Auckland

Not really in the mood for going to the Auckland Museum, we asked the guy at the backpacker's reception desk what was going on that we shouldn't miss.  He said, "It's Easter.  You should go to the Coca Cola Easter Show.  It's great."  So we hopped on the city bus to check it out.

It turned out that the Easter Show is a combination country fair, circus, festival, and art show all rolled into one.  We ended up staying into the evening.  The day's entertainment included sheep shearing demonstrations (traditional manual shears and electric clippers); wool baling demonstrations, done by the top two champion wool balers in NZ; a Chinese Circus in a big top; Cook Island and Tahitian dancers; Maori singers; an Indian Bhangra band/dancers; a few other music groups; and a Canadian lumberjack show!  The art show was very large and included painting, photography, wood turning, glass and ceramics, with many very fine pieces.

It was supposed to rain today, but was beautiful until about 7:00.  Then the rain started, and although it was not pouring, we headed "home" about 8:00, missing the Brazilian Divas and fireworks.

Christchurch to Auckland

We returned to Christchurch this morning and spent most of our day at the International Antarctic Center, a fascinating place.  Can't believe Dan is going to be down there for the whole winter! We're about to check in for our flight to Auckland.

We were not sorry to drop off our camper van - Big Blue or the Luckymobile.  24 nights in a van that size is plenty.  Fortunately we had excetionally nice weather most of the time, so we were mostly inside to sleep.  Campervan was definitely the way to do this trip, but next time we'll go up one size. A backpackers in Auckland is going to feel like the Ritz!

Akaroa

We decided to spend a couple of days in the lovely little seaside town of Akaroa, on a peninsula a short drive from Christchurch, before returning to Chch for another day.  Akaroa bends around a harbor and is surrounded by hills created by volcanic eruptions.

Yesterday's highlight was the The Giant's House, a local artist's home.  It's gardens are full of large whimsical mosaic sculptures of people, animals, a piano,and more - absolutely fantastic!

The plan for today is to hike in the hills...

The drive along the road near the volcano rim is called "absurdly beautiful" by Lonely Planet.  True, and the hike we took was doubly absurdly beautiful.  We walked part of the very top of the rim - on one side we looked down into the caldera where Akaroa village and harbor are nestled, and on the other side we looked down to little inlets along Canterbury Bight (Pacific Ocean).  Spectacular - and we had it all to ourselves.

Came back to a bustling village.  It's Good Friday, a holiday here.  Easter weekend seems to be like Labor  Day for us - big travel weekend for summer's last hurrah.

Christchurch

It was a fairly short drive from Lake Tekapo to Christchurch, through lovely rolling farmland with lots of sheep and then onto the broad coastal plain.  We are in an urban campground which is landscaped with lots of roses.  

Although we were prepared to see earthquake damage here, it hit us pretty hard.  The center of the the Central business district is in shambles 2 and a half years after the first of the two big quakes.  It's surrounded by wire fencing and extreme danger signs, and nobody except construction and demolition crews are in there.  Many buildings within the "red zone" and surrounding it have been demolished and parking lots are plentiful.  Other buildings that they are attempting to save are propped up with steel framework.  75% of the buildings in the heart of the business district will be torn down.  They are still debating whether or not their cathedral can be saved, after citizens protested against its demolition.  Visiting Quake City, a small museum brought me to tears.

Around that museum the hopeful, forward thinking spirit of the city is evident.  Re:Start is a small temporary mall area with cafes and shops housed in brightly painted, cleverly stacked and arranged shipping containers.  There are large topiary animals and canvas sunshades between "buildings".  One of the shopkeepers said they expect to be there for another year.  (The other place we've seen shipping containers used for buildings in a city was for a medical clinic in Lima.  The upbeat vibe of this place was lacking there.)

