Day 5 - Cape Reinga - Scotch Mist

The day of the Cape Reinga day trip dawned, and the weather seemed to be a good metaphor of how i was feeling after the previous night. It was grey and drizzly with fog. The first place we visited was a huge great big Kauri Tree in a natural Kauri forest. This was somewhere that the queen had visited, and they had built a wooden walkway especially for her visit. We took a short walk through the forest before heading back to the bus. The next stop was the town of Taipa, which is believed to be the first Maori landing point. We stopped there to pick up some lunch from the bakery, and to use the toilets, which were bogging! The doors didn't lock properly, they stunk and they were outside.We then headed straight onwards to Cape Reinga, which is believed to be the departure point for souls as they leave New Zealand and head towards the ancient lands of Hawaiki. When we arrived, we found that the fog had closed in completely, and we could only just se the lighthouse. We couldn't see the meeting of the sea, or the ancient tree form whose branches the souls apparently leap. I took a quick picture in my kilt, but was pretty disappointed with the lack of view. We clambered back aboard the bus, a bit downhearted, and our driver, Dice, told us not to worry, because the sand boarding would be fast and fun. To get to the Te Paki giant sand dunes we had to pass through the Te Paki stream, which was quite a bumpy ride. We stopped the bus right in the middle of the stream, on a sand bank, and we disembarked to try our hand at sand boarding. First we had some safety instructions, and we were warned not to dig our feet in if the sand was too hard packed by the rain, but it turned out to be quite soft, which made it easier to go slower, and harder to get up the sand dune. It was awful climbing up, as every few steps forward brought another step or two of sliding back. We reached the top and proceeded to throw ourselves down the dune on body boards. it was great, fast fun. On my first turn i lost grip of the board and stopped at the bottom of the slope by means of my face. It didn't help that I had been trying not to hit the idiot who was standing in my way. I got up, unscathed but with a faceful of sand, and headed back up the dune to try again. The next time I managed to hold on, and I made it all the way into the stream. Great success. That was me for sand boarding, however, as I couldn't quite summon the energy to try to get back up the dune again. After everyone had given up on the sand boarding, we got back on the bus and headed to the beach itself. We arrived and took a short drive along before stopping again for a photo op. A few of us (myself included) decided to go for a swim, and we took of into the Tasman Sea and jumped waves for a few minutwes. The water was cool and refreshing, and the waves were a great height for jumping. A short while later we were really motoring along the beach when the bus driver pointed out an arch of rock jutting out in the Tasman. 'See that', he announced, 'that's the real hole in the rock. At low tide, I can drive you through it. The one at Cape Brett is just a fiberglass copy, so the boats don't get scratched.' I should now explain to you that it is typical kiwi humor to make fun of tourists by telling them any old rubbish to see how much they believe. He also told us why Ninety Mile Beach, which is not 90 miles long, is called Ninety Mile Beach. There are two stories. The first is that the Aussies have an 80-mile beach. The second is that a ranch owner at Cape Reinga used to drive his bullocks to market down the length of the beach. he knew that the bullocks could travel 30 miles a day, and it took 3 days to cover the beach, so 90 mile beach. He forgot that bullocks walk slower on sand. I don't know which, if either, is true, so believe what you want. We kept on going down the beach, and eventually we pulled alongside one of the other companies' buses. We started to pull ahead, and they started to pull back, and we ended up drag racing. It was a bit futile, since both buses were the same model and engine capacity, but our driver used dirty tactics, and turned the air-con off to get 2 extra horsepower. We pulled ahead, and won the race. After we had left the beach we drove onward for another 20 minutes or so before reaching the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a large gift shop which sells many different objects made from ancient kauri trees which have been found perfectly preserved in a swamp with the oldest workable timber ever found. I took a look around and found the prices to be extortionate, and although i was tempted to buy an egg made from the wood for $15, i decided not to bother. The last stop on the way home was at the Mangonui fish shop, which is supposedly world famous. Well, I don't know about world famous, but at $7 for a fish supper, it was certainly cheap. We spent about half an hour there before we headed back to Paihia. On my return I decided to try to get some accommodation for new years and stay in Paihia, and i found a bed for the night of the 1st in the YHA, so all I would have to do is pull an all-nighter over new years eve, something which I felt was doable. I then headed back to the base to phone Auckland and tell them the good news, when the receptionist at base told me that there was plenty of room there for all of the New Year period, because the last Kiwi bus had arrived with 27 less people than they had saved beds for. Result! I headed back to the YHA and quickly cancelled my booking. I then headed to the hostel pool for a little while. after this I decided that I needed to get some shopping, and I was going to walk along the bay to the Woolworth supermarket (no relation to the defunct British store) which was down by Waitangi, but I saw the bus going towards the treaty grounds for the night show. I decided to try to blag a lift, and it worked! The driver dropped me off right on  the end of the supermarket's street. I managed to get quite a few good deals, such as 2 packs of sausages for $6, and a whole 700g block of un-iced Christmas cake for $2! I then took the walk back to the hostel and , felling shattered from the long day and the long walk, I had an early night.

