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Published: February 7th 2010
auckland
pic of cityGood Morning from Auckland 2/8,
I have finally made it to New Zealand after numerous plane ticket problems as well as credit card problems. My Kiwi friend Jane I met in Austria last year and she picked me up from the port and arranged a beach house trip to the small beach town of Russell, NZ. Russell lies 3 hours north of Auckland and is built pretty much on a small mountain. There is also a heap of different facing beaches in each direction as well as islands scattered along all coastlines. It’s a beautiful quaint town in which is the oldest town on record in the country of New Zealand.
While we were there there was an ancient ceremony across the bay called Waitangi, which was the treaty between the Maori people and the European settlers. This is an annual ceremony that they reenact and about 50,000 people attend this. The morning this ceremony was unfolding Tito, a local guy one of the guys we were staying with, arranged a free fishing charter for us. So Jane, Pat and I all went fishing in the ocean and the skipper Peter used a technique called long lining to fish. Which
Auckland
my friend Jane pretty much consists of 50 yards of line with 25 hooks coming off of it and bait attached to the hooks. We throughout 2 lines 2 different occasions and came up with about 9 fish; 5 snappers and 4 kahawai fish!!! We only got 5 minutes of actual rod fishing in which I landed a good sized snapper!!! Everyone was mad at me for this and they blamed it on Yankee luck haha. They also had fun with me having me pronounce the Maori words on the drive up. They would turn down the music and say try that word and then laugh at my poor pronunciation and funny accent ha.
We got a lot of beach time here and boogie boarded the days away! Jane and I also went on a pretty good sized hike around the way over many rocks to take a look at the cannon bunkers that they had set up back in the day to keep an eye out for Japanese war ships. These bunkers have been tagged up since and provide a hangout for local kids recently but it was a great view from there! I could imagine the Kiwis in the bunker bored
Russell
car ferry across with our crew..lisa, jane, sam, colin playing cards and looking out into the waters amongst the islands. It was pretty cool!
On nights around here we went to the local pub which was actually called The Pub and hung out there. Tito’s sister owned the joint so he hooked it up pretty nice sometimes. On Friday night they had a foam party with a DJ which they literally spray this bubble bath type foam all over the ground and people dance, dive, and slip into it. It’s pretty entertaining. On Saturday night they had a cover band which played some good tracks and a lot of Reggae stuff which I enjoyed. We also had a monster BBQ on Saturday, it was supposed to be a Hanoi (I think) which is some ancient Maori traditional consisting of burying hot rocks in sand and cooking food in layers. Tito was supposively the Master at this because he cooked a Hanoi for 1500 people in Russell one year. But local fire brigades weren’t too keen on this and so it was downgraded to what they call a spit. Which is pretty much a rotisserie style bbq and he steamed up some veggies while his Mom used our fish to
Russell
the snapper i pulled up! make a dish called raw fish. Which is fish mixed with delicious veggies.
Now I’m back at Jane’s house in Auckland getting some much needed rest and awaiting a flight tomorrow where I fly to the south island. All the locals here tell me I can’t visit NZ without going to the south side. The town they all recommended was Queenstown but it just so happens that it costs $450 to get there so I’m flying into Christstown and catching a bus to Queenstown. I might take a detour through Dunedin but will see how I feel at the airport. Wish me luck…
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