Bay Of Islands

Ok, So now that you made it through those...you can imagine my dilemma for what to post and what not to post. I took about 700 photos of this particular tour. Even with my damaged lens, I was able to salvage perhaps 300 presentable pictures. Of those, their is a high proportion of island houses, other boats and a number of other annoying photographic inconveniences. So...all that being said.....this is the region known as the Bay of Islands. The most notable and rather touristy town on the bay is Paihia.

This was New Years in Paradise. We spent New Year’s Eve and New Years day in Paihia. At this point I was pretty much over the travel trauma and shell shock of New Zealand. We spent the full day on the water, on a tour boat that also acted as the twice a week mail boat for many of the island residences. All in all we visited probably 20 islands, witnessed a variety of types of island living and partook in some of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. Its definitely a trip worth taking. In addition to this, we explored the town of Russel, New Zealand’s first European settlement previously known as the hell hole of the Pacific.

We also visited a few of the older settlements, took a historical tour and received first hand enlightenment from native guides on the indigenous Maori people. The Maori are perhaps one of the most beautiful, fiercest and perhaps the most adept indigenous peoples that I have been exposed to. Of all of the subjugated peoples under European settlement, the Maori I think have done the most to preserve their heritage, adapt to European ways and still maintain their traditional land rights, freedoms and language. I have yet to meet a Maori that wasn’t 100% fluent in their language, heritage or pride for their country and culture. I will try to post a couple of interesting photos of what little I was able to see regarding the Maori.

By staying an extra day in Paihia, we lost opportunity to explore much else on the North Island. Pictures do not do this area justice.

More of the North Island

30 December, 2008
A bright and early start to a typically touristy day. We boarded a rattle trap, temperamental tour bus and headed north on a scenic, information filled trip to Cape Reigna, one of the most northern points of mainland New Zealand. The most notable stops were at Houhora Heads and Taputaputa Bay. Cape Reinga itself turned out to be a bit too cramped with tourists, but the beaches in the distant definitely are a site worth seeing. Its too bad we didn’t have the time to get down to those beaches. From Cape Reigna, our tour guide took the bus off road, down a stream bed to a series of golden colored dunes for some sand tobogganing. No I did not partake. Upon arriving, I witnessed a number of people crash and burn in a most spectacular way. I opted not to bugger my spine and lived vivaciously through Katrina’s climb up the sand and back down. A note to thrill seekers: Don’t use snow sleds. We had snow sleds on our tour. They don’t work. Boogie boards or knee boards are the only way to go. No pictures attached.

From here, we went further down the creek bed to the ocean side and commenced to take a lengthy jaunt down the beach…on the sand…through the surf…across various creek crossings…along the Tasman Sea…in a full fledged tour bus for the better part of an hour and a half at 60 miles an hour with the occasional stop for touristy information and sights. It was a trip worth taking. Also not shown.

The start of the tour. No idea where. Somewhere out of Kaitaia.Houhora Heads. A very private secluded cove on the North West coast.
These are amazing trees. I can't remember the name off hand, but this is the New Zealand "Christmas Tree". They grow straight and tall on land...but near the ocean they take on this gnarly twisted appearance. Not a bad place to play and climb trees? Ahhh to be young again.

Taputaputa Bay. This was a tiny private secluded bay not visited by tourists. There were some surfers enjoying the waves. This water was warm and very clear. This was where I ruined the lens of my camera with sea spray. Needless to say that wasn't very enjoyable.

Kat and I on the beach. Me with the inevitable cup of coffee at hand.
The Cape Reigna Lighthouse. This is the second most northern point on Mainland New Zealand. There were a few too many tourists. It is said that you can see where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide. I didn't really see it.
Off of cape Reigna over looking the Pacific Ocean. Absolutely wonderful blue foam water. I would have loved to get down to that beach...however there was no time.
Cool Colors? I think so. Below the lighthouse.

Kauri Trees

As much as I hate photos of myself or most other people, this post has a predominant theme of me and trees. The tree species in particular is the Kauri Tree. Agathis Australis is surprisingly of the pine order, has a funky needle like scaled leaf and bears cones. These trees also obtain huge girths and are amongst the oldest tree species, both from a historical standpoint and from an actual life span stand point. That about sums up my knowledge of this amazing tree. Evidently they have been harvested to the point of rarity by ship builders in the 19th century and by lumber producers in more recent times. The wood grain is amazingly straight and tight.

As mentioned in the previous post, the Kauri has been found buried in ancient swamp and peat bogs. Industrious Kiwis have managed to find these trees, excavate them and process the wood into extremely valuable furniture, trinkets and knickknacks. We witnessed tables, chairs, benches and a variety of other furniture carved from solid pieces of Kauri that were in the tens of thousands of dollars per piece. A simple 24" turned bowel can run up to a thousand dollars. 30 to 50 thousand years old? Neat, aye?

This stairway is carved from one piece of wood. This tree is 35,000 years old. It spent 3000 years under the sun and stars, was knocked over in a storm and spent the next 32,000 years buried in the mud and soil. It was dug out of the ground in the 70s and took over a year to carve. How is that for a spiral staircase?

