Hi all,
Well, it’s been a while since I emailed last, and I’m getting way behind in my updates. This’ll probably be the last one before I’m back in the UK (I’m in the US now, visiting friends and family on my way to Boston for Christmas), so I’ll try to get everything caught up here. Set some coffee, go to the loo, and settle in - I haven't been known for my brevity in previous emails, so why start now?
My last email finished with the end of the South Island of New Zealand, I think. I spent 4 weeks travelling that island, and had two weeks left. At this point, I’d been travelling with a group of people for quite a while, including Seet and Carly from London (a Brit and an American), Graham from England, Scott from Canada, and Pete from England – Seet, Carly, Graham and I were together from the beginning, and we picked up Pete and Scott on Steward Island.
After leaving Kaikoura, where I’d had the chance to swim with New Zealand fur seals and play a few stunning games of pool in the local bar (if I do say so myself!), we headed off to the ferry the next morning.
I’ve been really lucky in New Zealand to have pretty good weather, in a place that supposedly gets TONS of rain. Well, it was a pretty gross day on the ferry. After a few short minutes out on deck to snap a few photos in the gusty winds, a few of us took refuge in the cinema. The ferry is huge, and there are TWO choices for movies.
So we passed the time with “The Bourne Ultimatum”. It’s a bit odd to watch a film in the belly of a big ship – you feel yourself rocking, but the screen is rocking as well, so your sense of balance goes a bit wonky. I’m glad that the ship was quite stable; it wouldn’t have been a fun cinematic experience on a rolling ship!
After arriving in Wellington and experiencing Noddie, the new bus driver (this was thankfully brief – he isn’t one of my favorites), we got settled in the hostel and spent three nights here. Wellington is the capital city of NZ, and has a cool kind of vibe to it. We spent a few days wandering – after the relative isolation of much of the South Island, it was a bit of culture shock to be in a city again!
While in Wellington, I spent some time in the Te Papa Museum, New Zealand’s national museum. It’s a neat place, with lots of interactive stuff; I haven’t done much traditional art museum stuff on my trip, so it was the right sort of place to go. We wandered around and pushed buttons and touched stuff and were generally silly for a few hours. That night, we all got a bit silly (drunk) in the hostel bar, danced on the tables, and took silly photos of each other late into the night.
My last day in Wellington, I spent time with Seet and Carly, who I’d met on the bus my first day out of Christchurch 4 weeks earlier. We’d become quite close, and I’m glad that at least Seet will be in London after her travels (Carly’s moving to San Francisco). I’ve met some amazing people on the road, some of whom I’ll always know. That night, we went bowling and had our last night out at the pub, which was good fun. I'm a crap bowler, and have chronic wrist problems, so I won't embarrass myself with my score ...
The next day, we all headed towards Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city – the Stray bus starts its loop of the North Island from there. Pete and I were the only ones left when we got there, as the rest of the gang split off at Taupo (more on that town later).
After a night in Auckland, we got on the bus the next morning. Pete was running on a similar schedule to mine, and we planned to travel together the rest of the way and meet up with the rest of the gang in the Bay of Islands (north of Auckland) after he and I did the North Island. It was such fun to have these great people to travel with, and I never felt alone.
Our first stop was Hahei, on the Coramundel Peninsula. This is some beautiful coastline on the east coast, and we did a really nice walk that afternoon to Cathedral Cove. This is a cool beach with huge rock formations (carved by the ocean, I guess) that you can walk through – hence the Cathedral part. Pete and I were without the rest of our South Island “crew”, so this was a good chance to meet the new people on the bus. That night was a BBQ at the hostel cooked by Cathy, our bus driver, with help from us. I contributed the mashed potatoes; some of you may know of my love affair with the potato, so I took my job very seriously.
After dinner, we went to Hot Water Beach, one of my favorite places in New Zealand. Due to all the geothermal activity in New Zealand, there’s a specific place on a particular beach (100 feet wide, maybe) where you can dig a hole in the sand at low tide and find scalding hot water. So we did – well, we actually just poached a hole dug by some other people and continued to dig when necessary. It was cool – we sat in hot water on a cold beach, drank cold beer, and scalded our bums from the heat of the water. Such a fun experience.
