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Sunday 20th November 2005

Photos I took: 128 (Link to pbase gallery)

An Early Start

The alarm went off at 5:45am and by 6am we were heaving our luggage quietly down the stairs and into the cold morning air. As we drove east, the temperature dropped to minus three degrees C (27 degrees Fahrenheit). After two hours' driving, we had definitely beaten the Welsh rush hour and were well into England, so we stopped at Membury services for a fried breakfast. The lady at the checkout saw we had two part breakfasts between us, so only charged us for one - a nice start to our holiday! We arrived at Purple Parking at 9:40am, 50 minutes ahead of schedule. It had been a cold night in London, as puddles has turned to thick ice. After being singled out for a security check, we were put at the front of the check-in queue and were soon rid of our heavy luggage. We sat in Heathrow Terminal 3 for three hours before we were allowed to board. The rather new Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 took off on time and we settled in with the on-demand video and games system for the first part of the flight to Los Angeles - 11 hours and 15 minutes over 8808Km or 5473 miles.

We had been married in Carnglaze Caverns in Cornwall on 12th November 2005 and were going to New Zealand for our honeymoon. Other choices were Canada, Iceland and South East Asia. I had been to Canada and Paula had visited Iceland and Thailand, so we chose somewhere neither of us had been before. Not being the sitting-on-a-beach sort of couple, we opted for an active, adventurous holiday which included trekking through rain forests and climbing volcanoes.

All informational quotes on here either come from signs at the attractions or from leaflets we obtained from the place itself. All speech quoted isn't necessarily accurate, but portrays the general conversations.

24 Hours In The Air

"Are we in the right class?" I asked Paula, after sitting down and realising I could stretch out and not touch the seat in front of me. I'd chickened out of playing the Honeymoon Card and asking for a free upgrade - before I'd realised it, the check-in lady had allocated seats and printed the boarding cards.

On 5th November 2005, Air New Zealand introduced the Pacific Economy Class to try and make the 24 hour flight bearable - there was lots of leg room (meaning we could stretch out) and they have a complete on-demand entertainment system with many CDs, movies, TV shows and games. According to their website, "You'll appreciate the generous personal space and ergonomically designed seats." We definitely appreciated it and when we landed in Auckland, we felt pretty good considering how long we'd spent in the air. If I were to compare it to my 9 hour flight to Vancouver I would say that it was no worse.

After being met in LA by the most obese American you can imagine (remember Mr Creosote from Monty Python's Meaning of Life?) we were finger printed and had our photo taken by armed US security guards - or was it Border Enforcement Officers? - some title anyway. We sat in the transit area for over two hours with access to free drinks and snacks. We were soon boarding the same plane again and settling in for a 12 hour and 45 minutes flight to Auckland over 10544Km or 6551 miles. Luckily, we both managed to sleep for around six or eight hours of the flight and when we landed in Auckland (albeit bumpily) at 5:30am local time, 19352Km or 12024 miles from London, we felt pretty good - I had been expecting to feel like shit, so it was a nice surprise.

26 Hours And 12024 Miles Later

We collected our baggage, which to our delight was all there and discovered that we had to go through the Bio-security Lane, as we had walking boots. All it meant was that they were taken away by a guy in rubber gloves and washed/disinfected. One huge difference was very obvious compared to America - none of the security people were wearing guns. With our clean boot back, we sought out the rental car which we had booked on the internet. We had to phone a number from the i-site, the New Zealand tourist information centre, and then wait outside for a minibus to the domestic terminal. Whilst we were waiting at the i-site, I overheard the lady on the phone.

"Have you checked your i-site?" she asked, and then quickly added "Er, I mean your information site?" after realising it sounded like she was insinuating they were blind!

We soon had the keys in our hand and walked to the car, which was a small automatic Peugeot 206 with several dents and scratches. We failed to get all our luggage in the boot, so put the rest on the backseat and I drove off with Paula navigating.

"You want to get on Route 1," Paula informed me.

"OK," I replied, as I steered the car around a roundabout, which were thankfully the same as in Britain.

After driving around for a while and then turning around, we eventually found ourselves on Route 1 heading south, slightly unsure of the speed limit. I stuck to around 100Km/h, which seemed to be roughly what everyone else was doing.

"It's rather quiet for rush hour," I commented to Paula.

"That's probably because it's Sunday," she replied.

"Oh yeah, that'll be it."

Breakfast

We drove for an hour or two and arrived at Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula at 9am. We pulled into a fuel station and looked around the i-site at the leaflets, but failed to find anything useful. Char-col Café had just opened, so I had a breakfast of latte and apple pie and Paula had a milk-shake and a slice of something. We sat at a bench running the length of the window so we could watch the world go by - it was a roughly cut piece of wood for the table and sitting there, I felt very relaxed and extremely happy. This was it, we were in New Zealand and had three weeks of travelling the country. Bliss!