An introduction to my New Zealand Arrival

26 December, 2008

A four in the morning awakening to 12 inches of fresh snow and a rough drive to the airport were to be an indication to how my day was to go. Upon arrival at the airport, I realized that my caffeine fetish and addiction took precedence over my flight itinerary and travel documentation. Translation: I set my packet of travel documents down to pick up my travel mug and neglected to re-acquire the documents. My wonderful parents risked a quick trip home and back on the unplowed highways for the sake of arming me with everything that I needed to make this trip. I was able to board in a nick of time, the last passenger to sit before the doors closed. Thus starts my journey to New Zealand.

It was to be an unpleasant trip the entire way. We were slow and late to Seattle but I was able to catch my connecting flight to San Francisco without incidence. The flight to San Fran was also slow and late to arrive. Upon arrival I discovered that my flight to Los Angeles was canceled and my tickets to New Zealand were canceled. Evidently Air New Zealand switched the Pacific crossing flight to a smaller airliner and dumped all of the excess people for a next day flight.

Needless to say that was stressful. I was able to convince my United Airlines carrier to L.A to get me on board an American Airlines flight and by harassing the nice people with Air New Zealand, I was able to get re instated on that evenings flight to New Zealand. I just about missed my new connection to L.A. due to a virtual strip search by the TSA in San Fran. They did give me the opportunity to choose the gloves used to search me. Pink or Blue. I picked blue. Very considerate of them, or so I thought. I had to argue to keep my hiking boots…evidently they detected gun powder residue and thought I might be a terrorist? My bags were searched twice and I had a hell of a time re-packing things to fit. But I got on board in a nick of time feeling thankful that I wasn’t subjected to a cavity search.

L.A. airport was its typical jungle of bustle, rude people and mayhem. Instead of riding the bus to the international terminal, I opted to hoof it and did the ¾ mile walk with luggage in record time beating the bus. From there on out it was smooth sailing. The flight from L.A. was uneventful. All said and done, the 14 hour flight wasn’t too unpleasant. I had good company from a young German couple to occupy my time in between the occasional nap and games of Tetris on the interactive in flight console. We had tolerable food and the flight crew were excruciatingly polite. I still don’t want to do it again though. I am not looking forward to my flight home.

28 December, 2008

My arrival in Auckland was fairly un-eventful. Note the date. Crossing the international date line discomboobles the inner time clock. It took a bit of time to get the hang of the fact that today is tomorrow and yesterday is today as far as the calendar was concerned. Tis a 20 hr time difference. Customs was uneventful. Kat met me at the airport. We spent the day recovering…me from my flight and her from 2 months of tramping about the country on holiday. I didn’t even bother digging my camera out for my time in Auckland. Auckland is a city worth exploring and hopefully I will get the time to at a later date. About the only thing worth mentioning is that the down town city proper is fairly modern, highly Americanized and full of an amazingly young population. The traffic was light and food was affordable, very diverse and readily available. The temperature stayed between 70 and 75 degrees from dawn to dawn. Very nice and much preferable to th e -10 degrees and 2 feet of snow I left behind in Montana.

29 December, 2008

This was the start to a whirlwind tour of the northern parts of the North Island. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great selection of photographs. The North Island has an immense diversity of terrain, vegetation, communities. Kat rented a tiny Pinkish Toyota Vitz. Yes…Pink. And Yes…Tiny. It barely held our baggage and we virtually had to get out and push to get it up a hill. We took the entire day to go from Auckland north to the town of Kaitaia stopping here and there to go on short hikes or to see the tourist sites. In reality a person needs at least two days to get a feel for the area. The most notable sites consisted of a beautiful array of native forests, rolling sheep and cattle pastures and rugged hillsides. We took a few short walks into the bush to witness some of the oldest living trees in New Zealand. The Kauri tree is a large diameter, fairly short jungle tree that live for amazing lengths of time. The ones we visited were in excess of 1200 years old…the oldest being in the ballpark of 2200 years old. Later during our trip we witnessed Kauri logs dug out of swamps and peat fields that had fallen, been covered and left alone for as much as 45,000 years evidently. I personally am skeptical but the scientific evidence seems to be in favor of this. Beautiful trees though. I will show pictures at a later post.

Winter Wonderland

I find it amusing. I love winter. I love snow. For the first time in two years, I get the opportunity to enjoy snow. Its wonderful. And yet....right now I hate it. I dread it. It just might become the bane of my existence. Snow is going to give me a heart attack. Its 4:45 in the morning. I fly out in roughly 24 hours. Its snowing. A lot. The last two weeks have been a nightmare of airport delays, closings, mis-connects and general traveling horror. And I am not even traveling! Yet! But I will be very soon and if the weather doesn't improve, I foresee severe headaches in my future. I have already had snow related itinerary changes. I will sit on no less then five planes by the time I get settled. Three of which are extremely weather sensitive. Its a good thing I used up my last nerve months ago. That single little beasty off to the right has a tendency towards amassing, multiplying and creating havoc. Go away.

Merry Christmas by the way.