Advertisement
Published: December 4th 2012
Hello guys
How have you been?
These last couple of weeks have been really great! Thanks to couchsurfing I had the pleasure to meet up with François and Stéphane, two webdesigners from Rennes, France. And I also met Mélanie, the (former) owner of the van also from Rennes. The van is fantastic, it had about 20 owners and has all the facilities anybody could ask for: matrass, cooking and eating gear, tent, bed linnen, sleeping bags, games, meds... and so on.
I've already put a picture of it on Facebook, go check it out!
The four or us headed to the west of Auckland to Puhoi a surfers paradise with a great beach. Unfortunately it was raining so we spend (an awful) night in the van and decided to go north to look for the sun (cause it's nearer to the equator). We ended up in Whangarei and stayed at a nice backpackers (hostel). The owner Peter was extremely kind and tried remembering all our names. It was very homely with old 50's wallpaper with flowers, cosy sofa and a kitchen with again the same kitch print on the china (servies). They had 2 livingrooms, dvd's, heaps of info, a porch, 2 cats, a dog and a piano! That evening I've played my ukulele and continued on the piano, although I'm not very good. Whangarei is beautiful, we had a picknick neara waterfall and did a trail/walk alongside the river.
With the group we're only speaking French, even if we started in English, it's just easier for everybody. I'm happy with that, cause it will help me to improve it. Even if that means that sometimes I can't say what I want and I make horrible but hilarious mistakes.
After Whangarei we went up north to Paihia at the Bay of islands. There was a very nice camping run by a Dutch guy, his Irish wife and their dog, Fred. The camping was in a bay with a waterfall... so lucky! We made two times a campfire and it was a nice opportunity to show off my scouting skills. We roasted potatoes in the fire, played ukulele, made crazy night pictures, talked to a ex-mormon and drank some cheap wine. Relaxing 😊 We also kayaked upstream up to the bay, saw some mangrove trees and pinguin-like birds and we've collected firewood. We stayed for 2 nights cause it was cheap and comfy.
Well...., it rained a lot at night and we found out the tent wasn't waterproof. Luckily Mélanie and I slept in the van so only the guys got soaked (they got over it).
The next day we went to the 90 miles beach, a stretch of beautiful white sandbeaches with enourmous dunes, like real mountains! Some people went sandsurfing there, even if it would take about 15min to climb back on the steep hill again. It started drizzeling again and when we reached the tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, it turned into rain. Where's the sun damnit! It did had an amazing view where you can actually see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific ocean collide. Halfway south we took some gas (which is freaking expensive) and all of the sudden the van wouldn't start again. Fuck. None of us know anything about cars so I asked at the gasstation if they oculd help. Soon a mechanic arrived and told us we had a problem with the starter. 10 minutes diagnostics= $50. By pushing it down a hill it would start again but we still needed to go to the nearest garage, which was Whangarei. The evening had already been falling. Tired and bummed out we decided to sleep at our favorite backpackers and look for a garage in the morning. Peter, the owner, had already phoned a garage for us the next morning. People are just so nice here!
The fixing took about 3 hours, so we headed out to one of the many coffeeshops (no drugs) that are equiped with wi-fi. The guys have laptops with them, so that's freakin' handy! Later that day we went to Trounson Kauri forest. Kauri is a native tree that have been around for thousands of years. They are immens giants that have survived the jurrasic era. There was a camping just next to the forest which are pretty common here. DOC (departement of conservation) campings are equiped with basic needs but often with toilets, shower and kitchen and they are cheap or sometimes free! They help visitors exploring the surrounding without damaging the nature too much. In this forest it holds the biggest amount of Kauri trees and kiwi's (the bird!). If you were lucky you might spot one! So instead of taking an expensive, crowded, guided tour we wanted to try our luck. Geared up with just one red light (to not frighten them), we went around midnight in this dark and scary forest. Stopping at every sound and trying to be as quiet as possible we felt like it was hopeless. They were nowhere near us and we saw nothing in the darkness. All of the sudden Mélanie stopped, she spotted a quick kiwi and some other climbing animal (which apparently was a possum). We didn't see anything ofcourse. I decided to stick around Mélanie, cause she had the only red light and *ploof only minutes later, there it was, just next to the elevated path. Minding his own business, sturring in the ground with his beak, only 3m from us. Started to get really excited for this fluffy bal (boule de poil). The rest of the gang arrived to late to see it. We walked another hour and saw some amazing glowworms. They give green light, I wonder how they would look into a Christmas tree (impossible to catch though)....
