Visited Taumatawhaka...

Location: Wildlife House Backpackers
Weather: Mild

Hired a car for the day and drove to Rotorua via Wai-O-Tapu - thermal wonderland. Saw true bubbling mud like everybody's seen on TV. Then spent 1 hour driving back to Taupo, another 1.5hours on winding roads to the art deco city of Napier. Then another hour or so to Waipukurau via Hastings. It was pitch dark by the time I got here, but I decided to keep going another 40km on the road to Porangahau. I now saw the sign to where I wanted to go - another 8km's further and I would be there.
After thinking I had run over an hedgehog (really turned out to be a fircone) I came across the famous sign and lit it up with my headlights "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu" (85 letters) - the longest place name in the world!! I've wanted to see it since I was a kid and had a Record Breakers tape with a song about it, I can even remember how to say it - apparently I'm the only 'Pom' who can actually say it! After driving back looking for a place to kip in the car I decided to follow the road and ended up in the village of Porangahau. There was one hotel/pub open so I went in and had fish n'chips for dinner. I was about to leave, when the friendly locals started talking to me and even bought me beers and stuff! They said I must stay for the sunrise, so I stayed the night, got up at 5:45am and went to Pongarheu beach. I had to wait until around 6:45am for the sun to appear, but it was well worth it. I then drove back to the sign to see what the Tamatea hill was like in the day, the whole place was very spooky, the hills were half-covered in mist and I can see what the Maori's call NZ - Aotearoa - "land of the long white cloud". I then drove back the 4 hours to Taupo, I was 2 hours late returning the car, but so what.

By JamesReed on 17.04.04 @ 05:02 PM GMT