Windy Canyon, Harataonga + New Roadside Friends

Art invites you to walk with him, and like so many NZ tracks it's all smiles and innocence at the start.

Then the verticality comes into play. To reach the Windy Canyon lookout you climb many steps pretty much straight up and through the rock faces of Windy Canyon.

 

It's challenging to take in just how closely the cliffs hug the staircase.

But once you arrive at the top there are views like these. Overcast day (happily for us, not so happily for that nighttime star tour), so my pictures aren't sparkling, but it was breathtaking.

The loop walk at Harataonga Bay promised to be a bit more bucolic, but ended at the top of an extreme rise with us on all fours, struggling to move upward. You might be thinking: why do they do it? Occasionally we wonder too.

Kanuka trees create a sky puzzle.

We ended back where we started with a nice picnic under a welcoming giant.

Recognizing this map won't mean much, but to illustrate there are only a few roads on Aotea, many of them gravel, and thus we build in much time to get places, enjoy our visit, and then drive back. As a result, we've done quite a bit more transporting ourselves than expected.

Last night returning to Whangaparapara on gravel we came upon a rental car that had gone off the side of the road and was tilted nearly 45 degrees into the bush (luckily into the bush and not over a cliff). These metal roads often have deep deep ditches on their edges. The occupants were were fine, happily, if annoyed at having been pretty much run off the road by a truck coming fast toward them.

No cell service where we all were, so they loaded into our car and we drove to our little hamlet, where Kylie found a couple of generous kiwis with a tow strap on their truck to pull them out. 

We said goodbye, but then ran into Dean and Kylie a couple hours later at the lodge having dinner. Nicer San Diego-ans I doubt you could find.

Completing our table were the lovely Juliet and husband, from Hamilton, NZ. She regaled us with improbable but true stories of growing up with a father who liked to sail even though he had little experience doing it.

The Queen of Flat Whites regrets her less-than-scintillating recent blog posts. We've been tending to a lot of business for the next leg of our trip. Tomorrow we return to Auckland and pick up the Rover at Selwyn's. From there we'll have a quick check by the guys who worked on it last time and then it will have its WOF (warrant of fitness) inspection, essential before we hit the road north.

We deeply enjoyed our time here on off-the-grid Aotea, only sorry to have missed the night sky tour  due to a waxing moon and overcast skies. But we'll forever remember our first night gazing at the black velvet sky, filled with pulsing stars that looked like backlit diamonds.

NZ Herald Front Page March 18, 2019

(Someone Else's) Dinner At Great Barrier Lodge

So much tromping around today I have no energy for reporting. Last night we walked a couple blocks to Great Barrier Lodge, where last week I tried to book a room, but sadly they were full. Still, it's a fine spot for a meal, sitting on their veranda overlooking Whangaparapara Harbor.

Maori lesson for today: "whanga" (pronounced FANGa) means bay, cove, or estuary.

I was wholly distracted when the server brought these guys their food--an enormous platter of fish prepared by the lodge kitchen. Naturally I asked if they'd caught it (yes) and what kind of fish it was (snapper). And being the generous-of-spirit kiwis they are, they offered me a piece, which was just as delectable as you might imagine.

Look at all that fish!

(Then, and not only because USians need to be on their best behavior these days, I bought them a round.)

Things You Hear At The Wharf

Yesterday we drove a few kilometers of metal (gravel) roads to the Okupu wharf before moving on to Whangaparapara and our new lodgings.

Perfect quiet at the wharf and a handful of friendly people.

"Can you explain to me how that man can be president?" one of them asked.

Wearing this t-shirt in NZ accomplishes several things. It gives permission to people who hear our USian accents to ask (unanswerable) questions. It tells them immediately where we stand politically. And it makes quite a few people laugh.

These two have been friends for 60+ years. They acted like longtime sisters, snarking at each other and laughing. The obvious question, though, wasn't about my shirt. It was truly: how about that accordion?

And like every other NZ story this one had a satisfying theme. The accordion woman and her husband, who live in the Channel Islands, were in NZ visiting her longtime friend and also their son, who had partly grown up here and recently returned to Great Barrier Island to build a small place on a parcel his parents had purchased many years ago. 

