Overlanding to Australia: Part 17
Haydon and Me-an discover the best parts of New Zealand's second largest Island thanks to a few Land Rover mad friendly locals
Exploring the best parts of New Zealand’s North Island with some Land Rover-mad locals
Our first stop south of Auckland is Rotorua, an area famous for its thermal activities so there is an eggy sulphur aroma in the air everywhere we go. It also presents an opportunity for a free outdoor hot pool. We are told of a place on the side of the road where a hot stream meets the cold stream and you just bob along to find your happy place. A quick search of our Galileo map confirms where it is and we spend the morning in the peaceful surroundings of the native woodlands in the hot stream.
We also visit the boiling mud pools before moving on to Lake Taupo, one of New Zealand’s most famous lakes. On our way, we receive a message from Chris, another Defender owner we were introduced to by Melissa (who we met when trying to get certification for the Land Rover). It turns out that Chris and his friend Dave and their children are planning to go camping for a couple of days and it will involve some off-road driving and we are welcome to join them.
We meet up with Chris on the beautiful shore of the lake and the sun is shining. Chris is in a 300Tdi 110 Defender and this is the first time he is taking his 15-month-old daughter camping. Dave is meeting us a little further down the road with his five-year-old twin daughters. The fun obviously doesn’t stop when you have kids with daddy day care.
We drive on the tarmac of Desert Road for about 60 miles from Taupo and turn off down a gravel track towards the Tongariro River which we are going to cross to get to the camp spot. Local knowledge comes in handy and Chris leads the way in his Land Rover. The camp spot is perfect. We build a fire, cook some sausages and enjoy the view of the mountains and the river.
The next morning, we set off to explore the surrounding area including the mountains around a volcano known to Lord of the Rings fans as Mount Doom. The landscape of this
“We race down a ravine, slipping and sliding, trying to get to the pig”
area is astonishing. You can capture the desert and snowcapped mountains in one frame. We get the Defenders up as high as we can, topping out at just under 2000 metres.
After another night around the camp fire, we say goodbye to Chris, Dave and the children and head east to the Bay of Plenty, but not before arranging a date for the clutch change at Dave’s workshop.
Through the power of social media, a friend of a friend has been in touch to say that he knows someone in New Zealand who would be glad to see us. His name is Sol and he is the ultimate dude. His list of talents includes pro skydiving, base jumping, surfing and open water diving to list but a few. The one I am most interested in at the moment is hunting.
We meet Sol at his house in an orchard covered in varieties of citrus trees. His Toyota Hilux is loaded with two dogs and today we are going to hunt for a pig. We follow Sol into the local woods and meet his friend, Grant. I jump into Grant’s pick-up truck which is loaded with three dogs and head further into the mountain.
Pig hunting turns out to be a form of extreme dog walking. The dogs are trained to follow the scent and pick one up almost immediately. The three of us walk along in the woods with a GPS tracker which will locate the dogs and we keep our ears open for the sound of a pig being caught. When the dogs go firm we know they have a pig. We race down a ravine, slipping and sliding trying to find our way down to get to the pig. It doesn’t take long as gravity helps us all out and we are on to the pig very quickly. It’s a boar weighing about 50 kg. Grant takes care of the pig with his knife in a precise and timely manner. Now it’s just a case of getting the boar back to the truck. The youngest carries the pig so it’s strapped to my back and off we go. This time gravity is against us as we pick our way out of the ravine and back to the truck. The dogs were amazing to watch as they work and Grant and Sol are true professionals. It was a great experience and one I won’t forget.
A successful day of hunting is celebrated back at Grant’s house with some hearty bacon bone soup, one of the best soups I have tasted. Loaded with parting gifts of loins of venison, wild boar sausages, salami, avocados and oranges, we are ready to hit the road again. We are humbled by the generosity of these top Kiwi blokes.
The weather in the North Island has been wet and miserable in the past couple of days and the advice we have been receiving is to head to the South Island. So after a day of culture in NZ’S capital Wellington, learning about the country's history, especially its involvement in the First World War at Galipoli, we board the ferry to cross the Cook Strait. We have been impressed with the majestic and varied landscape of the North Island but every Kiwi we have met all says the same thing: “Wait until you see the South Island”.