Napier - Wellington - Home (2018-03-30)

My sister Margaret joined us for most of our last week in Napier.  We filled our days with walks, visits with the cousins, a movie, and of course coffee at Cafe Ahuriri and St. Germain Cafe in Napier - so much to do, so little time.  We also had lunch at the Mission Estate Winery to celebrate Margaret's birthday (as if we needed an excuse).

Another mural - Ahuriri

White Pines Reserve, North of Napier

 The day after Margaret left us, we boarded the Intercity bus to Wellington, but not before one last bike ride around the wetlands and one last coffee & date scone at Cafe Ahuriri, with cousins Maureen and Denzil.  We enjoy Napier more with each visit, and especially enjoyed our accommodation in Westshore - location, location, location.

For our time in Wellington we were joined by our daughter Heather and her family, who were in New Zealand for a two week spring break.  We spent lots of time with our grandkids, including visits to Te Papa and the Wellington Zoo, and visiting with their great aunts and cousin Hollie.

Marlene at Wellington Zoo

On the grandchildren's last day in Wellington we all took a day trip to Featherston, to visit the Fell Engine museum and to see all the animals at Auntie Tricia's farm.  Heather and family then left Wellington 2 days before us, heading to Rotorua for their last few days in New Zealand.

When the big day came we were ready to head home....2 1/2 months is a long time to be away from home.  We had one last coffee with Margaret and family in the morning, before boarding NZ440 to Auckland.  It was a beautiful day for flying and we had great views as we flew up the coast.

Mount Taranaki (Egmont) from NZ440

As we walked from the domestic terminal to the international terminal in Auckland, we ran into my cousin Karyn and her husband Ian, who were returning from a trip to Honolulu.  So, we fit in one last family visit before heading for our flight to Vancouver.

The flight was 13 hours, getting us to Vancouver 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and was relatively pleasant - I slept or dozed for most of it.  A great end to a great holiday!

Napier (2018-03-15)

We have now been in Napier for 3 weeks and have settled into an active but relaxing lifestyle - bike rides, walks, trips into Napier city, and the almost daily ritual of coffee at a local cafe.  Some of our favourite cafes from previous years have fallen from grace, but others have upped their game, as if in compensation.  Locally, Cafe Ahuriri gets top billing, and in Napier, St. Germain Cafe is our number one choice.

Most mornings are very still until at least 11 am, so we tend to be on the bikes as early as possible, before the wind picks up.  We have biked as far as Silky Oak Chocolate Factory (40 km round trip) and Clive (36 km round trip), and made several trips around the local wetlands, so our biking muscles are now not protesting as much as they were 3 weeks ago.

Ahuriri Marina and Bike Path

As a farewell to my sister Tricia, we three and my cousins Maureen and Denzil had lunch at the Mission Estate Winery.  We had eaten there several years ago, and at the time I declared that meal to be my best meal ever.  I was not disappointed this time around either, and it is good value for money, compared to other higher-end restaurants that we have eaten in, and with wonderful views. 

Vineyard & Napier Hill from Mission Estate Winery

On our walks and rides we enjoy seeing all the sea-themed murals around town, with one even decorating the inside of a parking garage.  It is nice to see a little colour on otherwise drab walls.

Mural on Ahuriri Light

Mural in Parking Garage

I brought my super-duper "listen to anything" radio on this trip, so when not busy with other activities, I enjoy listening to the chatter between the harbour pilots and the tug boats, as they manoeuvre the larger ships in and out of the port. 

This past week Napier had a visit from M.S. Noordam, which we fondly remember from a Caribbean cruise that we did four years ago to celebrate Marlene's Mum's birthday. She is a large beast (Noordam not Marlene's Mum) for such a small port, and the tugs had to rotate her and bring her in backwards.

M.S. Noordam with tugs Te Mata and Ahuriri 

Tonight we are having fish and chips with Maureen and Denzil, and tomorrow my sister Margaret arrives for a 4-day visit, so the fun continues.

p.s. the bottom row on my computer keyboard is causing me grief, so if I have missed any letters please insert z, x, c, v, or m as appropriate.

Gisborne - Napier (2018-03-04)

The downside of the long bare-footed beach walk that I bragged about in my last post, is that the sand was hard and hot, and I ended up with a large blister on each heal.  To add insult to injury, we did a brisk early morning walk the next day, and I ended up with blisters on the blisters, so after I drained them I was out of action for a couple of days, while the skin hardened up a little.

By then, the weather had cooled off a little, with highs more mid-20s for our last week in Gisborne.  We had hoped to walk from Tologa Bay to Cook's Cove and also the Te Kuri Farm walkway, which although they are not long walks, have a lot of elevation gain.  We were saving these more strenuous hikes for cooler weather, and then, with my blistered feet, it looked like we would miss out on doing them both.

