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Published: March 1st 2010
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The bus journey up to Whangarei was around 2hrs 30 long and it rained almost all the way and with a slight hangover i couldn't help but to liken it to a normal saturday back home travelling to rugby. when we arrived in whangarei the rain had stopped but it was still quite overcast and humid so the 20 minute walk up hill most of the way to find the hostel was a bit of a nightmare.
My first impressions of the hostel (YHA Whangarei) were that it was a little bit of a stick it to the man type of place but after i had met a few more of the people staying here i felt totally different. its a nice little hostel set well of the main road and up in the hills and is quite small and with decent facilities.
On my first afternoon after I had got cleaned up i walked into the town centre and along the edge of the dock that runs through the town, managed to find a supermarket, "pak n save", and so could actually buy some decent food to cook for myself as oppose to pot noodles, so did just
that returned to the hostel made some tea and then around 7 decided a well deserved power nap was in order and slept through til 7 the following morning.
On Sunday i decided to walk to the whangarei falls and so around 9 set of with the map I had got from the i-site the previous day and walked along the Hatea river and through some woods and forests until the end of the first track then a short walk along the main road to the A.H. Reed Memorial Kauri Park which was nice to walk around and then it was back to walking along the Hatea River until i reached the falls. The falls which i thought were quite nice are described in the guide book as "the paris hilton of new zealands water falls, not the most impressive but easily the most photographed". i walked mainly the same way back but then took a detour on to the main road so that i could go and get some food for lunch and tea. Spent the evening sat around talking to other guests and having a few beers. the nice thing about this hostel is the majority of
people seem to be travelling alone so its easier to get conversations going as there no little clicks already formed. Panic set in a little when i heard of the Tsunami warnings being sent out across the east coast of new zealand especially when im supposed to headed there on Tuesday.
my final full day in whangarei was a bit of a wash out, i spent the morning watching the USA vs Canada ice hockey final with a couple of Canadians, so i was secretly hoping the USA would win but was disappointed when they never. Even more disappointing was when i had been and got ready to leave it had started to bucket it down and so i ended up sat around waiting for it to clear and just chatting to one of the canadians and a french girl. My plan had been to walk to Zion Wildlife Gardens to sea the lions but by the tie it stopped raining it was to late and so i walked to the to the bus station and booked my seat to Paihia despite the Tsunami warnings which have been reduced a little and hopefully the weather will be good enough
to hit the beach.
so today is the 2nd and in about an hour im getting the bus to Paihia where i hopefully wont get taken out by a tsunami.
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CATRINA
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The wonders of technology
Hi. Catrina from Northern Ireland here (yes that side of the ancestory). At the risk of sounding much older than I am, it is truly amazing to be able to keep in touch from the other side of the world. When you think of how it was when your gran was travelling and when Uncle Tommy was working and living in London and my granny waited for and looked forward to receiving letters from them which took a while to get to her. Go for it!