My second last day in Auckland was Berni's last day there. And that night she had to go pick up her hat from some random place and that took a long time. So I said my final goodbye to Berni. She said "This is the longest time I've spent with a guy I didn't know".. and that made me actually think, yea we didn't know each other and we just traveled together for like a week. Awww, travel buddies for life.
My last day in Auckland was pretty sweet. I finally decided to go up the Sky Tower which was great. I was initially being a snob saying "Pfft, I've been up the CN Tower, now THAT is impressive"... but we don't have the same views obviously, and you can't see three different volcanoes going up the CN Tower. Unfortunately at this time I was without a camera so you won't get to see what I saw, but take it from me, it was quite nice. I saw Mt. Rangitoto[pic], Mt. Eden[pic], and Mt. Wellington[pic]. I also watched the sun set and got some full moon action while I was up there. Very nice evening.
After that I went back to the hostel and chilled at the bar for a while, and met a girl named Barbara from Austria. We decided to go for a walk around the city to find a better bar and happened upon the Auckland Arts Festival. So we stopped in there for the evening and enjoyed some live music and drinks. It was a pretty cool vibe, lots of young successful socialites sipping wine and having conversation. There was also a camera that you moved around in front of and it created swirling images on a huge screen; this was pretty cool. I stayed for a few hours but then had to go because I was catching an early train (7:30am departure) the next morning. So I said goodnight to Barbara and to Auckland for the last time.
I woke up the next morning at 6:30am, because I had to be at the station early for check-in. Luckily the station was only about 5 minutes away and I mapped out my route the day before just in case I got lost in my half sleeping state. So I stumbled out of bed, dragged on my clothes and walked in the dark to the train station.
Taking the train was a GENIUS idea, it was really relaxing and I got to see all kinds of nice scenery; there was also commentary along the way, I took one of the maps on the menu for a souvenir (scissors coming in handy once again). The train went Auckland -> Pikekohe -> Hunty -> Hamilton -> Te Awanutu -> Otorohanga -> Waitomo -> Te Kuiti -> Taumarunui -> National Park (Mt. Ruapehu) -> Onakune -> Wairu -> Taihape -> Marton -> Fielding ->Palmerston North -> Levin -> Otak -> Paraparaune -> Poriua -> Wellington...oh I didn't mention the train ride was 12hrs?..yea. Most of those places were EXTREMELY small towns, but the people seemed nice enough, most of them were waving as the train went by which was cool. The highlight of the trip was seeing Mt. Ruapehu. It was kind of bitter sweet because I never got to go up and see everything when I was in Taupo, but at least I got to see it; but it just made me want to go up there even more. It really made everything else I've seen (mountain wise) just look silly in comparison. This was a real mountain, I was actually impressed, it was the biggest thing I think I've ever seen.
Along the way I saw the first black sheep I've seen in New Zealand, and some other sheep that have black faces; up until this point I had only seen one kind of sheep in NZ, but there's a TON of them. I decided not to engage in any conversation while on the train, there was a lady from Alberta sitting in front of me talking to a couple from England and another girl from England. I just wanted to chill and watch the hills roll by; the sound track of my journey was Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes, Metric - Grow Up & Blow Away, MGMT - Congratulations (first time listening to this whole album, it was really good. I especially liked I found a Whistle and Brian Eno), and K-os - *All songs*. (Sidenote: There was a gangsta guy sitting behind me and for the last few minutes of the journey he was singing Lonely by Akon..pretty hilarious)
I called ahead to a place called Downtown Backpackers, none of the hostels in Wellington were rated over 65% in the BBH book and once I got to DT Backpackers (which was rated the highest at 65%) I found out why. It had a very detached vibe, not very friendly, and it was kind of old inside but not in a homey kind of way, like a run down hotel. I slept in a dorm with 24 beds in it, so yeah.. I wasn't too impressed with this place but I was only there for one night so it was alright. The best part about this hostel was it was located right outside of the train station and a $2 shuttle away from the ferry, so it was very convenient. That night I wanted to go out (sitting on a train for 12 hrs I needed a drink), I went for a walk around but it was Sunday night so nothing was really going on. I went back to the hostel to have a drink in the bar and met two Dutch guys (Sidenote: Jonathan DeGuzman used to play for their favorite soccer team in Holland, so when I told them we were from the same place and I had to play against him they were pretty impressed. Oh and they were both martial arts masters... one taekwondo black belt and the other was a judo champion in holland.. so yea, good to know).
Long story short I decided to hit the town with these guys and the night went something like this: First bar met some more Dutch guys, then left with some Danish guys and a local (Sidenote: This guy was a Mauri and he was CRAZY, he kept saying I'LL SHOW YOU THE REAL KIWI EXPERIENCE, HEY... he was funny though, he told me he's never seen a water fall before and all that stuff is just for tourists LOL), we almost ended up in a strip club but it was too expensive, then ended up at an Irish bar and stayed there for a while with some more locals. One of the guys knew a bunch of weird facts about Canada. The Dutch guys and Danish guys left but I stayed there to chat it up with the locals, ended up speaking some french and making out with some woman who had just come back from an MGMT concert.
Woke up the next morning feeling alright, I stored my bags at the hostel and went for a walk along the harbor (really nice houses across the water [took some pics on twitter] and free wifi!) to Te Papa Tongarewa. Te Papa was really cool, nice building by the water and some really interesting exhibits inside. I spent about 6 hours in there just wondering around, it was really cool. While there I got a new idea for my super-awesome "I've traveled the world" tattoo. (Go to my twitter page to see some highlights from the museum, scroll down to where it says "A walk through through Te Papa" and go up..I also named all the exhibits, just for you guys!) I had my ferry booked for 6:25pm so I had to get something to eat. I went to a really nice Fish & Chips place down Cuba st. ... Wellington definitely gets cool points for Cuba st, very trendy cool there with nice boutiques and oddly dressed people roaming around.
After that I got my bags from the hostel and hopped on the ferry. The ferry ride was very nice, I watched the sunset at the front of the boat and we traveled through Queen Charlotte Sound, which was really nice, but it was getting dark so I didn't get the full effect. Finally I arrived in Picton at 9:00pm-ish, and was off the North Island. We had some great times North Island, but now I must see what the south has in store for me. I'm sure I'll be back one day, goodbye and thanks for the memories.
Peace & Love
Monday, March 28, 2011
![Mt. Rangitoto[pic]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/254/452111271_9feef0a85d.jpg){kind=link}
![Mt. Eden[pic],](http://www.teara.govt.nz/files/p8706gns.jpg){kind=link}
Friday, March 18, 2011
Picture post: Courtesy of Janine & Lisa
http://blogs.statravel.de/tinilizjane
North Cape
Cape Reinga sand dunes
Taupo - Huka Falls
Whangarei - Whangarei Falls
THANKS JANINE & LISA!!
North Cape
Cape Reinga sand dunes
Taupo - Huka Falls
Whangarei - Whangarei Falls
THANKS JANINE & LISA!!
The Wild Goose [E]xperience: Sailing to the City of Sails (Mar 16 - 17)
Prelude: The actual name is Wild Goose Expeditions, the name of the boat is The Wild Goose (it used to just be Wild Goose but there was already a boat registered under that name so Lisa painted on a small THE). I put [E]xperience in an attempt to be ironic and funny because there is a charter bus that drives around all of New Zealand called The Kiwi [E]xperience; but it is mostly filled with 17-20 year olds getting drunk and making brief stops at some tourist sites. And traveling on The Wild Goose was probably the antithesis of that. Us real backpackers (HA!) scoff in their general direction. Also, we didn't actually sail all the way to Auckland (The City of Sails, more sails per head than any other city in the world), but we got pretty close...and it makes the title sound much better so get over it.
Brief background story (don't quote me on this, Jamie and Lisa if you are reading this please correct any misinformation): Jamie has sailed all around the world (literally, all the way around) in his previous boat Possibilities. He's been sailing himself around for about 14yrs, starting when he was 20 and going to school for something like agricultural science, he told me the name but it was too long. He has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean 3 times (twice across the north and once across the south) and out of all his stops he enjoyed staying in Brazil the most. The funniest part about Jamie is when people ask him where he's from he says "Australia....I guess..". He was born in South Africa while his parents were sailing around, stayed in Aus for a few years and then started sailing himself. Very mellow and laid back guy, made me really appreciate sailing. Lisa knew Jamie through a mutual friend from Uni and they all decided to sail to Brazil together.
He and Lisa picked up The Wild Goose while in the U.S and sailed across the Pacific to Australia then to New Zealand where Tane Mahuta Harry Ketu Mitchel was born. While sailing across the pacific the longest they went without seeing land was 27 DAYS! between Panama and Marquesas. Pretty wicked right?..yup. Now on to my journey.
I woke up pretty excited for my first sailing journey, the only other sailing I've done was at Ben's cottage and that was on a tiny sail boat and just around the lake for a while; so I was pumped. Berni and I made our way to the port at around 8:30am and waited there for Christiana to arrive. After she arrived we met with Jamie, piled our bags into the dingy (Sidenote: This was a great feat, three large backpacks (Berni's being the biggest and heaviest LOL) and 3 small backpacks plus 3 people rowing in a small dingy. Christiana was else where at the time so Jamie had to go back and pick her up). Once we got on board we met Lisa and Tane (3 month old sailing master and part time DJ) and they gave us the tour, they made special note of the bicycle cupboard.
We needed a little push to get out of the harbor (help from the engine) but after that it was just quiet and calm sailing. We started off by passing by a few bays (Cooks Bay, Lonely Bay, and some others) very beautiful and then we were out onto the open water; or at least what I would consider open water, probably nothing like sailing across an ocean. There isn't really much to say about sailing, it is very relaxing and requires a lot of patience, my kind of activity. After a few hours we made it to Great Mercury Island (Fun fact: Great Mercury Island is owned by a New Zealand business man who bought it for about $300,000!!). This place was beautiful, and NOT mentioned in the Lonely Planet, so there weren't very many people around; also probably because it was an island in the middle of no where. We stopped at Peach Tree Bay, there were many others but Jamie thought that this one looked like a nice stopping place, and had lunch.
Before lunch we had a quick swim and snorkel. The water was so clear you really didn't need to snorkel you could just stand on the boat and watch the fish AND MANTA RAYS. I swam around for a while looking for fish, I saw a school of small silver fish and came back out. Then a manta ray came along so I had to jump back in to get a close look. It was pretty awesome I must say. After we ate Jamie decided to do some fishing and caught two snapper for dinner. We then set off again and sailed for another few hours until it got dark, so we stopped at Port Charles. Being on a sail boat there is no real bathroom available, so I had to learn how to pee off the back of the boat. This proved much more difficult than I thought, Jamie said it's because you are using your stomach muscles to balance so you have to relax them to get it going. I figured it out eventually =).
Sailing at night was one of the best experiences I've had here, the stars and the moon looked so amazing from the water, the moon was incredibly bright, a bit annoying as I'd have loved to see some more stars but it was good none the less. Also, as we were approaching Port Charles there was a faint smell of flowers in the air, it made for a very pleasant ride as I laid out on the front of the boat and watched the stars. I even saw the space station go by and a shooting star (yup..best ever). Sleeping on the boat was another thing I had to get over, because I like to sleep on my side. This proved quite difficult as I kept falling over, so I just turned on my back and everything was fine. I woke up in the middle of the night to pee and when I went out the moon was near setting so it was ENORMOUS and really close to the horizon, very cool.
I woke up the next morning at around 830-9ish (really good sleep after I figured it out) and we set off at around the same time; the wind was good so we had to get going quickly. On our way we saw Great Barrier Island which is the fourth largest in New Zealand's chain of islands. It was MASSIVE, from the front it looked alright, but then once we got around you could really see how big it was. And comparing it to Great Mercury it was pretty amazing in terms of size; if we had another day we may have made it out there but we were on a schedule. We also passed by Port Jackson which was quite nice, Berni and I had previously discussed driving up there when we rented the car, but seeing it this way was much more impressive. We also saw a penguin swimming along as we were sailing, which was pretty cool. During the trip Jamie taught us how to tie a Bowline knot and he taught me how to tie a monkey fist knot, which I will be using to decorate things from now on.
