New Zealand comes to an end

Feb 29 – Piha

It rained quite heavily in the night and we had a heck of a time trying to dry the tent and fly out. It was pretty overcast but we did get a few glimpses of the sun. We finally got everything mostly dry so we could pack up. No one showed up to collect our camp fees so we had a free campsite last night. We headed into the little town of Piha to check out the beautiful beach there. It was spectacular even though the weather was not promising. We walked along the beach and saw a bunch of starfish, birds and surfers. We had some fun with tripod photos, Beau and I goofed around a bunch. We really enjoyed our beach walk and took a ton of photos. We decided that because of the weather we would head back to Auckland early and arrived at Elaine's around 12:30. We were very luck because both Elaine and Shane were home. We were also very lucky because their neighbours had recently moved out and we were able to park in their empty spot. Beau and I were starved so we went to a nearby food court and got some Indian food for lunch. Mine was a little bland but Beau's was pretty tasty. We then did some grocery shopping at the Asian food store, Countdown, and the Auckland fish market. We caught the free shuttle most of the way back to Elaine's. We did some laundry then I started on Tabouli salad to go with dinner. We made green curry muscles, they were amazing. I made up a green curry sauce then put the muscles in to steam. We also had focatia bread to dip in our curry sauce. I will definitely be making muscles like that again. We finished the evening with a movie called Tower Heist which was quite funny.

Piha Beach

Mar 1 – Goodbye Wingroad

Today we had to return our trusty Wingroad. We'll be sad to see him go, he was a good little car. So we dropped the car back at the rental company. They were a little surprised by the car being returned there since when we rented the car the computer systems were down and when the rental later got put into the system it was entered that we would be returning it to Christchurch. Of course our paperwork said otherwise and we returned it no problem. We got a ride back to Elaine's place and Beau popped out to pick up some avocado, tomato and chips for lunch. We did some laundry and got the tent, tarp and sleeping bags aired out. Later I went to go get a hair cut. I went to a hair academy down the road and got a $25 hair cut. The guy that cut my hair was not what I expect of a hair stylist graduate. He was middle aged, possibly middle eastern (his name might have been Housain), and barely said a word. He did an alright job but I just ended up with a blunt cut. One of the teachers asked me if I was going to be in the area for a little while because he was wondering if I could be a hair model. But obviously I'm leaving in two days so that wasn't going to happen. When I got back Elaine was home from school and I had almost forgotten we were supposed skype Mom and Dad soon. We all had a nice chat and I got to see and say hello to my monster Monty. I kind of miss the little bugger. Shane and Elaine made tacos for dinner and then we watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. Afterwards Beau and I skyped a couple in Melbourne, Monique and Ingo, who we might be house sitting for. They were very kind and offered to pick us up from the airport and said we could stay there until we started our HelpX placement.  We took the up on the offer.

Mar 2

This morning I skyped with Grandy for little bit. We had a lovely chat but the next time we talk she will be living in Kelowna. It's too bad we weren't able to visit her at her house in Wales but ca la vie! Beau and I got all our stuff packed up and ready to go for the morning. We have to catch a very early bus to the airport tomorrow so we want everything ready. Beau needed to exchange his snorkel since it was a little leaky and then Elaine came home from school. We were all going to go out together, Elaine and I had some shopping to do but then we realized we were going to be skyping cousin Kate soon. So Beau went and did his thing while Elaine and I got to have a great chat with Kate. We were meeting up with Shane for dinner and since Elaine and I didn't have a chance to go shopping earlier we decided to do a little before hand. Poor Beau got dragged along with us. We didn't do too much shopping, at least we didn't think so, but we were able to find me something for my birthday. We met Shane at an Indian restaurant and the food was super good. We split four different dishes with some naan and rice. Yum. We headed back to their house and watched another episode of Game of Thrones. We were up pretty late chatting and will probably only have about 3 or 4 hours of sleep tonight.

