031221

2250 - It has been a long day, indeed. I am however, fine. Safely tucked away in my Tui Bushmaster in a small town Named "Te Awamutu" which I'm sure means something but I don't know what. I will have to catch these notes up tomorrow before too much time goes by so I can recall everything.

I'm writing this now on the 22nd but I want to catch up on all the stuff that happened yesterday.

Yesterday, I woke up at 0600 - couldn't sleep anymore and I'd imagined that I'd felt the ship move and that we were leaving Tauranga early which would have been a disaster for me because I would have lost the entire NZ leg of my trip not to mention the money I'd spent on the campervan. We were scheduled to go at 1000 but with ships, things change. I puttered around until 0730 and I took my luggage, locked my cabin and I went down to breakfast.

After breakfast, John and Antoni helped me carry my stuff down the gangway and we all walked over to the longshoreman's hut where there's a phone. I needed to call a cab. While I was messing with the phone trying to see if my phone card would work with this particular phone, John talked to a fellow who working there in a van and he agreed to give me a ride up to the dock's area front gate. I took a departing picture of John and Antoni standing in front of the Direct Tui, and I was off.

At the gate, the gate guard called a cab for me and then we talked a bit. He's ridden motorcycle all over New Zealand and last year, he shipped his motorcycle to Patagonia and rode there. The cab came and for five dollars, I was transported to the bus station in Tauranga which I'd seen briefly, yesterday when the Seamen's Mission folks had taken me by.

The bus folks at first wanted to put me on a bus that went to Auckland by way of the volcanic lakes in the Central North Island - a way of steering folks to the touristy areas, I suppose. That wasn't going to work for me as I'd get into Auckland at 1700 on a Sunday evening. I seriously doubted that the Tui Campers folks would be in their office then. We talked and they found a more direct Tauranga -> Auckland way of routing me. It left at 1100 and arrived at 1400. I had nearly two hours to kill.

I bought a ticket ($30 NZ) and left my larger bag with the bus folks and took off with my laptop to walk downtown Tauranga and look for an Internet Cafe. The first Internet Cafe I saw was closed. Most of the downtown / waterfront was just waking up after what I suppose was a normal Saturday night celebration. Along the waterfront are quite a few trendy bars and sidewalk cafes. Looks like a great place to spend some time. Here are a few photos of Tauranga, the Internet Cafe and the Bus Station:


Shopping area Sunday morning before the crowds	Another view	And another	Places along the waterfront.

View down the street at the waterfront.	Internet Cafe 1 of 2	Internet Cafe 2 of 2	Waiting at the bus station

After walking for an hour and trying the wonders of a New Zealand Starbucks, I found a place with Internet connectivity. Starbucks here hasn't gotten the T*Mobile wireless stuff yet that they have in the US. The place I found was called The Gateway Cyber Connection, Ltd. (shop #18). www.thegateway.co.nz

They had about three systems you could use or you could connect your own. They had a nice setup. 100 MB connection, USB mouse and Keyboard and a video camera if you wanted it. Also, they had headphones and a microphone. I little fiddling got me connected and I pulled down my e-mail. I tried to upload one to Sharon but it would go. Apparently, my firewall at home is only allowing 192.168.0.* traffic in and this place had me identify myself as 192.168.1.*. We switch me over to using his E-mail server for outgoing (email.clear.net.nz) and we were off.

I was glad they had a direct 100 MB connection because I wanted to upload all the web stuff I'd generated on the ship - which included a lot of large pictures. As it was, the upload took nearly 20 minutes. But, it went through the first time. I browsed the web a bit to learn more about Sadaam Hussein's capture and the impending landing of the European probe on Mars and then it was time to head back to the bus station.

The bus was small. It seated about 15 people and it was about 2/3's full. I had a window seat by myself. They deal with luggage but towing a small covered trailer which is different.

The ride to Auckland was great. It was my first time to really look at the countryside and the flora. Lots of stuff growing here that we don't see at home. The temperature is higher here than home so they have a lot of palm trees. They have a tree fern that I saw growing everywhere. Lots of Pampas Grass and New Zealand Flax with big flower heads on it just now. Rolling country somewhat like the areas north of San Francisco. Lots of open country, cattle, sheep and lots of windbreaks which looked like some sort of a cedar or maybe some of they were Pyramidalis. Hard to make out the fine detail zooming by. Must be windy, thought, because there were lots of them.

I saw a lot of Nurseries and Orchards. They build square wooden box frames around the base of trees if they are set out in a field. I guess so that the grazing animals don't eat them while they are small and tender. In some places, where the trees were mature, you could see weeping willows neatly trimmed up to a uniform height and animals grazing underneath.

