Auckland to Rotorua

October 24 & 25 2005
After getting back to Auckland (no hang ups with the car or with our driving and we only got stuck in one traffic jam!), we had a relaxing evening back in Michael and Ardith's apartment. We decided to go ahead and splurge on a nice lunch and view up in the Skytower. It's just like Seattle's space needle with the rotating restaurant and you get free admission to the observatory deck if you have a meal up there. It was a beautiful day for it and the views were great. One of the attractions of the skytower is the "Sky Jump", which to us implied some freefalling activity. But when we got closer and saw people doing it, it was more of a controlled belay from the top of the tower. A rush I'm sure to be outside and up that high, but a little false advertising maybe? Not a lot of "jumping" involved, but I suppose "Sky Controlled Fall" isn't as dramatic sounding.

After lunch we hopped on our first bus and four hours later arrived in Rotorua, the thermal, tourist capital of the North Island. Holy tourist brochures....batman! (only a few of you will appreciate that comment). Anyway, here is where you can do just about anything as long as you're willing to pay money. Lots of "adventure" activities here: Zorbing, bungy jumping, riding in fast boats, simulated sky diving, luging after a gondola ride. As well as more family friendly tourist activities like sheep shearing shows, farms shows, feed the sheep, pet the sheep, see an ostrich, walk through a conservation stream/forest with headphones on as your tour guide, and oh yeah, those thermal things I was talking about. I'm not trying to sound cynical, we've just become a little overwhelmed at the commercialism and the cost of it all. We're trying to find the "best" of it all without being too cheap. It's also hard now, because we don't have a car, and public transport is minimal so we are at the mercy of the timetables and prices of the more specialized shuttles. Ah well, it's still cheaper than paying $6 a gallon for gas if we were to rent a car!

So this morning (Oct 25) we finally made our way out to the famous Agrodome which holds sheep shows and all those adventure activities and walked around a bit, debating about the sheep show - I really wanted to see the dogs, and low and behold the show that was in progress moved outside and did the dog show part right in front of us (without us having to pay...I know, we're awful), but I saw the part I wanted to and we were fine leaving and not seeing the whole show. So we're back downtown now, catching up on internet stuff, and will head out to do a small hike this afternoon, and tomorrow we'll go check out all this thermal activity.

We're staying at our first hostel here. It's a nice one with full ammenities (everything shared), including its own thermal pool. We splurged on a double room (aka privacy) and quickly got over the shock of the size of it (not much bigger than the bed), realizing we're here to see stuff and meet people not hole ourselves up in our room.
More to come....

Heading South Through the Kauri Forest

The famous tree of this region is the Kauri tree. They are like our Redwoods and Sequoias of the states. Slow growing monsters, that were nearly wiped out by the timber industry. The other more interesting part, is that as the farming industry took hold, and farmers prepared their fields they began to discover the ancient swamp Kauri forests. Entire forests of Kauri trees that were knocked down by some sudden event (earthquake, flood, etc), then buried and preserved. Some of these buried trees have been carbon dated to as much as 50,000 years! So on our way southbound back to Auckland, I wanted to drive through and see some of the live ones. There is a lovely road that winds through lots of trees in the Waipoua Kauri forest - a protected area - and takes you to the largest living Kauri by volume, named Tane-mahuta. It was an awesome sight. We took a picture of it, but we couldn't get close enough to it to show any perspective (they need to protect the roots). They estimate its age to be about 2000 years old. Cool.

The other product gained from these trees is Kauri gum, which is the sap from the tree that hardens and was used for making things like linoleum and varnish. It was another way the trees were quickly killed by the masses of men climbing trees and literally sucking the life out of them.

Farther south we stopped at the Kauri Museum which was a very thorough place to learn all about the beginnings of the timber industry in this region, with lots of interesting displays and old equipment. You could literally stay in there all day if you wanted to read every sign, but we were overwhelmed and done after an hour.

