Week 38 - NZ - Off 'darn sarf'

FACT - In 1769, Captain James Cook anchored in Mercury Bay to observe the transit of Mercury in the evening sky. Hence the modern english name for the bay.

Day 4. Auckland - Mercury Bay

So the bus was full of new people who I hadn't met or seen in the hostel. And it was full. I was still a bit worried that it was going to be fill of w*nkers who wanted to see how many boxes of wine they could get through as they heckled at passers by all the way around NZ. Actually we were waiting for the bus to arrive and one of the 'boys' made a rude weight comment about the rather large lady who walked past the group. She heard. And she turned on him and pushed him off his backpack that he had been perching on, as she had a rant about 'us tourists'. So that's just an example of the type of w*nker behaviour I was hoping to avoid. Oh and he was also one of the clever arsed people on my whole trip to question my postcode..

"Do you actually live in a London postcode, or are you the sort of person to just say 'London' but actually live on the boarder?"

Sort of person?

What the...? I don't think my character can be judged on keeping a an answer quite simple, rather than going in to the geography of where Sidcup in Kent is. I'd been away too long to do that every time someone new asked me where I was from. Our first stop before even leaving Auckland was to the top of Mount Eden. It is one of the 70 dormant volcanoes in the region and had the best views of the city. The weather was grey and miserable. And rather windy. Then we stopped for breakfast. As I sat with a coffee, I started talking to Sarah, a girl from Holland. Although, her accent was so english I thought she may have been from London. I didn't quiz her on her postcode though. She had been working in Australia for 6 months and was on her last few weeks before heading home. I expected her to be about my youthful age but it turned out she wsa just 18. So pretty close to my youthful age anyway. Next stop was Cathedral Cove. We were booted off the bus and shown the way to walk. An hour later and we were on a really beautiful beach. It's a shame the weather wasn't better but it didn't spoil it entirely. I thought about Joanne, my cousin, who just a couple of months before had gotten engaged on this very beach. By the way Jo, how did you manage carting all the baby stuff down to the beach? Mission or what!! And then all the way back up again? Supermum. Back up the top and who did I bump in to - yes David. It seemed he was going to be a reappearing character in my New Zealand tales. And as David's usual luck would have it, it began to rain again just as he was off to do the walk that we had done. Just before we hopped back on the bus I noticed Sarah's bruised knees. She had been sandboarding too. Only obviously wasn't quite as good as me... The rest of the day was spent driving to our hostel. We were meant to stop for walks along the way but it was really raining for most of it, so didn't end up doing any more walking. I loved the hostel we stayed in. It was just so homely. And there was the option to go to some hot water swimming pool that evening as well. But, agreeing that we both felt like we were on brownie camp, me and Sarah decided to hang back, eat spag bol and watch a movie with some hot chocolate whilst the rain continued to chuck it down outside.

