New Zealand

February 20th-ish to March 3, 2008 New Zealand

Wow, skipping a few entries that’s for sure. Just wanted to give you a recap of how I’ve been enjoying my time in New Zealand. First off, I definitely had a bit of culture shock when I first arrived. A grocery store was like vision sent from God. Ha! Crazy to see cars, heaps of people everywhere, and shops filled with things. It’s amazing here in NZ. Such a diverse country, rolling hills dotted with sheep and cows, hot springs, waterfalls, beaches, snow capped mountains, cities, desert, its all here! So beautiful too. I’ve been visiting the country with my friend Paul from FL that is going to vet school here on the North Island and is a big surfer, even in NZ. The water is freezing cold here. I went around on day trips, camping overnight, and even stayed in his friend’s batch (vacation house right on the beach) to different surf spots around the island with him and some other friends from FL that were visiting. Really a great way to see different areas. We went to the wine country, big surfing touristy spots, drove through more touristy spots in the middle of the country, and real low key treks to get to the surf breaks. Fun time really, I only made it out to surf once, and not very successfully, as I haven’t surfed in years. It was low tide and there were a few huge rocks protruding in the line up, that you had to dodge, so I was kind of sketched out. We visited a hot spring, a waterfall, stayed in a teepee, camped on the beach twice, and went to all these different surf breaks.

We went to this surf town of Taranaki for a couple days. We had to hike about 45 minutes to the break, over rocks and then when we were ready to go it was high tide with no more rocks, so we had to pave our own trail back on the sides of cliffs and through planted pine forests. Definitely an adventure. We also went to another more popular surf spot in Taranaki. That’s where I tried to surf at low tide. We stayed in this sweet as (that’s what they say here for ‘sweet ass’) batch right on the beach. Beautiful little spot, with huge deck over the cliff, where you could see the guys surfing the beach break right from the deck. The surf was small when we woke up after staying at the beach house, so we waited for low tide and went to hunt down some paua and lobsters on the rocks. Paua are like a mussel/chiton that clings to the rocks and you scrape them off and eat the meat, like any other shell fish. Oh it was so much fun. A local guy, a Mauri, picked off a bunch for me, and the boys snorkeled for more in the shallows. We had a huge paua fritter and lobster feast that night. We got about 30 paua and Paul got 3 lobsters with his bare hands (which were all scraped up). So delicious. Oh Paul’s car has had about a million problems since we’ve arrived. It’s just one thing after another, it was getting pretty funny towards the end. 4 flat tires, brakes, dirty ball bearings, engine too hot….and the list went on and on.

We went out on the town of Palmerston (college town that Paul lives in) twice, and they are so stuck in the 80s here! It’s so hilarious! You can’t help but crack up. The guys are all dressed in these bright neon shirts with mullet haircuts, and the girls are trying to look their best and strut their stuff for these meat head guys. It’s really the girls out to get the guys here, instead of the other way around back home. One Saturday night we went out, we went to a foam party, Paul got kicked out of a bar, Paul’s brother lost his camera, and I was sick, not drinking so much and Paul wouldn’t even let me drive home! He tried to have us walk 40 minutes home! We took a taxi after about 10 minutes of me walking in heels!

After a few days catching up, and lounging around the house in Palmerston when Paul started school again, I took a bus up to Hamilton to meet up with James from the boat. It was a 6 hour bus ride, but I slept most of the way. He is working in a friend’s restaurant right next to a meat pie shop I visited about 5 times with Paul and his friends. Meat pies and fish and chips are huge staples here. Anyways, I was bored for a few days staying at the friend’s house while James worked a few hours here and there at the restaurant. We have been able to do a few fun things though. When I first got to Hamilton, we went Raglan (a surfer town close by that I also visited with Paul a few weeks ago) and stayed at the teepee place. Instead of a teepee this time, we stayed in a caboose! It was too funny, a bright pink caboose. Oh on another note, we are splitting this steal of a car for $150 a piece for a month. It’s a beater car, but it’s really running good. A 1989 Mazda Funtop, pink, leaks in the rain, and has life savers for tires. I’ve been driving stick shift though, pretty successfully I might add. On the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, on super windy mountain ranges. Doing ok, just the start and stopping I still stall out on.

James was off on the weekend, so we took a few days and went up to Coromandel Peninsula. It’s real touristy up there, but it was still an adventure for us. We stayed in a uber sweet hostel with all the amenities. Internet, kitchen, hot shower, TV, deck, free kayaks…and more! It was rainy the first day, so we lounged about until the afternoon when we went to Hot Water Beach. At low tide, you dig a hole in the sand and you have your own hot spring on the beach. We got there in plenty of time, brought our books to read and relax…well it wasn’t what we imagined at all! The tide was finally right at sunset when it started to rain, and there was about 80 tourists there ready for the tide like we were. Everyone frantically digs a huge hole with their spade and builds it up from the pounding surf that was coming in. It was like taking a bath in the rain with about 50 strangers all huddled up together. Funny really to paint a picture for you. Glad we did it though. The next day was nicer weather so we took a drive up to another tourist hole called Cathedral Cove. After a 45 minute trek, you reach huge rock formations, similar to the Baths in the Virgin Islands and Mediterranean cliffs (which I’ve never really seen). Beautiful little spot, and so unlike anywhere I’ve been in the past few weeks. Seeing the wonders of this little country everyday! On the way back to Hamilton that day, I took some turns driving (scary!), and we stopped at a winery along the serene drive. We got back to the house that afternoon and had dinner with the girl whose house we’re staying at, with her and all her brothers. They are originally from the island of Nuie in the South Pacific and are big Pacific Island people. Intimidating, and I felt like we were imposing on their family dinner, but it was ok.

So that’s the latest, in a nutshell. It’s been a crazy action packed trip so far and I can’t wait for more! NZ is awesome, I love it here. A little chilly for me to live here though, even in now in the late summertime. Will spend a few more weeks with James, hopefully we will get to do some work on a dairy or sheep farm and be able to stay at the farm house while we work there. There’s this cool program setup called woofing, where you can help out on the farm with whatever they need and they will provide accommodation and food for you to stay there. We are trying to get down to the southern tip of the North Island to Wellington, and do woofing along the way. We’ll see if it works out. Been a great trip so far, I’ll keep you posted.