New Zealand - North Island

---

After a quick 3 hour flight across the water I was in Auckland facing the ridiculous queues to get through customs. 1hour and a sniffer dog later I was through and expecting a fair wait for Lynsey but fortunately China Air put their foot down and she was only an hour behind me. I needed to make her feel welcome into the country so with the help of McDonald's napkins and a marker pen a beautiful banner was created! We grabbed a bus to the city and caught up on life on route to our hostel. The hostel didn't have a record of our booking which was all we needed, but ended up working out for us in the end as we were given the 'honeymoon suite' of another hostel the lady owned. I have to say, if someone took me there for my honeymoon, a divorce would be following very closely! However, for us it was a bed and a hot shower so we were happy.

Auckland is a cool city without the hectic feel of other main cities I've been to. We explored the volcanos (15min up so only a small one) and the various bays Auckland has to offer which led to some miles being covered in our first few days. We decided to board our bus earlier than planned and head up to The Bay of Islands as we wanted to start our hop on hop off bus adventure. A really beautiful place (once the weather cleared) with lovely walks along the shoreline. I am told you can surf around there but I am baffled as to where that would be?! We met two people in our hostels from Portsmouth which is where Lynsey and I met whilst at university together. Small world. They were really fun to hang out with and we had some fun nights in the 'Pipi Patch' the local/only bar that stayed open past 12. Lynsey swam with dolphins which she thoroughly enjoyed.


The highlight of being up in the north was our day trip to Cape Reinga, the most Northern part of New Zealand. This is where the Tasmin Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, creating the most bizarre movement of water and two very different colours to the sea. I found myself staring at it for a while as I've never seen anything like that before. Barry the bus driver (who laughed like Frank Bruno) drove us to the biggest sand dunes I'd ever seen and we grabbed our body boards and sand boarded down them. Barry created an element of competition to see who could slide the fastest, therefore the furthest, to make the water at the bottom. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it but I had a lot of fun trying! Downside, sand EVERYWHERE. After that he drove us home via the 90 mile beach and it is literally that. Miles of unspoilt and empty beaches stretching for miles either way you looked. I would loved to have spent longer there as it was beautiful and so peaceful.


The following 2 weeks has been a whistle stop tour of the North Island which has also led to us forming a little group of friends as we are all on the same bus. Ed and Lydia, a couple from Essex, Ade from London and two lads called Freddie and Charlie who we renamed Cheddie/Cheds/Cheddie 1&2 purely through laziness! They have been pure entertainment through they're ridiculous ways. I have written them a recipe book for travelling as they hadn't cooked for themselves before and had been wasting so much money on eating out! A good tool for when they start Uni next year as well I think. (I only inflicted minimal levels of mothering I think)


The North Island has featured lots of beautiful scenery and lots of geo thermal pools. Our first night south of Auckland was spent on Hot Water Beach where we dug holes in the beach to reach the boiling water. At points it was too hot to sit in and a quick run into the sea had to be made. There was more geo thermal activity in Rotatua which was ultimately lots of random steaming pools in the ground that smelt of egg due to the Sulphur. The town is also known as Rotten-rua due to this smell. We did some amazing mountain biking routes in the Red Wood Forrest of Rotarua. I've definitely got a bug for mountain biking after doing these routes which were some of the best in New Zealand. Obviously, we stuck to the basic routes as we were beginners but we are hoping to do more on the South Island. On the bus we would often make little stop offs on route to our destinations, one of my favourite so far has been Cathedral Cove which was a stunning beach after a short walk through the woods. (I've attached pics)


Taupo has so far been my highlight of the North Island where we stayed for 2 nights. The lake is stunning and it is the size of Singapore which has a population of 5million people. It's funny to think there is that amount of people in that space when New Zealand's total population is 4.5million across both islands. Taupo is where I did my 12,000ft sky dive, the most amazing thing I've ever done!! I was able to jump first and had a grin on my face the whole way down. The worst bit was the landing as it felt like we were going way too fast but he put the brakes on at the last minute for a smooth landing. That night we had some beers and a swim in the lake to celebrate our achievement as we all did the sky dive together. This inevitably ended up developing into a night out alongside a member of the All Blacks and his stag do. Turning around from the bar to be surrounded by 'man mountains' was a little overwhelming!! Taupo not only has a beautiful lake it also has the backdrop of Tongariro National Park, which features Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings (I'm told as I have limited LOTR knowledge). On our journey out of Taupo we learnt about how Maori mythology believes that volcanoes are either female and male and they mean different things depending on the shape.


River Valley was our next stop and reminded me a lot of Wales with its picturesque surroundings. The lodge we stayed in was right next to the Rangitikei River which featured some grade 5 rapids that we were going to head down during out white water rafting session that afternoon. Unfortunately, I let myself down when rafting as I got the giggles massively, leading me to have no sense of co ordination at key moments! (I blame the chocolate bar they gave me) Inevitably this led to me falling in the water with the guide having to grab my legs as I fell out backwards. The guide said he had never had anyone fall out at this point before and was a little baffled as to how I managed it. I can tell him how it happened, I got my hands in a pickle trying to hold on to the paddle and boat, therefore not actually holding onto anything!? He did inform me I was a very uncoordinated person (tell me something I don't know!!) We also had the chance to jump off a ledge which was 7/8m high. After jumping out of a plane this seemed a lot easier than the ledge I jumped from in Indonesia.


Final stop on the North island was the capital, Wellington. We decided to be cultural and head to the Te Papa museum which was really good, a bit like the Science museum in London but with an additional art section. We also walked up Mt Victoria which had great panoramic views of the city, mountains and harbour. After the walk we had definitely earnt out discount packets of sushi for lunch after the walk. We sat and ate them on the beach which still seems ridiculous as it is so close to Christmas?! Although it still doesn't feel like Christmas even with my Michael Buble Christmas songs. Wednesday night we entered a beer pong competition with Lynsey and I as a team -'UPNC' and Ed and Lydia as a team. With a $100 bar tab up for grabs we were taking this very seriously. Ed and Lydia fell at the first round unfortunately with some over zealous throwing. However, Lynsey and I cruised through to the semi finals, with people fearing us (what I'm told). Ten minutes was running down quickly, it was cup for cup until the dying seconds when they (a smarmy boys team) scored to make it one cup all at final time. Rock, paper, scissors was the final decider and unfortunately we lost 2-0. We were gutted!! We analysed the game and will be sure to do better next time.


Next up...South Island with Christmas Day in Franz Josef and NYE in Queenstown. 2014 here we come.


Merry Christmas and a happy new year everyone!!!!!!

---