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Well we have only been in New Zealand for two weeks and we are already rather smitten with the place! It really is absolutely stunning!
We arrived here on 1st Feb, via an uneventful flight, you will be pleased to hear, and made our way with ease through customs and into Auckland to our hostel. We had booked into the Choice Plaza for five nights so that we could find our feet and research where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to do!
Talking to other backpackers while in Fiji, we had learnt that New Zealand is a little backwards when it comes to Internet and that finding access to the Internet, let alone free wifi was going to be difficult! Thankfully however our hostel was opposite the city's library which provided free wifi!! And that, to be fair, is where we spent most of our time whilst in Auckland!! The most time either of us has spent in the library, even in our university days!!
But it worked a charm, for the first five days we could research all our options and work out our plan of action! It also gave us the opportunity to access our finances and have a total freak out about how much we had spent in America! The library, was as well, the venue for much drama on one of our visits there! We hadn't long arrived and settled ourselves into a nice little spot with access to power points and a small table for the laptop, when a man ran across in front of us, then headed towards the window. All of a sudden the security man shouted and the man bolted for the front door. The security man, all 20 Stone of him, ran for him and managed to bundle him to the floor! A couple of other men ran over to assist with pinning him to the floor, and then out of nowhere a man went over and started to pound the runner in the head!!! So with that he then had to be pulled aside too!! 20 minutes later the Police finally arrived and saved (escorted) the running man from the security man, who had resorted to laying on top of him to keep him in place, and took statements from those involved. Throughout the event, Ollie had to hold Sasha back from getting involved, or as Ollie likes to call it "having a nose!"!
Minds put to rest with our monetary options, we opted to hire a campervan for the duration of our time in New Zealand, only problem was, we had to wait until the 9th to pick it up!!
With an extra three nights required in the hostel we opted to move from our eight bed dorm to a ten bed dorm as it would save us $8 a night, and so we went through the process of moving everything out of our first room on the fifth floor, down to the reception, and then up to the forth floor to our new room. Once bags and bedding were in place Ollie decided to run up the stair case next to the lift to the floor above to retrieve our food out of the fridge. Sasha had realised that he had been gone for quite some time when he suddenly appear out of the lift, dripping in sweat! It seems that once through the doors into the stairwell the doors lock behind you, and there is no way out, and being fire doors they are so thick that no one can hear you calling from the other side!!! So Ollie had run up and down nearly all nine floors before finding a window that had been smashed on one of the doorways that meant he could put him arm through to release the door! While all the time Sasha was blissfully unaware!!
Our new room was a little different too, we had the joy of sharing the room with a Chinese gentleman that worked nights at the Sky Tower, which meant that he basically spent all day asleep, which isn't exactly a problem, until you have to return to the room during the day, and there he is, sound asleep on his bed, his covers thrown to the side of him, laying there spread-eagled in just his bright white y-fronts, hand stuck down them holding onto his family jewels!! Again not too much of a problem, unless he's not holding onto them all that well and they are escaping out the sides of his tighty whities!!!
Not all our 8 days in Auckland were spent in the hostel or at the Library, Auckland itself is quite a beautiful city, with a stunning harbour area and lovely suburbs. Mission Beach being just a bus journey away and a lovely little sandy beach where we spent half a day just soaking up the sun and people watching. Mt Eden is a definite must for anyone visiting Auckland! After a good old hike up the old volcano you are rewarded with spectacular views right across Auckland.
And so we finally came to the day to pick up our camper! Both excitedly waking up early, packing up our bags and checking out of the hostel asap!
An up hill walk to the bus stop and we found that Sasha had remembered the bus timetable wrong, and so we had a 50 min wait, but that was fine, we were just happy to be getting out of Auckland! Once the bus arrived we climbed aboard and settled down for our one hour journey on it to the outskirts of Auckland. Knowing that we were close to our stop we started scouring the roads for road names so that we knew when we had to get off. All of a sudden Ollie spotted Ascot Road, a road that we knew we had to walk down to get to the hire company, a road that we knew was after our stop, a road that we were now flying past in the bus!! So off at the next stop we got and had a long walk back, and then through the industrial estate to the hire firm.
