Day #5 - New Zealand Travel Adventure (Travel to Rotorua and Visit the Agrodome)

Today we left Coromandel at about 8:30 am and stopped for a “flat white coffee” before heading south down Route 25 towards Rotorua. 

A Flat White Coffee

This route takes you through a beautiful valley that is quite flat and suited for cattle farming. Just as we grow corn in our US Great Plains, they seem to be heavily invested in dairy and sheep farming. The road through the valley leads you to Warier Falls.

   Warier Falls Location should you desire to get some exercise that will take a 90 minute hike (tramp, in New Zealand speak). Since we were on a time table to get to Rotorua in time to see the Agrodome show (more about that later), we satisfied ourselves with just taking a picture.

Meeting Route 5 (The Thermal Explorer Highway) at Tapapa,

Thermal Explorer Highway

We got to the Agrodome with about an hour to spare before the farm tour and farm show. This is an interesting tourist attraction that takes you into the paddocks and lets you meet the different types of animals that are typical to the New Zealand dairy, beef and wool industries. They also raise some alpacas and llamas but they apparently do not do well in the New Zealand climate.

 Earline and I got a private tour for the two of us because the majority of visitors were from Asiatic countries and they required language assistance. Leann was a great guide and let us taste honey made from their farm as well as a wine made from the kiwi fruit. The honey is much different that what we are used to. It is thicker, much like a margarine spread but sweet. Peru has a confection made from condensed milk called Dulce de Leche that comes the closest to describing this honey. The kiwi wine was not what I would choose to drink.  We also tasted kiwi fruit juice that was quite tasty. Unfortunately, the kiwi fruit was out of season. It is interesting that the kiwi fruit grows on a thick vine in vineyards much like how we grow grapes. Another crop that they grow is olives and they press them for their oil. Again, they were out of season.

Following the farm tour, we watched the farm show that was amusing. The show director brought out the many types of sheep used in their wool industry and demonstrated how to shear a sheep. He then had some of the Asians attempt to milk a cow and finally showed how important a trained sheep dog is to raising these animals. Outside, he showed how the dog could work a flock of sheep to direct their movements.

Video of Agrodome

We then moved on to our Hotel Ibis in Rotorua. This hotel is near the Lake Rotorua and near the center of the tourist activities in town. After checking in, Earline and I took a walk while it was still light around the lake to the Government Gardens that have lawn bowling and croquet greens. There is a beautiful building there called “The Bath House” that is now a museum, built in 1908 as a tourism spa but it closed in 1966 as other spas in the area opened. We wandered around the park and found Whangapipiro with a temperature of 212 degrees F. The waters were piped to the various spas and to this day are still piped to the nearby Polynesian spa. It is also called Rachel Pool after a notorious English cosmetician who promised youthful complexions because of the softening effects of the silica water on the skin. 

Black Swan

Maori War Canoe 60 feet long

Azaleas in bloom

Maori Carvings

Government Gardens

Tulips at the Government Gardens

The Bath House at the Government Gardens

Yarn Bombed Tree

After other interesting sights, we bought a nice 2014 Vidal Reserve Pinot wine from the Marlborough Region of New Zealand and walked down Tutaznekai Street (called Eatery Street because of the number of restaurants) and stopped at a local brewpub to try a coffee stout beer and to feel Earline before she got cranky. With our wine in hand, we returned to our room for an early bedtime.

Day #2 - New Zealand Travel Adventure (Explore Aukland (Saturday, October 17, 2015))

After sleeping about 12 hours to recoup, we were treated to a great breakfast by our hosts Graham and Katrine Paton. We even got to try Vegemite, a concoction made from yeast extract and we were informed it was an acquired taste by another guest from Australia, staying at the B&B. We were instructed to put a very light layer on our bread and not to put it on thick like peanut butter. It is very salty tasting but was not unpleasant. I think with the small amount you place on your bread, the nutritional benefits of the years extract would be quite small. 

