The Road Leads On

Adventure, adventure, adventure. The road leads on and we are in the far north of Northland.

We've moved to Kaitaia and I feel as if we've moved to an entirely different New Zealand. This is a rural NZ. Hot and wet, full of flat, green valleys between low rounded distant hills and one populated by its original settlers: the Maori. Everything here is in both English and Maori and 8 out of 10 faces that pass you by on the street clearly show native heritage.

The town is full of contrasts. The people are open and friendly, but the town is poor and blighted. It has nearly everything you could want in terms of stores and amenities and yet with heavy and light industry mixed with residential there seems to be nothing but rundown emptiness. Before we came, a friend described Kaitaia as "rough" and I think it is an apt description because it captures the gritty feel and smell of the town with its gravely roads, unkempt sidewalks and the smell of industry mixing with the deep fried oil of the takeaways on Main Street.

To arrive, we drove north from Christchurch to Picton and crossed the ferry into Wellington. We were in a bit of a hurry to arrive, because Steve needed to start working so we couldn't linger and sightsee. We will make a north island tour later during our visit. As we drove out of Wellington northward, I was immediately struck by the absence of the grand Southern Alps. In the south island, whether it is the Alps or some other mountain range, there is always in sight an immense body of rock which rips at the sky. Here in the north, there are mountains, but they seem to simply rise from the ground and roll in green waves toward the clouds. They look older and softer than the naked rock of the south.

We made for National Park and I must say we probably missed the best of the scenery because we traveled till 12:00 am and so it was dark when we arrived. Sadly, the next day was cloudy and we couldn't see Mt. Rapehaeu (spelling?) known as Mt. Doom to you Lord of the Rings fans, but hopefully we'll see it on the big tour.

We drove to Auckland the next day and did stop (at my incredibly geeky insistence) at Matamata: the home of Hobbition. We had great luck, because for the last couple of years Hobbiton was mainly just a couple of hobbit holes left over by the filming crew that they didn't get to destroy because of rain. Now though, because they are gearing up to film THE HOBBIT, they have completely rebuilt Hobbiton and the Shire and more. I took heaps of pictures, but due to confidentiality agreements that we signed, I am not allowed to post them. Suffice it to say The Shire is as cool as it looks in the movie.

Auckland was a big city. We had a great, totally authentic chinese meal out, slept at a youth hostel and then got out of Dodge without anyone breaking into our moving trailer.

The next day we made for Whangerei and then Kaitaia. It was a long three days, but the kids are such pro's at long car trips now, and we all enjoy being on the road and traveling on.

My father is in country and coming up here to visit day after tomorrow. We'll see what he thinks about rural northland. Till then.