Hello Australia! First stop: Adelaide

The flight to Adelaide was pretty uneventful except for the fact we were rain-delayed in Melbourne for about a half hour. Remember when the grounds crew in Toronto didn't work that day because it was about -40C? Well these guys stopped working because of rain. It had thunderstormed with lightning about an hour before our flight, but it was just raining when it was time for us to go. I should mention, however, that they managed to get our luggage outside...and left it there...while they waited out the rain indoors. Yes, our stuff got wet.

It was night when we arrived at our rental home, a 3-bedroom house in the McLaren Vale region about 45 minutes from Adelaide. We had a quick look around and had a glass of wine and some snacks left by our host and went to bed. There is a 2 1/2 hour time difference, so we stayed up as late as we could before crashing. Even though the boys could have had their own rooms, they chose to share the one with bunkbeds overlooking the pool.

The next morning we explored the house fully. First off, I've never seen a better equipped kitchen! Honestly, every small appliance you could ever want was in the cupboard: electric pasta maker, deep fryer, George Forman-style grill, electric knife, and more. There were two comfy living areas with TVs, and a big beautiful swimming pool. The pool is really the star of the place, surrounded by palms and lush tropical vegetation. The house is nice, and was likely a real showpiece in the mid-eighties -- there are two-toned mirrored walls, and peach-coloured fixtures in the bathroom and black tile throughout -- but everything was in great shape and didn't really need replacing for other than cosmetic reasons. A great rental property! After being on the road so much for the last six weeks, it was a luxury to have a place where we could all be alone for as long as we desired! Our goal for the week was to just relax.

We went out for breakfast to a place recommended by our host. The breakie was great, but the cappacino was the best I've ever had. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but this was so rich and full-bodied and tasty. They put dark cocoa on top of the foam, which will now be my preparation of choice.

After breakfast, we went to a local market (a little disappointing) and then the grocery store. It was a windy, cool day, so we just went home and flaked. The boys went for a swim.

That night we were all pretty exhausted from the time change, and the boys headed to bed early. No sooner had they gone than we heard a racket outside. Bill went to investigate. A koala was right outside our sliding door to the covered carport, climbing up the drain pipe and scratching on the screen door. HE WAS SO ADORABLE! Just like a stuffed animal! Of course we got the kids out of bed, and he let us have a good face-to-face look at him for a long while. Eventually, I turned on the outside lights so I could get a photo, and he sauntered away to the garden where he let us take a few more photos. We decided he might be trapped in the garage, so we opened the door and let him be. Isn't that awesome?!

Koala walking away from us.

Sitting in the garden

The next day was rainy, so we decided to go check out Adelaide. We did the pedestrian mall and visited several shops, the museum, and the art gallery. It is a smallish big city, but very cool in a cultured sort of way. The aboriginal exhibit at the museum was especially well done. Jack and Brody really enjoyed seeing the spears and shields. They also had an exceptional exhibit on the South Pacific Islands that dated back decades. This isn't something we really see at the ROM, so I found it quite interesting.

Finally we had a couple great sunny days and headed to Port Noarlunga beach. It was a beautiful stretch of white, sandy beach protected by a natural reef. There is a jetty that stretches from the middle of the beach almost to the reef fro which people fish. The first day we swam and snorkelled a bit off of the shore, and the next day we all walked to the end of the jetty and explored the reef. There were hundreds of fish, snapper maybe, right at the end of the jetty. The boys thought it was pretty cool to swim right among them. Then, we explored the reef and saw some more tropical looking fish like angel fish, blowfish, and a really big something else (maybe a salmon). I swam back to shore (really far, I might add) and saw a small stingray closer to the beach. So exciting!

Jack getting crushed!

Brody + ice cream = happy traveller!

 

We had dinner at one of Bill's coworker's the next day. Michael and his wife Liz live in the north part of Adelaide, so it took us about an hour to get there during rush hour. We were late: faux pas #1. They were extremely hospitable and so friendly and welcoming. Michael gave the boys a paper airplane challenge, and helped them out when they needed support, which was pretty much every step. Liz reminded me a lot of Bill's Aunt Neila, a funny, friendly well-travelled lady with some crazy stories to tell. Dinner was a great Aussie barbecue with lamb chops, sausages, chicken wings, and salads. It was such a treat to have a meal home-cooked by someone else! After dinner the boys went to play a board game while we chatted over wine, when Bill announced we had to leave at once. Seems he had just been vomiting in the bathroom: faux pas #2. I knew it must be bad, because in our years together I've only known Bill to barf once. So, with Brody crying about having to leave and Bill doubled-over, off we left. Unfortunately, Bill had to drive because I'd had wine -- poor guy. We had had such a great evening up until that point; so great that Brody became very homesick and by the time we got home both boys were very upset. It really was quite a disastrous end to an otherwise really great week.

