New Zealand - Auckland and the Northlands

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Auckland

We arrived in Auckland airport at about 7.30am, after what was supposed to have been a comfortable night on a plane. The seats were great, with 4 bulk head seats for the 2 of us. Unfortunately people thought that this was a walkway for them to get from either side of the plane - muppets! Not only that, in the compartment in front of us there was a Chinese guy with tourettes. His tourettes was both in English and Chinese and very loud. He was swearing and shouting out terrorist, which doesn’t go down too well on a plane! This meant that sleep was little to none but quite funny with some of the things he was saying!! Put this together with the fact that Zo couldn’t eat or drink, it lead to a pretty crap flight!! We got our bags and headed through the toughest security in the world. Not on immigration but on MUD, that isn’t an acronym, I mean soil! We had to have our walking boot inspected, where they were taken off and cleaned, which saved us doing them. They are so pedantic about everything bio, so not to get any bugs and ruin their beautiful country. When we managed to get through biosecurity we got on a shuttle bus to Auckland city centre. Auckland is the biggest city in NZ with 1.4mill people - wow!!! It was empty We found ourselves an extremely overpriced backpacking hostel and decided to do everything that is wrong with jet lag and have a sleep. About 2pm we got up and walked around to see the mass of people that we obviously missed this morning - no such luck! Jumped in a cab and went to the health centre to get Zo fixed! I forgot to mention that is was freezing cold and raining and we were very unprepared. as neither of us had closed toe shoes, apart from boots. We purchased a pair of Converse each to take on the rain! With our only pair of jeans, jumper and shoes we went out for a light bite to eat, some beers and karaoke with Steve the mic hogger who thought he was Rod Stewart. He started to grate on us so back to the hostel for a crap night sleep with drunken 18 year old banging on our door in the middle of the night!!

Got up early to do the bus tour. It was a normal bus, not open top, and took an hour to do the sights. Half way through we got off at the museum to do the other section of the tour, which was of Eden in an even smaller mini bus! Went to the top of mount Eden and saw the view of the city. Amazing to think that Auckland is in the middle of Volcanoes that could erupt at any point. Finished our tour of Eden and went into the Auckland Museum. It was huge, and far too much to fit in in the hour we had until the next bus. Went went through the Maori exhibition which is very interesting as they are the forefathers of the country and tend to get overlooked now and headed to the Volcano exhibition. Here I was able to baffle Zo with my 6 weeks Geology degree knowledge! They had a simulator in a house of what would happen to Auckland if there was an eruption, and not the Van Halen type! (For you Sam). Unfortunately the first time we went in we got bombarded with about 30 Indian kids who ruined it so we left, thankfully we got to see it later on and it was very interesting. God must have been English because we don’t get any of these natural dangers like the rest of the world!! Got back on our bus and went through Parnell Village, small wooden colloquial houses and shops - would have been a nice place to stop for lunch, but as it had taken Zo 3 hours to drink a small bottle of water we decided to stay on the bus. Finished the tour at Sky City and got the glass lift to the top of the Sky Tower. I was ok with it, considering my fear of heights, but Miss Russ was a little bit on the shaky side. We got to the top, with $20 discount due to being a backpacker, and looked over the city. It was a beautiful view as the sun had decided to shine on us today. Back down we went and walked to the quay side for our lunch. Zo had 3 spoons of soup and was in agony so we went back to the docs and this was when we found out she had oesophogitis. Got some nice strong pain killers and some super gaviscon and thankfully as I write this she is on the mend! We booked our hire car for the next day and went to find some camping gear!! Got a bargain of a tent, 2 mats and 2 sleeping bags for about 70 quid!! Back to the hotel and out for dinner at the quay, where Zo ate her first proper meal for about 5 days!! Hooray - I was piling on more pounds eating her leftovers. Had a few more drinks in a bar, which was empty surprisingly. We listened to a live band, they were really good and took requests, however the only request that Zo put in I completely missed as I was in an in depth conversation with the welsh barman. Apparently their rendition of Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls was excellent. Went back to hostel before we set of on our adventure!!

Packed up our gear and got a green taxi to the hire car place - electric cabs!! Picked up the ‘Silver Bullet’ - very ironic as it is a 2003 automatic Toyota Viz. Packed it up with about 100kg of gear and we headed off on the open road for Whagarei. As I haven’t ever driven an automatic before it was good fun trying to learn, especially the huge revs if you put your foot down to hard. Out of town we left and up the 1 motorway with 3 lanes!! Stopped in a garage to pay their toll - supposedly they can’t have toll booths because it would slow the traffic down too much, all 50 cars!! Thankfully though we managed to pick up a few CD’s for the journey, Andy Williams, best of, Aerosmith 1970 and the greatest find of all.......Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler. After about 20 mins of this lane carnage, hint of sarcasm, the road turned to the great Kiwi single lane emptiness. The roads here are amazing to drive on, especially with Automatic because you feel like you are in a Go kart. The majority of them are single lane, winding and with a 100kmph limit. My look a like Jeremy Clarkson would love it just as I was. Off we went on our 160km trip through winding roads and picturesque scenery. There aren’t enough adjectives (hope that is correct) or maybe superlatives in the English language to describe how beautiful this country is.