"He's lived with this dream for a long time," his mother the accordion woman said. And it was going well, the son and his girlfriend working on the house and he teaching at the wee school here in Okupu.

Did you travel with your accordion?, we inquired. Turns out no, but she'd got in touch with the Great Barrier Island social media page and asked if anyone had one to loan during her visit. And someone did (!). At 2 pm yesterday she was giving a concert via the island FM station. "Probably just one old guy and his dog will listen," said she.

There was nothing to do but ask for our own concert. On a sunny, breezy day that would end in devastating tragedy, the music was all the sweeter. (If you can't play video click here.)

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called yesterday "one of New Zealand's darkest days...We were chosen for the very fact that we...represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those who share our values, refuge for those who need it. And those values, I can assure you, will not, and cannot, be shaken by this attack."

The Southern Poverty Law Center had this to say.  
The atrocity in New Zealand shows us, once again, that we’re dealing with an international terrorist movement linked by a dangerous white supremacist ideology that’s metastasizing in the echo chambers of internet chat rooms and on social media networks. This hatred is even being amplified by our own president, who speaks of an “invasion of our country.”

Cone of shame

Before moving on we waved to this man, ferrying out to his larger boat. His dog seemed happy. The man explained that the cone was intended to resolve an eye-ear-nose infection and that this had been accomplished. 

"He should view it as the cone of shame," said the man, "but when I put the cone in the cupboard he sits there and whines until I put it back on. I think it makes him feel larger."

We're so happy to be here, each story a shard of gold.

Kindness from our host, directing us to the ripe figs on the tree behind our lodgings.

We found them. Peaches too...

Unspeakable Violence in Christchurch

Our adopted country mourns tonight. In tribute, here's a 2015 photo from the extraordinarily beautiful Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

Thursday in Tryphena, Great Barrier Island

Our host Jo tends to our breakfast needs and also tells us stories and shares photos of this island her family has been a part of for so many years. Her daughter's boyfriend is a fisher, and I'm showing you this first photo of the view from the lodge to illustrate where he caught the fish in the next photo, near shore.

NZ snapper 

(Can you imagine bringing it in? He released it.)

Another story today concerned a letter Jo recently obtained, written by the woman whose family first settled this property in the 1800s. She and her husband and children came via ship from England, drawn by the promise of acreage--something like 40 acres each for the husband and wife and a smaller amount for each child.

Their ship first stopped in Schooner Bay on Great Barrier Island before going on to Auckland. Here's a photo from our visit to Schooner Bay today. Jo said they likely stopped to obtain some pohutakawa wood because of its utility in creating curved portions of ships.

The father and son got off the ship and scouted around, walking to the stunning overlook in the photo at top. When they re-boarded and finally landed in Auckland (which had no roads at the time), the family applied for and got this very property.

History's not such a long time ago, and yet can you imagine any country today offering such a deal? With more countries closing their borders to newcomers, Jo's story seems like a fairy tale.

Here's a long shot of a lucky boatie just outside Schooner Bay.

House in the bush.

Thereafter we drove up a steep unpaved road to visit woodworker Peter Edmonds. His workshop is a couple of kilometers past the bay and looks out over it, all watery breezes and gorgeous views.

I found a pot stirrer, made of kanuka wood (relative of manuka, as in the honey). Its silkiness and shape called to me, as did the gently curved plate beneath it, but we're leaving this island on a small plane and are already over the weight limit.

Then to the Tryphena wharf, where we saw this cute working Rover.

Also the ferry from Auckland, which carries passengers, vehicles, and lots of food and other island necessities.

In years past we heard kiwis refer to "metal roads." I always wondered about the derivation, since it describes roads made with gravel/rock. This place is rife with metal roads and everyone needs a 4WD to get around, definitely anyone staying at Trillium, since the approach is a largely uphill boulder-strewn effort.

We met a couple of nice kids from Canada here on work visas. Their work concerns the invasion of NZ by Argentine ants. Here's more than you ever thought you needed to know about them (the ants, not the kids).

The lodge offers us the use of the barbie, so today since the ferry came in and replenished stocks we picked up rib eyes and a bunch of produce.

Art's never happy with a gas grill, but I can confirm this was delectable.