Kiwi Experiences - Pies and Adventures Down The East Coast!

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Down The East Coast
Michael Sneddon KIWI EXPERIENCES - PIES AND ADVENTURES DOWN THE EAST COAST!

I finished my last blog with promises of banter on pies, money and tennents - never fear I shan't let you down! It’s been an interesting few weeks, working very hard actually (just down to the 1 job though… although there was a hint of a new job - read on!), coupled with a bout of illness, so not been that great - but I’m about to hit the road again!

Oh I spotted something interesting the other day. I was looking through accommodation guides and saw the funniest place name. Back home I used to keep myself entertained on the road (in my van) by thinking off the funniest name to call an Inn. Like Holiday Inn. But more like Joke Inn. Or Crash Inn. Anyway, there is a place in New Zealand that has the funniest name I've ever seen: Ewe Dream'Inn! If anyone can think of a better name for a New Zealand motel I'd like to hear it!!

Anyway, back to where I last left off. So I said bye to Sophie n Tami with a good old sesh in Globe - met some Kiwi's whose aim it was to meet 10 new people so helped them out! The next night ended up down waterfront with some Canadian lads for a cinqo de mayo party so tequila and coronas all around! Good bars down there, absolutely heaving. I had no idea that cinqo de mayo was such a big (worldwide) celebration. I don’t even know why it is celebrated, but just thought that any excuse to celebrate anything with tequila sounds good to me

The next night I took the chance to see some live jazz. Live music isn’t big in Auckland, which is kind of a bit annoying. In fact the jazz band weren’t that great - more dinner background music than the upbeat jazz I like. However, I did find that the bar we were in had tennents on the tap! Very random. I didn’t buy a pint though. $7 for Scotland’s (rubbish) beer was a bit too expensive for me… A week later I discovered that the bar next door also has tennents on the tap! This must be the tennents part of town!

So I was meant to have a quiet Sunday but Jen from hostel had spare ticks to Ed Byrne (Irish stand up comedian) who I was really wanting to see... So we had a few drinks and then out to see him... Great show - warm up guy was good and Ed got into his stride nicely in second half of show... Very British - mentions of Tesco and stuff...Not enough to make me home sick! (I don’t miss Tesco THAT much at least…) Afterwards I happened to bump into Sarah who I had met in ACB. She was out with her Canadian friend, also called Sarah, from Toronto, so naturally there was much chat of TO! (Speaking of which, Canadian Jen in the hostel had Tim Hortons - not had that in a while!)

After that it was a week of work... sort of! An Asian girl called Maine who works in the hostel also works in a bar called Margaritas. She reckoned we could get $1 (about 35p!) beers from 9-10pm - we didn’t believe her but went along to see - it was true! Me, Kazu (Japanese) and Mark (Canadian) had a great night for cheap entertainment - $1 beers, then hustled some free beers playing free pool, before just about winning a (free) bar tab in the free pool comp - great fun and soooooooo random - love it! Ended up back at a (free) Japanese party at hostel, one of their crew was leaving so joined in their fun - I do after all know 'cheers' in Japanese 😉 (although still not in Maori yet!)

So being down to the one job, only working 50 hours a week, I get some occasional free time. I had suggested to the hostel they let me run entertainments for them and they agreed! So my new job was going to be entertainment manager, but it didn’t really work out - I had too little time and the hostel owners are too cheapskate. For example, they didn’t want to give away a couple of choc bars, some laundry powder etc as a quiz prize…

However, before I decided to pass on the whole entertainment manager idea, I managed to persuade Margaritas to keep the $1 beers going at least once a week on a Monday!! So a whole bunch of us from the hostel go round and take advantage of this deal every week - awesome! Met some cool groups in there - Kiwis, Brazilians, Japanese - a real international bar!

