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Published: March 27th 2013
There was a slight early morning glow to the east as I put the bags in the car. I stopped mid-way holding the last bag in the air when I heard, off in the distance, the morning call of a Kookaburra. A wave of sadness came over me and I thought of Roger Whitaker’s song "The Last Farewell". “I will love Australia dearly, more dearly than the spoken word can tell.”
We have had a good run in Australia with her burning heat, freezing cold, the raw landscape, floods, fires, the incredible beaches, the wonderful people and above all I will miss the mischievous birds.
We spent the last few days in Sydney with our good friends Rodger and Robin who treated us to a wonderful last weekend exploring the diverse coastline around Sydney. Roger made me feel right at home by letting me help with a few projects around his house giving us an excuse to visit the newly opened Bunnings Building Supply store a few blocks from his house.
Talk about mischievous birds ,while enjoying a picnic at West Head on the Hawkesbury river,
a Kookaburra skillfully stole a big chunk of chicken off my plate in front of my nose.
We had booked an Air Emirates flight to Auckland, New Zealand because the price was good and they allowed thirty kilograms of checked baggage. (We are still transporting stuff left over from Periclees.) The lovely lady with the fancy hat and red scarf at the check-in desk announced both bags were over thirty kilos but when I volunteered to take some stuff out she smiled and said don’t bother and with a grin put the usual "Heavy" tags on the bags. The partially filled deluxe Air Emirates flight was a real treat.
The minute we got to the car rental place in Auckland we realized we had made a mistake. I chatted with a man who told me about his wonderful three-week trip from Christchurch, South Island as he returned his car in Auckland. We realized we wouldn’t see anything of the south island because there was too much to see on the north island and two ways on the ferry was too expensive and too time consuming.
We were invited to stay at our friends Judy and Barry who we had met while sailing across the Pacific. They are three hours north of Auckland but just like Vancouver, Auckland has a rush hour and we spent an extra hour in traffic. New Zealand was voted "the friendliest country in the world to visit for tourists" by the World Economic Forum. We do agree. We were expecting to stay for a night or two at Judy and Barry’s but because of their incredible friendliness it turned into a week. They have a beautiful two-acre plot on a hill overlooking a bucolic valley near Kawakawa. The plot is divided into two with the house in the middle and paddocks on either side occupied by three very healthy cattle who Barry will not eat because they have become such great friends. Aside from some farm machinery moving around it was delightfully quiet. Plus we were in reach of Ninety-mile beach, the Bay of Islands and a zillion other beautiful places to explore.
We did travel to Ninety-mile beach and
yes we risked it and took a spin on the beach. The access to the beach was to be blocked to the public the next day because of an exotic car race where guys who own expensive cars like Porches and BMWs get to race them up and down the beach. We missed that event but did take in Opera In The Park at Whangarei. The venue was almost as nice as our Filberg Park except for the ripe avocados hanging from the trees and the music was fantastic. We particularly loved the incredibly strong baritone voice of Kawiti Waetford, a young, local Maori who is enjoying well deserved stardom in New Zealand.
Barry and Judy did take us out on the Bay of Islands for a couple of days on s/v Chantey, the Pearson 424 we met them on in the Pacific. Barry is a retired mechanical engineer who’s shop boasts an industrial lath and a milling machine. Chantey is in perfect condition. If anything breaks Barry manufactures a new, stronger and more functional part. Oh.... to have the skill and the right equipment. The weather for the two days we spent
in the islands was perfect with blue skies, perfect winds, lots of wonderful hikes in the anchorages and I even went swimming in the twenty-four degree water. I was pleased to hear Barry’s plans for the future and hope we can meet them some where in this world again to share more adventures.
On our way through Auckland we stopped at the parents of Dave, the fellow who has bought Periclees, to drop off some dingy wheels. Dave’s mother is a master at making miniature.....anything. We were astounded when she showed us some of her pieces. I wonder if New Zealand affords people the clarity of mind to build things to perfection just as Burt Munro did, with pain staking attention to detail, in building the World's Fastest Indian.
There is a tiny place on the west coast of the north island called Kawhia, pronounced calf-ia, our next destination. We stayed in a charming caravan park next to a Maori village. Upon our arrival Rae, the proprietor of the park, handed us spades and told us the tide was just right for the hot
beach. The beach has a very high brim made of sparkling black sand perfect for climbing up (like a snow-drift) and jumping down the opposite side. On the beach at low tide there is a low misty wet spot with a slight smell of sulfur. We used our spades to dig a bathtub in the sand and sat in the hot medicinal liquid. Rolande scalded her bum and I pushed my aching Achilles tendons deep into the hot sand. Because I don’t have a bicycle I thought, to keep in shape, I would try jogging on the beaches but I had to stop because my Achilles tendons became inflamed. The hot sand was the cure.
Rae, the lady proprietor of our camp, also delivers the mail in the area. She wondered if we were interested in accompanying her. We were both in her mail truck before she could finish the sentence and what a fun afternoon. We got a detailed description of the farms on her route with a little gossip thrown in, drove through tunnels of dense fern trees, chased errant sheep down the narrow roads as lazy cattle watched the spectacle of the
sheep chase while laying on the side of the road chewing their cud. Rae drove around a hill where there was only half a road because of a wash-out where we could easily fall hundreds of meters down to the creek at the bottom. I was on the outside watching clods of earth tumbling down the hill narrowly missing a few goats who were precariously clinging to the few patches of grass. "The mail must get through".