The next morning, having had very little sleep and with Bill still green, we had to pack up and head out: to the Outback.

 

Final Thoughts on NZ

Obviously we really loved our stay in NZ. I thought I would share some random thoughts and observations that may or may not be of interest to anyone else, but I want to record my thoughts for myself. I'll ask the rest of the family for their input too.

When I said random, I mean random.

• Bare feet: Kiwis like to walk around in bare feet. Kids, adults, at the mall, at the bank, down the street, everywhere. Jack says they must have hobbit-feet. No, that's not meant as an insult.
• Food: prepared, packaged food definitely has less salt and sugar than Canadian packaged food. We don't really buy a lot of that stuff, but crackers, for instance, are often less salty than home. Tomato pasta sauce is another good example. It's less sweet and less salty.
• On that note, sugary kids' cereal is advertised as a treat, not breakfast. In the commercial kids have it after school as a treat, and they say 'treat' in the commercial. Love this. Don't know if it's an Aussie or NZ thing or both, but I love that mentality.
• Ketchup is tomato sauce. They also have ketchup. I'm not sure the difference.
• Grabbing a meat pie or sandwich at a bakery is way better than any fast food restaurant, and it is quite reasonable (though fattening!). There are bakeries in even the smallest towns, so this is good. Fish and chips (fush and chups) are also available in dairies (convenience stores) everywhere. You pay extra for the tomato sauce, so we always had our own ketchup.
• All kids wear uniforms to school, and I love it! Many schools are single-sex.
• Jack likes L&P, NZ's own lemon-flavoured pop. Ginger beer is way better than ginger ale. Bundaberg ginger beer is Australian though.
• If you are planning a trip to NZ and you plan to drive through the country, start in the North. The roads are much easier and safer.
• That said, on our last day in Coromandel (North Island), we counted 49 turns in 4 km of road. At least they have guard rails!
• In NZ you obey the speed limit. If it says 25km/h and you go faster, you may very well drive off of a mountain. If it says 15km/h, you may want to go much slower and keep your eyes on the road not what's beside you. On the South Island, even if it says 100 km/h, unless you're a Kiwi, you might want to stick to about 60km/h. I'm really not exaggerating. That said, I feel I can now spot recently arrived tourists by their driving, and I will be unbeatable in MarioKarts.
• I am by no means claiming to be any kind of expert on the Maori people, just making some observations. First of all, the Maori culture is a big part of NZ culture, far more than our Native Canadian culture, and I feel it really enriches the tourism trade. Many Maoris seem to be making a good living by offering tourist opportunities. On the other hand, when we went to Rotorua which has a high percentage of Maoris, you couldn't help but notice that most of the people wandering around downtown and those at the community outreach facilities (in the neighbourhood of our holiday park) were, in fact, Maori. That was too much like home, and saddened me.
• At the Te Papa museum in Wellington I read as much as I could about the Maoris. I had assumed that the Maori relationship with 'the Europeans' was friendly. I read the Waitangi Treaty which formalized the agreement between the two. Though it sounded pretty fair to me at first reading, as I read more I learned that the Maori tribes really had no understanding of 'sovereignty' and so didn't really didn't appreciate what they were giving up; that is, chiefly power of the various tribes. In the '60s and '70s there were all kinds of protests about land, and ultimately the government made a formal apology for unfairly taking land from the Maoris -- many years ahead of the Canadian 'apology' for the residential school disaster, I might add. By this time, the boys were ready to move on, so I didn't get to read beyond that point in NZ history! Story of my life...
• Let's get less serious. Everywhere we went had lots of hot water. We could all shower and have hot water to spare. Do they have monstrous hot water tanks? Tankless tanks? I don't know. Our current Australian house is great too. Though the hot water is very hot and not very energy efficient, every toilet I've used is dual-flush. Curious.
• Kiwis seem to be very resourceful. Too many possums? Add their fur to merino to make fantastically soft wool. Too many deer? Gather them up and farm them. That said, NZ was originally home to only birds and lizards. All of the mammals were introduced, and brought lots of problems with them. Possums (NZ's little speed bumps) are a big problem because they eat kiwi eggs, among other things.
• Kiwi birds are physically closer to mammals than birds. Interesting.
• For such a small country with a small population, they do a lot of manufacturing and production in NZ; everything from food, to clothes, to toiletries, to souvenirs. I'm always looking at labels to see where items are made, and many of them are made in NZ. Perhaps this leads to higher prices, but maybe that's not always a bad thing.
• Huge sections of the grocery stores are devoted to fresh dog food. It often comes in big tubes, like we sometimes see ground beef in, but much larger. I guess this is the stuff that goes into the hotdogs and sausages at home. Ick.
• Speaking of hotdogs, Kiwi hotdogs come battered and deep fried on a stick. Fish batter, not like a Pogo.
• Kiwis seem to really like Steve Martin. Everywhere we stayed that had DVDs, had a full stock of Steve Martin movies. (Un)fortunately, the boys are now fans too.
• ...to be continued

