Rain, rain, go away

We had planned to go to the zoo so that we could finally see a kiwi bird but of course the weather had other ideas. It was once again pouring rain and super windy. We decided going to the zoo didn't make much sense and we needed another plan. There was a underground market happening down by the wharf and since that was inside, we decided to head down there. It was only a five minute walk but the wind was so strong that we literally had to bend against it to try and fight our way through it. It was crazy!

The market was very cute, filled with all local craftsman who had made jewelry, soaps, clothing etc. Sadly, the stuff was a little expensive but really I couldn't carry anything in my backpack anyways so we were just browsing. It only took us about 20 minutes to walk through the market and then we needed something else to do. The receptionist at the YHA had recommended that we check out the "Te Papa Museum" which is all about the history of New Zealand. I wasn't expecting much from the museum but it was actually really nice. When we walked in, a full orchestra was playing a free concert so we stayed and listened for a few songs.

We then checked out a few of the other exhibits about the history of New Zealand. I actually found it sad how much of the islands the Europeans deforested in order to create farmlands and was horrified by the room that was dedicated to all of the animals that have gone extinct in the country in the last 200 years. I think that all of the grasslands here are really beautiful but by cutting down the forest and introducing new species to the island, they have pretty much destroyed the native ecosystems of the islands. It is good that the current population of New Zealanders are aware of these issues and are trying to improve the situation on the island.
There was also an impressionist exhibit of Monet and Renoir at the museum which I was desperate to go to, but sadly it cost $30 and I couldn't justify the cost. We left the museum and headed back out into the rain. We stopped by the hostel to get directions to Mt. Victoria which was a 45 minute walk up the hillside which gave you great views of the city. We thought it might be a little ambitious to do in the bad weather, but what else did we have to do. As we walked, we commented on how much the city reminded us of San Francisco. Even the architecture of the houses was similar.

Once we entered the park, it was a very steep climb uphill. The park was filled with lots of pine trees which made it a beautiful walk.

At the top, the view of the city and the lake was beautiful. There were a few signs talking about the wind in the city and we discovered that Wellington has over 173 days of wind over 40mph per year. Winds through the Cook Staight outside of Wellington have blown into the city at double hurricane force. It suddenly became clear why we were facing such bad weather-that's how it is every day!

As we walked back down to the city from Mt. Victoria, we decided to walk along the beach and check on our car that had been parked there for the past few days. As we walked, we spotted the Blue Bridge ferry which is what we would be taking at 2:30am that evening from Wellington on the north island to Picton on the south Island.

We went back to the hostel and killed time doing more research for our trip. We hung out int the main dining room so that occasionally we would have visits from underwater hockey team to break up the monotony. We had to be at the ferry at 1:30am so after we both took showers, I walked down to get the car and we loaded it up to go.
The ferry dock was only about 10 minutes away from the hostel and after we checked in, we had to wait in line with our car to load onto the ferry. We ended p waiting for about 45 minutes which sucked because all you wanted to do was go to sleep but you couldn't and it was freezing since we had turned the car off to conserve gas. Finally, we were able to load the car and get into the ferry. All of the foot traffic passengers who didn't have to load a car were already on board, so they had taken the best spots for sleeping. We found a four chair bench and were trying to share that, but I really can't sleep if my legs are not horizontal. I said I was going to move to another section with a three chair bench so I could lay down but luckily some other girls moved and we were able to get two, three chair benches right across from each other. We settled in to try and get some sleep on the three and a half our boat ride but it was so freezing in there that I didn't know how long I could take it. I was wearing a long sleeve short, a fleece jacket and my snow jacket as well as pants (and was using my rain jacket as a blanket flor my legs), my gloves and scarf and was still shaking! It was insane.

