End of the world - The North trip

Hi there,

After a relaxing time in Wellington we were excited again to start another road trip – this time all over the North Island of NZ. Due to the fact that the campervan of Patrick’s parents still wasn’t ready to go for a walk with us, we decided to rent a small car in the meantime and leave us this unbelievable generous offer for a possible trip around the south island.
Our plan was as follows: First we wanted to start with the east coast, then stay a couple of days in Auckland again (but this time on four wheels) and explore afterwards the far north of NZ. After that drive down to Rotorua, meet up with Patrick in Ohakune for a hike and then back to Wellington, where I will participate at a conference mid of April.
We rented a Mazda Demio on the 17th from “Quality Car rentals” and after some arguments with the company we headed together with Patrick again into the Wheirarapa, where we had a lovely lunch. He stayed there over St. Patrick ’s Day at his parents place and we continued our journey to Napier, the Art-Deco city of the Southern hemisphere (looks a lot like Miami – but not so cool).

Napier

We experienced St. Patrick’s Day in Napier rather involuntary, because there was an Irish pub in front of our hostel, packed with incredible drunk and loud folks. We decided to save our energy for the next day to explore the parks and Art-Deco houses and stayed in. After doing so we drove to   Gisborne and didn’t do too much, because of the heavy rain. On the way there we had a great lunch stop over between a throng of sheep’s.

Bääähhhh.

From Gisborne we wanted to drive towards Whakatane on route 2, but we did not know that it was closed. After driving there for an hour a local told us that the gorge was full of mud and we have to take a 6 hour detour along the coast. In New Zealand it’s not like in Austria, that you simply take the next exit or another highway – there is just one road. So we started driving back and taking the detour. It was still raining badly and we got a little bit scared, when the water around us started to rise slowly flooding the road. In the Far East corner of the island we were close before getting stuck close to a tiny village because there was so much water everywhere. As we had an urgent appointment in Auckland two days later, we took all our guts and drove through, what felt more like steering a boat than a car. This was unfortunately not the only bad luck we had on that day; in a very small town called Te Kaha, our car stopped suddenly – the V-belt (Keilriemen) was torn. There was no cell phone coverage to call the automobile club but luckily a guy from a nearby hotel, Keith helped us out and arranged the transport to the next car repair station which was providentially in Opitiki. I don’t even want to imagine what would have happened to us, if the car would have broken down in the woods in the middle of nowhere…

Kieth our ca saver...

The mechanic could fix the car the next day and we continued our journey to Auckland. Due to time constraints we just made a short stopover in Tauranga, had a longer look on Motuopuhi Island, and finally made it to our appointment on time.

Motuopuhi Island

In Auckland we had great hosts, Jenny and Robert. Both very good friends of Patrick who use to ski together in the Air New Zealand Ski Team. They live east of Auckland in a laid back area called Bucklandsbeach. The next day Jenny brought us to her favorite tattoo studio where I made a down payment for my new tattoo and they wanted some money in advance for the design. I will get a new tattoo… ;)
The day after, we did a trip to hot water beach on the Coromandel peninsula. Due to a geothermal field underneath the sand, the beach experience is certainly different. To enjoy it you have to find the right spot, get a spade, dig a hole and relax in your own private natural hot tub, until the flood destroys your hot heaven. You can only do that 2 hours before and after the low tide so you better be on time. When you go into the cold sea afterwards, you have to watch your step, because on some spots, the water is boiling and you can easily burn your feet – hot and cold at the same time :)

Firsdt dig a hole...

...then enjoy...

After his great refreshment we explored the cathedral cove, which is a natural stone tunnel formed by the sea.

Cathedral cove.

 There we also found the entrance to a very creepy cave – would you dare to go in there? (Actually you could without any risk, because there are no dangerous animals in NZ…just funny birds;)

Creepy cave

 On the way back we saw a group of birds with a very strange feather on their heads – here we might need Gerald’s expertise about birds to identify them.

Funny looking bird...

Back in Auckland we did party over the weekend, where we got to know outgoing people with a lot of Kiwian humor.

Me, Mike and a pilot from Air New Zealand

Enough about the city! After that it was time to go more north of Auckland, all up to the Bay of Islands. On the way there we stopped in Whangarei, where we explored several natural wonders! First, the AH Reed Memorial Park which provides u a lovely selection of Kauri trees, waterfalls and cool hikes.

