AND BACK TO AUCKLAND
After a small detour (H – OK so normally this map reading lark is a sinch, we all make mistakes sometimes) we were on the right track and heading to Auckland with hilly views galore. The main difference with this road trip, to the ones over the last couple of weeks, was the amount of cars on the road. In the space of the few hours we travelled we saw more than triple the amount of cars we had seen our whole time thus far in New Zealand; the roads were jammed – of course – everyone was getting out of the city for the Easter weekend, we just couldn’t believe how many cars there were.
And a couple of odd signs too…
We eventually got to Auckland after dark and had a drive round to look for a parking spot but couldn’t find any and it was all a bit too noisy and a little chav for us (this city life lark that is). I’m sure the city is very beautiful and the views of the tower and city as we were driving across the bridge were great but we just decided it wasn’t for us. Instead of hanging around for the night we decided to carry on up north stopping for a quick bite to eat before going up towards Leigh and Goat Island. It got to about 10pm and we saw a sign for Warkworth, a town not too far from Leigh, so we decided it was time to set down for the night and maybe pop to a local bar for a quick one before calling it a night.
BACK TO LEIGH
Not as easy as it sounds!!! the whole town seemed to be closed, it was dead, not a bar in sight, hoping Leigh might be different we headed there and another 20km up the road couldn’t find anywhere to park. 1 hour later we eventually found somewhere to stop and sleep by the coast and hit the hay. We have found it so much more difficult to park in the north island, the south island had loads of free options available just off the roads but here it seems almost impossible to find them and Apollo Travel were about as helpful as a glass hammer!
BACK TO WARKWORTH
Anyway, in the morning we headed back to Warkworth to go to the information office and work out what we were going to do for our last few days on the north island (which included Dylans Birthday the next day!). After some super noodles (our breakfast of choice at the moment) by a very pretty river we headed to the information place, spending hours there working out a plan. Eventually we decided deep sea fishing was in order for Dylans birthday, it was something he had been dying to do and never got the chance in Oz so it was an obvious choice.
DEEP SEA FISHING
After looking around (calling a few places only to hear that they’d been full for a while given it was a bank holiday!) we stumbled along a chap who had 2 places left on his boat for the morning, great we thought, we’ll go and check out Goat Island (planning to snorkel on Sunday) and then head towards the harbour. Of course we had problems finding a phone and couldn’t call from where we were (and it was another 300km north) so we decided to plod on to Goat Island and just call later.
So after checking out Goat Island which looked perfect (if not a little chilly and covered in Japanese) for snorkelling we headed along the road up North towards the harbour. After about 90 minutes up the road we remembered we had to confirm our place with the fishing guy so we found an info office on the way who kindly called the fisherman for us. Quelle Sorprisa as we find out that the last couple of places had been taken just a few moments before!!
The woman new it was Dylans birthday (Dylan: sticking to my age old habit of ensuring anyone within hearing distance is fully aware!) so then began calling every fishing agent within a 200km radius to see if anything was available, unfortunately after 30 minutes of ringing around, due to the Easter weekend, nothing could be found.
AND BACK TO LEIGH
She suggested to go back to Leigh and walk along the docks (the boats should be getting back around 5pm) and see if any last minute thing was available for the morning. Not to be beaten we drove another 90 minutes, ended up back where we had started and after a walk up and down the docks we realised we would have to change our plans for the morning.
MATIKANA
To make things worse, as we headed for somewhere to camp up, because it was Good Friday all the wineries were closed so no cheeky wine tastings, and the bottle shops too; oh no, we have no beer for the night!!!! We ended up stopping in a little village called Matikana and although the bottle shops were closed a couple of the bars were still open. Hurray we thought, we found a place to camp up which was private and near the river and decided to make ourselves some pasta and then head up to the bar.
Dylan headed up to the bar at the top of the hill whilst I started our tea.Then our little gas canister ran out – no food for us then and fortunately Dylan had been quicker than I expected and was walking back towards the campervan. After Dylan had informed me that he couldn’t get served alcohol without eating I was happy to tell him about the gas canister and we decided to go straight to the bar (our lack of gas ended up working out quite well in the end).
