further NZ travels - Kiwi F Truck
Last Sunday night Sara and I caught the overnight bus to Auckland. A couple friends saw us off at the bus station. The ride was fairly uneventful, except that apparently I was snoring and Sara kept hitting me. Oh well.
Less than an hour after arriving in Auckland we were on the Big Green Kiwi F*&k Truck. Really called the Kiwi Experience, it is a tour company that runs bus services around the country, with a reputation for solo travelers hooking up with each other. We wanted to try it for the experience. We drove north from Auckland up to the Bay of Islands. Pretty scenery, as usual in NZ. Strange that there were cows and not sheep. Sheep are standard in NZ.
We wound up in a town called Paihia. From there I took a fast boat ride out to the Hole in the Rock (exactly how it sounds). An exciting bumpy ride. The Bay of Islands was lovely. Met Sara in the town called Russell where we had a beer at the oldest pub in NZ - or at least the place with the oldest liquor license. Barbecue at the hostel with some other kids on the F@#k Truck.
Tuesday was a day trip up to Cape Reigna - far northern tip of the North Island. Stopped and saw some big kauri trees on the way, visited the Cape - the OTHER end of State Highway 1, we'd visited the southern end in Bluff. Did some sandboarding on sand dunes. I'd done sandboarding on a snowboard, but this was with a boogie board. It was great. Drove along 90 Mile Beach, ended up back in Paihia.
Wednesday was Waitangi Day - a NZ public holiday commemorating the treaty signed in which land was given from Maori people to the English. That's the very simplified short version. There are all kinds of issues with land being taken, Maori people wanting it back, etc. The cool thing is that we were a kilometer from Waitangi! We walked over and visited the festivities. It was rather racially charged, but generally just a festival. Rides, Maori song and dance performances, waka (canoe) launching, etc. Very interesting to be pale in that situation.
That evening I took the Kiwi F Truck back down to Auckland and Sara stayed behind to look for work for a week. It was very interesting traveling by Kiwi F Truck. Not everyone was just looking to hook up, but it was obvious some people wouldn't mind. It was also a lot of foreign (especially English) people mostly hanging out with each other. Sara and I found it funny that we came on the Kiwi F Truck and spent most of the time talking to each other! At first I thought we were too old for the group, but then I decided it was that we'd spent too much time in NZ already. Sara pointed out it was also that we were already excited about our lives in Wellington, not quite as excited about the travel. In any case, I was quite happy not to have seen NZ that way.
Wednesday night I walked up and down the main street in Auckland. I hadn't been there in nearly a year, but it's still pretty much the same. Though now things have more meaning. I'm more familiar with the shops - found in any NZ city. Also saw the Auckland headquarters for the bank where I used to work.
Thursday morning I caught an early bus to the Coromandel peninsula. Transferred to another small bus. The Coromandel is just gorgeous, hills, trees, beaches. It reminded me of a cross between Scotland and California. I was dropped outside my hostel called On The Beach. Literally on the beach, across the street. My bed had a beach view.
I went immediately to a half-day tour including Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove, and a winery. At low tide one can dig a hole on Hot Water Beach and it fills with hot water. The five of us on my tour didn't do so well with the hole, but digging our feet in the sand we could found the heat - quite warm! Cathedral Cove is a beach a 45 minute walk in from the parking lot. Really lovely - I went swimming in the ocean. The winery (owned by the tour operator) made feijoa wine and feijoa liqueur. Feijoas are a great fruit native to Brazil but most popular in NZ. The guide told me they're also grown in southern California so I'll be keeping an eye out for them there.
Friday morning and had breakfast on the beach and hung out for an hour. Caught a bus to another bus, and then yet another bus, and I wound up in Mount Maunganui. The Mount is a surf bum town on the Bay of Plenty (big bay in the north of the north island). I had heard mixed things about it, but I got there and thought to myself "oh, I get it. It's the Southern California of New Zealand." There is a mountain, I climbed it. Grabbed dinner and ate it on the beach. Went to bed early. In the night I was woken by not one but TWO couples getting it on in our six-bed hostel room. I couldn't quite believe people would do that, but I kinda rolled over and went back to sleep.
Saturday I breakfasted on the beach again, took a dip in the ocean. Then took yet another bus to a bus and came to Rotorura. Rotorua is known for its sulfur-smell and thermal activity, as well as Maori cultural activities. Saturday night I explored the town a bit, wandered through the gardens. Went to bed early.
