Travel in New Zealand Part 1

Happy new year!

We have been away from the internet for the better part of three weeks and I am just now getting back to the website. The Omaresa's crew hope all of you had a great holiday season.
Jean flew into Aukland on the 11th of December and I drove down to pick her up in a friend of mines car. It was brilliant to see her after nearly 14 weeks in Fiji and the voyage here to New Zealand. Just to Recap the kids and I stayed on the island of Malolo Lali in Fiji for three months awaiting the warmer weather and safer passage to New Zealand. In late october we set sail for Opua in the Bay of Islands on the northern coast of New Zealand. After a rough 7 day passage we arrive in gale force conditions and checked in with customs in Opua. After an eight mile walk to get groceries we sailed out into the Bay of Islands to explore one of NZ's most famous cruising grounds. The weather was still cool so we had them all to ourselves. The kids and I did quite a bit of hiking on the island trails and were blessed to spot a pod of killer whales as they swam by the boat one night. After five days in those islands we set sail for Whangarei and life at the dock. We arrived at the toen marina and were greated warmly by the wonderful staff there. After picking out our slip we moved across the river and made the Omarsea fast to D docks outer finger . It is  great vantage point to see the goings ons of the harbor and the shops across the river. Every Saturday there is a big market on the bridge nearby. We were treated to a first world grocery store only 5 minute walk away. Being able to push the shopping cart to the boat made provisioning for two weeks a breeze and we began eating a normal diet again. What a joy to have real good quality veg and fruits once more!
Whangarei is a yachties heaven, with all manor of boat repair facilities and shops. I busied myself with the many repairs and upgrades I had planned to do here while the kids continued to write their novels at break neck speed so as to be finished by the time their Grandmother and Aunts arrived.
On the 19th of December Jean and I drove a rental car down to AAukland to pick up Mary, Margret and Clara who had flown in for a visit from Portland Oregon. It was great to see the ladies as we had not visited since the Christmas before. Our plans were quickly laid and we decided we would stay in Whangarei until Boxing Day or the day after Christmas. Then we would drive down to Hamilton stopping in Aukland to drop off the extra baggage we had at the house where we are staying in today. As we drove south the gentle rolling hills of the Dairy country gave way to high plains desert. It reminded us very much of Madras Oregon with all the sage and scrublands. As we enterred the desert lands there were signs for a large active volcano to our West. This is the mountain made famous in The Lord of the Rings movies as Mt Doom. While we did not see any lava flowing that day we also didn't see any Orks so we counted ourselves lucky. The road twisted and turned in crazy switchbacks often with near blind corners. large tandem trucks often passed in the opposit direction creating seconds of terror followed by moments of being able to breath again. There are no guard rails there and the drops are often quite sheer. As we came down out of the high desert we stopped for gas and a rest. Jean and I find that we can drive quite easily for two and a half hours but after that the business of driving on the left begins to cause fatigue. We followed a large river for an hour through small towns until we came into Hamilton. Hamilton was a very nice small city. As we checked into the hotel the clerk recommended the Hamilton botanical gardens. After a good nights rest we drove to the gardens the next morning where we spent several hours walking among the italian , Japanese, Chinese, Indian, American and British gardens. There we met a man from the Philipene islands who was on Sabatical learning new techniques to raise food for his people. Conrado has an ingenious idea for an urban chicken coop that I plan to employ once we get back to Oregon.
End of Part 1  Please see Part 2 for our adventures for the Geothermal pools, Dinner with the Mauri Cheif at lake Taupo, Wellington and the great brake failure on our rental car.