Headed back into Auckland from up North right before sunset. 

 

A couple of Kiwi words we have picked up too. Togs are swimsuits. Jandals are flip-flops. Sunnies are sunglasses. Tramping is hiking. No worries can be used for thank you, just ending a conversation, or just about anything else. Lovey was used to refer to anyone, as in "You might want to try another place to turn around lovey."

Driving has been less stressful on the country roads. It is still a white-knuckle experience. The roads wound around up and down back and forth with every turn qualifying as a hairpin. I felt like Luigi in Mario cart. The roads were that crazy. We have driven a lot and I was worried about staying awake. Now, I am just worried about having clean underwear at the end of a long stretch of driving, especially after a single bridge pass feet from a blind curve.I  know why all the interiors were black. Less cleaning. I would suggest those old folks thick plastic furniture covers for most of the drives. Disposable at its best. Everywhere had hills and I was always stopped on a hill trying to manage a manual shifter, on the wrong side, with rain usually.

Auckland was home to 19 Maori tribes. First chief to settle Auckland named the area Land of the Long White Cloud. Currently, Auckland was known as the city of sails as ¼ of the population owned a sea vessel of some sort. We walked to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and learned more about the Maori and other island nations. This museum was host to one of the largest Maori artifact collections in the world.

  

The pataka, or storehouse, was a prominent structure in all Maori villages.

  

 It was hard to fit all of Te Toki a Tapiri in one shot, the last great Maori canoe, or waka. Carved from a single log, this waka held 100 warriors at 85 feet long. 

 

We were able to watch a Maori performance, which incorporated traditional dance, song, weaponry, and the haka. The main form of learning and histories was done thru song, dance, and chants. Repetition, repetition, repetition were the tribal mantras. Dances were also used to intimidate enemies. The Haka was performed before any war battle by fierce warriors trying to intimidate their opponents. If a Haka was performed so well that the dancing, large eyes, tongue display, slapping of body parts, and chanting intimidated an opponent, the battle would not take place and the opposing tribe would surrender. That was how important perfecting the Haka was. The Maori warriors were the only ones that could display their tongues in a threatening manner.

 Maori carvings also served as historical records, especially pre-European Maori who lacked a written language. Every carving has a story, or kaupopa. The position of the body, shape and tilt of the head, and surface patterns come together to commemorate significant  events.

 

 The highly prized Kiwi bird, New Zealand's national pride. There were road signs to watch for Kiwi crossings as the birds were very shy, nocturnal, and becoming extinct. Their main predator was the psossum. There are only thousands of Kiwi left in the country of 30 million sheep and 70 million psossums. There was a national effort to iradicte the islands of psossums. They are public enemy number one and were called New Zealand's speed bumps. Since the Kiwis are flightless and nest on the ground, they were easy pickings for the psossums. That will change in the near future as the national campaign to exterminate all psossums will be in full swing.

Couldn't pass up an opportunity to support higher education.

 New Zealand is a commonwealth of Britain. A mix of Maori and english influences can been see throughout the islands. Here, is St. Paul's Parish. Brings me back to Europe.

A short drive brought us to the front door of the Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium.Can you spot the babies? I need a fur coat like that.
 

 

The most logical solution for a meal after visiting an aquarium? Fish of course. We saw a number of signs bragging about the green lipped muscles special to New Zealand so now was as good a time as ever to try them. They were heavenly.

Time for bed and another adventure awaits tomorrow.

A must try was the Hokey Pokey ice cream. You have never had butter or cream as fresh as what is in New Zealand. One of the country's themes is Dairy for Life. Add fresh New Zealand dairy to French vanilla and you have a divine ice cream laced with real honeycombs. You have just tasted one of the Kiwis’ favorite snacks.

Up early and glad there is no rain, we walk along the coast to our tour boat for a morning out on the water touring the Bay of Islands.

 First a Maori settlement, James Cook landed here in 1769 on the shores of Robertson Island. There are 144 islands in the bay, where only one is still used for agricultural purposes. The Maori name for Robertson Island is Island to Be Desired Beloved. Naming the area The Bay of Islands, James Cook made this island one of his base camps during his explorations.

