Napier

February 19, 2015
Some places you just spend the night. The town of Napier happens to a pleasant surprise. Napier is a port city which was destroyed in a 1931 earthquake. The town is rebuilt and has kept its art deco architecture and manners. It is probably the most photographed town in New Zealand, each building and square pristine in its art deco style.
Every year at the end of summer Napier celebrates an "Art Deco Weekend Festival". Here classic car buffs come from all over New Zealand to join a flapper costumed army of celebrants. The place is packed with music and events of the art deco era. We arrived one day before the "Festival". Unable to book a room for another night, we at least got a taste of what others came to enjoy.

 

Our classic art deco hotel, The Viceroy

Taupo and Rotoura

February 20, 2015
Lake Taupo and its city, Taupo, are a major tourist attraction. The lake is the largest in New Zealand and like many lakes in New Zealand it fills a giant volcanic caldera. Just time for us to have lunch, take a few photos as we move on to Rotorua.

Rotorua is in the heart of Maori country and is known for its lake, mineral springs, geysers, and other geothermic marvels. After your eyes have feasted on the scenery they and your nose begin to smart from the hydrogen sulfide fumes which permeates the air. These fumes are considered a tourist attraction, whereas other places consider them pollution. It is also the site of a past world famous health spa during a time when hot sulfur springs and electric shock baths were considered therapeutic. As for the Maori, they perform for tourists. We kept our Maori education limited to museum exhibits.

We did enjoy a gondola right to a restaurant atop one of the hills, had a great sunset buffet, before descending to a nearby zoo to see Kiwis eating worms at night. We met travelers to Stewart Island at the southern end of New Zealand where they failed to see any Kiwis in the wild. They were not impressed when we told them about our Kiwi experience, albeit in a zoo.

Lake Taupo

Mary on the shore of Lake Taupo

Huka Falls running away from Lake Taupo

Hot springs at Rotura

Terraced pools at hot springs. Yes that blue is true color.

Terraced springs from below.

Proof that we were at the "Famous and Historic Rotoura Health Bath

Geezers playing croquet on health lawn in land of geysers

Rotorua from hilltop restaurant

A DC3 McDonalds in Rotorua.

Karangahake Gorge

February 22, 2015

If you like swinging bridges, slimy steep trails, drizzle, and broken rusted machinery than Karangahake Gorge is for you. It is the site of an old gold mining operation and gold mining is one of the main reasons why people traveled half way around the globe seeking their fortunes only to end up raising sheep and milk cows.

Coromandel Peninsula

February 23, 2015
The Cormondel Peninsula has one of New Zealand,s most gorgeous and challenging roads. It has the sea on one side and cliffs on the other. Due to the white knuckle experience of being on that road, there are no pictures, other than the one below.

Whangamata and Hot Water Beach

February 22, 2015
Whangamata (the "Wh" is pronounced as an "f", similar to our "ph" sound) is a beautiful beach town where we stayed. In the nearby town of Whangarei there is another beach,best known as the "Hot Water Beach". Hot Water Beach is not only a place where at low tide, hot scalding water seeps through a crack in the earth to emerge at the uncovered sand, it is a happening!. The custom is to get (rent) a shovel and dig yourself a tub (pit) and bathe in water, hot enough to cook lobsters. When we were there, the seas were stormy and rough waves would wash away carefully dug "tubs". Chinese tourists particularly liked doing an Occidental thing.

The deserted beach at Whangamata

The rush to find "Hot Water" at Whangarei

Creatures with shovel

More of the same

LET THE DIGGING BEGIN!

 

Rub-a-dub, man in his tub

Can you find, "man in his tub"?

Little repast before a day of foolishness

Time for a little hot water

and to get the sand out of our suits

Auckland

Auckland waterfront

February 24, 2015
Auckland is the heart of New Zealand. Over a third of the population reside in this sprawling metropolis whose setting can only be compared to San Francisco. When seeking a hotel room, the tourist guide circled most of Auckland as being "bad", a few spots where the upper 1% live, and a couple of areas suitable for "our type". (It so happens that our area, New Market, had every luxury car dealership imaginable from Rolls Royce, Maserati, Ferrari, Holden, to lowly Mercedes and Audi. I wondered where the upper 1% live?)

At Rosie's wedding in Samoa, we met a classmate of hers who happened to mention to give her a call when we are in Auckland for a steak dinner on the "Barbie". I did just that and we went to her house to finally sit down with some everyday New Zealanders. What a delight to meet her husband, a Kiwi, and her four children for the aforementioned meal. She is Samoan who has lived her entire life in New Zealand. Her children all speak fluent Samoan. Her husband tried and failed to learn this now "secret language".

A beautiful "Afakasi" family

 One of Auckland's many volcanoes is Mt. Eden where fanastic views of the city can be had. On our last day we climbed to the top by car to take our final photos before waiting hours at the airport for our return flight. 

Auckland, a Day with the Girls

February 25, 2015
The girls are Tali and Manuli, daughters of our host Samoan family in Iva. They are now in Auckland, living with an aunt Emily, after being adopted and running away from another aunt. The oldest, Tali, is now married and pregnant, while Manuli is finishing her last year, 13th, of secondary school, with the next step in her life unknown. We spent a wonderful day with them on a cruise to Waiheke Island. I then took them to dinner and attending a ceremony at Manuli's school.

The girls, Tali in blue, Manuli in green with their sister Fa'apesa in red, and nephew, Lawrence in 2007

The girls, Manuli and Tali, now in 2015

Hundreds of students and attended "Gift Giving" which is an awards ceremony as students move up to the next level. When student's name is announced, parents usually rush to the front of the auditorium and put an "ula", a candy necklace, around the student's neck. In Samoa, the ceremony is even wilder with mothers dancing all over the place, maybe limited here due to the crowded conditions. For Manuli, I was the only "palagi", white person there which made her friends ask "Who dat white man?".

It is also interesting that the school is on a huge campus. One section is for Pacific Islanders, mostly Samoan, the Moari go to a separate school on the same campus.

Manuli at Southern Cross Secondary School "Gift Giving" wearing her "ulas".

Who dat white man?

Tali with husband, Leon

At Buffet King with Aunt Emily (Emi)