We finally arrived at Owhanake Bay, Waiheke Island in the late evening. The houses along the bay were really big and beautiful, there was also a vineyard just up the hill. It was a very nice quiet bay (the kind that Jamie likes) for us to say our goodbyes. We stopped in the bay for a while and I played with Tane for one last time (quick DJ session, he's a natural...obviously because he's a December baby like myself), said goodbye to Lisa and hopped in the dingy with all our stuff. This time around we had ALL the bags and ALL the people, and we still survived; I'm pretty sure Lisa has a video or at least a picture of this, pretty sketchy but we made it.
From there Luke from Kina Backpackers on Waiheke picked us up, not sure how else we would have gotten there really, and brought us to a pub. Oh right...it was St. Patties day! I had completely forgot, time flies when you're sailing I guess. So we stopped for a few beers and then continued on back to Kina (which was a really nice place right by the beach on a hill) to sail into dream land.....
Thanks to Jamie, Lisa, and Tane for giving me such a great trip around the Coromandel Peninsula. Look them up if you are ever up for some REAL adventure. It was a spectacular way to see the mountains and beachs, and I hope it won't be my last sailing expedition.
Peace & Love
Brief background story (don't quote me on this, Jamie and Lisa if you are reading this please correct any misinformation): Jamie has sailed all around the world (literally, all the way around) in his previous boat Possibilities. He's been sailing himself around for about 14yrs, starting when he was 20 and going to school for something like agricultural science, he told me the name but it was too long. He has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean 3 times (twice across the north and once across the south) and out of all his stops he enjoyed staying in Brazil the most. The funniest part about Jamie is when people ask him where he's from he says "Australia....I guess..". He was born in South Africa while his parents were sailing around, stayed in Aus for a few years and then started sailing himself. Very mellow and laid back guy, made me really appreciate sailing. Lisa knew Jamie through a mutual friend from Uni and they all decided to sail to Brazil together.
He and Lisa picked up The Wild Goose while in the U.S and sailed across the Pacific to Australia then to New Zealand where Tane Mahuta Harry Ketu Mitchel was born. While sailing across the pacific the longest they went without seeing land was 27 DAYS! between Panama and Marquesas. Pretty wicked right?..yup. Now on to my journey.
I woke up pretty excited for my first sailing journey, the only other sailing I've done was at Ben's cottage and that was on a tiny sail boat and just around the lake for a while; so I was pumped. Berni and I made our way to the port at around 8:30am and waited there for Christiana to arrive. After she arrived we met with Jamie, piled our bags into the dingy (Sidenote: This was a great feat, three large backpacks (Berni's being the biggest and heaviest LOL) and 3 small backpacks plus 3 people rowing in a small dingy. Christiana was else where at the time so Jamie had to go back and pick her up). Once we got on board we met Lisa and Tane (3 month old sailing master and part time DJ) and they gave us the tour, they made special note of the bicycle cupboard.
We needed a little push to get out of the harbor (help from the engine) but after that it was just quiet and calm sailing. We started off by passing by a few bays (Cooks Bay, Lonely Bay, and some others) very beautiful and then we were out onto the open water; or at least what I would consider open water, probably nothing like sailing across an ocean. There isn't really much to say about sailing, it is very relaxing and requires a lot of patience, my kind of activity. After a few hours we made it to Great Mercury Island (Fun fact: Great Mercury Island is owned by a New Zealand business man who bought it for about $300,000!!). This place was beautiful, and NOT mentioned in the Lonely Planet, so there weren't very many people around; also probably because it was an island in the middle of no where. We stopped at Peach Tree Bay, there were many others but Jamie thought that this one looked like a nice stopping place, and had lunch.
Before lunch we had a quick swim and snorkel. The water was so clear you really didn't need to snorkel you could just stand on the boat and watch the fish AND MANTA RAYS. I swam around for a while looking for fish, I saw a school of small silver fish and came back out. Then a manta ray came along so I had to jump back in to get a close look. It was pretty awesome I must say. After we ate Jamie decided to do some fishing and caught two snapper for dinner. We then set off again and sailed for another few hours until it got dark, so we stopped at Port Charles. Being on a sail boat there is no real bathroom available, so I had to learn how to pee off the back of the boat. This proved much more difficult than I thought, Jamie said it's because you are using your stomach muscles to balance so you have to relax them to get it going. I figured it out eventually =).
Sailing at night was one of the best experiences I've had here, the stars and the moon looked so amazing from the water, the moon was incredibly bright, a bit annoying as I'd have loved to see some more stars but it was good none the less. Also, as we were approaching Port Charles there was a faint smell of flowers in the air, it made for a very pleasant ride as I laid out on the front of the boat and watched the stars. I even saw the space station go by and a shooting star (yup..best ever). Sleeping on the boat was another thing I had to get over, because I like to sleep on my side. This proved quite difficult as I kept falling over, so I just turned on my back and everything was fine. I woke up in the middle of the night to pee and when I went out the moon was near setting so it was ENORMOUS and really close to the horizon, very cool.
I woke up the next morning at around 830-9ish (really good sleep after I figured it out) and we set off at around the same time; the wind was good so we had to get going quickly. On our way we saw Great Barrier Island which is the fourth largest in New Zealand's chain of islands. It was MASSIVE, from the front it looked alright, but then once we got around you could really see how big it was. And comparing it to Great Mercury it was pretty amazing in terms of size; if we had another day we may have made it out there but we were on a schedule. We also passed by Port Jackson which was quite nice, Berni and I had previously discussed driving up there when we rented the car, but seeing it this way was much more impressive. We also saw a penguin swimming along as we were sailing, which was pretty cool. During the trip Jamie taught us how to tie a Bowline knot and he taught me how to tie a monkey fist knot, which I will be using to decorate things from now on.
We finally arrived at Owhanake Bay, Waiheke Island in the late evening. The houses along the bay were really big and beautiful, there was also a vineyard just up the hill. It was a very nice quiet bay (the kind that Jamie likes) for us to say our goodbyes. We stopped in the bay for a while and I played with Tane for one last time (quick DJ session, he's a natural...obviously because he's a December baby like myself), said goodbye to Lisa and hopped in the dingy with all our stuff. This time around we had ALL the bags and ALL the people, and we still survived; I'm pretty sure Lisa has a video or at least a picture of this, pretty sketchy but we made it.
From there Luke from Kina Backpackers on Waiheke picked us up, not sure how else we would have gotten there really, and brought us to a pub. Oh right...it was St. Patties day! I had completely forgot, time flies when you're sailing I guess. So we stopped for a few beers and then continued on back to Kina (which was a really nice place right by the beach on a hill) to sail into dream land.....
Thanks to Jamie, Lisa, and Tane for giving me such a great trip around the Coromandel Peninsula. Look them up if you are ever up for some REAL adventure. It was a spectacular way to see the mountains and beachs, and I hope it won't be my last sailing expedition.
Peace & Love
KEEP LEFT! (Mar 13 - 15)
During a rainy and bleek day of blogging and music, Berni and I met a girl named Rebecca who was originally from Alberta. We all decided to rent a car the next day and head out to some sites before leaving Whitianga. The only problem was none of us had ever driven on the left side of the road before, so it was going to be an interesting adventure. The cost to rent the car was $65 for the day + fill up the tank before returning it, so it came out to about $33 each (not baddddddd).
The company sent a van to pick us up at 9am to get the car (even though the place was like 2 blocks down the road..weird) and after a run down of the current dings in the car and payment I was volunteered to drive...wooo. It wasn't so bad though, you learn pretty quickly if you don't want to crash, and we were in a small town and in the country side so people were too concerned with how slow I was going and how I kept veering to the middle of the road (not my fault though, the wheel was unaligned!).
Our first stop in the morning was at New Chums Beach, which is in Whangapoua (near where we got picked up), which is voted one of the finest beaches in the world. And it better be considering what you have to do to get there. First you arrive at a bay and walk along to the rocks on the other side, then you head up into the forest along a slim path (about a foot to a foot and a half wide) which gets progressively higher. As you are looking over the edge to the rocks below (not too high, about a 3m drop onto some rocks) you also have to climb over protruding tree limbs and roots and navigate a windey and undulating path. This, as you can imagine, makes the beach much more secluded. There aren't even any signs posted as to where to go or that there is even a beach on the other side of the initial bay; luckily Rebecca was there before so she knew the route well. I felt like I was in the movie the Beach discovering some lost beach paradise in the middle of no where. You come out onto the beach and there are beautiful cliff faces behind you and a few dotted islands in the bright blue water.
We spent the entire morning there without anyone else showing up, others started to arrive around midday but even then it was only a hand full of people. I spent some time sitting in a tree, laying on the beach listening to music, and swimming. Wonderful morning to say the least. When we were all relaxed out we headed back to the car (by the time the bay partially filled with water..making it even harder to get to the beach) and set off for lunch and then our next destination; Cathedral Cove. It had just recently re-opened because of some mud slides in the area so we were lucky to get to see it. The view from the beginning of the cove walk was very nice, again multiple islands in the water and a wide view of the sea. The cove and surrounding beach were quite impressive (see pics for wowness), interesting rock formations sitting right on the shore, I think it was all lime stone, and a fresh water water fall just doing it's thing on the beach, ready to shower those coming from the salty sea water. We stayed there for a while, even though it was getting a bit dark, to enjoy the view and atmosphere.
I picked up two hitchhikers that I saw at Cathedral Cove on the way to our next destination (German and French), the FAMOUS Hot Water Beach. Now....I'm no hater or anything, but this place really didn't do it for me. Maybe it was the fact that we went for the evening low tide, you have to go at low tide for the full effect, so the place was full of people (it only works in a very small area). I just wasn't too impressed with the whole thing, it was cool but maybe a bit over hyped. It's basically just a bunch of people digging holes in the sand and sitting in them. The idea is cool, how the water is heated from the hot springs and what not but it's a bit touristy I guess. The best part was actually building the pool, because you have to make a sand wall to stop the water from the sea coming in. And you just kind of team up with random people and make big pools of hot water (some places in the pool are hot and others not so much). Some of the areas had water that was REALLY hot though, but they were too close to the water to get a good pool going. After a while I kind of wandered off to look at the stars on the beach which was really nice.
We stayed for a few hours then on our way back we realized that everything in Whitianga closes early so we missed out on dinner and decided to get some meat pies and noodles. Then I dropped off the two hitchhikers and it was off to bed. Before going to bed though, I met these two guys from Nova Scotia who had just sailed for a few days from Auckland to Whitianga.. it sounded like a sweet idea, so after some information gathering I agreed that that would be a nice trip.
(Rebecca sidenotes: Rebacca was awesome, she works in Antarctica during the summers in random places (bars/serving food/etc) and could scale rocks like a goat. She was also extremely nice and just all around cool peoples)
The next day was an unplanned extension so it consisted of laundry, calling les parents, and a Ferry ride to Front Bay (just across the harbour) with Berni and a guy I met that day named Emel from Denmark. Berni and another girl she had met named Christiana gathered the information and set up the sailing trip, departing the next day, and it was set. That's the coolest thing about traveling and living in hostels, sometimes really cool opportunities just come up because you're awake at the right time and willing to start up conversations with people.
That night Berni, Emel and I had a nice dinner of shrimp (coconut cream + pinnapple) and rice with white win (from Napier) as a send off to the very classy Coromandel Peninsula. Setting sail in the morning at 8:30am.
Peace & Love
The company sent a van to pick us up at 9am to get the car (even though the place was like 2 blocks down the road..weird) and after a run down of the current dings in the car and payment I was volunteered to drive...wooo. It wasn't so bad though, you learn pretty quickly if you don't want to crash, and we were in a small town and in the country side so people were too concerned with how slow I was going and how I kept veering to the middle of the road (not my fault though, the wheel was unaligned!).
