Freedom camping

Yesterday, we left the Northland peninsula for the central north island. We had to pass through Auckland so we knew it would be a long trip. We left Waipu caves around 130 or 2 and hit Auckland around 330. WOW. They have really bad traffic. It could be worse than ours.

New Zealand, like so many other desirable places in the world, is in the midst of a housing crisis. The median house in the country costs $530,000 (NZ dollars — 400K US). The median cost in Auckland is 850,000 (~650K). The average wage in the country is 36K US. This is a country the size of Colorado with 4 million people. They are relatively wealthy. 

Wealthy foreigners love New Zealand too. There is an office of overseas investment that approves all foreign investment. Apparently they just passed a law that limits foreign investors from buying farms over a certain size. The point of this law according to the newspaper was to avoid the influence of multi-billionaires on the nation’s politics in order to avoid the rise of someone like Trump or issues like Brexit. It’s interesting to see that point stated so bluntly. They want to control their own country. They want to be a free market but they want their own people to be able to afford a home. It’s a struggle. I did notice more homeless people in Auckland than I expected to see but FAR fewer than one sees in Seattle.

So, we were stuck in horrible traffic because no one can afford to live in the city of Auckland so they live in suburbs. The government also just raised the gas tax in an effort to get people off the road. They are building (or planning to build a light rail system too). 

Anyway, Ryan really wanted to make it to the Coromandel peninsula. According to our GPS, we would not get there until 6. I warned Ryan the kids would be miserable. Also, there was only one campsite and one sad looking restaurant. Ryan said we’d be fine as long as the restaurant had beer and french fries.

The ride was beautiful but long. When we arrived at the camp site, it was closed. We went to the restaurant as everyone was miserable as promised and discovered it was a bit seedy (new zealand seedy which means it was like a nice place in Kent). There were slot machines, some drunk people and rugby or some other sport unknown to me on the large TV. 

I am surprised by how many times I catch myself wondering about guns. There are no guns here I remembered. It doesn’t really matter how drunk these people are.. they won’t shoot me. It’s a nice feeling.

Also as promised, Ryan and I had beer for dinner and the kids ate french fries. Ryan said it was funny that the day before he’d had his best meal in NZ at Helena’s and today he had his worst meal. Traveling! Adventure! Beer. You can’t lose.

We were lucky to find a freedom camp site. This means there are no services but if your van is self-contained (meaning you have a bathroom & water) you can stay there for free. I prefer campsites but this worked just fine too.

not a bad view for free camping.

the bottle brush tree-- Christmas tree of NZ -- I mentioned earlier.

We played at the beach a bit and went to bed to the sounds of the cars and trucks on the road. so peaceful.

Waipu Caves

We drove from Russell — the hell hole of the Pacific— back to Waipu, the town not pronounced WHY-poo. The camp site is on a lovely beach and we had missed some not-to-be missed caves during our first visit.

En route, we stopped a few places. We visited Helena’s cafe which has the best view of any restaurant I have ever seen. It’s a fancy place with a garden and high end gallery filled with garden art. There was art that probably weighed hundreds if not thousands of pounds so I am not sure who is buying it.

this picture does not capture the view. the restaurant is outdoors with a view of the ocen

in the garden. jack "photo bombs"

Sonia declares this is the worst vacation for the nth time.

We enjoyed the view and drove for a little while longer until we found another quiet cove. We poked around there and Ryan and I wondered what it would be like to live there.. very secluded lovely beach.

We decided we’d return for more visits but that kind of life isn’t for us yet.

When we arrived in Waipu, we immediately jumped in the water. The water is oddly warm and does not require a wetsuit. We didn’t eat dinner until 8PM.. losing track of the time because it’s light until 9.

When we woke up, I went for a run on the beach that is only 25 yards from our van. Then, I quickly put on my suit and went for a swim. Ryan surfed. Pretty great morning.

We met a family of Americans — all surfers from Santa Barbara. Even the 9 year old had her own surf board. They were on the same kind of trip.. not planned.. focused around beaches. We compared vans. Everything worked in their van. Lucky them.

We then visited the Waipu caves. They are a set of three large caves. In places, the ceiling of the cave was 20 feet high, and in others, 3 feet. It was very dark and muddy and it made me think of the basilisk cave in Harry Potter. Once it was completely dark, you could turn off your flashlight and the ceiling was covered with glow worms. It looked like the night sky. 

from the web.. I didn't bring my camera. At one point, we were knee deep in water

Traveling with Children

Traveling with children is different than traveling without children. It is probably as complicated as traveling with two other adults .. if the two other adults had mood disorders. One of Ryan's friends who is a physician called childhood "psychosis with an excellent prognosis." So you are dealing with fragile people in some ways.

