When we set about booking our tickets to Auckland at the end of January, we discovered that almost every single flight was full – we tried various routes, via Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore and Hong Kong. However, we had not accounted for it being the end of the New Zealand summer holiday and thousands of Saudi students returning to their universities. We finally got seats with special offer discounts in business class on Cathay Pacific, via Dubai and Hong Kong. It is a long flight to Hong Kong, but when you get there, you realize you are still only half way to New Zealand. However, when you finally land in Auckland, you step back in time and receive what must be the warmest welcome of any country in the world. I don't know anywhere else where the immigration officials have time for a friendly chat and are genuinely interested to know where you are from and what you plan to do while visiting their country. Perhaps it is because New Zealand is so far away from everywhere that it is remarkably under-populated: the resident population is just under 4.5 million, most of whom live on the wealthier North Island. The country is renowned for having more sheep than people, and many years ago, when my eighty year old mother was on her way back to the UK with a stop in Australia, the customs officials there asked her if she had been on a farm during her stay in New Zealand. “My dear, of course I have!” she declared imperiously. “The whole of New Zealand is a farm!” During our stay, we were based near the town of Cambridge in the heart of the wealthy racehorse stud farms. Like most New Zealand towns, Cambridge has no buildings higher than two storeys, many with attractive wrought iron and carved woodwork giving it a distinctly Victorian look. Most buildings have a first floor overhang providing shelter from sun or rain to people on the pavements. It is immaculately clean with beautiful parks and gardens, lots of street cafes and small shops. I was impressed with what Cambridge had to offer: in the town centre, an elegant pavilion called “Cambridge Superloo” offers public toilet, shower and baby changing facilities for a small fee; in another park, there is a free public “Exceloo”: when you enter this smart facility, a voice tells you that you are allowed 10 minutes, and then music plays to ensure that you have a pleasant stay. Not far from Cambridge are the Waitomo Caves, a complex of underground limestone formations dating back 30 million years. Here, you can go black-water rafting where you are supplied with a wet suit and an inflated rubber inner tube (like you would find in a truck wheel) and expert guides take you on a three- or five-hour tours by torchlight along underground rivers and waterfalls, through vaulted limestone galleries, and glow worm caves. You can also elect to abseil 100 meters down vertical shafts, viewing weird plants and listening to the roar of the Mangapu River echoing up from the caverns far below. For those type of adventures, you need to be relatively fit, but as I have a walking disability, there was another tour available, which also had wheelchair access. We descended down a wide shaft via a steep spiral walk-way into the bowels of the earth. Once at the bottom, we continued through narrow, dimly-lit tunnels with stalactites and stalagmites, and at one point could see the black water rafters bouncing along the river by torchlight, far below us. We were also introduced to glow worms with their long, insect-catching tendrils, and I felt they must have been the inspiration behind some of the creatures in the film “Avatar”. With all its open space and coastline, New Zealand offers a huge variety of outdoor activities. We headed for the small town of Raglan, a one hour drive away through big, rolling hills and farmland. Situated on the Tasman Sea on the west coast, it is a popular surfing resort, offering surf lessons, boating, walking, horseback riding, kayaking, fishing, golfing, cycling and mountain biking, and for the young at heart, skateboarding. While we decided what to do, we stopped off at one of the many street cafes and enjoyed watching the local traffic and Harley-Davidson bikes ride through town. After a snack and a cappuccino, we returned to a trailer that we had spotted earlier, loaded up with kayaks for rent: “How long d'you want thim faw?” asked the young man in his strong Kiwi accent. “An hour should be ok,” my husband replied. “D'you mean a British hour?” the young man asked. “Well, no, I mean a Saudi hour,” my husband joked. “Well,” said our young man, “I dunno what thet is, but a New Zealand hour is about one hour twinty, so thet's okay by me!” We set off in two “sit on top” kayaks, paddling across the bay to have a look at the jagged limestone shoreline on the far side. We were both beginners at kayaking, but on calm water it is not difficult and a great way to get some exercise and see beautiful scenery – but you do get a bit wet. Rotarua, with its geothermal activity of bubbling cauldrons of mud and geysers is not to be missed if it is your first trip to New Zealand, but we had been there on a previous trip. Instead, we set off for the Coromandel Peninsular, an area renowned for its natural beauty and for being a creative hub, with many studios and galleries showcasing some of the country's best art. Coromandel is a great place to try New Zealand's freshly harvested green-lipped mussels. They are some of the largest of the mussel species and are farmed in the area. As well as being very good to eat, they are famous for their health benefits, specifically their five kinds of Omega-3, natural proteins and minerals, available in capsules in health food shops. Just outside Coromandel is the Driving Creek Railway, New Zealand's only narrow-guage mountain railway. It was built by railway enthusiast Barry Brickell who originally built it to gain access around his rugged 22 hectare block of forested land. It took him 15 years to build, by which time his bank manager was on his case and said: “You will have to take passengers on your train to pay for it!” It started taking passengers in 1990 and has become a major tourist attraction. The hour long round-trip takes passengers to the “Eyefull Tower” where they disembark to enjoy the views over Hauraki Gulf, and to listen to a brief history of the railway. It is an inspirational hour, enjoying the result of a man's passion for railway engineering and the environment. One thing that amused us about New Zealand was the blank looks we got when we asked in Cafes if they had ‘Wi Fi'. Even finding an internet café was difficult. The country is no longer the super-cheap place it once was for tourists as the New Zealand dollar has gained strength – from NZ$3 to £1 in 1993 it has whittled down to NZ$2 to the £1 now. When you tell people you are visiting New Zealand, they always ask you: “Are you going to the South Island?” The next part of our holiday was to tour it on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to find out if what we have heard about the South Island is true. - SG Editor's note: Next week: Touring the South Island of New Zealand on a motorcycle. __
