On the way

We lucked out with the flight, as much as you can with a thirteen hour first leg. Very few people so once we were in the air the seat sharks circled the free four and three set rows and settled in for the night. We were lucky enough to get a couple of three seat beds.

We had a meal and few movies before trying to sleep - the first thing we saw was the flight plan 6,301 miles to Papeete Tahiti. Not a flight where you want to to keep watching the progress of the plane on your screen.

Papeete was hot - sticky, damp and hot. Most laid back crew and ground people I've ever seen. We arrived late and they said we'd leave in a while for Auckland. Only a few gates but no indication when. The terminal is completely open - no wall separating from the outside, just big eaves to keep the rain out. At some point they decided it must be time to go so we left. We got to Auckland two hours late, but we have no schedule so who cares.


The ride out of Auckland was typical - I made a wrong turn 100 yards from the car rental place and we wound up not on the Auckland bypass but their version of the Berlin Turnpike. Not having any idea where we were and trying to remember which side of the road we were on we just kept driving around hoping we'd see something that would get us on route 1. We finally did and just got the hell out as fast as we could.

Kept heading north and the country starting turning tropical with palm trees and then alternated with areas like California foothills in the spring and Wyoming foothills with large flat ranch areas and hills, not quite moutains rising up with a top layer of green trees.

We thought of staying in a town called Dargaville. Thankfully the only accomodation was a very expensive motel and a real dumpy camp/cabin area. The town made Winsted look like Simsbury and we headed north.

Went through beautiful farmland, hills and mountains with the ocean out of sight but just over the hills. Road was as windy and up and down as any we'd been on. Farms, huge trees, palms, giant ferns, kiwi crossing signs. Toots asked if monkeys lived here - we wouldn't have been suprised to see some - we did see parrots.

All of a sudden, boom! The ocean - a huge bay - what they call a harbor. Very small town with a few stores and a hostel - the Backpackers Lodge. We had a double room close to the bathroom, there were a few small dorm rooms, nice communal kitchen and a great living/reading room. If we can keep finding more like this, it's the way to go.