You can read about Vegemite here:

Vegemite

Vegemite Jingle

We dove into Auckland to explore the city. Quay street is at the edge of the harbor and is where the cruise ships dock. We parked in a parking structure that was fairly expensive but probably more safe than parking on the street and not understanding parking restrictions. We then walked up Queen Street and wanted a good cup of coffee. We found a Starbucks and ordered a large coffee. This decision turned out to be a disaster as they had no prepared coffee and made theirs like Coffee Americano by diluting espresso with water. This made a large cup of coffee very weak and had I known they made it in this manner, I would have only ordered a small cup so the brew would have been stronger. In addition, the Auckland Starbucks does not sit our coffee lightened (1/2 and 1/2, milk, etc.) Instead, they give you a separate cup of cream for you to pour in your coffee.

After the disappointing coffee, we walked up Queen Street and found a Diwali festival going on. This is a festival to celebrate Indian life.

Diwali Festival

I learned that there is a large Indian population in the Oceania area and resulted from when the British used the Indians to work on their sugar plantations. 

We wandered around and it became lunchtime so we discovered a new Brewers Co-Op that had just opened at the corner of Victoria and Nelson Streets. They had a great chocolate porter that was great. We ordered food and huge portions were delivered. Earline ordered a fish chowder loaded with seafood and served piping hot. I ordered a brewhouse burger and was amazed when it came out about 8 inches high and contained a fried onion ring, ham, cheese, a fried egg, salad greens and a large hamburger patty. I had never had a hamburger with a fried egg bedore and learned this was a fairly normal New Zealand custom. I was informed that sometimes they even place beets on the hamburger patty.

Following lunch and beer, we went to explore the Sky Tower, a large casino, hotel and restaurant at the top of a “space needle.” People do base jumping from the ring around the Sky Tower and to ride to the observation deck it costs $28 NZD. We elected to skip going up as the weather was overcast and we weren’t going to be doing any base jumping. :)

Sky Tower Base Jumping

Earline had on her bucket list the idea to purchase wool blended with New Zealand possum. These possum seem to be different from the possums in the USA and are quite furry. They are considered a nuisance in New Zealand and the government pays a bounty for killing them. 

The fur is pulled out while the animal is freshly killed and blended with sheep wool. Earline went to “Masco The Wool Shop” located in the shopping mall next to the cruise ship dock and bough a skein of hand dyed wool blended with possum and silk. The woman in the shop hated cruise ship passengers so if you are not from the cruise ship and are looking to purchase unusual wool, tell her you are not from the ship and you will get great service.

We returned to our B&B for a rest and were trying to figure what to do for the evening. We decided to look for live jazz music and found a performance as part of the Auckland Jazz Fest but it meant returning to the city again before 8:30 pm. We asked another guest at the B&B to join us and we drove back to the Club One 2 One located at 121 Ponsonby Road in Auckland. Parking was difficult in this “happening” area but we did find street parking and walked to the small coffee house that held perhaps 50 people. The cover charge was $10 NZF (about $6.40 US Dollars) and the group playing was The Julie Mason Group. 

Julie was a pretty good pianist and sang in the style of Jane Monheit and she was joined by Alberto Santarelli, a bassist and Frank Gibson, and amazing drummer who had played with such big names as Diana Krall, etc. For the second set, Julie was replaced by her husband, Phil Broadhurst who is considered on of the best jazz pianists in New Zealand. He did not disappoint. I must say that were were extremely fortunate to chose this music venue.

We returned to our B&B at 11:15 and went to bed because in the morning, we are off to the Coromandel Peninsula.

Day #4 - New Zealand Travel Adventure (Exploring Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach 10/19/15)

Today was Earline's 60th birthday and we planned to celebrate it by driving to the east side of the Coromandel Peninsula to see Cathedral Cove and the interesting Hot Water Beach.

