Hangi Dinner, Honey Facial & 3,537 kms Later
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2007
1
97
106
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Auckland,
New Zealand
Sunday, August 31, 2008
firstly i cant believe this is the only entry i've written on the north island! theres been lots going on but maybe not so much interweb access or maybe i just realised people must be getting sick of these blogs appearing in their inboxes every other day so decided to cool it a little!
well anyway this is my last day in new zealand and what an intrepid adventure it's been. you know about the south island so ill try and fill you in as briefly as i can about how things went in the north.
well i drove from moteuka (did i mention there was a fire alarm in the hostel at 1am?!) to picton and got there ludicrously early for the ferry so just chilled out and ate some carrot cake. the weather for the crossing was really clear but it turned out to also be icicles cold and windy so once we had passed arapawa island and gone out into the bitterly cold cook straits i went inside and had a cup of tea. the crossing is only 3 hours so we were in wellington by 4pm. what a fall to earth that was. id gone from maybe passing a car every 20 minutes or so to a 3-lane super-fast highway in rush hour in the fading light. terrifying!!!! i also made the critical error of deciding to take highway 2 and go by 4 LOTR locations instead of the more direct highway 1 to paraparaumu. location 1 was helm's deep. what the map didnt tell you was that it was an hour & a halfs hike into a NP. needless to say i passed on that one. anyway it got darker and darker and i decided to just hot-tail it on to the hostel. that was before i arrived at the highway 2-1 connecter road. it was the narrowest, windiest, turneist, twistiest road ive ever driven on. it only had room across for 1.5 cars. it was lashing lashing rain and then to make matters worse the dense fog came down. it was a stressful time and i was to finally arrive in paraparaumu and the delights of barnacles hostel (despite some last-minute lostness where the owner on the phone sent me 20 minutes in the wrong direction when i called, when i was actually about 20m from their door when i called!!!!) barnacles was awesome - like a house your granny would live in by the sea or something. and i got a dorm to myself again. result!
next day was the epic journey to taupo. the drive was beautiful and took me on the desert road past snow-capped mt ruapehu and mt ngauruhoe which are both active strato-volcanoes in the tongariro volcanic complex (can you tell im wikipediaing this?!). its where they also filmed mt doom for LOTR. anyway.i had many great plans for taupo to walk and take a boat and shop etc. but it turns out the rain had other ideas and it literally lashed lashed lashed with rain from the minute i arrived til well after i left 48 hours later. as a result my time in taupo was limited to sitting in my lovely snug doubleroom (i got it cheap!) watching telly or sitting in the lounge watching movies. ah well - i guess the sun cant shine ALL the time in NZ!
after that it was a short journey of about 80 k's to rotorua which is located in a very highly thermally active part of the north island. you're driving along and theres literally random steam just pouring out of the ground on the hills around you!! i tried to go walking at the blue lake but it was closed for logging. then i tried to walk around another lake but the path stopped after 10 mins. seems someone was trying to tell me something cos when i got back to the car a massive storm rolled in and had i been out walking i wouldve been soaked!
that evening i went to the mitai maoi cultural evening which i can safely say was one of the highlights of my whole trip so far. i was terrified it would be horrendously commercial and touristy but despite the large number of people (im guessing 50?) it was still an excellent and super-interesting evening. the main host greeted us in the 16 different languages of all the guests there (yep he even had some irish and finnish which i was well impressed with!!). we got to see the warriors arrive in their canoes and then there was a show which had singing, dancing, and also gave you loads of maori-related information. after that it was the hangi meal (a hangi is where they cook the food in the ground in baskets suspended above heated rocks and all covered up) - oh my god it almost rivalled mum's christmas dinner back home - chicken, lamb, corn, gravy, sweet potato, boiled potato, potato gratin (which no was not cooked in the hangi!!!), stuffing (STUFFING!!!), cauliflower. seriously. best meal ive eaten in months. after the meal we went for a walk through their forest to learn about the local plants and trees and we finished up checking out the glow-worms in the sacred spring. (very cool!). if you ever go to rotorua make sure and visit the mitai.
