Saturday 9/26

On the trail by 10:30 (early for us) up to Taranaki Falls and beyond. Due to a very wet winter (and recent rainfall) trails are wet and sloshy & sloggy and generally a mess . Bill is gallantly carrying the backpack so I can travel without any added weight (darn problematic knees). We appreciate our trekking poles mightily while navigating mud, rocks, tussocks, soggy alpine ground and washed out trails. At noon Mt. Ruapehu, Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe are swathed in lingering clouds, but by late afternoon their white peaks poking out of the clouds. The souls of the mountain are depleted due to frenzied photographers.

Friday, 9/25

First off I purchased a new hat for my collection but it is also a very practical hat: oiled-cloth lined with fleece, and the fleece can be pulled down to become ear warmers so it also makes quite a fashion statement. Did an pleasant afternoon hike in the showery weather along a stream and decided to continue hiking up the trail we had hiked in 2006, returned about 7 pm Decided to spend an extra day hoping for clearing skies and views of the mountains. Eggs & toast for dinner (not much selection at the motor park store). Stopped at the Skotel (only other alternative for the area) and reserved a room for the next evening. (Worst motel room yet).

Thursday, 9/24 Turangi to Tongariro National Park

Stopped at the Torgariro National Trout Centre on our way to Tongariro National Park (spur of the moment decision). The place to be for everything Trout: lifecycle, food, spawning, enemies, friends, casting techniques, flies (fishing flies), hatchery, stripping pens (where females are milked for their eggs), rearing ponds, children catching trout, Bill feeding trout. All in the pouring rain (except the videos and displays). A renovation was underway, the workmen undeterred by the rain continued working in shorts and woolen jacket-shirts. Shorts on men seems to be the norm all over NZ, no matter how blustery or rainy and if shoes are not absolutely necessary: flip-flops or bare feet.

Arrived Tongariro National Park and Bayview Chateau Tongarario, a hotel in the grand National Park style. We chose the Fergusson Motel Units “the economic option for people looking for casual accommodation” (read: funky ), located behind the Grand Dame Hotel. The room was about 50 degrees, so we fired up the gas heater, did some laundry (we had our own washer & dryer), and played poker most of the afternoon. Cloud cover is blocking the awesome views

Wednesday 9/23: Turangi

Long walk along the Tongariro River Walkway in showery weather, from Major Jones Bridge to Red Hut Bridge and return (pedestrian suspension bridges). A few anglers wading in the pools patiently casting for the elusive trout. Catching a trout really doesn’t seem to be the point, just moseying along the riverbank from pool to pool: rainy, wind-no matter. a solitary activity. Becoming one with the river, noseying into the eddies, wandering the lush banks, - a satisfying day. Standing in freezing water tying flies to cast.

The headline news: Obama chatting with the NZ prime minister John Key, not once but twice (!), at the UN General Assembly. Look for John Key on the Letterman Show.

Look! Pictures!

Here they are (on the right).

Bay of Poverty, Hawkes Bay, Lake Taupo and beyond

Sept 23 Turangi

Raining, 8 degrees (about 47 Fahrenheit)

OK, I’ve downloaded Picassa. It’s beta for Macs so there is a learning curve and quirkiness to deal with. I’m re-captioning all the pictures so hang in there, I’ll post them when in the next few days (if wireless networks can handle the upload-really slow and problematic by our US standards but fine for email).

Day before yesterday was the first day of spring here, sunny but much cooler than our first few days. The roads are lined with trees just beginning to leaf-out adding a light, airy and magical quality to our drives.

Sept 19 Gisborne (Poverty Bay): Cap’t Cook extravaganza! First place the good Captain and his men set foot in New Zealand, Nick’s Head: white cliffs named for Young Nick who was the first crew member to sight land. Had a stroll around and a chat with 2 local car buffs after admiring their classic Mercedes.

Sept 20 Napier (Hawkes Bay) Napier is known for it’s Art Deco buildings. The town was destroyed by an 7.8 earthquake in 1931. Today the architecture is somewhat marred by commercial signs & empty businesses but a pleasant stroll, an award winning loo and sweeping views of the bay. Hawkes Bay ares is known for wines and the drive to Taupo passed by in a haze of forests, orchards, shorelines, sheep, cows, rivers, streams, not many petrol stations, and fairly light traffic. Arrived at Lake Taupo late in the afternoon on the 21st. Lake is huge and deep,the islands and peninsulas shrouded in the clouds and mists of early evening gave it a mystical feel.

Turangi : so far our favorite place. The little town is situated at southern end of Lake Taupo: Trout Fishing Capitol of the World. Rainbow trout were imported from California (a bit of a controversy as to exactly where in California) and the brown trout came from Europe. You can’t purchase trout to eat in a store or restaurant, you must catch them (restaurants very willing cook your catch). We stumbled upon Creel Lodge and a cozy self-contained unit with our own grove of Redwood trees which we immediately booked for 2 nights. After stocking up at the local market we had an early evening walk along the Tongariro River. Bill is not in touch with his manly hunting/fishing instincts so trout was not on our dinner menu. It’s fly fishing only on this stretch of the river with lots of fishermen rules & etiquette to follow. A few lone fisherman were wading out in the pools casting and reeling, we did not see any sign of fish. Our first home cooked meal: poached lemonfish (? apparently a large fish judging from the fillet size), baked kumara (a sweet potato, Maori staple), NZ asparagus, salad, NZ beer. This morning our host came by wearing a Sausalito Yacht Club hat-it turns out he’s quiet a sailor. He’s likes to pull our legs but he calls it “having a piss”. I’ll have to remember to use that one when I get home.

