Going North

I can't believe its November already. Ace car rental forgot to pick us up this morning but with a phone call arrived ten minutes later at our hotel which gave us some time to do some planning from all the pamphlets we got from the tourist agency.

NZ is really well set up this way for tourism. They have iSite offices pretty much in all their cities that help with booking rentals, accommodations and activities for free. The offices are also stocked with free literature and advice from the people who work there.

We got a Nissan Tiida with about 80k on it. Steering wheel on the right of course, and it came with automatic transmission luckily.

Our first stop was Countdown, a grocery store where we bought a chicken lunch and all sorts of junk food, fruit and muffins now that we have a car. Then we drove up to Newmarket where I found a backpacking store that sold tent repair tape to seal a tear on my bag. I bought some in Vancouver actually and didn't think I needed it, but I guess for a longer trip, having it for my only bag, which is a great water resistant bag, but very light in terms of weight and material, wouldn't be a bad idea.

Then it was off on highway 1, driving by downtown and across the harbor bridge, out north towards the Bay of Islands.

Driving on the left isn't too bad. I knew this having rented a car when I visited Margaret River south of Perth. Actually, driving in NZ is quite straightforward as the traffic lights tell you exactly what you need to do. You can turn only with an arrow or green light. Usually pedestrians have their own signal so you don't have to worry about them crossing on your green.

The landscape is quite compressed to what we're used to. Endless hills are not the gentle rolling variety like in North America, but many mini mountains with steep green grades populated by sheep and patches of trees that seem too tall and skinny. It seems like every hill just had its grass mowed and landscaped. Either the grasses don't grow long here or the animals take care of everything.

We did a couple of hikes, the first one spontaneously off the side of the road to Pohuehue waterfall. The trail around Pohuehue stream leading up to the falls was impressive in its upkeep and very easy to walk. The vegetation was very varied with fern-like palm trees, broad and narrow leafed plants of all different shades. It seems more diverse than back at home. The plants seemed perfectly planted for our hiking pleasure.

The drive up to Whangarei was on a windy two laned highway with speed limits ranging from 80-100 km/h.

At Whangarei, we found the peak lookout point to the city, snapped some pictures and quickly made our way to the much more interesting Whangarei waterfall, just at the edge of town. This beautiful falls is supposedly the most photographed and I think very pretty. The water falls into a perfect tree encircled pond with a small stream draining the water away. A bridge arcs over the stream so that it can be hiked on both sides. If this was secluded, it'd be the perfect fantasy swimming pond.

We had a bathroom break on the 1hr trip left up to the Bay of Islands at the famous toilets of Hundertwasser. It was easy enough to find and on the way, both predetermined criteria I set for seeing this landmark. It was mildly interesting and well maintained.

We arrived at Paihia around 6:30pm when most shops had closed and restaurants opened for dinner. It was quite quiet and similar to Sylvan Lake in that the main drag ran along the water. Sailboats anchored just off shore with the famous picturesque islands out in the bay.

We had a delicious pizza dinner at La Scala after a bout of indecisive wandering.

Our accommodations for the night was noisy again, but we should have seen this coming. It was the Base Hostel, one of the better rated hostels which I'd agree with in terms of backpacker social atmosphere. But maybe we're of the wrong demographic for this sort of thing now. Especially after our recent track record. Our private double was opposite the bar which blasted music late into the night.

We (ie. Shannon) reaffirmed our plan to once again not book our accommodations ahead of time from pictures off the Internet. I think we've arrived in NZ just before high season and it seemed like rooms were aplenty everywhere. We strolled across the street and managed to negotiate a last minute room for tomorrow night at The Paihia Pacific Resort Hotel for $70 CAD, pretty much the same price as the hostel.

Getting out Butts in Gear in Auckland

We finally decided to get off our butts and do some exploring. The sun peeked out in the morning so that was promising.

We took the first ferry out to Rangitoto Island, the youngest volcanic island in the vicinity. We hiked the beaten path to the top and back down with a slight detour to check out the lava caves.

The island was neat in that vegetation managed to bloom out of volcanic black rocks that still seemed very freshly deposited.

