The Kiwi Experience - The North Island!

  Auckland - Wellington, New Zealand
Saturday, December 2, 2006

Day 14 - The Kiwi Experience Begins!
Had a really smooth 12 hour flight, Quantas did us proud!.  Managed to grab a few hours sleep and arrived in Auckland at 7am.  My Kiwi mate Brent picked us up and took us back to his pad on the North Shore of Auckland - a place with a 1.4 million population and considering NZ has a total of 4 million, its a big city. 

Auckland from One Tree Hill

 He took us up to Mount Eden and One Tree Hill (U2 named a song of this from the Joshua Tree), fantastic views of Auckland and surrounding area. 

Brent and Tati overlooking Auckland

Had a nice BBQ back at Brents and had a good night out in Auckland in the Evening, stayed up and watched Arsenal v Spurs until 3am - worth staying up for too :-), before we would get on our bus at 6.45am - blimey the endurance test was too begin!.
 
Day 15 - Up very bright and early and set-off to the Paihia - 'Bay of Islands'.   Followed the beautiful Hibiscus Coastline and arrived around lunchtime.  Hopped straight onto the Awesome Adventures Dolphin Boat. 

Bay of Islands

On the way to the dolphins

We managed to find 3 pools of dolphins in the bay, unfortunately could not swim with them due to the amount of baby dolphins.  We could though lie flat on the deck and be so close to the dolphins swimming underneath and alongside the boat - amazing experience. 

It's Flipper

Swimming with the Dolphins

Spent 4 hours on the boat and witnessed a good chunk of the 140 islands in the bay. Beautiful place, but would say this alot about NZ! 
Arrived back in Auckland and meet up with Brent and Tati (his wife) for an hour or so, before having a rare early night in the Hostel.

Day 16 -  We boarded the Kiwi Bus that would be the bus we would stay on for the whole 23 days of our trip, with our driver 'Toddy' - great chap! Within five minutes we had already established a good group of mates who would dominate the back of the coach for the next few weeks - and guess who the ring leaders were:-) -  The guys - Andy from Bournemouth, Johnny and Rob from Skipton, Yorkshire (more on these two jokers later!), Sam from Kent and Neil from Newcastle.  Ladies beware :-)
We set off from Auckland and out onto the motorway to a small town called Thames, before crossing through the township of Tairua.  Stopped at the 'Hot Water Beach' - great place where you dig into the sand and create your own Hot Water pool! 

Hot Pools

Passed through Cathedral Cove and Hahei Beach before arriving into Mercury Bay in the evening.
Had a quick stroll along Buffalo Beach, before checking into our hostel and spent a few hours watching the depressing sight of our cricket team in the local! Got to know some more great guys Jerome (a mad Frenchman), Steph from Canada and a German girl who would enjoy Nick's company for a few days!
 
Day 17 - Left Mercury bay bright and early to head to Rotorua.  En-route to Rotorua we stopped off for a few hours to explore the stunning Karangahake Gorge.  Walked over some 'Indiana Jones' style rope bridges and explored the mining caves of the gorge - really cool! 

The Gorge

Went via Paeroa - famous for the Lemon and Paeroa Spring Water - not a patch on the Peckham spring I might add!  We then stopped off at Hobbiton - home of the Hobbits shire in lord of the rings - set picture with Gollum :-)

Precious

and arrived at Rotorua just after lunch. 
Explored the many solphuric pools - gee these smell! - Toddy told us the local park blew up the week before last, must be a nightmare walking the dog!  We then had a few activities to choose - we decided to do a three man wet Zorbe down a hill!  Myself, Nick and Andy - the Bournemouth boys! 

Zorbing Boys

The idea being you stay on your feet for as long as possible - we last around a second - great fun though! 
We then had a great evening organized with a local Maori tribe. 

Maori Boys dont mess about

They took us up to their local village.  We had to select a tribal leader - Andy got the duty and he was meet by 6 massive native Maori's doing the Haka.  Had a nice buffet tea (even the chefs and waiters do the Haka - gave the old English stare - soon put a stop to that!) and were entertained with a  traditional Poi dance - lovely! 

Lovely Sing Song

Got back to find England had been skittled out for a few runs in the cricket, so got the spirits up with a nice dance and a few drinks in the hostel bar.
 
 Day 18 - Left Rotorua for Waitomo and the famous 'Glowworm Caves'.  Stopped off at the Marokopa River and Waterfalls - really good. 

