Oct 28th – What a delightful place! Napier is the story of one of Nz’s worst disasters being turned into something positive. In 1931 a deadly earthquake destroyed much of the city. Rebuilt in the architecture of the time, it wasn’t until the 1980s that people really began to appreciate the Art Deco buildings and their significance in making Napier a unique location. It has now become a major tourist area and in February they hold a Gatsby-style festival to which people from all around the world attend.

The other attraction in the area is a number of great wineries. We spent a delightful evening at the Mission Estate Winery. The drive up to the mission house was a long path bordered on each side by majestic English Plane Trees. Dinner was delicious, the wine was excellent, but it was again a serendipity moment that made the evening special. On our way in we greeted and chatted briefly with some other guests who were arriving for dinner. After we had finished our main course, one of the gentlemen came over to chat with us to find out where we were from. It turned out that he was a retired Lutheran pastor. To make a long story short, we were invited to join the four of them in the lounge for coffee and a delightful conversation. People here are so friendly!

Before leaving town the next day, we took a guided walking tour of the Art Deco buildings followed by a screening of a video about the earthquake and subsequent rebuilding. Due to the fact that a navy ship had just docked in port the day before, word of the disaster was sent out by the ship and help arrived quickly saving lives. It really does give you pause for thought at the destruction and upset to normal life caused by earthquakes. In this case land that was previously under water was lifted and the town gained 50′ or more to their waterfront. In the case of Christchurch land that was previously useable has become nothing but shingle. We’ll be interested in hearing their story when we get there. It appears that reconstruction efforts have not been as fast or as easy as they were in other places.

Oct 24th – Leaving Auckland behind, we began our slow trip southward. Today’s stop is at Waitomo Caves to see the glow worms. We arrived in time to have lunch at a cafe across from our B&B called Huhu. We enjoyed the ambiance and staff so much that we decided to reserve a spot for dinner too.

Unlike George and Jenn who did the tube tour through the caves we did a more civilized boat tour. Unfortunately, no cameras allowed so there were no pictures. You can check it out for yourself at http://www.waitomo.com.

 Despite the rain, we decided to take two short hikes in the afternoon – one to the Marikopa Falls (one of the most impressive waterfalls in NZ) and the other to Mangapohue Natural Bridge.

Our B&B is in town and our room is at the back of the complex – a beautiful, pastoral view surrounded by a lovely garden with two huge rhodos just outside our door in full bloom.

Oct 24th – This morning began a bit slower than normal since last night was a late night at the Auyeungs’ home. What a lovely dinner – a bounty of seafood and veggies all beautifully presented with chocolate ice cream and strawberries for dessert. Over dinner we met their two university-aged kids (Trevor and Stephanie) both of whom added to the great conversation throughout the evening.

Our drive today took us up the peninsula south of Auckland to Coromandel. The area is steep and hilly, mostly covered in temperate rain forest. The road winds its way along the coast with many hairpin-like turns. After a bowl of soup at a local cafe we took a train ride on a narrow-gauge railway about 3 km up a mountain. The view of the bay from the top was stunning.

We stopped in the little town of Thames for dinner and then took the Pacific Coastal Drive back to Auckland.

Oct 23rd – When you’re here for 35+ days you can expect to see some rain, and this day was no exception. Since we had been watching the weather forecast, we planned that our first rainy day would be spent at the Auckland Museum. What a wonderful place!

We started with a guided tour that lasted a little over an hour but gave us a good overview of all of the different parts of the museum. Throughout the tour we learned a number of facts about New Zealand that we maybe hadn’t thought about before:

• humans have only been here for 700 years
• it was first discovered and settled by Polynesians
• the British didn’t arrive until about 1790 although a Dutch explorer named Abel Tasman came in 1642
• there are only about 4.5 million people here, but 3.5 million live on the north island (the smallest of the two)
• in 2011, there were 31 million sheep!
• Wellington is the capital but Auckland is a much larger and more cosmopolitan city
• they have only a national government and local councils – no provincial/municipal levels of government
• they do not have a senate – having abolished it in the 1950s!

During time on my own, I experienced an earthquake (fake) with a group of school kids and browsed the museum gift shop – a delight in itself.

Oct 22nd – It’s a good job today was a lovely sunny day since neither of us got much sleep last night. What to do when an alarm clock starts ringing at 4:15am and doesn’t stop for two hours? Obviously the cleaning staff didn’t check it when the last person moved out and we weren’t sure which room it was in. Since the front desk isn’t staffed at night, we didn’t realize we could call the duty manager to check it out – found this out in the morning.

