Day3 - Russell

Day3... Russell…
Awoke to the sound of raindrops tapping on the roof. I’d had a revelation in the middle of the cool night and realized they’d provided us a small electric heater. Since we were plugged into shore power, it’s red little 220v element quickly heated the space. The van has a LPG powered onboard heater, but it also runs the stove off it’s smallish bottle, so we’re using shore power whenever possible.

Kiwifruit comes in gold, too…

Looked under the hood, too. 2.4liter four cylinder Duratorq (not duratec) turbo diesel. Owners manual says it’s got 4.27 rear axle, so that’s probably where the power feeling comes from. Best part? The fuel ratings. 23mpg city, 30 mpg highway! I’d been watching the fuel gauge, but without knowing just how big the tank was, it meant nothing. This thing gets better mileage than my Honda CR-V. Keeping a distance/mileage/cost log as we go, just for fun. Diesel, about 1.50 per liter currently.
The bike seats were drenched, squishy to touch because we have to keep them outside during our night‘s sleep. We made some coffee and decided to go explore despite the rain clouds.

Kept seeing these odd flowers along the roadside, since they looked like something Dr. Seuss would draw, of course I called them Dr. Seuss flowers…

Our REI goretex jackets were excellent, keeping the sometimes torrential rain off yet not being clammy and stifling on the inside like rubberized gear.

Walked the town, most shops still closed this early.
Saw there was a passenger ferry back to the mainland to Paihia, spent the $10 each for a roundtrip.
As we approached the dock, a large red boat pulled up alongside. Full of 30 or so people, all in full raingear, looking thoroughly wet and miserable. I’d seen it coming down the harbor, tossing a huge rooster tail.
We walked the tiny town, stopping for some supplies and coffee. Stopped at a small bar, tried the Lion Red amber ale, my new favourite. Returned to the dock, the sun had decided to come out and play, the temperature rising.
Found the desk belonging to the boat I’d seen earlier, The “Excitor”. It took 90 minutes to go the 34 miles out and back to the “Hole in the Rock”, a huge passage through a small island at the entrance to the Bay of Islands.
Since the sun was out, we coughed up the cash. $75.
The boat. Twin 800hp turbo diesels pushing twin three blade surface drive props. Nice. There was some chop on the way out, the captain had us all sit near the back to minimize the slamming. Too bad, up front would have been fun. We sat as far forward as possible, the big boat slowly but inexorably gaining speed, hitting 40-45 knots in 4-5 foot rolling chop. Impressive. Even sitting behind the boats’ midpoint, we got picked up off the seats several times, and the poor cd player was punished several times by the landings, cutting off 6 or 7 times. Fun stuff.
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Out to the rock, the captain would slow to explain different features, we were permitted to stand and walk around while in slow mode. Through the hole, saw some seals, poked our nose into a cavernous hollow, the boat skills the captain effortlessly displayed impressive.

On our way back, with the rollers, we were allowed to sit up front, but the ride was significantly smoother. Wind in the hair, sun beating down, the captain turning and carving close to the jagged shoreline, slowing to surf along some of the larger waves, the bright green hills a picturesque backdrop.
Passed a little 28 foot powerboat, I leaned over to Denise and told her that it was a good indication of the effortless speed. Us, smoothly cruising atop the waves at 50 knots, powerboat pitching and rolling, spray crashing as the bow pitched heavily into the swells, barely doing 20.

Back to the dock, we took the ancient ferry back to our port, and walked back to the campsite.
The sun had done wonders, the bike seats completely dry. We hopped on and rode to the other side of the peninsula, to “Long Beach”. Pretty.

Oh, yeah, New Zealanders aka Kiwis bicycle brakes are reversed, too. Front brake = right lever, like a motorcycle. One more fun little difference. People pass each other to the left while walking, too. Tough to overcome these ingrained behaviours. What side of the road do you walk on? Stuff you’ve long ago stopped thinking about needs to be relearned. Going to be fun when we finally get home, too, as I think 5 weeks will be just enough time to have all these “leftist” behaviours become habit.
Got back home, cooked up some steaks on the camper’s gas burner, enjoyed some local wine, and off to bed. I think I see a pattern….early to bed, early to rise. Maybe I should patent it.