I wish we had electric bikes

Mon 30 Nov 2015 - Waiheke cycle tour and wine tasting.

We arose with slightly stiff legs and aching bums from yesterday's cycling excursion. but as it had gone so well we decided to do a large loop of the east end of the island with a stop off at the Man O' War vineyard.

Internet access proved problematic in the morning but with a need to book accommodation and activities for the next few days we wasted much time before finally leaving at 1130.

The map we have shows all the roads and paths, is roughly shaded to reflect trees but shows no distances or, most importantly, contours or relief shading. Therefore we set off not knowing what lay ahead for us - we soon found out! The ride out of Onetongi was a very long, steep hill but, being fresh, we powered up it before resting at the top to admire the views. Once rested we enjoyed the downhill run until we reached the turning to Man O' War bay; the location of the vineyard. At this point the road became unsealed and intermittently rutted, especially in the dips. It was also VERY hilly! As the climbs, made especially difficult because of the uneven surface, took their toll on us our progress slowed. At one fine viewpoint we stopped for lunch (the Kiwis have a great knack of providing benches and/or picnic tables at viewpoints) and scoffed all the food we'd brought with us. 

After what seemed like an age we finally hit the last, long downhill glide back to sea level and the bay. We'd been told the bay was a 'must see' but in truth, while nice, our lives would be no less rich for not going there. The vineyard, however, was a different story. The wines were gorgeous and we sat, jelly legged, on the veranda overlooking the bay, sipping wine, enjoying the view and tucking into a lovely dessert platter - we needed all the sugar we could get.

Nourished and rested we set off for home down a slightly longer but, we hoped, less demanding track. Unfortunately (but kinda obviously) the long ride down we'd enjoyed was mirrored at the other end of the bay - only this time we were going up. Up until now Glenn had grunted his way up every hill and waited for Yvonne to join him after a mixture of pedalling, cursing, chain restoration and walking. This one though beat him and he had to rest half way up to return his breathing and heart rate to something like normal before continuing.

Another long series of ups and downs, including two stretches that we both walked, brought us to the final hill overlooking Onetangi. We sat in silence on the bench utterly shattered and rejoicing the long ride home. Shattered, sweaty and starving we stumbled up the path and into our cabin to have a nice cuppa and a shower. A wonderful steak dinner was hurriedly devoured and Yvonne retired straight to bed.

I'm sure we'll look back on this trip in a few days time and see the funny, and enjoyable, side but at the moment it feels like with been through an arduous endurance event and finished last.

Glenn cuts a lonely finger slogging up one of the hills.

The locals seem friendly enough though.

'Not to be missed' Man O' War bay.

Enjoying a nice glass of wine.

This end of the island is much more rural.

Electric bikes are for wimps.

Sunday 29th November - Cycling around Waiheke Island
The owners Charles and Nikki advertise they have electric, mountain and road bikes available so we opted to take the road bikes out for the day. Charles then revealed they hadn't been used for a year or two as he dug them out from an extremely disorganised and dirty area under their decking. Both Charles and Glenn then spent awhile on bike maintenance while Nikki hunted down some helmets. It was at this point Yvonne realised these weren't road bikes at all and were much more like the hybrids we have at home, unfortunately the electric bikes were reserved by other guests. Around 10ish we were off.

As we were using the same map as yesterday we had no clues to the hills that lay in wait for us throughout the whole day.....

First stop our local beach Onetangi and although a cloudy morning it looked a very nice place. Already there were people out swimming and kayaking. We cycled along the promenade and then our first climb hit us. Yvonne's first gear change resulted in the chain coming off, Glenn therefore getting oily hands early in the day.

We grunted up this (probably with Yvonne's chain coming off) to enjoy a free wheel down to Ostend before cycling across the causeway to Surfdale racking up another climb (probably with Yvonne's chain coming off) around the headland and along a dirt track to free wheel down to Blackpool. We stopped here to refuel and both fell asleep for a cat nap. 

On waking the sun was now out and it was getting hotter. We then had plenty of ups (with Yvonne's chain coming off) and downs to various headlands passing many of the famous vineyards that make the island a tourist attraction. 