Yesterday, Sunday, I woke up, hung out at the hostel and went Zorbing. Yay! Zorbing involves being in a great big plastic bubble which is inside another plastic bubble. They add in some water and then roll the bubble down a hill. Described as a cross between a water slide and a rollar coaster, it's great fun! I loved it! Nearly a year ago when I came to NZ my in-flight magazine from SF to LA had an article on NZ and mentioned zorbing. I've wanted to do it every since. I'm glad I finally did.
Yesterday afternoon I walked through the public park that has thermal activity - a steaming lake and lots of bubbling mud. There's another park with lots of geysers and colorful pools, but it's expensive and I've seen similar stuff when I was in Yellowstone (even if that was nearly 18 years ago). I'll visit that on my next trip to NZ. After the thermal park I walked by the Maori carved Anglican church on the lakefront and used the bathrooms there - quite proud that I know the Maori words for "man" and "woman." Walked further around the lake and wound up at the Polynesian spa where I soaked in hot pools for a couple hours. Really nice.
Today I'm hanging out in Rotorua til my bus later this afternoon - then I'm going to the eastern Bay of Plenty to hang out at the beach for a couple days more before moving on to Gisborne and Napier on the east coast. Then back to Wellington on Friday and San Francisco on Tuesday. It was rainy yesterday, and that's meant to stick around a few more days, but that's okay. I can still hang out at the beach. :)
I've been doing the last five days or so on my own. Sara did some travel in January when I was working, so she's seen the parts of the country I'm seeing now. It has been quite a while since I traveled on my own. I've done getting from point A to point B by myself, but I've been meeting up with people at point B. When I studied abroad in 2003 I traveled on my own, but this is the first time I've been in transit for more than an hour and then spent the night by myself since a couple nights in Inverness in October 2005.
It's been interesting, and challenging in a good way. I feel I needed some time to think. To kind of touch base with myself. It's nice to confirm that I do still like myself enough to spend time on my own. I haven't done a lot of deep thinking (that Sit Down And Think business), but spending time alone has been good.
I also realized I do need to be around people. Being alone makes me miss friends and family. I've also pushed myself to make conversation in hostels, to have that human contact. A lot of us here don't know what we're doing with our lives or in NZ, but we're doing it anyway.
This trip I decided is also part travel and part vacation. I'm moving from place to place quickly, but don't have much of an agenda when I get anywhere. Hence all the beach sitting. I've been going to bed early, because I'm tired and I can. It's been nice to sleep. All in all, I think this trip is a great way to end my time in NZ.
Less than an hour after arriving in Auckland we were on the Big Green Kiwi F*&k Truck. Really called the Kiwi Experience, it is a tour company that runs bus services around the country, with a reputation for solo travelers hooking up with each other. We wanted to try it for the experience. We drove north from Auckland up to the Bay of Islands. Pretty scenery, as usual in NZ. Strange that there were cows and not sheep. Sheep are standard in NZ.
We wound up in a town called Paihia. From there I took a fast boat ride out to the Hole in the Rock (exactly how it sounds). An exciting bumpy ride. The Bay of Islands was lovely. Met Sara in the town called Russell where we had a beer at the oldest pub in NZ - or at least the place with the oldest liquor license. Barbecue at the hostel with some other kids on the F@#k Truck.
Tuesday was a day trip up to Cape Reigna - far northern tip of the North Island. Stopped and saw some big kauri trees on the way, visited the Cape - the OTHER end of State Highway 1, we'd visited the southern end in Bluff. Did some sandboarding on sand dunes. I'd done sandboarding on a snowboard, but this was with a boogie board. It was great. Drove along 90 Mile Beach, ended up back in Paihia.
Wednesday was Waitangi Day - a NZ public holiday commemorating the treaty signed in which land was given from Maori people to the English. That's the very simplified short version. There are all kinds of issues with land being taken, Maori people wanting it back, etc. The cool thing is that we were a kilometer from Waitangi! We walked over and visited the festivities. It was rather racially charged, but generally just a festival. Rides, Maori song and dance performances, waka (canoe) launching, etc. Very interesting to be pale in that situation.
That evening I took the Kiwi F Truck back down to Auckland and Sara stayed behind to look for work for a week. It was very interesting traveling by Kiwi F Truck. Not everyone was just looking to hook up, but it was obvious some people wouldn't mind. It was also a lot of foreign (especially English) people mostly hanging out with each other. Sara and I found it funny that we came on the Kiwi F Truck and spent most of the time talking to each other! At first I thought we were too old for the group, but then I decided it was that we'd spent too much time in NZ already. Sara pointed out it was also that we were already excited about our lives in Wellington, not quite as excited about the travel. In any case, I was quite happy not to have seen NZ that way.
