Category: Oceania

Our first day in Wellington was a day of sunshine and warm weather. After turning in our rental car we were advised by the manager of Fidel’s cafe – on Cuba Street by the way, to take advantage of the nice day to hike up to the Brooklyn Windmill. We settled in at our studio apartment AirBnB, but, before leaving I accidentally smashed one of my pinky toes on the side of the stairs so hard that it drew blood. I still put my bandaged toe in a hiking boot, but within 2 blocks knew I could not go up and down a steep hill. So Loren went on without me. After ice, elevation, rest, and yoga, I still have bruising but can walk without favoring it. And the skies often have been overcast since that first day.

  

Another day we had a nice lunch date with a young couple who we had met at Tongariro. They picked us up in their rental car and we drove out to Lyall Bay for a recommended restaurant. It was great fun to see them, and enjoy the setting and good food together. 

Wellington is a nice size city. It has a population of 100,000 and much can be reached by foot. One day again we had nice enough weather for hiking up to Mount Victoria to a Lookout, where we had views over the city and beyond, and read signposts with information about southern sky astronomy. But Wellington is known for being windy, and we can attest to that too!

 

Another day we walked down the waterfront,

 

then on Valentine’s Day, we celebrated out with Mexican fare. 

  

The other major outing we made was to the Friday Food Market. This week it coincided with a Lantern Parade for Chinese New Year, which included a traditional Maori performance. I learned that the Dragon represents power, strength, and good luck. 

  

I am also reflecting on the wildlife we had seen while elsewhere on the North Island that I had not posted about – specifically, the Pied Stilt, Magpie, and the enormous Wood Pigeon. The magpie has outstanding contrasting dark black/stark white coloring which is incredible to see in flight, for their coloring looks like thick black outlines around a white bird. It seems several birds here have black and white or dark and light markings.

  

Our AirBnb is within a short distance of a Bikram Yoga studio, and we have taken a class each day. I was invited to teach one, and hope to do so again while we are here. Loren and I will also have our teeth cleaned, see a dermatologist, and a general practitioner for checkups this month. The dental office is actually in a building where a Beatles’ concert was once held! Oh, and, Happy Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dog!

 

I had wondered, “How did this idea of Oceania being ‘down under’ come about?” From recently visiting Antarctica I know that that continent is really down under. I thought, “Maybe my lack of understanding of the earth’s axis would explain it?” No, Antarctica is still down under all the land on earth. What I learned is that this nickname is a holdover from earlier centuries, when mapmakers knew nothing of the lands south of Asia. In fact Europeans did not start to settle in New Zealand until the beginning of the 1800’s…

Loren and I began this week by going to The Tree Church which I happened upon online. The website does not do it justice though, in that in addition to the amazing combination of a natural and wrought sacred structure, the larger grounds include peaceful gardens, ponds, a labyrinth… We learned that the talented designer/owner has plans to someday build a more magnificent garden setting. I hope he will.

We then went to Maungatautari – Sanctuary Mountain, where extensive fencing keeps imported predators out, for the native flora and fauna to thrive. We took two walks, though were disappointed in the second. It was different from the Northern Enclosure which said “Allow 35 minutes, 1.1km – Medium fitness,” and we took less than 35 minutes on a thoroughly delightful track. The Over the Mountain enclosure fooled us by signage pointing in either direction to begin an hour to the peak, appearing to be a loop. It was a grueling, uphill trudge through denser-growth forest for over an hour. Before we made it to the summit we were told that there would be no view, and, that the track on the other side was in disrepair. We turned around, with our plans for a second enjoyable 1-2 hour hike dashed. The lesson learned is how important it is to do better research in advance.

 

From here we drove for about four hours to our lodging in Tongariro National Park. On the way there we played with the idea of postponing our full day hike to rest up, and especially as the clouds looked threatening. But, when we arrived it was too late to rearrange plans, so we prepared ourselves for an early departure for the long day hike.