Nice walk ways...

A hug in between...

Kauri hug from Mike...

Final hug...

...at the end of the hike, a great waterfall...

When we finally left the rainforest after this short trip, we faced the sky outside the forest and saw the most beautiful rainbow we have ever seen.

Best rainbow ever!

The next day, we explored another national park and found our first geocatch-treasure, which unfortunately has been destroyed by some idiots – nevertheless we found it and  that counts (thanks to all our cool friends from the Department of Chemistry, who gave us the i-padpad – much appreciated).

Want a break?

To obey our thirst for adventure we went to the Abbey caves where we were keen to see some glow worms. You can approach this area by urself, so no guide helps you find ur way :P...and nobody will ever find you, when you get stuck or lost down there – or when it gets pearshaped, as the Kiwis would say!

Mike?

Wanna go down there, ha?

Enough about getting wet feet! What’s next? We hadn’t seen a Kiwi so far…I mean the Kiwi bird - a funny, very fluffy nocturnal animal with a long beak to eat ugly wetas and fruits. The museum of Whangarei offers a Kiwi exploration room…so we went there and had to wait a while until those stupid birds were brave enough to leave their little house to fill their stomachs with insects. Well, the way how they run is sooo hilarious and worth the hours of waiting for them to show up! I am sorry for not showing you any pics here, but it was hard to get a good shot without using the flash of the camera, so I rather tell you about the interesting fact that Kiwis lay incredibly large eggs - have a look on that pic…

Where are the other organs?

Kiwi bird...

The next two days we spent at the Bay of Islands. Thousands of little islands to explore…actually heaven for me because I love little islands…the smaller and further away they are, the better!

I booked a tour for us on “She’s a Lady”, a sailing boat operated by skipper Glen. He is a cool, laid back Kiwi and does this tour almost every day as long as the weather is fine :)

Skipper Glen

We were 15 people and had good fun on the boat. We saw lots of other boats, bottle-nose dolphins and got a great view over those islands.

Glen brought us to a tiny, remote island close to turtle island (see pic below)

Turtle island

On the island we did a hike up such a lovely green hill and realized that the grass is sooooo extremely soft, like a huge bed.

Tired?

Nice view ha?

Then we did some kayaking and had a delicious healthy lunch with the whole group. On the way back we all had a little nap on the boat.
The next day we packed our stuff again and headed to the Waipoua Forest, where u can see the biggest Kauri trees in the world. On our way there we had he first stopover in Kawakawa, where we found a “Hundertwasser-toilet”.

We drove down highway 12 where we passed this long bay on the west coast. We did another stopover to take a memory of this incredible view! (Yes, these are sand dunes…in NZ. Apparently NZ has all the nice things from around the world unified in one country – why do not more people live here?)

Finally, we arrived at the Waipoua Forest and here u can see these remarkable trees:
First we met Tane Mahuta, the Lord of the Forest – the largest Kauri alive. With a girth of almost 14m and a height of 51m, you stand in front of an incredible amount of wood. No ionic liquids allowed here ;)

Lord of the Forest

Then we saw the 4 sisters, four grown together Kauri’s.

4 sisters

Finally we met Te Matua Ngahere, the father of the forest, doubtless the most impressive tree we’ve ever seen. When you have a closer look you can really see, why he’s got his name. In the middle, where the main trunk ends, you can see his face and the huge branches to the left and right are his mighty arms signalizing stop. With a girth of over 16m he is way bigger than the mammoth trees in California and feels much more like an animal than a tree. Although we couldn’t touch this one, I can tell you that its bark is very robust and feels more like a skin. When you hug one of them, it really feels like hugging an alien. Similar to an animal, they “bleed” a lot, when you injure their skin (what we didn’t do of course). We spent quite some time staring at this impressive part of nature before we continued our journey.

Father of the Forest

Touch and feel a Kauri.

With a snapshot of this impressive giant we say good bye for this time and get back to you soon with our final report about the end of the world.

Kisses
J+M

Kia ora

...to all my friends and fans of our travel blog.