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Research, research and more research

We woke up with all intentions of doing something in Wellington but we had both purchased 24 hour internet access passes so as we ate breakfast, we were researching things for our trip to Australia. Before we knew it, a few hours had passed and since we were planning to go to the zoo (in hopes of seeing a kiwi), we thought it might make more sense to go the following day so that we could get the most out of our admission fee. We did a few more hours of research and the decided we should get out and see something in the city. We walked down to "Cuba St" which is where all the shops and restaurants are located. It reminded me a little of the 3rd St Promenade in Santa Monica but without the street performers. We cruised up and down the street looking for a cheap lunch menu, but unfortunately all of the restaurants had stopped serving their lunch menu at 3:00pm. We finally decided to go to "Burger Fuel" because they had tons of burger and sandwich options at reasonable prices. I was able to get a chicken burger that had brie on it so I was pretty happy.
We then walked to all the different street bars surveying their happy hour options. We ended up at a bar that had $5 wine and draughts so that I could try a local beer and Alyssa could get wine. We sat on the outdoor patio watching all of the people milling about. We can't justify drinking much in Australia since everything is so expensive, so we headed back to the hostel after one drink. There was a youth underwater hockey league of boys and girls staying at the YHA and since the boys were all 17-20 years old, they had taken a liking to us. As we settled back into our spots in the dining room to continue our research, one of the boys began making talking to us. He was adorable (though 18) and you could tell he felt very cool talking to the older American girls. We later met his father who was one of the coaches for the girls team and he also took a liking to us and would often stop by to chat. We felt bad for the dad since he was the only adult there (all of the other coaches were under 25 years old) so we humored him with hours of conversation.
Since it was Thanksgiving in the states, I was determined to create some sort of Thanksgiving dinner. Alyssa could really care less about things like this but she knows its important to me so she humored me. They don't sell turkey at all in New Zealand so we had to just get a whole chicken. We found some stuffing mix and got potatoes and broccoli. And of course, a bottle of wine. It was a little bit more expensive that the meals we usually make but hey, it's Thanksgiving! Luckily, the YHA has three ovens so I could easily find one to cook the chicken. Everything turned out well except for the stuffing...their stuffing is much different than ours, it's really dry!

We stayed up talking to the underwater hockey team (and watching YouTube videos of underwater hockey since we'd never heard of it- what a weird and hilarious sport!) until we finally decided to head to bed.

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Rainy day drive to Wellington

We had really wanted to go to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing but unfortunately it was pouring rain. Tongariro Crossing is said to be the best one day walk in the country. It takes you up the mountains into a beautiful flatland, past a red volcano crater and beautiful lakes and some of the best alpine scenery in the world. The 8 hour trek also includes a trip up Mt. Ngaurohoe which is the mountain that was used as "Mt. Doom" in Lord of the Rings. Sadly we had to scrap this entire plan because we had read that is was a miserable experience in bad weather. And raining was a complete understatement for what was happening outside. We decided to just get our six hour drive to Wellington out of the way since we couldn't do anything anyways.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Hot/Cold pools to check out where we had been the night before. They really didn't look as bad as I was expecting them to, although the signs around did confirm the danger of amoebic meningitis, lol.

The rain really added an element of danger to our drive as there were often times when the rain was coming down so hard that the windshield wipers weren't moving fast enough to give you a clear view or another car would splash water on your windshield rendering you blind for a few seconds. The New Zealanders were obviously used to this weather and were flying down the road at top speeds but we tried to take it a little bit easy since we were sure they had put the worst tires possible on our shitty little car.

We stopped for lunch in some random town and from our table at Subway, we were able to steal internet from the public library across the street. We got a few things done and were able to Skype our family back home before getting back on the road. Luckily, we had made reservations for a place already because we didn't get into town until 6:00pm and the traffic was so horrendous that we didn't reach the hotel until after 7:00pm. We we staying at the YHA Wellington. The YHA's are a chain of hostels in NZ and Australia that are huge complexes, built for probably a hundred youths. They are pretty well set up with multiple kitchens, internet, etc which is nice but not a very conducive set up for meeting other people. We checked in and got our room assignment in a 6-bed girls dorm. We would have to move to a 4-bed the following night because our room was booked but that was ok, as long as its in the same hostel it's pretty easy to do though a little annoying.

We had to park our car down along the beach since there was no parking at the hostel and were able to purchase a pass for $7.50. Luckily since we had gotten there so late, we were able to buy a pass to cover the following day (Friday) and then Saturday was free, so our whole 3 day stay would only cost $7.50 for parking.