We spent the next day on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, feeling so grateful that we had fabulous weather all day! A young woman working at the lodge since November later said she had never seen a day with sunshine throughout to the afternoon. We saw Mount Tongariro, Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe, the otherworldly Red Crater, and, the stunning Emerald Lakes up close. Quoting one of our lodge owners, we can say that we survived walking over “two active volcanos.” As well, we saw incredibly unique volcanic and geothermal terrain. Instead of the advertised tramp of 19.4km in 5-1/2 to 7-1/2 hours though, it took the two of us 9. But we made it! With an evening soak in our motel’s hot tub, we were ready for our next day’s commitment to a half day of mountain biking…

  

We wondered if our bike outing on Old Coach Road would be canceled due to weather. It was lucky for us again in that it only mildly drizzled at the start and end of our ride, then absolutely poured after we were back safe and dry in our motel room. We were especially grateful to not be among the group that we were on the Tongariro Crossing that day. That evening we celebrated at the nice restaurant suggested by our other lodge owner, and we wore our souvenir T-shirts that were part of the Crossing package. 

 

Then we enjoyed a down day. Clouds and rain once again helped us realize our fortune of Crossing in clear weather, while we did laundry and other catchup. I had not stopped thinking of my humming the tune of Smile to our water taxi driver last week, so looked up the lyrics. I found the references to clouds and sunshine coincidental:

     From Smile – Music by Charles Chaplin, Lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons: 

     …When there are clouds in the sky
        You’ll get by
        If you smile through your fear and sorrow
        Smile and maybe tomorrow
        You’ll see the sun come shining through
        For you…

Continuing in this vein, I came across a quote that I had noted some many years ago, and from where I have no idea. But, it touched me then, and does again now, especially as we are traveling through the Maori iwi (tribe) lands:

     Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. Maori Proverb

Driving from Tongariro towards Wellington at the south end of the North Island, we took a winding road called The Forgotten World Highway. We stopped a couple of times on the long day – first for a soft drink at historic Whangamomona hotel in the capital city of the Whangamomona Republic – said Fang-ah-momo-na. We voluntarily received passport stamps but cannot claim having visited another “country.” We also drove through two different one lane tunnels, and, had lunch by the little used 1936 “Bridge to Somewhere.”

  

I mentioned the coastal/land formations last week, now I must mention a few inland highlights. There are ridges and hollows everywhere in the New Zealand countryside! I used to think that cliffs were only found on the coast. Now I know that they can also be found inland. Of course I have seen them inland but did not call them cliffs. Some of the ones just alongside the roads are as tall and straight as high rise buildings. Also, we have driven by so much land that has been set aside as Scenic Reserves that perhaps one could spend a lifetime visiting all of them, or at least needing more than the limited time that we have in New Zealand. And, we had seen some sheep but mostly cattle so far, now on this drive we saw as many or more sheep as we did in the hills of Ireland and Scotland.

  

We then spent two nice nights in Masterton on the way to Wellington. This area is also called Wairarapa. Our AirBnB was hosted by a lovely family with three friendly young boys and a fun-loving dog. Here we spent nearly a full day at Pukaha Mount Bruce, a preservation center where we saw their one all-white kiwi bird in a bird house setting that imitated nighttime inside the enclosure. We took in talks about a few other unique creatures – the Takahe bird, the Tuatara – a similar reptile to a lizard or gecko but more ancient, and, saw a Long-Fin Eel feeding. Then we went about an hour and a half on their Loop Walk through Forest Restoration Project lands. It was especially nice to finish the walk in a shorter amount of time than their advertised two hours.

  

That evening Loren and I had a date night to see Loving Vincent at a new theater in town. Maybe you already saw it but it was just released here. Incredibly spectacular with a good story line, and, everything in it painted in Van Gogh’s unique style. We would both see it again and can highly recommend it.

Now we are in Wellington, settled in to an apartment which we will be in for about the next month. It is in walking distance to the local Bikram Yoga studio, and we plan to visit the Unitarian congregation who meet in Wellington about once a month. 

