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Published: February 19th 2010
Ok so still not doing so well with this whole bloggage thing! Spoke to a girl today who updates hers nearly everyday?? What is she made of money?!! I've had to search all over the town I'm in for cheap internet, its 4quid (they don't have pound signs on these stupid keyboards!) for 2 hours which is better than a tenner back at the hostel!
So I've been in New Zealnd for over 2 weeks now and this is the first day that I've pretty much done nothing aprat from walk around in the sun so I thought I'd make the most of my quiet time to update you all! When I landed at Auckland I had to go through bloody customs because I was scared thatif I didn't declare my biscuits and half eaten packet of crisps they'd fine me $200, so I waited for about 45 mins only to be told after 2 seconds that my goods were fine! I caught the very efficient shuttle bus from the airport to the hostel and I really felt excited that my adventure was starting to begin. The hostel was huge compared to those in Fiji and pretty decent standard so after
checking in I decided to sort out a plan of action in terms of what the hell I was going to down for 5 weeks in the country.
Back in the UK I managed to get a mega deal (I've since discovered!) on a hop on hop off bus tiour that takes you around both the North and South Islands over 16 stops but you can stay as long as you want in each place and add on other passes if you want. I'd booked, somewhat apprehensively, the Kiwi Experience which is renownd for being the party bus, had it not been for the discount I would have booked a more 'mature' bus like The Stray' or 'Magic' but me being the cheap skate I am I went for the bugget option! It was open dated so I decided to book a separate coach trip travelling from Auckland up to the Bay of Islands and Cape Rienga - the most northerly point in New Zealand and I ended up on the Stray coz again it seemed a good deal! I would then pick up the Kiwi bus when I returned to Auckland in a few days. So once this was
sorted I headed for the city!
Auckland is the biggest city in NZ but not the capital, it was just like any big city probably about the size of Birmingham or Manchester and not that exciting! I did manage to stock up on some much needed toiletries though after only bringing minatures with me the the US and Fiji??!! What the hell was I thinking, you take mini stuff with you for a week in Tenerife not 4 months round the world...........silly Caz!! I was also a bit naughty and purchased a dress and a T-shirt...........Mum I did not bring enough clothes plus the clothes are so cheap it would be criminal not to buy some!! That night I ended up chatting to a guy and a girl in the bar at the hostel and we headed out to a bar to grab some food after the 'free' hostel meal truned out to be 8 chips and a 2 inch pice of fish! The guy had the most random name I've heard in my life - Mungo van Krimpen-Hall???!!! What is that about? Thats a name I won't be forgetting in a hurry!
The next morning (4th feb) I caught
the Stray bus up to a place called Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Along the way the driver tells you about the country and facts about the surroundings, it really is a beautiful country! Alot of the people on the bus were snoozing but I felt it was too nice to snooze so admired the scenery instead. We stopped at a glow worm cave on the way and then headed for Paihia. It just so happened that on Feb 6th it was Waitangi Day, the anniversary of when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. Its suprising how much you can learn about a place in such a short space of time and I now know lots about the treaty.........here goes, there are native people in New Zealand called the Mauri and when the British colonies settled in NZ over 170 years ago an agreement between the two was signed to agree ownership of land etc.........I think thats what its about anyway but I was really lucky to be visiting when I did because the festival was being held next to Paihia in Waitangi!
The following day (5th Feb) I caught a different bus that was included in my pass
to take me to Cape Rienga, on the way we stopped to do sand boarding! This was mental and I was pretty scared after hiking up the giant mound of sand and watching the others hurtel down the hill at god knows what speed but I gave it a go and a mouth full of sand later I did it again! It was great fun in the end and my worries about broken limbs were short lived! We were really lucky that the weather was so good at Cape Rienga because the views were spectacular, this is the most northerly point in NZ and also where the two ocean meet, the Tasmen Sea and the Pacific and you can actually see where the waves crahs together! I'd befriended a few people by this point including Clare from Bristol and Angie from Germany along with a few others but I spent most of my time with them! On the way back to Paihia I shared fish & chips with Clare.........it was so good to eat real food after 2 weeks of rice and potatoes in Fiji!
