Hi friends and rellies:
We’re now in northeast New Zealand, in the town of Coromandel, near the site of NZ’s first gold discovery in 1852. Some buildings that date from gold rush days remain today. The gold assay center now is a bait shop. The saloon still is a saloon. Street names include Goldmine Rd. and Goldfields Rd.
We’re waiting out Cyclone Lusi, which lashed the area with 80 mph winds and rain, and knocked out power overnight. This morning, the owner of the small motel where we’re staying brought us hot water and toast prepared on an outdoor grill, harkening back to the old days.
While the power was restored midday, we also received instructions on what to do in the event of an off-shore earthquake. “If you feel the quake, don’t wait for the siren. Run to high ground.” I hope not to have the opportunity to write a first-person tsunami report.
After leaving Wellington March 5, we mapped out a route for the rest of the month that takes us north on the west coast to Auckland, then into the middle of the country, and south on the east coast to Wellington before we return home. Stan seems to have mastered the art of driving on the left side of the road. Our rental Rav4 with 282,000 kilometers on it is performing well.
Some highlights of our travels so far:
In Wananga, we stopped to see a Māori art exhibit, and found ourselves at a Māori college, part of a national network that aims to foster knowledge of indigenous cultural traditions and language. The branch we visited offers a bachelor’s degree in Māori design and art, and prepares students to work as artists, museum curators, art restorers, or in related areas (http://www.wananga.com/). It focuses on weaving and carving.
Wandering into the wood workshop, we met Chris Gerretzen, who directs the college’s Institute of Maori Carving. He showed us his students’ work and some of his own, including the hei tiki (ancestor pendant) he is wearing in the photo below:
In Wanganui, we visited the Bason Botanical Gardens. Its fernery displays some of NZ’s 80 indigenous varieties of ferns, from towering tree ferns to tiny ones with fronds the size of a fingernail. About 200 types of ferns grow in NZ, creating a lush natural environment in many shades of green in towns and countryside (http://www.basonbotanicgardens.org.nz/).
We also went to the Wanganui Regional Museum, where we saw not only Maori art, but also unusual work from a private collection of African Art (http://www.wrm.org.nz/exhibitions/item/27/current/).
Driving north we saw Mt. Taranaki, its peak above the clouds. This volcano last erupted in 1755.
Later in the Auckland Art Gallery, we saw Christopher Perkins’ 1931 painting, Taranaki. This work is credited not only with drawing tourists to the area, but also prompting NZ painters to focus more on local subjects and fostering a distinct NZ school of painting (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/taranaki-christopher-perkins).
One legacy of Taranaki’s eruption is the black iron-containing rocks and boulders in fields and along the coast of the Tasman Sea. We had the beach at Opunake to ourselves as we viewed the sunset.
We’ve been enjoying local mussels, gunard, paua, and other seafood; sweet potatoes, avocados, and Kiwis, of course, and Hokey Pokey ice cream in our travels. Here is a scrumptious apple-rhubarb cobbler we had in Wanganui at a restaurant aptly named Stellar.
Kia ora,
Lynne and Stan
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