Good morning my love,

Yesterday was just a great day, a perfect one which I will never forget, happily. Walking down the street for some breakfast knowing I will be drinking most of the day, I thought those vegetable biscuits would be perfect.

After a short wait, I was picked up by Hans (from Hungary, he has been here for about 41 years) and never looked back. With me on my tour, I was so lucky, that it was only one other couple on this tour.. Just the 3 of us. Andy and Lorraine from just outside of London.

It was an amazing story that Napier used to be an island and in the earthquake, the land was lifted 7 -8 feet up… creating the area where we were driving at that time.

The tour was amazing, we drove through the town where we received a bit of history, then we were set to Mission Estates, one of the oldest wineries here… The host (Guy) was cool as well, from outside of London not too far from where Lorreine and Andy where from they went into a wonderful conversation which I kinda was lost in translation. Lorraine, bless her heart, realized and made sure I felt part of the conversation… The wine there was great, every one tasted wonderful and when we were told that we would be back here for lunch to eat on the garden so I thought I would not buy anything now and will buy during lunch time.

Our next winery was The Church Road, the second oldest and largest winery in the area. Here we were treated with a museum tour looking at the history of the wine making here and how it was completed before all the technology… The wine was definitely different than Mission, really good in some of the makes and ok in the others. Every one has such a different tastes buds, Lorraine and I realized we have very similar and are loving the same wines… I bought one wine to bring home and we were off to the next wineries.

The next four wineries were all boutique ones which not as much inventory and definitely great tastes. Askerne was 12 tastings – holy momma.. They also had these signs, which normally I ignore cause they are so common, but one caught my eye which I just couldn’t help myself.

Most the wines were made so well, the blending and the purity of these wines are difficult to describe. After leaving with two bottles to bring home, we went to lunch at Missions Estates.

I had paid for a platter which was great, not heavy and tasted fantastic, I did have to pay for my wine glass at lunch but that was no big deal. We drank the Cabernet Franc. It was delicious and so very nice to eat lunch with my new found friends, getting to know them and listening about three journey together. It was also great and strange to share my story, what I hold dear and how I came to be here.

The next boutique winery was Brookfield’s… John the host was hilarious, had a sense of humor which I can see many people enjoy. He has been doing this for over 20 something years and to the point where we were all sitting as if we were in his living room, he had me pour for us as he somewhat but not really described the wine… Most of the time he asked about why people say the wine is dry when wine is wet… Why you want to smell the cork and taste the wine… why some of the labels are red, some are white and some are gold.. That their main export is China so the red and gold are the ones mostly bought cause of the color of the labels. He was entertaining and lovely.

Ash Ridge which had great wines just not enough to want buy any and I was thinking already of how many I have already bought.

The last winery where we also had another snack which I have to say had the best duck pate I have had in so long. They also had this butter that they called burnt butter… it was light and whipped and delicious… The bread was freshly made and it went fantastic with all the food. Oh and the wine, was amazing, deciding which ones to take home was the hardest, I was able to take a couple picture of the vineyards.

After such a wonderful day and trading contact information, I was so happy and tired. But sitting most of the day, I wanted to take another walk and needed to eat dinner. I went to Emporium again to see the cute bartender and think about where I wanted to have dinner…

I ended up talking and meeting these two amazing ladies (Catherine and Anita). Catherine lives in England and Anita in Rotorua (New Zealand). They were kind enough to invite me to join them dinner and I did. Talking to them was great… Between talking with Lorraine and Andy and now with Catherine and Anita, it was very talking day and I was grateful and blessed to have met these 4 wonderful people.

And now it is morning the next day and I have to get packing as today I return my car and enjoy Wellington for the next couple days.

Love you always,

Me

Morning my love,

Finally this morning, I didn’t mind waking up so early.. There were a couple of stops you wanted to make and each of those stops would take hours so no pussy-footing around… At least that is what Haydee thought when we woke up at 5 am… Convincing myself to sleep in a couple more hours was Chrissy’s idea and it worked… Don’t get me wrong, we still were out of the place by 7:18 am a good hour before I thought I would be out…

Remembering that driving the Coromandel drive was treacherous I was hoping and praying that by leaving this early (middle morning), it would be clear… The fisherman should already have driven their boats through it and be on the water, the vacationers should still be in bed so that leaves only me on the road… Makes total sense…

Thankfully, I was pretty much the only one on that road, no one behind me trying to make me go faster and no truck or big car coming at me trying to take up the whole narrow lanes.. .It was so much more pleasant than when I arrived… Thinking back, the conditions were much different, first it was Friday afternoon on the way to a vacation spot, then I was tired and had been driving most of the day, I hadn’t really eaten in a couple s hours which meant, I was a little han-gry. Today, I am rested had breakfast and while going through the drive, it was beautiful and lovely and not so crazy… I enjoyed every turn, every little town much more than when I was driving into it… I thought it was great at first, but now I am so glad I came out here.

