The Northward Track

After leaving Dunedin on Nov 28th, the direction remains north, with only slight diversions, until we get back to Auckland in about 10 days.

We found another very nice DOC campground at an out-of-the-way place called Trotter’s Gorge. It was only about 5 km off the main highway, but you could have been in a secluded valley miles away. There were probably 10 other vehicles staying there that night and we woke to blue skies and nice temperatures.

Just up the coast were the Moreaki Boulders. I’m not really sure of the proper geological term, but they might be very large geodes. Some had fallen apart, revealing a semi-hollow interior. In any case, they are like large, round boulders just lying on the beach. Probably about 4 feet high, partially buried in the sand. Interesting.

The “town” of Oamaru turned out to be a city of 12,000 with a surprising number of very nice sandstone buildings and another excellent public gardens. We continue to be amazed at how nice these public gardens are in New Zealand, keeping in mind that most of them were started back when the cities were first founded (over 130 years ago) and they aren’t just “parks”; they are botanical gardens with themed areas (Rhododendron Glades, azalia plots, rose gardens, and so on). Oamaru’s did a good job with various water gardens along with everything else. This town also had a breeding population of Blue Penguins, but we were there at the wrong time of day so we skipped it.

We’ll be in Christchurch in the morning (November 30). Christchurch is reputed to be a very “British” city. We’re planning to do the mid-city wander to try and get a feel for the place. After a great morning, the day’s weather has slowly deteriorated to cloud and a cool drizzle.

New Zealand – Dunedin

Another hurricane-like gale here on the NZ coast. We got bounced and jostled as we drove along the coast and finally into Dunedin, a small city of about 120,000. The city is built along a harbour and the sides of a long-extinct volcano. Needless to say, it’s steep, the roads are twisty and when you have no idea where you’re going….! Even with a map it can be tricky to figure out where you are and where you want to go.

Attractions worthwhile taking in (or not) while visiting Dunedin…:

The Dunedin Railway Station – interesting architecturally. Lots of nice tile mosaics inside.

The Speights Brewery Tour – not just because it makes good beer but because it’s one of the last gravity-operated breweries in the world and because it’s old. Lots of nice gleaming copper tanks and fixtures. My personal favourite is Old Dark.

The Botanical Gardens – we were astonished at how really, really great this was. It’s very large, the beds are excellent and very diverse, it has an aviary, a wonderful rhodo garden and so on. If you visit Dunedin, you really don’t want to miss this park. Allow at least a couple of hours. Sadly, many of the rhodos were on the decline by the time we visited (Nov 26); apparently they are at their peak in October, but they were still very nice to see.

The Otago Museum is nice as well with lots of displays, but don’t go there after a day of city walking because you’ll be far too tired to do it justice.

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery – had modern art when we visited. Sorry, but modern art doesn’t do much for me, in fact, it reminds me of the debate in Canada over public funding for such stuff – Voice of Fire and all that.

I spent some time just wandering around taking pictures of interesting buildings and things that are different from home. It’s a nice little city with lots of green space and attractive old buildings.

New Zealand - Southlands & the Catlins

After leaving Fiordland, we headed further south. From Te Anau to the next largest place, Invercargill, is only a drive of less than 3 hours on good roads and we were able to stop by mid-afternoon at a motor camp just north of Invercargill. The wind had been howling pretty much the while way and although it did calm a bit overnight, it was off again first thing in the morning.

Invercargill is a city of 50,000 and it’s seaport is a small place just south called Bluff. It was even windier there with nothing much other than a few small islands between the southern tip and Antarctica. Bluff is essentially the end of the road. We watched the boat to Stewart Island leave and it looked like it was going to be a very rough crossing.

Invercargill had a nice Museum and some interesting buildings, but otherwise, we only re-supplied the camper and headed further south and east. There is a Coastal Route that we took, stopping at a few places along the way to battle the wind and capture the views. Slope Point is the most southerly point on the South Island but I could hardly stand up in the wind. It was a brief stop.

We camped at Curio Bay where hedges of NZ Flax (large, broad-leaved plants) provided very good shelter from the wind. We were able to see 3 Yellow-Eyed Penguins coming ashore which was quite exciting as they are very rare and this is the only place where they can be seen. A sea lion was visible on the beach later in the evening, and the surf kept pounding and the wind kept blowing he rest of the night. A neat place.

