The Optimist's Week

On Friday, 16 February, we woke up in a park in the town of Leigh where we thankfully escaped being asked to leave by a policeman by pretending to be asleep at 9:30 pm. It was another beautiful day in New Zealand.

Goat Island, near Leigh, is the best place for snorkeling in New Zealand. We rented snorkel gear from a place called Seafriends (www.seafriends.co.nz) that also has a great marine education center. We rented full wetsuits (even hoods!) in addition to our masks, snorkels, and fins. Thanks to our wetsuits we were able to stay in the water for over 2 hours and snorkeled all the way around the island without getting sunburned or cold. We saw heaps of fish, three eagle rays, and five ctenophores (comb jellies). Not bad for Matt’s first time snorkeling.

Friday night we camped at a DOC campground. On Saturday morning we headed to Whangarei (fahn-ga-ray) after a morning of sightseeing, we had occasion to meet a nice mechanic on our way out of town. He told us we didn’t ever have to spend any more money on Lu! And he directed us to a nice auto wrecker. Then we met some friendly people at a little shopping mall who gave us directions to an internet café that is open on Saturday afternoon.


The end of Lu's long road

We were able to slowly drive Lu to a park near the edge of town for Saturday night, and avoided bother by both boy racers and police. On Sunday morning we met Grant out walking his dog Bella. Grant kindly pointed us in the direction of the nearest tap to fill our waterbottles and offered to bring us some refreshment later in the afternoon. When he returned, he did better than bring refreshment- he offered to let us stay at his house Sunday night. He lived about 200 meters from the parking lot so Lu made it to the house without blowing a hole in the engine. We spent the rest of Sunday with Grant, Sonja, and their four lovely children. We could hardly thank them enough! They always have an invitation to crash with us wherever we live in the U.S.

On Monday morning we went back to the Whangarei wrecker who we met on Saturday. He showed us a 1992 Nissan station wagon that seemed perfectly suited to our needs. Sort of a newer version of Lu. It had Warrant of Fitness (WOF) until June and current registration. It fit the bill! We got $200 towards the new car from trading in Lu and paid $1200 cash. We transferred all of our things from Lu to the new car and were on the road by about 10 am. R.I.P. Lu. For her age (1984 with 394,000 km), I’d say Lu gave us remarkably little trouble. And then when she did, she went all out and kicked the bucket. I think that’s better than gradually breaking replaceable parts only to kick it after hundreds of dollars of repairs.

We spent Monday night at another DOC campsite (a free one!) where we met five other American Ultimate Frisbee players our age who were traveling in New Zealand. We hung out with them for a bit and they taught us how to make a great bean dip on a camp stove which we had just acquired (we were just eating cold sandwiches for all of our meals until then). We fixed up Lu’s curtains in the new car (which I must say do match much better) and named her Sandy. Our first night in Sandy was excellent! She’s wider than Lu in the back so we were so laterally squished.

On Tuesday morning the nice Americans gave me a ride to the nearest town to get jumper cables. The friendly mechanics at the only garage in town kindly loaned theirs and we got a jump from the Americans.

On Tuesday we were able to buy groceries and put gas in the car. We stopped at an awesome kauri woodshop where they make things out of 40-50,000 year old kauri logs that have been dug out of prehistoric swamps. We bought a piece of wood to make into a cutting board. We were still headed north and met up with the Americans again at some giant sand dunes. We watched them slide down on boards and then they let us take a ride on their boards. I’ve never been sledding down a dune like that! It was awesome!



We drove the rest of the way out to Cape Reinga, the northwestern point of the North Island and camped at a nearby DOC campsite. We didn’t have exact change to pay on the honor system, so we waited for someone to come by to collect the fees
later and they never did so we stayed for free.


Cape Reinga

We got a nice early start on Wednesday and drove down from the Cape and almost all the way back to Whangarei. We contacted some Whangarei couch surfer hosts (Karen & Colin) who had offered to put us up on Monday and they said we could come on Wednesday instead. I think the only time we’ve been as thrilled to have a bed and a shower was two days before when we were rescued from the park by Grant & Sonja. Karen and Colin have done an amazing amount of traveling all over the world. They have a lovely house in the countryside with two cool dogs and beautiful views. It was so relaxing and refreshing that we decided to take them up on their offer for us to stay Thursday night as well.


Karen & Colin and their two dogs


Tane Mahuta Kauri tree

On Thursday we had a relaxing morning and then went to see the tane mahuta kauri tree that is ‘God of the forest.’ It’s the biggest tree in New Zealand. Almost all of the old kauri trees were logged about 100 years ago, but a few like the tane mahuta remain. It is a massive tree! On the way back to Colin & Karen’s house we learned that our car can go 710 km on a tank of gas. Then we met some exceptionally kind and sympathetic people. One woman drove me down the road to a farm where another woman got me a can with some diesel.

The best thing about Thursday was that I got accepted to graduate school! Hooray!

Today (Friday) we’re headed back to Auckland to stay with Paul, another couch surfer host who we stayed with before we went to Waiheke Island. Then on Saturday we’ll go to Tokoroa to see Kerry’s neighbor compete in a super sports competition.

Carrie