Highlights of the North Island with the Heddens

The Bay of Islands
One of the most beautiful areas on the North Island of Aoteroa (that's the Maori name for New Zealand, meaning Land of the Long White Cloud) was the sweeping Bay of Islands.  We stayed in the area only an evening,  but that was enough time to take in a gorgeous sunset, a small-town stroll, a colorful sun-rise (well, one of the four of us did anyway), and a cruise of the bay and its photogenic juts of rock.

The bay is all underdeveloped islands with just a few souls (and their dogs) living on them.  We took a cruise around several of them and picked up some mail and fed a few island dogs some treats as we went.  Basically the cruise was one beautiful island after another, which would have been awesome on its own, but was made even awesomer by the very friendly and playful pod of dolphins we hung with for a while in between visiting notable rocks and dropping off mail! The dolphins started out cool and got even cooler as they started to play in our wake as we drove away after 15 or 20 minutes of watching them.  None of us had ever seen a dolphin  jump entirely out of the water in the wild before, but we were treated to some pretty sweet as leaps as one dolphin in particular tried to show off for everyone on the boat.

The cruise around the Bay of Islands also introduced us to Maori culture, which we would get much more up close and personal with in the following days.  We saw a few wood carvings and there was a Maori guide, John, on the boat who shared some history and information, and took some folks on a walk around an island where we stopped for lunch.

The Mighty Kauri
When someone (even your mother in-law or your own mother) tells you that a must-see is a big tree, your natural response might be to nod and smile, all the while thinking, "How cool can that really be?"  That was us when Marie navigated us to a stretch of forest where the main attraction was a few old (OK, really old, over 1,000 years old to be more specific) trees.  But a tired and sick Dale said it best, "That was worth getting out of the car for!"

These Kauri trees, some closer to 2,000 years old, take your breath away.  New Zealand is the only place in the world where they are found and their size is imposing and awe-inspiring all at the same time.  The forest is full of big trees, but then you round a corner and BAM! a tree bigger than all the rest (combined, seemingly) hits you right between the eyes.  With names like, "Lord of the Forest" and "King of the Forest," these trees are way more impressive than you might ever imagine a tree could be.  Our photos show the size a bit, but they are nothing like seeing these trees in person.  Amazing.

Sick Dale: A Lowlight
Unfortunately, Annette's father spent the beginning of his time in NZ getting sicker and sicker.  He got some nasty bug when he was subbing in the days leading up to NZ, and his condition was all down hill after their 14 hour plane ride.  He spent a little over the first half of his time in N-Zed feeling terrible.  But even he enjoyed the dolphins and the Kauri trees through the irritated throat, tears, and mucus of his Seattle-born cold.

The Kauri Museum
The next best thing to standing below the splendor of an ancient Kauri tree might not be the sometimes superb, sometimes quirky, sometimes hokey Kauri Museum, but this place would be third or fourth on that list.

Among other oddities, the Kauri Museum had the largest butter churn any of us had ever seen (made from one enormous tree), the most information on Kauri gum that probably exists at any one place in the entire world (including some really great old photographs of the rough looking chaps who used to dig the stuff up for a living), an old roadhouse (pub/inn), and a nutters' collection of Kauri amber.


The museum is also home to some really big pieces of old Kauri trees, and a really friendly volunteer (who's name escapes us) who chatted with us about her time in Seattle (a night or two between an Alaskan cruise, which seemed to be the extent of most kiwi and Aussie visits to our humble little port city) and made everyone miss their grandmas.

Rotorua
Rotorua brought us closer to Maori culture with a really fine museum, an evening at a traditional dinner and performance, and a welcoming vibe through and through.  The Maori haven't been in NZ near as long as Aboriginals have been in Oz, but their connection to other Polynesian cultures and voyage across the pacific makes for some fascinating learnings (we promise an entire post on the subject soon).  There are the obvious similarities to Hawaiian culture, but Maori dance, tattoo culture, and social customs differ in quite a few ways too. 

