Kia Ora! Thank you for joining in this past week's adventure. Always wonderful to have this gift of sharing with you.
Happy New Year! May 2025 exceed your wildest expectations!🙌🍾
Wow! It's now been eight weeks since I left Eau Claire. The thrill of this travel experience seems has been non-stop. The sights, the sounds, the food, the people, ah, the PEOPLE! So much learning has come from the individuals I've met and how much each person has so willingly shared. My learning extends into the virtual world as I've enjoyed the blessing of being in conversations with friends throughout the world concurrently. Small miracles abound, each and every day!
The week started in Paparoa at The Old Post Office Guesthouse and finished up in Hawera in the south (about 2/3 of the way to Wellington). In all of this week's adventure, I had the ultimate Christmas gift of spending time with my friends Elizabeth and Barrie on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - on the other side of the world!
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Christmas with friends!
On the other side of the world! |
Travel itinerary update - Maldives may be added sometime in April. My friend Emily, who I met in Sri Lanka last year, has moved to Maldives where she is working in a dive shop. She suggested if I was in the 'neighbourhood' I should drop by. Talk about her courage. She gave up her banking career in London and flew to Maldives in hope of finding work. Yup, she was working by her second day. I'm so grateful to be in the midst of so many courageous and gifted individuals. Truly humbling!
My potential itinerary now is Perth, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Chennai/Nagaland (India), Taiwan, S. Korea and Japan. Also on my radar, when I return to Canada to renew my passport later next year, is to visit friends in Toronto and area, Wisconsin, Montreal and Barbados. Sam, my very good Bajan friend, advised the Bajan government has asked all diaspora to return in 2025. Sam thinks I now fit the Bajan diaspora criteria.
BTW - My view of New Zealand's public toilets experience is quickly changing with my time on the North Island. Bigger communities mean they are more difficult to spot from the highway and greater use means you may smell before you see them!
Travel Maps
Tracking this past week's travel: North Island Travel - As of December 28, 2024. Please note my North Island travels now appear in two links: December 1 - December 21 and December 22 - December 28 below. Apologies. Tracking all this travel is getting messy!
November 1 - November 30
December 1 - December 21
December 22 - December 28
Travel Administration
Keeping alert to where your valuables are at all times. I got lucky recently with my wallet. It only takes a momentary lapse - lucky this time. More below.
Paparoa
I chose this small village as a destination for a couple reasons - to stay in a guesthouse (reason 1) and stay somewhere different than One Tree Point (an hour away) prior to Christmas (reason 2).
The Old Post Office Guesthouse was a great place to stay, with the owner/host, Deb, making the real difference. She is a retired high school English literature teacher who was personable, witty, charming and with a sharp wit. As the expression goes, you have to get up pretty early in the morning in order to keep up with Deb. She was a wealth of information about the village, its history and the village's current interpersonal machinations. Deb had an opinion about many topics which I am now the beneficiary of knowing. She is a mother of three adult children, a grandmother, a divorcee and most recently a widow. Her husband, a rather large tow truck driver, had died suddenly of a heart attack in the last few years. In summary, Deb is dynamic and fun person to have met!
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| Wood pigeon |
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| Wood pigeon - profile |
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| Deck off dining room |
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| Kitchen |
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| Looking towards the Postmaster quarters |
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| Kitchen - part 2 |
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| Dining room |
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Postmaster quarters - includes
shower, toilet and bedroom |
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| Bedroom |
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Type of stove top I grew up with - coil heating elements
Ideal for hot knifing illicit drugs. |
I was the only guest for the first night/second day so I had Deb's undivided attention and freedom to use the kitchen, dining room, outside deck and living area to myself.
I met Grant Fred Hartles at breakfast (included) on my departure morning. Fred, who was a regular guest, started his life using his first name, however, was required to switch to Fred when attending uni as there were two Grants in his class. Unsure why he was the one who had to use his middle name. Things you learn about others, right? His wife, Victoria, worked for the Prince of Wales Charles (now King Charles) for 27 years before her death during COVID. Victoria and Fred attended Charles and Camilla's wedding. Fred worked on the Prince's farms for about 10 years amongst many other interesting career paths including managing groundskeepers at a golf course.