On the Saturday morning I ended up going for a run with a girl from
my dorm, she was called Carrie and was so lovely but I only spent that morning with her which was disappointing. We ran along the road that followed the beach and it was perfect, the sun was just warm enough and the views across the sea to the islands was fab. We ran down to where the Waitangi festival was being held and saw the Mauri performing on the beach carrying their paddles to the 'Waka' or canoes, all dressed in traditional clothing, it was fascitnating. I ended up chatting to Mark on Skype most of the morning but did manage to get back to see some more of the festival before catching the coach back to Auckland that afternoon.
On the Sunday (7th Feb) I booked to go to a place called Waiheke island which had been recommended as a nice place to visit whilst in Auckland. I headed over on the ferry and travelled round on a small coach like the one I'd been on with Stray, the guy that ran it was called Dan and he told us all about the island as we drove around and as promised her took me to Blackpool.............thats right Blackpool! There
is a beach on the island of the same name so I wanted to go to say I'd been...........I think it was even more unimpressive than the one back home and thats quite an achievement! We drove around the island and stopped off at a winery as well as having a bbq on the beach at lunch. I had a really nice day and also met an elderly couple from Australia, Pauline and Dan who were lovely, I think they felt sorry for me because I was on my own........bless! After relaxing on the beach in the afternoon we caught the ferry back to Auckland.
That night I randonly met up with a girl called Anita who I bumped into in Fiji..........and I mean bumped into we litterally spoke for about 10 mins the first morning I arrived and she said when I was in Auckland to let her know and she'd show me round! I thought why not so she picked me up from the hostle that night and we had fish and chips on the beach at a place called Mission Bay, it was really lovely and afterwards we went up the famous Skytower and had dessert and
coffee in the revolving restaurant at the top! It was fab, I felt v civilised sitting there looking out over the city at night Anita was great company and it was so nice of her to show me round! Everyone here is so lovely, the New Zealanders are such pleasant people, its so refreshing to be away from the all the grimbo's back home........not meaning any of you guys of course, love you all lots!
Monday 8th Feb was the day I caught the Kiwi bus, I was quite nervous but was glad to see some familiar faces who weren't 18 year olds! In Paihia I'd met a girl called Tess, 27 from Sheffield and a woman from Leeds called Karina who was 42! Karina was mental, I've never met anyone like her before she was fab and we got on straight away plus we also met another girl from Ilkley called Emily.....what was this some kind of Yorkshire invasion?!! We had to wait about an hour and a half for the coach to arrive because they were so busy they'd had to put and extra coach on to make sure everyone got a seat........of course I was on the
reserve bus which kept breaking down but it all added to the experience! That day we stopped at a few places including Hot Water Beach, when the tide is out you can dig pits in the sand and they fill up with red hot water like a hot tub..........of course when we arrived the tide was in but Emily went in the sea and dug her feet in the sand and said it was really hot! There were alot of 'youngsters' on the bus, most of them annoying boys from down South (no offence to the southerners amongst you!) but a group of about 7 girls stuck together........the oldies at the front of the bus, this included my friend Julie who is 39 and from Edinburgh! We stayed in a place called Mercury Bay that night but because we were so late arriving I didn't get to see much of it before heading off to Rotorua the next day.
Rotorua stinks! No litterally it stinks of sulpher, the whole of New Zealand is volcanic and in certain areas it is quite evident like here! You get used to it after a while though and in the afternoon me and Emily
headed to the Polynesian Spa to soak in the geothermal pools! Now I'm not good with really cold water and it would seem I'm not good with really hot either! One of the pools was 42 degrees and it was almost scolding, we decided to relax in some of the cooler pools and after about and hour and a half we were extremely chilled out........plus we'd had about enough of the yucky egg smell so headed back to the hostel. That night I went to the Tamaki with Julie and Emily, this was a Mauri evening where they performed traditional dances including the Haki dance like the rugby players do, they also took us round a mock village and explained their lifestyles. We had a massive buffet too, me and Emily stuffed our faces.............we had to make the most of the copious amounts of food while we could!!
