First stop, a familiar name

Our actual first stop was Auckland to visit friends and drop off a surfboard with them.

But when it came to hitting the road to the Coromandel, a vague plan had to be formed.

Armed with the NZMCA Travel Directory, we looked up an good place for a first venture onto the peninsular.

It looked like Thames would work for us. A perusal of local sites led us to a simple but cheap place right in the heart of the town.

An old WW1 memorial, set high up on a hill gives a great vantage point to look out over the Firth of Thames and across to the Auckland coastline across the way. As well as the town itself. What there is of it!

And we're off

So it's that time of year again when New Zealand breaks up and goes on holiday. And we're no different. With a week and a half off, it's the ideal time for us to make the most of the van.

This time we're off to the Coromandel, a popular holiday destination near Auckland.

Maddy assumes her usual position in the van while we're driving. We think she enjoys coming with us but it's hard to know for sure! We'd like to think she'd rather come with us than be left behind or at kennels!

She'll be coming round the mountain...

It seems that Annalie is seeking different ways to challenge herself physically as she continues running. So when a friend asked for volunteers to take part in the Taranaki Round the Mountain Relay, Annalie jumped at the chance.

The 150km circumference of Mt Egmont/Taranaki is split into 21 legs of various length and gradient. You just need at least nine other people to split the running with you. Not only that but the race starts at 2.30am! So you have to be a little bit mad, or keen.

Perhaps Annalie is a bit of the former, agreeing to run the maximum three legs for the team.

She travelled up on the camper, the perfect support vehicle. With Ian working, that left room for our friend Dave to tag along. He used to run lots, before home ownership took over! But we knew he'd still be a secret weapon!

Annalie's first leg was number 5 and the start time we'd estimated was 6am. As we carbed up on pasta on the Friday night, we were told that the runner on leg 4 was super fast, so Dave and Annalie guessed it could be more like a 5.30 start. But we would get a text when the previous runner set off.

We stayed out in Stratford as it was just 5kms from Annalie's first start. She got a text at 4.50 to say Adam was off and running, so we got set to be at the start by 5.20. As it happened, she started her run at 5.36, nearly a full half hour ahead of schedule.

As this 5.1km run was in the dark, she needed to wear a headlamp and a rear light too. The good thing about running so early was she couldn't see the long straight road ahead. Because there's nothing worse!

Having 2 legs and 14.6kms still to go, Annalie didn't want to push it too hard so early. Still she ran faster than she intended and made up 3 minutes on her forecast time.

She had a 40 minute break while another runner completed the next leg, then she set off on her round 2, leg 7 and another 5.2kms. She managed to pass two other runners on the leg and maintained a similar pace to her first, conscious of the 9.4km leg still to come.

She was passing on to Dave after both her latter legs, and his encouragement towards the end, along with that of the rest of our team, spurred her on at the finish. Another 3 minutes gained.

This time her break was more like 1.5 hours. She took on some fuel and water to ensure there was plenty in the tank and hydration in the legs. Then all too quickly it was off again, this time on her longest, and what turned out to be her hilliest leg.

Plus, it was another dead straight road, which is mentally challenging when your route just stretches before you!

Dave perched at the halfway point to provide some more water and encouragement. But she felt strong and powered on. Despite having already run 10kms, she ran her fastest pace of 5:16 per km. Her next goal is a repeat of her first half marathon at Round the Bays, and she's gunning for a time of 1h 50. If she can maintain the pace from her last mountain leg, she should do it.

Tagging Dave again, Annalie then became part of the all important support crew, leap frogging around the rest of the course, dishing out encouragement and water.

We joined up as a team 70m from the finish line to cross it together, with Dave leading the way on the last leg. We completed the course in 14 hours and 30 minutes. We were 44th out of 50. But that didn't matter. We'd all entered it to challenge ourselves and just to say we'd done it. And what a fab event it was.

