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. :)