated bath.
We have had our exploring plans interrupted by the weather, the cyclone has proved resilient to forecasts and has dumped showers of rain on us at the most inopportune times but today, fingers crossed it has been dry which was good news because I have had a walking day, first around the circumference of New Zealand's largest open cast goldmine and then a couple of walks around another gold mining area which included a couple of railway tunnels and a gorge, all in all a great day.
It is quite a relief to go walking in the bush without worrying about spiders, snakes and other animals that want to ruin your day in fact with the lush greenery and the similar terrain walking here is very like walking in Wales only warmer.
I will in future be speaking in the singular, there is no longer a we, Harry and Marmalade were adopted yesterday by Genny and Harry the daughters of Aaron and Maggie after we all jumped into my van when a torrential downpour hit us at last night's campsite. The girls saw Harry and Marmalade sitting on the dash and the rest is history, my name according to Harry is now Ob.
I spoke too soon, it is raining again.
Tomorrow I am going to explore the coast of the Bay of Plenty and after that I will be heading down to Lake Taupo.

What goes around.........

After my last Wicked Camper, I expected the worst again over here but I am now the driver of an ungraffitied Toyota van in very good condition, I will have room to sit-up in bed without any contortions and hopefully it will be kinder to my poor old back. After collecting the van, filling up with juice and purchasing the necessaries like a pasta cullender and king size quilt we made our way, avoiding major roads up to Coromandel Town. We are staying at Tui Lodge which is mainly backpackers accommodation with a few spaces for small camper vans, it is a lovely quiet place and was a boon to be able to cook dinner in the camp kitchen while the cyclone wreaked its wrath outside, actually just an hour of high wind and heavy rain.
I popped down to the town after the rain had stopped and had a couple of drinks in the Star & Garter, I managed to acquire a seat in the bay window in a plush button backed antique leather chair so I could watch the comings and goings in comfort it also gave me the chance to contemplate.
New Zealand has become a very expensive place compared to our first visit here 15 years ago, then house prices were about a quarter of UK prices, now apparently they are comparable and a pint of beer is over £4.50 with petrol also similar in price to UK so maybe I will not be retiring over here after all. One of the other travellers who is on a sabattical told me that prices are high in NZ and OZ because they export everything which means that prices for what remains have risen so high, I think that there is some validity in this view but if you export your country prices are sure to rise, I have met a number of people who are worried what will happen now that all the utilities are owned by Chinese companies or is that the Chinese state. I must say Auckland seems to be a suburb of Beiging with all the Chinese institutions and businessess and also the smell of Chinese food in the air.
I will leave you to contemplate these thoughts.

Losing hours.

I lost another couple of hours today travelling from Sydney to Auckland, I was a little worried when I found that tha flight I had booked with Qantas was being operated by LATAM, I thought that might have been a subtle name change by Malasia Airlines but it turned out to be a Latin American company flight which was flying to Santiago (Chile) via Auckland. The seats were comfortable with good legroom and the staff were efficient friendly and straight which made a nice change, the food however was another thing a very cold roll with unidentifyable contents, I settled for a couple of glasses of a very quaffable red wine.
Whilst still in the airport I found an iPhone on the floor in the Gents and by using my little grey cells as Hercule would say I deduced that by the date "Domingo" and the time that it must belong to one of my fellow passengers who was making the full trip home so instead of handing it in at the airport I gave it to the cabin crew who found the happy owner after announcing it over the address system.
Well I pick up my camper van tomorrow and I will head north-east to try to avoid some bad weather that is being forecast due to a tropical cyclone. So let the adventure begin.

End of the road trip.

Well my camping days in Australia are now over so I have four days of proper beds before I pick up my next Wicked camper van in Auckland.
The past few days have been entertaining and in some cases a delight, I loved Diamond Beach so much that I stayed there for two nights it was such a peaceful spot with hoards of wildlife in fact the Kookoburras were that friendly that they only needed the slightest encouragement and they would be sitting alongside you eating off the same plate! After leaving Diamond Beach I took The Lakes Way where I kept stopping by the sides of the deserted lakes and fantasised about sailing on them in my little dinghy where I could pull ashore to picnic or even camp overnight, Ahhh what dreams.
Whilst I was meandering down that road I obviously attracted the attention of a local vigilante because when I did a U turn to investigate the Lakes Sailing Club I noticed a grey pick-up do the same U turn and then follow me to the club, I went over to say hello and share my delight with the location but all I received was a mumble and grunt from the octogenarian occupant. He did follow me when I left to escort me out of his territory, my second Rambo moment.
I had intended to stay last night at Hawks Nest, it sounded so romantic and had two campsites but after Diamond Beach it was far too open, busy and expensive so I called into tourist info and asked Kath if she could recommend a quieter location or a cheap and cheerful hotel for the night, I must have been there for quarter on an hour while she gave me the run down on the area but the upshot was that I will have to return to cover everything that she told me and her little known gem of a campsite in Stockton was perfect.
Tomorrow I will be handing over the van a couple of days early and catching the train back to my sister Gillian's whose friend Michelle has invited us around for a meal, I may still have to be presented to more friends before I escape from here.