The drive was really pretty, I drive through all these small town roads and farms, I was really able to see so much of how the non-vacationers live.

First stop, Hobbiton :). It kind of speaks for itself, the tours though was in full force, going every five minutes.. It was really cool to see it in person, the details that the director made sure was there was really cool to see… I will have to borrow the movies from Erin and Jonathan one more time…

The pictures clearly do not do it justice, here is to trying though.

After the two hour tour, I made out to my next exciting destination and only 40 min away – Rotorua… I had done “Chrissy” style research and found Hells Gate Spa… Rotorua is known for the geometric activity, thermal pools and mud for spa… Totally up my ally… I of course had to miss the 2 hour geo-thermal tour and explanation but that was ok, I really wanted to sit in mud and have a body mud mask for an hour… These were the pools, none with me of course cause I didn’t want to dirty my phone 🙂

The last leg of the drive was to go to Taupo where I was staying. The drive again was “boringly” amazingly pretty. The side roads were great and it was smooth. Arriving with no challenges, I checked in and they happily upgraded my room to the king suite and a porch with direct access to the lake… Two beautiful black swans are just hanging out and letting me watch them.

When I arrived just after I checked in, it started to rain… Glad it wasn’t 30 minutes earlier… It’s a amazing, I can’t meet a man this whole trip but I can have a duck party without even trying.

The last parts of the evening was relaxing, listening to the rain, I ordered room service watching one of my favorite movies – Kate and Leopold.. 🙂 It’s just a sweet movie without a lot of drama…

Anyway, enough for tonight. Love you and again another great day to be alive.

Good evening my love,

As much as I didn’t want to drive today, I needed to – as Cathedral Cove was calling my name… Driving here on the left side of the road on the right side of the car is now total second nature to me, I don’t even think about it anymore… In case you were wondering my dear – yes I am awesome and love every moment of it…

The drive was so fun, tiny tiny roads, very very windy – hairpin turns and every turn showed a new thing to see, why not go on a drive to see Cathedral Cove, I have been looking forward to this moment for months… Of course, I refuse to read what it takes to get there… I just know I want to be there…

So of course, 40 miles took an 80 min but that was a fun drive, holy crap – what testing my speed and turning skills… (Mom and Papa would cringe) but man – it was so fun to corner a turn in my Peugeot 4 cylinder car (reminds me of a Rav 4). I wouldn’t get this car at home, but I am glad I have it here instead of a tiny car…

While the drive was fun, the parking and the walking was not so much…. I parked and I noticed whenever I speak to someone or read anything it is all in minutes – not distance – all in minutes.. This walk will take you 75 min + return… Seriously – 75 min then another 75 min… sure whatever, this walk will take 5 min + return… Clearly they know how to deter you or encourage you… and they were right, most of the time. Since New Zealanders are giants (note the picture from a couple days ago) their stride is definitely longer than mine and really that walk took 85 min.. They were so off!

Instead of taking the shuttle like they recommended, remembering that I drove an entire day and needed to walk. So I walked over a mile up a crazy steep hill before I even started the 2.5km hike – up and very very steep walks,..

But when I descended the 40 stairs, my first thought was – man I am going to love the opportunity to climb all that back up! Taking my shoes off, I walked and saw this…

Breathtaking (well would be if I was the only one there), still breathtaking…

I walked to the end and sat and relaxed, took a bunch of pictures then read the rest of my book. The last 50 pages was really good – a couple hours.. The sun was beautiful and hot…

After a couple hours, I decided to walk up that wonderful hill again and stopped a couple other “bays” on the way up… I am just speechless on how much fun I am having. How relaxing I am, even though my heart was pounding, I am love it and cherishing every moment…

Note to Chrissy: you are so getting into shape. Note to Haydee: stop being so lazy – just do it for 6 months and see how you improve. You will love yourself so much more cause you aren’t beaten down by the crazy hills

Finally at the Hayes Beach and loving the walk, I decided I deserve an ice cream before I go ad check out Hot Water Beach…

The drive happily was only 4km and it was so cool, the sand as you walk on it was crazy hot, I felt like an idiot cause my boushie self put my shoes on before I got to the water, (I felt silly cause I saw all these locals in the shade watching me walk and heard them laugh when I put my shoes back on – whatever – my sensitive skin on my feet can’t handle the heat and I am ok with that) then I thought while at the water, what they hell do I do know, then looked right and saw a bunch of people so I walked there.

