Re-westernization

Today is a landmark! Loz and I purchased a bag of pasta, a jar of sauce, a block of cheese and some reduced price salad leaves, and made ourselves a gormet meal for the first time in 2 months! It's amazing how good it feels to be able to read the packaging, and not to be on red alert every time you open a packet of something, just in case the food is looking at you, or tries to jump out! Yes, New Zealand feels gastronomically safe, and is going down rather well so far. In fact, I love it! That sweeping statement is based on 2 days sleeping in a hostel, and one bus journey. But still, it's true.



We arrived in Auckland after an 11 hour flight (who knew that there was that much world between Hong Kong and New Zealand?! It's like flying to Japan. AGAIN.) Anyway, we arrived at 7.25 am. Auckland is 5 hours ahead of Hong Kong, so we were messed up before we started, having landed around the time we were used to going to bed, and it only being first thing in the morning. Also, we couldn't check into the hostel until 1pm, so I had a nap in Starbucks (New Zealand smells and tastes a little weird, I think it's the dairy) and Loz went to check out the nearby gift shops. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, I went to bed... woke up for tea, and then went back to bed again.

 

The next day Loz optimistically set her alarm for 9am. I made it up at 10, Loz slept til around 1. We were going to go up the tower in Auckland, but we ended up planning our whole week in NZ instead. It took a lot of doing! We had planned to hire a car, until we discovered we could do it cheaper by bus! We'd planned to go to Cape Reinga (I keep saying it wrong, it's Ree-ing-ga), which is the most northern point in New Zealand, and were going to get a tour from a place called Hokianga Harbour. Seen as we weren't driving though, this kind of threw a spanner in the works, as we couldn't get there, so we skipped the harbour and booked a bus to a place called Paihia (pie here). This is where I googled 'things to do in Paihia', and found far too many exciting and expensive things for us to do. We booked 'swimming with dolphins' and our day to Cape Reinga, then I got distracted by a tour to Hobbiton in the town of Matamata (matter matter), so we booked a bus there, then decided on Waiotapu (why otter poo) for it's 'thermal wonderland', Rotorua and Lake Taupo, with a bus back to Auckland to catch our flight. We were a combination of fed up of planning, and desperately excited by the time we'd finished writing all our reservation numbers out at about 1am. We got practically no sleep before heading out on the bus to Paihia the following day.

Paihia is cute. It's a pretty little seaside town, full of gorgeous shops, which in turn are full of gorgeous arty things, all of which we would like to take home.  My favourite is www.flyingfishdesign.co.nz - they do mail order, in case anyone is feeling generous :D. We chilled out for a little while at the hostel, then went for a wander on the beach as the sun went down.

Skip to 24 hours later, and we've not long returned, knackered and sand filled from our Cape Reinga tour (Ree-ing-ga, Ree-ing-ga, Ree-ing-ga). We've had a fantastic day and it's only fermenting my love for New Zealand.When I woke up this morning at 6:15am my heart sank. The sound of pissing rain was all I could hear, and I was seriously concerned that the weather was about to screw us once again. It dried up for a little while as we waited for the bus, which was uncharacteristically considerate, however it wasn't long before it was raining heavily again. We went to a forest of kauri trees (koh-ree) first. The trees are 700-1000 years old (which is quite young for kauri by all accounts) and consequently they are huge! They are the material of choice for Maori carvings, and one of the places we stopped had some incredible furniture, inlcuding a hollowed out tree trunk, turned into a spiral staircase. Unfortunately it costs 10s of thousands of pounds, else I'd have bought you all a lovely table.

 We stopped a couple of times on the way up the east coast before we got onto 'the tail of the fish' (the north part of New Zealand), and up to the very tip: Cape Reinga. The scenery is stunning, but of course it was foggy. Luckily as we got closer, the mist cleared and we could see everything: the lighthouse; where the pacific ocean joins the Tasman sea, the bays and the pure white sand at the bottom of the lush green forests. Beautiful.

The Maori believe Cape Reinga is the parting place for spirits when you die. The north island is a fish (a big fish caught by a boy called Maori - the top is its tail) the south island is an upturned canoe (when he caught the fish it was so big and beautiful he wanted to let it go, however his brothers hacked away at its flesh for food, so Maori tied a sea-going canoe to the fish to help it float) and the tiny island at the bottom (I think it's Stephenson Island or something like that), is the anchor used to lodge said canoe. Anyway, when you die your spirit goes to Cape Reinga to walk into the ocean back to the homeland. People plant trees in memory of people here to help reforest the island. Loz and I did our bit, and can watch them grow on google earth - my tree is at S34.43054, E172.68190, if you want to see it! It's the bushy one - Loz's is next door, the leafy green one. If you're visiting Cape Reinga at any point, please check up on it, and give it some water.




