New Zealand, 9-13-2017--Paeroa to Parua Bay

Cows and more cows.

We stopped at the Miranda Shorebird Center on the Firth of James, a large, shallow bay with extensive tide flats and a major migratory shorebird habitat.  Among the birds that spend part of the year here is the bar-tailed godwit.  As the poster above notes, each year the bar-tailed godwit makes an incredible migration from Alaska to the Firth of James, a distance of over 7000 miles which they fly non-stop in 8-9 days.  It's the longest known non-stop flight of any land bird.  

The Miranda Shorebird Center was both welcoming and impressively stocked with bird books.  

After some birdwatching along the west shore of the Firth of James, we drove up through Auckland, NZ's largest city.  As you might guess, we didn't stop and were relieved to escape the metro area.

Continuing north, we came to the sheltered waters of Whangarei Bay, one of NZ's major recreational boating areas.  

Ocean beach to seaward of Whangarei Bay

Whangarei Bay

The view from our camp on the north shore of Whangarei Bay.

New Zealand, 9-12-2017--Lake Whakamaru to Paeroa

Our first stop the next day was in Rotorua, another resort town noted for its thermal activity.  

We'd seen some curious looking playground equipment at various parks and finally decided to investigate at a park in Rotorua.  They're all designed to encourage kids, even 62 year old ones, to be active.  David discovered that this one rotates surprisingly fast and the rider needs to hang on tightly.   

This rope climbing apparatus was also irresistible.  

The Old Post Office.

This, like some of the other grand old buildings in Rotorua, was built in the early 1900's and is closed while it undergoes strengthening to make it more earthquake resistant.

Originally built as the Rotorua Bath House, this impressive structure in Government Gardens was converted to a museum in 1969.  

Unfortunately it was closed while a study is being done to see if it can be made earthquake resistant.

The grounds at Government Gardens are immaculately kept.  

Teams of workers at Government Gardens remove dead leaves and petals.

Lawn bowling is popular at Government Gardens.  This welcoming sign is typical of what we so often found throughout NZ.

These ladies taught us the basics of lawn bowling...

...which is similar to bocce except that the ball is heavier, shaped like a somewhat flattened sphere and weighted on one side.

Cricket is another popular game here.  A maintenance worker was mowing this cricket field to a precise height. 

Pearl sits in front of the cricket clubhouse.  

Within Rotorua is a small Maori village, in which the St. Faith's Anglican Church is located. 

St. Faiths is famous for its etched glass window depicting Jesus walking on the water of Lake Rotorua.

A small portion of the intricate carving that decorates the sanctuary of St. Faiths.  

At the entrance to St. Faiths, the forces of nature intrude.  Since the construction of the church, thermal vents have surfaced, threatening the church building.  

More intricate carvings adorn the front of the Te Papaiouru Community Center.   

Steam rises off Lake Rotorua beside the Maori village.  St. Faiths Anglican Church in the background. 

Continuing north from Rotorua, we drove to Tauranga on the east coast of the North Island.  Expecting a small port town, we quickly discovered it was a bustling city and a major container shipping port.  Needless to say, we left it as quickly as we'd arrived.

Logging is a major industry on both the North and South Islands.  

The quiet village of Whangamata on the Coromadel Penninsula was much more to our liking.  

Boats line the inlet at Whangamata.  

From here to the end of the North Island some 400 miles north lies the heart of New Zealand's sailing area.  The coast here is indented by innumerable bays and inlets.  Given that we'd just come from a sailing voyage, this was a part of the North Island we were most interested in seeing.  

New Zealand, 9-11-2017--Wellington to Lake Whakamaru

After visiting the Te Papa Museum we camped near Wellington and the next morning headed north.  Our primary interest on the North Island was to see the popular sailing area along the northeast coast of the North Island.

Some friends had asked us to try a bacon buttie, a gastronomic treat in England and New Zealand.  It's just two pieces of toasted white bread slathered with butter and three big pieces of bacon in between.  In the town of Bulls, we located the genuine article.

David gives it a try...

...and a big thumbs up.  Not exactly health food, but absolutely delicious.