For Annalie, the best part was running as a team. It's a great feeling to have support driving you on when your feeling fatigued or you can see your leg stretch out in front of you, but you can't see the end of it in the distance! We could be back next year!

We found the sun again!

So after this week's Wellington weather bomb, we had already planned a trip to New Plymouth to watch our first All Blacks game. Annalie had won tickets so it was a good excuse to break out the Bach for the first time in a few weeks.

We woke to a continuation of the storm that didn't bode well for a journey north in a high sided vehicle. Wind and rain persisted. But we thought stuff it! We'd planned this weekend for ages. And besides, the can needed a run.

Most of the way up was damp, rainy and grey. It want until we reached the boundaries of Taranaki that the sun started to peek through and we started to get a glimpse of blue sky. It afforded us some lovely views of the snow covered Mt Egmont/Taranaki along the way.

By the time we got to our campsite in Fitzroy Beach, the skies were well and truly clear and the wind was merely a whisper. It made a walk along the black sand beach very enjoyable. A much different prospect to what we were expecting to face here.

We're glad we made the trip.

The Bach heads south

Considering The Bach is an ex-rental, we are certain it has ventured onto the "Mainland", aka the South Island, before. However, this was its first trip with us. Well, with Annalie anyway. She had to leave Ian and Maddy at home due to work reasons.

Annalie was heading to Blenheim in Marlborough to participate in her third half marathon in as many months. This one, however, was called the Vineyard Half, and if you're aware of what Marlborough is famous for, you'll understand why!

Annalie travelled over on the ferry on the Friday morning to get settled ahead of the saturday morning race. She managed to wander from her campsite to the start line as a loosener on the Friday afternoon, but mostly to check she didn't need to take The Bach with her and avoid the traffig/parking queues that were bound to happen. A pretty splendid afternoon in general.

 

 

Here's all the "medals" waiting for everybody who completes the HM

 

Beaches, Whangarei and free camping

Heading south from Paihia, we took in a scenic drive around the Tutukaka coastline. This is the gateway to Poor Knights Island, one of the world's top dive sites. Sadly, this was not on the cards for us but we were still greeted with stunning coastline and beaches as we made our way to Whangarei.

You can just see Poor Knights Island in the photo above!

The van has a rest during a beach walk for Maddy.

Then it was on to the largest town in Northland, Whangarei. Just before we reached the town, we passed Whangarei Falls, the "most photographed waterfall in NZ", so we thought we'd just add to the statistic! You can kind of see why they're so popular.

Then it was on to Whangarei. It's quite a sprawling metropolis really, but it presented an opportunity for a free spot of camping. Consulting our bible again, we saw that there was free overnight parking allowed down by the river. Wanting to be sure about these things, we stopped at the i-site to make sure we were parking in the right area. Armed with this information, we set off.

The parking was right by the river basin marina, presenting a lovely backdrop. A nice boardwalk took us along to a cute cafe where we dined by the river. We were slightly concerned that we would have to break out the portapotty as the local lavs were supposed to close at 5.30pm. However we were very pleased to find that they remained open all night, removing the need for us to use our on board loo!

Not bad for a freebie, we thought...

Up the West Coast

Our journey north took us up the West Coast as we criss crossed the country from Mangawhai. On the way through, we consulted a magazine feature about the best things to do in Northland, and we found ourselves climbing Tokatoka Peak. Just a short, but sharp, climb from the neighbouring road, the peak afforded us panoramic views of the surrounding land and river, although it was a pretty murky day.

Maddy wanted to play "King of the Castle" while up the top, but as it was a pretty windy day, we feared that she'd get blown away. So I kept her on the lead while Ian checked out the full view.

Then it was on to Dargaville, our night's stop. Since we've joined the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association (NZMCA), we have access to a huge directory of thousands of cheap/free camping sites throughout the country. Another perusal of our new bible directed us to Dargaville Museum, high up on a hill above the "city". Here the charge was just $10. No power, but a toilet and, what turned out to be, a private campground! For the second night running we were on our own!

