Recap of Adventures in the North

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2 Weeks in less than 1000 words (Internet is So Expensive!)

Our apologies for the delay on updating you all as internet has been hard to come by - and being poor poor students, we simply cannot afford it. It's simply internet... or food! 😊

Okay, so the adventure started February 8th, the day honestly came with a blink of an eye. With all of our Canadian snacks stuffed into our packs, and a couple of teary eyed good-byes (alright, maybe just Glenda *sigh), we were ready to board the plane and embark on our 27 hour journey to the other side of the world.

As we approached the boarding gate, excited and free of worry, the worker tells us that Glenda's ticket is voided and does not exist in the database. WTF!!!!! And so we stood, two Asian girls already causing trouble, holding back the line of irritated passengers. We begged and pleaded the Airline worker to get us through... and even though she said that she could do nothing for us for at least 20 minutes, 10 minutes to take-off, she pushes a few buttons, and next thing we know, we're running down the accordion corridor to catch the plane! Oh, that's how the adventure begins... The Amazing Race here we come! 😊

3 Hours to LA, and a 7 hour lay-over... we decided that we would take advantage of the time and venture into the star-studded streets of the great American City...

... boy, were we wrong.

We paid $5 for an all day pass on the metro sitting amongst homeless people who rode the metro as a passtime. We stumbled upon the set for "Heroes", wandered over to the Nokia Centre where the Grammy's were being held, and watched some grown woman suck on her thumb. On our Metro ride back, Wendy was approached by a thugger beggar and actually had dialogue with him!! On top of it all, she smiled at him with that coy Canadian smile, and happily shook his hand as Glenda grimaced and stared out the window. OHhhh Wendy.... by the end of this trip, she'll hopefully learn to say no... but in the meantime, thank God for Hand Sanitizer! 😊

10.5 hours to Fiji, 3 hr Layover, and finally an exhausting 3 hours to Auckland, New Zealand. Wooo!

A HUGGGEEEEEEEEEE Shout out to our new Friend Eric - a Richmond Kid, from the OC, doing his masters in Sydney - whom we met on our Fiji layover and felt (well, feels) sorry for us - a HUGGGGEEEEEEE THANKSSS in advance for letting us shower and crash at your place!! 😊

Like sands through the hourglass, this is the start of our adventure.

As Internet IS limited, please find below a brief summary of our last 13 days thus far:

AUCKLAND
- Auckland = Boring - not much different from any other "big" city - figured it out in 2 days.
- Hostel guy - Brian, warned us of all of the Koreans downtown... and how we'd fit right in - racist bastard.
- Ate $5 Chinese food for dinner - learned we didn't have to tip - SWEET!
- Walked the City for 5 hours on the first day - Auckland University, Queens Street, Ponsonby Street, K-Road (where all the transvestites hang out apparently), Parnell Region, New Market, Sky Tower, The Viaduct - and pretty much saw all of Auckland in a day.
- Ferried to Rangitoto Island and hiked up to the summit of the once active volcano
- Met British Friend - ping pong champion of the world - and later stood him up because it absolutely pissed rain and we don't own an umbrella - Sorry Rich wherever you are!
- Was ridiculed for being 2 women who couldn't cook by a German staying at the hostel - oh, how there are soooo many Germans here!
- Rented our Van, which we have named Ian - and we haggled the brown guys for a great deal because they pitied us and were worried for our safety sleeping in our vehicle!

PUKENUI[, CAPE REINGA, OMAPERE/OPONINI
- Drove for 5 hours out to Pukenui - towards the northern tip of the North Island
- Stayed at a hostel overlooking the water - an absolute sight to wake up to every morning!
- Drove out to Cape Reinga (2.5 hrs), right to the tip of the Island where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea - absolutely breathtaking - spiritual place for the Maori people.
- Drove to 90 mile beach - didn't actually get to drive along it, but the views were gorgeous
- headed to the Sand Dunes - hiked them - as we were too cheap to hire boards, but they were still cool nonetheless
- Drove down to Omapere (4hrs) and attended "Footprints" - a Maori Cultural insight into the Waipoua forest - home of the two largest Kauri trees in New Zealand, Father of the Forest and God of the Forest, at least 2000 years old.
- Wendy was taking gravol every night to sleep as the roads are so windy to drive through
- Glenda ate three meals of bread and peanut butter, wendy gave up after breakfast.

