Day 1: Dunedin to Wellington
Around 4:30pm Fredric drove Julia and I to the airport. I really like car rides, which i've said before, and will probably reiterate about ten more times throughout this post because other than the first day and a half, I spent the majority of my trip in a car. It was great. We arrived at the airport around 5:15 for our 6:00 flight but once we got our boarding passes we realized they had changed our flight to a little after 7:00. Air New Zealand gave each of us $6 for snacks, which I spent on potato wedges. I also purchased a Rugby World Cup shirt as they are all on sale now. At around 6:45 we boarded our flight to Christchurch (original flight was direct to Wellington but new flight we stopped in Christchurch). We were on a big plane for the Christchurch flight and they served us wine. Our second flight went swimmingly as well and we arrived in Wellington a little after 9pm. We then took a taxi to the Wellington YHA, the same hostel Grace, Miriam, and I stayed the last time. After dropping off our things, I took Julia to Kaffee Eis where we both had Amaretto gelato. So delicious. We headed back to go to bed since our train left rather early the next morning. We were sharing the room with another six people who seemed to be together. The man on the bunk across from me slept naked. Birthday suit naked. He hung his underwear on the pipes above his bed and also slept with his flip flops next to his pillow. He then proceeded to get out of his bed three times throughout the night, each time squeeking the bunk awkwardly to put his underpants on as discretely as possible. Then the woman underneath Julia snored like a train. So basically I woke up at 3am and just listened to my iPod until 6am when I had to get out of bed. I must have listened to a large majority of the music on my little Shuffle and read most of my texts on my phone a few times by the time I went to brush my teeth. It was a brisk morning and the walk to the train station was a little cold. It was nice to watch the sun fully rise while walking next to the harbor though.
Day 2: Overlander Train Wellington to Auckland
We boarded the train, which had panoramic windows in the back. We were going to be on the train for 12 hours and I did not realize how long that actually was until we arrived in Auckland 12 hours later. The sites were beautiful, but it was such a looonggg ride... I also thought we were going to stop at Mordor, but instead we just saw Mount Doom from a distance. Oh well.. After arriving in Auckland we took a bus to our hostel where we were going to meet Victoria and Steph. I fell asleep before they arrived but we were up early the next morning to start our road trip.
Day 3: Auckland to Paihia
Steph drove from Auckland to Paihia, which is about a 3 hour drive. On the way we stopped at Waipo Caves. The cave is said to have glow worms and a whole ton of cool things but it was pretty muddy when we arrived and we had no maps of the cave so we did not venture too far in.
For lunch, we stopped at Whangarei Falls. We started at the top of the falls and then walked down to the base of the waterfall. The short hike was quite nice after sitting the car for so long.
 |
| Victoria, Julia, and Steph in front of Whangarei Falls |
After a short break and souvenir shopping, we were back in the car again to go to Russell. Russell is not an island but driving to Russell would have taken over an hour and the ferry ride was about five minutes. Also, taking a car on the ferry is strangely cheaper than buying individual tickets. It was $6/person per trip whereas the car was $10/car + $1/per passenger. At Russell we visited the oldest church in New Zealand and walked around the small town.
Upon arrival back to Paihia we all drove to this small walk near a swamp and took the zig-zag wooden path. Strange plants grew in this swamp and it was kind of smelly like Rotorua, but it was cool. We returned to our beautiful hostel for dinner where Julia and I made veggie cashew masala. It was delicious. It was an early night, filled with episodes of Friends.
Day 4: Cape Reinga
We then went on a small hike to the other side where we could see the beach. We sat on the grass looking out towards the water until Victoria and Steph realized that there were rain clouds quickly approaching. We started walking towards the car but we still got down poured on. It was over in about five minutes though, but we were already all wet. We were kind of like Eeyore. Anyways, we then drove to the sand dunes, which is one of my favorite places in all of New Zealand so far.
The sand dunes reminded me of the dunes I went to in China when I was five. There was no one riding camels though. Instead there were Germans sand boarding. We met A LOT of Germans on this trip. We all hiked up the big sand dune and on the other side you could see the ocean. The sand was so soft and there were no twigs or anything to bother your feet. Also because the hill was so far up some of the sand was really warm and it made your feet feel awesome. There were also cool patterns in the sand that are made by the different shades of sand. We spent a lot of time at the dunes before de-sanding ourselves and driving to our next place, Spirits Bay.
As you can probably guess, Spirits Bay is also beautiful. We drove to the tiny car park (or patch of grass) and for about five minutes could not figure out how to get to the bay until we realized that the thing we though was a "picnic table" was actually our step to the other side. We played in the water and sat under the sun admiring how incredibly blue the water and sky was. I still cannot believe how blue the water is and often times I find myself just staring at things because I feel like if I just keep on looking at things then I will remember them more and somehow come to an understanding of how everything is just SO BEAUTIFUL.
 |
| the "picnic" table... |
 |
| three colored water! |
Our next stop was the infamous 90 Mile Beach, which is actually only about 64 miles, but that is besides the point. We only stayed a few minutes because it had gotten really really windy and it was cold and there was dead fish all over the place. We then drove back to the hostel where we had dinner and then headed out to watch Guy Fawkes fireworks on the beach.
Day 5: Sailing in the Bay of Islands
We spent the day on the Gungha II a sail boat owned by a Canadian that had sailed all over the world. We sailed to Roberton Island about two hours away. During those two hours we saw so many dolphins! They would just swim alongside the boat for a while before leaving again. I had never seen dolphins up close.
While we were at Roberton Island we went on two short walks lead by Nick, the most polite and well behaved six year old tour guide out there. First of all, Nick hiked REALLY fast. We were all like, "Wow, Nick, you are really fast." and he did not even have shoes. A true kiwi boy. At different look out points along the way Nick would say, "So here you can see the water and everything! Isn't it BEEAUUTIFULL?" He was adorable.
