Our last morning in New Zealand. We have a late morning get-together with Mary Ruth Doole, a Kiwi friend we haven’t seen in 10 years, over coffee and breakfast in Mt. Eden Village. We then head for the airport for tearful goodbyes with Felicity Jane, Hamish, Andros and Ruth.

New Zealand has been a wonderful warm up to our trip and we are so happy to have met Flick and the Boys…..Thanks you guys for having us….we had such a great time with you!

These are our completely unofficial recommendations for the North Island of New Zealand:
Buy property NOW in the Doubtless Bay area.
Have fish and chips at the Mangonui Fish Shop.
Have ice cream anywhere and all the time.
Sample as much New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc as you can.

Some books that you may find of interest that kept us company in New Zealand:
Three Junes, by Julia Glass (Thanks Eleanor McC.!)
The Art of Travel, by Alain de Botton (Thanks Tom Hockin)
The Night Listener, by Armistead Maupin (On going, thanks, Ruth)

We drive into Auckland from Doubtless Bay. It takes two cars to handle the overflow of luggage that we have brought with us (not to mention that there are six people making the journey). We take everyone out for dinner to celebrate Ruth’s birthday.

It is a beautiful day for a drive, but unfortunately - due to a stalled truck about 80 kilometres outside of Auckland - a four hour drive turns into seven. We arrive back to the Mt. Eden Motel and quickly change our clothes and head out to Ponsonby Road for dinner.

34°S
172°E

Early Birthday wishes to our friends Brian Shackleton and John’s sister Ruth on the 17th and Fernanda Ferraro on the 18th! (We will be celebrating with Ruth right here in New Zealand). Happy Birthday from New Zealand!

My friend Lucy Peacock started rehearsals for King Lear in New York at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center on January 13th. Merde!!


Lighthouse at Cape Reinga

Today is our first official family road trip. Ruth, John, Felicity Jane, Hamish, Andros and I pack up the two cars and head north for the 2 hour drive to the very northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. John skilfully and successfully drives one of the cars on the left hand side of the road for the entire day. This will be good driving practice for our 8 day camper van trip in Australia. (Even I have to admit that John is a very accomplished left lane driver.)

We stop for a quick look at 90 Mile Beach. Brash and windy, with lots of crashing waves, Felicity Jane says “ahhhh, typical west coast beach…beautiful”. Interestingly enough, this beach, which you can drive on, is considered part of New Zealand’s main highway, Number 1.


From left – looking south along 90 Mile Beach, Ruth and John waving, Felicity Jane and Andros running down sand dune

I had read in the community newspaper about a drowning in one of the area’s lakes. Bruce, a local Maori, has been helping Ruth replace the roof on the house. Over a tasty roasted Chinese Chicken dinner made by Felicity Jane, Bruce tells us about the Maori custom of placing a “Tapu” on bays or lakes or other water where someone has drowned. No one is allowed to swim in this water until the Tapu is lifted. In this particular case, there is a five day “rahui”, or ban from swimming. The Tapu makes this place sacred and allows the spirit of the person to pass from the place where they have died. On our way north, we pass this very lake and I silently remember those who have passed before me.

We continue north and stop for a quick tour of a gum diggers’ camp. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, diggers would make their fortunes by digging hardened sap from the roots of the Kauri tree and selling it to market. When this gum has petrified and is polished, it is a form of amber. These people had a very tough life. To judge from the photos at the site, it was very similar in many ways to our Klondike Gold rush, and brought numerous immigrants to New Zealand. As we drive through the day, we pass many places named after people whose names we recognize from some of the photos at the exhibit.

The north continues to beckon as we stop further up the coast for a quick swim at a lovely isolated beach of beautiful white sand and glistening blue and green waters at Rangaunu Harbour. After we dry off and change, we grab a quick lunch in Pukenui and continue our journey to the very northern end of New Zealand.


From left – View of Rangaunu Harbour, Hamish, Andros

Cape Reinga is a special and very spiritual part of New Zealand. This sacred place is where the Maori would bring the spirits of those who died in the past year to the tip of the island and ceremonially send them on their spiritual journey from the island. Needless to say it is a very beautiful and remote place.


Two views of Spirit Point

Cape Reinga is also where the Tasman and South Pacific oceans meet. The place where the waters join is very turbulent, and as cold water from the deep of both oceans is forced up to the surface, there is plenty of seafood to attract many sea animals to the area. In Spirits Bay, just east of the Cape, it is not uncommon to swim with dolphins.


