Back in New Zealand

We arrived back in New Zealand on November 5th.  It was a bit of an experience dealing with US Airways regarding our extra bag.  Although I had spent nearly an hour on the phone with Air New Zealand and US Air and been guaranteed we had it all sorted out and knew the extra charge, they wanted to re-litigate the entire situation at the check-in counter.  They know they have you over a barrel, what are you going to do throw your extra bag in the trash?  The flying public really is being  horribly treated and abused by the airline industry.  That all being said, the flights were remarkably uneventful and all the baggage arrived promptly and without damage.

As most of you know, we had left Beech Mountain after the snows of Sandy and a resultant power outage that lasted more than a day, ending just hours before we were to leave for the airport in Charlotte. 

Although some of the sights were absolutely spectacular...

arriving back in New Zealand with all of the spring flowers and trees in full bloom, was a welcome visual change.  If you look closely in the center of the pictures below, you can see one of the two red/yellow/green parrots that have decided to adopt our bottle brush tree at least for the spring.

 

Before leaving, many folks asked us to explain the process for living and relocating to New Zealand.  For those of us over 55, living in New Zealand on a permanent basis can be a simple process if you have a lot of money to invest as the government here wishes; think $2.5M to $10M.  If that is not the course you wish to take, you can buy a business and prove to the immigration folks that it is good for the country.  Lastly, if you have relatives who have been permanent residents/citizens here for at least 3 years, they can sponsor you.  Short of this, you can live here as we do on a part-time basis.  We are here 6 months a year, which means we must be out of the country for at least an equivalent amount of time.  Unlike the US, if you overstay your visa, they will come find you and deport you.  There is no clamoring for amnesty for illegals here.  These requirements can all be found at the Immigration New Zealand website,  http://www.immigration.govt.nz/.

We find the country very easy to live in.  No language barriers, friendly people, additive free food, sound economy, and a stable democracy.  It is much like living in the US 40 years ago.  Oh, one more thing, everyone pays taxes here.  If you earn a dollar, you pay something in taxes.  The more you make, the higher the rate you pay.  There is no 47% who don't pay taxes here, everybody has skin in the game.  Very different to what we have come to in the US.

Bec and Ken have played golf a couple times since we got back.  Both courses were over on the northwest side near the Tasman Sea.  I am looking forward to getting back in the swing of things this coming week.  I had spent several days locating and selecting a car.  This took some time and kept me from the links for awhile.  Good quality used cars are plentiful here.  They are used Japanese imports, which come in great shape and with low kilometers.  Ours is a Toyota Camry with about 85000 km or 50000 miles and priced at $9800 NZD or about $8000 USD.

We are going to do the traditional Thanksgiving meal this year.  You might wonder why I bring that up, but when a 12 lb turkey cost $80 NZD, it's not something you do lightly.  We have a small grocery here called Martha's Backyard, which imports US items, at premium prices.  We were actually able to find some Petridge Farms stuffing there.  Cost be damned!

Well that's about it for this post.  I'll get the editor to review and make any necessary changes and then she will post it.

Cheers!

A Bittersweet Day

First, our computer died about a month ago, and they are sooooo expensive here, we are waiting until we get back to the US to replace it. Consequently, we have been somewhat restricted with posting to the blog. I do have some things to put up after we get back.

Today we fly back to the US. We are happy to be heading back to see family and friends in the States, but very sad to be leaving Ann and Ken, Zack and Emma. This has been quite an adventure. We left the US on November 13, 2011. Since then we have set up a household from scratch, gotten the grandchildren settled and doing wonderfully in school, seen Ken find a great job and Ann begin her Masters program. As Ken said the other night, it couldn't have gone better.

We will be placing our Palencia, Florida house on the market, and doing some remodelling to the Beech Mountain house. God willing, we will head back to New Zealand in November for six months to contiune our exploration of the land of the Kiwi.

Day Six, Headed Home

As we were leaving Whakatane, we stopped at Toi's Pa. When the Maori settled in this area, their leader, the great chieftain Toi, established his stronghold on the highest point overlooking the entire area. This is a very important site in the Maori culture.

Off in the distance is White Island. If you look closely, you can make out the steam and smoke rising above the island. This is New Zealand's most recently active volcano.

As we drove north towards Auckland, we came upon the little town of Waihi. Turns out this is the heart of the New Zealand gold industry.

The Martha Mine is amazingly large.

The old pump house was moved rather than see it destroyed.

As we left town, we saw this restored train station which supports a tourist train that runs from here to Waihi. The restaurant was a fun place to have lunch and finish the trip!

