Coromandel Peninshula

Staying a whole week in Whitianga, where we can tour about in our hire car. Lots of beach potential here.



Watch out for the composting toilets, though!




All kiddding aside, we finally have found some beaches that we can get to with less than an hours walk and without a shuttle bus. Here's a sample...







Next week, up to the very north of Auckland. Then, Friday back to Australia for the National Folk Festival in Canberra.

Napier, New Zealand

"Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes."


This has been my favorite place so far. No mountain hikes. No throwing oneself off of or out of anything. Well, there's not much of a swimming beach, but at least there's a nice long beach with pounding surf. And, one can walk to the attractions without paying $60 for a shuttle bus. The big attraction is the architecture. The town was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and was rebuilt in 2 years in the style of the day, art deco. There's some Spanish Mission buildings, too. I'll be posting lots of pictures on the Mac site, so peek in there from time to time. Click on the post title (above) for a link to the preservation group's website.

One example of the buildings is the backpackers hostel where we're staying. You can spot the Spanish Mission style, with the tiled roof.



Tomorrow, we're off toward the Coromandel peninsula in search of a warm beach. First a few days near Tauranga in Mt. Maunganui. Then, up the peninsula to Coromandel and Whitianga. Our bus passes do not cover that area, so we are going to rent a car. Or, as they say here, 'hire' a car.

On the road - ODDS and ends

Most of our traveling has been by bus. We have a deal, like a phone card, whereby we've purchased a certain number of hours on the bus. We can spend down those hours and top off at a discounted rate if we decide that we want to do more bus travel. There was one part of the trip where we took a train over the Alps of the south island. And, of course, a 3 hour ferry ride is required to get between the islands.



Although it is not technically a 'tour' bus, the drivers make a point of introducing themselves and announcing points of interest. Some are chattier than others. There was one who wouldn't shut up, and went on at great lengths about irrigation systems, invading bio-pests, and power schemes along the river. All very interesting. Some busses will make drop offs and pick ups at the hostel doorstep, although sometimes it's hard to figure out the rules.


Many will make comfort stops along the way so that you can stretch, get a snack or a meal, hit the public loos, and the like. Sometimes, they'll make their stop at a scenic overlook. And, in most cases, it's be great to be able to relax and enjoy scenery like this.



We went on a fun winery tour around Nelson on the north coast of the south island. I wanted to get this photo in to show how manicured the vines are. And, at this place they also raised some greenhouse sorts of varieties that required more warmth than the NZ climate could provide naturally. The netting is to keep birds away, which is a huge problem for fruit growers in general. We see whole orchards netted off, not just grapes.



We've seen a few of these labels. Seems like someone could suggest a more generic term.



On the other hand, have you ever seen a playground that has a swing capable of handling wheelchairs?





This was a fun playground teeter-totter combo sort of ride. It went round and round and the riders could alter the direction or speed by kicking the center post. This family was having a fun time. Well, 3 of them were having a fun time and the fourth, a little girl of about 4, was screaming bloody murder.





OK, a few more examples of hostel life. Making a good cup of coffee can be a challenge.



Sometimes, we just give up and drink, ohmygawd!, instant coffee. We certainly will stay away from the fiesta blend in the future. We had our hopes up, but this brand was not as good as we might have hoped.



On the other hand, there was no trouble getting a good piece of toast...



and lots of free seasonings to choose from.



The worms eat good, though!



Here's a unique approach to preventing the cork screw from walking out the door.



Finally, here's the scene of my worst hostel experience so far. I was in the top bunk, snoring to beat the band. A young German girl, not once but twice, turned on the light, shook my bed, demanded that I 'stop making that noise'. She woke up Liz, and I'd guess that she woke up our very nice roomie, Laura. (It was a 4 share dorm.) I told her she should use ear plugs and the second time, I told her that she had to stop waking me up, that I couldn't control it. In the morning, Liz bawled her out for being childish and ineffective. I was in a terrible snit and banged everything I could while she pretended to be asleep. Of course I turned on the light and opened the shades at 7:30 while we were getting ready to leave for the bus.