We only made a short stop, so by the time we'd planted our tree, we legged it down to the lighthouse, then had to power walk back up the hill. Luckily we were on time, and weren't last - the old lady and her daughter were quite late... poor woman, running that hill was pretty hardcore! When we got back on the bus we headed to the sand dunes for some boogie boarding!

The safety demonstration scared me so much that I almost didn't bother. Very graphic descriptions of what happens if you let go of the board... broken fingers, then wrist, then arm, then dislocated shoulders... plus choking on sand, and various other things, as you might expect travelling on your front with your arms out down a hill at 30mph. Loz was ahead of me in the queue, and I watched as she whizzed past me on her board. Despite having been made to repeat 'I will not let go of the board' several times, guess what?! There was a gasp of horror from the group as she flew over the top of the board and tuck-rolled into a big sandy puddle. She got up and shouted 'I'm ok', which was good, because it was funny! When I made it to the bottom, Loz looked like someone had been sick very violently down her front. She was a big spoilsport and wouldn't let me take a picture though.

 After the sandboarding we took a drive down 90 mile beach, driving through the waves at points, and making the occasional zig zag to stop us sinking. We stopped on the beach for quite a while and had a paddle. Some of the waves were quite big, so I was waist deep at times. The tide was really powerful, and sucked you out to sea if you didn't stand firm. The sand was full of oysters - the coach guide must make a fortune, as he was collecting them by the bucket load - he does the same tour every day, so I guess he must collect hundreds! He got a little distracted by the oysters, and as we were heading to the coach, one of the waves swept right under the bus. He had to run and shift it quick, before it got stuck in the sand. We headed back, and made ourselves another gormet pasta dish before heading to bed.

 On waking the next morning, I was so excited. This was one of the days I was most looking forward to: swimming with the dolphins. We got on the boat at 8.30am, and sat on the top deck enjoying the views of the Bay of Islands. The Bay of Islands, so named by Captain Cook, has 144 islands, some big, some small, but I'd gladly live on any of them. We picked some passengers up at Russell, and then stopped in the bay for a brief safety demonstration. It was explained that as dolphins are wild, there is no way sightings can be guaranteed. They don't live in the bay, however the bottlenosed dolphins come in to feed, and the common dolphins can be found further out to sea. The plan was to search for bottlenoses in the bay, as these are friendly and enjoy swimming with people (they think we're toys). They're about 3m long, compared to the common dolphins (I'm sure they're lovely, and very well mannered), who are only about 2m long, and are not fans of human swimming cos we're much bigger then them. It was also explained that we couldn't be guaranteed to swim with any dolphins, as if the sea was rough it's too difficult to get us back on the boat, and also if the dolphins have babies with them, it's illegal to swim with the pod in New Zealand. They said sometimes it would take an hour to find some, sometimes 2, sometimes 3 or 4 and sometimes they wouldn't find any at all, in which case we would be issued with a lifetime voucher to come back until we did see some. The lady also said they'd had 2 brilliant swims the day before, and so she was fairly confident.

So. Four hours later, after scouring the north east coast of New Zealand, and spotting nothing but sholes of sea trout, and the odd gannet, we were a little concerned. It was very windy and cold (we'd also just figured out we're paid £1.50 for a crunchie - jesus!?!) and we were feeling a little low. Our bus was due to leave Paihia for Auckland at 3pm, so there was no way we'd be able to use our voucher this trip. Our whole time in New Zealand was carefully planned and booked, and the bus tickets were non-refundable, because they're much cheaper that way. We do like cheap.

