October 21 Wednesday We were on the 8 am ferry so got up early, had the free hostel breakfast of cereal and bread and drove to the loading zone for the Bluebridge ferry company, one of the two that operates between Picton and Wellington. Julie and I spent most of the three hour trip on the open decks watching first the Marlborough Sound, then the receding south island and the growing north island as we approached. It was very windy, but the ship is so large you hardly noticed the seas. Two little bonuses were seeing a seal about halfway across and a bit later a school of dolphins. Once we arrived in Wellington, we disembarked and drove to the city center and the I-Site. Julie did not know where she wanted to stay that night. She was waiting to discuss that with her boyfriend. I picked up info on several hostels for myself. Julie had expected to have to wait a while before her boyfriend arrived, but actually he arrived shortly after we were ready to leave the I-Site. That worked out well. We said our goodbye's and since my vehicle was in a secure place I decided to walk to a couple of the hostels to check them out. Well the first one I got to looked good and I booked two nights. They could get me discounted parking vouchers (street parking is extremely regulated here). It turned out to be a good place to stay, but I should have checked out the others because one of the others that I stayed at later, was half the price and had off street parking. Oh well. So once I had lodging arranged I drove over to the Chinese embassy and got the correct paperwork to enter the country. I needed to get passport type pictures taken, so that is an new quest for me to resolve. Since the embassy is right next to the Botanical Gardens, I spend a couple hours exploring there. It encompasses a hill so there are several lookout points, a number of interesting sculptures, and even a free tram that brings people up and down. The embassy was already on the high side of the gardens so I did not ride the tram. These gardens are so much more interesting when the flowers are blooming and while that was a missing component of many of the gardens in Australia, it is now summery enough that the flowers are out in most places. After a while I drove down to the marina area, where the Te Papa museum is. It is a large place and because I was getting there in the late afternoon I only had time to see a single floor, but I will be back to see the rest. It is one of the more fascinating museums I have been in. It is a mix between a traditional museum and the Exploratorium in SF. There is so much interactive stuff (largely geared towards children, but still) that it made the experience a lot of fun.

October 22 Thursday I got up, had a free breakfast of cereal and bread, and found out where I could get passport photos taken. It took a while to find the place and I had to come back in a few hours to pick them up, which meant I did not get the paperwork turned in today. I spoke with Gabe on the phone for a bit, so he could reassure me that things are progressing on his end and that he is still going to join me in China. I went back to the Te Papa museum and spend quite a while there seeing nearly everything I had missed the day before. I also did some grocery shopping and wandered around the city, finding graffiti and sculptures and other interesting things to photograph.

October 23 Friday I got up, showered, packed my bag, loaded the Spaceship, called and talked to my mom, had breakfast and checked out of the hostel at 9:30. I drove over to the Chinese embassy to drop off the visa application. First surprise: they would not accept my Swiss passport, so I had to amend my application to use the US passport. I think this was purely a money thing. They charge $100 more for a US visa than a Swiss one and it was my mistake for asking too many questions about the differences before, so they knew I had both. I would also have to return in a weeks time to pick up the passport and visa if approved. I went out to the Spaceship and spent an hour or so looking at what that meant for my traveling plans on the north island. I had hoped that returning might not be necessary, because it would eat up so much time doing so. I also could not just hang around in Wellington, or I would see nothing else. I considered staying in Wellington for Sabbath, but Wellington really has not caught my attention and I was more than ready to keep moving, so I made the decision to head for Napier and the eastern side of the north island to begin visiting all four of the national parks. I drove pretty much straight through and after the none stop beauty of the south island I was rather underwhelmed. So much more development/so much less 'nature'. I found a place to camp in the evening a bit outside of Napier and settled in for the night.

October 24 Sabbath I got up and drove the last 28 kms into Napier. I had hoped to find a picnic spot on the way and eat breakfast there, but there were none in that area for whatever reason. My map was very basic and even though I had an address for the church I did not see any roads that I had listed. So I drove all the way downtown to the I-site and they gave me a better city map. I had to back track and found the church 10 minutes before sabbath school started. So I skipped breakfast, but that was okay in the long run. I had met a man from this church when I was at the church in Queenstown, but he was traveling again. The rest of the church was just as friendly as he had been. It was a fairly small church and so they did not have an organized potluck, but a couple said they were designated hosts for that weekend and I was welcome to join them and a few others for lunch at their home. So I followed the husband in my Spaceship, which several of them were interested in see, as they notice them on the roads, but had not had the opportunity to look at the interiors. There were nine people for lunch and it was a very pleasant afternoon. I had their names written down, but can't find that piece of paper now. About 4 pm I took my leave and continued north east towards Te Urewera National Park.


October 25 Sunday I fueled up before heading into Te Urewera NP and made it to Lake Waikaremoana mid morning. There are so long walks around the lake, all too long for what I have time for. I did do a short walk to some caves. They were caves in the same way as the caves around Linda Falls. The rocks have piled themselves in such ways as to leave small passages between them and you can go back inside them, but none deep enough that a flashlight (torch) would be necessary. There was also a walk/climb to Lou's Lookout which gave a comprehensive view of the lake area. I had to traverse 60 kms of gravel road and that made for rather slow going. And despite being back in a natural setting, it still was not as nice as most of the south island had been. Eventually I got to the town of Whakatane on the coast north of the national park. I picked up some information at the town center and exchanged dvds at a Spaceship substation, but did not spend much time in the town. The activity the town is most known for is cruises to White Island, which is clearly visible from the anywhere in the surrounding area. What is special about White Island is that it is an active volcano, but it spews gas and not lava/magma. Instead I continued west now towards Rotorua and made a roadside camp for myself near Kawerau.