For example, we bought ice cream bars for the kids to eat after dinner. Sonia, who has become even pickier about food since we started traveling, did not eat much dinner so Ryan said she could not have her ice cream bar. She appealed to me but I agreed with Ryan. Then she started shrieking. At home, this just frightens the neighbors. While at a campsite, it frightens a few more people. Since we are traveling in a shoulder season, we are surrounded mostly by young couples and retirees. They are more easily frightened by feral screaming.

All children like structure. Jack needs structure. He needs to know what is going to happen in his day. He struggles when things change although he is getting much better at this. I knew this trip would be hard for him. He always wants to know what's next. He's tried writing our plan down at the beginning of the day but often we don't know exactly what we are going to do. He asks me what we are doing many times a day. He seems frustrated by it as well.

They both tell me at least once a day that this is the "worst vacation they have ever had." This morning, when we told Jack the plan: breakfast, homework, van time, arrival at destination then exploring some caves and/or going to the beach. His response was "lame."

They fight. We mostly ignore that but it is unpleasant. They seem to be fighting less as the trip goes on but maybe that's because we let them listen to audiobooks when they get unruly.

However, they also are delighted, impressed and surprised by many things they've encountered here. They love playing in the ocean with their dad. The like the camper van and being outside. I don't believe them when they complain because they complain at home too. It makes me think their lives are just too easy at home. We wondered if they need to spend more time in a coal mine or brick factory or something like that.

The hell-hole of the Pacific

We started our day with a nature walk around our campsite. 80% of the trees were native to NZ. My favorite was the bottle brush tree which is apparently also known the New Zealand Christmas tree. When it blooms, its summer. 

lots of cool ferns here

We left Waipoua Forest and headed south to the large-ish town of Whangarei (population 52K). We wanted to break up our drive so we ate lunch, played at a park, and headed to the Whangarei Falls. We chatted with an older woman and her adult daughter who now lived in Perth, pronounced Purr, so I had to ask her to spell it. The woman had been to Canada and Europe. She commented that she loved New Zealand because it has everything and we "all basically get along." Sounds cool.

We drove on to Russell, population 816. I suspect when summer is in full swing that number is multiplied by at least 5. Like all areas of New Zealand, it first belonged to the Maori. In the early 1800s, a treaty was signed that made it the first European settlement in NZ. Charles Darwin visited in 1835 and noted it was filled with "the refuse of society."  Times have changed and Russell is now a lovely (touristy in a good way) beach town.

Instead of taking us to our campsite, the GPS took us to an amazing beach in a bay called Long beach. The sun was shining and we decided we should just stop and swim. We didn’t need wet suits. While it looks like Hawaii, the water is not warm here. It’s not far from the Antarctic. But with the sun shining, its warm enough.

After the swim we looked for a kid friendly place to eat and found an outdoor, wood-fired pizza place.

While looking for dinner down town ( a 5 minute walk from the camp site) we saw advertisements for boat tours through the islands. We chose the tour that promised dolphin sightings and a good history lesson. We also decided to do the boat tour because it was supposed to be a cloudy and slightly cooler day.

One thing has become clear as we’ve camped in mostly empty camp grounds and as we got on the large, fancy, but mostly empty tour boat: high tourist season (which I think starts in a couple of weeks here) brings large crowds. Every place we visit is ready for a lot of people.  Fortunately, We haven’t had to make any advance plans. I’ll trade cloudy skies for not planning anytime.

We found a pod of dolphins swimming early in our tour. It was pretty amazing. I took about 100 pictures and then wondered why I was doing that and just watched the dolphins. 

old pirate boat

They seem so friendly. The tour offered people the chance to swim with the dolphins. There are lots of rules around this. You can’t do it if there is a baby with the group. You can’t do it between 1130 and 1pm. You can’t do it if the water is too rough. I am sure there are other reasons but these were the reasons no one in our group was able to swim with the dolphins. Our guidebook thought it was a bad idea. I wasn’t into it anyway. 

We visited the hole in the rock. It was a sacred site for the Maori. They went through the rock before every journey. Our boat tried to make it through but in the end the water was too rough. Many people were vomiting on the boat. I am very fortunate no one in my family gets motion sickness. We do the kids' homework while we're driving from place to place. The middle of this RV feels like a catamaran in large waves.

