From Poverty Bay to the Bay of Plenty

This post is for Sunday August 8, 2011

Emari and I awoke before the sun at Sponge Bay, such a cool set up, too bad I did not get to surf it. We headed back to Wainui Beach, the swell had dropped but it looked to be chest to head high, fairly stiff off-shore winds and colder. The plan was to surf 2 hours, dump and fill the camper van and head up the East Cape and through The Bay of Plenty....what I know now was a pretty tall order, but then again me and Sherex and a three legged cat had already done 17 hour blizzard drives.

The surf was fun, waist to chest high and I was the only one out for the first thirty minutes, when I completed my hour in a half session I left two others in the water. The surf got fat with the incoming tide and my hands had gotten cold to the point where they lost any ability to function. I could barely get my boots off when I got back to the camper van.

Ate some cereal, drank some hot coffee...good thing this rig comes with a French press, and headed to a mobile station that allowed dumping and filling. Emari had already found a site that listed all the free places to dump and fill through out both Islands.....this gal kicks some serious ass when it comes to planning, navigating and efficiency. Did I mention she weathers all of my Dave Spencer like freak outs unbelievably well. It is like she has shield that prevents her from personalizing all my shit. At the mobile station we also gassed up Route 35 up the East Cape.

It was great drive, the sun was shining and for much of the way we seemed to be the only vehicle on the road. Along the way we checked out the following surf spots, Tolaga Bay, Tokomaru Bay where we also parked up for an hour and ate lunch, and Waipiro Bay Area. We did not find surf, the swell had dropped and most likely all these bays needed swell and direction to work. All were amazing set ups, mostly beach and point set ups. The drive down to Waipiro Bay was our first sign of sketchy roads, areas of the road were washed out and narrow, too slide off the road certainly meant death, but we made it down to the bay. However the driving adventure was not over as the road out steadily climbed up hill on a gravel road that went on for miles through farm land. Actually 90% of this trip has been driven through ranch and farm land. If you were in to fucking sheep, this is your place mate......probably millions, all with cute fluffy asses. Anyway, we finally hit asphalt, back on 35 and headed for Hicks Bay.

Let's get back to this driving. We went from 2/3Berth automatic camper van that climbed mountains like a snail, the little train that could, to a fucking mini-bus, 5 speed manual transmission which as long as I am not going backwards or turning around has been great, this monster climbs at a steady pace and having control over which gear to put it in has been essential. Back to climbing mountain passes, we must have ascended and descended hundreds, possibly thousands....white knuckled turns in a vehicle 2.5 sizes bigger than my Element. Windy, steep, narrow, falling rocks, washed out sections, to name a few, but what Emari and I seemed to enjoy the most was the wooden guardrails around the crazy turns which always seemed to end way too short.....bedside those fucking devices wouldn't stop a three year old on a tricycle!!! By the time we hit Hicks Bay the sky's clouded up and of course rain and wind awaited us for this next leg.....now all those "slippery when wet" signs made perfect sense.

We pass Hicks Bay and begin our entry into The Bay of Plenty. At this point it feels as if we are behind schedule and making it to Tauranga by sunsets a pipe dream at best. The wind and rain, seemingly endless mountain passes slowed our progress. I'm guessing now, looking at a map that we were in the Waikawa Pt region on 35 when we came to a detour, the road in front of us was completely washed out and impassable. The detour veered left up a gravel and dirt single lane road that took us up the backside of this mountain pass. Along the way were turn outs to allow oncoming traffic pass. Keep in mind, it was raining, dirt and gravel turned to mud, it was slick, going off the road would be a disaster. It was at this moment I silently questioned to myself, "should I be doing this?" at this point even if the answer was no, I'm not sure we could've turned around. We proceeded up the mountain, their was an on-coming car who had the right away and I pulled over to the and let it pass. There was a white sedan, like a Honda Accord or Nissan behind me as well as a truck towing a boat (and I thought I had problems) and I motioned both to pass me. I'm not sure this was a blessing or a mistake. I watch the White Sedan start to get stuck and slide around the next left hand to righ hand turn 100 yards in front of us, recover and make it. The same thing happened to the truck towing the boat. I looked over to Emari and exclaimed, "I don't fucking like this and I do not know what to do?" Her response was an affirmative, "just gun it!" With no oncoming traffic, I threw this mini-bus into first gear and gained as much speed as possible to get through the muddy slick section and slide and powered our way through it, much like we did through 2' of snow this past December. I never even dropped it into a higher gear, first gear rmp'd out. We may forget a lot of things about this trip, but that moment of uncertainty will never be forgotten, if fact it is these moments that truly make life worth living. A side note, I don't think our little 2/3 Berth camper van would've made it. I should mention that coast is beautiful, endless stretches of beaches lines with sharp volcanic rock, but the surf was wind blown and choppy, angry in a way.

We gassed up in a town called Opotiki around 5:30-6pm. Emari prepared us a snack, a slice of bread with a spread of Nutella and we also downed some sea-salt chips. It was unclear if we would make Tauranga on this day, but we pressed ahead. I was feeling shot out and my right hip from all the driving felt like somebody drove a spike right through the socket of the joint. Emari asked if I wanted to stay along the coast or take an inland route on a main road. Since it was getting dark we opted for the inland route, route 2 to Tauranga.

Things moved much quicker less mountains and hill to climb and drop and longer straight a-ways(not many of these in this country) and we were making better time when we came upon a first, a long single laned bridge with a red traffic light. We had crossed countless single lane bridges but none before with this light configuration. I waited but not long. The parcticle one, Emari suggested we wait, maybe the light will change. Of course I was thinking that their has not been much traffic and possibly the light does not change. I went for it! I was about half way across when their appeared to be lights of oncoming traffic though not on the bridge. Emari suggested I blow the horn, I chose to flick the high-beams and step on the gas. We were about 3/4 a crosse the bridge when we heard this loud thumping sound and Emari presumed I hit the guardrail. I cursed every word in the book and thought to myself,"we just lost our $5000.00 insurance bond with the camper company....this trip just got extra expensive! If Dan Ginsburg should be reading through this, I instantly though about the time we were on tour in NYC in our van and I clipped the bus with our passenger side mirror. I thought, "not the first, obviously not the last."It is amazing that at times learning does not take place despite the same mistakes made over and over again. It was approximately 15km down the road that we could safely pull over and inspect. everything looked fine, I'm guessing we drove over a metal grate that made that loud sound. I'm thinking we were 66km away from Tauranga and thought to myself, "fuck it, we're going for it!" it has become more obvious to me at this point that Emari is the brain of our relationship, I must be shear will and id with some super ego in the mix. Although I'm doing the driving, she has been an amazing co-pilot, ipad fired up, maps open, the book "A Guide to Surfing in New Zealand" opened to the appropriate region, our coarse well mapped out, free camp site and free dump and fill sites...why pay for something when it's free!....amazing that is what she is.

We rolled into Tauranga around 8pm, I was shot out. We camped up right along the beach probably just North of the surf spot called Tay Street. Not sure we are camping in a legal space, we pulled all the curtains tight, turned on the gas to cook and heat and Emari cooked up some excellent bean burritos. We awoke between 6:30 & 7, I boiled water for coffee and starting typing this blog. Emari whipped up some scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese. It is now 9:07am on Monday August 8. The surf is flat, probably a good thing, to rest re group and be tourist. Probably go check out Mt Maunganui and find a hot spring to soak in. I have not done any yoga since July 29 and I'm feeling it. New swell should hit Wednesday/Thursday. Plan is to make our way into the Coromandel Peninsula.

(AJ)