I asked after we'd been issued with our vouchers, the likelyhood of seeing any dolphins in the afternoon, and they said it was possible, although it was probably better to try the day after. Great. Loz and I had a chat, and I really wanted to change the bus ticket if we could possibly afford it. We got off the boat, which is conveniently where all of Paihia's tourist information offices, tour company offices etc etc are, it's also where all the busses and boats go from (New Zealand is incredibly organised for tourists - it all links perfectly! More on the virtues of NZ later...) Anyway, we found the Intercity bus counter, which was unmanned. We asked at another desk, and a lady called a guy named Graham over to help, who clearly wasn't happy about this. Now, Graham gets a special mention in our blog, for being one of the few, rude and useless people we've met along the way. We had half an hour to get in touch with the bus company, the hostel and rebook the afternoon's cruise, but we had no reference or phone numbers with us. We asked the lovely Graham if there was a later bus going to Auckland that night. There was, 7.10pm. Excellent. We then asked if we could change our reservation, and how much this would cost. He grumpily looked us up on the computer, as we didn't have the details on us, and said it would cost $106 between us to change the ticket which was £53 ish, but we should call the bus company and see if they might let us change.

We had no phone, no number. Graham clearly wasn't going to do it. 'Erm do you have a phone number for them please?'


Tutting, he found us a phone number. 'Do you know if there's a phone somewhere that we could use?' He pointed out of the door on his right, without speaking. 'Erm, do you still have our reservation number so we can quote it to the people on the phone?'


'Not now, because I didn't know I needed it!'


Well Graham, you are the height of customer service. Intercity must be proud of you.

 When I'd finally scrawled the numbers on my hand (paper was one step too far for Graham) we headed out of the door on our right and saw another little hut. We went in.


'Hi! We're looking for a phone, is there one in here we could use please?'


'What kind of phone?'


'Erm, a payphone - the guy from Intercity said we'd find one in here'


'Oh did he now? Who are you calling?'


We explained, and the lovely lady handed their company phone over. We called the company. It was a fax number. Thanks Graham!


'Alright?' asked the lady.


'No, it's a fax number, we'll have to go back next door and get the right one.'


'Hang on' she said, dialling the phone. The tone was priceless:


'I have the two girls you sent over here, you've given them a fax number, do you want to give them a phone number?' She smiled at us. 'There you go girls. It's a freephone number so take as long as you like.'



We got hold of the bus company who managed to get us student tickets for an extra £5 each. Perfect! While I paid, Loz ran to rebook the dolphins. Then we realised we didn't have the hostel number either. Another lovely lady in the same office googled and called them for us. Again, we're really grateful to the two women in the tourist office, because it really wasn't their problem, as we weren't even their customers. They went out of their way to help us anyway. Unlike some. Graham.

So! We were back on the boat heading out to Russell to pick more people up for the second time that day. We pulled up again for a safety briefing, then the phone went. Unfortunately another boat had broken down, so we had to go and take some of its passengers back to Paihia. Then, it turned out, our 'dolphin cruise' had suddenly become a 'combination cruise', so whilst looking for the dolphins we were picking up another 50 people, and visiting various parts of the bay as well. We thought that this would scupper our dolphin hunting chances significantly, as we'd already lost an hour, and now there was more to cram into less time.

Two hours in and there was no sign of any dolphins. We'd been around the bay again (this time in a little more depth, with an added bit of historical information), we'd been out to sea again, we'd made it up to 'the hole in the rock' again, and even gone through it this time. Still no dolphins. We headed back to an island - the one where Swiss Family Robinson lived (before they got murdered by an angry tribesman - that wasn't in the cartoon), to drop some people off. It was now around 3.30. Even though they'd extended our trip time until 5.30, given we'd already spent 7 hours that day looking, as had about 4 other boats, it wasn't looking hopeful.

Just then, the announcement came over the radio. A couple of dolphins had been spotted on the other side of the bay. We were very excited! The crew practically threw the other passengers off the boat, and sped off towards the dolphins.

It wasn't too long before we spotted them. Well, actually, there were several minutes of people 'oohing' and 'ahhing' before I could figure out where they were looking, but then I saw them too. Two dolphins playing around the boat. Apparently the boats are like new toys - every time another one comes along, they go and play with it. Just as we had distracted them from one boat, yet another boat joined us to transfer some passengers (those who were unfortunate enough to have to be back by the original time of 4.30. This included one poor German girl, who was on her fourth attempt at dolphin swimming!) After they'd been despatched, we got called down for a swim-safety briefing, handed a snorkel and some flippers and told to jump. The crew screamed 'swim!', and we all took off army-style after the dolphins. All except me that is, who had managed to lose one of my swimming costume straps. I had a difficult decision - swim and flash, or drown with dignity. I went for swimming, although it wasn't long before we were called back to the boat, as the dolphins had buggered off. Great. The problem I had now was, I need two arms to get back on the boat, and at least one arm to hold my swimming costume up.