Today was our day to visit the Auckland Botanic Gardens – about 20 hectares of plants, walks and beautiful gardens. Since the weather was so cooperative we found ourselves outside for a good three or four hours – resulting in a bit of colour! The sun here is hotter and much more intense since there is a hole in the ozone layer, so you do have to be careful about sunburn.

The rhodos and camelias here are just about finished although some of the later ones were just finishing up. The roses however are in full bloom and there were so many different kinds, I  was like a kid in a candy store with the camera. They had a special test garden in which there were some new hybrids – the blooms were so large they were like a dinner plate. I’ve made a list of some of our favourites to see if they might be available in Canada.

After dinner at a restaurant close to our apartment, we retired to watch to CBC News and catch up on all the goings on at home.

Oct 20th – When George first began working at Excelsior some 35+ years ago, he worked with a young man from Hong Kong named Henry. Over the years George assisted Henry in developing the skills needed to move forward in the life insurance industry. The friendship has continued and we frequently get together with Henry and Frances. Henry’s brother retired from Hong Kong to New Zealand in 1997, so the connection was made for John to host us in Auckland.

John and Agnes picked us up at our apartment in the morning and what a day we had! We first went to Mount Victoria to get a view of the city from that vantage point. Then we toured a quaint old town called Davenport which is directly across the bay from Auckland. The picture on yesterday’s blog was from the top of Mount Victoria.  Then he took us to the downtown area and we toured around Ponsonby – a trendy area where all the young business folk are moving into; the Viaduct Area – newly built condos on reclaimed land down by the water; the harbour – a big cruise ship was in town; and the one and only main street – Queen Street. We stopped at a little cafe in Ponsonby for lunch and then continued the tour up to One Tree Hill. When Auckland was founded as a colonial city, there was one lone tree at the top of the volcanic peak, hence the name. Keeping a tree on the site has been a problem throughout the years as various individuals have chopped down the tree either as an act of vandalism or protest. Since the last assault in 2000, the tree has not been replaced so locals have nicknamed the area None Tree Hill.

Dinner was an experience  at a very posh restaurant called Hammerhead, again down by the water. We’d actually passed the place the night before and joked that we wouldn’t be eating there. Needless to say we weren’t allowed to spend a cent all day. John said Henry would never forgive him if we didn’t report back that he treated us like royalty! We parted great friends with a promise to go to their house on Wednesday evening for dinner.

Oct 19th – What a long way from Canada to New Zealand. Our trusty chauffeur, Fred Pamenter picked us up at 10 am on Thursday morning and delivered us to the airport. With a 3 hour wait in Toronto and a 5 hour wait in Los Angeles, the time change, and then a 3 hour wait for our apartment, it was 30 hours before we were able to put our head on a pillow and dream sweat dreams of a five week stay in this lovely country. Our first impression was if Ireland is the green country then New Zealand must be the country of double green. The range in colour everywhere you look is stupendous.

Our first stop at the airport was to pick up a cheap phone since the cost of extending our Rogers plan was felt to be too expensive. Our next stop was to pick up our rental car, a Ford Monteo. Driving on the wrong side of the road is not a problem but figuring out how to turn off the rear wiper blade was! Fortunately, they leave the User Manual in the car so we sat in the parking lot and read it but that didn’t help. George paid another visit to the counter but the representative there didn’t know so she put in a call to someone at head office. While they were waiting for a call back, I finally figured it out so then I had to park and go into the terminal building to find George. Quite an auspicious start!

Since our apartment wasn’t ready yet (at 9 am?) we went for a walk and then to the grocery store to put in some time. We also visited the AA to transfer our CAA membership. This gave us free maps, travel brochures and a discount on gas prices.

Our Quest Henderson apartment is small but well appointed for the limited time we will be here.  We are able to make our own breakfast and eat in if we want. Our first trip to the grocery store was uneventful except that we had to ask a lady to decipher the milk descriptions for us. There is no such thing as skim milk…but they do have a thin milk.

After a nap we headed out to get our bearings and have dinner. We went to a lovely area called Mission Bay and ate at a small cafe in Helliers Bay overlooking the water with the sunset in the background. Unlike home, the price on the menu includes tax and tip, so while meals seemed expensive at first blush we realized that they are pretty much similar to home. What they appear to be missing here are the middle-of-the-road restaurants such as our beloved Swiss Chalet.

Home to bed and a much needed good night’s rest.