Friday, April 3, 2015

New Zealand – The First Days



Marie-Elisabeth on porch of Anderson Cottage on Harding Farm
near Ngaruawahia, New Zealand
Our hosts -  Pam and Malcolm Harding Owners of the Farm

Arriving at Auckland International after 2 long flights was welcome relief!  Hawaiian Airlines was excellent – on time, even early, from San Diego to Honolulu and Auckland – almost 15 hours in the air.  We landed at 10:20pm – earlier than scheduled and then waited for the plane to be fumigated as we sat there – all overhead bins were opened and the flight attendants walked up and down the aisles with spray cans.  The Kiwis are very careful about their agriculture – the landing form was extensive with many questions about what was in your luggage.  The video before landing put the fear of God in you – declare any food item, throw it away, or face a minimum $400 fine!  Our bag of almonds were declared and admitted into New Zealand!
The Novotel where we stayed the night was only a few steps from the exit of the International Terminal – fortunately! The next morning we picked up our rental car and braved the right hand drive. (So far I’ve only tried to get in the passenger door once!)  I was hoping that my year in England driving on the left would come back to me.  Although this was many years ago, we’ve driven in Ireland, Scotland and England since then. I haven’t done badly so far.  I still hesitate when coming to a roundabout though.  Roads in New Zealand are in good condition but very few motorways.  The speed limit is 100kph or about 60mph – even on a motorway or divided highway – strictly enforced.  It takes longer to get places than planned but, the country is so beautiful that going at a slower pace just seems right.  The flora is amazing and not what expected.  The “forests” are often a combination of pine trees, giant tree ferns, pampas grass, and other tropical plants.  The climate on the North Island appears to be very temperate.

We are staying at Anderson Cottage on the farm of Pam and Malcom Harding – wonderful hosts.  Their 1,000 acre sheep and cattle farm is 4 kilometers up a winding road – at the very end – gravel for half of the way.  So quiet – so dark at night – this is really the country!  What a great place to rest and recover from the long plane trip.  We can’t figure it out but jet lag has been almost nothing – one night of waking up early.  Maybe a quiet farm in a remote area is the formula? 

The Official Greeter at the Cottage
Beautiful Harding Farm - 1,000 Acres
After settling in we spent the afternoon in Hamilton, NZ – third largest city in the country – lunch; grocery shopping; getting oriented to driving and the surroundings; and getting lost!  The next day was our first real day of sightseeing to the Glow Worm Caves at Waitomo.  What an amazing experience…totally unprepared for what we saw.  The caves themselves are quite small – nothing like Carlsbad Caverns for example – but the real attraction is the boat ride through the underground river where millions of glow worms are attached to the ceilings.  It is like watching the night sky in a remote location with no ambient light to get in the way.  They ask everyone to remain silent as the guide pulls you along in the boat from a rope attached to the ceiling.  Incredible!  The boat emerges from the entrance to the cave along the river just below the visitor center. 




After the caves, we drove out to the west coast along a gorgeous, winding road with farms; fields of sheep and cattle; magpies, pheasants, hawks, and other assorted birds; green fields and lush forests with barren hillsides at times; and, eventually beautiful views of bays and inlets from the Tasman Sea.  To head back to the farm, we took an adventurous route of 50km along a mostly gravel road that continued with some of the same scenery but through an even more remote area – fewer farms and rarely an oncoming car.  Our final stop was in Raglan, a popular resort area on another bay along the west coast.  Tomorrow – Rotorua!




1 comment:

  1. More photos involving the ship would have been nice since cruising is my forte.

    ReplyDelete