The one with the chicken in a basket</strong>

4 March 2020 (day 92)

Today’s plan had been to go parasailing around the Bay of Islands. Sara found a company offering the highest parasail in New Zealand at 1300ft or higher above the boat, and we’d seen people doing it in the bay yesterday. Today, however, the weather is dreich (as we’d say in Scotland) and sheets of rain fall from the sky. We take a quick drive down to the bay and find it obscured by thick mist. The company is fine for us to cancel our booking.

With nothing else planned for Paihia or the Bay of Islands, and the weather hardly making it enticing to stay around, we set off earlier than planned on today’s drive. Our final destination is Thames on the Coromandel Peninsula, but before that Sara wants to make a stop in Kawakawa to see New Zealand’s most famous public restrooms. Yes, yes, you did read that right - we make a special trip to see a toilet block. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our life.

We arrive at the Hundertwasser toilets, Kawakawa’s biggest tourist attraction, mid morning. I’m not very sure what to say about them other than that they are arty! Outside colourful pillars lead facility users and tourists alike into the building where ceramic tiles cover the walls and floors in a sort of mosaic fashion. Windows are made of recycled glass bottles and bricks; small sculptures are integrated into the walls: it’s like no other public loos I’ve ever seen. And although aesthetically pleasing, I’m not sold on the slippy tile flooring - one wrong step and you’d be flat on your back. It’s luck more than skill that has us both leaving unscathed!

We pick up an iced latte each and head back to the car for the journey south, once again taking us through Auckland and over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. A few hours’ drive later, we arrive at Te Puru Holiday Park just outside Thames. We’re greeted by the resident ducks that become regular visitors to our studio cabin over the next couple of days, make a quick assessment of the cooking facilities, and head back to Thames to pick up supplies for the next few days.

On our return to our cabin, we make dinner and, for the first time in months, turn on the television. This turns out to be an error: New Zealand has HGTV (aka Home & Garden Television), a US channel Sara and I have gotten totally sucked into multiple times before on visits to Sara’s family in Arizona. Four months since last watching tv, we’re immediately drawn back in. I’m glad we don’t have the channel at home - we’d probably never get anything done.

5 March 2020 (day 93)

The short version of the day, and really the only one worth reporting, is we spend a little time bringing the blog closer to up to date and then waste the rest of the day watching HGTV. That is the whole day.

6 March 2020 (day 94)

As yesterday, only without any time at all spent blogging.

7 March 2020 (day 95)

Fortunately for us, we leave Thames today and lose access to HGTV. Normal backpacker service resumes here.

Yesterday’s plan had been to drive up to Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve and take a glass bottomed boat out to see the marine life and view Cathedral Cove from the water. The ocean conditions however meant the trips for yesterday were cancelled and the company advised us to ring up this morning in case conditions had improved. We take a decision not to bother as there are a couple of cheap or free walks on the way down to Rotorua today we can do instead, and of greatest importance is being there in time for a booking for a Māori cultural evening we already have for tonight. We therefore leave Thames having achieved nothing and seen nothing but feeling better rested and up to date on the latest interior decoration trends in Boise, Idaho courtesy of the show Boise Boys.

The drive south takes us through Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty before turning inland again towards Rotorua. We stop for an unsatisfying lunch of pies and cake (word to the wise: NZ gas station pies are better than bakery pies in our experience so far) and then head to the car park for Hamurana Springs Nature Reserve. I check with the woman in the kiosk whether the walk would be suitable for Sticks (Sara) and, result, she thinks it would, so I fetch Sara from the car and off we go.

The reserve is spectacular, the walk taking us along the banks of a turquoise river home to dozens of black teal ducks and black swans, amongst other birds, and through a giant Californian Redwoods forest of trees up to 55m tall. Hamurana Springs themselves are the deepest natural freshwater springs in New Zealand and produce around 4 million litres of water per hour, which is impressive and not at all obvious from looking down from above at the seemingly still waters. The various rest stops and viewpoints throughout the track make the walk doable for Sticks, and she ups her game from Cape Reinga a few days ago to manage the whole 2.5km walk on her crutches.

