A Twist of Fate, Chris’s Nanna’s Mate and a trip to Hell’s Gate! (C – 19/2) February 19, 2008

North Island NZ

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Things have been very interesting over last couple of days and the time seems to be really flying past in NZ. After last blog we spent a leisurely day in a camp site still in Napier, recovering from our ‘extreme’ dining experience on Valentine’s Day. Decided that I should ring my Nanna’s friend Joan who lives in Rotorua and who we were going to try and meet up with, after several calls I finally got through this time, she seemed to have a busier social life than us!

After that I rang my friend Neil Carson (a bloke I hadn’t seen for 2 years as he went down-under to join the Aus Navy, I did my Perisher with him back in ‘98) it was on the off chance really as his wife had passed a mobile number to us via e-mail. Got him first time and after a conversation that went something along the lines of ‘Hello Neil’ ‘Hello Chris’ ‘Long time no speak, where are you?’ ‘Napier’ ‘Oh that’s a shame I’ll be there in a few days, I’m in NZ at the moment’ ‘Cool’ ‘Where are you and Soph tomorrow?’ ‘Taupo’ ‘Good I’ll see you then, I’m down there fishing tomorrow!’ – yes it was surreal, he was only in the same town as we were the following night, he was visiting Auckland on an Aus Submarine and had a few days R&R – so we arranged to meet up. I walked back to the camp-site in an excited daze, looking up at the sky as an aerobatic display team practised in the skies above for the Napier Art Deco weekend celebrations. I was rudely brought back to planet earth by almost being run over by the Napier Express an old steam engine which took to the lines at this time of year, bringing people clad in thirties outfits into the town centre. I hadn’t really noticed the hundreds of people gathering track side to get a photo of the hissing monster! Still myself and Soph were very excited and waved to everyone on board, just like a grown up and slightly dishevelled pair of railway children!
Off to Taupo the next day and it was a glorious trip across wooded areas, which were engaged in replanting in a big way, so there were lots of different sized trees as far as the eye could see. Stopped off to view Waipunga Falls, NZ has lots of these Scenic View signs up by the side of the road, too numerous to do them all, but when we do stop invariably it’s something wonderful as was the case this time. Rain came in again on and off, but we didn’t care as beers were booked that evening! Arrived at our camp-site and had a quick game of tennis as we had the luxury of a court on site – rain came down in sheets mid-way through the first set and we almost abandoned it, but our Englishness shone through (unlike the sun) and we kept at it, right up to the point where I started losing really badly and claimed my sore throat was still hurting and I wanted to stop. Can’t believe these camp sites charge you for racket hire though, really tight!
After this it was a quick call to Neil (aka Willie after the jockey, not that he is anything like a jockey as you can see by the photos) and he was sat in the Maccy Ds (just a coffee Vicky, no burger) so we dashed down to meet up with him, shelving our plans to go for a long walk. Really good to see him and I won’t bore you with the details but the evening went off very well. Ended up in an Irish bar watching Warratahs (who Sam, Neil’s son, is playing under 21 rugby for) in the Super 14s, before going to the ‘back’ bar and dancing and singing along to the Maori barman, who every so often stopped serving and flashed up his guitar, mostly Maori protest songs, but a great night! Soph told me later it took me quite a while to get into the tent as we had the fixed mesh bug screen over the entrance, I could see the light inside but just couldn’t understand why there was something holding me back! Think I may have broken the zip of my beloved Coleman tent!
We were certainly not so great the next morning however and we had a long day ahead. First up a bit of rehydration and a burger king and then another snooze, well ,we are on our holidays. Took the chance to walk along the Haku River water-front area and wandered into a spot where a natural hot spring ran into the river, beautiful temperature water which you could just sit in and several people and a couple of dogs were doing just that. Wish we’d brought our cossies, but just had a paddle instead. Then we went back up river to the Haku Falls Jet Boat ride, which we had pre-booked and then delayed due to the headache! I was excited and, as you can imagine, so was my wife. 75km/h in a shallow bottomed jet boat, steaming down the river towards the falls, narrowly missing the canyon sides and various trees/swans with the odd 360 degree spin manouevre thrown in for good measure. Excellent, we didn’t buy it because it was a bit pricey, but one photo taken of our boat mid 360 had everyone laughing with their hands up and in the dead centre of picture is my wife, a stand out, with her mouth wide open in a silent scream and terror on her face – classic Soph!
We were left with 27 minutes to view the falls from the bridge crossing the gorge and then double back on our tracks to get down to the Aratiatia rapids for 4 o’clock. These rapid are dry apart from 4 times a day when the floodgates are opened and all the water is allowed to crash back down the wadi. We managed it with 30 seconds to spare, as the alarm went off and the gates opened a real force of nature (sort of) as the mass of water and power erupted down the valley. Never seen anything like it and the rapids re-filled really quickly such was the sheer bulk of water, you just wanted to dive in it looked so clear, fresh and beautiful.
We trooped back into the car to go and meet my Nanna’s friend Joan (82) who lived in Rotorua, cut it fine and we were a bit late but she was as nice as pie and offered us dinner, which we eagerly accepted. Glad we did, Joan was top company (she was a sort of child genius or so it sounds and gained Uni entry at 16, then originally trained as a pharmacist before becoming the first female Post master general of this area! That’s where she met Nanna and the rest they say is history) and she can make a lovely chicken and veg. She sent us to bed at 2130 as we looked so shattered from the night before! Bless.

Next day, spent looking at the various thermal springs of Rotorua. Visited the local park in central town, Paikau park where there are fenced off boiling springs and mud baths, there for all to see. That was a taster and after this we went to Hell’s Gate (for the name more than anything, there are several sites we could have gone to) to view the big boys. Fascinating place, originally called Tikitere, after a visit by George Bernard Shaw in the 1900s he nicknamed it Hell’s Gate and the Maoris allowed the adoption of the name. He also named a few other individual pools, but with ‘the goblin’s nostril’ and ‘the hippos ring of fire’ we believe we should have been given the task. The most impressive sight was the steaming cliffs, which was a pool about 30 feet across filled with boiling mud 145 degrees C at 1 metre down apparently. All I know is that the sulphur was extremely strong and the explosions violent, every few seconds you would get a strong belch of fetid, moist gas from the eruptions (it really was like a night out with Chris Taylor).
The smell of sulphur pervades the whole town and originally my wife kept giving me knowing and accusing looks, but I promise you IT WASN’T ME! After the walk around Hell’s Gate, we stopped off at a carving stall by the exit and met a bloke called Benji Hatu the resident expert and were allowed a free go at some wood carving, great fun and we were ace! Also bought one of his originals, so have finally got a bit of NZ art. Back to the camp site for dinner and a quiet night, we’ve noticed the two nights here in Rotorua have been cosier in the tent than anywhere else and think it must be the thinness of the earth’s crust in the area keeping us warm at night. Had a bit of an embarrassing moment as we made our way to the tent at 11ish. Several noisy, braying Dutch folk were sat outside the communal TV room all talking at once about how fit they were or something, so we basically told them to be quiet (in a niceish way.) As they all grumbled off to their accom, and as I was getting into the tent I accidentally set off our car alarm! Ha, ha excellent skills – you should have seen me move to try and cancel it though, like a cobra! One tent based stat for the spotters out there – we’ve been travelling 126 days and have slept in our tent only 33 times – now that’s slumming it! We are back in Napier now and ready to view some more International cricket tomorrow, a one day match which is in the balance with Eng needing a win, just off to see if we can find Ian Botham in a pub!