Day 11 - a penguin, Bay of Islands & a car crash

25.12.2014

The alarm goes off at 7:00am and I finish up the last of my food, make myself another one of those 'wonderful' instant coffees, and I'm already in the car by 9:00am. I call Berlin briefly, because it's Christmas Eve there now. Then I drive through Kaitaia and Awanui on the Coastal Highway (which is more like a country road) heading east to the other side of the North Island. In Mangonui, where I stayed in this awful hotel a few days ago, I hope for a coffee at Little Kitchen Café, but just like everywhere else, everything is closed. Except for the creepy pub in my creepy hotel. And that on Christmas Day morning at 10:00am. I drive down to the marina for a moment to see if I'm not missing anything in Mangonui, and I see a penguin!

He swims right in front of my nose below the rocks that secure the shore. Maybe he's waiting for something tasty from me, because he always looks up, then he swims around a bit and is completely in his element, until he steers back in my direction and goes on the rocks. You'd really like to help him, he looks so clumsy doing it. But then he disappears and doesn't resurface.

The route partly runs right along the Doubtful Bay, while on the right side there is really swampy land. Sometimes there are even mangroves next to the road in the water.

It's a beautiful drive, I turn off again to a place called Hihi, just because I like the name.

Soon it becomes more hilly and these gently undulating hills have peculiar terraces that are definitely not man-made, but must be due to the soil composition, as it looks like this in every direction on the slopes. I drive through small settlements along the road without stopping. They are mostly completely deserted - because it's Christmas. In Kaeo there are beautiful old wooden houses, but they could use some color. The town is about 100m long and it is unimaginable to live here. But New Zealand consists of many such semi-abandoned places.

Of the 4 million New Zealanders, a little more than 2.6 million live on the North Island, 1.5 million of them in and around Auckland. The rest is distributed according to the fairly large area, and the North Island is still much more densely populated than the wilder South Island. It reminds me a bit of Alaska, where in September we also drove through deserted areas for whole days and the only 'places' were just an intersection.

In Kerikeri I drive to the Mission House. Actually, it's the 'Stone Store', because this oldest stone house in New Zealand was originally intended to serve as a warehouse, but was then used for the kauri gum trade and used as a general store until the 20th century.

It dates from the years 1832-36. On the same site is a beautiful old wooden house. The Kemp House from 1822 belongs to a mission station with only two houses remaining.

Kemp House

They are the oldest wooden houses built by white people in New Zealand. The garden is rich in beautiful flowers and plants unknown to me. Everything is well maintained and this small complex is located directly on the Kerikeri River, a tributary of the Bay of Islands. Unfortunately, both houses are closed here too, and the café across the street is closed as well. Today, on Christmas Day, some people are splashing around in the cool water of the Kerikeri River, while others are fishing. Christmas in New Zealand is extremely relaxed. You don't see any Christmas decorations at all, and it seems to me that Christmas is more of an opportunity to meet up and have fun with family and friends.

From Kerikeri I drive to Kawakawa - here Maori names seem to double up on everything (I was also in Hihi today). In Kawakawa there are public toilets designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who is defamed as Frederick Hundertwasser on a wall plaque. He didn't build them himself, but they're called Hundertwasser Toilets and they're his designs and I was there!

Unfortunately, Kawakawa, as well as Kerikeri and all the other places I've come and will come through today - are completely closed. Oh well. So I continue driving - there isn't even a coffee here. I'm now about 100 km from my starting point, so everything is very leisurely, because it's already afternoon! However, I am a bit worried about open hotels or motels. Because many of them are marked with No Vacancy, but they look completely closed, just like practically all the restaurants. I drive past the coastal town of Paihia, where I was in January 2014. I also skip Waitangi for the same reason, although the foundation for New Zealand's constitution was laid here. But all of this is described in the diary of the first trip here. My destination is Russell. I take the car ferry from Opua to Okiato (11 dollars for about 5 minutes), and from there it's another 8.5 km to Russell.

