Wandering Around: January 2016

We landed in Auckland at about 2:15 PM, local time, after a 12 hour flight from Los Angeles. The time here in New Zealand is 21 hours ahead of Los Angeles, and 18 hours ahead of Toronto. Not much sleep for either of us on the plane, even though we took off at 9:45 PM, LA time, and so had all night. Most others on the plane seemed to sleep; however, we got no more than 2 or 3 hours each. The problem with that was that I was just developing a cold as we took off, so by the time we arrived in Auckland, it was full-blown. And it got worse—so much so that, after 3 days of phlegmy coughing, I went to a medical clinic, where the doctor prescribed 10 days of antibiotics to deal with the bronchitis I’d developed. So much for the 1st week or so in New Zealand. I was basically a captive in our private room at an Airbnb rental. And, of course, so was Leah, since I was the driver. We managed to get out for groceries and to attend a couple of ‘car fairs’, as they’re called here. We were still thinking we’d buy a campervan. But what we saw were old, small, and well-used—and they still cost a fortune. We also toured a couple of RV dealers. Of course, the motorhomes we saw were in much better shape, and were larger—but still quite small by North American standards. We saw two that interested us: one was a Mercedes Sprinter-based tall van outfitted quite well. It looked new, but it was a 2008, and had 150000 kilometres on it. But it was $65,000 NZ (about $60,000 CDN). It would be fairly comfortable, but there’d be nowhere to store our 3 large suitcases, and the bed would need to be folded up each morning so we could use the table and kitchen. It had a wet toilet (shower/toilet combo), with a cassette toilet that needed to be emptied by hand every few days. The 2nd unit was a class C (cabover) that was larger and more comfortable—but it had 250,000 km, was a 2007, and cost $70,000 NZ! Selling either one at the end was chancy, as it would be the end of the summer, when everyone would be selling. If we couldn’t sell, we’d need to leave it with a dealer, who’d sell it for us, but for a huge commission.

Consequently, we decided to just rent a car and go from Airbnb to VRBO to motel—kind of making it up as we went.

Just off the plane at a waterfront restaurant in Takapuna, where our Airbnb house was located:

Fish and chips for two. Good, but $70.00 NZ. Hardly able to appreciate it, as we were both sleepless and jet-lagged--and I was sick.

Here’s our first Airbnb, a 6 bedroom modern house in Auckland, on the water, where we had a bedroom and a private bathroom:

The house from the beach (telephoto shot, so farther from beach than it looks)

View into one of the rooms from the deck.

View of Auckland across bay from our deck

View toward deck from one of the rooms (not ours)

Beach at Brown's Bay. 1st day out in a while for me

We left Auckland for our 2nd rental, The Essential Garden, out in the boonies about 5 miles from the nearest town, Puhoi, New Zealand.

The Essential Garden, a one bedroom tree-house style apartment

The deck looked out on the forest about midway up in the canopy

The couple who ran the Essential Garden actually lived on the 12 acre property, which they bought several years ago to get away from the rat race. They grow essential herbs and are mostly off the grid. Very interesting couple who provided many suggestions about where to go. The woman is an art teacher and artist, and many of her works were displayed. Here are some of the lovely flowers on the property:

I was starting to feel almost normal at this point, so we visited a well-reviewed local farmers'/craft market called the Matakana Market. Leah had a great time and I took some photos:

Matakana Market

Interesting looking guy who owned a sharpening stall at the Matakana Market

1st short walk for me at Shakespear Park (not misspelled; named after someone other than William, who spelled the name differently). Nice place--like High Park--only for Auckland.

Our host at Essential Garden suggested Muriwai Beach, where there is a gannet colony. Good suggestion. Nicest scenery yet:

Thousands of gannets at this gannet colony, Muriwai Beach

Looks like a character...

Looks like it feels good!

Nice stairs down to the beach.

Water would blow out the many holes in the rock when the rollers came in.

Trying for a video

Windy beach

Muriwai Beach

After Muriwai beach, we moved on to another VRBO apartment, this time at a vineyard called Te Awanga.

View from deck of our apartment at Te Awanga Vineyards

Hike behind Te Awanga Vineyard Apartment

I'd read that the town near the apartment, Napier, was an excellent example of Art Deco architecture. That's because the whole town was levelled by an earthquake in 1931, then rebuilt entirely in the Art Deco style.

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At the beach...

Napier pier

Appreciating the view...

Working on blog post, Te Awanga Vineyards

After 5 days, we headed south to Wellington, the nation's capital, and home to the New Zealand National Museum or Te Papa Tongarewa, the Maori name for the museum. Interesting that Maori culture and language is woven into the fabric of New Zealand--in the same way that French is in Canada (and possibly to a greater extent). All the signs you see are in both languages: English and Maori.