Whangarei

Whangarei seemed to be a typical New Zealand town, with a 5 km-long central main street, called Bank Street, filled with two-story shops, cafes, and offices. Right next to the bus stop was a little open-air mall called The Strand. On the other side of the rows of shops, there was this nice little pedestrian area.

About a kilometer past the town center was the Town Basin, a really cool harbor area.

After I arrived, I immediately walked a kilometer down to the i-Site that I had seen from the window of the bus. i-Sites are information centers that are located in basically every town of any size and have maps and directions.

As an aside, I should probably mention what it's like being a pedestrian in New Zealand. The first challenge for someone from the US is knowing which way to look when one crosses the street. I think I finally have the knack of looking over my right shoulder instead of my left when I cross (a good guide is looking at which direction cars are parked), but every so often a car comes out of somewhere that surprises me. Pedestrians never seem to have the right of way here except in crosswalks when crossing signals are on. A number of times I've been walking and encountered a car pulling out of a driveway 10 meters from me, or making a turn. In any US city, the car would wave the pedestrian on, but here, cars just continue to zoom along. Adding to the danger is that crosswalks are often few and far between, located only at traffic lights. So, walking to the i-Site, I had a couple of interesting crossings at a rotary and elsewhere.

I grabbed a bunch of brochures at the i-Site and looked them over at lunch. I was originally planning to go to Whangarei Falls, which the i-Site billed as "the most photogenic waterfalls in NZ," but it was a 5km walk one-way and I didn't feel like hiring (renting) a bike. Instead, I decided that I'd walk up to the lookout point of Mt. Parihaka.

Mt. Parihaka is a ~1000 ft. "mount" that overlooks Whangarei. The path to the top starts in Mair Park, which was a nice little recreation area. Behind a carpark emerged a stream, with a pedestrian footbridge over some murky water inhabited by some very perky ducks (ducks and gulls seem to be very loud and aggressive here). From there, I chose the "Hammond Trail," named after some conservation guy who had done something for the park. The sign promised "1.3 km, 1,650 steps."

As one might expect, each of those 1,650 steps was uphill. The path was well-maintained, but there were hundreds of wood-faced steps leading up to the top. The walk (combined with trying to walk anywhere in Auckland, the city of hills) was yet another reminder that my fitness level degraded from "below average" to "poor" over the summer.

Halfway up, during one of my frequent rest breaks, I heard a strange bird sound. I took off my headphones, and even with my below-amateur-level birding ability, was able to easily spot the bird on a tree 20 meters away. The bird was producing a ton of different vocalizations, and had distinctive white tufts of feathers on its neck. As I found through an internet search later, I think I was looking at a tui, who are, according to Wikipedia, "known for their noisy, unusual call, different for each individual, that combine bellbird-like notes with clicks, cackles, timber-like creaks and groans, and wheezing sounds—the unusual possession of two voiceboxes enable Tui to perform such a myriad of vocalisations."

After huffing and puffing up the hill for an hour, I finally reached the summit and lookout point. As with all of these mountain walks, the climb always leads to a nice reward--in this case, a view of the whole of Whangarei.

Forgive the lighting on this shot, I obviously didn't take this picture

There was a car park right near the lookout point so that shlubs could drive up to the summit rather than walk, and a few people started to filter in as I was standing at the lookout point. A nice guy, his wife, their infant, and a teenage girl (who, from their conversation, seemed to be an exchange student who had just moved in with the family) came up to me as soon as I reached the summit.

Guy: "Hello"

Me: "Hi, how's it going" (My first mistake...I should have said "How you going")

Guy (immediately): "Where are you from?"

Me: "The U.S."

Guy: "Oh, I guessed wrong."

Me: "Where did you think I was from?"

Guy: "I was going to say Germany."

I don't really know what to make of that.

Another priceless conversation:

Guy: "What part of the States are you from?"

Me: "Boston."

Guy: "Oh, I don't know much about Boston....Boston Legal...the Celtics! {Ed. note: the only basketball jerseys available on this island seem to be Paul Pierce Celtics jerseys from five years ago} Oh! The Boston Tea Party, right??"

Me: "Yeah"

Guy: "I have no idea what that is."

After taking my fill of the view, I descended Mt. Paranaki and walked around the town for the next few hours. Frustrating note: all of New Zealand seems to close at 4pm (especially on Saturdays). Nothing seems to be open at all on Sunday. I literally walked around the center of town for an hour and only encountered two open restaurants (Pizza Hut and KFC). New Zealand has a great cafe culture, but it all seems to shut down after lunch, and even cities as big as Auckland can become ghost towns when the sun sets.

I also wanted to go in this store, but a picture will have to suffice.