Due to the fact the buses are so full you have to book your journey in advance therefore the hop on hop off rule doesn't really apply right now which is highly annoying. You should be able to arrive somewhere and think 'I'd like to stay here longer' but if you cancel
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Waiheke Islandyour bus you run the risk of ebing stuck in a place for days because the buses might be full so I only got to stay in Rotorua one day even though I'd have liked to stay longer. The next day we made our way to a place called Waitomowhich was a tiny placewhere we could induge in some water sports! Julie and I decided to to the Black Water Rafting and after we checked into the cute hostel was headed to the caves in our wet suits ready to crawl and paddle our way through the pitch black for an hour! We had a practice at jumping off a jetty into the rubber rings they'd given us and I thought I'd be fine til I hit the water, this is when I remembered I don't deal with cold water well either!!! It took my breathe away when I hit the water and was so worried it would be worse once we were in the caves! Julie was well excited but I really started to panic, when we got inside the caves though it wasn't too bad! We had lights on our helmets and we waded though the tunnels in
the dark before jumping backwards off some little waterfalls, we then formed an eel by holding on the each others feet whilst sitting in the rings and were dragged through in the darkness..........in the end it was pretty cool and I don't just mean the water! I soon got used to it and we saw loads of glow worms, then before I knew it we were back in the light of day! After a hot shower I felt fine and quite pleased that I'd managed to survive yet another activity without breaking a limb!
Ok my arms are getting tired now but theres still sooooooooo much to tell you about.............including my skydive..............but I'll save that for another day otherwise you'll all be asleep at your desks after spending the entire day reading this! I've been feeling super homesick the last few days or so coz Emily and Julie have moved on to the next stop whereas I decided to stay here a couple of days! We've grown really close over the last 2 weeks but its like I said everyone has their own itinerary so you can't get too attached.............although I'm doing a good job of it! Its weird coz
Emily is 19, I'm 29 and Julie is 39 but we've been getting on so well, I really miss them 😞 I've had a few tearful conversations with Mark but on the whole I'm doing ok its just so odd moving from place to place every day or so not knowing where you'll wake or or where you'll be the next day?! It suprising how many people are traveling alone though and it makes it really easy to make friends coz you're all in the same boat!
I'm getting really pissed off with this bloody blog thing, I'd just finished typing and when I went to publish the entry it had logged me out and lost the last 20 mins of typing!!! Ahhh! Can't remember what I put in the last bit so I'll just leave it at that and go grab myself some tea! Oh yeah the 'Sweet as' thing is something that all New Zealanders say instead of great or cool or whatever they say 'sweet as', its really annoying and sounded stupid at first but you kind of get used to it! Luckilly I haven't picked it up coz I think I'd sounds like a bit of
a goon if I started saying it back home!!!
Thanks to those of you who've emailed and messaged me, its great to hear what you've been up to so keep em coming! If you want to text me my New Zealand number is +642102700821, I also get really cheap calls to landlines so watch out those of you whose number I have, you might be getting a call soon!!!
Love you all lots and lots
Solo Simmons siging off xxxx
Cocky - so proud of you baking skills, keep up the good work and I'm glad Joe had a good birthday! Let me know how the job hunt goes and I'm defo up for a Skype call on Jens birthday.......it'll be so weird not being there and I'll probably cry when I see you all but I'm sure we'll make up for it when I get back?!! xxx
Saucy - so sorry to hear about Pauls accident, it sounds horrific but I'm glad he's ok! Send him my love from NZ and hope he makes full recovery! The things about your neice made me laugh out loud in the net cafe (crazy fool!) kids say the
funniest things! Look forward to seeing/speaking to you on Jens birthday! xxx
Allie - Glad Chloe is fully recovered, does buying shoes mean shes started walking?! I hope so but I'll be sad to have to wait another couple of months before I see it for myself 😞 Hope you are having a fab tim in Budapest, sounds fab and wish happy birthday to Andy for me! xxx
Mum, Dad & Mark - thank you so much for all you help with selling my car! Its super sad that she is gone but I know in the long run it'll be worth it and will spare my wallet! So long Izzy, my beast baby no more 😞 xxx
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Ella
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Mungo
Hey buddy. I tell u something for nothing that 1 dress will turn into 10 in no time. And as for bikinis and sun glasses well if u're anything like me you'll get through at least 6 pairs of each. Keep living the dream my friend and say hi to mungo for me. Lol x x x x