Smith Adventures

Queen Charlotte Sound Our time drew to a quick close on the north island as we headed back to Auckland from Rotorua and flew to Blenheim (Blen-nem) in NZ talk. Saturday morning on New Zealands roads wasn’t as bad as expected, a 4 to 4 ½ hr drive was reduced to 2 ¾ hrs. The little metallic blue Holden (Chev) Barina (Spark) was a surprising improvement over the same colored Hyundai Accent we had out of Cairns. But over 100 kph. It started to show its twitchiness. I am reminded of Ralph Nader’s “unsafe at any speed” comments. So when we arrived and were given a Toyota Corolla Hatch ( aka Matrix) in you guessed it metallic blue of the same shade as the 1 st 2 rentals I began to wish I was playing the lottery. How am I going to tell them apart at a distance? One thing for sure, this Toyota is definitely a good vehicle.   Picton Harbor from our room We take possession of the Toyota and head out to Havelock to take the reported scenic drive to Picton along part of ...

Rotorua Museum, shuttered due to Earthquake damage   As you leave the Coromandel peninsula you connect to the Bay of Plenty where KatiKati is part of. Further south you arrive at Taraunga Bay and head on Route 36 toward Rotorua.  Obviously the north Island of New Zealand has lots of thermal releases and Hot Water Beach is but one example. Rotorua is the Capital of Thermal releases. It is every bit on par with Yellowstone National Park for sure. And it is well known for its Maori culture as well. Rotorua was where our micro-biologist friend had come to speak from Idaho. Sandra has mapped out a number of must see places and I have my short list as well but first we check in at our motel, yes a culture of NZ and Aus, that is prominent here. In the parking lot of the motel is a vent stack, venting sulphur dioxide and steam. I notice the next place is as well.  As we venture into the main centre of town the church, an Anglican ministry on the shores of Lake ...

Cathedral Cove, east coast Coromandel Peninsula OK, promise everyone that you won't tell anyone about how scenic the Coromandel peninsula of the north island is. OK, thanks for promising that! Now we picked up our little rental car from Europcar in DT Auckland and headed out of town. About 1 1/2 hrs later we just passed through Thames, the western entry point to the Coromandel peninsula and decided to have lunch. Holden Barina Hatch -pretty good! It seems anywhere in New Zealand you can make a simple left turn and you will find a picnic spot in front of you, it's just that easy. So we stopped for an early lunch and an update to my GPS mapping as I had forgotten do download my latest way-points to it. Ready to go again we headed clockwise around the peninsula. Since you drive on the left side this positions you closest to the waters edge, and no where  on the peninsula will you find a guard rail blocking your view on these super narrow roads, absolutely no where!...

Top of the Bucket List - When in Rome, er Auckland..... I can't believe it, it all came back to me OK, for the last 8 years we have been heavily weighted on motorcycle touring, an extension of my motorcycling addiction that started 52 years ago. Well another sporting addiction was at play back in the early 1980's when a friend and neighbor Paul Kieran took me out sailing for the first time, sold me his small sailboat later and we (Sandra I and the kids) caught "2 foot-itis" for a long while after. It got to the point that I became "Commodore" of the AOSA, Alberta Offshore Sailing Association in the mid 1980's. Oh, sailing was in my veins. Our summer holidays with our different cruising sailboats took us to the west coast for some of the best holidays we used to have, and our daughter Shannon became immersed (pardon the pun) in the sport as well. I even raced twice in the Swiftsure Race while living on the prairies! It's all part of how we arr...

How Rangitoto was formed Our flight to Auckland, New Zealand was with China Air and was quite good with a nice meal served with an Asian flair. It should be too since it originated in Taipei and 80% of the passengers were Asian.Our arrival in New Zealand though was a bit of a surprise.The airport like everything else is under construction and British style bureaucracy can be seen at every turn. That did complicate our arrival at our accommodation until near 10:00 pm NZ time at night, after a 7:15 pm arrival.  Auckland Skyline Today however was a gorgeous day here, sunny, warm, and light breezes. We checked out and then booked the ferry to Rangitoto island, a dormant volcano island that was formed only 600 years ago. Pictured below is an explanation of the formation of Rangitoto. From a hike perspective the summit crater is 268 M above sea level and 2.5 kms from the pier. Within an hr. we were at the top, viewing both the crater and views to both the ...