Hawaii - 11th to 13th Dec

Our first few days in Hawaii .

Week 12 - 8th & 9th Dec.

9th Dec. - Mount Maunganui - hiked the trail. Saw a freighter leave the harbour and travel through the narrow opening out to sea. Saw a stingray along the shore. Lots and lots of jelly fish. Also, we saw school camping trips that were hiking the trail and playing on the beach. They were camping at the base of the Mount.

The New Zealand Christmas tree is called the Pohutukawa. They are in full bloom all around the mountain and all over NZ.

In the downtown we saw these christmas trees!

Also, the palm trees are quite spectacular with their orange clusters of flowers.







8th December - Mount Maunganui - hiked up to the top. We took the difficult stair climb up and walked back on the easier track. What a spectacular view! On the way up we passed a grade 10 class hiking the mountain...they were exhausted as it is a diffiult climb. At the top we met their bus driver who said it would take that group ages to get to the top.

At the top we find the California Quails.

Below are pictures of the views from the trail as we climb up then down Mount Maunganui.

Us at the top!

This is one of the easy stair cases in the sheep's field as we climb up. They have these fields to act as a fire break, protecting the top of the mountain.

Week 9 - 21st & 22nd Nov.

Worlds steepest street – Baldwin Street, Mount Cargill,
Moraki boulders, Moraki Harbour – Lunch at Fleurs

Sunday Nov 22nd, 2009
Today we carry on to Oamaru. On our way out of the city we check out the world’s steepest street. It is recognized by the Guinness World book of records. Baldwin Street was originally designed by William Baldwin, a member of Otago council in the late 1800’s. The street is 161 m long and climbs a vertical height of 47.2 m from beginning to end. At its steepest point, the climb is 1 in 2.86 with an average climb of 1 in 3.41.

On the hill, we meet a runner (over 60 years old) with a tee-shirt that claims Worlds Steepest Hill World Record Runner. We chat with this fellow for a bit and he runs up and down this hill 60 times a day as part of this fitness regime. Apparently, he has also been recognized by the Guinness world book of records.

He recommends we go to the top of Mount Cargill. He even offers to drive up with us but we have the back of the car packed with stuff and there are no available seats for him. He also says don’t forget to stop in Moeraki harbour and go to Fleurs for lunch. Have the blue cod and tell them I sent you. We thank him, take the directions and head to Mount Cargill.

Mount Cargill is a very high spot and it gives perfect panoramic views for 360 degrees. There is the Pacific Ocean to the East, Dunedin to the south, and mountains in all other directions.

The GPS suggests an alternate route to Moeraki, which we of course take.The scenery is once again stunning and we are able to drive through a narrow gorge just outside of town. One car wide! Then up to the mountain side we go and down the other side. It is beautiful country.

At Moeraki we head to the beach. Luckily the tide is low and we can see the boulders in the distance. There are lots of people milling about and it is not to difficult to tell that this is one of NZ’s popular tourist attractions. As we get closer we can tell that these boulders are similar to the ones we saw in Kohtou but more uniform in size and shape.

We wander up and down the beach looking at all the boulders, waiting for our turn to take pictures between the tourists. Here we meet Tom and Chad Adams from the previous night. They tell us to go back and see Shag Point as they have seals, penguins and lots of sea life. We thank them for the tip and carry on our way.
In the tiny town of Moeraki we find the restaurant “Fleurs” right at the dock. It looks like an old weathered fishing building and you have to look twice to realize it is a restaurant. I can imagine it has been here for 100 years. A place where fisherman stored their nets and life revolved around the sea.
Here we explain to the waiter how we found the place…he did ask…and what an amazing lunch we had. They served us a baked whole blue cod with steamed vegetables and on top of the fish are lots of slivered almonds, capers and butter. We devoured all the fish… what a wonderful meal.

Shag point is a short drive back toward Dunedin but we think from Chad’s description that it is worth it. Out at the point we see two yellow eyed penguins, seals, and lots of sea birds. It seems this was a mining area as there are lots of signs to stay on the track due to open holes. The mining information indicates that a thriving coal mine once existed on this point and the drifts go way out under the sea. Due to the problem with water in the tunnels eventually the mine was closed and the mine features removed.

We continue our drive to Oamaru. One of the locals suggested we head to the harbour around seven in the evening to see the blue penguins, or fairy penguins. You can take a tour that costs $110 or do it ourselves…we went ourselves. We put on most of our coats, I put on my scarf and hat and wished I had mittens. There is a fence up from the shore line to protect an area for penguin nesting. Inside the large enclosure are penguin boxes around local shrubs. We met a fellow looking over a fence and he explained that these penguins come in at night in waves or groups, usually when it is dusk. We watch for a long while with him and it is very windy and chilly, but we persist.

Finally, as the sun hits the horizon, you can see what looks like a flock of floating ducks on the sea. The crowd is building and we don’t want to move for fear we lose our vantage points. We wait, and wait, and wait with the mass coming closer to land, and then it seems to head back out to sea again. Eventually you can see little bird outlines coming ashore.

