New Zealand with Limited Mobility(Part2)

Maui Rental Van

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When visiting New Zealand, getting around means more than renting a car or RV and picking up a guide book and a good map if you have mobility problems. You need wheelchair accessible transportation and accommodations. With a little advanced planning, wheelchair users can drive themselves or travel with a tour guide companion.

I hope you're thinking of trying Lake Waikaremoana. If so, you need to start planning now for next season. Accommodations are limited in the summer season. If you're planning to stay at the Lake Whakamarino Lodge, Accessible New Zealand has rental cars with hand controls. Galaxy Motors specializes in rental vehicles for people with disabilities. They also offer tour guide/companions and specialized tours to fit your travel plans.

If you want to rent a motorcaravan and try RVing, check out Mobility Motorhomes. Designed for wheelchair users, their units are fitted with hand controls and detachable steering wheel knobs. They're also fitted with a self-operating electric wheelchair lift which folds under the entrance door. Bathrooms have double doors for easy access.

If you're not interested in driving a car or RVing, the Intercity Bus runs through the park from Wairoa to Rotarua and return three days per week. Buses have fold down ramps for wheelchairs. A shuttle service can also be arranged from Wairoa.

Lake Waikaremoana in English means more or less-- Old man who fell asleep by the fire and roasted his private parts. I think I like the Maori version better. If you're visiting the "Land of the Mist," expect to get wet. Fog hangs around in the morning and settles in late evening-- and that's in the summer. Bring enough clothes to stay warm and dry. You don't want to get cold and fall asleep by a fire and get roasted.

Since you're planning for next season, you have time to contact Kiwis about their travels. If you're planning to spend time in Auckland, Red Nicholson, a Kiwi, can offer some advice. He's not a travel agent, just another Kiwi traveler. According to Red, "Most hotels/motels, and even backpackers have wheelchair access. It is a very common feature here." Check out Red's site Walking is Overrated.

New Zealand on Wheels is a wheelchair travel guide with reviews by Kiwis who have been there and done that. A recent review on the Wellington Botanic Gardens offers suggestions for getting around-- the gardens are not flat. Check the tourist sites they've reviewed and if you can't find what you're looking for-- ask. The Kiwi people are kind and generous. The tourism industry always promotes the scenery, but seldom mentions their greatest asset-- their friendly people.

Lyn Harris

RV in NZ

New Zealand with Limited Mobility

New Zealand

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Itsabitblurry

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Once out of Auckland, much of New Zealand is rugged, remote, and best seen by car or RVing. Even with limited mobility, you can visit many off the beaten track locations with wheelchair accessible vehicles.

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Department of Conservation camps, Te Papa Atawhai, (DOC) camps are government reserves. If you really want to get back into untouched country, try a DOC camp. There are restrictions on maximum length of stay and type of vehicle-- RVs, buses, and other vehicles designed to sleep people are acceptable. Cars are not.

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Five thousand people per year visit Lake Waikaremoana. Many come to fish for brown and rainbow trout, kayak, or tramp the Lake Waikaremoana Track. Managed by DOC, this 46 km three to four day tramp which follows the lakeshore is part of the Great Walks.

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Te Urewera is the largest National Park in the North Island. Often called "Land of the Mist" it's a rain-forest with many native birds including Kiwi birds. Some of the comments from AA's Travel New Zealand site are:

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"It's amazing, quiet, untouched...well worth the drive over the dodgy roads!!!"

"The road trip is a bit shocking but once you are there, it is a must to stay a night or two."

"Thank goodness the roads in are aweful as it keeps it one of New Zealand's most beautiful but isolated areas."

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We thought so, too-- the beautiful and isolated part. The road didn't seem that much of a problem. We had a fairly large-- for New Zealand-- RV and usually dropped most of the water from our tanks before leaving Wairoa hoping we'd have a little more get up and go to get up the hill. We spent four to five months each year in our RV and carried more heavy stuff than the average visitor, but still worried about too much water.

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The road from Wairoa is mainly sealed. It seemed pretty tame compared to some we found in the South Island. We usually camped in one of the campgrounds along Hwy 38 which runs through the center of the park, or stayed in the HAPNZ Motorcamp. On the lake near the Aniwaniwa Visitor Centre, the Motorcamp is wheelchair friendly as are the lake side family cabins which sleep four or five people.

