South Pacific Travels

Hi All,
We are on the Coromandel Penninsula - lovely place - turquoise waters & sandy beaches, sunshine & breeze -only 2 hours from Auckland.
We leave at 8 p.m. tomorrow & fly direct to Vancouver, then on to Calgary by 6 p.m. or so.
My lasting impression of New Zealand highways will be hairpin turns up the mountain & then hairpin turns down the mountain. As a result I have been doing most of the driving.
It is a very easy country to see on ones own. Lots of varying scenery & a great variety of things to see & do especially if you are in to outdoor adventure.
We are looking forward to getting home but haven't really got into the Christmas season with this warm weather.
The N.Z. "Christmas Trees" are now almost in full bloom. They are a bright red & flower at this time of year. There are rows & rows of them along streets & roadways. Lovely!
We did go to a Christmas Concert in the park along with 100,000 other people which was very good - lots of Christmas Carols etc.
We'll look forward to seeing you all soon if all goes well.
Merry Christmas.
Love John & Marilyn

Hi All,
J here. With less than a week to go here's our update. Things are going very well. The fleecies are off (mostly) and shorts are on. Come in the high season and you get hot weather and tons of people (Kiwi on hols and the internaltional set). We are on the shouder. Summer arrived 01/12.
Working backwards, yesterday we enjoyed a terrific day of tripping and water taxi in the Tasman National Park. The taxi took us to several points along the coast and then dropped us off in a bay from which we hiked back for about two hrs to another bay where we got picked up. last night in a motel in the mindst of a lemon and grapefriut orchard. All very tropical.
The day before we were in the Arthur National Park. Some specatular mts and we talked up to a towering ( 200 m) waterfall.
A major hilite was our visit to Milford Sound; actually a long fijord (13Km). We were in a group and the weatther was near perfect (no rain!). Three hr boat ride followed by a heli trip. Pretty nervous for these Canucks but the sights were fantastic. Even set down on a glacier- this is where Hillary did his three yr warm ups before going on to Nepal and the BIG ONE.
Did I mention the whale watching - saw two large SPERM jobs. Lovely waves from their tails, of course. In Dunedin we visted a albatross colony and were able to obseve the big birds in flite and on the nest.

We seem to be driving a lot. The country is not large but the roads are a triffle challenging. Generally, given the mountiainous nature of the land, the roads are very twisty and sustained flat level areas are rare.

Yes, Rob and Fran we discover the MARBVELOUS MEMPHIS MELDOWNS- IC on a stick covered in chocky----delitetful.

In case you were wondering about getting bitten by the Alpaca. We were on a farm tour and I was feeding this apparently good humoured gramma. Pellets in my right hand. I reached back with my left to check out how thick her wool was. Real quick she took offence and nipped me in the arm. Was wearing a jacket and only recd a jolly good bruise. Lesson learned- treat the Alpaca with more respect!!!
Marilyn here --- I'll talk to later.
Love,
M & J

First of all: THREE CHEERS FOR THE CALGARY STAMPEDERS!!!!!!!!
Had to relate the significance of this to the New Zealanders in terms of the All Bllacks Rugby Union winning in England this past week-end.
We had a very informative personalized tour of the grounds where the Waitangi Treaty was signed by a Maori who had 3 great grandfathers who signed the treaty.
This was signigicant in the beginning of the settlement of N.Z.
We veiwed with awe the great Kauri trees - the largest 173 ft. high & 45 ft. around its base and after 90 mile beach where the Pacific meets the Tasman Sea. Then we worked our way down the west of the north Island.
Rotorua, another interesting Maori area, in the midst of the thermal pools & boiling mud, had us spending a fasinating evening at a Maori meeting house where we were treated to the welcome ceremony & challenge (the Haka) as well as dancing & singing including the Poi balls. This followed by a wonderful feast (Hangi) & then a visit to one of the erupting geysers. The rocks surrounding the area were almost too hot to sit on as we watched the geyser erupting. A very memorable cultural experience.
We drove on to Wellington where we spent 3 days with David Chapman's nephew Gordon & his wife. We had a lovely visit with them & days sightseeing in Wellington which is very hilly & train trip one day to the wine growing area of Martinborough.
Weather has been O.K. some spotty rain, a lot of cloud & frequent winds. Especially in Wellington (on the south of the North Is.) where they can be ferocious.
We are now on the South Is. after a 3 hr. ferry ride through lots of small islands as we approched the South Is.
The scenery here can be pastoral as in the north except that the rolling hills are higher & the pastures are not quite as green. Reminds me a bit of Kamloops.
Beautiful coastline scenery with the mountains on the other side of the road. Some with snow on the tops still.
John wants a word - so bye for now
M

No causualties yet. Except for our farm visit. After the swine etc guess who got bit by an alpaca. No big deal.

