New Zealand - The Rest of the North Island

Now that I'm in Australia, it's time to play some catchup! I'll try to be brief so I can actually keep up!

Journal entry 3Nov07 1.30p
Flight #2 in just a few minutes...
Leaving the North Island after a whirlwind 5 days, it's already clear that my trip will be physically exhausting but mentally refreshing...

Day 2 (30 Oct) started my least favorite way: early. I climbed off my bunk at 6.30a, showered and crept out just in time, as my bus driver was looking for me! By 10a we were in Waitomo where I was dropped at the Info center since I had no clue what I was doing. After confirming I could catch a shuttle to a late bus, I booked onto the Black Water Cave tubing option. With 1.5 hours to kill, I hit a cafe and splurged on the FULL English breakfast, and used the time to organize photos and charge my camera.

Got picked up by a shuttle, checked in and were given wet suits, jackets, booties & boots. Our guide wore some pink panties on top, but I gathered that was optional. After getting tubes & a test jump, we climbed down into some caves and were off...

We waded through the shallow waters with our helmet lamps lighting the way, until it eventually got deep enough to hop on our tubes and float. We had to jump off a small and medium waterfall backwards in the dark, and we ducked under some pretty tight and low spots. We floated through a low cave covered with glow worms, which was amazing! I was so glad I did the more interactive and physical tubing option instead of floating through on a boat ride, because it looked so surreal that, were I to be just on a boat floating through, it would seem like a cheesy Disney ride with fake stars in fake caves!

Underground I met Mio, a girl from Chiba traveling her last few days alone. Once we got back above ground, changed, showered, and dried off, we were fed some yummy soup and a bagel and we all sat around and chatted. I smiled and made faces at Keith from England's super-cute baby daughter and chatted with a girl from Israel. Then I talked with Mio and realized she was heading back to Auckland as well. After some coordinating, I canceled my shuttle and bus ticket and threw my bag into her car for a GPS-guided drive to Auckland! We got back at dusk, so she was off the hook, as I was trying to convince her to jump off the Sky Tower (largest structure in the Southern Hemisphere!) with me. Instead we got her into her hotel, and I checked into the Base Backpackers, which was fantastic, then we wandered to the Viaduct area at the wharf to look for a decent but not too pricey dinner. Found a great Italian place, spent more than we should, and decided to call it a night. Time to get some sleep, since the next morning I joined my Contiki Bay of Island tour!

DAY 3 - 31 Oct
Not much of a Halloween, but a hell of a day anyway! Got up, showered, hit the net cafe, headed to the Mercure around the corner to meet Contiki, and discovered that it was a different Mercure! Fortunately the right one was only one more block away, so I got sorted pretty easily and we were off!

Heading north, we stopped first at a Kauri forest - an ancient and giant tree. I think once again my California upbringing hindered my appreciation of the beauty of the scenery as apparently the Kauri are nearly the biggest trees in the world, second only to the California Sequoias...

When we got to Paihia, I opted for the Jetboat to the Hole in the Rock. It was cold and the wind chill was aweful, but we boarded a giant speed boat and raced across the water. It was a cool adventure, but I thought it was a bit overpriced. I couldn't believe quite how far we had to go to get to this little island, so I guess I'm glad we took the speedboat option though! Our pilot deftly sailed us though the relatively calm waters into the hole and back out again, pointed out the schools of hundreds of fish moving in unision, bobbing to the surface, and then steered our boat into a cave so close to the rock surrounding us, it was amazing that we didn't touch on any side for the few minutes we were in there!

