Curries Go Camping

Curries Go Camping
Taranaki, New Zealand

Taranaki, New Zealand

So the Blondini gang is finally on the road, with absolutely no plan or idea where we are going, just a deadline that we have to be back in Wellington to start cat sitting on the 28^th November.

We were as prepared as we could be with a selection of maps from the AA, roadside recovery sorted (see we did learn our lesson in OZ), fully comp insurance and 3G sims so we can plan as we go.

Our first stop we decided to head to a cheap and cheerful campsite just outside Taranaki just so we gave Blondini a short drive for her first outing. We were working on the basis that anywhere that has a campsite will have shop or a fish and chip shop nearby to sort out something for dinner. Turns out that we were wrong. We checked into the little rustic campground, paid our $10 fee and then had to drive back 30kms to Bulls the nearest town to get some fish & chips for dinner. We had planned to spend the evening working out where to go next, but it also turned out that we had no phone signal in this funny little town so that wasn’t going to happen either. Hmmm, New Zealand may not be as easy to navigate as we had thought.

We reverted to the old school maps and decided to head up the coast to get to a camp ground at Kaupokonui Beach. On this short journey we were welcomed to the wild wild New Zealand wind. There was a big coaster camper driving in front of us and it was so nearly blown off the road about 4 times, thankfully we made it to the campground and decided to call it a day. When we had bought Blondini the seller did tell us that occasionally her electrics tripped when he plugged her into some campsites, typically on this campsite the only power points that Blondini didn’t trip were the ones in the middle of the campground completely exposed to the wild winds blowing off the sea, this was going to be a wet and wild night.

We had a wonder around the beach and watched the locals fishing for whitebait, a major hobby of the locals in this area. And set up camp in the kitchen with the campsite cats.

Here we decided that we probably need to take some time out to plan our route a bit more than we had as roads in NZ were much more windy and slow than we ever anticipated and in order to see all we needed to see in the North before heading back to Wellington we needed a plan. So Tim set to work to find another Couch Surf where we could take a couple of days out and plan our route, our activities and our lives. Thankfully Tim came through and found the perfect host in Hamilton just a bit further North.

After a wild and windy night where I spent most of it feeling the ceiling and windows to make sure that Blondini wasn’t leaking anywhere (thankfully she wasn’t) we set off inland. Marco and Ursala had recommended that we drive the ‘Forgotten World Highway’. We plugged it into TomTom and much to our surprise he told us that it was going to take 3.5hours to drive 150km. That couldn’t possibly be right, could it?!

Yup, once again Tom Tom was spot on. These roads were wild, up and over saddle after saddle, round and round switchback after switchback with rocks tumbling down the weathered walls. One 15km section of the road was completely unpathed and we spent 30 minutes apologising profusely to Blondini whilst trying to keep our fillings in our teeth. What I can say about the Forgotten World Highway is that it was STUNNING. Beautiful views, green grass, blue skies, sheep, cows and open roads aplenty. Would we drive it again? No.

We had done a little research and had found a cool campground just off of the Forgotten World Highway in a tiny old mining town called Ohura. The campground was actually an old prison which had been converted into a hostel and campground. We pulled into this deserted town and found the empty prison with a huge ‘for sale’ sign outside. There was a big spinning sign saying open, but there was no sign of anyone around at all. I took a walk around the town and found an old man making some crazy art in his garage. He was literally the epitome the old bearded ex miner who refuses to leave his old home, just like the main character in ever horror movie ever set in a ghost town.

The old man seemed pretty friendly and just told us to go and plug in the van and we would call the owners to get us a key for the facilities.

Well once again we were struck with the mysterious tripping plug scenario. Blondini wouldn’t plug in, there was nothing in the town (aside from the mystery bearded man), there was no phone signal and the next town was about another hour along the forgotten world highway. Unwilling to risk the night in an abandoned prison in a ghost town we made our escape and got back on the road until we hit the bright lights and the big city of Taumarunui. Never have we been so happy to see civilisation. As devastating as it was to have to pay $36 a night for a campsite we were just happy to be plugged in and to have access to a kitchen, bathroom and a phone signal.

As it turned out we did get value for money from this campground as the owner sent us off with a secret map to find glow worms in the wild. It was freezing cold, wet and took poor Blondini down yet another unpaved rocky road, but it was certainly more fun of an adventure than we would have been having tied up in Crazy Joes cellar in Ohura State Prison!

That’s enough adventuring for now, off we go to Hamilton to meet our next Couch Surf host.