We figured we should find a restaurant that was still open since it appeared everything in the area was already closed. We did some quick research online and found "Phoenician Falafel", which was supposed to have cheap, good Mediterranean food. It was only a block away, so we donned our rain gear and ran there through the downpour. When we arrived, the door said they were open until 11:00pm and it was only 9:00pm so we thought we had plenty of time. When we ordered, the lady asked if we wanted it for take away and we said no, that we would eat there. She then got super pissed off and said that they were closing and we'd have to take it to go. We pointed out that they were supposed to be open for another two hours but she said since it was slow, they were planning to just close early. We were about to leave when she said we could stay and eat. Not wanting to run around in the rain, we both ordered. The lady basically hovered above us until we finished and then told us to get out. She was so unbelievably rude! We both decided we were going to give them a bad Trip Advisor review later on, which is the only form of vengeance we have against bad service, lol.

 

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Sledging and Zorbing

I woke up early no got myself ready for the sledging adventure. I really wasn't sure what to expect which I guess is what I was the most nervous about. Sledging is similar to white water rafting except that you have no raft; you place your forearms on a plastic half sled which you use to bump into rocks or anything you might hit while the rest of your body is just in the river. You wear fins on your feet so that you can propel yourself where you need to go in order to enter the rapids at the best place. Alyssa had absolutely no interest in going, so I signed up to go by myself. Luckily, they offered a pickup service so she could keep the car and do something else in the morning.
When the guy picked me up, he asked if I had anything else planned for the day as there had been a scheduling issue with the guides and they couldn't do the sledging until 12:30. He said I could do rafting in the morning for free and then the sledging in the afternoon. I cleared it with Alyssa and then hopped on the bus. It was a pretty quick drive out of the city to the rafting place. Once I arrived, they told me there had been another change and I could do the sledging in the morning. Apparently I was the only person that had signed up for sledging (the other 18 people were going rafting) so I had my own private guide. I got suited up in a wet suit and boots, not only because the water was so cold but also because the river was filled with eels. My guide briefly went over the basics and then we were on our way to the river. Sledging basic include: 1) Don't let go of your sledge, 2) When you enter a rapid, turn your head to the side so that the sledge doesn't hit you in the face and break your nose; it will just slam your helmet instead, 3) Keep your wrists and arms aligned straight so that you don't break your wrist on impact. My guide was 22 years old, which made me laugh every time I thought about it. In fact, the entire rafting operation was run by kids that had all recently graduated high school. They joked around a lot and thank god I wasn't actually scared to do this because they kept telling me I should be scared and I might die (meant as a joke but would really freak you out if you were scared already!). We watched the rafts go down a massive waterfall before we jumped into the water and went over some of our roll basics and hand signals. The thing I didn't account for was how much of a workout it was going to be! Swimming against a raging river is a lot of work. I was sure as we went over the class V rapids that I would slam a rock or something but I never did. It was actually a lot of fun and my guide and I did some silly things like catching our boards in the water right below the rapid and trying to surf on the board which kept things interesting. All in all, I liked doing it and it was over way too quickly.

I headed back to the hostel afterwards, knowing Alyssa would likely be gone since I told her I'd be gone all day due to the scheduling change. She wasn't there, so I left a note and went off in search of lunch and internet. The day before, we'd been able to use the free wifi at McDonalds but today I couldn't get it to work. I tried Burger King and I was able to connect but nothing would load. Defeated, I walked back toward the hostel. I noticed that there was a mall across the street from our hostel so I stopped in to check it out. I found a store called "Warehouse" which was essentially a Target so I spent some time wandering around in there. They had a "buy 1, get 1 free" on Nivea sunscreen so I took advantage of that and bought a few new shirts since they were reasonably priced and some of my other ones were almost unwearable.
When I got back to the hostel, Alyssa was back. She and a girl at the hostel had gone to see some of the thermal pools. Rotorua is a hot bed of geothermal activity and the entire town reeks of sulfur because of the volcanic lakes and geysers. We decided that we would go for a walk around Rotorua Lake since the girl working at the hostel had told us it was interesting. Turns out the lake is huge but the part near where we were staying is just steaming thermal pools. It was funny to walk around in there since there were signs everywhere warning that if you left the path you could fall into a pool and boil to death. We turned back after less than an hour though because it wasn't very picturesque.
Alyssa had been really excited to go Zorbing, so since they were open until 5:00, we decided to head down there and check it out. We decided to do the zig zag track with the zorb that has water inside. You can do a strait track or a dry zorb, but we had heard that the water one was the best. We headed up the hill in our bikinis to be loaded into our giant rubber balls. They pumped some hot water inside which I thought was a great touch; it would have kind of sucked if the water was cold. I dove through the access hole and they sealed me inside. The guy pushed the ball and it began rolling down the grass track. It was absolutely hilarious! You were sloshing around in the water, being thrown to all sides of the ball. The ball would then hit one of the fences and change direction and you'd be tossed in the other direction. I hysterically laughed the entire time which sadly was only about 45 seconds. I wanted to do it 100 more times but at $40/ride, it was a little too expensive to do more than once. We were really glad we tried it though!