Incidentally, The Coromandel Peninsula is named after HMS Coromandel that stopped there to cut Kauri trees to use in replacing spars. The town of Coromandel is also the place where gold was first discovered in New Zealand and this produced a boom economy in that particular area.

We started off in what we thought was the correct direction but it turned out to be an error and we had to back track 20 kilometers. Earline got the GPS to connect and set it for Whitianga, a place on the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula where you can take a sight-seeing boat ride to see the Cathedral Cove and other areas of the beautiful coastline.

The GPS took us by the shortest route..."alternate" Route 25( Route 309) that is alternate for a reason. Mostly unpaved and therefore untraveled, you prayed you would not meet another vehicle coming around one of the multitude of sharp, narrow bends. However, we did see interesting sights that included wild pigs, a waterfall and a preserved Kauri tree forest that we did not have time to visit. Earline was screaming that the pigs were "coming for her" and quickly rolled up the window.

Wild Pigs on Coromandel Peninsula

Once we got to Whitianga, I made arrangements with Ken, the tour boat owner to take us on tour at 1:30 pm even though we were the only two people taking the tour. He gave us a great tour and he is to be recommended very highly in my opinion. The cost for the tour is $85 NZD per person but it is well worth it. You could drive to the Cathedral Cove but it would take you nearly two hours to do a round trip to the beach and that would be all you would see. 

Cathedral Cove

Ken showed us many interesting sights, explained the geology of the area, showed us the multitude of fish in the marine preserve and took us inside the third largest ocean cave in the southern hemisphere.

Sea Cave

Lee & Earline in 3rd largest sea cave of the southern hemisphere

Following the boat tour, we drove south to Hot Water Beach that is situated above a geothermal vent that bubbles very hot water through the beach on the sand. People bring shovels and dig a pit to sit in and if done properly, the pit water mixes with cooler seawater and with the hit geothermal water to produce a pleasant hot tub experience. It is a fun thing to do but it can only be done over a time span of two hours before to two hours after the low tide. Thus, you must consult a tide table and bring a digging spade with you. If you didn't bring a shovel, generally someone will lend you one or better yet, you can hop in someone else's pit as they are leaving.

There are two parking areas that will get you to the Hot Water Beach from Hot Water Beach Road. The first area is free parking but if you follow Hot Water Beach Road to the end, you must pay for parking.

Hot Water Beach Parking  The first parking lot you come to is the free lot. If you want to get slightly closer, you have to pay. The walk from the free lot to the geothermal vent is about 300 yards along the beach.

Hot Water Beach at Low Tide

Earline at Hot Water Beach

You bring your shovel with you and try to dig a pit that allows some cooler seawater in to balance the heat from a vent. The hot water from the vent is around 140 degrees and is not tolerable.

When you are finished bathing in your hot water, you can change in a bathroom in the parking lot. Unfortunately, there is no place to wash off the sand so you need to put that into your plans. :(

We then drove back to our lodging in Coromandel and stopped for dinner at the Pepper Tree Restaurant in Coromandel Town. The food was excellent. I had scallops and Earline had fried oysters. Both were excellent. I had never experienced scallops with the roe attached, but they were very tender and had no fishy taste. The chef told me that that is the proper way to serve scallops because if the roe is not attached, you might be eating Skate, a fish made to look like a more expensive scallops by using a punch. In the USA we generally don't ever get the coral (roe) part of the scallop because it deteriorates too fast and doesn't lend itself to shipping. When you get fresh scallops with the coral (roe) attached, they are wonderful!

Fresh Scallops in Coromandel, NZ

Oyster Tempura in Coromandel, NZ

Following dinner, we returned to Indigo Bush for an early bedtime. Life does not get better than this to celebrate Earline's 60th birthday!

