New Zealand Part 2 : June 25 - July 14
Tutukaka : Friday, July 7, 2006
The weather certainly didn’t improve overnight. It was still pouring and windy when we woke up. The news is still about the closed highways and stranded travelers down south. We keep thinking that a few hours later that could have been us. Because of the longer drive yesterday, we managed to significantly reduce the drive time today. We were heading up island to the “Northland”, home of Maori culture, big trees and lots of sand! We got on the way shortly after breakfast.
Roughly an hour into the drive we had our first stop in the small village of Warkworth. We were here to find our namesake, the world famous (or at least the Village of Warkworth famous) McKinney Kauri Tree. Located in a small patch of preserved parkland, the McKinney Kauri was named after a local minister. Kauri trees are the largest ones in New Zealand, living almost 2000 years. Our tree was just an adolescent at 800 years old. We also did the 30 minute forest walk that starts off from just behind the tree. Luck was with us, and we managed to complete the walk with only a smattering of rain.
Back in the car, it was only another 60 minutes until we pulled into the city of Whangarei. This is the northernmost “city” (versus village) in the country and is located in the heart of the Northland. We hadn’t managed to secure any accommodations yet, but we did have a few names of travel lodges in the region to check out. Stopping in at the information bureau we decided to ask for some local help. With school break we weren’t sure how hard it would be. We got lucky on our first attempt and snagged the place we wanted out in Tutukaka, some 25 km north and east of the city. According to our guide books, this little village is the jumping off point for dive excursions to the Poor Knight’s Island.
Having booked our accommodation for the next two nights, we headed into downtown Whangarei. This town is famous for its central basin and its collection of local artists and craftsmen. Parking downtown, we spent a couple of hours exploring the harbour front and the local galleries. Things certainly weren’t cheap here. We had seen the same pieces much cheaper in both Auckland and the South Island. Before heading out of town, we also swung by a local grocery store to pick up some provisions for the next couple of days. We should be having access to small kitchenettes for the next couple of days and we wanted to be able to take advantage and get in a couple of home cooked meals.
Before leaving town, we made one last stop at the Whangarei falls. These are reportedly the most photogenic falls in New Zealand. We aren’t sure about its title but they were certainly spectacular and very full. The trail took us down several hundred feet to the base of the falls and would have provided us with some great photo opportunities if the sun hadn’t been in the wrong spot.
The drive to Tutukaka was only about 25 minutes. The road was the kind of twisty and turny road that we are getting used to down by now. The lodge was great. We were staying for two nights in a 2 bedroom with kitchen unit for less than $80 / night. You got to love these off season rates! After getting everybody settled in, Brian headed into town to check on the dive opportunities. It turns out in defining this place as a “town”, the guide books might have been a bit too generous. It was basically a harbour with a big hotel and a couple of small shops underneath on the ground level. The dive shop was a single building 100 yards down the road from the hotel. Blink and you would miss the place. However it would be a bustling place in the summer given the size of the marina.
Brian checked in but quickly found that the price was extremely high ($185 / person / 2 dives). The kiss of death was when they informed Brian that he would need to do a check dive on his first dive for another $30 premium. At that price, diving was certainly out, regardless if Jacques Cousteau loved the place!
We discussed our options over our stir fry dinner that evening and decided that we had been going pretty much non stop for over 3 weeks now. A one day break to catch up on homework, laundry etc. would not be a bad thing. According to Brennan “Tomorrow …. We sleep!”
Saturday, July 8, 2006: Tutukaka, New Zealand
Other than laundry and homework, we did pretty much nothing today. According to the kids, it was great! They have had so few days over the last year where they could just hang out and do nothing they really appreciated a day like today. Sierra and Deb did get up the energy to hike down to the beach, while Brian was taking Brennan through the derivation of the quadratic formula. Everybody except Brian was certain that Sierra got the better end of the deal!
Dinner was another scramble to use up the vegetables from the night before. A bottle of wine and a good rugby match between the All Blacks and Australia made for a terrific evening. The All Blacks even won.
Sunday, July 9, 2006: Russell, New Zealand
Our destination today was the small town of Russell, population 1,000. Located only 2 hours north of Tutukaka on another twisty windy road, it was once the capital of New Zealand. In its early years it was a huge whaling and provisioning center for ships. The morals of the sailors on these ships were appalling and the town earned its nickname of the Hell Hole of the Pacific. It was very lawless to say the least. Today it serves as the jump off point for several different ecotours in the Bay of Islands. It has several walking trails and several art shops. We arrived early at the hotel (Triton Suites) and spent a good chunk of time cruising the shops along the waterfront downtown.
