The finals for both Grade A and Grade B were on in Wellington from Saturday 31st May to Monday 2nd June. I was a bit worried beforehand given that the competition was in a pool with only one pitch, and so would be running from 6am to midnight each day, apart from Monday when we finished in the early afternoon. The organisers split it so that B Grade was in the morning and A Grade in the evening each day. As I was playing in both Grades I ended up with games on Saturday from 7am to 11.30pm, Sunday from 8am and going until 10.30pm and starting on Monday at 6.40am! Very unsociable hours!
Dave loaded up the Barracuda Fun Bus (his van) with 9 of us and we set off about 3pm on Friday afternoon to drive from Auckland to Wellington. One of the passengers is a teacher so we had to wait for her to finish school before leaving. It was a bank holiday weekend so you can imagine what traffic was like on the trip down. We arrived at our accommodation at about 1.30am and went straight to bed. As I said earlier, I had to play at 7am so I wasn’t too happy or awake when my alarm went in the morning!
We had just one B Grade game on Saturday and as we were down to four players we recruited Cam’s wife, Nicolette, to play with us. With a tight defence, a few good attacks and a lot of time wasting on our parts we won that game and were feeling good!
Later in the day our A Grade campaign got going again and in what became our typical style for the weekend we played great first halves to each of our games, but couldn’t quite keep it up for the second half. The team harmony was greatly improved from Christchurch though which was quite a relief.
With far from enough sleep I got up on Sunday morning to start playing at 8am. We recruited Mel from my A Grade team to play with our B Grade team so we had six players, but three of them (the three girls) were all playing on two teams for the weekend, so we rotated subbing between us. Using the same tactics as the day before, we wasted a lot of game time passing the ball out the back in attack, and won all our games.
The same could not be said of the A Grade team, though in our last game of the day we played a stormer of a first half and were actually winning 4v1! Unfortunately it’s a game of two halves, and our second half wasn’t quite so good!
The luck of our B Grade team wasn’t to last through to Monday. Unfortunately the opposition had gotten too bored of our passing the ball out the back and decided to come out and pressure us there to their success. The finals finished with my team placed 8th and the other Auckland team placed 7th. They were designed to be even teams and proved to be just that. We played each other three times and won one game each and drew the third. The ladies team kept up their record and came 6th in Grade A, while the Men’s team came 5th in their division.
After a busy weekend we had to drive all the way back up to Auckland again. We shared the driving and had a little detour imposed on us by Peter who doesn’t see signposts while driving and missed a turn off on his shift. In the end we got home just after 11pm and Seán and I hit the sack and weren’t seen until quite late on Tuesday!
Sunday 29 June 2008
Christchurch Polo Competition and afterwards
Having finally made it to Christchurch, we got up early and walked to the pool as it was only a short distance from our friends house. All the flights from Auckland had been delayed (though none quite so much as ours) so the players on both Auckland teams were very tired and that was certainly reflected in the ladies team’s games. Our first game started with 6 flustered and tired players who by half time had resorted to shouting at each other. I subbed after half time and took the opportunity to calm myself down again and managed to stay a little calmer for the rest of the comp. We improved in every game over the weekend but some people weren’t in the mood to realise that. By the end of it all I was tired out from trying to be chirpy against all odds and collapsed into a grumpy heap on Sunday evening! My team came last (funny that…) and the men’s team came 7th, so not a great weekend for Auckland.
On Monday we had a lazy morning before hopping on a bus into town to get a bus to the airport. When the bus hadn’t gone into town and we didn’t really know where we were after 45 minutes we got a bit worried… After seeking the advice of the bus driver (who we had informed on getting onto the bus that we wanted to go into town) we ended up getting a taxi from where we were as it wasn’t actually too far from the airport. Thankfully that was the extent of our travelling problems that day as our flight back up to Auckland went on time with no difficulties!
We went back to Andy’s house to pick up our van and got treated to dinner while we were there. The best bit was that dinner included some delicious sausages that Andy had hand made himself a few days earlier. Really tasty, and reassuring to know exactly what had gone into these sausages, unlike bought ones…
The next night I got my new polo boat, which had arrived in the next batch of boats from Oz. Very exciting! Of course it’s all scratched and battered looking by now but it’s always good getting a new toy! I want to bring this boat home to Ireland when I go though so that could be fun. Anyone know any cheap shipping companies?!
After work, on Wednesday night we presented ourselves at our new friends from the airport’s house for dinner. As promised Jenny and Chris treated us to lamb shanks and mashed potatoes and plenty more and we had a lovely evening with them.