Our first stop in the morning was at New Chums Beach, which is in Whangapoua (near where we got picked up), which is voted one of the finest beaches in the world. And it better be considering what you have to do to get there. First you arrive at a bay and walk along to the rocks on the other side, then you head up into the forest along a slim path (about a foot to a foot and a half wide) which gets progressively higher. As you are looking over the edge to the rocks below (not too high, about a 3m drop onto some rocks) you also have to climb over protruding tree limbs and roots and navigate a windey and undulating path. This, as you can imagine, makes the beach much more secluded. There aren't even any signs posted as to where to go or that there is even a beach on the other side of the initial bay; luckily Rebecca was there before so she knew the route well. I felt like I was in the movie the Beach discovering some lost beach paradise in the middle of no where. You come out onto the beach and there are beautiful cliff faces behind you and a few dotted islands in the bright blue water.
We spent the entire morning there without anyone else showing up, others started to arrive around midday but even then it was only a hand full of people. I spent some time sitting in a tree, laying on the beach listening to music, and swimming. Wonderful morning to say the least. When we were all relaxed out we headed back to the car (by the time the bay partially filled with water..making it even harder to get to the beach) and set off for lunch and then our next destination; Cathedral Cove. It had just recently re-opened because of some mud slides in the area so we were lucky to get to see it. The view from the beginning of the cove walk was very nice, again multiple islands in the water and a wide view of the sea. The cove and surrounding beach were quite impressive (see pics for wowness), interesting rock formations sitting right on the shore, I think it was all lime stone, and a fresh water water fall just doing it's thing on the beach, ready to shower those coming from the salty sea water. We stayed there for a while, even though it was getting a bit dark, to enjoy the view and atmosphere.
I picked up two hitchhikers that I saw at Cathedral Cove on the way to our next destination (German and French), the FAMOUS Hot Water Beach. Now....I'm no hater or anything, but this place really didn't do it for me. Maybe it was the fact that we went for the evening low tide, you have to go at low tide for the full effect, so the place was full of people (it only works in a very small area). I just wasn't too impressed with the whole thing, it was cool but maybe a bit over hyped. It's basically just a bunch of people digging holes in the sand and sitting in them. The idea is cool, how the water is heated from the hot springs and what not but it's a bit touristy I guess. The best part was actually building the pool, because you have to make a sand wall to stop the water from the sea coming in. And you just kind of team up with random people and make big pools of hot water (some places in the pool are hot and others not so much). Some of the areas had water that was REALLY hot though, but they were too close to the water to get a good pool going. After a while I kind of wandered off to look at the stars on the beach which was really nice.
We stayed for a few hours then on our way back we realized that everything in Whitianga closes early so we missed out on dinner and decided to get some meat pies and noodles. Then I dropped off the two hitchhikers and it was off to bed. Before going to bed though, I met these two guys from Nova Scotia who had just sailed for a few days from Auckland to Whitianga.. it sounded like a sweet idea, so after some information gathering I agreed that that would be a nice trip.
(Rebecca sidenotes: Rebacca was awesome, she works in Antarctica during the summers in random places (bars/serving food/etc) and could scale rocks like a goat. She was also extremely nice and just all around cool peoples)
The next day was an unplanned extension so it consisted of laundry, calling les parents, and a Ferry ride to Front Bay (just across the harbour) with Berni and a guy I met that day named Emel from Denmark. Berni and another girl she had met named Christiana gathered the information and set up the sailing trip, departing the next day, and it was set. That's the coolest thing about traveling and living in hostels, sometimes really cool opportunities just come up because you're awake at the right time and willing to start up conversations with people.
That night Berni, Emel and I had a nice dinner of shrimp (coconut cream + pinnapple) and rice with white win (from Napier) as a send off to the very classy Coromandel Peninsula. Setting sail in the morning at 8:30am.
Peace & Love
Bird shit luck II: Hitchhiking to Whitianga (Mar 12)
After being woken up earlier than I had hoped and a quick chat with Berni, we decided that we should move on from Coromandel Town. It's a very nice place but we were staying in a two bed dorm (more expensive) and there were some locals having some sort of guys weekend, but still waking up early in the morning and talking loud outside. So we dropped off our bags in the office, checked out, and decided to go around town and see what it was all about before heading out to Whitianga on the east coast of Coromandel later in the day.
The lonely planet mentioned something about a train ride through a forest and up a mountain so we decided that was a nice way to spend the day. The train was called Driving Creek Railway, it was on Driving Creek Rd, and it was tiny (in a cute small town kind of way). I would say it was more like a street car for the forest. Anyway, the ride was pretty cool, the railway was designed by a potter so there was some interesting pottery along the trail and some glass bottle walls which were nice. The views from on top of the mountain were spectacular, you could see a few different islands and volcanoes (see pics for wowness).
On our way back we stopped at the Driving Creek Cafe, this was definitely my favorite part about Coromandel Town. It was a really nice cafe, all organic and locally grown food (they actually grow some things right behind the cafe), mostly vegan and gluten free food as well. The smoothies were great, I didn't get one but I had a taste of Berni's and peeked at some of the other ones being served. It also has a second hand book store inside with some really cool photography books (among others) and a small art gallery where you can buy photos of New Zealand printed on canvas. The front garden has a sandbox and kids playing area, as well as some nice pottery and tables/chairs in various spots. The music they were playing while we were there was on point as well (Nile - Patrice, scroll to the bottom of the list for some sample tracks), which made an all around awesome atmosphere. Seriously, if you are in Coromandel Town GO TO THIS PLACE, just walk right out of town on the main road and veer to the right onto Driving Creek Road and you'll see it. They also hire WOFers (Working on Organic Farms) and provide accommodations and food, so you can meet other travelers there.
After spending an hour or two at the cafe we walked back through town and visited some historical sites on the way (mostly just former mayors homes and things like that). We also stopped at the mining museum which had some pretty nice things in there. It had some really cool rocks and a whole wall of rocks with lables and where you could find them (I'm sure Christopher would have appreciated this place more than I). Then we stopped on the way back at The Coromandel Smoking Company for some smoked mussels and shrimp for a late lunch(we also picked up a baggette....yup...fancy time).
We finished our lunch at around 5pm, Berni drew up our sign (complete with palm trees and PLEASE! written along the bottom) and we set off to try and hitchhike across to the east coast (about 1 hr drive). What we failed to realize (we were quickly prompted by the receptionist in the office) the main road to Whitianga was closed due to a rally race going on in the hills (yup thats how crazy the roads are). So the only way to get there was a detour road which would take much longer and there was probably not going to be a lot of traffic going around that way. It was also quite late in the day to try and hitchhike out of a town, but we are new at this so there was bound to be some poor decisions. Luckily for us the road opened up again at 5:30pm so we only had to wait on the other road for half an hour. By this time though Berni was getting skeptical about our luck and feeling the pressures of improper planning. I on the other hand remained calm, knowing how rare it is for a bird to shit on you (this was only the second time in my life it has happened) I felt the luck wasn't over yet.
One camper van stopped, I assume they were hippies as the man had quite a long beard and hair and they were growing sprouts in the front window, but we had to let them go by because they were going up north. Then 2 other cars stopped for us once we got onto the main road to Whitianga but they weren't going the whole way. Berni even asked the guy across the street playing with his kids if he would take us but he declined, he did mention that we were in a pretty good spot.
After about an hour we decided to just go with the next person that stopped, a nice old man towing his personal golf cart (just incase the club doesn't provide them) stopped for us so we jumped in and were on our way in the right direction at least. He said he could only drive us about 30 mins or so up the road to Whangapoua road. I didn't get his name because he was a bit hard of hearing and I'm sure my accent was throwing him off. When he dropped us off it was about 6:45ish and we were on the MOST random road in the middle of no where, it was now imperative that we get a ride within the hour or it would be dark.
Luckily after a few cars passed an Audi went zooming by but then turned around and came back to get us. Danny and Gary were just coming back from Coromandel Town where they picked up some oysters and beer for the night ahead (match between Auckland and some other team in Rugby). We made a brief stop in Matarangi Beach at a beach house owned by a friend of theirs (very nice place, beach houses there go from $400,000 - $2.5 mil), they offered us a beer and we headed to the beach for a quick chat and drink then we were off again. They were heading into Whitianga to watch the game at a pub and then returning later to the house. Danny was some sort of all around business/advertisement/etc type guy (good talker) and Gary was a softwear engineer who had worked in Aus for a while but was now back in NZ. They were both really funny guys, mad jokes throughout the drive. They actually dropped us off right infront of Cat's Pyjamas (hostel where we were staying) which was very nice and extended an invitation to the pub they were going to, but I was a bit tired from the day so I didn't end up going.
Once we arrived at the hostel we checked in to our rooms, found some food, and settled in for the night. Berni went to bed early, but I stayed up a while and had a very nice chat with two girls Tessa and Stephie. Tessa was really cool, she worked in broadcasting (some RANDOM like cottage country channel), and she was well versed in the Ocult/Illuminati/Bilderberg group type information. She also had done some webdesign and was the "nerd" of her group of friends. We listened to her iPod for a while (dope) then it got cold so it was bed time.
Peace & Love
The lonely planet mentioned something about a train ride through a forest and up a mountain so we decided that was a nice way to spend the day. The train was called Driving Creek Railway, it was on Driving Creek Rd, and it was tiny (in a cute small town kind of way). I would say it was more like a street car for the forest. Anyway, the ride was pretty cool, the railway was designed by a potter so there was some interesting pottery along the trail and some glass bottle walls which were nice. The views from on top of the mountain were spectacular, you could see a few different islands and volcanoes (see pics for wowness).
On our way back we stopped at the Driving Creek Cafe, this was definitely my favorite part about Coromandel Town. It was a really nice cafe, all organic and locally grown food (they actually grow some things right behind the cafe), mostly vegan and gluten free food as well. The smoothies were great, I didn't get one but I had a taste of Berni's and peeked at some of the other ones being served. It also has a second hand book store inside with some really cool photography books (among others) and a small art gallery where you can buy photos of New Zealand printed on canvas. The front garden has a sandbox and kids playing area, as well as some nice pottery and tables/chairs in various spots. The music they were playing while we were there was on point as well (Nile - Patrice, scroll to the bottom of the list for some sample tracks), which made an all around awesome atmosphere. Seriously, if you are in Coromandel Town GO TO THIS PLACE, just walk right out of town on the main road and veer to the right onto Driving Creek Road and you'll see it. They also hire WOFers (Working on Organic Farms) and provide accommodations and food, so you can meet other travelers there.
After spending an hour or two at the cafe we walked back through town and visited some historical sites on the way (mostly just former mayors homes and things like that). We also stopped at the mining museum which had some pretty nice things in there. It had some really cool rocks and a whole wall of rocks with lables and where you could find them (I'm sure Christopher would have appreciated this place more than I). Then we stopped on the way back at The Coromandel Smoking Company for some smoked mussels and shrimp for a late lunch(we also picked up a baggette....yup...fancy time).
We finished our lunch at around 5pm, Berni drew up our sign (complete with palm trees and PLEASE! written along the bottom) and we set off to try and hitchhike across to the east coast (about 1 hr drive). What we failed to realize (we were quickly prompted by the receptionist in the office) the main road to Whitianga was closed due to a rally race going on in the hills (yup thats how crazy the roads are). So the only way to get there was a detour road which would take much longer and there was probably not going to be a lot of traffic going around that way. It was also quite late in the day to try and hitchhike out of a town, but we are new at this so there was bound to be some poor decisions. Luckily for us the road opened up again at 5:30pm so we only had to wait on the other road for half an hour. By this time though Berni was getting skeptical about our luck and feeling the pressures of improper planning. I on the other hand remained calm, knowing how rare it is for a bird to shit on you (this was only the second time in my life it has happened) I felt the luck wasn't over yet.
One camper van stopped, I assume they were hippies as the man had quite a long beard and hair and they were growing sprouts in the front window, but we had to let them go by because they were going up north. Then 2 other cars stopped for us once we got onto the main road to Whitianga but they weren't going the whole way. Berni even asked the guy across the street playing with his kids if he would take us but he declined, he did mention that we were in a pretty good spot.
After about an hour we decided to just go with the next person that stopped, a nice old man towing his personal golf cart (just incase the club doesn't provide them) stopped for us so we jumped in and were on our way in the right direction at least. He said he could only drive us about 30 mins or so up the road to Whangapoua road. I didn't get his name because he was a bit hard of hearing and I'm sure my accent was throwing him off. When he dropped us off it was about 6:45ish and we were on the MOST random road in the middle of no where, it was now imperative that we get a ride within the hour or it would be dark.
