New Zealand/Kansas/Texas

When I was a kid, I was not into flowers.   Mom grew some Tulips each year, and I remember my Grandmother Colby had roses around her house.   But I was always too scared of the beating my big brother Chris was going to provide, or how I could escape his next deadly plot, to appreciate and enjoy life's simple beauties.   In Texas right now the country side is filled with Bluebonnets and all kinds of beautiful wildflowers.  But alas, they only last a month, and then they are gone.

So we travel half way around the world and visit the Botanical Gardens in the capital of New Zealand, Wellington.   (Surely you all remember your lessons on the Capitals of the World).

I can't say much about Wellington itself.   It is nice enough Capital city of 200,000 squeezed into this mushy land between a magnificent harbor and the mountains to the west.  I felt claustrophobic there, wondering if these buildings were going to fall on me in the next earthquake which is due anytime.   But a short ride up a cable car to the top of Mt. Victoria frees you from the death trap,  only to arrive at the fabulous Botanical Gardens, an Observatory, and a beautiful Rose Garden high above the city.

Austin touts Lady Bird Lake, but this place is pretty special.   It covers the entire mountainside, with about every tree and plant species in the world.   I am no botanist, but I was in awe of this very peaceful place.   Monterey pines that are endangered on the California coast have been planted here years ago and are thriving.  Redwoods, cactus, Beech trees with 15 ft. trunks, and of course all the unique trees to New Zealand, like the famous Pohutukawa
(I know, just sound it out).

These are magnificent trees that tower above the herd.    We spent very little time in Wellington itself, but much of the afternoon in the gardens.    Much to learn here.

Juxtapose the peacefulness of the Botanical Gardens with the magnificent ocean that surrounds these islands and determines their life.  I am a Pisces you know  (that explains so much) so I find great comfort in being on the water.   Strange for a kid from Kansas to love the ocean so much.   This is a serious ocean here, with swells that have traveled thousands of miles untouched by land.    Big swells, that you don't see in the Gulf, or the inner islands of the Caribbean.   Storms and hurricanes have taken their toll on the sailors in this part of the world.   We looked at one chart in the Wellington museum,  just in Cook Strait that separates the North and South Island,  there have been over 200 shipwrecks.    150 mile winds in a narrow straight, lined with deadly rocks is not a good outcome.

The forecast for the crossing many days ago was winds in excess of 50 mph.   Yikes!!   Today for us, it was calm.   One could not ask for a better day to leave Wellington, and cross to Picton on the South Island on the ferry, Kaitaki, a massive 182 meter ship (that is about 600 ft.).

Notice the Semi Trailer truck on the back deck, to give you a sense of her size.     We drove our little camper (along with hundreds of cars, over 50 camper vans, and dozens of large semi trucks) through the nose of the ship and into its interior to our parking space on the back deck.   Pretty cool.

Yes, that is our little home on the outside edge with the gray nose, and yes that is the same semi truck on the back deck that we could see from shore.   I loved this.   This fit right into my wheelhouse of a perfect day.    Take a ship to cross the strait, out into this big ocean, even if we did have a 1000 other folks along for the ride.   I am at peace on the water.

But watch out for those rocks please.

It is a 3 and a half hour ferry ride from Wellington to Picton on the South Island.   Half is across Cook Strait, and half is working your way up the Tory Channel and into Queen Victoria Sound, where Picton lies at the far west end.   I can already see that the landscape on the South Island is very different and spectacular.  

It is now Friday here, and we are spending two nights in the small town of Blenheim on the Northeast shore of the South Island.   Blenheim is the gateway to one of the world's best known wine regions....the Marlborough.    What could be better than a full day of driving about to several Cellar Doors (tasting rooms), then back to our Holiday Park to tap into the play by play of the KU-Purdue Sweet 16 game.   Go KU.   Let's hope our day finishes as nicely as it has started.  

