sans campervan
what a mess of rainy weather today is. i just left raglan, on the west coast, this morning to come back to auckland to drop off my trusty vehicular home of the last three weeks.
i thought that in three weeks i'd make a decently thorough circuit of the north island, but that's emphatically not the case. think i got through about half of it, and that still felt sort of rushed. nearly every bend in the road brought fictional-looking scenery: stands of straight-trunked native kauri trees, undulating technicolor-green hills dotted with sheep, coastlines shrouded in fog for miles in shades of black sand and white. the male half of the couple i rented my van from asked me, 'so, when are you moving here?' when i arrived back at their property with a big, relaxed smile on my face. i told him i wasn't sure, that i hadn't decided on exactly where yet. definitely have a couple spots staked out, however.
so raglan, where i left this morning, was similar to the little coastal cali town where i grew up, except it's distinctly new zealand. it's a surf community, with artists and craftspeople and a very low-key vibe, protest signs along the road against black-sand harvesting. there are big, squat palms lining the main drag in the tiny downtown area, a little estuarine inlet sort of area just at the end of the road, and beautiful, uncrowded beaches just outside of town. raglan also claims to have one of the longest, if not the longest, left-hand surf break in the world...a claim that sounds sort of familiar...
before that coastal stop i did the dorky fan thing and visited te awamutu, the inland town where tim & nick finn (of split enz and crowded house fame) grew up. half of the small local museum is devoted to local maori artifacts and cultural exhibits while the other half is like a tribute to the finn brothers. earlier that day i parked the campervan at the waitomo caves, which house stalactites and constellations of glowworms. there's a tour there that takes you through some of the caves, at the end of which everyone gets into an aluminum (sorry- aluminium) boat in the water inside the cave system and checks out the colonies of glowworms hanging from the ceiling. it's lovely and weird, even if you are in a boat full of spastic fourteen-year-old boys on a field trip.
other highlights, besides every moment of jaw-droppingly gorgeous scenery and daily interactions with the stupefyingly nice natives, included soaking for three hours in thermal pools at rotorua while a gentle drizzle fell. i think i floated out of that place; i don't actually remember leaving... another thermal area called 'craters of the moon' exists near lake taupo, and i walked around checking out steam vents a-hissing and mud pools a-burbling. on the radio in taupo a local tourism PR guy was doing a brief report on the state of tourism in taupo, and he mentioned that most international visitors have never heard of the place. to which the host responded, 'well, they need to be slapped with a big smoked trout!...in a friendly way!' so: go to taupo. you can skydive there and stuff, and it's awfully pretty. look out for jolly-looking men bearing large fish, however.
i've met lots of artists, been 'good on ya!'-ed a zillion times for careening about the countryside on my own, and gotten quite drunk on the rejuvenating beauty of the landscape and friendliness of the people here. it is really a magical place.
tonight, here in auckland, i'm going with my friend H to a 'kiwiana' party (celebrating all things new zealand; i'm sure much will be lost on me). this weekend we're planning to do an overnight trek someplace and i sort of dread getting rained on, but i'm sure there'll be a good story - or at least a story - in there by the end of it.
back in oakland on tuesday... anyone up for lunch?
ta...
i thought that in three weeks i'd make a decently thorough circuit of the north island, but that's emphatically not the case. think i got through about half of it, and that still felt sort of rushed. nearly every bend in the road brought fictional-looking scenery: stands of straight-trunked native kauri trees, undulating technicolor-green hills dotted with sheep, coastlines shrouded in fog for miles in shades of black sand and white. the male half of the couple i rented my van from asked me, 'so, when are you moving here?' when i arrived back at their property with a big, relaxed smile on my face. i told him i wasn't sure, that i hadn't decided on exactly where yet. definitely have a couple spots staked out, however.
so raglan, where i left this morning, was similar to the little coastal cali town where i grew up, except it's distinctly new zealand. it's a surf community, with artists and craftspeople and a very low-key vibe, protest signs along the road against black-sand harvesting. there are big, squat palms lining the main drag in the tiny downtown area, a little estuarine inlet sort of area just at the end of the road, and beautiful, uncrowded beaches just outside of town. raglan also claims to have one of the longest, if not the longest, left-hand surf break in the world...a claim that sounds sort of familiar...
before that coastal stop i did the dorky fan thing and visited te awamutu, the inland town where tim & nick finn (of split enz and crowded house fame) grew up. half of the small local museum is devoted to local maori artifacts and cultural exhibits while the other half is like a tribute to the finn brothers. earlier that day i parked the campervan at the waitomo caves, which house stalactites and constellations of glowworms. there's a tour there that takes you through some of the caves, at the end of which everyone gets into an aluminum (sorry- aluminium) boat in the water inside the cave system and checks out the colonies of glowworms hanging from the ceiling. it's lovely and weird, even if you are in a boat full of spastic fourteen-year-old boys on a field trip.
other highlights, besides every moment of jaw-droppingly gorgeous scenery and daily interactions with the stupefyingly nice natives, included soaking for three hours in thermal pools at rotorua while a gentle drizzle fell. i think i floated out of that place; i don't actually remember leaving... another thermal area called 'craters of the moon' exists near lake taupo, and i walked around checking out steam vents a-hissing and mud pools a-burbling. on the radio in taupo a local tourism PR guy was doing a brief report on the state of tourism in taupo, and he mentioned that most international visitors have never heard of the place. to which the host responded, 'well, they need to be slapped with a big smoked trout!...in a friendly way!' so: go to taupo. you can skydive there and stuff, and it's awfully pretty. look out for jolly-looking men bearing large fish, however.
i've met lots of artists, been 'good on ya!'-ed a zillion times for careening about the countryside on my own, and gotten quite drunk on the rejuvenating beauty of the landscape and friendliness of the people here. it is really a magical place.
tonight, here in auckland, i'm going with my friend H to a 'kiwiana' party (celebrating all things new zealand; i'm sure much will be lost on me). this weekend we're planning to do an overnight trek someplace and i sort of dread getting rained on, but i'm sure there'll be a good story - or at least a story - in there by the end of it.
back in oakland on tuesday... anyone up for lunch?
ta...
posted by a wandering eye at 10:03 PM
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