New Zealand or Bust

This is the guest house I stayed in while visiting New Zealand with my good buddy and his family. For roughly 10 years now, my buddy William has been telling me about the great fishing and scenic landscapes in and around New Zealand. Although he is originally from the Cook Islands, he spent a lot of time in New Zealand, and his wife is from New Zealand. The first part of our adventure was spent in New Zealand. The Cook Islands comes later.



It was very relaxing travelling with such a wonderful family. Originally William and I talked about the two of us going on this long distance fishing trip together, but it was very nice to spend time with the whole family. In fact, later on the Cook Islands, I had a ton of fun snorkeling with the kids in crystal clear waters loaded with aquatic life. And Williams lovely wife Sheryl also took me for a tour of Auckland. I can't thank them enough for accepting me as part of their family. The hospitality shown to me by everyone I met was second to none. Similar to that shown by Crappie.com members everywhere (yes, we have a great website here).



You'll see lots more of Fluffy and Sophia. Fluffy (far left) became the focus of many pictures.



Four hours from Chicago to Los Angeles, then 13 hours to New Zealand. The flight was excruciatingly long, especially for someone 6'4" tall and a bad back. But I did luck out as I was able to swap seats for one with more leg room located behind a bulkhead. The title of this article is "New Zealand or Bust", and I was very thankful my back did not go Bust!



Another thankful feature on this plane trip was the free TV. On a 13 hour flight, it was so nice to be able to bury your eyes into 4 separate movies and just let time melt away. Sleeping on the plane would have been preferred, as the trip is purposefully scheduled to take place through the AM hours, but I just can't seem to sleep sitting upright.



The hills and the islands in the background above is a mere preview of the awesome landscape we are about to become part of.



Annabelle with a double rainbow in the background. Now for sure I know this is going to be a great trip!



Wait, what! How do you drive this thing. No steering wheel, or should I say, they put the steering wheel on the wrong side. Yeah, they drive on the left side of the road in New Zealand. It hurt my brain just watching them do right turns through busy intersections. I was often asked if I wanted to drive, and I refused. I could see myself driving along and if a situation came up quickly, my natural reaction would put me in the wrong lane. It's kinda "not so funny", that they even have an arrow on the steering wheel that points left, and says "keep Left". Apparently there are all too many accidents by "right hand drivers" particularly the tourists.



We were hungry after our long plane ride, so on our way to our destination we stopped at a favorite bakery where they sell sausage rolls.



This makes William and I "Double Happy"! lol



I have to say, they might not look like much, but these sausage rolls tasted great.



The scenery along our drive was breathtaking. William says to me "I'm still wondering why I gave this up for the flat land in the Midwest". William lives near me about an hour North of Chicago. Well at least me it's temporary as I'm in the process of changing my residency to Florida. Florida is awfully flat too though. But at least there's no snow there.



Sheryl and William tell me there are no squirrels, raccoon or chipmunks in New Zealand. But they do have possums. The fact is (I looked it up), there are no native mammals in New Zealand (except one species of bat). The possums and rabbits they do have running wild are introduced species.

Here's a big reason New Zealand is so neat: THERE ARE NO SNAKES! Yeah, unlike Florida, there are absolutely no snakes in New Zealand. Wow, got to love that.

Also, the whole time I was there, I seen no bugs. Yes, it got into the upper 30's at night, but during the day it got down right warm, and still no bugs. Might be because although it's Summer here, it's their winter down there, but it sure was nice.

Another fact, all the native tree species do not loose their leaves during their winter. So any bare trees you might see in my pictures are non-native.

New Zealand reminds me a lot of Europe. The doors and windows are "vault like" in their construction. The toilets all have the "half flush" option. Lots of European cars, driving in kilometers per hour, and using liters of gas. But they do have Holden cars (General Motors).

English is the predominant language in New Zealand but Maori is also an official language. Maori is the language of the native people that originally inhabited the islands, including the Cook Islands. William is fluent in Maori. Many in his family hold prominent positions in society in the Cook Islands. More on this later, but William pretty much knew everyone on Rarotonga (the island where we went directly after NZ).

And here's something crazy. New Zealand phased out their 1 cent and 5 cent coins a long time ago. Wow that's wild. They round things up or down. And the price you see is what you pay. Seems like they don't apply a tax to purchases, I don't really know how it's done, but it's included somehow.



We finally arrived at Uncle Ed's house. This is where we were staying. A very big beautiful house where during "Dads Birthday Party" most everyone was staying. More about Dads birthday party later.



Uncle Ed's house was essentially an 11 acre Farmstead surrounded by hills. A gorgeous place where he kept pigs, ducks, and chickens, including 5 "mellow" dogs.



This is Zack feeding the neighbors horse. Pretty much all the hillsides are fenced, and on the hillsides you see mostly grazing sheep. Well actually about 60% of the pastures you'll see sheep, with the other 40% being filled with either cows or horses, and even some with deer. Deer are raised in paddocks there just like livestock.



My first meal started off normal. Pretty much like any meal you might have here in the States. Pork, potatoes, carrots and peas. Very tasty.



And of course some good local beer. Although this is an IPA, it really is a mild IPA that went great with our meal.






While we were eating our "normal" meal, William breaks out the "good stuff", Green Lipped Mussels.



And raw Oysters. The Mussels were eaten raw and cooked, and the Oysters of course raw. I've had it all before, but since I had a bad experience with raw Oysters in Florida, I shy away from "raw" shellfish now (although I did have to try at least one raw Oyster, it was yummy). I did love the cooked Mussels, loaded with flavor.



In the morning Sheryl took me on a tour of Auckland. We visited Mission Harbor and also took a look at the America's Cup winning Sail Boat KZ1, on display at the shoreline of downtown Auckland.



This thing is massive. I could not believe it's size. From all the pictures, I thought it would be much smaller, but it's huge. Wow.



We also visited Te Puia, location of the World Famous Pohutu Geyser. The largest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere.



The area surrounding the geyser was loaded with smaller geysers and vents. The place was alive. If you looked close you could see steam coming out of even the smallest rock formation. It was everywhere. They even had a spot which looked like stadium seating comprised of rock, where if you sat too long, you'd burn your backside. Naturally occurring heated seats! Nice.



Beautiful picture of the geyser and surrounding scenery.



There was even a reconstructed Maori Village on display.





The little hut on stilts was the "fridge". It kept food off the ground and away from creatures.



This kinda reminded me of Billbob!



This canoe was one of eight original canoes that brought Maori from their ancestral homeland of Hawaiki, an island located somewhere in Polynesia, to New Zealand.

This canoe brings me to the conclusion today's story. Next, we go fishing off New Zealand's Great Barrier Island. Being a fishing website I know you all can't wait.

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