Impressions

We got up at 7am, ate and rushed to the ferry terminal. Andrei is following American logic which doesn’t work here on the roads…they write directions on different places and angles, so that you get so confused and almost certainly find yourself on a wrong road. This is especially unpleasant when it happens on motorways, it takes a while to find a place to turn around. Wellington, the capital, is one of those confusing places, and having in mind how small it is – it drives you crazy…Taking a motorway was our mistake and it took us several turns, several wrong turns and a talk with a very pleasant and helpful guy in a gas station until we found ourselves standing in a line for the ferry. The ferry was good, comfy seats, some with tables, a very good canteen – we got such a big breakfast meal that even sharing it were filled for the day. OK, I will describe it, for it is kind of my specialty . One big plate was piled with 4 sausages, 3 potato pancakes, several pieces of ham and a huge scoop of scrambled eggs. It all costed 12.50, but coffee and ketchup were extras. The trip lasted 3 hours, and all the way you could see shores – either of one island or the other. it was beautiful to see how the boat left Wellington:

and how it sailed through Marlborough sounds towards Picton:

Picton is nothing to get us interested, but there again wasn’t easy to turn to the right road. We took the coastal road – very windy, narrow, but beautiful, with the views of green mountains sinking and dripping into the green waters.

There was a Pelorus River on the way and had we more time – we could have done a walk to its waterfalls.But

no time…There was also the world capital of green mussels, but we didn’t stop there either. Until we reached

Nelson -and there in the center there was a wow! All the streets were decorated with hanging begonias, so many and so colorful and so alive, that I was standing and looking and there could have been nothing else…

But there were cafes, pubs, shops. They are making their own ales, so it was a pleasure to try some. I am not a specialist, but they were good to me! Interesting point – pubs don’t have toilets…In the main street the only toilet we found was only “one hole” as I call in Starbucks. After getting a little merrier we climbed a small hill covered with beautiful trees, resembling to me a Capitol Hill in D.C.  -just a smaller version, and we reached a Cathedral.

The hill and the streets around and also the main street are called Trafalgar. The cathedral is an Anglican church. She was the reason Nelson was the second town in NZ to get its township.

Then we drove a little to the side to see the NZ geographical  center  -it is on a small but steep hill and we ran out of our intangible resources to climb it. So it goes…

But on the way we found Queens gardens, with a Chinese garden in the corner:

Passing Nelson immediately we stopped at a very wide beach-so wide, it was hard to reach the waters and when we reached them – we decided not to get into the waves, for they didn’t feel like welcoming. I can’t even explain. Some beaches are very cozy, some are not. here I noticed – the beaches and lowlands are so flat that when the tide of 4 meters goes down – super duper wide areas besides the sea become like marsh lands, half wet, half dry, dark grey, and very wide and flat, no plants… To make them not so boring, enthusiasts even make words and signs of stones(they have to bring those stones from somewhere) on those wastelands that you can see from the road while driving.

(This pic I borrowed from tomorrow’s day, because while driving we do not stop much, so this one was taken from a board walk to Abel Tasman Park.)

It is like in Hawaii they make words out of white shells and stones on the black lava fields, or by Salt Lake city they make those same things from black stones on the white salt fields. It is good people use their overflow of energy and their time not in vain but in good use!

They say that the difference between tides here is 4-5 meters! Oho! In Maine it was 2 meters and still looked impressive.

This is still a beach by Nelson.

And here we are – in Motueka, 20 min from Abel Tasman national park entrance. Lots of choices what we can do tomorrow. Tired of reading about those places. Somehow I think that it is really not so easy to travel without any guidance and also with that big ambition to see so much…It seems simple later, but in the beginning you have to plan your time best and think of various ways of taking this road or that, sleeping here or there. So we both agree that we couldn’t travel with reservations – we always would like to change them.

This time we found a very nice motel – and right at the moment we felt like stopping for the night. Very private, quiet, with a garden in the middle. With a kitchen, and everything else, except for internet, that is why my Blog is late. Catching the internet was tricky. We always buy it with cc, there is no unprotected internet in NZ, but we have to find a signal and the right one. So driving around motels, lodges and checking is a way of spending some evenings. If we have it in the motel itself – then it is even more boring – we sit by our PC’s and type…

It was a rainy day – exactly as the weather forecast predicted. So it was good to spend it in the city. We drove there in the morning and as it was Saturday, thanks God we started looking for a room from the very start. And we found, on a slope – with the view towards “The Hong Kong” of New Zealand. Then we rushed to Kuba street,

lots of shops restaurants and then dived among several skyscrapers and found ourselves by the harbors. The decors and sculptures over there are impressive even in the rain. I like their sense of modernism, it makes  me happy. After a good curry at an Indian restaurant we found ourselves heading towards Te Papa museum.

