We had breakfast in probably Kaikohe, my blueberry muffin being more memorable than the town only because of its complete lack of flavor.

Mime Cow, Panda Cow, or Mad Cow?

Tane Mahuta, Maori for “Lord of the Forest”, is the largest living Kauri tree, estimated to be about 2,000 years old. It’s a short walk off Highway 12 to see this giant, with a girth over 45 feet and a height of about 170 feet. Kauri are odd looking trees with a smooth fat limbless trunk reaching up to the canopy and then shooting out huge lateral branches. Their lumber was prized for ship building, it is light in weight, very strong and resistant to corrosion by salt water – ships built from Kauri were markedly faster than those using more traditional woods.

Sarah in front of Tane Mahuta

After seeing Tane Mahuta we stopped at the Kauri Museum in Matakohe and learned more about the history of these trees and the lumber trade in New Zealand. The museum has an enormous collection of woods and amber, along with recreations of many early saw mills with original equipment. It’s definitely worth the stop.

Saw blades from a old sawmill in the Kauri Museum. The blades turn much slower in the display, but I think this is more representative of what it must have looked like in an operating mill.

How to let the dogs out. Part of the controls to a giant milling bandsaw.

We had lunch across the street from the museum, where I had a savory pie and Phoenix Organic Honey Cola. The reason it’s called “Phoenix” is because once you swallow it you’re pretty sure it’s going to rise up again. Honey Cola: bad idea.

Savory Pie and Honey Cola. I ate it. And it was good. Except for the Honey Cola.

We arrived at the airport three hours before our flight, right on plan. Sarah had bought an extra bag for us to check, distributing the load three ways and keeping us under the weight limit with our wine and other souvenirs. Though, having eaten our way from one end of the north island to the other, I’m pretty sure my personal weight limit was exceeded.

Our flight home.

Time to go home.

Thank you Kim and everyone else at AnimFX for inviting me down, and giving Sarah and me the incentive to visit New Zealand again for our 25th anniversary.

Kia ora!

Our ride. (The big yellow one.)

At 1:30 we launched on our biofueled, twin hull, three decks tall, bright yellow behemoth. Because it was still early in the season the boat was only about quarter full, which gave everyone great seats inside and out.

The first stop was Black Rocks, a set of small short islands created by lava. The low tide waterline is covered with green lipped mussels, which waiters had been trying to get us to eat since Wellington – evidently quite the delicacy.

Black Rocks

A beautiful cove on Motuarohia Island in the Bay of Islands, NZ. At high tide it becomes two islands.

Dolphins were spotted by another boat across the bay, so we raced over to see them. We found two boats in a small cove that were both swim-with-the-dolphins tours so we pulled in and watched. Sarah and I had decided not to do a dolphin swim tour today, but we both agreed that maybe we should have – it looked like a blast. The funniest part was the tour guides on the boats yelling “Look down!” to the swimmers. Evidently people float around on the surface looking across the water for fins and forget that any dolphin close enough to see will likely be swimming around underneath them. The bottlenose dolphin pod that was there had about a dozen members that were just as curious about the people. This form of swimming with the dolphins is just about being in the water observing them. The dolphins are wild, so there isn’t any petting going on and no rides while you hold their fins. They would jump occasionally and slap their tails on the water, and seemed to enjoy swimming around the people.

Swimmers and dolphins

The farthest point out on the boat tour is “Hole in the Rock.” Neither Sarah nor I were terribly excited about that part of the tour, we’ve seen plenty of rock arches before. When we first saw the hole it looked a lot like all the others. But the scale was very deceiving – the closer we got the bigger the hole got. A rock in the middle of the water offers no clues as to its size, and by the time we were in front of it there appeared to be enough room to motor a small boat through. Then our captain put the boat into reverse and started backing in. We were standing on the top deck of a three deck boat – easily twenty five feet off the water – with a radar pillar and antennae jutting high above us; it was clear that backing into the rock was a bad idea. Then the hole got bigger. And bigger. Within a couple minutes our boat was swallowed up by the Hole in the Rock, with plenty of headroom above us. The southern gap of the hole is narrower at the waterline, so there wasn’t comfortable clearance for us to go all the way through, but we sat inside for quite awhile marveling at the actual size and snapping hundreds of touristy pictures that will all fail to convey any sense of being there.

"Hole in the Rock." It looks small, but picture our entire three deck boat inside it with plenty of room to spare.

Aft view. We couldn't back in any further.

View over the bow. This conveys a bit of the scale. I would have needed two cameras to get it all in one shot.

The final stop was a port of call in Otehei Bay, where we disembarked for an hour to hike around. From the lookout points on the top of the hills you could enjoy more incredible views of the Bay of Islands.

Shore leave in Otehei Bay.

A majestic tree in Otehei Bay.