Auckland to Mt Maunganui

Feb 10 – Sushi

After many mornings of oatmeal I was super stoked to make crepes for breakfast. While I was cooking Beau got started on folding our laundry which was strewn around Elaine's family room. I made up a batch of crepes for Beau, Shane and I but it became clear quickly that more crepes were needed. The boys asked nicely so I made a second batch of crepes after which we were stuffed. Shane had some errands to run and since it was relatively complicated to add another driver to the rental car Beau took Shane out on an excursion. In the mean time I showered and was sadly excited to do my hair. The guys got back and had found some of our sushi supplies for this evening. We dropped Shane off at work and picked Elaine up from work. I had to go in to get her and Elaine introduced me to some of her co-workers. Many of them thought we looked very alike. I think we look like sisters but it also played apart that my hair is about shoulder length as is Elaine's (we never have had the same length of hair) and I was wearing her clothes. We went into the seafood market to pick up some nice fresh salmon for sushi tonight. We popped back to the house so Elaine could change and we could stick the fish in the fridge then it was off to the airport. Mom and Dad had a three hour layover in Auckland on their way to Tahiti so we were meeting them for coffee. We got to the airport, during rush hour, and Elaine and I went in to find the rents while Beau did laps in the car. We found Mom and Dad then walked outside right as Beau was coming around in the lot. We did get a dirty look from the traffic marshal as we quickly piled into the car. We headed to a near by shopping center and had coffee. We caught up on all that we had missed over the past few weeks and before we knew it it was time to take them back to the airport. We said our goodbyes as none of us know when we'll see each other next :( We popped into CountDown on the way home and picked up the rest of our sushi ingredients. Beau and I got started on our sushi prep which was relatively intensive with lots of chopping. We had salmon, shrimp, crab, sweet potato, carrot, cucumber, and avocado. We made a crap ton of sushi and gorged ourselves on it when it was finally done. It was way better to make it at home than to go out for it! After we decided to play a game of Trivia Pursuit. It was a good game and Elaine won, even in her sleep deprived state (she was up around 5am for work). After the game most of us headed to bed although Beau stayed up to work his website.

Yummy Sushi!

Feb 11 – Goat Island

Beau made seafood omelets for breakfast this morning with some of our left over sushi ingredients. After breakfast the three of us hung out for a bit. Elaine and I then headed out to the Green Stone Shop (Jade). We found a lovely pendant for Elaine's birthday and I bought myself some lovely jade earrings. We picked up some groceries for dinner and headed back to the house. Elaine and I made a yummy tuna melt sandwich for lunch but Beau had been pigging out on crackers and peanut butter so he declined. Once Shane had gotten home from work we set off for Goat Island Marine Reserve to go snorkeling. When we reached Goat Island it was starting to cloud over... boooo. Beau and I went snorkeling and saw lots of fishes but it was pretty chilly. I love my snorkel gear though, the mask is awesome and for what we paid for the rest it works pretty darn good. We went in then Elaine and Shane went out. I got showered and dressed while Beau chilled on the beach. Elaine and Shane came in and were totally pumped, they had seen a sting ray! The sun had hidden itself behind a big dark cloud so we headed up to the car and the other three got cleaned up. It started raining while they were getting changed so we got our snorkel in just in time. During our ride back into Auckland we discussed whether we should pick something up for dinner or still make bean burgers as planned. When we got back to the house we had decided to go ahead and make bean burgers. Elaine and I started on the burgers while the boys ran out to pick up lettuce and tomato. Man were they good. We were so stuffed, Beau could only eat one! The rest of the evening passed very quietly.

