From Auckland to Paihia in the Bay of Island, November 14 & 15

All packed - we travel light!

 November 14

     We took a shuttle to pick up our next rental car through Ace Car Rental. The car is a Kia Sportage and has a few less bells and whistles than the last car and I think we will like it better. From the outset, they helped us to understand the controls, especially the navigation which we struggled with in Australia.

Driving north from Auckland

    Mark drove up Route 1 to Paihia. Like in Australia, a red road on a map that looks like it might be a highway, really isn't. The dual carriageway quickly disappeared and became a two-lane road. And, to add to that, there was a detour as Route 1 is being repaired. We went off the road on really small, winding roads for approximately 40 extra miles. And, the road was crowded as Route 1 is the only major road going northward. Luckily, we did not have a long day, so were only in the car just over 4 hours.

The amazing view from our bed and breakfast, Allegra, in Paihia

      The countryside was green and lush with farms in some parts, but very hilly.

We feel very grateful

      We arrived in Paihia and are at a superb bed and breakfast called Allegra which is up a steep and narrow road and we are looking down on the town and the beach. We have the top-floor room with our own balcony. It is like living in a postcard. Our bed faces two huge picture windows. In addition, we have a kitchenette. Heinz and Brita have owned it for years. Heinz is a transplant from Switzerland and Brita from England. They are New Zealanders now who have raised two daughters here. They love Paihia.

Another view from our window

     At his recommendation, we ate at Charlotte's down on the dock. We had a delicious, very-thin crust mushroom pizza and some grilled, spicy cauliflower.

      We have been watching the birds and we watched the sun go down.

   November 15 - Waitangi Treaty Grounds

 

Meeting House 

 We awoke early today with full sun shining in. We did not close the curtains as we didn't want to miss a moment of the views. We both sat on "our" balcony and listened to birds. The tui and the royal kingfisher are abundant and rather noisy. We also keep hearing silver eyes, but have yet to spot one.

 

This is a slice of a log likes ones used to build wakas!

We have the top floor! 

  Breakfast was abundant and scrumptious. Heinz made fresh bread, for one. There were croissants, smoke salmon, lots of fruit, including, of course kiwis, yogurt, breakfast meats.... The two other couples, both from Germany were entertaining and we all laughed a lot - a benefit of staying at bread and breakfasts. Two of the men left right after breakfast to head south; we ran into the other couple later in the day and will see them tomorrow.

 

Maori carving to show aggressiveness with tongue out and eyes rolled.

   We spent the bulk of our day at Waitangi Treaty Grounds right outside of Paihia. It is considered one of New Zealand's most historic sites. In 1840, Maori leaders and the British Crown laid the groundwork for New Zealand. On site are multiple buildings. One is a general museum about the treaty etc and those who participated. The other was a small museum which posed the question - "What is the Price of Citizenship?" It exhibited the Maori contributions to wars from the Boer War to WWII. It was thought provoking.

     We took an excellent hour-long tour lead by a historian who started by telling everyone that she is autistic and treated it as a real benefit.  

     We learned a lot. The Maori word for "land" also means "placenta" which summarizes the Maori view of land as the mother.

Inside of the huge dugout

     "Maori" itself means "normal" or "ordinary." In other words, they introduced themselves to the white newcomers as the normal, every-day people. 

      New Zealand was uninhabited until 800 years ago which is quite astonishing to think about.

      There was only one mammal in N.Z. at the time - bats. The fauna was unlike many in the world, including many flight-less birds. They simply had no need to fly.

      The Maori are connected to other Polynesian people and our guide mentioned in particular links with the Japanese of Okinawa. 

   

 We saw the largest dug-out boat in the world, a "waka"- the world's largest ceremonial war canoe. It is still used and had been at sea the day before. It took 80 people to row it and could go 30 miles per hour.  Before the advent of the rails used now to launch it, it would take 100 men. The carvings were beautiful and intricate.  The main color is red. "Mana" or "red" means "honor." Cici, the guide pointed out that honor can be won - or lost.

