Wow, what a whirlwind the last week has been....
Well since that last posting I have covered a lot of ground. I am currently in Wellington, which is the most southern city on the North Island. I think that this is my favorite spot on the North Island so far. Wellington is situated between the ocean and mountains. You can stroll along the harbour for hours looking out at people Paddleboarding, kayaking, swimming, and lounging around. It is absolutely stunning. Over the weekend there was a dragonboat festival, which is basically a giant canoe with 20 people paddling and racing other boats. Tons of people sat along the rocks on the harbour watching and cheering. There were also street vendors with delcious food and ice cream. There is also an awesome museum called Te Papa, which is quite impressive. It even features the Collosel squid , which is the largest in the world and they are the only place in the world who has a preserved once on display. It is massive.... One of the days I met of with Barry from the UK and we took the cable car up the hill to the botanical gardens. Once at the top of the hill there is a beautiful overlook of the city and harbour. I have only been here for four days, but I have fallen in love with this place. I hate to leave it tomorrow, but I am happy to say that I will come back for another visit on my way back up to Auckland.
Now that I have told you what I have been up to for the last four days, I will fill you in on my crazy week. On Saturday I hopped on a backpacker bus and we headed south. We had a pretty large group of about 40 people on the bus, after a day had passed everyone was fast friends. Once again my streak of meeting/ hanging out with the Brits continued. On the first day I ended up sitting with a girl from the UK named Belinda. She had just come from Australia and was travelling with a German Girl, Michala, that she had met over there. All three of us hit it off pretty well and ended up hanging out quite a bit for the whole week. Our first stop was Hot Water Beach. This beach is famous becasue a certain part of it you can dig holes and hot water fills in it from underneath. The beach was fairly crowded when we arrived, which was actually a blessing in disguise because all the people had already dug the holes and we were able to just enjoy them. Some of the pools were luke warm, while others were boiling out. You couldn't touch the water because it was so hot.
From there we went to Hahei for our overnight stay. Hahei is famous because it is home to the Cathedral Cove. Belinda, Michala, and I hiked the 1.5 hours back to the Cathedral cove and were treated to a very pretty site when we arrived. We hung out for a bit and made our way back for the bus barbaque that night. The barbaque was fun and the three of us mingled with about four other girls who were German, Dutch, and Brits. All eight of us made our way to the beach to star gaze as it was a very clear night. We stood out on the beach and marvelled and the millions of stars that gave a show. The Mily Way was out, shooting stars were flying across the sky, and the sound of waves crashing played in the background. While we stood out on the beach taking it all in I couldn't help but think that all eight of us were strangers that very morning, all from different parts of the world, but here we all were laughing together and having a great time star gazing. It just goes to show that no matter who you are or where you are from, we all have something in common. Not trying to get deep about this, but it was a very cool experience and feeling that washed over me. From that night I knew that this trip was going to be a once in a lifetime experience.
The next day we all loaded up on the bus and were headed out the drive when one girl ran up to the driver and had explained she had left her swimsuit. The only reason I am telling you about this is because when she got back on the bus, our driver Shaft (all the drivers have nicknames), who has a passion for Kareoke, had devised a plan for this girl to sing Teenage Dirtbag when she got back on the bus. She was a good sport about it and sung the lovely toon at 8 in the morning. I have to say it was pretty funny. Shaft was a complete hoot. She had hilarious commentary and really helped mesh the bus full of people. She definitely helped make the week a lot of fun.
. Ok so after all of those shenanigans we made our way to Raglan. This is a surfing town, known for one of the best left breaking waves in the country. Raglan is the place where I was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of surfing. Don't ask me why, but surfing is something I have always wanted to try. Anyways, a group of us took a surfing lesson, suited up in our lovely wetsuits, grabbed our boards, and made our way to the waves. The surf was really good that day, waves were crashing one after another. I made may way out farther in the water in the hopes to catch a good wave. After a few minutes I readied myself for the next wave. I swung my board around, hopped on, and started paddling. The wave took me with it and I attempted to stand up, but just as soon as I moved out of a lying position I found myself ass over tea kettle in the water. It took me a few attempts and then finally I did it. I performed all the motions that I was taught, got to my feet and rode the wave for about 5 seconds and once again was drinking the ocean water. Not to brag, but I was pretty excited that I got up after a few tries. We stayed out catching waves for a couple of hours and by the end I was thouroughly exhausted. I have a whole new respect for surfers.