The views were nice and we were surprised to see that NZ actually had similar turquoise blue shallows as in French Polynesia. We had a quick lunch of BBQ pork buns and granola bars at the look out. Kids on field trips swarmed at the top.

You can actually see the crater of the volcano and do the crater walk around it. It is now filled in with vegetation and supposedly dormant, but the crater is still very distinct.

The lava caves were an interesting diversion. Trails lead to several caves that can be explored and traversed, especially if one was willing to get a little dirty. Shannon stayed outside and waited for me.

We made it back for the 12:45pm ferry back to Auckland, to hike up some other dormant volcanoes. We took the train from Bristomart to Mt. Eden and walked up to the top for a view around the city. Supposedly, there are some 50 volcano craters that can be found in Auckland to the trained eye. Twenty might be identified by the untrained eye.

We walked around the crater of Mt Eden, the bottom of the crater supposedly sacred. At the top was another loud field trip, but we enjoyed the views nonetheless of the CBD across to One Tree Hill.

The train took us back downtown and we changed at our hotel before going out to the SkyTower up the block. Having seen Auckland from two different peaks already, we figured we'd see it from the top of the tower.

We made a dinner reservation for their buffet at 8pm. In the meantime, we grabbed some brochures from the iSite tourism desk around the corner and went up to the observation deck to watch the sunset.

The view was pretty much what you'd expect, and pretty incredible. Auckland is nice in that it has a beautiful harbor and a real sailing community. Its nickname is "The City of Sails" after all. We saw a fleet of sailboats practicing around a course, the packed marinas, Rangitoto and all the peaks all around the tower.

There were glass sections of the floor which were scary enough that Shannon only stepped on one once.

Dinner was a real treat. Tons of seafood including scallops, several different fish, mussels, clams and delicious oysters. Then they also had lamb ribs, chicken drumsticks, Coca Cola honey glazed ham, and a nice dessert table.

Unfortunately, at two in the morning, I had to clear out my GI tract from both ends, but felt better shortly thereafter. It was still worth it.

Auckland Rainy and Cold

What is probably most reflective of our time here in Auckland so far is the lack of photos taken. These two days, we've taken a total of five photos.

Being in Auckland over the weekend probably didn't help as most stores closed early and often the crappy weather made walking around and hiking not fun.

Either that or we should heed the advice of others and get out of Auckland as soon as possible to enjoy the rest of New Zealand.

This morning we changed hotels to All Seasons just down Queen Street on Wyndham. For an extra $10, we got an ensuite, a kitchenette, tv and stereo, a warm room, and a nice view from the 16th floor.

Queens street is where it's all at. We did some window shopping, went to the Internet cafe for four hours, and walked down the Harbour Viaduct.

For lunch we had fast food Indian which was surprisingly good and lasted us until Japanese ramen for dinner. We were hoping to sample some of New Zealand's famous lamb, but didn't find a restaurant that wasn't completely upscale.

The only other thing we did was book a rental car from the iSite official tourist office where they called around for prices on our behalf.

We initially looked into getting a camper van but even the basic ones ran between $75-100. On top of this, we'd have to pay campsite fees, a one way surcharge for Christchurch drop off, and just learned about the $300 ferry between the islands.

Shannon said it was probably a good thing we didn't commit to six weeks in a camper van since we're not big campers to start with. Instead we got a compact car for $28 a day.

What is a little disconcerting is we seem to be spending a lot of money here in Auckland and not actually doing anything. There are the hotels which are about $75 a night, and meals which cost about $30 for both of us. Despite the low NZ dollar, prices are still relatively high here. A 500mL bottle of Coke or water here is consistently $3-4 CAD, continental breakfast is $13, and main attractions like Skywalk and Skyjump from the tower is $120.

We made some plans for the week to visit Bay of Islands and the area north  Auckland, and briefly toyed with the idea of flying to Thailand and coming back to New Zealand when it was warmer. Being spring, we'll miss out on a lot of the water activities I think, which is a major highlight in the guide magazine, but that should be all right since we have a lot of beach destinations later on. There should be plenty of hiking here.

