Monday, November 16, 2015

New Zealand Adventure - Final Thoughts

I wanted to write some final thoughts following our New Zealand adventure of 18 days. Hopefully what we have learned during our self-directed travel will help you if you decide to travel to New Zealand for your own adventure.

Calling New Zealand

I am adding this information because I just got my AT&T telephone bill that charged me $125.00 for 25 minutes of calls to New Zealand. This is $5.00/minute and when I called to ask about it, I was told it was because I do not have and International Calling Plan, only unlimited Long Distance in the USA.  So...if you are planning on talking to people in New Zealand to plan your adventure, please get yourself an International Calling Plan. I really detest AT&T who goes out of their way to rape their customers. Ignorance is not bliss in this situation!

Getting There


We were very happy with our direct flight from San Francisco to Auckland using Air New Zealand. We chose to fly in and out of Auckland since we were planning on exploring both the North and South Islands of New Zealand and the fare was cheaper than flying in one airport and out of another. We realized that there would be a lot of driving involved and two ferry transfers to go from the North Island to the South Island and back. We wanted to see the geography of both islands, but having driven both islands, I would say that we needed perhaps 5 more days of travel time to explore the west coast of the South Island. If your travel time is short, I might recommend flying out of one of the South Island international airports such as Christchurch, Queenstown, or Dunedin. The cost is a bit more than flying out of Auckland but you save on the ferry costs and the rental car gasoline.

Self-Directed Driving


You do not need to sign up with a tour company that provides self-directed driving tours because all they really do for you is to arrange hotel stays and admissions to tourist attractions for you. You can easily arrange these things for yourself and save a lot of money. You should rent a GPS for your rental car as it makes getting around so much easier, especially if you are looking for a particular tourist spot or place to stay. I had toyed with the idea of buying my own GPS and updating it to the New Zealand maps, but the map upgrade was essentially the same price as just renting the GPS device with the rental car. The cost was $10 NZD (about $8.00 USD/day). We were very happy with our rental from Avis. They seamlessly arranged for us to exchange vehicles between the North and South Islands. You are not allowed to take the rental vehicles onto the ferry. Gasoline costs are roughly $2 NZD per LITER so you want to have a fuel-efficient vehicle to travel in. We were given a Mazda initially and then a Toyota Corolla and both got great mileage. I have not figured the gasoline costs yet for our double island drive, but I will insert this figure in my post once VISA converts my costs from $NZD to $USD at my next statement.

You should probably rent a car with a “boot” (trunk in the USA) so that your travel items are not exposed to nefarious people. This does not guarantee that your possessions won’t be stolen, but it at least does not allow everything to be in direct view. You should also put away your GPS device when you stop as  you will be responsible if it is stolen. The boot of a Toyota Corolla was slightly smaller than the Mazda, forcing us to put the back seat down flat to make a bit more room for the suitcases. This isn’t a problem unless you want to give a lift to to some of the myriad of young trekkers seeking a ride along your route. We felt very safe in New Zealand so I would not be over-concerned about safety. Common sense should prevail.

Staying Connected in New Zealand


It is pretty easy to stay connected during your visit to New Zealand, at least to the Internet. However, most of the places that you stay, limit data download to a ridiculously low amount such as 100 MB. If your mail downloads in the background and contains images from friends or others, you can easily exceed this amount of data in short order. Also, not all places that you stay have fast or reliable Internet connections so it can be frustrating at times. Even Starbucks in Auckland places download limits on your connection. That being said, you will find little kiosks along the roads from Spark, a telecom company. They will allow you a gigabyte per day for free. We would just park our rental car in the vicinity of the kiosk (old phone booth) and connect. We did not need any codes or permission to connect our iPad or laptop.


I mentioned in my first blog entry that you require a cellphone with GSM capabilities to connect to the New Zealand cell network. Since my Verizon iPhone uses CDMA protocol, I could not use my iPhone in their country. I solved the problem by purchasing a cheap Nokia X6 Unlocked GSM phone on Amazon for about $68 USD. I see they are now available new, for about $48 US dollars. (Type in Nokia X6 in the page’s search)



When we arrived at the Auckland airport, there was a Vodafone kiosk opposite to the Avis car rental kiosk and I purchased a SIM card to place in the telephone that gave me plenty of data and calls within New Zealand for $49 NZD (about $34 USD). In retrospect, I could have bought the cheaper plan, as I did not use the phone more than a couple of times, but having that convenience was worth the expense to me. The one thing I couldn’t figure out until I got home was what the telephone number of the phone was with the SIM card installed.




