Sydney airport is starting to feel like home..

I arrived in Sydney early this morning from Auckland, 8am. I am on my way to Bangkok so I came back to Sydney because ......... I needed a return out of New Zealand to get in there. Yeah, I could have done better with a little pre-planning but it was a last minuet thing. It will work out.

So here I am in the airport 8 hours later and in another hour I can check in and get rid of this bag. I was feeling a lot like a bag lady sitting with my cart complete with lunch bag, coke, can of peanuts a pair of travel socks all ready to go and a garbage bag tied on for good measure. So here I am all spread out in my little airport camp with my feet up reading.


The flight will be 9 hours this leg and I will arrive there at 1 am but that will be 5 am here and 7 am in Auckland where I got up this morning at 3.30am.

I am super excited to be going though and hopefully I won't be too grumpy to write my first impressions.

My wrap up impressions of New Zealand:
Liked:
1. Kerikeri is a wonderful small town to visit in the North Country.
2. Loved the Morie culture. They have good relations with the other cultures there and are positive that one day their treaty will be completely honoured. They have peaceful demonstrations to that end every anniversary of treaty day.
Disliked:
1. The wind coming off the water is so cold in the spring.
2. Auckland was, well, just a city and except for the harbour much like home.

It is great to be by the water

I got up early and was out the door by 7:30 this morning. I didn't really have a plan except for the Lonely Planet self guided walking tour for Auckland. It went mainly down Queen Street toward the Harbour with a few detours here and there.


Behind this gate in a sort of square there was an art exhibit of aerial photographs depicting scenes from around the world which were beautiful patterns from the air.





One of the photos was this assembly of US military attack aircraft in Arizona. There must have been 40 big prints from all over the world and most of them gave me pause for thought like this one did.

At the bottom of Queen Street was this Wharf Building and behind it of course was the wharf where the ferries leave from. Nearby were commercial docks and private marinas. Some of those private boats were to die for. Lots of money for boats here.

As you may know, I love to be on, in or near the water so I decided to take a short ferry ride over to a town called Devonport on the other side of the bay.

The view of the harbour as we pull away.

Looking back at Auckland cityscape from a lookout hill in Devonport. As usual these sea towns all seem to be former naval bases. The hills on this island are actually old volcanoes as well. The rocks on the shore are what remains of the last volcanic spew.

Here we look out over Devonport.

Another view from lookout hill.

A bunker under the hill where soldiers hid and kept prisoners.

One of the first hotels here in the late 1800's was mainly to house service men and now a successful hotel.

They have lots of homes dating to 18oo's which when they go on the market sell for several million dollars. They have all been designated heritage property but other than that they are not that grand looking or large.

I got home in the late afternoon and opted for the fifty cent bus ride up the hill as I knew I still had the big hill to climb to the YHA after I got off the bus.

What the heck, I paid $5.00 for a coke over in Devonport.

Can't wait to get to Thailand tomorrow where it should be a little easier on the pocket book.

On the bus again and heading for Auckland.

It is amazing how quickly I go back into bus mode after spending so much time on the bus in Australia. I did get the front seat again Susan, by the door. It was only a four hour trip back to Auckland but it is nice to have the extra leg-room. They have this really cheap bus company here and the 4 hour drive from Kerikeri was only $24.

This picture through the bus windshield is what it looked like pretty much all the way down. Beautiful country.

I got settled in my hostel and it is a good one. I had to walk 5 or 6 blocks from the bus depot which wouldn't have been bad had it not been uphill almost all the way. I brought some of my groceries down from Kerikeri so my pack was heavy again.

Well, I survived that and got on the computer and got a flight to Bangkok on Wednesday. Glad to have that bit taken care of.

I am right downtown as you might imagine, being near the bus. The sky needle is very near me and so is the harbour. I plan to take a walk around tomorrow with a touring map.

It is only 9:45 but I think I'll call it a day.

Last day in Kerikeri

Sunday today and I wanted to continue my river walk having discovered I could walk all the way to the falls.

But first, I stopped in at the local farmers market. They had a lot of prepared food and preserves and they were all about giving tastes. I sampled some liqueur and some sausage. It was possible to buy crepes, sandwichs, smoothies to eat there, or fruits, vegies, preserves, baking, meat, handcrafts or booze to take home. It was a nice market.

From there I headed for the forest and the first stop on the walk were the Fairy Pools.


This was just an area where the river was flowing slowly through some rocks forming pools.

The forest floor was covered with these little white flowers. I am sure Joanne could tell me what they are. I think we have something like this at home.

The Wharepuke falls were lovely. Much nicer than this picture shows.