The next weekend we actually didn’t have a polo competition to go to and stayed in Auckland. Carolanne (Dave’s mum) didn’t want us to be at too much of a loose end for the weekend and decided we could paddle in a kayaking race she was organising on Sunday morning. Dave set us up with a double kayak that had to be delivered from the factory to a friend’s house, saying that of course we could use it before completing the delivery!
The race was in the Tamaki River estuary on the south side of Auckland. We had looked at a map of the estuary the night before and had half an idea of where we should go, as there were a few rivers and other inlets that we had to pass along the way. Of course, when we started the race all those plans were forgotten about and we decided that everyone else must know where they were going as they’d all done the race before, so we followed the guy in front of us.
It was a while later, when we were gaining on him quite well, that he stopped and looked behind him. When we saw this we got worried and looked behind us, only to see some other boats streaking across behind us going a different way! We worked out that our little diversion cost us about 10 minutes and without it we would have had a pretty respectable time. When we got back and told Carolanne what had happened she wondered why on earth we’d followed him, of all people. Wish she’d told us that before! We didn’t do as badly as that man though. Apparently when he’d turned around he saw us and decided he must be right so kept going. I thought he was turning as well, so didn’t think I needed to shout anything at him to tell him we were turning. I’d say he added nearly half an hour to his race!
Later that week we had a couple of days off work so I finally started doing a genealogy search that my family had been bugging me to do. A great great uncle of mine moved over here in the early 1900’s and married a Kiwi and settled here. Seán and I went into the City Library and started searching for living relatives. After a couple of days work and a lot of assumptions, we think we’ve found a daughter-in-law of his living in Hamilton. Now we just have to get down to Hamilton again to meet her and see if all my guesses were correct…
On Monday we had a lazy morning before hopping on a bus into town to get a bus to the airport. When the bus hadn’t gone into town and we didn’t really know where we were after 45 minutes we got a bit worried… After seeking the advice of the bus driver (who we had informed on getting onto the bus that we wanted to go into town) we ended up getting a taxi from where we were as it wasn’t actually too far from the airport. Thankfully that was the extent of our travelling problems that day as our flight back up to Auckland went on time with no difficulties!
We went back to Andy’s house to pick up our van and got treated to dinner while we were there. The best bit was that dinner included some delicious sausages that Andy had hand made himself a few days earlier. Really tasty, and reassuring to know exactly what had gone into these sausages, unlike bought ones…
The next night I got my new polo boat, which had arrived in the next batch of boats from Oz. Very exciting! Of course it’s all scratched and battered looking by now but it’s always good getting a new toy! I want to bring this boat home to Ireland when I go though so that could be fun. Anyone know any cheap shipping companies?!
After work, on Wednesday night we presented ourselves at our new friends from the airport’s house for dinner. As promised Jenny and Chris treated us to lamb shanks and mashed potatoes and plenty more and we had a lovely evening with them.
The next weekend we actually didn’t have a polo competition to go to and stayed in Auckland. Carolanne (Dave’s mum) didn’t want us to be at too much of a loose end for the weekend and decided we could paddle in a kayaking race she was organising on Sunday morning. Dave set us up with a double kayak that had to be delivered from the factory to a friend’s house, saying that of course we could use it before completing the delivery!
The race was in the Tamaki River estuary on the south side of Auckland. We had looked at a map of the estuary the night before and had half an idea of where we should go, as there were a few rivers and other inlets that we had to pass along the way. Of course, when we started the race all those plans were forgotten about and we decided that everyone else must know where they were going as they’d all done the race before, so we followed the guy in front of us.
It was a while later, when we were gaining on him quite well, that he stopped and looked behind him. When we saw this we got worried and looked behind us, only to see some other boats streaking across behind us going a different way! We worked out that our little diversion cost us about 10 minutes and without it we would have had a pretty respectable time. When we got back and told Carolanne what had happened she wondered why on earth we’d followed him, of all people. Wish she’d told us that before! We didn’t do as badly as that man though. Apparently when he’d turned around he saw us and decided he must be right so kept going. I thought he was turning as well, so didn’t think I needed to shout anything at him to tell him we were turning. I’d say he added nearly half an hour to his race!
Later that week we had a couple of days off work so I finally started doing a genealogy search that my family had been bugging me to do. A great great uncle of mine moved over here in the early 1900’s and married a Kiwi and settled here. Seán and I went into the City Library and started searching for living relatives. After a couple of days work and a lot of assumptions, we think we’ve found a daughter-in-law of his living in Hamilton. Now we just have to get down to Hamilton again to meet her and see if all my guesses were correct…
Saturday 28 June 2008
Christchurch Polo Competition - getting there...