I will admit, after going to the thermal pools in Budapest, the thermal healing springs in Colorado, I have never been to a Hot Water Beach where the water if you dig about 1 foot, is hot and the ocean water is cold. It was ridiculous and I loved it… So impressed and in awe… I stayed there about a hour checking it out.

By the time is was time to head home, I realized I had been in the sun for about 8 hours… which meant, I was exhausted and still had to drive that hour and a half home.. An easy drive back home and had dinner in town with this incredible place – had raw oysters and battered oysters and then had this incredible lamb salad which I want to see if Brett can make the lamb and I make the salad when I am there in a couple weeks.

Now I am home, watching this amazing show on Hyundai’s Country Calendar where they have a series about training kids on how to be farmers in New Zealand… So amazing – I couldn’t change the channel and it took about twice as long to write cause I kept watching the show. I asked Nellie to find it so I can watch it when I am home.

And now, it is 8:40 and am exhausted… will stay up for another 30 min…

Tomorrow – love – we are going to stay sort of local – taking more walks and enjoying the sun…

I love you and I hope you are having a great time… I know I am. There are many other things which I am thinking about which I am deciding not to share, but working through some of my tough decisions I need to make are hard and am glad I am trying to think about it.

Love you always

Hello my love,

Wow – today was all about relaxing, not driving too much and being surprised on what life has in store for you. Doing just that, I loved today for what today represented…

I woke up crazy early mainly cause the sun is up and very bright by 6:10 am which early… I forced myself to stay in bed till about 7 am…

Having my yogurt in the morning, I set off to see the largest trees in New Zealand, the kauri trees… they are beautiful as you can see… so pretty and so tall, they remind me slightly of the redwoods we have in California. The way to get to them was interesting, in order to go, you had to brush your feet and disinfect them through this walkway (shown)…

This is to make sure no insect that you might bring from another part of New Zealand hurts them… Pretty brilliant when you see the affects of an insect or dirt or other foreign object take over the area… Happily I was the only one there to experience these majestic giant trees, no one to compete with for a photo…

Here is a photo tour of these majestic trees.. As you know, I love trees and bark…

Next was the falls, I wanted to play with my camera and do the long shutter speeds, I spent about an hour there just listening to the falls, I shared the falls with one other camping couple which was nice… Wanting to go in, the water was freezing, so I enjoyed the water with just my feet in and they were icebergs many times… By the time I was leaving about 5 other cars came and was internally grateful that I decided to see these two awesome places in the early morning before the people…

I don’t mind people, I just don’t like them getting in my photo… I can’t help it sometimes, like at Cathedral Cove or where I will be going next… I just like to also visit these places as if no one has been there before me and I am the first to discover this place and have it all to myself. 🙂

At this point it was just before lunch time, I have been wanting to go to this place called Muscle Kitchen, it just wasn’t meant to be… Whenever I tried they were closed… It was just 10am and I couldn’t fathom eating lunch so early. I went to the local grocery store thinking I would find something there, forcing it, I just couldn’t do it… So I went to Umm Café which is the first place I went to when I came into town… They have these vegetable biscuit/muffin that is great, I also bought a chicken bacon camembert cheese sandwich and a chocolate for lunch… All takeaway and perfect for when I am at New Chum Beach to enjoy…

Driving these wonderfully crazy windy roads was now fun for me, only going about 12 miles, it took about 40 min… that is how crazy the roads are – they are just calling my name most of the time… Last time I took this road I saw a viewpoint vista which I decided is where I will eat my veggie biscuit and enjoy the view…

Finally getting to New Chum parkway where I would have to walk about 40 min (again in time not distance) to this voted top 10 beach to see in New Zealand for its seclusion and views… How can you miss that… I knew I wasn’t the only one reading these articles so I accepted that I wouldn’t be the only one on the beach… Though it felt like it – it was pristine, and sunny and anyone who was there was in the shade trying to be protected from the sun…

I, of course, sat right at the other end of the beach on the full sun and loved it. Since I finished my book, I pre-downloaded my next bookclub book, thinking it might be easier to audio book it this time, I checked it out from the library. Not wanting to put anything in my ears, I had it on speaker… No one around me so it was all good. After getting into the water which was still very crazy cold, I dried off, ate lunch and started listening… Fell asleep, turned over on my back, then fell asleep again, then went back into the water to cool down and just enjoyed the sun and the lack of people.