Wildlife

On my last trip over here I was excited when I saw the occasional kangaroo, this trip I have seen so much wildlife I am getting quite blase about it. The birdlife is amazing if a little loud, typically Aussie but my favourite critter so far was what my neighbour in Coff's Harbour called a water dragon, this animal which I christened Leonard or Lennie for short suddenly appeared when I dropped some of my dinner on the deck so he joined me for Fusili Bolognaise. I will do a pictorial blog when I get home, I am having a few technical difficulties and today I have resorted to the local library to catch up on stuff, mind you with an outside temperature of 35C to be seated in an air-conditioned building is quite a pleasure.
I am now convinced that 50% of Aussie men of working age are employed on the roads and 50% of them work as lolly-pop men with stop/go signs and 90% of them have grey Van Dyke beards.
My date the other night went well Marion brought the whole family along to meet the Pommy, six adults and four children, don't ask me all their names, people over here are so friendly and outgoing, I met my neighbours in last night's campsite when Kylie came over to introduce herself and then dragged her old man over to meet me, they are both bricklayers who have set up their own business in the area and are living in his parents' holiday home.
Well my session has timed out so time to retire to the pool, more next time I can get on line.

Ambling further south.

I have never been to the Spanish Costas during the season but if the Gold Coast here in NSW is anything like them I am glad that I have avoided the experience. Yesterday as I left Coolangata heading inland I felt a strange sense of relief then as I hit the twisty roads through the woodlands it developed into a feeling of euphoria.
My first stop for coffee was in Nimbin which was a Hippie colony, now it is a commercial enterprise selling Hippie tat to tourists with just enough aging Hippies hanging around for realism.
Coffs Harbour was OK, a lot less tourists and much more relaxed. I think it appealed to retirees because there were a lot of chaps and chapesses of a certain age power walking past me as I scrambled my eggs near the jetty, I did find that there were a lot of grumpy Aussies in the retail sector there but the residents of the park where I stayed were friendly and chatty.
Today I went to Bellingen as it was another place I remember from Gill's letters and it turned out to be a cute traditional little town with well preserved early 20th century shops so I had to stop for another long black, the Australian equivalent of an Americano but better. I then followed Paul's recommendation to head for South West Rocks, the gaol was an OK place if a little overpriced but the town and area is lovely good walking and a reasonably priced haircut so far and I have a date with the lady from the tourist information tonight for dinner at a tavern overlooking the river.

relatively late.

Breakfast yesterday was at Picnic Point in Toowoomba, the place I must not miss according to last night's companions, it is the highest point for miles around and even that early in the morning there were people jogging, walking and even strumming guitars. The views towards the coast were worth the diversion.
I made the slow journey into Brisbane where I met my nephew Paul and his lovely wife Fa for the first time, we got on like a house on fire having so much in common such as motorcycles and disliking of political correctness. My visit was too short, this trip is turning into another reconnaissance.
Having talked to Paul for so long I was too late to get in to the campsite that I had booked, the booking staff had gone home and there was no one to issue a pass key, so I headed off for the coast and what a nightmare awaited me. It is obscene, wall to wall adventure parks and high rise hotels, I gave in after driving through this hell for what seemed like hours and checked into a cheap and cheerful hotel with down to earth friendly staff.
Today I will drive inland back to sanity for a while before heading towards Coffs Harbour which was a must see place recommended by Keira.

And then

Yesterday just after I crossed the border into Queensland outside the town of Stanhope I stopped at a rest stop where I made myself a picnic lunch and retired to one of the benches to enjoy the same, whilst I was there eating ham salad rolls and quaffing Pinot Grigio the local plod turned up in his super pick-up to investigate the Wicked camper littering one of his tourist rest stops (Wicked had a reputation for putting colourful - read crude - graffiti on their camper vans so they were banned for a while until they cleaned up their act in Queensland) 15 minutes later as I was clearing up and preparing to leave an unmarked pick-up arrived with a uniformed cop in the driver's seat he got out and paid a too short a visit to the ablutions before driving back the way he had come from, I was expecting to be pulled over when I drove through the town but they missed me, te he.

