Lots to say

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Sorry for our absence of posts in the past few weeks, but we have been either busy or on the road unable to find any internet. So we’ll try to sum everything up here. The past week was spent driving around the northlands, the area north of Auckland, prior to that we spent a few more days in Auckland and got the car all ready for the trip. So we’ll just jump right to the road trip.

We first stared by taking a weekend trip to Julie and Monique’s parents beach house in Algies bay, just about an hour north of Auckland on the east coast. The bay was really beautiful and their house was great with mandarin trees right in the backyard. The first night there we went to the bar to watch the All Blacks vs. Ireland rugby game, and even though it was my first game I have ever watched I won 50 bucks by guessing the closest score. The rest of the weekend we toured the area checking out some giant Kauri trees (the new Zealand version of a redwood) and native forests, and climbed around the rocks of the marine reserve on Goat Island. Monday morning we all woke up to what sounded like a hurricane, winds were gale force and the rain was falling vertically. We toured a pottery factory that day, then left the kiwi girls and started on our journey north.

Most of the northlands is consumed by cattle and logging, with towns usually few and far between and not too large when you do find one. But it is certainly a beautiful green country, with rolling hills and scattered forests (where they are not clearcut). Our first stop for the night was the Bay of Islands where we found a nice hostel in a town called Paihia and went to the Salty bar for one quick drink. Well that quickly changed when we met an Irish/English couple and the drinks kept coming, plus I finally got to watch some of the world cup (the time change here makes it almost impossible to watch any games). Tuesday we continued driving north along the eastern coast, stopping for some waterfalls and bays along the way. We had an extremely windy beach stop along the way at Nine Mile Beach that was possibly one of the funniest moments of our trip so far just attempting the walk to the beach. Tuesday night we made it as far north as you could to Cape Reigna, where we set up the tent between the beach and the river. We had to find the most sheltered area and use the car as a wind screen since it was quite gusty. I used my “new” stove as well to cook dinner. I say “new” because I have had this stove for over 6 years and never once used it. And after an hour, it finally cooked food! Wednesday morning we explored the lighthouse at the cape and the surrounding coast for a bit, then began our trip south along the western coast. Our first stop brought us to the giant sand dunes, where unfortunately my attempt of using a disassembled Corona box as a sled failed miserably. We then made another quick stop to the northern most tavern in New Zealand for a bit to eat and a beer. We met a great local here who had just returned from a 20 day journey through the north and south islands visiting 129 different bars, where he sent a business card back from all of them, sounds like a good trip to me. Wednesday night we followed our map, what was listed as a national hiking trail called the Golden Staircase where we thought we could camp in our car for the night. But after about an hour of driving on a long dirt road we ended at a muddy river with no signs for a trail/campsite or even a parking lot, so that was our first lesson for driving off the beaten track. The area was pretty creepy too. 5 churches, a few scattered farms, out in the middle of nowhere in the forest, dead end road to the river….Golden Staircase? Because of this “little” detour we ended up missing the car ferry for the night across a little bay and had to find a little hostel to park for the night. Luckily it was a nice little place, we just paid to camp in our car and used their showers and kitchen. Thursday we did some more exploring of Kauri forests, saw the first and second largest trees in the country and did a little hiking. That night we decided to stop into this little bar in the middle of nowhere and look at a map to find a place to pull over and sleep. But again we ended up staying all night drinking with the locals. By the end of the night we had met almost everyone in the bar, had a few drinks bought for us, and had a few offers of places to stay but declined since we had our car and located a good place to park it for the night (turned out in the morning to be a park off the side of the road in the middle of town, but no one seemed to care…). Friday we headed back to Auckland, but made one final stop to the beach to hopefully see a Gannet colony where they roost before flying to Australia, but they had left a few months earlier. Still a great beach though with huge waves crashing along the rocks.

So that gets us back to Auckland in time for Saturdays rugby match All Blacks vs. Ireland. Which was unfortunately a cold rainy night, but we still had a great time sitting in the stands covered in rain coats and plastic, with beer bottles being thrown at the couple in front of us who refused to put away their umbrella (which all hit us) and the loud obnoxious drunk guys in front of us who refused to sit down when asked. After the game we dried off at our hostel and headed out to the bars. We ended the night at a great little Irish bar where everyone had certainly been drinking throughout that game only to drown their sorrows afterwards, because there where plenty of drunk individuals. But we did meet a great kid from Toronto who had been traveling since September when he was thrown out of South Korea and told he or his family could never return. So now its time to head out and finish exploring the north island before we head down south. Today (Monday) we will be heading to the Coromandel peninsula and from there we don’t yet know, so check back in a week or so for another update.

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