Pukeka

I just love these - beautiful blue and red, white danger tail. In fields everywhere but in agricultural areas mostly.

Birds

I have really enjoyed many of the lovely birds to see. Here are some (many to follow). We were asked to take these summer visitors home with us.

Need a book?

We are waiting for ever in the Nadi airport and I'm out of things to read. Paperbacks here are $25-30. I spotted a fellow almost at the end of his book. I was watching covetting, and Linda asked if I wanted the book. She went over and asked the young man what his intentions were once he finished. Long story short - I got the book for $3 usa. Not bad. I never would have approached him but Linda had no compunctions. She's very good with strangers!

Last Beach

Driving back from the Bay of Islands to Auckland, I spotted this park with a great beach. Linda took a nap in the shade and I went for a walk on the beach. I was alone for much of the walk and then there were people from the campground. As I wandered down mostly looking at shells and the water, I did notice something was a bit odd. Apparently I missed the clothing optional sign (if there was one) and being in a bathing suit I was out of place! Just one of those places where the locals know the "rules" and the rest of us don't. Beautiful beach.

Happy St Patrick's Day

It is St Patrick's Day here as we are a day ahead of you. There is no shortage of Irish bars in NZ so we should have some fun today. We are heading back to Auckland (slowly) to be near the car rental agency and the airport for tomorrow. We are ready to come home but it will be hard to put away the sandals and shorts! So, cheers to you all and we will be in touch soon.

Almost the end

So, here we are in Paihai in the Bay of Islands and getting ready to head to Auckland tomorrow. The next day we head home. It has been a long holiday and we are ready to come home but we could keep exploring. We liked the van and would recommend it as a way to see NZ.

Some observations:
Food is very expensive and eating out is outrageous (bangers and mash $20)
Twisty roads are interesting for a couple of weeks and then it is tedious
Recycling is almost non existent in many places which is odd for such a small place
Human population: 4 million
Sheep : 40 million
Cattle: 12 million
Deer: (farmed) 4 million
Possums: 70 million
Most toilets have two speed options for flushing!
Most businesses close early afternoon - if you want a coffee in a small town get it by 3:30!
"life style" is the key phrase but wages are so low you can't do anything anyway
Property and housing prices are through the roof
"Life Style Property" is the key phrase for you can't afford it
I don't get it- there are lots of okay spots for sale for millions and I don't know who the buyers are.Shania Twain ownes property where I rode back weeks ago and NZ seems to be the new Calif.
There are tremendous efforts in reclaiming land once farmed and forested and mined. Lots of volunteers and even wealthy doing this for their land (keeps the sheep off). More later.

Hole in the Rock

The boat usually sails through the hole in this rock, but not today! Swells and high winds prevented it and I'm glad. Seeing it this was was much better.

Bye bye van!

We dropped off the van on Sat. We were sorry to let it go as it really was a great way to get around and it was home. We traded for a small car so we could still be out and about for a couple of days. Headed out of Auckland and drove as far as I could manage in one day. Sunday we got up and headed to the Bay of Islands. I took a boat tour of the islands and some bottlenose dolphins while Linda had the day on shore. It was overcast in the morning, but turned into a lovely afternoon. High winds so it was a bit rough out at sea but I like that.

Raglan

Linda had a bad day - wasn't well with bad head. I went to the surfer beach, watched and played in the waves. Lots of young people part of the "surfer club" -very much a clique. Quite evident in town.

And at the end of a thermal day - more!

So, here we are at the public pools in Rotorua. The smell is something else (Joyce, great place for you) but it felt sooo good!

Waimangu Volcanic Valley

The others went back to Roto, but we went on to this valley. The volcanic and thermal activity is very recent here and interesting too. We walked for a couple of hours down and then, thankfully, took a shuttle back up!

more thermal

the colours were amazing and so toxic

Amazing thermals

Lovely walk around the thermal area. The colours were tremendous but would be even better earlier in the season with more water. We are late summer and drought.

Rotorua trips

We did two trips outside Rotorua. This area is famous for the thermal volcanic activity, hot springs, sulphur and mud. The first stop was Wai-O-Tapu so we could see some mud pools and a small geyser.

Coromandel town next!

After the little train, we went to town and the information site. There we were told we'd probably done all we could so we headed for Rotorua. What else?

Coromandel town

We headed to a recommended spot f0r breakfast - at Drivers Creek. If you want to find any remaining hippies, come here! I spotted a number of cars parked down the road and asked whatthat was. A potter, Barry Brickell, got this 60 acre property some years ago. He started this little railway to get clay and was only to go about 200 metres from the forge. Well, 27 years and 2.6km later is this lovingly built railway. It makes model railroaders' hearts thump. The tracks are all hand laid and the tunnels built lovely murals. the retaining walls are built with old bottles (glad to help!). The train cars are little, but get all the visitors to the amazing views at the top. He has protected the area from things like possums etc and has planted over 17000 native trees. The property, on his death, will go to the conservation authority. Rather amazing.