Day #3 - New Zealand Travel Adventure (Drive to Coromandel Peninsula (Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015))

We drove from south Auckland to Coromandel and it takes about 4 hours to do this. It is not because the distance is so far but because the road is coastal and is quite winding with many sharp turns. Couple this with driving on the left side of the road and not being able to easily judge where your tires are in relation to the precipitous drop to the sea, and it just takes longer…believe me. :)

We stopped for lunch at the Coromandel Mussel Kitchen because Earline had on her bucket list, to try the special green lipped mussels that are raised in this particular area. They delivered a pot of 16 very large, steamed green lipped mussels in a tomato basil sauce with chili flavor. She was in heaven.

Green Lipped Mussels

 We then proceeded onward to the town of Coromandel where our lodging for the evening was located. We chose to stay two days at the Indigo Bush Studios. This consists of two studio apartments tastefully furnished and decorated by a local artist. It is a little more pricey ($195 NZD / night) than other lodgings in the area but the privacy and uniqueness were worth the difference. 

Indigo Bush Studios

My only issue is I could not for the life of me get the fire in the fireplace to start. I am not certain what type of wood is provided but I just could not get the logs to catch. No big thing as we were quite tired from the drive over from Auckland, but puzzling nonetheless. Also, the picture shows a romantic tub outside that you can use for a romantic interlude. Don't believe the picture! The tub is small and will accommodate only one person at a time. Fortunately this place is isolated in the bush because the windows have no curtains in case you are a bit shy.

In proximity to this place of lodging is an interesting tourist attraction called the Driving Creek Railroad. It is a narrow gage railway that was built by Barry Brickell, an artist and potter who initially built a section of the railroad to transport clay from the mountain to his pottery studio at the base of the hillside. He continued to extend the railroad for 15 years and laid all the track himself.

Building the Driving Creek Railroad

Barry is still alive at age 79 and it was his mission in life to reforest the Coromandel area with Kauri trees that were nearly made extinct by poor logging practices. In fact the way they logged was to cut the trees high on the hillside and then to build a "driving dam" also called a "splash dam" that would store water and then be suddenly released to wash the logs down the hillside in a flash flood. This flash flooding laid waste to a large portion of the hillside. Because Barry is a conservationist, he wanted to restore the hillside to its native state. He purchased about 60 acres and over the years has made amazing strides. The railroad takes its name from the driving dam that was used in this area. Recently, this railroad that was never built as a tourist attraction, carried its millionth passenger to the top recently.

This is a unique project built almost entirely by an obsessed individual and I would highly recommend it. It is worth the price of $30 NZD to see his dedication and ingenuity.

One of the several tunnels build on the Driving Creek Railroad

A view from the top of the railroad.

Day #1 - New Zealand Travel Adventure (Arrival in Auckland and Waitomo Glowworm Caves)

We arrived at about 5:50 am at the airport in Auckland and the process through immigration and customs was very easy and smooth. You should be aware that they are quite strict in regulations for biohazards as they are an agricultural country and do not want to introduce any foreign biohazards for their plants and animals. If you fail to declare that you have any fresh foods or vegetables in your presence, you will be fined $400 NZ dollars.

We went to the Avis car counter and checked in to obtain our vehicle which was parked right outside of the terminal. I went to the Vodafone desk and got a $49 NZD sim card for my Nokia cellphone that appeared to be adequate for the number of call we would be making in the country. I believe we have 200 minutes of talk time and 3 gig of data for this price but I doubt I will use it much. You cannot make calls to the USA for this price but you can text to the USA.

The vehicle we rented for the first leg of the journey was a new Mazda and it appears to be a hybrid of some type as the engine stops and starts. I’ll have to search to see if this is a new innovation for saving emissions. We then drove to meet our hosts, Graham and Katrine Patton at the Hillside B&B. Graham is a retired English teacher and Katrine is a retired primary school teacher. They are pleasant hosts and offered to keep our luggage for us while we toured around so that we did not have to worry about thieves. 

