Category: Travel

We left Wellington at 10:00 a.m. the day before yesterday, which turned out to be good timing – there were almost no cars on the expressways, and before we knew it we were once again out in the beautiful open countryside of New Zealand.

We have come to believe there are no straight roads in New Zealand, at least not outside any city’s limits. Once again the highways we traveled twisted and turned through fields, hills and mountains. It was all wonderfully gorgeous, but challenging at times for both driver and passenger. Brett often had to grip the wheel and pay close attention, and I had to work to keep myself from being flung from side to side of the seat with each turn. The speed limit on New Zealand state highways is around 60 mph, although it goes down for some curves (down to 20 mph for sharp or hairpin ones), and passing lanes are frequently provided when going uphill so that no one gets stuck and frustrated behind slower cars and trucks.

We passed through a few small towns on our way to Mangorei, and at one gas station’s minimart we discovered real Diet Coke in the cooler! Oh, how it had been missed! I also found Golden Fruit cookies there, a childhood favorite no longer made in the U.S., and we also picked up a package of Gingernuts, extra crispy gingersnaps made for dunking. We snacked on those a bit but at around 2:00 in the afternoon we were growing hungry and decided to stop for lunch. As we drove through the first town we came to the only place we could find was a McDonald’s, and as it was quite a ways to the next town we decided to stop there for lunch. I cannot even count the years since I last ate in a McDonald’s (over 20 at least except for a teriyaki burger when I’ve been in Tokyo), so I was a bit wary, but I was able to order a freshly made “gourmet” burger with locally-raised New Zealand beef on a special bun. It was very good! The only thing that could have made it better was if they had used real cheddar instead of the American cheese-like stuff, but still I enjoyed my meal. Brett had a fish sandwich and a coffee and called his meal good too.

It was shortly before lunch that we first spotted the large volcanic cone of Mt. Taranaki (8,261 feet) off in the distance. Our Airbnb was located up on the side of the mountain so we knew we hadn’t too much longer to go to reach our destination.

The Airbnb we stayed in couldn’t have been in a more beautiful location. The home itself was gorgeous and sits inside the mountainside forest, with views up to the rainforest above, and out to the ocean the other direction. The house and bed were very comfortable, the owner an interesting man we enjoyed chatting with, and we had a good rest there for the night.

We were up and on the road again by 10:00 a.m., and were expecting an approximately five-hour drive to Auckland. We headed out to the coast and drove along by the ocean for a while, enjoying all sorts of beautiful views before turning into the center. We soon found ourselves heading up into the mountains, traveling through a rainforest before moving into pine forests, deep valleys and fields of grazing cattle.

While down in one valley we we were notified there was roadwork ahead and to “watch for queues.” Soon enough we found ourselves at the back of a l-o-n-g line of cars and trucks on the valley floor that had obviously been sitting for quite a while as engines were shut off and people were out visiting with others while they waited. We shut off our car as well and sat there, but after about 25 minutes we noticed cars coming down the mountain from the other side, and 10 minutes later it was our turn to start over the mountain with a slow, very winding climb up to the top. We discovered the workers as we got near to the summit, apparently repaving the passing lane. At that point pretty much everyone was stuck behind several slow-moving trucks but could not pass any of them – frustrating!

Of course what goes up must come down, and we had a wild, winding ride back down the other side of the mountain on our two-lane road, behind the trucks that now kept having to put on their brakes so as not to fly off the road – it was a nerve-wracking piece of travel for both Brett and I. We eventually made it to the bottom and noticed that the line of cars and trucks on the other side now waiting their turn to go up and over was even longer than ours had been! Most of the vehicles that came down in our group stopped at the small town at the bottom of the mountain, but Brett and I drove on to the next town, Piopio, and stopped at a little cafe and bakery there. The food was freshly made and absolutely delicious. Brett had a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, and I finally got to try a New Zealand mince and cheese pie. Besides the good food we also got a much-needed break before heading back out on the road.

The journey from Piopio started out well, but a few miles away, near the junction between the highway we were on and the one we would take up into Auckland, we came to a complete standstill in a huge line of cars that went on for miles. Had there been an accident? For over an hour we moved along very slowly and eventually discovered that workers were repairing two lanes at once on a stretch of the road just past a roundabout that had cars entering it from three directions. The work had turned the roundabout into a complete bottleneck and caused massive traffic jams on all three roads! We finally got through that mess, and once again drove happily on our way to Auckland, feeling very smug at one point at the bumper-to-bumper traffic leaving the city while there appeared to be very little traffic going our way into the city.

