My final post on my New Zealand adventure.  It really was splendid and I had a great time.  I could hardly have been more fortunate with the weather, whiich was sunny every day but one and fine on each of my hikes (not all that common in NZ- much of it is green for a reason). I drove from Te Anau to the Bay of Islands- the far south to the far north of the islands- perhaps a little under 2000 miles overall.  Timing was right as the price of gas- while probably 3x the U.S. cost- was the lowest in years.

I enjoyed all of the hikes, which each presented somewhat different scenery, particularly the 4 on the South Island-

 And even driving by Mt. Doom of Lord of the Rings fame (where Frodo and the Ring were fortunately absent that day)

And of course, just the ordinary countryside and seascapes presented wonderful scenes-

It is, I think, the extraordinary variety that, in my opinion, gives NZ the right to its claim as the worlds most beautiful country.

But like many successful trips, some of my most lasting memories were from meeting so many nice people, as friendly and as helpful  a people as I have ever met.  Traveling by yourself presents lots of challenges, particularly if you are prone to occasional bouts of stupidity like me, and I got all sorts of help froo dozens of Kiwis who kindly took the time to assist me.  As but one example, on the night when I was having trouble finding a room, the manager at one full hotel spent 15 minutes calling around to find me a place to stay.  Or the elderly lady owner at Kumeau River (a famous NZ winery) who served me all of her best wine without charge and who talked with me about NZ, her winery and family for over half an hour. 

  So, notwithstanding the quickly forgotten long flight (really only slightly more expensive than going to continental Europe), anyone who likes outdoor activities, wine tasting (so many opportunities), friendly people, beautiful scenery and one lane bridges- that is almost everyone with any sense of adventure- should consider going at least once in their life. 

Ok, on my final day in NZ I took the ferry from downtown Auckland to the playground island of Waikeke, about 30 minutes away, for my rendezvous with the scooter.   The Kiwi ferries are very efficient and comfortable and the Waikeke ferry runs every half an hour.   It was another beautiful day- I have been unbelievably lucky with weather since I got here.

Waikeke is a very upscale island with 20 or more vinyards and is renowned in NZ for its vineyard restaurants.  It felt a little bit Malibu or some other Hollywood haunt.  I felt like i was intruding into the land of the rich and famous when I pulled into a winery parking lot loaded with Audis and BMWs (yes, I know I have one- but it was back in the States) and... one little yellow scooter.  And these vineyard settings are truly spectacular- the best I have ever seen-

But as I set off my scooter,  I soon discovered the obvious- my plan to scoot and wine taste had a small flaw- what might be called light headedness.  Notwithstanding my superb scooter skills- I made sure to follow Sams advice and avoid all ditches,  I had to spit out all of the wine- not making me a favorite of the other tasters or the vineyard- but- combined with the cost (each place charged)- it seemed to reduce the appeal of the whole wine experience.  So, after the first vineyard, I got back on the scooter and went roaring the hell out of there (well, what counted for roaring on a scooter) and just visited the wineries for lunch and dinner.  In between, I joined the locals swimming in the harbor, though not all of the way back to Auckland (that was the ferrys job) and touring on the scooter.  Not biking turned out to be wise as the island was quite hilly and bigger than I thought.

But in my touring, I did come across this unusual warning next to a driveway-

 As you can perhaps see, from the below, not a lot of room for this sport in the guys 100 ft backyard

So I ended up for dinner at one of the vineyards with spectacular view of the rolling hills, harbor and Auckland city (this was the restaurant for George and Melissa, I thought)-

But outside many of the well heeled patrons seemed to be sitting on these bean bags on the lawn and engaging in, well, what could only be described as somewhat armorous affairs.  But for me, it more or less added to the view....

And then I took the ferry back... (one more wrap up post to come...)

Lost my mobile phone.  No texts or calls obviously.  My home phone will be the number to reach me in the next few days-  978.263.1893 or email- kgkaulbach@gmail.com.

Will have one final post, but a few more pictures of the rolling NZ countryside

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I left the charming Dagarville hotel and headed for Auckland and a small habor volcan hike this morning.  It is difficult to drive through the NZ countryside for long without snapping a photo or two, much to the chagrin of motorists behind me-

Like many cities, Auckland is a pain to drive in and worse to park, but it is very pretty-

I took the ferry to Rongotito Island- where do they get these names- and did the short, 800 ft hike to the top.  Great views of the harbor in all directions on a warm day.

