A bird of paradise blooming in Prince Albert Park

We're still strolling around Auckland today...

This area of New Zealand is described as being a temperate rain forest and I guess it shows in the variety of plants, including these amazing b of p blooms.  Of course, it helps not to have many frosts too.  Here's a close up of a b of p flower we took at another location.

And while we're still roaming around Auckland, I have to include one more picture of incredible trees.  The one closest to Jeanne looks like it could be the products of a sci-fi writer's imagination. (Are you sure those roots aren't moving a little when you look away, Jeanne? You might want to just keep moving past, just in case.)

When we come in to Auckland, we generally take the train. They are generally on time and quite comfortable to ride.  The ride from our stop, Sturges Road to Britomart takes about 50 minutes and costs $6.20 if we use our ATHOP cards. These are debit-like cards that you simply wave in front of the card readers at the beginning and end of each trip. Money is deducted based on how far you travel. It is a very easy way to get around the city.  

I mentioned Britomart a moment ago. This is the rail and bus terminal on Queen Street in Auckland that was originally a post office. It's style I've read is Edwardian, but don't know Edwardian from Freudian.  Here is a shot of it so you'll recognise Edwardian architecture next time you see it.

I think that taking the train from Britomart is exciting. The next photos show the interior. The trains are two levels down. 

In the shot above, you can see one of the nicest security guards it has been our pleasure to meet. He is wearing the yellow vest at the right of the picture. We found out that he is a Maori. We got to know him one day not long before my hernia surgery when I needed to sit down for a while after a long day of walking the city. He said hello and we began taking about our story of coming to NZ. He told us recently, as we passed by him on yet another adventure, that his security company would not be working at Britomart any longer.  He would be reassigned to another location and would keep his job, but would miss Britomart. We'll miss him too.  

And finally, I'll show you one more victim of progress. After surviving the building of the city all around, one little historic tavern is about to succumb to modernisation. I've read that within a year our little friend here, The Kiwi Tavern, will be eliminated.  The land it stands on is just too valuable. I would like to stop in and raise a toast to it's memory.                  -djf

Merry Christmas!

What I saw and thought of as I walked to the rail road station this morning:

I'll have a Blue Christmas without you.

 

I'll be so blue just thinking about you.

 

Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree

 

Won't mean a thing if you're not here with me.

 

You'll be doing alright with your Christmas of white,

 

But I'll have a blue, blue, blue Christmas

 

I sure do miss my family back home in Michigan, but I am so grateful for my family here in my new home in New Zealand!  May God bless us, every one!  - JMF

Auckland from the top of Mt.Eden. Another of the many volcanos around the city.  Looking across the crater.

Today I thought I'd start to talk a little about Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, and our adopted city.  It is not the capital, that's down in Wellington, but it's size makes it special.  

It's population is about 1.4 million.  Since New Zealand's entire population is just over 4.4 million, you can imagine the impact Auckland makes on the country as a whole.  And this impact has lead I've discovered, to a bit of an attitude on the part of folks that do not call Auckland home. 

As you might imagine, Auckland has the busiest and most developed highway system in the country. This has lead many Kiwis from outside the city to dread the ordeal of navigating through Auckland when it becomes necessary. Personally, I know that we have much worse in Milwaukee, Chicago, and umm, almost any big city in the U.S. Nevertheless, if you live on a sheep ranch out in the bush, and you have to attend a sheep shearing symposium in Auckland, you will approach the city with white knuckles and an elevated heart rate.  I know that feeling all too well from my years of approaching Milwaukee, Chicago,and umm, almost any city I've driven too.  

All this angst among many Kiwis has lead them to label Aucklanders with a less than polite nickname. Since I now live in one of Auckland's 'burbs, I too would be considered by them to be a JAFA.  Since I don't like to use certain words, I will define JAFA with the offending word deleted. It stands for "Just Another - Aucklander"

Despite this connotation, we Aucklanders are a happy bunch. Jeanne and I love to visit the city fairly often and we have a number of favorite places, pictures of which I am sure will find their way to this site in the future. We'll start today with a few that might give you the flavor of the place. 

This is a tree in Mount Albert Park. The park is located just a few blocks from Auckland's 'main' street, named Queen Street, and is full of trees, flowers, fountains, benches facing fountains, and 'frolicking' Aucklanders.  

Here is another tree and what do you know?  There are two 'fascinated' Aucklanders.

With trees in parks like these, how could we Aucklanders be anything but happy, I ask you?