Before we started this journey to the forest, we detoured to a smaller glow worm cave right outside of Kerikeri. This allowed us to see the famous NZ glow worms and enabled us to save a day by not going to the overcommercialized one on the West coast. Glow worms are little worms (oh really?) that live on the roofs of the caves. They spin acidic webs that catch their dinner and something in their poop reacts with the surrounding atmosphere and creates light. So when you turn your light off in the cave, you see what looks like a milky way above your head. It was neat to see, but we are glad we didn't drive all over the country to get to them. The area around these caves was quite stunning. Lots of limestone pinnacles dad! With lush greenery all around. Spring is truly a beautiful time to be in New Zealand. Here's us in our classic "Keith hold the camera and we'll both get in it pose" in front of some of that limestone.

Our Gracious Kerikeri Hosts

We ended our stay in the Northland with a lot of driving. We drove north in and out of many beautiful bays and beaches. Throughout our stay up here, we have been so fortunate to have such a wonderful and warm home to call our home base. Don and Jill Cottle have been such gracious hosts, we don't know how to thank them enough. After our day of sailing, we came home to a lovely leg of lamb dinner, and this one's for you Harry - some fabulous 'pav' for dessert. It's a meringue dish, that you cover with cream, ice cream and fresh NZ fruit. Yum. Don insisted that we post this picture to make Harry jealous and to get Harry and Marge to come out for another visit....


And here is a look at those oranges we were talking about. Keith wanted to pick "a few" to take with us when we left....50 pounds and who knows how many oranges later, we were off (I might be exaggerating a bit, but he sure picked a lot!!)

Sailing the Bay of Islands

October 21, 2005:
On a last minute whim, we booked a sailing trip on the Gunga II out of Pahia to get a close up look at the Bay of Islands. This was the day after the torrential rains, and the weather had greatly improved but was still iffy, so we chose a sailing trip rather than trying to kayak. It turned out to be the perfect day to do so as it was still quite windy and not only did we get some really good sailing in, but also good views of the multitude of islands and bays in the area. It was an all day sail that inluded a stop at a beach where we took a very quick walk to the top of hill for some panoramic views of the bay as well as some looks at the large houses on some of the privately owned islands. Yikes...can you imagine owning your own island! Most of the area is owned by the Department of Conservation and is open to public use. From what I gathered there are few restrictions to where you can go as long as you have a means to get there. It was great fun sailing, especially towards the afternoon where the wind really picked up and we got some good "tilt" to the boat. We got to help out a bit with raising and lowering sails and I took the helm for a while and got us going to about 10 knots! It threatened to rain on us all day as you can see in the picture, but we hardly got wet at all. We also snorkled briefly, but I didn't last long as it was quite cold and we got a great show from a huge pod of very large bottlenose dolphins. Beautifimous, as Keith would say.

Rainy Day in the Bay of Islands

We are currently sitting by the fire reading books in the cozy (and circular!) home of Don and Jill, friends of our old Lebanon neighbors, here in Kerikeri, NZ. We had a pretty low key day as the rain came down something fierce all day. A truly hard downpour all day. Not one break or pause until about 6:00 tonight. We made the most of it and poked our heads around the town of Pahia which is the jumping off point for the highly visited Bay of Islands (which is just that- a bay full of islands), and spent some time on the treaty grounds of the Maori people, where the great Treaty of 1840 was signed making some semblance of peace between the Maori and other natives of NZ and the British. The grounds are beautiful and exhibits include a ceremonial canoe made out of a Kauri tree that holds over 80 people, and a treaty building with columns of Maori carving. Here are some pictures of both:




We spent yesterday lazily making our way up north from Auckland to Kerikeri. We took some detours off the main road and saw some of the coastline and almost went snorkling at the Goat Island Preserve but opted out due to the cooler weather and murky water. Yesterday was overcast with periods of quite severe yet short showers. We saw an 800 year old Kauri tree and generally enjoyed the rolling, lush hills of northern NZ. We also survived driving on the left side of the road. I let Keith do the honors of getting us out of Auckland, but I did take my turn at it along the way. There is one main road that takes you north, and once you are out of Auckland proper, it becomes a very narrow and windy two lane road with virtually no shoulder. Needless to say, as I was driving Keith accused me of practically veering into the ditch each time a car passed. It's a weird thing to get used to looking into a rearview mirror that is to your left (I find myself using only my right side outdoor mirror), and readjusting your perceptions and dealing with all this open car space to your left. Thank goodness they have an automatic, I couldn't imagine trying to shift with my left hand. And lots of round-abouts here. I got caught circling on the innermost lane of one of them for a couple laps!