Aoraki/Mount Cook

We took a detour on our way to Christchurch.  Just seemed like we couldn't drive past the road to Aoraki/Mt. Cook without going there.  Last night we were talking to a couple from Christchurch about Mt. Cook.  They said it was certainly beautiful, but it was often hard to see all of it because of clouds.  Then the man brightened up and said the forecast for today was for complete clearing and "Ye moight o' toimed it jeest roight."  And so we did.....it was a perfect day, with no clouds to block our views all day.

We weren't prepared to climb 12,000 feet (yeah, right!), so we did  a couple of smaller tracks!   One was through the Hooker Valley, between and over glacial moraine ridges, with views of Mueller and Hooker glaciers, the Hooker glacier lake and river, and Aoraki.  Really a nice hike!  A shorter one took us to a view of the Tasman glacier, NZ's longest.  It's so covered with rock and dirt that you could miss it if you didn't know what you were looking for, but the lake at its base is full of calved chunks.

We're spending the night at Lake Tekapo, another beauty.  Christchurch tomorrow, maybe.

Manipouri to Omarama

Had a great night's sleep at an excellent campground in Manipouri (excellent = clean, quiet, nice kitchen, a really nice couple that owned it, and hardly anyone there!). Didn't leave there until 10:00.  We're now headed toward Christchurch, so there will be a lot of driving for the next couple of days.  No major stops today.  Our route was back through Kawarau Gorge and the fruit- growing area, then along a small lake and into the Lindis Valley and Lindis Pass.  This mountain area was different from others we've been through.  Rather than tree-covered, the mountains are more stark and covered with tussock grass (mostly brown at this point).  Also beautiful.  We drove out from under an early morning shower.  Good to be back in the sun!  Omarama is a tiny town.

Doubtful Sound

Today it rained all day.  At first we were disappointed since our fiord cruise in Doubtful Sound was scheduled.  Then some locals started to say we were lucky there was rain because we'd see the waterfalls that disappear within two or three hours after the rain stops.  The boat captain said we see Doubtful as it really is (there is upwards of 10 meters of rainfall per year here and it had been unusually dry for the past month or more).  And they were right!

The day started with a half hour cruise across Lake Manipouri to the West Arm power station, which is only accessible by boat.  It's a mile underground, accessed by a spiral tunnel down into the granite mountain.   Glad I wasn't driving that bus!   It was very interesting, though I had to try to forget where we were.  Water from the lake goes through the station's turbines and exits to Doubtful Sound.  75% of the powere generated is used by an aluminum smelter (some distance away) and the rest is for "public good."  If the power were not used by the smelter, it would be enough for the entire South Island.  There is a watchdog group to assure that the station does not adversely affect the water levels in the lake.

The bus (which stays on this side of the lake) then took us through Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound.  On the bus ride is where we started to see waterfalls - everywhere.  The Sound was a full of clouds and rain and the mountains were primarily many, many shades of gray.  What we gave up in distance views of the mountains was more than made up for by the literally hundreds and hundreds of waterfalls, most of them 3 to 4 times the height of Niagara Falls, racing off the mountains into the Sound.  Magnificent!   We happily gave up the dryness of the cabin to stand outside in our rain gear for more than 3 hours!  Also saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins (at the southernmost edge of their range).  We cruised to the end of the fiord to the entrance to the Tasman Sea, where there was a colony of NZ fur seals, and into several of the arms of the fiord.   At one point, the captain turned off the engines and asked everyone to stand still and be quiet - the sound of falling water was so nice to listen to.  Fabulous day!

Queenstown to Te Anau

This was a slow, take-a-break day.  We had a short, exquisite drive from Queenstown to Te Anau, in Fjordland, passing by part of Middle Earth.  Poked around town and Randy fished this evening.  Tomorrow we will be on a boat in Doubtful Sound, a less travelled fjord than Milford Sound.

Fox Glacier and Queenstown

We're in Queenstown and connected again...

Yesterday we spent the morning on a hike on Fox Glacier - awesome!  This was very different from Athabasca Glacier in Canada.  We both remember that as having an icy granular snow surface, with some fairly large flat spaces.  This was hard ice, making crampons absolutely necessary.  There were lots places where the guided had to chop steps into the steep parts with an ice axe.  We saw one moulin cave, with blue ice.  Lovely.

