New Zealand, abbreviated

We were supposed to have 6 Ports in new Zealand, plus cruising the fjords in the South but as it turned out we only made it to 4 ports and skipped the fjords.

At least, we had a couple of memorable excursions. In our first stop of Tauranga, we did the railcarts. 

Golf carts adapted to run on an abandoned railroad make for a fun excursion. Here, we stop to feed the ducks and geese.

Never seen geese like this! They have curly feathers and can't fly - Sebastopol geese.

Then we got the news about the ships bottom needing extra cleaning before we would be allowed in any more ports. Even after 3 days of divers scraping our hull, it still wasn't good enough. Although we were allowed in ports, we could only stay for 24 hours and we weren't allowed in the fjords at all. 

Friends and Family

Villa Vie has a great program for those of us who own our cabins on board. It's called 'friends and family' where we can invite someone to join us for up to 2 weeks in board at very little cost. We were scheduled to pick up our first visitor in Wellington. Luckily we were able to collect her even with our port troubles and her missed flights. And we even had a few hours to spare where we got to see a little of the renowned museum Te Papa.

 

An impressive exhibit about the battle at Gallipoli during WW1

We did get Jo on board, but her luggage didn't make it. Somehow it ended up in Christchurch. That was the ships next stop, so Jim and Jo took a bus from the port to the airport to get it and that pretty much consumed that port since we only had 24 hours. 

During the sea days, we had a wedding on board - the second one since we've been on the ship. This time it was Ric and Ellie who - just like the first wedding - met each other on board. So sweet!

Dunedin Train Ride

Next stop, Dunedin where we had previously booked a train ride. A lot of people had booked this same trying ride, so the ship kicked a few things to make sure that our 24 hours accommodate us. It was a great ride. 

The Dunedin Train Station is one of the most photographed buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, so we had to do our part to keep that up!

A really cool part is that they had us get off the train and walk across a bridge. Then we could look back and photograph the train coming across the same bridge.

After Dunedin, we were off for 5 sea days back to Australia. People who really wanted to see new Zealand got off the ship and rented cars, then flew to Melbourne to meet back up with us.

Old Friends and Older Traditions in Golden Bay

Melinda's introduction to New Zealand was many years ago when her husband, Laird, took a sabbatical from his college professor job to study indigenous cultures in New Zealand. They spent 6 months traveling and met lots of people - one of whom was Makere (pronounced MA-ku-ray). Makere is an elder of the Waitaha people - considered to be the earliest arrivals to Aotearoa (New Zealand) and generally included in the term Māori, referring to the native peoples of the country. Melinda has visited Makere in New Zealand many times and Makere has traveled to the US and visited Melinda as well. They are old friends.

When we planned this trip, we certainly hoped that we would get to meet her, and we were thrilled it worked out. Especially when we learned that she lives on Golden Bay, right next to Abel Tasman National Park! That was one of the few places Jim and I had on our must-see list. We were able to park the RV right in front of the Marae (kind of a Maori community center) where Makere lives and she was the best tour guide we could imagine! She even arranged a Pōwhiri, the welcoming ceremony in the tradition of the Māori/Waitaha. We felt really special when a dozen or more Māori of all ages from the Marae gathered to greet us. First was a reception line where we touched noses with each person. It's called "hongi" and it is the traditional greeting of the Māori. Then there were some short speeches from the elders. Jim performed the role of our elder! Then more singing after which, keeping with the tradition of hospitality, we were invited to share dinner (kai) with them.

After dinner, we went with the group to hike to a sacred waterfall, while Melinda and Makere stayed behind to catch up with each other. Luckily, it wasn't as strenuous a hike as the last waterfall we visited, since we didn't have too much time before dark. It was a gorgeous walk to an adventures-in-paradise worthy waterfall.

I didn't think it could get any better than that, but the next day, Makere took us to a sacred spring... This is the biggest, clearest spring I think I have ever seen - and I've seen some big, clear springs!

All the while that Makere was driving us around, showing us sacred places and all the beauty of her home, she was telling us her stories, stories of her ancestors, their history and their mythology. I was so entranced, I asked if any of this was written down - and she gave me her book: Whispers of Waitaha - Traditions of a Nation!

