We returned from the far north of New Zealand ready for civilization again and looking forward to spending time with Ken and Sarah, friends from ultimate frisbee and Hope College. Ken and Sarah have lived in Auckland for the past five years where they have worked at a church and a school. I was really interested to hear some of their experiences while living abroad in New Zealand and it was awesome to share the company and conversation with like-minded people.

We were once again spoiled by generous hosts as Sarah made an awesome lamb roast for dinner. The highlight of the meal for me, however, was trying a "Tim Tam Slam" - a Kiwi tradition that neither Sean nor I had ever participated in.

No, a Tim Tam Slam does not involve alcohol but rather something better - chocolate. Tim Tams are popular cookies in New Zealand and are a wafer-like biscuit covered in chocolate. To correctly execute a slam you need a Tim Tam and a cup of hot chocolate. As Sarah demonstrated, you bite off two corners of the cookie - they should be opposite each other on the diagonal. Then, and you have to do this fast, you dip one half of the cookie in the hot chocolate and suck up the hot chocolate through it like a straw. Finally, while everything turns into a lovely gooey chocolate mess, you slam what remains of the cookie in your mouth. It's pure bliss for the sweet tooth and I am definitely going to have to cram some Tim Tams in what little space remains in my suitcase.

As there is so much more I'd like to see and do in New Zealand I am quite envious of all of the time that Sarah and Ken have had and will continue to have in Auckland. Thanks for sharing your house and Tim Tams with us!

 

After our day of sailing we spent the night in a nearby campground and were visited frequently by a mama duck and her toddling brood of baby ducklings. This was all well and good until they woke us up early in the morning by tapping on our glass cabin door. They are well-trained ducks, apparently and we only aided this habit by feeding them some of our leftover stale toast. I felt bad for the mother duck though; yesterday she had had nine babies and today she showed up with only eight. The other campers also sympathetic to the little family reckoned that a stoat, eel or a possum had gotten a hold of one of the little ones. Seems it had been a rough night for the duck family.

Since we had driven up the east coast of Northland we wanted to see what the west coast held and headed off across the bit of mountains that separated the two. Along the way we passed Hokianga Harbor which offered stunning views of the ocean and surrounding beaches.

The main draw of the west coast of Northland is the Kauri Forest, home of the largest tree in New Zealand called "Tane Mahuta" and considered to be very special by the Maori people. We hiked out to see the famous tree and were totally surprised by how big and fat it was. The rest of the drive through the Kauri Forest was cool as well since we got to see many other giant trees along the way.

We stopped for lunch at some lakes that were totally out of the way and enjoyed a park completely void of people but with awesome scenery. Although there were signs warning us to be cautious of Kiwi birds everywhere we didn't see any; Kiwi birds are notoriously timid and normally only come out at night. We're crossing our fingers that we get to see one before our time in New Zealand is up.

 

Since we were taking such a long road trip, Sean and I knew we wouldn't be able to afford to do a pricey activity every day so we chose our top five. One of the top things we wanted to do was get out on the water to see the Bay of Islands. The Bay of Islands is about an hour south of Doubtless Bay, where we were staying with Annette. When we passed through the Bay of Islands the first time, we stopped and did a little research as to how we wanted to see the islands. We decided on a day of sailing and booked our spot on the "Gungha II" for a couple of days later.

Sean and I know absolutely nothing about sailing but were definitely up for giving it a go. When we arrived bright and early on the wharf, the captain said that we would be joined by two other tourists giving us a total crew number of 5. He said that he hoped we were up for doing some work because with the size and number of sails that our yacht had he couldn't do it alone. Sailing turned out to be a little more work than we had anticipated and the learning curve was a bit steep as the spring day was quite windy.

After morning hot drinks we motored out into deeper waters and then raised the sails. Along with us were a Dutch tourist and a German tourist, both about our age. Sean ended up doing most of the muscle work and we eventually figured out it was because of the complications of the sailing terms and the language barriers in German and Dutch. I steered the boat for most of the day and at times it was all I could do to keep it going straight when the wind picked up and it felt like we were going to turn over.

We stopped for lunch and a hike on an isolated beach and the captain told us stories of his past sailing adventures. The way back was a bit easier because we were slightly more familiar with moving the boat in different directions and controlling the speed. I would try and use the proper words like 'tacking' and 'jibing' but I really don't know what I'm talking about. It was all I could do to try and follow the directions in real time over the adrenaline and noise of the wind.

At the end of the day we were sore, tired and sunburnt but happy that we had tried sailing and seen a lot of the Bay of Islands. Sean did comment, however, that "We just paid money to help a guy go sailing for the day." Good point, Sean. Good point.

 

The next morning we drove up to Cape Reinga, the northern-most point of New Zealand. The place is interesting not only because it is the furthest north you can go but also because you can see where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. For the Maori people, the place is significant because they believe its a sacred area where the souls of the dead leave the world and pass on to the next place. After about two hours of driving we reached the cape and hiked out to the lighthouse.

Where the Tasman and the Pacific meet

On our way back down we stopped at some of the biggest sand dunes in the country and also took a look at 90 Mile Beach. At the sand dunes we watched some people learning to kite surf and others attempting to sand board. It's popular to drive along 90 Mile Beach (it's really only about 60 miles long) but Annette advised us not to do so because if your car hits a spot of soft sand you're done for. She says the local police are always called out to drag some tourist's car out of the incoming tide. We opted to walk along it for a bit instead.

