Fe-Fi-Fo-Whangarei (Jan. 17)

The norm for most travelers to New Zealand seems to be: arrive in Auckland and go directly south through the North Island and then on to the South Island. This bypasses the Northland area, the beautiful, sparsely populated, and very beachy peninsular area north of Auckland. Since we are staying for a year, we thought we should see as much of the country as possible, and so we left the Auckland area for Whangarei, 3 hours north and the largest city in the Northland. The name is funny because the “Wh” sound in the Maori language is pronounced as an “F.” If you don’t agree, I’m tempted to suggest that you “Whuck off.”

Becky checking out the ocean

On the way to Whangarei we stopped at a couple other scenic locations, Goat Island Marine Preserve and Pakiri Beach. The weather didn’t quite agree that day, but they still were worthy places to visit, and allowed me to work on my ‘crane kick’ technique.

I'm the best around, nothing's ever gonna keep me down!

Whangarei is a sleepy, relatively small harbor town on the east coast on the Northland, and home to some of the best blokes you should hope to encounter on your travels, in our opinion. One of them is Matt Pedersen, our next CouchSurfing host who graciously agreed to put us up for two nights. Matt’s another world traveler and is from a farming family about 40 minutes inland. He flats (rents) in a great house on the outskirts of Whangarei from a fellow named Stu, another terrific and friendly Kiwi. While Matt was hosting us, he was also hosting a woman from Denmark, Suzanne, and had just agreed to put another guy up, Vincent from France, for the night.

This indicates that we were able to figure out the delay setting on our camera

This is apparently the norm for Matt, as he recounted the many guests they had recently put up. I’m not sure if it’s a New Zealand thing or a CouchSurfing thing, but we’re finding our New Zealand CouchSurfing experiences to be just tremendous. Matt, Stu, and Stu’s friends Kel and JohnBoy all blew us away with their kindness and generosity. Cheers boys!

Our first night in Whangarei, we all enjoyed some beers and wine with the guys before heading off to bed. The boys had just arrived from a preseason rugby match held in Whangarei between Auckland and Queensland, a match the Kiwis won handily, 38-9, putting everyone in good spirits. We tried a pizza from Hell, apparently a popular and somewhat controversial pizza chain in NZ, who market their pizzas under the seven deadly sins and other similar nomenclature. In a brilliant marketing move, they apparently sent condoms to most mailboxes in the nation, guaranteeing a good bit of uproar, and thus, publicity. Oh for the days when a mass mailing of prophylactics would generate outrage in America…