Travel Notes


Wed Feb 6 00:21:41 2002 (nmcfarl)
Book: New Zealand LP
Location: Auckland
Since the last entry in Picton we have done a few things.
First up, with in hours of the entry we took a very stormy 3 hour ferry trip to the north island, with much slamming against waves and sudden changes in altitude. I am very glad for dramimine.
Next we rented a car(and got an upgrade 'cause the car we rented hadn't been cleaned) and headed up the east coast to napier.
Napier was much fun. On sunday, our first day there, we learned of the wine festival going on and got a day pass for a winery bus. We did a vertical tasting to start the day out , and then just sort of bounced around from winery to winery. It was quite pleasant, with bands and food and many locations, and most of the wineries are on very nice spreads. It seems to be very much a rich man's hobby, starting wineries, and spacious ground and grand villas are de rigure.
The next day we did an art deco walk in napier, which was very very cool, some amazing buildings . The city was destroyed in 1931 by a earthquake followed by a nasty fire. Very Very bad, but the entire city was rebuilt over then next few years, at the high point for art deco, so now it is just buetiful.
Then for the next day we headed up to the cormandel, which was very pretty, nice beaches and much of the original forest is preserved, which is cooler up here than in the catlins , 'cause the climate is much warmer almost subtropical. We did some, short walks and saw the place, it was nice . On of the walks was up a maori fortification called a 'pa', supposedly you hike up it again seven years after, you first do the walk. We shall see, there certainly is enough to do here and I would like to come back.
Then there is today in auckland , doing chores, and then tomorrow in Tonga!



 
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