Wed, Mar 12

We are at the end of our Coromandel visit, I think. We are at a cafe having breakfast right now and probably off for a bush walk shortly. Not sure where to go after this. We are due in Auckland on Sat to drop off the van. Have arranged for a small car for the two days left after that before returning home. Likely, we will go to Rotorua then.

Hot Water Beach

Today's adventure was Hot Water Beach. This spot has really hot sand and water coming up at low tide the remains of volcanic action 5-9 million years ago! People flock here to dig holes in the sand and bury themselves in the hot water. And it is HOT! Our first hole we had to abandon it was so hot. Others tried it and left it, too! I must say, however, that I did find it somewhat unsettling the glee with which Linda dug the hole to boil me in! We both had fun. As Linda pointed out, here were a bunch of adults playing in the muck but we all called it in the name of natural science.

More dophin boat

Jumping into the ocean in the hopes of swimming along side of one of these great creatures was an act of faith. I am not sure I have ever been in such deep water.

Dolphin adventure

I told you about the boat trip, so here are a few pics of the trip.

Ohope Beach

This was my favourite beach. I would have stayed for days but our time is starting to run out.

Try Whakatane again

It was a lovely spot and I really enjoyed the beaches in the area. Here are some shots of the town and the surrounding rock

Trouble uploading

I have been having trouble with the google server to upload pictures to the blog. So, to stop my frustration I will not try again until tomorrow. Until then, here is an update.
We stayed in a not so great holiday park on Sat night as we were told we'd have to report for the dolphin tour at 6:30am! Yikes. But, when I called at 7pm the night before, we were told the check in time was 8 am. Better but we would have stayed out of town. Nonetheless, it worked out. Linda decided she would go for the boat ride and observe the dolphins. I opted to try to swim with them. This has lead me to a conclusion:
Two Top Ways to Learn Humility:
1) Play golf
2) Try on a wet suit

The skipper of our boat had heard that there were a couple of Orcas out in the water the day before and also pilot whales. Unfortunately, Captain Ahab then decided to try and find them! We wanted dolphins! He finally gave up and we did find NZ Common Dolphins. They were lovely. Lots of them but not as many as usual (is this becoming a theme with me?). Suspicion that the Orcas had sent many of the dolphins into hiding rather than become a whale sized snack!Swimming with the dolphins meant the skipper getting the boat out just ahead of a pod and then us silly humans flop off the back of the boat and try to swim to them. I did this three times. Twice a dophin was kind enough to swim underneath me while I breathed through my snorkel and tried not to gasp. A few people panicked when they got into the ocean - it was a bit overwhelming and though swimming but fun. We were out for at least 5 hours. We took van back to Ohope Beach and a campsite there. I spent the rest of the day on the beach reading. After dinner and cleaning up, took what was left of a bottle of red wine down to the beach and watched the stars and the waves until bedtime. Ah, nice life!

Monday, we left and had a nice drive along the coast. Felt like we were going to have an easy drive and then --- over a range, up and down, twist and turn! We have stopped in Tairau. This appears to be the start of our Coromandel experience. Hope to have better luck with pictures tomorrow.

Whakatane

Went to Whakatane today (Sat) and booked a dolphin tour for tomorrow. I believe this place is special to Kelly. Very congested and crowded. McDonalds, BurgerKing and Pizza Hut. Were they here when you were Kelly? Very little land to build on as the hills rise right up. Spent the afternoon lazing on a beautiful beach at Ohope. Very few people but there was a wedding ceremony just down the beach while I was reading my book!

Mission Winery

Before we left Napier, we did a brief wine tour. The Mission winery is the oldest in NZ and had some nice product. The woman who conducted our tasting explained that one of the wines would cellar well for 6-7 years but that "Kiwis tend to cellar their wines for 72 hours"!

Silly me!

I had really hoped that driving on the north island would be better than the south. Nope. Left Napier yesterday at 10 am. Sign said 214 km to Gisborne. Got there around 4:30 pm! Slow twisty road with trucks this time! Had to stop once while trucks took turns as two couldn't pass each other on the road.Then drove a 58 km river gorge that was steep on the passenger side so Linda was tense. Kept on going and got to Opotiki. Just outside, we found a little holiday park. It has been neglected for some time but the beach was magnificent. Great listening to the waves while we slept and a wonderful sunrise.

Viewing tip

If you want to see a full screen version of any of the pictures I post, just click on the picture. It will automatically go to full screen.

Art Deco examples

Although many of the buildings used typical art deco styles (egyptian, sunrises, etc) some of the buildings actually incorporated Maouri decorations and symbols. Apparently this is a bit odd as Maouri culture was hardly recognized in those days.

The Veronica

A British ship was in the harbour when the earthquake hit (took 2 1/2 min). The boat's communications system was what let the world know what had happened as everything in Napier was destroyed. When the boat went out of commission, the name plate and bell were sent to Napier.