Until next week, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Please excuse this post being late – we had only weak or insecure internet until today…

It is summer in Aotearoa – New Zealand, in Maori, pronounced ow-ah-tea-ah-row-ah. With us being from California, our experience is different from what we are finding here, especially Loren who is a California native. Instead it often feels more like my native New York for the clouds, thunder, lightning, rain, humidity. Our backpacker motel owner calls rain “liquid sunshine.” Unlike New York, the temperature cools in the evening, more like California. It just does not pay to have expectations – this is summertime in Aotearoa!

Still in Paihia on the Bay of Islands towards the north end of New Zealand’s North Island, Loren and I began this week with hiring a water taxi for transport to Deep Water Cove. Our driver – or maybe you would say pilot? or captain? – after acquainting us with his company, Wai Not – sounds like why not, with wai meaning water, and of safety on the boat, spoke a while in Maori which included singing a short song. He said that basically meant, “Hello!” and that the song part was a tradition of welcome. He asked us – being his only passengers, for a song in return. We were stumped in the moment to think of one, so he prompted that he likes Michael Jackson from the US. I came up with mostly humming part of MJ’s version of Turner and Parsons’ Smile, which he appreciated. 

We also learned from him that there are 139 islands in this bay. And, he explained “The Polynesian Triangle” as Maori people are originally of Polynesia heritage before settling on New Zealand. Loren and I discovered that we actually have been to two thirds of its boundaries, as we have visited Hawaii previously and now New Zealand. Sometime we hope to complete the triangle by traveling to the third point, which is Easter Island.

From Deep Water Cove Loren and I made what we thought would be a mild “2.5 hour walk”  for an overnight stay at the Cape Brett Lighthouse hut. In fact the writeup said, “Walk to the hut via the undulating Cape Brett Track,” “through native and regenerating bush” with “dramatic coastal views.” However, we must have overlooked the parts that included, “The Cape Brett Track traverses rugged terrain” and other menacing phrasing, for it took us 4 hours over the steep up and down over several narrow ridges. We made it though, and spent the night in dorm style accommodation with nice people – 2 young women from Auckland, a young Canadian couple and a young man from Wisconsin. We made the return hike to the Cove in just slightly less than 4 hours, and even enjoyed the tramping after the fact. As Loren says, we collected another memorable experience. 

 

We had a final full day of sightseeing at Bay of Islands: first with viewing Rainbow Falls, then a short walk through a lovely Kaori rainforest, and, stopping to see Haruru Falls. We spent the rest of that day at Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where we learned more of how the Maori chiefs and British crown representatives forged an agreement of partnership in 1840. We had a guided tour, saw a cultural performance and a Maori concert, and, ate a traditional Hangi dinner. A Hangi seems similar to an Hawaiian Luau. And some Maori words seem strikingly similar to Native American words. I marvel at that coincidence.

 

We then drove south through Auckland on our way to Rotorua – said row-tow-rue-ah, on the Bay of Plenty, actually a bight. I am learning a bit about different coastal landforms with all the shorelines of New Zealand. I grew up near Long Island Sound, but now have realized that I had no idea what characteristics make up the category of a sound. Here is a sound-bight of what I have found:

     a bay has a wide mouth, partly surrounded by land on three sides
     a bight is a shallow curve but less curvature than a bay or a sound
a cape extends far into a body of water with water on two sides
     a cove is a sheltered, small inlet, often found in a larger bay
an estuary is where a river meets the sea forming brackish water
a fiord is a narrow, long, steep-sided valley created by a glacier, filled with water
a peninsula is bordered by water on three sides
a sound is a large inlet wider than a fjord, and often separates land from an island

Now I am curious about the name Bay instead of Bight of Plenty? And, Long Island by the way, was deemed by the US Supreme Court in 1985 to be not an island, but a peninsula!

We stopped after Auckland on our continued way to Rotorua for an inspiring tour of Hobbiton, the enchanting place where Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies were filmed. We later wanted to walk around some of Lake Rotorua, and drove to where we happened to find a tribute to John Lennon’s Imagine, but, it was dreary and overcast, too blustery to enjoy the evening out and about in the elements. 

