Another Detour ....

 

 ... but this one was planned.

We took the opportunity of being in the same hemisphere as Australia to carve out a two-week visit to the place we called home for 6 months in 2014. Our base was Brisbane, where I had a sabbatical at the University of Queensland, and so we first returned there. We had great reunion with the "river city," our neighborhood haunts of the West End, and our good friends Beryl and Al. 

We walked along the Brisbane River near our old apartment, remembering the good vibes of the waterfront park and its bougainvillea walkway, and even (finally) saw "Hamilton" performed by an all-Aussie cast at the performing art center just blocks from where we lived.  It was great nostalgia!

After that great visit, we headed down to Sydney for a rendezvous with some cousins-by-marriage on Kate's side. We had visited their 3000 acre cotton farm in Wee Wah, in north central New South Wales, over Easter in 2014.  They had since sold the farm and moved to a town about an hour north of Sydney. We had a fun time mostly with Robyn, as Clinton was just in the midst of rehabbing two hip replacements.

The bougainvillea walkway brought back fond memories of our life in Brisbane

The Brisbane River Park is so picturesque!

 

 

Great to reconnect with our Brissie friends Beryl and Al ... like we'd never left!

With our friends, we ascended to a great viewpoint looking over Brisbane ... we have the exact same photo of us in 2015.

Got "day of" tickets - really good seats! - for Hamilton, fantastic!

 

We had a wonderful weekend sojourn with our friends to Noosa, one of our fave spots when we lived in Brisbane.  Beautiful surfing beaches.

We tried out paddle-boarding ... Kate was pretty steady on the inflatable board.

Aaron, not so much.

Gorgeous views of the Southern Cross.

After Brisbane, we flew to Sydney ... and were greeted by three Rainbow Parakeets, the first birds we saw when we landed in Sydney in 2015. So cool!

Robyn and Clinton live in this amazing Tuscan villa and botanical garden about an hour north of Sydney.  It was gorgeous, quiet, and full of many cool birds (another bird post to follow!). 

Though Clinton was holed up in a Sydney hospital during his intense rehabilitation, we were able to have a farewell dinner with him and Robyn before we returned to Auckland.

 

 

 

The Detour

As you may recall, so many posts ago, Cyclone Gabrielle forced us to alter our itinerary on the North Island.  Rather than heading up the east coast from Wellington to Napier and Hawkes Bay - which were inundated with flooding and, for a time, inaccessible by road or cell phone - we headed north up the west coast.  And our planned exploration of the Coromandel Peninsula, to the east of Auckland, looked doomed for the same reasons: roads made impassable by mudslides and tree-falls.

So, after Taupo, we headed north to the Bay of Plenty, where another friend of our Wanganui hosts offered an apartment they owned in Mount Maunganui.  We enjoyed the area, had some good walks and good food, and did a little boogie boarding on the area's beautiful beaches.  And meanwhile we learned that the west side of the Coromandel had become accessible, so we made some quick plans to go there next (though not to the east side, which had been our original destination, where the roads remained closed).

The Coromandel Peninsula is a gem, with endless sparkling turquoise bays, cute hamlets, and some of the biggest trees we've ever seen.  We hiked to a Kauri forest reserve and gazed in awe at a 1200 year old "grandfather."  These native trees, used by both Maori and English colonists for boat building, have been devastated by a virus-like pathogen that infects the Kauris through their root and shuts down their nutrient delivery systems. So, on entry and exit to these Kauri reserves, one must brush off any debris and spritz the bottom of one's shoes with a disinfectant spray.  We also visited a 50 year old pottery studio and nature conservancy, still in use by local potters, where we ziplined through a beautiful, dense forest canopy.

All in all, it was a good detour - we didn't get to experience all that we'd originally planned, but still fun.

The most prominent feature of Mount Maunganui is, well, Mount Maunganui, a 760 foot lava dome that rises above its namesake town.  Climbing it provides a stunning view of the town, coastline, and nearby islands.

A very cool water tank mural we saw on our hike up Mount Maunganui.

We had various choices of routes up Mount Maunganui ... but as you see here, all options were steep!

We got to see part of an international competition for a new sport, competitive "wind foils." Basically, a surf board with an attached foil that gives the board lift, so the boarder "flies" through the water.  Wild!

The neighbor town of Tauranga had a small art museum with some very colorful art murals.

... where we watched a lovely sunset.

We had a lovely dinner underneath a railroad trestle on Tauranga's harbor ...

On the way from Mount Maunganui to Coromandel, we drove through a kiwi fruit growing area; yes, these are "trained" kiwis, though they looked a lot like hops growing in eastern Washington.

On the road to Coromandel.

Ziplining!

Yee Haw!

The lower trunk of a 1200 year old "grandfather" kauri tree.

Here you can see the full height of "grandfather."

On the hike to the kauri forest reserve; they had to rebuild the trail after Cyclone Gabrielle brought down huge slides of mud and big trees like this one.

A Few More Birds of Aotearoa

Aotearoa/New Zealand's avian populations are much diminished since European colonists introduced mammals like the possum, skoat, rat, and feral cat (to be fair, some experts say Maori explorers brought a species of rats to the islands 800+ years ago).  These animals have proliferated wildly - having no natural predators of their own - and decimated bird species that often nest on the ground or whose behaviors otherwise make them vulnerable to threats with which they did not evolve.

