March 1-9: North Island, NZ

3/1 Thursday
We left Picton and the South Island heavy-hearted on the 9:00 a.m. ferry to Wellington. The 3-hour cruise was smooth and scenic and we drove off the ferry around noon.

After a pit stop (Pita Pit) in town, we arrived at our Airbnb in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Wellington, which is arguably our best place yet.

Cushla and Richard Thurston, our Airbnb hosts, own the main home below our studio. Cushla is an architect and Rich is an artist and the result of their collaboration on this project is a tiny home, “StudioSeventyFour,” that is literally award-winning.

 Here is a link to the article about StudioSeventyFour in the above magazine.

3/2 Friday
Jeff went for a run on the City to Sea Walkway late morning and other than a trip into town for a few necessities, we basically hung out at our hilltop home, enjoying the views and catching up on stuff. We call this a GSD or Get S–t Done day.

After a not-so-active day, Mick’s P.E. teacher made sure he got his heart rate up a bit.

3/3 Saturday
We dragged our feet in the morning, not wanting to leave our hilltop haven. Our stay at “StudioSeventyFour” with its panoramic views, its friendly gray cat and chatty tui bird will be hard to beat.

Car packed, we entered “National Park Village/Tongariro Park” into Google Maps and started following the  blue dot. About half of the 3+ hour drive was along the coast, but so far the scenery in the north doesn’t compare to that of the south. We checked into the Park Hotel (not a thing like the one in Lafayette) and made reservations for the morning shuttle service for our 12-mile Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike tomorrow.

Next, a trip to the store to get sandwich stuff, granola bars, water, etc. for our hike and fish ‘n’ chips for Mick for dinner. Jeff and I checked out the local happenin’s at Shnapps, the local pub, and had a delicious dinner.

3/4 Sunday
At 7:25 the shuttle bus picked us up from the motel lobby and by 8:00 we’d started on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

The weather could not have been better – clear skies and no wind (except on the summits).

We’d read the description of the various legs of the trail, but none really emphasized the amount of climbing we did.

All the climbing paid off with varied, stunning views.

The way down looked more like the beginning of the trail.

We made it to the pick-up site almost two hours before our 3:30 pick-up, but the time passed quickly as we ate our second sandwiches and visited with couple from Belgium who’d done the hike with their baby girl (one of several couples toting a baby)! We were back at the motel at 4 o’clock and immediately got ourselves in the hot tub for a welcome soak. Eventually, Jeff and I walked back over to Schnapps and Mick joined us after he’d finished up his homework.

3/5 Monday
After National Park, we drove to “The Delta Lodge” on Lake Rotorua, yet another Airbnb gem. The house we stayed in was actually the house the previous owners stayed in while they were building the house next door – now owned by Steve and Norine Wynn, our hosts. It was the perfect place for me to hobble around on my sore, post-hike legs.

The Wynns greeted us when we first arrived, walked us through the house, told us all kinds of things to do, and generally made us feel welcome. Steve, who previously owned a deer farm nearby, is a hunter and fisherman and told us that the lake was teeming with trout and that there was equipment all ready for us if we wanted to try our luck. Jeff and Mick picked up 24-hour fishing licenses, got into a couple of the Wynn’s canoes and headed out on the lake. When Jeff landed a whopper in the first five minutes, he thought it was going to be easy.

3/6 Tuesday
Mick was up and ready to hit the lake at sunrise (which says a LOT), but no luck in the morning or on subsequent attempts in the afternoon and evening. And both he and Jeff tried hard.

In the afternoon, we drove about a half hour out of town to Kerosene Creek, a natural hot springs-fed creek with a pungent sulfur-oma. We were all surprised when we put our feet in what looked like an ordinary, medium-sized creek, but found it was hot – almost too hot. Like a hot tub that you have to keep getting in and out of.

Back at home, Jeff cooked up his monster trout, and while it wasn’t quite as good as Stanislaus trout, it was delicious.

3/7 Wednesday
On the way to Auckland, we stopped outside Matamata at the Alexander Family Farm, aka Hobbiton. Amazingly apropos: Mick was reading The Hobbit when we pulled into the parking lot of “The Shire.” The rain that had been falling since we’d left Rotorua, miraculously stopped just before we reached the farm and by the time our tour started we had blue skies.

Jeff opted not to take the two-hour walking tour and instead went for a run and had lunch. A bus drove us a short way from the parking area to the movie set, where we met up with our guide and walked around for the next couple of hours, learning some really interesting things about the location, the filming, and the lengths Peter Jackson went to make this place “real.”

