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The original Kiwi crew had long since broken up and it was time to say goodbye to the Swedes for now as I finally reached the North Island some 4 weeks later than originally planned. While I had immensely enjoyed travelling with unfamiliar faces for 2 months, I was really looking forward to meeting Kenny Mc, Petey, Jamie and Richie whose long-standing offer of accommodation in Wellington I could finally accept.
The lads were in with the bricks in the capitial by this stage and back in the routine of working, cooking, playing sport - living life as 'normal' in way that you become totally detached from while you're travelling. They hadn't a bad word to say about the place and it was plain to see why, the city was abound with placid and cheerful people, numerous sports attractions, plentiful wide green expanses visible from the top of Mount Victoria and an unpretentious nightlife. I spent most of my time there lazily, catching up with the lads who themselves were coming to the end of their Wellington experience. My arrival co-incided with Kenny Mc's leaving party; he had undertaken the challenge of cycling the length of the South Island, the
Climbing trees
A very under-rated activity big man, laid-back as ever, hadn't even bought a bike let alone done any training... still he had a day before leaving though, "plenty time". The party was great craic, most memorable for Kenny's impromptu and unexpected 'Thank You' speech and tearful rendition of 'Black Is The Colour' which he can carry with aplomb. It was a pity I wasn't gonna have him by my side for the North Island but, like a dead person that had lived a good life, he was going to a better place.
I had planned to re-join the Swedes on the Kiwi bus but it turned out I was travelling in the same direction as Ciara Foley who had recently flown into Wellington to meet up with Petey. In a handy-enough coincidence, we were both heading north to meet Rebecca who had been travelling with Ciara in South America. We got a great deal on a car which we agreed to 'relocate' in Auckland for Hertz at a snip of the hiring fee. The only catch was that it was due in 2 days so we could only stop in Taupo and Rotorua fleetingly. In good weather these places are packed with activities
Unspolit
Beach at Mt Maunganui but perhaps the relentless rain was a blessing as we just didn't have time for the Tongariro Crossing trek to Mount Doom of Lord of the Rings fame, the skydiving, hot-springs or zorbing. Zorbing you ask? Rolling down a hill inside a human-size plastic ball similar to the yoke they used to have in Gladiators... who says that adventure sports in New Zealand are becoming contrived? The crappy weather did allow us to reacquaint ourselves with the white water rafting in Rotorua - a real wham-bam-thank-you-mam version that didn't even last an hour but was packed with an array of rapids and waterfalls, including I believe the largest that can be commerically rafted which dropped us a full 8 metres into the thick foam. We later found the Swedes, as usual, huddled round a pool table deep in concentration, that much is true. For once I got the better of them on the baize; I was playing like Paul f*ckin Newman, by the way.
There was 5 of us in the car by the time we had picked up Rebecca and Wendy in Auckland. Time was against us reaching Pahia and the tip of the North Island so we
elected to take the shorter drive to Mount Maunganui, a bit like a Kiwi version of Saltcoats but with a nicer beach, better weather and fewer slot machines. Come to think of it, I didn't see any shops selling candy floss either, more's the pity. Like Saltcoats there wasn't much happening so we entertained ourselves with plenty beers and games of Celebrity Heads (which after 6 months of travelling I'm getting curiously good at; Monica Lewinsky after about 5 questions ranks as my finest achievement but I was understandably miffed when they tried to trip me up with Buzz Aldrin) in between tellings-off from the guesthouse owner whose heavy-handed application of his own rules were more akin to a headmaster than a hotelier.
We continued along the beautifully rugged stretch of northern coastline, winding our way round the S-bends and hairpins that the road presented to the soundtrack of the type of good-natured but often heated banter that 5 people fighting over an ipod can induce. There was also the issue of the phantom which remained unsolved - a bit like a game of Cluedo involving a mystery Colonel Mustard-gas if you know what I mean. You wouldn't have
thought that travelling in a car with 4 girls could be worse than travelling in a bus with an entire football team, but it was...
The scattered islands of the Coromandel peninsula were familiar to us long before we actually got there, such was the spectacular view that the road into the region offered. We'd arranged to meet up with Petey and Jamie whose arrival had been delayed by a police checkpoint that their highly illegal and heavily fined vehicle daren't have crossed. That night we had the kind of budget-bustin' meal that can be a welcome treat when you've been tightening the purse strings for a while. The craic was mighty - we even broke into a few bouts of charades at one stage - until I upset the applecart a little...another story for another time.
I've heard Auckland described as a poor man's Sydney but I don't buy that, not for a second. From what I saw, the standard of living the city affords is as high as any other I've seen on this trip. Aucklanders comprise of a cosmopolitan blend of cultures that live together in relative harmony. They're not held in such high regard
by their fellow Kiwis, referred to as JAFAs (Just Another F*cking Aucklander), but I guess that's no different from Glasgow / Edinburgh, Manchester / London or Cork / Dublin. The city has a thriving CBD but unlike London in particular people work to live rather than vice versa and I love that attitude. It's noticeably warmer than the rest of the country, and the lads I met were no strangers to knocking off work at 2pm on a Thursday afternoon to go surfing if business was sufficiently quiet. Like in Sydney (or Melbourne for that matter) sport is not merely a pastime but a way of life and we caught a Super 14 match - the Blues v the Sharks if I recall correctly - Super 14 being like the Champions League of rugby in the Southern Hemisphere. The type of cheesy fanfare that you get at baseball matches wasn't in short supply but that took nothing away from the spectacle and the quality of rugby on display, not that a month in NZ has me the expert just yet but I'm getting there...
I spent my last day in NZ with Dan who I had travelled with in Asia and Oz who was on to a good thing with work in Auckland and kindly put me up for the night. We drove out to Piha beach which had the best surfing I'd seen so far, putting Bondi on a two day week. The waves were so fierce that it was inadvisable for surfers with our inexperience and lack of talent to chance it; when I later found out of it's reputation as a notorious killer, I considered my decision just to take it easy a wise one.
And so ended my affair with NZ. A country, a landscape and a people that will be impossible to forget. It's just a shame that it has to be so far from home. That said, I'll definitely be back.
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