Tolls; pies; Kauri; toilets and ferries!

For those who were a bit worried about the whereabouts of Blipbear he is making the ferry crossing to Russell in the Bay of Islands.

We have had our longest days drive today up to Northlands from the Coromandel and have experienced our first motorway and first toll. No toll booths though, you have to leave the motorway and go to a service station to pay!

Whilst at the motorway I noticed a sign for a Cheeseburger Pie! They like pies here in New Zealand - I think they will put anything in one. We have had sausage and egg and Chris has had Venison but we haven't tried the huge range available. We stopped for coffee in a small town one day at about 10.45am. People came in and bought pies to eat there and then. The hot cabinets were full and as we sat there lots of van drivers came in to get there mid morning pie. We tried the sausage rolls which are huge, far more meat than pastry, we shared one between us. When we asked the girl about them she said the men in New Zealand liked there meat! The quiche are brilliant huge amount of filling, at least 2" and light filo pastry.
Continuing we took a diversion to the Kauri Museum. It was brilliant despite the entry fee.

The Kauri used to be everywhere but like so much else has been depleted over the years. We saw a clump on the Cormandel but we are talking about 7 not hundreds. There, they were mainly used for the gold mining industry but the European settlers and development of farming saw huge numbers cleared from the land and used for fencing and shingles to building and furniture. The museum was excellent showing the pioneer settlers and how the trees were used. In this area many very ancient trees were recovered from the swamps and put to use. They contain gum, a bit like amber which was used for things like Linoleum. People came to be Gum diggers!

Thankfully there are programmes now to try to restore these magnificent trees. The first Maori settlers were able to use a whole trunk to carve a Waka or war canoe which is some indication of how big they can grow. There was even a carved bath made out of one.

Our next mission was to find the toilets that Billy Connelly visited on the World Tour of NZ programme he did. They are in Kawakawa - the Hundertwasser's toilets! Crazy and amazing just in an ordinary un assuming town!

Then we were on the ferry across to Russell after a long but very interesting journey!