There are 150 islands in the bay. We saw 13 of them. We only left the boat on one of the islands for lunch. Every island was small and most had wealthy, private owners.

view during lunch

We learned a lot about the Maori and Captain James Cook who was here in the late 1700s. He named the bay and negotiated the treaty that let the Europeans settle here. He was later killed by the Hawaiians. Missionaries were also here.. naturally.

The kids participated in a dolphin drawing contest. Jack won! We were then invited to take part in an activity called boom-netting. The kids were very excited about this. Basically, there’s a net on the side of the boat. You jump in the net and the boat drags you around. I am not sure why its a thing but we did it because the kids wanted to do it. 

Sonia gracefully gets in

I was not really into this activity. In the end, however, jumping into cold water is always refreshing.

Some random people I've met here

When we were in Waipu, which we pronounce WHY-poo but is most definitely not pronounced that way, an elderly woman with a walker passed our campervan while I was standing in the doorway.  She asked me where we were from and then where we were traveling.

me: We are touring around the North Island

woman: Oh, the South Island is much nicer. The people are nicer and there is less crime. There didn't used to be crime here. When I was young, we left all the doors open.

me: When did that change?

woman: About 25 years ago.

me: Any idea why?

woman: Well, it's a racial thing really. People here are lazy and they just want a handout from the government. They don't know what poverty is. I am a Christian and the bible says the rich need to leave some of the harvest behind for the poor but the poor need to gather it. You don't just give it to them.

me: hmm.

woman: my grandchildren have visited the USA and the loved it.

me: Have you ever visited?

woman: No. My husband and I cannot stand Americans. We've seen them around here. The Yankees are loud and always complaining.

me: There are 330 million of us. We aren't all the same.

woman: silence.

me: Have you heard of Donald Trump? Your thinking is very similar to the people who voted for Trump and he is a loud, complaining yankee. Isn't that a funny coincidence?

Just kidding. I didn't say that.

The next day, we had to take a small ferry on the way to Waipoua. 

We stopped at a surprisingly good cafe on the beach for lunch. Most restaurants seem to want you to order from the bar then they serve the food at your table. As a paid for our meal with our Alaska Airlines credit card, a guy behind me said 'I recognize that card. Where are you from?' I turned around and said 'Now that is an accent I can understand' His speech sounded clear as a bell to my ears and it turned out he was from West Seattle. 7000 miles and I meet someone who is from a few miles from my home. He told me that his wife is a physician. He used to work for Amazon. New Zealand has a GP physician shortage so it is easy for American doctors to find good work here. He used to live in Australia and they love the area.

It was in this conversation that I realized there was some truth in what the older woman had said about Americans... certainly compared to New Zealanders. When we speak, we speak louder than they do. At first, I thought I had trouble understanding people because of their accent. That doesn't help but the bigger issue is they are quiet talkers. You have to lean in to hear them. I suspect when they hear me talk their experience is similar to when I hear someone from Texas talk. It's a loud voice that mangles the language.

For example, we were in the small town of Rawene. I pronounce that Raw-ween but that is not how you say it. A local asked me to pronounce different town names just so she could laugh at my pronunciation. Even the West Seattle guy was correcting me. We are going to Whangerei today. I say WANG-GUH-RAY. Not even close. It's Fan-gu-day.

Lastly, I've noticed this past year that I tend to feel generally nervous. There are times of calm but there's a low level of nerves that pop up and often, I have no idea why they are there. In chatting with the West Seattle guy, I realized that in leaving the US, I leave a great deal of every day tension that seems to be in the air and water. If I want news of the US, I have to find it. We are in the country now so there is no advertising. We speak to very few people other than to transact business or exchange pleasantries. No one here cares about Trump or the state of things in the US. I could be wrong but I think this is why I feel as un-nervous as ever. I suppose safe and calm is the better description. There are no guns here. No crazy political divides that I am aware of. The people are quiet.. they seem like they descended from stoic Scottish people. It's very restful.

Waipoua Forest

We left Ahipara after breakfast and headed south to Waipoua Forest, the home of the largest surviving Kauri tree. 

We stopped at a beach and Ryan and I jumped in the water. The kids played in the tide pools. 

We stopped in Kaihu which had beautiful coastal walking trails. This used to be a station crossing when the Europeans first settled here. We walked around. If you'd told me I was in Hawaii, I would have believed you. On the beach below were the same lava rock formations I see all over Oahu. Jack wandered off and we couldn't find him for a while. There was one trail that took 5 days to cover and I was afraid he'd gone that way. Luckily, he turned out and found his way back. 