That smug feeling was wiped away though the closer we got to downtown. Soon enough, we were the ones stuck in traffic barely inching our way along. We crawled for another hour or so until we finally reached the exit that would lead to our our Airbnb. It was at this point that Google Maps decided once again to go nuts, and it pointed us in a direction completely opposite of where we needed to go. We finally got turned around and on our own figured out the route to the house. When we arrived it was after 6:00 p.m., and we’d been on the road for over eight hours. It was no wonder we felt so exhausted!

Our Auckland lodgings are beautiful and peaceful, and we decided that instead of pushing ourselves trying to get out and see things in town today we’d just hang out in the neighborhood and relax, and get ourselves packed and rested for tomorrow’s long flight to Tokyo (over 10 hours). We enjoyed a special Valentine’s Day dinner at a nearby restaurant earlier this evening, and stopped at a neighborhood bakery to pick up pastries for tomorrow’s breakfast. Thankfully the airport is only a 20-minute drive away, and at the early hour we have to be there to turn in the car there shouldn’t be any traffic.

Our time visiting the North Island of New Zealand has been everything we hoped for and more. The scenery has been magnificent, and the people we’ve met along the way friendly and gracious. We’ve enjoyed absolutely perfect summer weather every day with no humidity. Over and over we were asked if we were going to visit the South Island, and received words of gratitude when we said we were sticking to the North. So many visitors just pass through, we were told, in a rush to get to the south, when the North Island has so much to offer and see as well. We have promised ourselves a visit to the South Island some day, and more time in Auckland as well, but for now we’ve had a fabulous time driving around in the North.

It took us a bit longer than expected but Laura and I finally reached Wellington after numerous differences of opinion with Google Maps, which like a spoiled child kept changing our route in fits and spurts—the last faux pas encouraging us to take an exit we had already passed nearly four miles earlier. Some of the highway markings fell short of the mark as well, though admittedly I may have missed one crucial turn because it was blocked by a semi-tanker to my right.

Getting back to Google’s new recommended route took us down the road to the longest  place name in the world, Taumatawhakatangi­hangakoauauotamatea­turipukakapikimaunga­horonukupokaiwhen­uakitanatahu, and that’s the traditional 92-character spelling—according to Wikipedia there is also a 105-character version!

Laura had one more tussle with Google to get us from the end of the freeway in Wellington to our AirBnB location, and then everything was lovely. Not altogether lovely – I’m blogging because she was more than a bit under the weather yesterday and ended up spending most of the day in bed, and I set out in the morning to see the sights for us both.

I first took care of a personal preference: a hike up to the lookout at the summit of Mt. Victoria, which rose behind and above our lodging’s location. It didn’t look like much of mountain, but its diminutive stature was radically offset by its steepness. My little health app indicated that I had ascended 31 floors on the 1.5 mile trek.

One interesting point about Mt. Victoria is that there is a Lord of the Rings filming location here. Also found here is an abundance of widely recognizable, richly colored plants such as Sweet Pea, Queen Anne’s Lace, Giant Fern, and that thing with nasturtium-like leaves and morning glory-like blossoms.

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The trails are quite well marked, and the things you can see are worth the effort to sort out the occasional unmarked intersections. I enjoyed a stunning view of Oriental Bay along the way, and from the top, the other side of the world as it seemed, including the somewhat busy airport.

After a brief stroll around the summit, I headed back down into town by a somewhat different route. To my surprise there was the piece of a set for “Lord of the Rings,” not exactly a hobbit house, but more like a wayfarer’s lodgings.

I suspect children from the nearby playground have kept the hutch going all these years.

Te Papa Tongarewa, the National Museum of New Zealand, was the next station on my trek, and looking back along the way I could see Mt. Victoria’s summit, where I had just come from.

Although some of China’s terracotta warriors are currently on exhibit, I didn’t have the price of admission on me so I chose instead to look at some of New Zealand’s treasures that have been collected here.

Once inside, I was first captivated by the story of the WWI battle of Gallipoli, vividly writ larger than life with photos, models of trench works, giant life-like statuary, and audio tracks. It was dreadful, knowing the eventual outcome of the battle (New Zealand lost 8,000 men) and also because it reminded me of brief moments during Operation Desert Storm: making every bullet count, eating canned meats, no one wanting to be taken out by a ricochet, and heartbreaking.

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Then it was up to the second floor to see exhibits of the origins of this part of earth that is now called New Zealand. From the beginning, the people were connected to the Earth, whenua (wh is pronounced as /f/ in the Maori language). The placenta was also called whenua so the first people prepared an ipu whenua (afterbirth container), such as the replica on display, to return the placenta to the earth, thus maintaining the connection.