       It is a single hull boat because large trees were available here. Other parts of Polynesia had double-hulled (outriggers) because they had smaller trees and did not want to risk capsizing. This waka is broad-beamed and heavy. The wood doubles in weight when it gets wet and is almost impossible to capsize.

      This area was the center of the area's whale trade and has connections with New England's whaling industry and Nantucket. Cici was interested when we told her that.

     After the tour, we went to a Maori ceremony with 5 performers. It was in a meeting house that was build to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Treaty. It took six years to build and master carvers had to be found as carving had become less important. 

      The performers sang and danced. It was a welcoming ceremony for the treaty signing. We had to remove our shoes and sunglasses to go in. They demonstrated dances to show off skills of warriors - using sticks, spears and balls. (Hard to explain.) 

     We had a coffee and split a Greek salad at the cafe on the grounds and then drove a short distance to see Haruru Falls, a horseshoe-shaped waterfall. 

      In mid-afternoon we came back to our lovely bed and breakfast, cancelled a reservation for one hotel and made another one. We realized that, especially with the same detour we will have to drive after we leave the Bay of Islands, we should really stay so that the detour will be behind us.

   

seafood chowder at Zane Grey's

red snapper

  We went to Zane Grey's Restaurant to eat and had a great seat by the window looking into the Bay. (Zane Grey came here 4 times and wrote a book about the deep sea fishing here which helped put Paihia on the map for fishermen.) Barbara had a New Zealand specialty - green lipped mussels for an appetizer; Mark had seafood chowder and we both had red snapper on a bed of pea puree topped with roasted fennel. Everything was excellent- a special meal.

      

Two more days in Auckland, November 12, 13

 November 12

Christmas is coming!

     It is a bit strange every day to write in this blog knowing the dates that we write are not the dates back home. So, today is Veterans' Day back home, but it's already the 12th here, having crossed the International Date Line.

     We started the day with a nice long chat with Nick - good to hear his voice.

   

Beautiful carvings

Polynesian 'tide/current' chart
Made with sticks, cowry shells and meant
to be memorized. Amazing.

 It was supposed to be a rainy day, so we planned to go to the nearby Maritime Museum. We stopped there to inquire and found out that the tickets would be good for two days, so we decided to explore part of it today.

Lamb special - yum

    We walked to Cooke's Restaurant on Queen Street that Mark found had a well-recommended lunch special. It was quite a posh restaurant which was quite empty. We split a cauliflower soup (yum) and each had the special which was roast lamb, potatoes and salad. The special cost $21 dollars. Because of a favorable exchange rate, that translates to just under $12 each. It is a meal that would easily cost $40 on Nantucket. 

    We walked back to the museum and explored the first floor focusing mostly on the amaziing ways that the early Polynesian sailors navigated the vast Pacific. They did not use the stars; they read the currents and wind. The navigators made representational "maps" and then memorized them. It was astounding.

    We also explored the sections devoted to the early European navigators like James Cook - also very interesting. Cook was an excellent cartographer who managed to made a fairly accurate map of New Zealand. In fact, the currents he recorded are still in use today.

    We strolled up Queen Street and looked for light, long-sleeved shirts for Mark who is tired of the one that he brought with him. We bought two at H&M.

    We ate dinner at home from provisions bought at Woolworth's - called Woolys here - a nice big salad.

November 13

     Today we went to the first floor of our apartment building and had some homemade scones and coffee before spending the rest of the morning at the Maritime Museum. 

View from "our" balcony

     They had some very interesting exhibits about the waves of immigrants who have come here from all over the world over the centuries. New Zealand actively recruited immigration to settle the land. Of course, the Maori suffered from much of this - being forced to give up land, being attacked by the military and by subsequent discrimination and cultural loss. 

    It seems to us that New Zealand is trying to make up for that now and recognize the Maori culture. As people who identify as Maori make up 41% of the population, they have more influence as indigenous people than many other indigenous peoples of the world. On New Zealand television, one of the major commentators is a woman with a distinctive tattoo in the place where a man's beard would be.