Day 5 Mercury Bay - Rotorua

Up early the next day as we had alot of driving to do. It was still wet and miserable so once again a couple of the walks were called off. I really hoped it would brighten up at some point. My tan was fading. Fast. We did stop at Karangahake Scenic Reserve en route. It had stopped pelting it quite so much. Here we went on a walk that followed the river, crossed over a couple of swing bridges (that looked like they belonged in Asia actually) and then 1Km through a railway tunnel. It was pretty cool as there were glowworms in there as well. Not that they lit the way at all. It was pretty dark. Then for the first Lord of the Rings encounter. We drove through a town called Matamata, which was the filming location for Hobbiton. So, of course, we stopped and got a picture. And were told that actually the community were currently trying to get the town changed to 'Hobbiton'. We then drove on to Rotorua. It's a very volcanic area and there was steam coming from under the streets though storm water drains. The Maori name for the town is 'Whangapipiro (Fong-a-pe-pero), meaning 'an evil-smelling place'. And it was. It smelt like eggs, which was due to all the geothermal activity going on. By the way don't be phased by all my knowledge. I do have the 'Kiwi experience' guide book to help me along. I haven't turned clever or anything... As we arrived we were welcomed, Maori style, and given a short presentation about the history of the village. It was a nice thing for them to do, but also a bit of a sales thing as at the end you had the option to get your ticket for that evening Maori night. As it goes, I had already got mine on the bus. It had been on offer on one of the clipboards that got handed around. Sign sign sign. I just like to sign my name actually. The evening was really great. Colourful, with some performances and a real insight in to the history of NZ. And the grub they put on after the show was tasty too. All you can eat. Me and Sarah did very well indeed. We did have a crazy bus driver as well. He had picked us up from the hostel and greeted us in about 50 languages on the way to the Maori village which was about 20Km out of town. It was pretty impressive. The first part of the evening was out in the forests where they re-created a load of 'Maori stuff' (see what I mean. There is limited information about that part of the night in this booklet so you'll have to make do with my rather original informative style). Oh and they also did 'The Haka' as well which was cool to watch. Then on the way home the bus driver quite crazily sang a few songs, including 'here we go round the mulberry bush', as he went round and round and round and round a roundabout. Wasn't the best of plans after such a huge meal but never mind. In the middle of the night I woke up to Sarah shouting out the window. She was actually saving the arse of the w*nker i mentioned earlier on. He was so drunk that the security guard didn't want to let him in the hostel. But the wan... (ok ok sorry, he was called Cameron), got all cocky and mouthy and was then being threatened by the guard. But yes, Sarah diffused the situation and we were able to get back to sleep. Cameron had made friends with a group of 18-yr old, just out of paid education know it alls, who were also drubk alot of the time. Actually one of them, named 'Rollo' (and that is very serious) had a bag (he'd ditched the box) of wine clentched in his hand morning, noon and night. And he walked around bare foot because he didn't like wearing shoes. I'm glad they all found eachother because it meant they would stay out of my way.

Day 6 Rotorua - Waitomo

We got up early (I'm going to stop starting like that because we got up early most days), and I grabbed some cereal. Then 30 minutes later we stopped at a place for breakfast. I learnt quickly that this happened most days. They told us to be ready to go on the bus at about 8am or 9am, so you'd race around getting your stuff together and have breakfast, and then they'd stop off within the hour to eat. So we stopped at some sort of fun park/sheep shearing farm. Rich, the driver, told us that the sheep shearing show was pretty funny. We were going to be there for a couple of hours so me and Sarah decided to go. And it was funny actually. I felt like I was back in Thailand though. About 20 coach loads of Thai tourists got dropped off so we were surrounded. The bloke just talked about the farm and stuff and all the different sheep. I know it sounds dull but it really wasn't. And Sarah got picked for going up to milk the cow. I laughed at her, glad that it hadn't been me. But within 10 minutes I was up on stage as well, feeding some lambs. Doh. And when the show was over I had a chat with the Southdown sheep that gets sent for england for roast dinners. After all the sheep fun, Rich did a bit of a BBQ and we had some sausages before getting back on the bus. And then we arrived in Waitomo. Here we go. 'Wai' means water, and 'tomo' means caves. The local caves are made out of limestone and hidden beneath the countryside. This town was famous for it's caving , white water rafting, and blackwater rafting. On went the signature for some black water rafting, but we were told that our turn would be the following morning before leaving. When we arrived the sun came out and Rich took us on a really nice bush walk in the Ruakrui Reserve. And the rest of the afternoon was up to us to chill and stuff. And that evening we had a few drinks. I started talking to a swedish couple of girls. Sara and Sophie. And a load of other people as well. I felt well in to the swing of it all now.

Week 37 - NZ - Bay of Islands (the top bit)

FACT - 'The Bay of Islands' was commonly referred to as the 'Hell-hole of the South Pacific' by Charles Darwin.

