Auckland Botanic Gardens, New Zealand

In a last, brief embrace of North Island New Zealand, Vilis and I spent today’s sunny late morning and early afternoon hours in the Auckland Botanic Gardens and on the adjacent Puhinui Stream Fo...

Hiking Ngahopua and Hongi’s Tracks, North Island, New Zealand

Again, mist and drizzle shrouded the central North Island this morning, and again Vilis and I tramped through dim native forests thick with a sense of time gone past. Shifting cloud obscured or reveal...

Arohaki Lagoon and Rainbow Mountain, North Island, New Zealand

At 9 a.m., after driving farther into Whirinaki Forest Park, Vilis and I set out for Arohaki Lagoon on a track that led us first through scrub dominated by tea tree, toetoe, cabbage trees, bracken, an...

Hiking in Whirinaki Forest Park, North Island, New Zealand

This morning and throughout the day, cloud and rain sagged onto the North Island, dripping moisture onto the landscape and screening hills and lakes. After breakfast in the dry, spacious kitchen of th...