Our fun weekend of (mis)adventure and Scott does something embarrassing

As I wrote several postings ago, in March we spent several weekends camping, hiking, and enjoying the beaches in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty area. Before I get to our weekend of misadventure, I will give you a brief update of our March 9-11 weekend.

Our intention for that weekend was to camp and hike in the Coromandel Peninsula Forest Park, which is located in blocks east and south of Thames, and spend an afternoon at Opoutere Beach, which is one of our friend Landis' favourite NZ beaches. Friday after school we drove to and did a short walk in the Karangahake Gorge. The Gorge was a big gold mining area in the late 1800's and early 1900's and the trails through the area introduce you to some of its history. One trail takes you through an old train tunnel that is 1 km long. We did the tunnel but it was pretty gloomy. Marshall found the goldmining history fascinating, especially the amount of work people did and stuff they built to get the gold.

Karangahake Gorge

On Friday night we camped at the Wentworth Valley DOC campground, which was nice but pretty basic. On Marshall's campground rating: scenery - 2.5; campground quality - 2.5 (outhouse toilets, no showers, swimming in the river, fishing (if you had a rod)); noisiness - 4.5 (the campground was pretty empty).

On Saturday morning we packed up and then went for a 2 hour walk (which became 3) to Wentworth Falls. The walk was nice, but not as good as other forest walks we have done. The falls were very scenic with an upper and lower pool. Marshall griped a bit about the length of the walk on the way there and then proceeded to have us bushwack for an extra hour so we could explore the falls in greater detail.


Wentworth Falls, another one of
Marshall's favourite NZ waterfall walks

After Wentworth Falls we drove up the coast a bit to Opoutere Beach. We agree with Landis, it is a really nice beach. In the high tourist season I can see why it might not be as busy as other beaches. To get to it you have to park your car and then walk about 3/4 of a kilometre to the beach. It was cloudy and cool when we visited Opoutere, so it wasn't the best beach day. Still, we had a fun afternoon beachcombing (great shells) and braving the waves.
On Saturday night we stayed at the Broken Hills DOC campground in Coromandel Forest Park (same rating as Wentworth campground above, but no swimming). It rained that night and we woke up to a wet tent and sleeping bags. Karen and I have had the tent we are using on this trip for 20 years. It has been a great tent but sadly its time has come and it is not making the return trip to Canada. First, despite a recent waterproofing effort, it leaks pretty badly. Second, now that Marshall is bigger, the three of us are really squished in there. Oh well, now we have more room/weight allowance for souvenirs.

On Sunday morning we did a few short walks near the campground (another old gold mining area) and then because of the rain, cancelled our plans to hike in the Kauaeranga Valley (directly east of Thames). Instead, we spent the afternoon visiting a mining museum, an art shop, and a fish and chip restaurant in Thames. A good afternoon but way more expensive than hiking. On our way home from Thames we stopped in a small town, Ngatea, where by good fortune Karen and I found our piece of NZ art that we are bringing home to remember our trip by. We hope to hike in the Kauaeranga Valley sometime during the few weeks we have remaining in NZ.


Big waves at Opoutere Beach

Our fun weekend of (mis)adventure

Even after getting rained on, we decided we still had not had enough camping or beaches, so on the weekend of March 16-18 we packed up again and headed to Awakeri Hot Springs Holiday Park, about two hours southeast of Hamilton. We had two plans for the weekend. One was to spend time at Ohope Beach and the other was to do some hiking in the Te Urewera National Park Mainland Island (an ecological reserve).

After an easy drive we arrived at the campground around 7 pm. It received an interesting rating: scenery - 2.5 (green but nothing special); campground quality - 5.5/5; noisiness - 3 (you could hear some highway traffic). Karen gave the campground a 5.5 for quality/amenities because of its swimming pool. The campground has an Olympic size swimming pool that is heated by hot springs to a toasty 38-40 C. Karen was in heaven Friday night as we took our first swim. It is a really nice pool; big, clean, etc., and we all enjoyed it, although it was a little too hot for actual swimming. No matter, we came to this campground for the pool and it lived up to our expectations.