Hill Park Home Stay B&B  

Even though we were tired from a 12 hour flight, we decided to drive two hours to the south of Aukland to visit the Waitomo Glowworm cave and to see the Ruakuri cave. The tickets for these two attractions costs $174 NZD and it takes about 45 minutes to see the Waitomo cave and they will not let you take any pictures in the cave or in the gift shop afterwards. You do see an amazing number of glowworms and a portion of the tour is via boat. The Ruakuri (Two Dogs in Mauri language) cave is magnificent and it takes about 2 hours to see this cave that is about 1/2 mile long. It also has glowworms and the guide did allow pictures to be taken. This cave has a river flowing through it and another attraction is provided by Black Water Adventure Tours where you can float through the dark cave on innertubes. Having done Waitomo and Ruakuri, I would recommend that if pressed for time or money, just do the Ruakuri cave.

Earline Describes the Glowworm Cave

Entrance to Ruakuri Cave

River in Ruakuri Cave

Ruakuri Cave

Glowworms are the larval part of the life cycle of a creature that hatches from eggs laid by a small fly. The larva lives it’s life in the dark cave that must be fed by a flowing river. The creature produces a luminescent chemical called luciferin that glows when it reacts with oxygem. The tail end of the larva glows to attract other insects brought into the cave by the flowing river and they are trapped by sticky threads produced by the larva, much like spider web threads, except that hang down in a linear fashion. When the insect is trapped, the larva feed s on it and it eventually forms a pupa stage from the sticky threads until metamorphosis lets it emerge as a small two winged fly. The fly mates and lays eggs before dying in a couple of days to start the life cycle again.

Glowworm Threads

Waitomo Cave

http://www.waitomo.com/waitomo-information/Pages/glow-worm-life-cycle.aspx

After we toured the caves, we started back to where we are staying for the evening and decided to visit the Otorohanga Kiwi House to see if we could see a rare, live kiwi bird. This center has three kiwis on display. There are about 70,000 kiwi left in all of New Zealand and they are losing about 2% of the kiwi population every year – this equates to 27 per week.

Kiwi are mostly nocturnal. They are most commonly forest dwellers, making daytime dens and nests in burrows, hollow logs or under dense vegetation.

Kiwi are the only bird to have nostrils at the end of their very long bill. Their nostrils are used to probe in the ground, sniffing out invertebrates to eat, along with some fallen fruit. They also have one of the largest egg-to-body weight ratios of any bird. The egg averages 15% of the female's body weight (compared to 2% for the ostrich).

Females are larger than males (up to 3.3 kg and 45 cm). Kiwi are long-lived, and depending on the species live for between 25 and 50 years. The Kiwi center has a rare great spotted kiwi that is one of only three in captivity. There are no males in captivity and thus any eggs laid are infertile. 

We did get to see a live kiwi after paying our admission fee to the center and then complaining that we were sorry we paid because we could not see a live bird. Finally, one or the staff tapped on the enclosure glass and brought the kiwi close for our observation. The birds are much larger that I imagined, about twice the size of a large rooster. The wings are rudimentary and thus making flight an impossibility.

You can read more about this unusual bird here:  http://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/kiwi/

By the time we got back to our B&B, it was about 6:30 in the evening and we were starved after not really eating much since we got off the airplane. We asked our hosts for a restaurant recommendation and were directed to an excellent Italian place called Volare (91 Charles Prevost Drive. The Gardens, Aukland). The food was excellent and we got a bottle of Pinot Noir that was wonderful.

By the time dinner ended, we abandoned our thoughts of going back to Auckland to dance tango. We just crashed at 8:30 pm from a day of excitement.

The Paleogeology of New Zealand

We are now minus two days to our departure for New Zealand and things are falling into place. I have purchased a Nokia GMS phone for use after buying a SIM card at the airport. I have arranged our rental car transfers across the Inter-Island Ferry and have corrected the small error I made in renting inter-island vehicles.

