Arrival in New Zealand

We greet 2007 with a flight to New Zealand on luxurious middle-eastern Emirites Airlines. Our viewing choices on board include Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” on global warming – finally we can see it! We highly recommend it to everyone.

In Auckland, the City of Sails, we investigate our traveling options. It’s summertime here, kids are out of school until early February, and rental campervans are scarce and sport holiday rates. A small rental car and modest lodgings will be much less expensive. In Auckland we also get our first taste of a backpacker hostel. The lowest floor is communal space for cooking, eating, lounging, and internet use. These places are great for meeting people from all over the world.

We ask where to buy a cooler. The desk clerk looks blank for a moment, then confuses us by talking about chili beans. At the designated store the mystery is solved by the written word. Ahh. We buy our own chilly bin. At the grocery store we load up a trundler with supplies and head out, no worries.

Driving on the left whilst steering from the right is initially as awkward than you might think, like trying to write with the wrong hand. In fact, on opening a door, we are often surprised to find or not find the steering wheel on that side. To make a left turn, we usually turn on the windshield wipers.

We seldom can say where we’ve just been or where we’re going. Almost all the town and bay names are Maori. The Maori are Polynesian people, and their language bears a strong resemblance to Hawaiian. They use more than their share of vowels (which may account for why the Slavs have such a shortage). Consider: “wai” means water, so there’s Waimamaku, Waipoua, Waitakere, Waipapakauri, Waitiki, Waiomio, and waimanymore. That’s not to be confused with the plethora of “wha-“ (pronounced “fa-“) locales such as Whananaki, Whangaroa, Whangaruru, or Whatipu. Then there’s Karekare, Kerikeri, and Karikari. And that’s just for starters. We try never to ask for directions.

This is a gorgeous land of steep mountains, blue bays, immense kauri trees (only California’s sequoias are larger), sheep dotting hillsides and valleys, and laid-back, humorous people. We’re doing our share of tramping the cliffs, caves, and forests. Every day is a new adventure in places we can’t pronounce.

Cheerio for now!