Later in the afternoon, we headed toward Queenstown via the Haast Pass Heritage Highway.  This sealed our opinion that, on a beauty scale of 1-10, the South Island is a 12!  Spent the night at a Dept. of Conservation campground, Pleasant Flat, right on a river.

Today we actually went through the Gates of Haast, the part of the pass that is most tightly squeezed between two mountains.  In less that one km. from our campground, we stopped twice to take photos.  In less than three km., we saw 5 high waterfalls, all in areas too narrow to stop the van.  Other stuff from today:
The tree line is so dramatic.  Looks like the leader of the trees drew a horizontal line and said,  "Okay, guys, nobody sets any roots past here."
Some of the mountains go straight up from the road.  Can't imagine building it.
Passed Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, long bodies of water that run parallel to each other, with a mountain between them.
There was a huge area of vineyards and fruit orchards where we got wonderful apricots, peaches, plums and apples.
Karawau Gorge with beautiful green water.
Bungy watching - absolutely no desire to jump from that bridge!

Queenstown is in a fantastic setting on Lake Wakatipu.  The focus here is on adrenalin junkies and every other store is related to some extreme sport.  We won't be spending much time here.  Checked out a waterside craft show and walked along the shore.  Unfortunately, obscenely loud jet boats kind of wreck the scene.

Franz Josef

Hiked as close as possible to Franz Josef glacier today (about 300 meters away from the terminus).  You can only get onto this glacier by helicopter and people were ferried onto and off of the glacier all day.  The helicopter noise didn't add to our enjoyment of a beautiful place.  The walk in was different from our northern hemisphere experiences because you go from thick rainforest, to rocky riverbed, to glacier, rather than from alpine environment to riverbed.

Then took a hike up Canavans Knob, a granite "bump,"now covered with vegetation.  From one side there are lovely glacier views and from the other, views of the Tasman Sea.

We twisted and climbed and descended the 20 km. to the village at Fox Glacier, where we'll spend the night.  We're booked for a 4 hour hike on Fox tomorrow morning - no helicopter required :-).

Hokatika to Franz Josef

Last night we went to check out some glow worms after dark.  They were in a fern dell just off the main road.  Same magic as fireflies - very appealing for some reason.  By the way, they are not worms at all, but the larvae of fungus gnats.

This morning we had showers off and on.  Went to the Hokatika Gorge - another gorgeous gorge!  It's  particularly known for bright turquoise water within it's steep granite sides, but with clouds it pales to a milky turquoise.  Still beautiful.  NZ is a fern-lover's paradise.  There are so many kinds and they're everywhere, including along the walk to the gorge.

Poked around in the shops in Hokatika, a nice little town.  Didn't find anything we couldn't live without, other than some scraps of possum fur that Randy bought for fly tying.

Continued on to Franz Josef, arriving late afternoon, after another beautiful drive.  Went to the west Coast Wildlife Center, a place involved in saving endangered kiwis.  They had a darkened habitat set up for rowis, the rarest type of kiwi.  Since they're nocturnal, this was a good chance to see them.

Our campground for the night has a nice view of the glacier.  Spent the evening chatting with two couples, one from Australia and one from NZ.

On the South Island

No Internet yesterday, so catching up on two days -

Yesterday we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. Smooth 2 hour cruise across Cook Strait and about an additional hour weaving through small islands off the north shore of the South Island.  Lovely, of course.  Clouds and an occasional bit of light rain on the ferry became steady light rain for the rest of the day.

It's a different world down here!  Miles and miles with nothing but vineyards and cloud draped mountains.  Teeny towns, narrow roads (not as narrow as Australia so far).  We're in temperate rainforest, so it's very dense and green.  The Upper Buller Gorge is beautiful when you get a peek through the vegetation down to the green water and rocky river bed below.

