KIWI!

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03 November - Started the journey to Auckland by flying to Miami. It was warm and sticky and the folks at reception at Days Inn were less than friendly and less than helpful. And shockingly, my trashy Days Inn near the airport IS A POLLING PLACE.


04 November - Was surprised to see thirty people hanging around the hotel at 6:00 a.m. when I got up to catch the airport shuttle. Apparently it’s convenient for everyone in the neighborhood to go vote there. Particularly because you have to drive through another parking lot to get to the Days Inn. And it’s not clearly marked. Brilliant planning, Florida.

Caught a 5 ½ hour flight to L.A. U.S. Airlines have the worst service. We had one complementary drink. ONE. And if I would’ve wanted to buy snacks, they didn’t have any left by the time they served my Sprite.

In L.A., I went on a mission to find a post office. Three nice security guards directed me to a shuttle bus to Lot C, where I got off and walked two blocks to a fancy new post office. I posted a couple packages full of alpaca wool that I bought in Otavalo, then headed back to the airport. I spent the next ELEVEN hours waiting for my flight, which was delayed. A while. And the terminal - lacking in TV monitors. On election day!

On board we had delicious food, snack bags, more delicious food, and a good 8 hours of sleep.


06 November - Crossed the International Dateline, so I pretty much missed 05 November. Hopefully nothing too exciting happened. On arrival in Auckland we went through “Biosecurity” which is where they decide if you’re carrying things that could ruin their ecosystems. Those delicate NZ ecosystems…dairy farms and planted forests. They’re not keen on letting you through with mud on your boots (they also thought I was wearing a pair of hiking boots and hiding another pair in my luggage), but they let people farm sheep, ostriches, and cows, none of which are native to the islands. They also let the Aussies bring possums over to breed for the fur trade and now there are 70 million of them chewing through the native vegetation. But dirty shoes and a wet bikini are big no-no’s.

Spent the day recovering from the 4 days of transit…


07 November - Recovery Day #2 in Auckland. And the best mocha of my life.


08 November - Headed out bright an early with the Kiwi bus up to Maungawhau, a big dormant volcano overlooking Auckland. And naturally, it has several cows grazing on top of it. A trip down the “motorway” took us to a lunchbreak at Thames, a cute little town on the coast and the west edge of the Coromandel Peninsula. A bit later, we stopped for a walk down to Cathedral Cove, a gorgeous beach with giant limestone formations. The walk down to the beach took about 30 minutes. And once it started pouring rain, the walk up took about half that time, even with a stop at Stingray Bay. Lucky for us, there was a hot cocoa stand in the parking lot! A bit further down the road, we stopped in Whitianga, on Mercury Bay, named so because James Cook stopped there in 1769 to watch Mercury move across the sky (and the Maori name - Te Whitianga-o-Kupe -- for another great explorer, Kupe, who according to legend, landed his waka there over a millennium ago and discovered NZ). We checked into our family-run hostel, then sat around freezing and I snuck off to bed before 9 o’clock.



09 November - Started the morning off right when a guy in the dorm room next to ours locked himself in the bathroom, then while trying to escape out the window he broke the toilet and flooded the room. $400 later, we set out for Rotorua, stopping along the way at Kharangahake Gorge. We hopped off the bus for a walk around, through some of the tunnels used by miners in the gold rush. After an abrupt U-turn due to a recent landslide, we got back on the bus a bit earlier than expected. Our next pitstop was Paeroa, which is “world famous in New Zealand” for being the original manufacturer of L&P, a kiwi pop made of spring water and lemon that tastes like horrible candy. To further our culture-filled day, we stopped for lunch in Matamata, the home of Hobbiton. But the real Hobbiton was taken down by the film crew (which our bus driver was a part of!). The farmer whose land was used in the filming rebuilt Hobbiton and now charges an arm and four toes to get to see the “set.”

We were welcomed to Rotorua by a noxious odor, produced by the high geothermal activity in the area (and heaps of sulphur!). Before hitting the hostel, we stopped at the Realm of Tane, for a little intro in Maori culture and cuisine. At the hostel, I took a dip in one of the hot mineral pools, taking care not to dip my head under (and following the instructions on the posters to “Prevent amoebic meningitis!”), then headed out for a stroll through the geothermal park and around town.