                                                        Martinborough

What a great day!!   It was a beautiful day in the mid 70's, no wind, sunny skies, so it was perfect for taking a wine tour in this region.   The trees are starting to turn and the grapes are ripe.  Martinborough is a small area, where only 2% of the total wine production of New Zealand is produced in this region.  It is known for it's Pinot Noir's, and after 5 different vineyards today, I can safely say that the Pinots are great.   Ours is not a large camper van, but we found a cupboard that will conveniently hold 12 bottles of wine.   Pinots, Sauvignon Blanc, and even some Rieslings are now cruising around with us.   That makes for some very relaxing afternoons once we get parked.

Our friends, Carla and Roger, toured New Zealand by camper van a few years back, and they were the first to tell us of these neat places to stay, called Holiday Parks.  All of us are familiar with the typical RV park in the US, where you may be parked 10 ft away from your neighbor on an asphalt slab, with very little amenities.   Not so with Holiday Parks.   They are everywhere, wide spaces, mostly on grass, and are quite nice.   Most simply have an electrical plug in for the camper, so that part is pretty easy to set up.   But they are tailor made for the many travelers across this country that stay in many different formats.   Last night, we had a young couple sleeping in the front seat of their car  in the spot next to us.   Many of the younger kids are backpacking, sleeping in the tent on their back, or driving through with a tent in their trunk.   We have met many German tourists, and surprisingly many have come with their small children for a month long holiday.  Tonight in this Holiday Park in Martinborough, there is a young German couple with their 6 month old baby in the camper next to us.   Really nice people.  Long way to come with a little baby.

The key to all this is that each Holiday park has spotless clean bathrooms, laundry rooms, and the big differentiator, full on kitchens.  These kitchens, along with the bbq grills outside the kitchen,  are the social focal point of each park.    There is no need to pack all your bowls, skillets, etc.   The kitchen has it all.   Just bring your food and wine and join all the other campers each evening who are preparing and eating their food in the common area.    I grilled a steak tonight on their gas grill, while another couple from Canada were cooking their vegetables and lamb on the same grill.   There were two other couples from New Zealand who were on Holiday, enjoying their meal at the picnic table.   Naturally this is a really fun part for me, as I like to engage all these folks to find out who they are, where they are from, and what they have seen in New Zealand.   Lots to talk about.

After dinner, I took all of our dirty dishes back to the kitchen and used their sink to wash all the dishes.   This keeps me from filling my gray water tank in the camper, or using up our fresh water.    Shelley is happy to see me scamper off to the kitchen for whatever, as:

A.  She cooked, so it is the least I can do to clean up
B.  She knows how much I enjoy talking with people.
C.   It gets me the hell out of this tiny space we are sharing.....I'm betting this is THE reason

Shocker here:    Martinborough was established by a guy named Martin.  Who would have thought?   Mr. Martin apparently migrated here from Germany in the mid 1860's, and established this town in a nice neat square pattern surrounding a town square.   The picture of our camper above was taken as we parked in the town square today for lunch and to do some grocery shopping, in between visits to vineyards.   Also on the town square (Pictured above) is the shared bottling factory for all the surrounding vineyards.   They grow the grapes, produce, and age the wines at their vineyards, and then after the proper amount of time to age, transport the final product into town to be bottled.

Mr. Martin traveled quite a bit between 1860 and 1883 when the last street in his town was named.   All the street names were of places he visited around the world.  There is New York street, Cambridge, Strasbourg, Cologne, Dublin, Naples, and Venice street all in nice ever larger squares around town square.  However, criss crossing diagonally through this small town, that is only 8 blocks square, is Texas and Kansas streets.  (The ST refers to street, not Kansas State.  Sorry you Wildcats)

   Naturally we had to find the answer to this mystery.    Remember Mr. Martin named these streets in the 1860 to 70 timeframe.   After several glasses of wine, and interrogating several of the locals, the only answer we found was that Mr. Martin came to the Central US to check out the cattle industry.   So he was there during the times of the Chisholm Trail days when cattle
were driven from Texas up to Abilene, KS and the railhead.

I guess he was pretty impressed.