Day 1 - Auckland to Paihia
I was up early and got myself to the bus and settled in to a window seat. And off we went. And after my jazzy evening in good company I was most definitely feeling brighter. Off across the Auckland harbour bridge, which people bungy 40m off over the water. Why? Because it's NZ. After some driving up the Hibiscus Coast, we stopped at a honey centre in Warkworth. I grabbed a coffee and wandered about the honey centre watching the thousands of bees doing their thing. It was an absolutely glorious sunny day. I went to the loo, and I don't mean to go in to too much detail but I was 1 minute in there. And when I came out it was bloody raining. What the...? I'd heard that the weather was somewhat erratic but really?

But by the time we got to Paihia it had all cleared up. Now I have to tell you now about how the Kiwi Experience operates. The bus driver is a very informative tour guide and tells stories as you get driven along. One being about the 'Shiraffe' that was produced as a scientific experiment back in the 60's. When he pointed them out they looked just like Lama's. I'm thinking they were. Although I only thought that later on AFTER I'd told the story to someone else. Ahem. And the pink sheep!! Apparently the farmer was trying to get tourists in, and painted his sheep bright pink to attract more attention... ANYWAY. The bus driver passes back clipboards which have different activites on them which are available in the place you are travelling to. And another clipboard for accommodation. So you simply write your name on the ones you want and the driver then books it all. So down went my first (of many) signatures, for swimming with the dolphins...

... as I sat on the boat eyeing up the other passengers (not in a pervy way - I mean just being nosey in a people watching way. Oh apart from one french guy. Yeh I was checking him right out. Hot), I got a bit nervous. Yes, swimming with dolphins sounds very magical, but then so did riding an elephant and walking to a beautiful waterfall. They were both quite traumatic. Someone asked if ther were any sharks, to which the woman simply answered 'Yes'. Not the most comforting approach but never mind. So we headed out in to the pacific. Or Tasman sea (oops sorry i'm not sure which one it is) and it wasn't long before we spotted the first pack of dolphins. It's true what they say - dolphins make you really happy. They have some sort of special effect. Everyone was smiling and talking to them as we were told that they respond to voices. I quietly sang 'Under the sea' from 'The Little Mermaid' but didn't have the guts to belt it out. Although I did get a few people to sing 'happy birthday' as it seemed like the only one that people knew the most, seeing as no one else appeared to be english. Lots of pictures. Lots. And people took it in turns to lay on their fronts at the nose of the boat. The tour guide woman pretty much held on to ankels so the passengers could get up really close to the dolphins. Whilst I was dangling the front of my body over the boat (a sentence I didn't ever expect to write), a baby dolphin appeared and started jumping and flipping all over the place. Pretty damn cute. But because of the baby, we were not allowed to swim with them. Some sort of law. I was happy though. It's just something that will remain on my list until another time. We then made our way deep in to the ocean/sea. I was sitting at the front at this point and I actually remember this being the moment that I fell in love with NZ. Sorry to sound all 'travelly' (I promise I won't be philosophising all over the place when I return) but something just clicked and knocked that wall over. At that very moment I was taking in the most beautiful scenery (very LOTResque) whilst the breeze was blowing all that homesickness away. It was great. I was back on track. As I walked back to the hostel (taking a wrong turn along the way and being very amused by a girl who recognised me from the bus that morning, so followed me as she didn't remember where the hostel was), I thought about what I fancied doing that evening. Just as I walked in to the reception I literally bumped in to David! Hello David. He was staying at the same hostel. We made a brew and decided to just have the BBQ that was on offer at the hostel. (How many times did I just write hostel?) Along with Chantal who I made pals with walking from the dorm to the kitchen. Not sure how that happened actually. You just talk to everyone. As we sat chomping, a guy called Colin from Yorkshire joined us...

Q: How can you tell if a man is from Yorkshire?

A: Because he's already told you 3 times.