I have also finally got to catch up with Craigie, who is my Aunt Fiona's 'fairy goddaughter' and now lives in NZ. She and her partner, Dean, have played tennis for years so invited me to a game. So I ventured into the south west of Auckland for the first time. Since I hadn’t met them before, we hatched a plan whereby I would meet Dean in a bar by wearing my Hawaiian shirt! It didnt quite work out as planned, but I found him eventually! Their place was very cool, almost on the beach with a great shore view... the tennis club is even cooller! It has a gym, squash courts, flood lit courts, great view over the city and ...bar! I LOVED playing tennis - really miss it... Was very rusty and pretty useless most of the time but a good game - and good to chat to Craigie who played in the same tennis circles as me back home... Afterwards a quick meal and drink with Craigie and Dean, some good banter and plans to meet up with them later...

Sadly this was the end of my activities for a little period. I went to bed that Thursday evening excited about plans to travel over the weekend… I awoke in the morning unable to get out of bed. My throat was swollen and I was totally drained. I went into work late, but spent the whole time at my desk wishing I hadn’t bothered and that I was back in bed… So that’s where I went when I got back from work and was in there for over 24 hours before I had the energy to get up.

This was of course probably a sign that I was pushing myself a little too hard, so I took the chance to detox. For the next week I just relaxed, ate well, didn’t drink - even watched a little TV (!).

I broke my detox in style with a Kiwi Pie from my local pie shop! Wherever you travel there are always different ‘night’ foods - the equivalent of a kebab back home (kebabs are still popular in most places) - your ‘drunk snack'. In Toronto this was ‘street meat’ - $1.50 hot dogs (German Bratwurst sausages - awesome!). In Vancouver it was $1.50 pizza slices. In Auckland it is undoubtedly the pie. Almost every 24 hour little supermarket sells pre-heated pies for you to dine on… awesome! There is also a store called ‘pie man’ with every type of pie under the sun - I was like a kid in a candy shop in there! However, naturally nothing will ever beat the Chicken Sarbeni from Best Kebab in Glasgow…

Furthermore, in New Zealand, when heading out to buy your Kiwi Pie, you will notice something about the coins. There are no 1, 2 or 5 cent coins. If the price of something is .01, 02, 03, 04 or 05 it gets rounded down and the rest rounded up. It’s a great system! ALL countries should adopt this, saves you so much change. Also it stops the stores selling things for .99 since this is now a waste of time - great idea!

After coming out of my detox with a good pie, I finished off my working week early (managed to work 50 hours in 4 days!) and set off towards the east coast to finally see some more of this beautiful country. And it was once more time to use my trusty thumb to negotiate me along the roads 😉

I started by getting the bus to Thames, hitching out of Auckland isn’t a good idea. Thames is the ‘gateway’ to the Coromandel. The drive towards Thames is pretty plain, but when you get there you see why it is called the gateway: once you are past Thames you can only possibly go up - in all directions! The Coromandel is famous for it’s coastline and cathedral cove - I had no idea about how scenic and hilly it was inn land - beautiful. I loved the place as a whole, which you will probably gather by how many pics of it there are as part of this blog!

Arriving in Thames I was picked up by a truancy officer! Luckily I wasn’t in trouble - she was merely offering a lift… She was also pretty crazy (in terms of both personality and driving!) but it was a top notch drive up through the hills to Whitianga, also known as Mercury Bay, arriving in dusk for the evening there.

I got chatting to some Americans from California - Oliver, Alex, Steve and Amanda - all students in Auckland, enjoying the country while they are here. I also re-introduced myself to the great Waikato beer, having my first beer in a little while! We hit the town hard; sadly the town was unable to hit back quite so hard and, even for a Friday night, was very quiet.

I’d heard that there was a bar that had a swimming pool which I wanted to see - the Americans thought I was crazy - there were only 3 bars in town and none of them looked like it had a pool! Whilst in the 3rd bar of this enormous Whitianga pub crawl Steve walks up to me and says you’ll never guess what’s out the back - there it was, a tiny little 20m (at best) pool! We did enjoy the pool in this bar immensely - but not the wet variety - as we played some (quite frankly very strange) locals at the bar before edging very slowly towards the door as one particular local (who wasn’t wearing any socks or shoes) didn’t seem to particularly like being beat at pool!