I saw very few American cars here. Almost all are Japanese and small to mid-sized. The license plates are LLLNNN or LLNNNN where L = letter and N = number. More interestingly, the plates say nothing. I guess on an island nation, it would be redundant to say "New Zealand" on them.

We pulled into a small restaurant in a town named, Paeroa. 3/4's of all the place names here are of Maori origin. It was a cafeteria style place with large prices for a small amount of food. Same scam busses in the US do as well. I ordered a sandwich for $6.50 NZ and sat down with a young fellow who was riding on the same bus with me. He was about mid twenties, bright, named Roland and hailed from the Netherlands. He's just come from a month in Australia and was just beginning a month in New Zealand. He's just graduated in Mechanical Engineering in Amsterdam and was off to play a bit before he settled into a job. He was excited about the creation myths of both the Australian Aboriginals and the Maoris. He told me a story about one of they myths. We didn't really have a lot in common, though so I wasn't disappointed when it came time to get back on the bus.

More countryside. I hadn't carried a map with me in the bus so I was only vaguely aware of where we were as we traveled. Finally, the driver began to stop and drop people. My stop was the second one at a place called Manukua City. The drop point was beside a large shopping center.

Immediately across from where the bus dropped me, a cab was waiting so I just walked across the street and got in. The cab driver was a lady from Samoa who's been here for 40 years. Very nice lady indeed. She was asking me questions and told me that the shopping center was one of the two largest in Auckland (and therefore, NZ). When we got to Tui Campers ($21 NZ), she wasn't going to leave until she was sure they were there and everything was going to be OK. She had a very nice energy about her.

Bill from Tui Campers was there - looking busy and stressed. It was a very small office and he shared to building with another business. The place is on a mid-sized road (Robertson Road) with mostly residential around it. A sort of unlikely off-the-beaten-path kind of a deal.

Bill said he wasn't sure if I was coming and had thought (and even hoped) I might be a no-show. Turns out that the van reserved for me was still in Christchurch after having been in some sort of accident. I was bummed to hear that and my mind started racing thinking through the possibilities and consequences of this. He said that there was another one, of the same type, due in at 1530 today (it was about 1430 now). But, that after it came in, they'd have to clean it and do regular maintenance so it wouldn't really be available before 1700. That was an inconvenience and a relief all at once. It was obvious that there was going to be very little to do sitting around in his office until 1700 so I suggested that he store my bags and drop me off at the Manukua City shopping center again and then we could set a time when he would pick me up. He liked that idea and he drove me up to the center.

We agree to meet where he dropped me at 1700 and I went into the place. It was quite large. In most ways, your would now you were in New Zealand as opposed to being in the US. The odd reference here and there to Kiwi this or Kiwi that. Some odd phrasings in the signage. The people are quite a mix. No blacks that I saw but everyone else is there in abundance. Maybe 1/3 Asian, 1/3 Caucasian and 1/3 Indian Subcontinent / Maori / Polynesian. No signs of tension other than the usual contingent of young males of 16 to 18 full of hormones and trying to find a believable way of dealing with life and others.

A Santa was there with kids on his lap taking photos. a mix of shops from high end down to $2 shops. A big food court that reminded me of the one at Alderwood. I bought a little tray of take-away (that's what they call take-out) sushi. Six pieces for $6.50NZ - heavy on the rice and light on the fish. The wasabi was tiny. They give you a piece about the size of a large pea. Soy sauce comes in a little plastic bottle in the shape of a fish with a red screw cap. And the ginger was a tiny ball about as large as your thumbnail. But, no complaints - I ate it all.

Later, I decided to get myself a latté and that was an adventure. It was $3.50NZ and when they brought it, I didn't recognize it. I comes in a soup bowl, with a spoon and a saucer underneath. Since I was standing there waiting and it was sitting there, they asked if "Didn't I want it?" We had quite a laugh when I explained things.

I still had more time to kill so I went out to circumnavigate the shopping center from the outside. The Manukua City Council building is beside the center and they had a Japanese garden outside so I went there and photographed a lot of plants - many of which I didn't recognize.

Finally, it was time for John to come and he was right on time. We went back to the office and he was still busy and harried. He's a nice guy, though. I filled out some papers and took some additional insurance for $156NZ. I hadn't realized that the previous insurance I'd purchased at $15/day only covered other people's property. This one now covers expenses if my vehicle is damaged. Since I was about to take off into the wilds of NZ driving on the left side for the first time, I was an easy sell.

