We meandered down towards Wellington, overnighting at Lake Taupo on the way. Wellington was very wet and windy – no surprises there. We spent a couple of days exploring the city – museums, art galleries and anywhere that looked warm and dry, before catching the Interislander ferry across to the South Island.
No it wasn’t me, I thought it was you! Our first view of Rotorua was the cloud banks wafting over the city. There was steam coming out of ground in the town park and even out of the gutters and all accompanied with pungent odours.
Our accommodation was quite close to the Redwood Forest which was amazing during the day but was elevated to a whole other level at night. The lighting at night was fantastic!
On our drive around Rotorua lake we stopped at Okere falls where we did a walk along the river. We watched some white water rafters finishing their trip down the river. They looked liked they’d had a ball.
After leaving Rotorua we stopped at Wai-O-Tapu thermal park In time to see the Lady Knox Geyser before walking through the park.
As a longtime fan of the Tolkien books since primary school, a stop at Hobbiton was a must for me (sorry Paul). We spent our first night at Hamilton and did Hobbiton the next morning. There were absolutely no queues and I think there was only one other tour that morning. One of the staff told us that they had laid off about 300 employees since COVID. The tour was really well done and included a drink at the Green Dragon inn.
The Green Dragon Inn from across the pond 
Having a drink at the Green Dragon 
Given the increasing winter-ish-ness of the weather and the advent of COVID level one, we decided that now would be a perfect time to tour NZ by road. We put Mari in a berth in the marina, bought a cheap car and did a mini tour (2 nights) up to Cape Reinga (the very top of NZ) and back. This was a test run for us and the car. After fitting 4 new tyres, the car was no longer so cheap but we decided it was now good enough for our purposes. Time will tell!
The trip up north was spectacular with diverse countryside and friendly locals. Towering mountains, giant sand dunes, long white beaches, rocky coastline, grazing sheep and cattle all crammed together.
Sunset on the western side of NZ 
A friendly local called Tank 
Run away……. 
Giant sand dunes 
Cape Reinga lighthouse 
Cape Reinga
April and May have been a bit of a blur, or as Paul describes it – like Groundhog Day. Our days revolve around checking the weather forecasts, sailing or motoring to the next spot if we need to move or empty the tanks or make water, fishing, hiking and maintaining the boat.
The weather is getting progressively colder and greyer and we are waging battle with increasing damp from condensation inside. There just aren’t enough sunny days to dry things out properly any more. The islands are still very beautiful though, even in the mist and rain.
During this time we have gone from very strict level 4 lockdown to level 3 (which wasn’t much different for us) and we are now in level 2 which means that we can start to travel further afield. We had planned to sail further down the coast to Auckland but have now decided that it would be better to do this another time when the weather is warmer. There is a project that we want to carry out that requires us to be in a marina berth so that is where we are now and Mari will probably stay here for the next 4 months or so. After the boat jobs are done the aim is to do some land based travel.
The new viewing platform at the top of Roberton Island 
One of the new signposts on the walk up Roberton Island 
First night of level 2 – we ate out at a restaurant! “The Gables” at Russell 
The tunnel on the cycle track from Opua (the track was converted from an old railway track) 
The place we walked to on the Cape Brett track. 
View from the hut on the Cape Brett track 
