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Bason Botanic Gardens : Next morning, the Monday of our second week, we paid an early-morning call to Bason Botanic Gardens, a few miles out of Wanganui on the New Plymouth road. This was bequeathed to the local council by the late Mr Bason, and a fine job he made of it too. The gardens and arboretum were extensive, with a lake and some small conservatories, all viewed in the peace and quiet before the first tourist bus, which arrived as we were leaving.

Bason Botanic Gardens

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Next morning, the Monday of our second week, we paid an early-morning ...

Updated: Apr 02, 2009 3:18am PST

Waganui : Wanganui offered two motor camps, one beachside and one riverside. We chose the latter, as we had done beaches before and this one might be a touch cool in the freshening wind. A good choice as it turned out, as the river site was pleasantly situated and pleasantly empty. Within minutes of our arrival the steam-powered river boat steamed briskly past, on the final leg of its daily afternoon cruise up the river. Next stop was the Durie Hill Elevator, one of only two in the world to be buried in a hillside instead of inside, or outside, a building. In all other respects it was a conventional lift, operated by a lady a little tired of schoolgirls using the calling bell as a musical instrument. Eric chose the energetic route via the external steps, and we were reunited on top at the Memorial Tower, a 100ft high edifice built from fossilised shell rock. This offered, at the top of yet more steps, a fine view of the city and surrounding countryside. This apparently included South Island on a clear day, but the arrival of a sequence of south-easterly showers put paid to any hopes of seeing that far. We returned to the town centre and discovered that Napier is not the only town to have Art Deco buildings. Whanganui also boasted a velodrome and the running track where Peter Snell broke the sub-four-minute-mile record. The adjacent gardens also included an observatory complete with telescope, unfortunately open only on Fridays.

Waganui

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Wanganui offered two motor camps, one beachside and one riverside. We ...

Updated: Apr 02, 2009 2:15am PST

Tickets :

Tickets

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Updated: Apr 01, 2009 2:16pm PST

Waganui tram : We returned to the town to seek out some of its tourist attractions, stumbling first on a large shed containing a tram in the final stages of restoration. Despite it being propped up some considerable height above its bogies, we were encouraged to go aboard and inspect the handiwork of the small group doing the restoration. This we did, and were suitably impressed. Those present spoke warmly of the co-operation received from other tram and railway groups in various parts of both New Zealand and Australia, proving it is possible for a common interest other than sport to unite the nations.

Waganui tram

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We returned to the town to seek out some of its tourist attractions, s ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2009 2:11pm PST

Wai-O-Tapu : Saturday saw us depart on the long drive to Napier, broken initially by a stop at another thermal attraction, this time featuring a geyser which performed to order, or to be precise, to a dollop of Fairy Liquid or similar lobbed down its vent hole by the cheerleader. The rest of the attraction more than justified its billing, a series of craters, mud holes and steaming multi-coloured lakes that impressed at every turn.

Wai-O-Tapu

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Saturday saw us depart on the long drive to Napier, broken initially b ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2009 1:30pm PST

Te Puia : Next day saw the beginning of the serious sight-seeing, firstly at another Maori village, one of two attractions sharing, somewhat uneasily, we found out, the same resource, namely geysers, steam vents, mud pools and similar artifacts. The village was in full occupation by an extended family of Maori, who provided the guides and the entertainment, styled somewhat inevitably as the 'Maori cultural experience'. It was actually better than it first sounded, as were the attractions, which were a touch nondescript at the beginning, but rapidly improved, to include such delights as communal baths and steam-heated cooking holes. The former apparently are in steady demand for Kiwi sportsmen of various types, for the better treatment of muscular injuries, and quite possibly for pysching them up to inflict yet another defeat on the hapless English. Or Scots.

Te Puia

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Next day saw the beginning of the serious sight-seeing, firstly at ano ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2009 10:03am PST

Napier : After booking in at the city-centre park we walked into town for a cheap and cheerful meal at the Breakers bar and cafe, returning just in time to miss the worst of some heavy rain, and in Eric's case to miss treading on a hedgehog claiming right of way across the campsite. It being Sunday, the next day we had a bit of a lie-in, and it was after 9am by the time we emerged into intermittent sunshine and a cool-ish wind. After a leisurely breakfast we drove south a few miles along the coast towards Kidnappers Point, named by Captain Cook after a little local difficulty with the Maori. When the road ran out we walked through a somewhat tired-looking camp site and down onto the pebble beach for a few hundred yards, overtaken periodically by local fishermen on quad bikes and local youths on motorbikes. The cliffs above us were impressive, if just a little fragile in appearance, and we had no difficulty in heeding the advice on the notice board to avoid lingering close to the rock-face, and to be wary of the tide cutting off our retreat.

Napier

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After booking in at the city-centre park we walked into town for a che ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2009 8:34am PST

Taupo : The drive south was uneventful and speedy on good, quiet roads through forest after forest of firs and palms. We stopped briefly at Taupo, to admire the lake and the various activities on and around it.

Taupo

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The drive south was uneventful and speedy on good, quiet roads through ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2009 7:32am PST

Tauranga : We then departed for a fairly long drive south to the Rotorua area. We diverted slightly off the shortest route to take in Mourinhea, a large rock outcrop on a promontory at Tarea. On one side was a beach overlooking the harbour, on the other a couple of hundred yards away a much larger beach overlooking the Bay of Plenty and several of its islands. A good stop for a late lunch, before completing the drive to the Blue Lake motorcamp a few miles outside Rotorua. Our navigation was successful, another's less so, to judge from the frustrated phone calls to the camp office from a US citizen relying slightly too heavily on a slightly out-of-date GPS system.

Tauranga

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We then departed for a fairly long drive south to the Rotorua area. We ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2009 6:43am PST

Whangamata : We continued down along the east coast of the Coramandel peninsula, via some hilly terrain with a good selection of bends and gradients, as far as Whangamata. The main attraction here was the beach, with good surfing waves but again not so good for swimming, with uneven sand and a strong undertow. Not that the surfers we saw were particularly proficient. There was a choice of two motorcamps; after a comparison of external features we opted for the more central of the two, with easy access both to the beach and to the town's somewhat limited night-life. The latter did not include a great deal of choice over eating arrangements, unless it was a take-away one fancied. The most modern-looking was also the most empty, and, as we discovered later, up for sale. Fortunately Nero's cafe came to our rescue with a chicken and mango pizza that was both novel and tasty, preceded by chowder and mussels.

Whangamata

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We continued down along the east coast of the Coramandel peninsula, vi ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2009 5:57am PST

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