next day i went to see lady knox geysey erupt at precisely 10:15 (with a little help from 300g of washing powder!!) and then spent a couple of hours wandering around the wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland. it was very interesting to see but to be honest after awhile all the thermal pools kind of start looking the same. i think it would be interesting to see it in summer when lots of the mud pools are less diluted and more gloopy like mud pools should be. came back and decided against the super-expensive polynesian spa and instead took the advice of the hostel lady and went to nita's beauty parlour where i had the most incredible mantua honey / thai facial ever (which included arms, hands, legs and neck massage). and for half the price and double the time i wouldve gotten in the polynesian place.
and so the next day was the final haul to auckland. i had planned to stop off on matamata which is where they filmed hobbiton but thought to myself that seeing as i was navigating into auckland alone that id rather arrive earlier and just get to paula and brian's house than be arriving in the dark etc etc. it was a good decision. 5-lane motorways would be something ive never driven on. and NZ drivers are horrendous (more on that in a bit). so when i rocked up here to mt eden at 2pm it was with a sigh of relief. paula and brian are actually away in ireland right now but super-kindly said i was welcome to stay here anyway but i needed their neighbour to let me in so i headed off down the town for afew hours just til she came home from work. it was there that i met the angriest bus driver in the world (driver of 274 you know who you are) - she shouted and ranted at me cos i didnt knwo the name of the STOP i was going to, just the road! wed night i just vegged. houses rock.
on thursday krisso came over and we planned a day of action-packed sightseeing!!! but as these things happen, we ended up drinking tea and just yapping back in his place for afew hours LOL! after a delicious lunch of soup & toast (the "tasty" cheese here is so good!) we did finally make it out to murawai beach where we chanced upon a seal and saw a million gannets! we also went on to devonport which was beautiful and climbed the little hill there before heading back to his and julie's for a gorgeous spagbol dinner followed by julies excellent homemade brownies. mmmmmmmmmm
and since then its really been vegging. i know i should probly be doing touristy things and going out to see things? but instead im playing lots of age of empires 3 (ah yes that nerd is still alive and kicking in me!), watching DVDs, ordering pizza, washing clothes (ahhhh fabric conditioner where have you been all my life!!) and just generally taking it very easy!!! yesterday i had to drop edwin back to xplore more cars which was sad (but also scary as i had to go back out on 2 motorways!!!). and today is another lazy hazy day of pyjamas (im still in them and its 10 past 1 in the afternoon!) and DVD's (though i do have to go out at some point to drop back the movies. d'oh! and then tomorrow its off to fiji for 2 weeks for more lazy hazy days.
and so goodbye to new zealand!!! three thousand, five hundred and thirty seven kilometers and getting lost only 5 times in 25 days - not bad going when you consider i got lost 7 times in 6 days in australia!!! this country is simply superb and if you ever get the chance to come here then do. i would recommend more time in the south than the north island (no offense to anyone in the north island!), though from a cultural perspective the north island was better. that said i think i was also extremely blessed with weather - 2 of mum's friends were in the south island for 2 weeks and it lashed rain every single day so i was lucky with my sunny weather.
as far as the people go you wont get better than the kiwi's - theyre defo a bit more laid back than the aussies and like most places ive been (apart from thailand!!) theyre for the most part warm and friendly and helpful. being critical, they do have 2 faults though that i must point out.
1. they are APPALLING drivers - ive never met a nation (more on the north island wheres theres more cars) with such aggressive, inconsiderate, fast drivers. noone lets you out, noone yields, noone slows down, noone obeys the speed limits, and they LURVE their "mags & tyres combos" & super noisy exhausts. its like when they get behind a wheel they become something different and crazy and mental and all their anger just spills over. LOL. who does that remind you of?! *hangs head in shame!*
2. they are in COMPLETE denial about the weather. lets be clear, its winter here. its cold, as cold as home, sometimes even colder. yet they go around in sleeveless t-shirts and flipflops like its 30 degrees!! krisso and i saw a couple swimming when we went up devonport hill. and it wasnt in wetsuits, oh no, this was togs-swimming. its hilarious! seemingly central heating in houses is also very rare, the atitude is more "ah its grand sure just put on a jumper".
right im rambling and i have to go watch my last DVD cos i have to bring them all back later....thanks for listening, hope the electric picnic as fun for those of you that went and ill leave you with one piece of sound advice from new zealand - whatever you do dont rent PS i love you (based on the novel by celia ahern of the same name). never in my life have i seen such utter drivel or heard such rubbish irish accents or seen such an unrealistic picture painted of ireland since pauline went to enniskerry in eastenders years ago. *shudder*
bye for now
xx