Goat Fish

Feb 12 – Shopping

This morning I made Elaine her promised crepes and I also made a pineapple ginger sauce to go with. The sauce turned out pretty good although it could have been more syrupy. Shane had to work at 10 so I made sure to be up in time so he could enjoy breakfast with us. After breakfast, clean up and showers Elaine and I headed down Queen street to do some shopping. We were shopping for my birthday present. We checked out a bunch of stores but unfortunately what's “in style” right now is awful. It's like 80's crossed with 50's mixed with pastels. Man am I glad this year I don't have to shop much. We did have fun in one store though. Elaine was bad and put the idea in my head that I could mail something home so we tried on some pretty dresses. We didn't get me one but that might change when I come back to Auckland. We were both famished so we headed back to the house and made left over bean burgers for lunch. After lunch we thought of another store to check out so decided to run out to them too. On our way out we ran into Shane on his way home for work. We didn't have any more luck with the other two stores but one way closed which didn't help. When we returned the boys were going to go for a walk. Beau and I had been talking about leaving Auckland tonight but we decided to stay even though we would have to park on the street over night and make sure we either moved or payed for parking. I started on my packing while they went walking. When the guys got back we started talking about what to do for dinner. We decided to go out and then proceeded to hunt through their entertainment book to find a deal. I was surprised and delighted to find a Thai-Laos restaurant nearby. We decided on this place and brought a bottle of wine with us. Many restaurants here allow BYO for wine for a small corking fee. The food was really good and they had sticky rice!! I was very excited to have sticky rice outside of Lao and to be able to share the fun with Elaine and Shane. After dinner we decided to pick up another bottle of wine and some ice cream, there was still pineapple ginger sauce left over from this morning. It was pouring rain out still (it started raining when we were trying to park for dinner) but Shane and Beau brought the car around for Elaine and I, such gentlemen. Back at Elaine and Shane's there were no handy parking spaces across the street so Beau had to park a fair ways away and book it back through the rain. We did have wine and ice cream at the ready when he got back in. We enjoyed our dessert with tv then headed to bed.

Feb 13 – Mt Maunganui

We left Auckland fairly early this morning. Elaine and Shane's room mates had returned the night before so we had to park on the street which is only free until 8am. Luckily Sam left with the car so we pulled into his spot for about half an hour to load up. We were on the road by 8:30. We were heading to Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty today. Along the way we stopped to buy some cheap gas and also got a deal on some avocados. We arrived in Mt Maunganui, which is just past Tauranga, and had a lovely Subway sandwich for lunch. We were full out of groceries and Subway is about the cheapest way for us to eat a healthy lunch. We wandered along the main drag checking out some of the little shops. It was fairly nice out at this point, it hadn't been promising earlier, so we decided to go for a walk around the base of Mt Maunganui. It was a leisurely 45-60min walk and was quite pretty. There were some other walks you could do too but I didn't feel like climbing a mountain today. While on our walk we noticed some guys with parachutes above the mountain. I'm guessing they had jumped out of a plane or something because they were too high to have jumped from the mountain. It would be a pretty awesome view from up there. After our walk we headed back to the car and drove along the beachfront and took in the view of the beach, the cafes and the condos. We headed into Tauranga to find a grocery store. We were successful with a Pak 'n' Save and got loaded up. We were headed to the Matata DOC site for the night. As we were driving it started to rain. It hadn't stopped when we reached the camp site so we decided to attempt sleeping in the car. We got situated by a tree and set up the tarp between the car and the tree. Our little set up let us cook in the back of the car with the hatch open and kept us dry. We got lucky though and the rain let up for a but and the sun came out. Sadly we could still see rain clouds in the not too distant distance. We got everything done before it started to rain again and then we snuggled down into the back of the car for a relatively comfortable nights sleep.

@ Mt Maunganui

Pukeko wandering by the car, they are a raptor-like bird

Coromandel and Auckland

We've been all over the Coromandel, back to Auckland and now on to the East Coast.  I was going to get all caught up on my blog in Auckland but instead of writing up and posting I spent quality time with Elaine and Shane.  Sorry! Also with my McDonalds internet I'm limited on how much I can upload so it might take a few posts to catch with with photos!