The next morning, we drove slowly along exploring more of the Catlins, hiking to a few waterfalls and visiting another lighthouse on a very scenic point. We saw sea lions and/or fur seals (from a distance it was hard to tell which they were), and ending the day a bit early at Kaka Point Campground. The wind, which had disappeared for awhile, came back with a vengeance, so we found a camp spot in a sheltered location and hunkered in for the evening. We’re off to Dunedin tomorrow.

NZ - South Island - Fiordland National Park

New Zealand – South Island – Fiordland National Park

We arrived in Fiordland later in the afternoon. Weather had been getting more cloudy as the day progressed and we learned that MetService was forecasting a major downpour starting later in the night. We decided to camp and see what the weather was going to do.

It was a windy night but no rain. There was even some blue sky visible in the morning. We got up early and headed for Milford Sound. The scenery got progressively more scenic and spectacular as we went; unfortunately the rain started and got harder as well. We were able to see enough of the mountains to get some of a feel for how spectacular this place is. Huge cliffs with dozens and dozens of waterfalls pouring off them. There was also a single-lane1.2 km tunnel that was started in the 1930s and not completed until the 1950s. The rain, however, continued. This area apparently gets over 8000 mm of rain each year – that’s 8 meters of water. Maybe I should have brought my snorkel! Weather systems blow in from the Tasman Sea, hit these mountains and dump water for over 200 days of rain each year.

By early afternoon, things were looking a bit brighter. Once we could see Milford Sound well enough for a few pictures, we headed back up the road towards the tunnel and the south Milford Road. Bits of blue sky appeared. We were amazed at the number of waterfalls coming down from precipitous cliffs on each side of the road. Fantastic waterfalls just pouring with water after the rain and with melting snow up higher.

After enjoying the views as we progressed down the valley, we found another DOC campground and settled in for the night. It was a cute little place by a stream with good views of mountains up and down the valley.

In the morning, it was still raining. That had started during the night. We took the opportunity to sleep in. Hoping that the clouds would life, we drove back up to the start of the Routeburn Track, which we planned to hike some of today. We hiked for 4 ½ hours but the skies did not clear even once. The hike in the forest was nice, there was the sound of running water everywhere and we passed one of the huts that trampers use on this Track, but there were no views. Not one.

The next morning, Sunday, we woke to clearing skies so we went back and walked yesterday’s trails again. Skies cleared, blue appeared and views were great in all directions. We also hiked the rough trail to Marian Lake, nestled in a cirque surrounded by towering peaks.

One final night camping here and we’re off for the south coast and back up along the east coast – the Catlins, Dunedin, Christchurch….

NZ - South Island - Nelson & the West Coast

A ferry ride of about 3 ½ hours takes you from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. Picton is small. It’s there mostly as a ferry terminal and we didn’t see much else to recommend it as a destination.

Within half an hour of Picton, we were in vineyard central. Field after field of grapes and wineries. So far, in a day and a half, we’ve made it from Picton to Abel Tasman National Park, which is about an hour past Nelson.

On the way to Nelson, we did a hike from Cable Bay to Glenduan, which climbed up steep open hills littered with sheep and sheep by-products and through some forest. It’s called Cable Bay because marine telecommunications cables connect to the North Island from here.

Further west of Nelson lies Abel Tasman National Park. We wanted to try at least some of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, one of NZ’s “Great Walks”. In 4 hours before lunch the other day, we hiked up the trail a bit over 7 km and then back. This track was easy, with a trail about the width and smoothness of a sidewalk. Access here and there to really nice beaches and pretty good views. However, nice as it was, it wasn’t “spectacular”, so we moved on.

Our first real rain (intermittent showers, really), on the way to Westport, located on the South Island’s West Coast. Westport is a small town, but it had free Internet, courtesy of the APN. Also close to Cape Foulwind (so named by Capt Cook, so you can see what “his” view of the place was…), a seal colony and the beginning of some really spectacular coastline, right up there with the Oregon coast for spectacularity. Pounding surf, offshore and coastal rock pinnacles, short trails down to interesting bits on the shore and even some blue skies.

