The Far North

As we left The Bay of Islands, the thick fog which had blanketed the bay lifted to a breautiful day. The drive up the coast to Mangonui was along a lovely coastline, which was very quiet. The town of Mangonui, fabled for its fish and chips and architecture from the whaling days, was a charming harbour village. We were too early for the fish and chips, but enjoyed great coffee there.

Mangonui Harbour is an arm of Doubtless Bay which was stunningly beautiful, and from there we drove up a long skinny peninsula to Cape Reinga, at the most northerly tip of NZ. We saw a lot of Azure Kingfishers on this road.

On the way we stopped at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom at Awanui, where there is a staircase carved from an ancient Kauri Tree, and a display of furniture and carvings. The Cape Reinga lighthouse is solar powered, only 50w according to the sign, the only solar powered lighthouse we have ever seen. How a light of that power can be effective is amazing, but the sign there said that it can be seen for 19 miles. It stands where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. We saw it on a gloriously calm day, but we imagine the weather can be frightful in this totally exposed location. It's also unusual in that you approach the lighthouse from above it! (See photo.)

Massive landscaping was being undertaken at the Cape. There must be a lot of visitors here in Summer!

The west side of the peninsula leading up to Cape Reinga is Ninety Mile Beach. Vehicles are allowed on this beach but we didn't see any, and we note that that the speed limit is posted at 100km/hr. Reports are that many vehicles come to grief on this beach, and we could see why. At high tide it would be impassable, and at low tides, just plain dangerous due to soft sand and extreme isolation. Franky, we are not supporters of vehicles being allowed to drive along pristine beaches.

Near the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach, we had a look at one of the few road accesses to this beach, at Waipapakauri. This access point was seriously degraded and impassable except for high clearance 4WDs. Most of the damage here was probably done by recent storms.

After this trip, we stayed the night at Kaitaia, then set out heading south though the Kauri forests. The highlight of the day's driving was the ferry trip across Hokianga Harbour from Kohukohu to Rawene (photo), both very picturesque towns, which although small, appear to be thriving. The town of Oponomi is also beautiful, being
set at the heads of Hokianga Harbour and characterised by spectacular sand dunes. It was very quiet there with only locals about.

The road was twisty and slow as we passed through the Waipoua Forest, where the oldest known living Kauri tree is to be found (photo).

Beyond the forests, we had a good walk along Bayley's Beach, which was wild and windy, as our last call for the day. The town here is cute and funky, but we noticed a massive development taking place on the headland which will not help this particular ambience.

The West Coast, down which we are travelling, is not on the tourist trail, so it's very quiet and enjoyable, especially at this time of year. The tiny towns along the beach are replete with shacks and huts with only the occasional well built house. Locals obviously make good use of this coastline, and are probably grateful that it
is not too popular with tourists. Serious erosion of the dunes is a problem everywhere, a problem which is seemingly made worse by beach shacks being built too close to the edge.

We pulled in for the night at Dargaville.

Bay of Islands

The weather has improved in New Zealand's North Island. It's now mostly sunny, but frequently there are brief squalls of wind and rain, which are enough to keep everything wet, and requires us to keep our coats handy.

We managed a driving tour of the Devonport Peninsula, going up Mt Victoria and North Head, as well as along Cheltenham Beach, Narrow Neck Beach, Bayswater Marina and Stanley Point. The first photo shows the view from Bayswater across the marina to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. (They do bungy jumping from that bridge!) At North Head and Mt Victoria there are remnants of old forts first built to protect Auckland from the Russian attacks (which never happened). An impressive short DVD movie shows in a visitors' centre at North Head showing the history of the forts on this peninsula.

At Stanley Point, the city has only managed to preserve a single, tiny wedge of access and view to the harbour from private development. This is now the Cyril Bassett Lookout, in honour on New Zealand's only Victoria Cross in the Gallipoli Campaign. Bassett lived very close by, and no doubt used to look at the harbour from this precious spot.

We have now driven north out of Auckland to the Bay of Islands. A highlight of this trip was a diversion along the very spectacular Tutukaka coast (second photo), and we had a nice sandwich lunch in the little marina at Tutukaka township. We also enjoyed Whangarei Falls (third photo) which are extremely photogenic, and are running very well given the heavy recent rains.