Nonetheless, the birds we did see were beautiful and many had beautiful songs and wide vocabularies.  The endemic Tui was especially fun to watch and listen to.  Here's a few more bird photos from Aotearoa. 


 

Tui, on the berry hunt

Face Off!  Black-backed gull vs. Pied shag

Variable oystercatcher

Variable oystercatcher ... nice eyeliner!

Miromiro/Tomtit with lunch

White-faced heron with epiphyte

Tui in morning song

"You go your way, I'll go mine" - Pied stilts

Pukeko with Easter lilies

Kelp gull (I think ... gulls are so damn hard to identify!)

New Zealand (Sacred) kingfisher - Face-off or begging session? I don't know.

Tempting the Volcano Gods of Taupō

In Memoriam.  As I've written in some of the blogs, I was in New Zealand 42 years ago with friend Jim Fiero; Aotearoa was the last chapter our yearlong around-the-world trip.  We shared some amazing experiences and, in many ways, grew as people through those shared times.  It is with great sadness that I learned yesterday of Jim's death last night, the end of a long health-related struggle. 

Lake Taupō (pronounced like "toe paw"), Aotearoa's largest lake (though for you Midwesterners, only 1/100th the size of Lake Michigan), sits in the center of the North Island's central volcanic plateau ... a volcanic region that's still active, I might add.  Indeed, Lake Taupō is the caldera that remains from a series of grand eruptions 1800 years ago, and periodic reports of gas bubbles and volcanic rocks floating in the lake can be found.  The whole region is rich in steam geysers, natural hot water pools, and geothermal energy production and experiences frequent earthquakes.

We stayed in an amazing Home Exchange whose owners - Peter and Helene - are retired art dealers. Big time!  The house, which had an expansive view of the lake, was filled with the work of mostly Kiwi artists, and a wonderful assortment of well-placed sculptures populated the beautifully landscaped property.  We shared the house with the owners, enjoyed talking about and drinking local wines, had a few meals together, and even watched some pro tennis matches with them.

As you'll see in the photos below, we had some cool experiences in and around Taupō, including kayaking to some beautiful Maori rock carvings and touring of a Maori cultural center in nearby Rotorua and its active geyser field,

View of Lake Taupō from our "home," with some sculptures in view

Sunrise above Lake Taupō

Framed by this beautiful Maori rock carving; not old, but created by some young Maori men training to be master carvers

On our way back from seeing the carving, we got hit by a hard rain, but blessed with some beautiful rainbows!  Not only that, but we found out later that a 4.2 magnitude earthquake had rattled the region while we were on the water!

These Maori carvings on poles greeted us at Te Puia. a cultural center with training programs, a Kiwi conservation program, and a geyser field. 

At Te Puia, young Maori men learn and practice wood carving ...

... as well as stone carving

Te Puia's geysers were impressive ... you can watch one erupt here

The Waikato River flows north from Lake Taupō into a ravine carved into hard volcanic rock.  The water then crashes over Huka Falls at a rate of 220,000 liters per second ... yes, PER SECOND!  You can watch it here.

We're home now, but more stories yet to tell ...

 

 

 

In The Middle of Nowhere, a Slice of Paradise

In the center of the North Island, in an area ringed by volcanoes and just hours from the "playground" of Lake Taupo, we found Kakahi.  This rural hamlet was built on hope, hope that the gold rush would bring a train line and prosperity with it. It once had two stores, a bakery, a post office, and a population of 600, but like many such places, the promised railroad never came. 

But what a sweet, quiet place.  Its one remaining business is the general store (photo below) that serves as the post office, liquor outlet, pharmacy, and hardware purveyor.  It's run by an 80 year old fellow whose father emigrated from India and started the store, then bought out his competitor when the local population and business declined.

We stayed on a farm recently purchased by a Kiwi couple who had just moved back from Australia, where they had lived and worked for 30 years.  Our "cottage" had been the leather works for the previous owner who made saddles. The bedroom was separate from the living and kitchen area, with a room in between that served as a yoga studio.  The toilet and outdoor shower were around the back.

It was definitely a "black sky" kind of area; the stars and Milky Way were sparkling (as seen in our middle-of-the-night trips to the bathroom!). As you'll see below, we used Kakahi as a base to do some great hikes, one in an old podocarp forest (podocarps are trees with a form of cone, but not like our pines) and one in National Park at the foot of Mt. Tongariro (many people come to the area to do the 19km Tongariro Alpine Crossing ... we didn't!).

Hope you get a hint of this special place from these photos...

The views on the farm, like this one, were enchanting

The outdoor shower "stall"

"Plush" outdoor furniture for relaxing mornings

Stunning sunsets

When clouds cleared, great views of Mt. Tongariro, as well as its companions Ngauruhoe (actually a secondary cone of Tangariro) and Ruapehu

Kakahi's general - and all things - store

Some beautiful countryside

One of the many, many "pongas" or tree ferns on our hike, this one maybe 40 feet high

On our hike in a dense podocarp forest near Kakahi

Pool reflections

On our hike in National Park

Tongariro watched over us ... it's a majestic mountain which sports a cable car and ski slopes.  We had planned to take the cable car up to the top to hike, but strong winds shut it down that day.

The destination of our hike, this picture-perfect waterfall