After checking in and depositing Sierra in the room (a couple hours of much sought after alone time) the rest of us headed off on a good 2-3 hour hike. Deb however got so fed up with the two guys that she finally ended up marching off on her own for the last part of the walk. I guess she couldn’t take any more of our witty humour!
The highlight of the walk was the top of the Flagstaff hill. From here you could see the whole of the town and the bay. In the 1850’s, shortly after signing the Treaty of Waitangi, the British erected a large flag and ball drop to help signal the fleet. Due to some “misunderstanding”, the local Maori destroyed the flag staff. Over the next 8 years it was erected and pulled down some 5 times. Each time the defenses around the flag pole were increased. The second to the last time finally say an iron sleeve wrapped around the bottom 20 feet of the pole. Alas it was not enough and the pole came down a 5 th time. As a gesture of repentance, the local Maori finally built and installed a new flag pole themselves, which has remained there through the years.
The rest of the day was spent doing web site work for our second New Zealand installment and the selection of our top 40 photos from our year of travel. We decided that we wanted to blow up some of our favorites and mount them around the house when we get home. The fights we have had previously to decide on the web site photos have been nothing compared to what is going on now. Picking the top 40 is certainly proving to be difficult!
Monday, July 10, 2006: Kerikeri, New Zealand
The town of Russell is located on the east side of the Bay of Islands out on a large peninsula. In order to get back to the central part of the island, we had a choice between a 55 km (50 min.) drive to circle the bay or a 5 minute ($9) ferry trip across the bay. We opted for the ferry trip and were fortunate enough to drive straight on as we got there. The small town of Opua was certainly more commercial and touristy than Russell with many more hotels and drinking establishments. Even in the winter off season this place was hopping with large groups of people arranging for their morning ecotour of choice.
Our destination for the morning was the Waitangi reserve located only 15 km north of Opua and is of special importance to the Kiwis. The large park is centered on the homestead of James Busby, the original British Resident to New Zealand, back in the mid 1830’s. Busby was a strong supporter of Maori rights and self government and he convinced them to move ahead with the original unification of the local tribes. He was also the architect of the Waitangi Treaty which was signed in 1840. This treaty, between Great Britain and Maori tribes formally brought New Zealand under British rule. The grounds were quite spectacular and the foundation did a great job chronicling the history of the region and the roles of the various players.
A second part of the exhibit focused on a large hand carved war canoe. It was commissioned by a Maori queen in the early 1930s to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the signing of the treaty in 1940. At over 35 meters it is the largest canoe in the world and is a type of war canoe. The Maoris constructed several types of canoes depending on their function. The larger ocean going craft that the Maori used when they immigrated to New Zealand from Hawaii and French Polynesia were actually double hulled cataramans.
After leaving the reserve, we traveled a short way to Haruru Falls. These falls are named for the huge noise they produce. While they weren’t the largest or the highest, we can certainly confirm that they were the loudest! We are not exactly sure why, because they really weren’t that large, but they certainly created a great deal of noise. Maori legend states that a water monster lives in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Maybe it is the source of the noise?????
Leaving the falls we headed on down the road to the town of Kerikeri. This small town is packed with local artisans and is particularly famous for its jewelry and paintings. We had a small cabin rented for the night at the northern edge of town. Once again we left the kids to their homework and headed out on foot to check out the town and its shops. We also found a local book exchange and rushed back with the kids to get some last minute trades in. We have been very diligent at working down the number of books we are carrying. We are now down to a manageable level and the kids were thrilled with some of the more recent trades. The biggest windfall was when we found the latest Matthew Riley book, The Seven Ancient Wonders. He has become a big favorite of the whole family and Brennan has been trying non-stop to find a way to get the book.
The shops were starting to close down (around 4:00) when we left town and headed north for 5-6 km. Unfortunately we got to the famous Stone Store and the Old Missionary House just as they were closing. These are the two oldest standing buildings in New Zealand. Their restoration took several years and they are now a period museum.
Once again we returned to the cabin and settled in for a home cooked stir fry and watched Spider Man II on the TV. Tomorrow we go further north. ( NEXT PAGE )