The Great Kiwi Hunt and other North Island Stories

Date: 7th February 2025

Location: A Forest in Northern North Island, New Zealand

It's dark. It's 21.10 on a clear starry night and we're camped in our tiny tent in a small camp site on the edge of an ancient forest full of massive kauri trees. We quietly climb out of our sleeping bags careful not to wake the other campers. Unfortunately I accidentally hit the alarm button on the car's key fob and everyone wakes up anyhow! We feel bad but  we are off on a Kiwi Hunt. With white lights switched off and showing only red ones which apparently the kiwis can't see we start around the two kilometres track. We are with a Canadian guy from the next tent and It's all a bit spooky especially for me as I'm in the middle of some pretty scary Stephen King short stories. We're listening for the sound of a Kiwi snuffling around in the decaying undergrowth but we heard nothing, zilch. Nada for 30 minutes. Then in the distance we think we hear one call. But that's it. We did spot a few glowworms though which is pretty cool. Of course now I'm now back in the tent writing up my naturalist notes of the day I can hear the little buggers calling their well known call of "hahaha, we saw you but you didn't see us".

Thick New Zealand forest - no kiwis here.

Very large Kauri tree.

Yes, we're in North Island, New Zealand and I'm determined to try and avoid this becoming a "then we went there" travel report.

This first part of our seven weeks adventure has mainly been meeting with old friends from our Pacific crossing days. These Kiwis (the people not the birds or the fruits) must be some of the most welcoming and friendly people on earth. We were met at Auckland Airport by Kris and Maree who you may remember were our crew from Fiji to Australia. They own a bach on the Coromandel Peninsula and it was there we headed to their "shed". Bachs are a New Zealand institution. Originally they were indeed little more than huts or sheds in the country but over the years many of them have become second homes. To get to Kris and Maree's we turned off the coast road and bumped along a track up through the forest until we emerged in a small clearing. What a view! Down over an estuary and out over a beautiful rocky coastline. And this hut, the bach, was bigger than our two bedroomed flat in the UK and set in 45 acres of beautiful forest. It seems around 5% of Kiwis are lucky enough to own a bach. Often they start off by buying the land, maybe advertised on Facebook Marketplace, and spend time camping there. Over time they build a small hut which gets bigger so that it becomes a real home from home.

Arriving at the bach.

View from the bach.

The plan had been for them to buy us a car in North Island where they live before we arrived. We would then drive it around and across to South Island where there daughter would sell it for us after we had left seven weeks later. By the time we got to New Zealand though they had an even better plan. They would simply lend us their Toyota Highlander V6, four wheel drive car and all their camping gear for the duration of our stay. Amazing!

Home for the next seven weeks.

Jandles = Flipflops

Chilli Bin = Coolbox

There are sex min on my dick - There are six men on my outside decking

Ute - general utility vehicle with cab and open back

Togs - swimming costume

Tramp - walk

Spotty Dog - great, excellent, good. As in 'that meal was spotty dog'.

Possums are protected in Australia but vermin in New Zealand. There are very few indigenous mammals in New Zealand.

Everything kills you in Australia (spiders, jellyfish, dingos, snakes, crocodiles, sharks). Nothing kills you in New Zealand.

North Island's main north/south road, the N1, and equivalent to the M1 in the UK, is mostly a single lane in each direction and when you get to a bridge there is only one shared lane with arrows showing which direction has to give way to the other.

Since we last saw Kris he has bought a 52 foot Irwin yacht that had been confiscated by NZ Customs for failure to pay import and other duties. Now this is a boat when in good condition is worth around £150k. But because Customs wanted rid of it it was advertised at a lot, lot less. Eventually Kris bought it for even less than the advertised price - an absolute steal. It was in poor condition but he's very handy and it's well on the way to bring a very capable blue water ocean boat again. He took us for a sail. She sails wonderfully. Amazingly we had sailed her in the Caribbean under her previous owners.

Freya - Kris' new boat.

Now it was time to make our way back to Auckland before heading right to the most northerly tip of New Zealand. We spent one night with Sally our other Pacific crew. She lives in the same house that she grew up in but in the next road. When her mum died she wanted to live a few streets away so she loaded the three bedroomed house onto a truck and moved it the few hundred metres to her new piece of land. Apparently moving entire houses is quite common here. The house was actually too big for one truck so after jacking it up off its foundations they simply cut it in two and put it on two trucks instead of one. She showed us the join between the two parts now in its new location. Unusual but extremely cost effective.