The next day we headed across the North Island to Raglan; the island is small, so it wasn’t too far. Raglan’s a weird little town, and the only thing people do there is surf. Apparently, it’s one of the best surf beaches in the world. I had a go at surfing back in Australia, you might recall. I suck at it, so I didn’t feel the need to try it again. The hostel was really terrific, and we went down to the beach for the afternoon; it was warm enough for a bit of sunbathing, though the water was frigid. That night was a gourmet pizza at the hostel, then off to bed.
The next day was a big day, and an early one. The one tough thing about the Stray bus is the morning departure times. They aim to get you to your daily destination early enough to enjoy the day, so we’re often on the road by 8:00 or 8:30. This day, we headed to Waitomo Caves. The North Island is rich in limestone, which means caves. These caves have gloworms in them – cool, eh? After my stunts on the South Island, I opted for the Haggas Honking Holes caving trip, with a “Rambo” rating of 8/10.
I abseiled (Kiwi-speak for repel) down into the cave over three different drops – one dry abseil, followed by two more down waterfalls. The total descent was about 80 metres. We then caved around for a while (crawling through holes and underground streams), and looked at the gloworms. These are cool little worms with bioluminescence (like fireflies), and they live on the roofs of the caves. It was such a fun experience to stand in a cave in absolute darkness and look up at the stars! Then we had to climb out. After getting stuck in a crack in the ice on a glacier a few weeks earlier, I was a bit nervous about the whole caving thing. Luckily, there weren’t any really tight squeezes. I didn’t look very glamorous in my wetsuit, helmet and white Wellies, and some of the climbs weren’t pretty, but I managed to haul myself back up out of the caves. Only in New Zealand!
From there, we raced across the island so a few of us could Zorb (http://www.zorb.com/). Now this, this was just pure, silly fun. Imagine a plastic hamster ball with an inner compartment and a bit of water. Put 1-3 people in it, and roll it down a big hill. After falling on my butt as soon as the thing started rolling I laughed all the way down, , and was still laughing when I got out. It cost $44 per ride, and the ride was only about 45 seconds (you do the math), but it was just such fun that I loved it.
From there, we went to Maketu, which is a cultural stop on the tour. We stayed in a Marai, whichi s a Maori meeting house, ate a traditional Maori meal called a hangi, and had an evening of the Haka (Maori war challenge) and Poi (women twirling pom-poms – you might have seen people doing it with fire). Some of it was cool, some of it was a bit contrived and touristy, but it was interesting and fun anyway. Then we had a bit of a sleepover; there were 25 or so people on the bus and we all slept on the floor in the same room. Surprisingly, it was a great night’s sleep!
The next day, we went white-water rafting on the Kaituna River (Grade 5, for those of you who know what that means). You know me, adventure girl; I rafted down the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world at 7 meters/21 feet. It was quite a rush, and I hadn’t been rafting in a really long time.
After rafting, we stopped in Rotorua, known for its geothermal activity. It stinks. I mean, the town stinks, literally. Like rotten eggs. There are boiling mud pits and everything. My God, who thought up this crazy country?! Then we were on our way to Taupo, where half of all visitors skydive (it’s the cheapest place in NZ to do it). I held off, amazingly enough. We all went to dinner that night at a local pub for a pub quiz. There are several buses that can take you around NZ, and each caters to a different clientele.
The Stray bus is the most diverse, age-wise, and tends to be a more mature crowd (I know, I know, what the hell am I doing on the bus, then ...). The other bus tours were in the pub that night, and we got a good look at them. When the quizmaster offered a free beer to the first boy in a bra and girl in men’s underwear, we saw the mad rush, and were glad to be on the Stray bus. :) We didn’t win the quiz, and most of us went to bed at a reasonable hour, as the next day was a big one. A few stayed out late and suffered for it - read on to find out what was ahead of us.
The next morning, we headed off to Mount Tongariro to do the Tongariro Crossing, listed as New Zealand’s best one-day hike, and one of the best day hikes in the world. Mount Tongariro is right next to Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings), so you can imagine the scenery. It was an 11.5mile walk including ½ mile worth of vertical climb up and ¾ mile of climb down. I did it in 6h20min, including a good stop for lunch and a small crying fit as I fell a few times coming down the loose volcanic rubble (if you ever go to NZ, YOU MUST DO THIS WALK, just don’t do it running shoes). This was the most stunning scenery I’d seen so far, and probably my very best day in New Zealand. I wouldn’t have though I was capable of this before my trip, but not only did I do it, but I didn’t even suffer all that much (well, my knees were tired after all that downhill, but that’s to be expected). What an amazing, amazing walk it was.
