Thursday 26^th October Wellington

This trip was booked about 8 months ago – really to use up the Qantas points we'd accrued on our trip to Scotland last year. We had no idea about what we'd do in New Zealand until a couple of months ago when, while wondering, I found that Auswalk ran a walk in the Bay of Islands; and as we've never made it north of Auckland, we booked it. So we're now “forced” to go there. And time has passed and the trip has finally got here.

So: yesterday was a visit to Elsy, a final packing up, and a walk down into town before Alison went off to circus. Dinner when she came home, bed, and... the alarm at 4.45am. We walked out at 5.30 down to the station and had an uneventful trip by train and bus to the airport, and an uneventful time there. But there's a lot of waiting and flying is not as exciting as it has been in the past; especially as it was a full and quite cramped little plane.

3½ hours later we landed in Wellington. After getting through the formalities of entering the country, we found Alison's cousin Bev there to meet us. A very nice surprise. We walked back to her car, while “Windy Wellington” certainly lived up to its name; she presented us with a welcome of raspberry jam, muffins, and apples (so nice!) and drove us up to the Gilmer Apartment Hotel.

We didn't feel so tired when we arrived, but soon after it hit us. We went out for a walk, but got “lost” almost immediately, and had a little fuelled-by-tiredness disagreement. But not for long. We went down to the main road, Lambton Quay, looking vaguely for an ATM to get some money, and a supermarket. The first ATM (ANZ) wanted to charge me $3, so I said no and continued on. BNZ was happy to just give me the money without charge.

We bought some muesli for breakfast in the supermarket, and continued on down to the waterfront and around to the south, before walking home – crossing Cuba St., the first pedestrian mall in NZ. It is the capital, and there are lots and lots of shops.

Home to a cup of tea and we each did a sudoku – not very effectively, as our brains were tired and not in perfect shape; but a good way to use the time before going out to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant (“Where's Charlie?”) we'd passed earlier. We got there at 7.30pm, just before the kitchen shut and ½ hour before they closed. But they fed us a good appropriate meal. Though with the spicyness rather “dumbed down” too much.

And home.

Friday 27^th October Wellington

A good sleep did us both a lot of good. We ate our breakfast in our room, and went out for a walk. We found a very nice cafe with papers to read. Despite the weather forecast suggesting even worse weather today, the morning was quite sunny, much less windy, and, really – very pleasant. Bev rang while we were out; we returned to the hotel where she picked us up, and we drove up to Otari-Wilton's Bush – a large (100 hectare) native bushland reserve on the outskirts of Wellington. We went for a walk here – a not very arduous walk, with lots of stops where she showed us various plants and their features. Bev used to do tour guiding here, and is very knowledgeable about a lot of plants in the reserve. (She was also on the board of the reserve and well, and was quite knowledgeable about its politics.)

We drove back to her house for lunch. A quite long lunch of bits and pieces – very nice. While there the rain returned a bit, but despite this we opted to say goodbye and walk back down to town. “”Down” being the operative word; Wellington is very steep, fortunately with a lot of walkways (with steps +++.) We got ourselves through the Botanic Gardens, to the top of the Cable Car, and then down into town. We were heading for Te Papa Museum, and eventually found it; we began there, soon after 4pm, with a coffee. We were undecided about whether to go into the museum proper, but we did – and ended up staying till closing time at 6pm. There is a lot to see there!

Alison had looked up some places to eat, so we walked up to Cuba St. This is a trendy cheap-eatery part of Wellington. We looked for, and eventually found, “Satay Kingdom”, a Malaysian eatery, and had dinner there. Reasonable but not remarkable.

And then home, to warmth, and to putting on the washing – we have a washing machine in our room!

Saturday 28^th October Whanganui

We woke even more rested than yesterday; and with time to spare before picking up our rental car at 10am, went out for a walk. I thought getting a vegetable bag to put our perhaps leaky raspberry jam in would be a good idea, but – they have been phased out in New Zealand. So we had a stroll, went back and checked out, and walked a little way up north to the Bluebridge Ferry Terminal, from where we rang Omega Rental Cars; and after a wait of 10minutes they came – in “our” car – to pick us up and take us off to their office. The wait was fine, because today it is sunny and not as cold as Wellington has been since we arrived. Thank goodness!