We made our way along the northern part of the island to a popular destination, Oneroa. This had a very wide sandy beach that, because the sand was so dense, we were able to cycle along and was slightly busy with folks out for the day. Grabbing a gelato we prepared ourselves for the challenge of getting home without too many hills to grunt up or in Yvonne's case push the bike up.

Our final stop was at the headland above Onetangi beach, our original start, and our circuit of the north, south and west parts of the island was near an end. We finally free wheeled down to the main road and had a last 5 minute grunt up the track to the cabin and to the very end Yvonne's chain came off. The good thing is Yvonne is now capable of putting chains back on bikes.

The scenery we cycled around was simply stunning with rolling green hills, smattered with vineyards and olive groves and separated by wild rugged headlands interspersed with beautiful sandy bays. Very like a semi tropical Devon. 

At every stopping point the bird song was very prominent, with some comical tunes and noises coming from various trees but we never managed to see them.

When we left this morning it was very cloudy. On our return at 7pm we could feel our sunburnt faces begin to really glow.......

Just one of the many vineyards. 

Yvonne rounds a headland.

View

Oneroa Bay 

After the last big climb - hencee the smiles.

A taste of England

Saturday 28th November - Te Ara Hura, Waiheke walk

A triumph - we successfully negotiated getting up and down the ladder in the pitch black during the night without any injuries. 
 

During the night it rain heavily and the air was very humid in the morning still. Showers were expected through the day but it was still warm.

The next village along, Ostend advertises prominently their Saturday morning market and being only 2 miles away we walked there anticipating being able to buy some groceries for the next couple of days.  It appeared to be a community based project with locals selling their home made honey and preserves, a stall with a small amount of organic vegetables, handmade jewellery and lots of knitted things from bootees, slippers and hats. The local community here seems quite bohemian, no shoes, hippy style clothes and long unwashed hair. The atmosphere was very English village hall with a jumble sale on.  As a token gesture we overpaid for a jar of local honey and then made our way to the local Supermarket.


We hopped on the bus back to our Onetangi home, stopping at the local Liquorland store for some beers. Initially the store seemed to hold a small selection of expensive craft beers. Then we discovered the beer was stored in a refrigerated room at the back of the shop. It was freezing in there but piled high with a vast selection.

In the afternoon we decided to go for a stroll, as Waiheke Island has a good network of hikes along the Te Ara Hura trail that goes completely around the island. Our first point was Trig Hill, the highest point and anticipated great views, however, we were in low cloud with limited visibility (Reminiscent of our many hikes around Snowdonia, always in the clouds!) The tourist map showed a 2 hour trail to Awaawaroa from Trig Hill and advised the path had good signage and walkers should be ‘reasonably fit’ - no problem for us we thought.

OK so we spent a good 30 minutes trying to find the first sign, traipsing through a field of cows and mud, due to the recent rain, before we located where we needed to go.  From here it was all quite straightforward, a few steep hills with muddy paths, all very similar to Cornwall. We met a younger walker coming from the direction we were heading to, all mountain booted (us in our trekking sandals) who wanted to confirm the route from our map. As he left he mentioned “gets a bit muddy and steeper further on, use the ropes to pull you up”. We smiled and laughed and went on our way.

Nothing too difficult so far and then of course we hit the vertical and slippery muddy path. The only way to get up it was to grab the slimy rope to the side of the trail and haul yourself up it, taking you through spiky bushes and slipping about with little foot holding. It went on for about 200m before the last gasp over the top to a relatively flat bit with the most splendid views all around us. Definitely worth it.

Down to Awaawaroa we made our way back up and up and up to Onetangi using the unsealed road and took a short cut up through the Onetangi Nature Reserve which wasn't fully signposted yet for the route we wanted.  The Bush all looks the same when you don’t know where you want to get to and then the heavens opened in the last 20 minutes and we trudged home. Glenn managed to find our way out of the darkening bush and safely home, grumbling about the poor map and signage. Hurrah for good old Ordnance Survey maps we say!

