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The one thing we knew we would do while in Hawaii is climb Diamond Head, mostly because we’d heard about it and it was in walking distance from where we were staying. So, Saturday morning we left about 10ish to walk the 2.8 miles to the park starting along the canal by our building.

Diamond Head is a crater. You walk into the crater through a shared pedestrian/car tunnel before paying the entrance fee and heading to the top.

You do not come to Diamond Head and expect to be alone and definitely not on a Saturday. It’s a destination here, so we joined the multitudes and paid our $1 entrance fee ($5 per car — amazing!) to start our upwards journey. The path is easy to follow and zig zaggy until the very top where you do some vertical stair climbing. There is also a longish tunnel to walk through near the end (FYI – if you’re claustrophobic) and then a small space to scoot through to get to the observation deck if you veer right and not left at the decision point at the top. This is not indicated on the sign that says you can go either way.

After we left Diamond Head, we started back down the road the way we came to see if a market we had passed on the way to the park was still open. It was not, but we stumbled on a great cactus garden on a community college campus. It reminded us of our times in Tucson.

Okay, back to more typical Hawaii destinations. After a stop for a great, fresh smoothie, we were off to the Iolani Palace to at least get a look at the US’s only royal residence. We saw a number of other cool buildings along the way.

The Iolani Palace was the residence of the royal rulers of Hawaii from 1845 to 1893. It’s located in the capital district along with other government office buildings. We found this to be an attractive area.

When we were in Auckland, the paper had recommended a bar in Waikiki in their travel section, so we had to give it a look. It is called The Study, and it’s located in The Modern Hotel. It is too cute. It is behind a bookcase during the hours when it’s closed. It opens at 6 pm, with the bookcase rotating out far enough for people to walk through. We went early to see it open.

Aloha! Bob and I arrived in Honolulu at @ 11 am Friday morning prior to our midnight departure from Auckland. Time traveling is better when you gain time! The weather forecast was for rain for our entire stay (late Friday morning through Monday night) due to a couple of tropical storms, but they have been good and died out except for some impact on surf.

Many moons ago when we planned to head to Hawaii after NZ, we thought we’d be in Hawaii longer and planned to see more of the islands. However, when a house sit in Germany opened up, we jumped at the chance, so have settled for an exploration of Waikiki with the short stay.

Our initial impression of Hawaii began before we even departed on our Hawaiian Islands flight from NZ when every pre-board announcement was followed by “mahalo.” This is Hawaiian for thank you, but they said it so often that we began to think it meant period, a verbal cue for us to understand they were done with their statement. It continued on board. It does beat getting sworn at.

Our next impression of Hawaii came at the airport where we could have watched a short feature film before our luggage arrived. Some poor girl traveling from overseas was frantically trying to find someone to talk to as she was going to miss her next flight. The Honolulu Airport is old and very small. We walked outside to get to Immigrations and after you pick up your luggage, you are almost immediately outdoors. The airport has been rated as one of the worst in the nation by the J.D. Power Annual North American Airport study. Of course, no one comes to Hawaii to visit the airport, and as we did get our luggage, no harm no foul.

We are not beach people, so our stay will tell you almost nothing as to whether you should visit (though I’m always of the opinion that it’s good to see and explore new places), but we have enjoyed our visit and the found the food to be much more affordable than we had expected.

We had to do a stroll near the beach beginning near the resorts before hitting the more public areas.

Many of the buildings in Waikiki seem older — built maybe in the 60s or 70s, but there are also some newer buildings, especially shopping centers for those needing to take a break from the beach.

If you’ve made it this far, mahalo.

Bob and I returned to Auckland last Friday afternoon July 27th and spent much of our last week prepping to leave Auckland. However, we did see two movies as part of the New Zealand Film Festival, and we would recommend both. We saw “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” which is a good but depressing documentary film about the power of money in our Democracy and the inability for money to buy true friendships. Roy was a powerful attorney starting with the McCarthy era and with close ties to the current president. The second film was Who You Think I Am, a French film starring Juliette Binoche. She is as beautiful and talented as ever and the plot has a number of twists and turns through to the very final scene.

We also had a final outing. This time we took the ferry to Birkenhead, another area across the harbor from Auckland, but further west than Devonport, for a nice walk about — with both of us bootless. My foot felt great (got the official thumbs up Tuesday with x-rays to show the fracture healing).

While the town center of Devonport is pretty much right at the harbor, we had to do a quick hike steeply uphill to get to the center of Birkenhead.