Another full day was spent starting with a morning at Wai O Tapu – meaning sacred waters, a geothermal adventure. Our time included viewing the Old Faithful-like Lady Knox geyser and some outstanding colorful pools, caves, and geysers. It all reminded both Loren and me of our respective visits to Yellowstone National Park 43 and 45 years ago. Loren’s shirt that day and his hiking poles matched one pool named “Devil’s Bath.” What was also intriguing here were the mud pools. I think everyone who witnessed their frequent quick unpredictable “Bloop!” – what Loren called the audible shows they make, could not help but smile. 

 

We spent that afternoon at two lakes. Okareka – Lake of Sweet Food, was serene and featured a multitude of black swans. Tikitapu – Blue Lake, being a haven for swimmers, suited Loren to jump in. We finished the day with an evening spa at Waikite Valley, which translates to clear water. As my name, Claire also means clear, I would like to take the Maori name, Kite – said key-teh. We also took an “eco-walk” to see 40-50 gushing liters of boiling water per second, so hot that it must be cooled before entering any of their six pools. The steam combined with the sunlight made for an interesting photo.

 

Before leaving Rotorua, we stopped briefly at Government Gardens. It was nice to see a bit of Maori history honored with displays, a nice surprise to find folks playing croquet on the lawns, and nice to enjoy a vast array of blooms. 

  

We then stopped to see Waikato River’s Huka Falls, which reminded me of a favorite color of mine as a child – Sea-Foam-Green. Given that this day my shirt matched the waters, perhaps it still is a favorite color. 

From here we drove to see Taupo Lake where we enjoyed a walk on an old wharf before arriving at our AirBnB accommodation in a barn with upstairs living space. Our host joined us for a glass of wine and we learned that the name she chose for her retreat -Rangimarie, means place of peace. We enjoyed a peaceful down day staying out of the heavy-at-times-rain, listening to the pattering and pouring on the roof all day long in her delightful lodging. That evening we shared conversation and dinner in her lovely home.

 

The next day we were back on the go, with Loren taking a 3 hour “glow worm” cave tour by inner tube in a wet suit, while I took tours by foot and boat during the same time to see the unusual creatures. Afterwards together we hiked to see more caves in the Waitomo area – meaning hole made by water. Then we visited a nearby natural bridge.

  

We were fortunate in the timing of low tide at the harbor where we were able to dig in the sand and have a soak in a natural hot pool. That is me standing where Loren would soon dig. Another wonderful week, full of fulfillment. We are so grateful for our Journey, for our family and friends who support us by keeping in touch as best we can, for all the wonderful people we are meeting, and for all that we are learning, seeing and doing. We finished the day and this week with a dinner of locally acclaimed fish ‘n’ chips. Good fun!

 

 

Last week Loren and I had the milestone of traveling to our 7th continent and 50th+ country on our Journey. Now we have reached a round number of 200 consecutive weeks being away from our home. Something to recognize…

We were still in Auckland when this week began. One highlight was taking the speedy elevator ride up to the 51st floor of the Sky Tower late one afternoon for sunset, then we stayed to see the city lights come on.

 

We also had a lovely day with one of our friends who we had met on tour in Morocco. She picked us up with her adorable pug, and we spent the day going North – first to a Farmer’s Market in Matakana for a local fare lunch, then to a winery for a delicious glass of wine, tasting and a beer. The grounds include a beautiful setting for walking along a sculpture trail, somewhat similar to Arte Sella – Art in Nature that we visited near Caldonazzo, Italy. The difference here is there are a few “sound” sculptures, for example a delightful choral piece that felt like they were right there in the woods with us, and, a chorus of frogs near a pond. 

 

Then our friend took us to Murawai – translates to Water’s end, to see the Gannet colony. While she walked her pug on the “wild west coast beach” as dogs are not allowed near these unique birds, Loren and I hiked up to see them. 

