Work, play, a bit more play and travel!!!!!

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Hello folks, its been a while as they say so i thought i should update you on what me and barbs have been up to for the last 3 months on the north island of New Zealand. To be honest its much as the title says we landed in Auckland on 30th July with no money so work was a necessity straight away! So we were in Auckland for 3 days sorting out our bank accounts, mobile phones and discovering the best place to get immediate work would be to go further north to kerikeri in the bay of islands. During our time in Auckland we managed to get ourselves on a free tour of the city, seeing various different attractions including the sky tower, the harbour bridge walk, mount Eden and the harbour. At the sky tower the tour group we went with were giving away a free sky tower jump to the person who answered one question correctly and luckily enough it was me, the jump was cool, no where near as good or scary as a bungee jump however as the fall is controlled! On our final day in Auckland we brought ourselves a red 1986 Isuzu Fargo campervan to live out of whilst working and to travel around New Zealand in. This quickly became the greatest buy ever as the vans got loads of character and saved us a considerable amount of money.

As i mentioned earlier our immediate destination after Auckland was KeriKeri and Aranga top 10 holiday park which was to become our home for the next 6 weeks. Our initial thoughts of this place were that we would work hard and save money by only going out once a week, safe to say it didnt really work out like that. Aranga as well as being a holiday park also acted as a job agency arranging work for backpackers and my first job there was for Orticultural orchard contractors working for a lady called Lena on various kiwi fruit orchards tying down the branches of the trees. This job was pretty hard work and badly paid but i lasted 4 weeks before deciding to move on. Then i spent a week doing various different cash jobs including one days work for fultons landscaping moving around pine trees up and down a massive hill (probably the hardest days work ive ever done), a days work gardening for an old lady and planting bamboo trees for the hostel itself.

Aswell as working in Aranga there was an immence amount of partying and socialising. We met loads of cool people and lots of new mates who no doubt we will meet up with again shortly. The usual pattern would be work in the week and then have a massive weekend, usually starting in someones dorm room in the afternoon (occasionally morning) and then heading up to the bbq area at the hostel in the evening and to a pub or house party at night. However in the last week or so we were at Aranga every day seem to turn into a party, with drinking games like the ring of fire starting as early as 1 in the afternoon and being played with various different cocktails, and everyone being pretty drunk within a couple of hours, great fun!! On our last day in aranga we decided it would be a good idea to fill a big bucket up with cheap home made vodka and peach schnapps and play ring of fire. After playing the game, Steve a guy we met set up strobe lights and speakers in an area of the park called happy valley and we had a bit of a leaving party, awesome!!!

whilst in Kerikeri we also had a bit of a look round other places in the bay of islands going to Pahia and Hururu falls, Maturi bay and Opito bay.

After Keri Keri me, Barbs and Clive (Slev, an irish guy we met in Aranga) set of on a road trip of the north of the north island until our money ran out. Our first destination was Cape Reinga right at the top of New Zealand. It has a pretty spectacular coastline and when we got there walked to the light house and walked on the gigantic sand dunes. The next day after camping at ninety mile beach we put the Fargo into four wheel drive and drove down the beach, great fun!! after that we visited Kaitaia and had a look at the giant Kauri tree, which is exactly what is says in the title, a massive tree! From there we went back down through Auckland spending the night at the docks and across to Cormandel Peninsuala. This part of the road trip was just beautiful, every where you looked on the drive was just of spectacular coasts and scenery. On this Peninsuala the two main tourist attractions are the Hot water beach and catherdral cove in Hahai. we got to hot water beach expecting to be able to go onto the beach dig a hole and bath in hot water, unfortunately the tide was out and we were told to come back at night to do it. So we went to cathedral cove for the afternoon, did a walk, took some pictures and went back to hot water beach in the evening. Once again the tide wasn't quite right but we were able to get on the beach and dig small holes in between waves and put our feet in the hot water, safe to say it was extremely hot. That night we drove down to Raglan, spent a day there mincing around, trying a bit of fishing (unsucesfully) and seeing the sights. From there we drove through Hamilton to Waitomo caves where we did a short tour to see all the glow worms, once again pretty cool! In the same day we made our way to Rotorua visiting Whakamaru lake on the way where we did a bit of fishing and washed for the first time in a while, incidently at one point Slev fully clothed fell in the lake, hilarious. That night we met up with some german girls we met in Kerikeri and had our first big night out for a few days. Whilst in rotorua we managed to get ourselves a couple of hours work for a marketing company called the field connection ltd where we got a free visit to a nature park called rainbow springs and then were part of a discussion group on the park. We also did white water rafting here on the grade 5 Kaituna river, which also involved a freefall down a waterfall which was quite an adrenaline rush! Just before the rafting we took a look around Hells gate geo-thermal reserve as it was free, it was a good way to waste a couple of hours. After a couple of weeks of traveling around we had run out of money again, and headed up to Tauranga where we were told we would find work.