The Overlander - 12 hours of non-stop scenery

Another escape from Napier was my trip to Wellington To Auckland by train. I managed to get a bargain ticket (only $49). First I took the Inter City coach from Napier to Wellington. This was my first foray into Coach travel in NZ, and the coaches were spacious and comfortable (I will not judge too much on legroom, as I am an exception). The coach trip to Wellington took 6 hours, but there were plenty of breaks to use the toilet and a food stop at Palmerston North. I got into wellington at the Train station (The coach bay is next to platform 9), and went off to find out where my hostel was. It turned out to be in Courtenay place, more than walking distance form the station, and so I caught a bus. The hostel, base Wellington turned out to be clean and not too cramped, with a good bar down in the basement (actually called, *sigh* basement bar). This was my first foray into the base chain of hostels, and it was a good impression. I had a few days in Wellington, and on the first day I visited Te Papa, the big museum which stands out as one of the greatest exhibition of NZ and Maori culture. I spent the whole day there, and could have happily spent longer. There were so many attractions, including a 4-D cinema, where the chairs were on Hydraulics, and an interactive floor map of New Zealand, where you could step on an area and be rewarded with pictures and stories from that area, which flashed up on the wall. I even dined in the cafe, where the fish and chips were gorgeous, definitely the best I've had in New Zealand so far. The batter was melt-in-the mouth and the chips, although obviously of the frozen variety, were cooked to perfection. On return to my hostel in the evening I went down to the bar and had a few drinks. I made friends with a couple of girls who were travelling round NZ in a 'van. we arranged to meet up the next night (Guy Fawkes' night) and go to the botanical gardens before the fireworks. The following day we walked right through town and up the hill to the gardens, which were quite pretty, if a little uninteresting, and then we headed up the hill to find a good view. We didn't quite make it to the summit, but we did find a giant ear trumpet (well, that's what it looked like), and a children's play area with a small flying fox (well, it was quite fun). We headed back down the hill and found a quaint little Chinese restaurant. Where we had lunch. We then split and agreed to meet up later back at their van for the fireworks. That evening, we went out onto the harbor front and watched a jet-ski race, followed by some powerboats (one tipped, but everyone was ok). Later, when the sun went down, there was a fireworks spectacular, orchestrated between two barges in the harbor. After that, we headed back to their van for a couple of drinks, and we were sitting down when a policeman came knocking on the window. "Is this the party bus?" he enquired. One of the girls actually invited him in, but he refused. Later, when we were finishing off the dregs of our alcohol, another policeman cam knocking and told us it was a liquor ban area and that we weren't supposed to be drinking. We showed him that we were pretty much finished, and he told us that he wouldn't do anything this time, but if another policeman came knocking, he might not be so lenient. This time one of the girls asked is she could borrow his hat for a photo, but the policeman refused, claiming 'hygiene reasons'. After that, we finished off the last of our drink and I headed back to my hostel, off to bed before the train the next day. The following morning, I got up at 5am for the train, and I was witing at the bus stop at 6am. There was also an older American couple waiting, who ere also getting on the train. We waited for 15mins, and there was still no sign of the bus, and then a taxi pulled up. we agreed to share it, and split the bill. However, when we got to the other side, they refused to take a cent from me, telling me that they would have had to pay the same anyway. We checked our bags in for the train, and were assigned our seats. They were in coach A, and I was in coach P. Oh, well, I told them, it was nice meeting you. We headed to the train, and discovered (to my surprise) that there were only 4 coaches, named, in order, coach A, coach P, coach B and coach C. (Later examination showed that the sign on P was just a B with the bottom part covered. i reached my seat and found that I was in a seat with a lack of legroom, and so I headed to see the guard. after some hustle and bustle, I was finally seated in coach A, which was definitely the place to be, with a Lounge at the back and a huge plate glass window that let you look right along the track behind you. it was amaszing, and the views were immense. I got some great shots of mount Ruapehu, and Tongariro. Although the trip was 12 hours loong, it was really worthwhile, and we saw views that you just wouldn't see by road. We also traversed the Rumeru spiral, whis wound its way right around the mountainside. Also, at the start of the journey that guard told us over the tannoy to take 'only 20 mins each in the lounge', but no-one seemed to want to come to the lounge, so a small group of us spent several hours there, and I had pretty much moved in there by the end of the journey. When we arrived in Auckland I was tired and hungry after such a lonmg journey, and I headed to my hostel,base ACB, which was entirely contained in a tower block, with reception on floor 3. I took my room on floor 6 and dumped my stuff, before heading out for food. I had an early night that night, because I was just so exhausted after all that sitting around all day. The next day I got up early and had a chat to Krystal, the gir who worked at the travel desk.She told me that I could get a magic buss north island discovery pass for $450, and get the south island pass, woth $600, for $1. That sounded like a good deal, and I considered it as I took a trip out to mount rangitoto. To get there I had to take a ferry from the harbour to rangitoto island, a volcanic island in the mouth of auckland harbour. I then took the tour around the island, on a tractor-trailor. It was a good ride, and i got some great pics, especially from the top of the mountain, which is a dormant volcano which erupted and appeared from the sea floor several hundred years ago. It was also used as a long distance early warning watchtower during the second world war, when there was a threat of invasion from Japan. On my return to the hostel that evening I had made up my mind, and I bought a magic bus pass, which I bough several add-ons for, such as the total Northland, covering from Aucland up to Pahia and Cape Reinga and back. I also bought the Milford and Catlins Combo, covering the very south of he south Island, and including a day trip to the milford sound. As well as this, I bought base jumping vouchers, which is a deal with the Bbase group of hostels, giving 11 nights accomodation for the price of 10, and free drink vouchers every night. It's a really good deal. I was then all set for my big trip around New Zealand, which is the focus of the rest of this blog. The following day I took the trip back on the bus to Napier from Auckland, a 7 hour journey which passed through some nice scenery, but nothing so epic. I arrived back to Napier that afternoon, and the planning began for the big trip.