On the Thursday morning before this competition we left Hawkes Bay and drove all the way back up to Auckland as we’d booked flights from there to Christchurch for Friday morning, the plan being to spend the day in Christchurch and catch up with friends there and not be in a rush.
We got up to Auckland in time for the pool session, where I was supposed to be picking up my brand new canoe polo boat. It was quite exciting but also annoying that it had arrived at that stage as I was then going to have to bring it on the plane with me to Christchurch and have to get it to the pool myself and things like that, i.e. lots of hassle. However, it turned out that my boat hadn’t actually arrived so I was quite relieved, as was Cam who had been a bit worried about breaking the news to me.
That night we stayed with our friend Andy who lives near the airport and dropped us there in the morning, barely able to see 10 metres ahead of us due to the fog. We checked in for our fight and got set up to wait for the fog to clear for us to get going. We were due to fly at 9.30am and when that time came around we were told it would be 10.30 before we’d be off, but if we wanted we could go back out to the main area whenever we wanted and come back in through security as we pleased. This was quite a shock to us given the security we’ve gotten used to at home. Apparently they’re quite relaxed about internal flights. Then we were told we’d be off at 11.30, but at about 12.30 when the fog still hadn’t cleared our flight was cancelled!
We all rushed off to pick up our checked in luggage and get booked onto the next available flight. While I waited for our bag, Seán queued up at the desk. The policy of the airline was to book all the passengers onto the next available flight in the order of who had paid most for their tickets. Of course we had got the cheapest tickets possible so it turned out we were booked on to a flight at 9am the next morning! That would have resulted in me arriving at the airport when I was supposed to be playing my first game, so we smiled sweetly and asked if we had any other options, or could we go on standby. We were put on the standby list and told to come back at 5pm when they might know more.
There wasn’t much to do in the airport, and no where worth going outside the airport that wasn’t a taxi drive away so we invested in a book each and waited patiently for 5pm to come around. When we went to the desk we were told to come back at 7pm when the delayed inbound flight was due to actually arrive.
We got ourselves a bite of dinner and were still sitting at a long table after finishing when a lady arrived over and asked could she and her husband sit beside us to eat their dinner. Of course that wasn’t a problem and we chatted to her while she waited for her husband to arrive saying how we’d been waiting all day to fly and were in New Zealand for a year etc. When her husband arrived she started writing in a note book. Within 5 minutes of saying hello she gave us a note with their address and numbers on it and we were invited for a dinner of lamb shanks and mashed potatoes the following Wednesday night.
A bit bemused at what had just happened and the fantastic hospitality of the Kiwi’s, we returned to the check in desk. It turned out that we were at the top of the standby list, probably by being the first people to ask about it. While we waited to see if there would be space for us on the flight, two more polo players arrived for their flights and had a good laugh at the fact we were still in the airport. However, luck was to favour us at last that day and we got on a plane at 8pm. When we arrived in Christchurch at last we were too tired to bother with busses and just got a taxi to our friend’s house and went to bed. So much for our social day in Christchurch!
We got up to Auckland in time for the pool session, where I was supposed to be picking up my brand new canoe polo boat. It was quite exciting but also annoying that it had arrived at that stage as I was then going to have to bring it on the plane with me to Christchurch and have to get it to the pool myself and things like that, i.e. lots of hassle. However, it turned out that my boat hadn’t actually arrived so I was quite relieved, as was Cam who had been a bit worried about breaking the news to me.
That night we stayed with our friend Andy who lives near the airport and dropped us there in the morning, barely able to see 10 metres ahead of us due to the fog. We checked in for our fight and got set up to wait for the fog to clear for us to get going. We were due to fly at 9.30am and when that time came around we were told it would be 10.30 before we’d be off, but if we wanted we could go back out to the main area whenever we wanted and come back in through security as we pleased. This was quite a shock to us given the security we’ve gotten used to at home. Apparently they’re quite relaxed about internal flights. Then we were told we’d be off at 11.30, but at about 12.30 when the fog still hadn’t cleared our flight was cancelled!
We all rushed off to pick up our checked in luggage and get booked onto the next available flight. While I waited for our bag, Seán queued up at the desk. The policy of the airline was to book all the passengers onto the next available flight in the order of who had paid most for their tickets. Of course we had got the cheapest tickets possible so it turned out we were booked on to a flight at 9am the next morning! That would have resulted in me arriving at the airport when I was supposed to be playing my first game, so we smiled sweetly and asked if we had any other options, or could we go on standby. We were put on the standby list and told to come back at 5pm when they might know more.