Our fun began on Saturday morning. Our plan was to get up early and drive the hour to Te Urewera Nat. Park, hike for awhile, and then head to Ohope Beach for the remainder of the afternoon. Our van had other plans. Pulling out of the campground we heard a loud squealing from our engine which abruptly stopped. Then the battery light came on and after a short bit of driving, the engine coolant light came on. Uh oh, we lost our alternator and water pump belt!

We limped back to a small gas station and garage near the campground. No luck, the mechanic was away for the weekend. So we called NZ AA (our CAA membership transferred to NZ, thank goodness) and arranged for a tow truck from Whakatane to come and get us. Whakatane is the major centre on that part of the coast. It took a bit but the tow truck found us. Karen and I were surprised at the appearance of the tow truck driver, who also became our mechanic. He was youngish, clean-cut, no tattoos--different than your stereotypical tow truck driver.

Tim, our mechanic and new best friend, drove us to his garage in Whakatane, opened up the hood and said no problem, he had the belt we needed and we would be on the road shortly unless he got called away to tow someone else. While he fixed our van we just hung around the garage chatting with him and planning the rest of our day. Marshall spent a good deal of the time rolling around on one of the little carts mechanics use to slide under cars. By 11:30 we were back on the road. As an added bonus, the whole job only cost us $75. Given that it was a weekend and emergency repair, we were expecting a bigger bill. However, Tim said because we had been so nice and patient about the whole incident he wanted to do something nice for us. Sweet. I guess he gets some pretty uptight tourists sometimes. Being honest, as a family we did handle the whole incident pretty gracefully. The hardest part for me was waiting for the tow truck. I have never had a car break down before and having to wait on someone left me feeling out of control. Tim also gave us some tips about things we could do in and around Whakatane.

As it was 11:30 and a beautiful day, we skipped Te Urewera Nat. Park and drove straight to Ohope Beach.


Who's going in first? Ohope Beach, NZ

To put it simply, we had an awesome afternoon at Ohope. After Rarawa Beach (silica sand beach I wrote about a long time ago), Ohope Beach is our favourite NZ beach. Huge, beautiful sand, great swimming and boarding. It was also our best beach weather day of the trip--sunny, calm winds, warm but not too hot. 

It turned out to be one of those idyllic family times you just can't plan for. We spent the afternoon swimming, beachcombing, talking, and having a picnic lunch. Later in the afternoon we got to help two fishermen who had been longlining from the beach for snapper. It is hard to describe, we just were all in-sync that day.

A very happy family at Ohope Beach

To finish our day off we had a great fish and chips dinner at a restaurant in Whakatane recommended to us by Tim our mechanic. As a family we don't eat a lot of deep-fried food, but we seem to have a weakness for good fish and chips. At least this time we got it right and ordered more fish and less chips.

Embarrassing moment for Scott - On Saturday night, after our hard day at Ohope Beach, we all needed to unwind and relax in the campground's geothermal heated pool. The pool wasn't too crowded so Marshall and I started playing one of our pool games. Marshall climbs on my back, we each take a deep breath, and then we see how far we can swim underwater with Marshall riding me. (Okay, it is more of a game for Marshall and work for me, but what's a dad to do.) This time we decided we would be stealthy and "sneak" up on Karen, so under we go. Swimming with your eyes open in 38 C water is not the most pleasant thing, so I didn't open my eyes until I thought we were close to Karen, and even then I was sort of squinting through one eye. I am sure you can see where this story is going. I grabbed Karen's ankle and then started working up to her knee. By this time Marshall had got off my back so I popped out of the water in front of Karen with a big smile on my face. Much to my horror, it wasn't Karen in front of me, but instead a mature woman talking with a group of four friends. (Karen was about 5 metres to my right.) I can't really describe the look on the woman's face--she didn't yell or scream or get mad, but she wasn't smiling about my mistake either. I started stammering something about game with son, hot water, etc. This didn't seem to be helping matters, so I apologized, told her I was just glad I stopped at her knee, and slunk away as best as can be done in a pool. Meanwhile Karen and Marshall, who had abandoned me, were watching all of this and laughing away. Ha ha! Marshall, who was wearing goggles, said he saw us swimming towards this group of ladies and tried to warn me by pulling on my shoulders. Maybe he did, but if so, it wasn't a very serious effort because like I said, by the time I surfaced he was already at Karen's side. When we told our NZ friends this story, they thought it was hilarious, all the more so because it happened to me and not them. Karen thinks the lady I grabbed got a laugh out of it later when she told the story to other people.