We didn’t have a map of Birkenhead like we had for Devonport, but the public library was able to help us out.

Inside of the library

One of the things that we knew we wanted to do was to walk through the Le Roy’s Bush Reserve that we’d read about. It is a walk through a rain forest setting along a stream and by a waterfall. Naturally, it (a boardwalk) within the park was being rebuilt, so we were only able to walk through a small portion. However, with the aid of maps from the library, we found other areas of Birkenhead to explore.

We walked to the War Memorial Park where the memorial is behind glass and the park focuses on sports activities

From the park we walked down to Kendall Bay for a wet, and sometimes muddy walk through Kauri Point Centennial Park and Chelsea Heritage Park, by the Chelsea Sugar Factory and then back to the wharf to catch the ferry back to Auckland.

We spent Thursday mostly exploring the area north of Paihia (misspelled throughout last post, darn it), but we started with a quick photo of the main building at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. This is an important historical site for New Zealand where you could easily spend a few hours seeing the spot where the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document, was signed on February 6, 1840, between representatives of the British Crown and Maori chiefs. The grounds offer access to a museum, the historic treaty house, a Maori meeting house, ceremonial war canoe, and cultural performances. We had planned to visit but decided the cost (US$34 each) and time (3-4 hours) needed to explore was more than we wanted to commit on our quick holiday.

Instead, we went waterfall hunting in and around Kerikeri, northeast of Paihia. First up was Haruru Falls. We had some unexpected greeters when we arrived.

Haruru Falls was in Waitangi not far from the Treaty Grounds. We drove up to Kerikeri for the next three waterfalls. Each of the falls that we visited in Kerikeri was in residential areas which seemed so odd to us — that some people could hear these everyday from their homes.

We then drove into the town center to walk to the next to falls. The 2.5 km path started on public land directly behind peoples’ homes before going into the bush near the creek/stream.

The second waterfall along the track was just a bit farther on. I missed the sign for it, but luckily Bob saw it or we would have continued down the stream and out of town.

Kerikeri has two other waterfalls that we didn’t get to, as we wanted to poke around the town a bit. One of their highlights is the Interweaving of Cultures sculpture by New Zealand artist Chris Booth in the Kerikeri Domain. We also walked out to the Fairy Pools by the Kerikeri River for a picnic lunch.

Kerikeri also has a chocolate factory with an associated cafe (everything has a cafe here — even garden centers) as well as some wineries. We checked out the chocolate factory and one winery (at which our second small world moment of the trip — both at wineries, but before we had anything to drink so I’ve got my facts straight).

We stopped at the Marsden Estate Winery to do a tasting. As we were talking with the hostess, she mentioned that another couple from Texas were visiting and were having lunch. (Note: When asked, we still say we’re from Texas cuz Austin still feels like home, and our address is in Texas.). At this point, a guy came up to buy some wine, and she motioned to us and told him that we were from Texas. He asked where, and we said Austin, and yep, that’s where he and his wife live too. He has family in the area and he and his wife, who happen to produce Austin Women’s Magazine, were over to celebrate his wife’s birthday. We had a great chat about Austin and travels. Small, small world!

Two final comments, both of the wineries let us split a glass of wine but kindly poured it into 2 glasses.

We ran into the Austin couple again when we returned to Paihia. They had just stocked up for what looked to be a festive birthday celebration with family, and we were going into the grocery store to pick up dinner for the night.

On Wednesday morning, we left Matakana and headed for Pahia and the Bay of Islands. We took the coastal route and stopped first at Mangawhai Heads. It was another glimpse of the beautiful east coast north of Auckland. We walked down to the shore from the parking lot and then up a small hill for another view. There is a coastal walk in the area, but it’s good we didn’t plan to do that with my one booted foot as a local that chatted with me said that there was some rock scrambling in parts of the path. He also mentioned, after I commented on the surf, that it is much rougher on the west coast and even skilled swimmers can get pulled out by riptides. He started but didn’t finish a story about his cousin having to get rescued, so we were left wondering whether he was saved or not.

We continued driving along the coast for a bit and stopped a couple of times for more coastal pics. At one of our stops, a nice local, who had been following us in her car, let us know that our gas cap was off.

We arrived to our hotel in Pahia just before 2 pm. The check-in process was easy (though maybe too easy as staff didn’t take Bob’s id out of the copier and apparently didn’t need to copy anyone else’s as neither they nor Bob caught it until we went to leave Friday morning). We were focused on walking back into the harbor in the center of town to catch a ferry over to Russell just across the bay.