We sat in the Tui Tavern enjoying a few beers with Pizzas (H – I was in a rush to get to the loo when we got there so quickly blurted out my order before rushing off and instead of the salami pizza I thought I’d ordered I was confronted with a salmon and avocado pizza instead – not quite what I had planned – or would have ever ordered – but tasty all the same). The night carried on slowly but surely and Dylan decided that this was the evening we were going to celebrate his birthday (a day early mind!) so we ended up a little drunk. A group of young lads were also in the bar that evening, we ended up talking to them and they were mainly from Auckland and had decided to come up north to do a bit of drinking and fishing and were sleeping near by our campervan in their cars. We ended up spending the evening chatting to these guys (who ended up being the New Zealand equivalent to Chavs/Hoons wheel spinning the night away), exchanging a few drunken text messages with people back home before stumbling back to the campervan.
AND THE BIRTHDAY DAY
In the “morning”, 2pm, when we got up all was not well. A water and a large coffee were required ASAP (Dylan: Oddly enough I felt a little tired but not so ‘hung-over’ as I would have expected – RESULT!) (H: I think this was the worst hang over I have ever had!).
Dylan opened his birthday cards (Dylan: Which he was very grateful indeed to receive) and we headed back into the village for a quick coffee and then food as required. We ended up in Matakana Tavern for some fish, chips and lager (H – although Dylan enjoyed his first birthday drink I didn’t have the stomach to follow him).
After some food I kindly offered to drive and we headed off to find some wineries and, unlike our last attempt, found that they were all open (Dylan: maybe a little birthday luck on my side eventually!).
BIRTHDAY WINERIES
We managed 3 wineries in total, all specialising in red wines of course (Dylan: This was my birthday treat – having the worlds most hung over lady drive me to establishments of my choosing!) and Dylan was treated to a couple of bottles of the finest reds for his birthday (Dylan: Which incidentally Helen has subsequently helped to polish off). We then headed back to Matakana Tavern after parking the van as we had booked into the cinema to watch Slum Dog Millionaire later on that evening and had some time to spare.
I was obviously starting to feel better as I decided to celebrate Dylans birthday with mini bottles of bubble while we sat in the garden; eventually I was ready for the hair of the dog, and it worked! A few boys were playing hide and seek in the garden and although we were maybe a little too old to partake in the game ourselves we did help a couple of them hide from time to time (H – Dylan was dying to ask them to play and I think if he had had another couple of beers he may have well have got up the courage).
A MEAL OF A BIRTHDAY MEAL
We just had enough time to get something to eat before it was time for the flick, so we decided a last birthday treat was allowed and we went to Tapino’s Bar and Bistro, a very nice restaurant with a pianist in the corner. Although a little under-dressed (Dylan: I felt fine having showered a few days ago?) (H – I hadn’t showered for a few days, hair ‘manky’, smelly jeans and a t-shirt and no make up, I wouldn’t dream of coming to a place like this looking like this at home!!!) we decided to give it a go. The staff were very friendly and we explained that we had to be out in about 40 minutes so could we get the mushrooms in cream starter with the mains, “no problem” they said, so we sat back, enjoyed a nice wine in massive glasses and waited for our food.
First to come was the mushroom starter, OK so it didn’t all come together but they knew we hadn’t much time so we tucked into the extremely tasty mushrooms and waited for our mains. 30 minutes later and just as the doors were opening for the film, after being promised twice that his steak was on the grill and would only be a few minutes we still hadn’t received mains and Dylan was starting to get agitated.
I sent him upstairs to the cinema to plonk our jackets on two good seats. Dylan returned not-too-upset as the cinema room was tiny and more like a living room with only about 20 seats, the front seats however were the best, they were like big arm chairs I was assured and they even leant back for total relaxation. Dylan had bagged these chairs before he ran back to the restaurant to enjoy his meal.
The agitation returned soon after he’d described the cinema realising the food still wasn’t there, another discussion with the staff and after another promise we decided we just didn’t have time – we were missing the film and would rather get up there now than rush a fine and expensive meal. Dylan told the waitress and after a little shuffling they realised he wasn’t going to budge so we just paid up (Dylan: not even a free drink or a cent of for the bad timing and poor service – and given she was in ear-shot she knew it was my birthday!) and headed to the cinema.
