Week 4 - 10th - 12th Oct - Heading to Keri keri

Monday Oct 12th, 2009
Today we head up the coast off the main road to drive along to Russell. The drive is twisty, steep and very narrow. Along the trek we pass an Art Gallery and find our way inside. The art is beautiful but many pieces are extremely expensive at between 5 and 10 k. Two beautiful rocking chairs made out of reclaimed Kauri wood (reclaimed from the peat bog and carbon dated at 4000 yrs old are priced at 5,600 each).

Back on the coast, we end up at the car ferry from Russell. This is one of those ferries that pulls up, cars drive on and then it pulls away, without tying up! Across the strait we find the town of Opua and Paihia. Opua is tiny, just a wee fishing village, while Paihia is a true tourist trap…we continued on. This artwork was created by the students along with a local artist on the grounds of the Paihaia public school. We did take the time to see Paihia’s historic grounds, where the peace treaty was signed between the New Zealand whites and the Maori long, long ago.

Tonight we are staying in a backpackers lodge. Some are so dodgy looking that we have been put off. Well we decided to stay in Kerikeri at the Top Ten Holiday Park. Well, all the backpackers’ spots were filled, so they upgraded us to a full studio for the price of the other. We are going to stay for three days. This is the backpacker's shared kitchen.

Outside our door I saw a green parrot with a red head on the bamboo trees. I called to Alan to take a picture and all of a sudden a flock of them swoop down chasing another parrot. I have mentioned this to some locals and they have never seen parrots in the area and thought this was quite unusual. I thought so…

Sunday, 11 October, 2009

Spent the day seeing the sights and hiking local trails. Saw a beautiful waterfall, quite a lovely hike through cow fields and walked in the canopy of the trees.

The trail had styles and gates to prevent the cows from escaping. We had to shoo them off the paths, the ground was too wet for us.

Saturday, 10 October, 2009

Today we headed to Warkworth to the vegetable market and the Arts and Craft market in Matakana.

Snowplanet, wow, this is and indoor ski hill. Alan and I went in for coffee and to watch the skiers. It actually was quite amazing that they run this year round. The vertical is about 150 feet.

At Matakana we find the Saturday market. We found fresh Vietnamese summer rolls with prawns (very good) and eat them with peanut sauce. We also buy homemade lime mallows, which we eat back at the car - its raining again.

The Arts and Craft market is full of booths, much like the Bobcaygeon Market, although some of the paintings cost up to 10k...but are gorgeous. Back on the road we stop at Morris and James Pottery (a family potter business) to view the handmade pottery. It is gorgeous.

Finally, we are back on the road again and end up in Warkworth. We head down the road to see the street fair. At the Golf yard sale we purchase a tea pot, cutlery and some fresh homemade grapefruit marmalade.

The downtown of Warkworth is a festival celebrating the 40th anniversary of the town. We mingle with the crowd and sample their wares. Alan has two sausage sizzlers (sausage on toast) with the proceeds to the town museum. We walk up and down looking at all the stalls of goods to buy. Part way through there is a foot parade with a Scottish pipe band, the junior life savers (for surfing), amazing Mauri singers, belly dancers, a steel band and a band wearing masks. We have a great time then head off on our way to Whangarei.

We stay the night in Whangarei.