Arriving in New Zealand, The Polar Bear, Cathedral Cove & Hot Springs Beach

We touched down into Auckland on Monday, ahead of picking up our home for the next 5 weeks Today. Again the flight with Fiji airways was flawless. We again got the emergency exit seats so had far too much legroom for our short statures. At Auckland airport Amelia of course insisted upon following the rules to a tee and stated on the visa form we’d been hiking in Canada, which led to a rather long wait in a queue for a 5 second inspection of our hiking trainers to which their only comment was ‘they’re sandy’. Which apparently there is no issue with. I did use the time wisely to book us into a hostel with a 20 minute walk to the camper depot for a simple journey on Tuesday morning though, so not completely wasted. The journey into Auckland central was easy on the skybus, with a bus driver that actually talked to us via a tannoy, a nice personal touch.

The Queens Street Hostel, where we stayed, was fine. Cleanish, tidyish, with a musty smell in the room and not particularly noisy, despite some lateish ukulele playing by our considerate roommates. Earplugs were definitely required though. But we got a free breakfast and was both super central and a short walk to the camper depot. So ideal really. It also sold $3 beers, which is basically £1.60, so pretty good for a city centre location. We had a New York Pizza for dinner (obviously, when you’re in Auckland everyone does this right?), which definitely hit the spot. 

Today we picked up the camper. Very fortunately it’s an automatic (thank god for that) and we have polar bears in an icy, arctic scene graffitied all around the outside. Although when it rolled up to the office I thought they were mice, which would have been truly excellent (they do have many mice like features to them, perhaps more of a polar bear/mouse hybrid, a scary thought). The service at Escape Campers in Auckland was great, she actually took us through everything about the camper and answered our (many) questions, something which was slightly lacking in Cruise Canada’s checkin procedure. I think they cater for slightly more experienced RV’ers at CC, rather than us novices. It also turns out we paid for excess waiver insurance when we booked the campers, something we’d decided we weren’t going to do just before picking up the camper this morning. Past us were much more cautious and less stingy than we are now I feel. 

Anyway, we successfully got the camper (Herein named The Polar Express until we think up of a better name) and set off towards Coromandel, a nice 2 hour drive away. Contrary to Canadian petrol stations, it seems here there are valets that basically do everything for you, even washing the windscreen, which again was delightful service (or maybe we were just mugged off with super expensive fuel, I really couldn’t tell you). Also contrary to Canada are the roads, they’re tight, windy, just like mountainous Welsh roads, which in this campervan is fine, in Kevin it would be treacherous at best, pretty stupid at worst, especially with me driving. 

Cathedral Cove is a beautiful little hike down to a number of bays and ending in a stretch of beach underneath a large cliff with an open cave going through it. Really quite impressive. A nice introduction to New Zealand. The Hot Springs Beach turned out to be quite weird really. It basically looks like child Alfred’s perfect day at the beach. People dig large holes which, presumably heated by volcanic action, fill up with very hot water. One man was tasked by his partner to run to the sea and back to offset the scolding hot with bracingly cold sea water, which looked like a fun task (not). 

We had planned (stretching the word ‘planned’ there, more like briefly discussed) to stay at Opoutere this evening but time had run on (I missed out our shopping trip, a success, shops here are better than Canada, they actually have fruit and veg), so we’re staying at the campsite next to the Hot Spring Beach and purchased a membership with them to get discounts on their sites (many) effectively paying for itself after 10 nights (we have 36 so going to get our moneys worth). It’s basically a campsite with a comprehensive kitchen, eating area, washrooms and tv lounge (where we’re sitting at this moment). So very good facilities, Amelia is very keen on these, as am I. Tomorrow is Hobbiton, I. Cannot. Wait.