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Published: March 28th 2010
I am currently writing this blog sat on Paihia beach at the bay of islands, which makes a nice change from a dingy dorm room or a crammed internet cafe!
I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on my sister's birthday, 18th March. New Zealand is the 2nd country after america for airport security and screening. So first I had to clear passport control, once I was through and getting my baggage off the carousel a policemen asked to check my landing card and passport again! He asked "are you travelling alone?" Which as it had been a long day and an emotional flight I burst into tears and replied "Yes, but I shouldn't be!" He backed off pretty quickly then and was very concerned which was rather amusing, my tip for clearing a New Zealand airport is to turn on the water works as it seems to work! Then I had to go through customs who decided that my walking boots were a 'bio hazard' so I had my bag searched and they came to the conclusion that they were in fact just walking boots, no danger there. My bag was then sniffer dogged, luckily no incident this time and
Matamata
aka Hobbitonfinally passed through an x-ray machine. After all this hassle I caught the free bus into the city and checked into my hostel. I then had a wander around the city and went on the free city cirlce bus to see what else the city had to offer.
Auckland is pretty boring, essentially its just another city, shops, cafes etc. I then got the bus to Mount Eden which gives you 360 degree round view of the city, it is actually an extinct volcano. In true Kirstie style a group of Japanese tourists wanted their pictures taken with me, they even formed a que! I'm still not entirely sure why as they were talking to me in Japanese and the only japanese I know is from Kill Bill 2, which wasn't a great deal of help. That evening I had a free meal of spaghetti bolognese in the hostel it was pretty small but you could upgrade it to a larger portion for $5, however for me the entree size hit the spot!
I had to get up early the next day as the bus picked us up at 7.20am to take us to Paihia. We stopped enroute
at the Honey Cafe where I had a bacon sanga (Aussie & Kiwi for sandwhich) unfortunately no honey! Then we arrive in Paihia, Bay of Islands about 11am. Spent a couple of hours in the dorm room chatting to some people from the bus and then went into Paihia high street for the afternoon to check out what it had to offer, which isn't much!
I slept in the next day as I didn't have to be up till the afternoon. At 12.30pm I boarded the boat to see the native dolphins in the bay. We spent just over an hour looking for them before we came across a pod that was swimable. They were all bottlenose dolphins and we were able to don a snorkel and mask and swim after and interact with them which was a unique experience. After awhile we had to board the boat as some babies joined the pod and it is illegal to swim with baby dolphins. We then watched the pod of 50 or so from the boat doing acrobatics in the water. Some of the group who had gotten up in the morning saw orca whales in the bay migrating south
which was really lucky as that is very rare! On the way back to Paihia we stopped at one of the islands in the bay for a drink.
We left the bay of islands the next day at 3pm so we spent the morning playing a mamoth game of monopoly that took over 2 hours, I started off rather badly but managed to pull it around and win the game. I went back to fusion in Auckland and had a kiwi bbq for tea which was quite tasty.
Left at 8.30am the next morning and drove to Mercury Bay via Catherdral Cove. Where we chilled on the beach for a couple of hours. We have the same bus driver till Wellington and he is hilarious, he doesn't shut up but the stuff that comes out of his mouth is gold. We spent the evening playing poker but not for real money as were backpackers!
On tuesday we went from Mercury Bay to Rotura, which is a geothermal area. The town has a bad smell of sulphur from all the activity which takes awhile to get used to. On the way we stopped off at some gold mines
and went for a walk through them, which was really scary as the group decided to go off the beaten path and start wondering down some random mine tunnels, luckily they all came to dead ends.
During the afternoon we went to a park across from the hotel that had bubbling mud pools which was really cool and free, and added bonus.
That evening we went to a Maori cultural show which was amazing, their singing and dancing was of a very high standard and we were shown around a traditional village which was followed by a traditional Hangi meal, which is basically a roast cooked underground which was pretty good as well. The bus driver that took us back to the hostel was crazy and got us to sing songs and play games.
