Saturday, December 09, 2006
Kia Ora NZ: Big trees, Kiwis and Margs looking glamorous!
We arrived in Auckland and made our way to Royal Oak where we were staying with Rebecca & Matt (R&M),(Margs worked with Rebecca at CP Ships). R&M took us on a tour of Auckland starting with one of the highest points, One Tree Hill, now 'No Tree Hill' after some Maoris attacked it (having hired a chainsaw from the company Matt worked for. Next Mount Eden so we could see the view of One Tree Hill and also the proposed site for the World Cup stadium - renevating the current old one. Down towards the water and we ate & drank in the Viaduct area. The tour continued but after a couple of beers, the jet lag caught up with me and I only saw glimpses of Mission Bay, the museum and whereever else they took us.
Monday was Admin Day - washing, shopping, money etc preparing to go up north. So Tuesday we started to Stray - ie started the firdt of our trips with Stray Travel. The bus headed north towards Paihia and we stopped to see the Kauri trees - very big trees, some as old as 800 years but about only 3% of the original forest areas remain due to deforestation of the years and no new trees can be cut down. Further on we visited a bird rescue centre and got a chance to stroke a kiwi bird - of the feathered variety. Larger than I thought. Oh the only other thing we did was see England throw away a draw in a bar after a chaep BBQ.
The Wednesday from Paihia we made an early start on a trip to Cape Reigna in the far north. More of the rare trees and on to the light house at the Cape where you can see the Tasman Sea (on your left) meet with the Pacific Ocean (on your right) and you can see the different coloured water where they meet. (sand I reckon!). Next Sand boarding. Dave hurled down the hill on his thrid attempt and dramatically came off as he was too far forward, although his previous two attempts had seen him reach the stream at the bottom of the hill and get his shorts wet. Not liking steep slopes and knackered after climbing up the dune I had one bungled attempt which was very unsuccessful.
We then hit 90 mile beach a long sandy beach which is only 64 miles long. (It was called 90 mile beach as the farmers reckoned the cattle would walk 30 miles a day and it took 3 days. - the cattle were obviously a bit slow). We stopped at intervals for photos before heading back in shore and down to teh Ancient Kingdown of the Kauri tree where you could buy beds, dinning room furniture, coffee tables etc for vast sums of money. These Kauri are from the swamps - there seems a great supply of these trees that have been preserved in the swamps from before the last ice age. The centre piece of the museum is the staircase carved out of one single section of trunk. Special foundations were put in place and then the tree carved out (total 6 man months) and the buiilding built around it. New Zealands best fish n chips on the way home and back to Paihia where we had a couple of drinks and games of pool (Dave beat a couple of challengers) and great photos of the moon rising of the town of Russell.
Thursday morning we boarded the G? a 65ft sailing yacht, which initially motored us passed penguins and onto an island for a walk round and then sailed us back. Dave was very helpful with putting up and taking the sails down where as the skippers mate comments 'Margs likes to sit and look glamorous and take photos' - if only it was that easy! I did however steer it back to Paihia where we had to get the coach back to Auckland. Top tip if near Royal Oak and you want something to eat - try the Lucky Horse - a Chinese cafe which serves portions twice the size you are expecting - we could have shared one but having ordered two we got stuffed!
Friday - Admin Day - Dave bought himself some trousers and we visited Victoria Market where I bought something. In the evening we went out with R&M to a local pub for food and having moved to a quieter spot when the DJ started a random woman tried to climb up Matt to turn up the volume on the TV when she saw Rod Stewart was on. Strange.
Monday was Admin Day - washing, shopping, money etc preparing to go up north. So Tuesday we started to Stray - ie started the firdt of our trips with Stray Travel. The bus headed north towards Paihia and we stopped to see the Kauri trees - very big trees, some as old as 800 years but about only 3% of the original forest areas remain due to deforestation of the years and no new trees can be cut down. Further on we visited a bird rescue centre and got a chance to stroke a kiwi bird - of the feathered variety. Larger than I thought. Oh the only other thing we did was see England throw away a draw in a bar after a chaep BBQ.
The Wednesday from Paihia we made an early start on a trip to Cape Reigna in the far north. More of the rare trees and on to the light house at the Cape where you can see the Tasman Sea (on your left) meet with the Pacific Ocean (on your right) and you can see the different coloured water where they meet. (sand I reckon!). Next Sand boarding. Dave hurled down the hill on his thrid attempt and dramatically came off as he was too far forward, although his previous two attempts had seen him reach the stream at the bottom of the hill and get his shorts wet. Not liking steep slopes and knackered after climbing up the dune I had one bungled attempt which was very unsuccessful.
We then hit 90 mile beach a long sandy beach which is only 64 miles long. (It was called 90 mile beach as the farmers reckoned the cattle would walk 30 miles a day and it took 3 days. - the cattle were obviously a bit slow). We stopped at intervals for photos before heading back in shore and down to teh Ancient Kingdown of the Kauri tree where you could buy beds, dinning room furniture, coffee tables etc for vast sums of money. These Kauri are from the swamps - there seems a great supply of these trees that have been preserved in the swamps from before the last ice age. The centre piece of the museum is the staircase carved out of one single section of trunk. Special foundations were put in place and then the tree carved out (total 6 man months) and the buiilding built around it. New Zealands best fish n chips on the way home and back to Paihia where we had a couple of drinks and games of pool (Dave beat a couple of challengers) and great photos of the moon rising of the town of Russell.
Thursday morning we boarded the G? a 65ft sailing yacht, which initially motored us passed penguins and onto an island for a walk round and then sailed us back. Dave was very helpful with putting up and taking the sails down where as the skippers mate comments 'Margs likes to sit and look glamorous and take photos' - if only it was that easy! I did however steer it back to Paihia where we had to get the coach back to Auckland. Top tip if near Royal Oak and you want something to eat - try the Lucky Horse - a Chinese cafe which serves portions twice the size you are expecting - we could have shared one but having ordered two we got stuffed!
Friday - Admin Day - Dave bought himself some trousers and we visited Victoria Market where I bought something. In the evening we went out with R&M to a local pub for food and having moved to a quieter spot when the DJ started a random woman tried to climb up Matt to turn up the volume on the TV when she saw Rod Stewart was on. Strange.
# posted by D&M Travels @ 11:20 PM 