The Avis company will allow a single rental fee so long as you spend at least three days on one island before or after inter-island transfer. Since we required two ferry rides, North to South Island and the returning South to North Island, I mistakenly thought that since we will be on the North Island for 8 days before going to the South Island, I thought that satisfied my three days of being on one island. However, you must satisfy the requirement of three days after each exchange. Since originally we were returning on October 31to the North Island and flying out on November 2, this did not allow three days after the second ferry transit.

I thus quickly readjusted our return from the Milford Sound so that we can get back to Picton for ferry transit on October 30 to satisfy the rental requirements. This will be a couple of long, hard drives for the length of the South Island, but it is doable.


ORIGINAL NEW ZEALAND INHABITANTS

While studying up on the formation of New Zealand and the original habitation by the Maori people, I watched a Netflix movie on the Maori and learned they were cannibals.  Since the Polynesians also inhabited Hawaii and they were not cannibals, I began to wonder why New Zealand, Fiji, New Guinea, etc. developed cannibalism.

http://www.netflix.com/title/80017264

The origin of the Polynesians were from Southeast Asia and they were sea explorers.

During the long voyages, protein must have been scarce and I believe they took to the custom of cannabalism during these transits. The Hawaiians had a custom of saving the bones of certain revered people, such as Captain Cook, but there is no evidence that they were cannibals.

In addition, the Netflix movie also shows some of the weaponry of the Maori people and their warlike posturing with protruding tongue and eyes that is evident today in the Haha Dance.

THE GEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND

PALEOGEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND

Pangaea was the original land mass of art that began to drift apart about 200 million years ago and formed two super-continents called Laurasia and Gondwanaland. The name comes from the Gondwana region of central India, where geological formations match those of similar ages in the southern hemisphere. At that time plate tectonics were not understood. Now it is thought that these continents float on liquid magma and just split. Gondwana broke up about 180 million years ago and with continual drifting of the continental plates, it split into landmasses we recognize today: Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Peninsula. 

About 45 million years ago, Australia and Anarctica were joined and there was no ice in the south pole. They began to separate and Australia drifted northward. It is thought that there were two tectonic plates that split and one drifted south to become antarctica and another drifted north to become Australia. Between 110 and 80 million years ago, New Zealand broke away from Australia forming the Tasman Sea.

Australia began to fracture about 80 MYA, when the future New Zealand region made its move, splitting away from Australia and Antarctica as the Tasman Sea opened up. Tectonic separation is usually an ‘unzipping’ process and, in terms of today’s maps, the pre-New Zealand rift extended northward from Tasmania through to North Queensland and south along the edge of Antarctica to Marie Byrd Land, splitting off an area about ten times the size of present-day New Zealand; we call this whole continent Zealandia. Full separation took over 20 million years with the Tasman Sea reaching its present width of 2,000 km around 60 MYA.

Zealandia, also known as Tasmantis or the New Zealand Continent, is a nearly submerged continental fragment that sand after breaking away from Australia 60-85 million years ago. It may have completely submerged about 23 million years ago but this is debated since all flora and fauna present in New Zealand today would have had to come from elsewhere and this does not appear to be the case. However, the majority of Zelandia is still submerged under the Pacific Ocean. Only 10% of the Zealandia continent sits above sea level. 

About 25 million years ago, the southern part of Zelandia that is now on the Pacific Tectonic Plate, began to shif relative to the northern part that is on the Indo-Australian tectonic plate. This displacement was about 310 miles and occurs along a fault line known as the Alpine Fault. Compression at this boundary caused uplifting of the Southern Alps in New Zealand. Today’s highth is much reduced from the process of erosion over millions of years. Further north, subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Indo-Australian Plate has led to extensive volcanic activity.

This is apparent in the regions of the Coromandel Peninsula and in the Taupo Volcanic Zone that we are scheduled to visit.