We sailed back and I was ice cold and ready for dinner! Checked into the hotel, and headed down to chat with people and watch the hotel owners bbq up a TON of steaks! We walked into town before dinner and picked up a booze stash (I failed to get mixers, brilliant) and had a cocktail with a few people to get to know each other. I ate myself sick trying to cram in all the steak I could, and we had another drink after dinner before freshening up and heading to the bare at the Base Backpackers. I took a long shower and walked myself out there, enjoying an evening stroll. The club was pretty banging, and I chatted with everyone from our tour group and had quite a few drinks. It was a fun night, and I was in the last small group to leave. For some reason the booze didn't hit me until the walk home, and Benita, Maree-Louise and I ended up on a stumbling adventure, and then sitting outside our hotel room's patio for an hour, giggling and being drunks!

DAY 4 - 1 Nov
The next morning started a continual trend for me: bumbling my way into breakfast, late, jarred, overtired, gravelly-voiced, and bundled in my hoodie and sunglasses. I learned long ago that whether I go to bed at 9p or 3a, I still feel crap waking up at 7a, so I might as well enjoy the night life! Everyone teased me, asking how late I was out, but it's all good fun! Besides, I had a full day trek planned with Awesome Adventures! We were heading to Cape Reigna, the Northernmost tip of New Zealand, with a ton of stops along the way! It turned out to be an exhausting day!

Our guide Kane was fantastic, driving the bus and telling us stories, history, nature facts, and cultural points of interest along the way. One exciting leg of our journey North was a stretch of highway unique in the world - Ninety Mile Beach. During low tide, this 64-mile stretch of beach is a road, and we raced buses down it legally at 100km and hour! We stopped for some scenic views, but kept them all brief, as once the tides came in, we'd be stuck windows-deep in water and unable to journey forward! Could you imagine that in the US?!

Once we finally cruised the entire length of the beach, we cut inland just a little to hit a GIANT sand dune! This one was way bigger than the one I rode in Fiji! I was more nervous about going up than coming down, and I was right - fat, lazy me could barely make it up the trek! They thought I was scared to go sandboarding off the top, but really I was stalling to catch my breath after the massive climb in thick sand! But boarding down it was loads of fun, and I ended up doused in sand for the next 3 days!

When we got to the Cape, it was gorgeous! I was exhausted, but I treked out to the edge, down to a lighthouse, and had a look around. Steep, rocky cliffs, greenery and trees, and a stretch of beautiful sandy beach to the left. We could see the South Pacific Ocean mingling and combining with the Tasman Sea, and an ancient tree the Maori believed was the point at the top of the earth where spirits traveled to the afterlife.

After we hit the tip we, headed back downhill for lunch on the beach. I had a snack and lazed under the shade of a tree. I was beat already, and we still had more to go! On the way back we stopped to hose the salt water and sand off the bus at a huge warehouse/store/museum of carvings from an ancient growth of Kauri trees that had been double-buried by ice ages and land slides tens of thousands of years ago. Of course it was all out of my price range, but the highlight of the store was the spiral staircase to the second floor. It was carved beautifully into a Kauri tree built into the center of the store. Walking through the inside of a tree, up stairs, to the next level - now that was a unique experience!

On the way back, we stopped by a marina-front little restaurant to have some super-fresh fish and chips. Since I don't eat seafood, I only ordered chips and they gave me a pile for cheap! It came wrapped in huge amounts of paper like buying fresh fish from the markets and when I unrolled it all, I found they gave me fish anyway for free! I couldn't be rude, so I ate it, and to my surprise (and to everyone's that knows me) it was fantastic! So I guess I eat fish and chips now! :)

We finally got home and after another good shower we all were pretty exhausted and most of the Contiki group just hung out on our patios, snacking and having cocktails. I had that bottle of vodka from the night before and couldn't take it with me on my flight out of Auckland, so someone gave me a soda and I filled it up as we all joked. Benita and Maree-Louise had become my partners in crime by this point, so they drank Alize and we all ended up drunk! Maree went to bed early though and Benita and I whined that everyone wussed out that night, so I poured my vodka into her Alize and we headed to the beach. We both sat on the beach for hours and tried to walk around but were too drunk to do much. after a lot of falls and sand everywhere, we finally crashed out for 2 or 3 hours of sleep before an early morning start back to Auckland.