The north east coast is the sailing centre of New Zealand. Whangerai, Opua and the Bay of Islands. This is where we would have made landfall had we decided on New Zealand rather than Australia as our destination. And now the temporary home of Paul and Hazel on Susimi. They took us up a secret gorge near their marina as it got dark. "Now switch off your headlamps". All around us the glowworms glowed. Amazing. We've seen fireflies before. They flit around. But these glowworms give out a steady light. It was like looking up at the stars in the sky. With the little waterfall cascading down behind us it was a magical evening.

And so to the very top of North Island. Cape Reinga is where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea. It's always rough here and even on yet another beautiful day we could see the water boiling. This is where the Maoris believe that their spirits leave this world. They slide down an old gnarled tree and out into the ocean. Very atmospheric and a signpost on the lighthouse told us we were 10,499 miles from London. Surely we've sailed further than that? Then we realised that the post was pointing forwards and not back the way we had come!

Top of North Island.

Our campsite up there was magnificent. Taputaputa Bay is even more perfect than all the other near perfect New Zealand bays. We booked a DOC site. DOC stands for Department of Conservation. They have a series of generally basic sites all over New Zealand. We paid NZ$16 per person per night (UK£7). An almost empty yellow sandy beach bounded by rocky headlands at the end of a steeply descending gravel road. Our neighbours, a young Canadian/Australian couple offered to drive us to the lighthouse for the 7km walk back to the campsite. Unfortunately the path was shut and by the time we had found where the walk was supposed to start they had driven off. We walked back on the almost deserted road to the campsite.

The perfect campsite.

Date: 16th February 2025

Location: James Cook Hotel, Wellington

Wellington is right in the south of North Island. Tomorrow we catch the ferry across the Cook Strait to South Island.

We've been having such a great time and so busy in North Island that I'm miles behind in writing this.

We first met David and Charlie in Shelter Bay Marina, Panama. There they gave us their left over food in return for us keeping an eye on their boat Audacia whilst they left the country for a while. We were meeting them now to celebrate a big birthday. David is from New Zealand and Charlie (whose mum lives in Ulverston!) is British. They met whilst working in Sudan for the UN. Now they own another of these bachs only this one is 450 hectares mostly of native bush with a small house in one corner. Over 90% is now under covenant which means it can never be built on or developed. This is another translocated house. It was for sale at a house park. Too wide this time to be transported in one go this one was cut longditudinally and loaded onto two trucks. No idea how they got it up the steep approach incline.The views over the sea are just amazing.

Since we first knew them they have had a little daughter. I'm not a big baby fan but I have to say Maggie is not just the most loved baby in the world but she is also adorable. We stayed three nights with them and arrived especially for Maggie's first birthday.

One small cutie.

Happy Birthday Maggie.

Now one of the interesting thing about the cruising community is that it's often quite a while before you learn much about their life before cruising. Before you talk about that you will probably have helped solve a battery charging issue and given advice on the current visa situation. So it was with some surprise that we discovered David had previously been Leader of the Labour opposition party in New Zealand before being in overall charge of the UN's operation in Sudan - 20,000 people including the UN's military wing there. We had a brilliant time with them and David's extended family who all turned up for the birthday celebrations. We also got to applaud Maggie as she stood up for the first time. When we first arrived David was in Auckland to see Brian Adams in concert so to surprise him on his arrival we painted the front of the bach for him.

Quick. Get it finished before he's back.

What a view.

From David and Charlie's we went to see the big Kauri trees and to look for those elusive kiwis before heading south to the small holiday town of Raglan and then to Hobbiton. Yes, Hobbiton. Its time to do something touristy. And man are they coining it in here. 28 people at $120 a throw every 10 minutes. Our guide told us the farmer whose land it is on gets a cut of every entry fee. The farmer next door has sold up and moved away! This was mainly Gilly's choice but I have to say it was really well done and very interesting. The attention to detail is just amazing.

The Shire.

One of many Hobbit holes.

My own Hobbit.