Shattered and hungry we sparked the BBQ and poor Glenn stood out there in the rain cooking the steaks. Just like in good old England!

The Ostend 'market'

A cold room of treasure behind the hidden door.

Hauling up the hill - good job Yvonne's 'reasonably fit'!

Awaawaroa Bay 

Onetangi bay

Cody Jay Jarvis Arrives

Friday 27th November - Travel to Waiheke Island and Arrival of Grandson #2

As we arrived back from our meal out last night with Lynda and Lloyd we received news from newbie Dad Scott and Mum Morgan of the arrival of their first child, Cody Jay Jarvis and all were doing well. We laughed at the idea of asking them to give him a middle name of Rangitoto, as we had visited there the day he was born. Maybe the cuddly Kiwi toy will have to be named that instead!

Today we left the kind hospitality of Jade and Lovane in Islington St, Ponsonby. A serene home in a vibrant area with easy access to the city. We are sure we will meet them again somewhere. If any of you head off to Auckland we'd defo recommend you stay with this lovely couple.

Backpacks loaded we headed off by bus to the Ferry Terminal to catch the Waiheke Island Ferry, our destination for the next four nights. Coincidently, the local newspaper featured an article on the owners and an award for their latest eco construction. We treated ourselves to a taxi to Onetangi and met Nikki, the owner of the quirky cabin, in the depths of a serene forest of native trees. The only sound being the calls of the various birds. As she showed us to the cabin she excitedly pointed out the nesting site of a kaka bird, which have returned to the island for the first time in years. One of only two on the island - 10 metres from our door! Yvonne waited with zoomed camera lens to capture a picture of the star turn, even holding steady whilst she felt a mosquito biting at her arm (as most of you will know Yvonne is a mossie magnet).

 The cabin is more like a glamping lodge than a bach (home in NZ). It has a single space that is the lounge/kitchen/diner/bathroom and the bed is on a mezzanine above accessed by a ladder that slides out when needed. Very 'cosy' but a marvellous location.

Once settled in, i.e. dumping the packs on the floor, hunger got the better of us and we returned to the main road on foot to the local garage/convenience store. With very little choice presented to us we ended up with pie, baked beans and mash. A proper childhood treat!

Excitedly waiting for more photos of Cody now with the limited internet access here.......

Our hosts, Lovane and Jade

Awaiting the arrival of the bus.

Pie, beans and mash - yummy.

Our home for the next 4 nights (get the pun on the sign - we are in a wine growing region)

Cutie Cody in his winter togs.

Blind date night!

Thursday 26th November - Rangitoto Island

On the ferry by 9.15am thinking it would be fairly quiet however we were joined by two excited school parties. The journey took half an hour and on arrival we decided to take the opposite tracks to the day trippers who immediately yomped to the summit.  This volcano only surfaced to form the island 400 years ago and was used as a coastal defence during WW2.

We instead took the coastal path, which turned out to be a 2 hour endurance trek through more lava fields, mangrove swamps and bush. We arrived at Islington Bay (or as the locals call it Issy Bay) for a well earned lunch and rest. 

Just as we left this Bay, Glenn spotted a Kiwi bird running across the path, just at the same time Yvonne was looking the other way taking more photos of the Bay. Onwards to the Summit via the Lava Caves where we met up with the school kids again (bad timing!) but at least got some gen from the guide with them. After crawling through the caves by the torch on the mobile phone (I dunno we have all the gear but always leave it back at the ranch!) we pushed on towards the Summit. Spectacular views of the Gulf around Auckland and surrounding islands and at this point the sun came out ready for our trek back to the last ferry of the day.

In the evening we met our Blind date partners, Lynda and Lloyd - parents of our Kiwi skipper in our Greek Sailing trip in June which sparked this whole travelling idea. Excellent Italian meal in Ponsonby and Lynda and Lloyd were good fun telling about their travels last year across Oz and Canada. They gave us some insiders info on where to go during our North Island escapdes.

