We found New Zealand to be one of the most beautiful and scenic countries in the world. Unfortunately, being tucked away way ‘down under’ the equator, it is so far away from the rest of the world; definitely not easily accessible, unless after many hours of flight. I suppose this is one of the reasons why there aren’t that many people living in New Zealand despite its beauty and temperate climate. With only about 4 million people living in the country (two thirds the size of California), most parts of the country felt pretty empty other than the many sightings of sheep, of course. About 1.3 million people live in Auckland and we found traffic jams there like any other large cities. However, elsewhere, we found that we were about the only ones driving on long stretches of roads, connecting one little town to another. With lush green pastures, dotted with sheep, deer, alpaca, llama, ostrich, and cattle grazing everywhere, and the landscape changing from one beautiful scene to another every couple of hours, it was just so pretty and peaceful to be driving around New Zealand. Everywhere we looked, it was as if we were looking at one postcard after another. We tend to lump New Zealand with Australia but actually, the two countries are quite different.
Maoris are the native people that used to live here before the Europeans came. They make up 15% of the total population. They have a reputation of once being great warriors. In fact, the Europeans could not take over the land by sheer force alone, but with the help of signing treaties, they were able to settle here. This Maori man is in the battle pose, with wide- open eyes and with his tongue sticking out to look more fearsome.
After spending a day visiting the Auckland City Museum along with a Maori cultural show and the Kelly Tarlton Aquarium, we then decided to tour the north island (New Zealand consists of North and South Islands). We simply rented a car and headed north. Without making a reservation, we stopped at a town called Whangarei and stayed at a small B&B there. This photo was taken near the B&B at Whangarei Falls, where these local young Maoris were frolicking on a hot and muggy day.
The Whangarei Falls was only less than 50 yards away from where the Maoris were jumping in the pool. Again, we didn’t see hardly anyone around to enjoy the beautiful waterfall. This northeast area of the North Island is a sub-tropical rain forest with a lot of mosquitos and insects of every kind.
Kaori trees are the second largest trees in the world; only the giant Sequoia trees are taller and bigger. This one was only a stone throw away from our B&B place and we took a short hike around the trail the next morning, before heading north to the Kari Kari peninsula. The sound of cicadas was so overwhelmingly loud, that we had to put on ear-plugs to deaden the sound, while we were walking on the trails.
On our drive up to the Karikari peninsula, we came across a bay that looked so serene that we had to stop for a little rest. We met up with a New Zealand couple who were picnicking there. They gave us some ideas as to what to see and do on the North Island. We saw a restaurant owner plucking out fresh oysters from the rocks nearby.
This is an oyster farm. The Pacific oysters are grown here. The locals say they are the tastiest. They told us that the best way is to just pick them from the rocks, shell them, and eat them on the spot. However, after showing us the cuts on their fingers and hands from shelling them, they advised us to buy them fresh at the supermarket, already shelled, cleaned, and ready to chew down.
Cable Bay. We saw a sign for lodging and stopped here. The lodge was sitting right on the beachfront and a few of the units were wide open for us to see inside. We left a note, with our email address, on the owner’s door saying that we would be interested in staying the next day.
We stopped at the Carrington winery for wine tasting before checking into our lodging, which was called the Heritage at Carrington. We decided to splurge and booked a golf package there at the beautiful hotel and golf course. We had our first golf outing since almost five months ago.
The building on the right is the lodging and to the left, on the hill, is the winery. The young waitress from Czech said that the owners have very deep pockets. It must be deep because we were the only ones in the winery and one of the few guests who checked in (there were only two dinner guests that night and at breakfast the next morning).
The course was well maintained and had a good layout. It played tough though, since I played mostly from the left rough. I guess I’ve been staying true to the rule of driving on the left side of the road, including on the fairway.
We enjoyed the beautiful view of the bay as much as the golf itself. Joanne didn't have to worry about "forgetting" how to play golf. While having to drive on the left side of the road messed up my left/right brain coordination, Joanne kept the ball straight down the middle, all day long.
We came back the next day to stay in the lodge on the beach at Cable Bay. This is the view from our balcony. There were Australians and New Zealanders (“Kiwis”) who come here to stay for weeks at a time. We said we wouldn’t mind coming back to stay here again.
