The North Island

#wagonlife

By Heather & Pravin

#wagonlife

Our first introduction to the North Island was a very rainy 3-hour ferry ride from Picton on the South Island to Wellington on the North Island. Our first impression of the North Island was less than stellar - the weather was lousy, our car had started making some weird noises, and the campgrounds we happened to pick seemed to always have an eclectic collection of residents, with people seemingly between housing or partying in old motorhomes that likely didn't run. We even had to call the cops while cooking breakfast in a park one morning after two local guys got into an altercation and one of them started yelling at us to call for help. Fortunately, things only went up from here and a sunny day in the wine village of Martinborough was the turning point - a little bit of good weather can do wonders!

It was certainly an adjustment moving out of our spacious flat in Nelson to hitting the road in a packed wagon. We had planned to sleep in the wagon the majority of the time, but we found it quite cramped since our faces were only inches from the ceiling while sleeping! This meant that we set up our tent when we could, which gave us quite a bit more headroom, and also more fresh air. When it was very rainy, we usually opted to sleep in the wagon rather than setting up the tent, but that often made for quite a humid and uncomfortable sleep.

Castlepoint

We'd worked at a fruit tree nursery on the South Island with a girl who had spent lots of time exploring the North, and she gave us a great recommendation to go to Castlepoint. It's a surf beach on a desolate stretch of the east coast, but the scenery is dominated by a towering rock feature that is continually eroded away by the pounding surf.

Live Stream!

The funniest part of the day was finding a webcam near the lighthouse with directions on how to view the feed on YouTube. Conveniently, it wasn't too late at night back home, so we messaged our families with the link and they could see us in real time on the conservation department's site.

From Castlepoint, we had a long day of driving with a side detour to the Manawatu Gorge. There used to be a highway running through the gorge, but the land was very unstable and continuous rockfall and slips meant that the road was always being closed for maintenance. Eventually, after some massive slips, they decided they couldn't keep spending money clearing the area and closed the road permanently. You can still do some hikes in the area, so after driving around the long way to get to the trailhead, we spent the afternoon exploring the unique fauna of the area.

Sunrise Hut

Next on our list for that day was a hike up to Sunrise Hut overlooking Hawke's Bay. I had misjudged the hiking distance to the hut on a map, and although it wasn't far, we had thought it was only a couple kilometres when it actually turned out to be a couple of hours. We got to the hut just as it was starting to get dark, and the sunset views were beautiful. We had been hiking in thick, misty clouds as we wound our way up the mountain, but the hut was well on top of the clouds.

Of course, with a name like "Sunrise Hut", you can bet that we were up early for sunrise the next morning! The hut itself was beautiful and cozy, with warm wood paneling and lots of windows and cozy nooks. We could see almost to the coast, which is where we would be heading that afternoon, to visit my old roommate from Mexico, Addy, and her partner, Rob.

Once the sun was fully up and the blazing colours had faded away, we cooked up breakfast, packed up our backpacks, and hustled down the hill back towards the car. We still had to cover almost 100km before we would arrive at Addy's, and much of it was on winding back roads that ran through giant cattle stations.

Car Troubles

The drive towards Hastings was uneventful...until it wasn't. Exactly 4km outside of the town, our Outback began to shudder and shake violently and we lost acceleration. We pulled over and popped the hood, and we could see the whole engine hammering around inside. We shut off the engine and gave it some time, but the same thing happened again. We feared that we would do some serious damage if we kept trying to drive, so we called AA and waited around for a mechanic to arrive - seriously thankful that this hadn't happened back at the trailhead, where we had no cell reception and were miles and miles from any services or houses! The AA mechanic took a quick look at the car, but recommended that we have it towed. He couldn't guarantee that the tow truck driver would have room for both of us, so I touched base with Addy and even though she was almost 9 months pregnant, she very kindly offered to come pick us up if we couldn't get into town with the tow truck driver. Fortunately, the friendly driver that finally showed up did have space for us, and we caught a ride with him to a bodyshop in Hastings. The guys at the bodyshop looked at the car, but couldn't figure out the issue. We decided to leave it with them overnight, and Addy drove into town to pick us up and take us to their house which was in the wine hills outside of town. We were able to have a great catch up with Addy and Rob and enjoy some wine from the cellar that Rob manages, but we were definitely stressing about our vehicle. We had only paid $2200NZD for the Outback in the first place, so we certainly weren't going to put much money towards fixing it, knowing that we would be selling it in a couple months' time.