Luckily after a few cars passed an Audi went zooming by but then turned around and came back to get us. Danny and Gary were just coming back from Coromandel Town where they picked up some oysters and beer for the night ahead (match between Auckland and some other team in Rugby). We made a brief stop in Matarangi Beach at a beach house owned by a friend of theirs (very nice place, beach houses there go from $400,000 - $2.5 mil), they offered us a beer and we headed to the beach for a quick chat and drink then we were off again. They were heading into Whitianga to watch the game at a pub and then returning later to the house. Danny was some sort of all around business/advertisement/etc type guy (good talker) and Gary was a softwear engineer who had worked in Aus for a while but was now back in NZ. They were both really funny guys, mad jokes throughout the drive. They actually dropped us off right infront of Cat's Pyjamas (hostel where we were staying) which was very nice and extended an invitation to the pub they were going to, but I was a bit tired from the day so I didn't end up going.
Once we arrived at the hostel we checked in to our rooms, found some food, and settled in for the night. Berni went to bed early, but I stayed up a while and had a very nice chat with two girls Tessa and Stephie. Tessa was really cool, she worked in broadcasting (some RANDOM like cottage country channel), and she was well versed in the Ocult/Illuminati/Bilderberg group type information. She also had done some webdesign and was the "nerd" of her group of friends. We listened to her iPod for a while (dope) then it got cold so it was bed time.
Peace & Love
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Bird shit luck I: Hitchhiking to Coromandel Town (Mar 11)
We woke up relatively early so we could do some reconnaissance on where we should go to hitchhike and what we should do. We asked Murry (the owner of the hostel) what the deal was and he gave us some very good info. He told us the best place was to go to Bethlehem and then try and catch a ride from there. So we took his advice and hopped on a bus to Tauranga then from there to Bethlehem.
We asked the bus driver where we should stand and she gave us some good directions, so we stopped in a cafe and made a sign (my design..took up two sheets, made handstyles...chyea!) and headed off to the street; it's illegal to hitchhike on the highway so we made sure to stay away from there. I set my bag down for a minute to run over and ask the Jewlery store clerk which side of the street we should be on, and when I came back I noticed a bird shit on my bag. Berni was a bit grossed out, but I felt great....I almost wanted to kiss it, I knew it would bring us the best of luck for this journey.
Standing at a stop light maybe wasn't the best idea but we did it anyway. People were passing by and smilling/waving at us and laughing at our sign, it was pretty fun. We stood out there for maybe 15-20mins, this old lady passed by and said "You probably won't get a ride standing there..hehehe" and then BAM, a nice man named George stopped and waved us up to his car. We went up and asked him where he was going, he was going to Waihi, which was in the right direction so we jumped in and we were off... our first pick up from hitchhiking, off to a decent start!
George was a retired truck driver who had never picked up hitchhikers before, but decided we looked nice enough. Once we arrived in Waihi, he took us through the very small town, and we had a short stop at his farm house (very nice place, right by the river) and ate lunch and had tea then we continued on to Whangamata road where he had to turn off to pick up his wife. We hopped out there (in the middle of no where really) and got our sign back out and tried for a second time to get a ride.
The next car that we saw stopped and picked us up. This time it was a very nice fellow named Chris. He said he wa going to Thames, with a short stop in Opoutere, which is about 45 mins - 1 hr from Coromandel Town. So we jumped in and we were off. We chatted with Chris quite a bit, he hosts guests through Couch Surfing and some other free accomodation services. He talked about his travels around Europe (he took a boat there that took 5 weeks when he was 20 in 1969, and hitchhiked around Germany for a while), he enjoys sailing and is quite well traveled. This guy was extremely relaxed, very cool, we talked about environmental issues and he took us to a very nice beach in Opoutere. It was pretty secluded and we stayed there for about an hour, there were some really nice houses in the town before and one house was owned by a New Zealand author and is now used for aspiring writers to stay in and get inspired (yea...wicked awesome).
Chris told us two pretty good stories. The first was about this family he met in Ohio, I believe, while he was traveling around the US. He was interested in the way they farmed, growing up on farms his entire life, so he just stopped by and started to chat with them. Their family name was Ayers (like the rock!), so the daughters main goal in life was to visit Ayers rock in Australia. He stayed with them for a while just learning about US farming. The other story was when he was hitchhiking around Italy a Ferrari picked him up. He was zooming around the some country roads and got stopped by the police, but the guy just paid off the cop and they kept on going.
After a while we arrived in Thames where Chris was started to give us some pointers and show some concern for us, which I thought was nice. We told him not to worry and that we'd be fine, haha, felt like I was talking to my grandfather or something. He was extremely nice though, I'm glad he picked us up. We arrived in Thames at about 5pm which was perfect because there were a lot of cars going from Thames to Coromandel Town at that time (for work and such)....so we only had to wait a few minutes before Graham picked us up.
We had a nice chat with him and found out that he has lived all over the North Island doing various jobs. He was in the military for a while working as an ammunition specialist, and he was also a chemical safety inspector at schools around the North Island. He gave us some tips about hitchhiking, mainly that doing it as a "couple" is probably the easiest and safest way, but it's also alright if it's two girls together. The hardest way to hitchhike is a single guy or two guys, I guess because people will just think you're going to murder them?
He told us that when he see's girls hitchhiking alone he picks them up everytime and gives them a stern talking to. Telling them how dangerous it is to do alone and he said the talk gets longer the younger they are, this is because Graham has FIVE daughters (they've all left home now though). He also had a great attitude towards life, pretty much JUST DO IT and follow your dreams no matter what. Really nice guy. He also reminded us to book a hostel while we were on our way, which was lucky because there were only 2 beds left in the whole town.
The drive along the coast from Thames to Coromandel Town was quite nice, you could see fish jumping up and feeding in the water. Pretty much standard North Island beauty, hills and coast line. We arrived in Coromandel Town at around 6pm and settled into our room, Graham was nice enough to drop us off right outside our hostel. Got some beer and chips to relax and decided to get takeaway for dinner (some dodgy chicken patty with fries, but it worked). Coromandel Town is nice, very relaxed place, but it is kind of old people-ish. However, I heard from someone else that the other hostel (Lions Den) was much better and more lively, but it was nice to have a relaxing night after a day of traveling.
First time hitchhiking was a great success, maybe I'll do it some more =P.
Peace & Love
We asked the bus driver where we should stand and she gave us some good directions, so we stopped in a cafe and made a sign (my design..took up two sheets, made handstyles...chyea!) and headed off to the street; it's illegal to hitchhike on the highway so we made sure to stay away from there. I set my bag down for a minute to run over and ask the Jewlery store clerk which side of the street we should be on, and when I came back I noticed a bird shit on my bag. Berni was a bit grossed out, but I felt great....I almost wanted to kiss it, I knew it would bring us the best of luck for this journey.
Standing at a stop light maybe wasn't the best idea but we did it anyway. People were passing by and smilling/waving at us and laughing at our sign, it was pretty fun. We stood out there for maybe 15-20mins, this old lady passed by and said "You probably won't get a ride standing there..hehehe" and then BAM, a nice man named George stopped and waved us up to his car. We went up and asked him where he was going, he was going to Waihi, which was in the right direction so we jumped in and we were off... our first pick up from hitchhiking, off to a decent start!
George was a retired truck driver who had never picked up hitchhikers before, but decided we looked nice enough. Once we arrived in Waihi, he took us through the very small town, and we had a short stop at his farm house (very nice place, right by the river) and ate lunch and had tea then we continued on to Whangamata road where he had to turn off to pick up his wife. We hopped out there (in the middle of no where really) and got our sign back out and tried for a second time to get a ride.
The next car that we saw stopped and picked us up. This time it was a very nice fellow named Chris. He said he wa going to Thames, with a short stop in Opoutere, which is about 45 mins - 1 hr from Coromandel Town. So we jumped in and we were off. We chatted with Chris quite a bit, he hosts guests through Couch Surfing and some other free accomodation services. He talked about his travels around Europe (he took a boat there that took 5 weeks when he was 20 in 1969, and hitchhiked around Germany for a while), he enjoys sailing and is quite well traveled. This guy was extremely relaxed, very cool, we talked about environmental issues and he took us to a very nice beach in Opoutere. It was pretty secluded and we stayed there for about an hour, there were some really nice houses in the town before and one house was owned by a New Zealand author and is now used for aspiring writers to stay in and get inspired (yea...wicked awesome).
Chris told us two pretty good stories. The first was about this family he met in Ohio, I believe, while he was traveling around the US. He was interested in the way they farmed, growing up on farms his entire life, so he just stopped by and started to chat with them. Their family name was Ayers (like the rock!), so the daughters main goal in life was to visit Ayers rock in Australia. He stayed with them for a while just learning about US farming. The other story was when he was hitchhiking around Italy a Ferrari picked him up. He was zooming around the some country roads and got stopped by the police, but the guy just paid off the cop and they kept on going.
After a while we arrived in Thames where Chris was started to give us some pointers and show some concern for us, which I thought was nice. We told him not to worry and that we'd be fine, haha, felt like I was talking to my grandfather or something. He was extremely nice though, I'm glad he picked us up. We arrived in Thames at about 5pm which was perfect because there were a lot of cars going from Thames to Coromandel Town at that time (for work and such)....so we only had to wait a few minutes before Graham picked us up.
We had a nice chat with him and found out that he has lived all over the North Island doing various jobs. He was in the military for a while working as an ammunition specialist, and he was also a chemical safety inspector at schools around the North Island. He gave us some tips about hitchhiking, mainly that doing it as a "couple" is probably the easiest and safest way, but it's also alright if it's two girls together. The hardest way to hitchhike is a single guy or two guys, I guess because people will just think you're going to murder them?
He told us that when he see's girls hitchhiking alone he picks them up everytime and gives them a stern talking to. Telling them how dangerous it is to do alone and he said the talk gets longer the younger they are, this is because Graham has FIVE daughters (they've all left home now though). He also had a great attitude towards life, pretty much JUST DO IT and follow your dreams no matter what. Really nice guy. He also reminded us to book a hostel while we were on our way, which was lucky because there were only 2 beds left in the whole town.
The drive along the coast from Thames to Coromandel Town was quite nice, you could see fish jumping up and feeding in the water. Pretty much standard North Island beauty, hills and coast line. We arrived in Coromandel Town at around 6pm and settled into our room, Graham was nice enough to drop us off right outside our hostel. Got some beer and chips to relax and decided to get takeaway for dinner (some dodgy chicken patty with fries, but it worked). Coromandel Town is nice, very relaxed place, but it is kind of old people-ish. However, I heard from someone else that the other hostel (Lions Den) was much better and more lively, but it was nice to have a relaxing night after a day of traveling.
First time hitchhiking was a great success, maybe I'll do it some more =P.
Peace & Love
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Speeding around the Pacific Coast Highway II (Mar 8 - 10)
We set off in the late morning to drive along the coast (East Cape), and the plan was to make it all the way to Whaketane (basically driving along the entire East Cape in a day, which was doable and not too rushed, John drives fast =) ). We drove up to Tokamaru Bay in Te Araroa, which was a beautiful town by the sea, and we saw Te Waha O Rerekohu, which is a 600 year old tree located in a school yard the oldest pohutukawa tree in the world (Sidenote: I put my hand on the tree to feel what something that old feels like and it shook my hand with help from the wind, which was a very humbling and kind of surreal experience). On our way up to Te Araroa we drove through the Raukumara ranges and by Mt. Hikurangi, which again was quite stunning.
About 21k from Te Areroa is the East Cape Light House, much like the Northland Light House in Cape Reinga but in the east! It's about 750 steps up so I got a nice work out there. We took some nice pictures at the top and ate lunch up there, it was probably the coolest place I've ever eaten lunch. We then kept heading up the coast to try and make it to Whakatane....we only made it as far as Opotiki, which is a very small town along the east coast, and we stayed at Central Oasis Backpackers. This was a very small hostel, it was actually a house built in the 1800s that was converted to a hostel. Only 2 rooms with about 10 beds, the owners were an old German couple who moved to New Zealand, got divorced, but still run the hostel together in shifts (week by week). I had a very nice sleep here because of the relaxed atmosphere, there were only 2 other people other than us staying there.