That museum is …marvelous, nobody doubts about that. Architecture alone is worth spending time and looking at it. Then the contemporary paintings are pretty good, the Maori artifacts and stories about their life, etc. showed in movies are pleasant. the other exhibits, as a giant squid caught in Feb. of 2007, the Earthquake exhibit, the fashion-color show – everything was impressive. But to me – nothing beats the exterior and the interior.

This is a Chinese device to measure the direction of a coming earthquake. Each dragon has a ball in his mouth. If the pendulum inside hits it – the ball falls into the open mouth of a frog sitting under and in front of it. Those Chinese, they made everything beautifully…

Museums make us tired.  So after that we found something to eat and called it a day. Here in the Lodge we met three young Latvians, traveling for 2.5 months! Not bad, hm… If a person from an Eastern European country can work for a year there and save enough money for such a long trip – lets move back to Lithuania… I think I have made a mistake, being form the US I can travel here no longer than for a month .

We are heading towards the South Island tomorrow! taking a ferry.

That was the plan. No, we haven’t reached Wellington. We are half an hour north of it – just ran out of steam. The day was cloudy, but not rainy. It was comfortable for traveling.  In the morning we walked just a little on the walkway in Plymouth which has got awards from UN as the most ecological, etc.

It was nice, all the walks for me here are nice – on walkways or just on wild beaches…New Plymouth looks light, modern, has charm. Ir has nice parks, but we missed them. On the whole – people  here in the south of North Island are more into flowers and more cheerful themselves, or that is what I feel. But my impressions about people are very scarce, for I have no time to talk to them so what do I know…

Then we tried to take pics of Mt. Taranaki or Mt. Egmont, because there is no clear agreement between both sides (Maori and government) which name to use.The first is Maori name, the second is given by Captain Cook. Vote which one do you like! Me-  I don’t care. I like its looks. Reminds Mt. Fuji which I have seen in pictures only.

We tried to see a beach there – they are not by main road – but it wasn’t somehow impressive. Lots of places for surfers. Therefore this whole peninsula is called Surfers’ peninsula. But there are steep rock , too. waves are plunging into those rocks and splashing up! beautiful. of course. Even without sun. We came upon a beach in Patea and there was a mall   -waves were splashing over it and on both sides of the black sand beach there were steep cliffs, as if in Ireland or England (White Cliffs in Dover – or so I read). The surf barrier looked as in the movie French Lieutenant’s Woman. Pleasant.

Then we drove for 11 km from the main road to see the Kai Iwi or Mowhanau beach – on the way there was a surprise – Bason Botanic Reserve, a very beautifully taken care of park. With a begonia exhibit. they we exploding! The beach didn’t seem attractive at first – but then we noticed a walk by the cliffs and two big rocks standing separately in the sea, like in a movie “the Piano”.

And also – there was a Flying Fox thing in the kids playing ground…So I remembered my childhood and oh my God what fun it was!

We didn’t see Wanganui, just passed by, but upon entering it noticed an Aviary – a closed big place for  birds and birds there  were. All colors one can imagine, mostly parrots, but also pigeons, a colorful goose with tiny cute ducklings, Love birds and parakeets, their colors were strange – like artificial, as if they don’t belong to nature – my friend used to call those colors FC cold blueish greens. Combined with yellows. The parrots were ringnecks and African Greys and others I don’t know. Green, yellow, colorful. Fighting, playing, hatching. And we could stand in the middle of it.

Also – we managed to stop at a berry farm – the second one we noticed after making totally 1500 km… in this climate. Maybe they have no market for berries, because otherwise  – why not to grow them? Oh yes, they have no Mexicans  and Eastern Europeans to work in farms…The climate is perfect and in my long life  – I have never eaten such tasty strawberries! So aromatic! so sweet! it is a pity we had no time to pick ourselves, it would have been a double pleasure.

And that was it, the road was so crowded, so busy, we had to find a place to stay, which we did on a dirty beach  – here I will copy the name from the book: Paraparaumu. Who in the world can remember such names…

From Orewa to new Plymouth – it seemed to be 260 km, but we made 400km. Maybe we drove a longer and more spectacular road.

The morning was again bright as usually mornings here are, at least for us they were. We started early, but all those e-mails and connections took some good hour from our morning. We drove a lot – more than 400 km, the most of our drivings here yet. Drove straight south. Through Hamilton, where we stopped to walk in Hamilton gardens – very beautifully built gardens, in a way I never expected. there were several exotic gardens enclosed with walls or hedges. (Thanks Margot and Wayne for planting such interesting gardens .