Next we headed to Waitomo, home of the glow worms. To give you a bit of backstory on this place, it is New Zealand law that the property owner not only owns the land, but they also own what is above or below it. In 1970 a farmer discovered an area on his land that was a hole through the rocks. When he climbed down the hole he found an enormous cave system. After exploring the caves he noticed that on the ceilings there were these glowing dots, the glow worms. Now here is it over 40 years later and they are doing tours through these caves. This was one of the things I absolutely had to do when I got here. So I signed up to go blackwater rafting through the caves. We all strapped on wetsuits and boots and were led across the farmers land passing along many cows and arrived at that hole in the ground. One by one we slid down the ladder and were emerged into this cave system. My first impression was that it was really freaking cold and awesome. We climbed through the caves and we treated with ceilings full of these glow works. Once all the lights were off it looked like you were looking at a brilliant bright blue strary night. It was awesome. We continued on trudging through mud, water, and rocks. We swam in some portions because the water was so high and then we hit a section where we laid on tubes and floated down the cave looking of at the glow worms. This was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It honestly felt like you were in a whole other world.
We moved on from Waitomo and arrived at our first "cultural" stop. We were greeted with some of the local Maori when we arrived. Were showed to our sleeping quarters, which was a large building called a Wharenui, where they held special events. The building had brilliant red Maori carvings all over the walls and was actually pretty cool. The funny thing was that all 40 of us were sleeping on mattresses on the floor in this building. Turns out that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was basically a giant slumber party. That night the boys were taught a traditional Maori dance called the Haka, which was the New Zealand Rugby team does before every game. It was pretty enertaining. The girls learned the Poio. I know this all sounds cheesy, but it was actually a lot of fun.
Next we headed off to Lake Aniwhenua for our second cultural stay with a different Maori family. When we arrived we were greeted by Uncle Johnny who was supposed to give us a tour of the area along with commentary. Unfortunately, Uncle Johnny wasn't that great of a speaker and managed to put about hald the bus to sleep. He went on about Eels, which are very important to his family and people. He used wonderful hook lines such as the fact that he doens't even like Eel and how the area was not that great. Uncle Johnny was foreshadowing for how the rest of the evening going to go. After the tour we were greeted by Nadine, who was a very peppy women and obviously had worked in tourism before. She helped us all get settled in to our rooms and told us a little bit about how things worked at there place. I have to say the accomodations and scenery were wonderful and very nice, but that was about it. When we all sat down for dinner Nadine spoke to us about their mission, what are money is being used before, but the way she went about it really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It felt like we were getting lectured, as well as a guilt trip. Overall it was just an uncomfortable situation. Luckily we had a pretty good group of people who managed to make the night fun despite everything else. The next day the whole bus pretty much all had the same feeling about the night and we were all cracking Uncle Johnny and Eel jokes for days.
Next we went to Blue Duck Station. This is a farm in the middle of nowhere, but it is incredibly beautiful. It is not only a working farm, but it is also a conservation for the almost extinct Blue Ducks. The accomadation were very nice, it almost felt like we were staying at a lodge. Belinda and I signed up for a bush safari, which ended up being a riot. She and I hopped on the back of a Ranger, clutching on to the bars and sitting on a bale of hay as Wendy drove like a bat out of hell up the trails. She took us to several of their traps set along the trails and showed us how they worked. She surprised us by taking us kayaking through a beautiful gorge with an awesome waterfall. We were also able to spot a pair of blue ducks, which was pretty cool. We were out in the bush for about three hours in the rain and mud, but we had a blast. Later we returned to accomodations and joined in on the ax throwing. I managed to barely hit the target, but nevertheless, I still hit it.
We left around 6:30am and headed off to the Tongoriro crossin, which is one of the top 10 best day hikes in the world. Let me tell you it definitely lived up to its reputation. It took us 7 to 8 hours to hike and took us through active Volcanic land, near pools of sulfuric water, by a large lake, up and down loose gravel, devil's staircase, through the forest, and on the edges of the mountains. It was breathtaking both literally and figuratively. Once again it felt like we were in a whole other world. The beauty of the land was worth the grueling all day hike. No questions about it.
We stayed the night in the National park and then took off the next morning to Wellington, which is where you find me writing this posting. As I mentioned above I am leaving in the morning and taking the ferry to the South Island. I was incredibly impressed with the North Island and I have heard that the South Island knocks the socks off of the North Island. Needless to say I am excited. Hope you all are well. I will update you at the end of the week, but for now I will leave you with a linkto some
of the pictures that I have taken over the 10 days.
Jen
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ag6djyk5mz6a7nu/8pQiOSPpc-
