New Zealand: Moving at the Speed of Cow

We ended up spending three nights in Hastings, mostly because the caravan park gave us a good deal (pay for two nights, stay for three – believe us, it makes a difference!). The park was pretty nice and let us borrow DVDs for free (sounds so simple, but it is a goldmine for us travellers!) and we got free internet. While there we had our first New Zealand fish ‘n chips from a small shop run by a fisherman, and WOW, were they yummy! $10 for two huge pieces of tarakihi fish and a giant scoop of chips (fries).

Next we drove to Gisborne and camped at a caravan park right on the beach. Too bad the weather was about 10 degrees and windy and rainy. Needless to say, we only stayed a night. The next morning we headed north along a highway that hugged the eastern peninsula coast. Not 20 minutes into our trip did we encounter a traffic jam. Not a vehicular traffic jam, however, but a COW traffic jam! There were at least 30 or 40 cows trotting down the middle of the highway. So we slowed down for Craig to pet one out the window and encourage them to move out of our way. Finally they parted and we continued on our way, looking forward to a sheep traffic jam one day.

The scenery on the drive was beautiful, since we had a rare sunny day. The drive was comparable to the Great Ocean Road in Australia, but way less busy. We crashed in the small town of Opotoki that night since we’d had enough driving that day. In little towns like that in the middle of winter caravan parks are not busy, so we had the entire park to ourselves. That is, except for a rooster named Rusty who stood outside our van and woke us up at 5am. Seriously.

Here are some shots from our drive along the east coast:

We decided to head back to Rotorua, the sulphur town, to try and see a bit more of it. We found a pamphlet that came with our van for a caravan park that promised a beach right on Lake Rotorua where you could dig your own hot tub that would then fill with natural, hot spring water. There were even pictures of kids doing it on the brochure. Well. In reality, the beach was TINY and had two holes someone had dug who knows how long ago, full of foamy, stagnant, luke-warm water. This was one of the most expensive caravan parks we have stayed at, and it was also one of the most disappointing. The one good thing was that the park had hangi ovens to cook in, which are Maori ovens that use natural steam from hot springs to cook food in. We made up a batch of pizza dough, and then wrapped whole sausages in the dough with cheese and tomato sauce, and cooked them in the hangi. Yum!

Here we are, making friends with the locals:

Andrea is set to begin supply teaching in Auckland starting July 27, so we are aiming to be back in the city the weekend before then. We are making our way north, stopping at our favourite places on the way. For the next few days we will be in Mount Maunganui, doing some tramping, and relaxing before returning to the working world.