On our way to Kaikoura we drove into Christchurch and started putting the wheels in motion for the sale of our wonderful van ‘Po’. Dave had designed some really cool posters ad we decided to print them onto yellow paper so that they would stand out…sneaky!

Most of the hostels are located around the CBD which is now completely closed off from the public since the February 2011 earthquake. It’s a disaster zone and as it was over New Year it was eerily quiet. Still we managed to find the hostels and could see many backpackers were still staying in Christchurch, although we weren’t met with much enthusiasm from the staff members who wished us good luck in the sale of the van. Posters went up in around 8 hostels including The Old Countryhouse, The Jailhouse, Kiwi Backpackers, Vagabonds and a few more we can’t remember. Along with the posters we had an advert on Gumtree and on the Backpackersboard.co.nz.

After a long day we stopped over at Brighton South Holiday Park on the coast, and during the night we had our first taste of the Christchurch aftershocks that have been taking place all year. Helen thought someone was shaking the van! Before we went to bed though we had a few calls from people interested in viewing the van and we booked them in for the next day.

The following morning we washed and cleaned Po as much as we could with a bucket and sponge and a dustpan and brush. We worked hard. At midday we met our prospective buyers, the first couple didn’t seem too over-thrown by Po and her magic, we think they were after something more modern. Their honest offer at $3400 though was way below our ideal and so we moved onto our next appointment. It was only down the road at The Old Countryhouse and we were met by 3 Swiss travellers looking for a van that would fit all 3 of them. We could tell straight away that they were keen on the van and it was perfect for them as it still has the first row of passenger seats in the back. After a test-drive and a little bit of bargaining we agreed on a sale price of $4050. Result! Having bought the van for $3800 we were making some profit.

We were holding onto the van until after the weekend so that we could get our trip up to Kaikoura in and decided that the following week we would take advantage of the cheap accommodation on offer at the holiday park and booked into a cabin for the final week of our stay in New Zealand. The owners offered us 10% discount from $48 a night, if we stayed for a week, this worked out to be far cheaper than staying in any hostels in town and the transport links are good from that area.

To see what we did for New Year visit the Kaikoura post.

To date in NZ this was turning out to be the most activity fuelled week we were experiencing. Paid for activities that is! We got up early so we wouldn’t be in with the tourist crowds too soon in the day. The Wai-O-Tapu park is south of Rotorua on the road to Taupo, we camped not too far away at one of the DOC campgrounds at Rerewhakaaitu Recreation Reserve which meant we were on the right side of town and only a 20 minute drive away from the park. Gates open at 8.30 and we were there not long after for some thermal action! We got a map on the way in and walked around the largest loop in the park (red) which took us just under an hour. The first loop is really enticing to start with; hot pools, sulphur smoking from the depths below, craters and mud pools and then we arrived at The Champagne Pool. This is amazing; a huge bubbling pool with a surface temperature of around 74 degrees Celsius. On top the water appeared to be pink and the edges orange with wind blowing the steam around the pool so much so it looked like a whirlwind. We were impressed!!

We would come back to the orange and yellow loops later on but we had a prior appointment with a Geyser located a few minutes drive from the main entrance to the park. We drove along with the now gathering tourists so we could experience the blowing Lady Knox Geyser at 10.15am. We sat in an auditorium style set up whilst more and more people starting taking their seats. We weren’t really sure how it would work but it did say that for the front rows we’d expect some spray…we were at the front! But we wanted to get some good photos! After a while and waiting to see if the Geyser would blow a ranger came along and started chatting to us about the history of the Geyser with some funny stories about prisoners working in the area finding it and building stones around the flute in order to make the Geyser blow higher.

Since then the stones are now a part of the Geyser as it is now moulded by the gases and liquids produced. He did artificially induce the Geyser with some crystal antiseptic blocks and poured it down the shoot and left the Geyser to do it’s thing. We waited for a few minutes and then it started to bubble before finally shooting water high in the air around 10m or so. It kept going and going and after about 10 minutes we left but it is reported that the Geyser can blow for up to an hour.

Following on from the excitement of the Geyser we went back to the main park and toured around the other two loops. Not as impressive as the first but there is a lot to take in and different formations along the way. There are also lot’s of eggy smells but that’s all part and parcel of being in a volcanic park. After a good few hours we left and were satisfied with our experience. It cost $32.50 each and we felt it was well worth it. A mini Yellowstone of sorts and a geeky learning experience too!