To give you a sense of the free ranging conversation we had over breakfast, Fred shared his idea that airports should be suspended at about 40,000 feet instead of on the ground. Passengers would be moved (method unknown) to these suspended stations to catch their flights. The reason being is that an airplane consumes 80% of their fuel on take-off and landing. Environmental friendly idea; just need to sort out getting to these suspended platforms.
Since I had an interest in golf, he decided to leave me with a golf green related problem he had yet to solve. Context - being a groundskeeper he was keenly interested in each green's condition. The question he had was if he released two golf balls from a ramp onto a golf green's surface running in a parallel track and one ball caught the cup's lip being redirected 90 degrees to the left - which ball would travel farther? Add this mystery to growing list of unsolved mysteries in life that may remain unsolved.
The places I visited included Pahi Harbour, The Kauri Museum Cafe and the Paparoa Pa site. I'm sharing information about the last two destinations should you want to know more. The Pa site walk was good exercise.
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What is your reaction to these
rules?
Historic schoolhouse next to Kauri Museum |
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| Kauri Museum Cafe had good coffee! |
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| Early section of trail to Pa site |
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| Getting over the fence |
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| Steps up the hill to Pa site |
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| A guide to what to look for |
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| Track starts here |
As a parting thanks for my host, I left Deb with a dark chocolate and sea salt chocolate bar I had purchased at Bennett's Chocolate in Mangawhai. Good news is she likes dark chocolate with sea salt. BTW for dark chocolate lovers like me - getting progressively difficult to find this dark chocolate combination. Dark chocolate with caramel filling and salt seems to be closest option. The best dark chocolate/salt variation I've ever had was from a chocolate store in Cusco Peru.
One Tree Point Revisited
After a brief stop at Bennetts to replenish my depleted dark chocolate bar supply, I was back in One Tree Point in about an hour. Sadly, the Bach Cafe was closed until December 27 so a return visit was off the checklist.
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| Christmas Eve - Ruakaka Beach |
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| Christmas Eve - Ruakaka Beach |
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| Christmas Eve - Ruakaka Beach |
I'm ok to repeat myself in saying I had the most amazing Christmas ever! My formal Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve with Elizabeth and Barrie hosting a lovely evening meal, a beautiful rice salad. We then joined their AirBnB hosts, Neville and Donna, for an evening of champagne, various chocolate sweets (yes, there is a chocolate god) and conversation in main part of the home where my friends' suite was located. Quite an exceptional home - sits on a sheltered waterway where our hosts can tie up their rather large boat. The word 'comfortable' comes to mind. One Tree Point has many houses like Neville and Donna's house. We also enjoyed the neighbour's vibrant Christmas lights display across the waterway.
A traditional Christmas dinner, with all the fixings, was also hosted by my most generous and thoughtful friends. What makes this meal even more special is the limited cooking facilities they had - a microwave and hot plate. A small culinary miracle on a most special day. As Elizabeth and Barrie were planning to visit Paihia and Cape Reinga, I had a chance to share my experiences to assist in their planning.
We also got on the topic of my two months working as a volunteer in Asosa, Ethiopia - northwestern area near the Sudan border. Another eye opening experience - check out my blog
Ethiopia and Portugal if you're interested in learning more. Note that the four weeks I spent in Portugal after returning from Ethiopia appear first in the blog.
One Tree Point to Te Awamutu
I started my journey south with the broad intention of reaching Wellington, NZ's capital, in time to join their New Year's Eve celebrations. My first of two stops on the way was Te Awamutu, about 30 minutes south of Hamilton. I have to confess the idea of traveling through Auckland's traffic created some angst. I've been spoiled with all these empty, albeit windy, roads I've been driving on. Hamilton is about 90 minutes south of Auckland.