So then we arrived to this lovely home of Don and Jill's who have been so welcoming and accomodating - I hope some day we can repay the hospitality. They live on quite a large piece of land (don't know how many acres) but a lot of it is a beautiful orange grove. Seriously - these are the best tasting oranges we have every had. Hands down. And when we walk amongst the trees the fragrence of the blooms is intoxicating - like a gardenia smell almost. They are small oranges and are better to cut into wedges rather than try and peel. Yum. Then after a wonderful "peasant dinner", we were treated to the weekly rehearsal of the quartet that Jill is part of. She plays piano (which you would gather by the four pianos in the house), and plays with two other violinists and a cellist. There were only three of them last night and they didn't play long, but it was beautiful.

We'll probably stay here two more days. The Bay of Islands can be quite striking (as we've seen from some pictures - it was a bit gray today and the water brown from all the raging rivers dumping water into the bay) and we're hoping to do some kayaking throughout them if the weather clears up. We're also planning to go a bit farther north (you can't get much farther) and maybe to the end of what they call 90 mile beach - the tip of NZ where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific meet. We'll post more later, and maybe get some picture up soon.

Thanks for the comments - we love to read them if you all feel like posting. Sounds like Gracie is doing well - thanks for the update Amy. :)

Springtime in Auckland

Spring is in the air here in New Zealand and the weather has been lovely. We've made our way around the highlights of Auckland and are anxious to get to the countryside. But first a few words about the plane ride over here. I knew we were in for a 12 hour flight, but I don't think anyone can comprehend what that means until you do it. 12 hours on a plane sucks unless you can afford first class. I thought it might be tolerable when we sat down to our own personal video screens with movies on demand, and the anticipation of two meals, and free NZ wine. I thought I might be able to ignore the fact that despite the reassurances from the ticketing agent that our seats were plenty "spacious" we in fact felt like your typical sardines. I was still in good spirits after the first meal and first movie, but then I got crabby. Especially looking at my watch and seeing 8 hours to go and looking around me and seeing everyone else sleeping, and then my back started hurting...yadda, yadda, yadda. I'm not getting any sympathy here am I? Did I mention that during the "welcome aboard New Zealand Air" video, they showed the amenities those in first class were about to enjoy which included a fold out bed for crying out loud! Now there's a sales tactic - show us the amenitities while we're suffering! We made it. I think we each slept for about 15 minutes. We left LAX at 11:30 PM and arrived in NZ at 9:00 AM two days later.

We made it through customs after getting our shoes and tent confiscated momentarily for a washing. We made our way easily to the apartment of friends of our neighbors in Lebanon who graciously gave us access to their place and car while they are vacationing in the States, and took a much needed nap. Their place sits in the heart of downtown Auckland, so we spent the rest of the day walking around the city, and turned in early for bed. After 11 hours of sleep(!) we made breakfast, then took a 10 minute ferry over to the quaint little town of Devenport. The weather was fabulous today, and the tranquility of Devenport is hard to describe. Victorian syle homes, quiet & pristine streets, and lush parks on every block it seems. The flowers over there were amazing! Scents and colors like you wouldn't believe. We climbed the two mountains in the city (OK, they were each only about 200 ft), which were old bunkers/forts, some of which you could still walk into. The hills provided great panoramic views of the city and surrounding bays. Here's one of the views from the top and a look at residential Devenport:



Here's Keith displaying for you Auckland and its trademark sky tower which we probably won't go up due to the expense. He is standing right by the ferry docks:


We leisurely explored the town, found a second hand store where we each bought more comfortable (and less stinky) shirts. Here's a very pretty beach we walked on. The water was chilly (we only waded), but can see how it becomes a hoppin swimming beach during the summer.


