Day 89 Auckland to Piahia (Russell)

Today we left Auckland and drove north. Last night we spent some precious minutes shopping just as the stores were closing then had a nice dinner on the waterfront. It did occur to me that we have had little time to shop or lounge around since we are trying to make the most out of the time we have in New Zealand.
One our way north we got a rare treat as we were able to see and even touch a Kiwi. These small flightless birds are about the size of a chicken. The most amazing thing about them is the size of the egg they lay. You will see in the picture how much of the body cavity the egg takes up. These cute little birds have very strong claws and dig burrows that they live in. They are endangered due to the loss of habitat and the predators that have been introduced to this island. Probably 95% of New Zealanders have never seen a live Kiwi much less touched one.
We also stopped along the way to see some of the native plants and trees. The Kauri tree is one of the native trees that was almost logged to extinction. These trees get to be very old and grow to be very large. You can see us with our arms around one of them. The one you see in the picture is over 800 years old.
Our destination today is Piahia which is a small resort town directly across the bay from one of the towns Chris and I liked so well, Russell. We immediately hopped aboard the ferry that took us across the bay to Russell. This is a quaint littls former whaling town that sits right on the water. It is only about two streets deep and three blocks long but is has a definite charm of its own. After a walk around we settled in on the large porch of the Duke of Marlborough Hotel and had some drinks and enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine.
Once again a great day for all involved.
Tomorrow we stay here in Piahia.


Stephan (guest blogger!) - Today was another gorgeous day in NZ with the family. There have been several constants on our journeys... sunny weather, lots of laughing with (and at) each other, card games (Euchre, Hearts, Nertz, Kings Corners, & 952), new hotels and restaurants, hours of driving, and me taking videos on my camera. There are several (who will remain unnamed) who haven't been a big fan of my documentary film making techniques... namely recording videos anytime one of us is doing something funny or embarrassing. Tonight I suffered a setback however, as the tables were turned as I was caught unaware making a complete fool of myself (much to my brother's amusement). Tomorrow will be fun, I'll be showing a bunch of my videos to the family as a NZ trip retrospective before we leave Friday.

As some of you may know, before and after this trip I'm traveling with my Theatre Company (Transcendence Theatre Company) across America in RVs and speaking with theatre leaders, educators, and artists as a part of the founding of our company (check out our website). When I left our group for New Zealand, we were in Detroit on day 38 of our travels, when I return to the states I'll be joining right back up with our group in Denver, and finishing out our RV trip through the west, up to Seattle and then down the coast back again to LA.

One of our group trademarks is our "thinker pose" which we have pictures of us doing with brilliant theatre people all across the country (check out our blog about it!). Today my family got our own thinker pose in honor of Transcendence, look for it in our pictures!

We're laughing so much and having such a joyous time together, it's going to be hard to leave on Friday.