The tail end of the kids 

The not so leisurely coastal track

In one of the lava caves

View from the summit

Lynda and Lloyd at Farina, Ponsonby

City of Sails - out on the water

Weds 25 Nov - Auckland

Leisurely start as the bed here at Lovane and Jades house is too darn comfortable. Walked in to the town again to pick up a new watch for Glenn and a small camera tripod to make our selfies easier. Had a good lunch just off the tourist area and made our way to the Art Gallery. 

We quickly passed through the Modern Art galleries (is it me or do they look like a small child could have done them?) but stopped awhile to appreciate the incredible portrait paintings of noble Maori chiefs by Gottfried Lindaue. Do take a moment to Google his name and look at this paintings.  A special exhibition of The Stories of Rama in Indian Miniatures was fascinating but had to be curtailed as we need to get back to enable Glenn to change into his sailing gear. James had kindly invited Glenn to an evening of racing in Auckland Harbour. 

Glenn met James after work then went to the marina to meet the rest of the crew - a right mixed bunch from builders to software engineers to financiers and a professional skipper.  Headed for the start line a mid lots of banter but once the 10 minute gun start a competitive edge took over. It was really interesting watching the skipper looking around a reaching his tactical decisions and listening to the instructions he gave. Despite a very average start, light winds that did not suit the boat and several sail changes we found ourselves at the back of the fleet until the last half mile when the winds really dropped. Some great tactical decisions and good sailing pulled us past many boats at the finish line. 

Once back at the marina beers and stories flowed including a particular incident involving a hurricane on a passage to Tonga by Jody (the boat owner) and Erin (his dad).

The things you see when you're cleaning windows. 

The sun is getting to her.

Coast to Coast Auckland

Tue 24 Nov - The Auckland coast to coast walk.

Jumped on the bus from Ponsonby to Onehunga, the start of the Coast to Coast walk from one side starting at the Tasman Sea across the land to finish at Auckland Harbour and the Pacific Ocean. A hike of about 10 miles that took us through landscapes shaped by 600 years of Māori occupation, and some of the finest natural and built heritage areas offering panoramic views along the way.

Onehunga looked a bit of a dodgy area at the start point but the route took us up through some nice urban areas to Cornwall Park and up to the summit of One Tree Hill. This is a Maori hotspot has british settlers chopped down a sacred totara tree in 1852 and replaced it with a Monterey pine. Various Maori groups had tried to remove this imposter, finally succeeding in 2000, and talks are still ongoing about its successor.

Onwards to Mount Eden - the highest volcanic cone in Auckland. The summit still has an impressive 50m deep crater remaining but it is a sacred site for the Maoris and access is not permitted. We had to detour off the trail to Newmarket region to visit the World Travel Clinic to get the vaccinations that we hadn’t had time for at home. We then retraced our steps back up to Mount Eden to the summit for some amazing panoramic views. We followed the trail back to the Auckland Domain, that we visited yesterday for the Winter Gardens and Museum, and sat awhile to watch cricket. There were several games being played simultaneously with overlapping boundaries and often fielders in one match were standing at the crease of the bowler of a completely different match. There were lots of shouts for lbw, missed catches and can we have our ball back please.

After a full day on our feet pounding the pavements we toddled off home to Ponsonby for a cuppa and an early night.

BTW Yvonne doesn’t think that was only a 10 miler…..

The start at Onehunga and keen to go.

The Kiwi's decide - apparently this has caused some controversy.

Steps to the summit of Mt Eden - just what we needed!

Looking back to Cornwall Park and One Tree Hill from Mt Eden.

The house in Islington St, where we are staying.

Mooching in Auckland

Mon 23 Nov - Auckland

We awoke to a cool sunny morning and after reading the local paper discovered the previous night's thunderstorms had been exceptional. "I've never seen anything like it" reported one Auckland resident of 20 yrs.

A lazy start start catching up with the blog and couple of calls found us leaving the house after 10:00. We had planned to visit Rangitoto island, an extinct volcano in the bay, but on arriving at the ferry terminal discovered there are only three crossings in the morning, two of which we'd missed, and three returns in the afternoon so we decided to leave this for another day. Now unsure of how to spend the day we began mooching around Auckland.

