After fleeing poor weather in Melbourne, Australia, we were glad to reach Auckland, about three hours across the Tasman Sea. This was my third visit to NZ, and the approach to Auckland always excites: verdant rolling hills and spectacular coastline appearing before touchdown.
This visit was to be a relatively short one, a four day prelude to Christmas, which was to be spent in Queenstown down on the South Island. Our objective was the volcanic country around Rotorua, about three hours drive from Auckland, mainly across pastoral country, mainly dairy, interspersed with kiwi fruit crops, all hiding behind huge leylandii windbreaks.
As with my last visit to the North Island, December seems to be quite unstable weather wise, so we arrived at our first stop, the delectable Peppers on the Point, situated on a headland about two miles out of town, in mist and leaden skies.
View from our humble suite at Peppers on the Point
The situation was enviable, a beautiful hotel, home to a recent royal stay, but views to the giant volcano Mount Tarawera hidden by low cloud. So, a lazy afternoon and superb dinner was to be enjoyed instead.
Regrettably, despite a freshening wind, our planned helicopter tour to visit the active volcano on White Island, and nearby Mount Tarawera, which last erupted in 1886, was cancelled due to poor visibility - memories of the abortive trip to Mt Tongariro further south in December last year. Moral of the story: visit these parts in January or February!
Instead, we elected to visit the thermal park at Wai-O-Tapu, about 30km south of Rotorua, on the road to Taupo. A beautiful drive across rolling country dissected by various volcanic features took us to the mud pools close to the entrance to the park itself. the park itself contains a diverse range of volcanic features, from sulphur piles, steaming lakes, geysers and fumaroles. The largest feature, Champagne Pool, has steaming water at 74 degrees, with bright yellow pools and an ochre-coloured petrified edge. The last lake on exit was the brightest green I’ve ever seen. More detail at www.geyserland.co.nz
Although you cannot smell the vulcanicity at Pepper on the Point, re-entering Rotorua from the south reminds you that you are clearly sitting on an active caldera, with steam emerging from numerous hot pools and the pungent and noxious smell of sulphur and other volcanic gases much in evidence.
Alas, our time in this region had to end, as our next destination was the Coromandel, a large and spectacular peninsula to our north west and situated two hours east of Auckland. Driving up the east side of the Rotorua lake, we were quickly into farmland again, more kiwi fruit and avocado in abundance, with occasional commercial herds of red deer and alpaca seen too.\
We reached the north coast at Tauranga, a bustling beach resort on the Bay of Plenty, in a hour or so, but then the work started, with a tortuous winding and hilly road up the east coast of the Coromandel through Katikati, Waihi and Whangamata. Absolutely stunning country, forest covered peaks, remnants of small cone volcanoes and lush vegetation, palms, giant ferns and flowering trees.
Our next two nights were at the Lakes Resort, just south of Pauanui. This is a championship golf course with quality villa accommodation and our round of golf the following day did not disappoint. The course was virtually empty and the second nine was especially challenging. Needless to say, she who must be obeyed beat me by four points. The setting for the course is marvellous, surrounded by wooded hills and mountains all around, with lush sub-tropical vegetation off the fairways, and well landscaped lakes in abundance.
Golf course at Lakes Resort, Pauanui
Our final day on the North Island involved a return trip to Auckland, completing our circumnavigation of the Coromandel, by venturing further north, through another stunning tract of country with increasing views to the sea. Villages and towns here are small and unspoilt, dependent on some tourism and fishing, with mainly dairy farming in between, the view enlivened by the red flowering pohutakawa trees (known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree) and bright blue rhododendron.
Coromandel Peninsula
We stopped a short while in Coromandel town itself, cute, but nothing much going on, before heading south through Thames, a sprawling regional centre before turning north again for Auckland. A particular joy was a fish & chip stop in the small village of Kaiaua: check out Kaiaua Fisheries as you first enter the town, unassuming and unpretentious, with food served in newspaper, the way it should be!
Finally, to the busy road network around the airport and re-packing ready for our flight to Queenstown early the following morning.
Observations: this part of New Zealand is overwhelmingly beautiful…you could literally stop the car every five minutes to grab another superb vista, so do allow plenty of time when journey planning. This is also compounded by the fact that almost all roads are single carriageway, with locals generally quite fastidious about sticking to the speed limit (although we saw a lot less traffic cops than you would normally have seen on the South Island).
View to the Remarkables range from Queenstown
Time spent in Queenstown, based at the newly built (and virtually empty) Hilton, visiting son Kevin and viewing his new house build at Lake Hayes. Some golf enjoyed at the Queenstown Golf Club on the Kelvin Heights peninsula, with stunning views that managed to distract me from any form of reasonable golf!
Our return to the UK was via Sydney, this time to view the spectacular New Year's Eve firework display, done in style from a hired boat which took us out into the Harbour. An outstanding evening and memories for life! And, of course, the usual stroll from Bondi to Coogee!
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| Approach to Coogee from Bondi |
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