Category: Travel Advice

48. Lane Cove – Motukawanui (CC3)

Thursday, March 28: A short burst of rain as a wake up call, overcast for a lot of the day with a bit of sun returning in the afternoon

Kayaking: 25.2 km

Motukawanui Hut (Doc, $15)

It was very dark this morning as we awoke and the rain burst sounded very hard indeed. Breakfast was porridge with muesli and sultanas, followed by fruit salad. I made avail of the French press coffee, which was reasonable. Today everything had to be packed up, as we were departing the hut on a longer stretch along the coast to the Cavalli Islands.

As usual, everything packed much better this time, and I volunteered to sweep, which was accepted. Also everything fit into the boat better, but that was possibly also due to the provisions being exhausted. We took leave of the pigs and set out on our very direct route, all except Ana who was going to reprovision and move the van to rejoin us later. Read more…

45. Paihia: Lookout Track

Monday, March 25: Sunny and quite warm

Tramping: 6.5 km

Jarrad’s

Was up bright and early, well before the others and had my breakfast (finally finished off the hiking crackers). After that travel planning was on the agenda. Managed to get a response from the Cell Block in Whangarei and had to decide between a simple room for $45 and the deluxe version for $60. Decided on the latter and sent off my credit card details via SMS. Still have no confirmation, but we’ll take that as it comes.

Still no news from ATHop so I called them and fifteen minutes later the account was set up and I could see the balance down to the cent. Had to use the uni-hannover.de email account to get an email through at all, and even then stuff went into the trash folder. Read more…

44. Paihia

Sunday, March 24: sunny to begin with, then overcast with some rain withe the sun returning somewhat in the afternoon

Jarrad’s

I was up early enough to see the French couple leave while I was having my breakfast of two yoghurts and half of what remained of the tramping crackers with the margarine. Put some Nescafe in a cup and added half a teaspoon of something else which I then realised was ground coffee. Very French mixture ensued and with that underway Jarrad made an appearance. His mate Jake who had fallen asleep in front of the telly late last night had woken about 1:00 and gone home (owner of The Mousetrap backpackers).

Tried to see if the internet had solved any problems and engaged in a longer discussion of Australian and New Zealand politics with Lorraine from Dunedin who is the only other guest at the moment. Decided I needed some bread, sausage, lemonade and fruit for lunch, so took off to the far Countdown in the hope that the selection was better, sussed out a fish’n’chip shop for tonight and examined the shopping mall in town in greater detail. Read more…

43. Rotorua – Paihia

Saturday, March 23: Cloudy in the morning, a lot of places in fog, clearing somewhat during the day, showers in the evening

Jarrad’s (airbnb, $72.6)

A day for an early start. I had managed to get to bed before 10:00 last night, and was awake @ 5:30 for the alarm. Had the remains of the orange juice, a cup of coffee, then what was left of the milk. Everything packed up OK and I was ready to go by 6:30. Was down at the bus an hour before it left and realised I could have taken one of the city buses down, since they started early enough. Next time set the alarm for 6:00. Read more…

42. Rotorua: Rainbow Springs

Friday, March 22: Cloudy the whole day, although quite variable, a drop or two of rain in the afternoon

Funky Green Voyager (room behind Nick)

Again it was a matter of inserting my breakfast (variation: Chicken herb loaf instead of ham) between the various other guests this morning, and I was packed and had the suitcase and pack in the office well before 10:00

Today I decided I would have a look at the gondolas that go up the hill (Skyline) and also try the kiwi park not far from that, Rainbow Springs. Caught a bus into town and got a transfer ticket for the #1 bus that actually goes out to the place. Bit of a wait in town, and the bus was quite full, but I was soon on the outskirts and on my way to the attractions. Read more…

39. Taupo – Rotorua

Tuesday, March 19: Cloudy in the morning, becoming sunny & warm

Funky Green Voyager, 4 Union St, various single rooms, $50

Was up just before the alarm, and Donna was already gone, although Steve seemed to still be around, and moved his car in the driveway. I had the usual breakfast, washed the dishes, decided I had enough time for a shave, and then the rest of the stuff was thrown into the suitcase.