DAY 5 - 2 Nov
After a drive back to Auckland, I was pretty bummed to say goodbye to the Contiki group, and sad that I only got one or two emails of people from the group. I rally had to pee though, so I broke away and checked into the Fat Camel Hostel, which was awesome! The layout is a series of apartments, each with 6 or 7 dorm rooms attached, plus bathroom, shower room, full kitchen and living room. So, I ended up meeting several people and hanging out in the common room a lot. I met John, a teacher on sabbatical from Lake Tahoe, and he was new into town. Having 2 or 3 hours experience in Auckland already, I decided to help him figure out his trip, especially since there were 3 STA Travels on Queen Street, a half block from where our hostel was. He wanted to rent a camper van, so we headed into one of the STAs to chat.

After quizzing an employee on what work life was like out there, I discovered she know one of the managers from New York that I had met in Fiji! Small STA world! She told me the central office for STA NZ was just up the road at the Base Backpacker ACB, so after walking way too far up the road and searching for a guitar for John, I sent him off to book his camper at the STA while I popped in for a chat with the STA head office. Everything sounded pretty fantastic and I'm seriously considering moving back to New Zealand later next year and working for a year or so. Gotta do it soon, cuz once I turn 30, it becomes much harder to get the visa. Whaddya all think?!

Back to the Base Backpacker, I passed on a walk to the pier, as it had started raining and I had been a bit before. Instead I got online and sat around a bit before going down to bum Fat Camel's FREE dinner! Lucky for me I ran into that free fish in the Bay of Islands, because I was now totally cool with eating it again that night! At dinner I met a Canadian couple that I ended up chatting with a bunch that night, and later that evening, I went and met the hostel manager and the travel agent on site who both happened to be working grave shifts that night. I took it easy before my flight to Christchurch the next day. But before my flight, I had one more chore left to do...

DAY 6 - 3 Nov - Part 1.
Sky Tower. 328 metres tall, as measured from ground level to the top of the mast, making it the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere. Like the Space Needle on crack. And just above the observation deck, there's a little platform, some wire cables, and 2 people to operate adn take photos. 192m (630ft) up, and I needed to jump off it.

I dragged my bag to the bus station at Sky City, at the base of the tower, and put them in a locker. Then I walked to the info desk and asked how quickly I could jump off that tower. It was noon, and I had a 3p flight to catch! I suited up, got harnessed and hopped on the glass elevator racing up the side of the tower! The view was beautiful and the day was perfect!

I wish I had more pictures to show of the jump, but this time I wasn't allowed to bring my camera, for fear that, if dropped, it could hit someone below. And the CD of photos they gave me seems to freeze up my computer and not work at all. I'll work on ripping the DVD though and getting it up. Otherwise, I shot avideo from the observation deck of a women who I urged to take the plunge once I survived mine. At any rate, I'll include here a pic of the last thing I saw before getting tethered in and taking that final step!

I think one of my favorite things was reading the safety precautions where it said any loose articles such as jewelry, scarves, or long hair must be "scured, stored, or removed!" I thought, "I'd really love to jump, but do I really have to cut my hair off?!" At any rate, that gave me some good nervous laughter as I climbed out onto the ledge, counted to 3, and stepped off! The first woosh is freaky, but they stop you 10 meters down (in front of the observation deck, I later learned) for a once in a lifetime photo opportunity. Then as soon as they get a good wave out of you, they drop you and I plummeted down towards a big red target on the ground. The view was amazing and I really enjoyed it. I landed hard and fell to my knees, but got back up right away, got unhooked, and raced into the base to get out of my jumpsuit and on my way! I collected my stuff and got back to the bus stop in time to grab a pie for breakfast and make flirty eyes at the cute girl who worked at the coffee shop before hopping on a bus, heading to the airport, checking in, and taking off to the South Island.

Flight #2, near the end of my first week, and at the finish of the first leg of my adventure!