However on our last full day in Gisborne, Marlene convinced me that we should do the Te Kuri Farm Walkway.  The walk starts close to town, and is primarily on farmland, with a small forested section, but it is steep, going up (with very little shade), and also coming down (through the forest with lots of dry leaves to slip on).  It is however worth the climb, to get the great views across Gisborne and Poverty Bay, to Young Nick's Head, and the Mahia Peninsula beyond.

Poverty Bay from the Te Kuri Farm Walkway

 After two weeks in Gisborne, it was time to move on to Napier, but I am sure that we will be back, as we like the city and the lack of tourists.

Marlene cannot spend more than an hour in car without getting antsy, so enroute to Napier we stopped at Morere Hot Springs, to do a short forest walk.  We had planned to do the 800 metre Nikau Track, but the woman in the office convinced us that the 2.2 km Ridge Track would not take much more than an hour, so off we set.  Initially the track winds through a stand of Nikau Palms, before taking you up to a ridge, which you traverse before descending at the other end of the ridge, making a loop trail.  The Nikau Palm grows for about 45 years as a bush, and then forms a stem and continues growing as a tree.  It grows two fronds per year, which fall off a few years later, leaving a ring on the trunk, so you can tell the age of the tree by counting the rings and adding 45 - these palms have been around for a while.

Morere Hot Springs - Nikau Palms

Once we left the well-travelled Nikau Loop and started the ascent to the ridge, the trail became very overgrown and most of the steps had fallen apart or been washed away.  But we persevered and made it most of the way down, until Marlene tripped, fell, and knocked her head on a fallen branch.  She was scraped, bruised, a little concussed, and had a cut above her left eye.  Thankfully the branch missed her eye.  After lying and then sitting for a while, she was able to walk the remainder of the way down, where we used the first aid supplies at the office to clean up her wounds.  Hopefully the Department of Conservation (DOC) will give this track some attention in the near future.

With Marlene stabilized we set off again for Napier, with a short stop in Wairoa for cofee.

This year we are staying in Westshore, rather than right in the city of Napier.  Westshore is basically a gravel spit, which separates a low-lying wetland area from the ocean, so only a few metres above sea level (at high tide).  Our accomodation is the bottom floor of a two-storey house, which is over the road from the walking / biking trail and the beach.  We look directly out at the ocean, with Port Ahuriri and Bluff Hill off to our right, and the Mahia Peninsula off to the left.  

View from our Napier home, with Ovation of the Seas in the port beyond

My cousins, Maureen and Denzil, have graciously loaned us their bikes again this year, and our hosts have also made a bike available, which has been great, as my sister Tricia has been visiting us for 10 days.  Our daily routine has been a bike-ride early in the morning before the winds come up, then a walk into Port Ahuriri or a bus ride into Napier, which we catch on the street behind us, after taking a shortcut through the local elementary school.

Denzil told us that if the tsunami warning (on the school next door) sounds, we have 4 minutes to get to higher ground.  We timed ourselves, and if we have the bikes at the ready, we can just make the hill in 4 minutes.  Which was fine until Denzil told us that the only bridge will probably not survive an earthquake, so now we are considering swimming lessons.  But the last big earthquake in Napier was in 1931, so we are hoping that the next one will hold off  for a few more weeks.

Mural in Port Ahuriri

Port Ahuriri is a great little village, with several excellent cafes, most of which we have tried, and is an easy 15 minute walk from our home.  It even has a small movie theatre, so we took in a matinee of "Finding My Feet", a predictable but thoroughly enjoyable British film.

Today was the Lindisfarne College gala day, and as Maureen and Denzil have two great nephews at the school, it was a must-see event.  We arrived at opening time (9 am) and already all the close parking was taken, but thankfully the neighbouring Hastings Girls College was offering parking in their school grounds for a gold coin donation.  So $2 later we were parked and off to the gala.  This annual event is very well attended and offers everything from fresh fruit and veges to Christmas decorations, so the crowd was massive.  We walked around all of the stalls, and then sat with a tea and treat under an umbrella to watch performances by the various school bands and some highland dancing (not by the Lindisfarne boys).  It is hard to beat tea for $2, Louise Cake for $1 and a steak sandwich for $5.

Lindisfarne College Gala Day

We have one more day with Tricia, and have planned lunch at the Mission Estate Winery tomorrow with Maureen and Denzil, but more on that next time.

