New Zealand

Ahhh, New Zealand! We already love you. What a fabulous first day we have had. We are at this moment sitting outside our campervan in Hahei, NZ, staring at the ocean crash against the shore. There are numerous islands in front of us and mountains behind. The weather is gloriously not hot! Warm today, and a bit brisk tonight. It’s lovely. (and Wi-Fi at the campgrounds!)

This morning we toured Auckland for a few hours. Starting with the SkyTower. It’s the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, but coming from Chicago, it seems rather small to live up to such billing. We went to the top for the view over the city, and although it was a cloudy day the view was still beautiful. Auckland is surrounded by harbors and hills (actually the hills are the remnants of 48 separate volcanoes that are visible from Auckland).

An interesting thing we noted in a restaurant was a hand pump sunscreen bottle mounted near the door. The prevalence of skin cancer is very high in NZ, due to a large hole in the ozone in the region, and Kiwi’s are vigilant with sunscreen.

We already see signs of the thrill seeking nature of the New Zealanders. From the SkyTower you can bungy jump to the ground. It’s a controlled jump, but it still looks thrilling, if we had more time, I’d be very tempted to try it. Or you can walk outside the top rim of the tower on a thin ledge, attached from above to a cord. I don’t know why you would want to do this, but people do. The Tower viewing platform has glass areas to step on where you can see straight down, it’s a bit unsettling at first, but Elle loved it. Walking back to our hotel we came upon a contraption that straps you into a seat and then thrusts you into the air like a rocket and then you bounce up and down. Looks hellish to me.

Auckland first reminded us of Seattle or Portland, then we felt San Francisco, with some British influence. Auckland has 1.4million residents, this in a country of 4 million total. This leaves a lot of wide, open spaces, which we found later in the day on our drive to the coast. We noted that we met very few native Kiwi’s in Auckland. Our taxi drivers were British and Indian. Our waitress was American. Our camper guide was German. Fellow diners were Canadian and American.
We walked to the harbor front and then took a taxi drive through the neighborhoods of Ponsonby and Parnell, and they feel very much like any of the gentrified boutique-y, café laced neighborhoods you would find in the US. The food and shopping looked good, but we had little time. After our consumer senses were dimmed in Fiji they were overloaded coming back to the city.

Next, we were off to check in to get our camper. Before handing us over the keys, we were made to view a video of how to operate the van. We nearly threw in the towel then, and jokingly said (but truly meant), “uh, can we get a copy of this?” When they got to the part about emptying the lavoratory buckets, we looked at each other and decided just to pretend the toilet didn’t exist in the camper! Finally, they handed us the key and said good luck! And we were off, very, very nervously.

Driving on the wrong side of the road, in a large camper, in a foreign country, with strange right of way rules was intimidating at first. Throw in Liam crying in the rear (he remembered how much he hates his car seat after being spoiled by not having one for a month) and nerves were on edge for a few moments. Then, as we left the city and got the hang of it, we were elated! It was so freeing to be just us, in a camper, in a country we already adored.

The countryside we drove through was bucolic and pastoral, those are the best words I can find to describe it, full of rolling hills and sheep and cows. We drove for two hours and literally did not pass one “town”. We did pass a few signs that read such things as “Mind Wandering? Take a break.” Or “Drive Tired- People Die”. And “Slow Down and SMILE”. We passed a random restaurant here and there, a favorite was the “Wickedly Good Country Fare” diner. We passed towns and roads with names such at Papatoetoe, Ramarama and Pukekohe. Finally, as we approached the shore and the Coromandel Peninsula we hit a small town. It had just a few restaurants and shops and a grocery. We loaded up on some supplies and set off for our campsite.

At this point we started climbing larger hills and mountains and entered windy one lane roads, deep in forests of diverse foliage, and every once in awhile glimpse of the South Pacific. The scenery was gorgeous. Finally we made it to our campsite, perfectly perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It’s picture perfect.

We have a really sweet family next to us from Holland, with two little girls. Elle has built in playmates already, they don’t speak English, but it didn’t stop them. Their family is living in the camper for 2 months travelling throughout New Zealand! I think a week in the camper will be wonderful, but I am not sure I could do this for two months. They are quite brave.

We made a dinner of cheese and crackers, fruit, nuts, olives and such and felt so lucky to be in this place. After, we took a beach walk and Justin cast his line out into the water, just to see.