North Island 3, and Good Bye NZ

An 800-year-old Kauri Tree

Link to North Island 3

There are a 3 more pictures at the end of the write up.

Our last week in New Zealand. We have spent more time here than in any other country - not by design, but partly because we came a week early to meet June when she came here, and back home, we had thought the weather would work out well this way. SE Asia is hot & humid now, and we scheduled Bhutan for when they recommend hikers come in the spring.
There are lots of options for hiking, which we (especially I) needed to do, to maximize our success in the Himalaya.
We are so glad we had all this time, because we have very much enjoyed seeing quite a bit of this gorgeous country.
Craig has posted a piece on tips for travel here.



He agrees, that we think cows here, and also in Australia and SE Asia, are more curious than cows at home. They come towards you if you stop when biking; they stay, and stare at you if you sit down to eat. They look up, and at you when we bike by.
We have never been chased by dogs, scared by piglets crossing the road, or worried about bulls here. The sheep also seem to look at you when you pass, but they could not have cared less the one time we stood at the edge of the road to let the flock pass.

We never got to see a kiwi bird, but I am very impressed with them. They mate for life, which can be 50 years! The male incubates the eggs, except when he feeds at night. Depending on sub species, and the availability of food, they need an area of 5-250 acres per couple (2-100 hectares).

One rainy day on the Coromandel peninsula, when driving around it, we stopped at a look out point, and also Craig didn’t initially understand the request by a young woman. She wondered if we minded if she flew her drone. She said some people are offended because of the noise. I had never seen a drone, so thought it fun to see her take selfies, against a scenic view towards the ocean, while controlling the device. We didn’t think it was loud, or annoying, and I wish everyone would be as considerate.
Didn’t know if Craig would want a new toy now, but the answer is no.

The day before, we hiked the Billy Goat Trail. It had rained earlier, if not the day before. There were lots of people on part of the trail, heading further up, for an overnight at a hut. It really is not a challenging trail compared to many hikes in the White Mountains at home, but doing this some 10 days before we fly to Bhutan, was not fun for me. And that meant Craig also couldn’t fully enjoy the day, unfortunately.
Slippery mud almost everywhere, the trail is often badly eroded and steep in places, the surface is rocks of varying sizes, mostly rocks you easily can sprain your ankle on if prone to them. And it was Friday the 13th. I didn’t want to find out that I was wrong about not believing in superstitions. So it took us a LONG time to get down, and because we made it uninjured, I didn’t care at all that we had to wade through a stream at the end. It took days for our boots to dry.

Chris wrote about the meat pies that he, Kim and Craig loved here. I will make a pitch for a small, crowded Malaysian restaurant in Auckland! So glad we came by it when it was full of Asian people, as this often is a good indication. I had the best  soup - totally comparable to the excellent Kao Soi we ate MANY times at Kanjana in Chiang Mai.
The restaurant is called Selera, in the Newmarket section of Auckland, and we went back there our second time in this city.

For those of you who think we are out exercising every day, I am sorry to disappoint you. We spend some time on planning still, we don’t make a point of going out if it rains, as we haven’t had pressure to do so, like you do on a point to point bike trip, or when the end of your vacation is in sight.
And since arriving here, we have had a car. We spent quite a bit of time in it to cover longer distances. We make our meals 99% of the time.
We have lucked out weather-wise in general here. There have been times when I wanted to get things done, even though the weather was great.

One day we drove for hours to get from Poroti, near Whangarei, to the northernmost point of mainland New Zealand, Cape Reinga, and back home. The Cape is in a park like setting, and had we planned things better, we could have hiked there for awhile. It was fun to see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.
Craig had fun taking 360 degree views of land not far from here, owned by friends Bev&Chris at home.

We had been to Bluffs at the tip of the South Island with Kim &Chris, and are happy we decided to come also to Cape Reinga, because it was so beautiful.
I believe this is the second time we have used the car only for sightseeing. Usually we drove to the start of at least a little walk somewhere interesting.

Next come the Himalaya. Bhutan first, and then Ladakh in India.
I expect access to internet will be very limited, but we will keep notes.
Please keep your fingers crossed that the current weather forecast is wrong, and that I can manage everything we would like to do!

 Inside the falls we hiked up to in Wairere

Excellent Laksa Curry Soup

Last ride in NZ