I left Whitianga in the morning with plans to head down the east coast and hit the famous party town of Tauranga in the evening. I crossed the ferry at Whitianga and went out to Cooks Beach (the Coromandel is where Cook first landed in NZ), with great views of Shakespeare Cliff and the rocky coast line and seas. At this point it was time for my old travel buddy to finally emerge. There have been several (aka 2) emails of concern but Homer is indeed fit and healthy! As we were facing Simpsons beach across the bay, this seemed like a very appropriate time for him to re-emerge!

Homer and I then travelled down towards Cathedral Cove. Wasn’t the best hitch ever, I almost ended up stranded at this marquee where the girl who picked me up was organising a huge wine party that evening (what a shame that would have been 😉, but when we got to Cathedral Cove it was worth the effort… The coastal views there were terrific on a bright sunny day. The cove is a ’45 minute walk’ along a trail (aka 20 minutes) and is a great sight. I also bumped into the Americans once again, who were heading back after checking the beach out already.

Basically, the rocks around the Cove have eroded into various shapes and patterns and look very cool. The Cove itself is famously known as the ‘Hole in the rock’ - which pretty much sums up what this is!

The beach down there was beautiful, good to chill for a bit. You could write messages in the sand, which a lot of travellers have done, I settled for ‘Mich rules - everyone else sucks!’ (a phrase I first coined in Little Rock Arkansas earlier in my trip). Homer settled for the rather plain ‘Homer was here!’ - he has no imagination - perhaps its because of all the falls and scrapes (could be the beer as well)?

From there I planned on heading to Tauranga but my new lift was going to Hot Water beach, so I thought I might as well go and check it out. This beach is famous as you can dig your own sauna! There is a patch of the beach with thermal waters underneath and it was PACKED with people digging their holes. I had been informed by my hitching tour guide that the trick is to wait until someone has left their hole and just take it - save the hassle!

And yet once more I bumped into the Americans there, who were digging away - unaware of the new knowledge I had gained! I rolled up my legs and waded around for a bit - but it really wasn’t that great! Homer really enjoyed relaxing in a hot bath though.

As the day was pressing on it seemed that I wouldn’t make it to Tauranga but I was determined to get there. So I stuck out my thumb as best as I know how to...! It didn’t work though, as I ended up spending the night down the road in Tairua. It was even quieter there than Whitianga! So I just chilled over a few games of pool with some English girls - Jane and Emma in the hostel - managed to negotiate a lift with them to Tauranga the next day too - woo hoo!

There wasn’t much in Tauranga when we got there - we missed the big night before. It’s a quiet little seaside town. However, nearby is Mount Manganui which I decided to head towards, while the girls went the other way. It was a nice little climb up the mountain, and well worth it for some absolutely top notch views of the Bay. I was chatting to some Kiwis up there who said they have climbed it hundreds of times and yet they still love it up there.

From there I hitched to Rotorua to spend the night there - even got a lift from a Mormon at one point in this journey! I met Matt at the bus station and caught up with him over a couple of beers. Turns out he lost the Paper Scissor Rocks heats earlier in the week, thereby losing the defence of his title! However, he informs me that he is appealing the loss - typical Matt!

After a few beers in Rotorua, a lot of pool - I bumped into the English girls who gave me a lift down to Tauranga and was invincible on the pool table that night - it was time for some activities. I had been a bit too quiet in recent times, considering I was living in the adventure capital of the world - but that was about to change.

There are a wealth of adventure activities around Rotorua, as well as some great sights - I opted for trying to do a little of each. I headed out of town for some Zorbing first. Kat and Mike from Fiji has told me about zorbing, as well as the luge, and they sounded great, so I thought I would check them out.

Zorbing is another Kiwi invented idea. Just as a kiwi once thought ‘why don’t I tie some elastic to my legs and jump of a huge ledge’ thus inventing the bungy, another kiwi thought ‘why don’t I roll down a hill inside a big rubber ball’ inventing the activity that is zorbing.

You can do it with another person, but I opted for the hydro-zorb - where the ball is filled with water. It was great fun! You can get added to the roll of honour if you can do it standing up the whole way… I think I lasted about 3 seconds!