We traded our parking lot campground (which, I have to say, worked wonderfully for maximizing time and access in Wellington) for a simple Department of Conservation campground above the river.  Stopped driving just in time as the rain got heavier.

Today, we didn't wake up until 8:00 - late for us.  There were no man made sounds overnight, just the sound of rain and, early this morning, van-shaking thunder.  Then the birds took over.  Great way to start the day.

We're making our way south on the west coast - destination is Franz Josef glacier sometime in the next couple of days.  We're taking it easy, stopping wherever we see or read about something of interest and taking short hikes ("tramping"). So some of today's stops:
Lower Buller Gorge - sheer rock faces; a short section of the road was kind of a half tunnel, where you drive under the cut away mountain.
Tauranga Bay/Cape Foulwind - A New Zealand fur seal colony.  They're a rich brown, rather than gray like ours.  Pups nursing.  Wild surf.  Hillsides covered in spiky flax plants.
Flirting all day with a thin band of blue sky between the fog bank over the water and the clouds over the mountains.
Truman Track near Punakaiki - a short tramp on a beautiful track through rainforest to the Tasman Sea.  Eroded limestone cliffs.
Paparoa National Park - "Pancake Rocks" and "The Blowholes".  The rocks here are in very clear layers that look like, yup, pancakes.  The sea surges in and shoots up through the blowholes (and it wasn't even high tide.
At least 75% of the ride today was  knock-your-socks-off beautiful.  (The rest was just pretty!). This coastal route is like Australia's Great Ocean Road on steroids.  Indescribable.

Spending the night in Hokitika, which we'll explore tomorrow.

Wellington

Yesterday was our only full day in Wellington and we made the most of it.  Started off by riding the cable car to the uphill end of the botanical garden, which was the starting point for a short walk through a hillside neighborhood to Zealandia.  This is a very large fenced area which is a sanctuary for native animals.  Introduced species like stoats, possum, etc. have been trapped, poisoned and removed, so there are no predators.  This is important because when NZ separated from Gondwana, it had no mammals other than bats, so it's birds and reptiles developed no defenses from predators.  They even check you bags for stray mice before they let you in!

It was a wonderful place.  Of particular note:  Tuataras - lizard looking creatures that go back to the age if dinosaurs.  What's important is that they are not lizards, but are the top of the evolutionary chain for reptiles.  They are breeding them here and at the university for release here so that they do not become extinct.
Wetas - These are very large ( size of Randy's thumb and larger) native insects.  They are Tuatara food and Tuataras can survive on as few as 4 per year if they have to, although they eat more when they're available.  These insects are plentiful and people said they played with them as children.  They're completely harmless.
Takake - These are large flightless birds (size of a large chicken) that were once thought to be extinct.  There are now 250 in the world and they're doing we'll here.  The pair we saw were 18 and 19 years old.

Then shuttled back to the cable car stop and took an hour downhill stroll through the botanical gardens to downtown.  The gardens are huge and we saw only a tiny fraction.

In the evening was the Southeast Asia Night Market.  This is a bi-annual event, more festival than market.  It was held on the quay outside Te Papa, with some of the performances in Te Papa's outdoor amphitheater.  There was fabulous food from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam Nam, Singapore, Phillipines, Myanmar.  We loved the curry laksa (a seafood a noodle soup) made by The Malaysia High Commission Women, who cooked up a storm.  Ate more things, too, of course!

Performances included an Indonesian gamelan and many dancers and singers from all the countries.  It was fabulous and we stayed until it ended at 10:00.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that before the festival we watched the dragon boat races.  It was a big race weekend for these boats, which were kind of like large canoes.  There are two rows of paddlers, about 30 of them, with one calling out the stroke rhythm.  This was in Wellington Harbor.

