Kaikoura

Kaikoura means "eat crayfish" in Maori, and while we hear the local giant crayfish are a must-have delicacy, we spent all of our time in Kaikoura looking at seals. THERE ARE SO MANY SEALS IN KAIKOURA! Today's post is dedicated to my 2 year-old nephew Colt. He's one of our most faithful readers, and he likes seals. Enjoy buddy.
Peek-a-boo Mr. Seal!	Seals love to swim, just like you.
Can you count how many seals there are?	Seals love naptime, and so should you!
Baby seals are called pups.	This is an adorable little seal pup that made Shawn scream like a girl and run away because he swears it was a big, angry mommy seal.
This seal is on a rock.	This seal is on the grass, and Shawn has a new mullet haircut. Silly seal! Silly Shawn!
This is my new friend.
We shared a moment.
Then I had to go!
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Hiking the Abel Tasman National Park

Carolyn and I loved the kayaking portion of the Abel Tasman, and while we would have been happy to just hop on a water taxi back to town, we decided to explore the trail back on foot. We started Day 3 at Onetahuti where we dropped off our kayaks the night before. The hiking trail actually goes further north past Onetahuti (the entire thing is 52 km), but spending six or seven days in the wilderness seemed a little out of our league. We’re a bit lazy if you hadn’t noticed, and generally unprepared, so we skipped the most northern portion of the park and headed south. The trail hugs the same golden sand beaches and granite rock formations we had seen from the kayak, but it was fun to see it all from a different perspective. Right off the bat we plunged into rich forest environs filled with birdsong (thanks again to the Birdsong Trust). I whistled my face off to the fantails that filled the tree branches, and within a few minutes we had a pretty good crowd of birds hopping from tree to tree along with us. They are incredibly social birds, and will dance for anyone that seems interested. They also like to swoop right in front of your face. It's a jolting experience. A lot of the trail is nestled in the trees with frequent scenic lookouts, keeping you fairly cool as you wind your way up and down gradual (and some not so gradual) ascents of the granite cliffs. We took the occasional break for photo-ops and snacks, but for the most part the hike is extremely do-able. I wore hiking boots, but Care did the whole thing in Chacos. A unique feature of this particular Great Walk is the existence of four tidal crossings at Bark Bay, Torrent Bay, Onetahuti Bay, and Awaroa. The tide depth in the park can fluctuate by as much as 5.2 meters, meaning that at high tide, some of the trails are submerged. Low tide and high tide are generally 6 hours apart, so most of the crossings are only passable during a 4-hour window, 2 hours before and after low tide. Get a tidal chart from the Nelson or Motueka i-site and do some planning ahead of time, or else you’ll have to: Take the high tide trail (which can add several kms/hours to your trek) Swim. Not recommended. Wake up at 5 am because you have 6 hours of hiking ahead of you and the next low tide isn’t until 5 pm. Of course Care and I didn’t time our tidal crossings well, forcing us to take Option A at Bark Bay, and Option C at Torrent Bay. Don’t stress about the Onetahuti crossing – there’s just slightly less beach to walk on at high tide. In contrast, the Awaroa crossing further north is long. Don’t muck around with it. Time it right, or you’re going for Option B. As disgruntled as we were about our early start at Torrent Bay on Day 4, the stillness of the morning was pristine. The best part is when the track emerges from the tree line to expose amazing views of the park’s bays and islands. One of the most stunning views is from the peak atop Anchorage Bay, looking north at dawn. New Zealand is called “Aotearoa” in Maori which literally means “land of the long white cloud”, and Care and I have been lucky to see an almost non-stop parade of epic cloudy sunsets. The sun lights row upon row of clouds on fire each evening…probably every morning too but we catch wayyyy fewer of those. It’s always amazing, but the Abel Tasman was exceptional. We bought a tent just for this trip, and in retrospect, I wish we had bought a small cooker (cookers are not provided in the Abel Tasman DOC huts or campsites). Cereal, PB&J sandwiches, and cold pasta held us over for four days, but the first thing we did after the hike was inhale five pizzas at 623 Bar’s all-you-can-eat pizza night. Ignoring a few sandfly issues (don’t forget your DEET!), it’s easy to see why the Abel Tasman National Park is the most visited park in New Zealand. Whether it’s by land or sea, everyone can easily and affordably enjoy the pristine beauty of the natural surroundings. We definitely recommend the kayak/hike combo. It’s a sweet taste of both worlds.
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Rotorua Smells Bad

Rotorua means “stinky egg smell everywhere” in Maori. Ok, it actually means “second lake,” but I’m sure they meant to call it “stinky egg smell everywhere.” Care and I were pretty pumped to hit our first real tourist destination on the trip. We’ve managed to steer clear of organized excursions so far (see our Whangarei posts), so it was actually a treat to head to the i-site (information center) in town to book our traditional Maori hangi – a feast similar to a Hawaiian luau. We chose Te Puia’s smaller hangi because it came with a Maori show, haka lessons, a feast (so good), and free access to the geyser field located on the marae (village) grounds. The welcoming ceremony was cool – a warrior came out and challenged us. The singing and dancing were pretty, and the weapons demonstrations by some of the guys was sweet...though it reminded me a little of the Star Wars Kid.