A good joke because it's true. And amongst his ongoing chat, he told us a rather disturbing story, which he only realised was disturbing when he saw our rather horrified reactions. He also smelt pretty bad, so we renamed him 'Eau de Colin'. I know that sounds mean but you didn't hear the story. And no. No i'm not going to tell you what it was. We just did our best to avoid talking to him again. After that we just had a few drinks and then I went off to bed as I had an early start the next day.

Day 2 - Pahihia to Cape Reigna Day Trip
So I was told the top bit was a good day out. Mind you, the woman selling me the ticket told me that. But I was keen to see a few things on it anyway. First stop was at the Puketi Kawi forest. Kawi is a type of tree. Some of them in this forest are about 2000 years old and were once used for boat building. And they are now great for hugging. I couldn't help myself, it was just so big! After a little walk in the forst we were driven along 90-mile beach. Which, according to our driver, is only 64 miles. As we drove he told us old Maori stories about the area. And at the end of 64 mile beach (doesn't quite have the same ring does it) there were some sand dunes. Sand dunes which were for sandboarding. Obviously. I'd seen it in pictures and had read about it. I wasn't so sure I was up for it. Not sure why now. Maybe just the height of the dune. So we were given a boogey board and ordered up to the top of the dune after a brief deomstration of how to do it. Woah. I thought I was reasonably fit but it turned out I wasn't. Me and a few others had a sit down midway. Well, almost midway. We watched as people sped past us, either making it to the bottom, stopping half way due to too much knee dragging, or just coming right off the board and rolling the rest of the way down the dune. So it still wasn't appealing to me but sure enough I found myself literally facing the bottom of the sand dune. And... it was 'well fun'! And... I got to the bottom quite perfectly thank you. I would've done it again if it wasn't for the walking up the dune again. Yeh yeh, lazy. I know.
Next up was Cape Reigna itself. There was a lighthouse there which indicated the very tip of New Zealand. Lots of stories along the walk to the lighthouse told of how the Maori people believe that when they die their spirit transcends the land and passes through to the other world, through a sacred tree growing from the cliff. And as I arrived at the lighthouse and looked in to the water, I could see where the Tasman Sea and Pacific joined, which was another attraction of the place. You can actually see where they join, it's pretty cool. And then some lunch at a place called Tepotupotu Bay. Most of these names in NZ are quite tongue twistery. I sat and had lunch with the girl who i'd been sat next to on the coach. We didn't even exchange names actually. Just chatted about stuff. She was from Africa and was working on the Cook Islands as a beauty therapist. Some people's jobs. And then it was time to drive back to Paihia. With a fish n' chip stop along the way. However, I had my budget cap on (it was a little dusty but I found it) and declined. We'd also only just had lunch. I had some rice and cherry tomatoes back at the hostel that needed eating. Which ate when we got back. And David was there too to eat what I rather cleverly had thrown together. He bought me some digestive biscuits as well which is my perfect accompaniment to a cuppa! (Right Laura?!) So with David now firmly on my Christmas card list, we had a few drinks along with Chantal. We managed to avoid Eau de Colin as well which was a plus. We had a giggle that night anyway. Mostly at the expense of my horrible southern accent (I'm not against anyone elses southern accent i might add. Just my horrid one). Chantal is from Holland so was finding it harder to understand me. For example, we were talking about Michael Hutchinson and I asked
'Is that how he died?' although I think what Chantal heard was
'Izat howry died?' and thought I was asking how hairy he was or something. Not that I was actually drunk by the way. It's just 'howri' talk. Much to David's amusement. Bloody northener. Oh and I also took the challenge on to give up facebook for lent. I'd been going on it every day expecting something new to be happening and it drove me crazy. So that was it. No facebook for 40 days and 40 nights. It was going to be hard. I mean, I think if the devil produced facebook in that desert, it might have all been a different story...

