Blogs from Northland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 11

Since my bus to Paihia didn't leave until mid-afternoon, I spent the day with Kevan and his family. I'll be looking forward to spending my last three days here with them. Kevan lent me a digital camera (in case I can't recharge my own) and even provided some Super Glue to fix my walking stick -- a great relief, as it had been coming apart every two minutes or so since its unscheduled dip in the Pacific. My bus to Paihia was an express with no rest stops, and I fretted over that. Fortunately, so many people got off at Whangarei, three hours into the trip, that the rest of us were allowed to get off and use the restroom. I think I could have made it, but it was a definite relief to stop. ... read more

Pour atteindre la partie nord du pays, à savoir le Northland et tout en haut, le Far North (correspondant au long bras de terre fin finissant par le cap nord), nous avons dû faire un choix difficile : comment se déplacer ?? En bus ? En voiture ? En hélico ?? Ayant laissé notre hélicoptère privé et son chauffeur en terre helvétique et se rendant compte que les billets de bus n’étaient pas si bon marché que pensé, notre choix s’est donc tourné vers la location de voiture, plus économique et plus pratique évidemment. Nous avons donc opté pour la plus basse des catégories mais par un pur hasard, nous avons écopé d’une automobile de catégorie supérieure. Nous voici donc au volant d’une Nissan Sunny grise, de l’an 2000, boîte à vitesse automatique. « Mouais », ... read more

Hej igen, Jeg var naaet til Kaori-traerne, da nettiden udloeb. Traerne var imponerende. De stod temmelig stille. Der skal nok noget saerligt til at goere indtryk paa dem. Dessvaerre stoppede bussen kun meget kort, men jeg naaede lige et hurtigt smut vaek fra stien, for at opleve de store traer. Under og omkring dem vokser der bregner, palmer og andre traer. Vi var saa heldige, at vorea chauffoer var Maori. Det var rigtigt spaendende. Han havde boet i England, hvor han havde spillet rugby, men han vaernede ogsaa om sin egen kultur og fortalte gerne om den. Han fortalte, at der var 28 stammer tilbage op nordpaa. De sidste 15 km op til spidsen, var der ingen bebyggelse. Der var plantet en del fyrreskove. Jeg vidste godt, at Cape Reinga er maoriernes helligste sted, men et ... read more

We were up early the next morning and after a quick breakfast of granola and fresh garden strawberries we were off to Cape Reinga. (The very tippity-top of new Zealand!) This was another several hours in the car but great scenery and many short stops along the way made it a quick trip. We stopped to admire the ocean view from the far north-west’s “The 90 Mile Beach” (It’s actually only 55 miles long but that’s still pretty massive!) and I got to see my first real New Zealand traffic jam! A herd of hundreds of freshly sheered sheep scampering across the windy, narrow, hillside road (that was actually a state highway, by the way) as a farmer and three very enthusiastic and content looking sheep dogs fallowed closely behind. Cape Reinga seemed to appear out ... read more

Son of a beach, bloody hill - We left late at 11am. The damn lodge was just too comfortable. At least the sun was out. It was a pretty uneventful ride. The only bizzare event was seeing a man sleeping in a paddock next to a fence. His dog was tied up so I figured he probably was okay. But I turned around to see if that was the case anyway. He jumped up out of the grass rather quickly. Perhaps he was supposed to be working. For the remainder of the 30 km back along the same road to the Kaeo turnoff I was entertained by Ben once again making baa sounds at the sheep, then imitating what they were saying back to him. He also noted the vast amount of cows, which seemingly inspired ... read more