Leaving Rotura the next morning we stopped at a sheep farm to see a show which was very entertaining, the sheep were really well trained even if they do look fake in the photo's! Then I went aqua zorbing down a long zig-zag hill. The ball was partially filled with warm water and I imagine that it feels a little like being trapped
in a washing machine.
On the way to Waitomo, Ringo the driver got us to 'speed date'. We basically played musical chairs on the coach and had to ask the person we were next to 3 questions. It was a great way to get to know some more of the people on the bus. We also stopped at the village of Matamata better known as Hobbiton, however I didn't check out any of the LOTR set.
We arrived at Waitamo in the afternoon and at 3.30pm we were picked up for our black water rafting trip. We went through an underground cave system on rubber rings, we had to jump off of waterfalls and float a long singing songs as a group. At different points there were glow worms on the ceiling that were really pretty and looked like twinkling stars. Our guides were hilarious and enhanced the experience with all their jokes!
We left the next day for Taupo but had a brief stop to watch some angora rabbits be sheared. On arrival we were taken to Huka Falls and the airport to have a sky dive briefing. As the weather was not good enough to
Rotura
Boiling mud pools dive we were booked in for 10am the next day.
We woke up on the thursday morning to clear skys and sunshine, perfect sky diving weather. We were picked up from the hostel and given a safety briefing. We then kitted up and met our jump masters. I had a guy called Amos, who had done a couple of thousand jumps. We got into the smallest plane I have ever been in and had to wear oxygen masks on the ascent to 15,000ft. I was the third person to jump out of a group of 5 and it was very surreal watching the other people disappear out of the plane. The scariest part by far was hanging out of the plane waiting to drop out. Once I was out of the plane and in freefall it wasn't scary at all just very exhilarating. After a minute of freefall where we reached terminal velocity (200kmph) and fell a total of 10,000ft Amos opened the parachute. For the last 5,000ft I had great views of Lake Taupo and the surrounding scenery and mountain ranges. We had a very smooth landing and both managaed to stay on our feet. It was the
best experience of my life and an indescribable feeling, one that I would recommend anyone to do.
That afternoon we walked to the natural thermal river to relax after the adrenaline rush of the morning. The river was great because it was free and it was boiling hot, too hot to bathe in some sections.
From Taupo we bused our way to river valley. A remote location set as the name suggests alongside a river in a valley. On the way we stopped at the national park that is the home to Mount Doom and some of the outdoor LOTR scenery. We spent the evening in the lodge playing crazy games and slept that evening in a room dubbed 'the orgy pit' as it is a big room that is filled with mattresses side by side. In the morning I went white water rafting on the river which is a grade 5 run, the highest classification avaliable. I was slightly worried that it would be too physical for me but it was really tame and easy we didn't paddle very much, just cruised along and when we did go down the rapids they weren't very hardcore.
Leaving
the middle of nowhere we headed to New Zealand's capital city, Wellington and said goodbye to Ringo, who has been the best driver by far on the kiwi experience to date.
Sorry I don't have pictures of the last few days as I haven't uploaded them to my notebook yet, and if the grammar is dodgy it's because I don't have time to edit, again sorry!
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Katy
non-member comment
Hello from Katy
Hello Kirstie My name is Katy and I am 24 years old and live in the UK. It sounds like you're having a fantastic time in New Zealand! It must be great fun travelling somewhere new everyday. I am hoping to go travelling in New Zealand by myself in September for 3 months and I wanted to know how you're finding it as a lone female traveller? This will be the first time I've ever travelled abroad completely by myself so it would be great to have your input! I am planning on staying in hostels mostly, so hopefully I'll meet some fellow travellers along the way that I can tag along with from time to time. I am really looking forward to it - your photos are fab, I can't believe how beautiful the scenary is! It looks like you had great fun skydiving, it looks so exhilarating. I'd love to have a go, but I don't think I'd be brave enough. I bet you had such amazing views...a birds eye view of the country! Looking forward to hearing about more of your excellent adventures! Take care of yourself, Katy :o)