New Zealand - The first few footprints

Okay, so here's how this is gonna go. First, I'm gonna get my first couple of follies in NZ outta the way first! Fist there was the few days i spent in Auckland when I first arrived in NZ. I stayed in a little guest house slightly out of the CBD, called Freeman's lodge. The bed was comfy, and the breakfast wasn't bad, so no complaints here, although it was a bit of a walk from the CBD. on my first night, I walked up to Kerangahape Road (K Road) to get some food and i picked up some fish and chips. It was only when I sat donw to eat on a bench that I noticed all the rainbow flags. I had unwittingly entered the gay district. Oh, well, no harm in that, could be worse. I quickly finished my fish and chips and headed back to the hostel. On the way, I tripped on the edge of one of the pavements and took a flying leap right onto my arm. I scraped the skin off one elbow and cut the other hand. It could have been worse. I landed about a foot from a broken glass bottle. I stumbled back to the guest house (I banged my knee too!), and patched myself up with my trusty first aid kit. The following day I walked into centraql Auckland and headed first to the Sky Tower. I took the lift to the top and the views were spectacular. I also visited the little cafe downstairs, which does a nice bit of cake. My next stop was the harbour, where I took a tour right around. it was a great trip, and the captain was so knowledgeable. On my return I visited Minus5, officially the coolest bar in New Zealand (it'a actually -5C). The downside was that I cost $25 to get in and have one cocktail, but it was a good cocktail.
affter that, I decided to head back to the hostel, for a well earned rest. The following day I headed first on a ferry over to Devonport. This is a sleepy little town, but it's quite cute in the way it sits so close to the CBD of Auckland. I walked up to North Head, the site of the Gun batteries used to defend Auckland Harbour during the wars (though there was never a shot fired in anger). The tour was quite informative, although some of the underground passageways were a little bit spooky. I looked for a chip shop on the seafront before I caught a fery back, and the only place I found was in the ferry terminal itself. It was run by an Arab family, and the fish and chip come highly recommended, as do the reasonable prices. Once fed, and back in the CBD, I caught a bus out to Kelly Tarlton's underwater world. This was a bit disappointing, to say the least. There really wasn't that much to see for the steep entry price, and the only highlight for me was the ride through penguin enclosure (although the car was a little cramped). I wouldn't recommend this, as there are plenty of places much more worthy of your money. After another full day of exploring. I headed back to the hostel, passing a kebab shop on the way (the kebab wasn't that good, nor were the chips, but I was hungry). That was it for Auckland for now, as the next day I caught a plane to Napier, home of my Aunts and the Art Deco Capital of New Zealand.