However, Zorbing is like many activities in New Zealand whereby the staff wont help by taking pictures so that they can instead take their own pictures and (try to) sell them on to you at a ridiculous price afterwards - rubbish! Like a bungy jump, it is expensive and over with very quickly! However, unlike a bungy jumpy, with zorbing I wanted to go again!

I decided to save my money though, to go up a huge hill along the road to go down the Luge! This is a windy track down the hill which you zoom down sitting on what can only be described as a sledge with wheels! You pull the handle towards you to brake, but it doesn’t really do much, you absolutely fly down the hill - it’s awesome! I went several times which, given the fact it was pouring down, meant I was soaked by the end - but at least I had a big grin on my face after a day of high speed activities! The view from up there wasn’t bad either, especially when the mist cleared away… The worst part of the Luge was definitely the chair lift back to the top, which was rickety and seemed so dodgy - even stopped leaving me hanging in mid air for a couple of minutes!

However, the Luge was an absolute blast - even better than zorbing I thought. Cheers to Kat and Mike for the tips! Interestingly, just around the corner you can go to a sheep shearing exhibit... I decided to pass on that one.

Afterwards it was time to do something a bit more calm and naturalistic - a visit to Kuirau park in Rotorua. As mentioned before, Rotorua is famous for being in the middle of a huge geo-thermal plane of land (producing a lovely sulphur smell). In Kuirau park you can walk around (and jump in if you want) various small geysers which are bubbling away producing a lot of steam - very cool to watch.

Sadly that was all I had time for - although I will be back in Rotorua once more on my way down south. After a jam packed day I was off back up the road to Auckland. The bus journey gave me time to think and I decided that it was time to end this work malarkey - after such a great day I was reminded that this is what I came travelling to New Zealand for.

So I’ve handed in my notice to work, my last day will be either the 31st May or 1st June as I train a replacement. My flight to Australia is now the 17th June. With so much of New Zealand to see in so little time I decided to book myself on the Magic Bus - touring all the way down the country and finishing in Christchurch (Dave did this and highly recommended it).

I had previously been avoiding tours, as I prefer to do my own (often random) things - and they’re also expensive - however with so little time left in New Zealand, so much I wanted to see, a good out-of-season price and as a little reward to myself for working - this seemed like a good idea. I CANNOT wait to get out on the road. So I’m busy tying up all the loose ends in Auckland waiting for that.

I guess that will do for this blog - it is a long one but I hadn’t blogged in a long time. My photo site is pretty much up to date if you wanna see more photos.

For next time I shall be providing stories of comedy shows, more pool, a great new drinking game, converting Scottish phrases into Japanese and my phoning an ambulance at 1.30am in the morning for a Japanese girl! (Not my 1st time in contact with paramedics on holiday - a long story eh Craig 😉

I’ll leave this blog on that ‘cliffhanger’!

Mich

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Photos

He's Back!
Homer out at the coast near Cathedral Cove

Stand Up
Ed Byrne's rather good support act, playing at Sky City Theatre.

$1 beers
Out with a group of Irish celebrating our new $1 beer nights!

Cooks Beach
Cooks beach up in the Coromandel looking across to Simpsons beach somewhere on the other side.

Coromandel Coast
Some of the coastline between Thames and Whitiana

Inside The Cove
View from inside the famous 'Hole In The Rock' - looking at the 'nose rock'!

Beach at the Cove
The cool beach at Cathedral Cove with strange rocky shapes.

Hot Water Beach
Homer relaxing in one of the home made saunas on hot water beach!

It's True!
My message I left behind on Cathedral Cove!

Mt Manganui
Great views over the Bay with a wee sailing boat up on Mt Manganui

Travelling Buddies
Me n ma travelling buddy up Mt Manganui - good to see him out and doing stuff again!

The Zorb
A giant rubber ball to fly down a hill - only in New Zealand!

The Luge
View from up the hill with the windy Luge track and dodgy chair lift below!

Luging?
I don't know what the word would be for going down the luge... Luging? Well here's me doing it anyway!

Geysers
Managed to catch some geysers bubbling in Kuirau park...

Hot Steam Pools
The cool hot steam pools in Kuirau park