After spending Christmas in Auckland a Brazilian, a Russian and myself started to travel around the North Island and the first stop was to be on the peninsula of Coromandel and then to Gisborne to celebrate the New Year where we would get together with more of my friends and at last continue to Wellington! Those were the plans, but as many of you know, there’s a person named Murphy whose laws are always interfering with your plans! On this occasion the law became real, 2 days after having started the trip, the Russian decided to give up, she said she was unable to continue with the trip (because it was too cold, but you are from Siberia!) That she couldn’t fit in the campervan (what?! you are half a meter high!) Anyway, honestly, it was something that I imagined it would happen sooner or later, but still I could not help the surprise and the consequent anger! The entire trip had been scheduled for 3 people and not 2, it’s true that, in the end, this was better for Cris and I, the truth’s that we would have more room to sleep, but we were, still, annoyed as it had caught us by surprise!Finally, after a few minutes of discussion she ask me to drop her off at the nearest town, there was a McDonald's, it was raining, there was no sight of a bus stop, train or anything alike. But we know she got back to Auckland safe! In the end it was the best thing that could have happened to us. Cris and I work well as a team and for a city girl as her, without experience in camping, campervan, etc. I think she did pretty well. Besides, we were on our way to Gisborne to meet with Eloïse (Belgium) and Marco (German Switzerland) which I already knew from Auckland, so the extra space was also great! On the way there we picked up a couple of hitchhikers from Germany, who were going to the music festival. I had never done it before, not even at home, but they were a couple and it was raining a lot!
Gisborne’s situated on the eastern cost, actually of the furthest point, so it would be the first place to seen the Sunrise of the New Year and that was our main reason to go there. A great idea if it had stopped raining at some point! Anyway, the city was too busy because the Festival, so we were grateful to get out of there. We spent the night of the 30th and 31st of December at a wonderful lake called Waikaremoana, in one of the best campsites we could’ve stayed during those special days. Although it didn’t stop raining we had a good dinner and celebrated the entry of 2012 the traditional Spanish way, with the grapes!
The day of our arrival to the lake was the same day as the Russian left, we drove 7 hours and just 10 km away from the campsite we had a flat tire! Fortunately a nice man stopped to help us and we could arrive before dusk, what a day! On New Year's Eve we met with other friends of mine before going back to get dinner ready. We had stuffed aubergine with rice and apple crumble with custard for dessert, all of this with a great NZ white wine and champagne with the grapes! We had dinner at the campsites kitchen along with an English couple, who has been living in Auckland for almost 2 years now, and a group of elderlies. The truth’s that it was fun as we all celebrated the new arrival kissing and hugging as if we knew each other for a lifetime! Kiwis are very friendly and approachable; the always say hello or smile at you, especially if you are walking along the streets of one of their small towns. On New Year’s we finally had a bit of Sunshine, not for a long time but it was enough to be able to appreciate the wonderful scenery of the lake!
January the 1st, we got back on the road, this time to Napier, a city which it’s entirely Art Deco! The city council had decided many years ago that any new business in town or any new building should be of no more than 3 floors and with an Art Deco style, something that I personally think’s a great idea! I mean, if the city already had several buildings on this line, why not keep it that way! We did a tour around Napier, Hastings, Cape Kidnappers and Te Mata Peak. Hastings’s near Napier, but it’s not an Art Deco city, what's more, it used to be a very poor area, but now it’s very rich in vineyards and farms. Hastings has become a place for wealthy farmers, the houses are stunning and their prices are outrageous, but not those which are right in front of the sea. In 1931, Napier and the surrounding area suffered an earthquake of 7.9 on the Richter scale, there were only left intact a couple of buildings, those who the fire brigade chief thought were more important. The "good” thing is that the earthquake made the land emerged, expanding the area and alienating the urban core of the sea. But in a grey area between Napier and Hastings, the sea’s now claiming what it once belonged to it. There are 2 houses which have disappeared because the sea and many other which are in great danger of disappearing swollen by the waters of Cape Kidnapper!
Cape Kidnapper is the name given to the beach where Cook and the Māori fought for the life of a Polynesian "slave". The story tells that he was aboard Cook’s ship and when he saw the Māori was so thrilled to see people like him that he fell into the sea. The Maori rescued him but that Cook thought they have kidnapped him so he began a battle. The other version, that clearly differs, is that the slave was trying to escape from Cook!
From there we went to Te Mata Peak, which also has its own story. They say that Te Mata was a giant who intended to marry the kings daughter, but she didn't want to marry with whom her father decided, but with someone whom she’d love, instead. But on the other hand, she didn’t want to offend her father, which had already reached an agreement with Te Mata. So the princess decided she would give Te Mata 3 different trials to do, if he passed them all 3 she would marry him, but if not he would leave and forget the agreement with her father. Te Mata agreed to it, so she tried to think of the most difficult ones so he would give up. Te Mata managed to overcome the 2 first, which toked him a long time so by the time he had to do the third one the Princess had fallen in love with the giant, so she decided that the last test had to be an easy one, so she would be able to marry him. Te Mata had to help the Princess to cross a river, the giant thought it was so easy and he was so excited thinking that he was going to finish it and marry the princess, that he wasted all his energy on the first part that he wasn’t able with to cross the river and so he drowned. The Princess felt so alone, sad and guilty that decided to commit suicide so she coul spend eternity with his giant, now the Princess rests forever next to his beloved!
We also had the opportunity to make a winetasting in one of the most known vineyards in the area and of course we bought a bottle! Then we had the opportunity to enjoy a performance with songs from the 1920’s, what else could be more Art Deco than that?!
Our next destination was Lake Taupo, Marco and Eloïse had not been yet, although Cris and I had been before, we had only been there for 2 hours that we couldn’t enjoy because it was raining non-stop. We spent the first night in a free campsite, those are public campsites, supervised by the Government and you pay very little money, which goes for its maintenance. We spent nearly 2 hours trying to make fire, we cooked Chinese for dinner and we went to sleep, it started to rain again!
The next morning the rain gave us a truce and we were able to enjoy a radiant Sun, ideal for a boat tour on the lake, where we could see the figures craved on the rock, they call them the gift of Matahi, he’s the Maori who made them. We decided to look for another campsite for the following 2 nights and we found a great one, very close to the lake and with all kinds of comforts. The trip was coming to an end, many things had happened in 10 days, the Russian had "left" us on the third day of travel, we picked our first hitchhikers, we met with Marco and Eloïse and later with other friends, they fired me from my company 2 days before the end of the year making me the best gift for my life, the possibility to change it and enjoy it and the rain gave us a truce at least once!
We went back to Auckland together, Marco was off the next day to Wellington, then Eloïse to Australia, I (in theory) was going to stay just for 2 nights but in the end I had to stay a whole week getting all my papers sorted, but at least, I got to see what I hadn’t had time to see before.