To get to Russell, we would cross a small portion of the Bay of Islands. The bay contains 144 islands as well as numerous peninsulas and inlets. After purchasing our tickets, we hopped aboard the Happy Ferry (yep, that was the name) and giddily set sail with two other passengers for the 10-15 minute ride.

Russell itself was pretty quiet on a Wednesday afternoon. A lot of businesses had signs that they would reopen Thursday. We weren’t sure if that was normal winter hours or in conjunction with the end of school holidays. We still had a good walk about.

Tuesday started much like Monday with a drive and some short hikes in a great park. This time we headed east of Matakana to the Tawharanui Regional Park on the Tawharanui Peninsula. They were mowing as we drove in. It is a 588 hectare park (1,450 square acres) that aims to provide an open sanctuary free from plant and animal pests where native birds and animals can thrive.

We tried not to be too much of human pests while we were there. The native Kauri tree has been struck with a die-back disease, so we had to clean our shoes when we entered one part of the track to keep from bringing contaminants in.

After natural beauty, we returned to Brick Bay Winery for man-made beauty with their 65 piece Sculpture Trail. I have just picked a few photos, but the highlight for Bob was getting 5 new big head photos which he posted on his Instagram.

Our only comment on the trail, and we have this thought in art museums sometimes as well, we read the descriptions provided with the pieces, but they are often so ostentatiously worded that by the time you’ve deciphered what they are endeavoring to say, you’re too tired to want to go on. (a bit like that last sentence but more so). We finally quit reading and made up our own stories.

From Brick’s Bay, we headed to Warkworth a town of about 5,000 northeast of the winery and southeast of Matakana. We just walked the main streets to get a sense of the town.

The only other Matakana Wine Trail winery open during the winter is Heron’s Flight which was on the road back to Matakana. They closed at 5, and we got there about 4. We were the only guests. The cellar door seemed to be a mom-and-pop run place (mostly mom). We had an interesting chat (mostly about accounting) with the host and two quick tastings before they left to run some errands. They were out of the drive before we were.

With encouragement from our home owner, Bob and I rented a car and headed out for our first perusal of New Zealand north of Auckland. There is too much to choose from, and we were a bit limited with my ankle (feeling much better but trying to be a good patient and wear the boot) but we still had a great time seeing what we could see in this country that has so much to offer in terms of natural beauty.

Our first stop was at Shakespear (no e) Regional Park on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. It is a lovely, massive park that juts out into the Hauraki Gulf. Bob and I continue to be amazed at the size of the parks here, how well they’re maintained, and that there is no cost to enter and enjoy.

After driving out of the park and having a good photo op thwarted in Gulf Harbor (There is a Big Manly Beach there, but the road sign was partially covered and we couldn’t find a sign at the beach. Bob was “gutted” as they say here.), we drove up to the town of Orewa for a quick look-about and a picnic.

In what would prove to be a very good (except for waistline) eating and drinking vacation, we stopped at the Puhoi Cheese factory and store. They do a free cheese tasting which allowed us to sample 6 of their cheeses — 2 soft creamy cheeses, 2 hard cheeses (Gouda and Cheddar) and 2 blue cheeses. They were all very good. We bought 2 small cuts to take with us. They also make and sell their own yogurts and ice cream.

Our final destination for the day was Matakana, a small town known for its good restaurants and wineries– an easy getaway for Aucklanders as it’s only an hour if you come the direct route. We stopped at the Brick Bay Winery on our way in as it is south of Matakana. We had a lovely wine tasting of three wines with a very nice local woman. In an amazing small world moment (1 of 2 we would have on our get away), we learned that her brother lives in Rockford, Illinois where my sister lives!

Brick Bay winery also has a sculpture trail. We arrived too late in the day to do that but decided we would return the next day to see the 65 pieces.

We stayed at the Matakana Motel which had a great sitting room with a kitchen (complete with dishes). It also had an easy cut-through to the main (only) retail dining area.

— That’s one small step for man (Bob) . . . or else he’d leave Beth behind.

After a few days of resting the foot, which coincided with some rainy days, we were ready to head out for a bit. We had already purchased tickets to a Mandela exhibit at the Mount Eden stadium for the evening of June 18. The exhibit has been in Auckland since the end of April, but June 18 would have been his birthday, so they were offering reduced-fare prices as there would be food trucks available as well. Bob discovered this as he was researching the event. We were at the house until about 4, so it was a relatively short time out with the boot as we toured the exhibit. In case it is touring and comes to your area, we recommend it. The only downside was no photos allowed.