Wellington - Gisborne (2018-02-15)

Once we were back in Wellington, the top priority for our 5 days was rebuilding the fence between Margaret's house and her neighbour, at the top of the property.  After discussion with the neighbour, it was agreed that we would replace the top section of fence with the same style that already exists lower down on the property.  Re-using as many of the existing posts as possible (all but 2), I made a list of the required materials and the minimum of tools to complete the job (hammer, saw and square with built-in level), and off we went to Mitre 10 Mega.  All wood had been calculated into lengths that would fit in Margaret's car, with a bare minimum sticking out the back (which we decorated with a red scarf), and it was relatively painless to get everything home and up the steps.

Removing the old fencing was a breeze, as most of the structural pieces had rotted away already, and I was glad to not have to add lattice to the new fence, as it would have been difficult to transport, and a real pain to cut the lattice at the angles required going up the steps.

It took a solid day's effort to complete the fence, including concreting in the two new posts, but the final product looked a lot better than what it replaced, so a good result.  All set for Margaret to paint!

Top portion of completed fence

On February 6th we bid farewell to Wellington and headed north to Feilding, where we spent 2 nights with our farming friends, John and Marilyn, enroute to Gisborne.  We have visited Gisborne several times before, and always enjoy the friendliness of the people and being away from the main tourist centres.  Our home for two weeks is a two-bedroomed flat, the front half of a remodelled older house, which is on the north side of the rivers and only a 15 minute walk from the centre of the city.

There are only two words to describe our first week in Gisborne - hot and humid.  The heat was not unexpected, as Gisborne usually has hot summers & is one of the sunniest places in New Zealand, but usually not with high humidity.  During the past week we have been subject to weather coming from the northeast, which has resulted in humidity of 95%+, which when coupled with temperatures approaching 30 degrees, feels like you are living in a sauna.  Even the sheets feel damp when getting into bed - yuk!

We have fallen into a pattern of doing a longish walk in the morning, hibernating through the afternoon, and then walking the neighbourhood or beachfront in the evening.  We have visited several old favourite places, including Gray's Bush, Waihirere Domain, and Eastwoodhill (New Zealand National) Arboretum, but also a few new places, including Okitu Scenic Reserve, Turihaua Beach and Pouawa Marine Reserve.

We have visited Pouawa Marine Reserve twice, as you can walk 5 km of sandy beach, apart from a few rocky bits around the headland, making 10 km round trip.  On our first visit, we somehow timed it right, arriving when the tide was well out, making the journey around the headland much easier.

Shell on pristine beach

Unusual rock formations

In one area, the hillside, which extends high above the beach, is heavily eroded, and there is a continuous trickle of small (pea-sized) stones sliding down the slope, with larger rocks bouncing down from time to time....not a good spot for a picnic.

Sandy beach in the marine reserve

As we finished our first beach walk in the marine reserve, the clouds were gathering to the south, and by the time we reached Gisborne city, the monsoon had arrived.  We sat on the patio at Zest Cafe, sipping our tea and latte, devouring a much-deserved date scone, and watched the rain....a small reprieve from the heat.

Monsoon season in Gisborne

We also walked the length of Turihaua Beach, after first climbing up to a lookout, for great views of the beaches to the north and south.

Makorori Beach from lookout

Turihaua Beach from lookout

On our second visit to the marine reserve, we wanted to get walking before the heat of the day, but being only 2 hours past high tide, we had to do a lot more clambering over rocks.  Despite our best efforts to dodge the waves, we got very wet feet.

Early in the walk, we had to pass by a sea lion resting on the beach.  She was more interested in her sleep than she was in us, and barely raised her head to acknowledge our presence.

Sea lion resting on beach

By the time we had rounded the headland, our shoes and socks were soaked, so we left them to dry on a convenient log, and walked the remainder of the beach in bare feet.

Marlene hanging out the laundry

At the far end of the beach, as we were already bare footed, we waded through the river, and walked a little further up the beach, now outside of the marine reserve, before returning.  On the way back we paused to retrieve our shoes and socks, which were a lot drier than when we left them in the sun.

In the two days that we walked in the marine reserve, we did not see any other people, apart from a few scuba divers, just offshore from the parking lot.  It certainly gave us a feeling of being the only people in the area.  Just one of the things we love about Gizzy, as the locals call it.

Wellington - New Plymouth - Wellington (2018-02-01)

After 2 1/2 weeks of unseasonably hot (30s) and sunny weather in New Zealand, today we are experiencing northerly gales and torrential rain, the remnants of a tropical cyclone, so the drought has broken.  But I am getting ahead of myself....

We arrived in New Zealand on January 13th, after a somewhat restless flight to Auckland and uneventful onward connection to Wellington, where we were met by my sisters, Margaret and Tricia.

