Tomb raiding and sunbathing

On the way out of Perugia, we stopped at the Tomb of the Volumni in the city's suburbs. It is an Etruscan tomb complex, dating back to the 2nd century BC, which was rediscovered by chance on 5 February 1840 (the day before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed!) You go in to find a staircase surrounded by gravestones, where you descend to the tomb of the Velimna (Volumni) family. This consists of a number of small chambers carved out of the rock, and still holds the family's tombs in their original positions.

The Etruscans seem particularly mysterious and shadowy to me, almost as if their history has been erased by the Roman dominance, so it was very interesting to see some of their ancient sites on this trip. The artefacts in this tomb seem pretty similar to what you think of as Roman style, but I don't know which way the influence ran. A quick look at Wikipedia shows that there was a period of Etruscan dominance over Rome, particularly in religious matters, although there is some debate about the extent of the influence, and both the Etruscans and the Romans were heavily influenced by the Greeks.

Funerary stele in the entrance hall

In front of the family tombs

The tomb of Aurente Volumio, the patriarch of the family

After seeing the Volumni tomb, the largest in the complex, you go outside, where there are around 200 more tombs, a few of which are open to visit. Beware, I got absolutely savaged by mosquitoes at this stage. The largest of these was the Bella tomb, which I don't think had much in it, but afforded me the opportunity to do my best impression of a creature of the undead.

In the underground chamber of the Bella tomb

Finally, there is a small museum which holds more funerary stele, with translations and explanations of their carvings, and a few other artefacts. It was fun to see the Etruscan language, which uses an alphabet derived from Greek and which is still not entirely understood.

From there, we drove to the Riviera del Conero on the Adriatic coast, to Portonovo, near Ancona, for a bit of beach time. It was already October by this time, so it was a bit of gamble, but it mostly paid off. There was a big storm one afternoon, which howled particularly around our hotel as it was built on a sort of stepped design so that every room had a corner balcony. But other than that, and a bit of overcast weather on our last day there, it was pretty good.

We went first to Portonovo Beach, but out of season it seems we turned up a bit early and none of the beach loungers were out. Since it was a bit rocky, we didn't fancy lying on the beach there, so just walked around a bit and then headed to Sirolo.

Portonovo Bay

We stopped just next to the road after Sirolo, where it seemed nice, and settled down for a swim and sunbathe. After I'd been in the water for a bit, I realised that it was absolutely PACKED with tiny jellyfish. I found an article from last year that said these were "teeming nurseries of self-cloning moon jellyfish", which some researchers claimed is linked to the increase in gas platforms in the sea, which give the baby jellyfish a nice flat surface to stick on to while they clone. It was a bit terrifying when I first looked down and saw them all over the place, but by that stage I figured I'd already been in the water for quite a while and there were so many of them that if they were going to sting me, they would probably have done it already. I still yelped every time I touched them though.

View of the coast from our hotel

We also went to a delicious tiny restaurant, the Osteria del Poggio. On our food tour in Perugia, the guide told us about the fantastic reputation of deli meats from Norcia. In this part of Italy, delicatessens are often known as "Norcerias". Basically, in the north the meats from around Bologna and Parma are famed, and in the Umbria and Marche regions, this honour is given to the Norcia meats. Only one of them seems to have broken through on to the international stage, but I can confirm that Norcia deli meats are just as good. Anyway, our meal at the Osteria started with a superlative meat and cheese platter followed by rabbit gnocchi with local red wine. Definitely a culinary highlight of the trip, especially those melt in the mouth hams.

It was nice to have a bit of time to relax, read and recharge our batteries, as although we were having a lot of fun, it was also getting pretty tiring moving around all the time!

Abel seamen

Originally, the plan after the Marlborough Sounds was to stop in Nelson, do something in the Abel Tasman National Park, and then go further around the coast towards Golden Bay. But we realised the need for early starts and full-day excursions on the Queen Charlotte Track and in the Abel Tasman National Park meant that we had to rejig the schedule a bit. We could probably have driven a couple of hours before or afterwards, but we are not too keen on driving in the dark, and it does take it out of you. Okay, it’s hardly working in a coal mine, but at the end of the day we tend to be pretty happy to stay around the camper van and relax. 