Day Five

Gisborne is a relatively boring place. Basically a blue collar, sort of nondescript port that seems to be very involved in the shipping of logs and lumber. Very close by however, is one of New Zealand's best and most famous surfing beaches, Wainui. The waves were very impressive, reminding you of the north shore of Hawaii.
After a quick breakfast, we headed off to Whakatane on the Bay of Plenty. On the way, you go through a spectacular gorge and preserve area. At one of the stops, was an old bridge used in the early attempts to settle in the area.

Whakatane (in Maori, the "wh" is pronounced as an "F", so Fakatane), is at the heart of early Maori culture and colonization of New Zealand. The name "Whakatane" is reputed to commemorate an incident occurring after the arrival of the Mataatua. The men had gone ashore and the canoe began to drift. Wairaka, a chieftainess, said “Kia Whakatāne au i ahau” (“I will act like a man”), and commenced to paddle (which women were not allowed to do), and with the help of the other women saved the canoe. A statue of Wairaka stands at the mouth of the river.
There is a Maori canoe on display. Some incredible carving detail.

Another stunning sunset looking back towards Whakatane.

Day Four

After a long hard day on the winery tour trail yesterday, Bec and I were happy to be back out on the links. We played Napier Golf Club. It was a fun track with a lot of beautiful old growth trees. As is typical here, the fairways are not as plush as we are used to in the US, but the greens are in great shape.
Now all of you know that Bec is not looking for her ball under this big tree. I think she was looking for mine!
Bec makes friends easily. Below is what they did with the remains of an old tree...
After we finished playing, we drove the 3 hour trip over to Gisborne to spend the night. You get kind of numb with all the fabulous scenery here. This is a shot as we were beginning the decent down to Gisborne.

Day Three

Napier and Hastings are the epicenter of the Hawkes Bay wine region. Additionally, Napier unabashedly claims to be the Art Deco Center of the World, although somewhat tongue-in-cheek. The downtown area is replete with art deco buildings.



We set off to have breakfast and as we were enjoying our eggs and toast, who should walk by?Yep, Karen and Ed Levine from Beech Mountain. Now in fairness, we had seen them in Auckland on Sunday, as they were preparing to leave on a cruise to Australia. But it was funny that we saw them walking down the street in Napier.

As I said before, Napier is at the center of wine production in the Hawkes Bay Region. I guess this might only be second to the Marlborough Region of the South Island. Marlborough is famous for Sauvignon Blanc, which put the New Zealand wine industry on the map. Here in Hawkes Bay, they focus more on Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Voignier. When you enter this region, you are greeted by miles and miles of vineyards. Very reminiscent of pictures I have seen of the Sonoma Valley.

We were going to do a self-guided winery tour, but the folks at the hotel talked us out of it. Were they ever right. We went with Vince, who has been doing tours for nearly 30 years. What a blast! We did four wineries, sampled a minimum of eight wines per winery, and had a great cheese platter at the last winery. First we would have never found these wineries on our own, and secondly, should not have been driving if we could. There were six other folks with us, and we had a great time.


Above are our wine tour friends, from left our guide, Vince, Hal, Barbara and Inge(?) from Sweden, David and Vanessa newly-wed Kiwis, Becky, and lastly 2 young ladies from England.
Tomorrow it's golf and then off to Gisborne.

Day Two

So today is a beautiful day, a little cool in the morning but very nice. We are headed to play the Taupo Golf Club Centennial Course. This is a links course so off the fairway is big trouble.

Yes, we have learned to use a trolley on most courses.




There is no extra charge for those of you looking to improve your golf. Take note of how precisely I place my hands on the club! Behind me in the bush you can see some steam (just to the left of the tee marker rock, the 2nd shrub looks outlined in white) coming up from the ground...there are geothermal effects throughout this entire area. We were told that there are places on the course that you can feel the heat underground as you are walking.

After golf we headed down town for lunch. This is a shot across Lake Taupo with Mount
Ngauruhoe, Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings movies, in the background. It is the perfectly formed cone just to the right of the mountain with the snow on it. Yes it is mid-summer here.

After lunch we headed southeast over to the coast and Napier. On the way we saw this beautiful waterfall.

We stayed at a lovely boutique hotel in Napier. As you can see our view was directly at the Pacific Ocean. My favorite tree is on the left, a Norfolk Pine.

The First Day of Our Six Day Trip

Well we finally got of Auckland for 6 days. We left on Monday and headed south through Rotorua, the center of the geothermal activity in New Zealand, and on to Lake Taupo. Lake Taupo is the largest freshwater lake in this part of the world.

This is Lake Rotorua. One of the things it is noted for, is the large population of Black Swans.

Huka Falls is just north of Lake Taupo and is on the Waikato River.



Although not a great vertical drop, the amount of water being pushed through this small gorge makes it a spectacular sight.

A view out over the lake from the hotel. The sunset was truly spectacular.


We have some additional pictures of the lake taken on day 2, including a picture of Mount Doom in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings.