Auckland Day 75 December 15, 2008 We had a casual day in Auckland. Our taxi driver drove us up to the top of Mt. Eden to a city overlook. It was a cloudy day, so the “wow factor” wasn’t quite there. It was interesting to see the crater of a volcano right there at the overlook. We walked around the wharf and the central business district and had a nice lunch in a Polynesian café. We spent most of the afternoon in the excellent Auckland Museum. We’ve seen two good reproductions of Maori war canoes and today we saw the real [View Full Entry]

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Auckland Airport Day 76 December 16, 2008 I am sitting here bored in the Auckland airport waiting for our flight to Tokyo. The TV is on and I’m seeing that there is a rainy weather forecast for the next week for most of NZ. That helps ease the sorrowful pangs of leaving. We saw a lot in our 33 days in NZ, so no regrets other than wishing it could have been 63 days. We are leaving with good feelings about NZ. It is a country with beautiful scenery, friendly people, great wine and food, and LOTS of sheep. Fourteen Hours [View Full Entry]

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Another “End of the Road” December 12, 2008 I don’t know why we feel compelled to do these things! We left our lovely Kauri Forest camp this morning to drive as far north as one can drive in New Zealand. But first, we had to stop in Waipoua Forest and pay homage to Tane Majuta, the biggest Kauri tree in the world. He has a nice place not far from the road. He certainly is big and impressive and is over 2000 years old. That’s a long time to stand in one spot. While waiting for the ferry in Rawene [View Full Entry]

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Somewhere North of Dargaville in Trounson Kauri Park December 11, 2008 We were up early but had to hang around Coromandel town until the Coromandel Smoking Company opened so we could buy smoked mussels (incredibly delicious and addicting) for me and three different kinds of smoked fish for the both of us. It was inexpensive and now we wish we had bought more. The numerous pohutukawa trees on Coromandel Peninsula are starting to bloom and the deep red blossoms are beautiful to see. The pohutukawa is called the NZ Christmas tree for obvious reasons. We stopped again near Miranda a [View Full Entry]

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Coromandel Peninsula December 10, 2008 We are now in the upper right section of the North Island, the Coromandel Peninsula and I want to live here. There are many more people living on the North Island than the South Island but this part has an easy laid-back atmosphere that I like. We didn’t plan on coming here but our bus driver from the “Tamaki” experience the other night suggested this and she didn’t steer us wrong. (Bad joke, I know.) The peninsula has been logged and farmed and there is little wilderness, but I think it is very pretty. The outer [View Full Entry]

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Worms, Birds, and a Good Hot Soak December 9, 2008 Rotorua may not have the best thermal features in the world, but it’s a good place to get an oil leak fixed. Our caravan camp manager sent us off to the nicest mechanic in NZ who found a “wee hole in the oil filter” and had us off in no time. The Jucy company paid for that, of course. On the way out of Rotorua, we stopped at the Zorb place to watch the people roll down a hill in a giant plastic bubble ball with water inside it. It looked [View Full Entry]

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Kia ora! December 8, 2008 After a solid night’s sleep after a rough day of hiking yesterday in Tongariro NP, I dragged myself out of bed and Joe said I might want to comb my hair first thing. I asked, “Is it really that bad?” He sweetly answered, “My apologies to Leonard Cohen, but you are a sleepy golden storm.” Folding our sore bodies into the van seats, Joe mentioned that there was an oil leak we needed to do something about. About an hour later in Turangi at the south end of beautiful Lake Taupo the oil light came [View Full Entry]

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Marlborough Sounds, Interislander Ferry, and Wellington December 5, 2008 Joe was busy early this morning helping the Havelock women lug boxes of junk for a charity garage sale. He saw they needed help as we walked out of the bakery after our coffee and muffin. We really like this little town. It would be a great place to keep a boat to explore the Marlborough Sounds. I don’t think a boater would ever run out of inlets and coves to check out. The town has a wonderful harbor and I’m pretty sure there are more boats (some very nice ones) than [View Full Entry]

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Whanganui River Road and Tongariro NP December 6, 2008 We had so much fun today! We decided we had seen enough of Wellington to satisfy us. I know that many tourists stay a week there and we walked around for only four hours. But, we have such a short time on the North Island that we felt the need to get a move on. There is a town called Wanganui and a river called Whanganui (long story why they’re spelled differently) but we saw both today. Wanganui was having some sort of celebration with booths and bands and lots of food. [View Full Entry]

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Hello Everyone, Somehow this entry never got published...this was back on Dec. 7. Don't know what happened. Joe and Judy vs. the Volcanoes December 7, 2008 My tootsies hurt tonight! The Tangariro Alpine Crossing may not be the “greatest day hike in the world,” but it has to be one of them. The shuttle bus picked us up at our hotel door promptly at 5:45 and delivered us to the trail near the Mangatepopo hut. It was a rugged uphill to the top of Red Crater and Emerald Pools that are the highlight of the trip. Most of the trail’s ascent [View Full Entry]

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