Touchdown in New Zealand

I was disappointed to learn that indeed we lost a day crossing the international date line. Leaving Thursday night, and being very impressed with Air New Zealand (why does Air Canada so under par?), we arrived on Saturday morning in Auckland.

It was the beginning of spring here so the temperature was a chilly 15 degrees, slightly wet having rained at night.

The tourist information desk was very helpful with sorting ourselves out on the first day. We got a 2degree SIM card and got 30 mins of NZ calling, 2500 texts and 50 mb data for $16. Strangely, calling Canada was 22c/min whereas calling NZ was 44c/min. The agent also supplied us with all sorts of useful tips about renting a camper van, car and getting around Auckland.

Before going to the city however, we had to make a stop at the Icebreaker outlet store, located at the airport shops NZ$1 away. There we manage to somehow spend three hours and come away with several shirts. Not only were the clothes cheaper in NZ dollars, but we happened to go on the first day of their sale, getting some clothes for 50% off the outlet price.

We found Kiwi International hotel on my cell phone while riding the Airbus shuttle into Auckland CBD. We got a private room for $56 without an ensuite. The room was definitely ghetto, especially since we've been totally spoiled up until now.

The room didn't seem to have heat, the walls were painted gray with energy savings lights emphasizing the grayness. I'm writing this entry at 1:20am and the bar across the street is blasting loud alternative music. Doors slam easily and sounds conduct throughout the room and hallway. It was clean at least, and there we crashed for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Waking up, we went for a walk down Queen Street, the happenin' street of Auckland. It was a Saturday so unfortunately stores were winding down to a close.

Our first stop was BBQ Duck Café, spotted from across the street to be full of Asians, and the Chinese only menus on the wall. This place has got to be good!

I got a delicious wonton noodle soup with a side of BBQ duck while Shannon ordered spicy beef lunch special. The duck here cost about twice the amount back home, and the spicy beef was damn spicy. In fact, it was the spiciest thing we've ever eaten, even after we asked for a bowl of water so that we could soak the beef in it to make it less spicy.

We ended up at the cinema across from the main square where the 99% city occupation was taking place. They had free wifi and using Kayak, we found and checked out another nearby hotel. All-Seasons looked like a much better deal. FWecor about $10 more, we got an ensuite, kitchenette and tv! We booked it for tomorrow.

My mom and dad got my email and was our fist caller on our trip. We caught up and I promised to post more pictures. Sounds like the iPad was a hit for mom.

We watched Debt, which was a really good movie. A real spy movie, a good twist and dilemma to mull over. Highly recommend.

Overall, today was a very lazy day. Didn't accomplish much, but what an entirely different feeling it is when we've got months of traveling to do with no fixed itinerary. We'll see if any of the sights are open tomorrow. Otherwise, we'll hang out at an Internet cafe where they charge a measly $1.60 an hour, and try to book a camper van.

End Off with Hotel Intercontinental

I awoke after the best sleep I've had for a while now. No lapping waves on the dinghy, no paroxysmal squalls and getting up to close the hatch before our cabin was soaked, no anchor alarms to check on, or loosely tied kayaks crashing on the deck. For the first time in several days, my back wasn't sore from the mattress.

It was pouring outside and didn't look like it was going to let up. We put on our swim suits to check out some of the pools. The Intercontinental had a lagoonarium which wasn't bad. Schools of fish swam around with some that were quite sizable. Shannon liked one that looked like a colorful zebra, and another torpedo-like swimmer that she thought looked like a cartoon fish.

Unfortunately, I cut my big toe on a rock getting into the lagoonarium which later was impossible to keep dry. Hopefully it won't get infected.

We packed up our room and checked out. The clothes we washed yesterday were still a little damp in this weather, but should be okay. We contemplated paying 10000 CFP to check out at night as our flight didn't depart until 2am. Originally, we planned to go to Moorea, but because the weather was so crappy, we didn't think there would be much point getting soaked there instead of on Tahiti.

We had two overpriced clubhouse sandwiches only to find that the shuttle between the hotel and downtown Papeete was full. So we walked, going by a Champion supermarket only 15 minutes away where we could have purchased some food to go. By the time we walked to the airport, it started pouring again, so we caught a cab the rest of the way.

