What's wrong with Whangarei?

We've decided we like being jafas. The endearing term has nothing to do with the little cakes you can buy in the UK. A 'jafa' is what those who live in the beautiful places and small towns around New Zealand affectionately call the frequent holiday seekers, or weekend travellers, from Auckland, who will often more than triple a town's population during nice weather, weekends, and holidays. It stands for Just Another F#@!ing Aucklander.

So last weekend, wearing the badge of jafa proudly, Claire and I were more than happy to visit Whangarei.

Actually, it's pronounced Fongaray (well as near as I can understand anyway) - so my little alliteration in the title is lost. 'Wh' in Maori is pronounced like an 'f'. So in Maori, jafa is spelled jawha.

Well, what is wrong with Whangarei? When Claire and I were choosing a destination, the Bay of Islands - the well known highlight of the North Island - was top of Claire's list, but I was a bit worried it was too focused on water sports (snorkling, sailing, kayaking, etc), and it is winter after all, and the water is cold, so I persuaded Claire to save that paradise for a warmer weekend and instead stay in Whangarei where tramping (hiking) could be found - according to our Lonely Planet anyway.

How little Claire trusted my judgement on Whangarei was apparent when we hiked to Whangarei falls Saturday morning (pictured). Claire radiated shocked disbelief that there was something nice there to behold. I tried not to be offended - trust in a relationship is overrated after all.

The shock continued through the afternoon when we went for another hike out at Ocean Beach. We have more beautiful pictures than we can share along the coastline, but here are two, one of Claire in front of the beach, and one looking back at Ocean Beach from where we hiked.

Sunday we were a bit more ambitious and tallied up a few hundred miles driving to the West coast and down through Waipoua forest where some ancient Kauri trees can be found. Here's a picture of me in front of a young Kauri tree planted in 1979, and then in front of Tane Mahuta (meaning Lord of the Forest), one of the oldest Kauri trees suspected to be around 2000 years old. I'm standing in front of that one too... have a close look. Spectacular.

The next two weekends we'll be in Auckland, and I'll be playing in three concerts with the Auckland Symphony featuring 'American' music. (The real odd piece we're playing is an accordion concerto - but it's not what I expected. It's very dark and brooding.) But that should get us through August, and as the days pass, we'll be looking forward to once again being jafas.