In the morning we had a nice breakfast of yogurt + fresh fruit (taken from peach and passion fruit trees outside of Flying Nun in Gisbourne. THANKS KUSH!) + toast (German Fact: they use the same word for bread and toast in German). After breakfast we set off to Mt. Maunganui through Ohope (quick stop at the beach), stopped at Kaohi look out (we could see White Island [smoking island], and some other islands) and then through Whakatane. We stopped in Taurunga (which is just beside Mt. Maunganui) for lunch at a pub. Tauranga is a really cool looking city by the water, kind of fancy very nice stores. Had a look at the rose garden and had a nice walk around the town. Probably a bit of a pricey place for travelers but a very nice vacation spot for those more monetarily endowed.
Continued on to Mt. Maunganui[pic], which is a suburb of Tauranga...when I say suburb I mean its a town with a HUGE MOUND at the end, very nice. The town itself was pretty cool as well, the houses looked very nice (all beach like, square with rounded roofs, and cool things like that). After checking in to our hostel (name escapes me at the moment), we went for a late night swim in sea, the water was so warm it was very relaxing (aside from the thunderous waves I was playing in) and there were also lots of crabs in the water trying to fight the waves.
This would be an amazing vacation spot. Highly recommended. If I wasn't traveling around New Zealand I would have stopped here for a few weeks just to chill.
Next morning we went up Mt. Maunganui, the view from the top was awesome. You could see the town and another beach on the other side. There was also a surf competition going on which looked cool from above (I have some nice pictures from here but I'll have to wait for John to get back to me =) ). It was John's last day with Berni and I because he had work on Monday and had to get down to near Wellington by Sunday.
After saying goodbye and thank you to John (SUPER nice guy by the way, glad I met him) Berni and I ate dinner and tried to figure out how we were going to get to Coromandel the next day. After some convincing, we decided to make a deal to hitchhike together to Coromandel Town in the morning. Met a few Canadians in the hostel that night (1 dude from Orangeville, 2 girls from Calgary, and 1 dude lived north of TO) so that was kinda cool.
Then off to bed...which way to Coromandel Town..........?......*sticks thumb out*
Peace & Love
About 21k from Te Areroa is the East Cape Light House, much like the Northland Light House in Cape Reinga but in the east! It's about 750 steps up so I got a nice work out there. We took some nice pictures at the top and ate lunch up there, it was probably the coolest place I've ever eaten lunch. We then kept heading up the coast to try and make it to Whakatane....we only made it as far as Opotiki, which is a very small town along the east coast, and we stayed at Central Oasis Backpackers. This was a very small hostel, it was actually a house built in the 1800s that was converted to a hostel. Only 2 rooms with about 10 beds, the owners were an old German couple who moved to New Zealand, got divorced, but still run the hostel together in shifts (week by week). I had a very nice sleep here because of the relaxed atmosphere, there were only 2 other people other than us staying there.
In the morning we had a nice breakfast of yogurt + fresh fruit (taken from peach and passion fruit trees outside of Flying Nun in Gisbourne. THANKS KUSH!) + toast (German Fact: they use the same word for bread and toast in German). After breakfast we set off to Mt. Maunganui through Ohope (quick stop at the beach), stopped at Kaohi look out (we could see White Island [smoking island], and some other islands) and then through Whakatane. We stopped in Taurunga (which is just beside Mt. Maunganui) for lunch at a pub. Tauranga is a really cool looking city by the water, kind of fancy very nice stores. Had a look at the rose garden and had a nice walk around the town. Probably a bit of a pricey place for travelers but a very nice vacation spot for those more monetarily endowed.
Continued on to Mt. Maunganui[pic], which is a suburb of Tauranga...when I say suburb I mean its a town with a HUGE MOUND at the end, very nice. The town itself was pretty cool as well, the houses looked very nice (all beach like, square with rounded roofs, and cool things like that). After checking in to our hostel (name escapes me at the moment), we went for a late night swim in sea, the water was so warm it was very relaxing (aside from the thunderous waves I was playing in) and there were also lots of crabs in the water trying to fight the waves.
This would be an amazing vacation spot. Highly recommended. If I wasn't traveling around New Zealand I would have stopped here for a few weeks just to chill.
Next morning we went up Mt. Maunganui, the view from the top was awesome. You could see the town and another beach on the other side. There was also a surf competition going on which looked cool from above (I have some nice pictures from here but I'll have to wait for John to get back to me =) ). It was John's last day with Berni and I because he had work on Monday and had to get down to near Wellington by Sunday.
After saying goodbye and thank you to John (SUPER nice guy by the way, glad I met him) Berni and I ate dinner and tried to figure out how we were going to get to Coromandel the next day. After some convincing, we decided to make a deal to hitchhike together to Coromandel Town in the morning. Met a few Canadians in the hostel that night (1 dude from Orangeville, 2 girls from Calgary, and 1 dude lived north of TO) so that was kinda cool.
Then off to bed...which way to Coromandel Town..........?......*sticks thumb out*
Peace & Love
Speeding around the Pacific Coast Highway I (Mar 6 - 7)
Woke up pretty excited as I was going to be starting a new trip. Laura, Leigh and Sohpie were off to Wellington that morning so I said my goodbyes to them, had a shower and a quick interweb/blog and John and I set off. We stopped in town at Pizza hut for lunch, I found out then that he wants to be an agricultural advisor (@David is that what Stuart does?) and he was here in New Zealand to travel a bit and work on vineyards (drink making is a passion of his as well as gardening). We weren't too sure what we wanted to do but we knew going through Napier to Gisbourne was a cool plan. Seen as Napier is wine country and Gisbourne is the first city in the world to get the sunrise.
So we set off South-East to Napier...in the rain obviously. We didn't have anything planned or have any idea of how long any of these journeys would take but we just kept our heads down and pushed on. This was a big change from the structured journey I had just finished with Janine and Lisa, but it was a good thing I went with them first. Being with them had increased my preparation and navigation skills, so I picked up the maps and was pretty much the navigator for this trip (ME...navigating...HA!).
*keep in mind it is raining throughout this entire journey*
We stopped at a nice water fall just outside of Taupo, and on the way the scenery was beautiful as usual (you really just need to come here and see for yourselves). Since John was a agriculture major, he was telling me some interesting facts about the trees and animals. He was also pretty amazed with everything, a bit too wiry for my taste but he was a good guy. He kept pointing at things and and blurting out names of birds and plants, it was pretty entertaining actually because the radio was broken so we had to keep up the conversation. This is where my speakers came in handy (Thanks Aunti O!).
After a few hours we were approaching Napier, as we got closer everywhere you looked was a vineyard, just rows and rows and rows of grapes. It was pretty impressive looking, they also had a few orchards and other crops in between. We went through Hawkes Bay, which was something that the Lonely Planet mentioned but, because of the rain it just looked like a rainy bay. Once we got into Napier (click here to see Napier history)we kinda just drove through and stopped a few look out points (overlooking the port [so much timber! John has pics]). It was a nice looking city, rebuilt after an earthquake in 1930s style. There was so much rain though we didn't really do much except have a coffee.
I should probably mention at this point that John drives a Prelude 2.2 litre vTech coupe (no idea what that means, but he told me)..and he likes to drive it fast. And the Pacific Coast Highway (the road we were on) is NOT the straightest road out there, so it was a fun ride. We continued on to Gisbourne, the original plan was to stay in Tokamaru Bay in a hostel called Brians Place about an hour away from Gisbourne. I could tell John was fading fast though, so I suggested we stop in Gisbourne and continue on the next day. (Sidenote: Before we got to Gisbourne it was raining SO HARD that we could barely see in front of us, and we came up to this one winding drop turn that looked like we were about to drive off a cliff. After that we looked at each other and were like "hmm..we should probably stop in Gisbourne tonight seen as it's like 9:30..").
We arrived at the Flying Nun Backpackers at around 10pm, which is a converted convent, kind of old and musty but nice enough and a very homey feel. This is when we met Kushla (or KUSH for short, HA!) the owner of the hostel...who I later found out is addicted to Valium, which explained a lot (kind of a space case, and short tempered). That night John and I met Christina (Berni) who is a primary school teacher from Germany.
*the rain had finally stopped now*
I can't remember when it happened but we decided to go around East Cape at some point and Berni was traveling around on her own and was looking for a ride up the east coast and to Coromandel. So she joined the crew that night pretty much, alcohol helps accepting lonely travelers on a whim. The next day John and I decided to stay another night, so we decided to take a walk around Gisbourne with Berni and and see some of the sites. On the ride into town the previous morning I noticed a BOND + BOND (place where I bought my second camera in Auckland) so I tried to get my camera replaced with no receipt or box... just the Olympia warranty...no dice. I then discovered an optometrists (only place that would have small enough tools..duh!) and thought I'd have a crack at taking it apart and cleaning it myself. The ladies in there were nice enough to let me use there tools and work bench, good story to tell I guess. After an hour of taking it apart and cleaning as much of the sand out as I could (and putting it back together...yea...I'm a camera technician now), the lens still wouldn't come out.
So...feeling defeated and having just wasted an hour of the good weather we were finally having, we all piled in the car and started to go around Gisbourne to see the monuments. We saw Young Nick Statue[pic] (Statue of Young Nick, James Cook's cabin boy, who first sighted land, Gisborne, North Island, New Zealand, Pacific), Captain JAMES Cook's Statue, a very nice look out point overlooking the sea and Gisbourne, Tolaga Bay (home of the longest wharf in the southern hemisphere, 660m =O). While there Berni lost her hat to the sea, there was a fairly small rain cloud floating around raining on random spots and a gust came before the rain and took her hat (Goodbye hat!).
After that we headed back to the hostel for some dinner (yellow belly flownder + salad + roast potatoes) and just chilled there after. The people staying there were very cool and they all loved it so much. There was mainly people from Argentina (they didn't even come together, they just all ended up there) on work holiday visas.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see a sunrise while in Gisbourne because of cloudiness/lazyness..but I saw a sunset on our way along the way. If you're ever in Gisbourne be sure to stay at the Flying Nun, very cool spot..it was very "surfer chill" if that makes sense. Off to East Cape in the morning!
Peace & Love
So we set off South-East to Napier...in the rain obviously. We didn't have anything planned or have any idea of how long any of these journeys would take but we just kept our heads down and pushed on. This was a big change from the structured journey I had just finished with Janine and Lisa, but it was a good thing I went with them first. Being with them had increased my preparation and navigation skills, so I picked up the maps and was pretty much the navigator for this trip (ME...navigating...HA!).
*keep in mind it is raining throughout this entire journey*
We stopped at a nice water fall just outside of Taupo, and on the way the scenery was beautiful as usual (you really just need to come here and see for yourselves). Since John was a agriculture major, he was telling me some interesting facts about the trees and animals. He was also pretty amazed with everything, a bit too wiry for my taste but he was a good guy. He kept pointing at things and and blurting out names of birds and plants, it was pretty entertaining actually because the radio was broken so we had to keep up the conversation. This is where my speakers came in handy (Thanks Aunti O!).
After a few hours we were approaching Napier, as we got closer everywhere you looked was a vineyard, just rows and rows and rows of grapes. It was pretty impressive looking, they also had a few orchards and other crops in between. We went through Hawkes Bay, which was something that the Lonely Planet mentioned but, because of the rain it just looked like a rainy bay. Once we got into Napier (click here to see Napier history)we kinda just drove through and stopped a few look out points (overlooking the port [so much timber! John has pics]). It was a nice looking city, rebuilt after an earthquake in 1930s style. There was so much rain though we didn't really do much except have a coffee.
