Road Trip Outback: 24.Oct.2016 Auckland Bay and up to the Northland

Yet again, we had great experience with the staff at the Hilton - really first class and great with kids. The following city view features the Hilton front and center. If you zoom in on this photo, you see that the Sky Tower (the tall distinctive one) goes between two buildings (Hilton is the one on the left). If you project the tower down, it goes through a blue dot - that is the side view of the hotel pool, which has a disconcerting glass side. Disconcerting in that it is cool to see out windows, a little less when nothing but an invisible barrier keeps you from be pulled out and dropped onto the parking lot 4 stories below. OK, maybe I should not mention that part to Aneta.

Speaking of, we made a call to mama this morning. Otherwise, we grabbed breakfast, and walked around Auckland a little. It was pretty quiet in Auckland because today is Labor Day. So Hawke's Bay had a holiday on Friday, but that was just to extend a 3-day weekend to 4-days. That further explains the early Friday afternoon traffic out of Wellington and how busy Rotorua was (now I get it). Anyhow, we did a morning cruise on Auckland harbor. This is really a beautiful city.

City view via a lighthouse in the middle of the harbor

The trip also included a brief stop on Rangitoto Island - a volcano that emerged from the sea about 6000 years ago and has not erupted for 500-600 years. It's got a unique pohutukawa forest of trees that blossom with little red flowers that apparently look like Christmas trees in the summer (around Christmas). They were not blooming, but it was quite striking - and it certainly looked like a volcanic island.

Rangitoto Island at a distance

Rangitoto up close

We also passed by Devonport, where we'll be staying on our last night. We saw a few people parasailing (2nd photo) - not sure if we'll get around to that.

We got back to the hotel, had long enough to pack and catch the last few minutes of the Steelers game (which was on - a little Monday morning football). Not a big surprise that they lost and I am glad I missed that.

Proof of culture

So then we drove up to Paihia, the hub for tourism in the Bay of Islands. The entire drive up, we were reminded that it was the end of a holiday weekend as 10x as many cars were driving back to Auckland as north to the warmer touristy zone. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than to plan ahead. A trend we have seen all over New Zealand has continued north of Auckland- this country must have more beekeepers or more commercialized honey than every other place on earth. I mentioned a few days ago that Victoria and I did a honey tasting. We must have passed 10-15 other honey traps before that and we've seen easily 7-10 since then. (You say they're not called honey traps?) I mean Edmund Hillary was a pretty famous Kiwi beekeeper, but on a lark I just Googled "Famous New Zealand beekeepers" and found a 2016 article on the first page that urban beekeeping is a trend in New Zealand (presumably like brewing your own beer). Maybe someone will probe deep into the psyche of Kiwis to figure this out. Perhaps they long for the thrill of proximity to Funnel Web spider venom, box jellyfish poison, or Inland Taipan venom that their neighbors in Oz have, so they seek out a chance to spend time near the most vicious, violent, lethal animal available - the honeybee.

If you look behind Victoria in this photo, you can get a good idea why it is called Bay of Islands. Literal folks these Kiwis.

It's a Bay with a bunch of Islands

We're staying at a bed-and-breakfast on top of a hill overlooking the bay. Gorgeous place, nice folks, great views, about a mile from town. The other guests all are nice as well (Australian & Dutch). Since I am saying good things, I should probably name it - when I leave (don't want all the blog followers and paparazzi chasing us down) [update: it's the "Decks of Paihia"]. We went into town for dinner at a loud, kid-friendly BBQ place. It was good, but after going to a loud place packed with kids and getting BBQ 3 nights ago (in Napier), loud Haka dancing and earth-cooked cultural barbecue 2 nights ago in Rotorua, more noise and more kids last night (Crab Shack), and yet more tonight (Jimmy Jack's ribs), I may be ready for a quiet place serving salad. Who am I kidding? Anyhow, town is nice.