Getting to Know the Kiwis

My ship makes three ports in New Zealand.  The first on the northern tip of the north island in an area called the Bay of Islands. Count them: 144.  It is apparently the vacation place for New Zealanders: multi-million dollr homes, fantastic views, boats of all kinds and a great local beer called Chumps. I had several - 5% alcohol, Great, great place to chill out and drink with friends.

Next port is Auckland.  I had to meet NZ Customs officals at 0645 onboard to get paperwork looked over so I can stay in NZ a couple nights while I drive to Wellington, about 8 hours south, all driving on the left side of the road with the streering column on the right . I'm spending the night at an Airbnb home on the westcoast, New Plymouth.

I was awakened early by the lights of downtown Auckland right outside my cabin window. My hotal, The Insignia, was berthed less than 9 meters from the Auckland Hilton, sothat my cabin was looking directly across to the main lobby and second floor of the hotel.

I was picked up by the rental car company and off I went.  My first stop was by the police department, which I did a seperate post on. I drove to Auckland, some 8 hours away across the North island.  I stopped for the night at an AirBnB in New Plymouth on the Westcoast.

The drive was incredibelly beautiful. This was so much more insightful than two at sea. I can see why so many people want to move here.  I even saw a few small ranches with American flags at the gate. There is morre cattle than you can imagine, and I've lived in Texas. The cattle are spread out across sparse grasslands. Vegatation is abundant here so the cattle are more concentrated in the fields.

Once I left New Plymouth, on Highway 1 (Hughway 1 is on the eastcoast) for the most part following the coastline.  At times the road was practically hanging over over the waves crashing into the rocks or sands.  It was hard to get the really good pictures because there are few places to pull over and a Kiwi will run over you.

One place I did stop was at a land wind-surfing track. I thought I had a video but I can't find it. Kids were racing around a very large flat track marked off in orange traffic cones. Here is exactly what it looked like. 

I didn't know what these littlle ledges were on all the hills everywhere until I saw one with cattle on it.  They'd worn ledges into the hillside while grazing.

Mt. Taranaki near New Plymouth. I saw it across coastal waters 2 hours before I got there.

View from window at my AirBnB in New Plymouth

Off of Highway 2 which I was on most of the trip. If you look hard you can see the road at the base of mountain and next to the breaking water.

There were so many more photos I wanted to take but, there was just no place to pull over and take a picture. I went through hills similar to the Ozarks, then similar to Appalachia, then much like the Rockies.

The best part of driving was doing 120. The worst was turning on the wiper blades when making a right turn instead of the blinker. The are very few stop signs but, lots of round-abouts (to the left). Most intersections have "Give Way" signs that look like Yield signs.  Very little actually stopping vehicles except in towns with traffic lights. 

Which is another thing: they are so well marked and timed it's unbelieviable. Theiy're all bright LEDs. Bike lanes, seperate paths and a green area in front of each intersection for bikes only, so they're ahead of you when the light changes. Pedestrian crossings are super well marked and signaled.

Notice the speed limit sign.

Once in Wellington I stated in a 1904 house that was just barely hanging onto the side of a hill very near downtown.  It was another AirBnB and it was a very good exerpience. The winding road up too it had to have been built in the 1890s.  It was only wide enough for small cars to pass only if their side mirrors were pulled in.  

Then on top of that houses weren't or couldn't be built with drives so parking is on the road.  This means who ever gets to a block has the single lane right-of-way and you'll just have to wait.  This also meant because the many 180 degree curves forced cars to give room for wide berth turning or nobody was going anywhere.

On the way out of town.