Lake Taupo

The next day, the bodyshop called us back and confirmed that they had no idea what the issue was and couldn't replicate it. We hoped for the best and spent the day checking out Hastings' surroundings, including a beautiful walk to the top of Te Mata park. We had another great evening of catching up with Addy and Rob, and then headed out the following morning towards Lake Taupo. On the way, we decided that we would hike the 4-day Tongariro Northern Circuit the next day, and booked campsites in Tongariro National Park.

To reach Lake Taupo from Hawke's Bay, you have to drive over a mountain pass. Our Outback started having troubles as we neared the top, and then lost quite a bit of power as we started descending. Despite being on a highway, we couldn't go over 80 km/h, so cars were constantly passing us. We were hoping to be able to make it to Lake Taupo where there were a couple of garages, but the shaking got worse and worse as we got closer and closer to town.

We had Google Maps open and were navigating towards the first garage in town, and as we turned the final corner, we could see the garage about 100m away...and then the wagon's engine died for good. We definitely uttered a few choice words, and then got out to walk to the garage to see if anyone could come take a look. Unfortunately they were too busy to be able to leave the garage or even look at the car that afternoon, so we started calling around to the other garages in town. Everyone was swamped and couldn't look at the vehicle for a few days - except for the Subaru dealership. They told us to have the wagon towed over and promised to look at it that same afternoon. We didn't have to wait long for the tow truck to come, and we were doubly thankful that we had bothered to get AA - this was our second free tow in 3 days!

The Subaru employees were super kind and understood that we were in a bit of a bind. Since it was the day before we were due to start our hike in the national park, we would lose our campsite fees if we didn't show, and shuttle prices from Lake Taupo to the trailhead were absolutely exorbitant. We made some postings in backpacker and ride share Facebook groups to see if we could hitch a ride to the national park, but we weren't getting any bites. It was baking hot and we both had splitting headaches due to the stress of figuring that we might have to scrap our car, and we were fully expecting to have to leave the vehicle at the garage and set up our tent somewhere to figure out what our next steps would be, knowing that it's pretty darn difficult to travel New Zealand without a vehicle. We hadn't heard anything from the mechanics, and it was approaching 5:15PM, and the garage closed at 5:30PM. I went up to the desk to see if they had any updates, just as the lead mechanic came in from the back.

We steeled ourselves for the worst, but to our complete shock, he had diagnosed the problem, sourced a used part from another garage in town, installed the part and fixed the issue for us! It was incredibly nice of him to clear off his packed schedule to accommodate our vehicle, and even though it cost us close to $500 for the repairs, we felt very fortunate that it was able to be fixed. We beelined it for the grocery store to stock up for the hike, and first things first, I left a glowing Google review for the Subaru garage while Pravin was driving. We drove down the length of Lake Taupo as the sun was setting and got to a free campsite in the woods just in time to down some cold beers before it was dark.

Tongariro National Park

Bright and early the next morning, confident in our newly-fixed Subaru, we hit the road towards Tongariro National Park, where we would spend 4 days hiking the Tongariro Northern Circuit. The park is very well-known and incredibly popular with tourists and Kiwis alike, although most people come just to do a day hike known as the Tongariro Crossing. You get to see spectacular scenery and expansive views of steaming lakes and conical volcanoes all around, but you're forced to share the views with thousands of people each day. We opted to do the circuit, which did also pass through the Crossing, but we were able to get through it before most of the crowds. Although you can stay in huts throughout the circuit, we decided to save money and camp outside the huts, but it was nice to be able to use their cooking and seating facilities during a couple of particularly chilly nights.

The first hut that we camped at was warm and sunny, and everyone gathered on the deck in the evening in preparation for the hut warden's nightly orientation talk. You could get cell reception in a couple of strategic spots around the hut, and we started to notice people having strong reactions to their phones. The hut warden was able to communicate over his radio, and his face was grey and sombre as he took in the awful news that was slowly spreading from person to person on the deck. The sickening news of the Christchurch mosque shootings was just breaking, and we all felt hollow and horrible, grasping at how something that evil could happen in New Zealand. Everyone was hoping that the figures the news was reporting were exaggerated, but it would turn out that they only got worse as more investigation was done. Nothing in New Zealand shocked us as much as that terrible event, but what we weren't surprised by was the heartfelt reactions displayed by New Zealanders. One of the strangest but nice things that was reported was that biker gangs were congregating outside mosques around the country to offer protection, and were visibly armed in the event that there were any further acts of terrorism against Muslims in New Zealand.