It was suggested a better view was from up the harbour, so I went there leaving Alan at the beach. Here I saw five blue penguins jump out of the water onto the rocks against the pier. The proceeded to jump up the rocks towards me then turned and headed for the penguin boxes. What an amazing sight.

Dunedin, Coffee in town, Botanical Gardens
Saturday Nov 21st, 2009

We are up early this morning. The sky is blue, the sun warm and we cook our usual morning breakfast. The Australian couple we had met the night before, Sharmaine and Nigel, join us at the farmers market.

The Dunedin farmers market is just like Peterborough’s market with stalls of fresh baking, vegetables, meats and wine. After the market the four of us went out to a café then we head off our own way. We had worn shorts as the weather was so warm when we left. However, the weather changed in a flash and we had to head back to the cabin to change and then had lunch.

After lunch we head to the art gallery, but it has limited artwork on display and was disappointing. The Cadbury company was outside handing out chocolate when we left, that was quite nice.

We later found the Dunedin Botanic Garden and see the beautiful displays of rhododendrons, azaleas, rock garden flowers, and torch flowers. I loved their bronze sculptures of Peter Pan and Wendy with the children.

We had a lovely evening back at the cabin. Spend the evening talking with Sharmaine, Nigel, then Tom and Chad Adams, American friends of Nigel’s, from North Carolina joined us. Tomorrow we are heading to Moeraki Boulders and Oamaru.

Week 6 -- 1st - 2nd Nov

Monday Nov 2nd, 2009
We have slept in until 9. Breakfast is brief then we head off to discover what Nelson has to offer.
The city is very industrial on the outskirts with a modern port and all the support businesses that are situated around a port. Once inside the city proper that has both very quaint and modern buildings. It was almost as nice as New Plymouth! The down town has permanent awnings on every building. If it were to rain, you could still shop without much trouble. We found this mosaic whale on side street.

In the centre of town is a hill garden surrounding an Anglican Church at the top. There are paths crisscrossing the hill and also around the hill. Planted on the hill are trees from all over the world. The trees were planted around 1880 and are quite mature. The flowering shrubs have just started to flower. They are at least two weeks behind the North Island. It feels like we are still in May with both the constant spring flowers and weather. Actually, the weather has warmed up and we are no longer wearing sweaters and coats.

Along the city coastal road we can see that the tide is out. The sand stretches on forever. On the sea side are long gouges in the rock from weather or lava flows or both. We park and have to navigate the busy traffic to cross and take pictures. They are quite amazing.

Tomorrow we are off to the most northern point of the South Island!

Sunday Nov 1st, 2009

It’s the morning after Halloween and for New Zealand, Hallow's Eve was pretty quiet. We are up with the alarm and head off to breakfast. This morning we are having our regular peanut butter and honey toast with fresh coffee.

We are off to Nelson. It is known to be a lovely British style town and we are looking forward to visiting. The wind on the road to Nelson is incredible. Our morning coffee stop is in a town called Havelock. Just outside of Havelock we stopped at the Pelorus River. This is a beautiful rocky gorge. Crystal clear water flows from the mountains to the strait. As we climb the mountains the road begins to twist and turn up and over the other side.

Nelson is a much larger city than we first thought. We drove through the center of the city and quickly decided that this was going to be our destination to explore tomorrow.

The backpacker’s lodge is in a town just outside of Nelson, in Richmond. We meet up, once again, with our young Canadian friends, Christine and Scott. The rest of the day is laundry and relaxing. As the drier is unavailable, we had to hang out three loads of laundry. The wind was in our favour and quickly dried them.

Week 5 - 22nd to 25th Oct

Sunday Oct 25th, 2009
Puke Ariki museum is an artistic building close to the water, in the centre of New Plymouth. This museum begins with an award winning movie on its community, the bottom floor dedicated to photography, a second floor on the history of the community and finally a third floor on the historic perspective of the Maori people. They had Maori artifacts that farmers had dug up in their fields. It was hard to believe these wooden carvings survived.

Between the museum and the sea is an interesting feature, a kinetic sculpture, called the Wind Wand. Standing at 45 meters in height it sways with the wind. The artist, Len Lye, created this instillation for the millennium. At night it can be seen from quite a distance as it has over 1296 light bulbs in it.

Pukekura Park is the city’s premier park. It is situated nearly in the middle of town with a large pond at its centre and intersecting paths all through it. Alan and I enjoyed the azalea and rhododendron show.

This garden was packed with delightful mini-gardens in the trees and paths everywhere. The best part was the fern gardens, there were paths throughout the ferns and orchids with tunnels and stairways leading to other gardens. It was such fun!

This water sculpture is called Aoteoroa - The land of the long white cloud by artist MD Smither, 2007

We finished the day by taking an evening tramp across styles and through sheep meadows to a river bed leading to a small lake. From there we crossed another style and ran across a golf course. We weren’t sure if we were suppose to be there! But, there was a style. Crossing the final style we head onto the coastal walkway. It is over 7 km long running past the centre of town to the harbor on the other side. We don’t have to go that far. A trail leading to the sea was the best route to the shore. We scrambled over the dunes covered in grasses and through thorny gorse to the sand. It was getting quite dark and we stumbled along the shore as it was black sand with black round rocks on it. The town sparkled in the distance. What a great night for a walk along the shore.