Our views of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers were somewhat impeded by clouds obscuring the mountains, but the glaciers themselves were visible. I’m going to be a bit of a snob here and say that I was underwhelmed. As glaciers go, and I’ve seen a few, these were kind of narrow and unimpressive. The most interesting thing about them was the near-tropical rainforest that you walk in, almost up to the toe of the glacier. Just a bit incongruous. One annoyance was the constant buzz of helicopters. Many commercial operations run flights to the glacier and over the surrounding peaks. Consequently there was a constant stream of choppers flying up and down. Kind of affected the pristine wilderness image. Anyway, we’re hanging around here for the night to see if views improve in the morning. Given the nearness of the Tasman Sea, I’m not holding out much hope.

Nov 18th/09 – woke to clear skies!! Hiked around Lake Matheson and took pictures of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook, hiked back up to the Fox Glacier and then headed down the coast. Clear skies, warm temperatures and little wind; a perfect day for hiking and traveling around. After Haast, the last place on the coast, the road headed inland up the Haast Valley. Quite spectacular scenery with the river valley, the blue water and the Southern Alps poking up all over. We found a DOC campground where we could be right on the beach of a large lake with views of the “hills”.

Our next morning wasn’t completely clear, but there was great sunlight on the peaks and the drive down to Queenstown was scenic and easy, including a recommended shortcut that ended with a very steep hill and multiple hairpin turns.

Queenstown is in a very scenic location but it was bustling, crowded and busy. Kind of reminded me of a cross between Banff and Canmore during their busy seasons. I tend to get turned off when I can’t even find a place to have lunch. We spent the next couple of hours driving towards the entrance to Fiordland National Park. That will be in the next post.

NZ - South Island - Nelson & the West Coast

A ferry ride of about 3 ½ hours takes you from Wellington on the North Island to Picton on the South Island. Picton is small. It’s there mostly as a ferry terminal and we didn’t see much else to recommend it as a destination.

Within half an hour of Picton, we were in vineyard central. Field after field of grapes and wineries. So far, in a day and a half, we’ve made it from Picton to Abel Tasman National Park, which is about an hour past Nelson.

On the way to Nelson, we did a hike from Cable Bay to Glenduan, which climbed up steep open hills littered with sheep and sheep by-products and through some forest.

Further west of Nelson lies Abel Tasman National Park. We wanted to try at least some of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, one of NZ’s “Great Walks”. In 4 hours before lunch the other day, we hiked up a bit over 7 km and then back. This track was easy, with a trail about the width and smoothness of a sidewalk. Access here and there to really nice beaches and pretty good views. However, nice as it was, it wasn’t “spectacular”, so we moved on.

Our first real rain (intermittent showers, really), on the way to Westport, located on the South Island’s West Coast. Westport is a small town, but it had free Internet, courtesy of the APN. Also close to Cape Foulwind (so named by Capt Cook), a seal colony and the beginning of some really spectacular coastline, right up there with the Oregon coast. Pounding surf, offshore and coastal rock pinnacles, short trails down to interesting bits on the shore and even some blue skies.

Our views of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers were somewhat impeded by clouds obscuring the mountains, but the glaciers themselves were visible. I’m going to be a bit of a snob here and say that I was underwhelmed. As glaciers go, and I’ve seen a few, these were kind of narrow and unimpressive. The most interesting thing about them was the near-tropical rainforest that you walk in, almost up to the toe of the glacier. Just a bit incongruous. We’re hanging around here for the night to see if views improve in the morning. Given the nearness of the Tasman Sea, I’m not holding out much hope.

NZ Photo Album

We're on the West Coast of the South Island of NZ. Weather has been mixed but nice enough - sunny today, rain last night.... Small towns, real rural New Zealand.

Pictures are in two Picasa Albums:

North Island: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/NewZealand2009NorthIsland#

South Island: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/NewZealand2009SouthIsland#

We're probably spending another couple of days along this coast before we head up over the mountains towards Queenstown and the real Southland.

So far, we've been driving for 2 weeks and I think we've covered about 3400 km. And we've hiked, wandered around on loooooong beaches.....

