Goodbye New Zealand

Today we head back to the U.S. after nearly three fantastic months. We feel that we really saw what New Zealand has to offer, met some really great people, and learned more about sheep farming than we ever knew existed! We want to thank everyone again who made this trip so special, it would not have been the same without you!

Crofoot Family: Your hospitality is unmatchable. Thank you so much for inviting us into your lives! We hope to return the favor one day! Let us know if you need ranch packets, candy corn or any other essentials.

Debbie, Amy, Oskar: We loved learning about organic farming and think the Takaka region was our favorite in New Zealand. Thank you so much for having us!

Russell and Glenda: We will not forget our wonderful dinner conversations and vineyard experience. We are sorry we could not be more use to you but are very glad to have met you! Thank you again and best wishes for Melanie’s wedding!

We drove 8, 531 km (approximately 5,320 miles) without any problems from the Cyclone. Thank you, Cyclone, wherever you are!

In a couple hours we will jump on a plane and about 22 hours after that we will arrive in Knoxville for Christmas. We hope everyone has enjoyed following our travels through the blog! Happy Holidays!

Auckland

Our last two days were spent in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. Compared to everywhere else it feels as if we are in Manhattan. Auckland is known as the “City of Sails” and claims to have more sailboats per capita than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately it has been raining every day so we have not tried sailing again. We did manage to finish Christmas/Birthday shopping and get organized for the trip back.

Amazingly enough, selling the car was just as easy as buying it. As Americans we were quite suspicious of this whole “buyback” process. It seems too good to be true and we were half expecting never to get a hold of “David” again. However, we could not have been more wrong. We called when we got into the city, got directions to his facility, arrived and were immediately given the promised price in cash, and then driven to the bus station to catch a ride back to our hostel. Easy as that!

Below are some pictures from around the very cosmopolitan Auckland!

The city's main claim to fame is the Sky Tower, which is the largest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere. It is 328 meters tall and right in the middle of downtown.

“She’s a Lady”

Paihia is located pretty far north and sailing is the main attraction in this coastal town. On Sunday we went out with a group on the boat “She’s a Lady” to check out the Bay of Islands. The weather was definitely not ideal but who wants a picnic on the beach when you can hide from the rain in the cabin? Below is "She's a Lady."

We did manage to make it to Robertson/Motuarohia Island where a small hike up a nearby hill rewarded us with a great view of the area. This was the first place that Lt. Cook (later Captain Cook) landed and was his base while exploring the Bay of Islands. The creative fellow named it the “Bay of Islands” because there were so many islands... clever. Below are some pictures from Motuarohia before the rain came.

All in all we didn’t get much sunshine but the other people on the boat were great company and the skipper informative. We think that overall we were quite lucky with weather in New Zealand!

This area in the Bay of Islands is also quite important historically. Its location and Maori population density made it the first place Europeans and Maori encountered one another. This is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, which still dictates the relationship between European settlers and Maori inhabitants to this day. For more information on this treaty (which actually is pretty interesting) click here.

Kaori Grove Walk

One of the great tragedies of European colonialism in New Zealand is the exploitation of native plants. Logging in the Coromandel Peninsula in the 19th and early 20th centuries nearly decimated the indigenous Kaori tree population in the area. Kaori trees make ideal ship masts, as they are tall, straight, and knot-free. The methods for extraction damaged the landscape as the huge trees were often rolled down streambeds. Kaori gum was also extracted for use in paint and varnish and the tree left to die. This logging combined with the influx of farming in the region left only 1% of the native Kaori population intact. The region is now protected and slowly regenerating but these Kaori trees are much like Redwoods in the U.S. and take a very long time to grow.

The Kaori Grove Walk near Thames contains some of the oldest Kaori trees in the country. Below are some pictures of us with one of these massive trees (though this one is still a baby, another on the North Island is nearly 45 feet wide and 2,000 years old).


Today (Saturday) we leave the Coromandel Peninsula and head north of Auckland into the Northland region of New Zealand. As you can probably tell from some of these pictures it is now definitely summer! Tomorrow we are going sailing in Paihia before heading back to Auckland on Monday to sell the car and get ready to come home.

Cathedral Cove

The Cathedral Cove Marine Reserve is only accessible by foot or boat so we hoofed it on Friday morning. The beach itself is an amazing white sand masterpiece and combined with the amazing rock formations and view of the surrounding islands it is simply perfect. We both agree it is the best beach we have ever visited. Below are pictures of (and around) Cathedral Cove…

the view of Mares Leg Cove…

the arch that connects the two…

and from the parking lot above that we walked down from…

Whangamata Beach

The beach just outside our hostel on Thursday night in Whangamata was quite a sight and almost totally deserted. Apparently in a couple of weeks tourists from Auckland will inundate the town but for now it is nice and quiet. Below are some pictures from the beach and a nearby estuary that is home to two types of endangered birds.

