“A man stepping visitors, court dust.” New Proverbe

When a flock of sheep coming to you on a country road, what should you do ? First question of the theoretical driving test our new country. Do not, not, je ne repasse pas le permis de conduire, je me renseignais juste sur les règles pour les jeunes conducteurs dans cette contrée où il y a plus de moutons que d’habitants. 😀

Après un dernier dîner et petit-déjeuner avec nos amis australiens, nous sommes déposés le mardi 15 janvier au matin à l’aéroport de Gold Coast où nous attend un vol d’environ trois heures pour la ville d’Auckland en Nouvelle-Zélande.
eh yes, pour ceux à qui l’information n’avait pas encore fuitée, nous allons passer les prochains mois sur Aotearoa, le Pays du Long Nuage Blanc comme l’a nommé Kupe, un explorateur polynésien, historique ou mythique, qui aurait été le premier à découvrir ces îles. Four hundred years later, in the early 1300, several Polynesian leave their islands aboard large waka - canoe - and bringing people into this new land, developing their own cultures, language and traditions. Contemporary Māori can trace their genealogy - Whakapapa - to ancestors. The country will be named Nieuw Zeeland in 1642 by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.

The customs declarations but with increased worry - be vigilant, they have many import laws - and we are fortunate, for our first Couchsurfing experience, to have stumbled on a host that we kindly offered to pick us up.
CouchSurfing - literally surf a couch, it's a bit like HelpX except it's rather troubleshooting, a sofa for a night or more, rather than actual installation could we say. In fact couch, there is everything and we have our private room. The home of our host is vast with a view to almost 180 ° South Auckland ; we six travelers here, giving a friendly hostel next.

We planned four nights hoping it will be enough to find a car and begin our journey. Our hotel is full of good advice and we dégotons certified minivan self-contained (equipped to be livable and meet certain criteria such as portable toilets and clean water containers and waste) in two days ! Two days that we have taken an impressive number of public transport to visit dealers and have even visited by the Auckland City, that anything large and pleasant, none the less a city.
If I add technical information in a dedicated page, I must mention the informality and confident New Zealand. Train controller that control you if you claim not to have even been, the car salesman that you leave from the vehicle not yet paid so you can bring it to an inspection the next morning.

Friday 18 we get the car, share a meal with our host that we discover that we can make a pizza crust with cauliflower, because of its ketogenic diet. Surprising but very good. And the next morning here we are again self. The next two days will be a little exhausting, Seeing us in various businesses to develop our new little house on wheels.

Auckland, like Sydney also has its Harbor Bridge, we take to the North, The Motorway 1 which we avoid single section by paying a detour oceanfront for the pleasure of our eyes. Our first step is the Waipu cave that we reach after five kilometers of dirt road. This road reminds us a desert track in Western Australia after which we thought alone, but nay the area is crowded with locals and tourists !

We decided to eat first to get a chance to be alone in the cave, because some venture there lamp torch up not knowing if the cave is beautiful by itself, it is turning off every light source it reveals his secret.
Prepare your lamps because inside it is total darkness, waterproof footwear in the gripping sole to avoid slipping on the mud and shorts because the water level can rise up to the knees, yes, yes, you will feel in the shoes of a caver ! 😀

The entrance to the largest cave still receives the setting sun, highlighting stalactites and stalagmites that fill. The river shows the way forward and previous visitors have placed stones to cross three times dry. Already here we can turn off our lights, but by following a tunnel on the left to where the ceiling descends so low that the move does more than a meter high that we discover amazed carpet of fireflies that seem to recreate the constellations of the sky on that of the cave.

We are not entirely alone but full advantage of the moment. If there is too much light, glowworms turn off and must wait for a time they dare to shine again. J’y retourne le lendemain aux aurores et savoure cette fois-ci plus d’une heure en solo pour tenter de prendre quelques clichés en jouant avec ma torche pour vous donner, lecteurs, une idée du lieu 😎 !

