Apologies to any who have ties to Nebraska, but you know that feeling you get on a road trip when the road just goes on and on with nothing but wind-whipped plastic shopping bags stuck in a fence to break the monotony? Well, you won’t experience that in New Zealand.

Line up all of the national parks in the U.S.A. and drive through them one after the other and that’s what New Zealand is like. For instance, a typical 4 hour day’s drive is highlighted by a stop at a beach or a lake, another stop at a historic hotel for a bite, or a spectacular waterfall view at a pull off on the highway.  

  

  

  

 
And when you think it can’t get better, you’ll find sights like this at or near your campervan’s holiday park.

  Yes, you’re not traveling the huge distances like you do driving in the U.S.A. when you drive in New Zealand. A typical drive is 150-200 miles, and many of the miles are on curvy roads at slower than the posted 100 km per hour (60 mph). So the quest to drive 800 miles in a day to “get somewhere” just isn’t there, it’s more of a “the joy is in the journey” thing topped off by the great final destination. 

As we traveled the South Island of New Zealand we heard about a legendary delicacy called whitebait. It was on the menu when we stopped for dinner at the lovely Royal Theatre Hotel in Kumara, but we were there for the excellent fish and chips, so we didn’t order whitebait. 
Our Lonely Planet guidebook said that the Curleytree Whitebait Company 10 km north of Haas at the Waita River bridge was the place to try whitebait. Following the signs on Hwy 6 we turned down a gravel road along the river, and just past several “bach”es (beach cottages) we saw the Curleytree HQ. 

 
The sign on the door said “toot twice and we’ll be with you in a mo”. Sure enough, two toots later Tony came strolling up and took residence in the shack kitchen jutting out beyond his back door. 

 
Tony told us how during the several month season there are hundreds of people along the river netting the matchstick length, transparent fish. Each fisherman is only allowed one net, but there’s no limit on the amount that can be caught. 

Whitebait are the young of five species of New Zealand native scaleless fish and they can command a hefty tariff, with Tony saying that a 5 gal. bucket can net the netsman several thousand dollars. 

 
Tony dipped into the bucket which held the whitebait-egg mixture and dropped a spoonful on the hot griddle. A fry on one side, a flip to fry the other side, then he slipped the turner underneath and slid the browned patty on a slice of lightly grilled white bread.   

 We had two, one was served traditional, dressed with sea salt, pepper and lemon, the other West Coast style, with a little mint sauce made of mint leaves and oil and flavored salt. Both were delicious, with a mild white fish flavor. I preferred the mint sauce version by a hair. A whitebait purist would probably disagree, stating that less dress is best since you’re paying top dollar for a handful of minnows.

In America we have hiking trails, in New Zealand “tracks” are their equivalent. The Abel Tasman Track is the most used track in the country. We wanted to hike a section of the 54 k (33 mi.) track, so we got tickets for a water taxi to take us to Anchorage Bay the first stop at the track’s southern terminus. Passengers are loaded into the boats right at the water taxi headquarters in Marahu, then a tractor pulls the people-loaded boat down the road, onto the beach and right into the water.   

The captain took us past the famous Split Apple Rock and a seal colony on Adele Island. Then we waded off the boat and onto Anchorage Bay on the Abel Tasman Trail. 

 

Along this part of track there are numerous places where you can access the a beach. 

 We stopped at two, Atkerson Bay and Apple Tree Bay, swam and chilled before getting back on the track, after 4 hours we’d hiked 12.4 km (7.7 miles) back to the water taxi place in Marahau where we started. The trail is fool-proof, there’s no way to get lost, it’s hilly but a flat surface overall and easily hiked.   

 

Horopito, New Zealand is a pretty unremarkable farming town except for gear-heads. For those of us with a bit of 10-30 weight oil in our veins, Horopito lays claim to one of the coolest auto junk yards on the planet. Fashion these days is to use the term auto recycling to describe this type of business, but Smash Palace is truly a junk yard.  

 The vintage rusted heaps as far as the eye can see outside are almost topped by the warren of passageways on the stuffy second floor of the headquarters building crammed with parts inside. Hoods, steering wheels, hubcaps endlessly shelved and hanging. 

Nothing is marked, We met Bernie who lives on site and on sleepless nights roams this warren in his boxers, a camping headlight affixed to his head, searching for the errant old Hudson footplate, or whatever.  

Bernie proudly reported that at age 60 he’s found his dream job, working 3 days a week at Smash Palace.