Hi All,
Before I proceed just a P.S. on Tonga.
I don't think I mentioned that the people are BIG. Some men's arms are as big as my legs & one of their kings weighed over 400 lbs.!!! Big feet too.
John describes the tourism industry as in its infancy & I would describe it as embrionic!
The second morning we were at bkfst. in our Nautical B&B in Auckland a Aussie couple joined us having arrived very early that morning from Tonga. They had an outrigger business in Neiafu where we had stayed. They said that they had heard just before they left Tonga that probably on the Wed. the hotel we were staying at burned to the ground!!! There were only two large hotels in Neiafu neither one in very good repair but the one we had stayed in was in a beautiful, idylic setting. My guess is that it was arson & I wasn't alone in that thought.
Anyway we are now appreciating the difference between a 3rd world (developing) country & a 1st world country. Great to have plumbing esp. plumbing that works!!!!!
We stayed 4 nights at our B&B which was excellent. The owner took us for a 3 hour trip around the outer harbour in his 32 foot sailboat one day. Neither one of us has done much sailing. A sail on our kayak is pretty simple compared to 2 sails but we each got a chance "man the rudder".
Saw beautiful harbour views, a lovely cathedral, rose garden in full bloom & various districts, some quite quaint.
We spent one night with friends in a suburb the day before we picked up our car & then it was off the the north of the North Island.
Driving on the left!!!!! Been 33 years since I've done that.
The scenery is beautifully pastoral with rolling hills, trees, lots of green pasture & sheep & dairy cattle.
Spectacular views of the ocean & empty sandy beaches which I could catch a glimpse of when I wasn't trying to stay on the narrow very winding road. Of course we stopped & walked & ate ice cream occasionally.
We visited a very impressive site which was where the New Zealand Treaty between the Maori People & the British Crown was sighned in 1840. We had a very informative Maori guide who gave us a personal one hour tour.
Today we took a coach tour up 90 Mile Beach to the tip of the North Island. This is where the Pacific meets the Tasman Sea. The north is less populated & has more Maori influence. This is refected in the names of places & steet names in towns.
Now we're heading south from Kaitaia.
Cheers for now,
Marilyn & John

Approx. 34 hours after leaving our house we arrived at our hotel in Neiafu in Vava ú - the most beautiful area of Tonga for kayaking.
It is very hot & HUMID. So we are learing to move slowly!
We spent 8 days kayaking on the aqua green & blue water which is the most delightful temp. for swimming & snorkelling.
A typical day: climb out of our tent, have bkfst. prepard by our two guides (one Tongan one Canadian), load up our kayaks (if we were moving to a new campsite) & paddle for 2 - 3 hours. Find a new campsite, set up & relax. This usually involved a swim & Happy Hour before dinner. Dark at 7 p.m. meant that we were in bed early. The paddle usually involved stopping at a village for water (rain water) or to visit a school to drop off our gifts for the students & do a walk about to see women weaving the Pandanus plant which is used to make their waist mats (taovalas) like grass skirts in a way or see their livestock which always included pigs and their "plantations". The people are warm & friendly & smiling & the children who were always interested to come down to the beach to see us when we landed, are lovely. Almost everyone speaks English as the children are taught it in school. The youger the child the less English they speak. They would hang around & enjoyed having their pictures taken & then seeing the picture on our digial cameras.
One evening at a village an umu (feast) was prepared for us. Cooking is started early in the day in a pit in the ground after a large fire has made the big rocks lining the pit very hot. Tongan slow cooker. The pit is covered with huge leaves to keep the heat in. We sat on the floor of the community hall & the food was laid out on huge leaves. No cutlery, no plates but lots of food - fish dishes, roasted suckling pig, chicken, taro root, yams, sweet potato, tapioca bundled up in leaves, octopus bundled up in leaves, salads & of course lots of fresh fruits - mangos (practically grow wild), papyas, banana, pineapple. At the end of the meal green coconuts so we could drink the milk & the Kava ceremony. Kava being a special drink made like tea which acts as a mild tranquilizer. It apparently makes the drinker vague & hazy but I think you would need a lot of it. The local men sit around the kava bowl & I think drink all night - we left early! There was also dancing by several young women which was not unlike the Hawaiian (sp?) dancing. This was really a memorable experience. We felt so fortunate to be able to experience this.
It was not our only umu but that is another story.

Facts: Tonga is made up of 171 islands 36 inhabited. The pop. is around 100,000 but as many or more Tongans live abroad.
Many of the villages had only 100 inhabitants or less but there would be as many as 4 - 5 churches. Almost every Tongan goes to church. Attending a Sun. service at a Methodist church all in Tongan - no English - was one of the highlights. The singing was absolutely awesome. So rich & such wonderful harmony. This is true of most of the South Pacific.
Tonga is as self-sustaining as any nation can be in the 21st century. It is ruled by a monarch with absolute power. It has never been colonized by a European power.

If I keep going you will never read our next entry so I will stop now.
We arrived in Auckland yesterday & so begins our N.Z. experience.
Bye for now,
M&J