The dreaded Scurvy plagued sailors and pirates alike during this time. Besides loading up on vegetables and fruits, Cook found on the shores if this island and grass that could be used to make beer and simultaneously ward off Scurvy. The plant to date is still known as beer grass. 

We were in luck that day, clear skies and a small pod of dolphins cruising alongside our boat. Most of the dolphins in that pod had not been seen in five months. Each dolphin had a signature whistle. When communicating to the other dolphins, they finished their sentences with that signature whistle to identify them. They can communicate up to 20 kilometers underwater by gauging the water temperature, pitch, and sound frequency. Unlike whales, dolphins come up for air voluntarily and not out of necessity.

Their average life span is 60 years. Since they do not tag the dolphins, they were recognized by our captain and called out by name. Environmental preservation is very important in New Zealand. 

Staying on top of the boat for the best views and the least seasickness, we motored thru a number of the islands. On a couple of the islands our guide kept referring to pissed, saying the islands have been pissed free for a number of years so natural fowl can make a comeback. I wasn’t quite sure what urine had to do with pissed free islands. I know on Russell Island they are not pissed free because I used the bathrooms there a number of times and the tannery still utilized pissed.  I wondered if the wildlife knew they were violating the law. Had anyone told them, “This is a pissed free island.” I finally made sense when she said they had problems with possums and rats digging the nissed up and eating the eggs. Oh, pissed means pest and nissed means nest. Some of the accents are thick, and I need a “Come again?” to clarify. 

We then motored out to a natural rock formation called Hole in The Rock, made from a very soft sedimentary rock. It used to have two arches but due to erosion and weathering, the second arch crumbled. Weather had prevented them from going thru the past couple of days, but we were in luck and went right thru. During a storm with 90 kilometer winds, the hole is completely covered if you can imagine that

We did have a few squalls on the way back, but no drenchings.  Wherever you look on any given day, a rainstorm is always lingering in the distance threatening to unload. The Kiwis never consider the rains as storms but a little rain cloud. It even rained when the sun was out and no clouds were above you.

We have seen a dozen rainbows, double rainbows, and the ends of rainbows on a daily basis. Anywhere you looked, some part of a rainbow could be seen.

A couple hours later, we arrived in Waipoua State Forest where the Kauri trees once forested the entire region. We stopped to dress warmer, and headed  out on our hikes. Brittany added one extra layer. Me? I added three more to the three layers I traveled in. Brittany kept warning me that we were at the warmest part of our trip. I kept telling her baby steps, baby steps. And as long as I could still feel blood going to my extremities, then I was fine. Learned the hard way that not feeling your extremities was worse than being cold. Car locked, umbrella in hand, and we were off.

 This state park was host to the largest remaining collection of Kauri trees in the nation. First stop, the Yakas Tree, named after an old native Kauri-gum digger. The tree boasted 12.29 meters in girth and 43.9 meters tall with a trunk volume of 134.2 meters cubed. Nestled in a dense forest, this giant of a tree made even me, speechless.

 The second set of trees we passed were named The Four Sisters because of the circular formation they made while growing. 

 

After a little more rain and some conversation with our first Ozzy friend who decided to hike with us, we came upon Te Matua Ngahere, named Father of the Forest. This tree was second largest at 16.41 meters in girth and 208.1 meters in cubic volume, but the oldest of all the trees at 2,000 -3,300 years old.

Last was Tane Mahuti, or Lord of the Forest, was the largest tree in New Zealand, 51.5 meters tall, 13.8 meters in girth, and 244.5 meters in cubic volume. Its age was estimated to be between 1,200 – 2,000 years old, seeding was believed to have been around the time of Christ.

We said good-bye to our Ozzy friend and headed up the road to Paihia and The Bay of Islands.