O Level geography in 1968. New Zealand. Sheep, lamb, mountains and the hot springs of Rotorua. This is where Kris' parents live and where he was brought up. Kay and Ron are in their late seventies but act like they are in their forties. In the process of moving in good time to an older persons village they provided us with a comfy bed, many loads of washing, the sweetest sweet corn you can imagine and two wonderful evening meals. Meanwhile Kris had driven his ute (see above) down from home in Hamilton trailing his motor boat with him. He had plans. Before we were settled in it was off to Kerosene Creek. Dark, gravel road, light rain. We parked in a small pull in and torched our way down a track to a steaming pool. Togs (see above) on we entered the stream. Like a hot tub, the water swirling around us, we sat cooking there alone for around 30 minutes watching the stars in a clear sky looking for all the world like the glowworms we had seem earlier in the week.

Kris with Don and Kay, the most hospitable parents.

Early next morning after a hearty breakfast it was off to one of the many lakes, down the boat ramp and a fast 20 minute motor across the lake to the start of yet another Department of Conservation walking trail or tramp (see above). A nice 7km round walk through the bush to remote waterfalls followed by another hot pool and picnic lunch.

Across the lake to the start of the tramp.

One of several waterfalls.

In the evening we were treated to the tree tops walk. New Zealand has discovered that giant redwood trees grow fast in NZ and there in Rotorua they have set up a half kilometre long walk through the treetops. Swaying walkways between small platforms make for an exciting visit 40m up in the air especially as Gilly is not too fond of heights. She kept her eyes firmly on Kris' back and sang songs of reassurance whilst I goaded her from behind. Kris' niece Ella worked there so we got free passes without having to join the 45 minute queue. At each helper station we were met with "oh hello Ella's uncle". It felt like out own personal trip through an aerial lighted wonderland.

Rotorua smells of sulphur and wherever you go there are clouds of volcanic steam puffing out. Of drain covers, of holes in the ground, out of the 11 lakes and even out of car parks. The original Maori settlement was right over one of the most active areas so they had heat to cook on and warm their homes. Today the whole town depends on tourism much of it pretty expensive. We were so lucky to have our own personal tour guide in Kris and be able to use Maree's car as our tourist bus.

Steam rises in the Maori settlement.

Danger. Danger.

We left Kris at Rotorua and headed south again into the heart of the volcanic area of North Island. Destination Whakapapa campsite, the base for our attempt at the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Another DOC camp this one was a bit more upmarket with a small shop, flushing toilets and hot showers. After a quieter day Kris reappeared this time with Maree.

The Crossing is touted as the best one day "tramp" in New Zealand. 20kms with plenty of up and down. The weather next day was perfect yet again. The trick is to drive early to the end of the walk, catch a bus to the start and walk back to the car. This was probably the highlight of North Island. Sunny but with a gentle breeze we had perfect conditions. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea. We weren't the fastest but we weren't the slowest and we do think we were the oldest to complete the walk that day. The last two hours are the killer, downhill all the way. We were quite proud of ourselves until daughter Emma told us that she had also walked this route when she was in NZ but she had also added a two hour detour to climb to the top of one of the main peaks (Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings).

Mount Doom.

The Blue Lake.

Very recent volcanic activity.

Impressive volcanic landscape.

Those last two hours down were tough going!

You may know that Gilly is a Lord of the Rings nerd so with Hobbiton and Mount Doom under our belts it seemed a shame to miss Gollum's Pool and the River Anduin as we worked our way southwards yet again towards Wellington where we are now. Gill was tempted by a LOTR half day rafting experience but at £150 she settled for a gentle drift down the river instead whilst I was sorry we hadn't opted for the Grade 5 rapids option!

And now, finally, I've caught up. Here in Wellington we've finally succumbed to two nights in a hotel and discovered the delights of NZ's green lipped mussels. Yumsters or what? And with a final flourish this morning we visited the Wētā studios where all the LOTRs special effects and costumes were put together. A very fun tour with people even geekier than Gill.

Gollum with fish.

Hmm. That's rather embarrassing.

Tomorrow? The ferry to South Island but first a few final thoughts on North Island.

We could live here.

The weather has been fine and sunny all of the time we've been here.

There is still a divide between the white settlers and the Maoris but nothing like that in Australia with the Aborigines. In fact more people, especially white people are learning Maori now than ever before.

There are an awful lot of vowels in NZ place names and very many Ws and Hs.

The scenery is spectacular and the light beautiful.

The coffee and wine are consistently good (Gill).

The people we met all have a very positive outlook on life, are outdoorsy and are glass half full people. On first meeting the attitude is one of trust rather than suspicion.

There are a LOT of trees, a lot of cows, a good few sheep and not many people.

Great pies.

The very best green lipped mussels.

Image of the month.