By 4pm, I thought, it’s been about 4 hours in the sun, probably time to head back for dinner.

It was an easy day, not a lot of thinking, just enjoying the sound of the ocean, the sun and knowing that I really needed to relax…

Tomorrow I leave here and have a sort of busy day ahead of me, so why not just relax and remember – you love you!

As always – the love of my life – thank you!

Morning my love,

Decided to get up earlier this morning as I knew I was in for a long day of driving… I didn’t want to take the main highway (the 1 South) the whole time which would have been faster. Why not go take a couple side highways, streets to get you to the same place. Why not see something different, you never know what you will find…

That essentially was the argument in my head until I relented and compromised – 2 detours that would add about 2 hours to the drive.

Those two detours were 2 of 3 most favorite parts of the drive today. Went through some really remote towns, the streets were well paved and well marked, a BIT narrower which meant when a truck crossed my path I twinged a little, but the countryside and the farms seemed so much more alive and in my face… Still cant get over how many cows there are here. The pictures below do not do it justice, it was just too beautiful to capture in a small frame..

Also, I have to look this up, I don’t think I have seen any deer or other animals aside from: cows, sheep, rabbit, turkeys, kiwis and chickens…

When I made it back to the 1 South, I missed the quiet roads where no one was in hurry to pass you and so many more cars. It took one hour to go about 4 miles (the town put in two new traffic lights) the problem was, it only let 3 cars per green light per side (4 sides)… 1 HOUR!!!! Sigh… I had to turn off the music as I was feeling more anxious with the music then with the voices in my head… I just started making up a story in my mind (fantasy really) which made the time go by so much more quicker.

Finally I passed Auckland which was another crazy too many cars city drive and went back to my quiet country roads with not as many people… 🙂

Looking at my TomTom it said I had 44 miles to go and it would take me an hour and a half. I couldn’t believe it, seriously that long… then I drove it… Holy Crap! The road to this piece of heaven was treacherous … I honest think part of the wheels on car wasn’t on the road some of the time cause the roads were so narrow and winding and no shoulder in some of the way… of course – Chrissy was so excited… Haydee was white knuckling the driving in parts… I think living in Washington and driving those mountain roads all the time prepared me for this driving, the road had hair pin turns with no shoulder, cant see if someone was coming opposite, again – it was AWESOME… I tried to GoPro video it for a little bit then remembered – that’s dangerous since I am holding it with my hand… 🙂 will see how that comes out.

Finally making it to town, I decided to eat dinner in town before I went up to the house – smart idea… I had amazing New Zealand muscles (they get better every time I eat them) and avocado with shrimp salad… Perfectly light and delicious, especially the muscles.

Alas, I am finally in my Wyuna Bay home for the next two nights, walked down the beach (about my 700 feet) and relaxed for a bit. Now finishing up two days of journaling with a great glass of wine and some pannacotta for dessert.

My view from my room for the next two nights…

I feel so blessed to be here and to be able to do nothing for a couple days… besides: kayaking, sleeping, walking on the beach… Yep, that is about it… I hope to see the sites here and enjoy them as much as I can.

I love you Haydee and Chrissy…

Hello my love,

I cant believe that just spent 5 hours on a boat… It was as usual – and I sound like a broken record – but such a wonderful day.

It started at my usual breakfast place: The little kitchen with my eggs Benedict which I cant get enough of, they poached the eggs perfectly and the Hollandaise is like a Dijon mustardy one. Absolutely fantastic. The water was quiet and the sky had a few clouds…

After lolly gagging there for about an hour, I made my way slowly to Paihia where I was to board at 2pm… I wanted to get there as early as needed to walk around the town and eat lunch without being in a hurry… Perfectly timed, I parked where they recommended so I avoided paying to park my car (total waste of money to pay a street to park your car – a way to make revenue I guess)… any who – I digress…

Buying my ticket I had a couple hours to walk around and eat… So after about 30 min of walking around a town that looks like every tourist trap in the world, I went into a restaurant and ordered lunch… They had this bacon wrapped chicken breast salad that was perfect and it went even better with my Prosecco(s)…

Time came to get on the boat, secure my hat (my all blacks hat I bought here about 15 years ago when I first came here) and enjoy being on the water…

There is something to say about how I am always drawn to the water, the calmness, roughness, knowing that world that is underneath the surface… I don’t think I could ever live where I am land locked. With the wind through my pony tail I find my sea legs… 🙂

On the way to the hole in the rock, there were a school of dolphins playing, it was hard to get a picture of them, shoot it I was hard to get a video of them quick little buggers. Since I was at the back of the boat and didn’t run to the front of the boat where everyone was, I was satisfied with watching them, I tried a couple videos, will have to see them on my laptop when I can stop and start the video to see if I was able to get one “good” picture.