There wasn’t much to do in the airport, and no where worth going outside the airport that wasn’t a taxi drive away so we invested in a book each and waited patiently for 5pm to come around. When we went to the desk we were told to come back at 7pm when the delayed inbound flight was due to actually arrive.
We got ourselves a bite of dinner and were still sitting at a long table after finishing when a lady arrived over and asked could she and her husband sit beside us to eat their dinner. Of course that wasn’t a problem and we chatted to her while she waited for her husband to arrive saying how we’d been waiting all day to fly and were in New Zealand for a year etc. When her husband arrived she started writing in a note book. Within 5 minutes of saying hello she gave us a note with their address and numbers on it and we were invited for a dinner of lamb shanks and mashed potatoes the following Wednesday night.
A bit bemused at what had just happened and the fantastic hospitality of the Kiwi’s, we returned to the check in desk. It turned out that we were at the top of the standby list, probably by being the first people to ask about it. While we waited to see if there would be space for us on the flight, two more polo players arrived for their flights and had a good laugh at the fact we were still in the airport. However, luck was to favour us at last that day and we got on a plane at 8pm. When we arrived in Christchurch at last we were too tired to bother with busses and just got a taxi to our friend’s house and went to bed. So much for our social day in Christchurch!
Hawkes Bay Hunt Inc.
A friend from home put me in touch with a couple over here who are very involved in hunting, Philip and Jane. They live in the hills above Hastings and while we were there for the polo competition we got in touch with them and arranged to stay on after the competition and have a days hunting with the Hawkes Bay Hunt.
With some detailed directions, we had no trouble finding their house one sunny Tuesday afternoon. We had a very grand and also very tasty dinner of home grown lamb that night to prepare us for the next day’s exertions.
The meet was at 12 o’clock at Shanley Road so we arrived a bit before that and Philip brought me around to meet the Master and some other hunt members. Apart from being a beautiful sunny day it was very like home, with the same style of turnout of both horses and riders, though there were more followers than we would normally have at home. We counted about 50 on horseback and three cars of followers in all.
When they moved off we drove up to the top of a very steep hill and, while the car stopped smoking, we got set up to watch the proceedings. The country was very open, with no hedges or ditches and only wire fences which the hunt had put posts over to hinder the followers. From our vantage point, we watched the hounds working and during the day they had three quick hunts. I was amazed that they were able to hunt at all given the lovely weather, but it did seem that scent was hindered a bit. The best hunt of the day was under the cover of a small plantation where we couldn’t see anything, but did enjoy listening to the hounds in full cry.
At about 4pm they decided to call it a day, so we drove on home without waiting for the hunt tea, which seems to be quite an event out here. That evening we enjoyed another tasty dinner and prepared for our departure the next morning. We had to get back up to Auckland again to get flights to Christchurch for another polo weekend. Philip and Jane told us we were mad and should have booked the flights from Napier, but at the time of booking we hadn’t planned on still being in Hawkes Bay at that stage. They were to get another good laugh out of that on Friday, but I’ll tell you more about that later…
With some detailed directions, we had no trouble finding their house one sunny Tuesday afternoon. We had a very grand and also very tasty dinner of home grown lamb that night to prepare us for the next day’s exertions.
The meet was at 12 o’clock at Shanley Road so we arrived a bit before that and Philip brought me around to meet the Master and some other hunt members. Apart from being a beautiful sunny day it was very like home, with the same style of turnout of both horses and riders, though there were more followers than we would normally have at home. We counted about 50 on horseback and three cars of followers in all. When they moved off we drove up to the top of a very steep hill and, while the car stopped smoking, we got set up to watch the proceedings. The country was very open, with no hedges or ditches and only wire fences which the hunt had put posts over to hinder the followers. From our vantage point, we watched the hounds working and during the day they had three quick hunts. I was amazed that they were able to hunt at all given the lovely weather, but it did seem that scent was hindered a bit. The best hunt of the day was under the cover of a small plantation where we couldn’t see anything, but did enjoy listening to the hounds in full cry.
At about 4pm they decided to call it a day, so we drove on home without waiting for the hunt tea, which seems to be quite an event out here. That evening we enjoyed another tasty dinner and prepared for our departure the next morning. We had to get back up to Auckland again to get flights to Christchurch for another polo weekend. Philip and Jane told us we were mad and should have booked the flights from Napier, but at the time of booking we hadn’t planned on still being in Hawkes Bay at that stage. They were to get another good laugh out of that on Friday, but I’ll tell you more about that later…
Wednesday 11 June 2008
Hawkes Bay - Polo Competition and being tourists!
