New Zealand trip

Greetings from beautiful Paihia, where internet is a lot more expensive than in Wellington. (expect fewer updates in the future)

I was pretty broke after leaving Wellington, so to get a bed at night I've been cleaning at a the Saltwater Lodge hostel. 2 hours cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming every day and I get free lodging. Not a bad deal, but definitely not something I ever expected to do. My night job is working at the Swiss Cafe, pictured below. The most Swiss thing we serve seems to be wiener schnitzel or Zuerich style chicken, which I still haven't tried. The current plan is to stay here for about 3 months, but it is a small place (the picture below the Swiss Cafe picture is pretty much the whole town) and I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stay entertained. For now I'm enjoying the beaches and blue water, getting used to waiting tables again and learning to make a bathroom sink shine.

Thanksgiving came early this year. Friends from Wellington gathered last night and we all had a turkey dinner. Even though they'd never celebrated the holiday before Shiobhan and Hiba pulled off an awesome dinner.

Tonight I leave on a 16 hour bus ride for Paihia, a small town north of Auckland that acts as the hub of an area called the Bay of Islands. Paihia will be my home for approximately the next 3 months. I got a job at small beachside restauarant where I get to wear flip flops to work and stare out at the water every night. I'll miss Wellington a lot, as I had a lot of fun here and met some great people, but I think i'm going to like Paihia a lot too... This is where Adam and I will part ways for a while. He'll be staying in Wellington for the next couple weeks and then meeting up with his parents to travel around New Zealand until mid January.

In which I take a road trip around the North Island with Hiba and Rik

Friday Night - Raglan - Belindsay's

On the way to Raglan we hoped to see the sunset as we were traveling up the western coast of the island, but the weather did not cooperate with us. Once in Raglan, we found a great hostel that was very homey and had a comfortable cozy feel to it. We only saw the owner when she checked us in and after that we were the only ones in the hostel. Raglan is supposed to be the best surf spot in New Zealand and the culture of the town has a very surfer vibe. The town is tiny, but there are great beaches everywhere and (as an expert surfer) the waves seemed pretty good while we were there. Since this was our first stop and we'd just had an 8 hour drive, we didn't do too much while here beyond looking at the beaches and walking through town at night.

Saturday Night - Dargaville - Holiday Park and Hostel

On the way to Dargaville, we hoped to see the sunset as we were traveling up the western coast of the island, but the weather did not cooperate with us. The Holiday Park wasn't really aimed toward backpackers, but even with that in mind, this may have been the worst hostel I've stayed in. Ever. It was basically a tool shed with bunk beds thrown in it. It was a bed and a roof for about US $15 (the standard price for hostels in NZ is about that) so as crappy as it was, for these prices you can't complain too much. Honestly, there's not much to do in Dargaville - were I to do the trip again I'd probably avoid it. It was Guy Fawkes day, and even though it's an English holiday the Kiwi's see it as a great time to light stuff on fire (we saw a shed bigger than our room set ablaze that night) and shoot off fireworks. We got some Turkish and Indian food in town and headed to the beach to check out some fireworks.

Sunday we woke up early and headed out of town to see the Kauri trees, which are huge and are now protected by the government after they were mostly cut down in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The trees are comparable to redwoods in size, but there very few old ones since so many of them had been cut down for the lumber industry. The one in this picture is about 3000 years old.

Sunday Night - Paihia - Saltwater Lodge

A fairly generic hostel that I actually liked a lot. Even though it didn't have any of the character of Belindsay's It was very clean and very close to the beach. We headed to a bar to check out the nightlife in Paihia and met a few brits and a Dutch guy. Hiba, displaying talent that I didn't know she had, won a hula hoop contest and received a dolphin tour. Unfortunately we didn't read the brochure carefully enough and barely missed the 9am departure. After missing the dolphin tour we decided to get on a huge powerboat to do the same tour (though much faster). Not free, but quicker. Also, no dolphins.

After the trip around the Bay of Islands we began the 8 hour journey to Coromandel Town, which involved driving through Auckland, New Zealand's biggest and worst city (we hit it at rush hour).

