Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia- New Zealand 11,

Oct 24, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

I arrived last evening in Kuratau as small village on Lake Taupo, a large fresh water lake about 50km long and very deep. I am staying at Tongariro Adventures on the shore of the lake. My hosts Barb and Mike are lovely people. They listen well to my endless stories. I ate dinner at a high quality restaurant overlooking the lake. I had to take my motorbike to get there which curtailed my consumption of wine.

This morning I awoke to blue skies, cool temperatures which warmed up during the day. Mike advised me to ride up to Whakapapa Village ( that really is its name) and then up to the ski resort on Mt. Ruapehu. It was a wonderful ride up windy roads to the base of the mountain. The scenery begins with rolling hills and sheep and eventually breath taking views of the mountain. The mountain is covered in snow half way up, but the season was ending and I didn’t see any skiers.

Half way up the mountain, I became aware of the idiot blinking light (for idiots) warning me that I was almost out of gas. I continued up the mountain anyway as I figuered that I could always just roll back the mountain in neutral. I have been riding motorcycles for over 50 years so it is amazing that I didn’t check the reservoir before starting out. At the base of the mountain I struck up a conversation with Ben, one of the mountain employees. It is really easy to meet people when you are alone on a bike. Everyone wants to know where you are from, how long you have been in New Zealand and what are your plans for riding. I told Ben that I was out of gas. The next gas station was 10km away, a bit risky on an almost empty tank. ‘No worries.’ While I sipped a cappuccino at the cafe, he called over his friend Grace who drummed up a canister of gas for me. She was a world traveller and had worked in a ski resort in Prince George, Northern B.C.

We filled up my tank and I was on my way back to my hotel. A group of motorcycles passed me at breakneck speed. I can’t and don’t ever want to go that fast.

Love,

Brian

Photos taken on the road from Kuratau to Whakapapa

Ben and Grace

Barb

Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia-New Zealand 9

Oct. 22, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

It’a amazing, that when you are travelling, you can have good days, better days and fabulous days with only the occasion blip. Today, after breakfast, I elected to do a walking day to give my 9 hour, motorcycle bum a rest. I walked down from my hotel to the waterfront, passing through the town. Tauranga is a lovely town, doubling as a beach resort and a large industrial port. The downtown area has the usual amount of shops with a number of them specializing in hiking and sporting equipment. I did a lot of browsing but no purchasing, responding to the sales people that I was only a tourist vacationing.

I found myself at the waterfront overlooking an old railway bridge which took me across the bay. The bridge had a walking lane used by hikers, runners and bicyclists. It was 800 meters long. I walked across and found myself on a road that followed the beach on the other side. I walked for an hour and eventually a car stopped to ask me if I was lost and could she give me a lift. Her mother was in the back seat and was probably about my age. I told her that I was from Canada and that I had just completed a triathlon as she had notice the number tatoued on my arm. She drove me a few kms to the local bus station. She explained to me that she was of Mauri origin. The Mauris are the original settlers here, arriving from Polynesia several hundred years before the white man. Mauri culture is very evident here as many of the villages and mountains are in Mauri language and are unpronounceable and difficult for me to memorize. There are only 5 million people in all of NZ, many of whom are Mauri. On the bus, the stations are announced in Mauri and English. We could take a lesson from them in Quebec. Our native Indian culture is visibly lost in our everyday lives.

The bus took me to Mount Maunganui and the bus driver asked me politely if I was going to hike up the mountain. When I acknowledged that was what I was here to do, he responded ‘that is what I figured.’ I took that as a compliment as I guess that he also had seen my tatous. I had a cappuccino and muffin for lunch and spoke with a young couple from Italy, travelling around and working as cooks. I suggested to the young lady, Noel that they might find work in Whistler as they were quite interested in the fact that I was from Canada.

I asked the waitress about how long it would take me to climb the 300m mountain. She looked at me and suggested that I try the climb tomorrow as I had just consumed 1 muffin and 2 cappuchinos. I started up the mountain and asked a few young people if I could climb up the mountain in 1 hour or so. They politely smiled. There were several paths to take, longer with a gentle slope or shorter but steeper. I took the latter to go up and the former to walk down. On my way back I spoke to a young fellow who lived here and then with an Estonian waiter who is a sea captain. You meet so many people when you travel alone.

All of the pictures below were taken in Tauranga and on Mount Maunganui.

Love,

Brian

Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia-New Zealand 7,

Oct. 20, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

Today is an absolutely gorgeous spring day, sunny, blue skies, 20C. I started off the day with a cappuccino and a muffin at Starbucks, very original for my trip in N-Z. It was wash day and miraculously, my hotel has a laundromat in the hotel. If you have read my previous blogs, you will know how much I love laundromats. This one was a little different, consisting of a cupboard and 2 small machines, one on top of the other. I filled the machine with my laundry and returned to my room to catch up on emails.

Pamela, the lady who offered me champagne on the plane here, had advised me to take a day trip to Waiheke Island by ferry boat. I picked up the ferry in Auckland Harbour and floated over to the Island. There were 1 foot waves and the wind was blowing at 15-20 kts with white caps. The view was splendid. There are a few sailboats out and 1 fellow was windsurfing. How I wished that I could be out there, on a sailboat. ‘You can’t always get what you want so be happy with what you got.’