Whangarei

We arrived at our first ever camp site in Whangarei at about 2 pm and preceded to set up our tent. Very easy it was, surprisingly, and uncomfortable as well. We had got there on a Saturday and it was a ghost town. We went to Woolworths, still fighting strong here (actually it‘s a supermarket here), to get some food and we had managed to find a camping shop to get the essentials we had forgotten. Travel pillow and cool box for the beers! We drove back to the campsite and rested up and wrote our previous blog before cooking a dinner in the communal kitchen of chicken pasta - not one of my best. Zo was still struggling to eat so we though it best to eat in. Had an early night as camp sites tend to shut down early. Packed up our tent in record time, as it was the first ever time and got back on the road for our 75km trip to Paihia, the Bay of Islands

Paihia, the Bay of Island

We got to our campsite, 7km outside of Paihia, at the Harruru Falls. The journey up was along a coastal road and there were a few stop overs on the way to take pictures and take in how beautiful and clean NZ is. The sea is so blue and the land so green, it’s like a constant postcard! Pitched our tent 2 metres from the lagoon and looking at the water falls. Only camping can you get such an amazing view. Drove back down to Paihia and had a look around, slightly smaller than Whangarel but a lot more beautiful. Had some lunch and booked our trip on the ‘Mack Attack’ for the next day. Drove round to the falls and to see what else was around. Drove down to Keri Keri but as it was a Sunday, everything was closed! Headed back to our holiday park and went our for dinner at 35 degree south which overlooks the bay. Zo was eating a bit better but would have loved just a plate of mash! Back to tent and another not so good night sleep. Up early the next day for our ‘Mack Attack.’ It is a speed boat that takes you out to the hole in the rock and round the bay in 1 and a half hours instead of 4. The hole in the rock is where the water has eroded a hole in the rock, I don’t know who came up with the name but probably the same people that got paid millions to change the lottery to Lotto! Anyway, it was class, nearly blew our faces off as we had got the front seats and took Zo’s breath away. Got up to 45 knotts which is about 50mph. A great experience and nice to get a bit of fun in these slow small towns. After that we drove back to Keri Keri to the camping shop to get an air bed to make our sleep more comfortable, which worked, and had some lunch. The guy in the camping/hunting shop was a bit weird and was glad he didn’t know where we were staying. Back to camp site where we did some canoeing over the lagoon, what we weren’t told was that the canoes have holes in to balance them out and due to my substantial weight advantage the back end was in the water and we got soaked!! Dinner was served and I had a delicious microwave meal and Zo had an even better chicken soup - yum! Early night before our long drive the next day.

Cape Reinga

Off we set on our 235km trip to Cape Reinga, the top of NZ. Journey went well and the views were as good as ever. We stopped over in a place called cable bay, for our own made lunch of Laughing Cow cheese and rolls and an ice cream. The bay is so clean and empty! We got there in about 3 hours and the last 20km is on unsealed roads, took forever and the car took a bashing. The views were amazing, it is where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet and words cannot describe how amazing it is, photos cannot do it justice! We were going to drive up the 90 mile beach to it, as most people do, but realised that our rental agreement isn’t really hot on that idea, so we took the road instead. We were going to stay there the night until we realised there is nothing to do. The decision was made to drive to Dargaville, which by finger measurements on the map was about 150km - turned out to be 275km and took us over 4 hours. At one point we were driving up and down a mountain road, round bend after bend after bend for 24km. Made us dizzy!! We got ourself a cabin in Baylys Beach, which is just outside Dargaville, because it was late and we couldn’t be bothered to put the tent up. Went out for dinner, at Blah Blah Blah bar, in another ghost town and went for a good night sleep in a BED and HEATING!!!!

Auckland North Shore

Got up and went to see the beach in the rain - no beach is good in then rain!! Set off to Hamilton but decided we didn’t want another huge drive so stopped off at Takapuna on the way. It is a town on the North Shore of Auckland and was really nice. Quite busy but not as big as Auckland. Set up our tent and airbed and went for a walk around town, raining again. Not much to do in the rain so we decided to go to the cinema and watch ‘This is it.’ Was really good for me as I am a massive Michael Jackson fan but sad to think that we could have been at the greatest concert ever! After that we popped into an overpriced Belgium bar and then to a nice bar called Copper Room for some snacks and Zo’s first alcoholic drink in over a week. It was half an Amstel light and she did about half of that, so a quarter of Amstel Light. We went back to the tent, which isn’t great when it is raining and then went out for dinner at Aubergine. Quite a nice dinner and our first glasses of wine in NZ. A nice red for me and a glass of white for Zo from Hawkes Bay. We were going to go for another drink but the town died down at about 10 so went back to the tent before our drive to Hamilton the next day.

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Photos

A view from Aucklands Highest point
Looking back over the city. The tallest building is Sky Tower.

A view of the Harbour
Taken from Sky Tower

Dinner at 35 Degres South
The boat is not on fire its just the reflection of the patio heater in the glass.

View from the road
This is what the view is like from most of the coast roads

In land road
This is what most of the roads look like away from the coast

At Cape Reigna
Where the Sea and the Ocean meet

The second tent erection
This time it was over much faster

Comments

[dad]

Quiet, but oh so pretty.
NZ looks stunning. Glad that the oesophogitis is getting better. Bound to have some ups and downs on such a long trip. I'm sure that there will be lots of brilliant places along the way in NZ. The car looks very twee. Oh for some gears and a bit of power. Luv these blogs. They really fill in the gaps on what you guys are doing and give a flavour of what he places are like. Keep well. Keep happy. Keep enjoying yourselves. xxxxxxxDad

[Aunty Kathy]

Kia ora to you too!
Now you're in familiar territory (to us), and I can just see the places in my mind's eye that you're describing. Poor Zo - can't imagine how she's been feeling, but glad she's on the mend. You've covered a lot of ground so quickly. and I really take my hat off to you both for living in the tent - it's so small! Well, what the hell - you're young! Glad you're still having a ball. Lots of love Aunty Kathy and Uncle Lennie xxxx