Feb 7 – Coromandel Peninsula Beach Day

Since we stayed at a Holiday Park we took advantage of the facilities and made eggs for breakfast, a much needed change from oatmeal. After breakfast we did our usual clean up and take down then hit the road. We were headed up to the top of the Coromandel Peninsula. Man was it a crazy road! The first section was paved and very twisty turny. There were some sections with the sign “Wash out” which meant that part of the road had collapsed near the edge and the narrow two lane road was now 1.5 lanes. Fortunately we didn't meet anyone in these section even though there were a number of people coming the other way. After a certain point the road turned to gravel and combined with hairpin turns and blind corners were also hills. The road here was barely wide enough for two cars and in some sections was only one car wide. We made it safely to Port Jackson which is a little bit south of the tip. There was quite a large DOC site there which also had electric BBQ's and fire pits, the toilets were some of the less nice pit toilets we've been at. It was a beautiful sunny day so Beau tried out our new snorkel gear and I read on the beach. There wasn't too much to see sea life wise in the bay but I think Beau enjoyed himself anyways. It was actually quite windy out so I got a few sandy wind gust but it kept me from getting too hot. I didn't actually go in the water. We were feeling sleepy so we had a little nap before dinner. For dinner we used the electric BBQ to cook on meaning we actually stuck our pots on the hot surface which worked quite well. There was a large group of Germans who arrived but a smallish bus, which I can't image driving on those roads, and their guide was preparing a lovely spread of grilled vegetables which would have been nice to get in on. Once done dinner we headed back to our site and noticed a pile of driftwood sitting at an empty site. We confiscated the wood and had a lovely fire which helped keep the night chill off.

View to the left from our campsite at Port Jackson

View to the right from our campsite at Port Jackson

Feb 8 – Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove

It was another beautiful day this morning. We took advantage of the electric BBQ and fried some eggs for breakfast and made toast on it. We are headed over to the east side of the peninsula today to check out Hot Water beach and Cathedral Cove. We had to go back down the crazy road we were on yesterday to reach the highway over to Whitianga. We passed back through Coromandel Town and stopped into the Coromandel Smoking Company to buy some smoked muscles. We bought garlic, habanero and original. We drove along HWY 25 and made some scenic picture stops. At one of the stops you could see either side of the peninsula. Once we reached Whitianga we needed to pick up some groceries, we only found a little convenience store type grocer so they had very limited selection. We did pick up some crackers to have with our muscle which we ate on a waterfront bench. The muscles were delicious especially the garlic ones. We were a little disappointed in the habanero ones, they weren't spicy. On our way out of town we found a proper grocery store and picked up some better things for dinner that night. We then went to Hot Water beach. There is a natural hot spring that flows under the sand into the ocean here and at low tide you can dig yourself your own little hot pool. The place was packed! We did get lucky and some people were leaving their pool when we arrived so we snagged their spot. There is only a small area that actually has hot water coming down it so you have to have dug in the right spot. You can also dig where the water is too hot. The place would have been more enjoyable if there weren't so many people, it was a bit of a tourist trap but at least it was free. We hung out in our hot pool for a little bit then went for a swim to try to wash all the sand off of us. As you can imagine there was sand in all kinds of uncomfortable places. We ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich then headed to Cathedral Cove. This is a popular beach with some really cool rock formations including a big tunnel through the rocks to a beach on the other side. It's also a marine reserve. It was a little late in the day for snorkeling so we plan to come back and check out the sea life next week. We drove to a DOC site called Broken Hills in the center of the Coromandel Peninsula, it was an old gold mining area. After getting set up we made a decent dinner of chick pea spaghetti. The camp warden came over to check our registration and also told us about a cool little night walk. He was taking some people later on and invited us to join in. A little while later we set off for the walk with the warden and nine other people. When we reached the entrance to the walk there was a tour bus parked on the side of the road. Apparently this walk is cool enough to warrant tours. We hiked up the tail and saw tons of glow worms in the rocks. We hopped across a little river and were shown an old miners jails. People that had stolen gold were placed in this tiny cell. As kind of a gag though there was a skeleton laid out on the bench, it had sneakers and glasses on. We were also shown a prospectors mine. It dead ended but was pretty cool, we did some some very hideous bugs called weta. Beau aptly described them as a cockroach with spider legs. YUCK! After the mine we headed back to the campsite, we might have gone on a further hike but the path was choked with the tour bus people.