We quickly joined a job agency called tradestaff in Tauranga and they pretty much got us work immediatly for Sanfords sustainable sea foods in there factory. Once we heard we had work we moved to our second home in New Zealand, Tauranga holiday park for 6 weeks. The work itself was extremely boring, very smelly and was minimum wage (around 4.50 pounds an hour) but did allow us to work for around 40 hours a week. I really liked Tauranga, its a pretty small city and had everything you needed including a pretty good nightlife on a street called the Strand by the river. there is also a really nice beach in an area called mount Maunganui, here there in obviously a mountain which we walked up one sunday, which allows you to see over the city which was beautiful. From here we also visited Mclaren falls park which had some pretty cool scenery.

After being in Tauranga for 6 weeks Barbs and myself (losing slev after 2 days of work in the fish factory, soft irish) hit the road again to see the rest of the north island and to get to Christchurch to meet up with Davey Mac and Goddings. Our first destination was Lake Taupo where we went on a short walk around part of the lake and went on another walk to Huka falls, both of which were very nice. After a night in Taupo we headed a bit furhter south to Tongariro national park, when we arrived we stopped of at the information centre to get some information on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing walk and stoped of and Did a couple of short walks to Tawhai falls and a mounds walk where you got amazing views over the mountainous, volcanic landscape. The next morning we set of to do the Alpine crossing at 8 in the morning and we were not expecting the extreme weather conditons in front of us on the walk to the top of the mountains. The walk started fairly easy with a little wind and we kind of thought the walk would be easy, after around an hour we arrived to the first place of importance soda springs which was just a little waterfall at the foot of the mountains, the real fun was just about to begin. As we headed up the mountain and through the crossing the weather conditions deteriorated with the winds picking up dramatically. The further we climbed the stronger the winds and the colder it got. Once we got to the red crater the whole area was covered in snow and you couldnt see anything, the lake was frozen over and the walk became extremely challenging. After around 2 and a half hours of brutal hiking we reached the top at emerald lakes where the winds were so strong it was hard to stay on your feet. On the walk back down the weather cleared a bit (winds still stupidly strong) and the views of the mountains and the landscape below were just spectacular. After walking for around 5 hours we got back to the van and were just in ore of what we just saw and the crazy weather conditions we just hiked in wearing 13 pound trainers, a jumper (no coat) and a hat, a bit of advice for anyone doing it in the future ...... where gloves, a good waterproof coat and hiking boots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After this we were back on the road again to our last stop on the north island Wellington. The drive down was pretty cool with amazing views everywhere.

Its now are final day in Wellington before heading to Christchurch, and weve had a good look around the city spending a stupid amount of money of food, worth every penny though! We had a good look at the waterfront and drove up mount Victoria to look over the city, safe to say the views were amazing.

Thats all from me, enjoy and take care!!!!

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Comments

[Bones]

Hello!!
Good to hear from you again Millsy ------ although you or Barber seem to regularly ring Davey!!! :) Davey's bringing a big hug for you from all of us....make sure you get it!! hehehehehe :) Have fun with the boys x x x MISS YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU x

[Jen]

question.....
what question did you get right on Auckland tower?? Haha, no seriously NZ looks amazing, brings back so many memories - your tongariro pics are crazy! I can't believe you did that massive trek in those conditions, I remember it well....and it was tough! Looks like you're both having an incredible time though - keep at it! Look after each other x