After the zorb, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food for dinner. We still had some noodles left that we needed to cook, so we got eggplant to put in it and some asparagus to have on the side. Our dinners would be pretty cost effective except for the fact that we always want a bottle of wine, which pretty much doubles our total. We really wanted the wine for our hot/cold thermal pool experience which we had planned for later that evening. One of the German boys staying at the hostel told us about some local thermal pools that are just out in the wilderness so there's no charge to go to them. Even though it was raining a bit, Alyssa, Christine (the girl Alyssa had spent the day with), Richard (the German) and Nina (girl from the Netherlands) and I decided we would go.
We made dinner, got our swim clothes together and at Richard's insistence, went to the grocery store to buy candles to provide light at the pools. Come to find out, Richard and Nina were both 18 which made their interests and outlook a little different than ours, which we would understand more later. When we arrived at the hot pools, we found that we were not the only ones with this idea. It is a spot that only locals know about, but there about 40 high school aged kids there. We got into the water and it was very hot on one side and very cold on the other where a river met with the pool, so we positioned ourselves in the middle where it was nice and warm. It was only then that we were informed that you couldn't get your head in the water because you can get amoebic meningitis if the water gets in your nose. I was mildly worried about that but really more annoyed by all of the children in the pools. One of them asked how old we were and once they found out that we were in our late 20's, the shock on their faces was both amusing and obnoxious. It was clearly the place where all the young kids came to drink and have sex and I could only answer questions about America and have some guy try to claim us as his "American bitches" for so long before I wanted to get out of there. Luckily Alyssa, Christine and Nina felt the same way so we dragged Richard out of there and headed back to the hostel. We all made sure to take long showers to remove the amoeba and god knows what else before we went to sleep. It was an interesting night but it definitely made me remember I am no where near 18 years old.

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Glow worm caves

We were awoken early by the clambering of the YWCA cleaning lady who was doing a complete cleaning overhaul on the kitchen across the hall. I used the remainder of the free wifi the YWCA had given me sending emails to my family before packing up my stuff. We had about an hour drive to Waitomo so we stopped to get some coffee before hitting the road. We still can't get a cup of drip coffee, they only have espresso. We have been ordering the "tall black" which is basically just two shots of espresso with a little water but today I got a "tall mac" which also has a little bit of frothy milk. The ride down to Waitomo was pretty easy so on the way, we consulted the Lonely Planet to decide which cave was the best one to visit. We decided to go on a tour called "Spellbound" because it seemed to be the best deal. We had been hoping to do a morning tour so that we could drive the two hours to Rotorua afterwards and still arrive at an early enough time to get a room (in NZ no one works at the hostels after 8:00pm which is very different from what we'd be used to in Central and South America where you can check in 24 hours a day). Unfortunately the only tour that they had available was the 2:00pm tour so as we stood around and discussed our options, the booking lady told us that three people had not shown up for the 11:00am tour so we could take their spots if we wanted to. That was prefect since it was 11:00am then, so we piled into the van and headed toward the caves.
The first cave we visited was a dry cave which reminded us a lot of Kartchner Caverns. There weren't any glow worms in that cave because it wasn't humid enough but I always like looking at cave formations. It's so crazy that small drops of water can create a stalagmite or stalagtite over thousands of years. There were also a lot of bones in the caves of animals who had fallen through the sink holes above and died inside. There was a Moa skeleton, which is a now extinct giant bird that use to live in New Zealand.

