I am back in Sydney after returning from New Zealand at 7:45 a.m. this morning! All I can say, is that my trip to New Zealand was one of the best, if not the best, trips of my life. The country is absolutely beautiful and there is so much culture and character to New Zealand. Traveling with 6 of my closest friends in such an amazing country could not have been a better experience. It is going to take me a while to update every part of my trip onto this blog, so I will do it in increments throughout the next couple of days. Let the journey begin!
Wednesday, April 20th:
Adam and I woke up at 2:30 a.m. with only getting about 2 hours of sleep. The other 5 of my friends were leaving either Friday or Saturday night, and meeting us in the South Island in Christchurch. The taxi came at 3:45 a.m., and we got to the airport before it even opened! I did not know that international airports closed at all, but luckily we did not have to wait very long outside of the airport.
Upon checking in, I learned something about traveling, especially internationally, that I will keep in the back of my mind for the rest of my life. Adam and I walked up to the counter, and the ticket agent asked for proof that we bought a ticket into New Zealand, and had a return ticket back to Australia at the end of the 12 days. We both have a Visa for Australia and New Zealand, and I did not understand why we needed to show proof when clearly it was written on their computer. Luckily, I printed my travel itinerary out before we left, but Adam did not. At 4:15 a.m. with nothing open, we were scrambling to find a computer to print out his travel documents to show the ticket agent. It was a good thing we got to the airport early, because we barely had enough time to check in once we printed out what he needed. Note to self next time I travel: Check to make sure you know everything about different countries polices before heading to the airport!
Our plane took off at 6:30 a.m., and we arrived in Auckland, which is in the North Island at 11:30 a.m. Right after gathering our bags, we headed to the hostel we were staying at on Friday night to drop off our bags for a couple hours. The reason we did this is because we took a bus from Auckland to Paihia later that night, so we needed a place to store our luggage while we walked around the city for the time being.
Auckland reminded me a bit like Sydney, but definitely was not nearly as nice or beautiful as Sydney. The city was not bad, but it definitely was not a place you could spend more than a day or two exploring. We got lunch, then walked around and saw the Auckland Bridge from a distance. Auckland also has a Sky Tower, which is a little taller than the one in Sydney.
I also learned that the Rugby World Cup is being held in New Zealand in a couple of months, so there was rugby stuff EVERYWHERE! We walked by a mall, and outside they had these huge signs with the countdown of when the games started lit up in red. It made me excited to see that other countries besides America are very much into sports.
Once we walked around the city for about 2.5 hours, it was time to board our bus to Paihia. The bus left at 4 p.m., and we arrived in Paihia around 7:30 p.m. Paihia is located at the very top of the North Island, directly above Auckland. We decided to go to Paihia because I heard that it was a beautiful place to go, and that Auckland did not have much to offer for 3 days. I met a girl about a month ago who told me that there was a day and a half tour of the top of the North Island, and that she highly recommended doing it. Therefore, we decided to go for it!
When arriving in Paihia, Adam and I got dinner and checked into our hostel. The hostel probably should have won an award for the "best atmosphere" because it was located right on a beach. The hostel had a jacuzzi, and provided kayaks to go in the ocean and bikes to ride around the town. Since we were up at 2:3o a.m., and had to wake up at 6:30 a.m. the next morning, Adam and I went in the jacuzzi and then went to bed. Even though we had a super long day, I was so excited for what was to come in New Zealand!
Thursday, April 21st:
We woke up at 6:30 a.m., which was really 4:30 a.m. in Sydney! It was a bit of a struggle waking up so early, but we managed to do it knowing that we had an amazing tour ahead of us. The tour bus picked us up at 7:15 a.m., and we were on our way!
The first place we stopped was the Puketi Kauri Forest, which covers 15,000 hectares containing 7,000 hectares of New Zealand's largest Kauri trees. These trees are over 1,000 years old! The tour guide told us that these trees could be huge, which I pictured them to be like Redwood Trees. Even though they were pretty big, they were not nearly as big as Redwood Trees. We took a walk around the site for about 30 minutes, admiring the size of the trees and how old these trees actually were!
After seeing the Kauri trees, we got back on the bus and went to the Seabreeze Bakery in Taipa for morning tea. I think it is the New Zealand culture to have morning tea, because every single morning for the 12 days I was in New Zealand, we stopped for morning tea. There, I picked up a sandwich for lunch and got this amazing apple pastry that was AMAZING! I honestly have never tasted something so good in my life that was made with apples. I debated for about 10 minutes whether to go back and buy the rest of the pastrys, but ended up deciding against it :(.
We then got back on the bus, and made our way to Doubtless Bay, which contains many beautiful beaches. The Bay was named by Captain Cook in 1769 because he though that there was no fresh water in New Zealand, and really wanted to find some. His mission was to find this fresh water, but when he though there was none, he doubted if fresh water was even real.
The next stop was Cape Reinga, which is the very top point of the North Island of New Zealand. We learned on the bus ride over that the Maori people, who are the original people living in New Zealand, come here because it is the most spiritual place in the world for them. Cape Reinga is the departing place of the Maori spirits and is where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. There is a lighthouse on the point of the cliff, which flashes every 26 seconds and can be seen from over 50 km away! I absolutely loved this place because not only was it beautiful, but there was an actual line where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea met! I did not believe it until I saw it, but it was amazing to look at.
