The Satcher's New Zealand Adventure: Public Toilets

2015-01-04
Public use toilets are a little hard to come by in the small towns you drive through in New Zealand. Only the big petrol stations offer public facilities and cafe´ owners want you to buy something. Normally, there'll be a blue sign on the main road providing directions to the public loo (usually one per town). On our way from Whangarei to Kerikeri, we passed through Kawakawa and came across the Hundertwasser public toilets. And, seeing as how we needed to go, we went.

The Hundertwasser entrance (tree growing through the roof)

A look down the isle

Our geek shirts

We drove north to Kerikeri to visit their nice farmers' market and then back south to Paihia to meet our boat tour into the Bay of Islands. We had lunch on the Waitangi treaty grounds. Waitangi is where the British signed the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi with a group of Maori chiefs. The treaty is still a sticking point between the Maori and Pakeha.

The big event of the day was a 1/2 day boat ride in the Bay of Islands. The most exciting part for me was the scramble to find a parking spot. There was no public parking near the wharf, so I had to schlep the car a few blocks over to an almost full public lot, make a mad dash to the Lotto store for change and then run the few blocks back to the wharf where I was the last to board. It was a lovely day on the boat and we saw a large school of fish and a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins. The captain took the boat through the famous "Hole in the Rock" and put us ashore for an hour on Urupukapuka Island where we dipped our feet in the beautifully clear water. We also took a 15 min hike up a nearby hilltop for photos. The bay is beautiful. We had a standard o'club dinner that night at the Paihia Ex-Servicemans' club and finished the day by driving to our hotel in Taipa on Doubtless Bay.