Already on the fourth day of our Bill Peach tour...

David and Eric both have emailed me that the pictures are blurry, but they don't look blurry to me when I pull up the blog.  I don't know what to do but if anyone has any ideas please email me and I'll try it.  


A few words about our tour director and our mates:  


Virginia is our fearless leader, an Australian who wears many hats besides this one.  She is a long time flight attendant for Qantas,  a registered pilot,  a gourmet cook, cancer survivor and she even mans the telephones at the Australian equivalent of 911.  Divorced for ten years, she has one son, and a new man in her life who is making her very happy.  She's delightful and you will see pictures of her as the tour progresses. 

David is a radiologist with the Cleveland Clinic, one of the most respected in our country as we all know.  He travels often by himself because his wife doesn't like to fly long distances--he seems okay with that and they do travel together.  He has a son who is an first year ER resident in Detroit so we trade doctor stories.  He has a dry sense of humor and is helping me de-mystify some of more bewildering aspects of this new Mac computer.

Jeannie is a sweet lady from just north of Brisbane who lives alone with a variety of cats and dogs, loves all animals and travels whenever she can. 


Trish and Graham are traveling companions from Australia who both are veterans of several previous Bill Peach tours and have even had Virginia as their tour leader in the past.  They are excellent poster people for Bill Peach.  

And of course there is our young and handsome pilot with the unlikely name of Warrick Wild--more about him later.


Then there's us,  Tom and Sara.  We are three Americans, three Australians and an Australian guide, a Kiwi pilot and we are all getting along great.

A little bit about the airplane.  It is a whole new experience being driven to the airport, and immediately walking out on the tarmac and boarding our Cessna--no taking off our jackets, shoes, belts or jewelry, no waiting in endless lines, no hassle.  The plane is fairly compact, but we all fit and we're taking turns sitting in the cockpit next to Warrick.  Yesterday I sat up there and watched as he manipulated the controls on the instrument panel.  Because I was in the co-pilot's seat (we have no co-pilot), I could hear all of his communications with the ground through my earphones and could eavesdrop on not only his communications with the ground but that of other pilots as well.  Delta, Charlie, 6...3....8, Roger, and much of which is simply unintelligible jargon to the uninitiated.   I did figure out that we traveled fairly steadily at 240 knots, and I could read the altimeter as we climbed from 1,500 feet to 6,000 feet.  I think normally we will fly at the lower altitudes so that we can all see the sights clearly but yesterday was a windy cloudy day and it was necessary to soar above the weather.  We flew along the Western coast of the northern part of the North Island, we saw a cluster of three mountains covered in snow and Warrick told us that one of those mountains was a volcano that erupted just three months ago.  We flew over a large military training zone and then as we flew above the cotton candy clouds there were only glimpses of landscape and shoreline below.  Now I know what it feels like to be controlled by radar and not be able to see where we are going.  Have faith little mustard seed!

But let's go back to the beginning of our tour.  After our welcome dinner at the Hilton, we were up at the crack of dawn and on the road to the airport by seven, we soon boarded our compact little Cessna, met Warrick and were on our way to the Bay of Islands.  Sadly, the day was not sunny like the day before so the pictures are a bit gray.   Still, flying at relatively low altitude up the coast and around the tip of New Zealand was lovely and surreal.  Lush green pastures, brooding hills, meandering rivers, a coastline dotted with inlets and bays, black sand beaches and an occasional village made for a breathtaking landscape.  We soon were flying down the east side of the North Island making our way to Paihia where the plane would land and we would be transported by van and then by ferry to the little seaside town of Russell.  We took a short van tour of the town hosted by Chris, an old gent from Scotland who spends his retirement years guiding tourists through the fascinating history of Russell.  Discovered by Captain Cook in 1769 it was invaded by the Brits in 1809, held a stint as capital of New Zealand, sacked by the Maoris in 1845 and held the dubious title of “hellhole of the Pacific” during the 1820’s due to the constant warring between the Maoris and the Brits.  During times of peace it was home to mostly “grog shops and brothels” according to Chris.   The Maoris burned everything to the ground in 1845.  The Americans came on whaling ships, convicts enjoyed the relative freedom of the island since there were no police at all until the 1830’s, and the turmoil among the various groups continued until the end of the century.  Now it is a lovely peaceful town of mostly holiday homes, quite streets and quaint inns, restaurants and shops.

Later we took a larger ferry from Russell to Cape Brett, spotting a huge pod of dolphins along the way.  We were headed toward the Hole in the Rock, a natural formation aptly named, and quite impressive it was.  Our large vessel motored right through the hole and the majesty of the volcanic rock made us yet again feel insignificant against the wonders of nature.

After the cruise to the Hole in the Rock we returned to Paihia and walked along the beach road to our hotel where we had a truly wonderful six course meal prepared especially for us by the hotel chef.