VictoriaApril 28
While some might think the above Andy Williams lyric refers to the holiday season, for us it’s the return of Harmony, our motorhome, to Wilderness HQ. Buh-bye!
While it wasn’t a horrible experience, overall we were pretty disappointed with our Fiat Bürstner. If IKEA built motorhomes, Harmony would win first prize. So many things fell apart on our trip and by the end, we were propping windows open with our broom, selfie stick and clothes pins, plus we were using a plastic bag under our bathroom sink to catch the leaking water from who knows where it was dripping. Gross!
When we dropped off Harmony, the team was very apologetic. They told us that five surfer dudes from CA were the previous guests in our RV and the team didn’t do a good enough job checking or cleaning it. They compensated us fairly for the issues, but we would have preferred it if we didn’t have all of those frustrations in the first place.
After we performed our celebratory dance, we picked up our rental car at Avis, loaded all of our stuff in and hit the road. So much faster we went! Zipping around turns and not hearing any rattling from the back seat when we went over a bump in the road. And surely we’d beat 9 miles per gallon on gas. It sure was turning out to be a great day.
The weather was fabulous. That perfect fall day, sunny and 65 degrees. Or maybe things just seemed brighter because we were no longer hindered by our 23 foot motorhome.
We headed to Cornwall Park for lunch at the very busy cafe and then walked up the steep hill to One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie), the second highest volcanic peak in Auckland. Once at the top, there was a 360 degree panoramic view of Auckland and its surroundings.
The site once contained a grove of Monterey pine trees. Today there is only one left, the only tree people now associate as One Tree Hill.
The site is culturally important to all New Zealanders. Several Māori tribes can trace their ancestry to the mountain and it once contained a fortified village.
For the pakeha (white person, non-Māori ), it’s the site of the grave of Sir John Logan Campbell, who gifted the area to the city in 1901. The symbolism of the 100-foot obelisk though is ambiguous. Some say it’s a memorial to Sir John, while others believe it’s a symbol of racial harmony and respect.
U2 wrote a song about the hill, which appeared on The Joshua Tree album. It was written to honor New Zealander Greg Carroll, a groupie of the band who died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin in 1986. The song refers to the night Carroll took Bono to One Tree Hill.
After our walk, we began our long drive to the Cormandel Region with awesome rainbows on the horizon. It seems every time we drive we’re greeted by these rainbows. We arrived at Thornton Bay as the sun was setting.
We pulled in to several different lookout spots to admire the view.
Our accommodation for the night was less than stellar at the Harborview Motel. Thankfully, it was only for one night. Our dinner was perhaps the worst of the trip so far, a Totino’s knockoff frozen pizza at Star and Garter that we barely ate. We’re glad to be moving on in the morning.
