On the Farm Again

We Couchsurfed another farm and had a wonderful time. We got the deluxe tour, it was so good I thought we were going to be put to work!

On the Farm Again

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Miss Daisy is driving us.

We bought a GPS for NZ and Australia. We program a place to go and we get a female voice that says “Drive the highlighted route”. We call her Miss Daisy. If we make a wrong turn Miss Daisy says ‘recalculating’ and tries to get us back on track by calculating a new route or finding a way for us to turn around. It’s bad enough when we get lost but Miss Daisy sometimes gets lost too. We were in Wellington trying to find our hotel and Miss Daisy says “arriving at destination” and it was in an industrial district right on the train tracks. Thankfully ‘Miss Mary’ was able to recalculate our destination and get us to our hotel.

There was the time we were driving on highway 1 and she showed us driving on highway 12. And the time she showed we were 100 kilometers from our B&B and she announced “arriving at destination” and we were at the B&B. 

The problem is when do you trust or not trust Miss Daisy. There were several times  we were lost and confused and Miss Daisy says turn left at next corner and we’re thinking that can’t be right! So what do you do, your in the middle of traffic, I’m driving on the wrong side of the street (it might be right for New Zealanders to drive on the left side but it’s not right for me), so we make our own decision, we’re still lost, Miss Daisy is ‘recalculating’, we still think she is wrong, but some how we manage to not have a wreck, maybe a honk or two at us, and eventually find our way despite Miss Daisy.

Although Miss Daisy is very helpful, Miss Daisy is driving us crazy.

Pancake Rocks for Lunch

We arrived at Punakaiki for lunch and ordered a lunch so we could go see the pancake rocks. The process for which limestone is formed is well understood, however the reason why some are layered still have geologist guessing. There was no guessing these rocks were amazing.

Corrugated Iron In NZ

'It ain’t glamorous, but it does the job',  that was the Kiwi attitude to corrugated iron, which is used for roofs, fences and sheds.  Then Jeff Thomson started making art from it.... letterbox decorations ....then life-size penguins, cows and elephants.

His most famous creation was this Holden (an Australian made car). It was his only vehicle and drove all over NZ for three years. It’s now in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Couchsurfers tip us off to a secret

Some months ago we contacted Steve Lee from Masterton New Zealand by email. He is a fellow Couchsurfer and we were interested in visiting his area. He was so willing to guide us and help us plan our trip that at some point we did a skype video with him and wanted to meet him and his wife Pauline.

When we arrived he sent us on to see one of the best kept secret in NZ, Castle Point. It is a high rock with protected walking trecks. Steve made a special trip to meet us so that we would not miss the BEST part of the hike. Well the view was fantastic and here are some of the pictures.

Needless to say we made new friends and thoroughly enjoyed our stay with them.

The tractor is to launch and pick up boats in the ocean. They drive out into the surf to launch them.

Finding a B&B

We spent two nights in Havelock North and here is the story of how we got acquainted with Marilyn and Graeme Mansfield.

Needing to find a B&B we went to the I site information center. The person said there was not any available space but that a new B&B, which she knew nothing about could take us. We said OK and wanted to see the place so we took off to find it. The problem was that the signage for that street was not clear and we could not find it, so we found a neighbor in her yard and asked her. She said she did not know this person or any B&B but that they provided B&B services as well and showed us her home etc. Well it was great with a great room a huge bathroom with whirlpool and shower, a swimming pool and hot tub outside and a beautiful house. We said we would try to find the person and would come back if possible. We did find it and it was no comparison to what we had just seen so we canceled and went back to Marilyns and set up for two nights. We loved them and they loved us and now they want to visit us in Portland in the near future. Marilyn told us they had no real desire to come to the US, but later as they got to know us began to talk about coming and how to do that.

The Art Deco Capital

On February 8, 1931 a 7.8 earthquake struck the town of Napier and the surrounding areas. What buildings the earthquake didn’t destroy the fires that followed did. Two things influenced the style of buildings in reconstruction, the depression so building owners didn’t want to spend lots of money on architectural detail, and the modern building style of the time Art Deco with its simple lines. So within the short period time of 2 years Napier had built a complete town in the Art Deco style.

This is the view of our room with a 1951 British taxi sitting outside. Our host gave us a ride downtown in it.

Tractor Ride

We got up very early this AM and met a group that took us on a trailer ride attached to a tractor, just like an old fashioned hay ride. The tractor pulled us along the ocean beach for an hour and a half to a Gannet bird sanctuary.

After a long and funny ride on the tractor/trailer we hiked up the VERY steep hill to see the nesting gannet birds. They are beautiful and do not seem to be bothered by people, we were standing right in front of them. It was a fun ride as well and they attempted to get us wet in the surf, lots of laughs.

Kiwi

We did get to see a kiwi and it wasn’t in a zoo! It was at a kiwi hatchery. We went at night because kiwi are active only at night. It was billed as “Kiwi Encounter is unlike any other ‘attraction’ you may have visited.” Well it was unlike any ‘attraction’ we have visited, but also we had never seen a kiwi. It was dark they don’t stand still long, Mary saw two and I saw one. Kiwi are flightless birds and had no predator until man arrived several hundred years ago bringing with him dogs, pigs and rats all which prey on kiwis.

While the kiwi was great to see, the event we went to see was the Mitai. An evening that gave us an authentic introduction to the Maori culture leaving us amazed and in awe. We were enthralled by the natural bush setting, we saw warriors in traditional dress paddling a waka (ancient warrior war canoe).and we didn’t miss the opportunity to see glow worms! We marveled at the crystal clear water flowing directly from the earth at Fairy Spring.

We saw our traditional hangi meal being lifted from the ground. During the cultural performance we learned about the Maori past, carvings and ta moko (tattoo art).
We were captivated by the displays of weaponry and combat coupled with the grace and beauty of the poi dance and a spine tingling haka finale.

Maitai