We then toured the other cave which had a river passing through it. The river made it much more humid in the cave and also acted as a food source for the glow worms since insects were brought into the cave by the river and but then were attracted by the glow worm lights in the dark.

The worms spin dozens of little threads which hang down from where they are attached to the ceiling. The threads are sticky and when a insect flies into them they get caught in them and the worm reals them up and eats them. The worm only has luminescence in a small part of their tail which is enough to lure in their prey.

We walked through the cave to the wide part of the river where we got into an inflatable raft. Our guide pulled us silently up and down the river as we looked up at the thousands of glow worms above us. He would sometimes make a loud clapping sound which the glow worms responded to and glowed even brighter. I was in awe of how it looked. It was like looking at a brilliant night sky with thousands of stars.

Sadly, we were finally done with looking at glow worms and headed out of the caves and back to our car. From Waitomo, we made the two hour drive to Rotorua. I had looked into a hostel called the "Funky Green Voyager" and when we arrived, they had space for us in a four person dorm. It was a really friendly hostel with nice facilities and free parking so I was happy to stay there. You had to pay $5 for 500mB of internet, so we decided to go use McDonald's free Internet in protest. We looked up a few things to do in town and I signed up for sledging the following morning (like white water rafting with just your body, no raft). We then headed to the grocery store to pick up some things to make dinner and hung out at the hostel the rest of the night, getting to know our fellow travelers.

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Sailing!

Thankfully it was a beautiful, sunny day when we woke up since were very excited for our day of sailing. We put our packs in the trunk of the car, left it parked at the hostel so that we wouldn't have to worry about it and walked down to the harbor. Our sailboat could fit up to 20 people but luckily there were only 8 of us plus the captain on the tour. Aboard the boat there were two older couples who mostly kept to themselves, as well as a guy from Germany and a girl who worked at our hostel. The captain brought the boat out using the motor until we reached the bay where the wind picked up. Then he showed us how to pull up the sails and gave each of us a task. It was exciting to get both the sails up and see how fast the wind could pull us. The captain also let us take turns driving. I had been on a sailboat once before but it was Alyssa's first time so she was excited to try.

As we sailed, we kept an eye out for dolphins and penguins. Finally, we spotted a whole group of dolphins and followed them around for a while. The captain said they responded if you yelled to them, so we all yelled and made high pitched noises and they did come right over to us. They were jumping and chasing each other through the water which was really fun to watch.

We cruised around for a few hours on the way to one of the islands. There are 144 islands in the Bay of Islands, only 3 of which are inhabited. We were going to an uninhibited one to hike to the top. There was supposed to be an amazing view of the water and surrounding islands. Once we arrived, Alyssa, the girl from our hostel and I took the kayaks out to explore some of the caves on the side of the island. We didn't find much, but kayaking is always a good time regardless.

We met the other people on shore (they came over in a little boat) and hiked barefoot up the grassy mountain. The view of the water and the other islands was unbelievably beautiful! I could not believe the color of the water. I could have stared at it for hours.

We hiked back down to the bottom and since I had brought my mask and snorkel with me, I snorkeled around the island for a while. The water was pretty cold but after a while I got used to it. I was surprised how few fish I saw. The ones I did see were about 3ft long and just sort of sat on the ocean floor. The reef was also pretty barren, with no real color to it. Since I wasn't seeing much of anything, I headed back around the island and met up with everyone else who had decided to swim back to the sailboat.
Our captain had prepared a delicious lunch for us and we ate it while sunning on the deck. We then sailed the few ours back to town, most of us lying on the front of the boat taking in the view.

Once we were back, we disembarked and said goodbye to everyone. Alyssa and I then made our way back to the car and began our drive south. We wanted to be in Waitomo to go to the glow worm caves the following day, but since it was a 5 hour drive to get there and it was already after 4:00pm, we knew that there wouldn't be any hostels open for us to stay in by the time we arrived.

