Fresh off the plane we drove up the east coast of New Zealand from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. The journey should have taken about 4 leisurely hours, but it took us all day—Tom insists it’s because I have to see EVERYTHING, but I contend it’s Google’s fault the drive was so long and circuitous.
Due to restrictions on our rental contract, I had to do all the driving on this leg of the trip, which I was not happy about for two reasons. One, I really like to passenger, and in our normal lives Tom does about 99% of the driving. And two, because Tom is a terrible navigator.
The drive out of Auckland doesn’t get interesting until after Wellsford, where I had programmed a route to take us towards the coast and up to Paihia. Pretty soon it became obvious that Google maps was arbitrarily changing the route I had planned, trying to get us back on the main highway. Tom tried to help, but being cartographically challenged, his directions meant that at one point we had to traverse 15 km of gravel washboard in order to get back on the coast road. It went on like this for hours, and we were pretty exasperated by the time we ended up taking an unplanned car ferry across to Paihia, our destination, late in the afternoon.
Even though the trip took us way longer than anticipated, it was a beautiful drive. We wound through endless primeval looking forests filled with tree ferns, palms, bromeliads and other tropical plants that made you feel as if a T-Rex was going to pop out at every turn. Along the coast were constant glimpses of aqua water and beautiful white and yellow sand beaches. Inland (for we did spend a fair amount of time deviating from the coast) were lush valleys and dales dotted here and there with farms.
The Northland coast and Paihia in particular felt like Hawaii– with the palms and hibiscus, the surf and dive shops, and the laid back vibe Paihia could be any small beach town in Maui or Kauai. In this part of the island, it’s easy to see why New Zealand is part of Polynesia.
We loved the place we booked in Paihia- ‘The Treehouse’, a beautifully appointed studio nestled in a tropical forest with a view across the bay and the sound of waves lapping the beach. The owner, Garth, who lives in the house above, maintains a gorgeous cottage garden and made us feel so at home.
As for our Google Maps assistant, who caused no end of cursing, squabbling and frustration the entire time we were on the North Island, and who we have always referred to as ‘Jane’ for some reason—well, she has now got a new moniker. We have renamed her ‘Hal’.
2 responses to “Bossed by Google”
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Haha! Similar frustration with our navigator in Scotland. We called her “Su” short for shut up!
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The hijinks continues, so we are navigating the old school way now. Thankfully, no large cities and a limited number of roads in the ‘south of the south’.
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