We reached the north end of the Waipoua Forest. This tree is 40 feet wide. It's called Tane Mahuta and is thought to be the father of all Kauri. It's between 1500 and 2500 years old. It is ~150 feet high. Everything here is in meters so I have to approximate a lot.

Kauris are like American Redwoods in that they are extremely large and endangered. The Polynesians arrived here 800 years ago and New Zealand was covered in Kauri trees which can live 2000 years. The Mauri used the gum in the tree as an ingredient in the ink for their famous tattoos.  There are many trees with incredible longevity here and I wonder if its because this is the last place homo sapiens arrived.. basically, we kill everything big when we arrive in a place. The Europeans arrived 200 years ago and the destruction of the Kauri really started. Now only 1-3% of the original population still stand.

We continued through the forest and went to the southern edge where we found another beautiful campground. The campgrounds here are destinations in themselves. This one had a playground, a nature trail, a swimming hole with a rope swing, and a long zip line featured below. We all took many turns on the zip line.

Ahipara

We woke up in Waipu and continued our journey north because Ryan read that there would be waves in Ahipara. First, we returned to our lunch place for breakfast.

cool bus stop

Names of all the Scottish clans who settled the area. I was startled by a place called The Clansman's Inn but they are not referring to the KKK.

Sandbox at the restaurant. We drank good coffee. Everybody wins.

The Mauri descend from the same people as the Hawaiians. Northland, where we are now, has terrain a lot like Hawaii. We drove through Mangamuka. We are now in Ahipara. We spent the day on the beach. Now we are at the campsite which seems very popular with young European travelers.

I need to get some pictures.. for the next post.

Stay lift!

They drive on the lift side here. They also pronounce left "lift".  Here is our home for the next two weeks. It is large. It must be driven on the opposite side of the road .. right turns are like left turns here.

We had an idea for the day. We wanted to drive out of Auckland and get to one of the most northern parts of the country. Unfortunately, it took three hours to get the campervan. We'd thought it would be two. When we were doing the inspection of dents and such, Ryan noticed there was a nail in the tire. Good catch. That also tells you how well these vans are cared for.. basically not very well. Tensely, we drove out of town. Then we noticed that the rear camera didn't work. The toilet didn't flush. We've also found the gas for the stove doesn't work. At least we didn't get a flat tire on the New Zealand interstate. We drove for a while but it was past lunch time and we had not eaten since breakfast. 

I had asked Ryan to get cash early in the morning but he told me we wouldn't need it. As we drove into more rural parts of New Zealand, we were hungry. We wanted to stop but the first time we tried, Ryan couldn't find parking for the enormous RV. The second time we stopped, the only store in town DID NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS. Now I was hungry and pissed off. I could not resist saying I TOLD YOU THAT WE NEEDED CASH. So that was fun. 

At 230 or so, we stopped in a town called Waipu. Several restaurants had just closed and we walked into one with an open door and they too said they were closing. I begged them to sell us food. I told the owner? my tale of woe. She said we could take the food to go. She also suggested a campsite on the beach nearby. She said all would be healed by a swim in the water. Then she told us we should go to the Pizza Barn for dinner. We did all those things. Very good tips.

At the very popular Pizza Barn. Sonia declared the pizza was not that good because the cheese was low quality. I introduced them to the idea of low quality food when I explained why I don't eat at Jack in the Box. We have better pizza in Seattle but it was a fun spot. Great beer and kombucha! Kombucha because they are cool here.

Everyone in this town seems to descend from Scotland. They are also into fishing.

 We were home before the gate of the camp closed at 9.

This is Sonia in the morning. We slept listening to the waves nearby and woke up to lots of singing birds.

It feels familiar here.

I woke up early yesterday to go on a run. My goal was this place:

another war memorial

I ran through several really beautiful parks. The war memorial above overlooks the city. It is filled with trees and reminds me of volunteer park but much bigger and with many more statues of fallen war heroes.

You can't really see that in the lower left side of this picture is a cannon. The pole is supposed to be the sail of a ship. I've seen other reminders that people sailed from far away and were very pioneering in order to create the society they have here. Polynesian (who became the Maori) people sailed here 600 years before the Europeans arrived and were also quite pioneering in order to survive. The memorials to that effort are here too. They just look different. Auckland's needle is also in the background.

It's funny that I can travel across the planet and find many, many similarities between this city and my own.

how do they have black Friday? They do not have Thanksgiving.

Christmas decorations 5 weeks early. 

Like Honolulu, New Zealand is host to MANY tourists. I haven't met an American yet. Clearly, the Chinese tourists are making an impact.