The Hole in the Rock is one of the only islands that you can ride a medium size boat though (60m high)… it was pretty cool, there are many holes in the rocks that I have been through (that doesn’t sound right – but innocently — you should know what I mean)…

It was really fun to ride through, meeting some of the interesting families there, they were amazed and almost funny when you watch the kids look in awe about 5 feet from the edge afraid they will fall off, and other kids leaning over where the parents have to hold on to them fearing they would fall over… all these distractions from the ability to get my pictures… ARGH!!! LMAO…

After the trip from there, we went to another island where they let us relax for an hour and eat dinner. It was ok, I could have easily just stayed on the boat and head back however the “Haydee” in me said, you paid for dinner with this tour, we aren’t going to waste that money and besides “Chrissy” you have been wanting to sit on a beach and read for a while, this is your hour… so reading for the hour was wonderful, had the breeze going and just relaxed.

For my re-iteration of my relationship with myself, I have what I would call – two people living in this head of mine… Might be a reason having a relationship sounds exhausting knowing what I – I mean we have to deal with… There is the “Haydee” side, she is responsible and the planner… Doesn’t like change much, well doesn’t mind it as long as she can reassess and do about 3 risk assessments to make sure what “Chrissy” is getting herself into will not mame or kill or get me to the brink of hunger or exhaustion where all I will end up doing is argue with each other. That is Haydee… Chrissy on the other hand, she is carefree, adventurous, doesn’t always take their safety into consideration when she should (she considers it then thinks that it would be more fun and exciting if they did it anyway)… Chrissy is the one that booked this trip with the hopes that we would camp the whole time and have no plans and let the wind take us where it takes us… Haydee obviously let her have that fantasy and in the end, all the hotels/vrbo’s were reserved, rough plan of where to drive and made sure I stayed safe.

Back to Otheia Bay and reading on the beach – relaxing finally as every day even though it seems like all I am doing is resting, I am not staying put… I hope Coromandel Bay will be that for me. I need that chill time.

Arriving safely back to Paihia, the drive home was going to be nice and easy… There was this falls I wanted to check out and it was only 7 pm so I went. It wasn’t flowing like crazy which was good cause at this point, I was tired and these flip flops should have been shoes since I almost ate it a couple times trying to take the picture… Sigh!!! Good lord Christina!

Back home, I wasn’t hungry and it was about 8:35 pm when I arrived, hence why I didn’t journal. I pretty much just went to sleep.. That was it there was time for.

It was a great day at the Bay of Islands…

Tomorrow I say goodbye to the northend of North Island of New Zealand and make my way to Coromandel Beach…

Night Love.

Evening my love,

I can’t wait to tell you how amazing our day was… It is almost impossible to describe the calm and contentment I feel… First we started with going to bed at about 7:40 the night before… Must have been exhausted as waking up the next morning at about 5 – 6 am felt like a new person was born. Having coffee in hand I got out my maps and ready to make a decision, of course I had Nellie confirm it, and I was ready…

Today’s plan: Drive to Cape Reinga, where Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet at the northern most point of New Zealand… On the way, stop at Cooper Beach, maybe Cable Beach, definitely Karikari Peninsula, visit the winery there (Karikari Estate), Cape Reinga, check out the Dunes, maybe see 90 mile beach, then Rarawa Beach…

Easy peasy, since it was a touring day I knew I wouldn’t mind being in the car for a while as I knew I would be stopping hours in between and I didn’t have to worry about finding the place I needed to stay.. The best part is by now, driving on the left side of the road is second nature, I don’t even think about it when turning or merging into the lanes.

Having breakfast at that Little Kitchen was perfect, they had food that I could get to pack a wonderful lunch… while eating the best eggs Benedict I have pretty much ever had (need to make this at home this way) I was entertained by watching these seagulls talking to each other and showing their chest off to the female.. The only thing I can make out was this and this is the story I am sticking with – this was a mating ceremony to get the girl… 🙂 Now that I had experienced that ritual, I was ready to start my day.

After stopping at the first stop, Cooper Beach, which had sand that looked like copper, so reddish brown. I saw that my battery for my camera was low – sooo that meant – I had to decide which was more important – my camera or knowing where to go… So I decided — no TomTom for this trip and you know what… I LOVED IT!!!! It wasn’t a complicated one and I knew mostly the first two letters of where I wanted to stop so I “winged it”. Of course, I left my three backup maps on my bed – tempted to drive back I thought to myself – how hard can this be? I traveled throughout Tuscany with no GPS I can do 1/2 of an island… Just go north till you can’t anymore… then stop at the Ka place and the Dunes and the Rara place… Easy Peasy!