North Island Impressions

Much of the area north of Auckland, which is by far the smallest part of New Zealand, is rolling hills, scenic shoreline areas and lots of agricultural fields. We've seen some logged-over clearcuts, just like in BC, although the regrowth is a bit different, being made up of giant ferns and other plants not seen in Canada.

There are long stretches of uninspiring scenery (mostly inland) and then stretches of shoreline with great views and beautiful beaches.

Travel is generally slow and most of the roads we've been on are very winding and quite narrow. Not, perhaps, as narrow as some we were on some years ago in Scotland, but pretty narrow considering the traffic on them. After driving on NZ roads for a week or so, I've decided that their roads are really quite rough. With the rough surface and winding nature of the roads, a full day of driving tends to make one pretty tired. We have had one "easy" stretch of highway, and that was most of the 300-odd km from Napier/Hastings south to Wellington. Except for a 13-km section of steep, mountainous, narrow and winding road through a range of hills, most of the road was more or less straight, adequate width (ie: to a modern standard), mostly with shoulders and quite smooth.

The winding road south from Kaitaia (about an hour south from Cape Reinga), following the west side of the island, is much nicer. There are many hills, much winding road and fields of livestock, but the whole area is just greener and more pleasant. Most of this is called the Awaroa Road and is quite a bit more attractive than the more easterly road, the SH1 (state highway 1).

Lots of the west side of the north island seems to have long stretches of sandy beaches. One long stretch is called, somewhat inaccurately, 90-mile beach. It might have been 90 kilometers, but I quibble..... It's a Loooooooong piece of beach no matter what the measuring system. Part of this would be the result of persistent pounding from the Tasman Sea. Apparently a good deal of the sand came from volcanic eruptions. In any case, there are huge sand dunes, some the size of minor mountains and miles of beautiful beaches made of impeccable sand.

We've been somewhat surprised at the shortage of water in many places. A number of campgrounds have had NO water at all, some just no potable water that they recommended boiling first. We can't say that we've noticed this shortage justifying a lower campground fee...... We've started making sure our water tank and other storage devices are filled with water whenever we do get the chance.

Internet access is becoming a favourite bugbear of mine. So much so, I’m dedicating a single blog post to the topic.

Foodies amongst the readers will be interested to know that diary products, despite NZ having a reputation in this "field", are more expensive than in Canada. Cheese and milk in particular. I have also been confused by the fat content of milk. I'm a person who drinks powdered skim all the time so I'm making a big concession on this trip and trying to drink just plain skim milk. Just try finding "that" information on the milk containers here. There is "standard", "slim" and "extra slim" but what those terms refer to, numerically, is anyone's guess. I'm sticking with "slim" since that's the body style I think I'd be most comfortable with. I’m guessing that’s 1%, but so far I’ve been unable to confirm that.

Chocolate milk, which we are buying because Catherine doesn't really like milk and this is one way to encourage her to drink the stuff, is advertised as being 98.5% fat free which I take to mean it's 1.5% fat. Finally, some information I can work with!

Finally, still on the topic of milk, I saw in the "Pack 'N Save" yesterday milk I hadn't seen before: bananna milk, lime milk and strawberry milk, as well as chocolate. If my taste buds get jaded on this trip, I might try those varieties.

Gasoline (petrol) is surprisingly not all that bad. I had expected worse. Also interestingly, the price has been almost the same all over the country. The "normal" price seems to be $1.659/litre. With the currency exchange in Canada's favour.....

If you want to kick your Coke habit, this is the place to come. I saw a flat of 24 cans of Coke selling for about $19.00. That’s more expensive than beer!!

NZ Internet - Definitely NOT Up To Speed

We're used to easy access to free or nearly free Internet in Canada and the USA. At home, we have always-on, 24/7, "high speed" virtually unlimited access for about $1 a day and a few pennies. Since telecom companies can charge that and still make money, I'm assuming that providing Internet access like that must cost a lot less, given the way telecom companies operate.

Almost all libraries in Canada and the USA offer free Internet. Most hotels and motels just offer free access (including WiFi) as part of the collection of amenities available. Kind of like hot water, TV, a bed...... Safeway food stores in some parts of Canada (ie: Nelson, BC), at least the ones with Starbucks or whatever coffee purveyor they have, offer free WiFi. I can stand outside most Staples, Office Depot and Best Buy stores and pick up a signal. We live in a small town of about 1000 people and there are, by a rough count, at least 4 places where a person with a laptop can pick up a signal. That includes the local bar/hotel where you can catch up on your e-mail, book a hotel, check ferry connections or do your social networking, all while having a pint of a local brew.