We had to laugh however, as we had our morning coffee at the local cafe, being waited on by the cute 20 something young lady.   Shelley asked her, "You have a Texas street right here next to the cafe", in her best Robin Carmichael West Texas accent.   "What is the story?"    The girl responded,
"We do??   I didn't know that!"

"Aaaa...Yea.   Right there.  And Kansas street is one block over, and they are THE ONLY diagonal streets in this entire square well laid out town".    She was stumped.  I choked on my croissant.   Oh well.

Then what are the odds of this:   Several vineyard tasting stops later....we pull into a really nice vineyard called Ata Rangi Vineyards.

      (PS:  This is my new favorite ideal for a house in the country)

They have a beautiful tasting room surrounded by large fields of grapes just ready to be picked (starting this week).  As is typical, there is a nice young lady behind the counter ready to pour us our samples, and she is talking to a customer who arrived just before us, another young lady.   Turns out that the customer is a 30ish girl from Washington DC, who was very distraught from the US election, so much so that she is moving to New Zealand.   She was talking to the other girl about how to get a job and successfully navigate the difficult immigration system of New Zealand.  Go figure, those damned Kiwi's.   Oh the interesting conversation Shelley had with her!!

As you would have it, the girl behind the counter of Ata Rangi pouring our wine was born in Hays KS, moved to a small town near Norton, (which she could not remember the name as she was a baby) then on to Wyoming, where she graduated from high school.   She met a boy from the Willamette Valley in Oregon years later who was from NZ, and the rest is history.   We were there for an hour, drinking their samples, getting really smashed, and throwing out every small town name we could think of in NW Kansas, to see if she could remember the town she lived in.   She never did, but it was a great party.  You gotta love new adventures, and places.   You just never know what and whom you will find, and frankly....it is a small world.

Prairie View....I just know it was Prairie View.    Maybe Oberlin.

                                        OK, This is Crazy

I mentioned earlier that we knew we were planning this trip to New Zealand during the Big 12, and NCAA Championship tournaments.   And yes, we knew that this "could" be the year for another KU National Championship, which is nirvana for Shelley and I, and our entire family.    Alas, we thought that this was the right time to tour these two islands, and have the Vacation of a Lifetime.    It has lived up to its billing so far, but today was just crazy.   

Here we are driving south on Hwy 2 in the southern part of the North Island headed for our destination in the wine regions around Martinsborough.   We have a good Wi-Fi router in our camper that costs $10/day, and it has been great.   It is 10:30 on Monday morning, and KU is tipping off in its game with Michigan State.  We read all the hype last night, and know that this is a huge game for KU, and they need to make a statement on their way to the Final Four.

I'm still trying to get used to driving on the left side of the road, but Shelley has ESPN on her phone getting the play by play updates.   Our four kids, spouses, and 7 grandkids are all on one group text message, and each of them is piping in their thoughts on the game.   The game is tense and Shelley is telling me that I may have to pull over if it is still close at the end, for her to stand on her head for good luck.   She threw something at me when I suggested it would be really impressive if she could do that while we were driving....  think of the good luck that would bring....maybe not.  Not even the Flying Wolinskis could stand on their head in this tiny camper van while I drive down these NZ roads.   

Then I am asking her to get off the basketball site, to get back to the Google maps so she can tell me when our next turn is.   Begrudgingly she changes, tells me quickly, "Go left in 2 km", and then she is back to the text site.  Great we're up by 6.    Shana sends a video of her entire family sitting around the TV in their basement in Wichita watching the game.   The kids can barely take their eyes off the game to say Hi to their long lost Grandparents,  half way around the world.   I get it,  I would be the same way if KU was on the TV in a big game.  We had to pull over to watch the video from Shana, catch up on all the plays, then move on.   Bryan and family are watching from Lawrence, Erin from Austin, and Charlie, Cait and Luke are glued to the TV in Pasadena.    Perfect!

We knew something big happened, when Charlie texted "JJ and simply a WOW!!!   Must have been another great dunk by Josh.   Then the Vick technical made us pull over to figure out who did  what, and if that was swinging the game back to MSU's favor.   Luckily not.   