No time to visit the vineyards

So the day after the Queen Charlotte Track, we drove to Kaiteriteri, picked because it was one of the pickup points for the Abel Tasman trip we wanted to do. Seeing it on the map, we were expecting there to be basically nothing there. And it wasn’t exactly a bustling metropolis, but it had a really big campsite which was still pretty full, and a lovely beach right across the road. So we had a bit of a swim and a sunbathe that afternoon before the clouds rolled in, and got ready for our trip to Abel Tasman the next morning.

Kaiteriteri Beach

Fresh from the trials of the Queen Charlotte Track, we were keen for a bit of a gentler excursion this time. So we picked a trip that only had about a 1 1/2 hour walk, from Onetahuti Beach to Awaroa Beach, around 5.5 km. Both were beautiful beaches, and the walk between was pretty gentle. There wasn’t so much scenery to see on this walk, but it was a nice, relaxed stroll between two lovely places, so that was okay. Jules put our newly-acquired bird-watching skills to good use when he spotted a fantail. Unfortunately, he told me to come look quickly and I abandoned my usual caution and consequently ended up sitting on the ground in an abrupt fashion. The brand new camera I was holding also took a trip to the ground, luckily sustaining only a few cosmetic scratches on the back.

Onetahuti Beach. I guess all beaches look much the same in a panorama

Estuary on Onetahuti Beach #nofilter

We didn’t have as much time on Awaroa Beach as we would have liked, just time for a swim, to read a little bit and then a dip to get the sand off. Whereas in Matarangi we were endlessly pummelled by the waves of the Pacific, here the sea was super calm and gentle. Not without risk, however. A couple told us that they had been walking along the beach watching a stingray swimming parallel to them - just before it got to where we were swimming, it changed course and swam out to sea. A narrow escape!

Awaroa Beach

The skipper takes some time out. Not the worst job in the world

The boat trip there and back was also much longer than in the Marlborough Sounds, taking over an hour each way, and it called in at several places to pick up and drop off passengers, as well as to see the sights, such as the Split Apple Rock and fur seals on Tonga Island (although only a couple of them were hanging out when we went past. I thought the boat to Onetahuti was a bit rough, but it was nothing compared to the trip back. We started our return trip with what the skipper described as a “hoon in the lagoon”, and hoon we did, circling around the lagoon and then enjoying an extremely bumpy high-speed trip back, skipping over the waves and bumping back down really quite hard. I got a bit wet sitting in the back and also hurt my neck a bit, although that’s quite easily done. 

Split Apple Rock

Waiting in Anchorage Bay

Kayakers off Tonga Island

Spray from our bumpy ride

Boat selfie. Belfie!

With hindsight, we would probably have gone on the 9 am boat, rather than the 10:30, and had longer to spend on the beach in between. Still, the boat was fun, the beaches were beautiful, and it was a nice contrast to the Queen Charlotte Track.

Baches be crazy

As a Southern Hemispherean in the Northern Hemisphere, a reasonably frequent topic of conversation is the "crazy" concept of having Christmas in summer. There is always a certain level of cognitive dissonance involved, sure - virtually every single TV show, movie, song, book, tradition etc. that features Christmas shows a snowy scene presumably quite far removed from an actual Christmas in Bethlehem. Talk to any New Zealander, however, about the problem with Christmas in summer, and it's not the un-traditional nature of proceedings that jars, but rather that it forces all the summer festivities into a week or two around Christmas and New Year, when the weather is often unsettled, and leaves nothing fun to break up the winter. This is bad for those of you living in New Zealand, but for anyone in the Northern Hemisphere planning a trip Down Under, it's good news. Wait until at least after Waitangi Day (6th February) and you're likely to have great weather with fewer crowds (and escape the NH winter). We arrived in Matarangi on a Sunday, when there were a few people still on the beach, but on Monday and Tuesday we had the place virtually all to ourselves. Perfect!

The view from our free accommodation in Matarangi

Coromandel dreamin'

For the first destination on our road trip, we were determined to bank some beach time before heading south (the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of heading north) and before autumn arrived. Picking the dates for our trip was a bit of a delicate balance - go too soon and you've used up most of your holiday time for the year (at least in Jules's case) right after the Christmas break, plus you're competing for space with innumerable families. Go too late, and you risk missing the best of the weather.

