Silja: Bay of Plenty

 There is at least one thing we had plenty of during our time travelling along the Bay of Plenty: RAIN!

This area is famous for its beaches, either because they are popular with surfers or because of thermal activity. If you dig a hole in the sand around low tide at Hot Water Beach, it will fill up with warm water that you can sit in. We were there at the completely wrong time and in completely the wrong weather. Under Axel’s frowns I dug anyway – with no luck.

We drove on to Tauranga, which turned out to be a surprisingly big and vibrant city, ideal for shopping. (Axel hated it...shopping that is). That day the Dutch community was supposed to have a Santa-Claus-Parade, which was cancelled due to all the rain. What a shame! Maybe that could have given us that Christmas-feeling that we are lacking so completely...  The kids have advent calendars with snowy motives on them, but one does just not make the connection since it is around 20°C despite the rain.

We spent the night in Mount Maunganui, a great holiday destination on a spit just outside Tauranga at the foot of a dormant volcano and with sandy beaches on both sides. This area was badly hit by the Rena oil spill and we could still smell but hardly see any signs of it. We did not see any wildlife either, though. Dolphins, seals and small penguins are said to inhabit the area around the volcano. What we did find were some big Paua shells on the shores along the base track going around Mount Maunganui, which gave us a feeling of achievement and some great memories to take home. Lisa really had an eye for these shells that often were wedged between rocks and half buried in the sand.

We drove further along the Bay of Plenty – in the rain. We found a great spot to camp at the huge Kohioawa Beach. It was quite deserted, since there is only the beach, a strip of dunes, a railroad, the road and then steep, densely forested cliffs. We had found one of very few places where it was possible to cross the railroad.

The next morning the layer of clouds lifted more and more until we found ourselves bathing in the roaring sea and building castles in the sand. The weather forecast had been wrong!

Around noon we felt that it was time to get out of the sun and we drove on toward Rotorua via Kawerau. Kawerau seems completely dominated by the huge Tasman Pulp & Paper Mill. This is where many of the logging trucks that I mentioned earlier were heading – and what does it say at the gate? NORSKE SKOG!

We did not make it to Rotorua that day, because Lake Rotoma, the first of many lakes in this area, was so inviting with crystal clear water and a sandy shoreline, that we stopped to give our new snorkelling gear a go. I was surprised how quickly Lisa and Niklas worked out how to do it. Mind you, they had been sitting in the car practising to breathe through the snorkel for days, waiting for a chance to try it for real. Niklas is not really a confident swimmer yet, but he can swim under water and the snorkel solves the problem of breathing. He would confidently snorkel out into the lake, almost forgetting that he actually cannot swim or stand out there… Luckily he found his dad to cling on to.

Niklas: uke 6 / Woche 6

Vi var på en strand med en tunnel i fjellet. Her hopper jeg ned fra et tre på den stranda.
 
På det andre bilde svømmer jeg med Pappa gjennom elven til en sandstrand på andre sida. Vannet var ganske kalt!

Wir waren an einem Strand mit einem Tunnel im Felsen. Hier hüpfee ich von einem Baum and dem Strand.

Auf dem anderen Bild schwimme ich mit Papa  durch einen Fluss zu einem Sandstrand auf der anderen Seite. Das Wasser war ganz schön kalt!

Lisa: Stranden / Der Strand

Vi gikk en liten tur der det førte en liten sti til en diger bue, som er laget av stein. Vi fikk ikke gå inn i den, fordi det kunne rase ned stein fra taket. Det var veldig synd at vi ikke kunne gå gjennom buen. Bilde er tatt på den stranden.
Vi kjørte til biblioteket. Der fantes det en lekeplass for barn med en kiste full av kostymer. Lea kledde seg ut, som en fin prinsesse.

Wir machten einen Spaziergang zu einem grossen Bogen aus Stein. Da durfte man aber nicht rein, weil Steine von der Decke fallen könnten. Das war Schde, dass wir da nicht durchgehen konnten. Das Bild wurde an dem Strand aufgenommen. Wir fuhren zu einer Bibliothek, wo es eine Spielecke für Kinder mit einer Kiste voller Kostüme gab. Lea verkleidete sich als Prinzessin.