By the time we got to our Holiday Park the game was over, KU wins by 20, and all is right with the world.   NZ looks prettier than ever, it is a bright sunny Monday afternoon, we are in wine country, and there is not much more you can ask for.    We got settled and spent the next two hours reading every website on the game, watched a few of the videos (the lob to Svi from Devonte was a thing of beauty), and now our night is really perfect with Duke LOSING!!!!    Villy and Duke out.    Come on Shelley, lets go drink some wine.  Rock Chalk Jayhawks!!

                                                     Opposites

I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around the fact that we are on the other side of the world, and not just far west, but far south.  Everything is opposite in this land.

The obvious is that they drive on the left side.
It is our first time south of the equator.
It is another day, on the other side of the International Date Line
The sun is in the north in March
The trees are starting to turn as fall approaches
Families just finished their summer break and are back to school
I cannot see the North Star in the northern night sky.
For the first time, I can see the Southern Cross
We are 18 hours different than Central Time zone, so hard to get used to our afternoon being your evening (of the prior day).
Right hand turns are a challenge to turn into the far lane.
Every time I cross a street, I have to concentrate to look to my right for traffic.
Wine harvest has started....in March!

There are many times when we just have to laugh.  The people are all very friendly, but many have asked us what we think of "Mr. Trump".   We like him we say, and they all want to know how the press got it so wrong.  Politics is a big topic it seems, and no one we have met,  has as bad of image of Mr. Trump as the image the papers seem to paint.   Everyone we have met, like Americans, and like the US.   That is good to know.   We can all share a good laugh over politics.

I do miss March Madness.  I did not think I would, but to not be able to see the games has been a problem.   We are checking our phones all day long to see the scores.   Go KU.

We passed the gates of Mordor today.   Last night we stayed along the shore of Lake Taupo.  It is the sunken caldera of a gigantic volcano that reaches 22 miles across.   It is a beautiful lake surrounded by high peaks, all volcanic.

The peaks of Mt. Tongariro (2250 meters) and Mt. Ngauruhoe (1900 meters) are off to the south of Lake Taupo, and covered in clouds in this photo.   Steam is escaping from Mt. Ngauruhoe, which erupts every hundred years or so.   It is due.   (Do not ask me the proper pronunciation of these words.)    

Tongariro is the mountain used as the backdrop in the movie series for the  Lord of the Rings.  It is a pretty bleak mountain as you get close.

You can almost see Frodo and his faithful companion Sam, as they tried to enter the Black Gates of Modor.

We are making our way south down the North Island.   Tomorrow we will be in the wine region around Martinborough.    We will be there two nights as we take some time to visit several vineyards and do some wine tasting.   I do not plan to drive too much tomorrow.  

Our biggest disappointment is that even with a month to explore, there is so much to see, and no time to see it all.   We were unable to go north of Auckland to the Bay of Islands, which is a sub tropical region much like the Caribbean.  Now as we go south, there are National Parks, hiking trails, water falls, that we just cannot get to.   We have to be in Wellington by Wednesday evening in order to make our ferry crossing to the South Island on Thursday morning.   

We are having a few issues with the camper, and will have to spend some time in the morning at a repair shop, which further limits our exploration time.   But that is the nature of the beast.   But then it will be on to the vineyards.   

Our phone rang at 4:30 am this morning, it was Lauren Hogan with news of the death of his wife Joyce   He had been trying to reach me for a day, but for some reason his texts, and calls were not making it through.   Joyce fought a 15 year battle with Ovarian cancer, and was fortunate that she lived long enough to see her kids graduate from college, and her son marry, then they had twin baby boys last summer.   Lauren seems to be holding up well considering the circumstances.   The service is Sunday in Northbrook, IL.   

She will be missed.