Some of the Tourist Spots We Visited

 Glowworm Caves


We liked the Waitomo Glowworm Cave and the Ruakuri Cave. There is a package to see three caves, but two caves are enough as it take 45 minutes to see the Waitomo Cave with the many luminescent glowworms and it takes a two-hour walk through the Ruakuri Cave which also gives you exposure to glowworms and a 1/2-mile long limestone cave. If you had a choice to visit only one cave, I would choose the Ruakuri cave, but we were glad we did both. If you are adventuresome, you can arrange a Black Water Adventure Tour that puts you in a wetsuit and lets you float through the Ruakuri cave.

Otorohanga Kiwi House


I would not suggest a visit to this tourist attraction as it is extremely difficult to see one of the two Kiwi birds housed in this place. The enclosure is dimly lit and we had to be assertive to have staff tap on the enclosure glass to have a bird walk towards us. The main reason this Kiwi House exists is to preserve rare species in a protected environment.

Driving Creek Railroad in Coromandel


If you find yourself in this geographic area, I would recommend that you take a ride on this unique narrow gage railroad built by an eccentric genius who started as a potter but found a mission in life to restore the native Kauri trees that used to grow in this area. Barry Brickell is still alive and laid all of the tracks himself. In addition, he designed the locomotives as well.

I think one night lodging in Coromandel is sufficient. We stayed two nights in the vicinity of the Coromandel town in order to explore the Coromandel Peninsula. However, I would recommend that you find lodging for the second night in perhaps Whitanga, because it is a rather time consuming drive, back from the Hot Water Beach or Cathedral Cove that are interesting places to visit. It would be better to stay near those attractions before moving south to Rotorua.

The Hot Water Beach is an interesting spot to visit as a tourist because where else might you be able to dig a hole in the sand near the edge of the low tide water and sit in your personal hot tub along with an interesting collection of world travelers? Be sure you bring a spade to dig with but if you don’t have one, someone will lend you a digging tool once they get their hole dug.

A Boat Tour of the Cathedral Cove area is the most efficient way to see this spot. You can hike to Cathedral Cove but it will take you quite awhile and that is all you will see. Our boat tour with Ken cost $85 NZD pp (about $60 USD/pp) but it was really great and took about 2 1/2 hours. It can be a bit windy in the afternoon so dress accordingly.

Cathedral Cove Cruises
ph 0800 88 86 88
mob 0275555152

Rotorua


In the vicinity of Rotorua is the Agrodome. It is a good place to understand the variety of sheep and cows that form a foundation to the economy of New Zealand. You learn of the different varieties of sheep that are used for meat or for wool and see how a sheep is sheared. A visit to the farm shows you the different cattle used for dairy or for meat. You get to meet the cute sheep and lambs and get up close with the cattle, llama and alpaca.

The city of Rotorua is quite touristy, but it is the center of the Maori culture. To better learn of the original inhabitants of New Zealand, you should visit a Maori Village and experience a “Hangi”, a typical visitor feast cooked in the ancient method. You will also see the preserved arts of using flax for clothing and shelter and games that are played to ready the warriors for battle.


Rotorua is also a geothermally active area and you can smell the sulphur in the air. You should visit the Government Gardens and the free Kairau Park to see bubbling hot springs and mud pits. There is no reason to pay to see a geyser unless you have never seen one, and seeing one is on your bucket list.

Milford Sound


This area of the South Island is a highlight for a tourist. If you are a trekker, you will want to consider planning to do the Milford Track. It takes 5 days and can cost about $2000 NZD pp but is known as one of the finest treks in the world.


We were just happy to visit the area and to take a boat ride through the Milford Sound, that in reality is a Fjord. You must put this on your bucket list! The next time we visit the South Island Fjordland National Park, we plan to visit Doubtful Sound. This is a two-day, one night adventure to reach this less visited fjord.  


