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NZ Report 21
Dear Family and Friends:
Big news is that we’re moving. But first a report on our most recent trip.
WARNING: This missive is longer and more
picturesque than usual. Hope it didn’t
clog up your e-mail pipe and that it doesn’t bore you too much. Just didn’t seem to be a natural break.
 One
of our remaining goals here was to get to the top of NZ and last weekend the
combination of good weather and a change in my teaching schedule (the
Thursday instructor wanted to trade days with me, the Tuesday instructor)
provided the opportunity. We booked a
bus tour of “90 Mile Beach” on Monday and drove Sunday afternoon to Kaitaia,
where the tour originates. The north
end of this island is a long peninsula, the west side of which is all sandy
beach. It’s closer to 90 km in length
than 90 miles, but, hey, it’s just a name.
The beach is hard-packed enough to drive on, but it’s recommended that
you don’t drive yourself. Cars have
been known to get stranded or swallowed up in soft spots. But, several tour
buses run this route – oh, there’s one passing us now!
Our driver kept us informed and entertained –
even sang some lovely Maori songs to us.
Started off by telling us he had been unemployed for a while, doing
odd jobs like mowing and picking up trash for the city, and when he checked
with the agency the night before, they asked if he would drive this tour –
the passengers wouldn’t know he didn’t have a license and it wasn’t really
that hard to follow the route. So, he
had spent the night in the pub studying the script. Welcome to the tour! (Susie:
Actually, I think driving this tour bus was a pretty grueling day’s
work….kinda like an all day field trip with a bunch of kids: running commentary, potty stops, bringing
out sack lunches, singing songs to entertain the passengers and, BESIDES,
driving over beaches, through creeks, over and around curving terrain and
pretending to love the job. We were
traveling on the bus for eight hours.
When we returned, I asked him if he did this everyday and he said,
“No, only six days”. Eegads! And I dreaded monthly field trips.)
At the north end of the beach there are large
sand dunes where we stopped for some tobogganing – riding plastic sleds down
the dunes. (Acutally, there was no WE
here---just HE. I did my daredevil
stint on the luge ride in Rotorua. I
figured we are too close to ending our trip here and I didn’t want to return
to the USA
with a cast on any of my body parts.
Read the next sentence and you’ll know I made a wise decision.) We found out later that another busload
that tobogganed nearby on a larger dune than ours had a passenger get injured
(broken collar bone) and have to be helicoptered out.
 Next
stop was Cape Reinga, the northern tip of the
island. LA just over the horizon --
way way over. Susie finds these views
particularly moving; CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS!, etc. So now we’ve been to top and bottom.
(Susie: I discovered that there is as
much water at the top of the island as at the bottom….Duh!) Haven’t been to the middle – bottom of
north island, top of south island – but, statistically speaking, we’ve been
there on average. (Susie: Give me a break—statistics notwithstanding
we’ve pretty well covered this whole dadgummed country!)
 Another
reason for going north was to see the kauri trees. These are giants, hundreds or even
thousands of years old. The largest,
known as Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest),
shown here, is estimated to be about 2000 years old. The kauri trees don’t grow as tall as
redwoods, but they are more massive…..
very thick trunks that don’t taper.
Some statistics on Tane Mahuta: girth: 45 ft., height: 169 ft., height
of first branch: 31 ft.
(Susie:
talk about statistics—those are going to be my measurements if I don’t
quit eating these scones.)
On Monday, we had seen excavated kauri trees estimated
to have lived about (statistically speaking) 30,000 years ago. They were laid low, probably, by a tsunami
resulting from a meteorite impact west of New Zealand. Even after being buried all this time, they
are still wood, not petrified, not decayed.
We saw lots of souvenirs made from ancient kauri. Also, a big industry in the area in the
early 1900s was kauri gum excavation – sap deposits that could be used in
varnishes. Many Yugoslav immigrants,
called Dalmations, I think there were 101 of them, settled here to do gum
mining. (Susie: truly, this is what these people are
called—not an ethnic slur. There were
social clubs throughout the area with “Dalmation Club” on the welcoming
sign.)
 On
our drive back, to the extent possible, we followed the west coast, called
The Kauri Coast. We found it all to be
quite beautiful – steep, incredibly green hillsides, harbors, rivers,
beaches. We took a ferry across one
harbor that extends about 50 km in from the coast and generally took our time
in driving all the way back to Auckland
on Tuesday.