Cindy gamely hung with me as I shot picture after picture, saying “Oh my gosh, ya gotta see this…” 

As we left Bernie, I asked him what the Hudson footplate might be sold for, his reply “Oh no, we won’t sell that, it’s destined for our planned museum and conference center”.

I have a feeling that once a car or part is interred at Smash Palace, there’s no getting out.   

#1. We WERE able to wake up at 7am, considering that between 11pm – 2am, even though we were tempted to party with the “kids,” we reached for our ear plugs instead.

#2. We FINALLY found a strong enough wifi connection to be able to FaceTime! A highlight of Cindy’s day – talking to Caitlin! However, the wifi was made possible as Art learned a pretty important lesson that you don’t put petrol in a diesel tank! Thank you car repair shop for strong wifi! All told it took 2 1/2 hours and of course, a price tag. 

  
We quickly shook it off, how could we not – we’re in NZ! Back in the van and on our way to Tongariro National Park where we enjoyed a great hike!

   

On the way back to the Campervan, imagine our surprise when we found a Pickleball court outside of Tongariro National Park!

 
 

Stay tuned- the best is yet to come for  this day! (It has to do with old, junky cars.)

We’d read in our guidebook that New Zealand has freedom camping, places where self-contained certified camper vans can pull up and stay overnight at no cost. Self-continued means the van has fresh and grey water storage and a toilet. The Toyota Hiace we’re renting from Britz qualifies.   

Taupo was the first time we sought out a freedom site, we pulled into the designated area along Ferry Drive and initially thought it was full. A desire to gawk at a strange rig (a white flat-bed Iveco truck with a green fifth-wheel trailer attached) led me to walk the area, and I saw that slot 1 was open. We quickly circled back and became the happy owners of a lake view slot for the night. 

Dinner was prepped, we watched a sunset as we ate, then retired to the van, set up the bed and settled in our mobile lakeshore cottage.   

The next morning, no alarm clock is needed as the birds and local trash trucks making the rounds of the park announce the day break. (Of which, Cindy heard nothing!) Around 8 am our neighbor campers started leaving to beat the 10 am move out time. Evening move in officially starts again at 5 pm, but there were  a few vans in the lot all day. 

As compared to our other options in Taupo, the freedom camp is by far the better choice. It’s smack in the heart of downtown, right on the lake by the harbor, museum and rose garden, and there’s a Superloo with showers in the park across the street!  

In addition to the 14 or so slots marked at the freedom area, the beach parking lot slightly west on Ferry Rd. at Ferry and Redoubt St. has a sign saying that self contained campers are allowed there between 5 pm and 9 am.   

  
Several kilometers of driving a heart-stopping windy narrow road gets you to the Tasman Sea beach town of Piha where the main and almost only attraction is the gorgeous black sand beach. As you approach, the precarious road offers a supreme lookout from the high cliffs. 
  
Waves splash up an extremely broad and flat beach, leaving reflections in the dark wet sand of the huge Piha Lion Rock that pops out of the middle of the beach. 

  
Lots of brave beachers climbed up, we peeked at the steep crude stairs chiseled in the rock and said “no way”.

Ripiro Ocean Beach is 100 km (60 mi.) of flat sand that’s New Zealand’s longest beach (beating the north’s 90 Mile Beach, which is actually about 56 miles long) and is also a highway. We rented a quad bike at the holiday park in Baileys Beach and zipped up and down this north-island west-coast beach getting chased by dogs and doing donuts, fun!

Kaiori trees are native to New Zealand, this one Tane Mahuta “The Lord of the Forest” is thought to be 2,000 years old. It’s 51.5 meters (about 169 ft.) tall with a huge trunk. Conveniently it decided to grow close to the future road, so the stop is a quick one. 

 

 
After visiting Tane Mahuta we traveled to Trounson Kauri Park to camp overnight. It has a great walk through a living Kaiori Forest. We had to clean our shoes before entering as the feeding roots of Kaiori trees are close to the surface and sensitive to soil and fungus invasion. Much of the path is elevated so foot traffic doesn’t impact the roots.

You can walk along with us through the Trounson Kaiori Forest in this video (47 Sec). 

 

Our first stay in the RV is at the Waitangi Holiday Park on the banks of the Waitangi River. 

Paihia, the town we’re in is hosting a celebration for New Zealand’s Waitangi Day national holiday over the weekend. A treaty was signed here in 1840 between the British and the indigenous Maori granting the British governance of NZ and the Maiori the rights of British subjects. The English and Māori versions of the Treaty differed significantly, so there is no consensus as to exactly what was agreed to. 
The bay at Paihia is gorgeous, this panorama from the shore shows a bit of the 144 islands in the bay.