Leaving Auckland on a Sunday was a great plan. Little traffic, daylight, and our hosteller gave directions that required only one turn, and no lane changes. We were on the Route 1 Motorway North. A multi-lane highway. Speed limit 100 kph (64mph or so…) strictly enforced. Doesn’t matter, the two gerbils and squirrel that power our little rental beastie can only go 110kph downhill with a tailwind… No speeding tickets for us in Kiwi country. (Kiwi, by the way, was a term started by Aussie soldiers during WW1. Probably initially derisive, but the New Zealanders attached to it, and consider it a proud moniker. Also, it’s the bird, not the fruit…)
We are heading north 160 kilometers (110 miles more or less) to the town of Whangarie (Fang-a-ray). About 30 kilometers out of Auckland the motorway becomes one lane each way… through towns and roundabouts. Mind you, the speed limit often stays 100kph until just before these traffic barriers. The road follows the lay of the land.
The land is lumpy… and twisty… and beautiful. Verdant just scratches the surface. The climate is considered sub-tropical. What this means is this: giant ferns surrounded by buttercups, palm trees are next to pine trees, grasses, shrubbery, giant kauri trees tower over cows and sheep, an explosion of flowering plants tall and short, areas of dry scrub bordered by dense forest. Microclimates change every few kilometers, and the flora changes as well. Even for this short distance we have Eastern Washington, Western Washington, British Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, and California all rolled into one.
JD has gotten the hang of the opposite controls. Traffic circles also are less intimidating. We found our way to our abode of the next two nights. Whangarie Holiday Park and Backpackers. Holiday parks are small to medium sized properties that have a few connected cabins, some tent spaces, and a couple of spaces to park campervans. Communal kitchen, central showers and lavatories, and indoor common areas with a small library, TV, and coin-operated email also seem to be standard.) All of the North Island is volcanic in nature. There are over 160,000 kilometers of volcanic rock stone-walls threaded throughout this region. They run along the road, across the fields, and sometimes are just standing all by themselves. Not too different than Scotland and the NE U.S., “gotta do something with the rocks…lets stack ‘em and make walls!”
We decided to check the dive shop out in person. It was about 20 minutes down the road in Tutukaka (yep, just like it’s spelled…) Along the way there were pee-a-boo views of the ocean. The dive shop measured up and we made our reservations for the next morning. We decided to take some side roads and check out the beaches we had viewed from above. It is hard to imagine
the total lack of bodies… These beach parks were incredible, soft sand, blue-green water, minimal surge, stunning views, easy access, and it was a Sunday during summer break. The busiest beach had maybe a dozen people and a couple of blokart riders (blokarts are the sail driven go carts.) Most were just plain empty. Every small hamlet and town has at least one ice cream place serving a NZ ice cream called TipTop. It can be in an abundance of flavors, and it is a “premium” density. Costs about a $1 a scoop. KK & I both had boysenberry swirl. There is a flavor called “Hokey Pokey” which even the lady scooping didn’t know what it was. We haven’t tried it yet, more research is needed…
We arrived at the dive shop at 8:00am (JD has found the time, currency, and distance can be easily converted in your head by using the following formula: T or $=(((x/n3*c)/g2)r)/[Dd-yf/k8]c/t)-3. n=the age of your car, g is the gravitational constant, c is the speed of light, D is a yet to be discovered universal constant, and the other variables include latitude, longitude, inclination of Mercury and the theoretical month…) Anyway- it was yesterday 11:00am back in Seattle…Kimberly got to put on her first heavy wet suit. A 7mm farmer john plus a 7mm hooded jacket and neoprene booties. The water has warmed up to a balmy 68 degrees. Not Midwest quarry or
Puget Sound diving (both around 42 degrees) but close enough. The dive crew was excited because just a couple of weeks ago it was cold- low 60’s. The dive and boat crews were great. Friendly, knowledgeable, interactive. The Skipper, a younger Kiwi, gave quality dive prep with god local history and site knowledge. An hour here, then lunch and a short cruise, and an hour or so at the next site. We chose to dive with one of the guides for the first dive, and do our own thing the second.Captain Cook had named the Poor Knights during a coastal trip in the mid-1800’s. No one is sure why he chose the name. Maybe he was running out of things after naming countless islands, shoals, bays, headlands, harbours, and who knows what else. (Here we are passing Edith’s Head, named for the scullery maid of the Earl of Gisbourne. The Earl had known Cook’s third cousin in prep school…)
I digress… The area has been a land sanctuary almost as long as Europeans have been around the country. It has been a protected ocean sanctuary since the late eighties. No hunting, fishing, or even setting foot on the islands. They are the only landmass that has not been infested with
non-indigenous mammals. No rats, stoats, goats, sheep, etc. There are local flora and fauna found literally nowhere else on earth. A giant grasshopper the size of a fist, a giant 8-10 centipede that hunts lizards and small birds, and a lizard species that is older than sharks and crocodiles are but a few of the local denizens.