PAIHIA, BAY OF ISLANDS, AUCKLAND, MANUKAU CITY
- First night sleeping in our Van = SUCCESS!
- Evening Activity was spent taping various New Zealand maps/brochures to our window as we had no curtains! haha! $1 tape from the local market has been the best investment yet!
- Spent Valentine's Day eating our first real meal out in town
- Waitangi Treaty Grounds - waste of $20 NZD, average age of attendees: 75
- Contemplated hitting the water to see the Bay of Islands, but the cloudy day deterred us from the cold waters... haha, we're such wimps.
- Drove back into Auckland and searched forever for Mt. Eden, another volcano that was once active in the heart of the city.
- Found a large dept store "The Warehouse" to buy pillows and a blanket - NZ's version of Wal-Mart - we thought that we had died and gone to retail heaven.
- met a Netherland man who had been travelling for 3 Years - 3 YEARS!!- because he had sold his business to IBM... we tried to get him to pity us for being so poor... he gave us cans of food. 😊 Better than nothing!
- met a Chilean guy who had been picking Kiwi Fruits for 7 months making $5/barrel - split across a team of 5 people. Him and his sister ate 4 pieces of toast for every meal with various spreads set out on the table - Now THEY truly ate peanut butter and bread for every meal of the day... we've at least been buying fruits and veggies!

COROMANDEL PENINSULA, COROMANDEL TOWN, HOT WATER BEACH, WAIHE BEACH
- Drove along the beautiful coast of Coromandel
- ate yummy Smoked Mussels for $2 NZD - cheap cheap cheap!
- tried our first bottle of Ginger Beer - YUM!
- Drove out to Cathedral Cove - hard to describe - google that!
- Out to Hot Water Beach, a natural spa on the beach... you dig your own hole and soak in it as water temperatures rise to 60 degrees celsius. We of course weren't prepared and didn't have a spade, and crashed in someone else's hole - haha!
- Wendy was hit on by some weird creeper ... oh wendy....
- drove out in the dark, through winding roads to Waihe Beach hungry and prepared to cook. To our dismay, the kitchen was closed and Wendy ate an orange for dinner, Glenda an apple!

ROTORUA, TAUPO, WAITOMO CAVES
- Rotorua smells like Rotten eggs... we have a dozen eggs that we've bought that we're not going to be eating for some time!
- Watched a Maori Cultural experience with singing, dancing, tonguing, and eye-popping - ate a delicious buffet feast - Hangi - the traditional meal cooked under the ground using geothermal techniques... - google it.
- Wai-o-tapu - Lady Geyser that erupts every day at 10.15 - we didn't read the fine print, it wasn't natural and was activated by a man every day at that time using surfactant.
- WENT ZORBING!!!! Giant Hamster Balll with the two of us freely rolling around in water as it rolled down a hill - freakin' amazing!! We had seen this on the Amazing Race and had come to NZ to experience it first hand finally!!
- Wendy kicked Glenda in the eye, and scratched her ass.
- Rotorua museum .
- Met a German at our deserted hostel (deserted because it was disgusting and full of large bugs!) and watched "Thank you for Smoking" on his laptop because entertainment was so limited.
- He killed bugs for us for 30 minutes straight. (Thanks TEN!)
- 7.45 am, headed out to Waitomo Caves to abseil 27m down a cave, saw glowworms - lots of them!, caved through small crevices, black water rafted, and rock climbed back to the grounds of human life.
- It rained and rained and rained in Taupo as a cyclone warning was issued through the region
- saw taupo in 2 Hours
- Found Chunky Soup at a local supermarket and ate it over rice - the heartiest meal we've had to date! (Please, don't feel pity for us!) We Ate MEat!! 😊

NAPIER, WELLINGTON
- Caught the Art Deco Festival - where people were dressed in 60s get up - in slacks, suspenders, and old school flapper dresses - It was as though we had entered a time warp back 50 years!
- Drove into Wellington and timing was perfect as we caught the evening Carnival - where young kids watched the parade, and older kids got piss drunk...
- Hit a club where Glenda punched an overenthusiastic dancer - damn, she hates overly happy people.
- Met our first Kiwi Friend - Kieran who thinks that Glenda's name is Wendy and Wendy's name is Diamond! hahah!!
- Rode the Cable Car up to the botanical gardens, walked the man-made beach, went to Te Papa - Wellington's Museum and saw the COLOSSAL SQUID!!!!!
- enjoyed our first guilty pleasure of some retail therapy today! 😊 Wooo! Summer Sales!



We've picked up a Canadian Stray (haha, Wendy's friend Andrew) and will be catching the morning ferry tomorrow morning for the South Island! We spend about two weeks there and are scheduled to fly into Sydney for the 8th of March. We'll try to update this again then....

... Signing off until Next time...
With Love,

- Wendy and Diamond 😊

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