Haere Mai Aotearoa

Okay, it’s been way too long since my last update.. Since at the time of writing I’m already in New Zealand, I’m going to update the rest of Oz sometime in the near future and just concentrate on New Zealand for now. So where to start? I flew to Auckland on the 20^th of jan. Back in Australia I had given very little thought on how and what I was going to do in NZ. I visited a few travel agencies and all of them seemed to recommend me hop on-hop off bus passes. At first I was against the idea, wanting to go off the beaten track and all that, but after asking around I found out that that’s actually the most common way to get around NZ. Unlike Australia, there is really nothing like Greyhound, there’s Naked bus and InterCity shuttles, which can take you to places, but they don’t cover all of the country.

So the bus passes. Basically there are three major competitiors, Kiwi Experience, Stray and Magic. I knew a few people who’d done Kiwi Experience and liked it, but somehow at every agency I entered they seemed to think I was too old for it and recommended Stray. Basically Kiwi is profiled for people between 18-23 and Stray for the older, more chilled audience, and Magic somewhere in between. At the time being I’ve spent  3 weeks with Stray and couldn’t be happier with my decision really. All the Kiwi Ex people we’ve met said that it’s basically a partybus and everyone’s really young  and keen on drinking and mating (mind you, it’s sometimes called the FuckTruck..). So Stray it was. Got a pretty good deal, 250 AUD off the price. Again, they seem to have an offer going on all the time, so don’t believe you’re actually getting a discount J

I got to Auckland and stayed a few nights at the most amazing little hostel called Freeman’s lodge. It’s more like a B&B really rather than a  regular hostel. Each room has separate beds, as in beds and not bunk beds. How cool was that!! I recommend it to anyone going to Auckland, it’s run by an Indian woman who is the sweetest person ever, helps you with everything and makes sure everything is okay. And, the hostel has free wifi! Okay enough of the free advertising.. (I should actually get a free night now, right?) Just check hostelworld.com, the reviews spek for themselves.

I pretty much hated Auckland, it was nothing but another big city to me. I did visit a beautiful volcanic island just off the coast from Aucland called Rangitoto island. There are other islands I may visit when I get back to Auckland.  But the city itself didn’t impress me at all. So it was time to get the hell away from the smoke! With my Stray booking I got a free pass to travel to the very north of the northern island, to Paihia, bay of Islands. I hopped off there for two nights. I felt that Paihia was a basic beach town, not a lot to do and made for sunbathing, although the beach wasn’t all that pretty… I think the idea is to visit some of the islands nearby, but due to the lack of time and money I just visited Russell, a very nice small town off the coast from Paihia with amazing cafes! I wish I had stayed there instead of Paihia, actually. But apparently for Kiwis to own a house in Bay of Islands is THE dream. Stayed at Cap’s’n’Bob’s (pretty sure that’s not the correct way of spelling it), a small hostel , again,closer to being a B&B rather than a hostel. I met lovely people there so all in all had a good time! From Paihia I got back to Auckland for one night before starting my actual bus trip with Stray. Plan was to do North island first and then the South island. By the way, at some point I completely ditched my plans to go to Tonga, NZ seemed to have so much to offer that i thought jsut as well spend more time here. Also, I had heard from pretty much everyone that the South Island is more impressive and that I should spend more time there.

Just to specify, Stray isn’t a guided trip or anything, it’s a bus pass that takes you to places all around the country according to the pass you’ve bought (more places you buy, the more you pay etc). But, in the bus pass there are many free activities included like stopping at scenic places for photos etc. And the bus drivers are (almost always…) extremely nice and keep on telling you what you can do and where to find everything, help you with your skydive bookings and whatnot. Another good thing with Stray is that they guarantee you a dorm bed wherever you go for at least one night.

Day 1 – Auckland to Hahei

On the first day the bus took me to Hahei, a beeeeautiful beach place. Everyone in the bus seemed to get along very well, liked the group very much. At Hahei we did some kayaking around the Cathedral Cove. The opening scene of Narnia:Prince Caspian (haven’t seen that piece of shit but may just have to do that now)has been filmed there along with some other films (not LOTR though). Turquoise water, white beaches, amazing rock formations and caves; paradise! We had a lot of laughs kayaking around although Bas(a dutch guy who was mistaken for my husband apparently because we look alike? married couples are not supposed to look alike…!) and me seemed to be better and faster than everyone else (haa haa haa!). In Hahei we stayed at a pretty basic camping ground (shock number one, Alina) but nothing that a few bottles of wine wouldn’t cure. Our driver cooked us some barbeque and the group headed to the beach to experience the hot water pools; you dig a hole to the sand in the evening and it fills up with almost boiling water. I burnt my toes pretty badly! I think Hahei would’ve been a nice spot to hop off but since the group on the bus was so cool I didn’t want to risk the next bus group being boring.

Bas and I were the ultimate kayaking team!

Cathedral Cove

Day 2 – Hahei – Raglan

We arrived to Raglan quite early in the morning and as some of us were suffering from mild sleeping deprivation due to last night, it was a cool day for a little afternoon nap on the beach. Raglan is a laid-back surfer town (not really a town, more like.. a village). Unfortunately the waves weren’t too good and I was just too tired to try surfing in Kiwi waters. The hostel we stayed at was awesome, up on a steap hill, but had hammocks. The kind of place you just want to light a…plain cigarette and read hours in the hammock. Another place well worth hopping off at. There are many thing you can do in Raglan, like explore glow worm caves. By the way, here I ate the best fish and chips (or fush and chups as it’s said in kiwi English) ever. The fish was fresh from the sea and just so yummy you wouldn’t believe it. And cost 5 bucks which is 2,5 euros!! Sweet as!

Raglan surf beach

Day 3 – Raglan to Maketu

Day 3 was the day for the maori cultural experience. Short history lessons: Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand with rich culture. They mostly live on the north island, and the biggest Maori town being  Rotorua. So we arrived at Uncle Joe’s place, he was a big jolly Maori man and we were invited to his Hangi. We ate some yummy Maori food followed by a Maori show (which to be quite honest, I was a little disappointed with). The young guys were amazing in doing their scary dance but it just felt a little commercial to me… We were also forced to perform; girls would do a pom-pom (??) dance and they guys had to do some sort of warrior dance. So yeah, way to break the ice getting everyone completely embarrassed. Nevertheless had a great time there and we decided to take the night to the beach and build a bonfire. Since there was no wood found on the beach Gareth and Bas decided to take some wood from some guy’s farm’s fence. hahaha! Priceless.

Day 4 – Maketu to Rotorua to Taupo

It was time to head towards Rotorua, a Maori town that smelled like shit. Literally. Due to thermal volcanic activity there’s a constant smell of rotten eggs (mmmmm!). Some of us went  white water rafting which was great fun! We got to raft down the biggest commercial waterfall in the world! Supposedly 50 % of the time the raft flips, but we had good luck although at times some of the people were just half on the boat. From there we headed toward Taupo, which is by Lake Taupo, which is the size of Singapore. Pretty incredible. Taupo is the cheapest place in NZ to skydive but I had seen pictures from a girl who had done it in Franz Josef over the alps and the glaciers so I decided that it would be better to skip skydiving here. Interesting fact, Lake Taupo is actually a volcanic crater and last year scientists detected that the water was bubbling again due to some volcanic activity. Now it’s said that if the bubbles get mixed with volcanic gas (geologists can freely correct me), it means that lake Taupo will explode within 8 minutes and the explosion will be so strong that everyone in New Zealand will die. Quite a frightening idea… Last time it exploded the smoke reached Rome. I wouldn’t necessarily build my house next to that lake.