Bay of Islands and the coast

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November 3, 2007

Though our shady host at the hostel from last night had insisted that we stay for a few more nights, we have decided to leave Paihia today to see what is next. It’s a beautiful town, but a little too touristy for my taste. The tourists have good reason to flock here though; the beaches are incredible. The area we are in is known as the Bay of Islands because of the thousands of islands dotted throughout it. Paihia lies on the west side of a very large inlet, and we needed to take the ferry to go to our path on the other side. After hiking about four miles down winding coastal cliffs and shores we crossed the inlet via a ferry. On the other side, we caught a ride with a couple who had just moved to the area after traveling the world for years and were driving their new car back home for the first time. After a few minutes they dropped us off a dirt road; the start of where we began our walking.
I learned something over the course of this extremely long hill. Never ask yourself, “how much longer can this hill possibly go up?” The answer will almost inevitably be much farther than you would approve of. It is far better to just put your head down and keep pushing onward until you are pleasantly surprised that you are at the top. This is much better than being constantly disappointed all the way until you finally get there.
We crossed the top of the hill and made our way down, but picked up a ride at the bottom again and were dropped off at a place called “The Farm” which is a hostel/working farm. It should be a nice place to rest.

November 4, 2007

Today was a full rest day, the first on our journey. It was great to get a short reprieve from all the strains of hard walking, though it was strange how slowly the day passed without anything scheduled to do. We fed some pigs, checked out the cow milking operation, I read an entire book sitting in a hammock on the deck, and I also had a chance to have a wonderful conversation with a very friendly German girl named Anja. She is here for almost a whole year, so we are hoping to meet up with here again on the South Island to do some traveling together.
The night concluded with us making pancakes that everyone thought looked terribly funny, and then watching a movie with the family that owns the place. It rained most of the day, which made it much better to be inside.

November 5, 2007

After about forty-five minutes of walking down the road from the Farm we caught a ride with an employee that had just come from there. He dropped us off four miles short of our turnoff, so from there we walked the rest of the way. This area is filled with lonely roads having many ups and downs, which felt like more up than down. As we are now on New Zealand’s east coast, the beaches face the other way, which is a little disorientating. It is also interesting to note the trailer parks located just a few minutes walk from some very luxurious homes.
The weather oscillated today between light rain and slight mist, but this proved to be very comfortable. I’ve found that even when I'm mostly soaked, I feel great as long as my feet are dry.
We tried to find some free space to camp as dinnertime approached, but had no luck and instead ended up paying a nominal seven dollar fee to camp at a DOC campground. The attendant manager took pity on us, or was lonely, but in either case he let us stay under the awning of his trailer rather than making us set up a tent in the rain. He also offered us tons of free food. So, we spent the evening chatting with him and two Canadian girls also staying at the camp. The attendant said he had never let anyone hang out under his awning for the night in the three years he’s been doing his job, so we felt pretty privileged.


November 6, 2007

Today began as yesterday ended, with rain coming down on the awning overhead. We spent the morning chatting with John and the two Canadians while eating breakfast (courtesy of John again) and then caught a break in the weather around lunchtime.
We crossed the longest footbridge in the southern hemisphere to start the walk and then followed a coastal walkway up and down some more bluffs leading us around many picturesque bays. We did not cover a whole lot of north and south distance, but we did walk a lot in total because of all the ins and outs. I’ve discovered that coastal walking can be some of the most difficult because of this fact. It makes for interesting views, but not a lot of distance covered at a time. The good news is that going uphill has become remarkably easier since the beginning of the trek two weeks ago. This, as well as the blister situation getting better and better, is making the hiking more enjoyable.
We eventually arrived at the town where Cathy (the tour guide we met the first day) lived, only to find that she was out of town for a while and we couldn’t stay with her. Fortunately, a lady picked us up and offered to drive us to the next town we were headed for anyway. It would have been a day’s walk on paved roads, so we took the offer.
Upon getting to Whangarei we treated ourselves to dinner at Pizza Hut. After a thirty minute feeding frenzy in which a grand total of about five words were exchanged between Eric and myself, I think we gave Pizza Hut a reason to question whether an “all you can eat” option to backpackers in the future would be a good idea for their bottom line. I ate more in one dinner than in three previous meals, it seemed. Afterwards, I felt stuffed, satisfied, and ready for sleep. We checked into a hostel down the street for the night, which is very quiet. It will be nice to get farther from towns soon since camping is free or cheap compared to staying at hostels so much.

November 7, 2007

It’s still raining despite the claims that today would be sunny. They’ve been wrong for three days now, so I guess that weathermen are allowed to be wrong in every country and still keep their jobs.
Looking at the map, we had a decision to make which would affect the next week and a half. The next section would be ten days of walking, mainly on the highway, before we would arrive in Auckland. There were about twenty miles of beach and some walking paths mixed in there, but overall this would be a long and boring section. We are not excited about that so after Eric’s suggestion we decided to head directly to Auckland and then get into the more rugged tracks south of the city. It was still raining and we weren’t having any luck hitchhiking along the main highway, so we coughed up the thirty dollars each and caught a bus to the city.
We got in to Auckland around 5:30 p.m. and checked in to a hostel in the heart of downtown. Tomorrow we plan to look into getting our Visas extended and booking some spots on one of the north island Great Walks. Then we plan to leave the city to get started on a four day hike through some more serious mountains.
Really, the only interesting things to happen today were two incidents at the hostels. The first was this morning and involved us getting some retribution from a fellow guest who made a nuisance of herself last night. The second event involved Eric and I making a nuisance of ourselves in the kitchen of the hostel we’re staying at tonight in front of some fellow guests. We couldn’t find the can opener so we proceeded to try to bash our way into a can of spaghetti sauce until some guy showed us how to use the can opener attached to the counter. Hey, we’re foreign!

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