Auckland and Points North

Jan 30 part 2


Leaving the coffee house & internet access, we walked about Davenport, climbing to the top of Mt Victoria, beautiful views.

We enjoyed a great seafood platter at the Platter restaurant with a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc. The waitress really reminded us of Lizzie; she was a snowboarding instructor in Colorado who followed her boyfriend here a few months back.

Jan 31

After early morning rain we headed off to catch the 9:30 ferry to Auckland. Then a 3 or so km walk to the large Auckland Domain park and the Auckland Museum. No rain, tho it threatened.

Interesting museum with a great collection of all things Maori; learned how people thousands of years ago migrated out of SE Asia into the Pacific Islands, eventually moving east to the Cook Islands. Maps suggested that the Maori migrated from there to New Zealand about 800 years ago.

Hopefully the penguins we see later in the trip won’t be this big – the New Zealand giant penguin weighed about 100 Kg! But that was 35 million years ago.

The museum had an interesting hall on volcanoes, as there are 60+ volcanoes in the greater Auckland area. The last one erupted about 600 years ago.

We spent the better part of the day walking about, getting back to the ferry for our ride back to Devonport at 3:30. Again, our timing with the rain was perfect. Got back to our cottage just as the rain really started and found ants had invaded, especially our netbook. The keyboard was crawling with them. YUCK! Hours later, an occasional ant would crawl up between a couple of letters.

A trip to the grocery store allowed us to get some needed supplies (e.g. wine, crackers, pate and something simple for dinner). Hunkered down in the rain. Then, skies cleared and it seemed the storm had passed.

Feb 1

Wrong. Woke to more rain.

Heading north! Today is Auckland Day, a regional holiday, the end of a 3 day weekend. The traffic heading south was non-stop. Only one road down to Auckland from the north where the Aucklanders go for holiday. We were very glad to be going the opposite direction.

Visited a couple of wineries in the Matakana region. Delightful conversation with the winemaker/owner at Herons Flight winery. He is the only one making Sangiovese and Dolcetto. He also bottles grape juice from those grapes. His ‘05 was wonderful. Picked up a bottle – we’ll see if it makes it back to the states. Enjoyed lunch at Mahurangi Winery, beautiful hilltop location. We were surprised at the prices for the wines, $50 range which was more than we expected for NZ wines.

Driving through lush green fern forests, pine forests, along rivers, up and down hills and around lots of curves.

We are now in Whangarei, in the Northland region. They haven’t had rain for 3 months – an el Nino result. We think they are getting 3 months’ worth of rain today. It is pouring! Went for a walk when we thought it had eased up – BIG mistake. Fortunately, we can use the laundry here, so our clothes are in the dryer.