North Island Top Ten

North Island Top Ten
1. Te Papa Museum in Wellington. We’ve been to many museums in the last 6 months and Te Papa (translation = “our place”) was by far the best. It was really well laid out and although it was huge, easy to find your way around. There was enough information about everything but not too much and the sheer variety of artifacts was stunning.
2. The greenstone twist necklace that Jason made for me in Rotorua (my birthday present from John).
3. The hangi (Maori feast) we went to in Rotorua. They put on two feasts every night and manage to put through an enormous number of tourists, but they were enthusiastic, welcoming and quite scary (all those tongues sticking out and bulging eyes!) Oh yes, and the food was wonderful.
4. All the dolphins and gannets in a feeding frenzy off Tutukaka. That was a once in a lifetime experience.
5. Cruise on the tall ship R. Tucker Thompson, partly because the ship and the cruise were awesome, but also because of the three Englishwomen I met who had so many points of contact with me. It felt like a hand reaching out to me from my old life to allow me to re-connect for a while.
6. All the thermal pools! I haven’t been able to have a real bath for 6 months (showers only in hostels and campgrounds) so to be able to immerse myself in glorious, hot water was blissful.
7. Boogie boarding. We managed to find quite a few beaches where we could get boards and where the surf was just right.
8. Beaches! So many long stretches of golden sand with almost nobody on them except us.
9. The Bed and Breakfast in Auckland for two reasons. One was the contrast between the previous two months living cheek by jowl in a campervan where we had to “build” our bed every night and dash across the campground to the bathroom in the middle of the night, to a huge bed with soft sheets, tons of pillows and our very own bathroom! Reason #2 was our hosts, Karen and Pete, who went far out of their way to make our stay with them pleasant and easy. Karen kept appearing with fruit, chocolates and pastries, she did our laundry, answered all our questions and cooked us a wonderful New Zealand supper!
10. This one’s for John! Hundreds of boats and motor bikes. (Note to Merv - we didn’t see one Nonsuch!!!)