Along the way Susie spotted this special cow –
she’s wearing her heart on her side!
Had to be a good omen.
(Susie: other than the graphic
on her side  being
stunning, she looks like a pretty worn out cow. When we learn of how much milk is used
locally plus what is exported, I think these cows have earned the right to be
tired. Actually, there is some great
looking livestock here. We just
happened to find this one who deserved to have her picture published.)
(Rob again: Speaking of cows, there was an
intriguing large headline in the paper recently: One Cow Damages Nation. The story was about a cow in Canada
being found with mad cow disease.
About the same time, locally, there was an uproar here when the US
Trade Rep said the US
wouldn’t be working on a Free Trade agreement with NZ for a while because of
some rather smart-alecky, personal aspersions cast on George Bush by NZ’s
Prime Minister, Helen Clark. She’s
kind of like the Anglican Dean without the charm. At any rate, a wag wrote in and said he
thought maybe that the headline above should have been over the Clark story!)
Biggest event here this week, and indeed all
month, has been the celebration of Edmund Hillary’s and Tenzing Norgay’s
first ascent of Mt.
Everest, 50 years ago
on May 29. There have been daily
retellings in the newspaper of the day by day progress of that expedition and
there were several TV specials. Wonder
how much of a play it’s getting in the US. Hillary (Sir Edmund) is revered here as
“The Greatest Living New Zealander.”
He’s spent his post-Everest career working to improve the lives of the
Nepalese Sherpas. All over the country
people climbed the nearest hill or mountain on the 29th as their
way to commemorate the occasion. One
coincidence is that the day they summited was the day of Queen Elizabeth’s
coronation. I remember the latter – it
was the first TV event I ever saw – and I remember the general excitement
attending Everest’s conquest (a term Hillary prefers not be used), but didn’t
recall the timing. (Susie: I HAVE to add a comment here: All the hoopla here revolved around WAY
BACK—FIFTY years ago—the TV pictures were fuzzy black images and all the
commentaries related to how difficult things would have been FIFTY years
ago………Then, one time the year 1953 was mentioned. I about flipped. I could relate to how things probably were
rough FIFTY years ago—but when I heard 1953 I realized that those were my
“HAPPY DAYS” years---yep, Richie Cunningham and I were at our high school
best. Now, THAT was an eye
opener. How did FIFTY years pass by so
quickly?)
Now, the moving news. We had thought earlier that since we are
going to spend 10 days in Australia,
that maybe it didn’t make sense to keep our townhouse rented; we could live
elsewhere in the two weeks here after Australia. So, we told our landlord that if he had a
tenant that wanted in in early June, we could be accommodating. A little bit of checking on motel prices,
though, indicated it was about a break-even deal financially and not worth
the hassle to vacate this townhouse.
Landlord said he’d give us a one-week rent holiday to keep us here,
too. But that all changed yesterday
when a renter (a Chemistry teacher and his family from France) turned up who would like
to move in soon and live here for one year.
Susie called some B&Bs in Devonport, a scenic village/suburb
across the harbor from downtown Auckland. We’d been over there once when the kids
were here and remarked how nice it would have been to live there. So, now we will, for two weeks. Susie found a quaint, charming, classic
B&B right in the center of things, overlooking the harbor, that we could
have for NZ$50 per night vs. its prime time rate of NZ$230. This is a slow time because it is
approaching winter and the SARS scare has kept visitors away (and the WAR—but
we ignored that comment.) The owner
will be gone while we’re there so we’re kind of helping to look after
it. It’s an easy ferry-commute for me
to the campus, too. (Susie: many of the buildings in this charming
village are Victorian structures. The
woodwork is from the kauri trees that Rob mentioned earlier. This makes for absolutely beautiful homes
and we are thrilled to be in an upstairs room overlooking the harbor and Auckland. Besides, the shops, restaurants and museums
are one half block away. I can send
Rob off to the university and I can do a LOT
of damage in some of those shops.
Actually, the city library is right across the street and his honor
said, “You can occupy your free time in the library”—RIGHT !)
We’ll be in touch after we return from Australia. Most Kiwis shake their head sadly when we
tell them we’re going to Australia
– pity. We will be checking e-mail and
as always would like to hear from you.
Love to all,   Susie
and Rob
NEXT
T OF C
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