New Zealand – Weeks Two and Three

Monday & Tuesday, December 6 & 7, 2010
Hair cut and Camera!
Our week started off with some more errands and shopping.  I got an overdue haircut, wrote up the previous blog, and we bought a new camera.   Our Canon PowerShot zoom lens motor was dying and unpredictable.  Since we have really enjoyed our PowerShot, we got another one almost identical but with a few more bells and whistles.

Wednesday & Thursday, December 8 & 9, 2010
Lions in Red Beach.  Sula in Gulf Harbor.
Finally, we said goodbye to our first little campground and started our journey north up Highway 1 to Red Beach and Gulf Harbor.  Our friends Herb and Betty on Sula are in the marina there.  We hadn't seen them since Tahiti in late July and were looking forward to a reunion. 

We found a lovely little campground called Pinewoods Motor Camp not far the Harbor.  We noticed as we were checking in that the local Lion's Club was selling Christmas Cakes as a fundraiser.  Russ inquired about the Lion's Club, and it turned out that one of the ladies who was working in the office, Mary, was married to a Lion's club member.  Within just a few minutes after setting up our camp and fixing lunch, we received a visit from a very nice Lion Member Ian (Chalky) White, Executive Management Committee for NZ Lions Club.  He welcomed us to NZ and gave us the names and contact information of some other Lions in NZ who also have bed and breakfast accommodations.

We took a walk around the campground.  It was a very tidy and well kept facility by owners Stephan & Shirley Green.  Most of the sites are little mini-cabins, called baches (short for bachelor pads).  Many residents live year-round in their baches, vacating a few weeks each year so that the campground can maintain its license to be a tourist resident park.  Apparently, if the park were considered a full-time residency development, it would be recategorized as permanent residency land and the taxes would shoot up increasing the day rates beyond what most people could afford.

As we enjoyed our walk

 through the local surroundings, we noticed a beautiful large tree with bottle-brush like blooms.  Shirley told us this was the Pohutukawa tree (Christmas Tree) which is a protected native tree in New Zealand. 

 There was supposed to be a geocache near this tree, but we were not successful in finding it.  Maybe when we return just before Christmas, we'll give it another search.   The campground is right on the water and adjacent to Red Beach and a Surf and Squash Club.

We met up with our friends Herb and Betty on Wednesday afternoon and had a great time going out to a Mexican restaurant and catching up with them.  Thursday, we hung out and took some nice walks.  We made arrangements with the owners to return to PinewoodDecember 24-26, and will be going out to dinner on Christmas Eve with them and Lion Chalky and his wife Mary.  We'll spend December 25 and 26 with cruising friends in Gulf Harbor.

Friday, December 10, 2010
Magnificent Kauri Trees, Amber, and Great Museum
We left Pinewood on Friday morning and headed toward the north east, the Tasmin side of the island.  The Kauri Museum in Matakohe was high on our lists of must sees, and we were not disappointed.  What a beautifully designed and lovely museum with re-created cabins,

boarding houses,  

log mills, and rooms from lovely family homes. 

 Mannequins in these re-created spaces are modeled after actual people and descendants of the New Zealander timber families.

The mannequins alone were the price of admission.  They were incredibly lifelike.

I understand that the mannequins are made out of the same porcelain like material that dentures and caps are made out of.  It would be nice to see some of our state parks in California develop a similar mannequin technique to honor early California descendants.  The artist here utilized old photographs, a casting of a look similar descendant, and occasionally a bust of a person to develop his cast and molding.  He used his own hands as hand models for gripping tools, sewing needles, etc..

Displays of Kauri furniture and the amber "gum" mined by gum diggers from the trees were wonderful. 

 
Similar to California Redwoods, however, the harvesting of these trees without replacement, soon denuded the hills clearing the area for farming but destroying precious forest habitat. 

Unlike the California Redwood, the Kauri is incredibly slow growing and is not a viable renewable resource for many generations.  For the first 50 years of it's life, the Kauri grows conical like a pine tree, developing a trunk only about a foot or so in diameter.  After that the tree begins to fill out and grow taller, losing its conical shape as it stretches its branches up and out toward the sun.  It loses most of its lower branches and the circumference of the trunk begins to expand.

Nowadays, the only Kauri that is used in the production of furniture, picture frames, and objects of art, come from swamp Kauri, some as old as 8,000 years old.  Kauri can no longer be timbered or scavenged from a fallen tree.  Farmers have uncovered Kauri in swamp lands that is buried and preserved.  This is the only useable Kauri today.