This time we will report about our first two weeks at the end of the world – New Zealand.
After a very comfortable flight with LAN and after relaxing 9 hours of sleep we arrived in Auckland on March 5th at 4:30am. After two months of serious communication problems we were glad to be back in an English speaking country, although the Kiwis (New Zealanders) have their own way to use the language. Beside a bunch of very funny phrases  such a “sweet as” or “good ey” they generally pronounce every e as an i but don’t like it, when foreigners do that too because it is wrong!?!
 Auckland, also called the city of sails, is the largest city in kiwi kingdom where more than a third of all kiwis live. I have to admit that we immediately fell in love with this beautiful city.

Built on the back of over 40 volcanoes, Auckland is probably the greenest city we’ve ever seen. After the exhaustive road trip in Chile we decided to switch back one gear and start our exploration of the end of the world slowly. We bought a couple of things which got torn on the way or which had to be replaced urgently, went into the movie theatre a few times and…had a lot of sushi. Due to the fact that Auckland is the biggest Polynesian hub in the world, Asian restaurant are on every, really every corner and offer incredible delicious food for a very good price. Sushi is here the fast food and cheaper and better than I had it anywhere in the world before. Since our arrival we have sushi 2-3 times a day – this is birthday, Easter, Christmas and NYE together every day.

My favourite: Soy coat with spicy rice

Moreover, Kiwis live very healthy and even in the supermarket u get all kind of salad creations, smoothies with kiwifruit and self service muesli. And...for breakfast the Kiwis eat toast topped with Vegemite or Marmite which both are very salty creams that look like chocolate. Actually, Marmite is real Kiwi and Vegemite is Aussi.

Lovely salty cream! U should eat eggs to it...

First we explored the harbor in our new vibrams (finger shoes), which are very comfortable after you got used to them, followed by museums and parks.

 

Going up the sky tower, with 330m the highest building in the southern hemisphere, was definitely one of the highlights although we didn’t dare to do the bungy jump. From up there u have an incredible 360° view over the entire city and we counted about 20 of the numerous green volcanoes.

View from the Sky-Tower!

We concluded the day with a short hike up Mt Eden (also a volcano) close to our hostel, sitting on a park bench and enjoying this peaceful and magical area.

Mt. Eden.

After spending 5 days in Auckland we met with Patrick, our kiwi couchsurfer we hosted three years ago, at the airport and flew to Wellington, New Zealands capital city.

View over Wellington.

Although significantly smaller than Auckland, Wellington offers a lot of things to do. On the first evening we were invited to a BBQ at friends of Patrick and got to know a bunch of friendly kiwis and had sheep sausages. On Sunday Patrick took us to the Weirarapa, an area north east of Wellington, where he grew up. At this point we understood why people say, that New Zealand starts after you left Auckland.

Patrick and Mike near Carterton.

  

No matter where you look it is green. Everything is covered by juicy grass and a variety of bushes, flowers and palm trees. The kiwis are very respectful to their environment and try to maintain their green treasure with a lot of effort. Hence it is no wonder that you can drink directly from the river and hardly find trash lying around.

The only really surprising thing in New Zealand is that there are no dangerous animals, no snakes, and none of all the other animals that usually live under such ideal conditions. One reason might be jungle itself which seems to have a life on its own. After passing another set of hanging bridges, Mike came a little bit too close to one of the trees and got captured.

After saving me for so many times now it was my turn to save my hero!

After saving my hero from the fury claws of the forest, we went to Patrick’s parents who run, what a surprise, a sheep farm and had dinner. We had awesome sheep meat with sweet potatoes, pumpkin and delicious gravy.
Back in Wellington we went to Somes Island, a tiny island in the harbor. This little paradise is the home of various birds including the little blue penguin, sheeps of course and one of the largest insects in the world – the weta.

Giant weta’s can reach a weight up to 70g and the size of your hand. Because they a nocturnal animals and usually hard to find, the park rangers built “weta motels”, where they like to sleep and hence are easy to observe. On the following picture you can see tree wetas, which are one of the smaller species.

The day after Patrick showed us the Botanic garden of Wellington. At this time of the year u can listen there to a lot of free concerts while relaxing on the lawn. I decided that it’s time again to do a short workout and abused the children playground for my purposes.

On March 17th we started our road trip around the North Island of New Zealand which will be the topic of our next entry. With these nice pictures, we, and our kinky mascot say good bye for this time and we’ll be back soon with a new adventurous report from the end of the world.

Kisses

Jiny & Mike