Parekarangaranga, you can say that again, or not

Kia ora! As an aside, this is Maori language week in New Zealand.  We saw this street sign in a small village on the North Island. 

This is short though compared to the longest name for a place in New Zealand.  The place is a hill on the North Island and the name is: Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu, which translates into English as “the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as ‘landeater’, played his flute to his loved one.”  Locals simply call it Taumata Hill.  

We saw another interesting sight on our drive to Taupo – the Licorice Café, complete with an All Sorts Licorice bit on the roof. 

Unfortunately in Taupo, the heavy rain prevented us from doing much outdoors in what is supposed to be a city with beautiful sights.  The most interesting thing we saw there was a man and one of his pet birds at the Saturday morning market.  Paul got to hold the bird while we talked.

We drove on to Napier, a city on the east coast where many buildings are in Art Deco style because the city was rebuilt after a 1931 earthquake.  The earthquake was New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster with 256 people killed.  

We spent a couple days in the area, walking at a scenic reserve with a waterfall, hiking to a city overlook, stopping at a Farmers Market, and visiting GodsOwn Brewery.  We also by chance found an excellent Greek restaurant. 

Maraetotara Falls, outside of Napier

Avocado seller at Hastings Farmers Market - we bought three...

Tasting ark at GodsOwn Brewing

Godfrey and Rachel, owners and proprietors of GodsOwn Brewing

Best moussaka we've had outside of Greece at Greek National Cafe in Napier

When we left Napier, we stopped at the Pekapeka Wetlands Reserve and watched a black swan and cygnets.  

Peaceful boardwalks at Pekapeka Wetlands Reserve

Kiwi birds are loved by New Zealanders but many have never seen a kiwi bird in the wild.  Kiwi statues and likenesses are everywhere.  

Lake Ferry is a small community on the southern tip of the north island.  We got to the Lake Ferry Hotel and found a note on the door that our key was inside and someone would be back to make our meal at 6 pm.  We were the only guests at the hotel that night as it’s still winter here and tourist season has not started.   We watched some men fishing and others gathering whitebait using nets.  Whitebait is the immature fry of fish and is only 1-2 inches long.   Whitebait is highly priced and prized and is most commonly prepared as whitebait fritters. 

Son and father fishing

Whitebait fisherman

Whitebait are the little semi-transparent things

Rising moon over the southern coast headlands

In the morning we drove a coastal road to get to Lake Palliser light house.  The road was a little dicey with cones marking an edge that had deteriorated, and with a sign for a “slump” where a tree and dirt had spilled over the roadway.  We climbed up the 251 steps to the lighthouse and could see the snowcapped mountains on the south island.  

Cindy heads up the 251 steps - we counted them

Cape Palliser Lighthouse

We knew there was a fur seal colony along the drive but didn’t notice seals on our way to the lighthouse.  We saw a seal right next to the road as we drove back.  We stopped to look, and the rocks suddenly started moving with seal adults and their pups. 

We didn’t see any penguins, except those on this sign.  

For those of you who would like to move to New Zealand, we found a handyman’s special on a bach (pronounced “batch”). 

Good price, though...

Putangirua Pinnacles sounded interesting, so we stopped.  Pinnacles are a geological formation of earth pillars resulting from erosion.  We did a steep and muddy hour hike up to see them and were glad we did.  We read later that a sequence in the film "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" was filmed on location here. 

On our drive back to Wellington we stopped to use the toilet – and encountered our first musical toilet of the trip.  The public toilets are automated with a voice telling you how to lock and unlock the door, and when you are inside a song plays:  “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”   Pretty special!

And our adventure on the north island ended with our flight back to Christchurch.