I should probably mention at this point that John drives a Prelude 2.2 litre vTech coupe (no idea what that means, but he told me)..and he likes to drive it fast. And the Pacific Coast Highway (the road we were on) is NOT the straightest road out there, so it was a fun ride. We continued on to Gisbourne, the original plan was to stay in Tokamaru Bay in a hostel called Brians Place about an hour away from Gisbourne. I could tell John was fading fast though, so I suggested we stop in Gisbourne and continue on the next day. (Sidenote: Before we got to Gisbourne it was raining SO HARD that we could barely see in front of us, and we came up to this one winding drop turn that looked like we were about to drive off a cliff. After that we looked at each other and were like "hmm..we should probably stop in Gisbourne tonight seen as it's like 9:30..").
We arrived at the Flying Nun Backpackers at around 10pm, which is a converted convent, kind of old and musty but nice enough and a very homey feel. This is when we met Kushla (or KUSH for short, HA!) the owner of the hostel...who I later found out is addicted to Valium, which explained a lot (kind of a space case, and short tempered). That night John and I met Christina (Berni) who is a primary school teacher from Germany.
*the rain had finally stopped now*
I can't remember when it happened but we decided to go around East Cape at some point and Berni was traveling around on her own and was looking for a ride up the east coast and to Coromandel. So she joined the crew that night pretty much, alcohol helps accepting lonely travelers on a whim. The next day John and I decided to stay another night, so we decided to take a walk around Gisbourne with Berni and and see some of the sites. On the ride into town the previous morning I noticed a BOND + BOND (place where I bought my second camera in Auckland) so I tried to get my camera replaced with no receipt or box... just the Olympia warranty...no dice. I then discovered an optometrists (only place that would have small enough tools..duh!) and thought I'd have a crack at taking it apart and cleaning it myself. The ladies in there were nice enough to let me use there tools and work bench, good story to tell I guess. After an hour of taking it apart and cleaning as much of the sand out as I could (and putting it back together...yea...I'm a camera technician now), the lens still wouldn't come out.
So...feeling defeated and having just wasted an hour of the good weather we were finally having, we all piled in the car and started to go around Gisbourne to see the monuments. We saw Young Nick Statue[pic] (Statue of Young Nick, James Cook's cabin boy, who first sighted land, Gisborne, North Island, New Zealand, Pacific), Captain JAMES Cook's Statue, a very nice look out point overlooking the sea and Gisbourne, Tolaga Bay (home of the longest wharf in the southern hemisphere, 660m =O). While there Berni lost her hat to the sea, there was a fairly small rain cloud floating around raining on random spots and a gust came before the rain and took her hat (Goodbye hat!).
After that we headed back to the hostel for some dinner (yellow belly flownder + salad + roast potatoes) and just chilled there after. The people staying there were very cool and they all loved it so much. There was mainly people from Argentina (they didn't even come together, they just all ended up there) on work holiday visas.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see a sunrise while in Gisbourne because of cloudiness/lazyness..but I saw a sunset on our way along the way. If you're ever in Gisbourne be sure to stay at the Flying Nun, very cool spot..it was very "surfer chill" if that makes sense. Off to East Cape in the morning!
Peace & Love
The rain in Taupo falls mainly on the James (Mar 4- 5)
After spending a few days in a camper, I grew a new appreciation for sleeping in a bed and having a hot shower. Staying at the Blackcurrant Backpackers was a nice change of pace from driving around Northland, the only bad part was the RAIN! The day started off nice enough and a group of people (Kate, Laura, Sophie, and Leigh) from Cornwall suggested I come on a bike trip with them to Huka falls and Craters of the moon. I agreed, even though I had already been to Huka falls I hadn't gone there by bike and we only stayed for a few mins. Craters of the moon was pretty cool, it's a geothermal site you can just walk around and go right up to the bubbling pools and mud pits and such. It also has a very nice look out point where you can see a few different mountains and things. The bike ride there and back was pretty intense, lots of hills but lots of nice scenery as well. Leigh was enjoying it the most I'd say, he was speeding around the trail with ease. The girls (maybe except Laura =P ) were having a bit more trouble but we all survived in the end.
There wasn't much else to do after this because the rain had started, so we just sat in and chatted. They invited me to have dinner with them later which was nice, Sophie is an aspiring chef so we had a very nice vegetable lasagna and CHIPS (very english lol). This was a great meal after a long day of riding, but it was some much needed physical activity.
It was Kate's last day in New Zealand (she was actually going back to WORK when she got home...yuck..24+ hr flight, a few hours sleep then back to work in a legal office. That's hardcore) so we decided to play some drinking games and then head out for the night. This is where I met John (Irish) and Ilka (Swedish) or Ilga I can't remember...so we all went out to some club/bar in town and danced the night away. First night dancing since I was here so that was nice, we had a great time =)....(Sidenote: there was a REALLY annoying Polish lady staying above us, we were just coming in and Leigh and I were talking outside and kept coming out and complaining about the noise we were making...BUT YOU'RE STAYING IN A HOSTEL, WE ARE JUST TALKING OUTSIDE...I told her to put a pillow over her head and keep her window shut..she complained about us every night we were there. She asked where we were from, Leigh says England and she says "Typical" .. pffft what a jerk, I told her I was from the moon)
I woke up the next day to some more RAIN...it literally rained the entire day, so we all just stayed in and listened to some music and comedy. Leigh was a big Techno Head so he played some stuff for me, he also mixes his own beats so that was cool. We listened to Bill Hicks and Mitch Headburg courtesy of Johns hard drive, which was dope. Sophie made muscles that night, soooooo delicious, so glad I met them if not only for the delicious meals =). We lazed around and watched a few movies at night (Something's gotta give [we watched this with an old Swedish guy he was lulz though] and North Country [pretty dope movie about women miners]).
John arrived half way through the first movie with some wine from a vineyard he was going to be working at in a few weeks, so we all sampled a bit of that (it was OK I guess, don't know much about wine...). We started chatting a bit and he mentioned he wanted to go to Gisbourne and he had a car...*JACKPOT*..so I turned on my charm and secured myself a ride to Gisbourne through Napier in the morning.
I had a great time with the Cornwall Crew, thanks for the food and laughs, and I'll see you (Sophie & Leigh) in Queenstown!
Peace & Love
There wasn't much else to do after this because the rain had started, so we just sat in and chatted. They invited me to have dinner with them later which was nice, Sophie is an aspiring chef so we had a very nice vegetable lasagna and CHIPS (very english lol). This was a great meal after a long day of riding, but it was some much needed physical activity.
It was Kate's last day in New Zealand (she was actually going back to WORK when she got home...yuck..24+ hr flight, a few hours sleep then back to work in a legal office. That's hardcore) so we decided to play some drinking games and then head out for the night. This is where I met John (Irish) and Ilka (Swedish) or Ilga I can't remember...so we all went out to some club/bar in town and danced the night away. First night dancing since I was here so that was nice, we had a great time =)....(Sidenote: there was a REALLY annoying Polish lady staying above us, we were just coming in and Leigh and I were talking outside and kept coming out and complaining about the noise we were making...BUT YOU'RE STAYING IN A HOSTEL, WE ARE JUST TALKING OUTSIDE...I told her to put a pillow over her head and keep her window shut..she complained about us every night we were there. She asked where we were from, Leigh says England and she says "Typical" .. pffft what a jerk, I told her I was from the moon)
I woke up the next day to some more RAIN...it literally rained the entire day, so we all just stayed in and listened to some music and comedy. Leigh was a big Techno Head so he played some stuff for me, he also mixes his own beats so that was cool. We listened to Bill Hicks and Mitch Headburg courtesy of Johns hard drive, which was dope. Sophie made muscles that night, soooooo delicious, so glad I met them if not only for the delicious meals =). We lazed around and watched a few movies at night (Something's gotta give [we watched this with an old Swedish guy he was lulz though] and North Country [pretty dope movie about women miners]).
John arrived half way through the first movie with some wine from a vineyard he was going to be working at in a few weeks, so we all sampled a bit of that (it was OK I guess, don't know much about wine...). We started chatting a bit and he mentioned he wanted to go to Gisbourne and he had a car...*JACKPOT*..so I turned on my charm and secured myself a ride to Gisbourne through Napier in the morning.
I had a great time with the Cornwall Crew, thanks for the food and laughs, and I'll see you (Sophie & Leigh) in Queenstown!
Peace & Love
The Janine & Lisa Adventure III: Don't expect German standards in New Zealand (Mar 3 - 4)
Woke up to a crappy day, rain clouds were looming and sprinkling (*bad omen*). I left my towel outside on the hood of the camper to try and dry it out..fail. While we were getting ready in the morning we saw the ranger lurking around. We hadn't paid to stay over night so we secured the proper documents and made up a story just in case he came by "Sorry...we only had a $50 bill *sad girl face*". I went to hide in the toilets for a while (extra long teeth brushing), then I snuck out passed the ranger to the beach and decided to go for a stroll until the heat died down. It was Lisa's birthday that day so as I was walking I decided to pick up a shell and make her a bracelet (I know I'm such a sweet heart). I'm actually quite impressed with myself, I braided some grass and poked a whole in a mini conk shell (not sure what the real name is)....boom instant birthday surprise. Anyway the ranger eventually left, and we only ended up paying for 2 people so that was nice.
We headed out from the bay at around 9am-10am and decided we'd go to the 90 mile beach regardless of the weather just to have a look. The 90 mile beach was amazing, the biggest beach I've ever seen, extremely impressive even while cloudy. There was a surf competition going on for police officers (WHAT THE COOL?!) so I went and chatted with them for a little, I'm starting to learn how to "talk surfing" which is a good way to start up conversation in NZ. I think Janine took a nice panoramic shot of the beach with my face at the end, hopefully I can get a hold of that. After this we thought it would be nice to see some glow worm caves, so we headed into the bush looking for these caves....we drove around some winedy unpaved roads for a while and found the first cave...which was closed. We continued on for a little while, getting deeper into the bush and further from any roads with names only to find the next cave was also closed (most likely due to the rain..they obviously didn't know it was Lisa's birthday).
After getting lost for maybe 45mins - 1 hr we found our way back to the real road and decided to just keep it moving back south to Auckland...easier said than done. At our first stop for bathrooms and snacks Janine discovered that some GENIUS (....yours truly =) ) had left the dish soap bottle open and the contents were now all over the back of the camper. Luckily for me nothing was really damaged just a bit of soap on the bottom of our bags and some on Janine's towel (OOPS!).
The day got better as we got closer to Auckland, skies cleared up a bit and the sun was peeking out. We drove through Aupouri Forest, which was nice (NZ Fact: Most of the pine forests here are all replanted forests because they export a lot of timber/pulp. They use these VAST areas just covered in pine trees, it looks quite cool) and then headed to Whangarei falls. At this point the weather had cleared up so everyone was feeling good and it made the trip to the falls well worth it.
I decided to keep traveling further south with Janine and Lisa so they dropped me back off at NOMADS, and said they would call me when they were ready to go. I spent a couple hours drinking and saying my goodbyes to some friends there (TJ, Ollie, Jen, Tim). Again there were no rooms available in Auckland at that time but I was going to stay with Janine and Lisa over night anyway. After they called me I headed out to meet them only to find them with sour faces. While hanging around they received a $60 parking ticket (after only being parked for like a few mins, geez). So the mood was quite tense that night, but we had to wake up at 6:30am the next morning so I just got in and went to sleep.
Oh.....why did we have to wake up so early you ask? Well, there was a BUNCH of stuff wrong with the camper (window fell out, not enough cutlery/bedding for 3 people, some lights not working, table broken...yup...) so we had to go back to the rental place in the morning and get it all fixed before heading south. We planned to get there right when the place opened at 8am, however we found out why other New Zealanders hate Auckland...and that's because of the traffic. Everyone in Auckland has a car and they all drive to the city to work. Anyway, we eventually made it to the place and explained the situation to the people. When we got the camper back after half an hour, we found that they hadn't done anything except fix the lights and the window. So the girls went back in and found a German man that worked there (sweet) and they got there German on and he fixed everything up for us. At the end he told them (in German)... Don't expect German Standards in New Zealand, and they all laughed...I only got told later what the joke was but it was still good I guess =P..we ended up with a free day for the camper and a bottle of wine, so all in all not too bad.