Moving on from Rotorua we continued our drive southwards to Taupo with the intention of heading to Tongoriro so that we could stay in preparation for the Tongoriro Alpine Crossing. It was quite a long drive and we didn’t stop in Taupo mainly because we were planning to come back after the hike. The drive in total was around 3 hours to Whakapapa Village where the DOC information centre is located. When we got there the very helpful staff informed us there was no way we would be hiking the Alpine Crossing the next day or the day after. In fact Sunday looked to be the best day and she suggested we head to Napier to find some sunshine as it wasn’t going to happen here! Oh no!! We re-thought our plans and decided to drive back to Taupo for the night and then head to Napier the next day before driving back to Tongoriro on Sunday along a different route. Sounds like we had a plan! So back to Taupo it was and we stayed at the YHA as they take in vans for $16 per night. It’s a nice hostel and it always suits us to have a kitchen and showers so we parked up, cooked and walked around a quiet Thursday night in Taupo.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We left fairly early and started on our drive to to top of North Island. We had to make a few stops along the way, it’s always recommended; fuel, food and water! At Katai we found all 3 and there was even a Pak’n'Save! It’s not exactly Aldi but it is cheaper than any other super-markets around and they stock pretty much everything you need for your home – or in our instance the van!

It was a further 3 hours drive north to Cape Reinga but we didn’t go to the top, instead we went to the DOC campsite at Tapotupoto Bay. It’s off the main road and pretty much gravel all 8km’s to the bottom, always take it slow with Po! When we got to the campground it was very windy and a little wet, but it wouldn’t be Cape Reinga without blustery winds, it is after all at the top of New Zealand and there isn’t much up there to shelter you! We found a spot on the campground that was a little baron but we did have some shelter from a  tree at least. As the evening came more and more people turned up to camp. We hiked from the campground heading towards Spirits Bay, but only managed a 2 hour return hike, mainly as it was getting late and the hills were so steep!

Back down at the campsite we sat in our van and listened to the wind around us, it was a pretty quiet evening. We’re grateful to have the van to shelter in on nights like that.

The following morning we prepared for our hike to the Cape Reinga lighthouse which is predicted to be a 2.5 hour journey from Tapotupoto Bay. With pack lunches and after a cold shower (not as bad as it sounds!) we ventured up the steep hills again. It actually took us 1.45 to get there with 2 very steep sections and further steep downhill paths that we would be returning along. It’s a pleasant walk though with a dip down to Stony Bay before heading back up again. We did think about Nicky and Cooky quite a bit when we were hiking as this would have been the last part of their 5 month hike from South to North and wow was it a tough one to end on. Amazing to read their blog and to now be hiking the same paths.

The Cape Reinga lighthouse is in an area called Te Rerega-Wairua a Maouri spiritual area; a place where souls jump off for their journey to their spiritual homeland, no-one is allowed to go to that point but we looked out across to the pohukutawa tree and where the Tasman and Pacific Oceans meet. It’s a wild place with high sand-dunes behind us and arrows above pointing to distances across the world. With half an hour or so at the top followed by the gruelling hike back to the van we ended up taking just over 3 hours in total, so we were please with that and it also meant we had time to get back down the coast again.

Later on after the drive back down Northland we ended up at Raetea Forest DOC campground via a quick non-inspiring stop at the 90 mile beach! This particular campsite is one of their free basic grounds heading towards the Kauri coast. It’s actually a really nice spot in a forest area and we had a few neighbours to keep us company too. Food was a real camping affair; Dave had sausages, tinned spaghetti and mushrooms.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Getting into the routine of getting ourselves up and ready in a good time would take a while but we were both surprised at how well we slept in the van. It wasn’t bad at all! So we enjoyed our first breakfast on the road in NZ and before long we were packed and ready to be on the move. This was a breeze compared to camping with the little tent in America! We decided to pass by The Bay of Islands, mainly as we didn’t want to be where everyone goes, and from what we’ve read we’re going to be seeing a lot of this kind of landscape and ocean as we travel, plus we can always pass by on our way back down!