From the beginning, the people used the Earth’s bounty as they pleased. Whenever resources ran low, they banned hunting, fishing, or harvesting to allow the resources to recover. A ban was established by erecting a pou rahui (post denoting restriction) to mark an area off limits, and the people respected the ban.

Then came the Europeans, and they began clearing land, and marking their territory with a pou rahui, several actually, and stringing wire between the posts to “enforce a ban” on crossing the area.

Ultimately, the Treaty of Watangi, signed 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and more than 500 Maori Chiefs became the founding document of a nation, a symbol of the unique relationship among people which continues to evolve today.

There was more museum than I could see in an afternoon, so I headed back to our lodgings to check on Laura, who thankfully was feeling much better; good enough, in fact, that we went out for dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant in the evening and enjoyed some very good chicken and sweet corn soup, cashew chicken, and egg fried rice, which also provided enough leftovers for our breakfast this morning before departing Wellington, a city we both agreed we had once again not spent enough time getting to know.

In our drive around New Zealand’s North Island, we chose to stop in Napier, located on Hawke’s Bay on the southeast coast, for two reasons: 1) We wanted a place to stop between Rotorua and Wellington (we’re hoping to keep our daily drives between four to five hours a day); and 2) We heard that downtown Napier has a collection of vintage Art Deco buildings that we wanted check out.

We left Rotorua about 10:30 in the morning yesterday, and had a lovely drive down to Napier, through rolling hills and lush farmland on a two-lane state highway. In the distance we could see mountains at times, some even with snow, but they eventually disappeared. We had also hoped to stop off and check out a couple of waterfalls along the way, but although we saw signs letting us know they were in the area, we never saw any other signs letting us know when to turn. Google Maps was no help at all either – it has not functioned well here in New Zealand. As we approached Napier though we came over a last set of hills and got our first look at Hawke’s Bay, chock full of sailboats out in its turquoise water, and loads of houses perched up on the bluffs above the town.

It took us a couple of tries to find our Airbnb up in the hills – the streets were narrow, some were one-way or dead ends, and once again Google Maps let us down – their directions told us to go up a one-way street, and they left off information that we would need the ‘North’ side of a street versus one labeled ‘South.’ But, we eventually found the house, and when we were shown to our room, the view alone made all of the frustration of getting there worthwhile. Our first thought as we looked out at the incredible view was to wonder why we hadn’t booked the room for more than one night!

After getting our stuff up to our room, we chatted with our delightful host for a while and played with their adorable little terrier, and then got directions for how to get down into town as well as some suggestions for where to eat dinner. We turned out to be closer to the Art Deco district than we thought, and decided to start over at the waterfront, then stroll through the town and end with dinner.

There was a strong wind at the waterfront and lots of choppy water – definitely not beach weather. The beach was shingled (small rocks) versus sandy and didn’t look very inviting either. There’s a long park lining the beachfront, so we walked through that to a main street (Tennyson) that headed back into town. We had glimpsed a few of the buildings on the way to the waterfront and thought Tennyson would be a good place to start.

Art Deco has been my favorite architectural style for forever, and walking through Napier was like going through a box of exquisite jewelry. Almost every building was vintage Art Deco, built in 1933 after most of the city was destroyed by a large earthquake in 1931. Many of the buildings now house modern shops on the ground floor, with the vintage upstairs offices, apartments or sometimes left empty. All were well-maintained though with no peeling paint, etc. We must have walked around for an hour or so – every time we looked up, there was another masterpiece of the style. Even the street signs and manhole covers were done Art Deco style so as to blend in.

We eventually made our way to a small Mexican restaurant, and managed to get the last available table (customers after us either had to sit at the bar or wait outside). We enjoyed some very tasty (and spicy) food and cool drinks, and then headed to our car and back up to our room to enjoy the view some more and relax. The bed during our stay in Rotorua was the most uncomfortable we’ve slept in during our travels (way too soft for us), but the one in Napier more than made up for it and we both slept soundly.

This morning we enjoyed coffee and breakfast out on the terrace with our host, enjoying the beautiful view for the last time before starting our journey to Wellington. It may have only been for one night, but we definitely found this Airbnb and the visit to the city one of the highlights of our Big Adventure!

As much as we loved Sydney – and we absolutely loved Sydney – the summer heat and humidity there about did us in. When I climbed on the train out to the airport at 8:40 a.m. on the morning we left, I was quite literally already soaked through with sweat following the short walk from our apartment to the train station, with it dripping off my head and face onto the floor of the train. Everyone around me looked as cool as a cucumber while I felt like a very soggy human Las Vegas fountain.

