Knarly New Zealand: Episode 1

26th January- 18th February 2009

Seven weeks of Australian fun whizzed by in the blink of an eye and all of a sudden we were sleeping like homeless hobos in the check in lounge of Cairns airport, as always we amused ourselves...this time with a 'silent disco'-Glasto goers you should know what we mean!

The descent into Auckland was pretty amazing, clear skies enabled us to see some of the geographical delights that were awaiting us. The bus journey from the airport to the center was a little less smooth, we were on a full capacity bus with a bit of a hectic bus driver, his erratic driving almost compared to the journeys experienced in S.E Asia! Auckland was clean. quiet and friendly but we decided to leave quickly to begin our adventure in Whangerai, with our friends Chris and Sue (who we met in Cambodia) Chris had also offered some expert car advice which we were grateful for.

When we arrived in the Northlands of the North Island we were thoroughly spoilt by Chris (Sue was away much to our dismay, who were we going to drink cocktails with!?) and fed homemade pizzas, cooked in the outdoor pizza oven, fresh crayfish and New Zealand lamb done on the barbie.

Whilst in Whangerai we decided to buy a car, however it needed to be picked up 8 hours south and so for our time in the Northlands Chris and Sue kindly loaned us Sue's car, it was a bit of a sporty number...

So off we went on our first solo NZ adventure heading towards...some toilets. In a small town called Kawakawa there are some famous toilets designed by Austrian born artist Hundertwasser. We tried them out, liked them and didn't feel quite so silly about taking photos when a lady emerged from one with a video camera.

Paihia, a jump off point for The Bay of Islands, was very beautiful and within an hour of arriving there we had booked our day tour around the islands. The 'Cream Trip' was originally a milk and postal run started in 1920's when milk and other dairy products were picked up from the island farms around the bay, today the trip encompasses delivering the mail and other things such as gas to these remote homes. We were also 'persuaded' to have a go at a 1200ft parasail...The next day started early. The Cream Trip was brilliant; it was informative, the weather was beautiful, the scenery amazing and we even got to see some acrobatic displays by two pods of dolphins. After a busy day on the water it was time for our first adrenaline experience, the highest parasail in the Southern Hemisphere. We decided to do a tandem one and it was amazing, we could see for miles and loved it.

We were pretty hungry after our day and so went in search of the the best fush and chups in NZ found in the small village of Mangonui two hours north(ish) of Paihia. The food was tasty and we even stayed in our first hotel since being in Australasia, Chris (working for a brewery) got us a pretty good deal!

The next day saw us testing Sue's sporty car to the maximum as we headed up to the most northerly point of NZ, Cape Reinga. On the way there we found Ninety Mile Beach (it wasn't hard to miss), ran up (and down) some giant sand dunes (they were even less hard to miss!!) and encountered 42km of unsealed (basically untarmacked, stony, potholed roads) quite a challenge in a lowered sporty car. Our long day ended in Omapere...or so we thought until we discovered that there was no where to buy food or an ATM that worked. There was only one thing for it, dinner at a pretty swanky hotel whilst watching the sunset and use of the credit cards.

As always, our adventure (in the Northlands) seemed quickly over but we still had time for a trip to a Kauri forest to see the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand (Te Matua Ngahere- Father of the Forest) which is five meters in diameter and about 2000 years old. We finished with some education about the Kauri trees and how the first white settlers used them for their precious gum.

After one more relaxing (and well fed) night at Chris and Sue's it was off to Auckland for a stop over before our eight hour trip to Hunterville, to stay with Jeni (Sue's sister) and Warren, to collect our newest member of our travelling band...Margo, the Mitsubishi Diamante. We were well fed (again...) and when there were able to see some of the workings of a sheep farm with over 3000 sheep. It was baaarmy!

Our next adventure Lake Taupo (which is the lake crater from one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the world, it last erupted 26, 500 years ago, and the size of Singapore and the Isle of Wight), where we met Rob (a friend from Southampton...yup they are still following us!). After a couple of days relaxing in some natural hot springs, seeing the steaming and bubbling 'Craters of the Moon' and being amazed by the Huka Falls, Rob willingly jumped with us into Margo (he enjoyed his time with us at Craters of the Moon so much, he didn't want to leave) and we all set off to Raglan. Our time there entailed surfing and being beach bums, we both had a half day lesson and then there was no stopping us, we were riding those waves like pros and are now sponsored by Rip Curl!

New Plymouth was wet and our plans to surf were scuppered by not only poor waves but also the return of a 6m Great White Shark (known affectionately as Mrs White or the Taranaki Terror). We also sadly left Rob at the airport and made our winding way to National Park, in the Tongariro National Park. The weather was not favourable on our first day for the 19 (ish) km trek so we decided to do adrenaline sport adventure number 2...white water rafting on the Tongariro River, it was awesome, dude! We woke early the next morning and went to brave the still slightly drizzly Tongariro Crossing, which traverses spectacular volcanic geography (circa Lonely Planet, 2008), it was well worth our while as by the time we got to our 1900m target, at Red Crater, the sky had cleared and the views were out of this world!

Our legs were thankful that the next day was a driving trek down towards Wellington, we hoped that our Valentine's Day post had been directed accordingly to Kate's house, however when we arrived...we were sorely disappointed...has the credit crunch affected the U.K postal service?! We spent a very enjoyable evening dancing and drinking wine, until 5am, with Kate and Sam and the next day went on a scenic drive to find a very good headache cure aka breakfast/lunch. We loved our few days in Wellington and are glad to be going back in a couple of weeks to collect Suzewa, ANOTHER U.K clingon!

So now we are heading to the South Island, hoping to find some more beautiful sights, adrenaline fueled fun, sheep...oh, and work...

Rach and Luce xxx

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