Wentworth Falls

We left Rotorua Thursday morning and made our way north. We visited the booming beach town of Tauranga and continued west along the Pacific Coast Highway towards the Coromandel Peninsula, where we spent the next couple days exploring the gorgeous beaches and forests. The first stop was a hike out to Wentworth Falls, a 50-meter waterfall in the Coromandel Forest Park. Below are some pictures of Wentworth Falls from a distance and from the top!

Evening with the Mitai

This part of the North Island (The Bay of Plenty) has a heavy Maori presence. This is largely due to the volcanic and thermal aspects of this part of the country. Early Maori settlers believed the area to be sacred and felt their ancestors resided in the many mountains and volcanoes. To this day they will not sell the land, but rather lease it to European interests.

In Rotorua there are several tribes that conduct tourist ventures around presenting Maori culture. Tourists are invited to a traditional “hangi” feast, which includes a cultural performance of singing and dancing. We chose the Mitai family’s hangi as we heard it was the least touristy and most intimate and went on Wednesday night.

The first task was to choose a chief to represent our “tribe of many nations.” A Scotsman (Chief Mark) volunteered for the job, which included accepting a peace offering from the Maori chief and making a little speech thanking the tribe for having us. Mark’s kids were quite stressed about this but everything turned out just fine.

The Mitai family then treated us to quite a performance. They demonstrated various chants, war dances, and storytelling songs. They were extremely good about interacting with us, rather than just performing and gave detailed explanations about the origins and methods behind their traditional customs. Below are some photos from this segment of the evening (starting with a canoe greeting) and a video of one of the dances.




After the performance it was dinnertime! The “hangi” describes the method for cooking in traditional Maori culture. A “hangi” is essentially an earth oven. Hot coals are placed on the bottom of a deep hole and water poured over them. Baskets of food are then placed on top, with meat on the bottom and vegetables on top. The hole is then covered and the warmth of the ground combined with steam and pressure cooks the food in about 3 hours. We were impressed and a little skeptical, but the food was amazing and to Steve’s delight, all you can eat. Below is a photo of dinner coming out of the “hangi.”


After dinner they showed us around their property, taking us to a sacred spring where glowworms could be seen.

St. Faiths Church

While this Anglican church looks pretty basic from the outside, the interior is decorated in the style of a Maori meeting house. All of the pillars and pews are covered with traditional carvings, and the art includes a painted window depicting Jesus in traditional Maori clothing. If you kneel in front of this window it looks as if he is walking across Lake Rotorua as it is directly behind the church. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside but below are shots of the church from the outside and the Maori meeting house across the square.

Rotorua is renowned for its thermal landscape. The smell of sulfur greets you as soon as you near the city and stays with you until you leave. This makes it interesting just to walk around the city, as steam rises from random locations all over town.

"The Buried Village"

Just outside Rotorua, the volcanic Mount Tarawera erupted violently on June 10, 1886, killing about 150 people and burying eight villages. Most of those villages have remained underground, but the Smith family purchased the land above one of the villages, Te Wairoa, and began excavating in the 1930s. The family continues to open the site to the public and we surveyed their progress on Wednesday morning.

Te Wairoa was home to about 120 Maori and 15 European residents before the eruption. It was the departure point for tourist visits to the Pink and White Terraces, a series of hundreds of stepped thermal pools that ascended the side of a mountain. The Terraces, New Zealand’s main tourist attraction at the time were destroyed in the blast that also took the lives of eleven Maori, five European settlers, and one tourist in Te Wairoa. Our guide was the great-grandson of one of the town’s survivors.

This village was extremely lucky as most of the others were completely annihilated, with their residents and buildings still buried in several meters of mud and ash. Below are some pictures from around Te Wairoa ("The Buried Village"), including yet another beautiful New Zealand waterfall.

“Craters of the Moon”

In 1954, an explosion occurred just outside of Taupo as the result of the drilling of a geothermal bore. It resulted in a landscape covered in steaming craters and bubbling mud pools. This is still an extremely active volcanic area where explosions can occur at any time (signs keep tourists on a strict boardwalk that is supposedly safe). Below are some pictures from our little hike through the “Craters of the Moon (their name, not ours)."

Huka Falls

Tuesday afternoon we visited Huka Falls. At Huka Falls, the 100 meter wide, 4 meter deep Waikato River is suddenly forced into a 15 meter wide, 3 meter deep rock chute, resulting in a forceful torrent of water that is just awesome.

The channel goes right below a footbridge, down about 100 meters and into a large pool. Enough water is dumped in this pool every second to fill two Olympic size swimming pools. The country of New Zealand is smart enough to harness this power; the Waikato River provides the country with 15% of its electricity. Below is a photo of the powerful stream and then the destination pool.