We made some other stops along the way back as well mostly to check out the price and quality of roadside avocado sales. I love avocados and the fact that they are plentiful and cheap in New Zealand is something I haven't gotten tired of. We found some for $2/bag and bought several - Yum!

We arrived at Annette's at about dinnertime again and this time she had a seafood dinner for us. Annette is a Jill of all trades and not only works for the local vet during the day but is the volunteer maritime radio coordinator for Far North Radio - a station which advises boats of weather and handles distress calls. While we were at her house she was constantly giving weather reports and handling problems in Doubtless Bay.

A couple of fishermen had owed her a favor on the wharf so she had aquired some fresh green shell mussels, oysters and crayfish for our dinner that day. She also brought out a piece of smoked marlin that she had caught some time before - we even got to see the 'beak' that had originally been on the fish! Trying the seafood was fun - first we tried everything raw and then she cooked everything in different sauces. I could only handle about one or two raw mussels and oysters but Sean was in absolute heaven and ate his share and most of mine.

Crayfish are an expensive delicacy in New Zealand and basically just look like a large lobster without the pincers. Although so much of the seafood is plentiful in the tiny seaside towns of the northern coast, most of the time locals can't afford to eat it because all of it is exported. We both felt lucky that we were able to try so many of the seafood treats that Doubtless Bay had to offer. Thanks Annette!

 

Three days in Auckland flew by and before we knew it we were back in the car and heading to the far north. While I was working with NZSki, one of the transport drivers had recommended that I stay with her mom in a place called Doubtless Bay, a small area only a little ways from the northern tip of New Zealand. After arranging directions and our estimated time of arrival, my friend's mom, Annette, said she was happy to host us and that she would have afternoon tea waiting for us when we got there. I couldn't wait!

The drive north took us about four hours from Auckland as we made several additional stops along the way. The first detour was to check out a waterfall in Whangarei. Since it was a beautiful day, we appreciated the chance to get out, stretch our legs and enjoy the sights on a little hike to see the falls followed by a picnic lunch.

Our second stop was to see the Hundertwasser toilets Kawakawa. During an art and architecture course with Hope College in Vienna, we had studied a lot about Hundertwasser and had toured some of his crazy buildings. He lived out the end of his life in the tiny town of Kawakawa and the public toilets was the last piece of art that he designed. They are some of the artsiest toilets I have used and definitely some of the most photographed.

We made it to Annette's house by dinnertime and were surprised and excited to find a lamb roast and chocolate cake waiting for us. They were quickly devoured with lots of wine and conversation - Annette is quite the character and entertainer. She peppered us with lots of stories and information about the area which made us excited for our adventures the following day which included driving all the way to the top of the island. We went to bed with very full stomachs and hearts warmed with incredible Kiwi hospitality.

 

 

We went from seeing only a few people a day to the most populated city in New Zealand, Auckland, in a matter of just a few hours. After enjoying the beaches and the remote beauty of Coromandel peninsula, we drove to Auckland late Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, we arrived just at the peak of rush hour traffic and had to navigate the busiest roads we had seen in months in order to reach our youth hostel right in the center of the city. Much to our dismay, it cost more to park our car for the weekend than it did for us to stay in the hostel!

The first thing we noticed about Auckland, besides the abundance of people and the lack of sheep, was the incredible diversity. There were shops and restaurants featuring cuisine from all over the world available just around the corner. While we were there, there was an Indian "Festival of Lights" celebration taking place and the party was in full swing.

The spring weather didn't cooperate fully while we were in Auckland and we experienced a lot of high winds and heavy rains. For a short time on Saturday afternoon we got lucky enough to spend some time in Auckland's Sky Tower while meeting up with some of our friends from Queenstown, Steve and Devyn.

Steve and Devyn are a Canadian couple that were part of the staff that opened the hotel in Queenstown but had decided it was time to move on and had trasferred to the hotel in Auckland. After hanging out in the Sky Tower we all headed back to their apartment for dinner and for lots of catching up. Devyn called our rendezvous the "meeting of the minds" as we shared stories about work since we all came from different departments in the hotel: housekeeping, food and beverage, front desk and concierge. There were lots of memories shared and lots of laughs at the absurdly impossible task of keeping every guest happy in the field of hospitality. We looked forward to our next visit to Auckland and to hanging out with some friends from Michigan, Ken and Sarah.

 

 

Morning coffee with a view

My guidebook calls the far north of the Coromandel peninsula to be "supremely isolated and gobsmackingly beautiful" as well as "well worth the effort required to reach it."  This is indeed the truth; we found the tip of Coromandel to be gorgeous and remote, but it took a long time and a lot of patience to get there. 

View from the gravel road winding around to the tip of the peninsula

The far north of Coromandel can only be reached by 60 km of gravel road which is often only one lane wide.  Since the road twists and turns with the coast, it was usually very hard to see if anyone else was coming and so we had to go even slower than we normally could on a gravel road.  Fortunately, we didn't mind the turtle pace because the views were amazing.







At the very tip, we stopped for a picnic lunch and a walk on the beach.  We only saw a handful of people the whole day.  We soaked up the sunshine and the lack of people as that evening we were headed to Auckland - just a few hours away by car but a world away when compared with scenery and population.

Sean's favorite shells that we found on the walk