Good Times and Bad Oysters

Raglan, New Zealand
37.8014°S, 174.8718°E

After only a few days on the road, Sarah had grown embarrassingly attached to our campervan. When we took a break from the van for two nights in a hotel in Wellington, she kept saying things like “I miss our campervan,” and “I hope our van’s okay in the parking lot.” Needless to say, Sarah was excited to be reunited with the van as we left Wellington.

We drove out of the city in a torrential downpour and intense winds, heading towards the North Island town of New Plymouth. Because the weather was so crappy, we decided to use this as a “driving day.” I drove for five hours as Sarah navigated and searched for campsites.

Fortunately as we approached New Plymouth, the sun poked through the clouds and we arrived in town in complete sunshine. New Plymouth sits on the Tasman Sea in the Taranaki Region, named for the active volcano, Mount Taranaki, in the area. Because New Plymouth is somewhat off the beaten path, it’s less touristy than many other towns in that part of the North Island.

We pulled into New Plymouth and I went looking for a barbershop while Sarah went down to the town’s beach for a quick workout. I was pretty overdue for a haircut, and to minimize trips to the barber I opted for a shorter cut than normal, realizing immediately afterwards that my hairline is slowly becoming the exact same as Arrested Development’s George Oscar “G.O.B.” Bluth….

Sarah and I were very much looking forward to seeing this part of New Zealand because of its famous black sand beaches. The sand’s color is derived from the volcanic activity along the northwest coast of the North Island, and it is really incredible to see. Lucky for us, our campsite was located close to one of these beaches. After parking our van on a lot with golf course-like green grass, we headed to the beach for the sunset.

And what a sunset it was….

This was definitely the best sunset of the trip so far, and we couldn’t remember seeing anything like it in our lives. Pretty cool.

Sarah’s War on Sandflies

New Zealand is not all black sand beaches, soft green fields and breathtaking sunsets. One of the country’s few imperfections is that it has what is best described as a huge fucking sandfly problem. Sandflies are everywhere, and have a way of finding any exposed human skin and biting away. This can be a problem when living in a campervan that is mostly open when parked, and full of numerous nooks for sandflies to set up shop and lay eggs.

Fortunately, my traveling partner made it her mission to ensure no sandfly was allowed to make our van its home….not on her watch.

We left New Plymouth in our fly-free van on Valentines Day and headed out for our longest stretch of driving yet, six plus hours up the coast to Otorohanga. Our plan was to stay the night here before heading further north to the town of Raglan, our final destination before Auckland.

After the long drive, Sarah and I walked around Otorohanga, a sleepy town known mostly to visitors for its kiwi bird sanctuary. Kiwi birds are a national symbol for New Zealand, and the reason for the “kiwi” nickname given to New Zealanders. In the sanctuary you can see a kiwi bird feeding, but because they are nocturnal and endangered, you won’t likely bump into the flightless birds outside of a protected sanctuary.

After checking into our campground, Sarah and I walked back into town to find a place for Valentine’s Day dinner. We popped into a crowded restaurant – by far the biggest crowd we had seen in Otorohanga – and decided on a couple ice cold beers and the seafood platter, which included local green mussels (a first for us), prawns, fried cod, scallops, and of course oysters.

Being the oyster lovers we are, Sarah and I went for those first. I took one down and then Sarah ate hers, but grimaced afterwards.

• Sarah: “Something’s not right with these.”
• Gerry: “No, they are fine. Oysters just taste different in this part of the world.”
• Sarah: “No really I think they are bad.”
• Gerry: “They just are different here. The taste just lingers a little longer. Have another (smelling oyster). They are fine.”
• Sarah: “No thanks, you can have the last two.”
• Gerry: “OK – more for me! (downs remaining two oysters in mocking manner)”

We finished the entire seafood platter, had a couple more beers and headed back to the van, smiling about our fun Valentine’s Day dinner. At around 11:00 p.m. that night, we woke up in the van and both immediately knew that Sarah had been right…bad oysters.

The next seven hours are not worth describing here, but needless to say we’re not sure we’ll be able to eat another oyster this trip. On a positive note, the campervan’s sliding doors proved to be very convenient for our middle-of-the night reaction to the oysters.

At this point, after my Fiji belly experience and this oyster incident, my current ratio of countries visited to countries puked in is 1:1. Fingers crossed for Australia.

Blackwater Rafting

Our last major adventure activity in New Zealand was an underground cave rafting tour in the Waikato Region. Still fragile from the night before, we drove to the Blackwater Rafting’s parking lot and napped before heading inside to get our wetsuits on for the underground trip.

The three hour tour started with a short hike up to the cave opening, before we climbed down into the freezing water and started our float through the maze of river nearly 200 feet under ground. We jumped off underground waterfalls with our tubes and saw thousands of “glowworms,” the marketing term the cave company uses to describe the glowing waste these underground maggots leave behind. Even with shaky stomachs, cave rafting was a unique and fun experience.

Our Favorite Town

We had heard a lot of great things about a town called Raglan on the northwest coast of the North Island, just about two hours from Auckland. When we rolled into the town in our van, we knew immediately we would like this place.

It was one of the smaller towns we had been in, but Raglan is full of great cafes, restaurants, and surf shops. It’s a very popular surf destination and was featured in the 1966 movie The Endless Summer, about two Americans traveling the world to find great surf breaks.

We decided to stay in Raglan for two nights, in order to get some work done the first day and then go surfing the next day. Even though it rained much of the time, we both agreed Raglan was our favorite town that we had visited in New Zealand. We had some great meals at The Shack, Blind Tiger and the Raglan Harbour View Hotel. We also couldn’t resist picking up a couple surf tees from the shops in town after a great morning of surfing at Raglan’s Ngarunui Beach.

Auckland and Waiheke Island

We returned our camper van in Auckland, after Sarah said her emotional goodbye, and went into the city. We stayed for two nights in a hotel in Auckland’s central business district, close to Britomart Station, the city’s primary transportation hub. We were only about a 10-minute walk to the harbor and really enjoyed the harborwalk that runs along most of the harbor. For a big city – Auckland has 1.4 million people and about a third of the New Zealand population – Auckland felt much less congested than other similarly-sized places we’ve visited. The city was clean and the harbor area was jam packed with shops, bars, and restaurants, most of them with some type of water view.

The highlight of our trip to Auckland was our visit to Waiheke Island, a 45 minute ferry from Auckland. After docking on the island we left the marina and decided to rent bikes to explore the island. We rode around for a bit before coming across the Cable Bay Vineyards, on top of one of Waiheke’s many hills. Waiheke has at least a few dozen wineries and we stumbled across one that arguably has the best views on the island.

We spent most of the day exploring Waiheke before catching an evening ferry back to the city for our last night in New Zealand. After a couple burgers at a harborside restaurant, we headed back to our hotel and packed for our morning flight to Sydney.

More pictures from our time on the North Island….