The coastal road we had to follow

Hot Water Beach

Cathedral Cove

Feb 9 – Back to Auckland

It had been pretty chilly last night so there was condensation all over the tent, inside and out. While we had our coffee and oatmeal we got the tent dried out and packed up. We headed towards Auckland and on our way stopped off at McDonalds to check our e-mail. We had confirmation that Elaine or Shane would be home today and had a McFlurry while we were there. That was a huge disappointment! It was more like a sundae with crappy toppings. I guess they don't have to try as hard when there is no DQ to compete with! We got into Auckland around lunch time and were able to park in Elaine and Shane's parkade as their roomies where away for the weekend. We had lunch with Elaine and Shane and caught up a little then Elaine headed off to work. I got some laundry going before we headed out for a walk to Mt Eden. There was a spectacular 360 deg view of Auckland from the top of the dormant volcano. After our little walk we headed down to the CountDown to pick up beer. Beau and I have been craving a nice cold beer. We haven't been able to chill anything so if we get alcohol it tends to be red wine since it can be served at ambient temperature. Back at the house Shane got started on making us pizza for dinner. Elaine got home and we were severed some delicious thai chicken pizza. We spent the evening catching up on Australia and our travels around the north island.

View of DT Auckland with the crater

Taranaki to Auckland then North

We've rented a car for the month of January and started on our exploration of the North Island.  We are checking out Northland then the Coromandel before hanging out with Elaine and Shane in Auckland for a few days.  Our trip has been great so far, WE SAW A KIWI IN THE WILD!!

Jan 28 – Taranaki Drive

Gabrielle and Dan had an early flight this morning but were kind enough to offer us a ride to the car rental place. We are transferring a car to Auckland meaning we have a free rental for 2 days. Getting a was both good and bad, good because we had a free ride, bad because we had to wait around for about an hour for the rent place to open. It was also a Saturday so the little cafe nearby didn't open till 9 either. So we just sat on the stoop till they opened at 8am. Our transfer car is a Subaru Legacy which is an all wheel drive station wagon and apparently takes premium gas. This might be a little expensive for gas, especially since regular is $2.11/L. We headed out of Wellington stopping into a couple of hardware stores to check out camp stoves. We didn't find the one we were looking for so we continued on our way. On our way out of town we picked up a french couple hitchhiking. They were trying to get to Tongariro so we took them as far as Whanganui. In this town we went to the the hardware store and bought a camp stove then went to the Countdown to pick up groceries. While there our cashier was telling us all about the tower they had in town. So we drove to check it out, it also boasts one of only two underground elevators in the world. It was a nice but windy view from the top of the tower. After our tower excursion we continued on our way along the coast around Mt Taranaki. Unfortunately the mountain had a big cloud sitting on the top of it so the view wasn't quite what it could have been. We finally stopped at a holiday park for dinner and camping. These places are a little expensive but have full kitchen facilities. The place was pretty much deserted too. We made dinner and enjoyed a mug of wine before heading to bed. It is our first night in the tent.

War Memorial Tower

Whanganui Town

Jan 29 – Taranaki to Auckland

There is nothing like starting your with a brewery tasting. Shortly after we had gotten back on the road this morning there was a sign for Mike's organic brewery so obviously we had to stop. The grounds were nice and we headed into an older building for our tastings. They had hosted a wedding the night before and were still in the process of cleaning up. It would have been a very cool wedding venue with a rustic country feel. Beau and I split on a tasting, only $5, and we got to try 6 different 4 ounce tastings. We tried a strawberry blonde, an ale, a lager, a pilser, a coffee porter and a whisky porter. I'm not sure how to describe a porter but the whisky actually quite good and the coffee one was a little too burnt coffee tasting. We continued on our drive make a stop at a black sand beach. It had to be the softest, finest sand I've ever felt. We stopped for gas later on and it hurt to fill the car, it takes premium and was $2.18/L. OUCH! We drove onto Hamilton where we stopped to exchange an inverter we had bought for the car to charge our electronics. Then it was on to Auckland. We arrived in Auckland around dinner time and Elaine and Shane had some left over food they fed us although we were prepared to cook for ourselves. We spent the evening talking, and discussing our plans.

Beau on the Black Sand Beach

Pretty cool drift wood!