This crossed the ocean- ancient design

    The museum highlighted the difficult trips that immigrants took in order to get to New Zealand and highlight many of the interesting stories. There was a mock room to show the kind of bunks people had in the mid 1800s.

   Many exhibits were devoted to ship building - both traditional Maori up to the sleek yachts of the American's Cup.

    In fact, there was a lot about the America's Cup which began in the U.S. in 1851. There was a 12-meter yacht on display in the museum. The first time the America's Cup left the U.S. was in 1983 when Australia took the Cup. The first time New Zealand competed and won was in 1987. They also won it in 1995, 2017, and 2021.  

     Like the pride in the All Blacks Rugby team, there is a great deal of national pride toward New Zealand's participation in the America's Cup in which only two teams race, so it's hard just to get to it. 

     After being there for several hours we walked to Federal Delicatessen which is in the style of a New York Deli. It did not disappoint. We sat under an awning as rain, and possible hail,  was predicted. We both had salads to start. Barbara added a pumpkin soup. Mark had a pastrami plate. All was good.

     We walked back home, dodging raindrops, but stopped into a store selling nephrite jade which is from the South Island of New Zealand. Barbara bought a pair of earrings for under $30 U.S. and Mark bought some pieces which he hopes to make into jewelry.

     We spent the afternoon and evening sitting our our wonderful patio under a blanket - watching the boats and the clouds, catching up with emails, the blog and photos.

      Dinner - eating some things out of the fridge as we leave tomorrow and don't want to carry much with us. 

     Added the next day: Before we fell asleep last night, the bridge had a light show which was pretty amazing.

Onto Auckland! November 10 & 11

 November 10- Flight from Sydney to Auckland

    We had a 4 a.m. wakeup and got the airport shuttle. We had to get our boarding passes in person. We had to prove to the New Zealand authorities that we had tickets to leave the country, so we had to dig into our bags and procure the evidence that we will leave in a month. They are very careful; we had to fill out an online declaration about what we were bringing in, too. They protect their flora and fauna and there are many items you cannot bring in- nuts, soil, meats etc. This includes any hiking gear that you may have used in the wild - walking shoes, walking sticks etc that may have picked up something. We knew we didn't have anything like that as we have stuck to pathways in Australia. The sniffer dog ignored us, but stopped a man behind us.

     The flight was just under 3 hours and pleasant with about 20 minutes of turbulence. The pilot was awesome as he predicted when it would come and how long it would last and was very reassuring.

     Air New Zealand was great. The seats are all equal in size. There are no class divisions. The seats were comfortable and everyone had adequate legroom and the food was also the same for everyone.

   

 We took a shuttle into town; we are on the docks on Princes Wharf in quite a lovely, modern apartment. The building is meant to look like an ocean liner. We have a HUGE balcony with comfy furniture. The 5-step directions to get in were a little complicated, but we managed easily. It has rained off and on and is cool. We got a quick meal (burger joint) and went to a grocery store for provisions. A good start to New Zealand!

November 11

     So nice to wake up with such a nice view - Auckland Harbor. Today may be the only sunny, non-rainy day of our time here, so we decided to get out and about early. With intermittent clouds, it got to be about 73 degrees. A lovely day to walk about.

     We took a bus to the Auckland Art Gallery and spent our morning there. It has quite a lot of Maori art and history. 

Paul Gauguin 

A Manet of Giverny we had never seen - this one was especially about capturing light

      Portraits of Maori people painted by Gottfried Lindauer were stunning. An entire gallery was devoted to them. Lindauer was friendly with his subjects and portrayed them with dignity and gravitas.  As the paintings are under glass, it is hard to get good photos of them. They were mostly painted in the late 1800s.

     

A photo of the art in this exhibit from the Robinson's estate

  We also went through the Robinson Collection -  several galleries of Impressionists, post-Impressionists, Fauvists and Cubist painters which takes people through a nice summary of the various periods.

