Part 1: Blow-out

Setting out on this journey, I knew some things would come to test our strength of character. But I hadn’t counted on these trials coming so soon.

If we’ve learnt one thing quicker than anything else, it’s that New Zealand is not a cheap place to visit. After the initial purchase of the van and all its necessary tranklements, we soon realised that we could do with a job sooner rather than later. Many jobs suitable for backpackers are posted on an invaluable website, and within moments I’d found my ideal job: Travel Writer and Researcher. While the position wasn’t paid, it instead promised a roof and bed, laundry and some comfortable living. Based in Napier, a city at the far south-eastern corner of the North Island, the accommodation was to be provided in the form of a converted old prison on the seafront – a quirky chance to call a jail cell ‘home’, and could give us the chance to explore the vineyards and coastline of Hawkes Bay, so I drafted a quick cover email and applied immediately. Within moments, I had a reply, “When can you start?”.

So, remember the van I told you about in my last post? Our ‘awesome’ van? Well, it turned out that its awesomeness was little more than a façade. Little over an hour after I had posted my previous blog entry, our mobile home came to a steaming halt on the side of the motorway as we hoped to leave the Auckland region for pastures new. So much for paying that extra cash for our peace of mind. Immediately, we called the guy we bought it from, as we had certainly not put the vehicle through its paces in the few days we’d had her. Thankfully, it had turned out we’d bought from a good dealer; that extra cash wasn’t completely lost. He apologetically arranged for a tow back to his garage, and we soon found ourselves amongst the warehouses, cheap motels and car dealerships of on the edge Manukau.

At first, Dave’s prognosis seemed fairly optimistic. “Oh, it’s probably a couple of valves that have just seen better days. It should be ready for ya by tomorrow”. He lent us his Volvo estate as courtesy car, and we turned back to Matt and Fiona’s with our tails between our legs. With Dave’s optimism fresh in our minds, we headed back to Manukau late the following afternoon, but the 24 hours had seen Dave’s chirpy diagnosis become rather more solemn. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but ya van is… dying” he said, trying to hold back tears. “I’m sorry for ya loss”. And with that, he collapsed into hysterical weeping.

Okay, so it wasn’t that bad, but it was decidedly worse than a seized valve. It turned out that it could be a blocked radiator, or failing that, the head gasket had blown-out. I’m not a mechanical man, but I know that either of those aren’t good and generally mean a much lighter wallet on the horizon, potentially even a write-off. But Dave assured us that he would cover the cost of any work done, seemingly ashamed that he’d sold a faulty vehicle. Trundling away in the Volvo, we resigned ourselves to the tiny two-man tent I’d brought with us as an emergency back-up, and we found the nearest campsite.

After a couple of days and no update on the van’s condition, we realised that this gave us the opportunity to explore areas that we would have otherwise passed by. Initially, we headed out west again, visiting a windy Waikato beach. The shoreline shared the same black sand found on Piha and Muriwai, but the wind tore the surf to shreds and the cloud cover made sunbathing or swimming unappealing so we didn’t linger. The drive over, however, took us to our first Lord of the Rings film location. The karst limestone scenery nestled behind the seafront cliffs provided the backdrop of the Weathertop set, but identifying the actual rocky prominence of the set amongst the white crags and rocky crenulations seemed impossible. With our morale dampened and the likelihood that we weren’t going to get the van back in the next few days, we decided to take our chances and head out to the east coast for a change.

Post I, Arrival

Well, here it is, my first post from the Land of the Long White Cloud.

The sun sets over a darkening Indian Ocean

After an exhausting but smooth 36-hour journey halfway across the Earth via Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, the white-watered shores of the North Island's battered western coast came into view - a sight I've been awaiting for years.

Bleary-eyed, we stumbled through the most friendly customs and excise department in the world (they seemed more interested in my Martin Backpackers' guitar than anything else), and were greeted by our hosts at the airport - Matt and his daughter Olivia - friends of Amy's father who had relocated to this part of the world 9 years ago.

We could soon see why they'd chosen to resettle here. As we drove north from the airport and out of Auckland on one of the country's few motorways, the landscape opened up to vast expanses of green rolling hills, streaked with a weave of vineyards and a lush mix of temperate and tropical trees. Matt tried to point out where we were as we made our way to his house, but with a combination of unfamiliar-sounding place names, awestruck gawping, and extreme tiredness, it was wasted on me. With the sun in the wrong part of the sky, I could barely register which direction we were headed.

Matt and Fiona's beautiful house

Eventually Matt turned off the main road, the car crunched up a roughly surfaced lane that wound its way into the hillside, and we finally reached his beautiful house overlooking the valley. The first thing that struck me was the space here. The garden was massive, edged by fields, woodland and a stunning view. Even the next door neighbour was a blissfully detached two hundred yards away.
After a warm welcome from the rest of Matt's family, we enjoyed a wonderful homemade meal made by his wife Fiona - a relief from the impersonal plane food of the past couple of days, and with the comfort of a real bed we crashed for the night.

The following morning we were woken by a combination of sunlight and birdsong to a clear sky, and wasted no time in venturing to the right-of-passage for most people looking to trundle around New Zealand in a campervan: Ellerslie car auction. Ellerslie was a name that had cropped up a lot whenever I discussed our plans for this trip. It seemed to be a Mecca if you were looking for a cheap van to kit out and customise as you wish, and perhaps a few years ago it was, but it was obvious that there was a proliferation of those looking to exploit the market of wide-eyed travellers excited to get a set of wheels and home - we were obvious and easy targets, and we found it hard to part with $3000 for a 20-odd year old people carrier with a checkered history and a smelly mattress in the back (At the time of writing, we still haven't settled on one).

Muriwai: an endless empty coastline with powerful surf.

The idyllic weather that afternoon gave Matt the opportunity to show off one of the North Auckland's most beautiful features: Muruwai Beach. Located on the edge of the forested hills of the Waitakere Ranges national park, the beach lies at the end of an unbroken 90km strip black volcanic sand - an exposed clue to the tumultuous creation of the undulating terrain found inland. As a surfer, my attention was immediately drawn to the heavy swell that buffeted the beach. For UK standards, the waves were pumping, and would have probably drawn waveriders from all over the country; but Matt's son, Miles, who lifeguards at this beach made it pretty clear that this was nothing - despite the fact that surfers out back were being barrelled easily - and that the waves were routinely twice or three times as big. The jet-lag making itself known, I avoided the surf and instead went for a cheeky swim.

After drying out, we were led to the Muriwai headland - a projection of igneous cliffs carved into soft layers by the mighty waves, forming caves, ledges and blowholes, each topped with the resident colony of Gannets - one of the largest in the country - giving the stone towers an icing-white topping of courting birds, mating birds, and guano. A walkway led over and above the Gannets, giving vantage points over the colony on the mainland, and those on a nearby stack, Sugar Loaf Rock.

Having only been here a matter of moments, it's already obvious that even this small corner has a lot to offer. From the tapestry of vineyards that quilt the countryside, to the tangle of footpaths of Waitekere and the thunderous white horses that strike the coastline, it is clear we have a lot more exploring to do.

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