The Lost World

Friday, February 04, 2005
Otorohanga, North Island, New Zealand
This week has featured everything from culture to nature; so a bumper blog! Although some of the Napier Art Deco is rather buried under modern trappings, we did find the picture postcard stuff which includes a splendidly restored theatre and the newspaper building. Good blaggers day out too; free tea and coffee at the Art Deco centre, free sausages as part of a 'back to work' initiative (of which more later) and free aerobatic displays as the NZ air force ('yes, that's all of them' said a cynical Kiwi) were in training above Napier, with spectacular loops, barrel rolls and slightly ragged formations.

Next day we took a scenic if tiring 16km walk to see the world's largest mainland Gannet colony. The large if evil-smelling birds spend November to February raising fluffy and very hungry chicsk, all crammed in beak-by-fowl on a clifftop at Cape Kidnappers with a million dollar sea view. Take offs and landings in the crowded colony are entertaining, although they are organised enough to a leave space for a runway at the side. Once fledged the birds take off for Oz, with the survivors of this marathon flight returning to raise fluffballs of their own.

Worn out by the walk back (dawdling is unwise as the route is tidal) we moved on to the Te Urewera National Park. This oasis of lakes and forests in the middle of the north island is sparsely settled, and accessed only by a lengthy, narrow, twisting gravel road. We did some walking and got to admire some colossal native trees, set in forests full of treeferns where you expect dinosaurs to appear at any moment. This is a very quiet corner of NZ with a strong Maori heritage and some definite undercurrents.Plans to head further east were thwarted by a forecast of a week of heavy rain, so we diverted north and west. This meant another 100km of gravel road - and additional fun at roadworks where we found the road blocked by a 30 foot pile of rubble, topped by a bulldozer. After a pause they indicated that the heap was ready to be driven over; but after the saloon in front of us had rolled back down the slope they had another go at lowering it. This time the 4WDs in the queue got through, but it was too much for the Bluesmobile which simply skidded on the loose rock. The road crew looked for a tow rope, couldn't find one and so lowered the heap again and ran their jeep over it a few times to create solid routes for our narrow wheels. We jettisoned the quick release ballast (i.e. me!) and with a slither of tyres and a triumphant roar, Andy persuaded the Silver Machine up the slope and down the other side. cheers and applause all round.

After a night in sulphurous Rotorua we're now in the 'King Country' where we've admired some splendid caves and had the privilege of stroking a kea in the Otorohanga bird park. It's steamy hot here so we're taking it easy before the final push to Auckland.

People have been asking us what kind of jobs we have that allow us to take all this time off; so perhaps we had better go back to work. We're delighted to be able to tell you that we have jobs as sailing instructors with Neilson holidays, and all being well we're off to the beautiful west coast of Croatia in early April. We have some visa things to sort to make this happen but hopefully it will all come together - check out neilson.com and maybe you'll come and join us!
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