And here it is, the origin of the main attraction - 280 metres above sea level, 15 metres deep, a constant 10 degrees Celsius, and pumping out enough water each hour to fill two Olympic sized swimming pools

Back at the car park after our glorious walk in the beautiful sunshine, we decide to use the facilities before onwards travel to Rotorua and are surprised to find a live chicken chilling in the bin in the ladies room. Madame Chicken finishes up whatever business she has in the ladies’ room, nods politely to us, and hops out of the bin just as we go to leave. With a sparkle in her eye, she leads us back towards the car park before meandering off to enjoy the rest of her day. Fare thee well, chickeny friend.

Back in the car, we make the short drive to Rotorua and find a parking spot right outside Rotorua Downtown Backpackers, our home for the next couple of nights. I unload the car, lugging all of our stuff up two flights of stairs to our room (we can’t catch a break!), and getting a few things together in time for us to head across to the Tamaki Cultural Centre, the departure point for this evening’s Māori cultural experience, a few minutes walk away.

The evening starts with a video introduction and song about Māori history and origins before we’re loaded onto buses and driven out of Rotorua to the Tamaki Māori village. Before we’re allowed to enter the village, we experience a traditional Māori welcoming ceremony performed by some Māori men and women to confirm this evening’s guests come in peace (we do). Following this, we’re led into a traditional village and rotate around five stations where we learn about Māori games and traditions and their meanings / purposes. At one of the stations, I’m selected to try out poi, lightweight tethered balls which are swung, caught and hit rhythmically as performance art and music. A Māori woman teaches me and two others a simple piece of poi choreography which I can do rhythmically but struggle to catch the balls as my hands are abnormally small (literally child-sized).

The other stations cover traditional cooking methods including hangi (more on which later), facial tattoos, stick throwing games, and the haka, a short section of which all the male guests are invited to try out. It’s fascinating but over too quickly to really get anything more than a superficial overview.

We’re led into a sort of theatre where the same Māori from the rotation stations outside climb onto a stage to perform traditional Māori song and dance for us, explaining as they go the relevance of things like fluttering hand movements (which signify life force). There are also really impressive displays of poi dances and stick throwing. Sara and I covet the throwing sticks and decide to buy some if we see them on our travels at any point (spoiler alert: we don’t).

After the show, we’re taken into a dining area for a traditional hangi dinner where the food has been cooked in a pit in the ground. There’s a huge buffet with lamb, chicken, fish, Kumara (a New Zealand root vegetable), potatoes, vegetables, mussels, and salads, plus desserts, and it’s delicious. As we eat, the drivers of the buses, all also Māori, serenade us with more traditional Māori songs.

All in all it’s been a really entertaining and interesting evening, and it’s a shame that it comes to an end so soon. The Tamaki Māori Evening Experience we’ve done is apparently one of the Top 10 experiences in the world. I’m not sure how one would go about determining that, and I’m certainly not qualified to opine, but suffice it to say it was money well spent and we’re glad to have experienced it.

The drive home is just as entertaining, with our driver leading a mass sing song with each country represented on the bus singing a song from home. A rousing group rendition of She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes with multiple turns around a roundabout for the chorus later and we’re dropped off back at the Cultural Centre in town, the perfect end to a very enjoyable evening.

8 March 2020 (day 96)

After breakfast in the hostel, we walk along to the Vietnamese restaurant a few doors down from the hostel for a coffee. They’re selling Vietnamese Egg Coffee, not something we’ve heard of or had before, so we both give it a go. It’s basically a small coffee with vanilla custard on top and weirdly nice. Vietnam is in our plans for the Asia portion of our travels so egg coffee goes on the “to try” list when we get there in a few months time.