Paula had spotted a set of walks along the Kauaeranga Valley one turning back, so after buying stuff to eat for lunch - flapjack and crisps - we headed off to the valley. We couldn't find any pre-made sandwiches, so had to make do with junk food. The sealed road soon turned into an unsealed road of gravel - a lot of fun to drive along it must be said! The car was rather gutless and acceleration was something it took its time over, but we arrived safely at the i-site for the park. The lady there was very helpful and we soon chose a tramping track to walk. She let us leave some luggage in the building whilst we drove off, so it wasn't left in the car on show. We decided to walk from Webb Creek to the Hydro Camp, which seemed walkable in the time available.

Our First Swing Bridge, Ever

We parked at the Roadend Carpark which rather surprisingly was at the end of the road. Wearing long sleeved breathable tops and sun hats, we set off along the trail. I immediately started to take some photos, knowing that it can take a day or two for my "photographic eye" to start working. The amount of ferns around was immediately noticeable, as it gave the place a rather tropical look, sort of like a rain forest. The sort of terrain, we assumed, that we would be walking in on our "Volcanoes and Rain Forests" tour later in the week.

The typical vegetation we saw

After about ten minutes walking, we came to our first swing bridge. I walked across the boulders below as Paula crossed it, taking photos of her. Not to let this opportunity pass, as I haven't walked on a swing bridge before, I crossed it too. The start of it is nice and easy, but nearer the end, the frequency of the oscillations becomes far quicker, so you find yourself being bounced around rather a lot - the hand rails provided a feeling of safety!

Paula above Webb Creek

"That was cool," I remarked to Paula, once I'd caught up with her.

"I enjoyed it," she replied.

Paula on the swing bridge (taken on the way back)

We soon came to a short diversion to Billygoat Landing and decided to take a look. The view was of waterfalls ahead and a plaque saying, "Above the Billygoat Falls in the early 1900s lay one of the last big kauri stands in the Kauaeranga Valley. The waterfalls had protected much of the forest from axe and saw. An outstanding feat of engineering in its day, the Billygoat Incline was built in 1921, allowing loggers to bypass this obstacle." It was basically a precarious looking structure that was an incline built from the top of the valley to the bottom, which allowed them to move the kauri logs down to the river, as previous attempts to throw them over the edge smashed the logs to pieces...

Billygoat Falls

Up And Up And Up...

Back on the track again, we noticed that it had started to climb. Bearing in mind how long we'd just flown, we were a little dubious about our capabilities, but we seemed to be coping OK, so we carried on. We crossed a couple more swing bridges and carried on climbing up until we came to stone steps cut for pack horses by bushmen and gumdiggers in the 1900s.

Paula clambering down the slightly slippery cut stone steps

The path went up and up and we passed another information sign telling us that we'd just walked along the Skidded Road. "Skidded roads were made from small logs laid end to end, with cross pieces forming the 'skids' along which logs were pulled by bullock teams or steam haulers."

The Skidded Road

And Finally, Our Destination

A bit concerned about time and after repeated "It must be just around this corner" proclamations, we came to our destination of Hydro Camp. There was no shade and it was bloody hot, so we looked around before heading back down a little way so we could eat lunch in the shade of the trees. It took us about two hours to get to the top, but just half an hour to return to the car - it had been up all the way. We thankfully took off our boots, drove back to the i-site, reclaimed our luggage and drove onto Coromandel along Highway 25.

Hydro Camp

The road runs along the coast, so we were presented with views of the Firth of Thames for most of the way. The water was a greeny blue, making it look rather tropical, so we stopped so I could take some photos. It was at this point that a red sports car drove past, turned around and then drove back again, this time with two guys making rude gestures out of the window, which would be deemed as offensive in the UK. Guys, you ain't doing your country or yourselves any favours! I ignored them and returned to the car to continue our journey.

The Firth of Thames

A Bed For The (Long) Night

We soon arrived in Coromandel, found Anchor Lodge (where we were staying for the night) fairly easily and collected the keys, leaving a $20 key deposit. We had chosen the youth hostel to keep our costs down and it turned out to be a good choice. Our double room was on the end, quiet and comfortable. We had much needed showers and Paula decided to have a nap before we headed out to get some food, as it was around 4:30pm. Within five minutes, she was snoring gently - I've never known anyone to fall asleep so quickly! I started to read as well, but after a few sentences decided I would also nap.

At 6pm I woke Paula up and she mumbled back to me "Uh? What time is it? I'm too tired to be hungry but I can go out for food if you want."

"Nah, I'm tired too," I replied and laid back down again.