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Published: December 5th 2008
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Taputaputa Bay camping site
and a view of our lovely Spaceship - Yuri! - with its tent extension NORTH ISLAND PART 1 NOV 9 TO NOV 22, 2008
And so we headed off in our bright orange “Spaceship”, called Yuri, from Auckland on Nov. 9th with Al driving and me repeating our mantra “stay left; stay left”! It feels very different when everything is opposite!
New Zealand has about 4.2 million people and about 50 million sheep. Each time we round a bend, there is yet another incredible and spectacular view and more lovely sheep. I am still very excited when I see the sheep and am trying for the ultimate sheep picture. Al got a really good one!
The roads have been excellent and finding camping spots has been easy. We camped our first night at beautiful Pakiri Beach; thanks for recommending it Allayne. We have done a bit of free camping plus have stayed in DOC sites. The Department of Conservation has beautiful sites set up all over NZ and payment is on the honour system, usually about $12 per night for 2 adults. Most are standard sites which means they come with toilets but no showers. We cook over our 2 burner gas stove and sleep in peace, often listening to the raging
Ransom Vineyard in the Makatana region near Warkworth
so many beautiful vineyards and of course wines! in NZ! surf of the ocean. We do also stay in “holiday parks” which are always set up with hot water showers (lovely!) and communal kitchens and lounges.
We have been meeting wonderful wonderful people - Kiwis and foreign travellers like us. And discovering new birds and flora and fauna.....so wonderful!
We did also have 2 fabulous nights with Hamish and Sarah in Whangarei (pronounced “fung-ah-ray”) Heads in their beautiful home with a spectacular view. Lovely treat to stay here plus Hamish took us fishing and Al and Hamish caught dinner! Hamish and Logan sailed across the Pacific together on the Wallaby Creek in 2005 and we met Hamish and Sarah with Logan when we visited Australia in 2006. So wonderful to reconnect with them. Thank you again so much Hamish and Sarah!! Hope you will come see us in Canada!
And sailing on The Bay of Islands!! Such a thrill! We stayed in beautiful Russell for 2 nights and spent a whole day sailing on Phantom. It is a beautiful 50 foot C&C owned by a couple named Robin and Rick. It used to be their home and now they take people out on day charters, a maximum
of 10. The day we went we were the only 2 passengers so Rick took us out and we had spectacular sun and wind. We highly recommend their trip and their magnificent lunch spread on board. And we saw a little Blue Penguin swimming near us; it is the world’s smallest penguin.
We did reach the very north tip of NZ, Cape Reinga, where the currents of the Tasman and the Pacific meet. We stayed in the northern most DOC camp site Taputapuka Bay. Perfect!
We continued down the Kauri Coast to the incredible Waipoua Kauri Forest and met Tane Mahuta, Maori god of the forest; he is the largest Kauri alive today - 51 m. high and 3.8 m. girth. Absolutely awesome to see! And also the Matua Ngahere, the father of the forest and the Four Sisters. Beautiful walk in the forest among the ancient Kauri trees, now so few in number having been logged to virtual extinction. The Kauri Museum was excellent in giving us a perspective on life for the early settlers in NZ as they cleared the lands.
Thank you Krista for recommending we visit Raglan as we journeyed down the west
coast! Loved it! It is considered NZ’s perfect surfing town and although we are not surfers we did enjoy exploring -and watching the surfers on Manu Bay. Manu Bay was featured in Bruce Brown’s 1964 surf movie “The Endless Summer” - for those of you who remember! The town has a very Kootenay, BC feeling to it and we stayed at a perfect place overlooking Manu Bay just outside town - Solscape. The owner Phil is creating an eco-site with varied accommodation from tepees to cabins in rail cars to campsites. He treated Al and me to a tour of his newest building.
And we did see 2 real live kiwi birds!! Alas not in the wild, yet. We visited the Otorohanga Kiwi House and met “Atu” a large female “great spotted kiwi” and a smaller male “brown kiwi”. Still a treat to see them live! Way bigger than we thought and such long long beaks.
We loved the beautiful town of Wanganui. Very picturesue.
Then off to Wellington and a day of exploring including of course the amazing Te Papa, Our Place, which is the National Museum. Even after 4 hours we had not seen it
all!
On Saturday the 22nd we headed onto the Blueridge Ferry to cross Cook Strait to Picton and the South Island.
The South will be our next blog. Hugs to each of you! Thanks for reading!
Al and Robin
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Pam Scobie
non-member comment
wonderful blog
Hi rob and al - great to hear your news - and sooo looking forward to seeing you both in Van, hopefully in Feb. - love Pam xxx :)