I have seen many Japanese gardens and Chinese, too. But never an Indian garden with a piece of their architecture:

A Renaisance garden, and English garden -they all had architectural designs and details:

And a Maori garden:

During our luch a bunch of maori kids were brought from gardens and as a reward for listening boring stories about plants – were permitted to play in their playground. That was like all the fire sirens screaming together! I think I have never heard such a noise, a noise of happiness. Running barefoot, using all those fast merry-go-rounds, falling, pushing each other, and yet later gathered by teachers into a tidy waiting line, and shouting, screaming, yelling…

When we reached Otorohanga – I read that there is a Kiwi House Bird Park. So we went – we felt an obligation to see a live kiwi while here in New Zealand. And we saw – in a dark house resembling a moonlight. There were two kiwis – one was Evan the other had two names, one which as if was Ricky. They were seriously digging the soil with their long beaks. the rest of the garden was not so impressive, very few birds in my opinion, some eels in a dirty pond…(that is how they live, I guess, in nature). The tickets were $16NZ each.

Kaka Parrot resting:

After that we already rushed towards New Plymouth, the road was winding through mountains and a green canyon, reaching the Tasman sea where we couldn’t help but stop and plunge into teh warm waves! the beach was very different than we saw before, (it was in Mokau) in the sense that the sand was black and glittering in the sun. It also had that blue shade sometimes black hens have. But it was soft to walk on that sand and the sea was very far away.

Low tide…the sand was wet, most likely that was a very flat beach, Strange to leave your clothes on such a wet sand – they get wet. But getting into the waves was lovely! and taht is it, we gathered some shells and good views for pic and headed towards Plymouth, which is a nice city. Lots of churches, old and modern.  Also – those areas here have more flowers than Northland or around Auckland. I noticed that people don’t like planting fruit trees or gardens by their houses even if they have enough land. Not a big fashion to have flower gardens in front of houses unless they grow by themselves, which they do – they are blooming here! I could notice even flowers by the road, on slopes, some even in gardens. Such a climate, give me one, I would show what a garden should look like!

Also  – here is the prince of the house we stayed at, he is going to celebrate Americana weekend!:

We had a beautiful morning in Paihia and left towards the West coast. To tell the truth I am falling in love with Backpackers Lodges…Unlike faceless motels – they have characters. They have either a nice garden or some courtyard for eating in the morning, or dinners or lunches, whatever anyone wants.

Also – they are filled with young people who talk about their adventures, or studies, or plans in life and also old people who are very quiet which is also very good for neighbors as us . And the owners are usually very patient people. They don’t tell you much about where to go or what to do, but they emanate that welcome spirit and concern about your comfort.

So yesterday we crossed the peninsula and noticed a sign on the way: Ngawha Springs – of course, we drove there and there we met the first Maori women – mother and daughter selling the tickets. They were full of fun, laughing, so we had a good chat. I said – of all the New Zealanders I met here yet  -you are the most cheerful! The Springs were very simple, wooden boxes built into the soil and hot water bubbles in them. There are different boxes and different temperatures. To make it interesting – they have names. The hottest one is called Doctors and the other – Favorite…They have a sense of humor. Because it is so simple, it costs only $4 NZ. and very few soakers. As far as I notice already  -there are a lot of Canadians and Brits who are retired and travel here looking for deals and enjoying the warm climate. So I talked with a Canadian couple, who stay in their motor home and soak every day for a week already. There was a sad Kiwi, too. And basically no more at that time. The waters are a little gray, some dark green, but seemed clean, a very slight sulfur smell.  That was a really good time!

Then we drove to Opononi and Omapere -and I was pleasantly surprised to see the big sandy dunes in front  on the other side of the bay  -it looked like Nida – my place in Lithuania! So alike, that I couldn’t take my eyes off!

Then the road went South, which is down, through Kauri forest. Very thick jungle with Kauri giants sticking here and there. the biggest had a path to it and viewing places. It is maybe even more than 2000 years old…and has fragile roots, who would expect that?

They have used most of te Kauri trees for building houses and making furniture – good wood! Also they are mentioning about Kauri gum – as if it looks like amber, but far from it…Very blank, lacks color and expression. And extremely expensive to my eyes. I should have brought amber to them…

When we reached Orewa, 30 km north of Auckland, we felt like staying there – by the sea, by a very wide and long beach, so magic…warm waters, so we swam. And tides here are low in the evenings – so it takes long to get to the waters.

At night we went to the sea shore to look at stars  -and saw the Southern Cross for the first time in our lives! And the constelation of Centaurus, and the brightest star Syrius high up in the sky. No Casiopeia, no Polar Star. Only the Orion looked in its place – my husband said that it was turned over – I didn’t notice for it is very symetrical in the first place. It is still strange, that North is in another direction that you would expect by default.