Wineries


We did not visit any wineries on this trip because the drinking and driving laws are very strict in New Zealand. However, we did experience a lot of the New Zealand wines during our evenings. The Pinot Noir grapes are exceptional in this country and while the vines are relatively young, the wines are great. There are several important wine growing regions and we drove through most of them and sampled wines from each of them.  We preferred the Pinot grapes to the Sauvignon varitals. They do have some good Chardonnay wines as well.


Money Matters 

I found that I really did not need much native currency while in New Zealand. You can use your VISA card almost everywhere. However it is nice to have perhaps $100 NZD available to buy coffee or food should this be more convenient to pay in cash. There were only a couple of times where you could not pay with a credit card.

Tipping is not common in New Zealand. Tips are not expected in restaurants or other places. I did tip occasionally when service was exceptional and even then it seemed awkward to the person to whom I gave the tip. I told them that tipping was customary in the USA and that I really wanted them to be recognized for their exceptional service.

The exchange rate varied from about 1 $NZD = $0.64 to $0.70 $USD during our trip. Many tourist places have a button that will automatically convert the cost in NZD to USD but hidden in the receipt is a cost for the conversion. I always elected to pay in $NZD and to let my VISA company make the conversion. Perhaps they are charging me each time as well but at least I was consistent.

Souvenirs

In Kaikoura (South Island), Earline wanted to purchase a jade pendant and some gifts made from Paua shells for gifts. I had blogged that there was a factory store there and we thought we were getting better prices than buying elsewhere. It turned out that prices for the same items were cheaper at the store in the Aukland airport than in the factory store. This was a disappointing revelation but only amounted to a several dollar difference per item. Still, be aware that a factory store may not be cheaper.

Accommodations

Most of the places we stayed were really quite nice and reasonably priced. We did splurge a bit for our stay in the Lanarch Castle near Dunedin, but generally the rooms were priced at about $120 NZD (about $84 USD) and often-included breakfast. Our initial and final stay at the Hilltop Homestay with Graham and Katrine Patton was nice because they are gracious hosts, but the room did not have adequate Internet connection and no TV was provided. I think you might be able to find something better for the $120 NZD but I doubt you would get breakfast or better conversation for the price. They are retired school teachers and have a lot to offer the traveler.

I would not recommend staying at the Capital View Motor Lodge in Wellington. Not only was the Internet connection very poor and of limited data capacity, but the room was noisy. I would rate it as adequate for our needs of a night’s lodging before getting on the Interislander Ferry the following morning. In the future, I would look for something else. I chose it because I did not know how long it would take to get to the ferry and to drop off the rental car. The rental car drop off is right at the ferry terminal so travel time is all that you need to consider in finding a motel or hotel for the night.

Food

The food in New Zealand is quite good. Some offerings considered routine to them were strange to us. The hamburgers are all grass fed beef and are served with a fried egg on top of salad greens and often included an onion ring or a pickled beet slice (beet root to them). The lamb and pork belly were great as was their Hokey Pokey ice cream that includes bits of honeycomb in the mix. Fresh fish abounds and is very tasty. The cost is quite reasonable for what you get. Their beers are tasty and varied. Coffee is exceptional and is almost always made in an expresso machine. I was not impressed with Starbucks in Auckland. The smaller places make better coffee.

Conclusion 

We found the people of New Zealand to be the most friendly and gracious people we have ever encountered. Even the drivers are courteous and don’t cut you off to pass you like they do in the USA. That being said however, they do tend to come up fast on your tail if you are going too slowly and that unstated maneuver means you are to pull over to allow them to pass as soon as you can. Most roads are only two lanes so you have to watch for areas to pull to the side. You drive on the left side of the road so it takes a day or two before you really get used to this. Most of their intersections are “round abouts” so you have to look right for oncoming traffic and you go clockwise around the circle. Roads are generally well marked.

The scenery is breath taking, the air is clean, graffiti is almost non-existent, the streets are clean and the people are happy. I could easily live in their country and assimilate into their way of life. Who knows…?

If you have questions and I can answer them in the comments, I will do so.


