Kauri

Day5/6/7? (they’re all blending together)…Kauri Explorations….

Awoke to the sound of many small birds chirping loudly in the trees just behind the camper.

Hit the free showers, dressed, and got rolling. We had passed several areas I wanted to see on the way up to the cape, this is the day.

Kauri are huge ancient trees that now only grow in New Zealand, They grow quickly, breed as hermaphrodites, and have the characteristic of taking off for the forest canopy, then spreading out and developing a “head”, or wide ranging expanse of branches and leaves. As the tree gets the fuel needed from this head that now pokes high through the sunlight-stealing canopy, the trunk, long and slender, gradually widens. The tree barely changes diameter from root to head, with knot free straight grain. Perfect for woodworking, furniture, lumber, shipbuilding, etc., etc. As you can imagine, they were virtually harvested to extinction.





Now, they’re protected and are making a slow comeback.

The cool thing is, they’re prehistoric, dating back to before flowering plants. A species of pine ( though you’d never know it by looking at one-the leaves are thick broad flat arrowheads with a waxy coating), they’ve been flourishing here for thousands of years.



Went to a Kauri wood shop, they get their wood from logs long submerged in the swampy lowlands. Carbon dated to about 45000 years ago, these huge trees were almost perfectly preserved when an unknown catastrophic event buried virtually all of Northern N.Z. with up to 32m ( 100feet ) of sediment in one fell swoop. Since many of the tree trunks lie from east to west, the theory is a tsunami from a meteor hit in the Tasman sea swept across the country. This is the excavated stump of an ancient Kauri with our guide nearby for comparison…



Went to the “Gumdiggers Park” an area of lowlying swamp where for 80 years or so men worked at retrieving the hardened sap of these huge trees. They’d probe the boggy peat and underlying sandstone until one of their probes hit a buried trunk, then follow along to the roots, where there were chunks of this amber just lying there, having fallen from the tree for hundreds/thousands of years as it was still alive. They’d dig down by hand and excavate around, selling their finds. Younger “gum” was ground and made into a fine furniture polish/sealant/varnish, older resin was called N.Z. copal and fashioned into trinkets, and the oldest of all is declared amber and is classified a semi-precious stone. Saw a chunk with a fossilized mosquito in the shop, ala Jurassic Park.

As an aside, there were several pairs of rubber boots on display, the constant desire to stay drier and more comfortable during long days in the deep pits drove the industry, and to this day that’s the reason they’re known as “gum boots”.

Continued south, aiming for the forests of still-standing Kauri, including the biggest tree on the island, a massive beast just off the highway.




You round a bend in the short trail, there it is. Hard to find words to do the scale justice. Estimated to be 2000 years old, it kind of makes you sit and think for a while. Beautiful.




Continued toward the coast, foregoing the multiple interpretive walks. One tree was cool, but living in the Pacific Northwest with it’s own huge pine and spruce rainforest trees, and recently having taken a motorcycle trip to the California redwoods, the “big tree” quota’s been filled.

Getting used to driving a turbo on these twisted roads. The charger unit must be smaller sized, as it runs out of breath anywhere over 4000 rpms. Bit of lag, too, pulling all the weight. So, having to tip in the throttle about 3-5 seconds before you need the power is tough to get used to, but you can make the thing move along nicely. Really have to row through the shortish gears to keep it going well, too. Hit an indicated 160 (100mph). That’s about all the room I had, but, no sign of a limiter and there probably wasn’t much more in the thing.

Here’s the key…




Drivers. Out of the city, polite, courteous, even truckers pull to the shoulder to let you pass. Speed limit’s usually 100kph (60mph), regardless of whether or not it’s actually wise to do that speed on the road. (Usually it’s not.) Curves are well marked with directional arrows and recommended speed signs, which are more often than not accurate to 20kph. The rural roads are virtually continuous dotted lines, passing legal everywhere, up to you and your own stupidity as to when you attempt.

Multiple sections of dirt road, fun if you remember to keep right. The turbo gives a little boot to the rear tires, only to be thwarted by the electronic stability program voodoo, cutting power and braking the inside wheel. Been reading the manual, though, apparently it can be switched off. Stay tuned.

80’s music. EVERYWHERE. Let me say that again. EVERYWHERE.

Also, no asphalt shingles. Almost all the houses have tin/metal roofs, or tile.

Some foods we found and liked. A pineapple fritter, a slice of pineapple dipped in doughnut batter, deep fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Hot and good. Also, the potato chips here are different flavours, so far we like the roast chicken, lemon, and thyme, as well as the tzatziki flavor.

Rolled into the small cove of Bayleys beach for the night, tried unsuccessfully to upload some stuff onto Blogger, gave up, and slept.

Awoke to the sound of heavy raindrops.

Made our way to the showers, made a like breakfast, and got moving. We had one stop in mind, but today was to be a long day’s drive to Rotorua, the volcanic/thermal hot spot (couldn’t resist) on the North Island.