After picking out the fresh fish (bluenose cod), they fried it for us and we enjoyed our feast of "fish & chips" for lunch. Later on, we drove further north to the “99 mile beach” to Cape Reinga (it's actually only 50 miles long). The drive on the expansive and open hard packed sand for miles and miles, without any cars around you, was simply exhilarating. We made sure to time it right, so that it was during low tide. There was a "tide clock"at the hotel to aid us.
The city of Auckland is known to have the most sailboats per capita. This is the view of the Auckland Harbor as we drove on the freeway to get to a place called Rotorua, which is south of Auckland. Joanne snapped this photo while I was busy keeping the car on the left side of the road.
Rotorua is known for its thermal hot springs. This geyser was supposed to vent once daily, at the same time. What we didn’t know, till they told us at the site, was that they needed seeding to do this (they sprinkle some powder laundry detergent into the vent hole) - nothing like the natural Old Faithful that we saw at Yellowstone National Park.
The Wai-O-Tapu thermal park was spread out widely and had miles of walkways. There were many colors of minerals ranging from yellow, lime green, orange, darker green, white, etc. This one is called the ‘champagne pool’.
In front of the steamy pool of hot springs. Unlike the colors the smell wasn't that pleasant.
The next stop was the Hobbiton movie set at a sheep farm, which was used to film “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. We drove a couple of hours to get there and took a half-day tour; this also included a tour of the sheep farm.
The guide told us that it was this grand and symmetric oak tree sitting right next to a small lake, which made Peter Jackson, the director, pick this farm for the set. The tree was the centerpiece for the birthday party scene in the beginning of the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’. The owner later called this 'party tree' his ‘money tree’ instead.
Of course this is an illusion that Joanne seems to be standing on my palm. Just the way I think I have Joanne eating from the palm of my hands is all but an illusion.
We had a close up view of a sheep getting shorn, which is done twice a year. This man sheared a large sheep in less than 2 minutes. It takes strength to wrestle down the sheep and takes technique to shear without hurting the sheep. They said that a pro shearer can shear up to 250 sheep a day.
Later they brought out cute lambs for feeding. They were surprisingly strong. Only the lambs about a year old get to be on a dinner table as lamb chops.
That evening, I promptly ordered lamb hump for dinner. I figured that it won’t get any fresher or more genuine than the local ones in New Zealand. Joanne didn’t have the heart to eat lamb; she ordered a steak. The black stones were super HOT, we sliced a few pieces of the meat to grill on its surface till we were finished eating.
The morning before we left Rotorua, we stopped at a local park next to Rotorua Lake for a stroll. A group of people were gathered to practice on their bagpipes. This must be the Scottish heritage of some of the New Zealanders. It was ironic because the city of Rotorua was the center for Maroi people.
We decided to drive down south to the Tongariro National Park. The national park was donated back to the government by the Maori people in order to preserve the land. This is a famous chateau. The English queen stayed there twice and for many months, this hotel was the headquarters for the cast and crew of ‘Lord of the Rings’, while they filmed there.
Near Rotoura was a cave called the Waitomo Cave, which is famous for its glowworms. We had to take this photo as we exited the cave on a boat, since no photography was allowed inside the cave. Besides the fantastic glowworms, we also saw many stalactites and stalagmites.
As you can see from this poster (I took a photo of the poster), the glowworms glowed in the dark like the stars on a clear night sky. We had never seen anything like that before. It glowed and sparkled in bluish-sapphire color.
Many small towns in New Zealand look like this. It looked like an innocent and small country-like street; a throw-back to Mayberry town.
We drove back to Auckland so that we could fly out to Christchurch in the south island. We had some time before the flight and we stopped at the Auckland Botanical Garden near the airport. They were going to have a "Begonia Festival" soon.
Pre-school kids dressed in yellow looked like young ducklings following their mother. This picture shows a representative mix of people in New Zealand – about 75% European descent, and the rest being Maoris and Asians. Asians are a growing in population in New Zealand. We even had decent Korean food near the Langham Hotel where we stayed in Auckland.
No comments:
Post a Comment