It was magic. So much more than either I or Mick expected. Thanks to Peter Jackson’s obsession, it really is like you’re there, in another world.

Mick and I were still on a Hobbiton high when we got back on the road and Jeff patiently listed to our already nostalgic reminiscences of The Shire.

It was strange to be in traffic after almost a month of little or none, but that’s what we encountered as we approached Auckland. I had chosen an Airbnb in the Ponsonby neighborhood, which turned out to be perfect.

Not only was our apartment in a great neighborhood, but our host, Suzy, and her two border terriers, Harry & Sally, were wonderful. After familiarizing us with the house and helping us get settled, Suzy told us where we should walk to get a good feel for the neighborhood and gave us lots of ideas for things to do.

On our way to the grocery store to get stuff for pasta dinner, we saw tons of places to eat, drink, and be merry and kicked ourselves for not allocating more time for North Island.

Back at home, we discovered we didn’t have a stovetop! Not to worry. Believe it or not, you can microwave both pasta and ground meat and make a reasonably good (though a bit unevenly al dente) spaghetti!!

3/8 Thursday
Today we explored Auckland on foot, walking from Ponsonby downtown and finally along the wharf and back home.

 

Hearts in San Francisco, Dolphins in Perth, Owls in Auckland:

While we planned to try out one of the several places we’d seen to eat, we were tired from our walk and takeout from the barbecue place we’d seen on our way home sounded pretty good. Jeff went with Mick to pick it up, while I got to stay at home and visit with Suzy over wine, discussing all kinds of things, some of little and some of great import. In the latter category, Suzy told me a little bit about Gallipoli and its importance to Kiwis and Aussies (see below). In the former category, “book club” in New Zealand, as in the U.S., is code for “drinking wine with friends.”

Our dinner from More Pork was awesome, maybe in part due to the fact that the owner and his wife, Jeff discovered, used to live in the Marina and worked at One Market and other restaurants in San Francisco!

Gallipoli & ANZAC Day
Each year on Anzac Day, New Zealanders (and Australians) mark the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings of 25 April 1915. On that day, thousands of young men, far from their homes, stormed the beaches on the Gallipoli Peninsula in what is now Turkey.

For eight long months, New Zealand troops, alongside those from Australia, Great Britain and Ireland, France, India, and Newfoundland battled harsh conditions and Ottoman forces desperately fighting to protect their homeland.

By the time the campaign ended, more than 130,000 men had died: at least 87,000 Ottoman soldiers and 44,000 Allied soldiers, including more than 8700 Australians. Among the dead were 2779 New Zealanders, about a sixth of all those who had landed on the peninsula.

In the wider story of the First World War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark. The number of dead, although horrific, pales in comparison with the death toll in France and Belgium during the war. However, for New Zealand, along with Australia and Turkey, the Gallipoli campaign is often claimed to have played an important part in fostering a sense of national identity.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as Anzacs, and the pride they took in that name endures to this day.

Auckland is an odd mixture of old and new, more charming in some places than others. Again, I feel we lucked out by choosing Ponsonby. Or maybe it was karma … when Jeff contacted our friend, Jeff Ames, who lived in Auckland with his wife and family for a time, to tell him we were in Auckland, we discovered that their home was just two blocks down from Ponsonby Terrace, where we stayed. Of course we had to drive by and take a selfie and show them how great their house looks.

New Zealand was probably the place that both Jeff and I were most excited to see and it lived up to all our expectations and more. Our sadness at leaving is only alleviated by reassuring one another that we’ll come back.

Kia Ora
A Maori phrase to wish someone well, thank someone, or greet a mate.

Key Kiwi words & phrases:

• Sweet as = Cool, whatever (usually followed up with “bro”).
• Wop wops = middle of nowhere. The boonies.
• Dairy = convenience store (think 7-11)
• Chilly Bin = ice chest 
• Bach (batch)= holiday home,
• Jandals = flip flops, thongs
• Togs = swimsuit
• Stubbies = short shorts for men
• She’ll be right = cool, don’t worry
• No worries = You’re welcome, no problem
• Chur = Thanks
• Yeah nah = I hear you, but don’t necessarily agree.
• Good on ya, mate! = Well done
• Tramping = hiking (Not something lewd)
• Kumara = sweet potatoes
• Capsicum = bell pepper
• Feijoa = tomato-sized tangy fruit
• Skux = A player, ladies man. Stud.
• A mare = nightmare, bad situation.
• L&P = Lemon & Paeroa (where it is made). A fizzy, watered down lemonade.
• Op shops = thrift shop.
• Waikikamukau  = New Zealand town. Pronounced “Why kick a moo cow.”