Day 3, Tuesday, May 5th..Kauri

NZDay2&3_2009_05_05_0209
Originally uploaded by fjaquish

Today we did some driving, some gawking and some short trekking (this is hiking in Kiwi). We were hesitant to do much else since we were still without our luggage. Our B&B host loaned us rain coats, if you think the saying in Vermont that goes "if you don't like the weather wait 5 mins" is applicable in Vermont, come to New Zealand. When the sun is out it is really warm, then within mins it will cloud over, rain and the temps will drop, so you just dress for all weather in layers. We drove from our B&B over the typical NZ mountain road, which is like Appalachian Gap only it is more narrow, there are absolutely no shoulders, you have to share it with log trucks, and you are driving on the left. Driving on the left works pretty well as long as you are not doing anything that interrupts your concentration, the next thing you know instinct takes over and it can get exciting, I will just leave it at that. We drove to Tutukaka to check out the boat cruise to Poor Knights Island, which Jacque Cousteau (spelling?) said was one of the top 10 dive sites in the world, and made reservations for the 6th to snorkel, more on that later. We also drove to Whangarei (pronounced Fangaray) to see the Water Falls, don't worry we will have plenty of pics for you. Then we headed west to the Kauri trees to see the Lord and King of the Forest, they were impressive. We got back around 9, after dinner in town, then had a glass of wine with our hosts, who were very very nice, as we have found is consistent with almost all New Zealanders. We retired content...our luggage was waiting for us when we got to our room!