Before we left on this trip, everyone I knew who had been to Australia only absolutely loved it. Those who had been to both Australia and New Zealand really liked Australia, and raved about New Zealand.
Since we had postponed our trip a year and decided to add a couple of weeks, I was enthusiastic about spending more time in NZ and one of my parts of planning this journey was the 17 nights in NZ. Steve got the Great Ocean Road part to plan. Both were on the road, in-the-car days between the big cities and sites.
Most people I know who have been here, granted that is probably only about five, had 10 days or so to do the NZ highlights, usually flying from place to place. I had read many guidebooks and websites and found it impossible to pick only one island to visit. Each time I settled on the South Island, with Queenstown, Milford Sound and the Glaciers, I would read great things about Wellington, Napier, Rotorua and Auckland, on the North Island. I simply couldn't pick just one. I read so much and it sounded so great that we wanted to see it all. We knew this was a 'once and done' visit, to so far away, with so much of the world still to see.
And we were road tripping....driving what turns out to be, not only the previously known great distances, but the narrow, windy roads that make any estimate you get longer, add at least 30-40%, so a google maps four hours takes close to six. Now add to that, for most of the days driving between towns, there is nothing. Well, there are dots on the map with names which usually mean a sign, one house and another sign you are leaving....and a reduced speed limit.
It is probably starting to sound like we are not having a great time, but we are. That doesn't negate the fact that these towns are more like an Aussie traveling in the U.S. They come to Philadelphia and after that the guidebooks tell them they must see Jim Thorpe but instead of one and a half hours to get there it takes four, and now you've got to sleep there and eat there too.
Wind back to yesterday, we left Napier. It was a cloudy day that gave way to clear blue skies and warm temps. We had a great day planned. It was only about three Google hours of driving with our first stop at Lake Taupo. Every guide book raves about this town and I recall being tempted to stay for a night. Described as a beautiful lake resort town with lots to do....but pretty much it offers the same list of to-dos: you can jet boat on the lake, you can orb on the lake, you can walk around town and into the shops that are the same ones you have seen all over. You can take a helicopter ride over a lake and mountains. You can paddle boat. You get it. On top of which it is now THE family vacation week in NZ! The week between Xmas and New Years, everyone is off!
We stretched our legs and had a breakfast and headed on to the next stop, a drive through the first ever, in the world, built steam pipes to use the natural geothermal waters for free energy. They used to give tours but no more. I was sure Steve would like this as Trip Advisor comments said how cool it was to drive under the steam pipes and to the lookout. Well, it was cool, and Steve did like it, but you can see it was kind of a tiny thing....glad we didn't go out of our way even a mile or take a wrong turn to get there.
Next up was Waiatapu, the geothermal waters and geysers. This would be our last stop before checking in to our hotel in Roturua. There are about three or four different tourist attraction places that you can go to, and see the geothermal waters that this entire volcanic ( and still active ) area is known for. We picked this one because a recommendation from a couple on our Napier Art Deco walk, who were also eating lunch at the posh winery spot later that day.....you see many of the same faces on your ' tourist trail '.
And it was interesting. And it was eerie scenery. And it was......SMELLY. We did know that these geothermal waters bubbling up from the ground had a lot of sulphur...you recall the smell of rotten eggs in high school chem class. But we did spend close to a couple hours doing all three walks around these craters and lakes and got in about 5k for the day.
It was only another 20 minutes to Rotorua, the heart of Maori culture. People stop here because it is a resort town with a lot of Maori culture. Think going to New Mexico and seeing Taos Pueblo and then going to a feast day on a Rez and then going to Indian Market...that's what we thought.
We arrived to a larger, more sprawling place than expected. Yes, it smelled like sulphur. Every single hotel, none of which looked inviting, said NO Vacancy...really????
Wow, were we glad that this time Steve had convinced me to cancel my reservation at the Regent Rotorua and book into the 'you can count on me' Novotel, a big chain.
Our room was adequate, if you don't count the stained rugs. The front desk called the restaurant for a dinner rez as recommended by the young girl at the I-Site after I asked her for the most Upmarket restaurant in the town. And we settled on what we would do with our less than 24 hours here. An early dinner, then the Polynesian Spa, purported to one of the ten best natural thermal pool spas in the world. Day two would be the Rotorua Museum and then to the big Cultural event, a trip to a Maori village with a welcoming ceremony and a cultural show.
We headed to a small Japanese restaurant in another hotel for dinner. It was basically a Yakitori bar, small but with pretty good food but never what anyone would call upmarket. Then to the spa. Picture this : seven adult only stinky thermal pools of varying temps and minerals overlooking an unattractive lake. But we were there and wet. We chatted up a couple of young hipper NZ sisters who had both migrated to Australia and were never coming back. They gave us some good suggestions for eats in Auckland.
By about the third pool we were soaking in, we looked up to realize that the pools were about 90% Asian, some Chinese but mostly Japanese. So how could we tell? I admit I am not great at that but Steve's trained eye picked out the differences immediately. The Japanese girls and women were all in very modest swimsuits. Many had skirts and tank tops, or the most revealing wore speedos. They were thin and well built but walk from pool to pool with their arms crossed over their chests in total modesty. Which was pretty funny because once we were all in the changing room, it was full of Japanese women walking all around completely naked with no modesty at all.
Back at the hotel, now our AC and TV weren't working either, icing on the cake. It was about this point we reconfigured the next day's activities to skip what we now realized would only be a tacky village recreation of the Maori culture, keep in the museum and a coffee and dash off to Auckland.
After all this dissing of our road stops and town stops, you probably wouldn't believe we are having fun, but we are. We can have fun at Jim Thorpe and we can find the best of wherever we go because along the way we spend a lot of those hours in the car laughing, even if it is about our three star hotels and two star attractions in one horse towns.
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