I took a seat on the back of the ferry boat and got a great view of Auckland Harbour. My spirits were high and I was taken back to a time 55 years ago. I was travelling for 1 year and had just finished 2 months of skiing in Austria, Switzerland and Italy. I had dropped off my skies in Germany and was hitchhiking to Greece. I stopped off in Zurich and bought a pair of white Adidas with 3 black stripes. In retrospect they were good walking shoes but not the type that one should have in Israel with 35C to 40C weather. The weather was about the same as today and I had only 7lbs of luggage in my back pack. My pill box weighs more than that now. I was bouncing along in my new shoes without a care in the world. I was eventually planning to go to Israel to work on a kibbutz. For what ever reason, the song ‘my sweet lord’ was in my mind and I was singing the song to myself. That moment in time was a moment that I was the most free in my life. I was never that free before, and I was never as free afterwards and probably will never be that free again. I had no responsibilities except to myself. I had very little money, just enough to get along. Everyday was a new adventure to experience. I wonder if anyone else reading my blog has ever had a similar experience.

Waiheke Island has a similar atmosphere that you find in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, Martha’s Vineyard or the island Brehat in France. Everyone seems to be relaxed and taking it easy. The tourist season has not started and the cafes and bars have only the locals in them. I am sitting in a cafe overlooking the ocean in a small village on the island. The island is famous for its wineries and if I am lucky I will find one open to sample the wine. If not, I will order some wine for supper here.

I got on a public bus and travelled up the island. The island is surprisingly hilly, with windy narrow roads. It would be a great place to ride a motorcycle but probably very difficult to ride a bike unless you are in really good condition. I got off the bus, half way up the island and walked down to the beach. The waves were rolling in onto the beach and the water looked inviting with many sailboats moored in the distance. 2 ladies were coming out of the water so I asked them about the water temperature. They said it was cold but when I tested it, it was much warmer than Laurentian lake water in June. They informed me that there were no jelly fish or sharks here as the water is too cold.

I took the bus back to the little town and am once again enjoying the view from the terrace of my Italian restaurant. I will take the 930 ferry back to Auckland after dinner. I will pick up my motorcycle tomorrow and head off on the motorcycle part of my journey.

All of the photos below are either taken from aboard the ferry boat from Auckland to Waiheke Island or on the island itself.

Love,

Brian

Australia-TerminNew Zealand 1

Australia-New Zealand 6

Oct. 19, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

Today was a travel day, my last day in Australia and my first day in New Zealand. As usual during this trip, my day was filled with adventure. Each day when I wake up, I never know what new experience the day will bring. I packed last night and woke up early to have a buffet breakfast and get on the shuttle to the airport. The breakfast was supposedly included with the room, but it came with a $20 price tag, an $8 reduction in price. I didn’t mind as the buffet was worth while. We piled into a regular size bus that took us to all 3 terminals. Terminal 1, the international terminal was huge and miles away. I arrived 2 hours early and had no time passing through customs.

I had an hour and a half to spare when I realized that I had purchased an ipad and could collect a tax refund. There was a long line up and I didn’t think that I would get through in time. After a half hour, an agent announced that a TMT online form had to be filled out. I had paid $251 in tax, so I figured that I should give it a try. I think that TMT means ‘too much trouble’ as the form was multiple pages long and required all sorts of secret numbers imbedded in the receipt. I must have looked discouraged as the man next to me offered his assistance. He was able to go through the form with me, filling in the blanks and even getting a required emergency email documentation from Apple. We spoke for a while and he explained that he was originally from India and was an IT expert. He had worked in many countries and had visited Canada many times. We exchanged email addresses and I promised to take him to dinner if he ever comes to Canada. I also gave him my blog site of course.

I had a good seat in the plane, just behind first class with extra leg room. I struck up a conversation with the lady in the seat next to me. She was Australian and had worked for many years in Utah. She was a frequent flyer with Qantas Airlines and was offered multiple glasses of ‘Australian bubbly’ for herself and her ‘guest’. That certainly started the day off well for me. Qantas offers a good meal for airline travellers even on 3 hour short time flights. United Airlines could take a lesson from them in service for clients. United, offers water and chips on 6 hour flights and $30 sandwiches. We exchanged emails addresses and she promised to read my blog. I now have over 10,000 visits and 4000 visitors to my blog site.

I am staying at a 4* downtown hotel which is very convenient. Auckland is a lovely city, very clean and a beautiful waterfront. I walked down Queen St. the main shopping avenue and arrived at the waterfront. There are a lot of sailboats, and big motor boats. You can take a boat tour of the port and go out to 1 of the islands which is supposed to be very pleasant. I will probably do that tomorrow.

The waterfront is quite developed with numerous restaurants and bars. Sunday night is rather quiet. I chose a nice Italian restaurant with white table cloths catering to a middle class, middle age cliental. No matter what country you are in, if you choose an Italian restaurant, you will always eat well.

Love,

Brian