 

Good-Bye New Zealand :'-(

We spent the last couple days beachside in Kuaotunu, a teeny less-than-a-town on the Coromandel Peninsula. I'm guessing this is the kind of place that Kiwis go on vacation. Our cottage was unique in that it was solar powered and built somewhat eco-friendly with bamboo and cork flooring. We were right across the road from a beautiful and deserted beach with some really great waves for the boogie boards. We had the whole beach to ourselves, which was a little odd, but that's the nice part about travelling in the off season.

Not a good pic of our beach. It did get sunny!

We celebrated Bill's birthday there by going to a really great craft brewery/bistro in Whitianga, the big town down the road. The owner was an exceptionally friendly British guy who brewed the beer and his wife made the food. Both were excellent. The next day we ventured down the coast to Hot Water Beach. There are really hot springs under the beach at low tide. People go, dig a hole, let it fill with spring water, and chill-out until the tide comes in. So, off we went just before low tide to claim our spot. The beach was already crowded with people frantically shovelling away, and some already in their holes. We set Bill to digging right among the other people, but the water filling our hole was definitely NOT hot. I asked several of our neighbours if THEIR water was hot, and they all said, "No!" And yet they kept digging.

We decided to move to another area, and the same thing happened. There was no hot water, and yet these people kept on digging! By this time the boys had started playing in the waves though very shallow because the rip tide was super strong. I wandered about asking the diggers if they had struck hot water. None had. Eventually I found a British man who said, "I know where it is. I'll show you." So, I followed him out into the surf and whaddya know? Hot springs! I mean scorching, boiling-hot hot springs! I'm not sure if the tide table was off, or if the waves were just too big, but the tide was most definitely not low enough to dig a hole on the low tide beach and sit in it. So, the Reid family plopped ourselves down in a couple inches of surf and got hot from the bottom while cooling off with the surf from above: a weird sensation to say the least, but pleasant too. As the surf returned to the ocean and we got jostled about, the spring, at times, would have us jumping off our bums or throwing our hands or feet out of the water. I'm sure we looked pretty comical to all those on shore, but I thought they looked far more foolish for sitting in a not-hot water bath when everyone knew they weren't in hot water, or even worse, continuing to dig their holes in futility!

 

From the Hot Water Beach we went further up shore towards the Cathedral Cove. I didn't take my ipad because we were planning on snorkelling and leaving our stuff unattended, so I have no photos of my own. From the parking area their was a track that led us to some snorkelling areas, Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay, before reaching Cathedral Cove. The snorkelling was a bit of a bust -- just a few fish and a lot of seaweed. It was worth a shot. Cathedral Cove, however, was pretty cool. It served as a setting in a couple of the Narnia movies and a Macklemore video. There is a massive natural tunnel through a big limestone prominence. A beach passes through the tunnel and continues on either side. The beaches were quite beautiful and we did some body surfing in the big waves. Good practice for Australia! It was one of our best days.

Narnia Cathedral Cove shot

 

The next morning, yesterday, was overcast, so it was easy to say goodbye to the beach. We drove to Auckland and found our accommodation, City Lodge, without any trouble. Best of all, Brody's tablet had arrived from Hastings. Phew! Thank you NZ Postal service. Jack and I set off to go souvenir hunting. There was a shirt he saw in Queenstown that he had been looking for everywhere since, but still no luck. I may have to order it online. We did purchase a spiffy All Blacks jersey for Bill for his birthday. We decided he is worth the extravagance. And it looks great on him. Otherwise, Sammy, I hope you're reading this, because you're the only family member getting a NZ souvenir. You know when you look at the same stuff over and over it just starts to look like junk? That's how I feel about most of the NZ souvenirs. Others are quite beautiful, but unless you've been here and have grown quite fond of the native plants and birds, I don't think you would appreciate it. Yes, I could have spent lots on myself, but didn't.

