I've lost a day! This is so weird! Flying over the international date line means Saturday came and went without me! Very bizarre! And I can't get used to the fact that it's June, yet it's winter!! And I still can't get used to flushing toilet paper down the toilet instead of putting it in the bin, and the fact that people drive on the left - I know they do in the UK and so I should be used to it, but after five months of being on the right, it's going to take a bit of getting used to again!
Anyway, apart from all that, slightly bleary eyed, after little sleep and over an hour's wait at immigration, I finally arrived in downtown Auckland at about 8am, only to be told that there was no bed spare for a couple of hours as there was a rugby match on the previous night and everyone was still asleep! So I decide to go for a bit of a wander, and funnily enough the whole city is pretty much deserted. But just walking around I get a really good feeling about the place, understated I think in comparison with the places I've just been to in the US but that is definitely a good thing!! Already I get the feeling I am going to like this country a lot.
Didn't do much the first day, once I finally got into my room I had a shower and went to sleep for a couple of hours! Then found the supermarket which was quite exciting and in the evening I cooked my first proper meal since I've been away - it was only a stir fry so nothing to get excited about but it was the sort of meal I would cook at home, rather than just something simple and not that nice which is what I had been living off in Mexico!!
Everyone here seems to be complete fitness freaks - there are runners, cyclists and walkers everywhere! And I have never seen so many men with such huge broad shoulders, pwhoar!!
Anyway, I decided to get out and see a bit of the place so decided to do a 16km coast to coast walk, which went from the Waitemata Harbour in downtown Auckland, through the city centre, the University, the Auckland domain (a big park), Newmarket, Mount Eden, Epsom (yes I know I couldn't believe there was an Epsom in Auckland either!), Cornwall Park, One Tree Hill, Royal Oak and finally Onehunga and the Manukau Harbour. Phew! There were some great views of the city though and it was amazing that there were so many parks and huge open areas so close to the main city. The weather is quite changeable, it's not too cold, unless you're up a hill and then it's really windy! It tried to rain a few times but didn't really come to much which was good!In Onehunga there was a shopping centre with a free shuttle bus back to downtown, so I wandered round for a little while, and then waited for the shuttle. However, I couldn't find where it left from sat where I thought it went from, only to see it drive past me full of people! Excellent! Fortunately another couple of people came from nowhere to catch the bus aswell, so we ended up getting the normal bus back to downtown which was lucky as I really couldn't face walking 16kms back home!
The next day I caught a ferry over to Devonport and did a bit more walking round there! The good old LP had a little route you could follow and there were a few other people doing the same thing so I felt like I was some sort of stalker as I kept turning up to the same places as these other people! There were another couple of small volcano/hill things to walk up and walked around the town aswell. I then caught the ferry back and walked through the city and out to a suburb called Parnell which was supposed to be nice, which it was although there wasn't much there. Apparently people either love or hate Auckland. Well I wouldn't say I love the city but I do like it! It's not a huge city which is nice and a few days wandering around was enough to get a taster!
Hamilton
I got the bus to Hamilton, which is a little town a couple hours south of Auckland. The hostel I'm staying at is a bit out of the way but everyone there is great - really friendly and a little bit mad so it's quite a fun place to hang out!
There's not that much in Hamilton, except some gardens which are quite nice. Spent nearly four hours at the medical centre which was fun (three of those hours was waiting to see someone!)! I busted my knee in Acapulco a month ago and have been in pain ever since so figured it was about time I got it checked out! Turns out I have damaged the medial ligament so will hopefully take another two months to heal, otherwise I'm in trouble!!! Had a rather nice physio look at my knee and give me some exercises to do so fingers crossed it will be OK! He also gave me some thing to put in the heel of my shoe to make me walk differently, which will somehow help, so now I'm walking around feeling a bit of a twat, like one leg is longer than the other!!!
Otorohunga
Not having a car is a little restrictive in where I can go, and I wanted to see the glow worm caves so I decided to get a bus to Otorohunga, which is 16kms away from Waitomo, and then get a shuttle to the caves. I was going to spend a couple of days at this place but when I got there I seemed to be only person at the backpacker place (turned out there were two other Kiwi's there but they didn't seem quite right!) so I decided to visit the caves in the afternoon and then leave the next morning!
I got a shuttle over to Waitomo where the caves are, and this really old guy who was driving decided to give me a running commentary and a brief history of NZ which was interesting for a while! I went into the caves on a little tour - basically we walked through some of the caves whilst the tour guide gave us some history about the area, the caves and the glow worms. One of the caves was called the Cathedral, for obvious reasons really, and it was supposed to have really good acoustics - they hold Christmas events in there and people like Rod Stewart and Sting have sung in there too apparently! Anyway, this guy from Tahiti that was on the tour suddenly burst into song and the guide turned the lights out which was a little eerie, but the acoustics were pretty amazing. Even though I had no clue what this guy was singing about it did sound pretty good!
After that bit of excitement we hopped in a little boat and went through a cave in darkness and there were hundreds of little glow worms on the ceiling which was pretty amazing to see. Only they don't look so impressive when you see them in the light and so can see what they actually look like (little tiny maggoty worm type things!) and to know that the bit that lights up is their shit which is nice!!! I also went to the museum which was quite interesting.
It's really cold here at the moment, so was quite happy when I saw the hostel place had an open fire so the lounge was warm during the evening. I was dreading going to bed though as the room was really cold but then I saw I had an electric blanket and I was so happy - I had it on full power the whole night so was nice and toasty!!
New Plymouth
This is quite a nice place by the coast, when it's not raining that is! There's a huge mountain near here but you can never normally see it as it's either cloudy or raining!! I felt quite privileged to get a couple of glimpses of it! Actually the morning I left it was blue sky and I got a great view of the mountain, with some snow on the top and everything!