With the camper all fixed up we continued on to Taupo through Rotarua. We stopped at Orakei Korako (lost valley) which is said to be one of the best geothermal areas in New Zealand...however it was too expensive to get in so we just looked and took pictures. We then stopped at Huka falls, which was quite spectacular. There was so much water going through such a small area it was really intense, and the water was so blue it looked fake, very cool. We took a few pics and then moved on to Taupo (city center). Taupo is a very small city with 3 main roads, but it's surrounded by mountains so that made up for it. The locals say, the only thing to do in Taupo is drink so it sounded like a fun place. Janine and Lisa dropped me off at Balckcurrant Backpackers which is a converted motel so it was very nice for a hostel.
The plan was to go to Tongariro National Park and do the Alpine crossing (this is a 8-10 hour hike up a mountain, but said to have one of the most beautiful views in NZ) in the morning.. but just as that thought entered our minds the rain started...<\3... The crossing is closed when it's raining because it's too dangerous I guess. So that pretty much ended my adventure with Janine and Lisa..we said our goodbyes when they dropped me off and that was that.
It's funny how when traveling you only meet people for a few days at a time but you experience so much together. Thanks Janine and Lisa for letting me be a part of your journey and I wish you both the best! <3 <3 <3 <3
Highlights:
- Trying to teach me German phrases, translating them is HILARIOUS (take your suitcase somewhere, my mood is in the basement, my english is so bad it couldn't ft on a cow skin)
- Pictures of me wiping out on the dunes trying to be a hero
- Too many memories =O, hopefully I'll get those pics so I can show you instead of trying to remember!
- Janine + Lisa blog
Peace & Love
We headed out from the bay at around 9am-10am and decided we'd go to the 90 mile beach regardless of the weather just to have a look. The 90 mile beach was amazing, the biggest beach I've ever seen, extremely impressive even while cloudy. There was a surf competition going on for police officers (WHAT THE COOL?!) so I went and chatted with them for a little, I'm starting to learn how to "talk surfing" which is a good way to start up conversation in NZ. I think Janine took a nice panoramic shot of the beach with my face at the end, hopefully I can get a hold of that. After this we thought it would be nice to see some glow worm caves, so we headed into the bush looking for these caves....we drove around some winedy unpaved roads for a while and found the first cave...which was closed. We continued on for a little while, getting deeper into the bush and further from any roads with names only to find the next cave was also closed (most likely due to the rain..they obviously didn't know it was Lisa's birthday).
After getting lost for maybe 45mins - 1 hr we found our way back to the real road and decided to just keep it moving back south to Auckland...easier said than done. At our first stop for bathrooms and snacks Janine discovered that some GENIUS (....yours truly =) ) had left the dish soap bottle open and the contents were now all over the back of the camper. Luckily for me nothing was really damaged just a bit of soap on the bottom of our bags and some on Janine's towel (OOPS!).
The day got better as we got closer to Auckland, skies cleared up a bit and the sun was peeking out. We drove through Aupouri Forest, which was nice (NZ Fact: Most of the pine forests here are all replanted forests because they export a lot of timber/pulp. They use these VAST areas just covered in pine trees, it looks quite cool) and then headed to Whangarei falls. At this point the weather had cleared up so everyone was feeling good and it made the trip to the falls well worth it.
I decided to keep traveling further south with Janine and Lisa so they dropped me back off at NOMADS, and said they would call me when they were ready to go. I spent a couple hours drinking and saying my goodbyes to some friends there (TJ, Ollie, Jen, Tim). Again there were no rooms available in Auckland at that time but I was going to stay with Janine and Lisa over night anyway. After they called me I headed out to meet them only to find them with sour faces. While hanging around they received a $60 parking ticket (after only being parked for like a few mins, geez). So the mood was quite tense that night, but we had to wake up at 6:30am the next morning so I just got in and went to sleep.
Oh.....why did we have to wake up so early you ask? Well, there was a BUNCH of stuff wrong with the camper (window fell out, not enough cutlery/bedding for 3 people, some lights not working, table broken...yup...) so we had to go back to the rental place in the morning and get it all fixed before heading south. We planned to get there right when the place opened at 8am, however we found out why other New Zealanders hate Auckland...and that's because of the traffic. Everyone in Auckland has a car and they all drive to the city to work. Anyway, we eventually made it to the place and explained the situation to the people. When we got the camper back after half an hour, we found that they hadn't done anything except fix the lights and the window. So the girls went back in and found a German man that worked there (sweet) and they got there German on and he fixed everything up for us. At the end he told them (in German)... Don't expect German Standards in New Zealand, and they all laughed...I only got told later what the joke was but it was still good I guess =P..we ended up with a free day for the camper and a bottle of wine, so all in all not too bad.
With the camper all fixed up we continued on to Taupo through Rotarua. We stopped at Orakei Korako (lost valley) which is said to be one of the best geothermal areas in New Zealand...however it was too expensive to get in so we just looked and took pictures. We then stopped at Huka falls, which was quite spectacular. There was so much water going through such a small area it was really intense, and the water was so blue it looked fake, very cool. We took a few pics and then moved on to Taupo (city center). Taupo is a very small city with 3 main roads, but it's surrounded by mountains so that made up for it. The locals say, the only thing to do in Taupo is drink so it sounded like a fun place. Janine and Lisa dropped me off at Balckcurrant Backpackers which is a converted motel so it was very nice for a hostel.
The plan was to go to Tongariro National Park and do the Alpine crossing (this is a 8-10 hour hike up a mountain, but said to have one of the most beautiful views in NZ) in the morning.. but just as that thought entered our minds the rain started...<\3... The crossing is closed when it's raining because it's too dangerous I guess. So that pretty much ended my adventure with Janine and Lisa..we said our goodbyes when they dropped me off and that was that.
It's funny how when traveling you only meet people for a few days at a time but you experience so much together. Thanks Janine and Lisa for letting me be a part of your journey and I wish you both the best! <3 <3 <3 <3
Highlights:
- Trying to teach me German phrases, translating them is HILARIOUS (take your suitcase somewhere, my mood is in the basement, my english is so bad it couldn't ft on a cow skin)
- Pictures of me wiping out on the dunes trying to be a hero
- Too many memories =O, hopefully I'll get those pics so I can show you instead of trying to remember!
- Janine + Lisa blog
Peace & Love
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Janine & Lisa Adventure II: R.I.P Camera #2 (Mar 1- 2)
I woke up the next morning pretty excited for the adventurous days ahead. The plan was to go up north to Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga for a few days then they would drop me back off in Auckland on their way back south. They are traveling through NZ for 5 weeks I believe, and doing some fruit picking jobs and things along the way. So, I set off in the morning to buy a phone and a new camera (HA!), got back in and packed my day bag for a 4 day excursion to the beautiful north.
We had originally planned to leave around noon-1pm, but whoever told the girls the bus would only take 30-45 mins was grossly mistaken. Anyway, I met up with them around 4pm, I met Lisa for the first time that day (Sidenote: she was also quite attractive...I definitely lucked out in that department), but before that I just hung around and watched movies. It was worse for them because they had to wait so long for the bus AND to get the camper (first bad omen for the camper). Either way...after stopping for some groceries, they were both pleasantly surprised that I didn't mind eating vegetarian for the duration of the trip (very nice alternative to what I had previously been eating)..we set off..me a 6' black Canadian gentleman and two 5' nothing blond blue eyed German girls..I think you could make a show about this...
The drive up north was SPECTACULAR, everywhere you looked was like a painting, really can't describe it...just take my word for it; I had some pictures on my new camera...but....yea, you'll hear more about that further down.
On the first day they drove (I can't drive manual...or on the left side..) until it got dark then we stopped at an information center to have dinner and use the sinks and things. Then we continued on for a little while and they explained how you can't drive at night in Australia (where they just spent the past few months) because of the Kangaroos. They also mentioned how they found that out first hand TWICE..scary stuff. So I told them about how my sister almost hit a deer...then one jumped right into the window covering everyone in the back seat in blood...good night time story swapping. We stopped at another information center which was right by the water, with some nice views of islands (again...I had some pictures of this...) where we could park over night and sleep. First time sleeping in a camper, and it was the best sleep I had since arriving, which might have been because I spent the previous night in a broken bed, but still GREAT SLEEP. Before getting to the i-SITE, we went looking for the Friedensreich Hundertwasser public toilets in Kawakawa. He is a German designer, I didn't know anything about him or the toilets but it was pretty sweet, and it was late at night so we could go in and take pictures and stuff.
We woke up to bus loads of people thronging about, had some breakfast (cereal + fruit + soy milk and bread crackers + cheese + jam) and hit up the i-SITE to figure out what we should be doing on the way. They kept asking me what I wanted to do, but I had no idea, I was basically just along for the adventure. We went through so many little towns I can't remember all the names...but I know we went through Kerikeri, Kawakawa, Kaitaia and Paihia and visited Rewa Village (a Maori village), Haruru Falls, and Sandboarded on the dunes (WOOOOOW, this was great and also where I broke my SECOND camera.. I have a great picture of the wipe out that did the job). We went to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reigna the views during the drive and at the lighthouse at Cape Reigna were LEGEN....wait for it.....DARY..again I don't really have much to SAY about the places, but they were so beautiful you just have to see the pics for yourselves. I got the girls to take some pictures of me though so hopefully I can get those at some point and show off my mean handstand skills.
We stopped at a camper bay that had a few people in tents and others in campers and decided to have dinner and some showers and stay there over night. After trying to swim in the bay (the name was so long and it escapes me at the moment) and discovering it was filled with pink/blue jelly fish that had just arrived that morning; I had my first shower under the stars which was a really amazing experience and not as cold as you'd think. That night I think we had veges + rice + chickpeas.. and then it was off to bed to get ready for another day of adventure in the morning.
Peace & Love
We had originally planned to leave around noon-1pm, but whoever told the girls the bus would only take 30-45 mins was grossly mistaken. Anyway, I met up with them around 4pm, I met Lisa for the first time that day (Sidenote: she was also quite attractive...I definitely lucked out in that department), but before that I just hung around and watched movies. It was worse for them because they had to wait so long for the bus AND to get the camper (first bad omen for the camper). Either way...after stopping for some groceries, they were both pleasantly surprised that I didn't mind eating vegetarian for the duration of the trip (very nice alternative to what I had previously been eating)..we set off..me a 6' black Canadian gentleman and two 5' nothing blond blue eyed German girls..I think you could make a show about this...
The drive up north was SPECTACULAR, everywhere you looked was like a painting, really can't describe it...just take my word for it; I had some pictures on my new camera...but....yea, you'll hear more about that further down.
On the first day they drove (I can't drive manual...or on the left side..) until it got dark then we stopped at an information center to have dinner and use the sinks and things. Then we continued on for a little while and they explained how you can't drive at night in Australia (where they just spent the past few months) because of the Kangaroos. They also mentioned how they found that out first hand TWICE..scary stuff. So I told them about how my sister almost hit a deer...then one jumped right into the window covering everyone in the back seat in blood...good night time story swapping. We stopped at another information center which was right by the water, with some nice views of islands (again...I had some pictures of this...) where we could park over night and sleep. First time sleeping in a camper, and it was the best sleep I had since arriving, which might have been because I spent the previous night in a broken bed, but still GREAT SLEEP. Before getting to the i-SITE, we went looking for the Friedensreich Hundertwasser public toilets in Kawakawa. He is a German designer, I didn't know anything about him or the toilets but it was pretty sweet, and it was late at night so we could go in and take pictures and stuff.
We woke up to bus loads of people thronging about, had some breakfast (cereal + fruit + soy milk and bread crackers + cheese + jam) and hit up the i-SITE to figure out what we should be doing on the way. They kept asking me what I wanted to do, but I had no idea, I was basically just along for the adventure. We went through so many little towns I can't remember all the names...but I know we went through Kerikeri, Kawakawa, Kaitaia and Paihia and visited Rewa Village (a Maori village), Haruru Falls, and Sandboarded on the dunes (WOOOOOW, this was great and also where I broke my SECOND camera.. I have a great picture of the wipe out that did the job). We went to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reigna the views during the drive and at the lighthouse at Cape Reigna were LEGEN....wait for it.....DARY..again I don't really have much to SAY about the places, but they were so beautiful you just have to see the pics for yourselves. I got the girls to take some pictures of me though so hopefully I can get those at some point and show off my mean handstand skills.
