New Zealand: North Island

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

Although we both had a great time in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, we’re both really excited to go to New Zealand. Our flight wasn’t until the late afternoon, but we went over to the airport early, to partake in some more Hungry Jacks, and some solid (or so we thought) free internet. The trip to New Zealand was fine (I was pleasantly surprised to have a personal TV on a 737), the only remarkable bit was that I discovered a new British comedy about an airport and several airlines (The Office style, in many ways) called Come Fly with Me that absolutely had me rolling. I’ll be looking forward to following that when it starts back up.

Monday, July 11th, 2011

I’m ashamed to say that we didn’t do a whole lot in Auckland, not because we didn’t like it, but because neither of us felt like there was a whole lot to do, at least on backpackers’ radar. We woke up much later than either one of us planned, and that limited our daylight activities to one thing. We decided to enjoy a hike up an old volcano just south of the Auckland CBD called One Tree Hill, which offered some great views of the entire area. There were lots of sheep on the walk up, which was amusing for some reason, but not unexpected (As an Aussie later joked, “there are 40 million sheep in New Zealand, with 4 of them passing for people”). I’m surprised there aren’t more Aggies living in New Zealand, they’d love it here (for no particular reason…*cough*). We stayed in a massive hostel here called Base, but for its size, it wasn’t very social. The bar was full of these weird guys playing a drinking game that involved taking off their shirts and doing push ups on the bar. They all thought they were cool, but they just looked stupid. We took it easy, knowing we’d have to wake up early to head to Rotorua.

View from the Hostel Room

Looking North from the top of One Tree Hill

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Despite being tired and having to wake up early, sleeping in late yesterday really did me in from a sleeping standpoint tonight. I wound up falling asleep about 5:15, only to wake up at 7. Joy. McDonald’s breakfast got me from the hostel to the bus stop, and although I intended to sleep as soon as I got on the bus, we got to talking with a really nice Australian lacrosse player who was in town for a tournament. Also of note was this Kiwi woman who decided she was going to listen to music from her phone, which would be fine, except she decided to do it without headphones, instead electing to blast it out of the phone’s shitty speakers. I was hesitant to say anything, since I wasn’t sure whether this was just accepted custom here, but eventually the Aussie guy said something, and that allowed me to rest for a bit.

Rural New Zealand is really pretty, and I’m glad I didn’t sleep the entire time. It’s incredibly green, and in many ways what I imagine Ireland being like. I suppose I’ll find out in less than 3 weeks. Have I mentioned that I love this trip yet? We arrived around noon in Rotorua, to a very vibrant rainbow, and some light precipitation (which I can best describe as ice sprinkling). It definitely wasn’t full blown snow, nor was it full blown rain, nor was it even…precipitating that hard. Additionally, the sun was shining very brightly from the low angle you’d expect on a New Zealand winter’s day. We checked into our hostel, before meeting up with Marty (the Aussie lax player) for an afternoon at the Polynesian Spa, which is a series of geothermal pools of varying temperatures and acidities. It was a strange feeling to be enjoying the hell out of a glorified hot tub in the middle of July. Take that, Austinites! It was also strange to have intermittent ice on your upper half, and a 100° pool on your lower half. Sensory overload! There were a couple of points where I almost fell asleep, though, which isn’t entirely surprising, given the circumstances! Man was I tired!!

For those of you that know anything about Rotorua, it’s probably most famous for its geothermal activity. To the layman, that means its smell. I’m here to tell you, the sulfur smell (that of rotting eggs) is pervasive just about anywhere. It’s pretty amazing, actually. You can definitely tell when you’re getting closer to a spring or some other type of geothermal activity by the intensity of the sulfur smell. Nevertheless, it’s a really nice town of about 50,000, and the spa was great.

Polynesian Spa on a freezing day

I watched a couple of episodes of Dexter after a surprisingly good Indian food dinner, and went off to la la land for a LONG time.

Wednesday July 13th, 2011

Today we had a decision to make. Either head back to Auckland this evening, or early tomorrow morning (our flight to Wellington leaves from Auckland tomorrow mid-morning). We decided to stay here another night, so we could take advantage of the Maori show and hangi dinner that everyone raves about. We took it easy during the afternoon, before getting picked up about quarter to 6. Our bus driver was really funny, and very knowledgeable. He wound up being the unofficial emcee of the night’s festivities, which were a lot of fun. The dinner was cooked underground using geothermal energy, and was absolutely spectacular. Considering it was our first (and only) meal of the day, it was a perfect time to be all you can eat. I’d like to say we did a good job of representing our great nation. The show was really interesting, and I learned a lot about Maori culture. We got to see a Haka, the traditional Maori war dance, too, which was neat (for those of you that don’t follow rugby, the New Zealand All Blacks do a haka before their rugby games as a means of intimidation, though it really just looks silly).

After the festivities were over, we returned to our hostel, and attempted to stay awake until our bus back to Auckland at 3:25 am. I managed by watching some more Dexter, and eventually the 3 o’clock hour rolled around.

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

The bus ride was uneventful, and we made it to the Auckland airport around 7, a little earlier than anticipated. The entire trip was uneventful, though I enjoyed the trivia that Air New Zealand had on their TV monitors during the 40 minute flight.

We arrived in Wellington, and made our way to the hostel, which allowed us to check-in. Arguably the best attraction here is called the Te Papa museum, which is a museum of just about everything, and best of all, absolutely free. It’s basically a museum of the natural and cultural history of New Zealand, which encompasses everything from Museum of Natural History-like exhibits of animals and geologic information to the histories of the Maori people, British Empire, and Kiwi immigration policies. Although much of the information is written for a slightly younger (I’d say high school) audience, it’s a very, very good museum and definitely worth a visit if you’re in Wellington. You could spend a full day here, easy.

Since this was basically the second day in the last 3 that I’d gone with no sleep, I was really nothing more than a walking zombie for the rest of the day (which really isn’t very different from the earlier parts of the day, actually). We got dinner, which allowed me to survive to a normal time to go to sleep (if you’re over 75).

Friday, July 15, 2011

I slept in later than I wanted to, but I suppose I’d probably earned a good night’s rest after the last few days. After we got going, we went up to the main governmental area, and wandered around. We found the Beehive, which is a Parliament building that looks like…well, a beehive. It’s pretty strange.

The Beehive

Wellington is a beautiful city. There are some absolutely spectacular vistas throughout the city, looking across the bay, and out onto the Cook Strait. It has a certain character to it, which I can only describe as being similar to that of Austin, in that it’s a medium-sized city (though less than half the size of Austin) at a seat of government, which results in a certain character. Like Austin, it’s also a young town, with a big bar/club district.

Saturday, July 16th, 2011

Today was our last day in Wellington. We were (rather rudely) evicted from the hostel with nothing but our luggage (that they begrudgingly decided to hold for us until our evening flight) right at 10 am, After a few minutes of lounging around trying to wake up (I didn’t sleep the night before because of some rather rude roommates), we set off toward the cable car and the botanical gardens.

I have to say, this area is truly awesome. The botanical gardens are just this gigantic area on and around a hill that have some beautiful walking/hiking tracks, indigenous flora, and just generally really nice scenery. I could go on describing it, or let the pictures do it for me, so that’s what I’ll do.

Botanical Gardens

The rest of the day was spent going to the airport, going to Christchurch, and sleeping.