The cartoon in the local Dominion Post newspaper was poking fun at Donald Trump, and was very apropos after Trump's recent comments.

Dominion Post cartoon

 We started our visit to Wellington by helping to celebrate the 70th birthday of my cousin Shelwyn, at a downtown Wellington restaurant.  My cousins Maureen and Denzil were also there, so it was a good opportunity for a family catch up.

Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand) is currently hosting a Lego exhibition, and so we took the opportunity to be kids again and go to see the exhibition.  There were lots of building opportunities for the "kids", and lots of wonderfully detailed Lego constructions.  My favourite was the Flying Scotsman train, which took 217 hours and more than 164,000 pieces of Lego to build. Unfortunately the exhibition will have ended before our grandchildren visit Wellington in late March.

The Flying Scotsman in Lego

On January 24th, Marlene, Margaret and I set off for a week in New Plymouth.  Marlene and I lived in New Plymouth for a short while in 1978, and although we have visited briefly a few times since, we had not spent any significant time there.

New Plymouth sits on the West coast, half way up the North Island of New Zealand in the shadow of Mount Taranaki, a dormant volcanic cone, which last erupted in 1775.  The original European settlement, in the 1840s, was on the flattish land, adjacent to the coast, but over time the city has spread up the many valleys, toward Mount Taranaki.  The result is a system of roads that all lead towards town, but with fewer roads going over the hills that separate the valleys, making travel within the city somewhat circuitous, compared to the common grid of North-South and East-West roads that we are used to.  Within a few days I had it figured out, but we still had to do a few u-turns.

Our accommodation was in a basement walkout suite, below the house of Harry and Mila, which we booked through the Holiday Houses website.  Harry and Mila were very welcoming, and we learned that Harry is originally from Castlegar, BC....small world.

Mt. Taranaki from our back window

The forefathers of New Plymouth did a great job of protecting natural areas within and nearby the city, so in addition to the fabulous 50 hectare Pukekura Park, which was established as early as 1876, there are many other reserves, gardens, and walkways that follow the streams which meander down the various valleys.  Needless to say, we visited many of them, and with one exception (the privately owned Te Kainga Marire) they are free of charge, as are the museum, the art gallery and the zoo.  Kudos to the New Plymouth City Council.  There is also a 13 km coastal path for walking and cycling, which begins at the port and extends to Bell Block.  All of these amenities I am sure contributed to New Plymouth being named the world's most liveable city in 2009, in the 20,000-75,000 population category.

Meeting of The Waters - Waiwhakaiho River

We were fortunate to be in town for the last week of the Festival of Lights, during which a large portion of Pukekura Park is lit up at night with masses of coloured lights.  Again, free admission.

Mount Taranaki from Pukekura Park at dusk

 The area is also blessed with several great beaches and is popular with surfers, due to the adequate near-shore waves, even when the sea is calm.  The beaches are generally very dark (almost black) sand, due to a high iron content.  We visited many of them, including Oakura Beach, Back Beach, Ngamotu Beach, Eastend Beach, Fitzroy Beach and Bell Block Beach.

We enjoyed an evening stroll along Oakura Beach, taking advantage of the cool sea breeze on a warm evening.

Marlene about to get a wet butt at Oakura Beach

 While walking in RataPihiphi Scenic Reserve we met an Englishman named Pete, who told us that we had to see the sunset at Back Beach, so we dutifully took his advise,  We watched the sun sink into the Tasman Sea, while enjoying the antics of the surfers and observed an on-beach surfing lesson - I guess it is easier to learn how to stand up on a board when you are standing on solid ground, but they did get very sandy bellies.

Sunset at Back Beach

 Ngamotu Beach is very popular with the locals as it is within the port area, inside the breakwaters, so relatively safe for swimming, and right in the city.  We sat and ate our fish and chips out of the paper, with Watties' tomato sauce, while watching the local swimming club members doing laps around the buoys, and a local boating group paddling their wakas.  Luxury!

Fish & Chips at Ngamotu Beach, as kiwi as........

As it was near 30 degrees each day, we did most of our daytime walking in areas with a good canopy of trees, including several walks in Pukekura Park, which is also home to the Brooklands Zoo and a sound shell for outdoor concerts, etc.  On one visit we saw a group of 6 ducklings at the edge of the pond, under the watchful eye of their mother.

Ducklings at Pukekura Park

 No visit to a new city would be complete without noticing the funniest of signs.  The award for funniest sign in New Plymouth goes to Nuova Dry Cleaning.

A cheeky dry cleaning advertisement

Today, back in Wellington, we returned the rental car, and Marlene cruised the stores while I visited the Wellington Library and Archives New Zealand, before catching the train back to Petone in a torrential downpour.