New Zealand Trip - 2013.09.23

Cape Reinga (Te Reinga or Te Rerenga Wairua in Māori) is the northwestern most tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand. Cape Reinga is located over 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia. State Highway 1 extends all the way to the Cape, but until 2010 was unsealed gravel road for the last 19km. Suitable vehicles can also travel much of the way via Ninety Mile Beach and Te Paki stream bed. We were going to try and drive the 90 miles of beach but was told by some travelers that their bus almost got caught in the incoming tide with no where to go. We decided it wasn't worth trying to beat the high tide of the Tasman Sea!
The name of the cape comes from the Māori word 'Reinga', meaning the 'Underworld'. Another Māori name is 'Te Rerenga Wairua', meaning the leaping-off place of spirits. Both refer to the Māori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. The Tasman Sea is a southwesterly marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand, approximately 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) across. It extends 2,800 km (approx.) from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoom Tasman, the first recorded European to encounter New Zealand and Tasmania.
The British explorer Captain James Cook later extensively navigated the Tasman Sea in the 1770s as part of his first voyage of exploration.
The Tasman Sea is commonly referred to in both Australia and New Zealand as The Ditch; for example, crossing the ditch means going to Australia from New Zealand or vice versa. In Māori, the Tasman Sea is called Te Tai-o-Rehua.

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In the late 1800's we were told, a group of convicts from the near by jail used to come here to wash their clothes in the hot waters. One man threw his laundry soap into the mouth of the geysers and suddenly it erupted! Now around 10:30 a.m. a man pours a bag of environmentally safe detergent into the mouth and the geysers erupts after a few minutes. This is done once a day so the geyser can replenish the water chamber below. The guide said at one time there were around 300 geysers but due to the thermal electric generating plants, only about 18 geysers were left on the north island.

Beautiful large tinted lake.

A hot springs with bubbling mud!

Cape Reinga (Te Reinga or Te Rerenga Wairua in Māori) is the northwestern most tip of the Aupouri Peninsula, at the northern end of the North Island of New Zealand. Cape Reinga is located over 100 km north of the nearest small town of Kaitaia. State Highway 1 extends all the way to the Cape, but until 2010 was unsealed gravel road for the last 19km. Suitable vehicles can also travel much of the way via Ninety Mile Beach and Te Paki stream bed. We were going to try and drive the 90 miles of beach but was told by some travelers that their bus almost got caught in the incoming tide with no where to go. We decided it wasn't worth trying to beat the high tide of the Tasman Sea! The name of the cape comes from the Māori word 'Reinga', meaning the 'Underworld'. Another Māori name is 'Te Rerenga Wairua', meaning the leaping-off place of spirits. Both refer to the Māori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. The Tasman Sea is a southwesterly marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand, approximately 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) across. It extends 2,800 km (approx.) from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoom Tasman, the first recorded European to encounter New Zealand and Tasmania. The British explorer Captain James Cook later extensively navigated the Tasman Sea in the 1770s as part of his first voyage of exploration. The Tasman Sea is commonly referred to in both Australia and New Zealand as The Ditch; for example, crossing the ditch means going to Australia from New Zealand or vice versa. In Māori, the Tasman Sea is called Te Tai-o-Rehua.
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Here I am overlooking another sea, the Tasman Sea!

The winds almost blew one over!

The lighthouse at the tip of northern New Zealand.

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We took the car ferry over to Russell from Pahia. There were interesting old churches and houses around the city.

This is one of the oldest houses in northern New Zealand and still lived in.

The Duke of Marlborough Hotel was built around 1930.

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Sheep now are being lost to huge farms raising milk cows! The milk is turned to powdered milk and sold to China, a 30 billion dollars a year sale!

A special grass is grown to feed the sheep and cattle.

Great views of the hills, valleys, grass lands and forests.

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Barry Brickell started this project in 1973. He came to New Zealand in 1961 and became the first kiwi-born fulltime handcraft-potter.

Empty wine bottles hold back the dirt along the tracks!

A great view from the top of the mountain!

The land has been given to the state as land that cannot be used for any other purpose and is being renovated back to the original forests of Waiau Kauri trees.

