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Where's Dave O?
New Zealand - Land of the Rings, the volcanoes, the mountains, the sea, the sheep, the kiwis, the rugby, the adventure activities; I've encountered all of these in my first week here but have learned that there's much more to the country than just that.
I arrived in Auckland on a cold, wet winter's morning in July and was thinking it might have been a bad time to come here, but I've since been proven wrong. Winter in the north island on a bad July day is a bit like Summer in the west of Ireland on a good July day and Winter in the south island means snow and therefore ski season and more dramatic scenery. Either way, nothing stops the adrenaline junkie getting his fix; you can throw yourself off planes or bridges, get wet underground chasing glowworms or above ground chasing waves and clamber up the sides of glaciers anytime of the year here.
I was kindly put up near Auckland by my workmate Vince's folks, Gordon and Adrienne in their lovely home, built to blend in with the surroundings in a patch of native bush. Over the next couple of days I encountered the best of Kiwi hospitality, learned a bit about the bush, the land, the lifestyle, the history & politics and partook in the fine Kiwi passtimes of possum hunting (there's 70 million of them here compared to 4 million humans) and drinking Monteiths. What more could I have asked for as an introduction to the land of the long white cloud?
After my NZ intro, I headed north to Northland ("what shall we call that land up North lads?") and more specifically to the Bay of Islands (".. it's a bay and it's got lots of islands, what'll we call it?"). The Bay of Islands is where the first Europeans landed and not far from where the first Maori was reputed to have landed. It's also where in 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, merging the future of the Maori and European settlers together for better or worse. A beautiful first view of New Zealand, it's not hard to see why the first people that arrived here not only settled but encouraged many more to follow. I wanted to visit Cape Reinga at the far north of the country as I'd read that you can actually see where two oceans meet. And sure enough you can see the Tasman meeting the Pacific, just check out the photo if you don't believe me! Despite the strange looks from the Kiwis around I popped in for a swim in the Pacific on the leeward side of Cape Reinga before we headed south in our bus driving along 90 mile beach (actually 64miles long!). On the way we stopped off for a spot of sandboarding down some steep dunes.
Next, I headed for the centre of the north island, Rotorua. It's also the centre of some pretty crazy volcanic and geothermal activity. As you near the area your nose tells you this is no ordinary place, a distinct smell of sulphur hangs around. Pockets of steam rise from the land and rivers and lakes tend to be toasty in this town, in fact most people come here for the thermal baths, fed by natural hot springs from deep below the surface of the earth which is remarkably thin in the region. In places, holes of bubbling mud emit hydrogen sulphide and other nasty gases which add to the atmosphere that's definitely not helpful when nursing a hangover. After a hard day's mountain biking on one of the best single track trails in the country nearby, I duly soaked myself wrinkly in the hot mineral waters.
Lake Taupo south of Rotorua is the largest in the country but the town itself is pretty non-distinct apart from the amusingly addictive Hole in One attraction on the lakeshore. For a dollar you get to whack a golf ball out into the lake trying to get a hole in one on the pontoon a couple of hundred yards away. There are some serious prizes and apparently they get a winner every couple of weeks but the holiday to Fiji was safe enough when I was there!
Finally on my north island itinerary was the capital, Welington. My favorite NZ city so far, it's hard not to like the place in its beautiful setting between mountains and sea.
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