Spring of 2024
Depart SFO 10 PM on 4/26 and arrive in Auckland at 6 AM on 4/28 – we crossed the international date line.
We flew Air New Zealand and traveled Premium Business Class. Tom and I were in separate cocoon type seats. We were able to sleep although I was extremely dehydrated by the time we got off of the plane. Tom said he got some sleep but it wasn’t a good night’s sleep. That said, we were glad we upgraded.
We took a taxi to the Sudima Auckland and there were paper poppies everywhere celebrating Remembrance day. Australia and New Zealand lost many at Galipoli. They celebrate their Remembrance day of 4/25 – WWI
We arrived in Auckland on 4/29. We lost 4/28 crossing the International date line. Everyone was zipping around on scooters. It’s a share scooter scheme where you pick one up and then go to where you’re going and then drop the scooter for the next person. Some scooters have helmets with them, some don’t, and almost no one wears them. Auckland is cleaner than San Francisco and is affluent. Most people had great teeth. You see the Maori, Japanese, Chinese, Anglos and Indians and then some GORGEOUS mixes with the younger generations. Dear god if I were an artist I’d paint them all.
We spent the day at Auckland museum with had awesome Maori (Mow-ri) displays. But colonialism just about decimated that population.
Similar to what we saw in the Smoky Mountains with the Native Americans, descendants of the Maori are identifying and trying to revive language and arts of their ancestors. It’s inspiring to watch and also interesting since most of us aren’t pure anything anymore, people being who they are and people being mobile. We watched a dance exhibit that had a Maori woman who was more fair skinned than I am. I feel as though the world is filled with people trying to find some identity that puts them in contact with the earth. As someone who has run in the rain and walked my dog in the snow and hiked up hills at sunrise to beat the heat, I understand this desire. That said, at this point in my personhood I get annoyed when hotel rooms don’t have bidets.
4/30
Our young guide Braden, 5th in a family of 8, married to a girl from Utah, picked us up from the hotel. When we asked if there was room for our third piece of luggage, a duffel bag, he replied “yes, lots of room on the bus, you are the only guests for this tour.” We were delighted and concerned. This kid was going to be bored out of his mind if he only had Tom and me to drive around.
A fairly long drive out to Paparoa for a picnic lunch at the side of the road. It was some great quinoa and vegetable salad thing that had among other things, sweet potato and avocado in it. I ran across the road to get a coffee and this was the only time in our whole visit to NZ that I had to pay cash, New Zealand currency, for anything. Everyone else was more than happy to accept credit cards.
That night we took a walk in the Waipoua Forest,where we had a twilight walk and were guided by a Maori descendant Tawhiri who chanted to the gods, he was an excellent chanter and we viewed New Zealand’s largest known living kauri (pronounced Cody) tree, 168 feet high and 45 feet round. Kauri’s are known to live past three thousand years, the tree we viewed was only about 800 years or so old. We saw a possum up a tree and their possums are a lot cuter than our possums and are considered an intrusive pest that they are trying to get rid of.
Our guide Tawhiri looked a lot like Justin. He had ginger in his mustache and freckles so not 100% Maori. The sides of his head were shaved and long at the back.
Tawhiri thanked the medical students that were on the tour and cautioned us to not need medical assistance outside the hours of 9-5 M-F as the current hospital is understaffed. Tawhiri and his wife were living in Australia but had moved back to New Zealand to start a family so that their kids could have a traditional Maori cultural upbringing.
We stayed the night in The Heads, Hokianga Harbour.
5/1
I noticed seagulls that had white dots on their tail feathers.
We saw a mangrove forest on the Waitangi River Walk. These trees have roots that go down and then come up out of the water. They looked creepy and sort of sci fi. We also saw Haruru Falls.
We stayed the night at Kingsgate Auto Lodge in Bahia.
5/2
We took a boat to Deep Water Cove to hike Cape Brett.