To Wellington

Headed off to Wellington this morning.  About 4 and a half hours of driving time with good roads and lots of beautiful scenery.  Along the way were:

Roadsides and hills covered with purple heather.
The Rangipo Desert, which is not truly a desert.  It's a tableland with scrubby vegetation due to high altitude and poor soil caused by the eruption of Taupo.
Taihape, "the gumboot capital of the world," proven by the giant corrugated metal gumboot sculpture as you come into town.  Our timing was off though - the Gumboot Festival was last weekend!
Very dry brown hillsides that should be green, according to the locals.  They haven't had a "proper rain" in two months.

Arrived in bustling Wellington mid-afternoon.  The city slopes down to the harbor and wraps around it.  Very attractive.  Upon the recommendation of the I-Site staffer, we are staying in the most convenient "camper park" in Wellington.  It's right on the waterfront, which sounds good.  However, it's literally a paved parking lot for campers, with the addition of nice bathrooms/showers (and they do leave a vacant space between campers!).  As unlovely as it is, we're very happy to be able to walk everywhere we want to be, and not have to worry about driving in a very busy city or finding parking.

Immediately after parking the van, we headed off to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ.  Another great museum, with both natural and cultural exhibits.  One amazing thing was a preserved giant deep sea squid, that weighed around 900 pounds!  Also a beautiful 1800's Maori meeting house full of incredibly fine carvings and woven walls.

A stroll around the city after dinner capped off the day.

Turangi

We have moved to Turangi, at the southern end of Lake Taupo.  This is a trout fisherman's paradise, so this day is Randy's.  We started at the National Trout Center, a hatchery and education center.  The plan was then "lunch, fish, dinner, fish until dark.". He's now fishing somewhere along the Tongariro River, out of sight, I'm enjoying a lovely sunny afternoon on a grassy (very dry, brown grass) bank, with the sound of the river a major presence.

I've been reading, taking some photos, and playing with my water colors (no skill in that department, but it's fun).  The town doesn't offer much of interest to me, but the area is beautiful.

Taupo

It was a chilly 46 when we woke up this morning.  Makes getting out of a warm bed in an unheated camper less than inviting!  It warms up quickly, though, and the days are in the mid-to-upper 70's.

We started the day with a morning  lake sail - well, not really.  There was no wind, so the captain said we'd have the sails up to "look pretty," but we were under power.  Fortunately, it was very quiet electric motor.  There were about 10 people onboard the Barbary, a 1927 boat which is thought to have belonged to Erroll Flynn in the 20's.

It was a perfect morning, with mountains all around, one of them puffing steam out the side.  The lake, which is huge, is in the crater of a still somewhat active volcano.  It's over 600 feet deep and bubbling at the bottom.  There are also beaches with warm water bubbling in.  The folks that live around here are counting on these little pressure releases to keep the big (really big) volcano quiet.  The mountain spewing steam had a small eruption last November.

We sailed out to see some Maori rock carvings on a cliff at the side of the lake.  They were done recently, in the 70's I think, by a local artist.  Impressive.

After lunch in Big Blue, our trusty, if ugly, camper, we walked about 3 km. on a track leading out of town to Huka Falls.  The track was along the stunning Waikato River, with it's beautiful, clear deep green, aquamarine, and turquoise water.  This is the longest river in NZ, going from Lake Taupo to the sea at Auckland.  The falls were not high, but wild, and lovely light turquoise with lots of white foam.

Then back to the campground for another soak in the thermal pool before dinner.  Wonderfully relaxing day!

Rotorua to Taupo

Two days to catch up on.....

A couple of general thoughts first.  I'll never think of "Australia and New Zealand"  lumped together again.  They're so different.  Although it's not tropical,  NZ has much more of South Pacific Island identity (at least the North Island does).

New Zealanders are very friendly.  They are, however, impatient drivers - very quick to use their horns (with each other, not just us because we're being tourists) and add a gesture which is, I presume, like flipping someone the bird.  They don't conform to the "orderly Aussie" mode of behavior at all - they cross the street any old place they feel like it, just like home!