Had to go outside to change our minds! Ba-dum-dum

Back at our accommodation we made a great last NZ dinner (curry, mmmm) and chatted with some of the other travellers. A nice man from Tuatara offered us some ceviche that he made with a big trout he caught himself. It had a lime and coconut cream sauce with lots of veggies. Quite tasty. As Bill and Jack cleaned up, Brody and I did a little "dumpster diving" in the donations bin and scored some 'new' stuff for Australia: beach blankets, beach towels, shirts, scissors. Great score. Back in our tiniest room ever (but with an ensuite, a nice bonus) I discovered that City Lodge is in fact a YMCA. So yes, it is indeed fun to stay there and I hung out with all my boys.

And now, here I sit on the airplane about to touch down in Mebourne. From there we will continue on to Adelaide to begin our Aussie adventure. Stay tuned for some final thoughts on New Zealand.

 

Waitomo Caves and the Coromandel Farmstay

Look at me, getting right up to date. Today is 11 March 2014, and I'm having some downtime among other adventures.

A couple of days ago after leaving Rotorua, we drove to Waitomo Caves. We stayed at the best Top 10 yet. Oh, did I mention that there are not ten Top 10s? There are dozens. Regardless, the Waitomo park was exceptionally clean and new, and had a pool, a hot tub, and two trampolines. The surrounding area was particularly beautiful too.

Random kid looking at webs

Not stars!

Everyone goes to Waitomo to see the glow worm caves. Many people go black water rafting through the caves, but you have to be 12 years old, so we had to opt for a more family friendly tour. We picked the one that goes to the cave that was featured in the BBC Planet Earth series. Pretty good cred, I'd say.

Some creative photography here

Glow worms are not actually worms. They are maggots. The glow is a biochemical reaction that takes place in their kidneys. The 2-3 cm "worms" cast 15 cm webs straight down from the roof of the caves on which to catch their food. Glow worms can be found throughout NZ, but the Waitomo caves are particularly damp, as preferred by the glow worms, so they are abundant.

Cave #2 was lit

The first cave we entered was very dark. The 12 of us all got on a raft, turned off our headlamps, and floated down the underwater river. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, millions of glow worms came into view. It was quite a sight. It looked like a brilliant night time sky. The silence of the cave was a little eerie, but it was incredibly beautiful. The pictures I've included were emailed to us by the tour operator because it is really difficult to get good photos and near-impossible with an iPad!

We went to a second cave which was not a glow worm cave, just a stalactite, stalagmite, column, cathedral run-of-the-mill cave. It was, however, a little unnerving to descend that far under the ground! Our guide was really informative about the creation of the caves and the origins of the various skeletons inside. I'm not entirely convinced the tour operators didn't simply plant the skeletons for interest's sake, but they made for good stories anyways.

Besides a really interesting hike through the bush to look at some more caves and waterfalls and whatnot, that was the extent of our Waitomo visit. Really, in a town with a population of 41 you can't expect a lot more.

We woke up early the morning to go to the Coromandel peninsula. We were going to spend a couple days at a farm! On our way, we stopped for a pee break in Paeroa, the home of L&P, Jack's favourite NZ beverage (thanks again to Al). We took the obligatory photo with the monstrous bottle of L&P and continued on our way. We had a final stop at the Coromandel Supermarket, possibly the worst grocery store in NZ, and drove a bit further north to Colville and the White Star Farm.

The COROMANDEL peninsula

These four city folks had quite the farming adventure. This was a very large beef farm with several horses, sheep, pigs, chickens, and a goat. We had a date with the farmer in the morning, so we went for a walk out at the Colville Bay and then hesitantly toured around the farm. The funny thing is that I'm more comfortable around the animals than any of the rest of the family. I guess those two summers of riding camp prepared me. I fed my apple core to the old horse who was wandering around (I named her Oatmeal) to try to put the boys at ease. Later, Jack gave her some carrots, so it worked. Before long, we had chickens at the door of our cabin, which we all thought was pretty hilarious. Brody and I met the farmer's grandchildren, and Brody climbed up a peach tree to help them get us some peaches.

Our date was to meet Ngaire, the farmer, at 8 am. We all woke up, excitedly ate breakfast and headed outside. The daughter-in-law got us started with milking the goat. We all took a turn, then we all had a taste. It was much better than I thought it would be. I was expecting a funky taste, but it wasn't all that different from cow's milk. You do have to get past the warmth of it, however.

