Auckland, Bay of Islands, Russell, and Whangerei New Zealand November 8- 14, 2009
It was truly sad to leave Fiji behind. . . The warm and cozy tropical weather, genuine hospitality and the great company that we had been experiencing for the past 12 days. We had an otherwise easy 3 hr. flight from Nadi to Auckland, but the kid behind me (funny his parents called him Sambo), kept kicking my seat. I mean seriously exploding on the back of my seat like a wild caged animal. It takes a lot for me to get agro angry but I actually saw red a few times and imagined inflicting violence upon him or his unobservant mother. I peeked at him through the seats and gave him an evil glare that meant business. He just looked at me, and with that little booger-faced smile, gave my chair another whack!  He was doing it on purpose that little brat. I will smack those boogers right off your face. . . be calm. Relax. Find your inner spirit. Ok, ok.
 

Auckland is like any other big city only so much cleaner. We absolutely loved it! So much to see and do and the food is amazingly cheap and delicious. We would stop off at these little places and you could get Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese including the most fantastic and original display of sushi that I have ever seen. We were very impressed with the city and even bought a handy little HP Netbook. It is 930pm and I am sitting in our campervan right now writing this journal, after a few glasses of delicious Bach 22 Merlot 2007.

After a few days putting around the city and checking out the sights and getting our campervan together we headed to Whangerei, pronounced somehow and Fengaray, don’t ask! We stayed with Mervyn and Liz Mathews on their cattle and sheep farm on the outskirts of the city. They cooked us a home cooked meal and even took us on a tour of their 150 acre farm. It was truly an experience. We met Mervyn in October 2006 on the Nomad Adventure Tour in Africa. He gave us his information and said if we were ever in New Zealand to give him a call, and that’s exactly what we did.!!!
After the night at Merv’s we were off to The Bay of Islands about an hour and a half from Whangerei.

 

The scenery is quite lovely but I feel that we are slightly spoiled because of how much we have actually been able to experience whilst traveling. Beautiful, yes, but overly impressed, not yet. It doesn’t help that it is only about 55-60 degrees. The Bay of Islands is supposed to be this amazing beach town with a lot of things to to but it was raining and cold and all we could really do is walk around the town with overpriced shops catering to tourists. We decided to take the Ferry across the bay to Russell and swing by this little boutique winery called Omata Vineyards. It was super cute and the view was out of this world. Omata sits on top of the peninsula and has sweeping views of all of the islands and the sea, not to mention the wine was scrumptious! We opted for a 2004 Shiraz, yummy in my tummy.

After the winery we decided to go down to the port for a lil’ stroll, we were in for a surprise. What started out as a relaxing day turned into a crazy, adrenaline charged afternoon. As we approached the dock I noticed two people scattering about and looking frazzled. I asked if everything was ok and the girl said:” NO! I caught a bird on accident!” A large sea bird went after her bait and got hooked in the mouth. It freaked out and wrapped itself in the fishing line and then in her other line. It was a tangled mess, bobbers hanging from all orifices and was obviously in a tremendous amout of pain. The little girl cut the line, but the bird was still trapped and about to drown. It was crazy, we were all frantic and trying to get the bird but it kept swimming away and the seagulls were trying to kill it so they could eat it. I almost leapt off the pier with all my clothes on but my ever-so-grounded husband pulled me back. We were all freaking out and screaming and borderline hysterical but then one of the workers must have heard our desperate cries and raced out on his trusty Zodiac. Alas, after about 20 minutes he was able to get the bird out of the water. We thought it was dead but it survived. He cut the line and the bird wearily swam away. It was a happy ending to an almost deadly afternoon. . . For the bird.

Later that night we found a camp sight at the scenic Tutukaka Holiday Park, and froze our ass off our first night in the camper. Tonight it is also freezing but we are all cozy and bundled up, and warm from the wine again! Today was more of a driving day. We had a late start and then I drove al the way from Tutukaka to Auckland. It is quite interesting and pretty challenging driving on the other side of the road and having the steering wheel on the other side of the car.I must say I don’t like it, not one bit. It is hard and stupid. I mean why do the Americans find it so necessary to do EVERYTHING different from the rest of the world? THe time zones are different, kilometers vs. miles, Fahrenheit vs. Celsius, and it is even impossible to order just a plain cup of black coffee here. They look at you like you should be in a flipping mental institition. All I want is a normal cup of coffee. None of this long black, long white, short this, tall that, JUST GIVE ME MY COFFEE PLEASE!!! 
Anyhoo, we are snuggling up again in our lovely campervan that we have named the SS Macpherson ( the SS stands for Sheared Sheep). Life is great. New Zealand is cool, but we are still waiting to be blown away. Not literally anyway.

Speaking of sheared sheep. This brochure is disgusting. The NZ Board of Tourism should be ashamed of themselves. Click on this picture to enlarge and you will see what I mean.

Just incase you wanted to crack all of your teeth, or perhaps let your children poop out gemstones. Hey, wait a minute, where's that damn kid from the plane. . . he he he

Brad showing off his lovely cannon

Bay of Islands

Ever since we started bringing the Ducky around we have been super popular.This guy hopped right in the campervan. . . then pooped on my foot.

Fancy an afterhour poo?

Stinky, icky, smells like a sewer, but we paid to see it!

Now, here is where it gets kinda tricky. We want to include Ducky in all of our activities, however, we are not sure of the legal drinking age for Duckies in New Zealand. We gave him a sip, only because he was so cute, and he jumped right in the glass. We are slightly worried that he liked it a wee bit too much. We will have to keep an eye on him.
Love from the most creepy brochure of a man shearing a sheep that we have ever encountered- Sammyjoe and Bradleymac