We have stayed a couple of nights in Paihia (for the benefit of Australian's this is pronounced "pie here"), the main town on the legendary Bay of Islands. We took a commercial cruise of the bay, but the Fullers boat frankly had too many people on board for comfortable viewing and photography. This is not to say that it was overloaded, rather that it was too crowded to be described as a spacious sightseeing vessel. We would recommend trying another provider which has smaller vessels and appears to be less popular with bus trips, for only $2 more.

The cruise itself was excellent. The rain mostly held off, with only one squall, although it was cold and windy. The islands are truly spectacular, many are occupied with occasional holiday homes (some looked magnificent), so this Bay and its surrounds are obviously not protected by being a National Park as we would think it should be. There's lots of history in this bay, mostly involving unfortunate interactions between the Maoris and invading Europeans, mainly French.

The last photo was taken from a hill on Urupukapuka Island where we stopped for an hour or so, mainly, we think, to refuel the crew with lunch. We had fish and chips. This island includes a resort named after the American author Zane Grey (who liked the Bay of Islands for fishing and maybe writing), and the views from on top of the hills are splendid. It is very enjoyable walking up and down well grassed but a bit boggy sheep paddocks, climbing over the occasional stile.

We spent a pleasant hour in the historic and pretty town of Russell, originally a fortified Maori settlement with a name that meant "sweet penguin", but the victorious Europeans changed it to something they thought more pronounceable. In its early days it was a whaling town. It's most readily accessible by ferry from Paihia.

One night in Paihia we dined at Lips Beef and Reef Restaurant. This place is worth a mention because the food was "the best she's had in New Zealand" according to Clare. It was a totally unpretentious place, one we just chose walking by from the menu on the wall, and the wait staff that we met were extremely friendly. Such a pleasant eating experience leaves a very good impression of a town.

New Zealand Bound

On 1 August, we set out for two and a half weeks in New Zealand, coinciding (naturally, for those who know us), with a clogging weekend (the NZ national convention) to be held in Auckland. We had decided to spend three nights in Devonport, because it is close to the clogging location, Glenfield, and also has a ferry to Auckland downtown, so Mike could easily visit the city.

Our flight over was on Air Tahiti Nui and left at the ungodly hour of 07:10 (well, it was meant to anyway, it's actual departure was almost an hour late). We discovered that for such early flights there is no point following the official recommendation of checking in "at least two hours early". At 5am, the airport is virtually deserted, and the Customs and Immigration people don't start until 6am anyway, so you just have to wait. Clare enjoyed a coffee (damn the paper cup!) at Starbucks, pretty well the only retail shop open that early.

And the flight turned out to be operated by Qantas on a codeshare basis. So we tried our luck at the Qantas Club. We were told that we weren't strictly eligible to use the lounge because we were flying Tahiti Nui and "Qantas don't get any money from our ticket", but they let us in anyway.

The flight was uneventful. Our part of the cabin was mostly populated by well behaved footy players from the Newtown Jets. On arrival, the slowest part (as usual in New Zealand) was the passage through "biosecurity" which Aussies would call quarantine. New Zealand is really careful on this topic, and we suppose you can't blame them.

For this stay, knowing diesel is cheaper here than petrol, and to be different, we rented a diesel Peugeot. It's a delightful little vehicle, so great to get in a French car again with all its refinements. The drive to Devonport was predicted at 32 minutes by www.wises.co.nz but it took well over twice that long. The road in from the airport is pretty poor, and even modest traffic bogs it right down to a miserable crawl. Even on the North Shore, the trip along Lake Road into Devonport is a funeral procession.

We're staying at a little one room B&B we found on the internet in Buchanan Road. Our room is a very little standalone cottage at the back of the owners' house. It's just a bit on the shabby side of quaint, but lovingly cared for by the owners, who gave us a very friendly reception, and looked after us very well. The cottage is just that bit too small for people like us who travel with much too much luggage!

The clogging is at Glenfield, not to far from Devonport, but requiring another drive back up Lake Road, a few k on the motorway, and then a windy, hilly trip through the backblocks. Again, a little traffic completely clogs these roads, making the trips back and forth to the Glenfield Community Centre very slow. (At midnight, coming home, it's much faster.)