From Northland we popped into the house in Auckland and picked up our boats and carried on towards Napier. On the way we spent a night with Jason and Rose in Hamilton where we went for a paddle the next morning. We also spent a couple of nights in Taupo catching up with our friends there.
On Friday we drove over the mountains to get to Napier and Hastings, thankfully before it got pretty stormy. The second round of the B Grade Polo Comp was on in Hastings that weekend, so we had dinner while waiting for the rest of the clubs players to arrive. They didn’t have quite such a nice drive as we had with the weather closing in. The club had arranged to stay in the local school’s gym (Mel’s father is a teacher there), so we all set up our beds there, us using our mattress from the van!
Our first game wasn’t until the afternoon on Saturday so we had quite a relaxing morning getting breakfast and going to the pool in Flaxmere. My team had a win, a draw and a loss at the end of the day. That evening we had a barbeque at Mel’s parents’ house.
In the gym that night, at about 4.30am, there was a huge bang that woke us all up, complete with the ground moving. It was my first earthquake!!! I have to admit that I woke up with the bang, and promptly went back to sleep again, but the next day we were very excited! It was 4.5 on the richter scale and based about 30km out to sea. Oh, and we haven’t a clue what exactly the bang was...
On Sunday morning we were up early again for more games. With a series of 3 wins that day we finally came 7th of 15. The other B Grade team came 6th.
The next day we got out the Lonely Planet again and went touring around Hawkes Bay. We first went out to Te Mata Peak where we went for a walk around the mountain after driving to the top. Then we went to see Maraetotara Falls which was quite interesting as there is a dam just at the top of the falls. You can swim in the pool at the bottom too but we decided it wasn’t quite warm enough. From there we went to see Ocean Beach which I’d say would be lovely in the summer time as it’s pretty quiet there and there’s not much housing around compared to many of the country’s beaches.
On Friday we drove over the mountains to get to Napier and Hastings, thankfully before it got pretty stormy. The second round of the B Grade Polo Comp was on in Hastings that weekend, so we had dinner while waiting for the rest of the clubs players to arrive. They didn’t have quite such a nice drive as we had with the weather closing in. The club had arranged to stay in the local school’s gym (Mel’s father is a teacher there), so we all set up our beds there, us using our mattress from the van!
Our first game wasn’t until the afternoon on Saturday so we had quite a relaxing morning getting breakfast and going to the pool in Flaxmere. My team had a win, a draw and a loss at the end of the day. That evening we had a barbeque at Mel’s parents’ house.
In the gym that night, at about 4.30am, there was a huge bang that woke us all up, complete with the ground moving. It was my first earthquake!!! I have to admit that I woke up with the bang, and promptly went back to sleep again, but the next day we were very excited! It was 4.5 on the richter scale and based about 30km out to sea. Oh, and we haven’t a clue what exactly the bang was...On Sunday morning we were up early again for more games. With a series of 3 wins that day we finally came 7th of 15. The other B Grade team came 6th.
The next day we got out the Lonely Planet again and went touring around Hawkes Bay. We first went out to Te Mata Peak where we went for a walk around the mountain after driving to the top. Then we went to see Maraetotara Falls which was quite interesting as there is a dam just at the top of the falls. You can swim in the pool at the bottom too but we decided it wasn’t quite warm enough. From there we went to see Ocean Beach which I’d say would be lovely in the summer time as it’s pretty quiet there and there’s not much housing around compared to many of the country’s beaches.
Thursday 5 June 2008
The Kauri Coast
After Northland we started moving south again along the west coast, known as Kauri Coast. After a quick ferry trip across Hokianga Harbour from Kohukohu to Rawene and a bit more driving we arrived at Waipoua Kauri Forest, where we went walking to see New Zealands best living specimens of kauri trees.
First stop was Tane Mahuta (Maori God of the Forest), the tallest kauri tree in New Zealand at 51.5 metres, estimated to be between 1200 and 2000 years old. We went on to see Te Matua Ngahere (The Father of the Forest), which is impressive as it has the widest girth of all the trees at 16.41 metres. It is believed to be 2000 years old. The other impressive sight is the Four Sisters, four tall trees clumped together.