The trip through Auckland was more than made up for by a trip up the Coastal Highway between Thames and Coromandel Town which was the best drive on the trip. With the sun having recently set, a road that stays right on the water and a CD of chill New Zealand music playing, the setup was perfect. Unfortunately I was so fixed on the road, beaches, rocks and water that I didn't even think to take any pictures.

Monday Night - Coromandel Town - Tui Lodge

Not the greatest hostel, but the town has a great small town feel and the hostel is run by two incredibly nice people. On the night we arrived the Lodge was filled with all Germans (this was a change as through the rest of the trip we ran into an absurd amount of Dutch tourists). Coromandel is a tiny town. We woke up on Tuesday to rain. As the weather hadn't cooperated with our beach plans we headed to Driving Creek Railway, which was the creation of a local potter who had a hobby that turned into a 25 year project to bring a small gauge railway to his property. Buppa would love this stop.

On our way to Tauranga we stopped on the east coast of the Coromandel peninsula to check out Cathedral Cove and the hot water beach, which is a beach that you can go to at low tide, dig a hole and tap natural hot springs to make your own personal hot tub. The water is so hot that you actually need to build it in such a way that you also get normal ocean water to combine with your hot spring water. The kid next to us was trying to make a hard boiled egg in the sand.





Tuesday Night - Tauranga - Harbourside City Backpackers

Harbourside is a decent hostel right on the in the middle of everything in Tauranga. We didn't stay in Tauranga for too long on Wednesday, instead opting for the beaches of Mount Maunganui. The beach there is the kind of place where you can hear cars, waves and sheep all at once. Choice.

Wednesday Night- Rotorua - Funky Green Voyager

This hostel was great. I'd read mixed reviews of it, but we stayed in a converted suburban house in a normal bunk room with a great kitchen and nice backyard. After settling in, cooking dinner and playing a quick game of scrabble (sans the rules) Hiba and I decided to check out the town. By 11 we found the town to be pretty much dead except for a Belgian bar (occupied entirely by Dutch tourists).

Rotorua smells like rotten eggs. With the sulfuric smell though, comes a lot of thermal activity. Thermal activity equals tourist activities.

First on our tourism list in Rotorura had nothing to do with thermal activity. We went Zorbing, where you jump in a ball and either strap yourself in or throw some water in the ball and slide around as you roll down a hill. It's kind of like marble madness, except you're inside the marble and you have no control over your marble. It's an expensive short thrill that's over far too fast... but it's zorbing.




Second on our list was Hell's Gate, which got it's name from a description by some old guy who thought it looked like a gate to hell. It's a pretty cool area with boiling mud, small geysers and hot springs all over.



Thursday and Friday Nights - Gisborne - Chalet Surf Lodge

We stayed in some great hostels, but this was my favorite by far. The plan was to only spend one night here, but after a week of driving this was the perfect place to rest and hang out on the beach. The Chalet Surf Lodge is a very chilled out hostel that's right on the beach and, as the name would suggest, caters to surfers. We woke up Friday morning to catch the sunrise as Gisborne claims to be the first to see the light each new day. If you look at a map you realize that's not really true, but it was a good excuse to see a sunrise anyway. After the sunrise we took surfing lessons, then after that relaxed the rest of the day.



Saturday - Napier - Napier Prison Backpackers



A hostel in a converted prison. Definitely an unique idea for lodging in this Deco focused town. In the 30's Napier was leveled by an earthquake. The rebuilding, in the 30's, took place during the Deco period of architecture. The main business district is all deco styled buildings. We did a quick tour on Sunday, then headed back to Wellington, visiting two wineries on the way. Even if I haven't formed an appreciation for wine, this area is one of New Zealand's best wine making areas.


That's the trip! Tons of driving and plenty of pictures. I mentioned the hostels in each town because without Holiday Inns or Best Westerns in everywhere, the hostels end up varying a lot which is always fun because you get the themed ones and the places that are totally unique. As always, you can click any of the pics to make them bigger. Here's the road trip crew - Me, Rik and Hiba:

Greetings from the road. I'm in the middle of a one week trip around the north island where I've seen beautiful sunsets, huge kauri trees, sandy blue water beaches and worked on my manual transmission skills. I've got some great pictures, but for now I'll leave you with a toaster from a hostel where signs were apparently needed to clarify everything.