  

We rejoined on the vast beach where the tide was out. Later on I had a painful lesson – just how much sunscreen and UV sunglasses really are mandatory. I had put sunscreen on my face and the back of my neck, but none on my arms or chest as has become my habit as we have traveled. That evening I was surprised to find that the skin on my arms and chest was burned, though we were only in the sun for a short time and in the late afternoon. The Ozone layer is actually the thinnest over New Zealand, so Loren and I now lather ourselves thoroughly when we will be in the sun.

The next day Loren and I took a ferry to Motutapu Island – means Sacred Island. We met our group of volunteers to help with some summertime nursery work for the Motutapu Restoration Trust. Loren and I only put in a half day of transplanting root bound flax seedlings, so that we could walk – excuse me, we have also learned that New Zealanders tramp on tracks. This is like the Nepali and the Americans who respectively trek and hike, on trails. Anyway, we tramped, to the summit of neighboring Rangitoto Island – means Lava Island, to see the crater left by the volcano. Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands are connected merely by a tiny bridge. Rangitoto is quite a new island, as the volcano only erupted 600 years ago. Still the crater has fully filled in with vegetation. 

  

Like Nepal, New Zealand has some sub-tropic climate regions. But, unlike most places in the world, New Zealand does not have native critters. To protect their rare bird population, the Kiwi people try hard to eradicate the wild critters that have arrived with foreigners. The native birds used to have a single predator – a very large eagle that sadly is now extinct. The smaller birds’ instinct is to freeze from the eyes of the eagle, but that of course puts them in grave danger from critters. Further, the locals are extremely ecologically protective of their paradise. From immigration enforcing measures on arrival to the country, to shoe washing stations in a variety of places, they aim to protect the endangered Kauri – sounds like the name Cory, tree.

 

Now, Loren and I have picked up a budget car, a “Commuter Super Saver Toyota Vitz” model in Auckland. Before we left their garage, Loren had to manually manipulate the side mirror as the driver side interior controls did not work. The nice thing for driving on the “proper” side of the road with this scratched up, faded car was that it is an automatic, compared to in Ireland, England and South Africa where the cars were all manual transmission. However, as we entered the Harbour Bridge, said mirror actually fell from its mount! Fortunately, the rental agency has an office just north of the bridge. To our greater fortune, they had only one automatic car available – a shiny, large, Toyota Camry. It was a delight to drive the rest of the way in luxury, at the super saver price…

A word about driving here. New Zealanders are… strict, about their speeds. I am grateful that this second car not only has cruise control but a buzzer reminder should I exceed 100km, to keep within the maximum limit. Here is how it breaks down:

    100km/h, which works out to 62.14 mph is the default on the motorway (highway)
     50km/h, or 31.06 mph is the default for towns and cities
     40km/h, 24.85 mph is for schools at marked times
     30km/h, 18.64 through roadworks, and,
     20km/h, 12.43 for a stopped school bus.

Another word I want to say is about the Maori language. So many places are called by the native names, but learning to pronounce them is a… challenge. We have mastered Whangarei – said Fan-yah-ray, but so many other names – many of which are even spelled similarly, are difficult for westerners and especially us to pick up.

We drove to Paihia – said pie-hee-ah, north of Auckland on the Bay of Islands. One day in Paihia we took a full day tramp, which included – literally, tramping, through rain forested land, as well as taking two ferry crossings as part of the mapped out visitor route.

 

While in the rain forest, we were thoroughly enchanted by the calls of the Tui bird, but could not manager to snap any photos of them. We also heard lots of cicada chirping alongside an interesting snapping sound. Fortunately the 50% chance of thunderstorms never materialized.

 

We have also seen many reminders that the Kiwi bird lives in New Zealand. As of yet we have not spotted any… however, they are nocturnal. Still, there are protective warnings to keep dogs on leads as dogs are often a threat to this unique bird. We have seen several Pukeko, or Australasian Swamp Hen. As our friend said, “They are everywhere!”

 

Next we are heading off by water taxi to tramp to Cape Brett Lighthouse where we will stay overnight.