The paperwork at the office was very straightforward, and soon we headed out in the little car north along SH 1. The built-up areas of wellington gradually disappeared as we drove along the motorway, through very hilly and very green country. English Derwent green. It was a really nice feeling being off on our own, with no fixed plans and no idea about where we would be spending the night. We drove for nearly an hour before getting off the freeway at Otaki. It was by now near midday; we had a coffee and a cake in a cafe, and continued on, to Levin.

We were looking for a good map or map book to use (we had a very basic, large-scale map only) and a freezer brick or two; so we were aiming for SaveMart, and Levin was, according to the internet, the closest SaveMart to Wellington. The only trouble was that, when we got there, we found that it had closed down. So on we went; our initial plan, to through Palmerston North, was altered when we found that it really wasn't on our route; so we drove on, to Whanganui, and drove to the i-site.

A trainee there (from San Francisco!) was very enthusiastic and helpful; we went from there to the Whanganui SaveMart, which was generally disappointing but did have a very reasonable road atlas. So now we have a much better idea of where we're going. Where we went then was to the Top 10 caravan park, which is a nice spot with a range of cabins; we're in a good basic one for tonight.

The i-site lady had told us of the elevator inside Durie Hill, built in 1916 and taking you up to a high viewpoint. So there we went; a long walk in a tunnel into the hill, and then a lovely old elevator up to the top; from where you could see not only the town and the river mouth, but also the snow-topped mountains of Taranaki and Ruapehu.

By now it was 5pm. We went shopping for dinner. We hadn't really had lunch. We were very restrained, and bought (nearly only) food for dinner. Back home for a read, and some coffee and chips in the last of the sun, and then roast chicken in the very good camp kitchen here.

Sunday 29^th October New Plymouth

The day began well. A nice relaxed beginning; breakfast in the sun, over outside the camp kitchen. We were in no hurry. I changed into shorts before we left, but it was more an act of desperation than really needing to wear them; sunny yes, hot no. We left at 10am, and drove back into Wanganui, to the supermarket area. A bread stick for lunch, and some other minor things. And while New Zealand is similar to Australia in many ways, a few things are weird – broccoli and capsicums are sold per piece, not per kilo. Then, it was on again, north along the coast; a stop at a park in a little town for some coffee from out thermoses, and then to the bigger town of Hawera where we stopped in the very nice King Edward Park for lunch. This park is surrounded by high hedges, which gave us good protection from the strong south-westerly wind blowing.

We had been told about the Tawhiti Museum in Hawera; and despite it being 4km out of town, there we went. The owner has made hundreds of individual figures, some created from moulds of family and friends. We went to the “Traders and Whalers” exhibition, which included an underground boat ride. While that was not really our thing, the amount of work that has been but into it is astounding, and the local maori / sealers / whalers history very interesting.

Then we were astounded again by the next part, sheds full of old farm machinery, of all sorts. There must have been over 100 tractors, a traction engine, hedge cutters (many of them made from ex-military vehicles after WW2, with 16ft. long blades. Not to mention chain saws and lawn mowers as well.

But – enough. We were heading for New Plymouth, but decided to take the coast road all the way around snow-topped Mt. Taranaki, which dominates the view all around here. While it was “coastal”, views of the sea were rare; it stayed a little way inland. We stopped by the grey sand beach at Opunake for afternoon thermos coffee, then at a couple of artist studios in Oakura. It was 5pm when we got to New Plymouth.

New Plymouth is big. The biggest town we've been in since Wellington. We drove across it to the other side to a caravan park, where we are staying. Not only is it not nearly as well run, or as friendly, as last night's, it's more expensive as well. But.. it is a big city. We drove to a nearby shopping centre which was not very nice either. All in all, not giving us a good feel about the town.