Jan 30 – Auckland

Elaine and Shane were headed to Australia today to meet back up with Mom and Dad. Beau was very sweet and drove them even though they had to be there at 5:30am. After dropping them off he had about an hour to kill before he returned the car, then took the bus back to the apartment. While he was doing all this I commandeered Elaine's bed since the air-mattress was mighty uncomfortable. When Beau got back we looked into some more rental cars and possibly buying a car. We weren't sure we would end up with the car we had booked online the night before as their system seemed a little dodgy. We ended up finding another car to rent and booked it. We called the online company to cancel the car but it's a 100% cancellation fee. I had a small panic moment but we uncancelled our car and will hopefully be picking up a little 2 door hatch back tomorrow for $22/day. We are for now keeping the other booking since they don't have our card info. With that relatively sorted we decided to go down to the waterfront. I was a little turned around coming out of Elaine's and we set off walking perpendicular to the water, ooops. We corrected ourselves and meandered on down. Today is a public holiday so there were all kinds of things going on in town. We saw dragon boat races, buskers (it was the World Buskers Festival), all kinds of sail boats and there was also a seafood festival which cost too much to get in to. We enjoyed our walk along the waterfront. We needed to pick up a few things to make dinner so we started hunting up a grocery store. Elaine had told me where to go but I couldn't remember her directions. During our hunt we were sidetracked by a big group of people gathered around a busker who was about the perform. He apparently used to work for Cirque de Soleil. He did a few balancing, strength acts at first, balancing on one hand, balancing on two hands then touching his toes to the top of his head. His big act though was balancing on one hand on a 15ft pole with 4 guys from the audience working to keep this pole steady then spinning in a circle. It was pretty cool and very dangerous. I would guess he makes quite a bit of money doings this as there was quite the crowd gathered around. After all the excitement we found the grocery store then hiked back to Elaine's. It's very up hill! After dinner we started organizing our stuff and where we were going. We also had a great chat with Elaine's roommate Katherine and she gave us some tips on where to go in NZ.

Super cool sail boat in Auckland Harbour

The acrobatic busker

Jan 31 – Northland

This morning we picked up our rental car without much trouble. The guy was a little late picking us up from Elaine's but no biggie. We had reserved a little 2 door hatch back but they didn't have any so they gave us a 4 door hatch back, it probably rents for $30/day instead of $22 but we got it for the agreed price. We nipped back to Elaine's, grabbed our stuff and hit the road (we also sent the other rental company an e-mail cancelling our booking for that day, they don't have our card info so too bad for them). Our exit from Auckland wasn't too smooth, we couldn't figure out how to get back on the high way at first. But eventually we figured it out. After lunch we switched driving so I got my first experience on the other side of the road. I did okay although I turned on the windshield wipers several times instead of signalling, and signalled the wrong way once too. It's also a little different to keep yourself centered in the road, you tend hug the left side which is okay if there is a shoulder but in most cases there isn't. We arrived in Dargaville without incident and picked up some groceries. The price of vege's was ridiculous but we got a premixed vege pack on sale. After leaving the kumara (sweet potato) capitol we head to our DOC campsite in Trounson Kauri Park. We had forgotten to get change to pay for our camp site but got very lucky that a camp warden had just arrived on site and he gave us change. We set up the tent and then went for a walk through the scenic reserve. The reserve is very strict about keeping contaminates out and provide boot washing stations. This is to preserve the Kauri trees which used to be found all over the North Island but now only pockets of forest are still alive. This is one of the best opportunities to see a kiwi in the wild, crossing my fingers! After our walk we played crib and made dinner. After eating we were looking over the maps getting a feel for where we were going tomorrow when a woman came to let us know she was selling some local produce from her car. We walked over to check it out and the woman commented on my Tiger Beer t-shirt. We got to talking, she was from Vietnam and we told her all about our travels. We bought some avocado , cucumber and zucchini from her for $3.50 but as we were leaving she handed us a bag of beans and said they were on her because she liked us! Funny to think we got some free beans all because I'm wearing my Tiger Beer shirt.

We got lucky with the kiwis!! On our night walk we saw two of them digging for grubs in the ground. We didn't know if we'd hear them or know they were near by but we heard something moving in the underbrush and our handy red lights showed us the kiwis. The red light is necessary to not blind the kiwis with your flashlights and it doesn't scare them away. We were able to watch them searching for food in their natural habitat. One of them did get a little annoyed at our presents and made some strange high pitched cawing noise. I had no idea what a kiwi would sound like but I didn't expect the noise it did make. We also saw a few glow worms which look like twinkling stars in the forest. I have to say that seeing kiwis in their natural environment is one of the highlights of this trip!