Having in my usual graceful style made it back onto the boat, Loz helped me reform my costume into a halter neck, as we got ready to go in again. Alas, the dolphins were having none of it. They'd vanished - clearly not enjoying the floorshow. Oh well. We swam in the same sea as them - that counts right?!


So, safely back on dry land, and having at least seen some dolphins, we prepared to return to Auckland before heading off to Rotorua the next day for fun in The Shire. As Cat may have mentioned, tourism in New Zealand is incredibly well organised, and everything links up to make it easy for you to get from one attraction to another. Having changed our bus, we decided to grab our bags, and a very hasty tea, near the bus stop so we could see when it arrived. Dinner was a fantastic curry, which we only wish we'd had more time to enjoy.


One of the other things about the busses in New Zealand is that the drivers are all crazy. The first one we had threw an absolute hissy fit about people touching the air-conditioning vents on 'his' coach. I'm not sure I've ever experienced dictatorship quite like it:



DON'T TOUCH THE VENTS! DO NOT TOUCH THE VENTS! (Aimed at some poor person who just tried to adjust them). AS SOON AS YOU DO I WILL KNOW! YOU WILL EITHER FREEZE OR COOK THE PEOPLE AT THE FRONT AND THE BACK! YOU DO NOT TOUCH THE VENTS!

We didn't touch the vents. I have to say this guy, apart from his vent touching issues was actually quite nice, and reminded me a bit of Alf from Home and Away.


Not to be outdone, our next bus driver (who looked a bit like Santa, or Colonel Sanders) was practically having an aneurism over the fact he'd not been given his usual sleek and stream lined coach, but something old and rusty, slightly resembling the cheese wagon-style American school bus (thankfully minus the garish yellow), with a little tow trailer for luggage. We knew we had the right bus because in New Zealand, they have a list of passenger names, and are expecting you, and check you in like you're on a school trip. There were only four of us, and we settled in for the first leg of the journey. Cat got into trouble for asking to get her laptop out of her big bag in the trailer. Santa wasn't happy. No presents for Catherine this year.



We made it to... I don't know where, where we were unceremoniously dumped on the side of the road to wait for the next bus to Auckland. Imagine our joy when 'vent man' turned up. We were told to wait outside, as the bus wasn't ready, and had a little giggle doing our best 'DON'T TOUCH THE VENTS' impressions. At this point, one of the girls we'd met on the boat said she'd had the same experience as us, and joined in. Quite fun really. Oh, while I remember, she'd also been shut in the door of the old bus by santa for trying to ask if we were at the right stop. Tut tut! No present for Maria either. I don't think Loz was quite watching what went on with the door, as she wasn't in as good a position as me. What actually happened, was the girl, who is Brazillian, asked if this was the right stop to change for Auckland. The Colonel ignored her, and said 'watch out for that door, it might close on you', she did not understand him. She repeated herself. He repeated himself, and then pressed the close button on the door. I don't think he can be santa.

At this point we also got chatting to Maria, who had majored in journalism before she went travelling, and had been working for a magazine. We asked her what type of journalism she wanted to do, and then tried to hide the amused looks on our faces when she came out with, 'what I really want to do is work for playboy.' I think we may not have been successful, as she followed that with, 'In Brazil playboy is actually very informative, with lots of interesting articles and stories' ... presumably about breasts.


Finally the bus was ready. It turned out vent-man had closed off half of the bus, and we were only allowed to sit in the front four rows. What did he think we were going to do? Throw a party? Crumble crisps on his precious floor, spray sprite on his ceiling... touch the vents?! Obviously we would not be eating or drinking on the coach. They say power does funny things to people... but really?!


We eventually made it to Auckland & then headed off to Rotorua to go on a tour of Hobbiton, which is The Shire movie set from the Lord of the Rings (& apparently also the up-coming Hobbit) movies. Never having realised quite how big a LOTR fan Cat is (she'd been singing/whistling/humming the soundtrack at me for days), I got quite caught up in the excitement of it all & was really looking forward to it by the time we got there. The lovely driver Ben picked us up at the bus station & as we were the only two going from there he took us to our hostel first to check in & leave our bags. So nice. We then left for Matamata, which is basically the town nearest to the farm where the set is, & were dropped off at The Shire's Rest Cafe at the edge of the 'tourist farm'. Here, we were bundled into a minibus with the other tourists & set off into the farm, which is still a proper working sheep farm, just with hobbits too. (One of the girls on the tour was even sort of dressed as a hobbit... sort of... a bit... well she said she was... but not really...)

