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Chow South America, Kia Ora New Zealand!
The change of time zone, by a mahooosive sixteen hours, also rang in a change of temperature: Santiago 37 degrees, Auckland 16. Santiago blazing sun, Auckland, heavy rain.
Goodbye Spanish. Hello English. Must admit, this was a relief to me!
For the first time ever in my life, I experienced culture shock. In New Zealand, yes! I felt completely off kilter being back in such a Western place. No, I'm no hippy now (though my gentle pats on our camper Mabel's beautiful aqua bonnet, everytime we get out of her, suggests otherwise!) However, as we walked from the shuttle bus to our hostel at 5am all I could think (and chirp incessantly in Mat's ear) was:
It's so clean
The pavements are so wide
The buildings are so tall
There are so many chain shops
There are no stray dogs
There are so many posters and billboards
Auckland just seemed somewhat clinical after the chaos of South America. No people crammed onto every speck of (uneven) pavement (with against Health and Safety reg sized holes in them) Somewhat sedate. It's ok though folks, I'm easily mollified... We found a newsagent (Asian run no less, just to confirm we really were in a land of stereotypes hot from the Simpsons!) that sold Crunchies. All equilibrium started to return as the honeycomb popped and crackled on my tongue.
From there on in, all is rosy. We got a guide in the form of John (he's living here with Emma for a year and teaching) and we got to be reunited with Sophie and Richard. It's been 5 years since I've seen John and 6 months since seeing Soph and Rich, the old cliche applied: Time had flown, nothing changes between old friends yada yada. We just lazed around together seeing live music in 2 different outdoor spaces for free. Heard a dodgy jazz version of the Bends and a band we all agreed sounded... "just like The Editors" or "just like Joy Division" but nothing like a band in their own right.
Despite the loveliness, I didn't fall in love with Auckland. It's too new. Take any city in Europe, wander around it at leisure and you can't help but feel the history or stories flowing from the streets (that are NOT in a uniform block system), Auckland is just so modern that the only vibes you get are those of capitalism... You want me, you need me, you should get into debt just to possess me.
Lucky then, that we only spent a few days there and then headed off in our beautiful camper to see NZ proper. Then I fell in love, the head over heels, heart racing, eyes sparkling type of love. NZ is not just a blanket of green, it's a blanket a whole tribe of giants have their knees sticking up under while sleeping. The hills here are unreal, constantly have us gawking, the product of freaky plate tectonics (there are no fewer than 48 volcanoes, varying from dormant to extinct, in Auckland alone and Lake Taupo, a volcano that collapsed in on itself after erupting, is larger than Singapore.) The whole country is a postcard picture. We drove on a road that followed the coast and literally had points to pull in at every 50m as it's that stunning. I spied a giant heart shaped cloud hoverring above a house, and Cicadas, while terrifyingly large, make a wonderful din akin to tinnitus that soundtrack every walk you take.
Driving in NZ is pure bliss. Which is just as well seeing as we have a camper van for 6 of the 7 weeks we are here. She's a beaut. A spray painted beaut at that. On one side she's covered in a print that would fit in in a granny flat with 3 flying ducks to boot, the other side has a slutty pin-up straddling a rocket/bomb. Despite her Lara Croft bod she has 2 weird yellow pupils, in each eye, so I'm not threatened! Mat was mortified when we pulled up and 2 men, with only the duck side in view, heckled, "nice van bro".
Having a camper van has been a joy because we no longer have to share dorms with annoying Aussies who want to "get on the coke" but it has meant compromise on other fronts, mainly cooking food that only requires one pan (lots of stiry fry then!) and washing in streams instead of showers. Most of the DOC capsites we stay in have no water source other than the rivers so we really are 'Into the Wild Now' no shampoo and conditoner can be used in the rivers, I'd be responsible for poisoning the fish! Mat has fully embraced this shift in lifestyle and will probably come back with Gandalf hair, I'm slower to adjusting!
The main stress of all this freewheelin' has been the suicidal birds. There are these beautiful Blackbird sized birds (mainly brown with white markings on their wings and a yellow ring around their eyes, incase you are a visual learner) that sit on the edge of the road, or in it, and simply fly towards you, or play chicken, so I'm either jamming my hands over my eyes while Mat drives, refusing to slow, or veering the steering wheel like a mad thing when I'm driving. Damn them taunting me!
Other highlights?
Snorkelling at the Poor Knights Island. Oh my, that was simply too incredible. Our boat, named 'Perfect Day' (that disappointingly didn't serenade us with Leonard Cohen on arrival) took us out and then let us loose. I was so nervous of the depth, tide, reefs that my breathing took a while to slow but still it was unreal. We were surrounded by all different types of fish, my favourite being the Giant Snapper, as we swam into a cave there was a whole shoal of giants that were barely moving except for swishing their tails in the darkness and they took up all the space from top to bottom. Mat refused to swim through them so we just gawked.
From the sublime to the stupid... Hot Water Beach. So, because of the afore mentioned geothermal activity being rife in NZ there's a beach where, at certain times depending on the tide, you can dig yourself a hole, after renting an industrial sized spade, and get into your own private hot pool. It's such a strange sight seeing a huge and mostly empty beach with one tiny area of it teeming with tourists. It becomes even stranger that 2 holes a mere two metres apart can yield such different results. One cold, one steaming hot. We eventually used an inherited hole only to realise it was way too hot. More like boiling. Red foot, for the whole day, ensued after testing out that bad boy. We however, are British, AKA stubborn and proud, so we proceeded to add 30 buckets of sea water to cool it down. All to no avail, as if you so much as moved an elbow or wiggled your bum the disturbed sand would allow more boiling water to flow in. There was an awkward moment when we were waiting for a stereotypically technologically challenged older gent to take a photo and my feet were hurting so much I had to thrust them in the air just as he finally managed to press the button I had showed him 5 minutes previously.
We managed the one day Tongariro Crossing with Sophie and Rich. For fellow geeks, it's where Mordor was filmed, and how it lived up to it's dismal representation in the film. Mist swirled across the ground, volcanic rock littered the path, and as we sat down to eat lunch (avacado sandwiches no less, we spent £1.50 on ten of the things!) we were engulfed by cloud and sleet/snow. No grand view of Mt. Doom from above then!
Trying to pronounce road names is also good fun, they look easy and then you try saying them... by the time you stammer it out we've missed the turnings. Wrap your tongue around this to share in the experience:
Waikikamoocau
xxx
- comments
Nicole HI Kel. Loved your blog and tried to rate it 5 stars and it only gave you 3 (sorry)! won't rate anything again lol! Loved your story.
Howard Hi Kelly, I have always wanted to visit NZ. Your update just makes me want to go more. By an amazing coincidence our village friends Stan, Anne and Jennifer are in NZ at the same time as you. It would be almost impossible that you might bump into them. Matthew might remember Jen from my 50th birthday party.