The west coast of New Zealand is known for its beauty. Rugged mountains coming down to the rough and tumble Tasman Sea.
The campground was right next to the beach and you could hear the crash of the powerful waves. The Tasman Sea hitting the west coast of New Zealand is know for it's ferocity. We watched wave after wave and couldn't help but wonder, doesn't it ever get tired?
Just across the street from the campground is a beautiful walk along a river. It was lined with my favorites - Tree Ferns.
Jim always holds the door open for me!
The next morning, it was just a short drive to the visitor center for what they call Pancake Rocks. It was a fabulous walk along a half-mile path. A very popular place, lots of people, but because the path was a one-way loop, you didn't feel crowded. Excellent stop.
Melinda's introduction to New Zealand was many years ago when her husband, Laird, took a sabbatical from his college professor job to study indigenous cultures in New Zealand. They spent 6 months traveling and met lots of people - one of whom was Makere (pronounced MA-ku-ray). Makere is an elder of the Waitaha people - considered to be the earliest arrivals to Aotearoa (New Zealand) and generally included in the term Māori, referring to the native peoples of the country. Melinda has visited Makere in New Zealand many times and Makere has traveled to the US and visited Melinda as well. They are old friends.
When we planned this trip, we certainly hoped that we would get to meet her, and we were thrilled it worked out. Especially when we learned that she lives on Golden Bay, right next to Abel Tasman National Park! That was one of the few places Jim and I had on our must-see list. We were able to park the RV right in front of the Marae (kind of a Maori community center) where Makere lives and she was the best tour guide we could imagine! She even arranged a Pōwhiri, the welcoming ceremony in the tradition of the Māori/Waitaha. We felt really special when a dozen or more Māori of all ages from the Marae gathered to greet us. First was a reception line where we touched noses with each person. It's called "hongi" and it is the traditional greeting of the Māori. Then there were some short speeches from the elders. Jim performed the role of our elder! Then more singing after which, keeping with the tradition of hospitality,we were invited to share dinner (kai) with them.
After dinner, we went with the group to hike to a sacred waterfall, while Melinda and Makere stayed behind to catch up with each other. Luckily, it wasn't as strenuous a hike as the last waterfall we visited, since we didn't have too much time before dark. It was a gorgeous walk to an adventures-in-paradise worthy waterfall.
I didn't think it could get any better than that, but the next day, Makere took us to a sacred spring... This is the biggest, clearest spring I think I have ever seen - and I've seen some big, clear springs!
All the while that Makere was driving us around, showing us sacred places and all the beauty of her home, she was telling us her stories, stories of her ancestors, their history and their mythology. I was so entranced, I asked if any of this was written down - and she gave me her book: Whispers of Waitaha - Traditions of a Nation!
While Makere was telling us this special story, I tried to capture some of her voice. Here is the result. If you watch it, you will hear part of the Waitaha story of creation - how the ancient ones came over in dual-hulled canoes called Waka. When the 2 Waka were broken by storms, 7 whales came to the rescue and the Waka then formed the islands now known as New Zealand.
But wait, there's more ...
After taking us to a great place for lunch, she let us have a little nap, then drove us in the other direction over a mountain on a dirt road to a secluded beach called Totaranui. Just a few months ago, when Prince Harry and Meghan visited New Zealand, this was one of the places they were taken, and Makere was there to greet them. Now she's taking us there. Are we special or what?! Well, Melinda anyway.
There's lots more to see and do in the area, but we had to hit the road and get the RV back to Christchurch in 2 days time. Here's Makere reviewing the map with Melinda and setting up our itinerary of things to see between Golden Bay and Christchurch.
Kia Ora and Thank You Makere! It was a beautiful and memorable visit, we hope you can visit Florida and let us return the favor someday.
When we made the arrangements for renting the motorhome in New Zealand, we decided that we wanted to do some travel in both the north and the south. That meant picking up the motorhome in Auckland and dropping it off in Christchurch. We could make the reservations for the ferry oursleves, but I was happy to let the motorhome rental place (Wilderness) do that for us. I is high season here in New Zealand, and things get booked up. they know what to do. So, they told us to be there no later than 4pm on the 15th of February. We only had an hour drive. We thought we may explore Wellington a bit, but there really wasn't enough time to do that comfortably, so we just found a place to park, and used the Internet to get some work done until time to drive onto the ferry.
Since we were so early for boarding the ferry, we got front row seats!
It was about a 3 hour ride. We had exceptionally nice weather - it was a very smooth crossing with beautiful views.
Since it would be dark by the time we got off the ferry, we booked an RV park in Picton for the night. It was only a few minutes drive from the ferry terminal so there was no worries about making their 10pm deadline. We could get a good night's sleep and ready for the trek to Abel Tasman Nat'l Park and Melinda's friend Makere, the next day.
Some days just work! We found the one semi-straight road in New Zealand and had a very nice road trip thru the southern half of the north island.
We didn't know exactly where we were going, but we needed to be in Wellington to board the South Island ferry the next day at 5pm, so we wanted to be close to Wellington. I used the CamperMate app and found an RV park called Paekakariki Holiday Park. It was about an hour from the ferry terminal. It was right on the beach. AND, it was right where Google Maps said it was, so navigating there worked just fine!
We loved the grassy sites with hedges on either side for privacy.
Paekakariki Holiday Park, nightly fee = $12/person, or $36
But, the best part is that it was a short walk, thru a park to the beach. This beach is on the west coast of New Zealand - the Tasman Sea - it was beautiful, we had a great sunset, and it was Valentine's Day!
You hear a lot about Freedom camping in New Zealand. We have several friends who have camper-vanned around New Zealand and they all tell of just parking anywhere, anytime, and having a wonderful place. We've come to learn that they were either here many years ago, or they were here in off season. There are lots of rules surrounding freedom camping now and you better get there early in the day to claim your spot. Most nights, we ended up in commercial campgrounds after finding the designated freedom campsites to be full. They charge by the person here ($15-30), rather than by the site. Since we are traveling with 3 people, it's been $45-90/night. Luckily that's in New Zealand dollars and the exchange rate is well in our favor, making that $30-62/night.
So, we were thrilled when we came across a freedom camping spot that had enough room for lots of RVs. And it was gorgeous, right on the shores of lake Taupo.
There are volcanoes around here, made obvious by the pumice-stone rocks laying all about the beach. They are very light - throw it into the water and these rocks float!
We just stayed there one night, then headed south toward Wellington. Melinda's friends asked if we would be taking the "Desert Road" - highway 1. Huh? Desert is about the only environment we don't see in New Zealand, but, yes - we were taking Highway 1. Lo and Behold, a while after leaving Lake Taupo, we found ourselves in what loooked like eastern Oregon - the high desert. Straight road! So straight that it put Melinda to sleep. In this video - you'll see the view out the side window.