Around dusk we went for a walk down to the river and lake. We walked past houses which were all shades of grey; quite well looked after, but it all looked so drab! Then past a “freedom camping area” before returning along the coastal walkway – from which, like on today's drive, views of the sea were rare. But a nice walk.

We made dinner after dark. It hasn't been the best day and we don't think we like New Plymouth much.

(And another little frustration was that, while trying to adjust the time on the car's clock – we succeeded – we somehow turned all the script on the instrument display into Chinese or Japanese! And haven't been able to reverse it, despite even consulting Google!)

Monday 30^th October Cambridge

No chance of wearing shorts today. We heard rain for a lot of the night, and it continued on and off all day. No views of Mt. Taranaki today!

Despite the even poorer weather today, both our moods improved. We drove out of the rather poor caravan park and back into town, getting to the i-site just as it opened. The lady there was fairly hopeless, but did tell us where we could get unrestricted parking. So we parked and walked into town in the drizzle.

We walked around; bought a bread stick in a French cafe, had a coffee and read the paper in another; went to a supermarket and then to the museum. So-so but we'd just been to Te Papa in Wellington, and it was not a patch on that. There was a lot of Maori history there, but – as we have found is usual, now – the screed is in English and in Maori. But the English has a lot of maori words thrown in, so it is difficult to understand. Presumably New Zealanders learn the words and do understand, but it makes it very difficult for visitors.

Then, time to leave town. We'd intended to go along the Forgotten World Highway, but with the weather as it was decided on the direct route near the coast. It was very scenic anyway, and probably much shorter. We found a picnic table with a roof at Uruti, stopped at a cafe in Mokau, and then just drove up to Cambridge. The very hilly windy country of the coast flattened out as we went inland.

We got here at 5.30pm; we'd already rung and booked a cabin in the (very much better) caravan park here. The drizzle persists; we went and bought some food and now I'm going over to the good camp kitchen to make dinner.

Tuesday 31^st October Auckland

After a long day, without lunch again, and with no definite destination, we have ended up in Auckland.

The day began well (though it was overcast and rainy all day, which didn't help.) A good sleep in a good cabin in a nice place; breakfast; and we went to check out. I asked the reception lady if there were toll roads in Auckland (there are, but they are easy to avoid) and another lady there who used to live up north gave us some advice. And then Karen, the park owner, came in as well; among other things, her advice was not to go straight up to Auckland (all on a motorway – fair enough) but to go to Miranda, on the Firth of Thames.

We stopped in Cambridge for a walk around, and had a coffee and cake. Then on. We needed to use the phone to locate ourselves on the map, because the roads are a bit convoluted and the signage not great. But after only a small deviation from our intended route, we got to Miranda – a coastal area on mud flats, on which were masses of oyster catchers. I've usually seen them only in pairs, but there would have been over 100.

There is a Holiday Park in Miranda, with cabins. But finding it was challenging, as we came in on the Back Miranda Road; the map put Miranda north of where we joined Front Miranda Road, but the park we eventually found to the south. But we found that out only after we'd gone 10km further north to the next town, and then up to the Stray Dog Cafe in the “town”, and then back again.

We looked at the cabin, and the park; there were lots of people staying there, and it had a hot artesian pool; but we couldn't see the attraction. So it was back to the Stray Dog Cafe for a coffee and work out where to from here. A good idea, but when we got back to the cafe, just after 3pm, it was closed.

So – we just drove on. The plan was still to find a cafe and look up somewhere to stay in Auckland, but no cafe appeared. Not until we'd got onto the motorway into Auckland, where we finally found a service area with petrol station and cafe.

Here, after a lot of looking and nearly flattening both the phone and the computer, we found somewhere seeming suitable. The Surrey Hotel, in Grey Lynn. Back to the motorway. The lightish traffic got heavier and heavier, and the last 45 minutes or so were at an average 20km/hr. Alison guided us well, and there were no hiccups of note despite heavy rain greeting us as we neared the end of the journey.