The next day after driving for hours on narrow, curvy roads past sheep and cattle, stopping at waterfalls, natural arches and wandering through Hobbit country we arrived at Waitoma and the glow worm caves. We had a wonderful time descending into lime caves with a guide who entertained us with his knowledge of geology and the history of the cave. The Maori people thought bad spirits were in the cave and so had never entered before Europeans arrived. We saw the larval form of glow-worm flies on the ceiling, their bright lights shining in the darkness, as the tour guide pulled us on a boat along a dark, underground river. They have sticky strings hanging down into the cave which
catch flying insects and other glow worm flies giving them enough energy to power their lights and mature into glow worm flies. Isn’t nature interesting!
There is a volcanic mountain on the west side of the north island called Mt. Tananaki which attracted me like a magnet. We stayed in a caravan park near the city of Wanganui. The silhouette of the mountain in the setting sun was more exciting than the drive up to the tree line the next day. The volcano is extinct now but must have spewed out red dust for a long time to build up the layers of red soil, which is now eroding down its slopes. I’m sure it would have been more spectacular if it weren’t for the cloud obscuring the top of the mountain. We spent a day exploring Wanganui and as usual found the art galleries, museums and city center fascinating.
The next stop was Wellington on the south end of the north island. This very attractive city is crammed between Wellington Harbour and the mountains surrounding the bay reminding us of a small scale Vancouver. New Zealand is unusual politically because they
only have two layers of government and use the German proportional representation electoral system with the Westminster Parliamentary System. There are people in Canada who think if we copy the NZ system all our political problems would go away but I’m sad to say I didn’t meet any New Zealanders who, when speaking about their government, didn’t complain about the political paralysis, the lack of protection for NZ industry and the degradation of educational standards. We took the tour of the parliament buildings, getting a first hand look at the earthquake proofing done to the foundations and all the red and green carpets indicating where the Queen was allowed to go or not, if she chose to visit.
The funicular railway was fun but the planetarium at the top of the hill was exceptional, giving names to the celestial objects we have been staring at in the southern night sky for the last six months. We watched the 3D version of the Hobbit at a theater built almost a hundred years ago and enjoyed the huge, world class museum, Te Papa, on the waterfront. As you know, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies were filmed
here, so it is big in NZ.
We found an out of the way airbnb cottage near Otaki with the Tararua National Forest in the mountains behind. It was wonderful to be nestled in a forest where there was no need for curtains on the windows. Our hosts, Pip and Waka, turned out to be the best part of our stay. They have built a new house on the property leaving the cottage to those who want to enjoy the quiet tranquility. We got to know them and found out Waka is a well known New Zealand cinematographer who has done work in many overseas cities including Vancouver. He and Pip share the same views we have about modern entertainment. The next day we hiked in the mountains around Tararua park. The sky was blue, the sun warm and the open landscape brought up memories of the movie "The Sound of Music".
The next day, after driving through a mountain range, on beautifully built, twisty roads which sometimes shrink to half a lane on cliff edges, we arrived at a seal colony at Cape Palliser, the southern most point of the north
island. Rolande thought she was being attacked by a mother seal when a big seal came charging out from behind a bush barking at us as she bounded for the water. We stayed at Lake Fairy and in the evening walked over acres of shifting pebble shingle cut by the current of the out flowing lake.
It is a four and a half hour drive to Napier, the art deco capital and the driest part of New Zealand, on the east coast of the north island. We had booked a garden cottage through airbnb at a house on the hill overlooking Napier with Malcolm and Deb. The only sounds were the quiet clucking of hens on the other side of the fence and an occasional car coming up the hill. Napier had a devastating earthquake and fire in 1931. All the town records were burned and the city was re-built in the art-deco style. Malcolm and Deb lent us their bicycles to explore the city, which boasts a protected marina at one end, a long beach fronting the city in the middle and Cape Kidnaper at the other end of Hawks Bay where
the Maoris tried to kidnap Captain Cook’s cabin boy on the eighth of October 1769. We spent one day bicycling, ending the day at the cathedral with a coral performance from a group of 12-14 year old kids from Colorado. The next day we explored by car, ascending to the top of Mt Tepiki on another, heart stopping, narrow, twisting, but good quality paved road. We could see Hawks Bay from end to end in the clear pacific air.
The next day we stopped on the Thermal Highway to buy fruit and explore the steaming vents along the way to Rotorua. This is an area of fruit stands, orchards heavily laden with apples, dry hills with rolling fields of grapes and eroding cliffs. We could have been driving in the Okanagan Area. As we approached Lake Taupo, steam vents could be seen next to geothermal generating plants and cooling towers exploiting the geothermal heat to make electricity. Rotorua is a magnet for tourists with hundreds of motels, holiday camps, outdoor recreation business, giant Maori entertainment complexes and even the air smells exotic with sulfur. Amongst all the bubbling mud and smelly geysers there are cold
water springs pumping millions of liters per day of pure crystal clear cold water into the lakes. Apparently the water comes from aquifers in the surrounding mountains and travels down old lava tubes toward the lakes. The water tastes wonderful, and is so good it is used as the domestic water supply for the town. In some streams you can see dancing sand being lifted by the water as it flows out of the rock. We found a free hot pool in the bush where we bathed, watched the boiling mud, took in a Maori cultural event and shopped in the town.
With only a few days before we fly home after almost six months away we are both excited about returning to our exotic Canada with her tall mysterious mountains, beautiful fresh smelling oceans and cool breezes.
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Norm Theberge
non-member comment
Fantastic scenery
I bet you will never forget this trip its a trip of a lifetime Wish I could do a trip like that maybe someday. And again thank you so much for the beautiful pictures and news I hope your trip keeps on going good for you and yours Have a good one and talk to you soon Cheers Norm