The Swanson's New Zealand Trip

Northland & Bay of Islands: 29 May - 01 June

We were running out of time. It would have been fun to spend a few days messing about the Bay of Plenty and maybe even take the trip around the Coromandel Peninsula. Alas, it was becoming more and more evident that we'd have to skip something, so the Bay of Plenty got left behind.

Instead, we hopped in our "trusty" Bluebird and headed north, through Auckland, to Whangarei, a run of 408 km if we'd gone directly. Instead, we did head east to the Bay of Plenty to at least "drive" it. That probably added another 70-80 km to our daily tally.

We stopped for lunch just south of Auckland, and called our hosts when we fueled up at a station just a few km from their home—but no answer. We made it as far as Whangarei when we both realized that we were much too tired to drive safely. We tried to find a place in the city, but as with Rotorua, the city wasn't visitor-friendly, so we headed for the outskirts where we found a nice motel.

Dinner was at the Stagecoach Hotel, a very old hotel that, as the name suggests, was around in the stagecoach days. Dinner was very good. Back to the motel and to bed. Driving in New Zealand is stressful with the tailgating drivers and driving on the "wrong" side of the road.

The next morning we awoke refreshed ready for the final 66 km run to Paihia, gateway to the Bay of Islands. This was more like it, a nice small town, uncrowded with very friendly people. We could enjoy it here.

First stop was lodging. The Bounty Motel did the trick with a nice suite for NZ$69 per night. Once "settled in" we walked downtown to buy tickets for the Bay of Island cruise. We scored two tickets for the next day. That done, breakfast was in order and the dockside cafe provided excellent food.

Then back to The Bounty for laundry. This one was a problem as one of the two dryers wasn't too keen on drying. It took forever to dry the clothes. In fact, by the time the laundry was dry it was lunch time. That we took care of at a fish & chips place right on the highway. Absolutely the best fish & chips ever—even surpassing the school bus in Killarny, Ontario, Canada... Relaxing afternoon and then dinner at the Swiss Chalet, where we had a very good meal. Then back to the room for "feet up"!

Next morning we again breakfasted dockside, and boarded our boat for the Cream Trip just before 10 AM. The Cream Trip is so named because it is also the main supply run to many of the small islands throughout the Bay. It took us most of the day, but the pace was slow and we enjoyed the clear waters, interesting islands, and the fantastic scenery of the Bay. Our boat was a nearly new jet catamaran that drew only ½ meter of water. There were very few passengers, so we were able to "bag" a couple of seats in the lounge and then spread out with the table all to ourselves.

The trip was exceptional. Although it rained in the early part of day, it wasn't that bad and the sun eventually arrived for some remarkable scenery. The only rough part of the trip was our visit to the "Hole in the Rock" where we were buffetted by the swells of the open Pacific. We took gobs and gobs of pictures, and we'll try to highlight the very best below.

Returning to Paihia about 5:30 P.M. we returned to the motel to clean up, and back to town for dinner. This time we ate at the Vienna Cafe, an Austrian-style restaurant where we both had schnitzel. Very, very good—about the best we've had outside of Germany.

The next day we headed back to Auckland the "long way". First we detoured to a national forest south of Paihia looking for a stand of Kauri trees. No could find, we ran out of road before we found any trees. But, just to make sure, we again detoured off the main road to the town of Matakohe, home of the Kauri Museum.

We lunched in Matakohe and returned to the main highway. A few km south we again left the main highway and headed west to Kaipara Harbour and then south to Auckland. It was a beautiful drive and we're glad we took the time to see it.

We arrived at the Macy's home about 4:30 P.M. and Caroll was waiting for us. We hauled our luggage back to the guest bedroom and enjoyed a relaxing cup of tea. Clinton arrived from work about 5:30, and we smoothly transitioned from tea to cocktails. Caroll had prepared a delicious dinner of lamb from her brother's farm. It was, by far, the best of our entire trip. We sat in the lounge talking until 11, at which point we were all ready for bed.

The next morning we all sort of slept in (except Sandi, she never sleeps). A very light breakfast, and then sightseeing. Clinton and Caroll knew where a Kauri tree was growing in Auckland, so they took Bob to see "his tree". He was happy then. We then went to Dim Sum, which we all enjoyed.

For dinner we insisted that the Macy's let us treat them. They selected a very good bistro not too far from their home. Excellent food, drink, and conversation made it an event to remember.

Sunday morning we departed for the airport. Our flight didn't leave until Monday, but we wanted one more try at Dim Sum and had decided by then to stay at the airport so we wouldn't have to inconvenience anyone on a Monday morning (even though this Monday was the Queen's Birthday holiday.) We repeated a visit to the same Dim Sum restaurant, but this time the service was so poor that we left hungry. But it was cheap, less than NZ$20.

We found our way to the airport with no problem and checked into our hotel. We then turned in our car some 1,800 km older. We had dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hotel, nothing to write home about. We went through our luggage and managed to get everything into our two checked bags plus (relatively) light carry ons.

On Monday we caught the hotel shuttle to the airport where we checked in with no problem. We had breakfast in the terminal and then headed through immigration to the international departure lounge. Can you spell D-U-T-Y F-R-E-E??? We did very well, and best of all, everything fit into our carry ons. By the way, they even have Duty Free shopping as you enter the country!

Our flight left on time and was less than 60% full. We had exit rows so we had plenty of leg room. It still took ten hours, but Air New Zealand is a first-class airline and made the journey as comfortable as possible. We had an equitorial sunset that was one of the most stupendous we've ever seen.

We arrived at Honolulu on time and our immigration and customs experiences were quick and easy. We got two rooms in the Mini Hotel right in the terminal at $38 each for eight hours and a shower. Neither of us slept very well and were both up by 6 A.M. We headed for the interisland terminal where we got on the 7:15 Hawai'ian Air flight to Kahului. We landed a little before eight and called our neighbor, Kathy Rhodes, who drove out to pick us up. As we were leaving the airport we saw police cars heading to the airport. It turns out that a bomb threat was called in a little after eight and our flight was the last one to land for six hours. Whew!!!

It was a phenominal trip and we'll be savoring the memories for years to come. We hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing our trip images...

The "thumbnails" following this narrative are a select subset of our Northland and Bay of Island images. They may be "enlarged" by clicking on them with your mouse pointer. Enjoy!

Bay of Islands @ Paihia	Paihia Harbor	Alas, this is as close as we got to seeing penguins	Our Paihia motel room	Bob hard at work...
...and Sandi also!	Boarding our boat for the Bay of Islands tour	The Cream Trip handles passengers and freight	A tunnel lets two houses share the pier	A place like this costs $$$s, either Ben Franklin or the Queen!
Taking it all in...	Lunch break @ Urapukapuka Island	Urapukapuka Island	Urapukapuka Island	Our Cream Trip "cat"
Brill Point lighthouse	Brill Point lighthouse	Hole In The Rock	Cave In The Rock	On the road again...
Kaipara Harbour & Tasman Sea	Kaipara Harbour & Tasman Sea	OK!	Bob's Kauri tree	Bob's Kauri tree
Auckland	Picture Perfect	Auckland	Maori totem pole	Maori art lets it "all hang out"
Clinton Macy	Packing for home	Auckland Airport waiting room	Our "ride' home	A sunset over the equator—a perfect ending...

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