Rolled into a town to resupply, the old “drive right” habits coming back in the free for all that’s a large parking lot. Oops. No harm done, though.

Continued down the road, to a final Kauri museum, full of artifacts and full size displays of the sawmills and gum digger industry. Impressive , but sad to see how efficiently we can destroy an entire ecosystem in a few short years. Odd how everything was just lying out to touch, pick up, etc. Some mostly self-explanatory shots.....



















Grabbed a bite in the next-door café, then down to business. Through Auckland again, this time in rush hour traffic (not fun with six gears and a stiff clutch), onward to Rotorua.

Some random scenic panoramas…






Arrived in time to see the last of a beautiful golden sunset, paid for 2 nights, and cooked up some nice BBQ chicken on the grill. Currently typing and enjoying some local cabernet, it’ll be an early night yet again.

Hope to get some miles in on the bikes tomorrow as we explore. Goodnight.

Cape Reinga

Day4 - Cape Reinga…

Got a long hot shower at the upscale campground. The sun was out, a slight breeze blowing. We packed up, the bungee cords purchased yesterday invaluable in securing the bikes in the back.

Cruised down to the little ferry which would bring us back to the mainland, remembering how to drive left yet again. The ferry pulled up just as we did, excellent timing.

Decided to take a pic of N.Z. cash for you….

It’s plasticy to touch, slightly smaller than “murican money. No pennies. Everyone rounds up or down. Nice idea. I hate pennies.

Cruised north along the winding coastal roads, again reaching Paihia, where we decided to fuel up. Did the math, we’re getting roughly 30mpg, even along these torturous roads. Diesel was $1.50 per liter, so, not bad. We’d budgeted for much more.

Followed the impeccable two lane north, through hills and valleys, the pavement unrolling like a smooth rollercoaster. I was wishing for a bike, in fact, I’ve only seen 3-4 motorcycles so far, where the whole Island is a mecca. That one tiny , for example, drive to Russell alone puts anything including the fabled…., “tail of the dragon” in North Carolina to shame. It is midweek, though. Maybe the bikers are weekend warriors here.

T-boned into highway 1 again, the main road north.

Billed as the secondary route north, “Ninety Mile Beach” is a 50 plus mile stretch of flat hard sand that many locals use to get around, there’s even a bus tour where they’ll drive the bus through the surf along the beach.

The beach….could be the Pacific off Washington….

Denise spotted some surfers, mere dots. Zoom lens helped…

Unfortunately, KEA campers has 3-4 routes here that are “forbidden”, 90 mile beach is one of them. I’d have chanced it, but there are multiple warnings that the access points are often impassable except for 4X4’s, there’s no cell/help/tow services for miles, many vehicles are lost to the oncoming tide, and there are patches of streams and soft sand that are unpredictable…. And….

O.K.!!! Enough!! I’ll stay off the beach.

Limit’s only 100kph, anyway. Weird to see a cop car patrolling…

The final 20 kms to the cape is unpaved. I was cool with that, but they’re working on paving it. Construction . Rough roads. Lax traffic workers.

I’ m glad it’s a rental. Fine silt from the dust storms of oncoming vehicles begins to slowly permeate, settling in an ultra fine dust coating Everything.

Finally started climbing, the dirt road clinging to ridgelines with alternating stunted dense forest groves and lush green pastures falling away to both sides.

Reached a sign proclaiming “ Te Paki Giant Sand Dunes!” …. Oh, come on… you know you would too.

Wow. Huge dunes just swallowing the forest. Surreal. We climbed on and on, watching the sand boarders slide on their Teflon-shod boogie boards down the steep slopes, only to have to slog back up.

The climbing SUCKED. For every step, you’d slide back half a step. Hot. Dry. We clambered to the top, where more dunes spread out in all directions. We headed toward the ocean, but realized after about an hour of walking that we were getting nowhere and still had to get back.

Turned around, walking back to the steepest slope. I rapidly “plunge stepped” down, taking huge strides, digging in a heel only to drive off again, much like descending in deep snow. Fun.

Got to the bottom, poured the quart of sand out of my shoes, and we got back on the road.

Cape Reinga is under construction, We parked in a makeshift lot and walked the footpath to the lighthouse.

Beautiful. The northernmost point on N.Z., where two oceans collide. The water was a confused mess, waves from two different directions fighting, leaving a churned area just offshore. Standing lines in the water delineated where the currents butted heads.

The lighthouse stood resolute, but it looked like the touristy “signpost” ( you know… 5000 miles-South America… that kind of thing) was not all that well thought out, as not one of the 8-10 signs remained, the ¼ aluminum remnants looking torn and fatigued, unable to resist the winds at the tip of the world. At first I thought it was vandals, but Denise figured the wind was a much more likely culprit, and I concur.

Returned the way we’d come, as the light was getting low and we needed to get to our campground at Pukenui.

The dust? Multiple wipedowns only succeed in smearing it around. Fine grained stuff.

