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
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