Aotearoa II - Te Ika a Maui Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kaitaia

Kaitaia is probably best known as the starting point for trips to Ninety Mile Beach, but it's also the centre of the Far North forestry industry. Probably the strangest thing about the place is that it has an old steam railway engine on display. It's strange because the railway never reached Kaitaia ...

Answer: 55 miles

Well, it may not be as long as its name suggests, but it's a marvellous beach - you can often go for miles along it and never see another soul.

Answer: Pukekohe

Although it's still used today, Pukekohe track's glory days, when the Formula Pacific class used to attract drivers and cars from all over the world, are now long gone; and the V8 festival was also held there in the past.

Answer: Waitomo

Waitomo may be the most famous of New Zealand's glow worm caves, but it is by no means the only one or even necessarily the most interesting from a geological point of view. If you like to see glow worms, you could also visit the Nile River Caves at Charleston and the Glow Worm Caves on the western shore of Lake Te Anau. Speleologists find the caves on Mt Arthur and Mt Owen in North-West Nelson irresistable. Bulmer Cavern on Mt Owen is all of 39km long, and Nettlebed Cave is the deepest cave in New Zealand.

Answer: Waiotapu

Although it's heavily commercialised, Waiotapu is one of the best geothermal areas from a a visitor's point of view because of the sheer variety of geothermal features you can see on a relatively short walk. Besides the Champagne Pool, there's a geyser which, the story goes, can be activated by dropping soap in the blowhole ...

But don't let this stop you from visiting Waimangu, Tarawera, Whakarewarewa or (especially) Orakei Korako. They all have something worth seeing.

Answer: Raurimu Spiral

The Raurimu Spiral is a series of bridges and tunnels and very tight bends which sees the railway line cross over itself as it rises over a track distance of 6.8km to achieve the elevation of 132m over a straight-line distance of only 2km. It was designed by a clever railway engineer in 1898.

He worked off survey data exclusively and had to visualise it in his mind's eye because, to this day, there is no single place from which the entire spiral can be viewed.

Answer: False

All three mountains, Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Ruapehu, are active. In fact, Ngauruhoe is, geologically, only a vent of Tongariro even though it looks as if it is a completely separate mountain. Of the three, Mt Ruapehu has been the most active in recent years, with ashfall making life difficult for the ski resorts on its slopes.

Answer: Tirau

Tirau was a sleepy little town when I first passed through it, pretty much closed down for the weekends. However, it is now a bustling tourist servicing town. You can even get a decent latte there on Sundays!

Answer: Te Urewera

The name "Urewera" is a compound of "ure", meaning penis, and "wera" meaning "burnt". It is therefore The Burnt Penis National Park. The story goes that it was named for the damage done to a Maori chief who went to sleep too close to a campfire and rolled over in the night ... ouch! Te Urewera has, in my opinion (as a South Islander), some of the most beautiful bush and mountain scenery in the North Island.

Answer: Gannet

It's a very noisy place during the breeding season and not much less so at other times. The cape got its name from Captain Cook, who named it to commemorate the attempted kidnapping of Cook's Tahitian interpreter, Tupaia. The local Maori nabbed him and tried to spirit him away from the Endeavour by canoe. You'll be no doubt be glad to hear that the lad escaped by jumping overboard when Cook opened fire on the canoe!

Answer: Gumboot

Taihape is 2,000 feet above sea-level and is the last town, going north, before you reach the volcanic plateau and Waiouru. To get to Taihape from the south, however, you must drive over the dreaded Mangaweka Hill ...

Answer: Ohakea

The name Bulls has nothing to do with cattle and everything to do with one James Bull, who founded the town. He opened and ran a general store there. For a while it was called Bull Town. Then, nineteenth-century political correctness took hold and it was renamed Clifton.

It was renamed Bulls when James Fox, then the Prime Minister, suggested that it might be a good idea. It should, of course be "Bull's", but apostrophes were clearly beyond the local council. Bulls is also the junction where State Highway 1 between Auckland and Wellington and State Highway 3 between Palmerston North and Wanganui meet.

Answer: Eketahuna

The name "Eketahuna" apparently means "to run aground on a sandbank" in Maori. How apt! Really, Eketahuna is no worse than most country towns when it comes to liveliness. We've had some lovely times in the area.

Answer: Paremata

The reason for the similarity is pretty straightforward, actually. When Te Rauparaha was threatening the local pakeha population, a barracks was erected just north of Porirua for the soldiers from Australia - Parramatta - who were meant to keep that gentleman in check.

It was called the "Parramatta Barracks", Parramatta being that town in Australia. And despite the fact that the barracks were completely destroyed in an earthquake, the name, spelling aside, stuck. Paremata is now known to thousands of Wellington commuters for an entirely different reason - the roundabout there at the end of the motorway causes massive traffic jams every morning and evening.

Answer: Flooding

Whenever the Hutt River flooded, which was frequently, the township would find itself flooded out. Petone still has to watch the river, despite the stopbanks that now control the worst of the river's excesses.