But, we got to the airport, got our bags checked, cooled off and eventually boarded our three and a half-hour flight to Auckland. We arrived on time at around 4:00 p.m., expecting to quickly pick up our bags, get our rental car and hit the road. But it was not to be so easy: Brett got pulled over by customs and had to practically unpack his entire suitcase to show that the little jars in his suitcase were really Oregon jam and not honey. That took a while, and then we had to wait for a van to come and pick us up and take us out to the car rental office, which was near to but not in the terminal. Everyone we dealt with was very, very nice, but by the time we finally drove out of the rental lot it was after 6:00 p.m. and we had a three-hour drive ahead of us.

Thankfully, because New Zealand is so far south, it didn’t get dark until around 8:45, so we did get to see quite a bit of beautiful countryside on our way to Rotorua. We arrived at our Airbnb at around 9:15, met our very kind hosts, got settled into our room and fell right asleep.

After a lovely breakfast the next morning, prepared by our hosts, we checked out the notebook of local sights and activities our hosts had prepared for guests and discovered that you have to pay (a lot) to view almost every site in the area, from natural wonders to Maori villages. Free activities were few and far between However, we did find a few interesting-looking places that didn’t charge admission, so we set off to check them out. Our first stop was Kuirau Park in downtown Rotorua.

We could smell sulphur the moment we got out of our car at the park, and noticed lots of steam coming out of the ground in different places, as well as lots of low brown fences which surrounded the steam. Fairly soon we were walking around pits of boiling water or mud, or listening to water furiously bubble and hiss beneath piles of rocks. It was fascinating! Eventually we reached a rather large pond of boiling water with a low bridge across it. Crossing the bridge was, I thought, like walking through hell, with its smell of sulphur, dead trees all around, clouds of steam blowing across the water, and moist heat rising up through the planks of the bridge. And, all of this was right in the center of town! There were also large area of grass where we could see small pools beginning to form, and just outside the park and across the street was a motel that had apparently just sprung a leak because there were big clouds of heavy, angry steam coming through its fence out to the sidewalk.

From the park we walked up and looked out over Rotorua lake, and down to a Maori village that sits by the lake, in particular to see the traditional meeting house which is decorated with shells. We could have walked down into the village, but it’s not a place set up for tourists or visitors. We stopped at a small bakery nearby though and shared an amazing and affordable piece of quiche and big slice of lemon meringue pie for our lunch.

After lunch we headed over to Government Park especially to see Government House, so called these days only because it sits in Government Park, not because it was ever the seat of government. Actually, it was constructed as a large spa back in the late 19th century, and had thermal waters piped into private bathrooms throughout the hotel. The spa, or bath house, also contained large pools for more complex therapeutic needs, and guests could also receive hot water, high pressure shower massages. The architecture of the place was a frothy mix of several architectural styles from gingerbread to cupolas to leaded glass to half-timbering. Out front were lawns for croquet and bowling.

Nearby was the famous Blue Baths, built in 1933 so both locals and spa guests could swim in hot, therapeutic waters. The Blue Baths were infamous for a while as the first place where men and women shockingly swam together at the same time in New Zealand. Both Government House and the Blue Baths are listed on the New Zealand historic register (as is nearby Rachel Spring, where all the hot water come from), and Government House now holds the Rotorua Museum.

We came back to our Airbnb from that outing feeling a bit tired, but rested for a bit and then headed into town to eat at a highly-rated place called Ali Baba’s, which served Tunisian food. Our dinners were some of the best food we have had since we began traveling – fluffy rice with falafel,  tasty sauce and fresh salads – and the price was pretty good too, with our two huge plates of food and some baklava costing less than $25US.

Then it was out to the Redwood Forest to experience the night walk through the trees. We paid $20US each, and for around 50 minutes we walked from platform to platform in the trees in the dark on suspended bridges high above the forest floor. Each platform contained information about the redwoods and the forest. Large, artist-made lanterns, fairy lights, holograms and other types of lights decorated the forest – the experience was absolutely magical, and we left feeling very glad that we had decided to go.

We slept in this morning, and at around noon drove up north to visit Okere Falls (because they are free to visit!). We were able to watch kayakers and a raft or two, loaded with people, go over the falls. The 22-foot high waterfall is said to be the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. We ended up doing quite a bit of hiking in the area when we took what appeared to be a short loop trail and instead had to walk nearly two miles through the woods to get to the other end.