Anyhow, yesterday we spent the morning and early afternoon at the Rotorua Museum.   It's in the elaborate building that used  to house world famous hot springs baths, where people came for various soaks - water and mud - for their curative powers.  You could go down in the basement to see the elaborate system of pipes that kept the place running.  Some of the bath and therapy chambers were still on the first floor and there was a great observation platform on the roof.  There was also a great movie about the history of the area and the volcanic eruption of the 1800's that destroyed much of the town.  This was complete with real eruption sounds and violently shaking seats.  The rest of the building was an art museum and a Maori cultural section, which was great.

Chilled at the campground for a while in the afternoon and Randy caught (and released) a beautiful rainbow trout .  

We spent the evening at the Tamaki Maori Village (reconstruction of a pre-European settlement).  We were shown and participated in games, ceremonies of welcome, songs, dances, and a "hangi" (huge meal cooked underground on hot rocks).  [Significance of facial tattoos or paint:  Women only had chins tattooed.  The tattoo showed your lineage, with father's on one side and mother's on the other.  If you we're directly related to the chief, you would have a tattoo up to the bridge of your nose as well.  Men also had their lineage on the chin.  Other tattoos on the face denoted particular skills of the individual.]

Today we headed south from Rotorua to Taupo.  On the way, we stopped at Wai-O-Tapu, an active thermal area.  Geyser, fumaroles, collapsed craters, and boiling mud pools.  The same "features" as Yellowstone, but in a very different "bush" setting.  We'd never seen mud pools quite as active as these.  They regularly shot up 6-7 feet in the air.

Our campground here has a thermal pool and we had a lovely soak before meeting up with John and Shelley for dinner.  After 5 weeks of travel, it was great to see familiar faces!  They are enjoying their trip and are headed the opposite direction in NZ, so we got some tips for the South Island.

Auckland to Rotorua

Drove the 200 or so kilometers to Rororua today, with one extended stop in Hamilton.  Roads were good all the way, so it was only about 3 hours of driving time.  Our stop in Hamilton was at the museum and we spent all our time in the history section, learning about the Maori history of the city and European takeover.  Outstanding were the antique Maori canoe,beautifully carved and decorated with shell and feathers, and a fantastic exhibition of the sculptures of a contemporary Maori carver.

We drove through the small town of Tirau that had a visitors' center that made us stop to take a photo.     It was in two sections, one shaped like a sheep and one shaped like a dog.  Wonderful - made me laugh!

We're staying at a really nice campground that's right on Waiteti Stream (one of the country's premier trout streams, according to their ad) and a very short walk to Lake Rotorua.  The stream is literally 15 feet from our van, so one of us is ecstatic.  We can see the trout.

Before the evening fishing, we took a walk to Hamurana Springs. There's a path through a redwood grove (not native - planted in the early 1900's), along a crystal clear river.  The spring produces a million gallons of water per hour (!) that flows into Lake Rotorua, which is in a volcanic crater.  A short way down the river is an area called Dancing Sands, where a couple of dozen small springs make the sand bubble and swirl.  The place was lovely.

Fishing report:  Randy caught and released one rainbow trout and had two more on.  Out of about 10 fisherman lined up at the mouth of the stream, only one other person caught anything, even though there were really big fish jumping all over the place.

Auckland - Pasifika Festival

We spent all of this beautiful, warm, blue-sky day at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland. The festival recognizes the Pacific Island heritage of many of the people of Auckland, and is huge.

First, about the park where it's held. Western Springs Park is a very large area around a lake that used to be Auckland's water supply. The spring produces something like a million gallons of water per day, which then flows out and into the sea.

The festival is organized so that each island has a "village" in a different area around the lake. Each village has food and crafts booths and a performance stage. The villages were Samoa, Tuvalu, Fiji, Tahiti (which also hosted a Hawaiian group), Tonga, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Kiribati, Aotearoa    (the Maori name for NZ), and Pan Pacific. Many different languages spoken! It was a fun, joyous day of continuous music and dance performances. We loved it!