The boat had two darling Maori brothers. One of them was wearing a Tommy Hilfiger jacket, flip flops and shorts and a knit cap. The other one was quiet, I didn’t pay attention to what he was wearing but he was a very good driver. We saw dolphins on the water! We weren’t able to get dropped off at the original point because the water was too rocky. Also, we weren’t able to hike the whole of Cape Brett because of weather for pickup. So we did an out and back and frankly, it was great. A cormorant hopped on to the boat for the last bit of the ride, and that was kind of fun.
Something else that was fun was that the kids coming home from school were carrying stoats traps. The Kiwis are all over getting rid of stoats, rats and possums. It still felt weird to me to see elementary school kids carrying death traps. Quite a few of the kids looked to be full Maori.
We stayed at Pacific Redezvous Motel
5/3
We went snorkeling at Poor Knight’s Harbor. It was magical, loads of different colored fish. We wore wet suits and we also used our water noodles. We were the only ones using water noodles on the second dive/snorkeling drop.
We were told that Poor Knight’s Harbor was one of Jacques Cousteau’s favorite diving sites.
Braden met us at the dock with hot chocolate with marshmallows. That kid!
We stayed at Pacific Redezvous Motel
5/4
Lots of driving but I’m going to log some things we’ve seen
Nkau – nutless palm tree
Karo – silver leaf plant used for navigation and fiddle neck used for food.
piwakawaka – fantail bird, that seems to be following us everywhere
lots of building and NZ is short of builders
30 somethings have given up owning their own home because it’s too expensive
Mini mcMansions
Did a walk in Mangawhai Heads… this was not the most memorable.
Returned to Sudima Aukland
5/5
Free day in Aukland
We went on a whale /dolphin safari – whee!!!!
Saw Brydes Whales, Dolphin Dolph, the most common type of dolphin and gannets.
Gannets mate for life and have three eyelids
Stayed at Sudima Auckland
5/6Visit Te Aloha, which means love, and Waiere Waterfall. A tanika is a protective spirit that manifests as an eel or dragon and the waterfall had a legend about a tanika protecting the chief’s daughter until a noble man came along. Sadly the tanika fell in love with the daughter but he was willing to let her go.We did a little hike where we saw the waterfall and glow worms, it was called a goldmine hike. This area was known for its spring which was full of awesomeness and then it was purchased by Schweppes and then Braden gave us each a can of this lemon drink that uses the well’s water. We met his wife Katie! and his father, un-named. A short blond haired blue eyed 69 year old who is delighted with his life and son as well as his son’s wife. We had lunch at a place where we sat with our feet in hot water. It was called something ridiculous like “shinny’s”
Sudima Rotorua
5/7
Whakarewarea Forest and then Te Puia
We learned that the fiddle neck of the silver fern or conga or ping is the only plant that is on a country’s flag, New Zealand’s.
Also the Heba(sp?) plant sent to soldiers to cure their gut.
Braden also pointed out a lemon bush, a swelled tree and a bush with orange berries, as well as the butt wiping bush.
We also went mountain biking. This was a fail as I slid into the side of the trail and the bike stayed between my legs as my legs went completely over my head. I later learned that in mountain biking this is called a full sin or fatal sin move, lucky me only some bruises but we cut the bike ride short and mostly pushed the bikes out. Tom was a sport, the guide, Paul advised e-bikes for next time. The bike guide ran a deer stag ranch. The antler’s felt is very valuable to the Chinese but during the fall he had lots of free time so he guides for this mountain bike place that is owned by a world class mountain biker.
At night we went and saw a somewhat traditional Maori performance and Tom got to be Chief! then we sat on hot rocks and drank hot chocolate and looked at a geyser and mud pools.
Sudima Hotel, Rotorua
5/8
Hiked along Rainbow Mountain and to Huka falls.
We were going to sit in hot pools but they weren’t hot enough.
