March 7-9

Once again several days have passed, and we’re now sitting in Fiji Airport, at 8PM on the 9^th, waiting for our connection to LA and then Miami, where we will arrive at almost midnight on the 9^th. We’ll have traveled over 31 hours in total, from when we left this AM for the airport in Auckland.  It will be good to be home with memories of such a magical trip.

March 7

We were up early again as we had a lot of territory to cover on this our next to last day before traveling home.

Our first stop was at Cape Reinga, an amazing spot. It’s the only point I know of where two oceans meet, The Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. We have pictures showing waves coming from two different directions meeting and crashing against each other. Wow!!! The walkway you followed was lovely to walk, with signs explaining about how the Maoris view this place. They believe that it’s where their spirits go before going beyond. The flora is different and a bit stunted due to all the salt water. There’s a lighthouse at the point which isn’t very tall in relationship to others we’ve seen, but on this point, it doesn’t need to be, as its light can be seen for miles around.

Once we returned to the starting point, there were a few Maoris asking/selling the planting of about five different types of plants, to help keep the soil from eroding and some had fruit for the birds to eat. It was a package deal of the plant you chose actually planted, a postcard of Cape Reinga, a card with the exact longitude and latitude of your plant, and a pen, all for 20.00 NZ, about 15.00 US. So, after planting the plant we went to our car and found a flat tire. One of the Maori men helped us change to the spare, a donut type thing. It was on Sunday, mid afternoon, and no place was open by the time we could get down to them to fix it, so we had to deal with that tire until Monday. Luckily not a big deal.

Given that, we still went exploring. We stopped at Spirit Bay where we had a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful bay with a gorgeous beach; I found some treasures for my bead embroidery.

On the way down the Cape, we also took a road which lead to the starting point of the Ninety Mile Beach tours, which drive along the sand dunes. It wasn’t at the beginning of the dunes, as you could see sand in both directions for as far as you could see. Quite impressive!

Our drive down to the Ferry across the Hokianga was a very pleasant one. The ferry holds up to about 27 vehicles and takes about 15 minutes to cross. On the crossing, we were parked next to a couple from Montana. Good conversation – this was their third trip to New Zealand.

The views on the road down to Kaihu, where we were staying for the night, were beautiful. Such eye candy all over the place, from the gorgeous water views to the peaceful pastoral ones. It just never stops. No internet at that stopover.

March 8

WE had driven past the Waipou Forrest the night before. Our original plan had been to stop there on our way south for the night, but due to the flat tire, we didn’t arrive at our destination until close to 8PM, so we hadn’t had time to stop to see the Kauri trees. Our goal was to see Tane Mahuta, considered the granddaddy of the Kauri trees there. Talk about massive. In the parking lot, we met a young Israeli man whose camera had broken and had wanted a photo of himself in front of Tane Mahuta. So, now we have to email him the photos we took of them.

Another stop in the forest was at the Four Sisters, four Kauri trees whose bases have grown together but whose trunks are separate. We walked all around them, as it started to rain.

After going north, we then had to go south to have the tire fixed in Dargaville. It was a nice town and it didn’t take as long as I had thought it would to fix the flat, which was due to a nail we had hit.

By that time, it was around 2pm and we wanted to go to Gulf Harbour to see the marina there; it’s a 1000 slip marina. Immense!!!!!!!!

Finally, we arrived back where we had started, with Meryl and Michael, our ATC hosts in Northcote, just north of Auckland. We went out for dinner in Takapuna, about 8 minutes away. The restaurant we tried had a special on Mondays all day, a kilo of mussels done is one of five ways. So, we had one order of mussels and one order of a lamb shank, last chance for NZ lamb. Both were delicious.

March 9

So, today. We had packed last night for the most part, but still needed to tweak it a bit. I travel with my own packer, who is amazing – great spatial vision. We were up early to finish up and then left after breakfast by 9AM, as the airline required that we arrive three hours in advance. We’ve been traveling ever since and still have hours to go. At least this leg is at night, about 11 hours, so we should be able to sleep.

See you soon. We’ll talk.