Auckland, and indeed all of New Zealand have endured over a week of very heavy storms from a confluence of low pressure zones over the Tasman Sea. There has been flooding, washaways, houses falling off cliffs etc., with the top part of the North Island copping the worst of it, and even the Pacific Sun cruise liner had to limp back into the harbour after scaring the wits out of its passengers (and injuring a few) in "huge waves and high winds". The liner is sitting in Auckland now getting all its crockery and other loose fittings replaced. This is just preliminary to saying that it's extremely soggy and pretty miserable in the city at the moment.

On Saturday, Mike caught the ferry into downtown. The winds had dropped, but the occasional mild rain squall passed by, making umbrellas and raincoats necessary for any outing. Mike had an enjoyable walk around the city, and through Albert Park and Auckland University, dodging between the drizzle patches and managing to stay pretty dry. Lots of Australians were evident in the city, identifiable by their "Wallabies" jerseys, getting ready for the Bledisloe Club rugby match at Eden Park.

Homeward Bound

28 February 2008 marks the end of our fabulous 3 month round the world trip, highlighted by a full month spent in Paris (covering Christmas, New Year and wedding anniversary), and a wonderful driving trip up and down the east coast of the USA.

We flew from New York to Los Angeles, and spent 4 days there just hanging out, relaxing, and cruising around. Our hotel was in our favourite suburb, Redondo Beach, where there's plenty of good eating and walking nearby. We rented a Ford Mustang so we could really fit into the LA lifestyle, and we really did nothing much else but cruise around in it. The Mustang was barely big enough to take our luggage, but it sure did look and feel good, and was fun to drive.

This completes our blog of this trip. We'll start up again when we go on another travel escapade.

Postscript from New York

Our last day in New York dawned brilliantly clear and blueskied, with a fresh covering of snow underfoot, so we decided to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge with all the other tourists and local joggers and bike riders. What a great day it was! The view from the bridge is fantastic, you can see far and wide, including the Statue of Liberty, and the next door bridge, the Manhattan Bridge. There are lots of helicopters buzzing around, as there is a helipad below the bridge, and the structure of the bridge causes the wooden footpath to vibrate with the traffic flow. Looking back to Manhattan, the skyline of New York City is a lovely spectacle. The ugly Verizon building makes it very difficult to get a clear photo of the Brooklyn Bridge looking back into Manhattan [photo].

Brooklyn Heights is a very cute suburb, with lots of up market housing. The shopping village had lots of trendy shops, markets and cafes. Some of the houses have a great view over the East River, and have had balconies added to enhance them.

On our last morning we headed out by subway to Harlem, but found it rather run down, and weary. Maybe if we spent more time there, we would have found some treasures, but all we had was a brief walk before heading back to get our bags and walk to the bus station, for a ride to JFK. We had a good flight on Qantas, to LA, and were glad we were not continuing on to Sydney that night, but having a few days to chill out before the long flight home.

The photo shows the 1 Train subway bridge as it traverses Harlem.

New York, New York

Our New York hotel is well placed, right near Grand Central Station, which is a marvellous structure. It is clean and warm, and has a vast array of food shops, including supermarkets and a fresh food hall which is really good. The trains are pretty well hidden from view (unlike Paris stations), which is probably another good idea. From our hotel window we can see the Empire State Building, lit up at night in silver. On the weekend it was lit in red, white and blue for the President's Day holiday [photo]. Right next door is a great place for breakfast, and they have good wraps and salads. A short walk takes you right to Times Square, and we are adjacent to the well known streets, Lexington Ave, Park Ave, Madison Ave, and 5th Ave. New York is great city for walking!

Our week in New York has been very interesting, it certainly is a different city, and the people watching here is most interesting. Foreigners abound - the city is packed with tourists. The decline in the US Dollar seems to bring Europeans here en masses, and they seem to be buying up brand name luggage in bulk, maybe to sell on their return. English visitors swagger around as if they own the place, and maybe they do, what with over two dollars to the pound!

The weather has been below freezing every day, some days have been bright and sunny, and we have also seen the snow fall, which has been great. Just like home the fashions in the stores are all summer, even though it is snowing outside and every one is wearing big coats, and it will be some time before the little flimsy numbers will be able to be worn.

We have done the touristy things, and just walked as we usually do, gazing upwards as the buildings here are so interesting, especially the tops of them. The photo shows an interesting brick building in Soho, incredibly intricate detail at the top levels, and those amazing NY fire escapes. There were trips to Macy's and Bloomingdales, and Century 21 the great discount store. In fairly dismal weather, we walked thru some of the "village" precincts of NYC, looking at the quirky shops and cafes.

