Day 1: we boarded the Stray bus in Auckland to head out on our 7 day New Zealand adventure. We headed south east towards Hahei Beach, but first we stopped off at a different beach where there are really hot stones underneath the surface and if you dig a little you can create your hot pool. It was pretty popular location the day we went as you can see here:
As you can see it was a pretty popular spot.... after we got to the beach hiked up to Cathedral Cove and camp back down just in time for a barbie :) if you don't know what a barbie is... its a bbq and clearly you'be never seen an Outback steakhouse commercial.
Day 2: We left rainy Hahei and headed all the way to the other side of the island to the beautiful Raglan. Raglan is like the surf capital of New Zealand and apparently it has the longest left-hand break in the world. Since you only live once I decided to try surfing (I'm pretty terrified of deep ocean water, something about not being able to stand after wading in like 10 ft freaks me out), I slipped on my water sausage casing, i.e. wetsuit, and headed out to catch some rad waves. I eventually stood but it wasn't without numerous knockouts and a couple surfboard smacks to the face. All in all I think I may stick to snow sports.
Day 3: We left beautiful Raglan and went through Waitomo to Maketu. Waitomo is famous for their caves, which have sorts of neato geology things in them. I get claustrophobic easily and the thought of roaming around caves in the dark freaked me out, so instead I wandered around some nature trails and wandered into a few caves. I also saw cows! I was a little too excited to see the cows, I secretly really want to tip one one... but so you can live in my joy here's a picture of a cow:
I know your jealous that you didn't get up close to these beauties...
After Waitomo we drove to Maketu, where we went to Maori lodge and learned something about the Maori culture. We performed the haka and poi, well I only performed the poi because I'm a woman. It was pretty fun, although the Maori are really good at making these scary faces which they make during the dances, I can't make the face.... I just look like an angry fish... I'm glad I can just intimidate my enemies with my sheer strength.
Day 4: We ;left the Maori behind and drove to Rotorua... which is the smelliest place I have ever been. Rotorua is the biggest geothermal spot in New Zealand. There are geysers everywhere, it'd be pretty easy to roast someone here, get pissed and just throw them in. We spent a little time in the city, mostly souvenir shops, and then drove to a boiling mud pit, that was extra smelly. We also went a "secret" place and swam in a pool where hot and cold water met. After Rotorua we drove to Taupo and spent the night there. Taupo was really cool and laid back, we hit the town that night. Hostels do discount drinks which if your poor like me are a life saver. Going out in New Zealand is a lot more laid back then in Sydney, for starters the bouncers are actually friendly... and its more of a hang out then dancing. I made some new friends and had heaps of fun.
Day 5: We left civilization and drove out to the Blue Duck Lodge which is up in the middle of nowhere. The goal of the lodge is to help save two endangered species: the kiwi and the blue duck. The lodge is also situated on land that was originally given to returning soldiers from World War I to thank them for their services. However, the land is out in the middle of nowhere and almost impossible to get anything to and from it. Its no surprise that the success rate was very low. The property was beautiful even though it was pouring rain outside. I made a facial out of the mud, and I think my friend and I would have scared an unsuspecting passer by... that night my trip and I congregated around the fire and enjoyed each others company, no ones electronics worked so we actually had to talk to each other... weird right?
Day 6: We left Blue Duck lodge to go to Tangareo crossing, which is about an 8 hour hike, and another hour and half if you want to try and summit. Being me I never turn down the opportunity to make a mountain my bitch, but it was pouring rain and visibility would have been nada so I whimped out and did a short 2 hour hike around instead. Did I mention that everything looks like Middle Earth?? Well they filmed where I was hiking around and I could have summited Mount Doom, ya I'm that cool... Instead I hid out and watched Lord of the Rings instead, I had a nightmare about Orcs... it was terrifying.
Day 7: We left Middle Earth behind and drove to Wellington. Wellington was a cool city its pretty small compared to American and Australian cities but it still has a vibrant city life. We went out that night and had a pretty grand time.
The end of the adventure: so I can't read schedules and I thought the trip ended on Saturday, funny story is it ended on Friday. Our flight back to Australia was bright and early Sunday morning. Being poor college students we ruled out paying for another hostel... so we explored Wellington during the day. There's a free museum Te Papau and it was SO COOL! It was completely free which is so rare, and it was HUGE. We spent hours there and then putzed around some more and then went to the airport. It is technically illegal to sleep in the Wellington airport because it closes at 1am. You can sleep there if you can prove that you have an early flight. So we crashed on some lounge chairs that we pushed together and slept for about 3 hours. Sleeping in the airport is not ideal and I would recommend avoiding it as much as possible. But we didn't get kicked out and we all made our flights the next morning.
That's the end of my New Zealand adventure... a couple of remaining thoughts:
1) fun fact: small New Zealand towns build a statue of what their known for, so there was ton with a huge carrot statue, it was pretty funny.
2) I ate an obscene amount of mackers(McDonalds)... I'm still disgusted with myself
3) I suffered some causalities on the trip, my ray bans and nook are no longer with us
4) if you're Canadian, I just have one question: why do you wear your flag on your bags and sweaters?? Can someone please explain that to me.
Adios!
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