For my birthday, I wanted a day off from bike riding. But I wanted to spend my birthday in Kerikeri, a little agricultural town about 33k from Paihia. Since we were too tired to make the whole distance to Kerikeri on Oct. 26, we had to ride it on my birthday. So I didn't get a day off. Not that day anyway.

But we had a blast anyway. We started out having an awesome pancake and french toast breakfast at a little tourist cafe on the water. Then we skipped out of town and rode to Kerikeri. The road was pretty hilly but not awful.

We had a good omen on entering town: an avocado stand. I love avocados and so does Eric. We've been buying them at roadside stands in Costa Rica, Maui, and now NZ! It's so awesome to tour with the fruit you love.

Then we took a chance and rode to a campsite that was several clicks (several k's) out of town. We try to camp near town so we can walk in at will. Another strike: this campsite was downhill on a no-exit road, so we'd have to ride back up when we left. We were totally reluctant, but we did it anyway, and it turned out grand.

Our lovely campsite, called Pagoda Holiday Park (on Pa Road in case you're looking), was on a little creek that ran into the Bay of Islands, and came with free use of plastic kayaks. (They call kayaks canoes here, so it can be a little misleading; these were definitely kayaks. Canoes here are called "Canadian canoes"). It was paradise. We decided to stay two nites in honor of my birthday.

We had four fellow campers--English (from Manchester) fellows who were working their way around the world. They were hoping to get jobs picking in NZ's summer (they say good pickers can earn $NZ100/day, or $900/wk). But since it was still spring, they had gotten jobs doing landscaping and gardening at the holiday camp. While we were there they practiced juggling lit torches.

Eric and I had planned to go out for dinner for my birthday, but since it was too early to eat, we went to buy groceries instead. We totally stocked up (and stopped at a computer store that let us use the 'Net for $5 for 30 minutes) and even got some beer: Mac's Gold. Mac's Gold is apparently the only microbrew beer that has survived here. The main brew is called Lion's Red and it's not great.

That afternoon, we scotched the idea of a dinner out. Instead, we made some lamb and creamy havarti sandwiches, got in the kayaks, and and paddled to the harbor. Those were great sandwiches. It's a good thing we didn't plan to eat out that night--no stores were open.

On Tuesday the 28th, in honor of the fact that I actually had to ride on my birthday, we decided to hold my birthday over for another day. We celebrated with food--strangely, food named after American regions. Before the day was through, I had eaten a Mississippi Mud Pie and a Memphis somethingorother--some kind of chocolate and caramel coated ice cream bar. It was fun but made me sick.

That night we met an odd German man, Lothar, who lives in a flat next to the Pagoda Holiday Park. He told us about how he had won the equivalent of $100,000 British pounds by betting on horses in the 1960s, and how he had used the money to travel all over the world. (Although he was born in Berlin, Germany, he left in 1951 for NZ, and I guess that's where he was when his ship came in). He spent a lot of time talking about how the U.S. was invincible--how the Germans and Japanese tried and failed to fell it, and how the Chinese were trying, but would fail too. He also got in a few racist comments, all the while saying that he wasn't a racist.

Anyway, he was nice to us. He gave us some mince soup (I think mince is minced hamburger meat) with potatoes which was quite good. He also gave us two beers and that day's travel section, which had an article on Malaysia.

next: we find the home of Opo the dolphin

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