While Makere was telling us this special story, I tried to capture some of her voice. Here is the result. If you watch it, you will hear part of the Waitaha story of creation - how the ancient ones came over in dual-hulled canoes called Waka. When the 2 Waka were broken by storms, 7 whales came to the rescue and the Waka then formed the islands now known as New Zealand.

But wait, there's more ...

After taking us to a great place for lunch, she let us have a little nap, then drove us in the other direction over a mountain on a dirt road to a secluded beach called Totaranui. Just a few months ago, when Prince Harry and Meghan visited New Zealand, this was one of the places they were taken, and Makere was there to greet them. Now she's taking us there. Are we special or what?! Well, Melinda anyway.

There's lots more to see and do in the area, but we had to hit the road and get the RV back to Christchurch in 2 days time. Here's Makere reviewing the map with Melinda and setting up our itinerary of things to see between Golden Bay and Christchurch.

Kia Ora and Thank You Makere! It was a beautiful and memorable visit, we hope you can visit Florida and let us return the favor someday.

Inter-Island Ferry from New Zealand North Island to South Island

When we made the arrangements for renting the motorhome in New Zealand, we decided that we wanted to do some travel in both the north and the south. That meant picking up the motorhome in Auckland and dropping it off in Christchurch. We could make the reservations for the ferry oursleves, but I was happy to let the motorhome rental place (Wilderness) do that for us. I is high season here in New Zealand, and things get booked up. they know what to do. So, they told us to be there no later than 4pm on the 15th of February. We only had an hour drive. We thought we may explore Wellington a bit, but there really wasn't enough time to do that comfortably, so we just found a place to park, and used the Internet to get some work done until time to drive onto the ferry.

Since we were so early for boarding the ferry, we got front row seats!

It was about a 3 hour ride. We had exceptionally nice weather - it was a very smooth crossing with beautiful views.

Since it would be dark by the time we got off the ferry, we booked an RV park in Picton for the night. It was only a few minutes drive from the ferry terminal so there was no worries about making their 10pm deadline. We could get a good night's sleep and ready for the trek to Abel Tasman Nat'l Park and Melinda's friend Makere, the next day.

---

Further your technology education**Subscribe to the Free Geeks on Tour Newsletters**

Watch any episode of our Online Show on Learning Smartphones and Tablets!

What Does This Button Do?

Valentines Day in Paekakariki

Some days just work! We found the one semi-straight road in New Zealand and had a very nice road trip thru the southern half of the north island.

We didn't know exactly where we were going, but we needed to be in Wellington to board the South Island ferry the next day at 5pm, so we wanted to be close to Wellington. I used the CamperMate app and found an RV park called Paekakariki Holiday Park. It was about an hour from the ferry terminal. It was right on the beach. AND, it was right where Google Maps said it was, so navigating there worked just fine!
We loved the grassy sites with hedges on either side for privacy.

Paekakariki Holiday Park, nightly fee = $12/person, or $36

But, the best part is that it was a short walk, thru a park to the beach. This beach is on the west coast of New Zealand - the Tasman Sea - it was beautiful, we had a great sunset, and it was Valentine's Day!

---

Further your technology education**Subscribe to the Free Geeks on Tour Newsletters**

Watch any episode of our Online Show on Learning Smartphones and Tablets!

What Does This Button Do?

Where there's Hope, there's tickets

The reason that Melinda is so familiar with New Zealand is that her son married a New Zealander and lived here for many years. Two of her grandchildren were born here and she spent months at a time visiting. Her son and grandkids are back in the states, but Melinda still keeps in touch with her daughter-in-laws family living in Cambridge, New Zealand - just down the road from Matamata and Hobbiton.

We parked in their driveway and had a lovely dinner of fresh vegetables from their garden and lamb chops from their sheep. The next morning we all went out to breakfast including their other daughter, Hope, and her 2 kids. I had the "Smashed Avo" - it's toast from wonderful homemade 7 grain bread with a generous serving of avocado, a poached egg, feta cheese, pickled onions, pine nuts and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The Red Cherry Cafe.

This was the best breakfast I have ever had!

During the conversation we mentioned how we were shut out from visiting Hobbiton and Hope said, y'know they always have cancellations. Let's call and check - so she did. After speaking to the person on the other end she asked: "Do you want to go on the tour at 12:30 or at 1?" Wow.