Driving on, we spent the night in Dargaville before continuing to the Matakohe Kauri & Pioneer Museum, which was very interesting. It’s a very big museum pretty much in the middle of nowhere. A group of local descendants of the pioneers have done most of the work on the museum and have been acknowledged by their likeness being used for the people in the scale models showing the lives of kauri bushmen, tradesmen and their families. There is also a scale exhibit of a working sawmill and a gum room, with an amazing collection of sculpted and polished gum. It also includes a few pieces of gum with bugs caught inside in the style of Jurassic Park. I wonder what’s inside those bugs! This museum is well worth a visit if time allows.
With all the stress of sightseeing we then went on to the Thermal Pools and Slides in Parakai. The pools (and adjacent campsite) are looking a bit worn now, but there are plans in place to revamp the entire area which hopefully won’t take too long.
First stop was Tane Mahuta (Maori God of the Forest), the tallest kauri tree in New Zealand at 51.5 metres, estimated to be between 1200 and 2000 years old. We went on to see Te Matua Ngahere (The Father of the Forest), which is impressive as it has the widest girth of all the trees at 16.41 metres. It is believed to be 2000 years old. The other impressive sight is the Four Sisters, four tall trees clumped together. 
Driving on, we spent the night in Dargaville before continuing to the Matakohe Kauri & Pioneer Museum, which was very interesting. It’s a very big museum pretty much in the middle of nowhere. A group of local descendants of the pioneers have done most of the work on the museum and have been acknowledged by their likeness being used for the people in the scale models showing the lives of kauri bushmen, tradesmen and their families. There is also a scale exhibit of a working sawmill and a gum room, with an amazing collection of sculpted and polished gum. It also includes a few pieces of gum with bugs caught inside in the style of Jurassic Park. I wonder what’s inside those bugs! This museum is well worth a visit if time allows.With all the stress of sightseeing we then went on to the Thermal Pools and Slides in Parakai. The pools (and adjacent campsite) are looking a bit worn now, but there are plans in place to revamp the entire area which hopefully won’t take too long.
Wednesday 4 June 2008
The Far North - Cape Reinga
From Paihia we drove up along the coast and stopped at Te Ngaire Bay and went for a walk along the beautiful beach, getting back into the van again just in time to miss the rain. As it kept raining we didn’t stop until lunch, though there are many other fabulous bays along the east coast. We had our lunch at Tokerau Beach during another dry spell, again enjoying the blue sea and sky and sandy beach.
From there we drove west to Kaitaia and booked ourselves onto a bus trip to Cape Reinga for the next day. We chose a more expensive trip that went to one extra place, but as we were the only two to book it, we were later switched to a different operator.
As there is no nice campsite in Kaitaia we went further west to the coastal town of Ahipara for the night. Before dinner we went for a run up the famous 90 Mile Beach (it’s actually only a little over 60 miles long). The Beach is a main highway so it’s possible to drive along it. We had thought about driving it ourselves, but with varying reports that we’d be fine, we ought to have a four wheel drive, and stories about cars getting stuck and never getting out, we decided a bus trip was the safer option. Running along it was strange as the scenery was exactly the same all the way – the sea on our left and sand dunes on our right and the beach going on as far as we could see. It felt like we hadn’t gone all that far until we turned around and saw how far away the end of the beach was. There is a special marathon run on the length of the beach every March. We met one person who did it who said that it was one of the hardest things to do, as the scenery is the same for the entire duration of the marathon so you never feel like you’re making any progress.
We got up bright and early the next morning and caught the bus in Kaitaia. The first stop was at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a shop, workshop and café where we were advised by our tour guide to keep our wallets firmly in our pockets. Kauri trees are giant trees that were used to make war canoes and many other things when people first settled in New Zealand. Much of the trees were cut down and the remaining trees are protected as much as possible. There are huge numbers of ancient stumps that have been found in the swamps in Northland and the Ancient Kauri Kingdom has created some beautiful carvings from them. The showpiece of the gallery there is an upright kauri log that has had a spiral staircase carved into it bringing you up to the mezzanine level of the shop. It is really amazing how big these stumps are. The tour guide was quite right about watching your wallets though. There was beautiful furniture, sculptures, clocks and much much more carved from the wood, most with rather big price tags. Though the staircase is not for sale, there was a large sofa with a price tag of $55,000. My credit card limit is not that big…
Moving on from there, we went to Rawawa Beach to see the white silica sand that is prominent in some of the more northern beaches. They mine it, and now take it from a slightly out to sea, rather than directly from the beaches as they did initially. Someone finally got a bit worried about erosion!