Leaving the falls we took a short drive back to the Redwood Forest to see what they all looked like in the light. The redwoods came from California, and were planted in 1900 – New Zealand is the only place outside of California where they grow. The forest was magnificent, with towering redwoods and huge ferns along the way, and there are several different hiking trails to choose from, depending on how far you’d like to walk (we chose the shortest, supposedly 30 minutes but it took us more like 45). The trees are nowhere near as big yet as the ones in California, but give them a few hundred years and they will be!

Dinner tonight was back at Ali Baba’s, where we shared an extremely delicious Tunisian pizza topped with chicken, apricots and cream cheese among other toppings. It sounds weird but it was fabulous. Our big pizza was just $12, and we still have half to take with us for lunch on the road tomorrow.

We’re heading to Napier tomorrow, located on the south coast of New Zealand’s north island. We’ll stop to visit some more waterfalls on the way, and hope to get into town early enough to stroll around to see Napier’s most famous site, an amazing collection of art deco buildings located throughout the downtown area. We can’t wait!

Gong xi fa cai! Xin nian kuai le! Happy New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Pig!

Our time in Australia has absolutely flown by. It seems like just yesterday that we were in Hong Kong, and yet sixteen days have passed since we arrived in Perth: six days there, four days on the train, and another six here in Sydney. It’s been an amazing time, and yet we know we’ve only scratched the surface of this big and fascinating country.

For the most part it’s been very HOT while we’ve been here, from beginning to end. We knew we were coming to Australia in height of their summer, but we (me especially) were honestly not prepared for the blazing sun, high temperatures and the humidity (once we hit Sydney). Still, I’ve never seen skies so blue and have loved being out on and near the water once again – the trade-off has been worth it.

We traveled over to Sydney’s Taronga Zoo yesterday to check out their collection of Australian animals, excited to see ones we had only previously seen in books, and were not disappointed. Taronga (an Aboriginal word for “beautiful view”) was a wonderful, well-planned zoo, set up high on a hill with a sweeping overlook of Sydney harbor, and with well-designed animal enclosures. The zoo is good-sized without being overwhelming, and has an Australian “walkabout” area as well as a koala walkabout and a reptile section containing giant monitor lizards, crocodiles, and snakes both (highly) poisonous and not (there are also a few SE Asian and African animals, but we did not go over to see them). We arrived just a few minutes late for the koala encounter, where I believe I could have held one of them (swoon), but we still got a very good look at them. Koalas are just as adorable as you think they will be.

The nocturnal animals were of course asleep, and the platypus and echidnas were hiding the entire time we were there, but otherwise we got a good, fairly up-close look at many fascinating animals. My favorite, after the koalas, was the southern cassowary, the third largest bird in the world, and the bird most closely related to its dinosaur ancestors. The big one we saw yesterday was gorgeous and he knew it.

For our last day’s activity we took the train and bus over to the famous Bondi Beach this morning and took a hike along the coastal walk path to check out the ocean views. This morning’s weather was cool and slightly overcast in Sydney (although with high humidity), but by the time we got to Bondi the sun was out in full force and once again the humidity was pushing the limits (it’s been worse here in Sydney than back on Kaua’i). We walked as far as Bronte Beach, with a stop to share a grilled chicken sandwich for lunch at Tamarama Beach, at a spot overlooking the beach. There was a breeze as we walked, but it came and went, and unfortunately when it went away it was miserable, for me anyway. From Bronte Beach we caught the bus back to Bondi Junction, and then took the train to our neighborhood station.

By the way, we have greatly enjoyed our apartment in the Potts Point neighborhood, a suburb to the east of downtown Sydney. The apartment is conveniently located, and we’ve had no trouble getting out and around from here. The area is filled with lovely older terrace buildings in between some modern buildings and even some art deco stuff as well and we’ve enjoyed walking around and looking at those. Some of the old buildings have been converted into backpacker lodging while others are being or have been renovated. Potts Point sits up on a bluff from the Sydney harbor area and Wooloomooloo (try saying that fast!) neighborhood, so there are some rather daunting staircases to climb if you’re walking back.

Tonight we’ll finish our packing, and eat all of our odds and ends to clean out the refrigerator, making for a very weird dinner (remaining items include two eggs, half an avocado, a lemon, orange juice, wine, a few spoons of yogurt, some blueberries and some grapes). We’ve also got two lovely big slices of banana bread, but we’re saving those for our breakfast tomorrow as we’ll be up early to be on our way to the international airport for our flight to Auckland!