But, let's just say for the sake of argument, that there are a few Aucklanders who were unhappy.  What could they do about it?  They could jump off the Sky Tower I suppose, and become a 'falling' Aucklander.  As it happens, there is a steady stream of jumpers. They often have to wait in line to get the chance.  

Of course, you notice this jumper is following a line down and he, just like all the other 'fallers', will find that the mechanism to which he is attached will slow him down toward the bottom and deposit him with no more than a gentle bump upon the landing platform.  

I don't know for sure, but maybe it's an Aucklander's breakfast (or brekki here) that helps to make them happy. Many stop at No. 1 Pancake (below) to get a Korean style treat. The syrup or other fillings are on the inside of this fried bit of happiness. This tiny hole-in-the-wall business is world-famous in Auckland and is my personal favorite place in Auckland.  

Of course, Aucklanders also need a beverage in the morning.  Something that will get them going. Something to wake them up. Other cities might rely on coffee or tea to wake up it's citizenry. Auckland offers the Moa.  

You'll note that this bottle of beer, named after nine-foot-tall birds, is specifically meant to be enjoyed for breakfast! Aucklanders can say, "Well, I downed a Moa at brekki and I'm off." Wow. 

I'd say that if a guy has downed a Moa for breakfast, and then stopped at No. 1 for a hot 'brown sugar and cinnamon', he would definitely be ready to face his day, whatever it brought. 

He could even dare to climb Mt. Eden on foot and make his way over to the 'brass distance dial' and mull over how remarkable an adventure he was on.  (Phew, this hill was quite a climb.  I wonder if I have another Moa in my pack?)                                                        -djf

Rotorua, nicknamed, "Sulfur City"

The Pohutu Geyser as seen from "Allie's Hotel" in Rotorua

The first time that Allie took the boys to Rotorua, she chose wisely and checked in to the one hotel in the city that provides this view from all those rooms situated on the 'thermal valley' side of the hotel. Can you imagine opening the drapes across the sliding glass door to your balcony and discovering that you just happen to have the largest geyser in Rotorua in your 'backyard?'  I'll never forget it when she skyped with us one day and said, "Guess what the view is beyond our balcony?" and then turned her computer to face it.  

This is the Pohutu geyser and when it spews boiling sulfurous smelling water, it can be heard in many parts of the city. I know because I could  hear it from the hotel we stayed at when we were in town this past November for the races.  Allie did the 10k and Mel ran the 1/2 marathon.  

Allie's hotel also had a separate building that housed private thermal pools that rented by the 1/2 hour.  She and the boys enjoyed the mildest of the 5 temperature levels available.  It was an eight by 10 foot pool and about 18 inches deep. Warm water continually flowed in from one end and the overflow drained from the other.  

On our recent trip Allie, Dianne, Jeanne and I waded in a public footbath, located along a footpath, that winds through a public park. One of the other features of the park is a garden grown specifically for the blind. All the plants in it are especially good smelling and were planted to maximize the contrast of smells as one follows the winding paths through it. 

Aahhhhh, it really did feel very good.  You can just see the corner of a somewhat deeper pool next to the white pole at the right side of this photo.  In this pool too, the water flows through continuously.  

Just close your eyes and breath deeply...I'll lead you along.

So, what's the story behind all this free heat just below the surface? 

Lake Rototua and the city of the same name, are 130 miles southeast of Auckland. The lake was formed about 240,000 years ago from the crater of a volcano. It's about 80 square kilometers. Can you imagine the scale of the volcanic explosion that took place from that huge an area?

No thanks...

Clearly, the volcanic activity that formed Lake Rotorua has lasted a very long time. It's still hot down there. Many of the hotels and even homes in town have hot-water heat. We saw a line of about half a dozen homes near the park I mentioned earlier that the city has condemned, because they appear to be slowly settling into boiling mud fields. I saw that one of these home owners had, years ago, built a backyard oven fueled by the never ending furnace beneath his yard. (These were homes that were probably built back in the 1950's.) 

One always takes impressions of a place away with them when they leave a vacation spot. In the case of Rotorua, the impressions are more than just fond memories, photos taken or keepsakes purchased at one of the many souvenir shops that line the main street. Over the course of a couple of days in 'Smell City', (my nickname for it) airborne sulfur will have found it's way into your clothing, hair, skin and sinuses. It takes a couple of days (and showers) to leave all of Rotorua behind. Even as I write this ending, it seems to me that I smell faint echos of Pohutu.                                                                                                          -djf

While in Rotorua, we attended Sunday Mass at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Parish.  It struck me as very fitting that St. Michael should be the patron of a parish situated so close to the sounds and smells of "hellfire and brimstone".  -JF

New Zealand's 'Christmas Tree'

I've mentioned that Rangitoto boasts the world's largest pohutukawa forest.  It's probably a good time then to tell you a little more about this amazing tree.