We spent far more time at the museum than we intended and decided to stay overnight at the little campground at the end of the road.  The camp site had once been a member of the Top 10 association, but was now a member of Kiwi Camp Association.  We are now members of both.  While we were at this campsite, we met a young German couple, Ursula and Jorge. 

When we asked them where they were from in Germany, they said from the south between Stuttgart and Munich.  It's the same kind of answer we give when we tell people we live between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe because it is unlikely they would know where Colfax is.  Turns out that after a few more questions, they told us they were from Ulm,  where we used to live!  The world just keeps getting smaller.

Saturday, December 11, 2010
Kiwi night walk in the Kauri forest.
On Satuday morning, we got an early start heading toward the Waipoua Forest.    We had read in one of our guide books that we could go on a guided Kiwi walk in the Trounson recreation area if we made reservations in advance.  We called before leaving the Matakohe camp ground and were the first to sign up.  Once our walk reservations were made by phone, we followed along in the camper arriving just after lunch at our first Top Ten park.  We joined that too.  I think we belong to all of them now!

We spent the afternoon reading, napping, doing laundry, and in between playing on a zip line set up along the river. 

At 8:30 p.m., we reported to the reservation desk and were whisked off with about 9 other campers to the forest.   It was dusk and the forest interior was very dark.  We kept our lights to a minimum, and only our guide had a large spotlight with a red screen.  It felt like we were on a snipe hunt!  The kiwi females and males each have their own call.  In the still of the night, (and I mean still….no crickets, frogs, or other night birds)the only sounds we heard were our own feet padding along the forest track and the infrequent, but loud calls of the Kiwis to one another and their big feet crunching through the underbrush.

Kiwi in a case

The forest in NZ seems to be much more friendly and less frightening than in California where we worry about bears, mountain lions, and rattle snakes.  The biggest predators are possum, stoats, and rats.  In the Trounson recreation area, a concerted effort has been made to kill the predators because they destroy the Kiwi ground birds.  We hiked and searched for 2 hours, but just like the snipe the Kiwi was elusive and we didn't get a chance to spot one.  We did see two possum though.  They aren't as ugly as American possum.  We'll try again.

Sunday, December 12, 2010
Ti Kouka Bed and Breakfast
On Sunday morning, Russ called the contacts given to us by Chalky in Red Beach.  Maria and George are both Lions.  They own a lovely home with gardens and a single bed and breakfast unit in Omapere on Hokianga Bay on the Tasman Sea.  We called and reserved the B & B for two nights.

As we drove the coastal road through the Waipou Forest to Hokianga, we took several walks to see the Father of the Forest (widest girth Kauri tree), and the God of the Forest (tallest Kauri tree).  Truly magnificent.

Preventing soil contamination and the death of Kauri Trees

Four Sisters

Father of the Forest

God of the Forest

We arrived late afternoon in Omapere at Ti Kouka B & B and were welcomed by George and Maria who made us very comfortable in the lovely bedroom on the ground floor of their home.  Their home is surrounded by beautiful gardens which they have lovingly planted and nurtured.  From our room, we had beautiful views of Hokianga Bay. 

A quick trip into Omapere yielded us a couple bottles of red wine, lamb cutlets marinated in rosemary and mint, Kumera (sweet potato) and a beautiful egg plant.  We also found a unique bag of potato chips…..Lamb and mint flavored!

New Zealand Morning Commute

 We returned to our B & B and bar-b-qued our feast and drank wine as the sunset.

Monday, December 13, 2010
Tide pooling on one side of the bay and dune bugging on the other.
The tide was low at 9:30 a.m. and it was perfect for tide pooling along the shore of Hokianga just below Ti Kouka.  We climbed down  stairs that George had built from the gardens down to the beach, and meandered for a mile or two enjoying the clear blue sky, water, and nature's art work everywhere we looked.

We returned to Ti Kouka, freshened up a bit, and went into Omapere where we had made arrangements to take a water taxi across the bay to the sand dunes where we were to meet Andrew, proprietor of Sandtrails and take a ride in his dune buggy.  Andrew is a Maori whose ancestors were the first to come to New Zealand to Hokianga. 








He told us several stories of his people and shared with us some magical places in the dunes where the wind and sand have sculpted the earth.

The eastern side of the bay is completely different than the western side of the bay, both beautiful.