It was near dinnertime. We'd missed lunch. So deciding on somewhere to eat took us a lot of thinking and deciding. We walked all around the local area and ended up with Thai takeaway. We had no great expectations after our meals in Wellington, but it turned out to be excellent. So much so that we walked back to the shop to tell them so!

And then we sat and worked out the next few days. And we have done so, and booked ourselves in. Only the night before we leave is now unaccounted for. Hooray!

Wednesday 1^st November Whangerai

After yesterday; and last night's organising; and city traffic – sleep was dreadful. Eventually it happened, but this evening tiredness has caught up with me.

We slept in this morning till peak hour was likely to be over, and drove out at ~9.30am. We'd decided that we didn't like being in a big city so much. Back onto the motorway, and north, out of town. Through a tunnel and then over the big bridge over the harbour, and – on and on. The motorway went on for ages; eventually we got to the beginning of the toll road, and drove off onto the alternative more minor route. Auckland is a very big city.

Eventually, we got to Orewa – a beachside suburb which reminded me of Rosebud. We stopped, had a walk around; there was no i-site but the lady in the library gave us a useful booklet. Then, on again. We passed another fully automated and unattended petrol outlet where we filled up the car. It is significantly cheaper at these places. The distances up here are not huge but the roads and hilly and windy and travel times longer than you might expect.

We turned off the main road and drove into Mangawhai Heads, finding a town which was much larger than the little village I'd expected. We ate lunch down by the foreshore, then went for a walk on the Mangawhai Cliffs Track. This is regarded as on of the better walks here; it was quite a nice walk - it took us 2 hours return – and while the coastal hills were steep, I didn't see anything I'd call a cliff.

We drove on to Whangerai, finding both a bigger town here than I'd expected, and a bigger traffic jam. But Alison directed us well to the park where we were booked in. And it's good. The park appears friendly and well-run, and the cabin is much bigger than I'd expected.

We walked to a couple of large supermarkets and bought food for dinner, came home and cooked it. And tiredness is catching up with me; and with Alison too. Tomorrow, we plan to have a “Sunday” and not use the car, which should be nice.

Thursday 2^nd November Whangerai

It's a week now since we landed in New Zealand; it seems like ages and ages ago.

This is a very nice caravan park, and our cabin, though “basic”, is quite spacious; we even have a “dressing room” each (they each have 2 bunks, but we're using them for our clothes and luggage). And it's a short walk to two supermarkets, and not much furhter into the City Centre; and there's bush behind. Such a good spot that we went and booked the same cabin for our last night before we go home.

We began the day by putting on a load of washing, and then walking down to get something different for breakfast. What did we end up with? Fresh, yummy hot cross buns! The New World supermarket bakes them year-round, not just at Easter.

We didn't use the car at all today. It's much better not having to use it. We walked down across and along the Hakea River, behind the Caravan Park, and into the city centre. We came first upon the Town Basin, which turned out to be a big marina; a very sheltered anchorage. Next to it was the Hundertwasser Museum – a bit Gaudi-esque – and further down the shore was the National Clock Museum. This had, outside, a room-sized glass box with an extraordinary clock worked by rolling balls – about bowling-ball size, running all over the place but... keeping time!

We walked around the city centre – a big city centre – had lunch of a pie in a bakery, and walked home. And then – a “Sunday” afternoon relax and not do too much.

At 5.30 we walked the other way, up to the A.H. Reed Memorial Park – a patch of remnant original forest, with some large Kauri trees, a waterfall, and a walkway through the forest canopy. Well worth the (very pleasant) walk there and back. Part of the walk went through a section of normal suburbia, where we saw bananas growing in a backyard, and oranges in a frontyard. I asked about the oranges and was able to pick some to take with us.

Home ar dusk, for a very nice dinner.

Friday 3^rd November Kaihu

We heard the rain in the night. While were able to get the car loaded in relatively dry spells, the rain continued all morning, sometimes very heavily. There were a few periods where the car's windscreen wipers had to be put onto double speed.

