Homeward Bound

On our homeword bound journey we had a full 55 minutes to kill.

And so we headed into the old college which has no been transformed into an arts center/gallery with little restaurants tucked in the gorgeous old buildings as well.

The inner courtyards were particularly soothing and very charming. We happened through no fault of our own to be in the city during the Buskers festival. we unfortunately had no time for Buskerers and saw no Busking. There was a tent set up in the middle of the courtyard and it did look like alot of fun but alas it was not to be.

In what seemed like a prudent move at the time Jay and Regina decided not to fly from Christchurch to Auckland to LA to Denver. and decided to take a 30 hour lay over to allow them a quick drive up north. The color of this is hard to describe much less convey over a blog, but imagine if you fed a new born baby corn and pickles for a week.
This car had a supercharged engine, 18" alloy wheels, a unique pickles and corn color, and a country that has a top speed of 62 MPH. How I wish that the speed limit was higher so I could have put my foot down and seen what this car could do, but the law is the law and I never speed ;) Regina was good enough to put on some rockin' music for our leisurely drive north from Auckland. I swear I never went over 60, but maybe I was looking at the Tachometer?

Well worth the drive is the Waipoua Park that is the dwelling place for the Maori Cosmology story of the beginnings of the earth. Indeed the oral history of the Maori tell of the first great seaman who travelled from the home land of Hawiki to the inlet river not far from here, a scant couple hundred years before the Europeans discovered the new world.

I think this gives some pretty good scale to the size of these massive Kauri trees, I'm probably 20 meters or so from the tree. The girth of this the 'father of the forest' is 16m, and sprouted about the time of Christs Birth.

Regina and Jay were both quite taken with the ancient lush forest and the startlingly huge treese that were not near each other. A 10-20 minute walk would suddenly round some foliage and a giant would suddenly supplant the peace of the forest with the grandeur of the ancient. Very glad we made this stop.

On our way from the west coast to the east for the drive by of the Bay of Islands Jay spotted this little gem set back from the road. Regina made a point of photographing the most beautiful churches, and this is maybe the best of the lot.

Here is a little glimpse of the countryside near the ocean up north of Auckland, a striking difference to the south island, Jay and Regina both wished we had more time to spend here. I guess we'll just have to go back.


Good bye to Auckland, New Zealand, summer, and our much needed soul mending break. We are already picking out our locations for the next time we are fortunate enough to make it to New Zealand. Then again this might be the trip of a lifetime and we're glad to be alive.