Silja: Coromandel, NZ

Botanical gardens in Auckland

 After having spent a day in downtown Auckland, we headded for the peninsula of Coromandel.

In Thames, a former golddigger-town, we headed up the hills into Coromandel Forest. The visitor's center was a strikingly beautiful building full of symbolism and great organic features that had won it an archtectual award, too. We went for two short walks: One lead over boardwalks and steps through the forest (or jungle) to a model dam (that gave the walk its name) and the other went along a stream to Hoffman's pool, where we all head a refreshing (and in my case overdue) bath.

Flying the kite in Te Puru

Back down at the coast we followed the windy road from sandy bay to bay, collecting billions of shells, flying our kite and taking millions of pictures of brids and us doing all the mentioned activities...

Two fishermen gave us 3 flunders and would neither except money or beer for them and when we came to the next bay and stopped to take yet another picture we were offered snapper by an incoming fisherman. We had to recline that incredibly kind and friendly offer, since we literally had enough on our plates with the flunders that made a gorgeous lunch an hour later.

Niklas: Uke 5 / Woche 5

Tusen takk for alle kommentarene, spesielt til 1B!!!
Jeg savner dere!!!
Gleder med til å komme tilbake - selv om det er en stund til...
Rart å tenke at det er Jul snart og det er sommer her.

Vielen Dank für ale kommentare, besonders an die 1B! Ich vermisse euch!!! Ich freue mich zurückzukommen, auch wenn das nocheine Weile hin ist... Komisch, dass bald Weihnachten ist, obwohl hier Sommer ist.

Silja: Cape Reinga – Waipoua Forest - Auckland

Sunset behind the dunes (Cape Reinga)

We went up to the north cape of New Zealand, Cape Reinga (which is – like the Norwegian Nordkapp – just almost the northernmost point). Here the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific, which I expected to bequite a spectacle, which it was not really...

Unfortunately the weather was rather bad and the closest we could get to a weather forecast was the lady in the tourist information in Awanui saying «This does not really feel like a long-term thing». What was even more depressing than the weather were all the logging trucks passing us. There were permanent road signs warning us of them and inevitably completely deforested hills. Since we had been told to fill up with food and fuel before we go up to the cape, we expected wilderness and instead we found sheep, cattle and farmland everywhere.

It was not all dissappointment, though:

Lisa has already mentioned the giant sand dunes in her post and they really were something! It was probably a good thing, that the sun was not heating up the sand that day and we could go barefooted. We goofed around, climbing up and runnig down the steep dunes till it became rather late and the sun was setting, turning the sky into the most beautiful colours!

Resting at a stream in jungle-like forest

We then drove south again, this time keeping to the western shore of the island.

We had seen the large Kauri trees before, but in Waipoura Forest we found a whole new dimension of these giants. Here are several trees that are around 1500 years old and the largest we saw had a trunk girth of over 16 meters!

We went on a night walk, hoping to see the nocturnal Kiwi bird. We did not, but instead we came across an owel and very large insects that made humming noises. The birds held quite a concert, too.

We went back into the forest the next day and walked for hours. We still made it back to Auckland the same day, with the kids asking «Are we at Caitlin's soon?!» every five minutes. After a cheerful reunion we had a real feast together and watched the movie «BOY» afterwards. (Great film about a Maori boy in the early eighties).

Now we will check out the city center of Auckland.

Niklas: Uke 4 / Woche 4

Vi har vært i et akvarium (Silja: Aquarium of the Pacific in L.A.). Der så vi store og små haier og vi så Nemo og Dori! Neste dag tok vi flyet helt til New Zealand.

Her er det veldig flott landskap, med store sandstrender og palmer og apehaletrær (Silja:Vet ikke hva treet egentlig heter, men det som faller ned kalles for «monkey tales») og stooore, gamle kauritrær.

Wir waren in einem Aquarium (Silja: in L.A.). Dort sahen wir grosse und kleine Haie und Nemo und Dori!
Amnächsten Tag flogen wir nach Neuseeland. Hier ist die Landschaft toll, mit grossen Sandstränden, Palmen und riesigen Kauribäumen.