It’s mid-morning by this point and other customers are having an early lunch. It smells mouth-wateringly good and we agree we should probably just come back for lunch a little later. To kill the time in between, we walk along to the i-Site to get some advice on best activities for the mobility-challenged for today. Rotorua and its surrounding area is primarily known for its geothermal activity and Māori history, and there are various geothermal parks in the area, although most aren’t accessible or achievable for Sara. After much consultation with the person behind the counter, we decide on an afternoon’s visit to Te Puia (pronounced Te Poya), a visitor attraction combining geothermal sights, Māori cultural tours and displays, and a chance to see the native kiwi bird.

Tickets in hand, it’s back to the Vietnamese place for a big bowl of utterly delicious pho each (Sara thinks it’s the best pho she’s had in a long time, if not ever) before we get an Uber to take us along to Te Puia, around 15 minutes drive away. On arrival, I procure a wheelchair for Sara and we make our way to the wharenui, the Māori meeting house, for the next cultural performance.

As last night, there’s a traditional welcoming ceremony to confirm we come in peace (we still do) before we’re led inside for the performances. We’re treated to around 45 minutes worth of traditional song, dance, poi and stick throwing, as well as a haka to conclude, and although there’s a fair amount of overlap with last night’s performances, it’s still immensely enjoyable, in large part because of the passion and commitment by the performers to sharing their culture with us.

With the performance over, we speed back over to the entrance for a guided tour by a Māori fellow (whose name I’ve forgotten so I’ll call Bob) who provides much more detailed information than we received last night about Māori traditions and history. Bob takes us back to the now empty wharenui to explain the significance of things like the designs and patterns adorning the walls, the physical activities like poi and sticks taught to children, and more of the history of his people. Bob then splits the room into groups by country of origin and I’m chosen by Team GB to take part in some stick throwing activities. Now by no means am I suggesting I’m immediately good at this - my hand eye coordination does sometimes leave something to be desired - but by comparison with most of the others, I’m far from the worst!

From the whangenui, we’re taken to see a school set up for the continuance of traditional Māori crafts, including carving and weaving, and see some pretty incredible pieces by current and former students.

We spend some time admiring the artistry and get separated from the group when we need to take a lift instead of the stairs for Sara’s wheelchair. Annoyingly, Bob doesn’t think to wait or look for us, and the group continues on without us so that when we leave the building we’ve no idea where they’ve gone.

A brief rant about the inconsideration later and trusty map in hand, we head off down the hill towards the geothermal area. We stop to look at the mud pools, all steaming and bubbling, and are halfway to Pohutu geyser when we run into the group again heading towards us. “Ah you decided to go off by yourself,” Bob says in greeting. Sara corrects him that they in fact left without us and we didn’t know where to find them. Bob sheepishly tells us that they’ve missed the geyser so are heading to the kiwi bird enclosure and invites us to rejoin the tour. We do and start back up the hill with the group. One of the older ladies catches my attention and whispers not to worry, we really didn’t miss anything interesting.

At the kiwi bird enclosure, we learn that the kiwi is a nocturnal flightless bird (explains why we haven’t seen any on our travels so far) and that the two they have in captivity here for breeding purposes are fighting at the moment so often hide in their respective dens and may therefore not be available to view. When we enter the darkened enclosure, we find that’s exactly the case. Too bad for us.

The group continues back up the hill to complete the tour but we figure it’s worth heading down to the geyser in case it goes off. Our luck here is much better than at the kiwi enclosure, and as we arrive at the geyser it begins to erupt. The Pohutu geyser is the largest active geyser in the Southern Hemisphere, erupting regularly through the day (apparently it’s the most reliable geyser on earth).

The eruption is incredibly impressive, with water shooting high into the air (up to 30m, apparently) and spilling over the rocks and bridge we’re standing on. The show just keeps going and going, and we watch for at least 15 - 20 minutes before heading back up the hill with the eruption still underway in order to see a few more things before the park closes at 6pm. We’ve previously been to Yellowstone and seen Old Faithful, and Pohutu, in my opinion, provides a far more impressive show. Best. Geyser. Ever. (Probably).

