On the road with Sputnik

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At 9.30 Saturday-morning we were picked up by a girl from Spaceships and she drove us to their office. We went through all the details with the car and after quite a while we went from there. First of all we went food-shopping and after that we started to drive towards Coromandel Peninsula.
We got out of Auckland with no problem and it felt exciting to finally be on the way. 🙂
The weather wasn’t very nice, raining and cold, but at least we sat inside a car.
We drove on the Pacific Coastal Road which is just at the water most of the way.
We camped by the road just at the water between Tapu and Coromandel, made some food and then watched a DVD. Not bad. 🙂
Woke up early and continued driving. It was raining, windy most of the day, but then got to see a few nice views when the sun came out.

The next day we drove on to Katikati (saw more excellent views but still bad weather) and stopped at a old Dairy-factory that is a restaurant now. We parked in the back and made dinner and watched DVD. Yes, it’s was already a tradition even after just two days. 🙂

On Monday it was the same type of weather so we continued driving. We had already booked the ferry to the south island, so we only had 4 more days to get to Wellington. We decided to go to Matamata, to go on the Hobbiton tour (movie-set from Lord of the Rings). We drove to the information-center and bought the ticket and at 12 we went with a bus out to the place 20 minutes outside of Matamata. It was located on private land owned by the Alexander-family. Peter Jackson and his crew found it when flying over large areas to find the perfect place for Hobbiton. It had the lake and the tree that they looked for.

In the contract it said that everything had to be brought back to how it was before the filming, but the weather put a stop to that. When there was 17 Hobbit-houses left they couldn’t go on tearing them down and the Alexander-family got some questions from people that wanted to have a look. The family asked New Line Cinema if they could keep the houses and so they could. It’s the only movie-set still in NZ from the movie. Sam’s house was the last one to be torn down…

The party-tree was there with a red ribbon in it still from the movie. We saw the party-field and A-M and I even did a little dance, but only after A-M did a solo-dance. 🙂
We had a great guide showing us around Hobbiton and we stayed there over an hour. He told us many stories about the filming and where the different scenes-locations were. We went up to Bag End, Bilbo and Frodo’s house and got some nice pictures.
Even though it rained and hailed, I enjoyed the tour a lot. 🙂

When we came back to Matamata we decided to drive on to Rotorua. We got to the information-center at 4 and bought tickets for a Maori-evening. The place is called Mitai and it started with us choosing a Chief for our 13 Nation-tribe. The Chief then had to meet the Maori-chief and receive a peace-offer from him. After that they had songs, dancing, warriors showing us the weapons and so on. It was great fun.
After this we had a very nice dinner that they had cooked in the ground with hot stones (360 degrees). It was lamb, chicken, sweet-potato, salads amongst other things. Yumm!

We got fresh spring water to drink at dinner and after we had eaten we went to see the pond. We saw some glow-worms on the way as well.
When going back with the bus, the bus-driver was in a good mood and he drove about 8 times around the round-about singing, ”We’ll be going round the mountain”. That was hilarious. 🙂

Coming back to our Sputnik we went down to the lake (Lake Rotorua) to sleep. The next day we had breakfast outside the car, since it was a beautiful day. After breakfast we went Zorbing (www.zorb.com). 🙂
We thought it would go very fast so we had been a bit anxious, but when we saw it it looked very calm but fun. A-M went first, I took photos and then it was my turn. It was only the wet Zorb that was running that day and that means that they pour a bit of warm water in the Zorb, you slide in through a hole in the rubber-ball and then you wait for them to give you the signal to start moving the ball. After a few steps I sat down and enjoyed the ride. It was a zig-zag road down the hill and it was so much fun. The ball is not see-through but every now and then I saw the sky in the hole I went in through. Other than that I could hardly tell what was up and down. 🙂
Definitely worth the money (45$).

After the Zorb we dried up and then we met another Spaceship-car, Buzz. It was a couple from Wales and we had a talk and changed DVD’s with each other. They where heading north so we gave them a few tips and they had been south so we got a few tips from them as well. 🙂
We had some lunch and then we drove to Hell’s Gate (http://www.hellsgate.co.nz/) which is an active thermal reserve. It has also the largest hot waterfall in the southern hemisphere.
It looked like no mans-land and smelled a lot of sulphur. We saw steaming boiling waters, mud-volcano, boiling mud-pools amongst other things. It was like nothing I ever seen. Quite cool. 🙂
Bought some jewelry there made of the Paua-shell ( http://www.reijewellery.co.nz/what_is_paua.htm ).

After some food-shopping we went for a well-deserved visit at the Polynesian Spa (we got a ticket for free when booknng the Maori-evening).
They had one big pool (38 degrees) and then one 39, 41 and 42 degrees. The 39 degree one was perfect so we spent most time there.
There was a lot of people there and all of a sudden my towel was missing. Shit happens, but I got to borrow one from the place for free so that was ok. I do wonder what country my towel is going to travel to though. 🙂

After the spa we went to the same place as the night before to stay they night but the city-parking chased us away. We drove off outside Rotorua and stood just at the road. Worked fine. 🙂

Wednesday-morning we drove to the lake again to have breakfast. After some time on the Internet, burning photo-Cd’s, we drive towards Taupo. Taupo is a town just at Lake Taupo (http://www.laketauponz.com/). The lake is a big crater filled with water and I believe it’s the largest freshwater lake in NZ. Behind it was the mountains Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom in LOTR) and Mt Ruapehu with snow on top of them which made a great view together.

We decided to drive on to Turangi, close to Whakapapa Village so A-M could ski the day after. We parked behind a gas-station in Turangi and ate, watched a movie and slept there.
Early Thursday-morning we went up and drove to Whakapapa Village. It was some snow up there which we haven’t seen since Sweden in March, so that was kinda fun. 🙂
We drove to a place so A-M could rent ski-equipment ( I have never gone down a hill on ski’s and breaking a leg on this trip is a bad idea, so I skipped this activity :p) and then she went with the bus up to the mountain.
I had a lazy day in the car, watching a movie, reading, and sleeping a bit. A-M came back at 15.30 and she had had a great day. It wasn’t as nice weather as the day before though, but still fun.
Since the ferry to the south island was leaving the next morning, we started to drive to Wellington that afternoon. We arrived at 9 and found a place in the industrial area, close to the ferries, where we could park. It’s a hard life we’re living. 🙂

We slept until 6.30 and then we drove to the ferry. It was no problem checking in the car that early so we did. It was a big ferry and 192 cars was supposed to get on it. The sun was shining so we went up to the sun-deck. Got a nice view of Wellington, but didn’t get to visit it this time. We are coming back later so we will have time to have a look.

Now we are on the South Island and I will continue in the next diary. 🙂
Hugs to you all!