Our trip north...and diving at Poor Knights
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Published: July 31st 2009
Tuesday 2nd January 2007 We got up 1.5 hours later than planned and rushed around trying to leave Christchurch.
We went into town and picked up a hire car from Thrifty that needed to be relocated to Picton (so cost us nothing but petrol). It was a Toyota Corola - not too bad, but not the V6 Ford Falcon I was hoping for...
I dropped off my snowbaord bag (with all my kites, some winter clothes, books, snowboard, etc) and my new paraglider at Dave's-- my paragliding instructor--house. The plan was when the rest of my paragliding kit (harness and reserve chute) finally arrive, he would put it with the glider and get both packages picked up by the transportation company I had arranged to send it all back to my parents in the UK.
We then finally said goodbye (which I hate) to our housemates and left Christchurch - living out of backpacks again (after being settled in NZ for over three months).
On our way north of Christchurch we stopped off for a walk to a waterfall I had seen baby seals playing in months before (Lisa hadn't seen them), but they were not there
😞
We arrived in Picton and stayed at the really nice hostel called the
Sequoia Lodge (which both Lisa and my Mum had stayed at before and really loved). We made dinner and played Scrabble. I didn't do too bad against 'Miss 25,000 Words' - Lisa memorised 25,000 new words as part of the US college entrance tests... And then we made use of the outdoor hot tub to relax before bed.
Wednesday 3rd January 2007 Before getting the flight and dropping off the car I had a large parcel of clothes and books to send home, so I popped into the Post Shop and made myself about 10kg and $190NZD lighter!! :-(
When we got to the airport we realised I had left my phone (well actually a phone lent to me by a work colleague - cheers Tim) at the Sequoia Lodge! Doh!! The airport called Sequoia Lodage and drove to
the airport with it. Just as we were sat on the plane ready to close the door it was passed up to me - just in time! Thanks again Sequoia Lodge guys!!
Our flight was short and sweet (see
video) and definitely beat the
3 hour ferry (I had already seen the fantastic views of Picton & Wellington from the sea) and was actually cheaper!! We had seats right behind the pilot's and I spent most of the flight checking out their instruments (oh er!).
At Wellington we picked up another hire care from Thrifty (another relocation) that needed to be in Auckland. We wasted no time in Wellington - we had both been there before.
On our way up north from Wellington we stopped off for lunch at Featherston and bought a BLT and a CLT (cheese, rather than bacon). It came to $26!!! We both thought "it may take a while to adjust back to backpacker budgets"...
We also spotted a few 'giant tat' examples that cover NZ - this time a giant fibreglass kiwi fruit. I decided I must do a coffee table book of photos of 'giant shite of NZ' (working title). Apparently Oz is the same. Strange people...
We stayed at Makapua station, near Wairoa, which was a friend of Lisa's. Lisa had stayed with them before when she visited the North Island. It sounded fantastic and so I really wanted to see it on
our way up. Unfortantaely the owners were away for the weekend, but in true New Zealander friendliness offered us use of the house anyway. We arrived in the dark, but were welcomed by two Jack Russels.
Thursday 4th January 2007 The view from the bedroom was wonderful. So was the view out the lounge (see the amusing
">video). They lived in an amazing location.
I saw a hill nearby that I wanted to climb and started off in that direction. I was stopped by the sound of yapping and six puppies came running towards me (see
here ). They were full of energy, nearly tripping me up as I tried to walk. I just stood and played with them while I waited for Lisa to come out of the house. As she did they all bounded off after her - they were such good fun. We finally tore oursleves away and started our mini hike, with 6 puppies and two Jack Russels in tow... One by one the puppies turned back and headed to their Mum, until we had three left and the Russels . On the climb up the hill we lost another two and just one
brave little puppy came all the way to the top (see the
view ). He was awesome! He would run between Lisa and I - almost instinctively herding. I think he will make a brilliant sheep dog (which is what he has been bred for) but if I wasn't travelling I would have had him away! I spent the next two days thinking about him and how I could somehow keep him (get him frozen in carbon - like Han Solo - and posted to the UK, for when I return). Wrong place and wrong time :-(
We finally left the puppies and drove on - which was hard with six puppies running around the car! We drove to Gisborne , to Opotika, to the Coromandel. I spotted some perfect hills for coastal paraglider soaring, between Wairoa and Gisborne, 2km west of Nuhaka (near Whakaki). We stopped at Woiotah beach and found a cute little shack by the sea, with a hammock, old tractor and boat in the garden.
