With less than two weeks to go until we fly home, it's time to say goodbye to the North Island of New Zealand and head to the South Island in search of snow, more mountains and incredible scenery, ski slopes and our final 10 day adventure in a camper-van!
Having been in New Zealand for over a week now, it's safe to say that we have definitely been thrown back into backpacker lifestyle. Constantly on the move from place to place, and back in to the thrills of hostels and snoring, it's great to know that we have had our last hostel experience and soon will have endured our final long bus journey... Camper-van lifestyle isn't necessarily going to be easy, but we are both incredibly excited and at least we are no longer reliant on the thrills of public transport - nakedbus.com, you've done us well with cheap transport, but boy oh boy does your customer service need to be improved, we shan't be missing the incredibly rude drivers that's for sure.
Following our arrival in Auckland at some early hour in the morning, and an arctic stay in a chocolate box sized room, huddled in our sleeping bags, we headed off into the city centre in search of our hostel. With many an interesting look on arriving on the local bus (successfully giving everyone sat in an isle seat 2 huge bruises on their arms, one from Rach and the other from Mair- they are yet to design wide enough isles for our massive rucksacks), we eventually found ourselves in our dorm room. Note to self, and anyone else, try and refrain from going in unisex dorms, overweight males can snore like no tomorrow! Night 1, and we found ourselves both in hysterics from the hippo of a man on Rach's bottom bunk, that was doing a snore/hum in his sleep, we had to laugh or we would have ended up in tears. Night 2, made some friends in the hostel, thankfully they were able to replace our overused earplugs and so a successful nights sleep was achieved all round. Night 3, reached our limit on vibrating bunk beds, not even earplugs would suffice, Rach nearly ended up in tears, both incredibly thankful that it was our last night.
All round, Auckland, and the other city's we have since visited here, are nothing like a city we have been to before. In fact, they are lucky to be qualified as a city. More like a large town, after 7pm everyone seems to go into hibernation and the streets become dead. Hardly a Singapore, or any other Asian city where they are crazy around the clock. And so bedtime became 10pm, in an effort to beat the snorer to getting to sleep. Day one, and we hit up all the sights, enjoyed the crisp sunny weather visiting local parks and arriving at Auckland Museum, situated at the top of the hill, there were great views across Auckland and the harbour. We caught the ferry over to Devonport, a suburb of Auckland that is the other side of the bay, somewhat like a countryside town and enjoyed a late afternoon hot chocolate! Day 2 and we found ourselves in the middle of Auckland University, rather nice indeed to feel like we could just blend into the background rather than stick out like a sore thumb. And went for a long walk around Auckland, soaking it all in... Visiting Parnell and Auckland Cathedral. All round, a few calmer days, perfect for us to overcome the madness of the farm and get back into the swing of things.
After Auckland, we got our first nakedbus to a small town called Rotorua, the smelliest places thanks to the geothermal activity (rotten eggs x 1000). A quick two day stay, the first we spent getting to know our surroundings. Taking a wander through the neighbouring park which is full of smaller geothermal areas- bubbling mud baths and steaming pools, and along the lake front that take centre stage in Rotorua, as well as visiting Hobbiton. The set of 'The Shire' from The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Set 60km from Rotorua, in a sheep farm, the set has been restored and maintained to be exactly as it was during the filming. Rach was like a kid in a sweet shop, enjoying every minute and snapping every possible photo- think 300 by the end of the 4 hours. We saw all the hobbit holes, the green in which they have the fireworks display and celebrations, and the waterwheel by the lake. We also learnt by our guide many interesting facts, such as the tree behind Bilbo's house being fake (we collected a plastic leave or two for our scrap books)! And how all 360,000 leaves had to be attached by hand with wire by university students, only to then be told by the director that they were the wrong shade of green. The scenery around was pretty beautiful in itself, and was topped off with a pint of cider in front of the fire in The Green Dragon pub, which features in the films. Ben (or Bin, as it is pronounced by the Kiwi's) the bus driver kept us highly entertained on our rides there and back (deserves a shout out for that).