As a bonus to the day, the hostel we stayed at after the walk was THE best hostel we stayed at in New Zealand, complete with a Jacuzzi for tired walkers. Pete and I both had the time to spare, so we stopped here for 3 nights (they were running a 3 nights for the price of 2 special). After the walk, my feet were understandably sore, and it was great just to stop for a few days. There’s nothing to report about those days, as they were spent watching DVDs, playing pool at the pub down the street, and playing table tennis in the hostel. We met up on the second day with a few guys we’d seen in Taupo, so it was fun to hang out with them.
After 3 relaxing days, we went back to Auckland, just for the night (I spent three nights in Auckland, but never really saw the city). The next morning, we headed north to Paihia, in the Bay of Islands. This is the far north of the North Island, and it’s just stunning. There are Kauri forests, which are amazing old forests of pine-like trees that are 600 years old and 8-10 feet across. And the coastline is just amazing.
We got up to Paihia, and met up with our mates – together again! We went to the pub that night for pizza and beer, and stumbled across a gold mine. The pub was giving away stuff, and we raked it in. Seet won a 2-4-1 speedboat ride, Scott won another similar voucher, and Pete was the big winner with a bungy voucher AND a 2-4-1 skydive voucher. What’s that? Skydive? Again? Hmm.
The next day, four of us took a tour up to the very top of the North Island, Cape Reinga. It was a great drive up the coast, and we went up to the very tip (so now I’ve been from the very bottom to the very top of New Zealand, which is cool). We saw where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, and I’m sure I could see them swirling together.
After that, we went sandboarding (boogie boards on giant sand dunes), which was cool, except the part where you have to climb UP the dune you want to board down. Afterwards, we stopped for fish and chips at best chippie in NZ, according to some poll. It was pretty good stuff. We had a really lovely day, then relaxed back at the hostel and watched some TV.
The next day, Seet and I went off to do our jetboat ride, which turned out to FREE! It was a fun ride on a fast boat, and we had some really great views of the islands in the bay. We had them drop us at Russell, another cute little town in the bay, and we had some lunch and a wander before catching a water taxi back to town and doing a bit of shopping. That afternoon, Carly and Scott left, and our gang began to shrink. The four of us who were left had a BBQ at the hostel, and relaxed for the evening.
The next day was a fun one, because Pete offered to share his 2-4-1 skydive voucher with me, and I got to skydive in NZ for the second time! The Bay of Islands is beautiful, and was stunning from the air. This was a very small operation, and we took off in a teeny little plane in a grass field. This time, it was 12,000 feet, and you’ll love this. My financial logic has been so warped in NZ that I figured I should get ANOTHER skydive DVD, since I was only spending half as much on the sky dive. Yeah, that makes sense. I wasn’t at all nervous this time, and really enjoyed it, especially since I asked my instructor to really have some fun. We triple-flipped out of the plane, went into a hard spin during the free fall (from the DVD, I count that we went around 8 times), and went nearly upside down after the chute opened. Whee!
That afternoon, Seet, Pete, and I went back to Auckland, and spent my last night there. I was pretty sad to say goodbye to them, and to have it end. Seet and I had gotten along so well from the beginning, a real soulmate kind of connection, and I knew I’d really miss her.
As you’ve probably guessed, New Zealand has been one of my favourite places, scenically, socially, and sheer fun-wise. I’d live here if I could. I’ll keep this in mind when I get to the end of my PhD. It’s a special place, and it calls to me. I had the time of my life and found strengths and abilities in me that I never knew I had. What an amazing gift to have spent 6 weeks here!
Okay, I said I’d get caught up, but I’ll stop again. I’m sure you all have to pee, get coffee, live your lives, and these novellas must be exhausting for you. I’ll write about Fiji, the US, and my ongoing UK student visa saga (not yet solved, but it should be by Tuesday) in a few days. I hope you’re all well, and if I don’t get around to my next email until I’m back in the UK, I wish you all the happiest of holiday seasons.
Best,
Dina
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