November 18, 2011: Our final day It’s happy birthday to Nicole Donahoe, and Chef Mabee has carved an elaborate apple swan for the breakfast bar in her honor. One gift given, another taken away. We’re hoping to make landfall on Tiritiri Matangi, a remarkable island of conservation. The once-eroded farms are now sanctuary for some of New Zealand’s rarest birds: the flightless takahe and kokako, which was nearly extinct. But the southwesterlies intrude again, making the tender …
November 17, 2011 Reluctantly, Capt. Vince heads us out of Smokehouse Bay west for Kawau and the Victorian fantasy world of Sir George Grey. Twice governor of New Zealand, Grey took over the home of a mining executive in the 1860s, plowing in a fortune to take it to 30 lavish rooms and transform the gardens into his private Eden He brought in Chinese pheasants, New Guinea tree kangaroos and South African monkeys. Zebras pulled his carriage. …
November 16, 2011 Day two in our perfect little harbor off Great Barrier Island, but suddenly the sun and warmth are gone. We bundle up for the short jaunt over to shore and the quirky homestead of Trish and Sven Stellin. For more than 18 years, they’ve been making Barrier Gold balms and oils from the manuka and kanuka plants, better known in the States as tea trees. The plants, once reviled as weeds, now are the …
November 15, 2011 The sun and warmth of a real spring day help carry us over to Port Fitzroy on Great Barrier Island, heart of an inspiring conservation tale. I’ve been to Kapiti Island off Wellington, which is a predator-free haven for New Zealand’s endangered native birds. This bit of land jutting into the Hauraki Gulf is now the Kotuku Peninsula Sanctuary, which is also trying to give native birds one last chance. The late Tony Bouzaid …
November 14, 2011 We tender over to Waiheke Island this morning, forced by southwesterly winds to land on shore rather than the harbor. At sandy Oneroa Bay, we time the waves to make a beach landing, hopping off in rhythm with the surf. It’s a morning of wine tastings at three of Waiheke’s best vineyards. This once sleepy island was a hippie haven until vintners discovered its climate was a match for Bordeaux’s, and the first vines …
November 13, 2011 After a week in Wellington, New Zealand, it’s time to hop the hour flight back to Auckland and link up with the Island Passage. I find the low-slung catamaran at her little berth along Princes Wharf, just a few blocks from the Victorian Ferry Building that is the icon of Auckland Harbour. Auckland Harbour I’m too early to board, but don’t fancy carrying all my gear around Auckland. Who should appear to save the …
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