Sampled traditional Samoan fried crackers (kind of a salty, crisp, non-puffy version of fried dough), Tahitian curry, and wonderful mango ice cream (tied for first place with Daintree Ice Cream Co.) served in half a small watermelon.

Whangarei

Whangarei has a wonderful system of interconnecting tracks that let you walk from one beautiful place to the next, from the Town Basin, an artsy in-town area of galleries, shops and restaurants on the river, and out into the surrounding hills. We took full advantage and walked up to the site of an old "pa" (Maori fortified settlement), along the Hatea River to two waterfalls about 26 meters high (Whangarei and another with less water spilling over), and to an area with huge old Kauri trees. This was all within about 5 miles of walking.

Then we went out to Abbey Caves. This was an undeveloped, unguided area - very cool! There were a few other tourists around, so we weren't completely alone, and the tourist info site mentioned it, so we figured it couldn't be too dangerous. Popped on our Petzls and in we went. Some areas were dry, but we waded through ankle deep water (Goretex shoes don't keep your feet dry when you get in over the top of them :-) ) to get to a chamber about 20 feet high. Although this wasn't the most beautiful cave we've ever seen, the best part was glow worms. There were lots of them on the ceiling, and with Petzls turned off, it looked like a beautiful starry night! We elected not to go into a second cave in the area that had a steeper, more slippery descent and required you to be thigh- deep in the water.

Headed back to Auckland in the evening, ready for the Pasifika Festival tomorrow.

New Zealand - Whangarei

Yesterday was a travel day. Left Cairns around noon and arrived in Auckland at 8:30, NZ time (3 hour time difference). Usual traveling day hassles, but nothing serious.

This morning we picked up our camper. Let's just say it's a pretty big step down from our last vehicle! When we made our van reservations last November, this was our third choice, but everything else was booked. In Australia, we were definitely off-season, but not so here. So, back to the camper. It's about a 10 year old Toyota high top van, fitted out as a camper in 2006. It's got its share of dings, but runs well. Inside, it's basic and once we figured out where to stow all our stuff, we think it will work out fine. Our senses of humor will need to be at the ready for the next 24 days!

We headed north out of Auckland, to Whangarei [pronounced "Fun gar eye" - accent on the first syllable, and a Spanish "r" in the second syllable], on the east coast. Along the way, we passed through some rolling hills (dairy farms); forest that looked much more like home than Australia, except for the tree ferns and palm trees mixed in; rocky, steeper areas; and near deep green water with jagged heads in the distance - gorgeous. Had lunch in a little town at a cafe in an art gallery by the water.

Took a hike to a lookout point above Whangarei and behind our campground.  "Not very long, but a bit of a climb," according to the woman at the visitors' center.  That second part turned out to be an understatement, but it was worth it.  It was late afternoon and everyone else on the trail was a local out for their exercise, huffing and puffing up the hill.  It made us feel pretty good that they were out of breath, too, and all our juniors by quite a few years.

The weather is completely delightful.  Probably about 70 and not at all humid - a most welcome change from Alice and Cairns!

Cairns

Last night we checked out the Cairns night market - nothing of any great interest, but it was a lively downtown, with lots of people out strolling, shopping and eating.

We spent the day in the city.  Cairns seems to be a really laid back place.  Its central business district runs along the water, with an esplanade at water's edge.  Right in the middle of the esplanade, right next to the sea where you can't swim (because of the stingers) is the Lagoon, a huge saltwater swimming pool, with a sand "beach," decks, and shade structures around it, so it's not unusual to see people walking in the center of town, dressed for swimming.  There's lots of public art along the esplanade, too.

Walking near the city library, we heard lots of screechy bird-like sounds in the trees.  Looking up to see what the birds were, we saw that they were hundreds of big bats.  I  asked a man passing by if they were flying foxes.  He confirmed that they were and we chatted awhile.  He told us there's lots of controversy in town about them.  Some people want to get rid of them and some want them to stay. (He offered his opinion, "Myself, I'd like to dynamite them.  They carry a disease like rabies.  Just last week a boy died from being scratched.")