We went a little early so I wouldn’t slow people down walking to the stadium. We arrived about 4:45, and they let us in even though the reduced price admission was only to start at 5:00.

Side Note: We have since learned through the paper that due to negotiations with the local community, already in existence when the stadium was built, that the venue is limited to 36 events per year, only 6 of which can be concerts, and no Sunday night events are allowed. This is causing a bit of an issue for an upcoming cricket match with India, as ideally (for tv coverage in India) the match would be held at night on the Sunday scheduled.

After our Thursday night out and another rainy day in, we headed downtown to catch a ferry to Birkenhead which is on the other side of the harbor but west of Devonport. They are not served by the same ferry, at least not on weekends, so when we arrived we found the next ferry to Birkenhead would not be for another 70 minutes. By this time it was raining again, so we hatched a Plan B. Bob had been wanting to check out the Auckland fish market, so we headed in that direction. It ended up being a lovely walk and we got to see a part of the harbor area that we hadn’t yet explored and much of which hadn’t been developed when we visited in 2015.

After walking around the Wynyard Quarter area, we walked back into the CBD to check-out the Auckland Library which we hadn’t yet visited. We weren’t much impressed with the library but did fine other cool buildings.

From downtown, we took the rail to the Mount Eden stop to walk Ponsonby Street, the heart of the Ponsonby ‘hood known for its food and fashion.

Can you tell that Auckland is growing?

On Sunday, we did a quick visit to Albert Park near the Art Gallery before picking up a rental car for a home-owner encouraged trip north of Auckland. More on that later. We had a picnic in the park and people and bird watched.

So many of you may not get the reference in the title, but stay tuned to the end and I’ll attempt to explain my aged and arcane reference. In the meantime, the following are some photos of our sunny afternoon excursion to Devonport, New Zealand.

Devonport is a cute bayside village directly across the Hauraki Gulf from Auckland. We took a short, 10 minute ferry ride to get there. With both trains and ferry, we use a transportation card provided by the home owner which provides a discounted fare over buying a straight ticket and it keeps you from having to stop and buy a ticket before boarding each time. This was super nice of her, and we plan to leave her with the cards at the amount they had on them when we leave.

The tourist map of Devonport that we were following indicated that there was a park area on North Head, so we were heading to the top of the hill to see what was there.

From North Head, we walked back to the little town center to check out the popular Victoria Street with one of the most intact collections of Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings in Auckland as well as a very cool, and well-used Library.

We noted a few other, random sights as we strolled around Devonport.

So, growing up (in Wisconsin), our living room had a davenport (sofa). I’m not sure as an adult I have ever heard that term used for a sofa, but I was reminded of the term when I heard about Devonport. Googling the term Davenport to see if I was misremembering, I found that this was the name of a series of sofas by A. H. Davenport and Company. Due to the popularity of the furniture, the name davenport began to be used generically for sofas much like Kleenex for tissue. So there, if you have any complaints about the dated, obscure reference, you can “sit on it.”

Like many of the places we’ve visited in New Zealand, Auckland has a number of lovely parks and reserves that make you feel like you are out of the big city. Bob figured out a nice walk for us on Tuesday that took us through a number of parks, reserves, and shared use paths not too far from our neighborhood.

We began with a walk to and around the cute little lake in Western Springs Park about 15 minutes from our house. It is located next to the Auckland Zoo and Museum of Transportation and Technology both of which are quite popular now with families whose kids are out on break for the winter holiday. We stuck to the park and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings and animals (though not so much the goose poop).

Next to the Western Springs Park we stumbled on the Fukuoka Garden which was created to honor Auckland’s sister city relationship with Fukuoka, Japan. It a free little tranquil garden between the park and the zoo.

We then walked a bit further on into the Westmere neighborhood through two nature reserves, one of which brought us along the coast (an inlet of the Hauraki Gulf).

The first reserve was a relatively small bush reserve called Jaggers Bush Reserve, so I thought we should move like Jagger but there were other people about so we just hummed the song while we walked.

The second reserve, the Meola Reef Reserve, was larger and was formed by the longest lava flow in the Auckland Volcanic field. It has both on and off leash areas for dogs.

The marshy area of the reserve as you enter from the street

After that we started heading back towards Mount Albert via the Point Chevalier neighborhood. We stopped for a picnic lunch on the grounds of the massive (at least land-wise) Unitec Institute of Technology and then continued on to do a grocery run via a shared use path and then onto Oakley Creek Walkway which had us back to nature again before getting to the store.