Our final day and we headed off to Wai-O-Tapu, the home of the real big stuff when it comes to mud baths, geysers and hot-springs. With rather an early start, we were at the Lady Knox Geyser, the biggest worldwide, other than those found in Yellowstone National Park, USA, in time to see it's daily 'explosion'. Well worth the wait, the steam and water shot up 60ft+ in the sky and continues for several hours. We then headed off to the 'wonderland', where a 3km boardwalk take you amongst craters, vast hot water lakes and varying colours and through redwood forests. All round quite a supernatural experience and incredibly fascinating! Before catching our bus that evening, we headed off to the Museum of Rotorua, with old mud baths that was used to rehabilitate soldiers during the second world war. All very insightful, particularly in learning and hearing about the family stories of New Zealander's who were recruited. A packed 48 hours of being proper tourists!
5pm that night and we were back on the road heading to Napier, a coastal 'city' on the east of the North Island, also known as the home of Art Deco and in the Hawkes Bay region, the largest area of wineries in New Zealand. Fortunate enough to be only a week in our New Zealand stint and out of hostels, back into a home, courtesy of old Marks' family friends. Lisa, Nigel and their son Aaron, put up with us for 4 nights, where we were able to enjoy the luxury of their hot tub - there are definitely worse ways to spend your nights than in a hot tub, watching the stars, drinking bubbly and reminiscing on our travels. May sound daft seeing as we haven't finished them yet, nor arrived home, but we first started them 7 months ago! We had a brilliant time with Lisa and Nigel, talking all things travelling and comparing countries we both covered, ours from of recent and theirs a while back now.
We were lucky to spend a day being toured around the sites of Napier - a walk along a beach or two, a picnic in the sun (it started shining just as we sat down, score!) and seeing views from the top of a hill overlooking the surrounding areas - beautiful! We then had a lazy day, catching up on scrap books, playing with their two adorable dogs in the garden, chilling in the hot tub and route planning / bus booking. Our third full day in Napier we went into town, and enjoyed seeing the Art Deco buildings, a walk along the beach front, and doing the supermarket shop for our hostel the next day - organised or what? We left a hugely excited Lisa and Nigel as they go to enjoy a well deserved trip to Hawaii. We hope you have a fab break and enjoy the sun! A huge thanks again to another wonderful family for making our stay so enjoyable :)
And so our North Island stay has come to an end with 24 hours in Wellington. What we have since found out is the capital - Mair is promptly starting to rethink her decision to do a degree in Geography, the lack of knowledge is rather embarrassing... Oooops! After arriving late in the evening, a quick dinner and into bed, we set of rather bright and early to fit in as much as possible. Known as Windy Wellington, we were not disappointed. After being told by the receptionist at the hostel not to have our hair down, we were still whipped in the eyes by our ponytails and quite literally pushed along the pavements!! We headed straight to the Old St Paul's, which was the cathedral of Wellington up until the 60's when a new cathedral was built a few streets over, much to the uproar of the city. A rather gothic style building with a timber frame, due to that being the main resource available when it was built, and stained glass windows made in England. All round very quaint and typical of something you would find at home. In comparison though, and much to our surprise, the new Wellington Cathedral, is an incredible vast and sparse building, with pastel coloured walls and 80m from end to end- nothing like what we expected. Safe to say that between us we much preferred the Old St Paul's.
Following our cathedral visits, we wandered down the main shopping area, popped into Kirkcaldie and Stains Ltd, ultimately a smaller, New Zealand version of Harrods, complete with porter in his top hat and suit with tails. However, we promptly left when we found ourselves in the china section... Mair's tripping issue could have left us with a rather large bill and on the next plane home! We then took the Cable Car up to the top of the city where we enjoyed views over the bay that makes up the city, before we hastily made our way down through the botanical gardens, getting blown most of the way - Hitting herb gardens, rose gardens, and every possible flowery smell! Before finding ourselves in the city's public graveyard, Bolton Street Memorial Park, which first became used in the 1840's, but has since been cut in two by one of New Zealand's only motorways. Leading to the relocation of 2000 bodies, controversial to say the least! After a picnic lunch of tuna pitta and baby spinach (the health kick has started in aid of our return) we headed to the great Te Papa Museum. Full of brilliant exhibitions, including the biggest squid ever and one to do with the influence of Brits and their emigration.
So, carbonara on the menu tonight, courtesy of hostel facilities and our cooking... All very different to the Asian hostel experience. And a 4 hour ferry journey across the Cooks Straits to Picton, South Island and some more Marks' family friends, Ellen and Kiwi Dave!