We ventured went a little further up the coast, passed more beautiful beaches and eventually landed at Matauri Bay. This bay is stunning, hardly anyone was there, the sand is white, the sea is crystal clear and all in all it was pretty idyllic. We walked along the beach and up to the Rainbow Monument on the top of the hill overlooking the bottom end of the bay. The monument is a tribute to Rainbow Warrior lying beneath the sea surface a few kilometres out of the bay. It was moved there after the ship was bombed whilst on an anti-nuclear weapons protest years ago, something worth reading about. We got chatting to a guy who was camping at the Matauri Bay campground resort, he said it was $14/person so we thought we’d enquire. It just felt right to stay there, the weather was fantastic, and the setting perfect so we booked in for the night.

Earlier on we’d spotted a few people digging in the shallow sea water for what appeared to be clams, they’re actually called pipi’s. So we thought we’d like to try and get some for our tea! The only problem was the tide was already on it’s way in and it appeared as though people had got their catch for the day. Dave managed to get one from underground and then we found a few more around the surface but after nearly an hour of searching we knocked it on the head and put them back into the sea. We will try again next time! The resort has laundry facilities, hot showers, and a shared kitchen so we took advantage of all of these and enjoyed a little spot of luxury. For sunset we walked up to the memorial again, sat and took it all in. We were in an amazing spot taking in the views of the bays around us, the moon was already on show.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We started the day with a trip to a Pak’n'Save, there is one located 10 minutes north of Newmarket, although we stumbled across it. We stocked up with canned goods and a few essentials for cooking, although we would be coming back sooner than anticipated! Then we were set to go, a full tank of fuel set us back $60 and we were on our way north.

We drove up to Whananaki Bay which in total took around 5 hours from leaving with stops for lunch and a few sights along the way. We got our first taste of New Zealands rolling hillsides and for Po it was a chance for us to get her up and down some hills, gravel tracks and highways. The landscape is lush all around with rich greens, tree-life and birds everywhere and we were surprised at how quiet the roads were.

Having picked up a DOC camp guide booked for both North and South Island we picked out a campsite for the night at Whananaki, it’s south of the Bay of Islands and in a remote spot around 30km towards the coast from SH1. When we arrived it was all pretty straight forward, there was a camp host (this we were used to from camping in America) and there were pit toilets (same) but it was much nicer than most of the campsites we’d experience in the USA.

The facilities were really clean, and seemed brand new with cold showers to fit, plus we were right on a bay front. The sand was white and the sea was really calm, we picked out our spot and were proud of our first day out on the road. This campsite cost $8 each with an additional $2 fee for rubbish disposal bags and recycling. We explored the area and watched people trying to fish, we’ve inherited some fishing gear with the van so we’re thinking this is something that would be good to pick up at some stage.

Our first camping meal was left over curry from the night before and we enjoyed a full moon with some long exposures to capture the light over the campsite.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Our Qantas trans-pacific flight was easy enough with over five hours of sleep to pass the time and the obligatory movie or two. We all know what airplane food can be like, but recently both of us have been fairly impressed with the offerings. However not this time! Dave’s fish dish was very dry and Helen was only given the option online of setting a Vegetarian Indian Meal which was below par, even including a chickpea curry breakfast! Whilst everyone else got cereal, muffin, egg omelette with mushrooms (and bacon) etc. After some bartering with the slightly unfriendly air hostesses, (who even said that maybe next time we should bring our own food for Helen! She only avoids red meat!) eventually we managed to get a spare continental breakfast! Victory!

Landing at 9am New Zealand time we headed for our pre-booked hostel Garden City Lodge using the fixed price shuttle service which cost $36 for both of us and our luggage. The hostel is located just outside the main part of the city in Parnell on a quiet side street. We checked into our small bunk bed twin room which was basic for $60 per night, but good enough with shared bathrooms, a mid-sized kitchen and good communal areas downstairs. We bought a quick sandwich at the Italian Bread Shop before heading into Auckland through the park to look for the Backpackers Car Market to see if there were any decent camper vans for sale as we didn’t want to rent like we did in America.

The Backpackers Car Market was shockingly bad, overpriced, poor quality and poor choice of vans and cars. We decided the most important thing was a new mobile as our American phone would more than likely cost too much to unblock. After some backwards and forwards between shops we found our new phone and SIM for NZ, let the van hunt continue. Stocking up on provisions at the Countdown supermarket we headed back to our lodgings to cook up some dinner, it had been a long day!