We stopped at a camper bay that had a few people in tents and others in campers and decided to have dinner and some showers and stay there over night. After trying to swim in the bay (the name was so long and it escapes me at the moment) and discovering it was filled with pink/blue jelly fish that had just arrived that morning; I had my first shower under the stars which was a really amazing experience and not as cold as you'd think. That night I think we had veges + rice + chickpeas.. and then it was off to bed to get ready for another day of adventure in the morning.
Peace & Love
The Janine & Lisa Adventure I: Where have all the rooms gone?...Travelers have picked them every one..(Feb 28)
The bus dropped off Marian, Lisa, and I in front of NOMADS Fat Camel in the late evening. Being the well prepared bunch we are none of us had called ahead to reserve a room..[dun dun duuuuuuuun]. While we are waiting in a line of about 15 people to book a room, the fellow behind the desk yells out "IF YOU DONT HAVE A RESERVATION PLEASE LEAVE THE LINE, THERE ARE NO ROOMS LEFT HERE...OR AT THE OTHER NOMADS, OR QUEENSTOWN...THANK YOU"...No no no, thank you kind sir...
Whilst in the line however, I saw a girl that I was talking to before I left for Raglan. So she stopped and had a chat and we planned to meet up later. After the guy dropped that bomb on us Marian and Lisa went to see if there was any space at another hostel called base. I told them I'd meet back up with them later and went to tell Sarah that I wouldn't be staying here tonight but I'd be back for drunken debauchery later on. Good thing I did this... I went up to find her and while I was telling her what happened another girl, I presume Sarah knew her, chimed in and said "Hey, my boyfriend and I both bought beds but we are sleeping in the same one...you can just crash on the other one!".....Jackpot, free bed, THANK YOU DC (her name). Unfortunately the bed that I was given was broken and was caving in, but beggars can't be choosers so I just stuffed my bag under the gap and called it a day.
Right about now I am feeling amazing...just scored a free bed, life is good. So I head down to the bar to catch up with Sarah and we talk for a while before I start doing laps (Laps: Walk around the bar and talk to everyone that looks interesting). I settle in with these three English girls, they are from Yorkshire and Manchester I believe, they just arrived that day and they were heading up north to the Bay of Islands in a camper van. *BING* This peeks my interest as I would also like to go up north. So being the confident charmer that I am, I try and secure myself a ride up north with these three girls I just met a few mins ago. After a slight build up consisting of "Oh really? That sounds nice....I was thinking of heading up north this week some time....How are you getting there? A van..cool cool..." I just straight up asked if I could join them. Alice, the main girl I was talking to...I think she was the leader, went completely red faced and looked a bit taken aback. After a few milliseconds of bewilderment and possibly some embarrassment she explained that they would be sleeping in the van so that might be a bit weird....Bummer =(
But then by the grace of Allah/God/The Everlasting Spirit of the Universe Alice says "Oh..but there is a poster on our floor [girl only floor mind you], with 2 girls looking for a third person to go up north with...Let me just go up and get it for you." After a minute or two she comes back down to the bar, poster in hand (very nicely made..if I had a camera I would have taken a picture. HA!) and says come up stairs. I go up and meet Janine, whom Alice had just woken up and she just ran a half marathon that afternoon, we talked for less than a minute and I decided she was nice enough so I said why not. Janine said she had to take a bus to pick up the camper in the morning and she would call me (I was buying a phone in the morning) when they were ready.
Oh and for those wondering, even after just being woken up and in her PJs and glasses, Janine was still pretty hot, so that helped my decision a little bit. Also she is about 5'1 on her tippy-toes so I fancied my chances if anything went down.
Peace & Love
Whilst in the line however, I saw a girl that I was talking to before I left for Raglan. So she stopped and had a chat and we planned to meet up later. After the guy dropped that bomb on us Marian and Lisa went to see if there was any space at another hostel called base. I told them I'd meet back up with them later and went to tell Sarah that I wouldn't be staying here tonight but I'd be back for drunken debauchery later on. Good thing I did this... I went up to find her and while I was telling her what happened another girl, I presume Sarah knew her, chimed in and said "Hey, my boyfriend and I both bought beds but we are sleeping in the same one...you can just crash on the other one!".....Jackpot, free bed, THANK YOU DC (her name). Unfortunately the bed that I was given was broken and was caving in, but beggars can't be choosers so I just stuffed my bag under the gap and called it a day.
Right about now I am feeling amazing...just scored a free bed, life is good. So I head down to the bar to catch up with Sarah and we talk for a while before I start doing laps (Laps: Walk around the bar and talk to everyone that looks interesting). I settle in with these three English girls, they are from Yorkshire and Manchester I believe, they just arrived that day and they were heading up north to the Bay of Islands in a camper van. *BING* This peeks my interest as I would also like to go up north. So being the confident charmer that I am, I try and secure myself a ride up north with these three girls I just met a few mins ago. After a slight build up consisting of "Oh really? That sounds nice....I was thinking of heading up north this week some time....How are you getting there? A van..cool cool..." I just straight up asked if I could join them. Alice, the main girl I was talking to...I think she was the leader, went completely red faced and looked a bit taken aback. After a few milliseconds of bewilderment and possibly some embarrassment she explained that they would be sleeping in the van so that might be a bit weird....Bummer =(
But then by the grace of Allah/God/The Everlasting Spirit of the Universe Alice says "Oh..but there is a poster on our floor [girl only floor mind you], with 2 girls looking for a third person to go up north with...Let me just go up and get it for you." After a minute or two she comes back down to the bar, poster in hand (very nicely made..if I had a camera I would have taken a picture. HA!) and says come up stairs. I go up and meet Janine, whom Alice had just woken up and she just ran a half marathon that afternoon, we talked for less than a minute and I decided she was nice enough so I said why not. Janine said she had to take a bus to pick up the camper in the morning and she would call me (I was buying a phone in the morning) when they were ready.
Oh and for those wondering, even after just being woken up and in her PJs and glasses, Janine was still pretty hot, so that helped my decision a little bit. Also she is about 5'1 on her tippy-toes so I fancied my chances if anything went down.
Peace & Love
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Raglan - Surf paradise (Feb 25 - 27)
On my trip to Piha beach there was a fellow on the bus named Chuck. You may remember him from the pointing and laughing picture. Well, he was a representative for MOJO Surf, which is a company that does surf trips/lessons. He mentioned a trip leaving that weekend for Raglan for 2.5 days and after twisting my arm (HA!) I was convinced to go. I was also with Jon and Leah (see there blog here) who were also on the Piha beach trip (Jon Leah back story: They quit their jobs and got married in Bahamas, then started their honeymoon in Rio and are now in NZ..not sure about the dates, but just the idea is awesome). Also on the bus was a fellow from Texas but going to school in Montreal, a group of about 9 American girls (one of these girls was also from Montreal going to McGill) on an exchange program, and a very nice German couple (Marian (sp?) 23 and Lisa 20). Drinking on the bus was a must, after we all started to drink everyone got to know each other much better, and faster. Oh, and we were two hours late picking up these three girls from New York which sucked for them, but they got over it after they started drinking (Sidenote: two of them were biologists I think, one loved turtles and the other birds, so I learned some interesting things from them).
What can I really say about Raglan...It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, everywhere was by the water and lush with greenery. It had a feel like if you just walked a few miles in one direction and built a house no one would ever find you. There are multiple surfing beaching in Raglan, the most famous being Manu bay which is one of the top 10 surfing beaches in the world (there was actually a surf competition going on while we were there that was on the national circuit, so there were some famous NZ surfers there which was pretty cool. Everyone was SUPER friendly and knew everyone else). We learned on the easier bay which I can't currently remember the name of but it was quite nice.
We arrived at the lodge at night so I didn't get the full effect, but in the morning I saw that we were in the middle of a Rainforest with an amazing view of the sea. The cabins in the lodge were very clean and nice (not used to this staying in the city), and there was a cool barn you could hang out in at night.
The surfing lessons started the next morning after breakfast, we surfed for about 2-3 hours before lunch. I was kinda getting the hang of it by lunch time but still couldn't get out to the bigger waves (I say bigger but they were still REALLY small, at first I was just ridding white waves). After lunch Hemi (Maori for James...chyea!) gave me a different board so it would be easier. I started the shred the white waves like a boss, I was doing little turns and things, it was very exciting. The weather was beautiful, and just right for beginners surfing (the instructors, Hemi and Bugsy, were saying how bad the surfing really was lol). We all went out that night, one girl got THRASHED..it was pretty funny
I started off the second day with a nice stretch at a look out point down the road from the lodge. I wish I had my camera at that point, AMAZING VIEW..very relaxing and good thing I stretched so I was ready for the morning surf. I got a better board that day so I could go a bit faster. This made me feel like a hero so I tried going out to the bigger waves...and let me tell you...they are NO JOKE. I was getting thrown about like never before, I actually got pushed all the way into the middle of the beach which is where the rough waves are. Still had a great time though obviously. After a nice pizza lunch we were on our way home...Saying goodbye to paradise is tough, I definitely have to go back one day.
Highlights:
- Marian singing a Bob Dylan (not sure which) word for word in perfect English
- Marian trying to teach Jon, Nicole, and I how to speak German and laughing at us while going on German rants
- Jon sleeping like a puppet in the barn LMAO
- Lauren (one of the 9 girls) being the happiest and "smileyest(?)" person I've ever met..basically a day brightener
- Cruising on a sweet breaker all the way into the beach....
I'm currently in Taupo (very small city but surrounded by mountains)...Stay tuned for Feb 28-Mar 3.....The Janine and Lisa adventure....
Peace & Love
What can I really say about Raglan...It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, everywhere was by the water and lush with greenery. It had a feel like if you just walked a few miles in one direction and built a house no one would ever find you. There are multiple surfing beaching in Raglan, the most famous being Manu bay which is one of the top 10 surfing beaches in the world (there was actually a surf competition going on while we were there that was on the national circuit, so there were some famous NZ surfers there which was pretty cool. Everyone was SUPER friendly and knew everyone else). We learned on the easier bay which I can't currently remember the name of but it was quite nice.
We arrived at the lodge at night so I didn't get the full effect, but in the morning I saw that we were in the middle of a Rainforest with an amazing view of the sea. The cabins in the lodge were very clean and nice (not used to this staying in the city), and there was a cool barn you could hang out in at night.
The surfing lessons started the next morning after breakfast, we surfed for about 2-3 hours before lunch. I was kinda getting the hang of it by lunch time but still couldn't get out to the bigger waves (I say bigger but they were still REALLY small, at first I was just ridding white waves). After lunch Hemi (Maori for James...chyea!) gave me a different board so it would be easier. I started the shred the white waves like a boss, I was doing little turns and things, it was very exciting. The weather was beautiful, and just right for beginners surfing (the instructors, Hemi and Bugsy, were saying how bad the surfing really was lol). We all went out that night, one girl got THRASHED..it was pretty funny
I started off the second day with a nice stretch at a look out point down the road from the lodge. I wish I had my camera at that point, AMAZING VIEW..very relaxing and good thing I stretched so I was ready for the morning surf. I got a better board that day so I could go a bit faster. This made me feel like a hero so I tried going out to the bigger waves...and let me tell you...they are NO JOKE. I was getting thrown about like never before, I actually got pushed all the way into the middle of the beach which is where the rough waves are. Still had a great time though obviously. After a nice pizza lunch we were on our way home...Saying goodbye to paradise is tough, I definitely have to go back one day.
Highlights:
- Marian singing a Bob Dylan (not sure which) word for word in perfect English
- Marian trying to teach Jon, Nicole, and I how to speak German and laughing at us while going on German rants
- Jon sleeping like a puppet in the barn LMAO
- Lauren (one of the 9 girls) being the happiest and "smileyest(?)" person I've ever met..basically a day brightener
- Cruising on a sweet breaker all the way into the beach....
I'm currently in Taupo (very small city but surrounded by mountains)...Stay tuned for Feb 28-Mar 3.....The Janine and Lisa adventure....
Peace & Love
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