Advertisement
Published: March 3rd 2008
Edit Blog Post
Whangarei Waterfalls
You could actually spend an entire vacation in NZ just visiting waterfalls. :} This was the prettiest one we saw on our short trip. With the end of my RTW coming up, I headed out with a friend to explore the North Island of New Zealand, namely the Northland region. My friend Kat (who I met in Western Australia) is also a scuba diver, so we rented a car and headed up to Poor Knights Island (off Tutukaka) to dive one of the areas Jacques Cousteau named as one of the worlds top 10 diving sites. We dived a site called Tye Die Arch, which was awesome. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of fish and the variety. We saw a huge sting ray and tons of stone fish as well as lots of other fish I won't bore you with the names of. It was one of those times I really wished I had an underwater camera. I would highly recommend diving this area if you are in NZ. After Whangarei/Tutukaka we were excited to head further north to the Bay of Islands, a scenic bay with 144 islands. We decided to stop in the town of Paihia (gateway to Bay of Islands) for a few days and enjoy some sunshine at the beach and figure out the rest of our trip from
Dolphin - Poor Knights Islands
A group of dolphins joined us on our way back from diving. there. We went on a really nice (albeit long) hike to the Haruru falls, which honestly were not all that exciting, but it was a nice hike. That was the last day of nice weather we saw during our trip. That night we took the ferry over to Russell island to catch the sunset we'd heard so much about, only to discover that there wouldn't be much of a sunset because of the clouds. Both of us were eager to finally get to swim with dolphins, so we signed up for a boat tour the following day which promised we would see dolphins and if conditions permitted we could swim with them. As I'm sure you've already anticipated, we didn't get to swim with the dolphins...but we did see quite a few of them playing in the water. The day was overcast and just a preview of what was to come. That night the rain started and continued for the next two days. Having recently seen Evan Almighty, it rained so much I was starting to wonder if we were going to need to build an arc. Kat thought I was funny, given she is from the UK and this
Haruru Falls before
Kat and I went on a long walk to the falls and curiously wondered what the falls would look like with more water.... sort of weather was the norm for her. Our plans to head to the tip of the island were waylayed as a result and we choose to hang out in Paihia a bit longer and make some new friends and enjoy a bit of the nightlife.
During our hike to the Haruru Falls we seriously wondered what the falls would look like with a bit more water, given that they weren't the most scenic falls we'd seen in NZ. Hopefully it wasn't our curiousity that brought on the rain, but we certainly found out what the falls looked like with A LOT more water. (check out the before and after photos) We drove into town one afternoon for lunch and upon returning to our car found we had a flat (aka dead) battery. Kat noticed the lights were on when we walked past the car, but thought it was someone else's car and the poor bastard was going to have a flat battery. Well, we were the poor bastards since I am a bit spoiled after having cars that have automatic lights on them and forgot to turn them off. Ooops! While sitting in the car calling AA and
Haruru Falls after
It rained on the North Island for just over 2 days straight. Needless to say...we got our answer as to what the falls would look like with a BIT more water! (did you notice the rocks where we were sitting are now covered with water) attempting to start the car, completely unprompted, a few extremely helpful English men took charge and jump started the car started within minutes, saving us from having to have AA come to our rescue. Even though it rained and we didn't get to do and see everything we had wanted to, we had a lot of fun and enjoyed a change of scenery for the week.
In the morning I'll be taking a ferry to Coromandel where I'm spending 4 days to do some hiking and hopefully get one or two more days of beach time in before returning to "the homeland". 😊 It's so hard to believe I'll be back in the US this Saturday (March 8th), granted I'll leave here on Saturday morning and travel for 30 hours before arriving in Dallas on the same date. (I'm taking the long way home.) Part of me is really sad to be going back and the other part of me is really excited to get back to a familiar place and see my friends and more of my family. I've had a really nice time in New Zealand and leaving my sister and her family will be hard since I don't know when I'll get to see them again. I know one thing I will be very excited about and that is not paying all the foreign exchange rate fees on top of the declining value of my US dollars. A few other things I'm really looking forward to: good mexican food and margaritas in Dallas, good sushi, having my own computer and car again and a new wardrobe (even if it is my old wardrobe, it will feel like new after 6 months of traveling).
Even though my trip isn't officially over I want to take this opportunity to once again thank all my gracious hosts and hostesses over the past several months. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to go to the places I've been and meet so many great people, many of which I will hopefully stay in touch with. Once I'm back in Connecticut (around Easter), I'll post a final RTW update and let you know what I've got planned next. I'll also have to put together a few top ten lists from my trip. If you live in Dallas, El Paso or Stamford/NY...I'll hopefully be seeing you soon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0316s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1mb
Debra
non-member comment
Falls
Hilarious picture of the falls before and after. Glad you didn't get swept away in it. Looking forward to hearing what's up next. Been definitely living vicariously through your travels since it will be a long, long time before I am able to get out of the country again. Debra