We walked around downtown, took a swim and relaxed at the Lagoon, and then had lunch at a waterside cafe.  Watched clouds and rain move around over the water and the mountains.  We've only had rain during the day twice during the month we've been here.  Yesterday and today there were incredible downpours off and on for a couple of hours in the late afternoon.  (It is the wet season in the "wet tropics" after all.)

Then went to the botanical garden, which was very different from the other cities' gardens.  Tropical and gorgeous.  Great to be there in a downpour.  It was extra lovely after the rain, with everything glistening in the sun.

Off to New Zealand tomorrow.  It's been a great month here!

Cairns

Our destination today was Tjapukai Aboriginal Cutural Park, just outside the city. Talks, demonstrations, multi-media presentations, music, dances, and "try it" opportunities (boomerang and spear throwing - darn good thing we don't have to hunt for dinner), gave us the opportunity to find out about the culture of the local indigenous people.

Dancers skillfully imitated animals in dance stories. Trading, important in part for communicating with neighboring people without a common language, was symbolically depicted in paintings of the snake people trading abalone with the bird people. The Tjapukanydjii creation story goes something like this:

The world was created from a cassowary egg. The egg contained and released both the "wet" and the "dry." All things are either wet or dry. Some wet are crocodiles, snakes, sun, thunder. Some dry are wallabies, moon and stars. (By the way, family lines are either wet or dry, and you must marry someone from the opposite group.) In earliest time, there was only one man. His calf began to swell and a baby came from his leg. When he went to hunt for food for the baby, a woman came from the sky to nurse the baby. This happened repeatedly until the baby became a grown man. His father never knew who fed him. When the child no longer needed to be fed, the woman did not come back. The young man was very sad, so the woman returned and they married and produced more people. Two of these were brothers, one wet and one dry. The wet brother made life difficult for people, because he didn't want them to become soft and lazy. The dry brother made life easy for people. They battled, with no clear victor. It remains important to find a balance between wet and dry. (Hmmmm......I wonder which is the easy season here?)

We weren't far from Kuranda, " a village in the rainforest," so we decided to check it out.  We decided that the other name for Kuranda is Old Orchard Beach, so we didn't stay long.  So it wasn't a total waste, we decided to get some homemade mango ice cream - good, but definitely second best to Daintree Ice Cream Company.

Cairns

We spent all of today on a snorkeling trip to the outer Great Barrier Reef  (Hastings Reef and Breaking Patches, near Michaelmas Cay).  They are about 40 km. offshore.  Magnificent coral, fish, squid (plain and quite fancy), giant clams with beautifully colored edges, and, to cap it off, a sea turtle.  LOTS of swimming.  We should sleep very soundly tonight.

Daintree to Cairns

We're back to civilization (Internet connection)....

Yesterday we spent more time at The Daintree Discovery Centre, spending lots of time at different levels of the tower in addition to walking around. It was great to be in the treetops.  It's very hard to see wildlife here.  The forest is so dense and the critters keep themselves well hidden.  It's a bit frustrating that you know things are all around you, but invisible!  Late afternoon at the top of the tower was a good time for bird activity.  We never did spot a cassowary in our walks around anywhere in the Daintree.

Brush turkey: ground bird, black with red head and yellow wattle, vertical tail fan - very common
Ulysses butterfly: smaller than a morpho, but the same shocking blue; black wing edges

We also went on a boat trip through the mangroves in Cooper Creek, but saw no crocs.  The cool breeze on the boat was delightful.

This morning we headed south to Cairns.  Stopped at Mossman and checked out the Saturday Market, where we stocked up on fruit - local bananas, mango, avocado, rambutan - and some locally produced  vanilla.  Then made a long stop at Mossman Gorge, still part of Daintree National Park.  What a glorious spot!

Now plopped in a campground in Cairns, tuckered out from the heat.  Headed for the pool.