Wednesday night I walked up and down the main street in Auckland. I hadn't been there in nearly a year, but it's still pretty much the same. Though now things have more meaning. I'm more familiar with the shops - found in any NZ city. Also saw the Auckland headquarters for the bank where I used to work.
Thursday morning I caught an early bus to the Coromandel peninsula. Transferred to another small bus. The Coromandel is just gorgeous, hills, trees, beaches. It reminded me of a cross between Scotland and California. I was dropped outside my hostel called On The Beach. Literally on the beach, across the street. My bed had a beach view.
I went immediately to a half-day tour including Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove, and a winery. At low tide one can dig a hole on Hot Water Beach and it fills with hot water. The five of us on my tour didn't do so well with the hole, but digging our feet in the sand we could found the heat - quite warm! Cathedral Cove is a beach a 45 minute walk in from the parking lot. Really lovely - I went swimming in the ocean. The winery (owned by the tour operator) made feijoa wine and feijoa liqueur. Feijoas are a great fruit native to Brazil but most popular in NZ. The guide told me they're also grown in southern California so I'll be keeping an eye out for them there.
Friday morning and had breakfast on the beach and hung out for an hour. Caught a bus to another bus, and then yet another bus, and I wound up in Mount Maunganui. The Mount is a surf bum town on the Bay of Plenty (big bay in the north of the north island). I had heard mixed things about it, but I got there and thought to myself "oh, I get it. It's the Southern California of New Zealand." There is a mountain, I climbed it. Grabbed dinner and ate it on the beach. Went to bed early. In the night I was woken by not one but TWO couples getting it on in our six-bed hostel room. I couldn't quite believe people would do that, but I kinda rolled over and went back to sleep.
Saturday I breakfasted on the beach again, took a dip in the ocean. Then took yet another bus to a bus and came to Rotorura. Rotorua is known for its sulfur-smell and thermal activity, as well as Maori cultural activities. Saturday night I explored the town a bit, wandered through the gardens. Went to bed early.
Yesterday, Sunday, I woke up, hung out at the hostel and went Zorbing. Yay! Zorbing involves being in a great big plastic bubble which is inside another plastic bubble. They add in some water and then roll the bubble down a hill. Described as a cross between a water slide and a rollar coaster, it's great fun! I loved it! Nearly a year ago when I came to NZ my in-flight magazine from SF to LA had an article on NZ and mentioned zorbing. I've wanted to do it every since. I'm glad I finally did.
Yesterday afternoon I walked through the public park that has thermal activity - a steaming lake and lots of bubbling mud. There's another park with lots of geysers and colorful pools, but it's expensive and I've seen similar stuff when I was in Yellowstone (even if that was nearly 18 years ago). I'll visit that on my next trip to NZ. After the thermal park I walked by the Maori carved Anglican church on the lakefront and used the bathrooms there - quite proud that I know the Maori words for "man" and "woman." Walked further around the lake and wound up at the Polynesian spa where I soaked in hot pools for a couple hours. Really nice.
Today I'm hanging out in Rotorua til my bus later this afternoon - then I'm going to the eastern Bay of Plenty to hang out at the beach for a couple days more before moving on to Gisborne and Napier on the east coast. Then back to Wellington on Friday and San Francisco on Tuesday. It was rainy yesterday, and that's meant to stick around a few more days, but that's okay. I can still hang out at the beach. :)
I've been doing the last five days or so on my own. Sara did some travel in January when I was working, so she's seen the parts of the country I'm seeing now. It has been quite a while since I traveled on my own. I've done getting from point A to point B by myself, but I've been meeting up with people at point B. When I studied abroad in 2003 I traveled on my own, but this is the first time I've been in transit for more than an hour and then spent the night by myself since a couple nights in Inverness in October 2005.
It's been interesting, and challenging in a good way. I feel I needed some time to think. To kind of touch base with myself. It's nice to confirm that I do still like myself enough to spend time on my own. I haven't done a lot of deep thinking (that Sit Down And Think business), but spending time alone has been good.
I also realized I do need to be around people. Being alone makes me miss friends and family. I've also pushed myself to make conversation in hostels, to have that human contact. A lot of us here don't know what we're doing with our lives or in NZ, but we're doing it anyway.
This trip I decided is also part travel and part vacation. I'm moving from place to place quickly, but don't have much of an agenda when I get anywhere. Hence all the beach sitting. I've been going to bed early, because I'm tired and I can. It's been nice to sleep. All in all, I think this trip is a great way to end my time in NZ.