Sunday, November 1, 2015

Day #17 New Zealand Adventure (The Tane Muhata and Famous Toilets)

Today was our last full day in New Zealand as we leave for California tomorrow evening. We wanted to finish things on our “bucket list” and for me that meant seeing the oldest living Kauri tree in the world. It is called Tane Muhate or “God of the Forest” in Maori language. The tree is about 40 feet in diameter and stands about 174 feet high. It is estimated to be between 1200 and 2000 years old. There is a larger tree in diameter in the Waipoa Forest but it is not as tall nor as old. We left Dargaville at 0730 and headed for the Waipoura Forest.






This tree is endangered and they will not allow humans to walk near its base because they fear the root system will be damaged by foreign bacteria or fungi. To see the tree, you must walk through a biohazard zone that coats your shoes with fungicides.

This tree is not easy to find and it is a long drive on the North Island through some winding roads. There is a visitor center in the Waipoura Forest but there is nothing there. I would not spend time driving in the narrow, winding road.

When we did locate it, it was a 5 minute walk from the road but it is a magnificent tree. I am glad we came to see this ancient and sacred tree.


Tane Muhata - World's Oldest Kauri Tree




After viewing the tree, we started the transit from west to east on the North Island and were told that we needed to see the famous Hundertwasser’s Toilets in a town called Kawakawa. We would never have thought to visit public toilets without talking to a very enthusiastic New Zealand couple at a rest stop. They told us they were world famous and we had to see them…so we did. :)


Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an internationally recognized architect and ecologist born in Austria in 1928. He first came to New Zealand in the early 1970’s and purchased a farm near Kawakawa. He became a citizen on New Zealand in 1986 and was declared a Living Treasure of New Zealand. He was commissioned to build the public toilets on the town’s main street  in 1997. These unique toilets are a tourist magnet.
















The town also has a historic vintage railway that takes a 45 minute round trip from Kawakawa to Taumarere. The cost is $20 for the ride. The station has a great and reasonably priced restaurant where Earline and I got scrambled eggs on toast for $6.50 NZD. Earline found a dog named Max to pet and Max took to her as all dogs do.





Leaving Kawakawa, we mainly had a long drive south to reach the house of where we initially stayed when we arrived in New Zealand, the B&B of Graham and Katrine Patton.

Hill Park Homestay

We got to their place after about 7 hours of driving and unloaded our luggage. We watched the re-run of the All Blacks rugby game with them, The All Blacks won the game and Earline and I watched the second half of the game while in our room in Dargaville. When had missed the first half of the game. Having done this, Earline and I set off to find some food as we did not have lunch. We could find nothing suitable in Manarewa where the B&B is located so we decided to drive into Auckland as Earline still had on her bucket list to have some New Zealand Oysters.

Auckland's Viaduct Harbor

Viaduct Harbor


We decided to eat near the Viaduct Harbor and found a restaurant on the pier called Y-Not. The food was excellent and Earline was now satiated. We returned to our B&B to crash for the night. Our plane leaves at 7:45 pm tomorrow and we arrive at 11:40 am. It is interesting that we arrive before we left. :) This is the curiosity of New Zealand being in the beginning of international date line.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Day #16 New Zealand Adventure - New Plymouth to Dargaville


Today we left New Plymouth after having breakfast with Bruce Petty who moved to New Zealand over 12 years ago. He used to be a nuclear medicine technician at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo but he developed a wanderlust and retired to New Zealand to write about the history of World War II and to give enrichment lectures on the Princess Cruise lines. He is married to a Pediatrician and they are raising three children with a better quality of life in New Zealand. Health Insurance for a family of 5 costs him about $2500 NZD per year.

New Plymouth is a great town with everything you could desire in terms of services, culture, schools and climate. The only negative is that it is near a dormant volcano that could erupt at any time. :(

After we left New Plymouth, Earline and I said we still needed to see an original growth Kauri tree to complete our bucket list. Thus we decided to drive north to the Waipoa Forest to see the largest and oldest Kauri tree in all of New Zealand, probably the oldest in the world. 