We stayed at a trout fishing lodge, which is also home to the blue ducks. We liked this lodge. It was on a river and just really nice. We didn’t see the blue ducks with the rubber bills but we had a beautiful walk along the river. The town that we stayed in was very pretty with lots of trees and just an aura of calmness.
Creel Lodge Turangi
5/9
We hiked in Tongariro National Park and we got caught in a snow flurry while the sun was shining! it was magical. I bought a tshirt and a stuffed pi waka waka at the visitor’s center. It was a nice visitor’s center, good displays on flora, fauna (possum pelt that Tom would not let me take a picture of to send to Addison) and great bathrooms.
We soaked in hot springs after our hike
Braden made us a dinner of salmon, green beans and mashed potatoes with a fruit and dark chocolate thing for dessert.
Creel Lodge, Turangi
5/10
Waitomo Caves
Dreaded glow worm ride in the river. F’n cold man, even with long johns and wet suit, and even with headlamp, hard to see. There was a teenage girl who was there with her mom or aunt and the aunt kept saying “I did this 15 years ago it was soooo much fun!” let me tell you her daughter/niece’s eyes kept getting bigger and bigger with the look of ‘what the fuck were you thinking? this is NOT fun!” I concur. I really didn’t like the part where we flipped over on our stomachs and had to use our hands and feet to push us forward so we wouldn’t bang our heads on the cave ceiling. Again, Tom was a sport and bird dogging me to make sure I didn’t fall and hurt myself. We had an amazing guide, Tu. He was a young Maori with fern leaf tattoos on his neck and great big hazel eyes, big CZ posts in his ears and oddly, strong cologne. He kept saying to me “it’s ok Mum, you’re going to be fine, put your hand on my shoulder now…” We fist bumped after it was all over.
Another thing, wetsuits, they didn’t want us to pee in the wetsuit. I’m not quite sure why as they disinfect them afters, but ok. So I ran up to the showers and peeled that thing off in my shower section that was curtained off but NO DRAIN! Sure there was a communal drain, but if I pee’d it would run down through other people’s private shower sections and it would be like a big yellow arrow pointing to me. I ran out of shower thing, still freezing, and pee’d and then ran back. This just added to my trauma.
Our guide, burst out laughing when he saw me approach the rafting office after the event. I looked as traumatized as I felt.
We got stuck in some god awful commute traffic on the way back to Auckland. Tom tried to explain what air pollution was to him as Braden said he had never seen it in New Zealand. Wow, can you imagine?
5/11
We toured the Maritime museum and got a mostly exclusive docent guided tour. Peter was a retired analytic chemist, born in Christchurch, South Island, and his son is an artist who does interior design and has a gallery in Dallas, TX. Peter’s daughter lives close to Auckland with her husband and two children. Anyhooo, Peter is quite passionate about the Maori history, culture and the history of the America’s cup. Wow! I thought that horse racing was a rich man’s game but these yacht races, millions and millions of dollars are spent on the boats and the training. Another thing that Peter mentioned was that musuems are adding these to some smells to their displays. I was happy to not have the smell of the below deck accommodations that the British used when they came to New Zealand. We kind of got bored of walking around Auckland and maybe should have opted to fly out on American Airlines but we didn’t. We had dinner at a steakhouse where Tom had pepper steak and I had roast vegetables.
5/12
More wandering around Auckland looking at beautiful people in beautiful clothes and avoiding the few homeless they have. Oh, one other thing, many of the stores downtown have security guards, This didn’t seem to bode well for crime rate but we didn’t research this.
Tom wanted me to say more about the food but I can’t think of anything other than to complain about no drip coffee. Oh no! I have to go with yet another flat white! And of course they have British pies and British pies with curry filling. Also, the apples were fab.
We flew out at 7:45 PM on Sunday the 12th and arrived at SFO at 12:30 PM on Sunday . Turbulent but mostly uneventful flight home.
We both loved the North Island but loved the South Island which we went to 8 years ago, more.
page 1 of illustrated travelogue of North Island
page 2 of illustrated travelogue of North Island