Jeff loved Maori traditional carving, while Annette's mother was moved by the singing and dancing we saw at a traditional dinner and performance, called a hangi.  Like similar performances in Hawaii, the authenticity and passion of the singing and dancing was in question at times, but there was a very cool portion before the performance where "actors" (for lack of a better word) explained different aspects of Maori culture - from facial tattooing, to cooking and food storage, to the ways young men prepared for war.  The welcome ceremony when we arrived was at once mesmerizing and startling. The hairs on the back of ours necks stood up as a traditional Ka Mate was performed to great terror and effect.  There was  much yelling, intimidating nose breathing, eye-white showing, body slapping, and sticking-out of the tongue.

Rotorua is also known for its steaming thermal pools, which look really, really cool but smell really, really bad.  A visit to the beautiful Rotorua museum was well worth our time.  Housed in an old public bath house with a unique medical and disco history, the museum is really good looking inside and out.

A jaunt out to The Buried Village, a tourist town buried in a famous volcanic eruption in the area in the late 1800s, was a little disappointing, but it had a pretty good attached museum.  The best part of the "buried village" itself was a waterfall on the property and puzzling over some curious amateur archeological decisions in excavating the small town.

Glowworms
We went searching for glowworms our first night staying outside of Rotorua, and found them the second night.  This small patch of glowworms was mentioned casually on a handout given to us when we checked in to our tourist park cabin.  Our first attempt to find the worms was a failure, but thanks to some daylight research by Marie, we were able to find them on our second try.  And man, were they cool.  Many tourists in NZ pay for boat and cave trips to go see these amazing little worms, so we felt lucky to get the chance to see them on our own, at night and outside of a cave.  One of Jeff's favorite things in NZ was seeing these glowworms, which were situated on dirt walls in a small gully.  They didn't look like much when we turned our torch on them, but the way the banks of this gully sparked with hundreds of tiny blue lights in the dark was really remarkable. (which is why we're remarking on it here!)  Nighttime glowworms are not the kind of thing that show up real well in photographs, so you will just have to take our word that these little guys made fireflies look like ladybugs.

The Taupo Volcanic Zone
This entire region had steaming pools of rotten egg water, volcanic mountains, mud pools, geysers, and more geological oddities.  One park here was a bit like Yellowstone, without the buffalo, bears, or eagles.  We also took a walk up in the highlands among near-perfectly cone shaped mountains - the beautiful evidence of the area's deadly volcanic nature.  A harmless snowball fight almost turned into a deadly international incident when one of us (who shall not be named here) hit another one of us in the head with a soccer ball sized chunk of ice.  But hey, no blood no foul.  Playing in the snow gave us a preview of what we might expect upon our return home in December and added another layer of fun to our alpine adventure!

But really, the best way to tell you about this area is with photos.  This is also the laziest, so it's perfect!

 

(Arguably)The Best Damn Bed and Breakfast in the Whole World
There isn't a lot to say here except "Huzzah!"  Marie inadvertently booked us into the best B&B in a land full of great ones.  The location was right near a peaceful river, which afforded nice views and one seriously sweet walk (even sick-man Dale liked the leisurely, sunny-day stroll along, over, and above the flowing river - dotted with fly fisherman up to their belly buttons and quaint little homes along the banks.  The B&B itself had a great kitchen, bright, airy bedrooms, plenty of comfort and coziness (a fireplace, for one), and a simple, but fresh and home baked breakfast that Dale called, "The best B&B breakfast I ever had."  Enough said!

Just Spending Time with Our Parents
Even with Dale at far less than full strength due to being sick, there is nothing like seeing your family after many months apart.  We cherished every minute on the North Island (as well as the South) with the Heddens.  Especially learning about and watching rugby together, eating self-cooked meals, clowning around and sharing stories after a few drinks, eating delicious lunch after delicious lunch at small-town cafes between destinations, and just hanging in the car during 5-8 hour driving days.