The lady in Cambridge had suggested that we go to the coastal town of Pataua, to see the “longest footbridge in the southern hemisphere”. We sort of winged our way getting there successfully, in very heavy rain; to an anticlimax. The footbridge was rather ho-hum. And in pouring rain we had no temptation to walk onto or across it. We also passed a number of walkers tramping / trudging along the road in the pouring rain; this bit of road forms part of the Te Arorea Trail. Remembering how it is to be in their situation, if any of them had indicated they wanted a lift we would have squeezed them in. But they didn't.

At least we could then follow a different coastal road back to Whangerai. We parked at Pak'n'Save and went for a coffee at yesterday's cafe; drove back to the supermarket for some bread, went to the i-site to see what we should see on going over to the west coast. A very enthusiastic, but perhaps not so helpful, lady spoke to us; it didn't alter our plans. And we drove off west, 65km to Dargaville.

As we neared there, the sun began to come out; we were able to stop for a picnic lunch by the river. Dargaville was a lot bigger than we expected, and after lunch we went for a walk down the main street. We found a number of op shops and, in contrast to the other ones we've found in NZ, we found things to buy in them! Shoes for both of us, 2 shirts for me, a dress for Alison.

The next stop was 30km north, at Kai Iwi lakes. These are three perched lakes inland from the west coast. Quite nice lakes, but with all the rain the walking tracks around them were either under water or sodden. We were underwhelmed. So back on to Kaihu, where the sun came out and we are booked into a cabin in a Holiday Park with river running around three sides of it.

It's a nice spot – though we went for a walk around their nature trail, and most of the ground we walked on was sodden. We had a yummy roast dinner – a nice change from the basic stovetop cooking we've mostly done.

We're here for two nights – again! - though will will have to use the car tomorrow to go into the Kauri forest, which this part of NZ is renowned for.

Saturday 4^th November Kaihu

Though, as it turned out – Alison had the good idea of walking up to the Trounsen Kairu Park. Our map said 4km, the street sign said 5km; it was mostly uphill, and it took us an hour. It was a pleasant walk, along a road with remarkably little traffic.

We spent an hour walking through the Kairu forest. It was really nice – one of the most pleasant bits of bush I've walked through. Lots of very big kauris with their distinctive bark and lots of epiphytes, lots of ferns, and lots of other trees as well. Only let down by what we've come to regard as typical NZ signage – very obscure and hard to work out. But the bush was lovely.

Another hour and we were home, at 2pm, to lunch and sitting in the pleasant afternoon sun. This was the first pleasant afternoon sun we've experienced this trip, and we appreciated it!

After dark, we went and saw the glowworms under the bridge, and eels by torchlight.

Sunday 5^th November Russell

The people in the cabin next door left early, unfortunately waking us in the process. But not too early. We ate, packed, and left. Back to SH12, and north towards Waipoua Forest. Just before getting there we stopped at a very rustic shop selling Kauri Gum, the precursor of a sort of amber, and no longer easily obtainable. It was run by an old lady owner whose family were gum diggers. We lashed out and bought a nice piece.

Then it was on, the road going through the forest. We stopped at both viewing points – the first a 45 minute return walk to the oldest, and the second largest Kauri tree known, Te Matua Ngahere (2,000 years old?), then a 10-minute walk to the largest (Tane Mahuta). They were both massive. And there were many more trees, not quite as massive; and unfortunately some dead ones, presumably due to dieback.

The road left the forest and wound around to Opononi, on Hokianga harbour, where we stopped at a cafe, had a coffee, and chatted to some locals. On to Kaikohe where we stopped for lunch at a basic picnic table, then to Kawakawa to see the Hundertwasser toilet. Though we found that there was more Hundertwasser than just the toilet – it seemed to have spread into adjoining shops, etc.

Then to Opua, from where we took the car ferry to Okiato and then drove on to Russell, and the beginning of the Auswalk part of the trip. We drove up to our accommodation at Villa Russell, where we were met by Sue and shown our large room overlooking the Bay of Islands.