 

Up early and on our way to Russell Island, a short ferry ride across from Paihia. Russell was once named the Hellhole of the Pacific by Catholic priests and Marist missionaries due to debauchery. A bustling town, originally named by the Mauri as Kororareka, hosted pirates, sealers, whalers, traders, and  of course, brothels. Russell was once the capital of New Zealand, but was stripped of that honor after the Sacking of Kororareka burned the town to the ground. Never recovering from the loss, Russell now is host to 1,000 inhabitants who experience a lifestyle very different from its past.

Christ Church was a simple and quaint structure constructed in 1835. As New Zealand’s oldest church, Christ Church boasted Charles Darwin as one of its original donors.

A short walk down the waterfront landed us right in front of the mission. Pompallier Mission was New Zealand’s oldest industrial building erected by the first Catholic bishop of the South Pacific. The original land was sold to him by an ex-convict from Australia. Later, he realized he paid too much for the land and was unable to continue building in the traditional island ways. Pompallier employed a French technique he was familiar with – rammed earth. The big frames held the condensed earth, rock and shell pieces and a few beams glued together with water. 

After curing, the frames were removed and the pieces placed. As you can see in the windowsill, the walls were extremely thick. 

After construction was complete, the priest and Marist brothers set to the task of making and distributing books in the native Mauri language. A total of 40,000 books were published in this building. The printing process started with four cases of type. The composer would use tweezers to place the letters and spacers in a row and then transfered that row to the galley trays, repeating until an entire page was set. This was the end of the composition phase. 

During the imposition phase, the imposer would place the type set page inside a chase, lying them out in order and keeping them in place with wooden pieces and quonis, pronounced coins. The quonis wedges were the last pieces put in to stabilize the rows of words inside the chase; hence the development of the phrase – “Coin the Phrase”. Another saying developed when the chase was lowered down onto the printing press, referred to as “Cut to the Chase”. “First Impressions” came from the first finished pages of any type set. 

The printing press was sent over by the Catholic Church in France. Notice the base was made in the shape of a cross. 

The spines were hand stitched and then glued into the leather covers with melted down sheep hooves and horns.

 

 A bay leaf was placed on the finished pages because of its natural pesticide and preservation abilities. 

For twenty years, James Callaghan worked a leather tannery within the mission printery. The agreement allowed him to produce and sell all his products as long as he provided all the leather the mission needed to bind their books. The tanning process started with collecting hides of sheep, goat, and cattle. Currently, the main animals in New Zealand are sheep. Ironically, they were originally shipped from Australia in the 1800’s. The hides are placed in a large vat with a closed lid, soaking in urine. Yes, urine. In the 1800’s, the workers would go around and collect human urine each day to use in this process. Easy to collect with all the bars in town, as the bathrooms for such establishments were big barrels placed outside the business and used at will by customers and passer-bys. The hides are soaked a week in the urine to dissolve any remaining fat on the underside of the skins. The skins are then removed and shaved of all their wool or fur and any remaining fat and flesh. 

The hides were then dropped into a pit filled with a solution of water and mashed bark that preserves the hides. 

This process took up to a year for sheep and goat skins and fourteen plus months for cow hide. 

Once dried the finished product is very stiff and rough. These hides were then taken to be curried. The hides were subjected to stretching, stomping, scraping and pounding. A number of stippling and stretching instruments and techniques, alternated with water soaking, produced a more supple leather. 

The final stage for the leather involved a process called Skiving. The currier would place the leather on an angled plane and shave off the desired thickness and dimensions of the finished leather. This was the only job during this process that required skill and not just brute force. Because it was not as labor intensive, the other workers thought the currier who was skiving was really slacking off. Kiwis, Ozzys, and the English use a term, skiving off, to describe someone who is slacking off and not working hard, a slang term developed in these tanneries.

Winds had picked up, along with some rain, so we decided to grab some lunch. Fodor’s Intelligent Traveler  suggested we try Sally’s. So glad we did. The best clam chowder either of us has ever had in our life. Combine fresh clams, mussels, fish, and shrimp in a country known for its butter and cream, and you have just died and gone to Clam Chowder heaven. I have been dreaming about Sally’s Clam Chowder. 

 

After lunch, we made a quick trip to the backside of Russell and enjoyed some time on our own beach.

 Good - Bye Russell!