The Lonely Planet wasn't far off the mark saying that Papeete could be skipped completely. We picked up a tourist map from the tourist center where 8 employees without clients to serve stared at us as we walked in. We wander a little bit at the market and up and down a few streets killing time before eating at McDonalds and taking a cab back to the Intercontinental. Cab fares pretty much double after 8pm, so we made sure to be back well before then.

Despite the exorbitant prices of everything in French Polynesia and Papeete, standards of living outside of the resorts and over water bungalows look very poor. Residential streets are unevenly paved, many houses looked shanty with corrugated tin roofs and wispy dirty curtains in the windows. Cars run well enough but are older and European sized. Maybe it's just because the rain and humidity makes everything look dirty and a little worn down, but I imagine a similar island country but with a British rather than a French colonial history, like The Bahamas for example, to be more affluent.

At the hotel, we sat on the balcony overlooking the swimming pools and Moorea in the distance until it was dark. Then we bought an hour of Internet at the business center for $10, did some quick emailing and spent a couple hours browsing and watching some of the pictures and videos we've taken.

For French Polynesia, we brought three cameras: the Canon 3i as the workhorse equipped with polarizing filter, my waterproof Lumix who unfortunately got moisture in when we were in Mexico so occasionally water condensed in the lens, and the GoPro with the wide angle lens. I back up all photos to the two portable hard drives we brought whenever we have access to a computer with two USB ports. While waiting for our flights, we swapped all of our photos of the cruise so we ended up with around 22 gigs of media.

The last half hour before catching our transfer to the airport was spent drifting in and out of sleep on a hammock beside the lagoonarium.

One more excitement for the day. When checking in to our flight at the airport, the agent told us we couldn't go to New Zealand without a flight out of the country! The way we booked our flights, New Zealand was the last leg of the expensive flights and our plan was to fly discount carriers the rest of the way booked later. Even though we had a flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver in February, it didn't matter.

Shannon was like "Wha? No way! We had been waiting all day and a couple hours at the airport and now we couldn't even get on our flight? What the hell?" Had we know, we could have had all friggen day to take care of this.

We were rushed over to a "ticketing office" just beside the desks where a couple of other people looked like they were in the same situation. There was a computer kiosk in the cramped office that Shannon impressively hacked into and we quickly booked an el cheapo flight from Christchurch to Sydney. It even had a printer.

Armed with this itinerary, which I might add seemed very easy to forge, we got seats together beside the window.

Goodbye paradise! And on to more adventure!

The End of An Adventure

It rained hard this morning in Hamenee Bay. The sky was vey gray and it didn't look like one of those brief showers. I got up early to catch up on yesterday's writing and the rest of the crew gradually trickled out of their rooms.

Because of the weather, we decided not to do the Taha'a coral gardens by Tautau. It would have been drenching getting there and snorkeling without the sun probably wouldn't have been ideal.

Ben and I took the dinghy out for a joy ride doing fast turns and maneuvers. We visited the Americans on their 40' catamaran on the buoy next to ours. Their boat was definitely newer and more luxurious with a real shower and high ceilings. All sail sheets and traveler could be accessed right at the wheel, but it also had the winches at the mast. They were staying at Hamenee another day, probably because of the weather, and then their charter was finished as well.

Our boat was due in at 1pm, so we didn't get rolling until 10am. I was at the helm in Shannon's purple rain jacket getting soaked. We thought about visiting Champon pearl farm but given the rain and that we'd have to take the dinghy out and Chantelle's ankle, it just wasn't worth it. We continued due south and arrived at TYC sooner than expected.

The crew cleaned up the boat while I was driving and we were instructed to moor outside the base until 1pm when the technician and diver could come out to check the boat. We made a quick lunch of course crackers, cheese, corned beef and Sidekicks.

