North Island

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We drove back on straighter roads past all the wineries and then spent the night in Picton. We had supper at the Scottish Pub. The lamb shank was very good and Ken had the chicken schnitzel that he likes. The next morning we had time to spare and the harbour is nicely setup with public washrooms, easy to find. And while I am talking about “Toilets”, I have to say that Canada should be embarrassed about the state of our public washrooms, even at McDonalds and most gas stations and many of the highway facilities. Both Australia and New Zealand should be commended for the high maintenance of their “Toilets”. And I must tell you about these special facilities in the concourse of the Picton harbour. You press a button to open the door and once inside a roomy well light room, you press a button to lock the door and let others know the place is occupied. Then a voice comes on to tell you that you have 10 minutes and then the door will open. It also tells you the toilet will flush only when you wash your hands or when you open the door to exit. The

only problem with this is what happens when the power goes off. Are you just stuck in there?

We are leaving the south Island on a ferry to Wellington (the capital of New Zealand). They are efficient in that we drop our rental car off at Thrifty, check in at the terminal, check through all the bags and wait for the ferry to come in. On the ferry, we manage to get a rear window table, so we have a clear view of the islands as we pass by. The sea only gets rough when we get out to the open Tasman Sea. We left about ½ an hour late, so we arrive in Wellington in time for the rush hour traffic. We pick up the luggage and the gal is waiting for us (we were the last customer to pick up their car that day). Wellington had undergone an earthquake a few months ago, but we didn’t see the destruction here. I had booked a motel but did not realize we were about 65 km outside in a smaller community of Upper Hutt. The motel was in the middle of a residential district but our room was new,

small but new! We found a pub for supper. It happened to ber called Quinn's Post! Good lamb roast with mint jelly! The next day we drove back into Wellington and using Queenie, we did find the “Te Papa” museum. It is one of the best we have ever been in. They even include a little house and explain about how it feels in an earthquake, even making it shake. Both Australians and New Zealanders are child-orientated and all the museums seem to have hands-on activities for the kids but adults sometimes enjoy them too. Next it was on to the Parliament house. Security here is tighter. I even had to leave my purse in the cloakroom with our jackets. The tour here was not as informative as the ones we saw in Australia, but the house was sitting. There are 8 parties. Instead of a Senate they have a committee which passes all bills or they can send them back for revision. The public are invited to all committee meetings and can have individual input. Each concern is debated by the committee and that is why it takes so long before a bill is passed. We had to go through another security check before entering the house where we were entertained by the Prime Minister who spoke non-stop through the heckling. When he finished his speech, he and several other members of his party just packed up their things and left, not staying to hear the rebuttal by one of the other parties. (This happens in Ottawa as well!). Back to Upper Hutt and actually doing Takeaways for supper. It was interesting it was a hamburger place that was very busy, but costs were at least twice of the costs at McDonalds which was nearby. The burgers were good but for a family of 4, the costs would have been $60 – $70 including trimmings. The next morning, when we were leaving the manager even waved (very friendly lady, reminded me of Maura).

We now headed towards Hawke’s Bay, going through the ups and downs of the mountains and passing lots of sheep and cattle(Holsteins and Jerseys) again. We stopped in a little town called Dannevirke for lunch. My fish burger was served on the biggest bun (at least 6” in diameter and filled with fish and all sorts of other veggies and a beet slice). It was

exceptional. After we arrived in Hastings, we managed to talk to Rick (Jodie’s uncle) and made arrangements to meet he and Claire for dinner the following evening. The nearby city of Napier was interesting as new land was raised above sea level after a huge earthquake in 1931. The resulting construction was built in Art Deco Architecture and is today a huge tourist attraction. Well-informed volunteers are dressed in the dapper style of the ‘30’s. Cruise ships dock here and park on the other side of the bluff, busing the passengers into the city. The waterfront is magnificent and has a white Victorian mansion that we wondered about. Turns out it is now a private Men’s Club. (At least they allow women on the premises as we saw a mixed group leaving the premises)

Rick and Claire picked us up from the motel and took us to a viewpoint in Havelock North. Every year they have marathons and Claire had done one a couple of years ago. But it is one of those winding steep narrow roads and there are bikers and runners. People here must really be in shape! At the top, Ken is having trouble breathing. It

was a good thing I had my puffer to loan him! The view is 360 degrees. You can see all the way to Napier and the ocean and on the other side over the mountain was a really good beach that Claire said they used to enjoy. You feel like you are top of the world. They then took us to a Scottish Club. Very nice place and good food. It made for a very enjoyable evening. The next day we were off to Rotorua which turned out to be a real tourist place with tourist prices. If we had not already seen geysers and thermal in Iceland, we may have felt a little more interested. However, we had still not seen Kiwi birds. Rick and Claire suggested we visit Rainbow Springs and get a combination ticket to the Agrodome. The park is well worth the visit. We did get to see a baby kiwi chewing on the leaves. The Kiwis are nocturnal so the adults are all sleeping and well-hidden. We wander through the rest of the very relaxing park and plan to come back in the evening when the kiwis will be awake. We waited until 8:45 and drove back to the park. I expected lots of cars, but there were only a few. As it turns out, it was to our benefit. You have to be very quiet in this darkened area. The kiwis were still hiding and there was only one other young couple. They seemed to be staying near one cage and the fellow wandered to another cage. She pointed down and there was this brown Kiwi eating away. Ken quietly came to see and then moved his arm to wave to the other fellow to come back. This movement startled the cute little bird and it left to hide in a hurry. But it was still worth seeing a live one even if it was briefly.