We passed through Auckland on our drive and it was funny how much we recognized even from being there just a few days. We drove down to Hamilton, which was only a hour away from Waitomo and were able to find a YWCA that was open late and would rent us a room. I had never been inside YMCA or YWCA but it was exactly like being back in my college dorm. Since Alyssa never stayed in a dorm in college, she was taken aback by the set up. But we weren't about to be picky since I thought there was a good chance we could have had to sleep in the car. We got some cereal at the grocery store down the street (so that we could eat it for dinner and breakfast the following day) and called it an early night.

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Bay of Islands

We woke up early so that we could walk the 45 minutes to the car rental place to pick up our car at 8:00am. When we got there, we finally made the decision to not purchase the optional insurance (saving us $200) and had to pre-pay a $2000 bond in case anything happened to the car. We had gone back and forth about the insurance, but in the end, I was sure that nothing would happen and it would be a waste of money. The guy had told us that we would be getting a manual car so I was very surprised when they gave us an automatic. That meant that Alyssa could drive too (she can not drive stick shift). We got in to the car and I tried to get used to driving on the right side of the car. It was bizarre- everything was backwards! I went to use the turn signal and turned on the windshield wipers instead since the turn signal was now on the right. The drive back to the hostel was a good practice course for me although Alyssa was in a panic the entire time.

We had breakfast (no longer included in hostels since we got to NZ, so sad!) of yogurt, fruit and granola, packed our bags and loaded up the car. I really like having the car so that we can store some things in it and not have to carry everything everywhere we go. We had gotten a GPS to make things easier, so we plugged in the coordinates for our next hostel and hit the road. It was a 3 1/2 our drive to the "Bay of Islands". The freeway was pretty easy to navigate and we decided to avoid the toll road and ended up driving through the country. It was nice that there was very little traffic so I could get used to guiding the car with my right, front tire along the center line instead of the left. Alyssa was apparently freaked out the entire time, but I felt relaxed and very comfortable. The only issue we had was when the road turned into a one lane but two way bridge and we couldn't figure out whose turn it was. It actually turned out to be pretty funny.
We arrived in Paihia at 1:30pm and checked into "Seabeds Hostel". It clearly used to be a motel as even our dorm beds were in different bedrooms. It had an amazing upstairs dining room and kitchen which created a great atmosphere with a view overlooking the ocean.

We wanted to rent paddle boards and book a boat tour for the next day, so we walked into town to check things out. They did rent paddle boards but in the end, we decided there really wasn't anything to paddle to so we'd rather try it somewhere else. We looked at the different boat options at the travel agency and decided we wanted to do the full day sail boat trip. We thought it was really reasonably priced at $95. Since we were in town, we decided to grab lunch. Apparently New Zealand is known for their fish and chips so we figured we had to try it. We were a little annoyed because they charged extra for any sauce including ketchup! They said it was because their fish was so cheap...at $9, seriously? It was good but probably the last one we have for a while.
The guy at the paddle board rental shop was from the US and had recommended a few beaches to us that were up north, so we decided to drive to one of those and just have a beach afternoon. As we we driving, I looked up the beach on the GPS and found that it was over an hour away. Being that it was already past 4:00pm, we decided it was too late in the day to venture that far away, so we headed back to the hostel and just walked to the beach right in front of our place. It was very beautiful and peaceful and we sat for a few hours just reading.
One of the girls staying at our hostel had given us the insiders tip that you could get free wifi in front of the public library, so we decided to head down there and get a few things done. I thought it was hilarious how many people were sitting on the lawn of the closed library using the internet, but it really makes sense since they charge you so much for it.

We scheduled our flight from New Zealand the Australia for the next week and looked up a few hostels for the coming days. Then we headed to the grocery store to get some vegetables and hummus for a light dinner. We spent the evening hanging out in the upstairs living room reading and chatting with the other people at the hostel. I stayed up to finish my book and was the last person to head down to bed...at 10:00pm. Everyone else was already asleep when I went into the bedroom. Needless to say, New Zealand is not a party destination, lol.

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