Finally, the time and iPad battery power to sit and add to the blog. Needless to say we have kept busy on our quest to see as much of the North Island as possible and get Roger and the glider into the air. Not to spoil it but we have have been pretty successful on both counts.

We got together with some great hang glider pilots, Dennis, Mike and Henny near the small town of Mokau, north of New Plymouth. All were optimistic and all who could, set up but the winds got to strong to launch so no flights unfortunately. Here are Dennis and Mike working on setting up a glider called a Fun and the view from launch with the landing area the beach below.

We spent the night at the campground at the black sand beach that is the landing area and had a lovely walk on the beach in the morning, discovering how pretty shells look in the black sand.

The wind looked better so Roger and I drove up the very steep road as close to launch as we could get in the van, which still left quite a walk up. You can see that Roger needed a brief break in the middle of the walk up to catch his breath. Looking back at the van it gives you an idea of the length of the carry with the added fun that the ground was also very lumpy.

We were supervised the whole time by these three but they were a bit bah-shful the whole time so didn’t come to close.

It was a beautiful place though and the good news was that Roger got a flight! The first flight in New Zealand and what beautiful views.

After the flight we stopped at a beach called Rapanui just before Tongaporutu and went for a great walk on the black sand beach there. There are caves eroded into the cliffs and each cave had hidden treasure as this funny looking fellow found.

The other amazing thing about this beach is that it has a bunch of rounded rocks.

The snow capped mountain in the distance of the last picture is a volcano call Mt. Taranaki. It is much like Mt Shasta in that it is not connected to a mountain range, has a side peak and is very big!

We were very fortunate to be offered a bed and dinner at Dennis and his lovely wife Jeni’s house that night. They have a beautiful house, with fantastic views and great neighbors that we got to meet as well.

They were great hosts and provided not only a place to do laundry but a chance to spend some time with and get to know, some New Zealand folks. Thank You Dennis and Jeni!

We went on a sight seeing day in New Plymouth the next day which is a great city. We were walking along the waterfront and came across some rocks balanced in some wonderful sculptures.

At first we thought they had to have been wired together to be able to stand but in the end we saw the fellow who created them and how he did it just by finding the balance points of them all. He was as amazed as we were that they had survived the night and were still standing there. He started making some more, it is quite a unique talent that this fellow possesses. There was a lot of public art along the water front are just a couple of them.

Also in New Plymouth we went to a garden and house that had a very interesting history and had been donated to the government called Tupare.

It has a large grounds with amazing gardens.

The next night we spent at a place called Waverley Beach and had another fantastic morning walk below the cliffs on the that are a treasure of mother nature’s erosion art.

So many different colors of soil! There is also the “the lost forest” here which is a collection of large tree stumps sticking out of the sand on the beach. I haven’t found out yet what the story is about them, pretty darn curious.

We headed south and after being disappointed to find a recommended museum closed we were rewarded by the rain stopping long enough for us to tour another estate/garden/reserve called Bushy. It has a lovely old estate house, a big reserve that is fenced to keep out predators like stoats so that there are a lot of birds, tress and a small museum.

The roses next to the front porch are the most amazing color of roses I have ever seen.

Even the fellow running the place was type cast for the part. A great way to spend an afternoon.

Just outside the Bushy estate there was a place selling nuts including walnuts, Roger’s favorite and very expensive in the stores. We stopped and after a bit of a game getting ahold of the couple running the place Roger was able to get a BIG bag of walnuts and a very entertaining interaction with the eccentric couple who ran the place. The lady even went an especially cut two lovely roses for me as well. Here is a picture of all the booty!

The place we camped this night was one of the great free camping spots in the DOC (department of conservation) book. We got there after dark so did not know for sure how it was going to be, we just knew it was near a water fall named Waihi Falls. As it turned out we had the place to ourselves that night and well into the next day. I hiked down to the base of the falls about 8am to get some great pictures of the sun shining onto the falls making rainbows in the water fall’s mist.

There were only two sets of visitors the next day and we were enjoying it so much there we stayed the day and another night. The next day Roger got this great picture of the beautiful sunrise and a little hedge hog (doesn’t look like she has had her coffee).

