New Zealand (Terry's entry)

We arrived tired but excited in NZ and were picked up at the airport and driven to the car rental. It was early in the morning so we headed into long-weekend traffic north and spent the night in Whangerei. Wh is pronounced as an F in city names. One spot we stayed is fun to say, Whakapapa.

The camp grounds are so organized for tenting, with showers, kitchens, and everything you need. So tenting is working out fine, though not quite bush camping in the north. The first one had a spa to soak in.

We went north to the Bay of Islands and took a small ferry to the first English settlement in NZ, called Russell. It was very quaint and historic, and we pigged out of fish and chips, English style wrapped in newspapers, while on a bench looking at the harbour. It was so beautiful and peaceful there, we checked out the real estate, out of curiosity. For 1/2 million to 2.5 million, you can get yourself from an empty lot to a small bungalow on the beach. It goes up from there.

The driving is very winding and we always take twice the time locals say it will take. We then went completely north to Cape Reinga where the Taasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. There was Ninety Mile beach with miles of gigantic sand dunes where I was transformed into Terrance of Arabia. I had no camel, but a strong and sturdy French wife to carry the camera and water. You are a better woman than I am, Gunga Din.

We drove to Waipoua Kauri tree reserves and did some great jungle like walks to see the huge ancient trees, some of the big ones being two to four thousand years old. Three days ago we inner tubed the Waitomo caves with the incredible glowworms, like galaxies in the top of the dark caves. It was exciting guided tour with a gang of twenty year old backpackers from around the world and us. What was even better was the night before we borrowed torches (flashlights) and walked a trail by a creek in the same area and saw the same glowworms on the hill side. It was a bit scary and exciting to walk the rainforest path in the total dark.

The forests are totally safe here in NZ, but we did have a possum approach right to our feet in a determined effort to get by the human obstacle on his trail. Possums are an intruduced pest which are roadkill everywhere. One of the young cool guides on our tubing trip, with three ear rings on one ear (two on the bottom and one on the top), his name I think was Cory but it sounded like a bunch of vowels pronounced in a row - we never know where we are or anyones names, they all sound alike – anyways, he told us there are now seventy million possums in NZ. We heard from another local that there are seventy million. I think seventy and seventeen are actually the same number here, they sure sound the same. It is like some primitive number systems that count one, two, three, four, and more than four. Can you picture the difference between seventy and seventeen million possums? Corey (Koouuraie...) said the other day he drove four metres off the road to run over one of them. As we were driving to the cave he swerved to run over an already flattened one on the road, to the guffaws of the other young cool guide. But who are we to judge, we have mosquitoes.

Nous étions excité à d'arriver en Nouvelle Zélande. Nous sommes arrivés le matin et tout de suite avons commencé la route au nord avec notre voiture de location. Nous faisons du camping et les terrains sont privés et bien organisés et propres. Nous avons pris un petit traversier pour aller au plus ancien village européen en NZ, s'appellant Russell, dans la Baie des Isles. C'était tranquille et historique, et Michèle et moi avons mangé des frites et poissons à l'Anglaise, envolopé dans du papier journal gras et salé. Nous étions assis sur un banc au bord d'une petite baie pleine de bateaux de peche et de voiliers avec le coucher de soleil sur l'eau et des iles.
Les routes tournent beaucoup et on conduit à gauche. Nous sommes allés complètement au nord au Cap Reinga ou la mer Tasman frappe le Pacifique. En route il y avait une plage de quatre-vingts milles avec des énormes dunes de sable. Je n'avais pas un chameau, mais j'avais une femme francaise, forte, pour porter l'eau et la caméra. Il y avait des jeunes qui glissaient dans le sable avec des planches en plastique.
A Waipauo Kauri Forest nous avons fait des promenades parmi de gigantesques abres de deux à quatres mille ans. Il y en avait une qui avait deux milles ans quand Jésus est né.

Nous sommes allés aux cavernes Waitomo et nous avons fait une expédition sous-terraine dans l'eau sur des bouées et en costumes de plongée, avec casques de mineurs (avec lampes). C'était une visite aventureuse pour les jeunes voyageurs avec jeunes guides "cool". C'était magnifique de voir les galaxies de vers lumineux dans les cavernes. La veille au soir, nous les avions vus en nous promenant dans la foret jungle avec nos lampes de poche. Le meme soir avons vu un "possum", petit animal rongeur introduit par les colons. Peste, mais mignons. Notre guide aux cavernes nous expliquait qu'il y avait 17,000,000 en NZ. Ils s'amusent à essayer de les frapper sur la route.