Heading to Coromandel

After a few absolutely fantastic days in Opotiki at Bob and Meg’s beautiful place, we are headed north for about a week on the Coromandel Peninsula. Bob and Meg have so much going on at their place. We literally ate off the land for 4 days. They have so many plum trees and banana palms that they are just gifting bags of fruit to anyone who can take them. Bob has drying racks everywhere and still the fresh stuff is more than abundant. They live on a bluff that looks over a gigantic harbor. We paddled one day and took paddle boards out on another afternoon. Apparently I had a huge manta following my SUP, but I was too scared to turn and look at it. My balance is still a bit tenuous on the SUP. What fun we had. 

Paula and Bob with bananas from Bob’s trees

Deb paddle boarding in the harbor

Marty’s favorite view from Bob/Meg’s house. 

One of the days Marty and I did a little hike which included a walk up a hill to the site of an Māori pa. My understanding is that these were fortified settlement sites. The views from the top were spectacular.

Tonight we are camping for the first time this trip. We had to remember how to set up our tent since this is only the second time we’ve used it. Weather is good so we will hopefully have a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow the adventure continues. It will be our first time paddling by our selves. We’ve got some good local knowledge from Aiden. He told us the good places to go and the places that just can’t be missed. We will let you know how it goes. 

 Kia Ora from Auckland

After a 14 hour flight from Vancouver BC, the wheels touched down in Auckland. Local time 5:30am. What we didn’t know was that 3 flights from North America had landed within minutes of each other. 

What this meant was customs was at maximum capacity. Two and a half hours later we were out of customs and headed for a coffee stand. We spent 2 hours in line talking to 2 wonderful young women from the Netherlands. Then waited for about a half hour for a customs officer to inspect our tent. Good thing it was squeaky clean or they may have felt the need to inspect our other gear. 

We have stayed the past 4 days with Lois and her housemate Anna. They have 2 dogs, Enzo the beagle and Chloe the Jack Russel Terrier.  They are hysterical and so lovable. We have to keep the door to our room closed because Chloe hides under the bed and Enzo sniffs out any food and will eat it, wrapper and all. We know this to be true because one of us forgot to pull the door completely shut. 

Anna with Enzo and Lois with Chloe

Today we took a long walk around the city. We were excited when we realized that we had been in one of the neighborhoods on our last trip here in 2020. We had no idea that we were so close. We have found Auckland hard to navigate in. It is on a somewhat narrow neck of land with a lot of harbors and bays both east and west. You can’t just keep the water to your left and know which direction you are traveling. Thank god for digital maps. Tell your phone where you want to go and it will get you there. 

One of Marty’s favorite buildings in the Ponsonby neighborhood 

We have rented a car for the next few months. It’s a Toyota RAV4. Oh, did I say that they drive on the left side of the road here. Let’s just say that both of us are a bit stressed when we first start driving here. Today we got it ready to carry 2 kayaks. We brought our stacker poles from home and Marty padded the bars with pool noodles and duct tape. Tomorrow we will load up the car and head toward the Bay of Plenty. There we will see Bob and Meg and we will meet up with Deb and Paula for a few days. Bob has graciously offered to loan Marty a kayak for the duration of our trip. Lois has loaned me one of hers. We feel very grateful to them both. 

Lois’s boat all up loaded on the passenger side of the car. 

We will post again in a day or so. Tomorrow will be a driving day in the city. Stay left and take the right turns wide. 😛

 Here We Go Again!The bags 

The bags are packed, travel details checked and rechecked; and we’re off. Why so much stuff? We are paddling and camping A LOT over the next few months. The only thing we will have to borrow are kayaks. Thank you Bob and Lois!! This first post is practice for me to see how we post photos and send it out using an iPad. You all are our test subjects. Let me know if there were any problems in the comments. We leave tomorrow at about 3:00pm. We land in Auckland at 5:30am local time on Friday. For those who are wondering how that translates to local time, it will be 8:30am on Thursday for all of you. (We gain a day going and lose a day on the way home.) Next post will be sometime after arrival. Wish us luck. The agricultural inspection in NZ is brutal. We anticipate it will take awhile with all the camping gear. I even scrubbed the treads of my shoes. 

For now…..