On the whole, the yacht cruise was great. I had a fantastic time. Unfortunately, the last few days were probably only "good" rather than excellent like the first part of the trip. James and Richard aside, I think after Chantelle twisted her ankle, the next day everyone was hung over for the return to Raiatea, and there, the water wasn't as sapphire blue and the weather took a turn for more rain. Wet towels accumulated on deck and hanging clothes wouldn't dry. So by today, people were ready to be off the boat.

Check out was fairly unremarkable. Hine was there again to greet us. I gave them pretty much "very good" across all categories of the evaluation. Sure the speedometer didn't work at the cockpit, we couldn't figure out the oven, the main sheet was just long enough, and overall an older boat, but it was well maintained and we had no problems sailing, motoring or anchoring. The only criticism was that they didn't have the refrigerator working on our arrival which delayed our departure. But their welcome was excellent. Hine drove us to and from Champion for provisioning on the first day, and on the last day drove us to the airport along with a stop at the pharmacy for Chantelle because her crutch was missing a peg.

We said our goodbyes. We shared Jennie and Mike's flight to Bora Bora, flying over the island gave us a great view from the port side seats. The island was beautiful from the air even though it was overcast and threatening rain.

Mike and Jennie disembarked for their over the water bungalow at the Intercontinental while we continued on to the Intercontinental in Papeete.

Our transfer met us exactly as scheduled at the airport and wisked us to our hotel.

The hotel was beautiful. So far, we've been spoiled at high end hotels on this trip! We were welcomed with juice and the porter, clad in Polynesian shorts and tattoos only, happily drove us and our luggage to our upgraded panoramic view room.

We discovered that the Tiare Restaurant was featuring their Marqueses buffet - traditional French Polynesian cuisine - and a dance show later in the evening. You know me and buffets. I couldn't resist. We took a nice non-water-rationed shower, and headed to the restaurant.

It was 7:30 and actually I was getting quite tired. Being used to getting up at sunrise while sailing, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it for the show at 8:30.

The buffet menu included delicious pumpkin soup in a coconut bowl, goat in coconut milk, and several varieties of raw fish including the famous poisson cru. For sashimi lovers, this was it.

We had a table with an unobstructed view the entire traditional Polynesian dance show that we watched with dessert to end the evening.

The catamaran was a huge success. Just flipping through our pictures and videos, we had a lot of fun and a great experience. Shannon says it's very similar to having an RV, except that you're on the water. Being in French Polynesia, I think being on water is definitely where you want to be. Price wise, I don't think we could have done any better either. Excluding flights, the total cost for the catamaran portion of the trip which included lodging on the boat, all meals including three where we ate out at some nice places, alcohol, all traveling and excursions that we did on our own, cost an average of $175 per person per day. That's six people sharing the charter. While going to eight people would have cut costs down a little, we found that would have made the boat quite crowded, finding a place to sit for meals would have been tough. Six was very comfortable, and it'd be impossible to imagine ten, which is the full capacity of the yacht.

It was a fantastic sailing experience, my first serious charter. My confidence is up since we didn't run aground nor encounter weather beyond my skill. Everything we did from navigating to water planning, provisioning, docking, anchoring and sail trimming was just like at home. All that training in Vancouver paid off, and I can add this trip to my sailing resume!

Hibiscus

We slept in late today. I didn't get up until 8:30, sleeping like a baby as it rained on and off all night.

Mike was at the helm motoring north to Hamanee Bay. It was raining enough to soak through the towel I had wrapped around me while helping navigate. There were definitely some tricky sections where a couple of markers were changed from the charts that we had and low visibility from the rain made distinguishing a red and green mark difficult. At one point I was sure glad to be up on deck as we headed straight for coral keeping a green mark far to our left instead of far to our right.

But we made it to Hamenee Bay less than two hours later and moored in front of The Hibiscus restaurant. Mike did pretty well motoring right to the mooring buoy and I snagged and tied it, all while a Moorings catamaran full of Americans watched on. They later told us that they were impressed with our skills. Ben later told me as I suspected from the engine sounds that Mike was doing "the all or none" throttling at the helm. But for his first time it was a great job.

We had shrimp ramen soup for lunch which ws great. I gotta say, for something so easy to make, instant noodles really hit the spot while sailing.