But, then I got to thinking... I went and reported her to the reception desk and asked to buy a pair of ear plugs for her. The manager gave me a set, and wouldn't take my $1.00. By then, the tender fraulein was up and packing, so I gave her the ear plugs and a little talking to. I said, 'maybe you haven't thought about this, but we might end up in the same dorm room again down the road, so I want to make things right before the next time.' She did a little double take. I don't think she had considered that.

An hour later as we were handing our bags to the bus driver to stash under the bus, she happened to be in the line in front of me. "Picton", she told the driver. "Picton", I told the driver next, and got on the bus while she was saying goodbye to some people. Well, she never got on the bus. Best I can figure is that she had the driver get her bag out and she took another bus. I was sure hoping the fat person in the seat next to her snored up a storm, or maybe even had a little gastric distress.

I've since googled 'snore hostel' and if you really have time on your hands, it might be interesting to see what's out there in the blog-o-sphere about the topic. We met a guy who had a similar experience (of being the snorer) and he said he just got up and went to sleep in the lounge. Makes me look bad, but darnit, that's what you get for the cheap room rate. She was lucky it wasn't the night that everyone ate beans for supper.

Liz says I should take a survey. So, what do you think? Who should move out: the snorer or the person without earplugs?

More catching up

Ahhhhhhhhhh... unlimited bandwidth via a wireless connection from a hostel room. $10 for 24 hours. It's time for a blogathon!

First up some pictures from Wellington, where we started this New Zealand adventure way back around February 22nd.


Some advertising building art. Seems like there's still a bit of advertising here in NZ that assumes that the consumer will be male [or lesbian, I'd have to guess]. I see it on television advertising as well. Can you tell I'm beginning to get an attitude?


















Some interesting architecture. The Wildlife House is a backpacker hostel. They tend to be more variable and, well, wilder than the YHA hostels. We avoided them for the first few weeks, but have had some good luck with some.


















There was some very modern buildings in Wellington.


















And, some examples of modern next to old.






































































A cable car rides up to the botanical gardens and a planetarium. Residents also use it to get up to their neighborhood.














Yeah, read the sign if you're tempted to walk on these tracks.


















The weather was fine. That's a meteorological sort of term here. They say it in regards to the weather forcasts and reports. "A fine day is expected tomorrow." We hear that in Hobart, too.




















We were running out of time that day, so we went to the planetarium and skipped the botanical gardens.















There was a really cool observatory, with an old working telescope. On clear nights, they open the dome roof and have an open air presentations. Unfortunately, the astronomer couldn't guarantee a 'fine' evening and we couldn't wait around. But, we did stay for the last planetarium demonstration and learned how to spot the southern cross in the sky. Also, heard some Maori myths about the southern constellations.




Spotted quite a few old style Mini's around town.




And, came upon some dragon racers training on the bay.

Still in NZ with pay kiosks

Grrrrrr. Too expensive to upload my own pictures. Here's a link to Phil's pictures from Tasmania. Click

Short report from NZ: it's colder than we expected and it takes way more energy than we have. Did the south island in 3 weeks. Off to Napier tomorrow in search of beach.

Kayaking and hostel life

With rain 2 out of 3 days on average, we figured there'd be a good chance that we would not see the Franz Josef glacier reflected in the placid lake. And, indeed, there was a soft drizzle and some periods of steady rain.



But, it was quiet and beautiful none-the-less. As luck would have it, there was just the 2 of us, so we had a bit of a private tour with our guide C.C. She looked like Ani DiFranco during the dreadlock phase.



Our guide showed us into a small bay, then a smaller inlet where we saw the subtropical rainforest up close. We saw a white heron on the shore.



The paddle back to shore was exhausting. But, we had an excellent nap after our 'self-catered' lunch of cabbage soup in the Franz Josef Hostel.





Hostel life is quite pleasant, not to mention a very economical way to see the world. There's a place to stash groceries, including refridge and freezer space. The hostels in NZ are uniformly organized. At each one so far, there's been a communal spice rack and some extra bins for free food that folks might leave rather than carry to the next stop.





And, everyone is expected to clean up after themselves.