Taupo to Waipawa

North of Taupo, I had booked a river cruise the next morning to check out Huka Falls.  The guide who owned/ran the boat gave us all sorts of information about the local flora and fauna as we cruised up the Waikoto river to the base of the falls.  Not quite the magnitude of Niagra Falls, but still very impressive nonetheless.

A nesting black swan. Non-indigenous to New Zealand and a prolific pest, there is a hunting season for them here. 

Huka Falls.

We made it back just in time to see the opening of the dam on the Waikoto river.  They open the floodgates for about 15 minutes every 2 hours during the day so people can see how the Aratiatia Rapids would normally flow if it weren't for the dam. There is an impressive amount of water that flows through these pools and rapids.  Also, for those film buffs, it is also a location that they filmed at for the barrel scenes in the hobbit movie. They floated specially painted barrels down the rapids as it would be too dangerous to send any human, or hobbit, through.

Aratiatia Rapids

I continued north and stopped next at Rotorua.  Being incredibly tourist-y with everyone trying to sell you any "adventure", and having a large amount of people, and smelling of egg-fart (sulphur gas from the geothermal activity in the area), I didn't hang around long. I continued on the road to a nice quiet caravan park right on the ocean, just outside Opotiki.  Spent the rest of the day cooking up a feed, and finishing my book while sitting on the beach watching the sun go down and the locals fishing on the beach. Living the life.

Watching the sun set just outside of Opotiki.

The next day I continued up along the coast around the north-eastern edge of New Zealand.  The area once thrived with many ports where ships loaded up with meat from the area destined for overseas, but now is a quiet area, with only a few small settlements.  The road pushed through to Gisbourne made trucking the product to a major port easier and less expensive.  Apparently the economy is looking good with vast tracks of forestry land reaching maturity and lots of harvesting happening.  I followed this winding, twisting, hairpin-cornered road all the way around to Tolaga Bay, where just outside of town I found my way to Len and Theresa Vanbeelen's place.  For those who don't know, Len used to live in Smithers, but that was some 15 years ago.  The weekend there was mostly spent helping Len load up firewood and deliver it into Gisbourne, or being entertained by their high-energy 2 year-old, Nathan.  I made some minor modifications to the van, allowing me to now leave the bed set up full time and still have floor space to stand.  On the Monday I did the nearby hike into Cooks Cove where Captain Cook anchored in October of 1769.  In the same valley is also whats known as "Hole-in-the-Wall", which is quite literally that, a giant hole in the wall of the valley.  I also checked out the incredibly long wharf in Tolaga Bay, which had been restored in previous years, as it had become quite rundown when the majority of shipping moved to Gisbourne.

"Hole-in-the-Wall". Don't let the picture fool you, that "hole" is about 20-30 feet tall inside!

Cooks Cove.

Tolaga Bay wharf.

Prying myself away from Theresa's amazing cooking, and away from Len's threats to make me a full time employee, I continued south out of Gisbourne to the small Waipatiki Beach. Its a small beach, in a small valley, at the end of a long, winding road through some amazing country. This morning I made my way down the Napier, New Zealands "art-deco" capital.  In the early 30's there was an earthquake that destroyed much of the brick buildings that existed in Napier.  Looking for a cheap building alternative, and keeping with the architecture popular at this time, many of the buildings were rebuilt in this "art-deco" design, making it a tourist attraction for many people.  I checked out the National Aquarium of New Zealand, chock full of fish from around the world (but I didn't see any from Canada!).  I also toured through their shopping district, streets lined with lots of little shops selling anything you wanted. The only thing I did pick up was some more reading material, a book about hunting in New Zealand in times past, when meat hunters and deer cullers were common.

South of Napier it began raining steadily, so I found a nice little place in Waipawa where I can stay for the night and where I write to you now from.

As its raining, and I have little desire to be out in the rain, I will share with you some things I've noticed about New Zealand:
1. You will get sun burnt. Like 10 minute burn time kind of sun burnt.  A person is best off buying the best sunscreen you can find, and applying it early in the day, quite liberally, and limit your exposure to the sun.  Apparently the ozone layer over New Zealand is quite thin, making over-exposure to this vitamin D quite common.
2. Speed limits. I swear the guy who posted them laughed as he hung the signs! You have to be darn near suicidal or have an incredibly well handling vehicle to be able to reach and maintain the speed limits posted! Oh and if the sign says slow down to 25 kmh for the corner coming up, its in yours and everyones best interest to do so.  They don't joke about those! Its not uncommon for a stretch of major highway to have a couple of hairpin 25kmh corners in it.
3. You will never be able to pronounce the names of places, streets, towns etc here. Even some locals can't.  Many of the names come from the Maori (indigenous) people of New Zealand and therefore have unpronounceable names. For example, sometimes a "wh" makes an "f" sound, and sometimes it doesn't. And there is no rhyme of reason as to when and why!
4.If its living, it will grow in New Zealand. Like a weed. Due to its isolation and lack of predators, the local flora and fauna is very slow growing and susceptible to pressure from other animals.  Native species suffer, introduced species thrive.  

I think that is all I have to say for now, hope everyone is well!
~Korey.