In the evening, we went to Tamaki Maori village for a fun haka and waiata presentation and loads of food prepared in a hangi (underground with heated rocks).


10 November - Another cold, cloudy day. Started out the morning with a visit to Te Puia, a thermal park complete with geysers, boiling mud, kiwi birds(!!!), and Maori weaving and carving schools. Unfortunately, we only had 1 ½ hours there, so a few of us took a quick lap around the park after our tour ended and the geyser erupted. I probably could’ve spent the whole day in the park. Giggling over burping mud and kiwis.

We followed up the thermal park with a visit to the Agrodome, home to a nice sheep show. Where the sheep have a little catwalk and podium. And then one sheep gets sheared. And the sheepdogs herd ducks. And a big cow gets milked. And then to finish off the show, 5 volunteers were brought up from the audience for a drinking contest. Each was handed a bit of milk in a bottle and on the count of three were to drink it. Of course, on three, five lambies came running out of the door to get their milk. The British bloke from our bus drank the sheep’s milk. Yum.

Arrived in Waitomo, a one sheep town, in the afternoon. Hung out at our hostel for the evening.


11 November - Started the morning with a trip to Ruakuri cave, named “two dog” cave in Maori after a boy out hunting pigeons 400 years ago had his birds stolen by two dogs which ran into the cave. The next day the boy went back to get his pigeons, killed the dogs, and made coats out of them for the Maori chief. We didn’t see any dogs or pigeons in the cave, but we did get to wear wetsuits (including wetsuit booties, wetsuit overalls, ugly brown thermal shirts, wetsuit jackets and delightful gumboots) and spelunking helmets and cruise around on innertubes on the river running through the cave (black water rafting). We also viewed the glowworms (bioluminescent fungus gnat maggots that use a spindle to capture prey. After they mature in a cocoon, the gnats live about a day - long enough to reproduce, but not do much else, since they lack a mouth) the caves are famous for, from the comfort of our tubes.

In the afternoon, we set off for Taupo, the adventure capital of NZ. After a stop at Huka Falls, we headed to the Taupo airport for some SKYDIVING. Because the weather was absolutely prime for skydiving, the place was backed up and the wait was long. Eventually, I got dressed up in a red jumpsuit, complete with a life jacket in a fanny pack, an oxygen mask, and a sweet harness. My tandem partner (or, the guy who did the actual skydiving with me strapped to his chest) was named Juddy and was one big fella. Four of us got into a hot pink plane named Pinky barely big enough for the eight of us and the pilot, and set soar, headed for 15,000 feet. At 5,000, it seemed ridiculously high, until Juddy informed me that this would be where the parachute opens. A few minutes later, after being fully and completely strapped, buckled, and tightened onto our jumpmasters, we put on the oxygen masks. Then a little green light came on in the back of the plane and Mark, the Brit seated in front of the door was first to go. Then me! My instructions were to sit on the edge of the opening, tuck my legs back under the plane and lean my head back on Juddy’s shoulder. I did all these things quite well then WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Out we went. The fall lasted about a minute and was the most fantastic/frightening/awesome/terrifying/amazing feeling ever. The the parachute popped out and I got to really take in the scenery - Lake Taupo (the largest freshwater lake in the southern hemisphere - so big Singapore could fit inside it), Mount Doom (actually Ngauruhoe) and Tongariro - and the views stretched almost from coast to coast! It was brilliant! Then we steered around in some loop-de-loops, hanging around waiting for some other divers to land, then popped down nice and gentle in front of the cameraman. Just in time for Silje to make it down for a solid landing, then trip, taking her jumpmaster with her and tangling their parachute with ours.

Enjoyed some free pizza and vodka punch at the bar, then crawled into my top bunk in my dorm room with 5 boys. Was woken up several times in the night. But everyone made it into their bunks without vomiting or pissing on anything. The room was a wreck in the morning with clothes strewn all over.


12 November - following the adrenaline hangover from yesterday, I hopped onto a bus a little after 9 and spent most of the day solid on it until about 3:30, when we arrived back in Auckland, safe and sound 😊

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