Hot Water Beach/Waitomo

Day five, we meet our new bus driver and got a little more info on how the rest of the week will look, if you stick to the Kiwi Experience recommended itinerary. We left early and headed over to Hot Water Beach, where we stayed in dorms at a holiday park. A handful of us did a kayak tour of Cathedral Cove and spent our afternoon looking at the Coromandel Peninsula from the ocean. Hot Water Beach is known for it's hot water pools that you can dig on the beach. The geothermal activity is very high on the north island, with heaps of volcanoes and geothermal activity, and the earths crust is very thin in the Coromandel Peninsula. However, the only time to dig these natural hot springs is at low tide. Since we didn't arrive in Hot Water Beach until 1pm, that meant that we wouldn't be able to see the hot water pools until midnight. So after kayaking, we all made our own dinners in the kitchens, and hung out, killing time until midnight. We went down to the beach, in the pitch black, all bringing our flashlights torches to see where to dig. You could see the steam coming up out out of the ground and all of a sudden the sand went from cold to burning hot. I literally burned my feet walking across it. We The men started to dig in the sand, to exposure the natural springs underneath the surface, and try and get a good ratio of cold and hot water, because the water bubbling up from under the ground was scalding! We all laid down in our little pools that we dug (I held the torch while the men dug), and watched the stars for a while. It was a fun experience and nothing I have ever seen before or may ever see again!

Day six started far too early with the bus leaving at 7am to head to Waitomo. Waitomo is known for it's underwater glowworm caves. We got to the hostel in the afternoon and waited for our tour times. Ella (the girl I met on day 1) and I decided to do the cheaper/shorter version of the tour. Partially because the longer, more expensive tour has abseiling (NO THANK YOU!) and a zip line flying fox where they turn off your headlamp so you do it in a pitch black cave (DOUBLE NO THANK YOU). The guys we have been hanging out with, and the majority of the rest of the tour decided to do the more expensive, more adventurous one.  The caves are very dark and there are many areas that you start to feel a bit claustrophobic, but it was a lot of fun and very cool to see the glowworms. We weren't allowed to take cameras down in the caves, but the views were spectacular and something really unique. The guides took pictures, but it wasn't worth the price to purchase them.The worms maggots glow because their food mixes with a chemical in their bodies and produces that affect. So basically these pretty things we are looking at are maggot's shit. The glow attracts other insects to it and the worms will eat those insects. We were wearing full wetsuits, with feet and all, with a helmet with a headlamp to see where we were going, but the water was quite cold. The caves are 65meters below the ground, and they were really spectacular to look at too. There were crickets and eels, but I tried to not think about them. The shorter version, that was less physically/mentally challenging still had it's challenges. There were two waterfalls, 1 small and 1 bigger that we had to jump backwards (yes backwards!) off with our inter-tube into the water below. I did it with extreme anxiety, but I did it. It was a a lot of fun, and very cool thing to look at.  Below are pictures I found on google to give you an idea of what the caves looked like and what I looked like.

Rotorua is next.

Bye for now <3

Bay of Islands

A few years ago I had friends come over and tour New Zealand, they loved the tour that they did and highly recommended it. I decided to do the same tour, Kiwi Experience. It's a hop on, hop of bus system where you can stay in one city as long as you want, and they have buses that come through each town every day or every few days. You have a year from your start date to finish your whole pass, which mine is both the north and south island.  So if you like a town you can stop there, find a job and live for a while. The bus drivers take you to cool areas, tells you about the towns, and get you great discounts on all the activities around the country.

The first part of my Kiwi Experience tour was up to Paihia, which is in the Bay of Islands near the top of the north island. Paihia is a little town, with lots of fun activities. I made friends with the girl next to me on the bus trip up to the hostel, and we have since done mostly everything together. The first day when we arrived we rushed to get on our dolphin tour. It was a 4 hour boat ride around the 144 islands (we only went around a few of the islands) looking at the gorgeous landscape and trying to find dolphins. We were not guaranteed that we would find any or be able to swim with them, but only 20 minutes into the tour we found a massive pod of dolphins and jumped in and snorkeled around with them. I had never snorkeled so I was a bit worried I would miss out, but I picked it up quickly and was able to swim around and watch the dolphins play. It was so cool. That night the hostel we were staying at offered a BBQ, and afterwards a lot of the Kiwi Experience people hung out and got to know each other.

Day two we went on a day tour up to the top of the north island, Cape Reinga. On our way we learned a bit about the Maori culture (the first people to occupy New Zealand-more to come on their culture in a future post). We drove the bus down the famous ninety mile beach, which is actually only 55 miles long. And yes, the bus actually drove on the sand. We then went sand boarding, which is exactly what it sounds like, it's boogie boarding down sand dunes. Then onto Cape Reinga to see where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide.The last stop was to get legendary fish and chips or as the kiwi's say it with their accents "fush and chups".

Day three was the day that most went sky diving. I however, even in the adventure capitol of the world, will not be jumping out of or off anything. I spent the day on the beach, skpying the family, and wandering the small town. That evening we decided to have a night out in the town, and see what the locals do. We ended up at the hostel bar, but had a fantastic time. I've been spending the majority of my time until now with two people, both from England. They find it fun to mock my accent, and try and teach me proper English, the Queen's English. They seem to enjoy the facial expressions I have to make in order to copy their accent.

Day four we leave the pretty Bay of Islands to head back to Auckland. That day was just regrouping from the late night before and having a stopover in Auckland because we had to, in order to catch our next bus to Hot Water Beach.

More on Hot Water Beach later.

Bye for now <3 

Auckland and Family

I have been in New Zealand a week now, and spending the majority of my time in the Auckland area. I have family that lives in Auckland, so I've been very lucky that they graciously let me stay at their house and have shown me the cool local areas along with some of the touristy places. The first few days in Auckland were not the best weather, with rain and wind, and low clouds so visibility was low. However, even when there was bad weather there was plenty of things that you can still do. We drove around Auckland, saw downtown the CBD (Central Business District) and continued on to have brunch in a cafe that overlooked the city. When it rains it's also a perfect excuse to spend the afternoon/evening in a bar.

So far I've learned that New Zealand is a bit smaller than California, but has a population of only 4.5 million people, with about 1.5 million of them living in Auckland. The Auckland area is built upon several inactive volcanoes. However I still feel like I'm in a small city, and the suburbs around the city center centre feel very quaint and quiet. It's been great to catch up with my cousin and get to know him better, since it's been 10 years if not longer since I saw him last. I love how vibrant and vivid the landscape is, it's nothing I've seen before.

Friday the weather was beautiful, so we drove down to Piha, the west coast are known for their black sand beaches. The sand is black due to high iron in the sand from volcanic rocks. Piha is also known for really good surf, but really bad rips and currents. After Piha we went to Karekare, which has the widest beach that I've ever seen. Right off of the beach was a beautiful secluded waterfall. It was so pretty and hard to believe that only a half hour away from the big city are these beautiful areas.

Saturday the rain returned, but we took a ferry ride over to Waiheke Island, which is known for it's vineyards and beautiful landscape. We went on a wine tour and I was able to taste all the different wines of the region. It was a great day, with lots of laughs and drinks.

Sunday was my day to regroup and get ready for my tour. I spent the morning wandering the city centre on foot and seeing the tourist sights. Tomorrow morning I leave bright and early for my Kiwi Experience tour, which is a hop on/hop off bus tour that will take me all over both the north and south island. From what I have seen so far, I am very excited to see more of the country.

Bye for now <3