Garden of the sleeping giant

A fifteen minute walk from smuggler’s brings us to Queens rd which circumnavigates the main island VitiLevu and any bus you catch will eventually take you to the next town and from there many roads cut inland on dirt roads though villages. The bus is the best way to mingle with the locals and from your first ride we get a good sense of their curiosity of us, not for the last time are we were asked the four questions which we will be asked again at least another 50 times I’m sure. Where are you staying, how long are you here, where are you from, and how long you have been here?Sometimes it will be  someone trying to sell you something, but generally people are very friendly. Today we take advantage of this hospitality asking directions and board a bus up north to catch a ride to a dirt road on our way to the hotsprings and garden of the sleeping giant. The sleeping giant is a mountain range in northern Fiji which is the first feature you can see coming in from the airplane. Weaving our way on foot three kilometers back into the country past villages we arrive at the orchid reserve built by actor Raymond Burr of ironside in the early seventies.



Steps to the lair of the spider



The spider built a cafty web across the path to ensnare unsuspecting visitors







"Ma, watch out!"



Fiji

Finally we arrive in Fiji. Greeted by some singers and a two hour wait to clear customs. Past the lines, native Fijians guide us to our bus to the hotel, Smuggler’s Cove. Smuggler’s is a sweet hotel located right on the beach in Nadi about ten minutes from the airport. After check in we wander out to the beach and put our feet in the warm ocean water in the light of the tiki torches and fire dancers in the background, and after a day of travel sleep sounds nice.

Goodbye NZ

Packing up all the stuff into boxes and heading toward the bus to Auckland, was the best part of staying in Peria. I mean its really beautiful but it’s just way too slow for a vacation. And leaving there with one bag to carry instead of 4 fifty pound bags was also a relief, and Charlie gave us a lift to the bus stop in Kerikeri which was about an hours drive from the house. Taking the five hour bus ride south went fast, this time on the east coast of New Zealand. I was excited for our next stop, Fiji. Upon reaching the bus station in downtown Auckland we left our bags in a locker and went to book a hotel room. Even with few baggage we were kind of dreading carrying luggage around the city and on the way back we found a shopping cart which we would use to transport our stuff to the hotel and from there to the bus stop on our way to the airport, score!

Mom successfully pulls off the derelict look

Peria

  

I find myself in Peria, northern New Zealand, exactly how I came to be here, it was my mom's "stuff". Which at first was hinted to be a rug she left at a friend's house several years ago has turned out to be much, much more. Making our way north along the coast we cruise up the 10 coastal highway until we get to Kaitaia, a small one road town, the highway curves west along the north coast skipping the northern peninsula and follows a scenic path. We turn off on a little road called Oruru which essentially splits between the two major pathways the ten and the 11, which are the major motorways up north, and make way for our final destination at the country store to meet our contact Charlie, who is the caretaker of our friends estate. Charlie greets us with a kiwi smile and a hello then has us follow him to the house. Off the Oruru we start going into the bush past cattle lands and farms up into the winding hills of the country until the paveway turns to dusty potholes and the lanes shrink dangerously smaller than the cars-width standard. We quickly lose Charlie who must drive this everyday to leave his house and make the 20 minute trek to the nearest paved road; past that it's another 45 minutes to the nearest town, and you will be lucky to find a place open past five. Nonetheless we brave the hairpin turns and washed out roads and come to the end of a where the bush looms over dodging possum to find him. It is here that I will spend the next two weeks sorting through the stuff but mostly watching the ultimate fighter on my laptop, and waiting till the next trip to town. Its beautiful country but not much in the way of activities.

Heading West to Piha

With Pearl loaded up we turn west from Auckland, a short 15 kilometer scenic trip through the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park brings us to the coast. From the top of the hill Piha looks amazing; at the bottom it's spectacular. Winding down through a narrow road, I grip the handle every time we pass someone as I see Pearl drive over the fog line to make room. There is no shoulder here and my options are either shut the window to keep the bush from hitting me in the face or a deadly collision. In the parking lot I take a few pictures and dip my feet in the Tasman Sea. Deciding my surf skills are not to compete with these sets we're off to lunch by a nearby lagoon.







<>

Lunch in Piha at the lagoon the lion in front







Sorta looks like a lion



Cornwall Park



The first place we come across while looking for a market is Cornwall Park. It's an awesome park with a huge obelisk on the top of a volcanic cone, called one tree hill, where the guy who donated the park, Sir John Logan Campbell is buried. We drive right up to the top and break out the chairs and go about making dinner. It has lots of sheep that wander the park and are enclosed in gates we did'nt come across any on our walk but we were aware that they had been there.

Courtesy of http://www.cornwallpark.co.nz/

On the Road





Not a photo of her best side, but we love her.



We bought the van and it came with a name, Pearl. Heaping our things into the Toyota in the morning it registered that quarters are about to get tighter than the rooms we were staying in. We have our foodstuffs in the back and of course it has already been modified for camping, the bed folds up for lounge-mode and it's pretty comfy to watch movies on the laptop in. The surfboard storage above takes a lot of the headroom out of the equation, and it takes some organizing before cooking or movie watching but it's a pretty comfy ride when we get going.