The sea life on the other hand all came from somewhere else. In Disney’s Nemo the EAC (Eastern Australia Current) was used by surfing turtles and Nemo’s dad. He exited at Sydney, however if your stay (or are stuck in...) the current it runs by a few other small atolls and then deposits everything at Poor Knights. Kelps and tropicals mix here. The hardier tropicals get BIG. Huge angels rule sections of rock to guard egg masses, and large schools of really big rainbow wrasses follow divers around, I assume just to see what happens. (We had a 6-inch rainbow wrasse in our tank, it was considered medium to large. These wrasses are all a foot and a half or so…)The heavy suits did tweak our buoyancy control (the ability to float at one depth rather than float up or sink down) a bit. We figured it out though. Water was clear, minimal surge, no current, and lots of little critters in the nooks and crannies. Back on the boat you’re immediately offered a hot beverage (tea, cocoa, coffee) and a hot water rinse. The islands are the surviving
lava plugs of an old volcano. Think Devils Tower (Wyoming, Close 
Encounters of the Third Kind) in the ocean. Weathering has set it up to be honeycombed like a big Swiss cheese. There are caves and pass-throughs all around. Many are large enough for boats. We entered one and had a little echo demonstration that was pretty superb. The Skipper tried to get the Austrians on board to yodel. They needed beer first…and it was a dry ship. So we all hooted and whistled for a bit.
Our second dive was through one of the aforementioned pass throughs. Called Blue Mau Mau arch, it has a school of Blue Mau Mau living inside… This dive was a bit chillier as it faced the southern pacific directly (pretty much all the way to Antarctica…) and there was a tad more current. All good fun though.
One of the divers was a South African in country to visit his brother. We had quite the information exchange about chiropractic, and some light politics. One of the Germans on board had been around the western states on a six week driving trip a short while ago. He gushed about our road system. He had driven close to 12,000 kilometers in 6 weeks, and he said
there was no other country in which you could do that type of mileage in that short a time. (He wasn’t always on interstates either…)
On the way back to the marina a school of dolphins (the Flipper kind, not spotted or spinners) caught our attention. The Skipper motored with them for a bit as they surfed the wake and had a general dolphin good time.
A good day of sun & fun. Some wine, cheese and fruit appetizer and spicy chicken stir-fry for dinner. Afterwards we prepare for tomorrows trip to the northernmost point of New Zealand- Cape Reinga and 90-mile beach.
One of the divers was a South African in country to visit his brother. We had quite the information exchange about chiropractic, and some light politics. One of the Germans on board had been around the western states on a six week driving trip a short while ago. He gushed about our road system. He had driven close to 12,000 kilometers in 6 weeks, and he said
there was no other country in which you could do that type of mileage in that short a time. (He wasn’t always on interstates either…)On the way back to the marina a school of dolphins (the Flipper kind, not spotted or spinners) caught our attention. The Skipper motored with them for a bit as they surfed the wake and had a general dolphin good time.
A good day of sun & fun. Some wine, cheese and fruit appetizer and spicy chicken stir-fry for dinner. Afterwards we prepare for tomorrows trip to the northernmost point of New Zealand- Cape Reinga and 90-mile beach.
