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| Another view of Bay of Islands, as seen from a golf course perched atop a cliff |
| Erin's Journal 01-21-03 New Zealand Today was a very relaxed day. We got up late, then checked with the front desk to make sure we could have our room for another night, rather than moving on to Auckland today. Sure enough, they allowed us to stay, and we made a big breakfast to celebrate. I am not having as much luck with cooking with the unfamiliar varieties of vegetables, but it was edible. Glenn wrote journals while I showered, then I wrote some while he made lunch and read his book. Finally when I'd caught up with the past few days of journals, he told me he was too frustrated being indoors any longer and we took off. We drove the short distance to the center of town, where we spent about an hour wandering through the few quayside shops, mostly just window-shopping. We'd read in a pamphlet that an internet cafe was down there too, but when we finally asked, they told us it had closed down. We got directions to another in town, but with all the 1-way streets and the pushy drivers, we couldn't make the turn, and ended up seeing another spot. We caught up on emails for about an hour, only taking time to respond to the most urgent, as the connection was comparatively slow. Then we took off for a scenic spot up on the hillside over town to eat lunch. There was a nice shady bench with excellent views of the nearby hills, and when we were done eating we took a few stairs to get to the war memorial at the top of the hill and the view over Whangarei. After admiring the view and sweating in the sultry heat, we got back in the car and followed the Whangarei Heads road out to the coast. It was only about a 40 minute drive, through windy hills and small towns on nice little bays all the way out to Ocean Beach. We sat for another hour or so at Ocean Beach, watching the surfers and vacationers down in the waves from a hillside with a great view. The clouds started coming in though, and we left around 4:30 to start back to town so I could do some final catching up on the journals I'd left too long from Tasmania, a month ago now! Our goal is to get the website totally caught up to date while in Melbourne this weekend! We stopped at the store on the way back, and also at a gas station for another phone card. We haven't been able to book a hostel in Auckland yet for our last night in New Zealand, and are nervous about trying to drive into town and find something, given the lack of availability we experienced upon arrival. But finding a phone booth is never easy when you want one, and since we were buried in 5 o'clock traffic, we decided to get home and worry about the phone call later tonight or tomorrow morning. We returned to our room and vegged and wrote journals for the rest of the evening. |