Westport/Franz Josef/Wanaka

Westport is a small little surf town on the west side of the south island. We got there late that day, just in time for a few people to go out surfing. I opted to save my money for other things. That night our bus driver took the majority of the bus over to the beach for a bonfire at sunset. Men will be men…..all they could do is talk about making the fire bigger. We sat around drinking and enjoying the bonfire on the beach. We were warned by friends on an earlier bus that quiet little Westport ends up being a crazy wild night. After the bonfire we went out to a bar and had a few drinks. From the stories in the morning it does sound like it was a crazy epic night for several, however I was exhausted and ended up home relatively early that night.

The next day we set off for Franz Josef, where the main attraction is walking across a glacier. The first night in Franz Josef we partook in all you can eat pizza, and caught up with all our friends that were on the bus ahead of us at the bar that night. The next morning, bright and early we got up to walk across a glacier. We got to the shop and find out due to weather they have postponed the walk for an hour. I had flashbacks to Taupo and missing out on the volcano walk. Luckily, an hour later the weather was decent enough to go up. They gave us hats, gloves, water proof outfits, boots and crampons for our boots. The crampons are these spikes you strap on your boots that help you dig into the ice so you don’t slip and slide around. The only way up to the glacier is by helicopter. It was my first time it a helicopter, and it was a frightening and exciting experience. When we got up to the glacier our guide started hacking away at the ice to create footpaths for us to walk on. Stairs made out of ice so we could walk up and down the glacier, and see the caves, crevasses, waves, slopes, and all the other cool features of the glacier. It was a much different experience than what I thought it would be, and the glacier is dirtier than I thought it would be; but it was a lot of fun and I’m glad I was able to see a glacier up close.  At the end of the 4 hour tour we went to have a well-deserved cheeseburger and then headed to the glacier hot water pools to warm up. It was a fantastic but tiring day, with a night in watching movies in our “flashpacker dorm room” (it had a tv and kettle in it).

Wanaka was a sleepy little town, it reminded me of a ski resort town. It was raining that day, so any activities were cancelled, so we all decided to go to the cinema instead. It was a unique experience, because the owners have made it a comfy cinema, with sofas, blankets, and you can take meals or drinks into the theater with you. They also have intermission where you can purchase freshly baked cookies.We all decided on an early night since we knew it would be a bit epic in Queenstown.

Next stop Queenstown!

Bye for now <3

Kairterteri

We left the North Island and took the ferry across the Cook Straight to the South Island, to our first stop of Kaiteriteri, where the Abel Tasman National Park is located. Thankfully my friend and I decided to add an extra night in Kaiteriteri so that we would have time to venture the beautiful National Park. The ferry across the Cook Straight was suppose to take 3 hours, it was THE LONGEST FERRY OF MY LIFE! We were on the boat for 6 hours!!!! Double the amount of time it should have taken. We all slept the first half, and were in this delirious, cabin fever state the second half. We spent several more hours on the bus to get to Kaiterteri, 12 hour day traveling today. The second day we said goodbye to most of our friends that we have made along the way, and will catch back up with them later on the tour; and continued into the national park. My friend and I did a 6.7km walk through the beautiful park overlooking the gorgeous turquoise water. I will try and post pictures of the trip, at least the highlights so everyone can see how gorgeous this country is.

Net stop is Westport, surf spot.....

Bye for now<3

River Valley/Wellington

River Valley was our next stop and literally it was in the middle of nowhere. No internet, wifi, or serviced on my phone. It reminded me of a cabin you would find in the woods back home, very rustic and interesting. The lodge we stayed at had a 32 person dorm room, and by dorm room, I mean mattresses lined up in rows. It's been nicknames the orgy room because it's just mattresses lined up in a rows and the bus driver used the phrase"if walls could talk". Our room was tame, just some shwasted people. The highlight of River Valley is the outdoor activities you can do. You could do walks, horse treks, or white water rafting. I opted for the rafting. It was so much fun. The rapids were great, and even though I was crazy nervous it was fun. The guide was interactive with us and would have us jump left or right to help get the raft through or over rocks, it was quite entertaining I'm sure to watch me hurl my body half off the raft going down rapids. There were a few points that truly stand out. The first was when we were going down a rapid and it got stuck and he asked us to all go to the front of the boat, from my waist down I was in the boat, my top half hanging over the edge. Myself and a friend ended up going head first down the rapid, plunging under the water while the rest of the raft finished coming over the rapid. The second memorable thing was when I fell out of the raft at the end of a rapid, ALL my friends laughed at me hysterically for falling out because we aren't exactly sure how it even happened. The third was when the raft was flipped over (I think purposefully by our guide) and we all ended up underneath the raft. And lastly, when I willingly jumped off a 6m (19ft) rock into the river below. If you know my fear of heights, you know that's a big deal for me. It was a great day, that ended with a roast dinner, which with my aversion to garlic and onion proved to be quite tricky.

Wellington was the next night. The majority of the bus decided to go to a rugby game, because the Wellington Hurricanes were playing the night we were in town. We all walked down from the hostel to the game together and sat together while we watched the game, then afterwards went out to explore the nightlife of Wellington (supposedly the best place in NZ for nightlife). It was such a quick stopover that I really was unable to explore the city and what it has to offer. So when I come back to do the Tongariro Crossing I will also come back to Wellington.

Next stop Kaiteriteri (first stop on the South Island)....

Bye for now <3

Taupo

Next on my trip was Lake Taupo. Taupo is around an active volcano, and is a quaint little village of around 3,000. We are required to stay 2 nights in Taupo to give the bus driver a day off, but my friend and I decided to stay an extra night in Taupo. The main reason that people come to Taupo is to do the Tongariro Crossing, which is a 19km walk over and around active and dormant volcanoes and through a massive national park. Everyone that I know that has done it says it's the best day they have ever had and that it is amazing. The day we arrived we found out that the crossing was closed due to gail force winds the next day, so we were very happy we booked an extra day. However, the next day we found out, yet again, that the crossing was closed due to snow and wind. So we stayed an extra night in this town for nothing. Oh well, it was pretty, and FREEZING! [literally it was 0C (32F)]. When it's windy and rainy what do you do? You sit in cafes all morning chatting with your friends about the shenanigans the night before, spend the afternoon napping or reading in your dorm room, and the evening at the pub/bar, and repeat.

Although we missed a massive part of the tour and I'm gutted that I will not get to see it on the Kiwi Experience tour, now I have a reason to come back to this beautiful country!

Next is River Valley....

Bye for now <3

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