Sleepy. Long day, got a little too much sun on the dunes. Cooked a small meal here in the camper, finally finishing typing this, getting ready to snooze. Enjoyed a small glass of the local Absinthe, nice louche, nice taste when diluted with some water. Shame bringing back alcohol is such a pita, especially with the TSA involved as well.

Also, we’re taking 100-150 pics per day, get ready for an overload when we finally find some internet.

Goodnight.

P.S., still haven’t figured out the campervan security system, having the truck go into full panic mode is almost a daily occurrence. Not good for neighbor relations.

Finally, got Gimp downloaded, so you'll notice most of the pics in this post are normal web sizes. They limit megabytes as well as time, here, and the huge photos were killing my posts and costing lots of cash. So, expect more updates with more regular sized pics from here on in.

Day3 - Russell

Day3... Russell…
Awoke to the sound of raindrops tapping on the roof. I’d had a revelation in the middle of the cool night and realized they’d provided us a small electric heater. Since we were plugged into shore power, it’s red little 220v element quickly heated the space. The van has a LPG powered onboard heater, but it also runs the stove off it’s smallish bottle, so we’re using shore power whenever possible.

Kiwifruit comes in gold, too…

Looked under the hood, too. 2.4liter four cylinder Duratorq (not duratec) turbo diesel. Owners manual says it’s got 4.27 rear axle, so that’s probably where the power feeling comes from. Best part? The fuel ratings. 23mpg city, 30 mpg highway! I’d been watching the fuel gauge, but without knowing just how big the tank was, it meant nothing. This thing gets better mileage than my Honda CR-V. Keeping a distance/mileage/cost log as we go, just for fun. Diesel, about 1.50 per liter currently.
The bike seats were drenched, squishy to touch because we have to keep them outside during our night‘s sleep. We made some coffee and decided to go explore despite the rain clouds.

Kept seeing these odd flowers along the roadside, since they looked like something Dr. Seuss would draw, of course I called them Dr. Seuss flowers…

Our REI goretex jackets were excellent, keeping the sometimes torrential rain off yet not being clammy and stifling on the inside like rubberized gear.

Walked the town, most shops still closed this early.
Saw there was a passenger ferry back to the mainland to Paihia, spent the $10 each for a roundtrip.
As we approached the dock, a large red boat pulled up alongside. Full of 30 or so people, all in full raingear, looking thoroughly wet and miserable. I’d seen it coming down the harbor, tossing a huge rooster tail.
We walked the tiny town, stopping for some supplies and coffee. Stopped at a small bar, tried the Lion Red amber ale, my new favourite. Returned to the dock, the sun had decided to come out and play, the temperature rising.
Found the desk belonging to the boat I’d seen earlier, The “Excitor”. It took 90 minutes to go the 34 miles out and back to the “Hole in the Rock”, a huge passage through a small island at the entrance to the Bay of Islands.
Since the sun was out, we coughed up the cash. $75.
The boat. Twin 800hp turbo diesels pushing twin three blade surface drive props. Nice. There was some chop on the way out, the captain had us all sit near the back to minimize the slamming. Too bad, up front would have been fun. We sat as far forward as possible, the big boat slowly but inexorably gaining speed, hitting 40-45 knots in 4-5 foot rolling chop. Impressive. Even sitting behind the boats’ midpoint, we got picked up off the seats several times, and the poor cd player was punished several times by the landings, cutting off 6 or 7 times. Fun stuff.
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Out to the rock, the captain would slow to explain different features, we were permitted to stand and walk around while in slow mode. Through the hole, saw some seals, poked our nose into a cavernous hollow, the boat skills the captain effortlessly displayed impressive.

On our way back, with the rollers, we were allowed to sit up front, but the ride was significantly smoother. Wind in the hair, sun beating down, the captain turning and carving close to the jagged shoreline, slowing to surf along some of the larger waves, the bright green hills a picturesque backdrop.
Passed a little 28 foot powerboat, I leaned over to Denise and told her that it was a good indication of the effortless speed. Us, smoothly cruising atop the waves at 50 knots, powerboat pitching and rolling, spray crashing as the bow pitched heavily into the swells, barely doing 20.

Back to the dock, we took the ancient ferry back to our port, and walked back to the campsite.
The sun had done wonders, the bike seats completely dry. We hopped on and rode to the other side of the peninsula, to “Long Beach”. Pretty.

Oh, yeah, New Zealanders aka Kiwis bicycle brakes are reversed, too. Front brake = right lever, like a motorcycle. One more fun little difference. People pass each other to the left while walking, too. Tough to overcome these ingrained behaviours. What side of the road do you walk on? Stuff you’ve long ago stopped thinking about needs to be relearned. Going to be fun when we finally get home, too, as I think 5 weeks will be just enough time to have all these “leftist” behaviours become habit.
Got back home, cooked up some steaks on the camper’s gas burner, enjoyed some local wine, and off to bed. I think I see a pattern….early to bed, early to rise. Maybe I should patent it.