The best part though was the audience participation. Carolyn learned the poi dance, and I got instructions on the haka. Care did awesome. The only part she had a hard time with was catching the poi. My haka however was a disaster. I couldn’t stop smiling. I would make the least intimidating Maori warrior ever. Watch both below and vote for your favorite awkward dancer.

After the show we got to eat the hangi – mostly pork and chicken steamed in a pit – along with delicious seafood and pavlova – a popular Kiwi dessert. Once we’d scarfed down our food, Care and I rushed out to catch the eruption of Pohutu, New Zealand’s largest geyser, which erupts hourly and sometimes as high as 30 meters. The smell of sulfur was overpowering, but the range of bright colors from mineral deposits and the heat from the steam were really exciting to see firsthand. I’ve never been to Old Faithful, so this was my first encounter with geysers. Rotorua is covered with geothermal fields, bubbling mud pits, and geysers. By the end of the few days we spent there we were pretty over the smell, but for the rest of my life rotten eggs will remind me of New Zealand. That's probably not the best travel endorsement, but it's true. The hangi experience was well worth the NZ$90, and I whole-heartedly recommend it. Just don’t eat anything within ten hours of the show. There’s a lot of food at the hangi. Seriously. It's like "trying to eat your money's worth at a $12 buffet" amounts of food. You always think you can do it, but inevitably stuff yourself with mac and cheese and never finish that third plate piled high with shrimp tails and some kind of pudding.

Visiting Rotorua, New Zealand by Shawn Forno Rotorua, the city of sulfur and unofficial capital of tourism in the North Island, is home to traditional Maori hangis (feasts), geyser tours, thermally heated basins like the Champagne pools, mud baths, sky diving, bungee jumping, zoos, animal parks, sled luges, 4WD quads...read more

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Tane Mahuta - Lord of the Forest

Tane Mahuta means “Lord of the Forest” in Maori. It’s such a great name for this kauri tree that dominates the area around it. Its age is estimated at 1500 years old, though some botanists think it could be over 2000 years old, meaning it was a seedling when Jesus walked the earth. WHAT? It’s wild to think that this one tree predates so much human history – even the Maori settlement of New Zealand by hundreds of years. It’s hard to see something alive that is so ancient, and to think of how long it’s stood there – growing quietly in the pre-human forest. I get a big kick out of dinosaur bones, but somehow their age never resonated the way this single tree did.
	It’s kind of like when someone asks what I’d do with a million dollars. All these crazy things pop into my head, but when they ask what I’d do with ten thousand dollars I picture investment portfolios and how many tanks of gas that is. The smaller, more tangible number makes me think in concrete terms. That connection to the everyday makes the ten thousand feel like a lot more money. Tane Mahuta’s connection to the living, present day forest makes its 2,000 years that much more impressive. If you crane your neck to look up at the branches near the top, you see a bunch of other bushes, and even other small trees growing on top of the branches. It’s so massive it’s starting another forest on top of the canopy. It’s like “forest-back-forest.” (Hi Don and Maggie). It’s a shame that the pictures don’t do it justice – it’s impossible to capture the size and scope of it. The perspective gets lost because the trunk is set back from the path and it’s so tall. Care and I recommend Tane Mahuta to anyone traveling in Northland. It was a short walk to the tree, but one that will stay in our memories for a long time.

Destination Guide: New Zealand's Most Famous Tree by Shawn Forno The drive down the 12 highway, a branch of the Twin Discovery Highway in Northland, New Zealand, leads through Waipoua Forest. This ancient kauri forest is an obstacle to some motorists with its steep roads and winding corners, but to most it's home to New Zealand’s...read more

Not impressed? Maybe this can put things into perspective...

Cape Reinga - The Top of the Island...sort of

Cape Reinga is the northernmost point of the North Island…almost. Turns out that the Surville Cliffs 30 km away is actually the northernmost tip by a hair - a detail we've chosen to ignore since we didn't find that out until we had already driven 20 km of desolate gravel road and hiked all the way down to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga. Details schmetails.

However, the Cape is significant for more than its latitude. The Maori revere it for its spiritual significance as the departure point for spirits headed to their ancestral home. Signs along the path even ask visitors to respect the spirit of the place by refraining from eating and drinking along the path. So after I read the first sign 500 meters down the path, I wolfed down my sandwich and L&P soda like a good tourist. We dug the view at the tip of the Cape where two oceans meet – the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The churning white froth and waves offshore look like waves hitting a long underwater reef, but it’s just the collision of the two bodies of water. It’s weird to actually see that oceans have separate currents and directions, and they’re not just one big blob of water. The collision is so vivid here that it inspired Maori myths about the Male and Female halves of the ocean meeting in a violent concussion of creation. I just thought it looked like good surf.

Destination Guide: Cape Reinga by Shawn Forno Famous Cape Reinga draws over one hundred thousand visitors each year to this far flung northwestern most tip of the North Island of New Zealand. Situated just three kilometers south of the actual northernmost tip of the island – located at the Surville Cliffs...read more

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