AT THE CINEMA
We grabbed a glass of wine from the wine bar to take in with us and just as we got to the door an old man shouted us “excuse me, are you the ones with the army jacket?”, “yes” Dylan replied, “well you may find when you get in there the jackets have been moved, it’s 10 minutes into the film and people were complaining about the best seats being hogged”.
Dylan:
Well after not getting my steak I was ready for a good ruckuss and if someone had taken my seats there was going to be trouble – the old fella did look a little perturbed when I told him, in all sincerity, the same! So, as he lead us in, and with Helen insisting I calm down the old chap pronounced (over the top of the film!) “this is the couple with the army jacket” to which the crowd replied with a big groan, I didn’t care however as the jackets were still in their rightful place so we dived on the chairs and settled for the film. The film was really good, we would definitely recommend it, it doesn’t glam India up and is an eye-opener to what can happen over there.
Well after a good day it only seemed fitting that we finish the day with a couple of drinks at the Tui bar and after a few we called it a night and went back to the camper. A good day was had by the birthday boy (and myself in the end too!) even if we didn’t get to eat very much!!
GOAT ISLAND
In the morning, as we hadn’t had much to eat the previous evening we treated ourselves to a nice brekkie, poached eggs for Dylan and eggs benedict for me, very tasty indeed. It was then off to Goat Island to try out a bit of snorkelling. We got there and decided before hiring our wet suites we would go on the boat trip they have, the boat has a glass bottom and takes about 45 minutes to go around the island showing you the sea life below. It was a really good tour with a very enthusiastic and informative chap on the mic. We saw a lot of huge red snapper, plenty of goat fish, massive sea urchins and much more, and also backed up into one of the caves on the island.
After the trip we wandered around the rocks, spotting yet more sea life just off the coast and then we grabbed our snorkel stuff, deciding wet suits weren’t required. Dylan headed into the water first only to come rushing back squealing like a girl. He had a cold sore and the mask was rubbing and very painful so he couldn’t snorkel, for some reason the idiot found this out after jumping into the freezing water (Dylan: admittedly the squealing may also have been contributed to by the afore-mentioned freezing water)!! Snorkelling was off 😦
BACK TO AUCKLAND (isn’t this a previous title already?!?!)
After a walk we decided to head back to Auckland for the evening and treat ourselves to a camp-site, a few hours to get there and then a while trying to find the site, although in my defence there were a load of roadworks and the site was just off the diversion (Dylan: Methinks thou does protest too much)! The site not only had warm showers but also a real oven which was great as we had a couple of potatoes that needed baking and eating up! So with the red wine we’d bought on Dylans birthday and our jacket potatoes prepared we sat and watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the TV room before calling it a night.
The next morning we were all prepared, a breakfast of beans on toast and then we were packed and ready in plenty of time (after what had happened on the south island we were determined not to be late for any flights). We washed the campervan (although we did note at the previous place no-one else seems to bother) and then we had a little panic when we realised we didn’t have the map Apollo had given us with directions to their office (Dylan: If you recall the tight gits wouldn’t drop us a satnav without 15 cleggies!) but found it in the nick of time.
Once they realised we were returning the campervan a few days early they were over the moon as they had double booked a hippie camper – so if we hadn’t brought it back early they would have been in trouble; of course we were given no thanks or discount for it though (Dylan: not even a refund of the sodding insurance cover that was unnecessary for the following few days)!!!
AND GOODBYE NEW ZEALAND
It was then off to the airport where we spent our last few New Zealand Dollars on a little bottle of fizz and a beer and then off on the 11 hour flight to Santiago. This was very long, neither of us slept and the LAN air stewardess seemed to have it in for me. Our body clocks were completely messed up by the time we got to Santiago as we left at 5.30pm on the 13th April and after our 11 hour flight arrived at 12 in the afternoon on the 13th April, 5 hours before our leaving time!?!?!
NEXT… Meeting Charlie in Santiago!
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