If you look close enough, you can see the line!
Once leaving Cape Reinga, we went sandboarding at Te Paki! To get to where we went sandboarding, we had to drive through quick sand. Supposedly, our bus was made to be able to drive in the quick sand, but we could not stop driving or we would sink. The Te Paki Quick Sand Steam is the only access to the 90 Mile Beach from the North, and is often a trap for private motorists. People do not realize it is quicksand and stop their car, which begins to actually sink. I always thought quicksand was fake and just in movies, but little did I know, it is actually real!
In case you do not know, sandboarding involves a huge natural hill made of sand, and boogie boards. I had no clue what sandboarding was, but all I can say is, it was extremely fun! What you have to do it hike up the huge sand hill, lay down on your boogie board, lift up your feet, and ride the board all the way down. If you keep your feet up the entire way, you actually go extremely fast. It was a lot more intense than I expected, but still really fun. When I was done, I had sand in places I did not think was possible!
After sandboarding for a while, we got back in the bus and headed to the 90 Mile Beach. The 90 Mile Beach is an actual highway for cars and people drive along the beach when the tides are not too high. I asked the tour guide why the beach is called the 90 Mile Beach if in New Zealand they do not use miles, rather kilometers. He said that the beach is actually 90 kilometers, but a long time ago the people living in that area took their cattle for 3 days from the beginning of the beach to the end of the beach. The walk took them 3 days, and they estimated that they walked 30 miles a day. 30 miles a day times 3 days equals the 90 miles. These people took the beach road because it was faster than taking the dirt road. This drive was amazing because I have never driven in a car, let alone a bus, along the beach. The bus driver said we were averaging about 115 kilometers the entire way! There is no road or anything on the beach, just the sand and the water. Along the beach, we saw from a distance a huge rock with a hole in it, which the Maori people created a mythical story as to why there is a hole in it.
After driving along the beach for about 30 minutes, we went to the Ancient Kauri Kingdom. This store is known for its range of furniture and arts and crafts made out of Kauri wood. It was amazing to see the things that were carved out of this wood. I walked by a couch that was $55,000 made out of the oldest wood in New Zealand!
The last and final stop we made was at a place that was famous in New Zealand for its fish and chips. Since I do not like fish, I have never eaten it before. I decided that since I was at this famous place, I just had to try it! It ended up actually being pretty good, but tasted more fried than like fish.
Our day ended around 6:30 p.m. when we were dropped off at our hostel. Since Adam and I were gone all day, we decided to relax in the jacuzzi for the night and then go to bed since we had the second half of our tour the next day!
Friday, April 22nd:
We got to sleep in a little bit this morning by waking up at 7:30 a.m. The half day tour that we did this day included a 4 hour sailing trip around the Bay of Islands off of Paihia. Adam and I had to meet at the wharf at 9 a.m., and left on the boat for the morning. The boat ride was absolutely beautiful and the weather could not have been more perfect. We sailed along for a bit, and then the captain came on the loud speaker to look over into the water because there were about 20 dolphins swimming right next to our boat. I honestly have never seen so many wild dolphins swimming together in my life! Supposedly dolphins love a boat's wake, so they were swimming right along the boat the entire time for about 20 minutes and jumped over the wake in the back of the boat.
We also saw a lighthouse along a cliff that was built in 1910, and a little house on the same cliff.
My favorite part besides seeing the dolphins was going through this massive hole in the middle of a cliff in the boat. We had to wait for the perfect time to head through because the water was so rough and the captain had to time it exactly right.
The scenery was absolutely beautiful and the boat ride was really fun. We got back on shore around 1:15 p.m. and grabbed lunch. Paihia is a very small town, but we walked around it for about 2 hours before getting back on the bus to head back to Auckland. We had to head back because we left the next day out of Auckland Airport to head to Christchurch in the South Island. We left Paihia around 4 p.m., and got to our hostel in Auckland around 8 p.m.
Once arriving in Auckland, we went to a Mexican Restaurant. When I walked in, I noticed that there were only Asians working in the restaurant, and no Mexicans. This was a bit of a culture shock to me because in America, and especially in California, only Mexicans work in a Mexican Restaurant. I was not concerned at all about eating at the restaurant, it was just something different than I was used to seeing.
After dinner, Adam and I went to our hostel where we hung out with the other roommates we had. One of the guys who was in our room was in the Christchurch earthquake in February. He said that he was driving in a motor home and saw a building collapse right in front of him. My favorite part about hostels is hearing people's stories and learning about where everyone is from who you room with. We all talked for a while, and then Adam and I went to bed because we had to wake up at 6 a.m. the next morning to head to Christchurch to meet the rest of our friends and start our 8 day tour of the South Island!
I will update my blog again tomorrow with the beginning of the tour in the South Island. My hands are cramped from writing all of this, so I am going to take a break until tomorrow. Sorry I have to leave you reading like this and have it be such a cliff hanger!
Heaps of Love,
Heidi
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