Following my sister Gillian's advice I went to the local bowls club in West Toowoomba for dinner and after being signed in and having bought the compulsory raffle tickets I found myself in the company of David, Karen, Brian and Merle, who were well travelled and with an average age of 74 had a slew of stories to tell, it is always good to meet the locals, they have a more in depth knowledge of the area than the sweet young things one encounters at the average tourist information centre, mind you I cannot complain, when I swanned into the tourist info. on Thursday in Armidale and asked for their recommendations for a cheap and cheerful accommodation the two ladies could not have been more helpful, unlike most places where they give you a load of leaflets that have no bearing whatsoever on what you are looking for, I suppose the exception.......

Even further north.

Last night was fillet steak, Victoria Bitter and then double bed - bliss.
This morning up with the lark and on the road by 8am with breakfast at the first rest area, I was travelling up the New England Highway to Toowoomba but I kept seeing familiar town names until we came to the town of Glen Innes which calls itself the centre of Celtic County. The town itself was a delight with well kept Victorian and Edwardian buildings, this was obviously a centre of settlement for Scottish, Welsh and Irish immigrants with towns like Ben Lomond, Llangothlin and Killarney. I stopped over for coffee and it seemed to be well worth further investigation but I am only here for a short while and I am going to see my nephew Paul for the first time tomorrow so no time to linger but if I do ever come back here it will definitely be on the itinerary. I also passed through Deepwater which is having a Country Festival over the weekend so I will be missing that as well and there were heaps of ZZ Topp type racers going the other way as I went further north, I may have to come back after all.
I am now in Queensland where they refuse to go onto Summer Time like the other states, the reason I was given was that they are worried that the milking cows will be confused by the time change and also that with the extra daylight that their curtains will get faded more quickly....... These views were given me by someone from New South Wales so you make up your own mind. However, I did see one sign just after crossing the border which said that a maximum fine of $65,000 would be imposed on anyone found keeping rabbits!!
Tonight I am having another night off from the van and I am staying at the Pure Land Guest House which I think acts as the accommodation for people studying at the Pure Land Learning College, the owners have told me that I can help myself to any of the Buddhist books they have in their library and the smell of joss sticks is drifting past me as I write this on the patio, it takes me back to simpler times of flared trousers and Jimi Hendrix hairstyles, and you didn't think I was old enough to remember that did you?

Heading north.

The Blue Mountains were beautiful and Leura village centre was quaint but today it was time to move on so 620 Kms later I am in Armidale staying at a cheap and cheerful hotel above a very noisy bar but I could not face another night in the van, I must be getting soft, last time I had no problems.
The journey up here was interesting, a lot of bush but also farmland and also coal mines, power stations in the middle of nowhere and vineyards. I did meet a few of the local hillbillies but sadly they were more Granny Clampett rather than Daisy Duke.
Armadale is a small town but even so the bars/restaurants were busy even on a Thursday night, I could come back to places like this to meet the locals and explore the plethora of antique and secondhand shops but it would be nice to have more time to do it, we shall see.
The temperature got up to 33 C today, thank God for AC in the car, I did manage to put up with 30C without AC but above that it was just too much and it only gets warmer the further north I go.
I have booked a hotel again at my next stop Toowomba, i will try the van again when the backache goes.

The Blue Mountains.

Since I was last here nine years ago my hugely older sister Gillian has turned into my mother, not only does she now look like her but she has developed her mannerisms as well. I stayed with Gill for three days and nights and I had to escape yesterday or I would have been in danger of bursting, I have never been offered so much food but we did have a good catch up and I will see her again before I leave.
The Wiched camper I picked up on Friday has seen better days, 280,00 kilometres on the clock and it has obviously been involved in altercations in the past. I slept in it for the first time last night and it proved remarkably uncomfortable, hopefully I will get used to it
I am now up in the hills west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains and I touched lucky last night, not only claiming the last but one available site in the camp but being stationed next to two friendly Aussies, Adam and Jo, who kept me entertained with their conversation and full of a home made chicken curry, I am going to offer them my Spaghetti Bolognaise tonight.
Today was taken up with a bush walk to see the Three Sisters and a number of waterfalls, believe me after seven miles in this heat I was ready for a cold beer.

That was a long flight.

My first time in a Dreamliner and they put me in the second row a whole different experience from my last flight from Cape Town with British Airways. Etihad seem to have it sorted, a wide seat with lots of legroom and a first class entertainment system, my only criticism is the food is pretty bad. I changed plane in Abu Dhabi where not only did they put the transfer passengers through security again but they had another inspection at the boarding gate where they confiscated the bottle of water I had bought airside specifically for the flight - they may have had some mopping up to do.
The flight was a long 22 hours with a two and a half hour changeover in Abu Dhabi so from getting up in Gwytherin to climbing into my bed at the Ibis Hotel at Sydney airport that was over thirty one hours and most of it with a sore bum, so good night.