The scenery on the Tongariro Northern Circuit was stunning and raw, but it was also really neat to learn about some of the more recent history and use of the area. We were able to step inside the historic Waihohonu Hut, which was built around 1903 and used as a stopover for stagecoaches touring through the area. There were a lot of cool artifacts and tools inside, and graffiti spanning the last ~120 years could be found etched in all of the wooden surfaces.

The Forgotten World Highway to Whangamomona

Finishing the Tongariro Northern Circuit in the early afternoon, our next destination was the coastal area of New Plymouth. There are a couple of different routes to take, so we chose the most interesting-sounding one - the Forgotten World Highway. Tempting fate yet again with our newly-repaired car, we said goodbye to the last stretch of services and cell reception for 150km and turned off onto the Forgotten World Highway. It's an old route that is hardly used anymore, with stunning greenery encroaching the narrow gravel road from all sides, a tiny tunnel carved out by pickaxes, and a small village centred around a colourful pub. The village of Whangamomona declared itself a republic years ago in an effort to avoid state politics, and has variously had both a goat and a dog as its "president".

Lake Rotokare

Just as the sun was setting, we finished driving the length of the Forgotten World Highway and made it to the other side. We aimed for Lake Rotokare, which is a predator-free native bird sanctuary that you can actually camp at. We were told about it by a woman that we met at Sunrise Hut, and we knew we had to go. She told us that we would have a very good chance of seeing kiwibirds, and she wasn't wrong! We set up our tent in the most idyllic lakeside spot, and once it was dark, we went for a walk on the trail that meandered through the bush around the lake. We could hear many creatures rustling in the bushes, but we hadn't heard the distinctive kiwi call just yet. All of a sudden something ran across the trail in front of us, and we stopped cold. We had our headlamps set to red light so as not to disturb any wildlife, and we scanned the bushes around us until we realized that just a couple of feet away, there was a super soft-looking kiwi bird huddled under a bush trying to hide from us! We couldn't believe how close it was...and also how vulnerable the poor thing was. No wonder they are often killed by rodents - its only defence was to cower and hide! It's extremely rare to see a kiwi bird in the wild and we were overjoyed that we had the great fortune to see one so close. As we were walking back to our tent, we were lucky enough to see two more kiwi birds! One was small and quite young, and the other one was larger and at more of a distance. We were giddy and excitement and told everyone else back at the campsite, but none of them had been able to spot any of the cuddly-looking birds.

New Plymouth & Mount Taranaki

From Lake Rotokare, we drove to New Plymouth, where we had plans to stay a couple of nights with a lovely Kiwi-Aussie couple that we had met on the trail over Christmas holidays in Nelson Lakes National Park. We had gotten to chatting during a snack break and bonded over the fact that they had spent time living in Vancouver, and now Paula and Johnny were based in New Plymouth and had offered us their spare room if we found ourselves in the area. We took them up on their gracious offer, and ended up having a really nice evening with dinner on the patio and delicious home-brewed beer - it felt like we were catching up with old friends!

They told us that we had to climb up Mount Taranaki, and that there was a rare favourable weather window the following morning. After lots of beer I was less than enthused about an early morning hike, but agreed that we had to take advantage of the forecasted sun. We were SO glad that we did! The hike up the 2518m volcano was quite the slog, with incredibly steep scree slopes where it felt like you would take one step up and slide two steps backwards each time. Once we made it to the top, we realized that we really had lucked out with the weather - there was almost no wind and we spent nearly 2 hours hanging out at the summit and enjoying the view, which is apparently unheard of! Mount Taranaki is an almost-perfect cone-shaped volcano, and it's so tall that we had been able to see it on a couple of occasions all the way from the South Island.

After another lovely evening back at Paula and Johnny's, we made plans to hit the road the following morning and start heading in the general direction of the Bay of Plenty, where kiwifruit season was just starting to ramp up and where we decided that we would pick up a couple of weeks of work in the packhouses.