Later we stopped for lunch at Tapotupotu Bay, yet another brilliant beach. Again we were lucky enough to be back in the bus when the rain started, and it kindly stopped as we arrived in Cape Reinga, almost the most northerly point of New Zealand. (The most northerly point isn’t easily accessible and we didn’t feel like hiking for several hours to get there!) A lighthouse marks the point and in the water below you can see the waves where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.
While we were at the lighthouse there was a young couple there who had just completed a one-year tour of the entire country on horseback raising money for Canteen, a charity for young people (teenagers) with cancer. We had actually heard of the charity already as Barracuda, the sea kayak company, had sponsored a man who kayaked around the five main lakes of New Zealand in seven days for Canteen.
From there we drove down quickly down Te Paki Stream in order to avoid being caught up in it’s quicksand… After finding somewhere safe to park there, we hopped out and picked up our toboggans and sprinted up the steep sand dune beside us (or at least the first five metres, getting gradually slower after that). Tobogganing down the sand dune was great fun, and I was quite impressed to see that everyone on the bus, old or young, healthy or infirm, gave it a go at least once. Sean and I had three goes before the bus got going again and we were onto 90 Mile Beach.
Though we had a few stops along the way on the beach, for the most part we were driving along quickly, given that the beach is treated as a normal road and has a speed limit of 100km/h. Then it was a trip back to the Ancient Kauri Kingdom to wash the sand off the bus and home.
The night before at the campsite we had met a group of people members of YHA (Youth Hostelling Association) including the Chairman and CEO who were having a meeting there that weekend. They kindly invited us to join them for dinner after our trip to Cape Reinga so we had a lovely evening with them, complete with a mountain of food from the barbeque. We joined them for breakfast the next morning too before heading off to the Gum diggers Park, which was the extra place we had planned on seeing with the tour bus the day before. Around 1900 the park was very busy with people digging for kauri gum, which was used for varnish, linoleum and other products. Unfortunately, it was a swamp, and when we arrived it was pouring rain, but we put on our waterproofs and went walking around the park anyway. By the time we were leaving it was pretty hard to avoid the deep puddles that had appeared on the path! The park was good, but the next day we went to a museum in Matakohe, which had much more information about the gum-digging era, and was indoors! I’ll tell you more about that later.
From there we drove west to Kaitaia and booked ourselves onto a bus trip to Cape Reinga for the next day. We chose a more expensive trip that went to one extra place, but as we were the only two to book it, we were later switched to a different operator.
As there is no nice campsite in Kaitaia we went further west to the coastal town of Ahipara for the night. Before dinner we went for a run up the famous 90 Mile Beach (it’s actually only a little over 60 miles long). The Beach is a main highway so it’s possible to drive along it. We had thought about driving it ourselves, but with varying reports that we’d be fine, we ought to have a four wheel drive, and stories about cars getting stuck and never getting out, we decided a bus trip was the safer option. Running along it was strange as the scenery was exactly the same all the way – the sea on our left and sand dunes on our right and the beach going on as far as we could see. It felt like we hadn’t gone all that far until we turned around and saw how far away the end of the beach was. There is a special marathon run on the length of the beach every March. We met one person who did it who said that it was one of the hardest things to do, as the scenery is the same for the entire duration of the marathon so you never feel like you’re making any progress. 
We got up bright and early the next morning and caught the bus in Kaitaia. The first stop was at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a shop, workshop and café where we were advised by our tour guide to keep our wallets firmly in our pockets. Kauri trees are giant trees that were used to make war canoes and many other things when people first settled in New Zealand. Much of the trees were cut down and the remaining trees are protected as much as possible. There are huge numbers of ancient stumps that have been found in the swamps in Northland and the Ancient Kauri Kingdom has created some beautiful carvings from them. The showpiece of the gallery there is an upright kauri log that has had a spiral staircase carved into it bringing you up to the mezzanine level of the shop. It is really amazing how big these stumps are. The tour guide was quite right about watching your wallets though. There was beautiful furniture, sculptures, clocks and much much more carved from the wood, most with rather big price tags. Though the staircase is not for sale, there was a large sofa with a price tag of $55,000. My credit card limit is not that big…
Moving on from there, we went to Rawawa Beach to see the white silica sand that is prominent in some of the more northern beaches. They mine it, and now take it from a slightly out to sea, rather than directly from the beaches as they did initially. Someone finally got a bit worried about erosion! 
Later we stopped for lunch at Tapotupotu Bay, yet another brilliant beach. Again we were lucky enough to be back in the bus when the rain started, and it kindly stopped as we arrived in Cape Reinga, almost the most northerly point of New Zealand. (The most northerly point isn’t easily accessible and we didn’t feel like hiking for several hours to get there!) A lighthouse marks the point and in the water below you can see the waves where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. 
