Two for the Road

Matt’s last blog left off on the eve of our last night on Waiheke. For me the island felt like France and the Carribean had a land-baby. It was a beautiful palm tree covered place, but with the rolling hills and vineyards of northern Europe.

Conscious of picking up our car the following day, we reduced our wine intake to just a couple of glasses each at vineyards Batch and Te Motu, which ended up some of the best wine we tried on the island. We also swung by Allpress – a NZ olive oil producer who makes oil from olives grown on the island – delicious!

After a final e-cycle uphill to our lodgings, we enjoyed the sunset, bringing our birthday celebrations to a close.

The next morning we enjoyed our last ride on the bikes, mercifully almost entirely downhill back to the ferry, a few bottles of wine heavier than when we arrived. After a hour or so on the crossing we just had to drag our slightly battered suitcases¹ to pick up our car which we’d be touring New Zealand with for the next 5 weeks.

Matt then drove a couple of hours to get us to our first stop – Waitomo – famous for its glow worm inhabited caves.

Diving into one of the natural wonders of New Zealand, we donned wetsuits and rubber rings and took an underground tour of part of the cave network. It was a pretty intrepid experience which saw us jump off waterfalls, slide into freezing underwater pools, and wade through fierce currents. We also got to have a lovely float, lazy river style in our rubber rings, enjoying the magical sight of glow worms on the cave ceilings and walls. Our guides G and Jonty had a perfect blend of dry humour and reassurance as we went on our adventure, and also took some hideously unflattering photos of us (thanks)! Here they are for your enjoyment, as well as a couple of stock photos they shared with us of the glow worms in the cave, to give you a flavour.

Later that day, we went to visit a few other natural wonders on the area, including Mangapohue natural bridge, Marokopa falls, Piripiri caves and Ruakuri bushwalk, which we visited once during the day, and again after dark, to spot a few more glow worms (of which we managed one terrible photo) – what a day!

The next morning we hit the road, heading to Tongariro National Park. We stopped to eat our lunch in a small, slightly down on its luck town called Taumarunui. Some of the old buildings and the fact we only saw a handful of people there (early on a Saturday afternoon) made it feel like a movie set.

As we arrived into the national park, we were blown away by the scenery. We were primarily stopping here to complete a famous walk: the Tongariro Crossing². A challenging 19km hike, this one way walk has become famous for its volcanic landscapes and panoramic views of the area. Our new motel was booked mainly for its proximity to the end of the walk. The way it works is that you park your car at the finish early in the morning, jump on a shuttle bus to the start of the trail and walk back to your car.

Unfortunately, the forecast wasn’t on our side and while lovely and sunny, also had warnings for poor visibility and gale force winds making the walk dangerous. In its place we did a few other walks in the area one to Tawhai Falls³, then Taranaki Falls and Silica Rapids.

Suitably knackered after all that, we retired back to our lodgings for some dinner, cards and a chilled evening before heading to Martinborough (now that we’ve done some exercise we thought it was fair to have another wine centred stop).

We’ve also acquired a souvenir/ mascot for our road trip. He’s a kiwi holding a rugby ball so Matt has dubbed him Jonah⁴. Here he is enjoying the scenery.

Iris

1. One of Matt’s wheels is no longer functional and mine has a growing tear on its corner ↩︎
2. This is otherwise known as the Mount Doom hike, thanks to its fantastic views of Mount Ngauruhoe, used as Mount doom in distance shots in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films ↩︎
3. This place is also known as Gollum’s pool – famous as one of the filming locations from Lord of the Rings. Are you noticing a theme here? ↩︎
4. Matt named him after Jonah Lomu, an iconic All Blacks player) ↩︎