So we got to see the Hobbiton movie set after all!

There's beer at the barn

We left Whangamata headed for Matamata and the Hobbiton movie set. The road was still curvy and we even got some rain through the Karangahake Gorge.

At every turn in the road I marveled at the sight of the Tree Ferns. It looked like we were in Fiji!

Just before Matamata was Wairere falls. We decided to stop and check it out. It was still a bit rainy and it looked like a fairly strenuous hike, so we skipped it in favor of getting to Hobbiton. Guess what? The Hobbiton tours were fully booked for the next 5 days. Oh No! That was the first sightseeing stop we had on our map from the beginning - it didn't occur to us that we needed to make pre-arrangements. Silly I know, you should always think about crowds for popular attractions like this during high tourist season. We much prefer to leave our schedule loose so we can follow serendipity, so we get over our disappointment quickly when things don't work out. It's how we roll. 

So ... back to the falls we go. The weather had cleared up a bit, and we now had all day free. WOW what a gorgeous hike. We ended up feeling grateful that Hobbiton didn't work out because this hike was SO rewarding. 

It was long and steep and hot. We felt very accomplished to complete it - and rewarded with the waterfall view at the end. Melinda had stopped before the waterfall and took a dip in the stream. We picked her up on the way back. Jim took the lead the rest of the way. I commented that he was acting like a horse that wants to get back to the barn. He responded "There's beer at the barn."

Combined with our beach walk in the morning - we recorded over 17,000 steps this day.

Camper Van, Horses and Heroes

On our fourth day in New Zealand, we picked up our motorhome from Wilderness RV. We chose this company and booked the motorhome several months ago because of the recommendation of Heath and Alyssa. They spent 3 months in one and highly recommended it. See their excellent video series on Camper Vanning in New Zealand. It wasn't cheap - approx $300/day - but we had to get the larger model to sleep 3, and we got extras like Internet service, and pre-booked Ferry.

See a little video here. After getting the instructions on how everything works, we took off, Jim driving on the left side of the road, and me feeling like I must be about to go off the road on the left side. White knuckles driving thru Auckland and over the bridge to the north. "Keep Left" "Look Right"  "Keep Left"
It's the right turns that are really freaky - crossing the the traffic to turn right on the far side. What?

Here is a little video (it's in the main Album) of when we first got the RV and are ready to take off.

We traveled about an hour north of Auckland to a campground we found in the Campermate app.

Our first night in the camper was just Jim and me. It was good to get everything stowed and get a little familiar with it before picking up Melinda.

After our one night, we drove back into Auckland to pick up Melinda and start our adventure! The whole excuse for this trip is that Melinda was asked to present her workshop on Equine Assisted Professional Development (see her website EQuusInsight.com) We were early for the Spirit Horse Festival, so we found a campground not to far and settled in for 2 nights. Aaaaahhhh.

I've known Melinda since the late 70s, lived with her in Lake Tahoe, and traveled together many times. We let Jim come along :-) He likes it!

Spirit Horse Festival

What a trip. People, horses, kids, food, camping, seminars - all on a gorgeous piece of property called Dunes Lake Lodge. Melinda gave two presentations: 1-Thinking outside the Paddock, and 2-Creativity in the Arena. She is a teacher - that is the bond we share - and she has been teaching and facilitating with people and horses for many years. She has a herd of her own on her property near Reno, Nevada. Jim and I know nothing about horses, we were just there as Melinda's support. Something different for sure!

Melinda's presentation on Creativity in the Arena

Here's a little movie put together from Jim's photos and videos.

Jim is still the Technology Hero

We were only there to support Melinda, but she made sure that the festival organizers knew that we were Technology Geeks - so when their WiFi stopped working, they came to Jim!

He saved the day. We actually called ourselves Computer Heroes years ago. And, when the presenters arrived at their session with only  thumb drive containing their PowerPoint presentation - Jim got them hooked up with a computer and HDMI cable to the big screen TV in the presentation room.

It was a fun time. Now on with the adventure!

---

Further your technology education**Subscribe to the Free Geeks on Tour**

Watch any episode of our Online Show on Learning Smartphones and Tablets!

What Does This Button Do?