Journey along the Pacific Coast Highway

From Taupo, we headed north towards Rotorua, stopping off on the way to test out our monkey skills at Adrenaline Forest. Similar to Go-Ape, this involved us adorning harnesses to climb, swing and jump between trees on an aerial assault course. Our favourite obstacle by far was the ‘flying fox’, where we clipped on to zip-lines and flew through the canopy, a technique Josie also cheekily adopted on some of the more challenging obstacles. Four hours later, and throughly exhausted, we had completed all 6 difficultly levels and headed back to our campervan for a well earned beer.

The next day, we continued north and arrived in Rotorua a town famous for its Māori heritage and its geothermal activity. Boasting a plethora of bubbling mud pools, active geysers and heated spa pools, it sounded like the ultimate relaxation experience. Unfortunately, all this geothermal activity results in the production of copious amounts of hydrogen sulphide, which gives the town quite an overwhelmingly unpleasant ‘rotten egg’ smell! After a quick look around the town and a visit to a few of these attractions, we decided we couldn’t stomach it much longer and continued our journey north to rejoin the Pacific Coast Highway.

Happy to be back on the coast and breathing fresh ocean air again, we enjoyed a lovely few days exploring the western half of the Bay of Plenty, home of the kiwifruit! Whilst here we also had our first thunder and lightning storm in the van, which Josie found very exciting. Further along the coast we stopped at the town of Whakatāne, famous for its proximity to New Zealand’s (and one of the world’s) most active volcanoes - White Island/Whakaari. Visiting the volcano via boat from Whakatāne was a popular tourist attraction until an eruption occurred in 2019 whilst people were on the island. Tragically 20 tourists and 2 guides were killed and many more suffered horrific and life changing burns. We watched the Netflix documentary ‘Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari’ before visiting Whakatāne and found it quite haunting to see the tour boats involved still parked up along the quay. This, tied in with the visible steam clouds puffing from the island on the horizon, gave the town quite an ominous feel.

Passage from Josie:

Having studied Geology at uni and specialised in volcanology, I found the mixed emotions of our visit quite overwhelming. This was my first time witnessing an active volcano and I was captivated by it. Even from 50km away, you could feel the island’s power and it reminded me of why I chose to study my degree - to gain an insight into these powerful forces of nature, so completely beyond our control.

The truth is that had Nathan and I visited Whakatāne prior to 2019, I know I would have pushed for us to visit the island. Nathan reassures me that he would have put up a good argument to dissuade me and with how events played out, clearly he would have been justified, but who knows if we would have ended up on one of these tours.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that as someone who grew up fascinated by natural hazards, I can totally understand how extreme places such as White Island become tourist attractions in the first place. Obviously with hindsight we can look back and question how tourists were ever put in such danger or possibly even argue that an eruption was inevitable, but there will always be people drawn to these places. The question I’m interested in is how we can still maintain access to extreme environments like this whilst reducing the risk sufficiently to prevent disasters from happening in the future. Okay, enough of my ramblings, back to the blog :)

With White Island still bubbling away on the horizon, we continued our journey along the coast and out towards the Eastern Cape. Here it was our mission to see one of the first sunrises in the world! We travelled along a seemingly-endless gravel track; stayed overnight in a very remote and rudimentary campsite and woke up at 5am to travel to the easternmost tip of New Zealand… only for clouds to block the sunrise 🙄. Still, it was an awesome experience and one to tick off the bucket list!

Heading south from the Eastern Cape, we passed through stunning mountainous  landscapes with some of the most isolated communities in the North Island dotted in the valleys below. We stopped off at Gisborne, Captain Cooke’s first landing point on New Zealand, and finally made it down to Hawke’s Bay - the North Island’s wine region.

Forgive us if the next blog is delayed… we intend to sample our fair share of the local produce and with 91 wineries to choose from, the hangover may last a while!