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If you're looking for a little more comfort, you might like the Lake Whakamarino Lodge on one of the smaller nearby lakes. While in the park, you can cruise the bays and inlets of Lake Waikaremoana in a charter boat, try you luck at trout fishing-- a 28.6 lb brown trout was caught recently-- or take a guided Eco-tour.

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AA Traveling New Zealand has more comments about Te Urewera and some nice photos of Lake Waikaremoana. If you've read the archives about AA, you know your U.S. AAA card is good for discounts in New Zealand.

(To be continued)

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Lyn Harris

www.rvinnz.com

Auckland/Western Springs

Winged Sprint Cars

Photo By:

Carl Blake

If you like cars, boats and airplanes, or anything else that goes varoom, varoom, New Zealand is the place for you. While RVing in New Zealand, we spent a good part of our time finding anything that went fast and made noise-- or did at one time. We found motorcycle races at Mata Mata where sidecars with feet dragging crew maneuvered around corners-- most of the time. We found Destruction Derby races in the Far North where little kids yelled, "Go Uncle Joe!" and threw dirt clods at the drivers trying to bang Uncle Joe. As far as I know, they don't close Auckland down to run motorcycles through the streets, and I don't remember any kids throwing dirt clods at the Western Springs Speedway, but Auckland has Motat.

The Museum of Transport and Technology (Motat) has a little of everything from trams to an aviation collection covering over 100 years of New Zealand transportation. On the Great North Road, next to Western Springs Park, Motat's aviation collection is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. It includes the only Solent Mark IV Flying Boat in the world and also one of the few remaining WW2 Avro Lancaster Bombers. Restored steam trains are also a popular part of Motat. For operating days, visit Motat. A collection of operating tram cars covers 120 years of steam, cable and electrical tram traction. Number 248 runs from Motat's Great South Road site past the zoo to Motat's Motion Road site.

If you enjoy speedway racing, or just want to get a little mud in your face, catch the Midget World Series or the Spring Car Classic at Western Springs Speedway. A circle track, six classes race here including midgets, sprints, and motorcycles. Most Saturday nights between November and March, you can find US and Kiwi drivers competing for the chance to tear up their car or tear up their body in the chase for the trophy. A natural amphitheater, the Western Springs Stadium holds 30,000 for sports events and 50,000 for large music concerts.

Four kilometers west of the city center, parking is fairly easy if you're RVing or traveling by car. The Auckland Explorer Bus stops at Motat. Western Springs Speedway is on nearby Stadium Road.

Lyn Harris

RV in NZ: How to Spend Your Winters South in New Zealand

Auckland/Sightseeing

Auckland University

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The best part of traveling by car or RVing in New Zealand-- you can eat when you're hungry, rest when you're tired, see what you want to see, and never have to worry about the tour bus pulling out while you're in the bathroom. And by the way, it's not a bathroom in New Zealand. You better check the Kiwi Dictionary on that one.

While you're in Auckland, you'll want to visit the Auckland Museum. In the Auckland Domain, near Parnell, you'll find the Winter Garden and the Museum, which was combined with a war memorial in 1929. The Auckland Museum has guided tours and a Maori Culture Performance most days as well as special events. Through March, you can step inside a life-size interactive video game. Or, visit a photography exhibit. Gil Hanley is showing "Protest Photography: relating to the nuclear free Pacific movement." If you enjoy music, you can listen to piano recitals by international artists. To find out what's happening at the museum while you're in Auckland, try their Events Calendar.

If you're interested in Blues, Pop, Heavy Metal, or anything else that has a melody or makes a noise, the Concert and Gig Guide will help you find it.

While I'm not a fan of organized tours, I like to take a tour of any new city just to get a feel for the city and figure out what's out there that I might want to visit. The Auckland Explorer Bus, a hop on, hop off sightseeing bus tour runs all day and offers free hotel/motel pickup. Leaving the Ferry Building at the end of Queen Street, the Auckland Explorer Bus stops at fourteen Auckland attractions including: Kelly Tarlton's, Parnell Village, Mt Eden, and the Auckland Zoo. If the bus pulls out while you're shopping or in the middle of lunch, there's always another one in 30 minutes.

Plan your New Zealand trip your way. Sometimes the things you remember most are the unexpected surprises or unique people you meet in another country-- something that's hard to do when a tour guide is rounding you up for dinner or you have fifteen minutes to shop before the bus pulls out.