On Sunday morning we packed up and went for one last dip in the pool. Fortunately for me, my victim from the night before wasn't there. We then drove an hour to Te Urewera (TU) Mainland Island.  TU National Park is the largest park on the northern island, and TU Mainland Island is the largest NZ mainland island. There are several places to access trails in TU National Park. Most people go to the trails around Lake Waikaremoana, which is towards the south end of the park. The Lake Waikaremoana trails are a long drive from Hamilton and we could not do them and spend time at Ohope Beach in one weekend, so we opted to visit the northeastern part (Mainland Island) of the park, which is pretty close to Awakeri and the coast. I wanted to visit this part of the park because it is very ecologically diverse. It has 650 plant species and all of the North Island's birds except the weka. Unlike some other mainland islands, the Te Urewera Mainland Island is not fenced in. At 50,000 ha it is too big. They use planes and helicopters to drop poison for pest control.

Te Urewera National Park, Ngatuoha Nature Trail

At one point during our drive in to Te Urewera that morning it seemed we were destined to once again not see the park. TU  Mainland Island is at the end of a 30 km road that gets progressively windier, narrower, and bumpier the closer you get to the park. At around kilometre 20 there was a sign that said "Road Closed 5 km ahead Rockfall." Karen and I looked at each other and we both had the same thought, which was to keep driving and see if the road really was closed. We were in luck because when we got to where the rockfall had occurred we found that the road had been cleared. So, going slowly and quietly, we continued on to the trailheads. Not surprisingly, there was only one other vehicle in the parking lot.

Unfortunately from our perspective the walk we did (Ngutuoha Nature Trail) wasn't worth the drive. We were hoping to see and hear more bird life, particularly the kokako. The trail itself was nice but unless you are a hardcore botanist, it is impossible to make sense of the 650 different plant species. Karen didn't like the walk so much because the forest was much more closed in and darker than other walks we had been on. Saying all of this, I know we did not give the TU Mainland Island all the time it deserved. There are some longer walks in the area suited to more experienced hikers. I suspect if you hiked one of those trails you would get a better appreciation for the grandeur and wildness of the TU Mainland Island.
 

Whio ducks on the Waimana River,
Te Urewera National Park, NZ

After our walk we went down to the Waimana River to sit on the shore and have our picnic lunch. It was here that our weekend of misadventure continued to reward us. We were lucky enough to see a pair of whio (blue duck) land on the river close to us. There are now only around 1200 whio left in the wild. They are a unique duck that lives in fast flowing rivers, where they eat insect larvae off of the rocks on the river bottom. Their numbers have declined as a result of hunting, predation, habitat loss from hydro dams, and competition from introduced trout which eat a lot of the insect larvae whio feed on. What was neat about seeing the pair of whio is that we saw them in a natural setting, compared to the takahe we had seen previously.


Karen being artistic at Papamoa Beach

After Te Urewera, we drove north up the coast to Papamoa Beach near Tauranga where we spent a good part of the afternoon. Along the way we stopped at Kiwi360 in Te Puke, a tourist trap (my opinion) dedicated to the noble and iconic kiwi fruit. Papamoa is another great, long beach that gets a lot of big waves. Papamoa is a town and/or suburb of Tauranga that stretches along the beach. Like many beaches in NZ, at Papamoa you can park your car pretty much anywhere along the road that runs parallel to the beach and then access the beach at a number of marked paths. I envy people who have homes on these types of roads.

Thus ends our weekend of (mis)adventure, which I know will put smiles on our faces whenever we look back on it.