The next stop was the chicken coop, then the pigs. The pigs were actually wild pigs that a family member captured as piglets. They ate exclusively table scraps, as it wasn't cost effective to buy them feed. I thought that was pretty telling. After watching the pigs gobble up their food, we went to feed the dairy calf (so cute), the pet sheep, and have a visit with the nine herding dogs. The cow drank milk from a bucket with a nipple attached. She was rescued from the uncle's farm who had planned to just "give it a knock to the head" because it was a second calf (I don't question these things). The herding dogs were the only animals on the farm who were tied up. They were very affectionate, but were clearly eager to get loose and run after some cows, as we saw later.

Ngaire then pulled out the quad bike. Jack and Bill sat above the rear wheels, Brody and I sat on the front hood, and Ngaire and her granddaughter sat in the seat. It was a riot! We went to the horse paddock and herded them out to another field, we crossed a couple streams, and we went to a big old pear tree to get some fruit. Unfortunately, that was the end of our date. Brody was wanting to do more farm chores! After lunch, he and Bill went shellfish hunting (no luck) and Jack and I went on a horse trek around the farm.

Like I said, I did horse camp for two summers, riding twice a day everyday for two weeks. That was 30 years ago ("When you were one, Mommy?" said Brody). This did not prepare my body for the ride we went on yesterday. I have bruises in places I won't be mentioning, but let's just say sitting down is proving to be a problem. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Jack and I did have lots of fun, and the views from high up on the hills were out of this world. Was it worth the pain I'm feeling today? Well....

 

Ferro&Me, Jack&Ziggy

 

 

 

A Market, A Geologic Marvel, Hobbits, and a Haka

After leaving Wellington, we had to drive over to the east coast of the North Island to Hawkes Bay -- wine country. It was a lovely scenic drive, like usual. Our accommodation was yet another Top 10 Holiday Park, our standby. We stay in the "standard cabin", which has 2 sets of bunkbeds. We share a kitchen and bathroom facilities with the other campers. Not so bad, but some are nicer than others. I wouldn't have ranked this one in Hastings all that high, until we left behind Brody's tablet. They've been very helpful in trying to get it back to us.

The National Aquarium

Our stay was just for one night, and the next morning on our way to Napier we stumbled upon the Hastings Sunday Market. It was fantastic! We all found a special treat there: Brody, a crepe; Jack, a waffle; Bill, a fresh blueberry ice cream cone; and me, a fresh squeezed carrot-apple-ginger juice. We bought bacon, cheese, yogurt, berries, sprouted muesli (mmmm...), and some sweets to take with us. Honestly, if you're ever in Hastings on a Sunday you should definitely check it out!

 

Napier is the Art Deco capital of NZ. The place was pretty much destroyed by an earthquake in the 30s, so everything was rebuilt in the style of the day. It was quite a pretty town. We went to the National Aquarium there, which wasn't as impressive as it sounds. They claimed to have kiwis, but we saw only their enclosure. Boo. I liked the big sea turtle best, Bill liked the little penguins, and the boys liked the shark enclosure. It was one of those ones where they swim above you. Neat.

From Napier, we had a longish drive to Taupo (and the geothermic region) where we had lunch. Taupo is another of those rather touristy (for a reason) spots, with lots of shops and restaurants and hotels. The town surrounds Lake Taupo which is actually a huge volcanic crater. They say Taupo erupted 2000 years ago and the eruption was recorded as far away as Rome and China. Bits of Taupo are all over the North Island.

The Tongariro Crossing, that didn't happen

 

The next part of our tale is a sad one. We were scheduled to do the Tongariro Crossing the next day. This was our epic hike across Mt Doom into Mordor (sort of), but IT SNOWED at above 1300m! All of the shuttle buses were cancelled. I was pretty disappointed, but the boys were quite relieved to not have to hike the 20km. I was able to get a picture of Mt. Doom before the clouds descended. By the next morning you couldn't see it at all!

Mt Doom is the tall one

Mordor

 

 

That evening we pulled out our travel books and made some modifications to our plans. We opted out of the couple days we had planned in Auckland for the Pasifika Festival in favour of some more time in Rotorua and Coromandel. The main reason for the change was to avoid a couple days of driving! I'm glad we did. It's nice to just be in one place for a few days.

So, we went on to Rotorua where we spent a few days. Rotorua, the town, isn't all that great, but there was plenty to do in the area. Bill needed to work, so it was an easy place to keep the boys occupied, plus our Top 10 had 2 hot, geothermal pools and a regular pool.