Sue was very helpful; she came over to say that part of tomorrow's walk was closed – but on closer examination it's not closed till Thursday! We are lucky. But what was not so lucky was my noticing that the sole of one of my nice walking shoes was coming adrift; but Sue came up with some cable ties, so it should be manageable.

And we went for a walk around the town, vaguely looking for where to eat dinner. And in the end bought some food in the supermarket and are eating at home.

Monday 6^th November Russell

Today was the beginning of our Auswalk walking. I didn't know what to expect; the trail went back down to Okiato, back across, on the car ferry we came on yesterday, to Opua, and then along the coast to Pahia – from where we catch the pedestrian ferry back to Russell. It sounded a bit ordinary, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

We ate a very nice breakfast here in our room and on the balcony, made our lunch up from things we had, and set off at 8.45am. We walked back through town and up the hill out (by this stage we'd already gone wrong, but it didn't matter). At the top of the hill was the “transfer station” from where the walkway started; but a local worker (William) said hullo and told us that the route is changing, and we should begin by going up to the Russell Lookout, at the top of the hill. He also told us that a huge pohutakawa tree near Opua had fallen across the track last night, and the track was closed there. Oh well. We'll see what eventuates.

The lookout was fine; the walking track returned to the road and we walked along it for a while, finding William there spraying weeds. We were on the right track. We moved onto a boardwalk through mangroves – easy walking – and stopped for our morning coffee. Then, after a brief spell near the road again, the track went through bush, with various ups and downs, almost all the way to the ferry. William had told us of the system of track maintenance they have here; a pile of gravel near the trail entrance, with buckets; walkers can carry a bucket load of gravel along the track and leave it at a “bucket depot”. We each carried two buckets along. It is a good system.

We got to the ferry 3½ hours after leaving home. A quick trip across; and it was free! It was meant to be $2 per person, but they decided not to charge us. Very nice of them.

We ate our picnic lunch on the other side, at Opua; the sun came out, and for the first time this summer its rays felt burning. But I stayed in its rays because it was so good to feel the sun like that again!

But then, on. We soon got to the barrier with the sign “Danger – boughs creaking – do not cross” at the Pohutakawa tree. It was a very big tree. We crossed the barrier, looked at the tree, ducked underneath it, and continued across the barrier on the other side. From there it was very straightforward; a combination of waterside track; track through bush with ups and downs; beach walking; and rock scrambling, till we got to Paihia.

Paihia was a much smaller town than I'd expected. It was very touristy, a bit like Lorne. We had a coffee, had a walk around, and then caught the ferry back home.

After a shower, and wearing clean clothes, we went out for dinner at the RSA (=RSL) Diggers Restaurant. A good relaxing dinner before an evening walk home.

We both have that nice exercised feeling. We walked ~20km today over varied terrain, taking six hours; we are happy with that.

Tuesday 7^th November Russell

Today was even better. We were down at the jetty at 9am to meet Bob, who was filling his water taxi with petrol; on we got, and headed out to Motuarohia Island; this is a small island with a short walk up to a pa site / lookout. Bob was a very chatty and interesting driver; and we didn't need to wear life jackets. At the island, the walk (uphill, of course) was easy, and there were very good views. Including, as we'd nearly had enough, views of two tourist boats disembarking their tourists. We went back down, passing lots of them, got back on Bob's water taxi, and went over to the next island, Motorua.

This was a bigger island; Bob dropped us off and left us for 1½ hours, to do a circuit walk around the island; beach to beach, going up and over headlands between between them. A good walk with good views, and we had ten minutes back on the beach before Bob came at midday and took us on to the next island, Urupukapuka.

This island was bigger again, with jetty, and cafe / bar. And with stingrays and fish swimming under its jetty. Bob left us till 4pm, and we set off through green paddocks with sheep grazing, up to the Pateke loop walk. This took us up to the north of the island, past some very impressive cliffs, through bush, up and down (of course), up lots of steps; and then we went up to the site of the cliff pa, atop sheer cliffs on the north of the island. It would have been virtually unassailable.