Nick then took us on another short walk on some cool rocks. Victoria piggy-backed Nick as the rocks were a little sharp and he did not have shoes. After the walks we sat on the beach looking at shells.
We then kayaked back to the Gungha where we had lunch. It was a yummy ham and cheese sandwich. I needed to use the bathroom before lunch and so I went to the one in the sail boat and because there were all these odd steps here and there I ended up face planting right in front of the bathroom door. I am okay, and now I have parallel bruises on my legs, along with my scar from Franz Josef. Lunch was delicious though.
 |
| We found a nest on our hike. The bird was not guarding it very well... |
 |
| Swedish sail boat |
Day 6: Coromandel Peninsula
Our plan was to drive to our hostel and then to Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula. We had calculated that mid-tide would be around 2pm but alas we miscalculated.... by 4 hours, so when we arrived at the hostel most people had already left the hostel to go dig themselves hot water pools. We quickly hopped back in the car and drove the 30 minutes back to Hot Water Beach and ran onto the sand with our shovels. After three pools of purely cold water we finally hit warm water, but within seconds we realized the water was wayyy to hot and me and Julia were scrambling to find small mounts of sand to stand on before we all just braced the boiling water and ran for the sea. Lesson learned: only dig at the right time and get there early or you will have pink feet.
Since we could not dig ourselves a nice warm pool we just lounged about soaking in the sun. Side note about the sun. I have been using sun screen but since New Zealand has no ozone layer I am still burning somewhat. I seem to also not apply sunscreen very evenly, so I basically have patches that are more tan than others. I am welcoming myself to giraffe-hood. I'll have to do a better job in Australia. Anyways, after Hot Water Beach we drove to Cathedral Cove. There was a 45 minute walk down to the cove and we walked via Stingray Bay.
 |
| Stingray Bay |
At Cathedral Cove there is a huge rock structure that you can see through. It is shaped slightly like a cathedral. There was also a very large rock that Julia, Victoria, and I swam out to. We then climbed the rock and proceeded to jump off the rock. It was super cool and the water IS SO BLUE. OH SO BLUE.
 |
| the rock we jumped off of is the one to the left of the really big central one |
 |
| Cathedral Cove |
We left in the afternoon to go back to the hostel for dinner. On our drive back we saw a little white paper fluttering in the windshield. We pulled over and saw that it was a parking ticket, for $60. What was the offense you may ask? INCONSIDERATE PARKING! Yes, we each chipped in $15 for our inconsiderate parking.... what does that even mean?!?
Anyways... moving on. We went to New World and got groceries for dinner. There was a grill at our hostel and we wanted to take full advantage of it. Steph and I made burgers, and the Julia and Victoria had falafel. There was also grilled asparagus and baked potato. It was so delicious.
 |
| Our dinner |
Day 7: Auckland
Victoria and Steph dropped us off at Pukekohe train station for our ride to Auckland. Although the train ride was only an hour it actually felt like we were never going to arrive in Auckland. It was so long and slow. Julia and I kept on talking about how great Septa was in comparison to the train we were on, and that really says something because Septa really isn't that great either. I think I just like car rides, so i'll stick to cars, or the NYC subway. Anyways, we arrived in Auckland and we first walked around the wharf and looked out to the harbor.
Then we started to search for food and came across a Chinese restaurant. I was not really paying attention to what the restaurant was called or anything and a few bites into my food I said to Julia, "This may be insensitive, but I feel like i'm sitting in the Cultural Revolution." to which she replied, "Dude, we're sitting in the Red Guard Cafe. Look behind you". I turned around and there was MAO.
I became a little more aware of my surroundings and I saw red revolution statues, some of which were wearing reindeer antlers (i'm guessing it's for Christmas?) and my napkin said "Red Guard Cafe: Food Revolution" and all the waiters and waitresses were wearing forest green and red, which I happen to also be wearing. It was interesting.
Our next stop was the Sky Tower. We did not go to the top, but spent a lot of time in the gift shop looking at LOTR things and things of the like.
We then went to Albert Park and the Art Gallery where there was this really awesome exhibit. It was a room with all mirrors and some kind of wallpaper and you could see yourself a bunch of times. Julia demonstrates here:
There was also this huge flowery chandelier that blew air on the flowers so they moved once in a while. Really pretty.
That afternoon Julia and I took a shuttle to the Auckland airport for our flight back to Dunedin. Here is where I tell all of you how much I love Air New Zealand. They are amazing. For our two hour flight we were served the option of either bagel bites and hummus or cheese, crackers, and grapes. Then we were offered wine. I am a fan of white wine and I was asked if I wanted ______ wine or ______ wine and I asked what the difference was to which the reply was, "Mmm, they're different, i'll just give you both." And so I ended up with two glasses of wine instead of one. Score. The one on the right side tasted better, if anyone was interested.
I woke up the next morning and cleaned the flat with my flat mates because our inspection was later in the day. We passed inspection and our flat is now clean. Hooray!
Today we took Jose and Lydia to the airport. They are road tripping for the next month or so before he leaves for Mexico. I cannot believe how fast this semester has gone. Many of my other friends are leaving this Sunday and most of the other ones are going home sometime while i'm in Australia. I have loved every moment of my time here but I find that in the past few days since i've come back from my trip i've been rather sad since I don't want anyone to leave. I have met some incredible people here and I wish I could spend more time with them. With that said though, I am also missing all of my friends and family at home. Anyways, I'm not doing very well with keeping my posts short since I basically just wrote a novel. Depending on internet availability i'll try to post a little more frequently while i'm in Australia.
No comments:
Post a Comment