So far, mostly so good. We've reached Wellington - almost, Paraparaumu for those in the know - and hit our first big weather-related snag, in the form of a cancelled trip to the Kapiti Island bird reserve tomorrow. Big sad face. Otherwise, the weather has been mostly warm and sunny with a bit of cloud, which was actually quite good for our beach trip, otherwise it probably would have been too hot to spend any length of time out at the beach.

As it was, we stayed two nights and got three swims under our belts. We had been planning to go to Waihi Beach, which would have saved us having to drive up the Coromandel Peninsula and back. However, at our family barbecue on Saturday, one of my cousins offered us the keys to her bach (holiday home) most of the way up the peninsula, at Matarangi. It's hard to say no to an offer like that, so without even sleeping a night in the van, we were off for a 4-ish hour drive to our first destination.

The Coromandel is a lot more rugged than I remembered. The windy roads with a cove around every bend did come back to me as we drove, but I had forgotten the reasonably steep elevations. It was a beautiful drive, which I did my best to capture as Official Roadtrip Photographer (also Co-Pilot and Reminderer to stay on the Lefter). Talking of which, this is Jules's first time driving on the left, not to mention hauling an almost 8-metre long motorhome around, and he is doing a stellar job of both things. On roads like this, no less:

One of the many one-lane bridges we have encountered so far

Not much room for error here

But as you can see, the reward for going around those narrow, windy roads is the spectacular views of the coast.

(Presumably) low tide near Thames

Plus, when we got higher into the hills, some lovely views back the way we had driven to the water.

On a Mission

On Friday, after a grocery shop to stock up the campervan where I was scandalised by how much things cost now in NZ ($275 for like half a trolley of groceries), I took Jules to one of my favourite places in Auckland, Mission Bay. Across the other side of the city from where my parents are, it's a beautiful place for a drive on the harbour, a walk, to sit in a café or go to the beach. It used to be full of roller bladers too, but either they've moved on or have day jobs, since we didn't see any.

I have been known to be a bit down on Auckland in the past. I lived in Wellington for a bit as a student, and said thereafter that if I ever moved back to NZ, I would live in Wellington, not Auckland. Auckland has its issues - traffic, humidity, endless urban sprawl - which in turn generate further lifestyle problems, since it's hard to get that sort of relaxed, after-work drink vibe going when everyone has to get in their cars and spend an hour in traffic to get home.

But being able to spend a few days in Auckland as a tourist has helped me appreciate the city more. I've been reading various things on where to go and what to see in New Zealand - being from a place means that you're expected to be the all-knowing expert, when in fact most of the places on our itinerary I've never been to, or only once as a kid - and most people pan Auckland or say it's only useful to fly in to and start your trip shortly afterwards. It's not where I'd recommend people spend all of their time, of course, but after living in landlocked European cities for so long, the greenness of the city and especially the proximity, no matter what part of the city you're in, to not one but two coasts is actually pretty special.

This is illustrated pretty well by Mission Bay, which is really close to the city centre and has fabulous views across the water to the city and the extinct (?) volcano of Rangitoto (according to Wikipedia, this is one of 50 volcanoes in the Auckland area).

Looking towards the volcanic island of Rangitoto

Panorama with the city on the left

Downtown Auckland. The tall building is the Sky Tower, which is over 1000 ft/328 metres tall, making it the tallest man-made structure in the Southern Hemisphere (and probably way down the list in the Northern Hemisphere)

It got a bit windy out there

The view from my parents' house. If you enlarge it, you can see Rangitoto fairly central on the horizon, and (just) see the Sky Tower to the right of that (you can see them better in real life)

Afterwards, we stopped in for a coffee with my MA thesis supervisor, which was really nice, and then finished up the evening with dinner with friends. Today, there is not a cloud in the sky and we're heading for a family BBQ. I'll just have to be more careful not to get burnt, like I did yesterday - I must have forgotten that UV levels in NZ are a lot higher than Europe and the US. Oops!