It was Friday 11/25 in New Zealand, but it was Thursday night back home – Thanksgiving. We had decided to celebrate Thanksgiving in NZ at the same real time that our families were celebrating back home. We had a wonderful dinner at Alfresco’s in Paihia. No turkey here, but we had fantastic New Zealand venison and lamb.

Thanksgiving Dinner - I had the venison.

Thanksgiving Dinner - Sarah had the lamb.

This is it, the big day we’ve been driving for: The Top of New Zealand! There’s quite a bit to do at the top of New Zealand – there’s the Cape Reinga lighthouse at the tip, there’s sand tobogganing and there’s 90 Mile Beach. It’s legal to drive the length of 90 Mile Beach on the sand, but the rental car companies won’t let you take their cars out there, and amatuers get bogged down in the sand and flooded at high tide almost every day. So we booked ourselves on a day long bus tour and left the driving to Paul. The 300 mile round trip takes all day, so we were picked up at our hotel at 7am.

An early start - up with the sun.

Gumdiggers Park

After picking up our bus mates and box lunches our first stop was at Gumdiggers Park. Gumdiggers were like California’s golddiggers, except this gold is dried sap from ancient Kauri trees, more commonly known as amber. In the 1800′s and early 1900′s it had tremendous industrial use as the main ingredient in resins and varnishes – of essential importance to sailing ships and furniture makers. The gum trade coincided with the devistation of the Kauri forests, similar to our logging of giant redwoods in California, so resourceful entrepreneurs began searching for amber in buried ancient Kauri forests preserved in the peat bogs of northern New Zealand – thus the name gumdiggers. Gumdiggers Park is a site still in the condition it was in the late 1800′s. Underneath the site are at least two layers of ancient Kauri forests which were destroyed by natural disasters and preserved in the bog. As part of the tour you visit a perfectly preserved non-petrified Kauri tree that is carbon dated at over 100,000 years old.

An ancient Kauri tree, estimated to be over 100,000 years old. The layer over it is from a forest that is 40,000 years old.

Cape Reigna – The Top

At noon we arrived at Cape Reigna. Part of my vacation algorithm is to go to The Top of Things – this generally leads to pleasant surprises, and at the very least to a nice view. New Zealand, however, has a stunning gift for you when you get there. Beyond the lighthouse, the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide. Waves created by the prevailing Southerly winds arc around the top of the island and crash in a frothy seam. We were awed.

Cape Reigna, with the Tasman Sea (left) and Pacific Ocean (right) actively colliding.

Here’s a snippet of video I shot that will help:

We tried to get some pictures in the wind, and it was quite challenging. Sarah did a great job of shooting me. I was trying to compose a good shot with her and the colliding seas behind her, but the wind was just going crazy. I ended up firing off a bunch of shots and laughing. Sorry dear!

Us, at the Top of New Zealand

Sand Tobogganing!

The next stop was only about 15 minutes away at the top of 90 Mile Beach. Paul, our driver, slogged the huge bus through a river to get us to the biggest dune, then whipped out slick bottomed boogie boards for all of us.

Our Tour Bus and Sand Dune

Long hike up, short ride down. Completely worth it.

That is really fun. About two thirds of the way down the dune, I'm using my feet to steer a little bit. At the bottom is a very shallow river, if you keep enough speed you skip across it. Which I did, right into the far bank.

Survivor.

90 Mile Beach

The west coast of New Zealand is a 90 mile long beach that is completely undeveloped. It’s open to the public and you’re even allowed to drive on it. But not in a rental car, you fool! We rode the bus for an hour and a half down the beach with a view that rarely changed. It was serene and relaxing and beautiful to watch go by.

Our Bus, on 90 Mile Beach

Bus stop. We stretched our legs and waded in the Tasman Sea.

The Final Stretch

The bus stopped at “Ancient Kauri Kingdom” to wash the sand off and to provide busloads of people the opportunity to buy souvenirs. We also stopped for an early dinner at 4:30 at a Fish & Chips place in Mangonui.

That evening we went into the town of Paihia and had dessert at Alfresco’s. It was excellent and we were beat.

An interactive map of the day’s activities for your enjoyment:

The drive from Bay of Plenty to Bay of Islands, via Auckland.

Once we arrived in the Bay of Islands though, it was beautiful. We checked into our hotel with a beautiful beach view from the second floor, relaxed on the balcony for awhile, then went into town for a nice dinner. After dinner we walked through the whole town: all four blocks.

The view from our hotel room in Paihia of the Bay of Islands.

Dinner in Paihia

Today’s adventure:

The trail to the beach at Wharekawa. We came to a fork and took it.

Sarah and Me on Wharekawa Beach, NZ

"Flying Shells, I" - A portion of a shell found on the beach, dropped from out of the camera's view to catch it floating above the horizon.