Lady Knox geyser, before she blew her top

 

The first full day, we went to Wai-o-tapu, the Geothermal Wonderland. It was fascinating! The ground was quite literally bubbling and steaming everywhere. Anything flamable was charred. A rainbow of colours, each representing a different mineral, filled the water. It was awesome. At one point we stood at the edge of a lake and got lost for several minutes in a cloud of steam. I was a little worried about stumbling into the bubbling water because the boys were goofing around, but we stayed safe, Mom. The Waiotapu park was just a small representation of the whole Taupo/Rotorua area. Even the public park beside our cabin had bubbling mud! The video gives a good impression of what the place was like.

 

Next up was Hobbiton. Nestled among the rolling pastures of the North Island is this tiny town of Hobbit holes. You cannot see them from any roads, you must take the guided tour (of course). Peter Jackson scouted the location by air. They said he was looking for three things: lovely rolling green hills (which you can find everywhere), a lake (a little more rare), and a massive pine Party Tree. One lucky farmer's sheep paddock met all of the criteria. The Party Tree is now known as the Money Tree -- at $70/tourist, there's no question of why!

A whole team of gardeners tends to Hobbiton each day. The grounds were perfect. Each hobbit hole, and I was surprised by the number of them, is unique, and shows the personality of its resident. I wanted to forage for lunch; the lettuces and other veggies were perfect. It was interesting to learn that the doors were all built to different scales, depending on how up the hill they were. A larger scale meant larger actors could play the role of hobbits, and these were shot from a farther distance.

We were told that Peter Jackson owns half of Hobbiton and the farmer owns the other half. The film company (owned in large part by Jackson, no?) gets a cut too. They were expecting 200 000 tourists this year alone, and more next year after the third Hobbit movie comes out. Thank you, Money Tree. Our guide was a local dairy farmer's son, and he was full of trivia about the movies. For example, when Bilbo and Gandalf are sitting watching the sunset, they are facing east! So, they actually filmed sunrise instead. That scene is also the only one that gives away the location of Hobbiton. Locals recognized the skyline -- as if they didn't know what was going on! Also, even though it was filmed on a sheep farm, Jackson brought in professional sheep because he felt Middle Earth sheep had black faces and legs, not white.

 

The following evening, after a day spent browsing through town and soaking in the hot pools, we went to the Mitai Maori Village. Since we missed the Pasifika Festival, we felt it was important to get a good sense of the Maori culture. We were picked up at our Top 10 by a tattooed Maori woman in a traditional kiwi feather cape and woven dress. I knew then it was going to be good! Once we arrived, we went into a tent and waited for all of the other tourists to show up. There were about 60 in our group. They led us on a walk through the bush to the Fairy Springs (a cold spring) where we saw their resident eels and trout. It was dark, bubbling volcanic sand under the crystal clear water. Very pretty. Then we went to see our hangi feast as it was brought out of the ground. It smelled really good, and we were really hungry -- but we had to wait! As we continued our walk, we heard the voices of the Maori men and the sound of the conch shells throughout the bush, and caught occasional glimpses of them watching us. Then we lined up along the stream where we watched the Maori men row up and back in their canoe. It was a little intimidating, even though it was all just a show! We were then led to the show tent where we watched a traditional greeting welcoming our tribe (we had a Californian guy as our chief), and a variety of dances, and stories about Maori traditions, tattoos, and so on. I think the video gives a good idea of what it was all about:

 Edit: I totally forgot to mention some important parts of the Maori experience!  After the show, we went back for our traditional hangi meal.  The hangi is cooked underground. The lamb and chicken were very moist and tender.  They also cooked potatoes and kumara (sweet potatoes) and stuffing (thanks also to the Pakeha).  Pavlova and trifle and chocolate log for dessert.  It was quite a feast!

Then, and I can't believe I forgot this, we went for another nighttime walk, this time around the neighbouring Rainbow Springs wildlife park.  We had an excellent guide who showed us tuatara (lizards) and kea, fish, native trees, and finally, at long last, KIWIS!!  I was super-excited to see them out rooting around in their enclosure.  No glass between us! They are nocturnal, so we had to wait until dark. And, they were much larger than I thought -- close to a foot tall, I'd say. I feel really lucky to have seen them! 

All in all, it was a fun, memorable, and expensive few days in Rotorua. I don't think our trip would have been complete if we had missed any of it!

 

 

Wellington

We left Abel Tasman and headed to the Interislander Ferry to Wellington. It was a pretty uneventful voyage. The highlight was the lunch from the bakery we had in Picton before departing.

I loved Wellington! I loved our accommodation in Wellington!

The view from our Wellington flat.

After staying in countless holiday parks we finally had our very own apartment. I found this place on Airbnb.com and will gladly recommend it to anyone venturing to Wellington.