Not the end of the story yet... just 50m before the exit of the forest we heard a sound. Everybody gathered around and kept looking in the darkness. For 15 minutes we were staring at a kiwi, a true kiwi, in all it's glory, from top to bottom. We saw all his features, his big size (30-40cm), his enormous chicken feet and his egg-shaped body. This was what we were waiting for, truly magical! I joked that I could go home to Holland now.
We also went to the forest that holds the biggest Kauri tree in the world Tane Mahuta (lord of the forest) which is about 1250-2500 years old, 51m high and a diameter of 17m.
We went to a mudpool at Nganga Springs, another new experience. They had multiple pools of different temperatures. I smelled big time like sulfer and rotten eggs. It took a week to get the smell off, but at least my skin is soft.
We had to go back to Auckland to drop off Mélanie. A sad day cause I got rather fond of her, but they guys are just as great and was happy our adventure didn't end there. We went directly to Lake Taupo, had a rest and went to Wellington. Lake Taupo is amazing, you can do a very nice trail with great views of the mountains with eternal snow, Mount Doom of Lord of the rings and also the vulcano mt Ruapehu that erupted just days before! But we were on a hurry, so just snapping some shots and continued our route. We did see a bit smoke coming from Mt Ruapehu (ruahapahue something like that).
During the trip my toothcrown suddenly broke off while eating liquorice. Bad candy. Some minutes later François bit his tong cause of liquorice. Evil candy! And we had again problems with the van, the thermometer showed extreme heat, but the engine looked fine... It must have been signs.
So why hurry to Wellington? You've probably heard about the new Lord of the rings-movie "The Hobbit" Well, we intended the world premiere!!! Red carped, body guards, disguised fans, festivities. One big party! I waited 3 hours in burning sun, but I got me a spot at the red carpet. Craziness!!! Made some friends with my neighbours and one girl helped me identifying the stars. We had some goodies before everything started, Hobbit-flags, Gandalf-hat, Signature card, all sponsored by Air New-Zealand that spend billions of dollars in the organisation (no shit). So then it started... a wave of stars, handing our quick signatures, a little chat, maybe a handshake or photo. Surreal. I was extremely lucky and had really great autographes of Peter Jackson (director & a genius), Elijah Wood (♥Frodo♥), Cate Blanchett, Martin Freeman(Bilbo & Sherlock H.) and many more (of people I don't know). I felt all glowy that afternoon! OMG
Now we're staying at Allan's place. His home is in a small village near Wellington and it's beautiful. Allan used to own a backpackers but had to close down cause of suspicious reasons. But he offered us a place to stay in his beautiful garden and some Wwoofing (work for food and shelter). Allan is great, born in Singapore, really funny old guy that says his age is between 26 and death. We've been helping him for about a week, explored the surrounds of Wellington, the museum, the cinema, Mount Victoria (nice view), Hutt Valley (where Riverdell is, LOTR), dipping in the freezing ocean, going out to dubstep-bars (Renee, you must be so proud 😉 ) and meeting up with my friend AJ again. Fun times!
And just to finish things up, cause I gotta go. I'll be going to Takaka, North or the south island, near the Abel Tasman National park this Thursday. Before that I'm eating pepernoten to celebrate Saint Nicolas! Keeping the traditions alive.
Cheers and peace out,
Simone
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Richard
non-member comment
Leuke belevenissen zeg
zoals de titel al zegt, je maakt nog es wat mee daar, leuk om te lezen (ook wat ongemakjes natuurlijk, maar dat voert vast niet de boventoon)