                     Hahei Beach to Papamoa Beach

I have seen many beaches in my life.    But this was really a very nice beach.   It had to be 7-8 miles long, nice white sand, gentle waves that the locals were surfing on,  and lots of shells.   We have a bag full of shells to bring back to Rylee, Stella, and Frankie so they can add to their existing shell collection.....and you too Leo.

You have to love these New Zealanders.   They are a hardy group.   They love the outdoors and everywhere we go, they are out in numbers enjoying it.   The water is cold, but not to them.   They surf in it, they crawl around digging in the sand looking for Pipi's
(a small clam that they dig out of the sand at low tide) and when I am wearing a shirt, long pants, and a jacket, they are barefoot, in shorts and a muscle shirt.   Arrrg matey.

We have really enjoyed these Holiday Parks.   There are hundreds of them, and in great locations.   Look at the above picture.  That is where we are parked in this Holiday park in Papamoa Beach.   We are literally 10 yards from the walk down to the beach.   Next to us last night were three tents all from a family unit, who obviously have been doing this their entire lives.   Gramps had to be in his 80's and he helped set up the tents.   Then there were the 50 something parents, and then three sets of kids in their 20's/30's.   They were up at dawn this morning in their shorts and T-shirts, bare foot, and embracing the day.   Believe me it was cold out.  I put on all my clothes to take this photo.  It was worth it.   Beautiful sunrise.  The Kiwi's laughed at me.

Our impression of the New Zealand folks so far, is that they are a very warm, friendly, outgoing group of people, that would love to kick the shit out of you in a friendly rugby game.  I'm to old.   But they are very friendly.  

After 3 days at the beach we headed to the mountains in the center of the North Island to the NZ equivalent of Yellowstone park.   The small town of Rotorua is situated in the middle of a thermal zone with lots of mud pots,  steam vents, and even an "Old Faithful" type geyser.   It is clearly the stinkiest town in NZ...although Shelley thinks it is very medicinal.   I think it stinks.    But all very interesting.  Look at this mudpot.

Stinky!!

I have not been to Ireland, whom everyone who has been there,  characterizes it as "Very Green".   That is how I would describe New Zealand.   It is the end of summer, and they have had lots of rain, and it is just beautiful.   Everything is green.   Talk about cattle.   I thought we would see nothing but sheep.   There are pasture after pasture of cattle here.   Thousands of Angus, Herefords,  Charolais, Holstein's and Jersey cows.   4.2 million cattle, they tell us, which is more than the population of people.   Then there are sheep.   Lots of sheep.  For a couple that grew up on the plains of Kansas, this place is a farmer's paradise.  

Speaking of which, I keep saying to myself, I could live here.   It is just beautiful, and there are so many different types of climates and terrain.  You could live at the beach, which is as nice as any beach in Florida, but it is much cooler and less humid here.   You could live in the rolling hills, that are lush, and look like Hobbit Land.  Then there are mountains, where you can go skiing.   Not so much for me now, but it is there.  We have only been here for 5 days, but we are really impressed.

I am ready to start the campaign to all our four children, and their spouses that this is the place to which we need to immigrate our family.   I am sure there are rules that would keep our clan out, but what an adventure.   I would miss KU basketball however.   It is March Madness, and we can only get updates on our iPhone with play by play.   No live video!!   That might be a deal breaker.    But still this is a beautiful country.  But then there are these things called Earthquakes.   Lots of them here.  Yikes.   Worse than Oklahoma. 

We're having a few problems with our little camper.  The LPG gas system is not working. Your Mother is not happy when she tries to make dinner, and the three burner stove, has only one burner that works, and the one burner has a flame that is so tiny, that it can't heat up anything.   So boon docking (or what the Kiwi's call Freedom Camping) is not an option right now, because it is the gas that cooks our meals, and runs the refrigerator.   So we are having to stay at these Holiday Parks and plug in.   That is about $50/night.  

Freedom Camping on Lake Taupo.  

I need a sailboat for this lake.  

We had to leave this beautiful spot once we discovered that our refrigerator and stove would not work because they are not getting a gas supply.   So we have to move to a Park to plug in.  