In the morning we went to the market and didn’t find anything of interest, but noted the steam coming from some fenced off areas. When we waked around to see these steam holes, we realized that several houses were located close by. I guess they would get used to the rotten egg smell. But what if one of the holes decided to blow? The afternoon we spent at the Agrodome. We were early, so we meandered through

the gift stores. There was a large group of Chinese tourists who were buying everything in sight. It was a lot of fun just watching them. They were particularly enthralled with the fur pieces. The men had them around their shoulders. They were buying the merino/possum sweaters ($400 - $600 each). Apparently, they are very warm and wear very well. But how often do we need really warm sweaters in Canada with our Central heating. Perhaps the gloves, hats and mittens would be valuable to us. Balls of yarn were selling for $12.50 and up per ball. As a Canadian, these prices are way too high. So then it was on to see the sheep show. The MC was very good, including the audience when he could. We learned a lot about the various kinds of sheep and where they come from and finally we had an education on sheep-shearing. It is not an easy job and takes at least 3 years to become an expert. Finally, the show was done and it was over to the large pen to watch the dog herding the sheep! We would highly recommend this site.

Again we drove along the ocean roads

when we could and followed “Queenie” as she took us through Auckland. We stayed in a picturesque little town of Workworth. The next day we drove along the coast on the scenic route. We stopped in one little town, Mangawhai, that had a surfers club and a very nice beach. There was even a helicopter landing field. Does that mean there are many surfers who get into trouble in the water? Looking back up into the hills, there were several architecturally designed homes. One was under construction. The view from that home would be something, but climbing up the hill to get there from the beach would not be my bag. I would have to drive! And there is always the question of an earthquake!

We stayed two nights at our next stop in Paihia because we had to take a cruise of the Bay of Islands. The waters were calm and the sun was shining. We got to see the playful Bottlenose dolphins putting on their show and really having fun the wake of the boat. But we did have to go a little further to see the smaller but greater number of “common dolphins” There had to be 60 – 80 in these pods. Often there would be 6 breaching in a synchronized swim. Very fun to watch, but hard to capture on camera. The seas were calm enough that our boat was actually able to go through the ”Hole in the Rock”. This is not always the case. On the opposite side is the peninsula and a lighthouse. Living in the house and tending the lighthouse must have been a very lonely life. The sea was all around and several rocks sticking out of the water. We did stop at one of the islands where there was a herd of sheep keeping the grass cut and tended by government staff. Many of the passengers made it to the top of the hills but one had to be in top-notch shape! There were backpackers and hikers on the island, but they must get there by sailboats or other means.

On our return to the boat, we sailed past some of the other 8 islands and got off the boat at Russell and had a mini-tour of this Victorian town. Many of the properties are dating from the late 1800’s have remained the property of the families of the original owners. A good percentage of these homes are only summer homes. One house was on the market for $5 million when it was probably only worth $2.5 - $3 million. The owner said if someone was crazy enough to offer the $5 million, he would probably take it.

Back to Paihia. On our walk back to our motel, there was a second-hand bookstore (very common in both Australia and New Zealand as books there are very expensive.) and in the window was April Fool’s Day by Bryce Courtenay. I had never read this one, so in the morning we went back and the lady knew it very well. She said it was a true story and very sad! (She was right!). We then headed up to the north to a place called Mangonui which was reputed to have the Best Fish and chips anywhere. Ken needed to be convinced. This restaurant is right on the water and the pier where the fish are brought in every day. You go in and you can buy fresh fish to take home and cook or you can order by the piece and they offer big chips and little chips. So you order and then they bring it to you at your table and bench overlooking the water. And yes we both had to admit, it was the best anywhere!! Then we had to make a decision. Do we still drive the 90 miles peninsula and see the 90 mile sandy beach or do we divert to the south. We are running out of time! We have to turn the car in at Auckland the next day! We stopped in Kaitaia at the tourist information and inquired about the route south. It was good that she suggested motels because there were not very many along that route. The one in Opononi turned out to be great. We had a beautiful view of the ocean and the sandhills on the island just across from this town. These sandhills reminded me of the dunes in Arizona. But the people we asked what was on the other side of the sand hills did not know. We ended up going for an expensive supper at The Copithorne resort. Lots of cars and lots of single elderly women. We weren’t sure if bus tour was staying there or if there was a conference. Beautiful grounds with a couple of people fishing from the pier. The next day was our usual winding roads though the grove of the tallest trees in the world – the Kauri forest. Then the trees clear and you are in farm country again and you can see the curling highway miles over there!! We eventually joined up with Number 1 highway and then worried about finding the hotel and the car return location. Queenie did an excellent job. We decided to check into the hotel and get rid of the luggage first (that was a good choice, Jean!) We pulled into the parking lot of Thrifty’s only to realize we had forgotten to gas up. The gal was great and told us where to find the nearest gas station.!

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