On our way up to the museum, we'd spotted a frisbee golf course. Now as we'd familiarised ourselves with this sport on our first visit to NZ, we keep frisbees in the van, for just such an opportune moment!

We were also able to look back at the peak we had just climbed. Tokatoka is quite distinctive as the very pointy hill on the right hand side.

Dargaville Museum is also home to the masts of the Rainbow Warrior. The Greenpeace ship was sunk off the Bay of Islands in 1985, but the Museum's owner negotiated the transferral of the masts to his nautical-themed exhibit.

A low-key Christmas Day

Christmas is much lower-key in NZ as it seems to be more about the summer holidays than Christmas. As a result, there isn't the same commercialisation and the need to spend isn't thrust down your throats.

As we were off camping, there was even less atmosphere. But that might have been due to the weather that kind of dampened spirits somewhat. We had the tail end of Cyclone Evan, which had turned into a tropical storm, which poured down on us.

We ventured to Ahipara, at the bottom end of Ninety-Mile Beach in the Far North. The hope had been that we'd get out onto the sand dunes and boogie board down them. But fat chance of that. The wind and the rain made that a less-than-pleasant prospect.

On Xmas day itself, we headed up to the very tip top, the equivalent of John O'Groats, to see what Cape Reinga had to offer. It's a very spiritual place in Maori culture and we wanted to see it in its glory.

Sadly, the thick fog that surrounded the north cape meant that we experienced very little. We had almost reached the iconic lighthouse before we could actually see it. The spiritual experience lost on us a little.

But the weather did play ball with us a little to ensure that we could still BBQ our Xmas dinner! Lovely marinated lamb chops, baked potatoes and corn. Not quite your traditional, but very much the Kiwi way of doing things.

The start of the long drive home

Rather than heading down the well-trodden path through Taupo to get home, we decided to visit lesser known and visited parts. So we headed through Hawkes Bay instead.

The drive from Opotiki to Gisborne is certainly picturesque, but sadly we didn't stop to get the most scenic photos. plus most of the stopping points were on the opposite side to us! But we did get to stop eventually and check out the valleys. Not as spectacular though.

We stopped off in Gisborne to check out the memorial of Captain Cook's first landing in NZ in 1769. He first stepped ashore in Poverty Bay to the South. And just a little further along was a lovely, quiet beach, home to the Gizzy Yacht Club, and much gentler waters to those we were used to over in the Bay of Plenty.

And then it was on to Napier, driving past NZ's own "white cliffs", Young Nick's Head. So named after the boy on Cook's ship who first spotted the land that was to be known as New Zealand.

An almost round trip

We're back from our north island tiki tour. There are more updates to come but on the trip we managed to cover an almost round number of kilometres in the van. It's done us proud over the last two weeks as we've covered a huge amount of ground around the country.

While the weather hasn't always been kind to us, we've still enjoyed our tour and it reminded us of our first trip when we first fell in love with this beautiful country.

Islands in a bay!

Next stop on the tiki tour was the Bay of Islands, known for its on water life and diving. Neither of which we could really do due to having the pooch with us. Still, it's a nice place to hang out.

The weather finally started to clear up for us and the heat turned up.

Seeing the cruise ship moored out in the bay near Paihia seemed surreal compared to the professional cruise ship harbour we have in Wellington, but I guess needs must when there's nowhere for a boat that big to berth any closer to land.

We managed to get the last site at a campsite too, and what a peach it is. With a direct view over the Haruru Falls, it's rather a pleasant place to spend the night.

Driving south

Today we made our way south from "way up north", hopefully leaving the heaving rain behind (thanks Cyclone Evan!). We'd been advised to make a pit stop in Mangonui to have fish and chips over the wharf.

You know it's fresh when you can see the fishing boats out of the restaurant window! And the fish fillets were on display in the fridge and cooked to order. It certainly wasn't the worst fish and chips we've ever had!