We tried to stay at the Miranda Spa hotel (and go to the spa pools) but they had just closed the office. So we decied to drive on a
few hours directly to Auckland (where we planned to be the next day). We finally got to Auckland rather late - about midnight. We stayed with Lisa's relatives (Andrea, Barry, Jeremy, Gideon & Edie) and they were incredibly welcoming at such short notice and so late.
Friday 5th January 2007 We dropped the car off in Auckland and walked back to the house. A long walk too. At one point we walked up a hill and suddenly came face to face with cows - on the edge of a grassy park, about 1km from the city centre!! Not expected!
We used the time in Auckland to catch up with travel blogs, copy photos to CDs and get laundry done. I also experienced my first Jewish Friday night meal or 'Shabbat' - ushering the start of the Sabbath--the Jewish day of rest from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night (but only very observant Jews rest and do no work in that time; for the rest, it's a nice reason to have a family dinner on Friday night). For me it was basically: Candles, braided bread (called challah--makes the best french toast), wine, very nice food and some Hebrew...
I also got to meet Lisa's great auntie Eddie (from South Africa) - she was really nice. They all were - and so welcoming, I felt totally comfortable and at ease in their home.
After dinner Lisa and I went for a drive (they lent us a car) along the coast and then on to the city centre to go 'partying' until 3am.
Saturday 5th January 2007 After spending the day catching up on emails, etc. we left Auckland (borrowed the car) and headed up to Whangarhei to stay in the rather fantastic
Little Earth Lodge - totally recommend it. We were up at Whangarhei bcause we were due to go diving the next day.
Sunday 6th January 2007 As part of Lisa's Christmas present I had said I would take her diving at The Poor Knights. It is said to be in the top ten dive sites in the world... As we submerged we immedaitely saw two huge stingrays on the bottom. The two dives were spectacular. At one point we had to dive into a cave and through a 'swim through' in the rock. As we looked back up, shardes of the light coming through the water
into the cave, we could see hundreds of blue maomao - very spectactular and dramatic sight! In between the flurry of
colourful fish (too many to name - if I knew their name!) we also saw a conger eel and a very colourful, tiny and rather rare nudabranch (sea snail without shell and gills on outside). It was a great diving experience
(depsite the cold water) and I'm really gald we got to see it before we left NZ.
On our drive back to Auckland we stopped off at a strange looking cafe (see photos) and at Goat Island Marine Reserve, where I had stopped with Strays back in the NZ winter. It was so diiferent now - in the NZ summer - so many people! We walked around the rocks and spotted the fish, between all the snorkellers and divers!
We got back to Auckland and started to pack for our next leg of our travels.
The next day I would be leaving NZ, where I had been living and working for nearly 6 months. So I reflected on all the little differences and the things I would miss.
Differences between UK and NZ:
* 'Wee' is in common use (to mean small), not just those with Scottish
heritage.
* 'Dairy' means corner or convenience store (not a place cows are milked - not
sure what they call that).
* They have 'Driver Reviver' - free coffee/tea and biscuit stops for
drivers!
* They don't pussy about with harsh language - some examples - "Don't be a
Tosser" on the bins in Christchurch. A drink drive advert in the toilet of
a pub: "Feel like a shit now? How would you feel if you let your mate drink
drive..." and my absolute favourite on the till of a bar: "If you drink
drive you are a f@cking c@nt!" - Not an official government one that...
* On a similar note: They have no worries about swearing on the radio, most
days to and from work I hear: arsed, shit, bastard, pissed, etc.
* They start the city road works AFTER evening rush hour and by the morning
rush hour you are driving on new tarmac!! No stress, no congestion!
*They have the same traffic rules as UK, except one that almost always got
me killed - When turning left off a road onto
another road give way to cars
from the right! Yep that is right - cars turning across your lane have
right of way when both of you are turning into the same road (if it is on
your left, their right).
* Flipflops are called Jangles.
* The say Subaaaru not Subaruuu
* Fuel pumps have little clips you can press to keep the pump pumping - so
you don't have to hold the trigger down. You can also type in how much you
want to spend in advance (say $20) and then it will stop there for you - no
more teasing towards $20 and then going over by 1 cent
Stuff I will miss:
- The easy going and straight-forward people
- The common sense attitude applied to almost everything - from fuel pumps
to road works, etc...
- Political and Environmental views
- Relatively little crime and vandalism of public property
- The Port Hills & local beaches that meant I could paraglide, kite,
snowboard, etc.
- My England Street Housemates
- A job with 25 flexible hours a week
- Cheap Subarus
Stuff I won't miss:
*Give way to traffic
turning right rule
*Plugs are really crappy and don't stay in the sockets properly
I REALLY hope to be back soon!
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