Stopping at the Karikari Peninsula was amazing, since it was not quite 11 yet, I decided to go to the beach first, going through some sand dunes reminded me of my place at Ocean Park, then the beach opened up, just beautiful…

I walked it for a bit however didn’t want to spend my entire day there which I could have, so after about 45 minutes I decided to head back… Perfect cause when I drove next to the winery I was 11:14 and the Cellars’s Door opened at 11… Lightly tasting the wine and 4 bottles later I was incredibly happy that I stopped there…

It was already noon and I figured at the rate I am going I will get at Cape Reinga at about 2 which was perfect, I would have a snack now and lunch up there… Not that I was planning the day, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t driving home at midnight…

The drive up was amazing, I was able to take a couple GoPro videos which I plan to mash together and show later. After a while, the radio was just causing commotion and distractions coming at me, that I drove in silence… When did I get so OLD? Enjoying listening to the birds and in my own thoughts – I was entertained plenty.

Cape Reinga was just as I expected – a good hike, windy and beautiful… I ate lunch there and took a couple pictures and videos… Not being as crowded as I thought, I found a wall and some grass to enjoy my lunch with the view of a lifetime..

And now pictures of Cape Reinga

Heading out after about and hour and a half, I stopped at the Giant Dunes, holy cow – they were giant.. Well, the walk up soft sand barefoot made them seem like mountains and not minor hills… They were gorgeous though, knowing I had no desire to go to the highest point and that this sand was very fine and would get into everything, I brought only my phone and go-pro… it was enough. Watching kids slide down the dunes was fun, I thought of my nieces and nephews who would hate the climb up the dunes but love the slide down them. Walking about a mile in this sand, I decided that was about as much as I could handle.

Resting at the bottom with water and watching people was entertaining enough to be ready for my next time to relax…

Rarawa Beach was a short drive and well worth it, there I was able to take my towel, book and relax… After getting into the water for I bit I laid down and read my book to dry off… I didn’t mind that I had another hour of driving ahead of me, I just wanted to relax and chill… There you can drive you car on the beach however since I have a rental, I thought – maybe not. I would hate to have to explain this to Avis.

The day overall was great, I didn’t mind the driving since I was stopping and the overall distance wasn’t long… Definitely getting some sun. Not able to find the other Fish and Chips place the lady at the shop recommended, I went back to Mangonui Fish Shop… They had their specialty – Bluenose for the Fish in their meal… holy COW… I am not a fish and chips person, usually they make it too oily and the fish is crap… This place specializes in it and WOW – I ate every bit of it… Even all the fries. 🙂

In the end, I had a perfect day…

Bedtime… ready for tomorrow’s day! – Paihia and the Bay of Islands Tour

Waking up completely rested, I made a plan in my head including times I wanted to get done with some of the events so I am not arriving and looking for my next place to stay at midnight… or sundown…

My plan as usual – implemented to perfection (ish)…

Breakfast was a brief walk to Sky Tower where I had a good breakfast sandwich, will want to make it like that at home… 🙂 Then pack and check out by 9:40 to take my brief walk to the bus station. Arrived at Avis at 10:34 (4 minutes past, but that is ok – nothing to panic over) and in the car at 11… My journey was supposed to take 4 hours and 50 min… It took me about 5 hours and 30 min.. I stopped for lunch and to just take a break. As you know, I am a driver now that does not like to drive over 2.5 hours a day… I don’t know how I became that way, just I get tired and worn out… to stop and check things out sometimes just procrastinates the inevitable… I had it in my mind already that this was a driving day and I was fine… 🙂

Driving on the left side of the road usually takes about 2 turns to get used to… the car has these – KEEP LEFT stickers on them to try to remind the drivers… having driven in Ireland, Turks and Caicos and recently Scotland this way, I was a little nervous but not scared…

Most of this driving was two lane highway anyway and when turning is the only times I had to really think about it. Following signs and making sure I am not veering to the right when it has been a long time since I have seen someone was enough to keep me alert.