Well this and our previous three postings pretty much wrap up how we spent March in New Zealand. We really settled into our "home-life" in Hamilton and got to explore some more of this unique country. We are not completely sure of our plans for April, except that we know we leave for Australia on April 27. The weather for the Easter Weekend doesn't look great but we will get out and do some fun things. (It is also a long weekend and the start of a two week school break, so many places will be busy). We definitely want to spend time doing the Tongariro Crossing (reputedly the greatest one day walk in the world). We have also been invited out to Hahei for a weekend. In between those things we need to sell our van, sort through our mountain of sea shells and other beach findings, and pack. We will not be going to the South Island. It sounds amazing and we really wanted to, but at this stage of our trip another week-long driving and camping excursion just feels like too much. Plus, unless we drove eight hours a day, we would only see a little bit of the South Island. Next time we come back to NZ we will make the South Island a priority.

Happy Easter from Aotearoa (Maori name for New Zealand).

Marshall's Birthday and a busy Balloons over Waikato week

On Monday we celebrated Marshall's 11th birthday. His actual birthday itself was pretty quiet. Marshall took cupcakes to school for his class, which were a big hit for obvious reasons, and he got lots of "Happy Birthdays" from his classmates, which he appreciated. For dinner we went to a good sushi restaurant. Marshall really likes sushi, but I would not call him hard-core. He doesn't like raw fish sushi, but he loves sushi with cooked foods in them, like tempura shrimp, crab, teriyaki chicken, etc. After dinner we came home and had more birthday cupcakes and Marshall opened up the presents and cards that had made their way to New Zealand. Marshall wanted me to say thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes, either through cards or by email.

Most of the exciting stuff for Marshall's birthday took place on the weekend. However, before I get to that, I need to back up and talk about last week.

Balloons over Waikato - Iwi the Kiwi

Since 1988 there has been a hot air balloon festival in Hamilton, with the present format "Balloons over Waikato" starting in 1999 or 2000. Every year it runs in late March or early April and attracts 30 balloonists, some local, some international. This year the festival ran from Wednesday, March 28 to Saturday, March 31. Every day of the festival their are, weather permitting, two mass ascensions (launches), which are open for free to the public. What is great is that while the balloons are inflating and preparing to lift off the public can walk through the field of balloons and get really close to the action.

On Wednesday morning we got up bright and early and were at the field near Hamilton Lake for 7:00 am. The highlight balloons for this year's festival were Iwi the Kiwi and two kangaroo balloons. The weather was perfect for ballooning on Wednesday morning - sunny with little wind. We watched the balloons inflate and saw the mass ascension lift off around 7:45. It was great fun--something about seeing 30 hot air balloons lift off together really stirs your inner kid.

Thursday was also fun for the Kidd family. On Thursday morning Marshall's school had a "Parade of Countries" to help celebrate the multiculturalism of the school. Marshall's NZ school has students from close to 50 different countries, so the parade was colourful and lots of fun to watch. At present, his school has three students who were born in Canada. Some of the more well-represented countries included Samoa and Somalia, but there were students from Egypt, Germany, Israel, Iraq, etc. Marshall represented Canada with two other boys.

After the parade we drove to Tauranga, which is about an hour east of Hamilton on the coast. Once there we met up with my Uncle Tom and Aunt Janet, who are on a cruise around NZ that started in Auckland and ends up in Sydney, Australia. We had lunch with them and then spent a pleasant afternoon swimming (Marshall and I), chatting and going for a little drive down the coast. (My Uncle Tom is an avid and accomplished curler, so it was great for me to catch up on some Canadian curling news.) Tauranga is a major centre with a significant port, but being on the coast, it of course also has great beaches. As a result, the area close to the cruise terminal, Mt. Maunganui, is very popular with tourists, in particular surfers. I wrote in an earlier posting that Raglan on the west coast is the probably the best known NZ surfing location, but Mt. Maunganui/Tauranga is probably the more popular surfing location. Not being a surfer, I don't know which spot has better waves. After my Aunt and Uncle reboarded their ship, we explored the coast and kicked around the beach for another hour and a half before heading back to Hamilton.

