Filed under: new zealand
First and foremost, apologies in the delay – it’s been a bizarre few weeks (so i’ll keep it brief).
I left off after the mammoth drive, and from happily returning our little Jusy rental Neil and I headed to Auckland, a city which we surprisingly found ourselves liking. We enjoyed the little markets (and the cheap food on offer), the waterfront, the buzz of the city – and the views from the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, The Sky Tower.
However Auckland doesn’t have to be all city lights and noise, and we took a trip over to Rangitoto Island, NZ’s youngest volcano (no longer active we are told – but still something niggles at the back of your mind) – and completed the summit walk. This offered some lovely views back over to Auckland and all it’s city glory.
After the shambles that was the road trip, we decided to really take some time out and head over to Waiheke Island, 40 minutes by ferry from the Auckland Ferry Terminal. It feels a million miles apart though, the hourly bus service that meets the ferry, the lack of emergency sirens and the general slower pace to life. Neil and I stayed over on Waiheke for 3 days, just lazing out on the beach when the weather permitted (getting very sunburnt legs – Laura, not Neil) and when it didn’t we spent our time booking an apartment for Christmas. Overcast afternoons really aren’t that good for the bank balance!!
So with our decision to stay for Christmas we now had a lot of arranging to do when we got back to the real world in Auckland, changing flights, booking JR Rail Passes – and the hard task of trying to find a job…..This is where things started to get a little out of hand.
Hours trawling the internet and making calls to vineyards, agencies and the like did nothing for moral as all we heard where the same words “maybe call back next week” or “nothing at the moment”. So it was time to hit the sweeties and make ourselves feel better…….and then it all seemed to slip into place. A job came up on a backpacker website, kiwi flower picking, starting that weeked, up in the Northland – the only place Neil and I still needed to visit. Perfecto…..but how wrong could we be.
We headed for Kerikeri, and settled into Honeheke Lodge, the work that was due to start at the weekend had now been put back til Tuesday and to top things off the backpackers we were staying at had a party, outside of our room that lasted until 6am. I just knew that wasn’t for me…..so, Neil and I headed to a new backpackers, which just happened to be in the middle of nowhere.
The Valley has been an art centre, healing retreat, every hippy hangout you can think of, and now, it’s being turned into a backpackers. They also had work Kiwiflower picking, which had also been put back, this time until Wednesday…..so, it was agreed that we would work for our accomodation until the work started. Can you imagine, Neil and I, out in the open air, digging, painting, cleaning out spa pools – well you name it, we did it!! We met some interesting characters up in the Valley, and in hindsight, maybe this was part of the real adventure, when things don’t work out quite as planned and how you get around the problems.
We did finally get to pick some kiwi flowers, I won’t even tell you how much we got paid for our nine hour day, because it’s just laughable…well you can only laugh or you’d have to cry!!
For now though we are apple thinning, down in Hastings, I have a feeling that I will never want to see another apple again in my life after this – but at least it’s paying minimum wage and keeping us ticking over to get that down under Christmas on the beach that we want!! Waiheke Island here we come!
Filed under: new zealand
So, flying around the North Island and spending a lot of money “doing stuff”, Neil and I decided to get out and about and see some of what the north had to offer. The guidebook steered us in the direction of Coromandal Peninsula, around the Bay of Plenty and along the East Cape. But I’ll hold my hands up now and say this road trip was far from what we were after. I’ll just give a brief overview of where we went and some of the highlights!!
Our little Jucy rental was collected at Auckland Airport, and surprise, surprise, it was raining…..and it rained most of the way to Thames along the Pacific Coast Highway (which if we’re honest NZ, does not hug the Pacific Coast at all!!).
With severe weather warnings over night, the walk we had anticipated carrying out was off the cards, I heard the possibility of fords and was not taking a chance with the Jucy lunchbox car – and we opted for a walk closer to Thames. It turned out to be the most bizarre walk we have done since arriving in NZ, spending most of it walking through cobwebs and then worrying about where the spider was…….We arrived in Whitianga, a little down hearted with more bad weather on the way, so headed out to the one attraction that we did want to see. Cathedral Coves – this was all very impressive, and I have to say with the stormy skies rolling in off the Ocean made for some nice photography!
Now, day 3 – we stopped at a market where Neil and I taste tested numerous jams, chutneys and the likes, never ones to turn down some free food! We arrived in Tauranga and ventured to the hot salt pools to chill out, relax and keep reassuring ourselves that this road trip would improve.
So, day 4, we did manage to make the summit of Mt Manganui (a bump in the road in comparison to some climbs we have done), but it did offer some nice views along the Bay of Plenty and was a good way to stretch the legs before a mammoth day of driving. After a brief stop in Whakatane to look at a statue out in the water we continued our travels on to Tiki Tiki, half way around the East Cape. The rain set in for the day, as did the constant road works, dropping us down in speed from 100km to 30km, the journey was never ending. So much so that when we got to the East Cape lighthouse neither Neil or I could be bothered climbing the 700 odd steps to the top – something that I think both of us now regret, but at the time we just could not face!
Labour Day (bank holiday Monday to you and me) brought some nice weather and we managed to get out and have a stroll along some beaches, but with more driving to do, we could never hang around for long! We had a wander (and an ice cream) in Gisborne, this is where Captain Cook first landed in New Zealand and there is a statue to commemorate this – although the statue was modelled on an Italian Explorer – oops! Our last stop on the East Cape was Wairoa where we stayed for the night before heading back inland!
Heading back to Taupo down the Geothermal Highway we stretched our legs at a small lake, but nothing more, just more driving…..and even more rain if I remember correctly. So I’m sure you get the idea, that this was far from perfect, and far from the seeing the North – most of the time we couldn’t see for rain, but we did see something fairly spectacular before getting the car back to Auckland.
Waitomo Glowworm Caves, hundreds and thousands of glow worms, lighting up the cave. We were taken on a little raft around the wet cave, with nothing more than the glow of the worms to light the way. It was spectacular, and I have to say really worth the lengthy de-tour around the North Island to see!
Aftet the mammoth road trip it was off to the City of Sails…..we will update you next week with our adventures