Tomorrow is my last day and am doing something different....I had planned to rent a bike and take the ferry in Auckland harbor to Waikeke Island and tour some of their nice vinyards, but then I found out they also rented... motor scooters!   I agonized over how I could justify dispensing with the physcial exertion (hiking/biking) that forms so much of my trip, but then I thought- screw it!- I am taking the motor scooter and rolling through the vineyards in style...

At recommendation of some Kiwis I met hiking, I decided to head

 over to the west coast of the Northlands and view some these allegedly very large Kauri trees.  I had originally planned to drive all the way to Cape Renga at the far north, but they convinced me- along with the drive I had already done to get to the Bay- that it was not worth it if one was short of time.  It is quite a ways and the roads can be slow as you go through quite a few little uninteresting towns.

So I headed for the Kauri forest through some very twisty roads- it felt like the turns were about 175 degrees half the time.   I was defintiely questioning my decision to go as it started raining a bit on the way and was not a relaxing drive.   When I finally got there, I found you had to hike quite a ways in over difficult terrain to see the best trees and so I laced up my boots and made sure I had plenty of water and provisions-

I bushwacked my way in and got to the, um, viewing platform and was looking at a fairly large tree and thinking- that is nice, but not really that special, when I turned around and saw this unbelievably large tree over 17 meters around (I had been looking the wrong way)- WOW!! I exclaimed with my ability to a turn a unique phrase-

You cannot imagine how big this tree was (largest Kauri in the world).  It looked like something out of Tolkien and Lothlorien in Middle Earth.  Not exceptionally high, but just guargantuan girth.  Pictures cannot really capture it and them.

I decided that these extraordinary trees had made the drive worthwhile and saw what the Kiwi hikers meant when they said the trees were stunning.  But the day of unexpected events was not over as I headed for the old logging town of Dagarville on the West Coast.  I had booked an old hotel there as it was simply on my way back to Auckland.

I

I got there tired and hungry and the owner and his wife- a 65ish old couple who owned a nearby beef farm as it turned out- were having a dinner with friends in the large old dining room and they invited me to joiin then and have a glass of wine.  We discussed NZ politics, history, farming, the hotel/b&B business, and hiking- it was just a suprising delight and, also partly because of the charm of the hotel (which they had completely refurbished without altering the 19th character of the place, turned out to be one of best places I stayed and a trip highlight.

And as headed down the West Coast, I took a couple of pictures of farms like theirs which roll down to the sea-

Have seen quite a few Kiwi police cars during my touring, but fortunately not when I was speeding... But this was the view I liked the best-

After escaping from the girls drill camp just north of Auckland, I headed for the Bay of Islands which is about 2/3rds of the way up the northern peninsula or Northlands area.  The Bay of Islands has over 100 islands in the Bay and is a very popular beach/resort area, as the water is quite warm (swam yesterday in So. Pacific) and the Bay beautiful.  I decided to take a ,swim/view with the dolphins, cruise of the Bay, which would allow one to swim the dolphins if there were no baby dolphins with the pod, etc.  It cost about $80, though as far as I could tell, the dolphins got charged nothing for swimming with Ken.  Well, we did see the dolphins up close, including a baby, which was fun-

We couldnt swim with them because of the baby, but I think that was the dolphins loss as much as mine, but the tour of the Bay was wotth the tarriff  alone-

There also appeared to be a meeting of the Harley Davidson club of NZ in Pahia that day.  They looked a lot like their American brethren, at least circa 1990 (ponytails, a little chunky)- none were seen swimming with dolphins and few appeared to be hikers, though many looked like they hadnt seen a shower for a while.

Leaving the Coromandel Penisula, I headed north of Auckland to the area that the Kiwis call the Northlands.  The most visited and famous part is the Bay of Islands where i am now staying.  As  I did not have a hotel booked as I got north of Auckland, I had to hunt around at 9pm at night and finally found this overpriced place in a camping park.  I got a little cabin to myself, though it slept about 12.  In the morning I noticed these girls outside in uniforms doing exercises and then suddenly I got a knock on the door with the announcement that morning exercises would begin in 10 minutes.  Well, I quickly through on my clothes, dumped my luggage in the car, and quietly sped the hell out of there before I got stuck doing girl camp activities and maybe making dinner for 200 kids.

And later I got to the Bay of Islands which is quite nice and somewhat tropical.  I noticed one of the famous Kiwi sailing boats... heading into the wind.... under full... power (my kind of sailing)-

 It is a pretty bay-

And I went for a swim in the South Pacific-

And, after all of my screw ups on this trip (and they are many),  they had a retirement home with my name on it-