Farewell from New Zealand!

It's after midnight, January 12, and we're once again back in Auckland at our friends Pascal and Kirsty's house, packing up our bike boxes and too much other stuff. In just a few short hours, we'll leave for Sydney to begin another adventure in a new place! Though I'm quite delirious with fatigue, I wanted to write one last post before the highlights of our time in New Zealand fade into pleasant - but distant - memory.

Dave and I have spent the past few days in the Coromandel Peninsula of the North Island. We were encouraged by our friends Carolyn and Brendan Morris to head there after returning from the South Island and a wonderful visit with them at their lovely home in Hamilton. (Carolyn is the daughter of friends Marge and Rob Walker, longtime Santa Barbara-ans and GPC members before retiring to Washington State). They kindly invited us to join them and their 3 great kids at their Cook's Beach "bach" or small holiday house as it's known here. (We call them "camps" in the eastern U.S.) The family has been spending summer holidays there for the past nine or so years. After our visit, it's easy to understand why they return yearly. The Pacific Ocean surrounding the entire peninsula is crystal clear and moderately temperate. Clean white sand beaches surround small coves and pristine harbors. There is little (or no!) commercial property development and not many people either! The numerous small islands off the coast, the gentle breezes, and the South Pacific atmosphere made me feel like singing "Bali Hai!"

Yesterday we cycled around the peninsula itself: first, to Cathedral Cove where we hiked down a couple of miles worth of lushly vegetated trail- I marveled at the number of shades of green that exist- to the bottom of the cove where we saw giant rock formations containing New Zealand's "Christmas trees", the pahutakawa, growing out of and on top of the rocks. (Trees growing out of huge rock formations reminded me of eastern Canada's Bay of Fundy). After our too short visit there, we continued on to to Hahei Beach and then Hotwater Beach, where we dug holes in the sand with about 50 other people (a big crowd in N.Z.!) and soaked in hot springs while the cool ocean and incoming tide lapped at the edge of the shore where we sat. A truly unusual and very relaxing experience.

Our cycle to actually reach the peninsula and Cook's Beach itself was challenging. We headed up the coast from Thames to Te Mata, where a local man and his family invited us to camp on their property for the night. Next day we continued on to Coromandel Town, where we spent the night at a truly international and well equipped Holiday Park. The following day, we cut across the rugged spine of the peninsula over lots of extremely steep uphill passes and hills, followed by slick switch-backing descents. It was raining, then later hot and sunny - kind of typical of much of the weather we've experienced in our 3 weeks here. Dave finished our tour today with a whopping 206 kilometer (124 miles!) ride from Cook's Beach to Auckland while I bused there and met him about 15 or so hours later!

Well, a cycling trip is certainly not for everyone, that's for sure! And I reckon I need to call this particular voyage a "modified" bike trip. Even so, under our time constraints, I'm not sorry for catching rides when I could. I still saw the same amazing scenery and cycled several hundred miles over difficult terrain in spite of myself! I encountered many wonderful people and places in an environmentally friendly way. I was blessed with the hospitality of friends and strangers, good health, safe travels, and mostly good weather. And hey - I'm fifty plus years old and pretty fit for an old lady! Pats on the back with the popular phrase "Good on ya" cheered me along the way!

As my inspirational and " hard act to follow" mother- in -law once said years ago, "I want to be as active as I can for as long as I can because one day I won't be able to travel like this!" Amen! Off to Australia! And bed, finally!