While cleaning up, I sent Mike with Jennie and Shannon to check out the Hibiscus restaurant and ask about the excursions that they had there. A lot of new things for Mike today. You could see Shannon was really nervous with Mike driving the dinghy.

With this sailing trip, Mike talked to me about taking lessons in London and maybe getting into sailing himself. If he can find the time, I think that would be pretty fun for him. On this trip, I think he's seen and done a lot. We've done plenty of sailing, and all of this morning Mike got to motor and navigate through the lagoon. He brought along an intro to sailing book that he was reading. He thought the toughest part was knowing what all the ropes do, which is true. I thought back to three years ago in Vancouver Yacht Club crew circle not knowing what anything did except the jib sheets.

Fortunately the rain let up in the afternoon and we went in for a vanilla tour. There are two commodities for which Tahiti is supposedly famous: black pearls and vanilla. The island of Taha'a is the main vanilla producer.

We went with the Americans to La Vallee de la Vanille. The proprietor Brian, a Danish ex-French legionnaire, drove one truck and his friend Richard took four of us in another car. Chantelle was in the front with her sprained ankle, and Ben, Shannon and I in the back. Chantelle chatted away with Richard and we learned that he used to live in France and was now retired in French Polynesia.

The welcome to the vanilla plantation was very nicely set up, and more than I expected. Brian gave us each a refreshing juice and had a plate of pineapple and bananas along with crushed coconut. He showed us the vanilla plant, how it was cultivated and harvested, how was dried and had to be massaged to release the vanilla flavor. Brian's farm was one of the few organic farms unlike those that we saw in greenhouses. Apparently, there are two types of vanilla. One that we commonly buy from several countries and can be found in our local grocery store. The Tahitian variety of vanilla was produced only in Tahiti and very difficult to find elsewhere. You may find some in Paris but would cost you something like 15 euros a bean. It was also extremely potent, with a quarter of a leaf flavoring two pots of rice or pasta.

We all bought a couple of packages to take home. It cost 2500 CFP for 10g.

Throughout this excursion, our driver Richard was the cutest man. I think he really liked Chantelle. He took a lot of photos of the tour group with his cellphone, and picked flowers for Chantelle and Shannon to put in their hair. Driving back to the restaurant, he stopped and picked a couple of hibiscus flowers for the girls. By the end of it, Chantelle and Shannon had three flowers each adorning their heads.

We went back to the catamaran and all of us had a swim in the bay before showering off for our dinner reservations at 6:30.

The Hibiscus Restaurant was run by Leo and Lucinda. It had some bungalows across the road, and I think is called a yacht club as well. It was older than the Bora Bora Yacht Club, the latter having been rebuilt since the cyclone several years ago.

There was no one in the restaurant but us but Leo served up an amazing dinner with salad, jackfish and creme brulee. There was no menu. It was about $60 per person including a beer.

It had started to pour again so we hung out in the restaurant trying to wait out the rain. We bought some pearls, Mike four, and Shannon and Chantelle three each for earrings and a pendant, at what I thought was a pretty good price, $30 each, considering how much the Italian couple paid at the Champon Pearl Farm. How do you tell if they're fake?

Then Richard suddenly made an appearance with his Polynesian guitar! He sang us several songs and made quite the hit. We found out Leo and Lucinda's daughter was Miss Tahiti 2004, and signed their guest book, which they had volumes and volumes of.

When the rain briefly let up, we were sent on our way back to Arearea.

I woke up this morning to rain, rain, more rain, and the scent of vanilla on our boat. It is actually pouring quite hard and didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon.

Raining our last day. I can't really complain actually. It sounded like we arrived at Le Taha'a just missing some bad weather and now only at the end of our sail is it really starting to rain hard. That's the risk of shoulder season though. Imagine what it would have been like if our entire ten days was like this!

I think we were very lucky in other respects too. Just listing off random things like the cardiologist at Bora Bora Yacht Club after our mountain hike, the free vanilla and pearl tours, great restaurants, nice sailing, James the river guardian and Richard at the Hibiscus. No mechanical problems, and by the book cruising. All in all, I think a fantastic first charter.