Saturday/Sunday, January 3rd/4th 2015
This morning we left our resort at 6:30 am to head to the airport. Fortunately this time the taxi cab was only $20 instead of $35. Checking in for our flight and the flight itself was again very easy. And, we lucked out again with our extra luggage only costing $45 this time. We were served brunch on our flight which was again tasty; a green bean and carrot omelet, hashbrown, ham, bacon, fruit cocktail, croissant and super creamy yogurt. Our flight arrived at the scheduled time of 1:00 pm. After spending one hour getting cleared through customs and getting the keys to our red Ford Focus, our ride for the next few days we were on the road…in the left lane to be exact.
Bryan started out driving and it was a little shaky at first but then we got used to it pretty quick. We headed south from the airport, completely bypassing downtown Auckland, going 100km/hr on Highway 1. We drove about one hour before hitting Hamilton, New Zealand’s 4th largest city. Our first stop was the supermarket where we wanted to go ahead and stock up with food for backpacking and snacks for hikes and driving. We stocked up on all the necessities: pasta, rice, lentils, pizza makings, sauce packets, oatmeal, cereal, dry milk, trail mix, summer sausage and bananas. Once fully loaded we hit highway 3 headed towards Waitamo to find our bed and breakfast for the night.
Off Highway 31, 10km off the main drag we found the Rangimarie Bush Retreat where we had booked the one and only accommodation for the entirety of our stay in New Zealand. We were greeted by our host Rowena and her dog Maggie! The room we had booked was accidentally doublebooked so we were upgraded to her even nicer room attached to the house. She only has two rooms for rent on the property and the one we ended up staying in was so beautiful. We had our own private bath with a shower and a large tub, a queen bed, armoire, buffet with tea cookies, delicious coffee, tea and sugar and our own private deck to overlook her beautiful property.
Our private deck overlooking the green.
Bryan relaxing after the flight and first drive.
Rowena has some beautiful gardens. There is a creek running through the land, very forested surroundings and an outdoor bath. We were invited to dinner on her patio with her two friends, dairy farmers, and her cousin. We showered and made ourself tea on the deck, took a walk around the grounds, and waited until dinner was ready.
Around 7:30pm we were called to dinner. She offered us some NZ wine and beer in which I tried the Hawkes Bay Pinot Gris and Bryan tried some Waikato beer. Dinner was super impressive and were both mighty hungry. She had a spread of grilled pork chops, stuffed chicken breasts, salad with avocado, beetroot, carrot, walnut and raisin salad, boiled potatoes, and orzo salad. I couldn’t resist serving myself 2nds on pretty much everything and we were also having great conversation with the locals. We were feeling very good already and then she brought dessert of cut strawberries the size of my head and super sweet with fresh whipped cream. Also, all the vegetables at dinner came from her garden.
After dinner we sat off for our outdoor bath soak. In the middle of the woods we soaked in our bathing suits, taking in all of the nature sounds and stars. Our sleep that night was one of the best I’ve had with the sliding door open to listen to the rush of the creek.
Monday, January 5th 2015
After such an excellent dinner and sleep at the Rangimarie Bush Retreat we woke up feeling refreshed and happy. We made coffee with the French press in our room and Rowena brought our breakfast out to have on our private deck. We leisurely ate our muesli with milk, more of those fresh strawberries and blueberries, and homemade huge croissants with delicious homemade jam. It was so simple but satisfying, especially those croissants. At 10am we had to say our goodbyes to head to Waitamo for the glow work caves.
Oh that breakfast and look at those croissants!
We had signed up for the 11:15am Blackwater Labyrinth tour. Right at the scheduled time our group of 12 was gathered, provided a full wetsuit, boots and helmets to change into and then piled into a van to be taken to the cave entrances. For about two hours we made our way down and into the caves, jumping, wading, and floating. At one point we jumped backwards off of a waterfall and onto our tubes and then formed a train of tubes, floating with our headlamps turned off, looking up at the magnificent display of glowworms. It looked like a starry night. At one point on the tour we were told that we were over 200’ below the surface, the same as a 20 story building. Our tour came to an end seeing the bright light and we hopped on the bus back to base to take hot showers, and they provided us with hot tomato soup and bagels to toast.
We looked something like this but in the dark.
The glowworms looked something like this.
Once warm and dry it was my turn to drive and we set off for Lake Taupo and Tongariro National Park in the middle of the North Island. We stopped for our first Tip Top ice cream and had to try their favorite Hokey Pokey (toffee) flavor, and liked it. It took us about 2.5 hours along the windy roads in the beautiful hill country to first reach Lake Taupo and then find a “Holiday Park”, the first of many, to camp for the night. We had a spacious site where we got to use our new tent for the first time, my sleeping bag and pad, and also had access to the park’s kitchen, bathrooms and showers. Fortunately, we had picked up items with intentions of doing foil dinners but with the available grill we made grilled steak and onions, asparagus and kumara (their sweet potato). The dinner was so delicious and enjoyed on the picnic tables under the remaining sunlight. After making hot cocoa we were set for bed around 10:30pm.
Tip Top pitstop.
Our car and the North Island…Tongariro in the background.
Lake Taupo here.
More.. https://emeraldevolution.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/new-zealand-part-1/
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