Then back down and back to the cafe, where the crowds from this morning's tourist boats had gone, and we had a nice coffee on their lawn before being picked up again.

The weather was good, the views from all the islands were excellent, and the walking was good as well.

But is was not just straight back to Russell; we stopped, and did some fishing. Both Alison and I caught a large snapper each (mine was bigger.) But then the wind changed and so did our luck; for the next ½ hour nothing much happened (except we all got colder) and we packed up and were driven home. To cold squally rain!

We bought some dumplings in the supermarket and went home in the rain, to a hot shower and clean clothes; and dinner at home of instant noodles with dumplings. We have reached the stage of needing to use up all our food now.

The rain stopped quite quickly, allowing us to go out on a walk (after dark) to try to spot kiwi. We got lost, had to use the phone to locate ourselves, and got back quite late – without seeing a kiwi. Though we did see a lot of glowworms.

Wednesday 8^th November Russell

Today's walk was a choice between two not so good options. We'd intended to go the the Whagamumu whaling station remains, but the track is closed till December. So we went to Kerikeri instead, to do a walk to Rainbow Falls. For this, we needed to take the ferry across to Paihia, then take a taxi. The taxi worked well, but the taxi driver was an American redneck wearing a “Trump 2024” cap, who'd rather be home in Georgia USA but is here to escape his “creditors”. He really came across as a not nice person.

He dropped us at a picnic area 10km north of Kerikeri, where we walked along part of the Te Aroroa trail, beside the Kerikeri River on the right and backyards on the left. The backyards eventually disappeared and we walked through bush to the falls. They were well-named, with a rainbow evident above the pool below the falls.

The track continued past some smaller falls and eventually emerged into a large grassy area with picnic tables at the Kerikeri Basin, across the river from the Stone Store (closed today) and New Zealand's oldest building. It had got colder, with a bit of rain; it was soon after midday; we sat under a shelter and wondered both – where are we, relative to town? And – what will we do next? It was just after midday.

There was an option of walking to another waterfall, but that didn't appeal. We walked over to the stone store and chatted to a couple from Vermont, USA. Very different people from the taxi driver. And then, after eating lunch sitting on the grass, we walked into town – again needing to use the phone to find out how to do so! NZ signage leaves a lot to be desired.

Kerikeri is bigger than Paihia, but not by much. We sat in a cafe for a coffee, visited the i-site / library, walked along the main street; and arranged to be picked up and taken back to Paihia again. And caught the ferry back to Russell (with some difficulty in mooring when we got there – the driver made a few attempts and I ended up helping throwing out some mooring ropes.)

We went home. The sun comes and goes but we are both wearing jackets this afternoon. And when we went out for dinner – at Hone's Garden (kumara chips and a not very good pizza) I was wearing my down parka as well. Summer!

Thursday 9^th November Russell

Today was our final walk here with Auswalk – Cape Brett. A 6 to 8 hour, one-way walk out a peninsula to a lighthouse. Though we are doing it in reverse, because of expected weather conditions; not a problem for us. The walk is described as challenging; Sue said that, of the six Auswalk groups she's had here, only two have done it.

I put on the alarm, but as usual woke up before it; we had a relaxed start and were down at the pier at 8am to get on Bob's water taxi.

At 8.50, after a lot of chatting, as usual, we alighted onto an old concrete pad below the lighthouse; and started up to it, through a large colony of nesting red-footed seagulls. Very noisy, and quite smelly as well. It was steep uphill past the lighthouse keeper's cottage (now used for walkers' accommodation) to the quite short lighthouse on the side of the point. The trail went uphill steeply beyond it up to a hill with an old power pole.

The views were excellent, the walking often steep up and down, some of it close to clifftops, and sometimes along narrow ridges. It took us two hours to get to the turnoff to Deep Cove, where, in poor weather conditions, walkers have to picked up instead of at the lighthouse. It would make the walk a great deal longer!