Driving through this countryside was one of my wonderful things I wanted to do… I remember driving in South Island New Zealand and was amazed on how many sheep farms I saw, I remember my friend who I was with commenting about it – New Zealand had more sheep then men per capita.. Here most of what I saw were cow farms, hardly any sheep farms…. I mean the landscape is gorgeous, every time I wanted to stop for a picture though, there was no shoulder to stop on, I will have to figure that out on my next drive day on Friday. Maybe my GoPro – I can see about mounting it…

Alas I arrived and almost easily found the AirBnB I am staying in… just had to turn around as I passed it by 3 houses.. Here are a couple pictures from the place.. Interesting, I was thinking of getting one of these sheds and converting it into a living area, now that I am in it, not sure I will want to do that, maybe for guests, there is no closet space or area to put my suitcase…

Good thing I am traveling alone, the bed mate is my suitcase 🙂 I mean – perfect companion to sleep with, never moves – always there when you need to put your arm around something and if you need to get something out of your suitcase, you don’t even have to get out of bed….

When I went to get something to eat, I drive into town found a great spot to park and a marina, I suddenly forgot about my grumbling stomach and went to check out the fishing boat that arrived and was cleaning the boat from their trip. They had a whole bucket of bait (they looked like filet large fish) that they gave to the people fishing on the dock. My camera and I looked a little out of place 🙂 But they still smiled and said Hi to me, made sure I didn’t fall of the dock when I was walking and looking through the lens not realizing I was almost going over… 🙂

Finally my stomach started talking to me again and I left the dock, when I turned to go to Manognui Fish Shop I saw a tour bus just parked and all the patrons walking to exactly the same place… Sigh… Alas, I went left instead of right into a cute gift shop where I met this great lady and was chatting with her about the area, how to pronounce this town and the others around me and just travel in general.

Figuring I needed another 20 min to kill before the tour bus people left, when I drove in I noticed they had open market (farmers market) today, so was able to buy some cucumbers which look white (insert picture)… The guy next to me saw that I had no idea what I was about to buy so he let me know how he and his wife usually eat it… 🙂 take the skin off, soak in malt vinegar and salt and pepper and perfect.. 🙂

Put the food into my car and walked over to the Fish Shop…. It was really good, had a beer and fish and chips which was locally caught today and really good… There are only about 5 places to eat here and two of them are food I am not a great fan of (Thai and Pizza) so I might check out the other Fish and Chips place tomorrow 🙂 Anyway, the view from the restaurant was peaceful and enjoyable…

It’s about 7:30 and I was back at my home for the next couple days and I exhausted… Deciding to take a small nap, I laid down and woke up at 8:30 PM still exhausted and just accepted it, already in my pajamas, brushed my teeth and went to bed…

What a great day!

Love you!

Hello my love,

Wow, after a great night sleep I woke up mostly rested. Woke up with a slight headache knowing I didn’t drink enough water the day before. After finding a wonderful place to have some coffee and a chicken curry puff pastry. I looked and spoke with the attendant asking her what she thought of my itinerary. I learned and changed my plans based on her recommendations…

Walking to the Sky tower I went to take a picture and ended up returning to my room as I forgot to put the battery in my camera. That was a good thing as I learned the best way to get to Auckland Domain Park was to Uber there instead of walking there… Spending most of my morning there I loved it, it was exactly what I needed… I mean doesn’t everyone go to visit a city and the first thing you want to do it spend 1/2 the day a park to get away from the city. Walking through this park was invigorating. I spend a couple hours in the Auckland History museum learning that the tree bark and a sperm whale are very similar… Also, saw the boats they used reminding me of Moana… I can still hear that song in my mind.

Then several hours just walking the park, taking pictures, sitting under a tree and relaxing.

After lunch and a short power nap, I decided to swing by the hotel to get my sunglasses before I head to the harbor. Having only walked 4 miles and not wanting to miss any part of the park, I decided to walk through it a bit more, I somehow went down this street looking for a trail, found the trail – no one on it and so – of course – I took it, looking like it was a jungle I thought of Sofie and how she would love walking through this. Thoughts went from, let check this trail out to Sofie would love this to I love this to I could live here aside from the city with this park to I have countless trails just like this and it is not in the city. Laughing at my thoughts, I settled on – I love this day in this park and am blessed to be able to be here experiencing it.

After resting a moment in the hotel, grabbing my sunglasses and set back off. Walking through a downtown is like walking a through downtown – you have many many many shops, lots of restaurants, businesses in the above floors, people walking everywhere… It was great to see and walk through, people weren’t rude or in a hurry, it just had a pace. As you might know, I walk slower than most so when I heard a family coming up behind me closer and closer, I just merged left to let them pass. Yep, that is right, you walk like you drive here, on the left side of the sidewalk… Slower traffic keep left 🙂

Making it to the harbor I took the Davenport ferry… Knowing there was a 35 min hike to the top of one of their volcanoes and it was already 3:45 and had already walked about 7 miles, I decided to just walk around the town a bit and see what is there.. Finding a quilt store was just a bonus, speaking to the store owner and asking her questions was a lot of fun. They didn’t have many different things than I had already seen so with no bag in my hand and a great memory of conversation.

