Middle Earth Adventures

McCrain's in Middle Earth
A travel dialogue of our adventures in New Zealand

In February 2004, Jim and Kathy McCrain began a five month oddessy in New Zealand. Kathy was transferred to Auckland for a temporary work assignment, and Jim followed her for moral support. (Isn't he just the greatest husband?) What follows is Jim's account of this adventure.

Happy Birthday, America!

July 4, 2004

This weekend marks the 228th birthday of our home country, The United States. In honour of this American holiday, we decided to take a trip to the Bay of Islands and then to Waitangi, the national birthplace of New Zealand. It was here that the "Treaty of Waitangi" was created and signed, thus creating the independent nation of New Zealand, under the protection of the British Crown. This simple document is still in debate between the Maori People and the English or "Pakeha."

The Waitangi Visitor Center has a very nice museum that explains the origins of the document and the events that led up to it's signing. On the original site grounds there is a very impressive and emotion-evoking Maori Meeting House ("Ware" in Maori language.) This meeting house has no name, though, as it is "for all the Maori People." (There are many different Maori tribes in New Zealand, and to name this meeting house for any one of them would be an insult to all the others.) Visiting this historic site was the highlight of our trip to the Bay of Islands region. I highly recommend a visit to this place. It proved to me that there is political struggle, and yet immense Hope for the future, all around our little globe.

During this weekend, Kathy and I also traveled to Cape Reinga. This is the northern-most tip of New Zealand. It is considered to be a sacred site by the Maori People, as this is the point that their spirits depart for the "Haiwaki Home-Land" after their death. This is also the point where the Tasman Sea crashes noisily into the Pacific Ocean. On a clear day, such as we had, it is very easy to see the actual "line" where these two bodies of water meet. We could see a definite line where the chaos of the Tasman met the calm waters of the Pacific. It was quite a magnificent sight.

Later, we traveled by bus down to Ninety-Mile Beach. It was quite thrilling to be driving down the deserted beach, mile after mile, with sand-dunes on one side and the ocean on the other. At one point, we stopped and the whole bus-load of people went sliding down the dunes on "boogie boards." It was incredibly fun! Kathy was one of the first to head down the hill!

The next day, we took a boat-ride out to see the famous "hole in the rock." This is a tunnel through a large island that is big enough (just barely!) for a boat to pass through it! The water was an unbelievably beautiful, almost fluorescent green. (The color is very hard to describe. It reminded me of a "sparkling" glacier-melt lake.) We were also treated to the spectacular sight of a pod of wild bottle-nose dolphins! For almost 10 minutes, these graceful creatures swam and played around the front of our boat. The immense size of these sea-mammals was very impressive. I had no idea that they were so large! Kathy was so close to them that she almost got wet! On the way to "The Rock," we saw some very active fur-seals. It was a lot of fun to watch these seals climb to the top of a very steep cliff. They seemed to have little difficulty climbing these crags. I was amazed at their dexterity on the rocks.

We spent the night near Haruru Falls, in Paihia. Haruru means "big noise" in Maori, and that name describes the falls precisely. The sound of the falls lulled us to sleep each night, while the light of the full-moon dancing on the waves played peacefully across our bedroom walls. The lights, sounds, history, and experiences of our weekend were a perfect way to celebrate the birth of our own country, so many thousands of miles away.

And of course, my search/quest for food and coffee goes on. I have actually gotten to the point that I LIKE a good "long black." A rather strange custom in New Zealand is the offering of "chocolate fish." If you do something good, you are rewarded with a chocolate candy/marshmallow fish. I was given one for helping to support the Waitangi Visitor Center. Kathy likes sea-food, and you just can't get sea food much fresher than here in New Zealand. (It's an island, remember?) While at Waitangi, Kathy ordered a bowl of sea-food chowder. Now, Kathy is a little picky about the meat she eats, so she made sure to ask if there was any eel in the chowder. "No, there isn't." What she didn't think about asking was if the chowder had any octopus in it! To her credit, she ate the whole bowl!

I thought you might like to see another of the wondrous views we have of Auckland. This one greeted us early one morning. New Zealand never ceases to amaze me!

The Adventure Begins!