New Zealnand's golden Bay

Dec 14 took the ferry Wellington to Picton. Drove across Queen Charlotte Drive (not recommended unless you like narrow twisty road) Stayed in Cable bay ($50 to camp) then drove up to Manfred and Anna's just north of Takaka in Golden Bay.

WWOOFing proved it's worth this time. What a wonderful place to land and get over travel weary for awhile. Liked it so much we stayed until we HAD to leave for our Thailand flight.

This is hard to write. I don't know how to express the warm feelings I have about our stay with Manfred, Anna, Manianna, Angelica, Daisy and the rest of the Takaka family we shared Christmas and other good times with. We felt very much like we were at home, only more so. They have so many cool things going on, and go about it in such a relaxed but effective manner. We can only hope to create such an environment in our humble abode in Corvallis (or where ever we eventually land).

While in Takaka (Golden Bay) we shared meals, gardened, petted Daisy the duck,

did our homework,

shared Christmas, learned about Body Balance, scythes, and living in house trucks. Also, I made a table with hand tools, fixed computers, built a bird proof fruit garden cover, a solar hot water collector, fished off the beach with a net, went for a ride in a tuk-tuk boat, swam in the ocean, rescued pilot whales and many other things.

All of them wonderful, all very special to our heart. We love you all.

The thumb of Robert

Returning from a night of mild debauchery in Takaka I managed to get my thumb between the door and the jamb of our little home on wheels. It took no mercy on me, mashing the end of my thumb such that the nail is probably going to come off.
Yes, it really HURT!

Midlands, North Island

OK, so Bay of Islands is pretty nice. What about the rest of the country? Having worn out our welcome in the parking lot of the Mousetrap, we loaded up the camper, lowered the roof and headed off for the midlands of North island.

Along the way we saw a few strange sites. The PNW has it's Ecotopia, but New Zealand has Eutopia.











Next stop Rotorua - land of hot springs and stinky gases.
We stayed here in Westminster Lodge, a victorian style B&B that Francie arranged, up on the side of the biggest hill around Rotorua, well away from said smelly gases, but with a killer view of the lake and valley. We got the cottage to ourselves, enabling us to spread out and figure out where things were that we'd stuffed into the camper earlier.

Bay of Islands and Paihia

Soon it was time to hit the road again. Having tried the car/hostel routine, and a minivan for occasional sleeping in, we thought we could pull off actual camping. This time around we rented a camper van of sorts. It's a little Mazda minivan with a pop top that the kids can sleep in and seats that recline to a bed in back. A little butane stove and some dishware and blankets from an op shop and we were set. So we drove all the way to Paihia and checked into the MouseTrap hostel. This is the week after Thanksgiving, it was pretty amazing we found any place at all, but the Mousetrap turned out to be just right. We stayed a night in a room, then into the camper. With the hostel facilities right there it was an easy transition to "camping".

There were lots of young beautiful backpackers, and backpacker places in Piahai. Also bars. In fact the one across the street seemed to have a pretty good party almost every night until 1AM or so. But that's life on the tourist circuit.

We enjoyed good weather the first couple days, then decided to do some boat tours, which we booked a day in advance. Of course the next day dawned blustery with rain threatening. This did not bode well for Francie and the kids planned dolphin chasing/tour of Bay of Islands on a power boat trip.














But I booked a trip on the very racy looking "On the Edge", a 70' catamaran with no center cabin, so blustery was just what I wanted, although I could have done without the rain. Well I had a great time, and I think my crew mates did too.































The kids and Francie did indeed see and swim with dolphins,













but the rest of the trip was a little rocky.

New Zealand - Auckland

Stayed in an airport motel for 2 days. Not sure why, just seemed like we didn't know what else to do. But the kids loved the pool and the little pond with goldfish. But at $15/day for internet and way more to stay this was unsustainable so...






We moved into town, Parnell, a section of Auckland near the museum and downtown. We got a room in the Aloe Inn backpacker or hostel on Queen's Bay st. Yes, Wireless! So we caught up on email, bought christmas presents, the kids saw the new Harry Potter movie. There are 4 other hostels in that couple blocks. Popular place.





The museum was very cool, a large display of Maori and polynesian artifacts, including a really huge war canoe and a Maori meeting house reproduction. They also had a Da Vinca display, of all things. Mostly of his machines, many of them interactive.

The waterfront area was very active, both with business and tourist stuff, including of course, America's cup boats. You can stand under "The Big One" and admire the Kiwi's audacity at playing the America's Cup game and almost beating us at it. Or you can sign up for some match racing on former AC boats, including a showy tow out to the infamous Huraki gulf and champagne lunch after.