After all the boring signing your life away, we were finally introduced to Bunny! Bunny being the name of the camper!! All Explore More vans are named! And we got Bunny!! We were initially a little disappointed with the name, especially since being on the road we have seen other names that sound so much cooler:- Wally, Congo, Super, Grizz, Calley and Paddy! But since seeing one van, we have very much grown to love our Bunny, knowing all to well that we could have had the van named Ponce!!
Heading out of the site we went straight to the supermarket to fill up with supplies and then hit the road to get north of Auckland.
That was easier said than done, and we found ourselves getting completely lost due to the lack of road signs, but due to pure luck more than anything else we suddenly found ourselves on the correct road, out of the city and passing the most amazing scenery you could ever imagine seeing!!
We were heading west of Auckland through Waitakere Ranges Regional Park towards Karekare Beach which is where scenes from The Piano were filmed, and then onto Piha to find our first camp site. Here we walked to the amazing Kitekite Falls, and an exhausting climb up to the top of Lion Rock on the beach before heading up the coast to Parakai.
The campsite in Parakai was next to a bar and so after a windey mountain drive we decided that a beer was the best way to help us relax! Whilst there we were told about a competition happening that night to win $650, and so of course it was only right that we returned there again in the evening! We didn't win though!!
From Parakai we then headed north to the aptly named Northlands! We had read that many people skip the west coast of Northland, but that it was worth the journey! And they were not wrong! We headed up to Dargaville where we stopped to make our lunch and treated ourselves to an ice cream before heading off to Kai Iwi Lakes for a proper cool off!! And then onto Trounson Kauri Park to camp.
The following day we headed into the superb forest sanctuary of Waipoua Kauri Forest to see some truly giant trees! Te Matua Ngahere (The Father of the Forest) with a diameter of over 5 meters, the Four Sisters which are four trees that are growing close together, and Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) which is over 50 meters high!
From there we headed north to the beautiful bays of Ompere and Opononi, catching a ferry at Rawene and then up and down some crazy mountain roads to our first free camping site at Raetea Reserve, providing us with the extremely basic facilities of a long drop toilet and just a stream to wash in!!!
Being our 11 year anniversary we were looking forward to our first meal being cooked in the outdoors, enjoying the tranquil setting with no one else around for miles! Unfortunately not all went to plan! The gas canister supplied with the camper was just about empty, which we didn't discover until the pasta was half cooked, and no gas left to heat up the sauce!! Mmm extremely al dente pasta with mildly warm sauce! The wine helped wash it down however!!
The next morning came the time for us to brave the FREEZING stream! Sasha only braving the water up to her belly button before deciding that she was clean enough, and Ollie after much procrastinating dunking himself in before scrambling out as fast as he could to get warm!
From here we drove all the way up to the Northern most point of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, stopping off at 90 mile beach to take in the spectacular views! It was on the way back down the peninsula that we learnt a very important lesson in ensuring that you have enough petrol in the tank!! Thankfully, running on empty we found our salvation in the form of an expensive BP garage! Hmm something makes us think that others have made this same mistake!!
Out to Maitai Bay we head for a stunning location to camp for the night! Wanting to cool down before cooking we quickly don our swimming wear and walk onto the beach and into the crystal blue waters, only to find that the whole bay was filled with what other swimmers were saying were jellyfish eggs!!! So a quick swim in the bay and then under the outside shower to wash off any jellyfish young! And hope that none had found themselves in any orifice!!!!!!
Onto the lovely town of Kerikeri to park up for lunch, and for Ollie to introduce Sasha to the culinary delight that are noodle sandwiches!! A packet of instant noodles, boiled up and placed between two slices of bread! Ingenious! And then to Paiha, and to the treaty ground at Waitangi, only to find that you have to pay $25 per person to enter! So instead we jumped back into Bunny, and hopped along to the supermarket for some wine before finding our stunning campsite located next to Haruru Falls.
Our final stops in the beautiful Northlands were to Whangarei for a walk to their falls, and then to camp up at Orewa.
We now find ourselves in the Bay of Plenty, but will save that journey and what we are doing next for another day!
- comments
Mum As entertaining as ever. Sounds like Bunny is going to provide you with much fun. Stay safe. xxx
kate willan Sounds amazing............x