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Published: January 3rd 2010
So, we broke our camera today.
Well, it kind of broke itself.
Waterproof, my a**.
But, No worries, mate!
We got ourselves a new one. Not as nice, but it'll have to do. Maybe when we return we can try to salvage some early NZ photos, but no new pix today, unfortunately.
So, here we are, day 4 in NZ already. To be honest, we've pretty much lost all track of time. Kinda nice, really. But we've realized that we've spent the better part of a week here, and have just visited the tiny top part of the North Island. It's been great, but we don't know if we'll make it to the South Island in time for our car rental exchange!
So, we've been staying in backpackers' places, which have mostly been big homes that are filled with beds and all kinds of people. Some of them are quite comfortable and feel like home, tonight is more like a German party house or a university residence. We're meeting 'heaps' (they like that word here) of people, most of them nice.
Except Peter.
I didn't like him, but that's another story.
The roads are crazy windy everywhere we've been so far. What looks like short distances on the map turn into epic excurusions, as they are up, down, around, and switchbacked all the time. And the driving ain't exactly relaxing, what with driving on the wrong side of the road, and random sheep encounters. The hillside are, as you'd expect, covered with sheep-loads of sheep. There are 4 million Kiwis, and over 40 million sheep. Not baaad, eh?
The coastline here is waaay more beach-like than we anticipated. Miles and miles of spectacular beach all over the place, some deserted, some absolutely packed with folks enjoying their summer holidays.
As always, we're pressed for internet time, but one cool adventure to relay is our recent caving excursion. Just outside Whangarei we did a self-guided "tour" with our headlamps at the most impressive caves we've ever seen. They're called Abbey Caves, and they had a small stream flowing through 'em all, (cold and wet and dark, Nancy wasn't too impressed that we had to wade through the dark stream) and we ventured inside for over an hour. The coolest part (apart from their sheer size) was these 'glow-worms', these crazy phosphorescent insects. They were all over the cave walls and when we turned off the lights it was like a starry night. It was pretty cool. Or, as the locals say, "Cool Bananas". No worries.
In the stream I saw either an eel or a lamprey, can't be sure, I guess I can't escape them.
Yesterday I got to dive the Poor Knight's Islands, off 'Tutukaka'. That's right, Tutukaka (only bested by the village named Puketiti. I almost drove off the road when I saw that one.). Mr. Jacque Cousteau himself called the area one of the top ten dive sites in the world. I say, it was O.K. Nancy went to some beaches and a canopy walk, which had some behemoth Kuari trees, which kick the butts of Redwoods.
We've been cooking our own food lately, and recently came across a new chip flavour. Roasted lamb and mint sauce. You might not believe it, but it is awesome.
Tomorrow we plan to head up the Ninety Mile Beach (the top of the North Island) where there are supposed to be amazing sand dunes and, you guessed it, lots of beach. Apparently you can rent sand boogie boards, we'll let you know how that goes!
Oh yeah, it has been hot and sunny since we've got here, it's great. The weatherman keeps calling for 'fine' weather. Since when does a weatherman say it's going to be 'fine'? Anyway, he's been right all week.
Tutukaka
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Janice Quirt
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Don't miss the south island!
Sounds like you guys are having a great time! Don't skip the Tongariro crossing or the South Island - I know how time flies when you are in NZ. Quirt