Right in our own back yard on 12/10/14

Metrosideros excelsia is an evergreen in the myrtle family.  It flowers between November and January and as you can see, literally explodes when it does.  The red flowers are actually masses of stamens.  

The name is interesting.  The Greek words 'Metra' and 'sideron' mean 'heartwood' and iron' and the Latin word 'excelsus' means 'sublime.' (Sublime Iron-Hearted Tree -JF).  A pretty good description I think. It certainly is sublime to look at when it flowers.

And, the specific gravity of the wood is similar to oak, I found. When I cut one of the trunks from the clump in the photo, I saved a piece and am in the process of carving a stirring paddle set for Jeanne.  I can attest to it's density.  It is nicely grained though and was easy to cut a narrow slice from the trunk, even using just a handsaw. Easy in the sense that the grain did not cause my saw to 'wander.'

"Heartwood of Iron" indeed.!  It took over one thousand strokes of my saw to cut this lengthwise slice.

I've told you before that this tree is one that can grow on bare rock and was therefore, the first tree to gain a foothold or 'roothold' on Rangitoto. It also sometimes grows aerial roots from it's branches. When these roots contact the soil, they take hold and in time form additional trunks that serve as support pillars for the lateral spreading branches. Pohutukawas can grow to be multi-trunked and enormous.

A bee being busy, collecting from 'cups' of nectar.

This bee is the beginning of the reason that I like pohutukawa trees the best of any in New Zealand. The honey that is produced from these flowers has been called, "the whitest honey in the world," because it is just that; very light in color.  It has also been described by some as tasting 'salty.'  

Well, taste is a very subjective thing.  What I do know is that it is my favorite honey. 

Jeanne and I have observed flocks of several species of birds thrusting their beaks downward into the masses of stamins. Notice the cup-like structures by the bee.  We think that the birds are collecting nectar from them. I stripped the stamins from one such 'cup' and tried a taste test, but it is so small I didn't really couldn't taste the nectar.  And I don't really need to I guess, the bees do a fine job of refining and concentrating it for me.

A very young island indeed

A view of the 25 square mile (or so) Rangitoto that lies about 7 km into the Pacific from Auckland.  

Rangitoto is now forested but as recently as the 18th century, drawings made then show that it was bare lava from the ocean to the crater rim.  Today it boasts the largest pohutukawa forest in the world, although we also saw lots of manukas too when we took Dianne out there the other day for a tractor-train ride around it.  

Although some articles I've read state that it is as much as 700 years old, our tour guide and tractor driver said that current thinking believes it to be only around 500.  Geologists have been doing some drilling out there lately to investigate the age question.  Maoris were here at the time and saw it rise out of the ocean, but none of them thought to mark the date on the calender.  Apparently some of them died as a result of the birth so I suppose conditions were unpleasant and they had enough on their minds at the time.  

Do you notice that around the central cone the land dips and rises again slightly before descending toward the shores? This is what's called a moat structure and was formed during the eruption when the weight of the growing cone caused the rock beneath it to collapse.  It certainly makes an interesting shape and makes me wonder how much higher the top would have been if it had not collapsed? 

 Here are Dianne and Jeanne making the trek up the 365 steps from the tractor-train road to the top.  The trees that you see in the photo are manuka. 

In the early 1900's a number of people built small cottages on Rangitoto, locally called baches.  (As in 'bachelor.') These early builders were in fact mostly bachelors although as the years went by, the baches changed hands and families came to own some of them.  Here is a shot of a boat ramp leading from one of the baches into the Pacific.

At one time, Rangitoto was overrun by wild cats, rats, stoats (short-tailed weasel), and of all things, Australian possums and wallabies. These animals had all been left on the island at various times or had found their way there as hitchhikers aboard the ships that docked there.  There were so many in fact they were having a detrimental effect on the island's bird population and even the flowering pohutukawa trees. The family who had exclusive rights to honey production on Rangitoto, raised the alarm during the 1970's when their pohutukawa honey production began to decline precipitously year after year.  The pohutukawas were actually being eaten faster than they could regenerate. A major project to completely eliminate ALL pests was started then and as of today has been 100% successful. Can you believe that over 29,000 possums were killed?  Hundreds of traps continue to be set and monitored just in case, but apparently, nothing has been caught for some time. The ferry lines that transport the public to the island take great pains to see that no further contamination occurs.  

