Day 5, October 22, 2018 – Wild West Tour of NZ
When in Auckland, one must eat as the locals do … so we
enjoyed a very delicious breakfast at a little, very friendly hole-in-the-wall
restaurant called Savor and Devour. The
coffee was flavorful and strong, the eggs and hash cake, saffron egg and hash
cake, salmon with eggs and cream cheese were gourmet; and everyone was so
friendly. Actually, we’ve found everyone
to be very friendly and helpful as we tourists often asked dumb questions!
Our tour driver Brett picked us up at our house, and for the
next seven hours we had a wonderful time learning about the region’s geology,
wildlife and Maori heritage. We’re on
the northern island of New Zealand, where the east side is very calm with many
bays and islands and very good for sailing. The west side is volcanic with steep
cliffs, no islands and rougher waters, the waves being very good for
surfing. The extremely lush, dense
vegetation reminds us of Florida.
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| Manukau Harbour |
New Zealand sits on about 50 volcanoes, and the Waitakere
Range is the edge of what was once a massive volcano. The area gets about eight
feet of rain a year. Five dams have been built, and Auckland gets about 30
percent of its water from the Waitakere Mountains. The coldest it gets in the
north island is about 50 degrees in the winter, though the southern island does
see freezing temperatures and year-round snow, especially in the higher
mountains. There are 4.5 million people
in New Zealand, but only one million of them live on the southern island. It is interesting that New Zealand was one of
the last countries in the world to be populated, the Maori people settling here
in about 1300. Today, only about 15 percent of the population is now Maori
though there are many references and reminders of that culture. There are no
dangerous animals or big critters on the islands; though deer, sheep and other
animals were brought here by the English for food and game.
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| Richard & Mary Jo enjoying Karikari Falls |
Our day consisted of meandering up and down, twisting and
turning through the mountains with fantastic views of the valleys, lakes, bays
and the City of Auckland way down below. We walk through the Hillary Trail in
the Arataki area of the Waitakere Range learning about the silver ferns and
other flora of the area as well as savor the breathtaking views of both the
west and east coasts of the north island from this vantage point (Hula and
Manukau Harbours). Next we descent to Karekare, a very isolated region along
the west coast with a few homes nestled
on the steep slopes where we venture down through dense vegetation and sweet
smelling flowering trees to the base of lovely Karekare Falls.
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| Piha Beach |
At the Piha Café we enjoyed yet another delicious lunch,
after which we walked and explored the black sand Piha Beach, a surfing hot
spot. The black volcanic sand contains a
lot of iron, but over the years the efforts to extract that iron has met with
minimal success. The densely vegetated
steep cliffs surrounding the very wide beach provided an interesting exploration
of volcanic layering and even a narrow, dark cave, mussels and barnacles. Finally, there are the gigantic kauri
trees. Once the island was filled with
these trees that are second only to the Redwoods in terms of size. They can
live to be up to 3,000 years old!! Because
the trunks are perfectly straight, the wood never rots, it is hard wood but
easy to work with, this tree was coveted for use in the boating and housing
industries. With its trunk 10-30 feet in diameter, it is said one tree can
build 40 houses. Today they are protected, but only a limited number
remain. We saw one that was estimated to be over 1,000
years old … unbelievable!
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| Ta-da -- on Piha Beach! |
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| Trudy & Glenn strolling the black-sand Piha Beach |
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| In front of a 1,000-year-old Kaui Tree |
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