The park has technically closed by the time we reach the main area, but as there’s an evening cultural show here too they don’t make us leave immediately, and we have time to check out the huge Māori canoe and food storage buildings on stilts, as well as various carvings and sculptures before we leave. Te Puia has been a fantastic addition to our itinerary, and I’d strongly recommend a visit to anyone coming to the area.

Rotorua has an abundance of Asian restaurants and we head for some sushi tonight to celebrate the end of a fantastic day. The sushi absolutely lives up to expectation, not least because my mega sashimi platter comes served in a wooden boat. A+ for presentation; A+ for food quality! We order too much food (standard) which means we have leftovers for a breakfast of champions tomorrow. Winner winner sushi dinner (and breakfast).

9 March 2020 (day 97)

Sushi breakfast is, as the American kids say these days, bomb. We pack up the car after and do a little souvenir shopping before bidding a sad farewell to Rotorua, which we’ve both really loved.

Around half an hour later, we arrive at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, this morning’s stop on our way to Taupo. There’s a geyser here too called Lady Knox Geyser which erupts only once a day at exactly 10.15am. We’ve cut it really tight and rush (as far as Sticks is able to rush) down to the viewing area which is already packed. Sticks manages to find a seat and moments later the eruption begins and then ends shortly after. In all honesty, it’s a bit anticlimactic: our timing is excellent but the size, scale and duration of the eruption is nothing compared to Pohutu geyser yesterday. Pro tip: if you’re keen to see both geysers, go to Lady Knox before Pohutu.

We get back in the car to drive up to the main entrance to the park. There are no wheelchairs available to borrow here and around half of the park won’t be accessible for Sara, but the main loop we’re told is doable and has plenty of benches for her to take a seat when needed.

We set off around the park and initial impressions in the first half of the park are that the “Wonderland” in the park’s name is a bit of a misnomer. There are plenty of geothermal sights, but having been to Yellowstone, it’s all a bit underwhelming, mostly gases and bubbly sounds from crevasses you can’t see to the bottom of. A few colours here and there but nothing like the incredible array we’ve seen in geothermal pools in the USA. However, around halfway through the park, we finally arrive at once of the most impressive geothermal pools in the park called the Artist’s Palette. It’s a large pool or mini lake coloured yellow, orange, blue and green from the minerals in the water, and it’s quite a sight. We’re here on a grey day and apparently the weather conditions change how the pool appears daily, but even with our overcast sky it’s really beautiful.

We head down to ground level to see the pool and nearby sinter terrace closer up. From here the heat of the water becomes apparent by the constant bubbles erupting on the surface of the water and the steam fogging our glasses as we cross the bridge to the other side. There we climb up to the viewing platform over the Champagne Pool, which we find to be visible if slightly obscured by the steam too.

There are three routes in total in the park, the first a loop from the main entrance, the second an add-on loop from the Champagne Pool deeper into the park, and the third loop beginning around halfway around the second route. The third route we know for sure Sara can’t do but she’s feeling ambitious so we decide to give the second route a try and see how far we get. It takes us into a forest of tall trees with very cool scale-like bark, and along the way there are more views over the sinter terraces below.

Carving of our favourite NZ bird, the fantail

We eventually reach a viewpoint over a large geothermal lake, not nearly as colourful as the Artist’s Palette, still worth a view, but at this point to continue onwards are a set of downwards steps. I go on ahead to see whether it’s worth Sara making the journey, and it quickly becomes clear that there are way too many steps for it to be viable for Sara. I continue down just in case the reward for the journey is sufficient to warrant a long slow descent for Sara but at the bottom it’s just more of the sinter terrace and I can see that the path leads back to rejoin the park’s first route, so I head back up the 113 steps to collect Sara and reverse our route back to the Champagne Pool.

Alas, the pool does not smell like champagne…it smells like eggs

Continuing back on the first route, we make our way back around the lake, getting much better views of the colours of the Champagne Pool once the wind is behind us, and as we progress on the path the geothermal sights return to being slightly uninspiring visually. I assume we’ve now passed the only real bits worthy of the “Wonderland” title, but I’m mistaken and pleasantly surprised when we turn a corner and are suddenly confronted by a lake almost the exact same shade of lime green as the T-shirt I’m wearing. We’re colour buddies!