In NZ, there is almost nothing, by comparison. Very few libraries offer free Internet access and even fewer have WiFi access. The main city library in Auckland did have free wireless, but it was, like the library in Devonport, just across the harbour from Auckland, slow to the pont of unusability. You "can" buy access, but being spoiled the way I am, I've been resisting this option. Frankly, I'm not prepared to pay up to $10/hour for access, no matter whose currency that amount is in. Further south, in Greytown, an organization called the APN (Aotearoa People's Network) is working to get free Internet access to libraries. They are making progress, but apparently they have a long way to go. I was able to use the same network at the library in Westport, out on the West Coast.

I need to find out from a local what home Internet costs; perhaps telecommunications costs significantly more here than in North America. We have seen fewer people with cell phones, so perhaps that's the reason. It's difficult to see how people would use the Internet to do business, communicate and do research if it costs so much. Is this caused by a lack of competition in the ISP field or has the wireless "craze" just not hit here yet? I have to say I've seen few if any of the small computers similar to what I'm carrying on this trip.

Wellington - NZ Capital City

About 450,000 people live in the greater Wellington area, but the downtown core is so crowded and space is at such a premium that only about 150,000 people actually live there. Most live north of the city in some extended suburbs with names like Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt.

In at least some ways, it’s a typical hilly (very hilly) old port town. Narrow, winding streets, buildings crowded together in a very limited space.

In addition to being a port city, of course, Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, so it has all the infrastructure of government there as well.

The city has a very nice Botanical gardens, the city seemed clean and tidy, and it’s busy building better transportation lines to move traffic in and out of the city more efficiently. The “motorway” near the city seemed very new and some parts were still being worked on. One can only imagine the traffic problems before the motorway was completed.

We walked around a bit, went around the Parliament Buildings (one part being a building they call The Beehive – gotta be the hive of activity generated by all those civil servants), saw the old Dominion Observatory overlooking the city and enjoyed the flowers and trees in the Botanical Gardens.

Wellington has a reputation of being a very windy town. For us, it was windy and cool one day and sunny, calm and warm the second day while we were waiting for the ferry. The wind does whistle through the Cook Strait, that body of water separating the two islands.

No Remembrance Day Here....

Just a quick update....

It's Nov 12 (Nov 11 back in North America) and Remembrance Day came and went here, seemingly without notice. I guess it's not a date observed here.

We're just passing through Greytown which is about 80 km north of Wellington. We stopped here mostly because Catherine wanted to look for a particular shop (chocolate, would you believe??) and so she's out looking for it. I took the wee computer and went looking for likely prospects for Internet connections and immediately found one at the town Library. Let's hear it for Libraries!! Actually, this wireless connection is provided courtesy of some area "people's network". All I can say is NZ needs WAY more of this.

I'm getting caught up on bills, e-mail, blogs and picture uploading.

We'll be in Wellington today, probably later this afternoon, and likely will sail to the South Island tomorrow - I think that's Friday, although I've somewhat lost track of what day of the week it is. Not that it really matters!!

The South Island is supposed to be WAY different and we're anticipating some stellar scenery. The North Island has had some superb beaches and seacoast, but more about that later on.

New Zealand - Heading South, slowly....

On Saturday, Nov 7th, we got up to a beautiful morning - cool, calm, some morning fog to burn off and the town of Rowene looking very pleasant. We walked around the town for awhile, took a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp and checked out the local Saturday market. This a very attractive looking area with nice green hills and valleys. A sky full of blue also helped.

We followed Rte 12 south through the twin towns of Opononi and Omapere and on to an exceptionally twisty road through the Waipoua Forest, home to some very large Kauri trees. These trees aren't all that tall, by BC standards, but they sure are thick. The old one we saw, listed as being about 2000 years of age, was about 13 meters in circumference, pretty much from base to the top where the branches started sprouting out. Not sure how the average chainsaw would handle one of these.