The lads next too the Waterfall

About to enter the Caves

Arrived at a really cool lodge style Hostel, before departing in our mini-bus to the caves.  Got kitted out in a our wetsuits and departed in a rubber tubes into the caves.   This was really awesome!  Had to go pot-holing style into the caves and jump in our tyres into the water, before linking up, turning our light off and watching the amazing glow of the worms.  Made our way through the caves and jumping off 2 waterfalls inside the cave and avoiding the odd eel or two! Was the best experience so far, great fun!
Got back to the hostel and had a group BBQ and beers, which was really cool. 

The Team

Now having mentioned Johnny and Rob early this was to become the funniest night I've had in a long while.  They argue like Jack and Vera Duckworth and the stories they came out with being only 21 made me cry - Peter Kay watch out! Needless to say we all had a  few beers, especially Johnny who got a little wasted and playing pool until 3am was very amusing to say the least!

Day 19 -  Set off from Waitomo mid morning to Taupo - adventure capital of the north.  Stopped off at the Tongariro National Park and saw the cone-shaped mountain Nguaruahoe, also known as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. 

Lake Taupo and Mount Doom

Had a quick chat with Gandolf and headed into Taupo early afternoon.  This was too be our first stop over place, so we had a little time to burn for a change.  Some of the guys (including Neil and Johnny) went to do the 15,000 ft skydive over Lake Taupo - asked if i was going to undertake this extreme activity, my response was short and sweet - I ain't going in no plane sucker! Instead the sensible ones amongst us Myself, Nick, Sam, Rob and Andy went for a great round of 'extreme' golfing :-) Beautiful course and only 3 quid a round!  Got back and had a walk around the lovely Lake (largest lake in Australasia - 616 sq kilometres). 
Then the evening entertainment would begin, the first night we would have out and get a lie-in and the old normski would take total advantage of this - still got it! A big group of 20 of us hit the town, first to Mulligans for cheap drinks, pool and even a game of drunken darts!  Then into the infamous 'Holy Cow' nightclub - total bedlam, crazy dancing and far too many jaegarbombs, but a great night. 
 

The Holy Cow!

The Yorkshire Boys Rob and Johnny

Having let the other drunken boys and girls hit their beds, left Nick with his young Fraulein, Myself and Johnny ended up staying up till 7am with a bunch of lovely ladies who were joining our bus tomorrow - its all about ground work you see - happy days me old china!

Day 20 - Some of the guys Rob, Jerome, Steph and Nora left us to join the EastAs bus, so some sore heads in the morning for them as the bus left at 8.30am - still the rest of us had a great lie-in - hard lines!  Took it fairly easy as you can imagine, but had a long walk round the lake again and another quick game of golf to get rid of the hangovers! Enjoyed a nice evening with the ladies from the night before, said our goodbyes to Sam who left for Fiji and again didn't get to bed till 3am - blimey its like Portugal all over again!

Here we go...

Day 21 - Left Taupo bright and early for the long drive to River Valley - another stop over place.  On route we drove through the Tongariro National Park, where much of the Lord of The Rings filming was done, really was beautiful. Stopped off at the Taranaki Falls for an hour and headed into River Valley mid-afternoon. 

River Valley

River Valley is a lodge in the middle of nowhere.  Self contained with a great big room with a huge fireplace, was really cool.  Had a great roast dinner - a few veggies - fantastic.  Spent most of the evening, playing cards and singing along to a Neil playing the guitar.  Ended up being myself and Lisa, and Johnny and Louise left up telling ghost stories until the wee hours, how easy is it too scare a lady :-).  The weather was really cold and the log fire was well received!

Day 22 - Nick and Andy left fairly early to do the White Water Rafting, which was on grade 5 rapids and looked really cool from the dvd footage they bought back.  They only fell out once - well done lads!  Myself, Johnny and the girls had a nice walk along the river and through the countryside. 

The lovely ladies

Got chased by a few sheep and meet up with others to leave River Valley around 1pm for the drive to Wellington.  Drove through some fantastic countryside, before arriving into Wellington late afternoon for another stop over.  Myself and the lads went for a great Chinese and ended up in some Irish bar for a good night.  Stayed up until 7am to watch the Chelsea v Arsenal game, with Lisa and a few of the lads, before finally hitting the hay.

Day 23 - Had a nice walk around the city of Wellington and the harbour front - it was really a lovely city. 

Wellington

Went to the Te Papa Museum, which explains the history of N.Z from the animals to the make up of the landscape - was cool.  Nick meet up with some friends of the family and we went for a meal in the Sports Cafe. Had a fairly quiet evening and said my goodbye to the ladies, who were going to stay in Wellington for a few days. 

Last Night in Wellington

We had a 6am start to catch the ferry across to the South Island.
So we had reached our half way point in N.Z, a truly fantastic country with wonderful landscape and towns. If the South Island was going to be anything like the North Island we would be in for a treat!