Congo

What a drive.

This morning I woke up to the pitch black of Base Auckland and the symphony of snoring from my fellow roommates who crawled into the room sometime in the middle of the night. So, fumbling around, I managed to get my running clothes together and headed out the door. Well, elevator. I ran up Victoria Street to the Sky Tower, past Myer park and up to Albert park. Albert park was quite pretty, very dark, but had a lovely fountain, benches and quite a few absolutely massive trees as well. Rounding off on the run, I went over to Beach Road where the campervan pickup was located: thank goodness I decided to do that… the pick up place was extremely hard to find and very well camouflaged. Finding that while hauling a massive suitcase would have been absolutely impossible.

Albert park in the morning

Finally Annie and I got all of our stuff together and began the long haul to pick up our van. I wish I had packed lighter. Or lost some of my clothes.

Congo was waiting on us at the pickup spot, all ready to go. We checked it out, tied up loose ends and headed to the grocery to get sustenance for the upcoming week. Returning and raring to hit the road, I seated myself in the awkwardly placed driver’s seat (only awkward having come from the states) and battled with the parking break. It’s a puzzle.

Congo and I loving NZ

After making loops all around Auckland and creating a very colorful personal soundtrack for the road rage, I finally guided Congo to interstate 1. Port Waikato, here we come.

Just the usual drive

Annie and I drove all over the place, past fruit stands and through the little town of Pukekohe (nicknamed “Pukey”) on our way out. We stopped at a rest stop which had some gorgeous gardens along the Waikato riverside on the way to Port Waikato but what we didn’t realize is that Port Waikato was only a mere right hand turn away.

Random gardens in the middle of nowhere

We continued to drive on in search of “Weathertop” (cue LotR music) when we were just dumbfounded by the gorgeous, wild landscape that we had driven into. We stopped for a flock of birds bearing great resemblance to a peacock/albino peacock/pheasant/turkey hybrid which was amazing but then we looked up to see a glorious waterfall in the distance. Pressing onwards, we stopped to converse with a sorrel horse who poked his head over the fence, begging to be petted.

Can I have a carrot?

On the never-ending hunt for Weathertop in all its glory, we drove further down the gravel road, waiting on the “10Km” mark. One spot in particular seemed to grab our attention so we stopped for an incredible view of the surrounds- it looked just like the film. Why? Because that was Weathertop and we didn’t even realize it until our way back… three hours later.

Where is Weathertop? Oh, about 10 km ago.

We bumped and swerved our way through the cliffs with the barren limestone faces and the lush grasses. We ended up driving through some little blobs of forest with pine trees (invasive here) and beautiful ferns.

Traffic jam

Puttering along up another hill past the sheep and cattle I pulled the car over and without hesitating leapt out. There was a teeny little hedgehog just cruising around on the road! How adorable!!

Cute little guy!

Congo stopping for the view

Believing that we finally reached civilization when we hit a paved road, we drove to the nearest town… or in that general direction. Along the way we stopped at a sketchy rickety swinging bridge for a photo op.

Back in the van. We drove onwards back through our original path (boy were we thrilled to discover that) and re-located Weathertop, this time with guidebook in hand.

Proof in hand.

 Wanting to see this mysterious Port Waikato, we turned left on our way back to civilization, heeding to Annie’s “ooohhh I want to go to the beach!” remark. Oh, what a stunning excursion! Sunset beach was a mere 3 K’s or so away. It was black sand, rocks and just stunning.

Just in time!

Getting to that spot was a feat...

Determined to make good time on our trip we headed back the way we had originally arrived and Annie, the new driver, stopped at a local fruit stand in Pukey upon my request. There I bought a massive bag of Gala apples and a persimmon. From there it was mostly highway, night, and lots of rain until we arrived in the seaside village of Raglan, a solid 2 hours away. Unwilling to pay for a holiday park, and unable to find it in any case, we pulled over at a toilet stop where I remain now, writing about our adventures while praying we don’t get kicked out of the area.

Best fruit stand ever.

 And then the bar decided to start up… and we needed to move. In said moving process, Congo’s driver... name unknown, backed into a car. But no worries... no damage done. I think.