Beth’s mother Carolyn came to visit us in early February. Her trip had an ominous start. After arriving at the airport to catch her flight to Philadelphia (and then onward to Los Angeles), she discovered that her flight had been cancelled due to a lack of aircraft. US Airways rerouted her through Charlotte, but she only had 45 minutes to make her Air New Zealand connecting flight to Auckland. Things went from bad to worse. The flight attendant didn’t show up, delaying the flight and there was some other passenger issue that delayed boarding, and before she knew it, she was on a flight to LA that was clearly going to arrive long after the Air New Zealand flight would have departed.
In LA, there was more bad news. Because of the wintry weather in the USA, there were many “displaced” passengers and all the Air New Zealand flights were fully booked for at least a few days. The “best” they could do for her was to fly her to Brisbane (a 14-hour flight, at least 2 hours longer than the flight to Auckland) and then a connecting flight to Auckland (another 3 hours traveling). She was handed a voucher for a hotel room and two meal coupons (she got $10 for dinner and $5 for lunch!). After getting lost on her way to the hotel, she finally settled in, completely exhausted and a nervous wreck, ready to abandon all plans to visit us. We pleaded with her to “push on” so that she could make some good memories to block out the bad ones.
Of course, the drama of this adventure did not ease. The flight to Brisbane was one-hour late and fortunately, Qantas held the flight so that poor Grandma could board the plane for Auckland. Grandma arrived completely drained late Monday afternoon. She lost two days of her trip and her checked-in suitcase.
The good news: her bag arrived safely a day later, Carolyn recovered and decided to extend her trip by a week.
Tuesday, February 5th:
Only two days to go before Quentin, Annick and Isaac had to go back to school. We decided to go to Muriwai Beach to see the gannets and the sea stars. We had a hot, sunny summer day. We admired the gannets and their growing babies and then headed over to the swimming beach for some boogy boarding and sand play. We ended up staying there a lot longer than we expected. By the time we left, we were too hot and tired to go looking for sea stars. We planned to come back another day to finish our Muriwai experience.
Wednesday, February 6th:
We took Grandma for the hike in Wenderholm Regional Park to see the New Zealand bush and some gorgeous scenery. After lunch, we headed to Sheep World for the eel feeding and the sheep show. We love Sheep World! Xavier got to try his luck sorting the sheep this time. He did fairly well.
Thursday, February 7th:
Grandma, Xavier and Beth did some errands after dropping off Quentin, Annick and Isaac at school. The children were excited to be back to school and seemed really pleased with their teachers. After a very fun first day of school, the whole family headed over to Tawharanui Regional Park to play on our favorite beach. It was, after all, a big birthday day for Beth, Annick and Isaac. We celebrated by jumping in the waves and lounging in the sand. It was heavenly. There was also a partial eclipse of the sun that afternoon but we didn’t see it (because you are not suppose to look at the sun) nor notice any darkening. Incidentally, Annick and Isaac got to celebrate their 8th birthday twice as they did a special "birthday horse ride" with friends Millie and Matthew one week earlier.
Friday, February 8th:
The three “primary” children went to school. Carolyn, Xavier and Beth went to Whangarei to visit “New Zealand’s most photographed waterfall”. We had a picnic, took a stroll around the waterfall and took some of our own photos to make sure that Whangarei Falls maintained its superlative distinction. We then took another leisurely bush stroll that included some 500-year-old kauri trees.
After, we visited the Kiwi House where we were able to observe one North Island brown kiwi rummaging around for insects. We wanted to make sure that Grandma saw a kiwi before she left New Zealand and voila, she got to see *a* kiwi. There was also a morepork fluttering about in the kiwi display, a small New Zealand owl. There were historic buildings on display like the old women’s jail and an octagonal chapel, the “only one in New Zealand made from a single log of kauri”. Also on the property was a bird recovery center where we got to watch an adorable (but injured) little blue penguin swim around in a little blue plastic swimming pool. We had a pleasant day, but it wasn’t the most outstanding destination we have visited in New Zealand.
Saturday, February 9th:
We took the ferry on Saturday to Tiritiri Matangi to visit the offshore island where there is an open air bird sanctuary. We love that island! It is loaded with birds, many of them that no longer exist on mainland New Zealand due to predators. We have visited three times and each season brings different pleasures. It is the end of summer and many of the birds have quieted down, but the bellbirds were singing rapturously. They are an adorable shade of green-yellow and have a beautifully melodious voice. Whole choruses were serenading us as we walked through the bush.
We arrived at the lighthouse and set up our picnic lunch. Isaac jumped and squealed because as he sat, a very assertive pukeko rushed up and bit his bottom in an effort to crash our picnic. As the children took turns chasing the pukeko away, a takehe keep peeking out from the bushes. Once thought to be extinct, there are now 300 takehe in the world, all in New Zealand, 18 of them on Tiritiri Matangi. Other birds that entertained us that day were North Island robins, saddlebacks and of course, our favorite, the tuis. We finished the day with a swim at Hobbs Beach. On the walk back to the ferry, Grandma and the children got to see a moulting little blue penguin in a nesting box near the trail.
Sunday, February 10th:
The weather did not look so inviting and so we decided to visit the Auckland War Memorial Museum where they offer a daily Maori Cultural Show. The half-hour show features Maori music and dance as well as presentations on the games, weapons and rituals of the Maori people. There is an extensive collection of Maori artifacts in the museum as well as an actual marae house. We toured the various exhibits in the museum that included New Zealand wildlife, geology and history.