From there, we were walking more in forest for a lot of the time; there were lots of ups and downs. The highest point on the trail is 363m; I had AllTrails open on my phone, and it says we've done 960m elevation gain over the total length of 16.28km. There was a lot of up and down; both of us used a stick we'd picked up from a tree.

We had stops for morning coffee and lunch, and eventually (after a surprisingly long descent) got to the road at the end at 3.30pm. A respectable time. Our taxi was waiting there; it was a ½ hour drive back home to Russell (with a brief stop at Water Taxi Bob's house, to pick up the hat Alison had left on his boat.)

My shoe, held together by a cable tie for the last 4 days, if finally giving up. But it did make it the whole way.

Shower, warmth, clean clothes.

Dinner back at the RSA, a chat to our neighbours next door, and another walk to find kiwis – better prepared this time, with map and definite intentions. It didn't help. Part of the track we were going to walk out on ended up being so disused and overgrown it was almost undetectable. Had to use the phone, again, to find out where we were and how to get out. So after seeing glowworms again, but no kiwi, we had a longer walk than we'd planned.

Friday 10^th November Whangerai

I woke with a lovely well-exercised-all-over feeling. No hurry to get up and move out, but even so, after a goodbye chat to Sue, we were driving away before 10am. We drove over to Long Beach on the other side of town; not a remarkably long beach, but very popular with dog walkers. We walked to the far end and back, Alison collecting shell bits polished by the ocean.

Then, away. Along the road the taxi brought us back on yesterday, then south. It was a very very windy road; the longest straight section for the first hour was perhaps 100 metres. We'd been told there were no services or cafes along the road, but that there was a gallery in Helena Bay; so we drove into Helena Bay. We found ~5 beach houses and a parking area, and nothing else; had a quick coffee from the thermos, sitting at a table with a strong cold onshore breeze. We didn't stay long.

Further along, we came upon Helena Bay Hill gallery, on the highway. This was obviously what had been meant; it had a lot of things in it, and outside it, but nothing really took our fancy. So we continued on in Whangerai.

We stopped down at our familiar supermarkets, and bought some bread for lunch and food for dinner; then back to the Top 10 caravan park and our cabin. Put on the washing, have lunch (in sun on the verandah); then we headed off on foot to the Quarry Gardens. The cafe there closes at 3pm, and we thought we'd start there. Leaving at 2.15pm, we managed to get there at 2.58pm. It should have been quicker, but we had NZ signage to deal with; and that the gardens are but a small corner of a much bigger reserve. We hadn't known that!

We did get our coffee, and had a walk around the gardens (10 minutes to the far end) which were too formal for our taste. The gardens are sub-tropical, but as usual we had our jackets on.

Back home. We both have the feeling that it's time to go home again; it's been a pleasant and different, but not very exciting, holiday. We had a nice roast dinner over in the kitchen and did some preparation for leaving tomorrow. We've done very well in using up our food.

Saturday 11^th November Home

We tried to sleep in, but it didn't happen – even though we both felt it was much better being back in an ordinary double bed, not the huge kingsize bed we've been in the last five nights. We didn't hurry, but still set off at 9.30am. A drive into town and we parked by the river a little out of town, and went on a loop walk for an hour or so – first looking at the rolling ball clock again, crossing the bridge where an artisans' market (not very interesting) was on; down one side of the river, past masses of yachts; a look in the camera obscura near the bridge, and across the bridge – which has a feature which looks like giant fish hooks but is in fact a mechanism for opening the bridge to allow yachts through.

We drove back to the familiar supermarket and had a good coffee in their cafe, and drove out of town.

The trip back to Auckland and the airport took about three hours. We stopped in Orewa for lunch (of remaining food) and bought a salad to eat at the airport; then on, travelling on motorways through Auckland down to Mangere, where we had to drop off the car. It was a very easy and straightforward trip, and we got to the car depot and the airport in plenty of time. So much time that check-in for our flight wasn't yet open, so we went outside in the sun and read for a while. It was the nicest warm sunny afternoon we've had the whole trip!

Check the bags in, eat the salad outside – and then to the usual airport stuff.