It is a beautiful night to walk the shore.

We finally eat our cherimoya. This fruit is very good…we will have to buy another. The seeds are the size of almonds. (Thurs 22nd Oct)

Saturday Oct 24th, 2009
Today is the local farmers market. Thank goodness we decided to drive, it was such a long way from the camp, also hard to find. The market consisted of many small garage sales, like an English boot sale, plant sales and a few selling vegetables. The setting was beautiful, in a small ravine the market was on different levels of the road.

It is a small valley with a beautiful stream that flows through the middle. The buildings around the edges are built on piers right over the middle of the river and somehow they managed to stack a parking area in the same location.

We head towards the downtown core. The downtown of New Plymouth is a beautiful city with modern stores, a spectacular waterfront, and a boardwalk that runs from the port in the south to past Fitzroy in the North. Most of the board walk is at the edge of the sea with large stones protecting the shoreline. In the background is Mount Taranaki, providing a spectacular setting for a city.

The board walk begins at the harbor.

We start at Kawaroa Park where the actual walk begins. This seems to be a popular place as we meet joggers, bikers, skateboarders, strollers and roller-skates.

At Te Henui stream the fishermen fish for white bait using both

dip nets and set nets in the stream. They don’t appear to be having much luck as a dog is swimming in the steam chasing the ducks.

A little boy and his Mum show me a family of ducks with brand new goslings. They were protecting their babies from the swooping sea gulls.

These two children reminded me of Andrew and Lisa when they were little, at the lake shore in Kincardine. They ran in and out with each wave!

Alan found these little crabs on the rocks, sunning themselves!

In the evening we drive up to mount Egmont Mountain. We stop at the visitor’s centre at the base of the mountain. The mountain is almost out of the clouds as we wait for a while. It is quite cold here. Maybe tomorrow we will get a clear view of the mountain.

Friday Oct 23rd, 2009

Our next destination is New Plymouth. The traffic is heavier today as everyone is on vacation. It is the Labour Day weekend. We stop in Pirongia for a break of coffee. The land is quite flat here. Lots of small farms.

At Otorohanga, we stop here at Woolworths for groceries. We have our picnic in a park at Piopio. Today we have ham sandwiches for a change. Peanut butter and honey is our main lunch sandwich when we travel.

Further on the highway changes from rolling farm land to mountainous switch backs, ravines, gulleys and rock out croppings. It is quite beautiful here. This is a coastal road that provides glimpses of the Tasman sea with large cliffs.

As we arrive in New Plymouth, we can see Mount Taranaki in the distance. It is huge, majestic, mountain that stands out way above everything else on the horizon.

We settle into the backpackers lodge here in New Plymouth. Alan met a fella across the road from us, Joe Houston and his old Ford van, now converted into a diesel truck for pulling around his fifth wheel trailer. He started from scratch, modified the frame, motor, hydraulics, extra floating axle and all the bells and whistles. Then he picked up the fifth wheel trailer called Okanogan and it is made in Canada. He pulls it around NZ with his truck. He has real talent for fabrication.

Alan mashed two of the avocados and we ate them with salsa and nacho chips. It is very hard to find plain nacho chips here.

Close by is the beach. Alan and I walk down there after supper. There is a six km path along the shore that takes you into the downtown. The beach is fine, fine, fine black sand. It flows softly through your hands. This beach also has rocks strewn all over. They are rounded by the movement of the water and are also black. We met a couple who were just coming from their swim. They made a pact last year, to swim each day in the sea. They are eight months along in this and are glad the weather and sea are getting warmer.

Thursday Oct 22nd, 2009

This fruit, a cherimoya we bought in Kerikeri and is almost ready to eat. It is a type of custard apple with the flavor of pineapple and banana. I can’t wait to try it. Our avocados are almost ready too!!

Tomorrow we are heading south to New Plymouth. We have to book our ferry tickets here in Auckland as the car rental agency will pay half of the price. Our cost is $260 for a return trip with the discount.

For lunch today we went to Pinati’s Keke Pua ‘A in Otahuhu to try Moira and Davey’s steamed pork buns. Moira invited us into the back of the restaurant and she served us lunch of steamed pork buns, lamb buns, creamed coconut buns, German buns and banana buns. I ate them despite the gluten. Boy were they delicious! Actually, I tasted each type and Alan ate both his and finished mine.

Moira explained that many people come from far and wide to sample her steamed buns. This is authentic Samoan food and quite a busy spot as these buns are very popular.

Barbecued flavored ground pork and onion filling is surrounded by dough, and then steamed. They are served hot. These buns are not browned, but pure white. All the other buns are deep fried. I think Lamb is my favorite. Moira sent us off with a good supply of buns for later.