Day 1
As I said before after arriving in Auckland we went and picked up our rental car, a white Nissan Sunny. Being in a strange place it is hard to beat using an automotive GPS so the first thing we did was connect up the Garmin GPS I had bought at Staples for $100 and had then updated with New Zealand street maps that I had downloaded off of the Internet for free. About an hour before actual arrival they had presented a short video on the plane describing some of the sights to see in and around Auckland. One that had caught my eye was the museum, so that is the first destination I plugged into the GPS and off we went.
Driving on the left requires that one follow two rules to help adapt to the new situation: keep one’s body (the driver of course!) close to the middle of the road, and at all intersections look to the right first as that is where on-coming traffic is coming from. It requires some concentration as I have found that you have to be careful of automatic responses as they will be as if one was back in North America! I did pretty good and of course Janice was riding shot gun making sure I did not go astray. We made it to the museum without any incident only to find that for whatever reason the parking area was jammed! When we got to a point that the access road, only wide enough for one vehicle was plugged as cars were trying to go in both directions, we backed up, turned around and got out of there!
So what to do next? We found a fuel station and fuelled up (the car did not come with a full tank) with gas at NS$1.809. Then parked and planned what to do next. I thought that maybe we would drive over to my friend Andrew’s, just to locate his place even though I knew no one was there. So that is what we did and then let the GPS guide our way. Actually that is not true. We just drove around a bit and found ourselves just getting deeper into unknown territory and decided that we would just get out of Auckland, and go to the North Country. And since Andrew’s address was that way we used it as a means of helping the GPS get us out of our little predicament, so off we went!
It didn’t take long and we were on State Highway 1 heading north. We followed that as far as the turn-off to Silverdale as there, for a short stretch the main highway became a toll road. Once in Silverdale we stopped and had lunch at a small cafe. It was here that I finally unpacked our Tourist Radio. After lunch we continued onto the next little town of Orewa, which is right on the ocean and with a fairly extensive road side park. There we stopped and took a walk along the beach enjoying the sights and smells! As we approached the end of the beach we came across a fisherman who had just caught a sea trout. Apparently they are not the best of eating as he said he was going to take it home to feed his cat!
From there we continued north. One thing we quickly learned is that unlike in Canada where they build highways that ensure you can maintain the speed limit here they fool you by saying the speed limit is 100 kph and then immediately you enter a chicane where you barely can do 50 safely! So I quickly got into the habit of just driving to the road conditions, seldom getting up to 80 and ignoring the official speed limit! As we drove along the radio did as it was supposed to and several minutes before reaching a point of interest would sound a bell and then describe what was coming up. As the one thing I wanted to see in the North country was the Kauri trees and an announcement came up to turn off highway 1 onto highway 10 and then proceed west about 15 km to the Kauri Museum we decided to do just that and as a result came to quickly come to the conclusion that getting this radio was a great thing!
The museum is fantastic! It cost us about $35 for admission but they had displays that described everything about the Kauri timber trade and about the trees themselves. On display is a huge plank cut from one tree that is about 4” thick and I don’t know how long without any knots – one huge, clear board! On the wall was a display showing the circumference of some key trees, both still living and harvested. The sad thing is that to attain these huge sizes these trees had lived between 2000 and 3000 years! No possibility of “sustainable harvesting” here!
We stayed till closing and then drove on to Dargaville where we found a motel and that is where we spent our first night. We had a hard time finding a restaurant which appealed to us but they had a Subway so we stuck with the familiar!
Day 2
We both slept quite soundly with no evidence of jet lag, even for me who had slept so little on the flight over. But based on past experience I was not surprised. We located a Woolworth’s grocery store (I believe this is an Australian chain and is not related to the North American version we are all familiar with). There we bought some scones, fruit and juice as well as some cheese and crackers for breakfast and travel snacks. We then continued along Highway 10 on our way to the Waipoua Forest to see real live Kauri trees.
Just inside the forest boundary there is an information station about a kilometre off the highway beside a small river. We drove in there to use the washroom facilities, have breakfast and to get some more travel information. The weather, while on the cool side was quite nice: partly cloudy. We found a nice spot by the stream and had our scones and admired the variety of trees that include tree ferns and palm trees as well as pine and other broad and narrow leafed trees.
The next stop was a pull off where one can walk in to see 3 special examples of the giant Kauri trees, two of which walked to (the other was farther than we wanted to walk): the Four Sisters and Te Matua Ngahere. The second one is the 2nd largest know surviving Kauri and what an impressive tree! While showing its age due to some large branches having broken off long ago the truck on it is huge! The Four Sister’s, while not as large and obviously not as old are still impressive. These trees typically are widely spaced apart and that is one reason this small grove is rather unusual.
From there we continued north to the site of Tane Mahuta, the “Lord of the Forest”. While not as large around as Te Matua Ngahere it is still pretty impressive. There they have cut a sight line such that it is reasonably possible to get a picture that encompasses almost the entire tree. Here, on the way out we met this fellow with whom we chatted for a minute and in closing we said ”see you” to which he replied something along the lines that it was likely we would not see each other again. And to which I replied that “you never know”.