We are headed further south down the North Island and into wine country before we get to Wellington and our ferry to the South Island on Thursday.  So hopefully we can get our gas problem fixed, and find some wineries to enjoy some New Zealand wines.  

Rock Chalk....Beat Michigan State.  

                                     Hahei Beach

It's pronounced "Ha" like laughing, "Hay" like stuff that grows in a Kansas field that we feed to cattle.   Hahei is a small community of beach homes (and a really nice Holiday Park, which we call in the US, and RV park) on a one mile long beach, with some spectacular rock formations along its shore.   It is part of Mercury Bay on the east side of the Coromandel peninsula.   It was the landing spot for Captain Cook, who was the first Englishman to discover New Zealand.   He navigated here with the help of Tahitian guides using the planet Mercury to determine his Latitude and Longitude.   This was in the middle 1600's mind you.   The original determination for the Lat and Long was later determined to be within 1 kilometer accurate.   Pretty amazing.  Today we can hardly go to the grocery store without our GPS.

We are perched in our camper van right above the beach.   I can hear the waves crashing ashore right now as we approach high tide.   It is 6:30 pm pm Thursday, (12:30 am Thursday am for all of you), and we are enjoying a beautiful evening, temperatures in the mid 70's, and beautiful clear skies.   This has been a nice day, even with the frustrations with trying to get used to this small camper, and things that don't work.   I have to sit outside and keep my vision on the surroundings to remind myself how lucky we are, and how beautiful this place is, and forget that we are living in a "little house" on wheels.   This is not for everybody, and we have those creeping thoughts that maybe a rental car and Air B&B's would be a much easier way to see this country.   But we will persevere.?

Does anyone have tears in your eyes yet for our dilemma?

A Blow hole in the rocks where the top is 7 stories up from the ocean.   We entered through a small hole in the rocks, which then opened up to this blow hole 100 ft in diameter at the top.

Cathedral Rock along the beach, aptly named by Capt. Cook.

We took a boat ride this morning that took us along the coastline surround Hahei beach.   Hahei Explorer runs a 14 ft. zodiac, with Tom as our guide for the morning.   He does this 6 times a day, but we got him fresh, and were the only people that showed up for his first tour at 9:00 am.   It was a beautiful ride, and he was really kind to answer all of our questions that we kept firing at him.   It was like our own personal tour guide, so we peppered him with lots of stuff that I am sure was not in his normal repertoire.   I think he was glad when we got off the boat.  

             Sail Rock.   You think the waves are strong on this coastline?  A large fault line lies just below these rocks,  where the forces pushed up these rocks at a 45 degree angle, then eroded away over millions of years.  

After our boat tour this morning, we took an afternoon hike to a high bluff on the south side of Hahei Beach.   We needed the exercise, and it was a pretty view.   Now we are back at the campground, Shelley is cooking, and of course it is time to sample the Pinot Noir's of New Zealand.   I have been impressed that Shelley is fitting into this lifestyle of a small camper, using the campground facilities for showers etc.   Again, it is hard to say we are roughing it, but you do have to get used to the camper facilities with a 100 of your new best friends, whom all seem to be from Germany.   Nice people, and we have been surprised with how many brought their small children, some even babies less than 1 year old, all the way from Europe to camp across NZ.   Impressive.  Alex and Monica are camped 10 ft. away.   They are from Frankfurt, in their early 30's and have their little baby girl Sophie with them who was born one day later than Oscar, July 5th, 2016.   Cute.  

We have a WiFi hot spot in our camper so we have been able to keep track of KU basketball.   The first game against UC Davis is at 5:50 Friday for you, which is 11:50 am Saturday for us.   So we will try to be at our next spot by noon Saturday, so we can maybe follow the game.   Isn't technology a wonderful thing?   We'll see.  Rock Chalk.

                  New Zealand March 2017

It's 6:00 am Wednesday March 15th, in Miranda, New Zealand on the Coromandel peninsula on the east side of the North Island.   That makes it noon Tuesday the 14th for most of you reading this.   It is our first night in our tiny moving home, a camper van from Wilderness RV.   