Ferry from Opua to Okiato

Once The Hell Hole of the Pacific. Here - in the first 'white' town in New Zealand, only unsavory characters, whalers, gangsters lived, and it was a place that was not really designed to look like it does today. Today's Russell is actually the second Russell, because the first one - located a bit further south - was the first capital of New Zealand but burned down. They quickly made the place Kororareka the new Russell, and the population structure changed as well. However, Kororareka was of course Maori territory, and the combative Maori chief Hone Heke demonstrated his aversion to the British in his territory by cutting down the flagpole on Flagstaff Hill four times. This led to such heated disputes that the second (current) Russell also burned down.

When I arrive in Russell, it feels like a ghost town. Apparently, there is no cruise ship in Paihia today, otherwise it would be crowded here. All the shops, cafes are closed. When I was here 11 months ago, I really liked this place. I knew it wasn't the cheapest place, but I wasn't expecting hotel rooms for 400 or 600 dollars a night. The campsite offers me accommodation for 175 dollars, but I drive another 200m to the Triton Suites Hotel, park my car in the driveway, and go to the reception. The woman at the front desk doesn't want to rent me a room for one night at first, but since it's 5:00pm now and she wants to go to her Christmas party with friends, she changes her mind and generously lets me have the room for one night for 170 dollars - what a 'bargain'! We go to the room together, which is very nice, and from the terrace you have a beautiful view of the sea and palm trees. While we're still in the room, there's a loud noise outside. We rush to the terrace and I see my car wedged under a palm tree! It must have slowly rolled backwards and crashed into it within the 10 minutes that I was no longer in the car.

I hurry down the stairs and into the car. I can't see the damage at first, because the car is almost buried in a palm plant. When I try to drive out of the mess, the rear wheels spin and I can't move. By the way, the handbrake was properly engaged.

Now the friend or husband of the hotel woman comes along leisurely. Wet long hair, down to the middle of his back, more the rocker type, not really trustworthy. While I am completely horrified by this event, he is completely calm, first gets the jack, then the saw, lies down on the ground and checks what's holding the car in place, then starts sawing off the fence that got caught in the wheel arch. I can't thank him enough when he drives the car over the small wooden border of the flower bed in front of the fence and afterwards says that only the bumper is damaged anyway.

With a bit more momentum, the car would have landed 2m lower at the neighbor's...

Indeed, it is torn and with brute force he manages to snap the thing back in place more or less so that it looks quite stable. He recommends that I drive around town a bit to test if anything can be heard or if the driving characteristics are different. Slowly, I myself become calmer again, and the two of them steam off to their Christmas party. At first, I had thought of calling Europcar right away, but then I thought differently. Because what if they say: Stay where you are, we'll bring a new car in 2-3 days? I neither want to stay here that long nor wait for such nonsense if the car drives normally. I drive to Flagstaff Hill, enjoy the view, and then drive to a small neighboring village called Tapeka, where the beach is lined with black rocks and families celebrate Christmas with a beach barbecue.

 I drive back and cruise through the completely deserted town of Russell, walk through the cemetery of the old wooden church - the oldest church in New Zealand - and then sit by the water in the chairs of a closed restaurant with a bottle of water and some leftover rice crackers, planning my further journey.

Earlier, I briefly checked if there was anything to eat tonight, after not finding anything to eat during the day either. There are exactly two restaurants open. The first one seems fully booked and is also the fancy hotel here. Despite the fact that some people are sitting here in shorts and others in fancy dress, they only have one set menu and the price is not displayed, and right now, I don't feel like having a set menu. The other restaurant has a 3-course menu with a strange combination for 75 dollars, and that's not what I want either.

So, rice crackers and water it is.

When the sun is almost gone, it gets chilly and I retreat to my 170-dollar room and park the car with the handbrake on, but this time I use both hands to lift it up...

As I sort my photos on the tablet, the two hotel people come by and ask if I found something to eat. When I say no, she immediately offers to make me a salad - but I don't need anything else, but I think it's really nice of her! Soon, I sink into my large, wonderfully comfortable bed and sleep until 8:00am.

Kilometers driven today: 200km