I got a shot of this perfect tree fern from above.

The forest trail on the way back.

I am heading back to Auckland in the morning and will be there for 2 nights.

Kerikeri was a good stop to relax. My feet are well healed and I am rested and ready for the next leg.

Paihia, Russell and Waitangi towns.

My journey today was to Waitangi treaty grounds for a reenactment of the signing of the treaty between the Maori and the Colonists. Before that show in the evening I had some exploring to do.

In the morning I took the bus from Kerikeri to Paihia where I would be picked up later that evening for transport to the show.

From Paihia I took this little ferry over to Russell, a little historical town across the bay.

I explored the town and found this stuffed Kiwi in a museum. Since they are nocturnal and I didn't expect to be able to see one in the wild I got its picture. They are bigger than I thought, about a foot tall or so.

This is the Pompallier Mission building in Russell built in 1842. It was a printery and tannery for the French missionaries in which they printed many books on Catholicism for the Maori people.




Here is a sample of the Maori text. The printing press and tannery (preparing leather for book covers) are still operational enough to give tourists a hands on experience.

This is a pic of my souvenir print which I unfortunately couldn't carry with me.

Having covered the highlights of the town I decided to walk to the swimming beach, Oneroa Bay, which was on the other side of the little peninsula. It only took just over half an hour but was uphill all the way.

This view is from the high point over the beach. I was planning to go down and walk on the beach until I realized I would have to climb that hill again to get out of there. I satisfied myself to look at it and headed back to the other side of the peninsula by another route.

Walking back down I noticed that nasturtiums are very prolific all along the roads.

There was another historic area on the west side that I wanted to see.

I walked back past the town and followed the road until I reached the hiking trail to the lookout. This resulted in another half hour or so walk, uphill all the way.

This picture is of the town of Russell from the historical lookout point.

Below is the only gas station I saw in the town. It had room on the lot to fill one car at a time.

Who needs gas? There is no where to go.

I had walked almost everywhere in a few hours.

The gas station did have a busy tackle and bait business though.

On the other hand, there were quite a few restaurants and hotels - the local business was tourism.

Taking the ferry back to Paihia.

Taiputuputu Pahi beach in Paihia.

An old stone Anglican church in Paihai.

These flowers are a beautiful pink and yellow but some were only pink and others just yellow.

No shortage of flowering trees around here.

The day ends with this wonderful drama depicting the signing of the treaty of Waitangi.

When I called to book this performance I was thinking that they picked up in Kerikeri but that was not the case. I knew I could get a bus down there but it was too late to bus home after. I thought I would be unable to go but the company kindly offered me a drive home if I could get there.

You know you are in a small town when ......... It was a good day!

A walk by Kerikeri River

I had heard about the stone store, the oldest stone building in New Zealand, so I decided to walk down to the river and find it. Just a 25 minuet walk downhill most of the way.

Beside the store was the mission house which was part of the original mission.

Once there I realized I could visit a replica of a Mauri village across the river, but I was so engrossed that I forgot about taking pictures there.

This is a view of the mission site from across the river. St. James Anglican Church can also be seen.

Here are a few shots along the river.

Wharepuke Falls.

I walked for 2 1/2 hours all told and have the second section to do on Sunday.

Played cards with the German boys tonight, had a late supper and watched the fireworks celebrating Guy Fawkes day.

Today's date is irrelevant!

Today is Thursday November the 4th but it will appear that this was posted on the third. My computer seems to be using the settings from home so best if you disregard the dates most of the time.

I'm still relaxing in Kerikeri. I took another walk around town and found a computer place to look at my computer tomorrow. Then got a haircut on the way home.
I spent the rest of the day organizing pictures and clearing files from my puter before it goes in tomorrow. Then did some forward booking for a tour on Saturday and my Auckland accommodation on the way back.

That was it for the day. Nice and relaxing.

Gone fishing .......

I was just about ready to go out and explore the town when Tony, the owner of the hostel, asked if I would like to go fishing at "a very special place". I did go and the place turned out to be on the shore of land owned by the Maori. It was a wonderful place, unspoiled and not touristy. Here we are packing the car.

This is Arnaud, the French guy, hoping over the wooden style.

We walked down this hill to the shore.

It is part of the Bay of Islands and is very beautiful.

Here they are getting their lines ready. They fish from this rocky place.

The scenery was wonderful. Being a non-fisher person as I am I just took a hike down the shore aways.

I had to cross over some of the rocky shoreline to find the sand.

Eventually I came to this little beach which was sunny and sheltered from the wind. I was the only one there and I spent an hour or so sitting by a rock reading.

I even got my feet in but it was really cold.