Nous poursuivons vers le Nord et la Baie des Îles, s’éloignant de la nationale pour longer la côte après le village d’Otonga. La route est longue mais offre de très jolies vues sur les baies qui s’enchaînent : Helena, Mohei, Taupiri, Parekura… A Okiato, première capitale du pays de 1840 to 41, nous prenons le ferry – $12 – pour Paihia, évitant un détour par la route.

C’est dans cette baie que les premiers Européens vont venir s’installer en 1769 with the arrival of the English navigator James Cook. En 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, in the namesake city, between Maori chiefs and the British Crown, making New Zealand a colony of the empire that will become an independent nation in 1947. A treaty which implied a partnership, protection and participation between the two parties, but some other concepts are obscure perhaps the Māori remained of the period and the sale of their land to settlers eventually start wars between 1845 and 1872 at the end which indigenous lose most of their possessions. Still, a number of iwi - tribal - continue to negotiate with the government to try to resolve the crimes committed by the Crown.

After a night near Kerikeri brunch at the charming village of Mangonui in Doubtless Bay, we make return two hundred kilometers for us to Cape Reinga which offers us water views on both sides, green hills gradually giving way to sand dunes. At Cape - which although often considered the most point in the north is not really, ce cap là s’appelle justement le Cap Nord mais n’est pas atteignable par la route – nous pouvons observer les courants contraires de la mer de Tasman à l’ouest et de l’Océan Pacifique Sud à l’est. La tradition Māori enseigne que le cap est l’endroit d’où partent les esprits des morts pour Hawaïki, leur mythique patrie ancestrale, le lieu est donc considéré tapu – sacré.

Nous passons notre troisième nuit sur une superbe aire dans la forêt de Raetea, près d’une rivière qui rend le paysage charmant mais attire le soir une nuée de moucherons ravis de nous déguster. 😕 Mardi 22 January was our last day on the Twin Coast Discovery Highways, this time along the west coast, we cross the Waipoua Kauri Forest after crossing by ferry - $22 - another arm of the sea, Hokianga Harbour. Endemic conifer already abused by deforestation suffer a disease for years 1970 and are today largely protected.

The end of this introduction to New Zealand would have to end with a simple crossing of Auckland to head to the Coromandel Peninsula but the health of Mr decided otherwise and we have just added to our road trip two days in the hospital Middlemore. Après avoir testé pour vous les services de santé écossais, nous voilà en train de tester ceux néo-zélandais. Un sans faute pour les deux ! J’ai à peine le temps de garer la voiture qu’il est déjà pris en charge et tout le monde est charmant, prévenant, soucieux de notre bien-être – oui, yes, du mien aussi.
Pas d’affolement, tout va bien. 😉 Attachez vos ceintures, nous poursuivrons bientôt la route !

Vend guitare acoustique, de marque Tanglewood au son délicieux, chapeau avec des plumes d’oiseaux australiens, un sac de voyage 70l, une paire de chaussures et un Rubik’s cube sur usé dont il manque deux cases.

Le tout pour la modique somme de cinq cent dollars, une affaire… Ben quoi ? C’est que j’ai des frais d’hospitalisation à payer moi 😉

 

Blague à part, ce pays est plein de gens sympathiques et c’est vrai que, malgré des apparitions (voire des journées entières) de notre astre favori, il donne l’impression d’avoir un nuage étendu tout du long, a moins d’avoir confondu avec les autres moutons 🙂

Translation of title of the article : “Une personne qui maltraite son invité a un Marae poussiéreux”. Ce proverbe montre l’importance de Manaakitanga – hospitalité – dans la société et la culture Māori. Le Marae est un ensemble de bâtiments sculptés et de terrains appartenant à l’iwi locale, au hapū – clan – ou à la whānau – famille. Ils sont utilisés pour des réunions, célébrations, funérailles, ateliers éducatifs et autres évènements importants.