Well I guess it’s time for a journal update from the land waay down under. It’s been 3 months already (seems like it’s been longer to be honest). I just had two wonderful weeks off work for the Christmas holidays (NZ offices pretty much shut down for 2 weeks during December – I was forced to take the holiday). I didn’t get paid tho….so luckily a family took me in and paid for ALL my food! Not sure how I wrangled that one but I spent the holidays with the Robertson Family (Colin, the father, is a director at Apotex NZ) at the home in Whangaparoa, Auckland and then went to visit their Nana in Paihia, Bay of Islands.
Christmas was fun. Colin and Irene even gave me a few presents (and Santa managed to sneak me a present too!!). I received a beautiful silver shell shaped necklace, a book on NZ, and an Apotex alarm clock. Christmas day was cloudy and rainy so we just visited their friends and they took me on a mini tour of Army Bay. The boys and I went to the beach on Boxing Day and swam around. The next day we all went up to the Bay of Islands to visit Nana. The trip took five hours (instead of three) because of the lovely traffic… reminded me of going up north to our cottage in Sudbury. The weather was perfect all week when we were up there. I swam at the beach, visited some historical sights, sailed on a catamaran, soaked in the spa...
One day I took a bus trip up to Cape Reigna, the furthest point north in NZ (almost). It’s about a five hour drive but stops were made along the way. We drove up the Ninety Mile Beach (about 60 miles in length) while the tide was out. Very pretty… beach stretches forever and the weather was perfect so the blue sky made the water very blue. I took a picture of the hole in a rock (not THE hole in the rock) but a good look-a-like. We continued driving to the massive sand dunes which are created from the wind blowing at the 90 mile beach. We had the chance to body board down the dune so of course I attempted… and CRASHED. I flipped off my board and rolled down the dune while losing my sunglasses (unbroken tho!) and then face planted into the sand and sat up with a mouthful of delish sand. Yuck. Needless to say, only went once.
Next stop was Cape Reinga which was gorgeous!! The cape is where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and on some days with a certain direction of wind you can see a seam in the water where they two currents meet. I couldn’t see that, but oh well. There is a lighthouse at the cape where you can mail a postcard which will be stamped by hand that you mailed it from the Cape. There is also a signpost with the distances of certain cities on it but many of the cities are missing now… I was looking for Vancouver (the only Canadian one) and it looks like people are breaking off the signs of where they live. Not cool.
After the Cape we went to a beach and I swam and ate some lunch. On the way home we stopped in Monganui at a fish and chips place to eat. The fish of the day was bluefish I think. It was tasty – nothing too special though. Last stop was at the Kauri Forest Kingdom – just a showroom with furniture and other products made out of the ancient Kauri wood. Oh, almost forgot… we stopped at a Kauri forest and checked out super old Kauri trees. They weren’t as large as I thought they might be but the biggest one in existence is located in another forest. It’s a limited resource because Kauri’s aren’t growing anymore so some of the furniture was pricey. There were dining rooms sets for $8,000! A large carving out of a trunk about 2 meters high was $20,000!! Yikes.
One day Glen (one of the brothers) and I went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. We saw a large Maori war canoe which they put in the water for special occasions. I went into a Maori house made out of carved wood. The treaty house was were the British signed a treaty with Maori’s to protect them against enemies waay back when. The coolest thing I saw was the lemon plant… history doesn’t do much for me. I took some pix of the flag poles and treaty house nonetheless. There is a golf course beside the Treaty Grounds and it’s gorgeous scenery! Blue waters and green grass…. No one wanted to play golf with me though. Boo. I will become a talented golfer one day.
Another historical spot I checked out with Daniel (another brother) was Russell, the Hell Hole of the Pacific and used to be the capital of NZ. Climbed up to the significant flagpole in that town and then kept hiking around. Ended up climbing up a grassy cliff and then down and up another few hills. What a trip. Also saw the church in Russell which has bullet holes in the sides from where it was shot at. You can do your own research to find out why – I don’t know.
Went swimming to an island one day and it was low tide so Daniel and I were walking along the bottom. All of a sudden I saw a puff of sand and creature shoot out and away. I was freaked!! Turns out there were stingrays lying under the sand sunning in the shallow water. We could walk right up to them and see them as they dust off and then flutter away. Cool but freaky at the same time. Sadly, I didn’t swim with the dolphins on my trip. The boat tours couldn’t guarantee that you would swim with the dolphins if you saw any on the trip – and they trips were over $100. Scratch that. Also went sailing on a little catamaran with Daniel. It was very fun except when I almost tipped the cat over! Daniel let me steer at one point (shhh, I wasn’t supposed to touch anything) and another boat was coming for us. So I tried to steer and seemed to turn too sharply and our entire side came out of the water and we were leaning sooo far into the water. Luckily, I recovered and then a few minutes later Daniel almost capsized us. Hah.
Overall the week up north was peaceful and it was nice getting to know the Robertson family. They were super nice to let me chill with them and it was definitely nice having people around all the time. Back to my flat last week and that night I saw a mouse run across the carpet. Sweet. Back to reality haha. I am back at my job at the ad agency and will probably only be working for another month – if that. They are moving offices on the 18th and I will become redundant when we merge with our sister company. Since I discovered the mouse, I won’t be too sad leaving my current flat in February. My plan is to rent a car and move ALL my stuff (and it’s grown since I arrived) down to Wellington (the Capital of NZ). I am very excited to move to Wellington as I’ve heard a lot of really good things about the city – and not including the weather unfortunately. If I can rent a car I will travel around the North Island and hit all the touristy spots and make it down to Wellington in a few days. My intention is to visit Rotorua for the Maori culture and oozing lava, Taupo to go sky diving (!) and... that’s all I really have planned so far.
For the next few weeks while I’m in Auckland I plan to schedule a surfing lesson weekend and perhaps an abseiling trips into some canyons. I should probably go up in the sky tower once since I have a million pictures of the tower itself. I can’t remember going up the CN tower so it won’t be too lame I hope. That should use up most of the weekends. Just this past Sunday I climbed a volcano – Rangitoto Island. It took about 40 minutes to hike up it. It’s covered it trees so it doesn’t look like the typical volcano everyone has in their heads. It last erupted 600 years ago so it’s the newest volcano in Auckland. The coolest part was checking out the lava caves. I ran into a fellow Canadian and used his flashlight to light our way in some caves. The one was cool because you had to squeeze through and then hoist yourself up out of the hole to get out. I felt intense haha.
Well… 5 minutes to 5 means I’m outta time because I’m leaving work (haha yes, I wrote this during my ever so productive work hours) Hey, I’m only a temp; I’m going to get let go soon anyway!
See you in another month!!