When he came back to the van this is what he found (she hadn’t had her coffee yet either, cut me some slack it was 7am and I am on vacation).

Roger was trying to phone or text some hang glider pilots which meant hiking to the highest point in the field next to us and holding his iPhone up in the air. If you look hard at the picture you can see him at the top of the hill lifting his iPhone up to the god of 3G.

On our way from Waihi Falls to Wellington we passed this very nice example of a New Zealand style house and also experienced a traffic jam, rural New Zealand style.

In Wellington we went up to the top of Mt Victoria to get an overview of the city which is quite spectacular!

We spent most of the day in the Te Papa museum which is a fantastic place. There are so many different kinds of exhibits and they are all really well done. Everyone recommend that we go there and we can say that we would highly recommend it if you are in New Zealand. Outside the restaurant we had dinner at we saw this license plate surround and thought of Karin, Mike and Aidan who are taking care of our cat for us. Thanks you guys for being Zubie’s staff.

Roger got his second New Zealand hang gliding flight the day before we left the North Island. He launched off a very low cliff (about 150 ft high) at Pukerua Bay right above the houses.

He had a great flight and came in to land on a very small beach. There was a troop of Boy and Girl Scouts having a cookout on the beach and needless to say Roger was a big hit with the kids when he landed.

He even wowed the locals in the balcony seats!

Two of the boys were talking to me while Roger was flying and they thought he must be having a super great time. One of them turned to me and asked if I was his Mother?! They just couldn’t imagine that anyone as old as us could be up there flying a hang glider! Sheezze!

We will send out the next blog starting with our arrival on the South Island hopefully quicker than we got this one done. We have been on the South Island for a few days already but just keep getting distracted having fun. Thanks for the feed back, glad folks are enjoying the pictures and stories! Cheers!

One of things we talked about wanting to do when we first thought about coming to New Zealand was to go all the way up to the very North point at the top of the North Island to see the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet and we did it! We timed it so we got up there pretty early in the morning which was great for the viewing as well as the driving. It turns out that the “major” highway that goes up there has a number of one lane bridges. Pretty close to Cape Reinga there is a very narrow one lane bridge which heaven only knows how motor homes and buses make it through!
Cape Reinga really is an amazing place with the seas meeting

which of course no picture can capture. There is also a stout little lighthouse

that has distances to all the “important” places (except it seems to be missing the Bay Area and Canby).

. There is also an amazing tree that as described is clinging to the side of a cliff right above the sea.

We then headed to the west coast town of Alphira to a beautiful hang gliding launch above a lovely little town next to a very blue sea.

. We were not able to drive out to launch because of a very funky road

But as it turned out that was not an issue because the wind was blowing the wrong way, again dang it.
The next day we went to the Waipoua forest to see the ancient and BIG kauri trees. These trees are not just big as far as height they are big as in very wide and have a living world up in their branches.

. You definitely get a sense of how old they are and the one that Roger is hugging is only the seventh biggest! It is also surrounded by other large ones. Major kudos to the folks in New Zealand who saved these trees and the ancient forest around them. To see them is a life changing experience. This was a great way to spend my Birthday followed by a evening and the next morning in the hot springs in Waitike Valley. The next day we went to the Waiotapu Thermal wonderland down the road and saw geysers, geothermal caves, rivers and lakes that rival Yellowstone in the USA. The colors were great!

This adventure was topped off with a stop at the Mud Pools that were great fun to watch and they made you laugh to see them burping that goopy mud.

Another attempt was made to commit hang gliding yesterday at the Rotorua site with the help of a great fellow named Olaf. Again the wind was not cooperating, being to strong and cross. The view from the launch shows just how beautiful this place is and we hope to stop back on here on our way back north in January.

We stopped at Huka falls in the afternoon to wash away our disappointment and cheer us up and watched the 200,000 liters a second of water pass through a narrow canyon. There is no way in a photo to capture the amazing colors, feeling and sound of this much water passing by. Truly astounding!

It has been raining and very windy today and after spending some time in the lovely town of Taupo watching a bit of bike racing and doing some shopping we are headed for the west coast to meet up with some hang glider folks to hopefully get Roger airborne at a coastal site above New Plymouth. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, we miss all of you! One last photo for now, the cool art that the forest makes for us on our walks.