Then, he took me outside and we went through the camper van. He showed me where the cable is that you use to connect to electric in camper parks, the hose for the fresh water tank, the 240V plugs inside, how the dual battery system works, how to translate the van's interior from day time configuration to night time. We also looked under the hood (All I need do is check the oil when I fill up the Diesel). And, we looked the vehicle over for dings and stuff like that.

It was nearly 1800, raining and time for me to venture out. The moment had come. He told me how to work my way back to the shopping center and then from there onto Hwy 1 going south towards Hamilton. I was headed towards New Plymouth and Hamilton would be a likely place to stop before dark.

I started the engine and looked around. The floor pedals are as one would expect. The gear shift on the floor, however, is on your left and the turn signal lever is on the right side of the steering column. I let the clutch out and I was off. John pulled out and never looked back. I think he put it in God's (or the insurance company's) hands.

Onto the left side with traffic approaching me from the right - weird - very weird. A right at the light and then a quick left. Then onto where the road breaks left and then passes the big shopping center. Then a sign mentioning Hamilton and a long looping on-ramp to take on your left. To say I was tense isn't really getting at the thing. I noticed, right away, that I wanted to be too far to the left in my lane because I know, when I'm driving on the right side that I am usually 2/3's of the way to the left in my lane. Now I needed to be 2/3's of the way to the right. I could see how it would be easy to clip something on the left if I wasn't careful.

Once I got to Hwy 1 and got on it, things were much better. Then all I had to do then was to match speed with the traffic and relax. I was puzzled for a bit, however, as to which lane was the slow lane and which was the fast lane. It didn't take too long before I saw that it was the same as with us - slower traffic stays left. Mercifully, the road went for a long way divided before it turned into two lanes with just a line between.

All this time it is raining. Pretty countryside, green hedges, houses, cattle, etc. Some construction zones, many high speed sections (100 km/hr) and some 80 and 60 sections. Every small and large town has round-a-bouts. If you are on it, you have the right-of-way. The first ones were scary but that didn't last.

Finally, Hamilton showed up. It was about 100 kilometers from Auckland. Nice town with a long long main street. All the businesses one or two stories high. No obvious camping grounds, however. I realized that I didn't know what I was looking for. I saw hotels and motels but I didn't know if they also sported campervan parking places behind or not. Finally, on the far side of Hamilton, I pulled into a small strip mall (driveways are fun here as you must stay to the left). I hailed a fellow there. His name was Gary and he was very nice (everyone here seems nice). He told me there wasn't much in Hamilton and what there was wasn't that good plus I'd have to backtrack. He advised me to go up the road to Te Awamutu and when I came to the first turnabout, to look for a blue sign with the picture of a tent on it. That was the piece of the puzzle I'd been missing - the blue sign with the tent.

Te Awamutu was still a ways but I found it and the campground. $11/night to stay. I pulled in and began to explore the wonders of my new camper van home. Right away there were confusions and problems. And, darkness was upon me and it was raining outside. Not a great time to have to sort out the things that you don't understand but I had no choice.

First off, the light in the back of the van which had been coming apart but it was still working when John showed it to me- now it wasn't working at all and it was fully apart. There were two other lights in the front but they were fairly dim. Also, I plugged in the electric cable but inside the van, I appeared to have no juice. Lots of fussing later, I realized that there was an 'on' switch in the plug in station outside so that got me electricity To fix the broken light, I pulled all the medical tape off it which the previous tenants had used to try to hold it together. It was a couple of girls and I think their repair skills only extended to taping it in place to prevent further disaster. Inside, I found a screw which had worked itself out since I'd left Tui Campers. Another screw was missing entirely. Without either screw, the light could not ground and therefore wouldn't light. I replaced the one screw - very carefully honoring the fact that the juice flowing there on the naked contacts might be 12V or it might be 240V. Then I scavenged another screw from the luggage hold down bungee attachments and tied the other end of the now burning light down. Then I reused the medical tape to reattach the plastic cover over the small fluorescent bulbs. It was solid and function if not particularly pretty.

Arranging things in the camper was like a chess game and I was conscious of wanting to go out to dinner as well. I hadn't bought any supplies for the camper yet. I got what I could done and then asked the park managers of they thought the Rose and Thorn (Gary back it Hamilton had recommended it) would still be open so late on a Sunday. The answer was, 'yes'.

At the Rose and Thorn, I ate Spaghetti Carbonara and had a Guinness. Cost was about $22NZ. Both were excellent.

Back at the campervan, I got my laptop setup and made some brief notes but I was way tired so I turned in with the sound of the rain lightly drumming on the roof. The van came with a nice comforter so it was comfortable and warm and I slept well - out in the wilds of New Zealand.