Well, we got in the car and continued driving north. After a while the radio chimed in and said we would be coming up to a nice over look as we approached the west coast, so we pulled in there and who should we see but the fellow we had talked to about a half hour previous! We all got a good laugh on that and then proceeded to absorb the view of a huge sand dune on the far side of the Hokianga Harbour and the surrounding hills and valleys. Fantastic!
As it was approaching lunch time we then found a small cafe overlooking the harbour not too far from the lookout we had just left. Just as we were getting out who should pull in but our travel friend once more! So we all joined one another for lunch. His name is Steve and he was just on a day trip up from Auckland, something that he does fairly frequently as he really enjoys the sights in this particular area. In parting he recommended another overlook just a bit farther down the road.
At this place you have a great view of the coast with the waves coming in, the sand dunes to the north and hill-side pasture land to the south. We noticed one cow lying down on a high knoll chewing its cud and apparently enjoying the view as well! Or at least it had a great vantage point! We hiked along some trails there for a while getting different perspectives of the area.
Once we had absorbed all that we could we got back into the car and then drove east ending up eventually in Kerrikerri, a citrus and grape growing district in what they locally call the “Far North”. After looking around for a while we then proceeded south to Whangarei (Fun-ga-ray) getting there about 5, so we found a motel and crashed there for the night.
Day 3
As Whangarei is home to a chat friend of my mother’s we called here up and went over for a visit. Bev Hanson has been a widow for just over three years and lives by herself. But she has recently met a male friend, Robert, who was there with her. She is a former pharmacist and he a retired architect. We had a great visit chatting about this and that over tea. But then she had to go as she was she was involved with a country music show to be held around noon.
From Bev’s we went down to the beach and watched some of the many sail boats out taking advantage of the wind that morning. From there we then drove to a memorial high on top of a local hill, again recommended by our tourist radio. What a view of the harbour and surrounding area!
Then we drove out and got back onto Highway 1 heading south back to Auckland. Along the way we stopped at the small town of Wellford for lunch where we shared a satay chicken pizza with cashews. While not spicy as is usually the case with Thai food it was still very tasty. Wanting to try something different we turned here onto Highway 16 that takes one to the west side of this part of the island.
This stretch of highway is incredible, in places working its way to the top of high ridges. At one overlook you can see the Kaipara Harbour as well as the intervening pasture lands and hills in the area.
I knew that my friend Andrew was supposed to be back from another stint in Sorowako, Indonesia (that is where we had met) but that his wife would not be back from a trip to Wellington until tomorrow. We had tentatively arranged to get together once we had arrived in New Zealand so we drove to their place to finally solidify these plans. Using the GPS and driving on Highway 18 to take us back to Highway 1 we eventually got to Andrew’s place on the North Shore. He indeed was home and invited us to spend the night. For supper we drove over to the local market area and had pizza again, but very tasty!
In addition Andrew took us to a several sites not too far from his place. We started by walking down to the ferry terminal. From there we could see the sugar factory that has been in operation for over a hundred years, so we went back to the house, got the car and drove to the factory. There they have a fresh water pond that is stocked with fresh water fish and is home to a number of birds including the New Zealand Black Swan.
Then we took a drive to “North Head”. This was the site for many years to fortifications to protect the harbour. Now it is a historical park. There they still have the old breech loading cannons in their protective emplacements, all connected by underground tunnels carved in the volcanic ash (the hill is an extinct volcano). All of the hills in Auckland are extinct volcanoes, most being small strato-volcanoes composed of layers of volcanic ash but there are a couple of small shield volcanoes composed of lava flows.
Day 4
Andrew went off to work so we had the day to ourselves. Based on his recommendation we took the local ferry across to downtown and from there we were going to try and take in some of the sights, including the Auckland Museum and Terry Tarltons Antarctic Adventure. But it didn’t happen. There is a lot of tourist information available but we found far too often critical information was missing because they assumed we would know! For example for Terry Tarlton’s they said there was a free shuttle bus. It took a while before we could find out where it was supposed to stop but no information as to when. We got there and soon after saw the bus pass on the other side of the street heading for the venue. So much for that stop! Next we tried taking a bus to the Museum. The route maps showed the Museum as being one of the stops, but guess what! It doesn’t go there! It goes just nearby and we missed the stop and didn’t even know it! So the morning was a frustrating and pointless one.
Then we went to get back on the ferry without realising it was now only once every hour and we had just missed the last ferry. Since our tickets were now punched we had to wait in the terminal almost an hour until the next ferry was available.
So we went to the local shopping mall in search of a cheap cell phone. Now this were things went better. Andrew had told us to expect about NZ$100 for the phone, NZ$30 for a SIM card and then NZ$20 for a top up. Well, they had a special on a basic cell phone, SIM card included, for NZ$59! Now we have emergency telephone communications!
Late in the evening Andrew’s wife, Valmai, returned from a weekend in Welligton where she had attended the annual Wearable Art show. There people design, construct and then wear fantastic pieces of art. Last year it was a dress made from wood veneer!
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