Great Barrier Island, NZ

Walking from Port Fitzroy up and over Mt Hobson to Whangaparapara then to Medlands Beach and Tryphena is good for a re-set. The hiking trails are fantastic, the beaches are idyllic and the waterfall pools are divine for swimming. Crowds? What crowds? I shared a campsite with one other hiker, a hut with 4 others, and then a campsite all to myself. This weekend is what I was told would be a busy 3 day holiday so now I am sharing a good sized shady beach campground with 8 other camps. There’s plenty of room. No revelers, no boozers, just people enjoying themselves. Most anywhere else in the world such a place would be a disaster on a holiday weekend but not the Great Barrier Island of New Zealand. A little slice of heaven.

Not a bad place to be if the rest of the world blows up. No central power or utilities. People are self reliant and well organized. The roads are very good and things are quite well laid out. The campgrounds and trails are excellent as well as the mountain huts. The windward side hosts some great surf beaches while the leeward side offers quiet coves popular for boaties.

To get to the Great Barrier Island you either take a daily 4 ½ hour ferry ride or you fly 30 minutes on a ferry small plane that puts the excitement back into flying. Otherwise, you hitch a ride on private boat.

I took the ferry. The ride over was beautiful with few people and calm seas under sunny clear skies.

The climate is sub tropical but the island has every bit the feel of tropical minus the hotter temps and tropical diseases. The locals drink the water right out of the streams and the mosquitoes are nothing to be feared. Just a nuisance. Most everyone is very friendly. Yesterday I chose to walk along a road from one side of the island to the other. Five separate cars stopped along the way and asked if I would like a ride. It was quite impressive considering there are not many cars on the Island. I declined as I was happy to walk.

It’s kind of difficult not to feel better and start to unwind on an Island like Great Barrier. Another week of this and I might start to feel like my old self again.

Auckland - Back After Two Years

It’s been exactly two years since I sat upon the top floor verandah at Verandahs Backpackers Lodge in Auckland, NZ. It seems like yesterday but not quite the same.

I sit with my laptop glancing above tree tops for a view of the Auckland Sky Tower and downtown. A few cranes muddy up the view as a symbol of a healthy economy but weaker exchange rate for the Yankee dollar. New Zealand has never been cheap but now it’s expensive. I spent my first 3 nights in the city at a nice hotel with a ninth floor balcony view via a fair internet rate but now I've returned to the backpacker trail. Verandahs is a mix of private and shared rooms set inside a large old Victorian home. Facilities are shared and there is a good sized kitchen/common area. It backs up to a park which makes it a pleasant setting. I was able to check into the same room I stayed in two years ago but the floor is sinking down to one side. I had to turn the bed around to be more comfortable which wasn’t the case before. Fine for a night.

I am not really sure why I purchased a ticket to New Zealand last November on cyber Monday other than it was a very good deal that was too hard to pass up. I guess the price, direct flights, and the fact I hadn’t traveled in awhile just made me pull out the credit card and push the buy button. That night I lost sleep not totally at peace with the purchase. The next day I almost canceled within the 24 grace period but didn’t. I figured if worse came to worse I could re-coupe most of the cost by changing to a later date. Maybe a ticket to a Cook Islands or something like that. Anyway, considering my fathers health I seriously doubted I would be going as planned but something told me not to cancel the ticket.

My father passed 3 weeks before I was do to leave but even so I thought it would be too soon to go. I was concerned that I simply wouldn’t be in the right frame of mind for a trip and there would be things that needed to be handled at home. Nonetheless, I was encouraged by friends and family to go anyway. Also, I thought it might be a good idea to just get away. It’s kind of a tough call but no big deal really. To change my ticket for an early return would cost but it’s much less expensive when changed in New Zealand. If I’m not feeling into it I can always make easy arrangements to pack it in early.

So far New Zealand feels ok. I’ve enjoyed a nice day in the seaside community of Devonport and got in a couple of nice runs around city parks as well as walked a lot. I can’t say I’m really feeling the spark or buzz that I normally feel at the beginning of a trip, however, sometimes travel just kind of goes that way until you get to moving about. Three days in Auckland is plenty but I am sticking around a couple of more as my friend Debbie is in the country and will be traveling through Auckland tomorrow. I wanted to catch up with her for a day before I got going. She’s en-route to house sit up North and I am curious about the Great Barrier Island of NZ. I suspect while crossing paths we will come up with a plan to meet up again at some point.

Anyway, The plan is one more day in Auckland then a 4 1/2 hour boat ride to the Great Barrier, Island.

2017 - The Lost Year

Over a year has gone by since my last post. For lack of a better expression I kind of consider 2017 to a lost year. It’s not that I didn’t do a lot. In fact it was an extremely busy and full year but not in the way I really wanted. I felt it was more important to pay attention to some things I didn’t really want to deal with so I re-set my priorities. Doing the right thing doesn’t always mean doing what you want to do. I wrote very little over the past year. I did write a couple of stories that I never got around to cleaning up and posting. Creatively I was flat and uninspired. I can't believe I let an entire year slip buy without a post. As a side note the Dec 25 comment and link on this blog were not posted by me. Somehow my account was hacked.

Most all of my time during the course of 2017 was filled with work or duties of some sort. The first half of the year had me in a holding pattern as my sister and I made arrangements to help my mother move back to Texas from Colorado. In the spring I made time to take my friend Deb from England on a nice two week road trip through West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. It was her first time to the USA. Later in the Summer I took another two week road trip by myself to see the eclipse in Nebraska before rolling across Colorado on my way to Mammoth Lakes, Ca then back to Texas via Arizona and New Mexico. The later part of the year I simply wasn’t comfortable straying away from home as I could see my fathers health declining. Two domestic roads trips were my only travel for 2017 aside of a brief 3 day get away to visit a friend in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Normally I would have taken an interesting trip overseas in the fall but that was not to be the case.

As far as I was concerned travel was out for the fall as I took my father to periodic Dr’s appointments. He seemed to bounce back from time to time but an overall steady decline in his health had been becoming more noticeable. Something was telling me to stay close to home. Then came the ER visits.

On the first ER visit he was hospitalized for a couple of days, released, and then seemed to rebound pretty good. The second time we were in and out of the ER within about 3 hours. No big deal. The third ER visit would be the last. It was the Friday before Christmas that my stepmother took him in. He was admitted to the hospital but I wasn’t too worried. The first couple of days my stepmother and I took turns spending time with him. By Sunday things turned more serious and he was transferred to a better hospital in the medical center. By Monday it became clear that my father would be passing soon. There wasn’t really anything the Dr’s could do. On Wednesday he passed. My sister, stepmother and myself were at his side as he took his last breath. It was incredibly emotional. Although my fathers health had been declining I didn’t expect him to go quite so soon and so fast. I saw a lot of dad over the course of 2017 and now feel that it was a blessing I didn't travel in the fall. To have been gone while he passed would have been all the more painful.

Back in the day the cause of my father’s death would have likely been referred to as old age. Heart and organs were wearing out. On thing begins to fail and another thing follows. He went fast and peacefully which is how he or most anyone would hope to go. Needless to say his passing has been a really big deal for me. A heck of a way to end the year.