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Dobe Doinat's Owner's Manual
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Southern Exposure
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Driving on Motorway 1, South from Auckland, we see much the same scenery we have enjoyed in the North of North Island.
North Island extends further South than it does North and we will be able to see much less of it than we did in the previous driving excursions to the North of Auckland, but we were determined to try.
Many of the town names are Polynesian, containing many more syllables than Americans are used to, interspersed with a few more "normal" sounding areas, such as Drury, Bombay, Mercer and even Hamilton, which is New Zealand's largest inland city.
From the outset, our goal was to drive to Rotorua, which we jokingly referred to as "Roto-router", a common term in America for cleaning out plumbing pipes when clogged.
We didn't actually go into the towns of Hamilton or Rotorua, but we did drive through and stop in several smaller towns which had the flavor of the American MidWest, or even, considering how many of the local citizens appeared to be of Maori or other Polynesian descent, American Indian Reservation towns.
After driving around the huge Lake Rotorua, a very picturesque drive on a winding two lanes given over to landscaped holiday homes, rural farms and mini-forests of mixed firs, ferns and palms, we came to the turnoff for "HellsGate", a geothermal preserve.
If you have seen the varied hotspots and thermal springs at Yellowstone in America, you might be a bit disappointed in the one-hour walkabout, but having come this far, we paid our $25NZD and soon became accustomed to the sulferous smells eminating from the bubbling mud and even a waterfall of hot water!
Of course, if you wanted to spend more, there were optional mud baths and a spa. We made do with the gift shop and cafe.
Then we decided to drive up the coast, from just North of Whakatane, through Matata, Pukhina and Tauranga, past Mt. Maunganui, and along a beautiful coastline.
From Waihi we headed inland through the Karangahake Gorge, passing Paeroa, Kerepehi, Ngatea, Mangatawhiri and back to Pokeno and Motorway 1.
The entire loop back to Auckland took about 10 hours and we really only did one tourist stop!
It's an Island, all right, but a really big one!
North Island extends further South than it does North and we will be able to see much less of it than we did in the previous driving excursions to the North of Auckland, but we were determined to try.
Many of the town names are Polynesian, containing many more syllables than Americans are used to, interspersed with a few more "normal" sounding areas, such as Drury, Bombay, Mercer and even Hamilton, which is New Zealand's largest inland city.
From the outset, our goal was to drive to Rotorua, which we jokingly referred to as "Roto-router", a common term in America for cleaning out plumbing pipes when clogged.
We didn't actually go into the towns of Hamilton or Rotorua, but we did drive through and stop in several smaller towns which had the flavor of the American MidWest, or even, considering how many of the local citizens appeared to be of Maori or other Polynesian descent, American Indian Reservation towns.
After driving around the huge Lake Rotorua, a very picturesque drive on a winding two lanes given over to landscaped holiday homes, rural farms and mini-forests of mixed firs, ferns and palms, we came to the turnoff for "HellsGate", a geothermal preserve.
If you have seen the varied hotspots and thermal springs at Yellowstone in America, you might be a bit disappointed in the one-hour walkabout, but having come this far, we paid our $25NZD and soon became accustomed to the sulferous smells eminating from the bubbling mud and even a waterfall of hot water!
Of course, if you wanted to spend more, there were optional mud baths and a spa. We made do with the gift shop and cafe.
Then we decided to drive up the coast, from just North of Whakatane, through Matata, Pukhina and Tauranga, past Mt. Maunganui, and along a beautiful coastline.
From Waihi we headed inland through the Karangahake Gorge, passing Paeroa, Kerepehi, Ngatea, Mangatawhiri and back to Pokeno and Motorway 1.
The entire loop back to Auckland took about 10 hours and we really only did one tourist stop!
It's an Island, all right, but a really big one!
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