Day 3 - Paihia-Auckland

This was a bit of a non day really as we had to be ready at 3pm for the coach back to Auckland. David went and did a boat trip, much to his regret. He'd booked it the day before when the weather had been rather brilliant. But this day was not. It was dull, rainy, and there were severe gail warnings that had caused most trips to be called off. Most, except for David's. His was still on. So, with just one other person booked on the trip for him to talk to, he went on his way, dragging his feet. As it was such a dull day, me and Chantal just went to have some coffee. Then I popped in to the post office to pop a few postcards off, and also a little bday present for my cousin Sarah. I hoped it would get there on time. The rain stopped by this time so we went for a bit of a walk. We got 45 minutes up the coast before it absolutely crapped it down. And with no shelter around, we got wet. But hey ho, at least we got some exercise before our 5 hour drive back to Auckland. Chantal was on my bus as well so we got a table seat together and then spent most the time chatting (or as NZers would say 'having a yarn) to the guy who sat with us. Richard. It turned out he was the bus driver for the next day. He was quite new to the job so this would be his 4th trip around NZ. He's lived in London before and had worked as a chippy. Hey why are they all carpenters when in London? Anyway it was nice to meet him and I was more excited for the trip ahead. David got back later on, and we had a brew and a yarn about his rather enjoyable boat trip he'd had, and called it a night. He was off down south the next day as well but on a different bus so we worked out we'd probably catch up again in a few days time.

Week 37 - A bit of Jazz and blues

So on the Sunday I had found out that there was a jazz and blues festival at Mission Bay, which was just a bus ride away. So I arranged to meet my new friends. Me and David went off for a roast, and Hayleigh met us there later on.

Mission Bay was very picturesque and with the jazz and blues going on in every direction it was a really nice evening. We sat on the grass and listened to the music as we accepted all the free tasters of beer that were coming round. It's an art being a backpacker you know. And also laughed about the fight that we'd seen the previous night. Me and David had been walking along (trying to find another bar other than that of the hostel I have to add) and suddenly over on the left in a carpark there were a couple of blokes having a bit of a punch up. Actually alot of a punch up. We stopped and watched from afar. One of the men ran round in to a big van and was driving away as the other guy was trying to smash the back window with his fists. Meanwhile at the exit of the carpark a random police car was sitting there completely unaware of the carpark drama. Me and David were still stood there watching. Then someone made the polieman aware of the fight and he hopped to it and ran over to the van that was trying to leave the carpark. At this point we thought it best to move on but kept watching. Whilst the policeman was standing right there next to the van, the other bloke came right up to it and threw a brick through the window. We couldn't believe it. And the absolute comedy moment was that the brick thrower was using a walking stick, so he ran-limped away, with great difficulty it seemed and relying quite heavily on his stick, which made the police chase rather, well, rather easy. The policeman just walked up behind him, and reached out quite placidly taking the stick away. The running-limper therefore stopped and was lead to the policecar. It was extremely entertaining.


After we were sufficiently filled with free beer tasters we wandered about and watched the different live music that was going on. We particularly liked the swing band. I stood and reminisced the great times I had with the jazz group at school and thought about Mr Michael who passed away last year. Good memories. And also good memories about the Eynsford Concert Band. I wondered how they were doing. Must send them a postcard. And with the music was a group who had obviously been learning how to swing dance. And it's now on my list of things to do. My ever growing list. Their energy was brilliant and they looked like they were having so much fun. Sooo doing it.

After all the swing jazzing, we watched some blues. I took a video of one of the songs playing as it reminded me of my dad. He plays and listens to a lot of blues. So all in all it was a really great evening.

We had a cuppa when we got back to the hostel and then I headed to bed as I was up early in the morning to start my kiwi experience. David was leaving as well, but he was booked on to a different bus - 'Sway'. He teased me about the Kiwi Experience being for 'young people'. That's why I was on it David!! But I was a little nervous that i'd be much older than the others and that it might turn out to be like a booze cruise for school leavers...