Auckland and Northern NZ

So far we have seen the 2 largest Kauri trees and the oldest house in New Zealand. We spent 3 days in Auckland including New Year's Eve.

Auckland is a very beautiful city with lots of hills and much of the city centre is filled with new buildings. We will post some pictures next week. We had seafood on the wharf and a good bottle of NZ wine for New Year's Eve. We did not stay until midnight since we had to get up early the next day to pick up our car. The people are very friendly, the owner of the lodge where we stayed lent us his son's car one night in order that we could go out to the restaurant. He told us not to tell his wife otherwise she would have a monkey fit (whatever that is).

The day we went to pick up the car, Dave called for a taxi, 1 hour before we were to meet our shuttle bus downtown. However, the taxi driver decided to pick up another fair on his way to our place; as a result, David called several more times to see what had happened to the taxi. In short, we almost missed our shuttle, but, fortunately, the driver was kind enough to wait for us for 20 minutes. They said not to worry in 'paradise'...


So far the weather has been around 23 C sunny and windy; perfect for traveling. We spent around 3.5 hrs in the Auckland Museum, 3 stories, absolutely outstanding; we were exhausted by the time we went home. We use the buses around the city, and even though it is during the holiday season, they run pretty often, and it is about the same price as it would be at home; $3.50/person. We asked questions to the drivers, and they were very nice; one of them even let us on his bus (free) and showed us where to take the bus that we had asked for. We also took a ferry across the harbor, trip was about 12 minutes.

We spent 3 nights in Paihia, in the Bay of Islands (northern NZ). We took a cruise (4.5 hrs) during which we visited several islands and went to the "Hole in the Rock" David used to say "Hole in the Wall" and people looked at him like he was crazy... It was a beautiful warm day; very pleasant and relaxing.

The following day we visited Kiri-kiri which is where we saw the oldest house in NZ as well as the stone store which is a combination museum/actual store selling reproductions of old tools, etc, etc.

We then drove several hours along the coast and saw some beautiful beaches and mountains. We finished up on 90 mile beach which is actually only 75 miles long. All along the route there are numerous places where the Maori fought battles with the British army. Most of the fighting took place between 1840-1860 and was caused by the fact that the Maori did not wish to sell their land and were angry over the interference by the Brits in their internal affairs.

Yesterday morning, we visited the town of Russell, which was the capital of NZ for a very short time in the 1840s. They have a very well preserved museum which houses a working printing press from the same period, as well as a tannery. We learned how books were made as well as the leather bindings.

In the afternoon we drove down the west coast through the Kauri forest which contains the biggest Kauri trees in NZ. These trees are up to 30 m.high and 7 m.wide, huge trees. The forest itself makes one think of prehistoric jungles.

We are now in Whitianga, nice coastal town. We had lunch in a little town called Cromandel, also on the coast, where most of the people looked like hillbillies... It reminded us of some of the little towns that we drove through in Australia... Lucille has been doing most of the driving, especially in the mountains. It is EXTREMELY curvy, up and down, and if she did not drive, she would get car sick. The road in and around the mountains is very narrow with sheer drops into the valleys/ocean.