We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on the evening of Tuesday, November 20th. After a month in Australia and Fiji, we were somewhat used to driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. As a result, we had a chance to relax and enjoy the ride into the city. Our hotel was on the water in the revitalized wharves area so as soon as we were checked in we headed out exploring.
Originally the Viaduct Lighter Basin was a run-down commercial fishing harbor. Redeveloped and renamed Viaduct Harbour, this part of the city is very alive with apartments, shops and plenty of restaurants. Even on a Tuesday night, many were full with waiting lists for dinner. It was here that we discovered the “unburger”, and it was delicious. In amongst the other restaurants was Fokker Bros., a casual upscale burger place. They have a nice selection of burgers – The Fokker Cheese, The Buffalo Chicken, The Bacon Mac ‘N’ Cheese, and the Kiwi Black, just to name a few. The unburger replaces the bun with thick sections of Iceberg Lettuce. Wow, that was great. You don’t fill up on the bun and you get a great burger!
Besides the food, we found time to visit the Maritime Museum in Auckland. Inside the museum is a full-size replica of boats used in the discovery of the islands from Polynesia over 1,000 years ago. At the other end of the spectrum is a static display of the New Zealand yacht from the 1988 America Cup races. It’s huge, requiring a crew of 40+; this monster dominates the plaza adjacent to the museum’s entrance.
After a few days in Auckland, we headed south; our first stop was to visit some glowworm caves. The site we selected was Ruakuri Cave. Legend has it that Ruakuri Cave was first discovered 400-500 years ago by young Maori hunting for birds. He was attacked by wild dogs just outside the original cave entrance – Ruakuri loosely translates into Cave of Dogs. You enter the cave and descend down a long, circular set of stairs.
During the tour, we received an interesting education about the glowworms, their lifecycle and how/why they glow. Then the lights were turned off and we saw the blue glow of thousands of individual worms. It was amazing. Another interesting experience was listening to the underground river and waterfalls in the cave. Sometimes a distant rumble, it became a thundering roar as we got closer to the falls. Ruakuri Cave was an interesting and worthwhile adventure for us.
Our next adventure was getting to our next destination, Rotorua. Looking at the map it seemed simple enough. Head east then northeast on Hwy 30 all the way to Rotorua… I figured 2½ hours tops. Well, first off, Hwy 30 is a two-lane road for the most part, and it goes through plenty of towns, so after about four hours, we knew our original estimate of a bit off. Then we got to the junction with Hwy 5, just miles outside of Rotorua – there was a nice highway worker pulling a barricade across the road. A washout had the road blocked.
We couldn’t find any easy alternate route, but the highway person claimed there was an ‘easy bypass’ that was ‘just down the road’. With that, we were off. Before we knew it, we were traveling across increasingly less improved roads, then gravel roads and then dirt roads. When the dirt roads started getting dicey we also realized that we hadn’t seen any other cars or people for some time… and it was starting to get dark. Even the cows and sheep looked at us in interest as if they were saying, “What the heck are those people doing way the heck out here?”
Obviously, we made it out at some point, but we considered trying to head back the way we’d come several times. Because I was unsure if I could find my way back, and I was concerned about running into New Zealand hillbillies (cue the New Zealand banjo music…), we continued forward.
Two things that stood out from our time in Rotorua were a visit to a cultural center and a ride in a float plane over the volcanic region around Rotorua. From the plane, we could clearly see a rift that went across an old volcano, through a lake and a river. We were also able to plainly see other impacts of recent seismic events. It was an enlightening and beautiful flight, and taking off and landing on a lake made the flight all that more interesting.
We had a tour and traditional dinner at the cultural center. The Fairy Spring was very interesting. The natural spring here produces a huge amount of water daily. At one spot the water wells up in a pool that has blue-grey sand on the bottom. Eddies and currents from the upwelling of water made it appear to be boiling water – it was actually very cool. We also had a chance to observe several Kiwi birds that evening. They’re actually nocturnal, flightless birds, so spying them on the ground in the dark was difficult, but we thought it was something special.
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