What the US could learn from NZ

1. Roundabouts: once you get the hang of them they are easy to use and if you miss your turn or are still getting oriented, you can go round again (and again and again). Great for U-turns.
2. All motels have little refrigerators, electric kettles, coffee plungers (french press), tea & coffee and milk (generally your choice of full fat, trim or skim) . Microwaves & cooking hobs (stovetop or hot plate) for preparing meals are usually available as well.
3. Public toilets are everywhere, well marked and can be downright spiffy. I should add that some are just marginally above pit toilet quality (but they flush and are well stocked with toilet paper), others (“super loo”) might charge 20 cents and may offer showers for an additional charge. And then there are the automated toilets which we haven’t tried this trip (yet).
4. Electrical outlets with individual on/off switches (on the faceplace next to each outlet)
5. Motels with key fobs that turn off all electricity to room when removed from slot (just inside door).
6. Mattress warmers: although the control unit is usually shoved under the mattress so there is some hide and seekiness and plugs needs to be plugged in and the outlet turned on.

Our Drive around the East Cape (North Island): Whakatane to Opotiki to Waikawa B & B (near Kereu River) around the cape to Gisboborne. Note: very confusing to see the sun set from the west side of the East Cape).

Weather continued fine though Saturday morning, t-shirt weather. Stopped to explore Opotiki, a town I would consider Old New Zealand: a dilapidated but colorful downtown, many Maori live in the area thus a Maori carving in the main downtown roundabout. One of the best ways to get to know a new environment is to forget an essential item or become fixated on something you suddenly must have: in our case it was the frozen jell units for our thermal food bag. This lead to a discussion with a fellow in the sporting good store about whitebait (catching, eating and just what are whitebait?). They are little fishes mixed with lots of eggs, like a fish omelet with mini-fish. The fish get lost in the eggs. Also tried mussel fritters, which beat the whitebait hands down. The ‘chips’ were good old-fashioned English chunky style.

I decided that because we are in no hurry and our souls are still lingering over Hawaii or Vanuatu that we shouldn’t drive the whole East Cape in one day so booked a B&B on a whim. Accommodations, food, and (a surprise to us) fuel are in short supply on the drive-many places shut down for the winter or maybe just the economy? Our B&B was a delightful retreat. Russ & Shirley own narrow lot that runs from the ‘highway’ down to the sea which they’ve filled with sheep, fruit trees, poppies, a frangipani tree (on the verge of blooming), forget-me-knots, tropical shrubs & trees, a fish pond, streams and an eclectic array of rooms & a ‘bach’ (a small holiday house). Tui’s & bellbirds flitted and swooped about entertaining us with their unusual calls. Russ & Shirley were the best kind of B & B hosts-willing to chat and full of local information but left us alone to explore. The highlight (beside the Tui’s & bellbirds) was watching a pod of Orcas swimming up the coast this morning, Shirley said that they’d never seen them swim that close to their property but alas they didn’t linger in the little bay. Up the coast a bit is a bay with rocks that the Orca like to use as backscratchers. I believe the Orca brough our souls back to us, we’re much more ourselves today.

Late in the day we came upon 2 plots of redwood trees growing along the road, each about 5 acres. Bill, using his lumberjack skills, estimated the age of the bigger trees to be about 50 years old.

Day 1 & 2, still recovering

Note: I will attach pictures when I can, the wireless scheme here is based on bytes and not time - actually I’m not sure what that really means. I will also try to link to GoogleMaps.

Day one: arrivng in Tauranga, napping and walking. Welcome to the land of dual- flush toilets (a flush ‘lite’ for liquids and a power flush for larger objects) so simple and civilized.

Highlights: tree sized Rhododendrons interspersed with cactus and succulents in parks and home gardens. A dead saguaro cactus in a park, was meant to ba prized and unusual specimen apparently was not acclimated to NZ . Other gnarly cacti surviving nicely, carved with initials to immortalize love an/or tourism. Palms, giant nasturtiums trailing hillsides, rosemary, azaleas, camellias, anise, monarch (?) butterfly, bulbs abloom. It’s such a treat arrive in a land of green hillsides and colorful blossom confetti on the sidewalks. Found our first Kauari tree, hope to see more.

First meal was fish & chips made with amazing fresh fish. We could have had a choice of many things and chips (mussels, oysters, etc). Or mutton-bird.

Time travel: It is a strange sensation to suddenly arrive halfway around the world without really experiencing the journey, deprived of many sensations of change or travails of a long journey (other than the nuisance of air travel and sleep deprivation). Voila! A body magically inhabits a land thousands of miles away, where winter is just ending and they drive on the left.

Day 2: My spirit has not found my body yet, it’s wandering around high above the pacific ocean, I hope. Still dazed but we slept well. Luckily our obstructed-view hotel room (read: patio facing a wall with some visible sky) was quiet and light-proofed-perfect for sleeping without the distraction of a bay vista. Tauranga is a port city with bays and estuaries and a complicated relationship to Mt. Maunganui (so it seems with a fuzzy brain); it is easy to become disoriented. With 3 cups of coffee to snap our brain synapses into some kind of order we picked up our rental car and navigated our way south. Bill drove like he was born left-handed. Currently ensconced in a cinderblock motel on the outskirts of Whakatane listening for bellbirds and drinking NZ wine. Good to know that one is limited to 50 mussels and 15 paua (like abelone) if one is fishing. There is an active volcanic island (White Island) that is available for a exploration with the one company that has a permit to escort visitors, they also provide you with a hard hat and gas mask. But we will press on to the East Cape.

The weather is gloriously warm (high 60’s) and sunny with fluffy clouds. Not bad for late winter, except for the rain on our way to dinner just now. Stars are back out, guiding us back home.

Coming soon: Live from New Zealand

Will we meet a real kiwi bird this time?