"Flying Shells, IV" - A small starfish in flight.

All of my (good) pictures from the beach are here: flickr.com/photos/rosendahl/tags/wharekawa/, including four of the flying shells.

We grabbed lunch in the town of Whangamata, and headed for part two of our day – the hike to Wentworth Falls. The hike was about a three hour round trip, including stops for photo-ops and falls gawking. The trail had been recently refurbished – we were told it was good for strollers, we pictured people pushing baby strollers up the hill and laughed, sure that they meant for old people strolling up the hill. Within the first mile we ran into a young couple charging down the path with an actual baby stroller. That’s a pretty nice trail. The falls were a nice reward at the far end of the hike, they are across a small valley from the lookout point, dropping halfway down the cliff into a pool, then dropping the remainder of the way.

On the trail to Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls. A bit tricky to photograph since it is best viewed from a vantage point through the trees. The most interesting thing about these falls is the pool on the side of the cliff about halfway down.

Once we got back to the lodge I laid down on the floor to stretch and woke up an hour later. Well rested and hungry, we went to an Indian restaurant in town that David and Sallie recommended. It was a great day.

• NORTH ON HWY 5 TOWARDS TAUPO. WINDY & WINDY OVER THE MTNS. STOPPED IN TARGAWERA FOR COFFEE. NOTICED WE HAVE < 1/3 TANK OF GAS, NEXT GAS IN TAUPO.
• MADE IT TO MOBIL STATION IN TAUPO W/ LOW FUEL LIGHT ON. WHEW!
• CONTINUED N TO TOKOROA FOR LUNCH (LAMB PIE!). THEN N. TO TE AROHA, STOPPING AT A WATERFALL AND MINE ALONG THE WAY. SARAH THOUGHT CALVES WERE CUTE. NOW SHE ONLY THINKS THE FRONT HALVES OF CALVES ARE CUTE. (There was an un-photographed incident that became a discussion topic for many miles to follow.)
• COFFEE & COOKIES IN TE AROHA. (This part is accompanied by funky little drawing of plate with a big cookie and a little cookie on it.) WAITRESS: “YOU CAN FIGHT OVER THE BIG COOKIE.” SARAH: “NO NEED TO FIGHT. I’LL JUST TAKE THE BIG ONE.”

Lamb Pie!

Cow #13

Windblown Wairere Falls. The wind was whipping so much at times that the water was blown right off the falls.

This structure is what remains of a rock crusher from an old mine in Waiorongomai Valley, NZ. The artwork is new.

The Karangahake Gorge was stunning, we wish we had taken some time to hike around in there. We’re adding it to the to-do list for another trip.

We arrived at Brenton Lodge around 5:30pm. The owners, David and Sallie, greeted us and showed us around and to our room. They have a beautiful B&B on the hill overlooking the bay. We didn’t know that dinner was an option there, too, but luckily were able to get in under the wire for reservations that evening. Sallie prepared a fantastic meal of smoked salmon salad, lamb chops with potato, and a delightful pannacotta with strawberries for desert. If you EVER go to the Bay of Plenty you have to stay with them – the place is beautiful, the rooms are very private, it is quiet and relaxing, and David and Sallie are two of the nicest people we’ve met (which is significant given how wonderful everyone has been).

Sallie's delicious pannacotta with berries.

Here’s a map of the drive we made today:

We managed to get back to sleep and even slept in a bit, we had a late breakfast and were ready for our Hawkes Bay Wine Tour at 12:30pm. Hawkes Bay is one of the two major wine regions of New Zealand, and home to dozens of wineries. The tour we booked took us and seven other people to four of them. The first stop was at Esk Valley Estate – it appears relatively humble compared to later stops, but they made of a few of our favorites of the day. Sarah enjoyed the Verdelho white, and I fell in love with the peppery Syrah. They don’t have US distributors, so we bought a bottle of each to take home.

Esk Valley wine selection. The peppery Syrah is on the right.

The second stop was Mission Estate Winery – one of the oldest and largest of NZ wine makers. Thier beautiful building was constructed in the early 1900′s, and sawed into thirds and towed up the mountain in the 1920′s to get out of the flood zone it was originally built in. Their restaurant comes highly recommended, both for food and view/location. If we’re ever in the area again we definitely would book a table there. Their whites were a bit too ‘creamy’ for my tastes, but I enjoyed their Merlot a lot. One of our tour mates, from England, had the best line about it: “Quaffable. The evaporation rate won’t be very great.” (Meaning he’d drink it fast.)

On the balcony of Mission Estate Winery overlooking a few of their vines. Awesome possom sweater.

Craggy Range Winery was a highlight. Built at the foot of Craggy Range, it’s a very modern looking winery with a spectacular view of the mountains. We loved their wines (especially the Savignon, Syrah and the blended “Sophia”), which are available through Kobrand in the US. Hopefully we’ll be able to find some when we return home.

