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Published: December 15th 2006
We don't know what lies ahead, we can only use the information that we have to make the best decisions we possibly can, but in the end it will be okay...everything, will be okay
Christopher Walken in Wedding Crashers (or something along those lines)
Okay, this entry is going to be a while..so, for those of you at work, grab a coffee and make sure that your boss isn't around......for Greener, well, you're your own boss, so make sure your "people" all have something to keep themselves occupied.
I found a really cheap flight from the South Island up to Auckland....the distance was the equivalent of flying from Toronto to about Quebec City and I paid $40 for the ticket, so I was pumped about that. I met up with Heather that night, who had been travelling in Oz for the past month and a half, although by the look of her lack of tan, one would have guessed that she had just spent the last month in the lovely Soo. She had just gotten back from the outback where the temps were a scorching 50 degrees celcius and rightfully so was complaining all week about the temps here in NZ, which were about 22....I on the other hand was sweating like crazy, as this was about 70%!h(MISSING)igher than the temps that I had been accustomed to the past month.
We woke
up the next morning and decided that we'd walk down to the waterfront where all of the car rental places were, to get a car for our 6 day trip up thru the Bay of Islands. We were both struggling while carrying our full packs down to the water(Heather packed enough for a family of 4) and just about 2 kms into the walk, we saw a red bus that said "FREE BUS"...then I said, "oh yea, there's a free bus we could have taken down, instead of walking"....while at the time, we laughed it off, little did we know that it would be a foreshadow of things to come.
After haggling with an overly friendly car rental guy, we got a really good deal and scored a white Toyota Corrola 1993-1997 (not sure what year, I'm not a car guy!) So, we hopped on the wrong side of the road and the adventure began. The driving itself wasnt much different although, it was amusing at first...mostly to Heather because I kept turning on the windshield wipers when I wanted to change lanes...its really dificult to go against every instinct you've ever had while driving. We then made our way
to Canon where I went to find out what the deal with my camera was. Well, it wasnt pretty...Infact, for guys out there, I got the feeling you get when you take one right in the baby makers....it was ugly, $315 ugly, just to get it fixed and because I was in NZ my North American warranty was redundant....I grudgingly decided to do it anyways......As we left Canon, I got too close to the kerb (how they spell curb here) and smashed up the hub cap on the curb pretty well....it just added character to the car, that we soon named "BETSY". The name was very fitting for the car as it was a name that the two of us came up with in our minds prior to even talking about naming her. After this we made our way up the East Coast towards the top of NZ and checked out some falls..see pics. The next day we made our way to Paihia which is the hub of the Bay of Islands and I was very keen on going on a dolphin spotting and swimming trip. So, after talking with a nice American couple we decided on the Corina cruise
which would be a full day sail starting @ 9am and running till 4 with a BBQ on board. Because we had to get up so early the next morning, we decided we'd just have a low key night in at the hostel and I decided to go up onto the porch to get some light reading done. When I got up there, two kiwi guys (about 40 years old) had a few beers on the go and started asking me all about my book. After a quick description, they were very interested, but then started handing me off beer after beer. Needless to say, I didn't get any reading done and after 2 hours Heather came up one the porch wondering if I was still alive and found myself and these 2 kiwi's sitting around a table with about 18 Lion Red beers (the labatt blue of the north island). These beers are really good and what I enjoyed most was that they had a trivia question on the bottom of each bottle cap, okay that wasn't what I enjoyed most about them...but it was a nice bonus. Heather decided to open up a bottle of wine that she
had bought and we were very entertained by the two kiwi men (one of who was a succesful entrepreneur with 6 kids) and their RECENT stories of being arrested up in Melbourne at some Rugby match earlier this year. The next morning the skies looked blue, but there was a heavy fog in my head....ughh, a hangover.... but not to worry, we're going to get to see dolphins!! Or.....NOT! Turns out there were some heavy westerlies on the horizon and that the seas were going to be angry that day....like an old man trying to return soup to the deli! So, it was cancelled. No worries, we decided to re-schedule for the next day and find the perfect breakfast @ MCDONALDS! This was my first meal that I've had @ McDonalds.