Lyn

RV in NZ: How to Spend Your Winters South in New Zealand

Auckland/Water Everywhere

Penguins

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Kelly Tarlton's

Photo by: babette_r

If you're RVing in a camper van, renting a car and staying in hotels, or just poking around Auckland, you'll find water everywhere. Surrounded by water, the 'City of Sails' has much to offer those who like boats, maritime history, or just plain sea life.

Near the Ferry Berth on Quay and Hobson Streets, the New Zealand Maritime Museum covers Kiwi maritime history from the Maori migration to modern day cup sailing. You can check out the boats, life-sized exhibits, or collection of models and artifacts on a guided tour or poke around on your own with an Audio Guide. If you'd like to get out on the water, the museum's Ted Ashby sails Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. The SS Puke and Breeze sail most weekends.

The waterfront itself is a good place to spend an afternoon. Ferries come and go as well as other interesting boats. My first trip to New Zealand in 1985, I wandered the docks and visited with one of the crew of the damaged Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, which was lashed to the dock. The Rainbow Warrior had been ripped by two bombs killing one crew member, Fernando Pereira. The French government had ordered the bombing. The Rainbow Warrior crew have since scattered around the world. Today, the Rainbow Warrior is a living reef off the New Zealand coast.

If you like BIG boats, the Queen Elizabeth 2 or QE2, one of the largest and fastest passenger vessels, will be in Auckland Harbor on February 21st.

Probably the only place you'll find snow and ice in Auckland is Kelly Tarlton's Under Water World. South of Central Auckland on Tamaki Drive, you can time travel back to visit a life-size replica hut of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the South Pole explorer. Then, visit a penguin colony in an antarctic snow cat. In Underwater World, you can view the sea life while traveling through a clear tunnel on a moving walkway. If you want a closer view of the sharks, you can get nose to nose with one. A professional dive instructor will help you meet the sharks. You'll get a lot wetter than you would on a ride through the tunnel, so bring a towel.

Maybe you don't want to rub noses with a fish, but you might like to see a Salmon Dance. Name the little yellow fellow, and maybe you'll win 3 pairs of tickets to the Chemical Brothers.

Lyn

RV in NZ: How to Spend Your Winters South in New Zealand

http://www.rvinnz.com/

Auckland/Sky Tower

Auckland Sky Tower

Photo by: Jaimie Walsh

If you're spending time in Auckland, you'll want to see at least a few of the popular attractions. A good place to start is the Sky Tower. Within walking distance of the bus station, at Corner Victoria Street and Federal Street, Sky Tower, the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, has several restaurants and bars. If you enjoy gambling, Sky Tower casinos are open 24 hours a day. On level 2 of SkyCity alone, you'll find all the popular casino games as well as more than 1,200 machines, or pokies.

Three glass elevators take you to three circular observation levels-- Sky Deck, the Main Observation level, or Sky Lounge. From there, you can see over fifty miles in any direction.

If you came to New Zealand to scare the daylights out of yourself, try the new Sky Walk. Snapped in a safety harness, you can walk the circumference of the tower on a 1.2 meter wide ledge. And, if you make it through that one, try base jumping 630 feet from the tower. It's probably easier on your back than a bunji jump. You don't hang upside down or bounce around.

For a little less excitement, just order a drink in the Sky Lounge, relax, and enjoy the view.

Sky Tower

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Photo by catz2

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Lyn Harris

RV in NZ: How to Spend Your Winters South in New Zealand

www.rvinnz.com

Auckland/Getting Around

Auckland Link

Volvo Bus

Photo by: Kiaora 34nz

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Traveling around Auckland can be enough to start your holiday off with a friendly fight. Just because you find an off ramp, don't expect an on ramp to be nearby. It's like picking your way through a maze to get back on the motorway. We spent part of an otherwise pleasant afternoon driving back and forth under the motorway with, "Not that road. We tried that one before." It can be done. Just don't cut yourself short on time and don't expect to find a parking space waiting with a welcome sign.

RVs and rental cars are available at the airport. If you're staying longer than a month, you might consider buying a vehicle. All vehicles are inspected for safety by the government before applying for a Certificate of Registration. If you're interested in purchasing an auto, try the Car Fair. You'll find the Local Buses are clean, convenient and run on time. A shuttle is available from the airport to the central Auckland bus station near Victoria Park. For sightseeing, buses are convenient-- or spend a little more and hire a taxi.

For more information on buying a New Zealand RV, see RVinNZ.

Lyn