When we returned to Ti Kouka, Maria invited us to share dinner with them.  We spent a lovely evening upstairs in their home.  The view from the second floor is 180 degrees looking out at the Tasman Sea, across the treacherous bar into Hokianga Bay and down the bay as far as the eye can see.  Both Maria and George are Lions club members and have served in various cabinet posts with the NZ Lions club.  We exchanged a Colfax Lions Club pin for an Opononi Lions Club banner.  What a wonderful couple these folks are.  It so sweet and so sad to meet folks you really like and then say goodbye.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Ferry across Hokianga and Fierce Mosquitoes 
Once again, we were on the road heading north and thankful we had such beautiful weather the day before to do our land exploring.  Tuesday was cloudy with the expectation of rain. 

We drove through picturesque little towns, took a ferry across the mid-section of the Hokianga Bay, and wound up in a little campground in Waitiki.  The mosquitoes were everywhere and we spent most of the night swatting at them as they hummed around our ears.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Cape Reinga and 90 Mile Beach

The lighthouse is out here somewhere...right?

Yes, we see it!

Pacific and Tasman Meet With a Frenzy

After 10 minutes the fog rolls back in

The rain continued as we headed north to Cape Reinga.  Fortunately, our patience between rain and the fog paid off and for 10 minutes around 10:30 in the morning, we were rewarded with some great views of where the Tasman and the Pacific Ocean meet at the northern tip of the north island.

After our sight seeing at the Cape, we headed southwest to where the sand dunes meet 90 mile beach.  We took a lovely walk through the delta that meanders through the base of the dunes.  We dipped our toes in the Tasman sea and made our way back to our car.

Delta Meets the Sea on 90 Mile Beach

We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with Rose and Dave and their son Tiua, a Maori family who are the guardians of the spirit trail and proprietors of the sand surfing business Ahikaa Adventures at the base of the dunes.

Dave 'N Rose N' Tiua - Guardians of the Spirit Trail

Thursday & Friday, December 16 & 17, 2010
Rain, rain go away!
Now that we had accomplished our northern most excursions, we headed south.  We returned to Kaitaia, a little city, where we knew we could get some screens for our van windows and resupply on a few groceries.  We headed back to the East coast, had some fish and chips in a harbor town of Mangonui and spent two nights in the Matauri Bay Camp Ground where we tried to stay dry as the rain drizzled, dripped, and dumped. 

Shell Strewn Beach

The Sun Peeks out for a Moment!

Rainbow Warrior Monument

The bay and islands were beautiful when we caught a glimpse of them between squalls.  We did take a few beach walks and hiked to the top of the hill behind our campsite where there was a memorial to the Rainbow Warrior.  The ship itself has been re-sunk not far from the campsite and supposed to be a great place to dive.

While we were in the campground, we met a nice couple from England, Carolyn and Simon  who are former dairy farmers, now in the business of building leisure activities.  They are in the process of developing an 18 hole golf course and have some other enterprises as well.  Someday when we get to England, we hope to stop by and see them.

Saturday, December 18, 2010
Keri Keri - Oldest stone building, Oldest wooden house
We left the campground in yet another rain storm and headed to the little town of Keri Keri.  It was a lovely little tourist town where we found a wonderful gluten and wheat free cafe.  The food was excellent.  What a treat!

First Stone House

First Wood House - hand hewn

Re-created Maori Shelters

The sun poked its head now and again while we toured the gardens and historic buildings. 

Sunday, December 19, 2010
Famous Public Toilets

We left Keri Keri and headed further south.  It's still raining!  We took a little side trip to the most famous public toilets in Kawa Kawa, New Zealand.  It was an artsy little town with a historic railway.  It was too wet to take a train ride, but we enjoyed the restroom!

After our pitstop in Kawa Kawa, we went to the marina in Opua and looked up our friends Gene and Gloria.  They were getting their boat ready to store on a mooring and then start on their road trip south.  We invited them to our campground for a bar-b-que, but first we had to find a campground where we had a covered area to get out of the rain. 

Not far from the Marina, we found a campground that fit the bill.  We spent a nice evening catching up.  We will see them again over the Christmas Holidays at the Pinewood camp when we celebrate the holidays with other cruising friends.

We have now been in New Zealand for three weeks!  The time is moving quickly.  We hope that the rain lets up so that we can do some more outdoor activites, including a boat trip through the Bay of Islands.

Happy Holidays!