Wellington, the capital of NZ, is built right into and among the rolling hills of the North Island. It was a feat of engineering to build these homes up dozens of steps at the tops of hills, but they did it! Those same windy roads I've been discussing in all of my posts run throughout the neighbourhoods of the city, but now they are lined with parked cars rather than cliffs. It seems to be a university town with lots of young people everywhere. There is art all over, sculptures everywhere you look. Kids are rowing in Maori canoes at the harbour rowing club after school everyday while tourist look on from the comfort of their beanbag chairs outside of the pub. It's all very cool.

We had very precise directions to get to our apartment, and found the place with just a little difficulty. None of the roads run parallel or at right angles, so the the three right turns you think will take you back to where you started, do not! The street was a very steep hill. We parked and began emptying the car, then found we had 40 stairs to climb to get to the front door. Four suitcases, cooler, and random bags later we made it up. The flat, which was the first floor of a house, was adorable. It looked like it could have come out of an Ikea catalogue. Tiny, but so cute. We had our own all-in-one washer/dryer, a dishwasher, private bathroom and bedroom. The view was spectacular -- overlooking the whole city. It was awesome!

Bill and I walked down to the grocery store and picked up the necessities, we made a curry dinner, and got settled in.

The next morning the boys and I went to the Adrenalin Forest, a high wire course set admist a redwood forest. There were seven challenges in total, but Brody was only big enough for the first two. We all did those first two (each of which had about 15 challenges), and had a lot of fun. Then, Jack and I continued on to level three. All was going well until the spinning logs.

Brody about to do a Flying Fox (Kiwi zipline)

There were three spinning logs about 8-10 feet long, each hanging about 15m high, independently (so you had the challenge of moving from one spinning log to the next one). Above the logs was a line at chest height onto which we attached our harnesses. I did the first 2 3/4 logs without a problem, then fell. Boy, did I fall. As I hung there, helpless and winded, Jack was screaming to me from the next tree over. He had his wrist trapped between the two straps of his harness as he also was dangling. He was screaming, "Mommy, I'm losing feeling in my hand!" as I was frantically trying to move the last foot onto the platform and then unharness myself. After an eternity, I got myself over to Jack and recovered him.

Did that stop us from proceeding? Hell no. We went on to Level 4. Why? Stupidity.

I was still wiped out from the third level, and then found myself scaling along a single tightrope wire 21m high. What was I thinking? There were 19 challenges at this level, and you must complete them all or call for a rescue (a humiliation worse than anything) because there are no ladders on which to descend.

Well, I persevered and completed level 4. Barely. Here's just one example of my injuries (there are more):

Beauty, eh? Many Naproxin and glasses of wine later (not (always) together), I'm much better. And wiser. Maybe. Still a sweet as bruise, but looking more like a sunset than an approaching storm.

Another day in Wellington we went to the National Te Papa Museum. I had heard this was the best museum NZ had to offer, and it was great. The exhibits were very kid-friendly, and we had a chance to learn more about the Maori history and culture. More on this in a later post. Suffice it to say, the museum was beautiful and bigger than we could complete in the few hours we had available.

The Contemporary Marae (Maori meeting house) at Te Papa

We had another challenge walking to and from the museum. Where we would have sidewalks at home, in Wellington there are staircases. Like the roads, they aren't parallel to anything, and like many streets, they aren't labelled. So, we descended on stairways not really knowing if we were going to end up at someone's doorstep or at the next street. I took some photos of our return home from the museum:

At the halfway point on one downtown sidewalk

To our flat

 

And still up to our flat

 

And a few more...

 

Jack made it!

We didn't really do much more of significance in Wellington. It was fun just shopping and travelling around like locals. We went to the mall, walked around downtown, and hung out at the waterfront -- like city-dwellers. All in all, it was a great change of pace from our previous pastoral/alpine pursuits.

 

 

 

Abel Tasman National Park

We found the jewel in the South Island crown!

Abel Tasman National Park is a postcard-perfect spot close to the very northwest corner of the Island. When I first bought my Lonely Planet guide, it was my one "must see," and I wasn't disappointed. Much of the park is not accessible by car, so I chose a holiday park at the western end, where many of the trails begin. We were at Pohara Beach in Golden Bay.

There wasn't much to do there other than enjoy the scenery and the weather -- both were lovely. Our first night, we booked a sea taxi for the next morning to take us from Totaranui to a beach about an hour's ride down the coast. The drive to Totaranui was as dangerous as any other NZ ride, but it was gravel. Yikes!! It took 50 minutes to drive just 11 km. That's how bad it was!

