We lived in a beautiful tent
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
1
42
51
Trip End
??? ??, 2006
Auckland,
New Zealand
Thursday, November 24, 2005
The last few weeks in NZ have been great. In Rotoroa we went to a Maori cultural night. Could've been very cheesy but it was really good. We were the Tribe of Many Nations led by a German bloke called Bernard. At one stage it looked like the Maori chief was going to spear Bernard and eat him but in the end we all made friends. And the food cooked in the ground - lamb, chicken, potatoes - was delicious. I can't figure out why most Kiwis love McDonald's now.
Feeling a bit lazy we went to the Polynesian Spa by the lake to hang out in hot water for a few hours. The spa was ranked in the international top 10 list of spas by some travel magazine. It's a nice place but I presume the 500 odd seagulls weren't around the day the magazine people visited. But we still had a great time laughing at all the funny Japanese women who were giggling and running about from pool to pool. Brian reckons the Japanese are spying on the whole world and that's why they take so many pictures everywhere. He could have a point there.
To get the adreneline pumping again we went rafting on the Kaituna river. It only lasted an hour but we did plummet down a 7 metre waterfall and survive. From there we headed to the Corimandel Peninsula and stayed in a town who's name we've forgotten. Whoops. The hostel we're we pitched our tent was called The Cat's Pyjamas. Along with the usual collection of mangy cats the hostel had some amazingly scary posters of cats (see the photos).
You gotta hand it to the Kiwis.
Bay of Islands
There isn't a geographical feature they haven't named and signposted. Every stream, creek, culvert, gully, knob, bluff, hole and gulch we've passed has been marked. I'm not even sure what a gulch is but we've seen signs for two of them.One great geographic feature is Hot Water Beach. At low tide you can dig a hole that fills with hot water from an underground stream. After a bit of effort we had a hole but no hot water. But a nice Engish family took pity on us and let us share theirs. We stopped at another beach and participated in the Battle of Bites. It was a short battle but the sandflies won. My war wounds include 50 bites on my left foot, 65 bites on my left leg and 36 bites on my left arm. I've no idea why my left side tastes better than the right but 9 out of 10 sandflies prefer it.
Thoroughly sick of hostel cats we headed to the Bay of Islands and stayed at the Pickled Parrot. From here we went on an overnight boat trip called The Rock. It was really good value. The boat was a converted car ferry with lots of windows so I didn't have the usual urge to puke. Brian was in his element on the trip winning the shooting competition and diving for sea urchins. I almost caught a squid. We went night kayaking and got to eat raw mussels, raw sea urchin ovaries and raw fish. All delicacies in Japan unsurprisingly enough.
After The Rock we headed up to Cape Reinga to see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. I've no idea how it works but the two bodies of water literally crash into each other. Then we did some sand boarding and driving along 90 mile beach.
Back in Auckland our mission was to sell the car. After a disappointing evaluation at the car auction place ("you'd be lucky to get $700 for that") we headed to the Backpackers Car Market. This is the place where backpackers who know nothing about cars sell them to backpackers who know nothing about cars. The beauty of this system is that the cars all sell for a grand or so more than they're worth. Unless your flight is in the next hour and you have to sell your car for 50 cents. After a morning of hanging around like second car salesmen a German guy called Wincent decided to buy our car. He wasn't bothered that the mileage on the car was the equivilant of driving to the moon and back and he didn't notice I'd super glued the spoiler back on.
Unfortunately Wincent only bought half the car that day because he couldn't get any more money from the bank. We had a few nervous days waiting for the rest of the money but he came through in the end. It was a little sad selling our only asset in the entire world but there was no way we could fit a Nissan Maxima in our rucksacks. I was even sadder saying good-bye to our little tent but there wasn't room in the rucksacks for that either.
Comments
Cat's arse
I stayed in the Cat's Pyjamas too. Savage hostel. Never actually saw the cats, which was good. Sick of these bloody cats in BBH hostels. Geert is a legend for throwing one in the river.
Anyway, nice to see you guys here and there in N.Z. Sorry to see you go. Take care in South America and see you next year back in Europe.
Safe travels, and keep trying for that baby.
simon
x
The Spas.
How yis!! I think you did the exact maori night as us, i was suprised at how good it was. Its like watching the haka for an hour, mesmerizing! The spas were great, the hot pools weren't bad either. wha? It'll be great to have yis back for chrimbo. DH - chrimbo eve?