This will probably be the last blog until after the holidays!  Hope you all have a wonderful season and a Happy New Year!  We miss you. With love, the 2 Sail R's, Roz and Russ

New Zealand – Week One

The 2 Sail R’s have been in New Zealand for one week.  So far we are loving it!  It’s been a busy week filled with novelty and the excitement of getting ourselves travel ready.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

We left Fiji late on a rainy afternoon where there was an expectation of a possible cyclone.  Worrall Wind was safe, but we were concerned the weather would settle in before our plane took off.  Our plane was delayed due to runway light failure in NZ the night before causing all planes to be late.  We left an hour later than scheduled through thick dark clouds, but arrived just a few minutes passed the originally scheduled time.  A strong tail wind from the weather around Fiji had us flying along at 990 kilometers per hour.  We landed in NZ as the sun was setting over the north island, only a few clouds.  It was a beautiful welcome.

Prior to leaving Fiji, we did rent a New Zealand car for five days and booked a hotel room for one night.  When we got off the plane, we at least had wheels and a bed.  First though we had to find the wheels.  As we entered the parking lot, Russ pre-paid the parking ticket that we had picked up along with the car keys and rental agreement at the tourist desk.  Car companies apparently don’t stay open after 7:00 p.m. 

The tourist desk told us the slot number we were in, but not where slot Q16 was located.  The parking lot was not well marked, and of course it took us quite a long time to find the car.  By the time we got to the un-manned exit gate, our parking ticket had extended past the time allotted for getting out of the lot and was rejected.  We were instructed to insert our credit card….which we did, and we got another message saying something cryptic, like….entry data not valid.  We were stuck.  This was reminiscent of our toll road fiasco in Italy last fall.   By this time there were cars behind us, and we couldn’t go forward or backward.  There was apparently no one around to help us.

After several minutes of cars in our line backing up and going to other gates, we also backed up and tried two more gates with no success.  Finally, we backed up a block to a little building that had a man sitting in a gate shed.  He had been watching our problem for at least 10 minutes, but hadn’t ventured out to advise or assist us.    He asked for our credit card. The extra 20 minutes had cost us another $7.00 NZ!  He lifted the gate without so much as even a hello, and we were on our way….where? we were not quite sure.  We had ordered a GPS navigation system, but it wasn’t in the car when we arrived.  We had a few tourist maps and had to do with those.

It’s been a while since our maps involved so many streets.  The tourist office maps were not the greatest.  Longitude and latitude charts are much more simple.  We eventually found the hotel, found our room one flight up with no elevator and crashed.  It had been a long day.

Monday, November 29, 2010

We spent our first day going in unintended directions and trying to get our bearings.  Russ kept saying we weren’t lost.  We just didn’t know where we were! 

Russ had gotten pretty used to driving on the left hand side of the road in a right hand drive car in Fiji, but the little car we had here had a tricky little gear shift (left handed shifting).  Every time Russ thought he was putting on the blinker, he turned on the windshield wiper and visa versa as these are switched around in right hand side cars. 

We did manage to buy a SIM card for our unlocked phone, Vodafone data modem for getting on the Internet, basic membership in AA (comparable to our AAA), picked up travel books and maps at AA, stopped at the rental car company and got a TomTom navigation system, and found a motel room for two nights closer to the car dealerships.  We also got on the Internet at Trademe.co.nz and contacted the owner of a used campervan.  We made arrangements to meet with him the following morning and look at his van(s).  Phew!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

We left our motel room and drove to a location given to us by the man who was selling the car, approximately 20 minutes west of our motel.  Ricky, a very nice and enterprising Chinese New Zealander met us at 7:30 a.m.  Ricky who is a driving instructor also buys used vans and converts them to camper units.  He showed us three he was working on.  We got pretty excited about one of them and thought we had found what we were looking for.  Ricky couldn’t get the van started though (hmm) and asked if we could come back the following evening for a test run.  We agreed, but in the meantime, told him we would be looking at other vans.

We stopped at a couple of other campervan dealers before lunch but hadn’t found anything we liked or was in our price range of cheap.  During lunch we pulled out the computer and new modem stick, got on line, punched up Trademe, and a new listing popped up that hadn’t been there earlier in the morning.  The van looked interesting.  We were the first potential buyers to call and made arrangements with the owner, to see the van later that afternoon at 6:00.  She lived in a suburb of Glenfield 30 miles from our hotel.

With time to kill we drove to Glenfield early and checked out the nearby town and shopping center.  We arrived for our appointment a little early, but the owner Jane pulled up just as we got there in her campervan.  She had taken it to be WOFfed.  Every six months, cars in NZ must receive a WOF inspection (pronounced woof, warranty of fitness).  The van passed its WOF, good news, and had a current registration (due to expire the end of December).  The van is a 1985, oldy but goody.  It has a customized interior unlike any we had seen.  Within 15 minutes and a test drive, we verbally agreed to buy the van.

