Backroads winds down

More biking and hiking the last three days with Backroads. Thankfully they provide options for long or short hikes and biking.
Here is one day's plan laid out complete with sandals for sand and cans for hills.



Our hotel is a lovely estate in the Hawks bay area of the north island. Nancy and Tom had the ultimate suite.


This is a higher end tourist area set in rolling hills. Biking takes us past vineyards and orchards of apples and peaches, and sheep and cows and sheep and cricket games and sheep. The flowers are ever present too.


Lunch stops are always a treat.


Dinner at the Elephant Hill winery included a wine tasting.








Our last morning was a lovely hike in the redwood forest


And rolling hills.



After farewells


we were taken to the Napier airport to pick up our rental car and head to Martinburough and wine country. Tomorrow we're off to Wellington after we check out a few wineries.

Terraced hillsides

Not sure that this will interest anyone else but it did me. Kathy thinks I'm strange... anyhow, many, many hills have a terraced appearance, which initially intrigued me. This is a photo of such a hill, as well as the ubiquitous water tank:





Turns out that the hills are so steep that the animals stand perpendicular to the slope and graze uphill! And, no, one set of legs is NOT shorter than the opposite side.... Next, a 'pic with animals in place:





It's easy to tell when the cows have been transferred from one field to another, since we ride through their fresh droppings after a recent transfer....:)

Farmer Bill

Location:NZ

Back roads continue

Day 4 began with the usual breaky at 7. Grand arrays of fruits and grains and eggs and bacon. We proceeded to the shore of Lake Rotoiti for our kayak trip across the lake. You will notice from the pictures why they call this the land of the long white cloud (aoteroa).


- after about 5 k we had a soak in the hot springs


Then on to lunch and a trip to the agrodone where we had an extreme tractor ride and watched the sheep shearing


I even gave zorbing a try.





Dinner that evening was in the Marae of our new Maori friends. It was a moving peek into their world. Complete with nose press (hongi).


And even included the men presenting their version of the warrior dance .haka.


Day 5 was a real geothermal adventure. The morning bike ride was about 20 miles through lush green farmland and rolling hills.


Lunch was at the hot springs with time to soak.


That afternoon we had a guided walk through the geothermal pots. This area was created by the volcanic eruption in 181ad that created a giant coldera.


But the day's highlight was Bills bunghi jump into the Waikato river in Taupo. He said the first moment of the 160 foot free fall was terrifying but all in all the 5


that jumped were thrilled. I will try to send a video on my next post.

Three days into Backroads

Here we go... Off for our Backroads adventure.



- Our group of 21 are from LA, Brooklyn, Philly, Chicago, San Antonio, Claremont and Woodside CA, Shreveport, and of course MI. Very interesting group.
Day one we drive about 2 hours to the Coromandel peninsula. We stopped for a short hike and talk with a Kiwi naturalist who told us about the interesting trees and ferns.





Our accommodations are in tree houses. Lovely dinner but served in "island time.

Day two was a wham of "multisport"!
We first took a ferry to begin our ride.



Which was a 36 k bike ride over Pumpkin hill (7k was up a 7 degree grade). Lunch in a hillside winery. Here are our tour guides and lunch creators.


Next we shuttled to the Pacific ocean and took a 3 hour hike to Cathedral cove where we had a great swim in the surf.








That night we nearly fell into our pua (abalone).
Day three was a transport day. We drove to Rotorua (about 5hours) with a stop for a 3 mile hike at Karanagahake gorge where they mined gold in the late 1800s.





And a swim in the river at lunch.


Now, at a resort on a lake in a volcano caldera. Kayaking tomorrow.

Fabulous weather!

Leaving Auckland

Visited the museum - kind of interesting. Sailed on a true America's Cup 12 meter boat. Good wind, lots of fun. Today, off on our Back Roads adventure.

By the way - items in New Zealand are VERY expensive; ie a $0.50 cup of senior coffee in the USA is $2.80 here! Tom bought a bottle of Listerine for $10.00....


Our sister ship.



Bill working the grinders.


Buying prawns at the Seafood festival.



The buskers in the park. We happened on a holiday weekend for Aucklanders to celebrate their city.

We've arrived

Flight was loooong but really quite lovely. Once we adjusted to having dinner at 4am GR time, we snuggled into the complimentary pjs for a good rest. Here are our traveling companions Nancy and Tom Huck.


We arrived in Auckland at 10am NZ time (tomorrow). Greeted by this charming fellow.


- Our hotel is right on the harbor and there are lots of cruise ships and yachts Unfortunately it started to pour so our sashay down the quay was traded in for some bridge in the hotel bar overlooking the rain. We found a lovely Japanese place for small plate dinner when the rains cleared.



The view from our room this morning.


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Location:Queen St,Auckland,New Zealand

The details

We leave on January 25 at 4pm GR time.  We arrive at LAX and proceed to Aukland New Zealand. 

We arrive there on January 27 at 9 AM NZ time.  Notice we lose a day because we go over the international date line.  In case you were wondering why we chose January?  Well, we miss this....

and it is summer in NZ.  Aukland is on the north of the north island.  We have two days to catch our breath from traveling and then we meet our Backroads guides for our eight day tour titled New Zealand Multisport.  It includes hiking, biking and kyaking and of course lots of culture and scenery.  You can see the details on their website.

Here's a map of the north island.  We start in Aukland and end in Napier in Hawks Bay.  Our travel companions for this 6 week adventure will be Bill's sister and her husband, Nancy and Tom Huck.  If you follow this blog, you will surely see pictures of them soon.  Stay tuned and do post your comments.  We will be able to also communicate via email and maybe even facetime.  More on that when we get there.