Waiting for the next ferry, I decided to grab a snack and a glass of wine. Wanting New Zealand mussels which I pay so much for at home, I thought this will be great. The place I went to unfortunately were out of mussels and oysters… So I settled with a glass of wine and calamari. The ferry ride was invigorating, the ocean water and wind reminds me how much I miss the water and the ocean on a daily basis. Now some of you might raise an eye brow knowing that I live within a .5 mile of the Columbia River and know I see the water every day. Being on the water and in the water are so different, at least in my mind they are. Pretty much means, I either get in my kayak more often, rent boats or just go on more vacations 🙂 I think I will probably choose the first and the last options.

Craving mussels and oysters, I had researched/yelped this place called – Shucker Brothers… There, at the Auckland Harbor I found them and enjoyed oysters first, then enjoying watching the ferries come in and out and people watching I decided to have another glass of wine and mussels and shoestring fries… By the that was all done it was about 7 pm and time to start heading back to a bubble bath.

Reflecting on my day, walking 8.7 miles through a park and through a downtown, feeling the sun on my face, enjoying good food and wine and ending it with classic music and a bubble bath… I am ready to begin the driving part of this trip. See the northern half of this wonderful island.

Love you always,

me

Hello my dearest,

I cant believe 6 months ago I booked this trip, not knowing what to expect and not sure what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to do this o my own and be with just me… Doesn’t matter that I live alone, I spend most of my weekends alone, at home there is always something distracting me, here – that is pretty much impossible and I am loving it.

After a very long flight and a couple frustrating moments which I thought – holy crap – seriously why am I going… Then I remembered to breathe and thought, it is not the end of the world that you set the alarm off at your house at 2:45 am with a newborn next door… Just breathe… It also didn’t matter that you couldn’t remember if you locked the door cause it was 2:45 AM and it was pouring rain and the wonderful Lyft Driver was getting soaked waiting for me to get my bags… It is all ok, at that time… Just had to relax and breathe… After that, I thought – hey – I am good still getting to the airport at the right time and checked my bag in. – no problem.. Went to go through TSA and noticed TSA pre-check wasn’t open.. That almost sent me over the edge… I know – I know… spoiled… I just cant remember the last time I had to take my shoes off and my laptop out of my bag… After pouting about that, I walked the length of Portland airport no problem – cause why would TSA open both sides at 3:15 AM???

Once inside, no problem – I went to get coffee and a pastry, got on the plane with no problem. In Seattle, I was again blessed with walking from one side of SeaTac to the other side of SeaTac to catch my next flight… With plenty of time, 20 min to spare, I decided to walk in extended circles knowing I would be on the plane for about 6 hours…

Once on, I am grateful that I upgraded to Economy Plus, there was a kid and his mom next to me, before took off, I learned that this beautiful kid is ranked 13th in the world for speed kayaking… I didn’t even know it was a sport… He was a good kid, told me all about it… he placed 3rd in this tournament just last month in Hungary… Apparently it is a big thing out there.. No idea… Sometimes I love meeting new people in the plane, you never know who you will be meeting. Thankfully we didn’t speak throughout the plane ride… Boringly we landed in Hawaii, wow – hello humidity and heat… It was like I was home, I loved it… My hair quickly responded by growing in volume. Walking again to the other side of the airport – just another airport, I looked and I had walked already 3.5 miles when I have been on an airplane more than on land… 🙂

On the plane in Hawaii, I experienced the wonderfulness of Hawaiian Airlines (upgraded to economy plus emergency exit). Not Business Class but pretty close, for a nine and a half hour flight, it was actually pretty comfortable.

Arriving at 9:50 PM we arrived and quickly went through the passport control line. It was amazing, just put your passport in the machine, unfortunately no stamp though. I was bummed about that. Getting my bag within the first 20 bags, I went through the rest of checking out and found Vodafone which had my card ready, within 3 minutes I was all set with my new SIM card ready to get some cash which was again easy… It was amazing, less than 16 hours ago I was frustrated about setting off the alarm and having to walk all the way around Portland Airport – all that was forgotten when everything after that went perfectly. And now in my room at midnight, I am ready to sleep and get started with looking around Auckland for the day.

Love you and am so glad you are as adventurous as you are.

~me