Boxing Day gift - the straight four lane highway between Auckland and Hamilton with a 110 kph (70 mph) speed limit. Hard to believe. I have the sense from driving this section of highway many NZ drivers may have initial struggles with driving busy highways outside their country. Many drivers liked to 'linger' when passing as well as 'linger' in the passing lane. Drivers also stop on the roadside without apparent regard for their safety from the speeding traffic which, by the way, has zero intention of moving into the passing lane for safety of all.
Raglan
First stop on my way to Te Awamutu was Raglan, a surfing town on the west coast about 100 kms from west of Hamilton. I discovered I had a little Google Maps directional issue when I stopped for a bio break. I had overshot my turnoff. It was almost like Google Maps realized it had made a mistake. I watched as good old Google provided an updated routing with accurate directions without any input from me. Surreal. Glad I stopped.
I stopped by Ngarunui Beach - one of the multiple surfing beaches south of Raglan. I thought the waves were somewhat small - says the guy who is unable to surf. I'm always expecting to see the towering waves I've seen on Maui's North Shore (Hawaii) or the breakers I've seen off Portugal's coast. Yes, I have this fascination with the sea's power.
The next day's travel started with an hour drive for the short walk to see Blue Springs. While Blue Springs were scenic, the penultimate springs in New Zealand, according to me, are Te Waikoropupū Springs just outside Tākaka on the South Island. I was astute enough to avoid advising everyone at Blue Springs that they should visit the 'real' Springs on the South Island. Just kept that smug feeling to myself!
Kawhia - 1st attempt
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| Emergency medical team in action! |
Kawhia was my last intended destination for the day. Unfortunately, a motorcycle accident just 19 km from the Kawhia stopped traffic. I learned that a motorcyclist had lost control on a curve just ahead of where we were stopped, landing on the windscreen (windshield) of a following car. The motorcyclist was fortunate to have only suffered a broken leg. We had the additional drama of an air ambulance appearing to transport the injured motorcyclist. For an undisclosed reason, the police officer onsite decided that all traffic should turnaround and find an alternative route to Kawhia, even after the road was cleared.
In all this drama, I also learned from chatting with a fellow traveller at the roadside that he was heading to the Kawhia Golf Club's annual Maori golf tournament on the weekend. I also discovered he had recently moved from Gisborne to Hamilton. Coincidentally, Gisborne is a January destination for Elizabeth and Barrie. Elizabeth spent a year teaching in Gisborne some 30 years ago so a return visit was in order. Synchronicity in the universe abounds.
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| Scenic viewpoint overlooking Kawhia |
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| Beauty needs multiple photos |
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| My version of a panoramic photo |
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| Getting the picture? |
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| Simply gorgeous! |
The reason all this information was shared was I was asking about potential beach destinations in the Napier (Hawke's Bay) area - a potential destination on my itinerary. While I got limited information, my unnamed friend (I forgot to ask his name), who is Maori, mentioned that the area I was intending to travel in was predominantly Maori. There seemed to be a subtext in what he was saying. I'm unsure how I should interpret what he said (e.g. was it a good idea for me to travel through this area?), having failed to follow-up with him for clarification. This North Island seems a little more complicated than the South Island.
Te Awamutu to Hawera
Kawhia - Success on 2nd attempt
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| Practicing for the big day! |
Ōakura
Travel Administration
You do need to be vigilant with all of your belongings, at all times, when traveling. While I know this, there are moments when I lapse. My latest near miss (so blessed this time) was at the Christchurch Botanical Garden Cafe. I left my wallet on the counter as I was paying for my coffee. It was two or three minutes later before I realized my wallet was missing. Thank goodness, the cashier had retrieved my wallet after I left. Needless to say how grateful I was. Be careful, wherever you are.
Next Week
The general plan for upcoming week is to spend New Years in Wellington (
Wellington New Year's Eve Celebrations), visit Cape Palliser Lighthouse (still confirming this is the most southern point on the North Island) and start making my way back towards Auckland. One potential destination is Martinborough wine country. Wellington is New Zealand's capital and the most southern country capital in the world.
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