Craggy Range Winery

The view of Craggy Range from the tasting room.

Sarah at Craggy Range

Before out last winery stop on the tour we took a detour to Te Mata peak at the top of Craggy Range. It’s about a 15 minute drive up the mountain to a spectacular lookout point with a view directly down to the winery. There are a myriad of bike trails and hang gliding launch points up there also.

From atop Te Mata you can see Craggy Range Winery and the Pacific Ocean. The ramp in front is to launch yourself off of for hang gliding.

Our final stop was Vidal Winery. It was between lunch and dinner hours, and they had preparred a delicious spread of food for us in the restaurant to enjoy while we tasted their wines. This is another place I would love to eat at sometime – the tasters we had were terrific, and almost outshined the wines.

Awesome food sampler at Vidal Winery.

Once we arrived back at the hotel, we grabbed a pizza to go from downstairs and crashed in our room. For the first time on the trip we turned on the TV, only to realize why we hadn’t bothered before.

Napier Art Deco

Napier was almost leveled by an earthquake in 1931. What remained standing was soon destroyed by subsequent fires. The quake came in two parts, the first lasting a minute at 7+ magnitude followed by a minute of rest, then a second jolt simliar in size and duration to the first. In the process, the Pacific Plate rammed itself under the Australian Plate, raising the town of Napier two meters and adding 8,000 hectacres of new land to the area. The townspeople rallied and in 22 months had rebuilt the entire city. They chose to build in an Art Deco style to represent their modern and future-looking attitude. Plus, it was fast, cheap, and earthquake safe to pour concrete walls.

We booked a car tour of Napier through the Art Deco Trust, and were picked up at our hotel in a 1939 Packard by our guide Tony, who was dressed in fine ’30s style.

The 1939 Packard that we toured Napier, NZ, in. Our tour guide, Tony, is in the background dressed in his '30s finest. Behind Tony is the National Tobacco Company building, an exquisite Art Deco building with new Art Nouveau flairs.

Looking over Tony's shoulder. You need a megaphone to backseat drive in this car.

Sarah and me in the roomy backseat.

After the two hour tour we had him drop us off downtown so we could grab a late lunch (almost impossible at 3pm). Everyone had told us that the walk back would be about fifteen minutes, but we’re pretty sure now that their accents were throwing us off, as the walk actually took fifty minutes.

Another example of Napier Art Deco style.

We crashed in our hotel room for awhile and listened to the guys upstairs singing along horribly with the ’70s rock they were blasting. We hoped that after dinner things would quiet down. We had a nice meal across the way at East Pier, followed by coffee and dessert downstairs. All was quiet when we returned to the room.

Or so we thought…

That's right, 40% Possom

While downtown in Napier, we did some shopping and I bought a wonderfully soft mostly wool sweater. After I tried it on and loved it I read the label and found out it was 40% possum. What? Possums here are not like opossums at home – we have giant rats, but in NZ they have soft furry mammals. They are also an invasive species that is threatening the trees and wildlife, so slaughtering them for their fur is an environmentally friendly thing to do. Feeling good about my effort to help the indiginous flora and fauna, I swiped my credit card and haven’t looked back.

From McDonald’s website:

New Zealand’s unique native forest is under attack. Throughout the country 80 million Possums destroy 22,000 tonnes of our indigenous flora every night. With no natural predators, this introduced pest is striking at the very best of our landscape. Competing with native birdlife for food and habitat,the Possum feeds on native trees such as rata, totara and kowhai while posing a significant threat to New Zealand’s distinctive national icon – the Kiwi. This ecological crisis originates from the 19th Century when Possums were introduced to New Zealand to establish a fur trade. Today, the industry is environmentally focused and plays a vital part in controlling Possum numbers. Possum Merino is an environmentally conscious choice – wearing a McDonald garment allows you to contribute towards a sustainable future for New Zealand’s flora and fauna.

Wellington and AnimFX have been fantastic, but it’s time for Sarah and I to move on. We checked out of the Museum Hotel and drove to Napier – about a four or five hour drive. We stopped in Greytown for lunch (a bit mediocre) and Waipukurau for coffee and chocolate (excellent coffee, even at a roadside stand!). It was a beautiful but uneventful drive, with the exception of ten minutes of tropical style rain and stops for lunch and coffee.

We checked into our hotel in Napier in a beach district that used to be the main port until the earthquake of 1931. (More on that tomorrow.)

The view from our hotel room across Hawke Bay

Hawke Bay Coastline, with its beautiful clear turquoise waters.

We walked along the old warehouses which are now becoming restaurants and had dinner at Speight’s Ale House. Very good food there, and I particularly enjoyed their Old Dark on tap.

Speight's Old Dark on tap