The town of Dargaville was a good find because Catherine noticed an i-Centre as we rolled into town and decided to find out where Internet might be available. It just happened that the operator of the i-Centre was just getting the wireless set up and her tech guy had just walked in the door. We had a lunch and by then everything was ready. The wireless was fast and nearly free. The attached shop sold various wood products, and although very nice, they were pretty much out of our price range.

We continued on down the coast, ending up just past Helensville at Shelly Beach where we found a campground - no potable water at this one either. Pretty cheap, though, as campgrounds go (NZ$20).

We picked a Sunday morning to go back through Auckland. The North Island is quite narrow at this point and you must go through the city, or at least part of it, to get anyfurther south. We took the opportunity to drop by the rental agency to extend our vana rental by 3 days. We'll now be dropping it off just a few hours before our flight home leaves Auckland.

South of Auckland by about 90 minutes is the city of Hamilton. One of its notable attractions is the Botanical Gardens. We had a nice, sunny, warm few hours to wander around the gardens and took lots of pictures. Some plants were familiar but many were not. Where there were plant labels, we often did not even recognize the plant families listed.

The night of the start of our second week in NZ was spent in Cambridge, a short drive from Hamilton and another place (of only a very few we've seen so far) with a pronouncable name. Our weather continues to be quite nice although somewhat cool at times. We haven't had any truly miserable weather yet. It's been fairly windy, but to people who have lived on the prairies, nothing too unusual. We seem to get some sun and some heat, each day. Generally the cool weather has made for quite pleasant traveling.

Monday, Nov 9th - from Cambridge to Rotorua, which seems to have a reputation as being kind of New Zealand's answer to Yellowstone in the USA. Personally, I didn't see much here to interest me. We walked around but all I saw were a few steam vents, some bubbling mud pools and some hot water ponds. It's a town of about 75,000 people and it was probably as interesting walking up and down the streets as anything else. I would have been happy to spend less time there.

Since we were already over on the east coast, almost, we decided to travel out around the East Cape, from the Bay of Plenty around the coast to the east and then south to Gisborne and then Napier and Hastings. We've read that this area is very quiet, very scenic and not so touristy as some areas (like Rotorua?). Sounds like an area we'd like. We found a quiet motorhome camp near the small village of Opape. It didn't give the appearance of being very nice (quite a few old trailers and old vehicles around), but it's clean, very quiet and we are the only people staying here tonight. We're also about 100 feet from another of New Zealand's extensive beaches.

Tuesday, Nov 10th - spent the day traveling the East Coast highway, heading more easterly in NZ. Around lunch time, we arrived at East Cape which is the most easterly point in New Zealand. Sunrise arrives here each day before anywhere else in the world. There was a short hike up to a lighthouse with a nice view of the Pacific and an offshore island where the lighthouse was in years past. Stayed at a campground near Tolaga Bay, site of NZ's longest wharf, even if it is slowly falling apart!

Spent Nov 11th driving to Gisborne and then on to Napier. The drive south was exceptionally tortuous, windy and rough. NZ is a hilly place, but their roads do seem to wind around and up and over everything in the way. Makes for slow and tiring travel. Captain James Cook landed in these areas back in the 1700s and there are numerous memorials and the like. Napier has a good collection of Art Deco buildings so we did a short walk around the downtown to see some of these. This was done during a series of intermittent showers and wind. About the only unpleasant weather we've had so far. Tomorrow we're off to Wellington. It will be interesting to see how long this this drive takes. It's only about 350 km....

New Zealand - The First Few Days

Our second day in Auckland (Nov 2nd) is mostly done and our feet are tired again.

The hike around Devonport was really quite nice - lots of shops, a chance to try some Kiwi beer (Speights is nice) and finally, around 2 pm, a lunch of pulled pork and very excellent fries. We finally found a real grocery store and were able to satisfy our curiosity about some prices here. I think, basically, prices here for many things are somewhat like Canada's or a bit more. Some things are a lot more. The currency rate does give us a bit of a break.

We hiked to the top of two little hills in Devonport, both extinct volcanoes, and both of which had been used as gun stations in years past and which are now developed into public parks. Although the guide book describes the views from each as "spectacular", I think that's bit of hyperbole, at least to us. The views were nice, they were certainly panoramic, but I don't think I'd describe them as "spectacular". However....not to quibble too much.