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North Island of New Zealand Stops in Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington and on to Honolulu
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Barbara and I were thinking about India, Columbia or maybe Venezuela but so far in 2013 we hadn't taken a trip. I was getting restless and suddenly I got a phone call from Seattle. Barbara left a message, she said she have a good price on a trip and it is something we talked about once and it is not the usual Europe or South American trip. I wondered where that could be and she called me later in the evening and said she had found a fantastic price for a trip to New Zealand. Air fare from San Francisco or Seattle to Hawaii and on to New Zealand. All for around $2,000.00 including airfare, four star hotels and car rental! That is almost the usual airfare to New Zealand from the West Coast at times Eight days in New Zealand and three in Hawaii on the return trip. We also are looking at extending the trip for three more days to see more of the western side of the North Island. In 2004 we met on a trip to Turkey and here we are having coffee in Vietnam and then we continued on to Cambodia in 2007. We also visited Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. So you can see, we like to visit out of the way and interesting places. Check out the following link to view a short history and maps of New Zealand. This is the itinerary and cost of the trip and can be used to determine the best price for a trip like this one. Barbara just informed me the total mileage round trip to New Zealand is 13,580 miles! I had to initiate my United Frequent Flyer Mileage as I hadn't flown United in years. Barbara told me Hawaiian Airlines is a partner with United so I can use my FF # on my Hawaiian Airline ticketing.


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The first morning in Auckland, a coffee and then off to the thousand foot tall Sky Tower!

Views of Auckland

People jumping off the roof and hanging onto steel cables.

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Rotorua has a great lake with a river boat and lots of birds, we loved the black swans with the babies!

This is the St. Faith Anglican Church on the shores of Rotorua.


We visited two caves with 'glow worms' and later were told they actually were a maggot type larva. The insects breed and lay eggs on the roof of the caves. They secret a line of mucus that can extend up to 10 inches or so long as can be seen in the right photo. The worms glow in the dark very brightly and the insects that are blown into the cave fly to the light and become stuck to the line. The worm eats the line and draws the insect to their mouths. Eventually the worms go into to a pupae stage and emerge as a fly and live only a few days, just enough time to mate.

The biggest cave was about 30 stories under the surface and it was a long walk down to the bottom and back up again!

Paihia is the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands in the far north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located close to the historic towns of Russell, and Kerikeri, 60 kilometres north of Whangarei. The origin of the name Paihia is obscure. One, possibly apocryphal, attribution is to Reverend Henry Williams. When Williams first arrived in the Bay of Islands he knew only a little of the Māori vocabulary, one of the words he did know being ‘pai’ meaning 'good'. When they came to the place now known as Paihia, he told his Māori guide ‘Pai here’. Henry Williams named the missionary station Marsden's Vale; eventually the name Paihia became the accepted name of the settlement.
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We stayed in Pahia in northern New Zealand on the way to the cape.

We found this restaurant on a ship and had fish and chips there one evening.

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We had to stop on the second trip through this little town to photo the interesting buildings!

We never did find out what was in these buildings.

Our favorites were these two chickens on the roof, especially the one with high heels and pearls!

We stayed at Thames one night in a Swiss chalet. They went to bed so early that when we rang the bell for the owner, he came out in his bathrobe! The entire town was shut down and half the houses were dark by 9:30 p.m. Thames /ˈtɛmz/ is a town at the southwestern end of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the Firth of Thames close to the mouth of the Waihou River. The town is the seat of the Thames-Coromandel District Council. The Māori iwi are Ngāti Maru, who are descendants of Marutuahu's son Te Ngako. Ngāti Maru is part of the Ngati Marutuahu confederation of tribes or better known as Hauraki Iwi. Many people migrated to Thames at its peak, and it was soon the second-largest city in New Zealand (the largest being Dunedin then Auckland). However, as the gold began to diminish, so did the number of inhabitants, and although Thames never shrank, it has never grown much either. It is still the biggest town on the Coromandel. The population in the 2006 census was 6,756, an increase of 51 since 2001.
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We stayed at a Hostel and got a kitchen, living room, bathroom and two bedrooms for $64.00, such a deal!

Beautiful views from the parks along the way!

The statue is of a woman commemorating the original inhabitants who came to the island, she jumped off the rock saved a boat full of people!

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Our last evening before heading back to Auckland and on to Hawaii for a few days. This was a great motel on the east coast of the North Island.

We found a hut and a Maura totem pole on the beach!

A fisherman asked us to visit him in his back yard to view the fish he had just caught.

This is what New Zealand is about, lots of fresh fish to eat right out of the sea!

This is White Island, one of the most active volcanoes in the North Island. It is off the coast and we saw it in the distance. We wished we had time to go visit it in a boat!


About the only souvenir I could find that looked like something from New Zealand.