Days 13-14

Day 13 – Dec. 15 – Omopere to Helensville

NZ is like America used to be before the days of the corporatocracy, before the almighty dollar became king. They close most of their stores on Sunday, with the exception of the big chains, of which there are very few here. And they close most of them by 7 pm, instead of staying open until 10 pm or all night. That’s sort of comforting.

The motel we stayed in last night – the Copthorne – was a welcome relief for breakfast this morning. After days of granola with a banana on it, they had a huge spread – eggs, bacon, sausage, sweet rolls, peaches (canned), yogurt, and some round purple thingie that turned out to be a pickled ‘rid plom’ (after 3 repeats I figured out it was a red plum. Sounds horrible but it was so tasty I ate 2 of ‘em.

We’re now officially heading out of the Northland where we’ve spent our whole vacation so far. There are very few things of real interest before we get down to Rotorua and the beginning of our dissection of the south part of this island. One of them was the last large kauri forests (relatively speaking, since the whole northern half of the island was once one huge kauri forest) still remaining ‘undisturbed’ (i.e., destroyed). The largest tree in the whole world is just a hundred yards off the road. As we were heading for it, I glanced over to my left and there it was. I have rarely been stunned into disbelief and awe, but this tree did it for me. It was larger than any redwood or sequoia I’d ever seen, and very strange-looking, with its branches beginning 60 feet in the air and of a very unusual shape. Now 20 feet in diameter, it was just a seedling when Christ was born. We just stared, wordless, for several minutes, until our necks ached from looking so far overhead.

Just down the road is a must-see museum where we spent several fascinating hours, and could have spent a whole day. The Kauri Museum shows in great detail, with many pictures and millions of words, the whole history of how they discovered the trees, sawed them down (a monumental effort since they’re so HUGE!), hauled them out to a river or road or harbor where they could then transport them on ships or railroads to the sawmills, where they had to invent new machines to deal with cutting trees so huge, then to their final owners. They even had a working sawmill, created from actual machinery that had been in the real sawmills, to show how they cut the monsters into boards, planks, panels, or smaller pieces that could then be made into ships’ masts, furniture, walls, ceilings, floors, and small items like bowls.

Most of the rest of the day was spent just driving through beautiful pastureland and hills that just 100 years ago had been dense forests filled with the giant kauri but are now bare of most trees. We’re headed out of the Northland at a pretty good clip, as fast as these very curvy roads will allow. Stopped for the night in a non-descript town called Helensville. Stayed in a B&B called Malolo that used to be a hospital during WWII, so it has many rooms and a very strange configuration, having been added to in several directions as they needed space. Only place open, since it’s Monday and most restaurants are closed that day, was an Indian takeaway (their word for take-out) that had 5 tiny tables. Even though it was served on plastic plates from plastic containers and they only gave us spoons with which to eat it, it was piping hot and delicious. Since we were the only customers, the very friendly Indian guys who ran it asked us a million questions about America, our political situation, Obama, the war, and, like everyone else, are glad Bush is on his way out.

Day 14 – Dec. 16 – Helensville to Hamilton

We have now seen all of the Northland (that is the part north of Auckland, NZ’s only really large city, of 1.2 million inhabitants), and are headed for parts south. On travel days, as opposed to sight-seeing days, we like to break it up by playing a round of golf. Our golf book mentioned an Alistair MacKenzie course, Titirangi, in west Auckland, so we stopped off to see if we could play. There were only 2 people on the range, nobody on the course, and the parking lot was empty. We knew something was off, then it was confirmed by a sign on the pro shop door saying they were closed for several days due to ‘coring’, our version of ‘punching’ the fairways and greens. So we went instead to a mediocre course, Maungakiekie, paid our $20 each, including ‘trundler’ to haul our bags, and teed off with a couple of Kiwis. They were delightful, and hit the ball in every direction but towards the green. We had a great time and got to see parts of the course we never would have without their being along, as we hunted in the weeds and woods for their balls. Saw our first wild parrot, rooting in the grass for bugs or whatever he eats. Bright yellow, red, and green, he entertained us for several minutes.

After eating at the excellent Thai restaurant called Tusk, which one of our golf partners recommended, we made a beeline for the south side of Auckland and the open country. We’re on our way to Rotorua, one of the 5 stinkiest places on earth. Stopped off in Hamilton, a good-sized town with a million motels, and chose the Aquarius because of its internet connection. This is the biggest motel room we’ve seen yet, with a living room/dining room combo with a bed, separate large kitchen, bedroom, hallway and bath, all for $55. Love that NZ dollar - $1 of ours buys $1.60 of theirs, so this is going to be a relatively inexpensive 3 months. Especially with golf so cheap – except for the Kauri Cliffs types.

None of places we’ve stayed, with the exception of Villa du Fresne in Russell, has had a plug for a hair dryer in the bathroom. I guess Kiwis dry their hair in the bedroom, but few of our bedrooms have had mirrors, essential for that morning task. So we bought a 12-foot extension cord so I could stand in the bathroom and dry my hair.