From there we find ourselves back at the entrance and after checking out the souvenir shop collect the car and head towards the mud pools on the way out of the park. It begins to rain as we get out of the car, but the mud pools are AWESOME and totally worth getting a bit soggy to see. We walk the length of the walkway and are both completely happy spending a good half hour just watching and listening to the boiling mud eruptions all around.

We eventually drag ourselves away from the mud and get back in the car to drive on to Taupo, our home for the next couple of nights. The weather remains terrible and it’s absolutely streaming down in Taupo when we arrive at the i-Site to figure out our plans for the next couple of days. Quite a lot of the activities here are adrenaline activities, or at least require a good level of mobility, but we take a few brochures to think about and head on to Berkenhoff Lodge where we’re staying.

Everything unpacked from the car, and me dried off again after getting soggy for the second time today doing so, it’s dinner time and we’re both in the mood for Indian food. Like Rotorua, there seems to be a good variety of Asian restaurants and we order a taxi to take us to a restaurant with good reviews on Tripadvisor. Happily the food is much better than that of the Indian we went to in Hamilton, and the friendly manager lets us wax on about how amazing our African adventure was.

10 March 2020 (day 98)

Back in Paihia in the Bay of Islands, we’d planned to do a tandem parasail but were stymied by the poor weather. Taupo, it turns out, also offers a tandem parasail at a height of 1,000 feet from the boat, but with the added excitement of a free fall during the flight, and we’ve booked in for this morning.

We board the boat down at the lake along with a few other passengers. The captain isn’t sure whether the weather is suitable for Sara to parasail given her injury but invites us to come out for the ride at least on the basis if conditions allow then we can fly, and if not we can come back tomorrow at no additional charge. Once we’re out on the water though, he determines that it’ll be fine for us to fly. Woo!

The other two couples fly first and second, and then it’s our turn. There are a few adjustments to the take off and landing protocol to accommodate Old Hopalong and her injury, but moments later we’re whisked high into the sky above the boat with incredible views of Lake Taupo as well and the surrounding hills and mountains.

The flight is really fun and completely fine for Sara in her moonboot. Twice the captain slows the boat to allow us to freefall towards the lake before speeding up just in time to stop us from touching the water. In other circumstances, you can be “dunked” if you choose to, but with the boot it’s just not an option this time. I suspect we’ll be back in future for the full dunkin’ experience!

Too soon our flight is over and we’re winched back to the boat which then returns to the jetty. The parasailing was a gift from Sara’s former boss and it was super fun so thanks Mavi for the experience!

We go back to the hostel to get changed and make lunch and then head back out in the car to Huka Falls just north of Taupo. We park up and eat lunch in the car before heading to see the falls, and as we eat we spot, in a weird coincidence of itineraries, the Chatty Cathies from the Bay of Islands a full week ago are here at the exact same time as us. The world is running out of extras for our life story, apparently.

After our sandwich lunch, we head over to see the spectacular falls from various viewpoints. Huka Falls are on the Waikato river at a place where the distance between the banks has shortened from 100m to a narrow ravine, resulting in an 11m waterfall of 220,000 litres per second. The rushing and gushing blue waters are a sight to behold, and Sara puts the falls as her New Zealand highlight to date.

We spend around an hour at the falls before heading back to the car, but instead of going back to the hostel decide to go a little further up the road to a glass blowing studio, gallery and sculpture park we saw on the drive into Taupo yesterday. This proves to be problematic when we fall in love with quite a few of the pieces, none of which are cheap. The two we love most are complimentary pieces which remind us of our respective origins (desert and sea) as well as our travels to date. The gallery offers a discounted price if we take them both and agrees to hold the pieces for us to think about until the end of tomorrow. Buying expensive glass art was not remotely on our agenda for this trip, but as ridiculous human beings it somehow feels entirely within character for us, and we take the decision back to the hostel to sleep on. I think we can all guess which way this is going to go!