Parley and Me

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  Paihia, North Island, New Zealand
Friday, August 1, 2008

It was with great sadness that we left Cairns' lovely weather and Jeremy and Connie behind on Tuesday and headed back to Melbourne.  Cold, cold Melbourne.  Actually, Melbourne wasn't too cold, but it was definitely not the idyllic weather we had had in Cairns.  The weather was still cold for the country, though, and we watched on the news as Sydneysiders of all ages gleefully played in the snow; apparently, it was Sydney's first snowfall since 1836.  No wonder the Aussies are so concerned about climate change.  As for Connie and Jeremy, our plan is to connect with them again at the end of our New Zealand trip, so look for them to make another appearance soon.

Anyway, after spending a night in Melbourne, Paul and I headed to the Melbourne airport to catch our flight to Auckland.  The whole trip I had been begging Paul to buy me a stuffed koala, and he finally relented in the Melbourne airport.  He is very soft and cuddly, and I have named him "Parley" after Paul

Parley

.  To irritate Paul, I occasionally call him "Polly," but once I accidentally called him Parley instead, so it's been a running joke.  Anyway, Paul was a bit embarrassed as I clutched and cuddled him all through the plane ride (Parley makes a good pillow) and through customs.  The funniest part was when he was put through the biosecurity x-ray machine--when he came out, the x-ray guy cracked up.  He laughed even harder when he realized that Parley belonged to 30 year-old me and not a six year-old. 

In any event, we arrived in cold and rainy Auckland, and were depressed to find out that the forecast was endless days of rain and overcast days.  However, we were thrilled when we set out the next day and it was sunny on our drive to Paihia in the northern part of the North Island.  We were even more thrilled at our luck when we stopped for breakfast and met a woman from South Africa who said it was the first sunny day they had in weeks. 

The drive itself was beautiful.  New Zealand (which we learned is the most remote country in the world at 2000 kilometers from Australia, its nearest neighbor) is very green and hilly, and everywhere you look there is coastline,  sheep and cows.  Eventually, we made it to Paihia, where the clouds and the rain caught up with us.  Paihia is a small but scenic beach front town.  In the summer, it is a great place to go to the beach and swim with dolphins, but we decided to pass on that because the water is likely freezing.  In Paihia, I met my new friend Montekeith beer--a New Zealand ale that I am very fond of.  We stayed at a lovely beachfront motel and went to sleep and woke up to the sound of the waves.  Luckily for us, despite the bad forecast, we again woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Paihia.  We hope the weather will hold out as we continue to make our way north to Cape Reinga at the tip of the northern island. 

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Paul and Parley	Paihia	Sunrise over Paihia	Yeah sun!!
Sunrise	Paihia's Wharf	1-Paihia	Funny License Plate

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