Monday, February 11th:
Errands, errands and more errands! Beth’s mother extended her stay by a week because of the grueling trip here and so we needed to go to an Air New Zealand Holiday Store to make the modifications. In the midst of doing copying, groceries, banking and posting, the highlight of the morning was meeting a very cheerful Kiwi named Maria in the Holiday Store.
In the afternoon, we headed to horse riding where Quentin, Annick and Isaac got to pose while riding Black Beauty, Goldie and Renegade. Grandma snapped away. Gotta love those digital cameras!
Tuesday, February 12th:
Despite a rainy forecast, we woke to a clear day. After getting the children off to school, we drove south to Orewa Beach for a run/walk on the beach. Carolyn did some shell collecting too. Later, we dined in style at Ascension Restaurant where we celebrated Beth’s and Gerard’s birthdays when the rains finally descended on Ascension. We observed a big beetle-like bug on the floor upside down trying desperately to right itself. The waitress insisted it was a New Zealand weta (a large and revered native “grasshopper”), but it looked like a big cockroach to us.
Wednesday, February 13th:
Beth and Carolyn headed back to Muriwai because we didn’t have the time or inclination to wander through the sea cave or search for sea stars on our last visit. We spent some time doing both, but got a good soaking because low tide never got all that low. The beach was abandoned except for a few sea birds. The gannets are slowly leaving the colony as the chicks get bigger and stronger. They will almost all be gone to Australia over the winter.
Thursday, February 14th –Sunday, February 17th:
We drove up to the Northland to Cooper’s Beach to spend the weekend in a beach house. We picked the kids up at noon at school and headed north. We planned to stop at the Kawiti Glow Worm cave, but the sky was crying all the way up. Actually, the sky was sobbing. We decided to forego the glow worms and drive straight to the house. Almost miraculously, the sky cleared and the sun peeked out as we drove into the driveway. After unloading the car, we headed down the steps to the beach.
The weekend was not picture perfect, but we were right on the beach, so it was easy to sneak out between the raindrops and enjoy the surf. The beach looked like cinnamon sugar lined with pohutukawa trees. The sea was roiled up, but we enjoyed some mighty waves with our boogy boards. One day, Quentin discovered some clams in the sand called “pippies”. He collected a bucketful and we were able to feast on them for lunch that day. Another evening, we had a family soccer game on the beach. The sunset that night was stunning. The house came with a couple kayaks and that provided some good entertainment for awhile too. (However, Xavier had a freak accident while on the kayak – he rolled in the waves and his sun shirt caught on one of the brackets from his braces, breaking it away from the tooth. Fortunately, we found a dentist in Kerikeri willing to glue it back.)
On the way home, we stopped in Paihia to go on a full-day dolphin watch trip on a sailboat. We had a pleasant day, but not our best experience in the Bay of Islands. The day started sunny, but soon turned cloudy. We saw a few little blue penguins out swimming, but no dolphins, not a single dolphin, all day long. That was a bit disappointing, but we did get to be out on a sailboat all day in the Bay of Islands.
Monday, February 18th-Friday, February 22nd:
After a full weekend of activity and driving, we had to get back to real life in Puhoi. Mom’s last week was often spent watching us do grocery shopping, taking kids to piano, horseback riding and trumpet and a million other things that go along with regular everyday life plus some. Gerard’s family friend David Scalia arrived from Italy on Monday for a short visit before leaving on a cycling tour of the North Island. We spent one afternoon lounging around on Tawharanui Beach before he left us. While the kids were in school, Carolyn and Beth did some souvenir shopping and visited some local attractions like the Warkworth Museum, Mahurangi Regional Park and the Waitakere Ranges. We chased some oyster catchers on the beach at Wenderholm one afternoon. We also got to spend an hour or so in the doctor’s office after Quentin fell off a horse. Ahh, real life. At the end of the week, Quentin was supposed to go sailing with his class, but a tropical storm arrived. Sadly, we got to watch two grown men try to entertain a large group of ten-year-olds by playing games and tying knots to pass the day away. It didn’t work.
Saturday, February 23rd -Monday, February 25th:
The tropical storm worsened and we were held hostage inside while the wind howled and the rain fell in sheets. After two months of very dry weather requiring one water delivery at the Bennett-Cachons, our tank and garden got a soaking. There were many Scrabble and Monopoly games (New Zealand Monopoly, of course, thanks to our thoughtful landlady), followed by movies and computer games. Fortunately, on Sunday, the weather calmed. We ventured out to the Puhoi Sports Hall for the new monthly farmers market. After lunch, we traveled west to Te Henga where there are mountains of black sand dunes framed by a forest. In the midst of the dunes is a lake, the pock of an ancient imploded volcanic crater. The children climbed and jumped, dug and tumbled before heading to the water where they flipped and swam for two hours. Grandma just couldn’t believe that yet again, we were almost the only people present in that gorgeous, pristine setting. Magically, as we settled down to watch the kids, the sky cleared and the sun shone.
Monday was travel day. After a walk on the beach in Orewa, Beth took her mother to the airport. Fortunately, the trip home went much more smoothly than the trip to Puhoi. Still, Carolyn vows to never travel that far again. New Zealand is halfway around the world from the eastern United States and that fact is brutally apparent when you make the trip.