       Lastly, we went through an exhibition on loan from the Louise Bourgeois estate. She was a French-American artist and influenced by Henri Leger. We watched a film about her rather unhappy childhood, feeling betrayed by her father who openly kept his mistress in the family under the pretense of governess. 

"Couples" by Louise Bourgeois

         Then - lunch at a Thai restaurant. We both had red curries which were delicious.

         We decided to walk the mile or so home and, en route, we went to the  "All Blacks Experience" about the history and culture of New Zealand's rugby team, both the men and the women (Black Ferns.) 

         It was pretty kitschy and not something we'd normally do, but it was quite fun. There were only 5 of us on the tour with a very nice Maori guide.

        The team formed in 1879, and initially wore blue. But, in 1893, it changed to all black, possibly because black was cheaper. A pounamu (greenstone) is sacred to them. It is normally at the All Blacks Experience, but travels with them to every game. Unfortunately for us, it was with the team. The team has an unbelievably successful record - winning about 77% of their games and the women with an impressive 83% win record. The All Blacks are considered amongst the most successful teams in any sport. And, the fact that they are from a small nation, they are important to New Zealand's identify and pride.

        We heard a lot about their traditions. The locker room for the men is completely silent before a match. The women, on the other hand, sing and dance.

      The "experience" included some corny digital games but rather fun.

      Both teams perform the haka at the outset of a match. The hake is a traditional Maori challenge and meant to unify the team and intimidate opponents.

       The "experience" had us stand in front of a huge screen where the men and then the women performed the haka. It was a bit corny, but effective. 

        Afterwards, rather than take the bus 'home,' we walked back to the apartment, stopping to get a few nibbles for dinner. Then, we relaxed on 'our' huge deck on a huge round couch and read and caught up with emails etc.

     

Last Days in Australia - November 8 & 9

 November 8 - Left Leura in the Blue Mountains; arrived in Sydney by the airport

    Today we had a leisurely start to the day. We talked with Nick, Christian and Sebastian. Christian has a busy weekend with 3 baseball games and Nick picked him up early from school so that they'd all be rested. We packed up at Leura House and walked down the road to the Leura Cafe, where we ate yesterday. It was so good that we ordered the very same meals.

   

We put our feet into the Tasman Sea on Bondi Beach

We drove the 1 1/2 hours into Sydney and checked in to the Silkari Urban Hotel near the airport where the temperature was in the mid-to-high 80s.

      We decided to venture to Bondi Beach. (pronounced bond - eye). It is an iconic sandy beach famous for consistently waves for surfing. As it was hot and a Saturday, it was crowded, but Mark managed to find a parking spot. (!) We walked down to the beach, took off our shoes and dipped our feet into the Tasman Sea. It has really been the first opportunity to do that because when we've been by the beaches, the weather has not cooperated.

Iconic Bondi Beach

     After the dip, we had some fish and chips across from the beach. And, on the way to the car, we had a summer rain. Loads of people headed for their cars and the traffic got a bit congested.

November 9 

   

We returned our rental car to downtown Sydney without much hassle. 

    Then we walked into ChinaTown which we have come to love. Mark bought a new rain jacket and Barbara bought some opal earrings. 

 

    We then went back to Yang Sang Park, Korean Barbecue where we ate a few weeks ago. It is just so good, and we had a young server who reminded us of Hank - same smile, profile and...born the same month and year. 

   

In the Botanical Garden, remnants of a bygone building

Can't get enough photos of this - this one is from a different angle than the ones from 3 weeks ago

  Next -we took the free tram to Circular Quay which was crowded with people, it being a lovely sunny day. We went to the Botanical Garden overlooking the harbor, strolled and watched people and ferries coming and going.

     Then - back to Circular Quay for some gelato and then the train to the airport terminal and an Uber back to our hotel.

We don't buy many souvenirs, but Mark will have this to remember Australia.

    It was what we call "a Barbara and Mark day" - not much planned, roaming, eating, and spectating.

And, Barbara will have these opal earrings to remember Australia