So far, I haven't found a free Internet connection that's been fast enough to be bothered using. Maybe it's just the distance between NZ and the rest of the world :-). I may have to give up and go to an Internet cafe and see if that's better.

The flowers and other plants in the yards we've walked by are most interesting and generally quite different from what we have back home. Lots of nice big blooms and good smells everywhere. I did see a New Zealand Goldfinch - colored quite differently from the North American kind and quite attractive.

We had part of an evening out with the son of one of Catherine's good friends in Saskatoon. He lives in Auckland and plays for the New Zealand Symphony. Supper at an Asian restaurant which was very crowded, very noisy (chaotic, even), but with excellent food. We ate far too much and "took the air" on Mt Evan, overlooking the city.

On Tuesday (Day 3), we picked up the camper van. This involved getting up earlier than our bodies really wanted to and taking the shuttle bus back to the airport and having the rental company pick us up. After the forms and an overview of the rig, we tentatively drove off down the street, Catherine navigating us to the nearest grocery store where we stocked up before heading north. Today merited an early stop and we finally, after some searching, located a campground and spent some time unpacking, organizing the small space in the camper and having a restorative snack. A walk on the beach, supper and some writing, and it's time to get ready for bed. We're both pretty tired, proof being Catherine falling asleep while I was driving. That's not unusual in itself, but for it to happen in a new country, while we're trying to get used to driving on the left, on narrow, winding roads.....

The next days, Nov 4 and 5, we used to travel further north, with Cape Reinga being the ultimate goal, the northern-most point in New Zealand, that you can get to by road, at least.

On Nov 6 (Friday), we finished the drive to Cape Reinga in about an hour from our campground, hiked around, lay about on a very nice beach for awhile, got cleaned up and decided to head south because it was too windy to be really pleasant. A drive of somewhat over 3 hours got us to Rawene, a small town of about 500 people on the west coast of the Island, where we finally found a campground with water. Water does seem to be an issue here. It's often not available or available in small quantities or it needs to be boiled to make it safe to drink. Some campgrounds we've been in didn't have any water at all.

Today, Nov 7th, is a glorious day - sunny, warm but not hot. We're off to explore.....

Auckland....

Although our flight to Auckland was booked through Air Canada, the actual flight was operated by Air New Zealand. I have to say that it was a rather pleasant flying experience, as much as 14 hours of sitting can be pleasant.

Flight crew were pleasant and helpful, and informative. Not something we always experience. We were served a supper and a breakfast. Both meals were very good and we were even given a glass or two of wine for supper, a nice touch, I thought. Small pillows, blankets and headsets were provided, as was an exensive number of movies. I mamaged to watch "The Time-Travellers Wife", "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and some of "The Last King of Scotland".

I did manage to get a bit of sleep, but trying to sleep sitting up doesn't work well for me and airplace seats are pretty uncomfortable no matter what you do. I spent several hours sanding at the back of the plane and pacing up and down the aisles, as well as peering out the windows. We were getting a nearly full moon shikning out over the Pacific Ocean and I also saw a few small islands along the way. We crossed the Equator at about 4 am (PST) and the International Date Line an hour or two later.

The plane must have had a great tail wind, because we were maintaining a ground speed of over 900 km/hr and got frm Vancouver to Auckland in just over 13 hours.

Arrival day, though, finds us rather tired, having been awake for how long - I haven't even bothered to add it up. Too long. We walked around some of the city's harbour and had a short nap. Several more hours of walking took us through a beautiful park, flower gardens, the Museum and back to our temporary cubicle in the hotel. A good night's sleep will help us be a bit friskier tomorrow.

Monday - Nov 2/09 - had a good night's sleep which made us feel pretty good. So far today, we've taken the ferry over to Devonport where we've spent the last several hours hiking around. It's a beautiful community, great gardens, interesting shops and, a nice surprise, used book stores, where we found a NZ birds and a NZ trees book. Weather has been mixed, but generally quite nice. Easy for us to say, coming from Canada!

Pictures have been uploaded from yesterday's hikes and are at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/NewZealand2009#

We're finding free Internet kind of hard to find, but the libraries seem to have it. We are getting oriented and a bit better organized, but I'm still having some trouble realizing that I'm actually in the South Pacific.