We made it just in time to catch the sea taxi. The ride was fast and splashy and Brody hated it as much as I loved it!

After a brief detour to catch a look at a group of seals, we arrived at our beach at low tide, and a huge bay of sand was exposed. The sand was golden and smooth. We walked and walked on the sand, up over a dune, and then we found some beached sailboats resting upon their keels. It was a bit of a shocker to see boats sitting in the middle of a beach! Eventually we found the trailhead marker and we were off.

As always, the DOC hike did not disappoint. I can't imagine the labour that goes into maintaining these Great Walks. The path was pristine, practically wheelchair accessible (but not really). As we hiked through the bush, we caught glimpses of beautiful beach to the north, and lush tropical tree-covered mountains to the north. It was warm and sunny. Within a couple hours we arrived at what we thought would be our halfway stop, but realized that we wouldn't have time to make it to the next beach before our sea taxi pick up, so we had lunch and stayed put. I'm glad we did.

The beach was very quiet; just a few resting sea-kayakers and trampers passing through. Jack and Bill went snorkelling and returned with reports of seeing several different varieties of fish. My snorkel was broken, so when they returned I convinced Jack to come out again with me. The water was crystal clear turquoise and I couldn't wait to get out there!

I saw several snapper right away, then a large brown and white speckled fish that Bill thinks was a lion fish, but I didn't actually look it up yet. My eyes were glued to the bottom, looking for flounders when all of a sudden I spotted a huge manta ray right in front of us! At that time, I didn't know if it was a manta or a stinger, so I was a little nervous. I know stingrays won't sting unless provoked, but I didn't want a Steve Irwin situation happening with my 12 year old in tow. I let out a squeal to get Jack's attention while frantically pointing to it. Needless to say, Jack was also delighted and a little nervous too. We could have easily touched it, bit gave it some room as it swam leisurely past. It didn't at all seem concerned about us! It was about my size with my arms spread wide.

We had a chat about what we just witnessed and decided to head back in to tell Bill and Brody. On our way back, we spotted yet another manta! It was about the same size as the first, but the colouring was different. So exciting!! Again, we met at the surface to exchange adjectives and noticed Bill waving us ashore. It was time to catch our taxi.

The ride home was a little tamer than the first ride. We had a short stop to take pictures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle rock. An Austrian guy sharing our ride was thrilled because he had a TMNT tattoo (among others; he and his friends also had horrible BO, but that's another story).

TMNT rock!

Back at our holiday park, we made dinner and ended our day with a walk on our golden and pretty deserted beach which was just in front of our cabin. Really, everything about this place was perfect.

The next day we went for another great day hike to see a beautiful waterfall. The real highlight of this trip, though, was the single person suspension bridge over a river. Too much fun!

Later, at Brody's request, we went to a salmon farm to catch some fish. There was no charge to fish, and you paid by the kilo for what you caught. They would then prepare your salmon however you liked. Though not quite "shooting fish in a barrel", it was pretty close. The boys had a lot of fun, and both caught fish which we had smoked. Delish! It was actually pretty interesting to see the whole operation -- how they bred and housed the fish throughout their life cycle. It was a lovely location with a cafe where we enjoyed a bevvie while the fish smoked. There we met a Kiwi and a Dutch man who had both worked in Ottawa for a couple of years. This was the day of the hockey GOLD, so we chatted a lot about the Olympics, living in Canada, and driving in NZ.

Unfortunately, Bill had to work the next day so I took the boys on a hike to see the Rawhiti cave. Using a map that had no street names in a town with no signage presented a bit of a challenge, but we found the trailhead eventually. It began in a farmer's field, as is oftentimes the cased. The public is allowed access as long as they leave things as they found them. We arrived just as the calves were changing fields. So, we had a bunch of cows in front of us and a bunch of cows behind us. We dodged the cow pies, slid under a fence, and started the hike.

The boys were thrilled the hike was only 2km each way; however they had not yet learned that distance means nothing. The first kilometre was pretty easy going, but the second was straight up and steep! We ran into only two other hikers, an elderly couple on their way down. The woman was struggling because she had had her knees replaced and climbing down was presenting a challenge. I thought going up was tough!

As we've come to expect, the hike was totally worth it. The cave was magnificent. Truly breathtaking. The stalactites hung from the roof like saliva-dripping, devilish teeth. The back of the gaping mouth was mostly pink, and as your gaze travelled to the outside green became the prevalent colour. We were lucky to have the place entirely to ourselves, and spent lots of time making echoes and soaking in the awesomeness of the cave. It really was one on nature's wonders.