Having a dad who works in TV means you grow up very aware that it is all actually fake but still find the whole idea very exciting at the same time (or maybe that's just me). Carolyn, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable & quite fun as she showed us round what is essentially now a field with a few bits of manky plywood which are the front of hobbit houses (there are no actual houses behind them except for one...). We did also get to see the Party Tree & the Party Field and the Lake too though so mustn't complain. The most exciting part of the tour for me (& I think for Cat also,) was getting to visit & stand inside Bag End (Bilbo's house). This is the only one that has anything behind the wall facade, though it's just a square room & was apparently made only for the camera to go in to film the back of Gandalf & Bilbo's heads through the doorway. Of course we joined everyone in having our pictures taken with our heads poking out of the windows. After the set tour, we were taken back to the Shire's Rest & got to watch a sheep having it's first shearing & (yay) feed something lambs with huge baby bottles. They were unbelievably cute! We got a surprise after that in the shape of a complimentary cup of tea, quiche, apple & a (delicious) homemade raspberry & chocolate chip muffin before we were taken home & dropped at the hostel. (I'd like to add at this point that we did want to buy you all some of the special LOTR 'SobeRing' 1% beer brewed especially for the LOTR so the actors could have 'real beer' in the scenes but not get too drunk to act, but we'd never have got it home. Also, Michael, Cat really did want to buy you the staff of Saruman/Gandalf (can't remember which) and the mask of Sauron but we really didn't have a spare million dollars. Sorry!)

After Rotorua we went to the Waiotapu Thermal Park & saw the Lady Knox Geyser (having heard both 'guyzer' & 'geezer' as pronounciations, we were educated by the man who came to set the geyser off, that in Kiwi Land (sounds like a fruit based theme park) it's pronounced 'guyzer'). We have to mention two lovely people we met here called Sue & Steve. Having caught the bus to near the park & very kindly been allowed to leave our big backpacks at the local cafe/petrol station bit on the main road, we walked the 2km to the park, and were then told we couldn't walk from the visitor centre to the geyser (which goes off only once a day at a set time so we had to be quick) and would have to beg for a lift off a fellow visitor. Neither of us was at all thrilled by this prospect & were amazed & relieved & very, very grateful when a lovely English lady called Sue (who was behind us in the queue & had overheard all this) immediately offered us a ride. Not only did her & Steve take us to the geyser, then back to the visitor centre to do the walk (which was amazing - the earth really is incredible & very beautiful & a bit crazy), they also offered us a lift down to Lake Taupo where they were headed that afternoon, which meant we weren't stranded for the entire day waiting for the bus. Once again, we'd been lucky enough to meet some incredibly nice people & are truly grateful to them for taking us under their wing.

Lake Taupo is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. It's a huge expanse of water bordered by mountains & tiny beaches & a little yacht club where the locals sail & race. I loved it. They also have a stunning waterfall called the Huka Falls which I walked up to one day & sat by for a while. I think I can safely say that New Zealand as a whole is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been & both Cat & I are gutted we didn't get to go to the South Island, & we wish we'd spent more time there. We're already planning to go back & if you learn nothing else from our blog let it be that you should spend time on both parts of New Zealand, cos we really do feel we missed out. We headed back to Auckland with heavy hearts to get ready to fly off to Australia & hoping it would live up to our expectations. (I should add that the bus driver on the way back, was another mentalton, throwing everyone's bags on and off the bus as hard as he could. He was Scottish this time, and practically swallowed the microphone when talking, making his announcements almost impossible to decipher. He also told bad jokes. Must be a Scottish thing.) Deciding to do some last minute souvenir shopping on our way to check out the harbour, we were accosted by the shop-keeper who repeatedly shouted 'open, open, open' at us when we tried to get through the (open) door (which also had an 'open, please come in' sign on it too). Once this was combined with much 'go away' style arm waving & shaking of the head we deduced she actually meant 'closed'. Oh silly us, how did we not realise 'open' meant 'closed' on this little patch of land. Ah well, last minute shopping at the airport then. We went home to pack for another early flight & hoped that Australia would be as good as the awesome land of the Kiwis.