On Friday morning one of the balloons launched from Marshall's school. After the launch, most of the students partook in a breakfast that they had pre-ordered. Once the balloonist came back to the school, via his chase vehicle, some of the students got to ask him various questions. Marshall's question was whether the balloons can be turned/rotated. The answer is yes, they can. Each balloon has two vents, one on each "side" of the balloon which can be opened. Once a vent is opened, air rushes out and the balloon rotates.

A short balloon ride story someone we met last Tuesday night told us. She had guests visiting from overseas who had arranged for a balloon tour outside of Hamilton. When she and her two sons took their guests out to the balloon, the balloonist said other guests who had prepaid for the same balloon ride had not arrived and would this woman and her two sons like to go on the balloon ride as well. She said yes and away they all went. The takeoff and flight were apparently lots of fun and very smooth. The landing however was not. Coming down they ran into really bad turbulence and the basket ended up going through trees, a stream, etc. and the basket crashed/got dragged on its side, eventually stopping in a field of cows. They were all shaken-up (the women telling the story stills gets a sore shoulder from the "landing"). However, she said the worst part was the reaction of the farmer. He came out and proceeded to swear up a blue streak at them for crashing in his field and scaring his cows (which can sour the milk). She said he was not at all concerned about the people in the balloon, only his cows. The farmer's neighbour came to investigate the crash and had to send the farmer away and then the neighbour helped this lady and the others in the balloon. She said there was nothing the pilot could do, once they got low to the ground, the turbulence just took them.

After hearing this story I asked Marshall if he wanted to go on a balloon ride. With rather wide eyes he said, "No way!"

On Saturday night we had more fun with balloons. The finale to the balloon festival is the "Night Glow" event at the University of Waikato. As you can see from the picture, once it gets dark all the balloons are inflated and the balloonists use their propane burners to light up their balloons. At the same time they choreograph it to music, so the balloons are being lit up to the beat of the music. The balloons remained tethered to the ground throughout the show--it is too dangerous for them to fly in the dark. After the Night Glow there was a fireworks display. The Night Glow is very popular. In 2010, it was estimated 80,000 people watched it. We all really enjoyed the show, particularly Marshall and his friend Tyler.

Seeing as we live on the University campus, we had friends over for a light dinner before the show and drinks afterwards. They brought Marshall some nice gifts. Following up on their earlier joke, Will and Diana gave Marshall a card entitled "Marshall's Walks to Waterfalls - 100 New Zealand Waterfalls". Inside the card are pictures of 12 different NZ waterfalls. Marshall thought the card was very funny.

On Sunday we went to Rotorua and brought Marshall's friend Tyler with us, who had come to the Night Glow with us and then slept over Saturday night. We spent the day seeing a few sites in Rotorua and having a picnic. We spent most of the day at Rainbow Springs which is a small wildlife park that Marshall really wanted to visit. While there we got to see some more kiwi birds and tuatara (the ancient reptile). The park has lots of other neat birds, fish, and reptiles/amphibians. One bird there was a kea, which is a parrot that lives in the mountains of the southern island. We had read that keas are smart and curious birds, but a video playing at the park showed them doing some pretty amazing stuff, such as solving hard puzzles. They also like to rip open backpacks and tear apart peoples' cars when they get a chance. If you watch the video, you will see what I mean (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twg4Yg4gFoo). I told Marshall and Karen that keas are fun to watch but I wouldn't want them in my backyard. The park also has a log ride that takes you through a short history of NZ's wildlife and ends with a plunge into a pool of water (think Big Thunder Mountain at Disney World). Marshall and Tyler went on it 4 times. It was fun, so I don't blame them.


Marshall's 11th Birthday, Rainbow Springs, Rotorua

That in a nutshell was how Marshall celebrated his birthday down under. He told Karen and I he had had a great week. He certainly was tired on Sunday night. This coming week is Marshall's last week at his NZ school.

Finally, a shout-out to Marshall's school in Quispamsis, Lakefield Elementary School. Rick Mercer has been running a contest on his show called "Spread the Net", the purpose of which is to raise funds for malaria nets for children in Africa. Lakefield raised $15,000, the most of any elementary school in Canada. Rick Mercer came to the school and taped a segment of his show there. The segment ran on Tuesday, April 3. It might be available on CBC or Rick Mercer's website. Great job!