I wrote this yesterday, Sunday, while on the train from Auckland (Middlemore, to be exact, south of Auckland) to Wellington. It’s about a 12 hour trip through the interior of the north island. Happily for the locals, we are not yet trying to drive on the left. Auckland has a sub-tropical climate, and the last two days we had the good fortune to have locals take us around to see some outdoor sights. Pat Chalberg, (widow of Gary Chalberg who was a brother to David Chalberg of Zumbrota, related to the Vikses!) and her partner took us on Friday to Waitakere National Park, where we saw kauri trees (old like redwoods, can get to 150’, more gnarly) and black sand beaches on the west coast. We had lunch at an outdoor cafe in Piha, with a view of the ocean and good food. Then went east to the calmer coast at Brown’s Bay where Pat and Michael live in a small charming suburb. All of this was north of Auckland. We also got to meet Pat’s children; Michael, wife Naomi and George Gary (7 weeks old) Chalberg, and Stephanie Chalberg. Pat has another son Robert who lives now in Phoenix; all her children have dual citizenship, and Robert is in the US Air Force. Then early that evening, we connected with Jeanette Lenz, a friend of Nancy & Pat Maloney’s of Decorah. She hosted us for two nights. Jeanette is a talented flower gardener and creator of pottery, much of which adorns her home and garden. We met some of her delightful neighbors, and she took us to the Watergardens Park on Saturday, followed by the Auckland Botanical Gardens. The first was started about 18 years ago in an old quarry; it covers several acres and now consists of a waterfall surrounded by paths and ponds filled with water plants, in addition to sub-tropical plantings all around. The botanical gardens are free to the public; the roses were in bloom (it’s early summer!) and we got several pictures. Now we know what flax looks like; it’s native and the Maori used it for clothing, baskets, and more. Between the two sites we saw several wedding parties; the first one in the water gardens had a Maori influence, with horn-blowing and chanting. What we’ve seen of the New Zealand population thus far is very diverse; a lot of Asian, islanders, and European. Jeanette’s husband Sam was Chinese/Samoan, a handsome man who passed away 10 years ago. She said that when they married about 50 years ago, her parents did not accept the marriage, similar to what may have happened in the US at that time. That attitude is slowly changing here also. We have heard too, that the Maori culture is more a part of everyday life in New Zealand; however, we hear now too that the people are still somewhat discriminated against, although some governmental policies seem to favor the Maori and the islanders, because they need more assistance.

The terrain on our trip today is delightful. After we left metropolitan Auckland, it has been rather rural, with small towns and small farms dotting the landscape. The countryside for the most part is hilly, with some taller mountains in the distance at times. We’ve seen some but very little cropland, with some onions, potatoes, corn. Cattle, some horses, some deer, sheep (more sheep towards the south), and a few goats wander in paddocks, which are basically small fenced grazing fields. Some shorn sheep give evidence of early summer, and sheep shearing stations are seen. A lot of the fencerows have kept their shrubbery and trees, making for a much more diverse view. Small towns could stand in for movie sets for US westerns. The middle third of the trip is filled with more spectacular scenery, such as a spiral railway at National Park where we could disembark for 30 minutes to get something to eat, deep river gorges and viaducts, Mt Ruapehu which boasts snow and two ski areas. As we get farther south, more and more sheep are yet unshorn. In Auckland, I’d guess the temps were around upper 60s; we’ll see tomorrow what they are at the southern tip (southern means colder here, don’t forget!) of the north island. We get in tonight around 7:30, and will be put up by NZ Locums at the Hotel Ibis. The train announcer keeps us informed of points of interest, with Maori names unpronounceable by us, multiple vowels combined with lots of H, K, M, N, P, R and T. It would seem that names cannot contain other vowels. And WH is said like our F. We’re very glad that supposedly we speak the same language! It could be worse!

***We just got our first glimpse of Levin, stopping to drop off passengers! Bigger than most towns, the train depot was cute and a ridge of hills is off to the east. It’s in an agricultural plain, with a lot of produce and garden stores :) Has some cute houses, and we saw many different businesses though not too many restaurants :( nor a movie theatre, though we really only saw two roads, one on either side and did not see the central business district. Anyway, we’re excited!

I can imagine that this blog will be way too much info, sometimes. I'm likely to use it somewhat as a diary to record what's happening, so my old brain can look back later to see where we were and what we did! Then too, as we get into a routine, posts will be rarer...then you can email me to say "what's up!", ha! I'll go try to upload some pics soon!