The next day there were perfect blue skies and we boarded the Corina. It was a great vessel and an all female crew....we sailed around all morning and stopped in a nice cove where we got to hike to the top of the biggest island in the Bay of Islands for some killer 360 degree views. Upon reboarding the Corina, we were served sausages (all beef thankfully) and some
Heather Petting Dolphins
For most of the cruise, this was the closest we thought we'd get to seeing dolphins.dirty carrot shavings with cabbage...mmmmmm. We were then told that the pod of dolphins was way out in the middle of the ocean and that chances are that we weren't going to get to see them.....sweet...so, we made the most of it and just started taking photos of the ones painted on the boat....fortunately....on our return, we found a big pod much closer and we chased after them and got right in the middle of them. THey were feeding, so we weren't allowed to swim with them, not that you'd be able to keep up anyways. They were booting along @ 50 km's per hour. The pod we were with had about 75 dolphins and they were EVERYWHERE! It was definetly the highlight of my time in NZ. I guess I got a little carried away with being so excited, Heather said that I was talking really loudly, and doing my best impression of a group of asian tourists (no offence to asian tourists)...taking one "FOTO, FOTO" after another. But it was impossible not to be excited when the dolphins would come right up and under the boat and swim with us as we booted around, doing 360's and little
jumps beside one another...I definetly recommend it to anyone going to NZ. After that, we did a bit of shopping and then feeling a little empty in the pockets decided to just try and find a place to park the car and sleep in it. Well, late at night we found a campground and we parked the car in a spot and decided to crash there. It was dark and we had nothing to do, so we drove back into town to see if we could buy some wine. This town Kaitaia, was a ghost town and everything was closed. However, we found a little motel that sold booze. Unfortunately, it was closed....however, there was a guy in there who said....oh, you look friendly, come on in and we'll get you some booze. We got really excited and that kind of threw him off, so he and his wife asked us for I.d, then I laughed and said "Really? No problem, thats a compliment", her response was...."Oh, really? Okay, then don't worry about it"....And thats pretty much how things work around there. We got back to the trailer park and Heather slept in the back seat of the not so
Saying Hi
Cassidy...guess what? I'm not very good at speaking in dolphin language, but when I told them about you, they wanted to say "Hi, and wish you a very merry X-Mas" spacious "Betsy" while I decided to sleep in my sleeping bag under the stars. Waking up the next morning, with a stiff neck and the feeling all of our neighbours eyes staring at us, we ate our can of fruits and warm yoghurt in the back seat for breakfast. This was a new rock bottom for the two of us, being laughed at in a trailer park, while eating fruit out of a can. However, we were fine with it because we thought we'd get a great deal and only have to pay $5 each or something for a nights accomodation...WRONG! We walked into the office and ended up having to pay $14 each....sweet, I just paid $14 to sleep on some grass outside in a trailer park....ughhh. Its okay, we got over it really quickly and after that we took off for Cape Reinga at the northern tip of the island and drove a very very boring hour and a half where we saw a bunch of cows and many of the 11 millioin sheep in NZ, untill we got to a beach/dirt road. It was at this point we remembered the one rule that the overly friendly car
Rock Bottom
Cooking "Value Baked Beans" on the side of the road....we knew, that at this point we had officially hit rock bottom. dealer guy gave us....no rental cars are insured on the beach road to Cape Reinga, not even BETSY!...So, Heather and I looked at each other and without having to speak a word, I just turned the car around and we started just laughing about how dumb we were....down a half tank of gas and a waste of a morning, we laughinly drove back down missing most of the turns we were supposed to make. This was an ongoing adventure on our trip...for the turns we were supposed to take, I think we were running at about 30% success rate. We hopped on a ferry to take us back down the main land and were on the right side of the ferry (driver side) and I intelligently left the window wide open. Just as we pulled into the port on the ferry, there was a MASSIVE tidal wave that came crashing against the side of the ferry and subsequently soaked myself and the inside of the car with salt water. Once again, there was nothing we could do but laugh...it was very fitting for the trip and for BETSY....Betsy was a gem of a car and had a list dislikes: going
2000 year old Kauri Tree
Object in background is much larger than it appears....we were quite a ways away from it. up hills, accelerating, passing cars, finding a radio station that didnt have static, salt water....her likes= feeling alive when I drove, but a little more secure with Heather driving....There is no such thing as a straight road here in NZ, so I would pretend that I was driving a formula one car around one hairpin turn after another. Along the ride, we stopped to see the biggest tree that we'd ever seen at Tane Mahuta. The tree was an acient 2000 year old Kauri tree that spans 42m high and 14m in girth. That night we found a great place to stay at another camper park, but we were actually rewarded for being in good spirits and rather than sleeping under the stars for $14, we got a great little shack for only $10 each. The next day we returned on our way to Auckland and for lunch we bought "value baked beans", but we couldnt find anywhere scenic to eat, so, being pressed for time, we just pulled over to a parking lot on the side of the road and cooked them up on my portable gas cooker and metal pot. It was at this point, that we decided we had officially hit rock bottom. Well, back in Auckland I went to Canon to grudginly pay the $315 (new zeland dollars)to fix my camera. It turns out, they didnt have the parts to fix my camera....great!!! HOWEVER, things took a turn for the best when they offered me a brand new, much better camera with 2 memory cards. Looking on the futurshop website, its a Canon A710 and sells for $450 Canadian (which is about 560 Nz dollars, so all things considering, its not a bad deal). After that, we stressfully made it to the airport and said our goodbyes. It was great to see Heather again and see some beautiful things over here together and I wish her all the best in the rest of her travels around this wonderful side of the world.
Fast facts: Dolphins brains are 1.5% of their body weight. In comparison humans are 1.9% and american politicians are 1.3%.
-The right whale has testicles that weigh 900 kilograms
-80% of all trees and vegetation is exclusive only to NZ
-Rugby is not a matter of life and death over here.....its far more serious than that!
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Heather
non-member comment
I miss Betsy!
Haha, great blog...but even better road trip. Taking the bus is a lot different. It's funny doing this trip and passing through all the things you've already done and told me about. Yesterday I did the black water rafting thing (awesome!) and I did end up splurging for the Maori dinner which was also really well done. I'm glad I did it, but now I'm going to have to live under the Jeremy cheap rules...JK! Oh I've been meaning to tell you, I've seeing the same wood thing you bought all over the place for at least $20 more...you got a steal! Anyways, just wanted to say I really had a blast travelling together and tell you to have a great time with Sarah in Oz. As for your comment about me becoming a better person....I also noticed that in you... so much. Heather