New Zealand

The Greens of New Zealand along the Lake Walk

Ireland is known as the "Emerald Isle" but the North Island of New Zealand must be a close second. Every hue of green from dusky pine to Chartreuse seemed to create a patchwork quilt covering the rolling hills. In the countryside, it was so beautiful that for a fleeting moment I considered selling everything, immigrating and becoming a sheep farmer or opening bed and breakfast.

This is not to say the whole trip went smoothly. Our plane was delayed leaving Seattle and after I explained that we'd miss our connection to New Zealand a kind Alaska Airlines agent moved us to another flight to Burbank and arranged a shuttle to LAX airport to catch our plane to New Zealand. We arrived at 6:00 am in Auckland without further incident, our luggage, however, did not. Luckily, we had booked a hotel in advance and could give the airlines our address to have the bags delivered the next afternoon.

Rangitoto

Unfortunately, by the first evening Erik was suffering from some sort of stomach flu and after having thrown up several times on New Year's Eve (no alcohol involved) he was spending the following day in bed, so Mark and I had to take turns going out on short sight seeing excursions while the other kept a vigil over the sick boy. I took a ferry out to Rangitoto a volcanic island across the harbor and hiked up to the top and then wandered around the shore checking out the "baches" or beach cabins built in the 1920's and 1930's.

Mark decided to pass on the AC boat adventure partially because it seemed too touristy, but also because all he had for footwear at the time was his clunky black soled hiking boots. It makes it hard to claim that you are a real sailor. Nonetheless, we did get to visit the National Maritime Museum where we saw a wide variety of vessels that have plied the waters in and around New Zealand and re-lived the great yachting moments of Kiwi history.

After being reunited with our luggage, we headed down to Rotarua, a geothermal area 150km south of Auckland. We stayed at a "Lakestay" about 20 minutes out of the town. It was basically the lower level of this woman's house across from Lake Okareka. We had our own room but shared the bathroom and kitchen with a few other guests. And while the house and the lake were quite nice, the common room was a bit crowded (especially when the Chinese family of 5 was eating), so we ended up having dinner out and leaving fairly early the next morning. So much for alternative lodging!

The geothermal areas of Rotarua were interesting but similar to Yosemite and seemed a bit over marketed to me. The mud pots and geysers appealed to Erik, but since he was still feeling a bit under the weather, we didn't stay too long as we had ahead of us a long drive up to the Coromandel, which I will address in my next posting.