I must apologize that I lag so behind with the posts, but cruising can be a surprisingly time-consuming activity and blog posting always has to come second to seeing and doing. In the past I have declined sundowner invitations in favor of working on the blog, but I’ve come to realize it’s a shame to miss out on the now in favor of writing about things that have already happened. (And I won’t even go into the friend who opted out of an amazing waterfall excursion in order to update his blog.)
I do keep a journal and take a lot of photos; so when the time comes to write a post I have a good record of the place and events.
I will admit I kind of like being behind for a couple of reasons. The first is that in going through our pictures (and re-reading my journal), I’ll be reminded of things I’d forgotten about, often delightful things, and it’s fun for both of us to re-live them in making the blog post.
The second is in knowing what’s going to happen, I can write about things that seemed small at the time but turned out to be important, and leave out “big deals” that were long-forgotten a day later and irrelevant. The blog then becomes less of a journal and more of a story.-Cyndi
Posting things awhile after they happened lets us remember things like this delicious poisson cru (from French Polynesia and my Misc. Pictures file). Wow, I haven’t thought about poisson cru in awhile, but we sure loved it. I wonder how much it costs to fly to Tahiti from here?
One all to frequent Northland sight is dead possums along the roadside. There are a lot of them here, and apparently they have no talent for crossing the highway in a timely manner. We soon found out no one sheds any tears over this as possums are not native to New Zealand. Somehow they came over from Australia, and their introduction (along with stouts, rats and weasels) was a disaster for a few species of native birds, some of which remain only on offshore islands. The parklands all have programs to trap and eliminate these animals, but they still roam freely in the countryside. From the looks of the numbers alongside the road come morning, it doesn’t look like they’ll be eradicated anytime soon.
One thing we noticed about these possums is that they, unlike North American possums, are beautiful animals. I wanted a picture of one, but that was unlikely as they are nocturnal and shy. I got the idea that maybe I could find one in good shape along the road and get a picture of that. After all, most of them don’t actually get squashed. And so our quest began to find the attractive “squashed” possum. For weeks we’d drive and whenever I saw a possum coming up I’d say, “Squashed possum,” and then give my verdict on it as we passed. Unfortunately it was always, “Squashed possum . . . unattractive.” Unattractive meant we’d drive on. Our holy grail was the attractive squashed possum.
Time came and went and we never found an attractive one. We went cruising down the coast, ending up far south in Tauranga, south of Auckland, along with our car brought down by our friend Robin. We gave up on the possum picture. But then in April, we went back north for a cruising seminar in Opua and spent the night. The next morning as we headed south, I could see a possum fast approaching. “Squashed possum . . . . . Attractive!” Rich whipped a quick U turn on the highway and we zoomed back to see that indeed we had found what we’d sought for so long, the attractive squashed (actually not squashed) possum.
We must have looked very strange, our car parked on the side of the highway, taking photographs of a dead possum. I can imagine the Kiwis shaking their heads at some of the crazy things tourists do. We got our photos and now can show that those Australian possums are very cute, even if they are better off remaining in Australia. –Cyndi
A postcard of an Australian possum.Sighting the dead-yet-still-attractive possum on the highway.Taking advantage of the rare opportunity to capture an attractive “squashed” possum on film (OK, SD card).There’s actually a candy named after squashed possums.
One neat thing about New Zealand is that on any given road trip you’re likely to stumble on some wonderful little cafe in the middle of nowhere.
On the drive from Auckland to the Bay of Plenty, that cafe is Woodturner’s Cafe. It’s a lovely little place out in the countryside, in the farmlands of Waikato. Their remote location does not stop them from having excellent coffee drinks, bakery goodies and great food in general. (In fact they serve surprisingly great smoked salmon.)
It’s right on the highway and easy to spot. Even if you’re not hungry, it’s worth stopping in for a coffee drink and to see the place. –Cyndi
Tauranga turned out to be another beautiful, wonderful town but I guess that’s no big surprise as everything we’ve seen here in New Zealand has been pretty wonderful. In a previous post, we talked about all the people we know here in New Zealand. We ran in to a few of them in Tauranga.
We’d heard a rumor that Robin Phillips from the boat Katydid (hi Jennifer!) was in Tauranga and we met him for coffee at Starbucks one morning. (Oh yes, there are two Starbucks in Tauranga!) He said something that I’d like to try to relate here as accurately as I can. He said that as cruisers, we need to have three plans; an immediate plan, a short-term plan and a long-term plan. That the long term plan probably won’t work out the way you think it will, but you need to have it to get the out of the bay and on to next destinations. The short-term plan might turn out the way you expect and the immediate plan most certainly should.
For some time now, Cyndi and I have talked about updating “The Plan” section on our web site and Robin gave us the inspiration we needed to get it done. Check it out. Included there is a detailed graphical route plan that we should be able to follow exactly for the next 3 to 5 years. As for our immediate plan, maybe another cup of coffee at Starbucks! -Rich
Robin’s boat Katydid (yellowish hull in the center of the picture) anchored off the charming town of Mount Maunganui. The harbor is an interesting mix of commercial boats and natural beauty.Robin explains the plans. I include his last name above so that his girlfriend will find this post on Google. She’s been known to read our blog. That’s what the “hi Jennifer” shout-out is about.Tauranga is a two Starbucks town!
This just in… now even our long-term plan is in jeopardy! Cyndi and I have always been very compatible. If you know us, you know this to be true. One of the very foundations of our relationship is that we both love Starbucks coffee. On this trip to Tauranga, things changed. I admitted that I like almost any coffee here in New Zealand better than I like Starbucks coffee. She consented to go to Robert Harris Coffee Roasters with me, even though Starbucks was just down the street, but she did say that she might have to reevaluate our future together. I’ll let you know how it turns out. -Rich
Me entering a coffee shop other than Starbucks (for what I think is a better cup of coffee!)
By the end of our second day in Tauranga, we had pretty much decided to bring Legacy down here to do our boat work and live the rest of the season. We loved the marina, the boatyard, the hiking, the beaches, the towns, the food, and the general atmosphere. Plus it would put us near some areas we hadn’t had time to see yet.
By now we had decided to come back to New Zealand at least two more times (if not more), but it would be nice to see more of the north island before we headed off to Fiji. We planned to cruise some of the islands on the way down to Tauranga, and it would be convenient to have it it be a one-way trip. We could leave directly from Tauranga for Fiji in late May without having to worry about getting back north to Opua to check out.
We drove back to Opua suddenly feeling short on time as we’d be leaving early in March. It was time to wrap up our business in Northland and get ready to do some cruising.
For lack of any other pictures to go here, I’ll offer these “from the car” pictures taken on our trip back up to Opua. –Cyndi