For a large city it has a nice feel about it and manages to successfully blend modern skyscrapers with the original historic buildings. The main street, Queen's Street, contains most of the shops (many of which have already donned their Christmas decorations - Santa with reindeer in palms, weird) and food outlets and was buzzing with people. Whilst looking for somewhere to lunch we found an Irish pub with a bar staff from Bristol serving roast dinners and craft beer - who could resist, much to Yvonne's chagrin, but who was swung over with the thought of yorkshires.

Appetite's sated we set off for the museum. The sun was now high in the sky warming the day considerably so the climbs through the two parks became hot work. The museum sits atop another extinct volcano, apparently Auckland is built on eleven of them, and the view from the top overlooking the bay drew us to sit and admire for a while.

Finding the museum charged an entrance fee to 'international visitors' that we considered too high we returned to the view and watched a couple with three young children trying, unsuccessfully, to manage the tantrums, teasing and tiredness and eventually falling out themselves. Ah the joys of parenthood!

The museum is set in a large park, which we then set about exploring. On discovering a guy setting up some football goals we lay on the grass in the sunshine hoping to be entertained by 14 enthusiastic youngsters tearing around after a ball. Instead we watched the same guy slowly prepare another 5 pitches and ultimately decided the winter gardens offered a better prospects.

The gardens comprised two glasshouses, one hot one cool, and a collection of ferns - the New Zealand speciality. Both houses were busy with people snapping photographs and Yvonne set about recording the entire collection with verve. She was particularly pleased to be able to identify a peony to a local.

By now it was getting late in the afternoon and we'd booked tickets to see the new James Bond film. We had just enough time to squeeze in a visit to a frozen yoghurt cafe and learned from the information leaflet that it is so healthy for you - at least compared to ice cream. We may have to return.

The film was in Imax giving Yvonne the opportunity to admire a giant sized Daniel Craig for over two hours - heaven.

The 'busy' city centre 

Brits on holiday 

View from the museum 

Glenn seeing what dreadlocks are like 

Another busy street

Meeting up with the Thompson family

Sunday 22nd November - First day in Auckland

Lazy start enjoying the full facilities at this lovely home, you know, microwave, electric kettle, full bathroom, mirror and charging every electronic device we have with us.

Met James off the Devonport ferry from Auckland Harbour and promptly whisked off to a less windy side of the area for a spot of lunch.  James drove us around the Devonport and adjoining districts showing us with fondness places where he’d grown up learning to sail, going to school and a tour around their home which is having major renovations with every single part of the house being worked on.  Whilst this disruption is going on the family are ensconced in a house a few doors away and this is where we met daughter Lily, son Jake and mum Sandy.  At least 8 years since they all met so you can imagine how much the kids had changed.

We enjoyed a real English meal with the family, take away curry….delicious! James dropped us off in Ponsonby and we had a chat with Lovane and Jade ready for another good nights sleep.

Downtown Auckland

Devonport, where James and Sandy live

Auckland Central Business District (CBD) 

Glenn and James 

Takapuna beach

Saturday 21st November - lost due to the International Date Line

Where did that go.

Mahola Maui (Thank you Maui)

Friday 20th November ; Fly out to Auckland, New Zealand

Sean collected us later than planned as there was an electricity black out where he lived due to the heavy rain, which continued to this morning - apparently both quite a rare phenomena - but we still made it to the airport in good time with no hitches. Our flight today consists of hopping between islands before finally making the last leg from Honolulu to Auckland, that way the fares were half price and we get to see the islands from the air.

The first leg had a very tight 30 mins turnaround but we discovered we were flying out on the same plane so just sat there not even needing to get off.  No pressure after all. On the first flight we got talking to a lovely, local lady about our travel plans and she randomly said could she follow our blog, So Donna we hope you enjoy reading it.  Any time you are in England let us know.

Arrived safely in Auckland 10.30pm Saturday night and collected by James, an old work colleague of Glenn's. He dropped us off at the Airbnb home of Lovane and Jade in Ponsonby with their lovely welcome even though it was gone midnight when we arrived. Great night sleep even with the storm, thunder and lighting raging through the night.

