New Zealand, a.k.a. Paradise

Happy Holidays from the Southern Hemisphere

  Neither of us had ever been to New Zealand before this trip and really did not know what to expect.  Basically our only mental images of New Zealand were from the Lord of the Rings movies. It turns out the entire place was formed by volcanoes (including Mt. Doom) over millions of years, and it shows.  It is hilly and rugged and its jagged coastline is dotted with islands and peninsulas.  New Zealand is an amazing place. 

Anyway, we went there because Toni Lyn was the chair of a symposium at the Society of Conservation Biology conference in Auckland.  We decided we should go a few days early because how often do you really get a chance to go to New Zealand?  Plus, if we are going to cross 11 time zones to get to a place, we are going to spend some extra time there.

Greetings from Auckland the morning of day 1

After 30 sleepless hours of flight we finally landed in Auckland, grabbed our rental car and hit the road.  Then, after six hours of the curviest roads we have ever driven, we arrived in Tauranga, a coastal town set at the foot of Mt. Manganui with a good-sized shipping port and lots of little shops and restaurants. We promptly passed out in the sun on the sandy beach and woke up sometime later, sunburned and delirious, to scale the mountain.  At the top we watched people jump off the mountain to paraglide over the ocean. It was very impressive.  Sleep was good that night.

The top of Mt. Manganui

How cool is this?

The next couple of days were rainy and cool. We spent most of the time on the road traveling from one visitor attraction to the next, of which there are many on the North Island of New Zealand.  We went to Hobbiton, some of the thermal pools that are common all over the central North Island, a waterfall at the top of (supposedly) the largest lake in the Southern Hemisphere, a boat trip through glow worm caves (sorry no photos but picture the coolest thing ever cuz, why not?) and an ecological preserve Maungatautari Ecological Island (http://www.maungatrust.org/) where they are attempting to protect, breed, and restore populations of birds that have been eradicated or severely diminished on New Zealand from the invasive mammals like cats and pigs and weasels (there are no native mammals on New Zealand).  We covered a lot of ground and without the best breakfast in the world and a good rest at the incredibly hospital Hilltop Views B&B (www.hilltopviews.co.nz) at the half-way mark we probably would have not made it back to Auckland.

HOT! HOT! HOT! Thermal Pools!

At home in the forest

You can count on your fingers how many of these are left in the world

There are nearly 4 million people in New Zealand and 2 million of them live in Auckland.  Amazing - half the country's population is in one city.  It is a big place but doesn't seem like it.  People there are genuinely patient and friendly and honking seems to be taboo - SOOO nice.  Downtown was full of people but it didn't seem crowded or noisy and there were tons of shops and museums and other fun things to check out.  Our impression from a week in the city is that there is something special about this place and its people.

A view of Auckland from the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere

The 99% is world wide.  Nice job guys.  Keep up the good work.

Matt making friends with Lord Auckland

The conference was great, Toni Lyn's symposium and her talk went well, especially if the dozen people that had standing room only in a much too hot and thus a little stinky presentation room were any indication.  The opening night there was a Maori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) drumming session and mid-week we took a dinner ferry out into the Western Pacific ocean.  The closing night party had a Maori band and dancers (mostly old school American covers).  Toni Lyn also got to see a bunch of old friends from Berkeley and even Stony Brook which was great.

For our last two days in NZ, we followed up on a lead for some good food and wine.  The family of Berkeley friends (thanks Greg and Ali) runs a winery and restaurant called Casito Miro (www.mirovineyard.co.nz) on Waiheke Island, a ferry trip away from Auckland.  After spending the morning walking along the beach, we hiked about 10 minutes up a hill, turned onto a narrow gravel road lined with flowering trees and grape vines and were greeted for a late lunch in a greenhouse-like building overlooking the vineyards.  After meeting the family we ordered a bottle of wine and enough food to feed half a dozen people.  We miss good fresh food SOOO much in Congo. Everything tasted like it was just picked that morning and prepared by your grandmother (if she is/was an amazing chef of course).  Halfway through the meal the owner came by and gave us two half bottles of the red wines they were bottling that day (we just happened to be there for one of the few days in the year that they are bottling).  Long story short, if you are in NZ, Waiheke is worth the trip and if you are there, you MUST eat and drink wine at Casita Miro.  I'm not sure if you can find their wine in stores, but if you can, you won't be disappointed.

Very excited about food and wine at Casita Miro

It was actually a bit hard to come back to DRC after our wonderful escape to the South Pacific but we ended up stuck in a hotel room in Johannesburg for 4 days waiting for the election situation to cool off in Kinshasa so in the end we were happy to be back "home".