Right! So much to catch up on! Wifi access in NZ is pants but need to ensure I post more often as this is a marathon update...
My time in New Zealand got off to a slow start but I guess that was to be expected with it being the Christmas period. Since Christmas however I've been packing in much more and travelling with a great group of people on a hop on hop off tour bus.
In the first week I spent 1 night in Auckland and 4 nights in Paihia followed by another 2 nights in Auckland. Other travellers were a bit disparaging about Auckland, saying that there's not much to do, but I liked it. The main 'downtown' area is small but a lot more stylish than I expected. It's crammed full of nice bars, restaurants and cheap eastern eateries. I walked around the whole city including a couple if suburbs, several parks, to the top of Mount Eden, the shopping area and marina all in a day. Also watched the final Hobbit movie in Auckland (seemed fitting to watch it here - see if I can recognise any of the film locations as I go around) and there's a nice tribute to the people of New Zealand at the beginning that I presume is only being played here so was nice to see.
Paihia (said pie-hear) is in the Bay of Islands region north of Auckland which is meant to be the sunniest area of NZ. It was a bit grey and wet whilst I was there however I still saw all I wanted to even if it was a bit murky (New Zealand definitely has the most unpredictable and changeable weather I've experienced). It was this area where I spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. On Christmas Eve I took a walk along the beach (cool for a British girl who's usually in 5 layers of clothing at this time of the year) and another walk up through a forest to a look out point over the harbour before a BBQ dinner then watched Home Alone with a couple of the girls from my dorm to get us in the Christmas spirit. Christmas Day morning I walked (for 5 hours all in all) to a waterfall via the beach, more forest and mangroves before Christmas dinner at the hostel. Here alcohol isn't served on Christmas Day (unless you're eating out) so the bars stop serving alcohol at midnight on Christmas Eve and you can't buy any from shops until Boxing Day - was not expecting that, especially as xmas seems to revolve around alcohol back home. The group Christmas dinner at the hostel was, umm, a good effort... ham, chicken, stuffing, mash, peas (not too weird at this point), caesar salad, pasta, olives and garlic bread that had been cooked on the BBQ followed by tinned fruit and ice cream. What was really fun and unexpected was that we were given little Christmas gifts from a lucky dip - I got a flashing Rudolph nose - and a guy at our table won a $50 bar tab which he really kindly shared amongst all of us so free drinks all night - pretty cool Christmas present. On Boxing Day I took a boat tour around some of the 144 islands within the bay. We saw lots of dolphins including babies and stopped off at one of the islands for a walkabout and the views from there were beautiful. The day after Boxing Day we went to the most northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, which we reached via '90 mile beach' literally driving in our full sized coach along the sand for miles and miles north stopping for some more sand boarding along the way - so much fun. It's at Cape Reinga that the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet. Luckily the sun came out and you could see an actual line (change in water colour - deep blue in the Pacific side and more green blue on the Tasman side) where the two bodies of water come together - beautiful.
Now I've just finished working my way across and down the North Island (bar the east which I'll do last). I had really itchy feet after the first week but the last 7 days have been brilliant. On 30 Dec I connected with a bigger bus and we stayed in a surfing town called Raglan with a black beach and really laid back feeling. Our dorm even had a sea view - very cool. The following morning I went on a trip into the Waitomo caves which included a little boat ride into a pitch black cave all but for thousands of glow worms hanging from the ceiling which was amazing. After Waitomo we went to Mourea and stayed in a Marae (traditional Maori meeting house) where they cooked us dinner and performed a cultural show that we later took part in - the girls performing a dance with a poi and the boys a haka. Because it was New Year and you can't drink alcohol at a Marae we were invited to one of the Maori family's home were they'd put up some gazebos in the garden. The adults from the show were there and we played drinking games 'til the early hours - brilliant fun and so generous. So that takes me to New Year's Day! First of all we spent a few hours in Rotorua were there's lots of geothermal activity and bubbling mud pools before going to a lake side lodge where we had a hangi which is like an underground BBQ where the food is places on hot rocks in a pit then covered with wet cloths and dirt so the food is steamed and gets a lovely smoky taste - incredible. I helped make fried bread rolls to have with dinner which were like these amazing fluffy savoury doughnuts and they've passed on the recipe so watch out waistline. The next day we went to a working farm set amongst national park land for a two night stay. Here we sang (tipsily) around a camp fire before a full on day of wilderness activity - hair whitening ride in a quad, kayak trip around and along from a waterfall, hike to an extremely high point with sheer cliff drops either side then some clay pigeon shooting activity back at the lodge. After the farm came the best day yet... the day I did the Tongariro Alpine Crossing!… a near 2000m high, 19.4km hike across an active volcano. The area features in the Lord of the Rings and it was truly stunning. When we reached the top, clouds swooped in and for a short time we could spin 360 degrees around and see nothing much but the white of the clouds - amazing. The following day we hit Wellington and one of the girls I was with in the first week who has lived in Wellington for the last 11 months showed us around which was great.
Many people skip the North Island and are only interested in the South Island due to the more dramatic scenery so, as I'm sure you can imagine, I am very excited on the ferry crossing to the South Island now and can't wait to explore more of what New Zealand has to offer.
