Friday, September 4, 1998
The morning was spent vacuuming and cleaning the bach, in preparation for our flight back to Auckland. In the airport we noticed a large contingent of men all wearing identical khaki pants, light blue oxford cloth shirts, and brown sweaters with a small logo. It appeared they may be celebrities of some kind, as a local TV station had a camera crew interviewing members of the group. Additionally, one of the men in uniform had me pass a piece of paper with 25 autographs forward to a woman in the front of the plane. Reading the sports section of the paper, there was a story of the Canterbury vs. Auckland rugby match. A comparison of the logo in the paper with that on the sweaters of the guys seated behind me revealed that we were sharing our flight with the Canterbury Rugby League team. If they play rugby as well as they continuously kick the seats of passengers in front of them, Auckland won't have a prayer against them.
Once in Auckland, we went back to Rich's place and made arrangements to reserve a rental car for the following day for our trip to the Coromandel Peninsula. We went downtown to Rich's lab so he could check his e-mail. We were introduced to Rich's boss, whose daughter was in line to bungy jump just before Rich at the Kawarau River Bridge. Much to Rich's dismay, Rosy, the daughter, had already told Rich's boss about her two jumps. Rich had been hoping to be the one to spring this news on her parents.
We left the university and walked through Parnell Village, as I had heard it might be a good place to buy sweaters (which the Kiwis and Brits call jumpers.) I found Wooley for You, a store specializing in all products derived from sheeps wool, and did some early Christmas shopping. Although Parnell Village isn't discount central, New Zealand wool products are world renowned, therefore trading in hard currency, and sweaters while excellent in quality will not come cheap (running from $150 to $290 in the shop that I visited.) If you wish to knit your own, wool yarn is considerably cheaper.
We continued our walk to the Newmarket neighborhood of Auckland, home of yuppie bars, record and clothing stores catering to the young, stylish and trendy. We had dinner at a Turkish restaurant called Bodrum Cafe. If you go, make reservations (2 Osborne St., off of Khyber Pass Rd, 09.529.1931). Unlike San Francisco restaurants that look over their reservation lists to make you think that they are full, this place really was. Try the shrimp. I found the lamb in the doner kebab to be on the gamey side.
From Newmarket, we walked to Eden Village and stopped at Galbraith's Ale House (2 Mt. Eden Road, 09.379.3557), a brewpub in what used to be a library. The old character of the building remains. The beer was the most expensive beer we had in New Zealand (at $5.00 to $6.00 a pint) but was also the best. If you don't smoke and are looking for a more relaxed spot than the zoo scene on the bottom floor, follow the signs to the no-smoking section upstairs where it's much quieter and you have a birds eye view of the brewery. (The second floor is on a balcony overlooking the fermentation tanks.)
Saturday, September 5, 1998
Thames is one of the gateways to the Coromandel, situated on the southeast side of the peninsula, about a two hour drive from Auckland. There is a tourist information site in a converted train depot. We picked up a map of trails in the Kauaeranga Valley, and headed east, through rolling farmland, which turned into forest. At the Kauaeranga visitor center, a ranger talked us out of our original choice suggesting instead that we hike from the road-end to Hydro Camp. There is probably nobody in the world who maintain their trails better than the Kiwis, with clearly marked signs everywhere. Every major ford had a posted flood detour, which was a cable suspension bridge, built for one hiker at a time. My only gripe was that the distances were given in hours or minutes, rather than kilometers. When the sign tells you your destination is an hour away, it begs the question: for whom?
The trail itself goes through lush rainforest-like vegetation populated by tree ferns and Nikau Palms, yes palms, the world's southernmost palm grows in NZ forests (or the bush as the Kiwis call it.) Good boots are a necessity as the footing is slippery due to the moss on the rocks. The walk to Hydro Camp is steep, but the views are spectacular. The trail was built for horses going to Hydro Camp and many sections have stairs chiseled out of solid rock, some of which are potentially lethal due to slippery moss. The forests also were populated with rata trees, complete with epiphytes, very large tufts of grass, improbably growing out of the tree branches, straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.
Back in Auckland, Erin wanted Korean food. The first Korean restaurant we found in the yellow pages was now a Chinese restaurant. We found a restaurant simply named Korean Barbeque, and at the recommendation of the owner, we ordered one of each of the four main dishes (a friend of Rich's had joined us), which we barbecued ourselves on a gas grill at the table. We washed it down with a bottle of Renwood Old Vines Amador County Zinfandel, one of the five bottles that I brought over on the plane. Karen, Rich's friend, a native Kiwi who hadn't tried California zinfandel, said she liked it (was she just being polite?) but it was different than anything she had tried before, saying it reminded her of port. (At 14.8% alcohol, it was stouter than the standard Kiwi or Aussie table wine.)
We retreated to Karen's house where she kept her word and made all of us her famous Kahlua coffee, with the duty-free Kahlua that I had purchased earlier. It was worth the effort of carrying it. While there, Karen's mother, who was quite interesting and a wealth of information on Auckland and New Zealand, graciously entertained us.
Sunday, September 6, 1998
Today we headed west, rather than east from Auckland, going to the Waitakere Ranges, a regional park to the west of Auckland bordering the Tasman Sea. We drove first to Piha Beach, recommended by Karen, distinguished by Lion Rock, a large solitary rock surrounded by beach on one side and the Tasman on the other side. Although a 40 mile an hour wind was creating a sensation of looking directly into a sandblaster, I climbed on the rocks hoping to see some penguins. However, the penguins continued to elude me. After Rich completed his ascent of Lion Rock and took some photos, we concluded that conditions might be a little more hospitable at Keri Keri Beach, where the film the Piano was filmed. Keri Keri is a larger and wilder beach than Piha, although equally scenic. Access to the beach at Keri Keri requires the ford of a stream and a longer walk from the parking lot than Piha. Arriving at Keri Keri at the same time of us was the rain, which did not make ideal beach weather.
That evening, we were on our way to Los Angeles. Having regained our lost day coming across the Date Line, we arrived in LA 7 hours before we left Auckland and were greeted by 90 degree heat and 90% humidity, the remnants of a tropical storm that had just passed through. The sticky weather was enhanced by the fact that I was still wearing my ski jacket and the crowded conditions on the shuttle bus between Terminal 7, where our flight to San Francisco was departing and Terminal 2, where we had arrived. In LAX, United has made good on its threat to put obnoxious plastic shields on the x-ray machines which will restrict over-sized carry ons. I got mine through with a little help from the surly security person. As it always has been, it was a joy to leave LA.
The elapsed time from leaving Auckland to arriving at my apartment in Sausalito was 17 hours, prolonged by the difficulty of getting a cab from the Airport shuttle bus, thanks to the Sausalito Art Festival which was just wrapping up at that time.
Thus concluded our first trip to New Zealand (not our last.) Despite being there for 9 days, there was still lots we didn't see. Future possibilities include black-water rafting (that's floating down a stream in an inner tube in a cave), a jetboat ride, exploring Ruapehu and the other volcanoes, and fly fishing (which I have heard is awesome.) I promised (or threatened?) Rich at least one more visit before his work assignment concludes. Will I go again? Abso-freakin-lutely!!
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