 As you can see, Rangitoto does not boast a user friendly coastline. The lava you see is rough enough to scour the skin off a person. The ramp is about 4 feet wide.   

 It's a bit of a climb, even from the road where the tractor/train drops you off, but the view is worth it. The Sky Tower dominates Auckland.

 

                                                                   
                                                                         

Rangitoto is visible from practically anywhere you go around the area.  This is the view from  Brown's Bay Beach. Lots of activity in the harbor today too.  

I will continue to explore Rangitoto.  The next time I go I want to climb it rather than ride the sight-seeing tractor/train and I want to make a side trip to the lava caves. I'll take my camera (and you) along.  (you won't even have to pack a lunch)

-djf

What does 'Strangers in a Strange Land' mean?

In everyday use, the word strange gets used in many different ways.  Some of them might not have particularly good connotations, as in, "He's a strange old man," or "It's a strange and spooky old mansion." These phrases hint that there is something different but also slightly wrong or dangerous about their subject.

The dictionary however makes it clear that 'strange' can be thought of in different lights.

Here are some of the definitions:

1. Unusual, extraordinary or curious
2. Feeling estranged or alienated as a result of being outside one's natural environment
3. Outside one's previous experience

As I read these three definitions, and after each one, I said, "Yup, that fits perfectly with my feelings about New Zealand."

New Zealand is definitely unusual and extraordinary. I have talked many times about the unique and unusual here, and will again, because I continue to be amazed.  Consider the moa, glow worms, honeys, plants, birds, shells, beaches and lavas (there are four types on Rangitoto alone) just to name a few.

Practically Everything that I encounter is outside my own natural environment (the U.P.), and certainly outside my personal experience. Even things as mundane as walking down the street become 'strange' when the sun moves opposite the way it "always did", and when traffic moves on the opposite side of the road from the way it "should."

When many of the constellations I always knew are suddenly missing and the ones I still see like Orion are upside down, I call that 'strange'. Each night I see a 'strange' moon.  It too is upside down.

I think the people here are extraordinary.(see the definition above)  When I came here, I didn't realise that I would also be meeting people from quite a few Pacific Islands, but I have.  Jeanne and I toy with the idea of 'taking a vacation' sometime to Fiji, Samoa or even Niue.(my favorite right now)

They are also extraordinary because of what they have accomplished.  This is a country of 4.4 million people.  That's it!  They are workers, and builders, and do-ers.

I don't always agree with what they decide to do. (we all have our opinions, don't we?) For example, they are talking about making New Zealand Smoke Free by 2020. Part of the way they are doing that now is to raise the taxes on all tobacco by 10% every year.  I still love a good cigar (or even a cheap one)((there are no cheap ones here)) now and then so I question that way of thinking, but you have to give them credit for do-ing.

So there you have it, my short essay on why this is a 'strange' place and I haven't even scratched the surface.  Notice I haven't even mentioned the food? Oh, don't get me started....

It's cherimoya season and my goal this year is to learn how to know when one is perfectly ripe. So far, it seems to me that any given cherimoya must spend approximately 5 minutes being perfectly ripe. Before that it is too hard and the sugars haven't developed, and after that it starts to become too soft.  And, the 5 minutes that it chooses during which to be perfect come during times that no human being is present. (They must feel vibrations or auras or something.) I've considered watching one 24/7 so I'll catch it at that perfect peak, but the same rule about watched pots never boiling probably covers cherimoyas ripening as well.  Very strange.

New Zealand is a popular place. Here is yet another cruise ship at Queen's Wharf, full of strangers.

 A cherimoya and kiwi

Kind of like a firm custard.  I can't describe the taste.  It's rather strange...as in extraordinary.













BTW.  Some of you have said that you weren't able to make comments.  I asked Allie to check it out and she discovered that my settings had defaulted to 'restricted' for those who could comment.  It is now set to  'anyone', so whether or not you have a google account should not matter.  Give it another try.
-djf

We are truly strangers in a strange land.  We have been living in New Zealand for over two years now but are still settling in to a new hemisphere, and country and life-style.

This blog is a continuation of the many e-mails I have been sending to family and friends. This makes it possible for those who want to follow our adventures, trials and tribulations as we move into the future.

I will be writing much of the text, but Jeanne will add her own thoughts whenever it suits her. I imagine that her descriptions and insights will come as a welcome relief to my ramblings.

At any rate, here we are hiking on Rangitoto amid the lava fields and sipping a flat white at a cafe just off Queen Street in downtown Auckland.  Come on along on our continuing adventure in Aotearoa.