While we were at the lighthouse there was a young couple there who had just completed a one-year tour of the entire country on horseback raising money for Canteen, a charity for young people (teenagers) with cancer. We had actually heard of the charity already as Barracuda, the sea kayak company, had sponsored a man who kayaked around the five main lakes of New Zealand in seven days for Canteen.From there we drove down quickly down Te Paki Stream in order to avoid being caught up in it’s quicksand… After finding somewhere safe to park there, we hopped out and picked up our toboggans and sprinted up the steep sand dune beside us (or at least the first five metres, getting gradually slower after that). Tobogganing down the sand dune was great fun, and I was quite impressed to see that everyone on the bus, old or young, healthy or infirm, gave it a go at least once. Sean and I had three goes before the bus got going again and we were onto 90 Mile Beach.
Though we had a few stops along the way on the beach, for the most part we were driving along quickly, given that the beach is treated as a normal road and has a speed limit of 100km/h. Then it was a trip back to the Ancient Kauri Kingdom to wash the sand off the bus and home.
The night before at the campsite we had met a group of people members of YHA (Youth Hostelling Association) including the Chairman and CEO who were having a meeting there that weekend. They kindly invited us to join them for dinner after our trip to Cape Reinga so we had a lovely evening with them, complete with a mountain of food from the barbeque. We joined them for breakfast the next morning too before heading off to the Gum diggers Park, which was the extra place we had planned on seeing with the tour bus the day before. Around 1900 the park was very busy with people digging for kauri gum, which was used for varnish, linoleum and other products. Unfortunately, it was a swamp, and when we arrived it was pouring rain, but we put on our waterproofs and went walking around the park anyway. By the time we were leaving it was pretty hard to avoid the deep puddles that had appeared on the path! The park was good, but the next day we went to a museum in Matakohe, which had much more information about the gum-digging era, and was indoors! I’ll tell you more about that later.
On our travels again - North to Paihia and the Bay of Islands
Having worked a total of 16 days we decided it was time to hit the road again! With the big order finished in work things were quieter again so we saw the opportunity to get away before any follow up orders come in.
The main area that we hadn’t already seen in New Zealand was Northland, although we had tried to go up there twice, but both times stopped in Matapouri and didn’t make it any further! This time we put our heads down and, with a quick stop to stock up our food supplies in Whangarei, we made it as far as Paihia in the Bay of Islands where we stayed for a couple of nights, just down the road from Haruru Falls, quite a nice looking waterfall, with a few nasty placed rocks requiring a careful line through it. We didn’t have any boats with us though.
The next day we walked through the Waitangi National Reserve adjoining Paihia, where the Treaty House stands, the location of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi by the representatives of Queen Victoria’s government and local Maori chiefs in 1840. The treaty then toured the country and was signed by other Maori chiefs, though many in the central North Island didn’t greet it warmly. It seems that now most of the difficulty between the Pakeha (Europeans) and Maoris are in that area still, with many claims of land being taken from the tribes without fair payment. Also in the Reserve is the Whare Runanga (meeting house) and a 35m long war canoe both of which were built for the centenary celebrations of the signing of the Treaty.
That afternoon we took a boat tour around the Bay of Islands going out to the Hole in the Rock and seeing some of the many islands in the bay along the way. We also encountered some dolphins on our way out. It’s a beautiful area, though rather busy with tourists a lot of the time.
Grade A Polo Comp in Auckland
Finally I got to see Division 1 New Zealand style, playing in the Ladies Division with the two Mels, Vish, Phoebe and Toni. The kiwi women are pretty big, but of course, we are the smallest team (sounds familiar) in the division! Those girls come and hit you hard too! Gave me a bit of a wake up call. We won our first game, which apparently is quite unusual for the Auckland womens team, so that was a good start. While our play improved over the weekend, the results didn’t and unfortunately we ended up last in the division of 6 teams due to goal difference as the team we beat managed to beat another team.
There was a mens team from the club also playing in the open division. They managed to do very well indeed contrary to expectations and came 3rd out of the 8 teams.
It was great to be finished early and not have to travel too far to get home - 1 hour is quite a different story to 8!
There was a mens team from the club also playing in the open division. They managed to do very well indeed contrary to expectations and came 3rd out of the 8 teams.
It was great to be finished early and not have to travel too far to get home - 1 hour is quite a different story to 8!
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