OK, clearly this is not for everybody, and right now drinking our first coffee of the day, Shelley is saying,  "What are we doing here?"    We do not have our sea legs yet, as we try to figure out how all the systems work in this camper.    But I digress.   My initial concern was whether we would be suffering from major jet lag, and surprisingly, traveling for 24 hours, we are not.    Yes, we are six time zones away, and across the International date line, but it is easier to go north/south than east/west.    We left Los Angeles Sunday evening at 11:30 pm.   That is a busy time at the airport, as late evening is the time for all the Red Eye flights to the US east coast, and dozens of international flights headed across the Pacific.    For an airplane buff, I love walking the Tom Bradley International terminal as every big new jet is sitting there ready to take passengers to all the corners of the earth.   Several big Airbus A380's (as my grandson Luke will tell you is the world's largest passenger jet) are present, along with the long distance workhorse, the Boeing 777 ER.   Plus the new kid in town is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which many of you have taken, but I have not.   It is still on the bucket list of things to do.   All these planes take you on trips lasting up to 17 hours.

For us, we could not get our ticket on American's new 787 service direct to Auckland, as we were using Advantage miles for our Business class tickets.   320,000 miles to be specific and $149.    Not bad for Business class round trip to NZ, Australia and back.  But American sold all of its seats to "Revenue paying" passengers on its Flight 83 from LAX, so we got our seats on their One World companion, Air Tahiti Nui.    Not sure how many of you care, but Air Tahiti Nui has 5 airplanes that fly from Tahiti to Los Angeles, and on to Paris, with branches to Auckland and Tokyo..... all are 25 year old Airbus 340's.   4 of them have had a recent upgrade.   Guess which one we got...right, the one that has seats so old, they were like wood.   OK, maybe I exaggerate a bit, but it was not the best seat to try to sleep in overnight, plenty wide, but they barely lay back.   It is 8.5 hours to Papeete Tahiti, where we landed at 5:30 am.   We had to get off the plane, clear security and then stay in a transit lounge until our flight continued on to Auckland at 8:00 am.   Shelley says she slept just fine, me not so much.  

From our prison inside the Papeete terminal it was a spectacular view across the ocean to the island of Moreau.    Clearly this now becomes a new bucket list item, which is to come back to Tahiti and explore.   It is just beautiful from my limited vantage point.   Our flight on to Auckland took 5.5 hours, so we landed at 12:30 pm Tuesday, as we crossed the International date line.  Tahiti is on the east side of that line, just barely, so it is where the day ends.   NZ is on the west side, so the day start there.    Our course heading all the way from LA, Tahiti, and on to NZ was mostly south, 200 degree heading.   Hence, not much of a jet lag.  

It took an hour and a half to clear customs, and get picked up by the friendly folks from Wilderness RV.   For all of you who have been sailing with the Moorings, it is a very similar process to pick up a camper van.   You have to go through the rental contract and take responsibility with your first born child if you screw up, then give you a brief walk through of the camper.   That should be a cinch for us ole veterans of the RV world.   Not so much.   They do things different here.   

All the time, I am thinking that we can figure out how the systems work on the coach, but I am wondering how the hell to drive on the wrong side of the road.    Our camper van is really nice.   It is a Fiat diesel van chassis with a very nice 22 ft. camper.   We picked this one because of the king size bed in the back, a bathroom, refrigerator, stove, and table.   It is very easy to drive.  Everything you need for a month of exploring NZ.   To my delight, it was easy to drive....much easier than my big ole Class A back in the US.   After surviving the first drive, I am happy to say I did not hit anyone or anything, nor screw up by turning into the right hand lane.   In fact it was pretty easy.   Whew!!

We did not arrive at our Miranda Holiday Park until late, so have not had a chance to get into the NZ camping life yet.   Just trying to get our legs underneath us.   But we survived our first night without killing each other, so life is good.    Now we have seen our first dawn in New Zealand, and all is right with the world.   Time to explore.