I watched the NZ vs France rugby match on Sat night as I figure I need to get into rugby whilst I'm over here! I don't have much of a clue as to what was going on but it was a good game, NZ won of course!!
The next day was just really depressing as it was so cold and raining all day! I went to the local museum which was nice and warm and spent a few hours there, and then when the rain finally stopped I went for a walk on the coastal path up to the port and back - was quite cold but just good to get outside! Fortunately the next day there was no rain and some blue sky which was very exciting! I made the most of it and went for a walk along the rest of the coastal path and then the Te Henui walk down by the river and into Pukekura Park. NZ is great for walking - everywhere you go there are always trails and paths to walk on so you get to see quite a bit of the place which is good!
It is sooo cold in the hostel and they don't provide bedding, just a poxy blanket, and as no one seems to have heating in this country, it gets quite cold at night! After two nights of freezing my arse off (I haven't been this cold at night since sleeping in a tent in Ushuaia, Argentina!) I finally caved in and bought myself another sleeping bag (my really cosy one is back in the UK which is really handy!). Anyway, managed to get myself a bargain and finally had a good night's sleep as was relatively warm, yeah!
Wanganui
There's some sun here, yay! It's not hot by any means, but it's a little bit warmer which is nice! There's a huge great river here, the Wanganui river funnily enough, and my hostel is on the road by the river so it's a really lovely setting. There's not much here though, so I hopped on a bike for a few hours and cycled on the road by the river which was nice - really beautiful scenery,
although I had no idea where I was going and there wasn't really that much around apart from hills and a river, so I turned around and cycled back and went through the town. There is also a big war memorial up on top of a hill overlooking the town so I walked up there and walked to the top of the tower and you could see for miles. I forgot that NZ is quite a small island and I could even see the sea from where I was (although I think I am quite close to the coast!), as well as lots of field and of course lots of sheep!!Palmerston North
More blue sky and some sun - as long as it doesn't rain I can cope with this winter, apart from it being a struggle to get out of bed in the cold! It's quite windy though at times so I get some strange looks whilst walking around in my hat and gloves!!
This is the town where I end up having my birthday, not that it's any different to any other day really, apart from calling home and speaking to my family which was great. I treated myself to a little chocolate cake, and then felt sick afterwards and that was about as crazy as it got! Went for a walk in the park, watched a movie in the evening, chatted to some of the guys at the hostel and that was about it - oh the joys of being 29!!! The next day I just about managed going for a walk down by the river for a couple of hours - it was a nice day with a lovely blue sky but the wind makes it sooo cold! I'm trying to resist the urge to curl up against anything warm (i.e. log fire or radiator!!) and eat chocolate but it is hard!!!
Napier
Am now on the east coast of the north island, in Napier which is on Hawke Bay. It is a huge wine producing region and so I thought it was only right to go and check out a few wineries and sample what was on offer. I took a tour with a guide the hostel recommended and there was me and another Japanese girl on the little bus. We went to four different wineries (Mission Estates, Ngatarawa, Craggy Ridge and Askerne) and at each one we tasted between six to eight different wines. I haven't drunk much since Cuba so after the first place where I tried 4 whites, 3 reds and a dessert wine I was already feeling pretty battered! It was a bit embarrassing really as at the next place the woman started asking me about Cuba, which is never a quick conversation and I suddenly had verbal diarrhea for 10 minutes!!! Fortunately for me and everyone around me, we took a trip up to Te Mata peak after this one so I had a chance to sober up slightly!!
It had been raining on and off for most of the day so the view wasn't as good as it could've been, but even so you could still see for miles around. After that we went to Craggy Bay winery which is supposed to be the best one in this area and their most famous wine I had to admit to not
liking it, as well as the fact that I thought the two Sauvignon Blancs that we tried tasted exactly the same even though apparently they were different, opps! I felt a bit of a heathen!! I also felt a bit bad as these places were so quiet - most had only had a few people in that day and one we went to was shut - so they really expect you to buy something, well it feels that way anyway when you're the only people in there! The last place we went to there was an awkward silence at the end after we tried all his wines, and so I bought myself a bottle as a little birthday present to myself and I can crack it open when Grainne gets here! I felt a bit woozy by the end of the afternoon but so did the other girl so I didn't feel too bad!The next day I spent walking around the town, looking at all the art deco buildings that this place is so famous for. In some places I felt like I had stepped back into the 1930s! It was a bit cold and windy (that's all I ever seem to say about this country!) but went for a long walk by the sea as well which was nice!
Tauranga
The day I got here it was reasonably warm, which was a nice surprise. However, the next day when I go for a long walk, it decides to rain which is great! I walked over to Mount Maunganui and walked up the Mount (it's only about 250m high so it's more of a mound than a mount!). It had really good views from the top and an old guy who lives there and works as a shepherd
pointed out the local volcano and some of the islands close by which was nice of him! Just as I got to the top the rain started and so by the time I got down I was pretty wet! It didn't look like it was going to stop either so I didn't really fancy doing any more walking as I had planned and caught the bus back so I could dry off! It rained for pretty much the rest of the day so I went to the movies in the afternoon - saw A Way of Life which was a Welsh made film and was actually quite depressing!Fortunately the next day was much nicer weather so I went for a little 9km walk round a lake which was lovely, and then spent most of the afternoon trying to do my washing, which wasn't as easy as you'd imagine with quite a few people in the hostel vying for a washing machine and dryer. Wasn't particularly impressed when one random guy picked up a pair of my wet undies that were in a washing basket waiting for the dryer but I think he was slightly embarrassed when he realised I was standing right by him! Oh the joys of hostels!!