This represented a long drive of 6 1/2 hours today but we still have a day and a half to be in New Zealand and we wanted to see what the more distant North Island was like. Once we got through the horrible traffic of Auckland, we drove north on Route 1 to Silverdale where we stopped at a service center to refuel and to learn how to pay for a toll road that goes through a tunnel. They don't have toll booths but instead you go to the counter and provide your car license number to the desk clerk who enters it into the computer. You pay about $5.60 NZD for a return trip on the toll road and you get a receipt. As you drive the road, cameras take a picture of your license plate and I guess it compares your plate to the computer entry. Hopefully, I will not get a fine. I better keep the receipt.

There is a lot of empty land in the North Island as well and the industry seems to be mostly of dairy farming. 

Traveling north you will find Route 12 that crosses the land from east to west and that leads you to Dargaville, the Kumara Capital of the World, that is near the Waipoa Forest that has the old growth Kauri trees that we hope to see tomorrow.


Kumar  (Click the link)


We found a nice motel called "Hobson's Choice" for $130 NZD. The internet was speedy and the room was quite nice. We went into town to find a place to eat dinner and lucked into an establishment called "The Northern Wairoa Hotel and Restaurant." The place had atmosphere and excellent food and we learned what Kumara is. It is a root vegetable similar to a large sweet potato but with a slightly different taste.




Tonight was Halloween and I saw kids running around doing much like what our kids do in the USA. Tomorrow morning at 5:00 am will be the World Championship Rugby match between New Zealand and Australia. The entire country is anticipating this game and praying that the All Blacks, the New Zealand team, wins. If they do, it will be their third world championship win. It is fun to be here in New Zealand at this particular time and to watch the country get behind "their" team. :)


Day #15 New Zealand Adventure - Interisland Transfer and Drive to New Plymouth



We got on the Interislander ferry and it was sparsely populated with passengers. The last time we transited the islands, it was the Labor three day holiday weekend and it was packed with people going from Wellington to Picton. Today, we also chose to go with the Premier Plus upgrade because the lounge is comfortable and they serve a great hot breakfast, provide free Wi-Fi and unlimited coffees or wine. Earline certainly made use of the free wine privilege. :) I however, got a bit seasick half way across the Tasman Sea and had to remain still with my eyes closed. Fortunately, I did not get sicker and needed to expel my breakfast. :(

Once we exited the ship, obtaining a new rental vehicle from Avis was very easy. Someone was at the desk, had the contract prepared for me to sign and gave me the keys to an ugly blue Toyota Corolla.


Since I had been driving a nice grey car of the same make, there was no problem in trying to adapt to a new car in the Wellington traffic. We loaded our luggage that had some difficulty being offloaded from the ferry because they could not get the doors to open. Someone forgot to grease them I think.

We set the navigator to New Plymouth because the brother of a friend of Earline’s has been living in New Zealand for many years, and Earline wanted to get an update on his status for her friend. Bruce was a history major and ended up writing history books on the WWII about the Pacific Theater.

About the author of the books:  http://www.voicesfromthepacificwar.com/about


The drive took about 4 3/4 hours but went through some interesting coastal landscape that was constantly changing. There were many small beach towns with sheep farms abutting the houses and in some cases interspersed to the houses.





Approaching New Plymouth, you can see Mt. Taranaki, the stratovolcano that is nearly a perfect cone. This is the Maori name for the volcano but Captain Cook called it Mt. Edgemont after John Perceval, second Earl of Edgemont, a former first Lord of the Admiralty who had supported the concept of an oceanic search forTerra Australia Incognita. Cook described it as "of a prodigious height and its top cover'd with everlasting snow," surrounded by a "flat country ... which afforded a very good aspect, being clothed with wood and verdure."




Mt. Taranaki  (Click the link)

We were pretty exhausted when we got to New Plymouth and made contact with Bruce Petty to arrange to meet for breakfast in the morning. We chose a nice motel called B-K’s Edgemont Motor Lodge that was very tidy and had a jacuzzi tub and a small efficiency kitchen. 


We walked into town (20 minutes) to get dinner at a local pub  called “The Black Harp” and had a good local dark beer. Earline wanted a hamburger and I wanted to try the “Roast of the Day” that was a pork roast with lots of vegetables. We have never seen a vegetable farm nor a pig farm and we are wondering where this stuff comes from. Maybe Bruce will be able to tell me?