The small town of Bull capitalizes on its name in a big way.  Here's the storefront window of the local chiropractor.

Bulls misses no opportunity to display its name.

As occasional road signs note, "NZ roads are different, allow more time." Above, Highway 1, a major thoroughfare on the North Island, goes through the center of a small town, stoplights and all.

Looking west toward Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe, in Tongariro National Park.  Both peaks are active volcanoes  

The area we're driving through is known as the Rangipo Desert.  The relatively high elevation, strong winds and high evaporation rate give it the look of a desert, despite 60-100 inches of annual rainfall.     

In the resort town of Taupo on the shore of Lake Taupo, we came across this curious sight.  

People were lined up to pay $20 for a bucket of 25 golf balls.  The object was to make a hole in one on a float 100 yards out in the lake.  

We couldn't figure out why so many people were waiting to hit golf balls into the lake until we saw this banner.  

In addition to the hole in one, there were sand bunkers on the float and various prizes.

One poor bloke in a wetsuit was diving in the frigid lake water to recover all the balls that missed the float, which was almost all of them.  

At first we couldn't figure out what this sign meant.

Soon we realized that what makes Taupo a resort is its hot springs.  In some places clouds of steam across the road impaired visibility.  

New Zealand, 9-10-2017--Picton (South Island) to Wellington (North Island)

Heading down Marlborough Sound, we pass a ferry almost identical to the one we're on. 

Leaving Marlborough Sound, we head out into Cook Strait and leave the South Island behind.

Interestingly, leaving the South Island, we travel southeast to get to Wellington on the North Island.  

The ferry took us to Wellington at the south end of the North Island.  Wellington is the capital of NZ and its second largest city.  Normally, we'd have left the city ASAP, but back in Picton, one of the ferry workers had so highly recommended the Gallipoli exhibit at Te Papa, the national museum of NZ located in Wellington, that we decided to brave the city.  We were not disappointed.

The Gallipoli campaign was a disastrous attempt in WWI to wrest the Gallipoli Peninsula from Turkish forces in 1915-16.  It was also NZ's first engagement in the war.  Much of the fighting involved close range trench warfare and the losses on both sides were horrific. We found the exhibit to be remarkably even-handed, neither glorifying nor disparaging NZ's involvement in the campaign.    

Eight different figures, each about 8-10 feet tall were meticulously created for the exhibit by Richard Taylor's Weta Workshop, which has created set pieces and special effects for many movies, including Lord of the Rings.  The realistic detail of the figures is astounding.   

Down to the most minute detail, it's as if people had been turned into giants.  

The realism of the figures and the often sickening photos and stories had some exhibit goers leaving in tears.  

The diaries of each of the 8 figures is followed in the exhibit.  Lieutenant Colonel Percival Fenwick pictured above, told in his diary of the despair he felt:

"Total to date: 5,000 casualties, about three men per yard of ground gained."

Private Jack (John) Dunn was sick with pneumonia when he fell asleep at his post, an executable offence.  He was sentenced to death, but before the execution it was overturned based on his prior gallantry.  He died in combat less than a week later.

The dirt and hair on the knee of Private Dunn are some of the countless details that bring his figure to life.  

Flies, sweat and grime are all part of the figures.

Every aspect of the figures was depicted, some in gory detail. 

Despite the enormous sacrifice of lives, the campaign was ultimately futile.  After almost a year of fighting, allied forces withdrew from Gallipoli. 

In addition to the Gallipoli exhibit was an impressive natural history wing where we found this display. 

Having seen so much of the South Island converted from forest to pasture on the South Island, this display caught our attention.  On the left is a map showing forest cover (in green) when the first people arrived in NZ in the late 13th century.  The second map shows how much forest cover had been removed by the time of the first European settlement in the 18th century.  The third map is of forest cover today.   

One of the cast iron cannons that was jettisoned from Captain Cook's ship Endeavor when it struck the Great Barrier Reef in 1770 and began taking on water.  Almost 50 tons of cargo were thrown overboard in an effort to save the ship.  This cannon was found and recovered in 1969.