Two views of point where Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet

The sun is beginning to sit low in the sky and it is truly at special place to be. A warm sea breeze is gently blowing in from the east. In the distance you can see the “Three Kings” islands. These were so named by Captain Cook when he discovered them on Boxing Day, December 26th. The whimsical directional sign post is the Cape’s nod to the many daily tourists who make the trip up to the Cape in their buses and camper vans.

Today is a quiet day for tourists. But we don’t feel like tourists. Rather, like true Kiwi’s, out for a pleasant day with our family.


Three views of Cape Reinga

S35°
E173°

Ruth and her partner Felicity Jane (Flick in Kiwi), and Felicity Jane’s sons, Hamish and Andros, live about 10 km outside the town of Mangonui, which is just off Doubtless Bay. The story is that Captain Cook sailed by but did not enter Doubtless Bay, instead uttering the words “doubtless, a bay”.

Ruth and Flick have a spread of about 10 acres – and keep Dusty, a horse, some chickens, a feral turkey that has adopted the family, and two beautiful cats. Dusty is a retired steeplechase horse, and is happy to come to the fence and nuzzle anyone who is willing to nuzzle him back.



Here is the view from the front door and the drive, and one of John feeding Dusty an apple.

This is serious tourist territory, and you can see why – the scenery is spectacular, the weather perfect. The rumour is that Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems has fallen in love with this area, and has purchased a big spread of land on which he is building a vacation home.

We start our morning in a sun-drenched café with coffee and muffins in the Mt. Eden neighbourhood of Auckland. John’s sister Ruth is heading to Waiuku for a funeral and leaves us on our own. We catch the bus and head downtown to Queen Street and seek out an internet café to do our website updating.

Aucklanders and Kiwis’s, in general, are very friendly people. Everywhere we go, spontaneous conversation kicks in. Queen Street is the original downtown of Auckland and the area hums with tourists and backpackers, seeking shopping, currency exchange or a last bit of raucous night life before they head off into the wilderness of New Zealand. Many trekkers, like us, spend their morning picking up email and connecting to family and friends.

Auckland has changed dramatically since we were here 12 years ago. The America’s Cup has dramatically revitalized the harbour with shops and expensive condos. As in any city’s history of revitalization and renovation, especially on their waterfront, the results are both positive and negative. The waterfront is certainly accessible and inviting, with the café and shopping experience predominating. Not necessarily accessible perhaps for all Jafa’s (a local colloquialism for the residents of Auckland) but none the less a very inviting area in the City of Sails.



We have a designated rendezvous later in the day with Ruth in Devonport, which is a pleasant 10 minute ferry ride across the harbour from Auckland, for our 4 hour drive to the “Far North”. Despite sudden overcast skies and threatening rain, we arrive to have a pleasant 45 minute stroll through the Victorian town, having a quick browse through the shops and grabbing a latte as the threatening skies deliver a 5 minute summer shower, scattering the tourists and locals under awnings and into cafes.



Auckland is situated on many ancient volcanoes – the photo of Devonport evidences this.

Just as the shower is nicely ended, we meet up with Ruth and begin the drive north. For the first hour or so we are on motorway with heavy weekend traffic. Then the road narrows to 2 lanes, and we still have heavy weekend traffic. John takes over the driving – first time for “keep left” driving – which is good practice for the coming campervan experience in Australia. The scenery is unspoilt and magnificent – lush green everywhere, and spectacular stands of trees unknown outside New Zealand.

Latitude: S36°
Longitude: E174°
Full Moon.

We got to bed at about 2:30 a.m. Auckland time (5:30 a.m. L.A. time) and were up about 8:30 to seek out coffee and breakfast, feeling that hazy, thumping middle of the forehead headache called jetlag. Our original accommodation plan had to be changed at the last minute but John’s sister Ruth saved the day and sought out alternate arrangements for all of us.

The weather is magnificent summer – the Kiwi’s are all complaining about the humidity, but word reaches us that there are big storms at home with -14°C temperatures, so we’re not complaining at all. We spend the day walking around central Auckland and after miles and miles we walk up Parnell Road, which is about as big a hill as there is in Auckland. Our plans change, and we taxi back to the carpark before heading out for a nice supper and an early bed.

© 2004 Tobeeco Corp., all rights reserved | design by Artifex Design | powered by b2