We spent most of our time in Auckland looking for a van to buy rather than sightseeing. We checked out the adverts on the hostel wall and gumtree (at this hostel you only get 100mg of free wi-fi, it’s $10 per 100mg after that) and we managed to find a couple of possible candidates to purchase in a much more reasonable price range than at the backpackers market, and made some appointments to view the next morning. We really wanted to get something ASAP so we could get on the road and start exploring as well as beat the peak season backpacker rush for vehicles. One possible candidate was situated just around the corner so we decided to view that evening as it looked promising.

After a short walk we arrived and started to give it the once over. The van looked in good condition with no rust in the arches, practically new tyres, relatively clean, converted with a double bed in the back and cooking space, recent repairs to radiator and a new battery. After meeting with Jodie and Sam, the current owners, who showed us around and answered our questions we went for a little test drive around the block, the Mitsubishi L300 Sportpac handled gracefully enough and we said we would sleep on it. Before we got back to the hostel we had decided we wanted her and contacted Jodie and Sam to say yes to the purchase. Prior to some garage tests… We just bought ourselves a camper van!

The following day we booked a garage appointment on Parnell Street to give the van the once over for any issues that we couldn’t figure out ourselves. For $85 worth of peace of mind its definitely worth it and there was only a minor issue that was fixed and we were good to go. We withdrew the money over the counter at a local bank rather than accessing lots of cash machines and then signed a couple of documents with Jodie and Sam, got the van registered in our name and within 30 minutes we were the legal owners of Po. A spot of 3rd party insurance through Travellers Car Insurance and we’re all set for our New Zealand adventure. Tomorrow we would head north in our new home for the next two months. Before the day was out we went to the Warehouse store in Newmarket and bought some additional gear for the van; toilet roll, and extra chair, pillows, sheets and a few other necessary items for our new home!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

We booked to do a 1 day course at the Chang Siam Elephant Training Mahout School based on a recommendation from one of our friends so we didn’t have too many hang ups about which one we were going to pick. You’ll soon find that in Chiang Mai there is a lot of choice for this type of excursion. We booked through Panda Tours based at 179 Thapae Rd but the school do have an office in Chiang Mai where  you can also book this trip. There were 6 of us on the trip with one tour leader and the elephant trainers who live at the farm who are either part of the family who own the elephants or hired to train them. This isn’t a case of training an elephant to perform tricks, it’s about communicating with them for the purpose of elephant and human being to be able to live and work alongside each other. There are no wild elephants left in the north of Thailand as they were all captured many years ago by native Thai’s who used the elephants for log moving and transportation. We have found out that one elephant costs 1,000,000 Thai Baht which is around £200,000 so they are worth a hell of a lot of money to their owners.

The elephants at this farm range in age between 1-40 years old with a mixture of 9 male and female elephants. We had heard some horror stories about the way elephants are treated in Thailand by their owners and many of these camps offer elephant riding, shows, performances and the like. What we wanted to do was to spend the day with the elephants, learning how to communicate with them through traditional Thai Mahout training, feed them, learn about the way they live in the north and then go on a bare back ride to the water hole where we could wash and bathe them. So this is what we did, whilst we were there we did see fellow tourists riding the elephants on wooden seats, which we’ve heard isn’t very good for the long term quality of life for the elephant, so we were a little disspointed to see this. However everything else lived up to our expectations and from the start we had a really good laugh too.

We learned about the history of these elephants, where they had come from and why the owners had come to have them in their family. We also learned that in order for the elephants and the locals to live peacefully the elephants needed to be kept in farms and in contained areas as otherwise they eat everything they come across which over the years has led to crops being destroyed and elephant poachers getting what they want.

We learned the commands of going forwards, backwards, left, right and the all important stop which in western voice is completely different from the way the Thai’s pronounce it so we think the elephants went along with their trainers commands over ours! We fed them a good amount of bananas as they need to eat around 300 or so pounds of food per day. We went on an hour walk with the elephants and Dave and I shared ours swapping part way through to direct the elephant through the forest. We had some encounters with bushes, dung and steep inclines but it was really good fun along the way. We finished the trek at the water pool where the elephants got straight in and we washed and bathed them aswell as carrying on with a water fight that the trainers started. This was probably the most rewarding part of the day and we got to try out our new underwater Sony DSC-TX5 camera which we hope is going to provide us with another creative element to our blogs in the future.