Ready to go @ 9:30, passed one bus driver moving today’s bus to its departure position. Long wait for the buses, and there were three in total, one to Auckland, one to Wellington, and our small one to Rotorua. In the end the bus was full, and the bus driver was about fifteen minutes behind schedule. Anyway the trip was not particularly long, and we were soon in Rotorua and the long trek back down the main road could begin. Was greeted here by Essex and shown my first room (Astrid). Read more…

38. Taupo: Acacia Bay

Monday, March 18: Overcast to begin with, becoming fine, hot & sunny with some active looking cumulus clouds

Cycling: 17.8 km

Donna’s

Today was a day for planning the rest of the trip and trying to get the rest of the planning to set. After a shower and a breakfast of cornflakes & muesli, toast with the last of the tramping butter, OJ, and coffee, I set to work to try to confirm the reservation in Rotorua, and then to see how to get from there to the Far North.

Flights were still available for around $300 – slightly above that if you wanted only an hour’s wait in Auckland, slightly below if a four hour wait was OK. Considering it was the very last minute (and the Saturday was cheaper than the surrounding days) I wonder what it would have cost if I had tried a week ago – as I should have. In any case a 6:45 departure would have meant getting up @ 5:00, and I still would have needed transport to Paihia from Bay of Islands airport, so at this point in time the bus was the last acceptable solution in terms of price v. duration @ $84 – start is @ 7:45, arrival is 17:15. This is @ the limit of decidability. Read more…

29. New Plymouth: Coastal Walkway

Saturday, March 9: Sunny but a little cool to being with

Hiking: 16.8 km

Paul’s

Breakfast was very laid back. My Japanese co-inhabitant, Taro, was off surfing very early and returned as I was finishing some toast.

After that some shopping had to be done (fruit, something to put on some sandwiches, and some lemonade), then a visit to the i-site revealed two shuttles that would take me up and (hopefully) back down the mountain. Taranaki Mountain Shuttle, whose website I had seen yesterday and which is an absolute disaster is unfortunately the one I had to choose. I say unfortunately because communication is not their forte, and the other company (Mountain Shuttle/Cruise NZ tours) also has a later option for the journey up. In the course of the day I managed to arrange with the the gent from TMS via facebook that I will be picked up @ 7:00 from the nearest street corner and will still have to try to determine when I might be back. Read more…

28. Whanganui – New Plymouth

Friday, March 8: Rain on and off throughout the day

Paul’s (airbnb, $37.6)

Made the acquaintance of Sid & Angela at breakfast this morning, and a discussion of criticality followed – he was an (Indian) epidemiologist in public health, and I never found out what she did, except that she plays the piano rather well, and the upright in the lounge room was in tune. They escaped rather quickly after that and I was left on my own with Marina & Brennagh.

Surprise, surprise was that Dempsey’s had refunded me the full $108 I was asking for. There is a real issue of getting email through to them, though, as mine was already labelled as spam. I deleted my remark on their facebook page and will leave it at that for a while. Read more…

27. Whanganui: Virginia Lake

Thursday, March 7: Warm and sunny with a couple of clouds

Walking: 10.2 km

Dave’s/Brennagh’s

The photos were on the line this morning, what with trying to get the computer to accept the SD card (Microsoft, what do you do for a living?) and copying them first to the folder “Backup” on the local hard disk and then, somewhat organised to folders on the external drive. This should all be better organised & rationalised. Timelapse sequences could be recognised and taken to different locations, the remaining DNG/JPG pairs automatically renumbered. Shouldn’t be that hard to do (!?!).

In the meantime with the outside tap localised, boots and pack could be washed out (although there was no hose that would have connected to the tap) and left hung up on the clothesline in an attempt to dry. Read more…

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