Jane was amenable to waiting a few days for our US $ to be wired to our yet to be opened NZ bank account and was kind enough to let us start cleaning and prepping the van in her back yard starting the next day.  We found a camground nearby Glenfield that had camping cabins.  Since our two days at the motel were now up, we moved closer to the van.  Russ called Ricky to let him know that we had found a van and would not be coming by for the test drive.  Ricky asked us to give him a call when we were done with the van in April, as he might want to buy it from us. 

Wednesday, December 1 and Thursday, December 2, 2010

For two days, we cleared out the van of all the dishes, bedding, etc., that we didn’t want, vacuumed, scrubbed, polished, shopped and stocked the van with things we did.  We opened a bank account with ANZ bank and worked with our bank at home to transfer dollars.  Jane let us know that her phone had been ringing off the hook with inquiries about the van.  We were glad we had moved swiftly on this purchase.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Our dollars finally made it to ANZ.  That’s another comedy of errors of our dollars being incorrectly exchanged to the Australian rate, wired after being stopped, a second withdrawal to our account, double now of what we asked for, $ wired back, fees charged, credited, waived…..kind of a mess, but it all worked out.

We picked up the $, picked up the van and brought it to the campground where we loaded it with all of the stuff we had in the camping cabin and rental car.  Then Russ drove the van, and I drove the rental car back to Penrose where Jane worked and located near the rental car return.  We met at the AA office, paid Jane, re-registered the vehicle, got extended road assistance through AA and bought our own TomTom.  AA recommended we get car insurance, which is not a requirement in NZ through Backpackers Car Insurance company.  It would be for a shorter period and less expensive that what AA could offer. 

As we were coming out of the AA office, a lady was looking in the windows of the van.  She was wondering if we were selling it?  Not now, but we took her email address and told her we would contact her in April. (two potential buyers).  Another lady, tapped on our window, just as we were getting ready to pull out.  She was jumping up and down.  Was this another potential buyer???  No, just a 90 year old lady ecstatic that she got her driver’s license renewed and couldn’t wait to share her joy with the first people she saw.  Cute!

Here are some photos of our new home and first night at the campground.  Yeah!  Fresh fruits and vegeta

Saturday, December 4, 2010

With the business part of our week taken care of, we spent Saturday sightseeing in downtown Auckland.  It was overcast most of the day.  The weather here right now (early spring) is very much like Oakland and the East Bay in the summer, foggy and cool in the morning, burning off to pleasant in the late afternoon.  

Auckland is a lovely city.  It’s clean, fresh, multi-cultured, and a blend of traditional and contemporary architecture. 

Our first stop was the Backpackers Car Market.  This was going to be one of our stops before we bought the van.  We decided to see what it was like anyway incase we want to use the market to sell the van.  We were of course a little worried that we would see something we liked better than what we bought, but left feeling quite satisfied that we had gotten a good deal and didn’t see anything that came close to what we had gotten for our $3,000 USD.

In Auckland City, the sky tower dominates the skyline. 

The view from the top is beautiful and the 360 degree view allows the visitor to see both the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. 

Looking through my feet to ground below

And no….we didn’t bungee jump from the top, but there were several people who did while we were there.  The Kiwis are really into bungee jumping. 

An amusement ride close buy the Sky tower is a bungee rocket.  Here is a picture of it blasting skyward.

We also visited the Maritime Museum.  It’s a great place, interesting and well done.  One of the rooms is a recreated 1900 immigrant bunk room.  

The floor moves and creaks just as one of the old ships must have  (on a very gentle day while tied up at the dock!).  For old salts like us, the floor hardly moved.  We’re used to be thrown from one side of the boat to the other!  

Another interesting display was a simulated sailboat race with wheel, winches, and race course where folks could test out their team skills.  Here are some boys having a great time.  We could have spent a full day there.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

It’s our one week NZ anniversary.  We’ve been here a week, have a cell phone, data modem, bank account, shopping discount cards, ATM cards, and a campervan.  Jesse and Simon, Garyn and Jessica’s friends from Wellington, are also letting us use their address for receiving physical mail.  Not bad for the first week.  

We decided to spend the day sight seeing on the west side of the island in the Waitekere Regional Park on the Tasman sea.  We had lovely day visiting the tourist center, walking along the beaches of Piha and KereKere, climbing sand dunes, watching a surfing competition, hiking through rain forests and learning about the ancient trees, and listening to the whistle and trills of unfamiliar birds.

Next week, we will be heading to the northern end of the north island.  All is well with the 2 Travel R’s, Roz and Russ