Papakura to Wellington
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We left our hotel around 9, with the strong smell of marijuana in the air. We couldn’t quite figure out where it was coming from but it was quite strong. Someone was getting an early start.
The road southeast to Rotorua (roto rooter) was uninteresting for the first hour or so. Homes and suburbia on one side (the right) and light to heavy industry on the other (left). It was odd but consistent. The homes were always on the right. Maybe the city limits ended at the highway.
We reached the town of Hamilton, which was only interesting in the sense that it was a large town and the traffic caused us a significant delay. But the scenery started to pick up a bit afterwards. Somewhere along the way, and I don’t remember exactly where, we passed a town where the local sheet metal artist really had a lock on things. There were dozens of sheet metal sculptures, signs and buildings. Very colorful and of a certain style. It really looked like the work of a single artist. And he or she was obviously doing extremely well. Les got pictures of most of them.
We reached Lake Rotorua and left the highway to go up north around it instead of south. This was so we could visit one of the thermal spots in the area. The Rotorua area is (or was) very volcanic. The lake was formed by eruptions and there are a variety of “thermal areas” around. We were headed for Hell’s Gate, which was supposed to be the best according to the guide book.
It turns out the area was privately owned and there was a $16.00 fee to enter. But no matter, we went in. And it was pretty cool. Well, hot actually. Bubbling pools of water and mud. Sulfur lakes and formations and a mud volcano. But no geysers, much to our dismay. We had been to Yellowstone on the previous big trip and it wasn’t on that level, but still pretty interesting.
It was also interesting from the perspective that the Maori tribes used to come there and use it for various purposes. For example, there’s a waterfall (the biggest ‘hot’ waterfall in the southern hemisphere) where they used to come to wash up after battles, both to get clean and also to help heal wounds. They used to cook in one of the pools. They’d put food into containers and drop it in and half an hour later it would be cooked.
Throughout the walk there were signs warning you to stay on the path. Some of them quite humorous. They obviously have had some trouble on this score because the signs are roughly every 9 feet. Stay on the path, stay on the path, danger, stay on the path, warning. My favorite was the one that started “We are not kidding…”. They had Les convinced for awhile, but after the 15th or so sign, he was really itching to go off the path. By the end, even I was. But we were good.
We stopped in the gift store where Les made a couple of significant purchases. Won’t give them away here (sorry Sharon).
We headed south along the lake, past another thermal area. They wanted $20 for that one so we didn’t go in. But we did see a geyser erupting through the fence and got a picture.
We then continued further south towards Taupo. We passed a sign for the Aratiatia rapids and in the process of trying to turn around to take the turn, we ended up at a small glass factory run by “renowned artist” Lynden Over. He was in residence working on a piece. He had some nice stuff and Les got some pictures (he asked). Without giving too much away (sorry Marion), I will say a box is coming, but we should beat it home. Hopefully it will contain one piece of glass and not many.
We headed back to the rapids. They were just below a dam and churned through a series of gaps through a stone gorge. There was a bridge in front of the dam at the top of the rapids and a short walk to an overlook farther down. The water was “tropical blue” and made quite a show as it cascaded down. As we walked back up, we discovered an interesting thing. The rapids are only “on” at certain times of the day. The other times, the sluice gates on the dam are closed! We just happened to be there for the half an hour they were open for the rest of the day, and in fact, the sluices closed a few minutes after we got back. The water level dropped and the rapids basically stopped. It was the weirdest thing. Instant rapids, show times at 11, 2 and 4.
We got to Taupo shortly after, which, like Rotorua, is also on a volcanically created lake. A really beautiful spot, with mountains off in the distance behind it. Taupo seemed to be really hopping. A major tourist spot I guess. We didn’t have time to linger though. Still a long way from Wellington.
South past the lake we headed into the mountains we had seen. And for a brief stretch the road got pretty twisty turny and the hills got forested, but shortly after that, we came out the other side and onto the Desert Road. We hadn’t seen anything remotely resembling a desert in NZ so far but sure enough, the trees disappeared and the scrub grass appeared and we were in the desert. It was high desert, like eastern Oregon. I guess the weather comes from the north and the mountains cause the rain to drop before it gets there. There was a military base there, with warning signs to stay on the road since military exercises could be happening at any time (reminiscent of Hell’s Gate).
The desert didn’t last too long either and as we came up on the other side, the scenery evolved back into the green hills we’d been used to along with some taller sandstone or limestone hills. The sheep population was increasing dramatically. In fact, up north we’d probably seen more cows than sheep, but not since south of Auckland. Sheep city. And it’s clear that they’ve cut down all the trees on these hills to make grazing land. Not replanted clear-cut like home. Cut down, stumps removed, grass planted, sheep inserted. It must have looked pretty different a couple of hundred years ago.
And speaking of animals, that’s the other interesting thing we’ve noticed. There just aren’t any animals around besides sheep and cows. There are no warning signs to watch for anything, and very little on the road. There’s some sort of small furry thing that keeps getting hit by cars but we haven’t seen one that’s recognizable yet. And we’ve seen a lot of hawks, eating the unidentified furry things. But nothing like Australia where we saw lots of animals, and lots more signs warning about animals. Just not that kind of place. And everything isn’t trying to kill you either. No snakes. No poisonous jelly fish, the plants in general are not pointy and razor sharp. Much more civilized that way.
We continued passing through towns with unpronounceable names and the clincher was Waiouru. I envisioned New Zealand Wheel of Fortune. The puzzle board looks like W—-r- and the bell rings meaning only vowels left. Pat Sajak says ready to solve it?
By now it was dark and we had another couple of hundred kilometers to Wellington. We had planned it this way, in the sense that we knew we’d have to drive a few hours in the dark in order to enjoy the thermal areas and such. Not much to report about the drive to Wellington except that it was uneventful. We came in to town on what appeared to be a back road but I guess is the major inlet into the city. Had some difficulty finding a place to stay but ended up at the Portland Hotel which seems appropriate.
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