A much needed update

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Well it's now been 3 weeks that I've been in New Zealand, so I have lots of filling in to do. So this is going to be a long one, sorry. I'm currently in Taupo which has Lake Taupo, the biggest in NZ. I've been here 4 nights already, and today is 'To-do list' day. I'm not sure how I feel about travel blogs, but I'm going for it anyway.

So I arrived in Auckland, the biggest city with over a quarter of NZ's inhabitants, and on my first day, my aunt's cousin Pam kindly picked me up and pretty much gave me the grand tour. We visited many beaches, had ice cream, and I instantly remembered how much better summer is than winter. It's pretty cool to go from winter directly into summer. You forget how long the days are. I stayed at a hostel where I opted to stay on the "Sanctuary" floor, which is a girl's only floor, complete with cheesy posters of girls sitting around their room playing guitar, laughing, pillow fighting, etc. I was afraid this was going to be really dorky, but to the contrary, I immediately connected up with some cool girls. One of which I may be doing some road tripping with soon to Raglan, where Endless Summer was filmed. Where I can of course practice my awesome surfing skills...

...which I of course learned at surf camp. After the weekend, which was decently rowdy since it was Auckland's Anniversary Day, I left for surf camp up about 4 hrs north. There were only 7 students, which is apparently the max, and we stayed in a house right on the beach with our instructor Rangi and this French woman Aude, who has been roaming the earth for 3 yrs and is given accommodation in exchange for helping to cook. She's a masseuse and offers cheap massages to all the surfer kids. Pretty cool life. So there were 2 groups, one for the total beginners and the other for the sorta beginners. I was in the later. On the first day I started catching clean waves for the first time, and discovered why I had been getting frequently massacred by the waves up till now. Ok well still a bit now, but not as much. Ok and you know those Boba teas? The asian ones with the tapioca balls (everyone from F.C. is like "duh")? Well the ocean was filled with billions of baby jellyfish, and they're exactly like tapioca balls. A little disturbing.

I had made the decision I would try eating fish/seafood while here. At surf camp we went clamming and mussel-ing, which was pretty cool. And after a night of eating fish, and a night of clams/mussels, I decided never again. Not that it was bad. Its just not gonna happen for me.

On my way back I actually hitched a ride with one of the additional instructors who had joined up mid-week, and I got to see his itty bitty hometown and house he grew up in, which was really what you'd picture a New Zealand home to be. Very open, airy, lots of plants, including fresh fruits and veggies which his mom served us for lunch.

Monday I started my Kiwi Experience bus, which is hop-on/hop-off, so you're on the bus with a bunch of people who are doing different travel packages. The first day we went up to Paihia, Bay of Islands. I joined up with a fun group of girls and we all did the Excitor boat, which is kind of like a roller coaster on the ocean, on a good day. Goes really fast, gets you wet, and takes you out to this "hole in the rock" or something. In hindsight, very touristy and not worth the money. But it was good fun, and I was still in my naive early tourist days. The first night was a total riot, and if you think that Kings Cup is only for American college students, you're wrong. One of my British friends in fact had a written list of rules, many of which were new to me, in her wallet, which served as the entertainment for the night. The following day was Waitangi Day, the day that the Maoris and English aka "Pakehas" signed a treaty effectively giving the land to the Pakehas. It just so happened that this treaty was signed in this town I was at, so I spent my day at the festival where we saw the Maoris doing their traditional preparations for boat racing, including singing, dancing, and warrior gestures with tattooed faces, no shirts, and the signature bulging eyes with tounge out expression.

The next day we did a trip up to Cape Rienga, which is at the very top of the North Island, where we saw the meeting of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean, which to be honest kind of just looked like a windy day on the ocean. But the idea is pretty neat. We also went sandboarding, and let me tell you, hiking up a huge sand dune is no piece of cake. Sandboarding was pretty cool, but I was really hoping to do the kind on your feet, and this was where you just lie on your stomach. It's difficult to see when there's sand flying in your eyes.

So back to Auckland we went, and met up with some of the girls I'd met the previous weekend, and the next day headed to Whitianga, Mercury Bay. We went to Hot Water beach, where there was actually very little hot water to be found. Was still a good time nonetheless. The hostel we stayed at was a cute mom & pop one, where the owners made us dinner. At this point I was feeling kind of awkwardly pulled between two different groups of girls, one of which was staying only one night, the other an additional night. I decided to go w/ the additional night, so I woke up at 7:15, to tell the bus driver to put me on the bus for the next day instead. Turns out that was full. So still in my pajamas I have 15 min to pack up and go.

Next stop Rotarua where I went Luging, which is where you take a gondola to the top of a hill and go down different courses on these flat cart-like things. Later that night was the "Maori" night, which was quite expensive, but worth it. First of all we had the most hilarious bus driver who made us stand up while singing "The Wheels on the Bus" as we went around a round-about five times. He also went though like 20 country's national anthems, making me sing the U.S. national anthem as a duet with him (about 5 octaves lower than usual). And of course "God Save the Queen" had a chorus of about 20 people. There's a lot of Brits here. The night had a lot of Maori performances and a buffet dinner of food cooked in a "Hangi" which is essentially a hole in the ground with wood, rocks, and dirt on top of it.

Rotarua is the place that smells like sulfur. I waited here for a day to catch up with my other group of friends, and we were there 3 days and went to a Polynesian mineral spa, rode bikes through a nearby forest, and saw some geysers and mud pools. Thermal activity is pretty fascinating. However even after paying $25 for a tour of these geysers, I still have no idea how they really work.

Next we spent a night in Waitomo, which is a really small cute town in the hills, famous for its glow worm caves. We checked out the glow worms, and found ourselves a really awesome hike.

Which takes me to Taupo! Yay almost done! Taupo is home of the highest (15,000ft) and cheapest skydive. So, going against the gut feeling that I would be the one in a million whose chute and backup chute both fail, I did it. So glad I did. I was able to be up in a plane with 3 of my friends, which helped, and I had an instructor strapped to me, and a cameraman who took pictures with this contraption on his head where you take pictures by biting down on something in your mouth. I have a DVD too. And I T-shirt. I got suckered in. So that night, more than half the bus had done a skydive that day, so we were all on an adrenaline high and after doing a group BBQ at the hostel went "out on a lash," I believe is the expression. That night was really fun, our bus group was a good one. The next day was Valentine's Day. I had a cute Welsh Valentine. But he's gone now.

So my friends have now gotten back on the bus, leaving me here all alone 😞 Which is OK, b/c I could use a little alone time. Now I'm leaving tomorrow on a 4 day add-on trip to the East Cape, and it sounds really different from anything so far and I'm quite looking forward to it. When i return I'm meeting up with these two British guys I had met up in Bay of Islands, who have been travelling around by car and we’re going to be exploring the West Coast. I’m also really looking forward to that, and it should be a nice break from the bus-tour scene.

I congratulate you for reading this entire thing, and promise that my future entries will be much shorter, and with less photos.

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Photos

Off-roading
driving over tide pools

Shipwreck Bay
nearby surf spot

Maori Canoes
aka Wakas

Waitangi Day III
The Haka