We're big walkers, but NYC is also very big, so we use the Subway to move uptown and downtown in big hops. There is a convenient 1 week Metrocard which gives you unlimited travel for about $25, very good value. For some reason, we were able to buy the first one on a credit card, but had to use cash to buy the second Metrocard. The underground trains are clean, frequent, crowded and feel safe. The sounds of live music and buskers permeate the system. The network structure is not as straightforward as it is in Paris and London, but you get the hang of it quickly.

In perfect sunshine, we took the Staten Island Ferry, and gazed back at the familiar skyline of the NY skyscrapers, a sad sight now of course, and passed by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where the early immigrants were processed. We took a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, mostly because Clare, as a little girl, remembers her Nana going there. It was crowded and freezing at the top, but the visibility was perfect. It's amazing to realise this building is 1931 vintage.

The Frick collection is very interesting, thanks Elaine for that tip, and the Guggenheim Museum in that wonderful building, although now covered in scaffolding for a massive external renovation, was amazing to see. Unfortunately on the day we went there, a new and very popular exhibition was opening, and it was also snowing heavily, therefore the cloackroom was suffering a huge overload and we decided not to stand in line to check our coats, but instead we spent the day over 5th Ave in Central Park.

This was a good decision, as it was very beautiful, covered in snow, with lots of cross country skiers, and children with sleds having a great time. All the wonderful buildings around the park had snow on the tops of them, and there were no cars in the park. The fresh snow in the park gives it a wonderful aspect [photo]

On a sunny day, we visited September 11's Ground Zero. It was very moving, we thought of the terrible events of that day, and looked up into the sky where the buildings used to be. It's really just a hole in the ground now. The design seems to be settled, and new foundations are well under way, and the streets around are full of construction workers and cement trucks. The pedestrians are very forgiving, and everyone gives way to the trucks as they turn and weave in the street. Noone can be offended by the minor inconveniences in moving around this place. We also looked at the sculpture, now temporarily housed in Battery Park, which once sat in the plaza of the World Trade Centre. It is badly bruised and battered, but is a fitting memorial to that terrible day [photo].

Return to New York

The day to return the Subaru Outback arrived quickly, and we scarpered out of Vermont and through New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut rather more quickly than we would have preferred. The scenery through these states was great, but we didn't have much time to stop and enjoy it. We especially liked the frozen lakes with people wandering around on them, presumably safely.

We had specifically booked a Subaru from Avis, because that would guarantee "all wheel drive" which is highly desirable on the snowy roads we expected. This was after our experience in the Rockies two years ago when we discovered (several states too late) that, in the USA, SUV does not mean 4-wheel drive!

In the 40 days we had the Outback, it performed without a hitch. We travelled 5880 miles (9408km) through 16 states. Petrol (gas) prices were between $US2.90 and $3.20 per US Gallon, which translates to $A0.89 to $0.93 per litre, so they haven't got much to complain about, have they?

On the driving trip, we followed our usual US travel procedure and did not book hotels ahead. In the jargon of the trade, we were "walk-ins", and this lets you get good deals and make use of those discount coupon books you get from state welcome centres and McDonalds stores. We deviated from this strategy only twice, in Key West FL (where, worried about limited options in high-season, only Cuba, we rang 2 hours ahead, and just as well, because the town was full when we got there) and in Alexandria VA (where we had to tell a friend where we were going to be staying). We almost had a wheel fall off once, in Rutland VT, a ski resort town on the Presidents Day long weekend, but we managed to pay more and avoid having to sleep in the car.

Depending on opportunities, we stayed at Days Inn, Best Western, Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Quality Inn, Comfort Suites, Fairfield Marriott, La Quinta and one independent as well as two friends, of course. We like these chain hotels, because they not only provide the essentials and decent comfort, but also complimentary broadband (for this blog!) and breakfast. Three hotels let us down in the breakfast stakes, but we managed to avoid starvation.

Our reseach is anecdotal, of course, but we noted that, within any chain, the quality of the accommodation can vary widely. As someone said to us, look for recent construction or renovation! Our award for the most consistenly good hotels on this segment of our trip goes to Holiday Inn Express.