Hunks in trunks

Thurs 19th November - Hosmer Grove, Kalahuli, Kihei

Bit of a lie in by our standards, well at least 7am. We awoke to find ourselves the only ones in the campsite, the others dashing off for the sunrise. So today is a day of readiness for leaving tomorrow to fly to Auckland.  We have to pack the 4x4 up for the last time and transfer to a condo for our last night. Here we can get our clothes washed ‘n dried (although by looking back at our photos we appear to be wearing the same clothes a lot!) and best of all, a long, hot shower with unlimited water.

We’d arranged to meet Sean (the condo and 4x4 owner) at 2pm, however as Sean was working on Maui time we had an extra couple of hours to kill before he arrived so we popped down to the local beach (Kahala) and discovered it was a Mecca for kite surfers. The air was strewn with brightly coloured kites dragging surfers around at great speeds. Interesting to note the different competencies of the surfers coming back to shore from the experts, who landed their kites on the beach and nonchalantly stepped off their boards on the shoreline, to the beginners, who ditched their kites far too early and were under the mercy of the wind and waves to drag them slowly back in. We saw a couple of surfers in this predicament rescued by the Ocean Safety Patrol on his jetski before they were dragged towards the shipping lanes of the main harbour.

At one point a surfer yelled out to warn us he was heading in our direction to land. Glenn sat still keeping his eyes on the kite, whereas Yvonne was dancing up and down the beach in whatever direction his kite was going and only narrowly missed the final landing of his kite.  He expertly brought his kite down, picked up his board from the shore and walked over to us. It became apparent he was one of the instructors, tanned, quite a hunk with rippling muscles in every place so Yvonne managed to keep him talking for a considerable time learning much about kite surfing in the process. Who knew it could be that captivating! Had we had more time Yvonne would have managed to possibly get a tandem ride out with him on the waves. Perhaps something to follow up in NZ….

Sean took us to the condo in pouring rain, very unusual for this side of the island, and we both enjoyed a luxuriant shower and Glenn finally shaved off the 10 day old beard.  

Kite Surfers

Finished for the day

The end of the beard

14 miler on the otherside of the crater

Weds 18 Nov Hosmer Grove & Haleakala Halemau'u trail 

Up and out early to beat the clouds, we were at the trail head by 8.30am.  In long trousers, fleeces, gloves and hats (as the sun had not yet risen fully) we set off on an arduous but rewarding trail down in to the valley (crater) floor. This trail started much lower than the summit trail, so it was greener with more vegetation. We walked a short way to a viewpoint, the end of the trail for most site seers, before beginning 2 miles of zigzags to reach the valley floor. The lower we went the higher temperature became and we finally ended up in shorts and short sleeves. 

At the bottom we were really surprised to find grass and shrubs but 1 mile on towards the lava became more prevalent and one of the cones appeared on the horizon with its barren look. This side of the valley floor is less popular for hiking so we only met a handful of hikers and of course we much preferred this. The last leg of the trail towards the valley floor took us around the base of an eruption cone. The colours and rock formations were different on each side, including bright reds, oranges, greys and blacks. 

Homeward bound for the 7 miles back, the clouds disappeared and the sun became very hot but luckily the breeze was still around. At the foot of the climb out we replenished our sugar reserves and prepared ourselves for the arduous trek back up with all the zigzags slowly taking us back to the car park.  We knew on the way down this route would be right pain coming home. From the start Yvonne was on a mission to catch up with some hikers who started just before us and grunted up the trail in formidable SAS style.  At one point we had the sun behind us and saw our shadows projected on to a cloud in front of us with a rainbow around, this is quite a rare experience called a brocken spectre so we were dead chuffed.

Back at the camp site we rigged up the annexe to the tent, filled the water container to the brim and both had long and hot showers to end a perfectly exhilarating day.

The zig zag trail down

Valley (crater) floor 

Eruption cone

A Broken Spectre - the two black blobs at the bottom are us.

Yvonne enjoys a hot shower