We will leave Auckland tomorrow as we are more interested in the outlying areas vs. the rush of the city. We're headed via car (the one we're borrowing - yikes driving on the left side will be weird - we'll be careful Mike!) to a small coastal town called Kerikeri near to the Bay of Islands where we again have a place to stay thanks to our neighbors. Marge & Harry - you are the best! We'll be staying with their good friends while we're up in that area and hope to do some kayaking in the bays.

One of the most interesting things we've seen so far? On some of the busiest intersections downtown, all crosswalks go at the same time. This means momentarily no cars are driving and only people are walking and that you can walk diagonally thru the intersection! We are easily amused it seems because we continue to chuckle at the momentary chaos that takes over the street as people are literally running in all directions!

I think we're going to like this life just fine. I do miss everyone at home, and didn't really realize how hard it would be to leave Gracie behind (pathetic, isn't it?). We saw a lovely golden retriever today which made me a bit sad but put a smile on my face nonetheless.
This internet cafe we found is great - high speed, and only $2/hour. If this is the standard for NZ, you can expect lots of posts and pictures, as it is a nice break in our day to come in here and rest our feet.
More to come!

We're Off!!!

We’ve spent the last three weeks having wonderful visits with friends and family. From Utah, we spent a nice week with Keith’s parents and caught lots of crab from a canoe no less! I meant to get pictures posted of the little guys, but ran out of time. After some tearful goodbyes, we headed to K Falls to see Willy and Corrine and family, then to a splendid BBQ with Merv (Keith’s brother) and Carolyn’s extended family, then a quick visit with Tami and Chris and their two beautiful girls.

Then it was on to Washington where we were able to establish a “home base” at my parents’ house. The folks were not back from Utah yet, so we had some time to ourselves to get mentally and physically reorganized. Then we were off to Kent, WA to stay with Amy and Zack for a while and house/dog sit for them. Which was a great opportunity because Amy and Zack are the lucky winners of the opportunity to take care of Gracie – our 100 lb golden ball of love. It gave Gracie a chance to get to know her soon-to-be new surroundings. It was a nice relaxing weekend interspersed with visits to more friends in Seattle – John and Linda and new baby Riley, and “the girls” – Sarah, Andrea, and Stacey for a rousing night in Pioneer Square. Finally, one more hike up Mt Si with Amy and Cari (our long lost traveling friend) and then we were back in Gig Harbor to start the arduous task of packing and organizing life before departing. I tell you what, I’ve had about enough of calling to check up on things that should be arriving that haven’t, setting up accounts, and having conversations that go something like this:

E: “Do you think we should leave this here on this table, or put it under the rug?”

K: “Why do you want to mess with it at all?”

E: “Because it’s here and we have to deal with it”

K: “Well I wouldn’t do either, I’d put it up on the roof.”

E: “Fine, I’ll just handle it, why do I ask you in the first place”.

So that was kind of a vague analogy to the conversations we’ve been having, but that’s about as deep as my mind can go right now. It’s definitely been more stressful for me than for Keith to get all the details taken care of before leaving, and we’ve had our crabby moments, but we’re finally at a place where all we can do is zip up the backpacks and catch a ride to the airport.

So, tonight I said my tearful good bye to my mom as she is off to the coast for a girls weekend. We did get her booked on a flight to Singapore, so it wasn’t too bad, knowing I’ll see her on Jan 4. Good for you mom! And tomorrow Keith’s parents (who came up for one last goodbye) will drive us to Amy and Zack’s and they will take us the final leg to Sea-Tac. It’s been a fun and crazy couple of months, but we can definitely say we are ready and excited to get this show on the road. No more talking about it, let’s go do it!! See you out there and stay tuned for updates. Next entry will be from way down under.....Auckland, New Zealand.