We paid 1800 Baht each for the day and this included lunch and transport which took about an hour from Chiang Mai heading north. This was the price for sharing an elephant and it cost 2500 Baht to have one to yourself for the day. We were happy to share though. It was a pretty satisfying day, and if you do have any hang ups about going to one of the elephant camps from Chiang Mai it’s worth looking into what they do on their one day itinerary. There are some companies who only have elephants that have been rescued from poachers or farms where they have been mistreated and The Elephant Nature Park is one of these with good reviews.

(Sony DSC-TX5 waterproof camera, processed in Lightroom 3)

We were picked up at 8.30am or so from our guesthouse and much to our delight there were an extra 4 people booked on the trip and so we received $10 refund each off the original trip price. We were able to take our main bags and leave them at the Tourist Office securely whilst we would b out on the trip, after dropping them off we went on our way to the first stage of the trek.

There were 8 of us in total and we were a good mix of people with 2 cheeky tour guides carrying our food from place to place. We took a Song Thaw for about an hour towards the national park and stopped at a wooden bridge, this presented us with a problem; we couldn’t go any further in the vehicle over the bridge with all the food and people packed inside of it, so we off loaded, carried the food and walked to the village around 1km away. When we got there Mii was waiting with a scooter and took the food from us in preparation for the lunch-time spot.

After a short introduction to the village and our guides we walked for around an hour and a half and landed at our first cave of the tour. It wasn’t so big in size but was good enough to explore with head torches. Onwards from there we continued to walk through forest and farmland and ended at the lunch time spot which was at another cave, here there was also a lagoon going into the cave and so everyone stripped off and went for a swim. Helen wasn’t feeling up to getting into the water and was still surviving off re-hydration drinks. The lunch was served on a long picnic bench and we fought off the flies whilst eating barbecued fish, chicken, sticky rice and vegetables, it was okay but the flies didn’t help! We stopped at this spot for over and hour and then continued to walk to another cave. This cave was very impressive, for 15 minutes we all sat or snoozed letting the lunch settle in the peacefulness of the cave. Dave went off to explore a little and photographed the rest of us snoozing away. The tour-guides then led us through one part of the cave guided by torch-lights and out into another much larger section of the cave. There was water and a sand-bank that led towards a large exit point. At one side of the cave there are steps leading up to a Buddah shrine and fantastic views across the cave to the other-side where we snoozed. We were told that once a year there is a festival that happens in this cave and around 3000 people go there to celebrate for 3 days, as always in Laos style, we could only imagine what this would be like.

After leaving the cave we walked another 5 km to a Stupa and then a further 1km to the village where we were staying that night. The village farmed tobacco and we were surprised at the presentation of the village homes in comparison to those we had seen and stayed at in Cambodia. There are around 90 people living in this village with mostly young children under the age of 11. When we asked where all the older children were the response was that in the dry season they go to the town or city to work and send the money back to their family, coming back in the wet season to farm. The children were good fun to photograph but we got the impression they’re used to westerners coming into their village as they showed off, grabbed at the cameras and were quite cheeky. Still it’s all good for the purpose of photographing.

Our accommodation comprised of an eco-style hut with great views from the village of the surrounding mountains and we enjoyed chatting on the balcony of the hut whilst the sun went down. The bed’s were made for us with mosquito nets and bed covers provided. We will say one thing though; always carry a sleeping bag liner or inner sheet as they don’t clean their bed linen very well and we noticed a few bugs crawling around!

We played Putong with the locals (boules) and managed to beat the French couple from our group, one of whom plays it every summer with his brother!! Not bad! The locals cooked us dinner and we all ate together along with them on the balcony of the guesthouse. Later that evening we participated in a traditional Laos Bacai ceremony, this involved the group sitting around a circular table with a candle and flower arrangement in the middle. For each person there was a portion of sticky rice and chocolate bar that we would accept as a gift.  The head of the village came to each of us one by one accompanied by his two deputy leaders, he prayed for us, spoke of good things to come and all of us were predicted we would ‘live long liiiife’. He placed a cotton bracelet on our wrist and the gift was in the pal of our hands. Following him his deputy’s did the same so we ended with 3 bracelets each and many many wishes of a long life!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)