Tag: Travels

Easter Weekend

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We arrived in Wanaka on Good Friday. It was extremely busy as there was an air show on in addition to it being a long weekend.

We arrived late afternoon, and after sitting on the lake with an ice cream, enjoying the sunset and a few planes flying by, I went to the cinema. You may think it’s a bit odd to go to the cinema on my one night in Wanaka, and on a Friday night as well, but this isn’t any old cinema. This is Cinema Paradiso, which gets a decent mention in my Lonely Planet. The cinema has sofas, and there is an intermission about an hour into the film where you can buy freshly baked cookies. 

  
I went to see Batman v Superman – a bit confusing, and loads of CGI.

Another reason for going to the cinema instead of sampling the local nightlife is that you basically cannot buy alcohol in New Zealand on Good Friday or Easter Sunday (there are some loopholes along the lines of staying in a hotel and buying a meal at the hotel restaurant allows you to buy one drink). Not that I’m an alcoholic or anything, but being away from home gets me in the holiday spirit, and being on holiday means drinking most day. I’ve been on ‘holiday’ for 3 months now so probably could do with a few days off the booze.

Anyway, the next morning I woke early and was out of the hostel and wandering around town at 8.30am. Wanaka is a really nice little town, kinda like Queenstown but with a more laid back vibe. Probably should have spent another night here in hindsight, but nevermind. The bus left at 9.45am to take us to Puzzling World, just outside Wanaka. Puzzling World has loads of illusions and a giant maze, and is kinda cool. They had a wall of hollow Einstein masks, but your eyes trick you into thinking you are looking at the outside of the mask instead of the inside. I promise you that all these are the hollow inside.

  
We left Puzzling World at about 11.30am and set off for Queenstown, self styled ‘adventure capital of the world’. We stopped off at Kawarau Bridge, home of the world’s first commercial bungy jump. We watched a few people jump, but no one from our bus did it. We also watched a short film on how bungy jumping was invented and became commercialised.

  
We arrived in Queenstown mid-afternoon, and my first task was to go in search of a new pair of walking boots after mine started taking on water from underneath in Franz Josef. With my new boots acquired, I had a walk around the lakefront, and through a local craft market. In the evening we had a boat trip on Lake Wakatipu with a burger and a free drink whilst watching the sunset. It was pretty spectacular to say the least:  

 
  
After a couple of drinks in the hostel bar, it was a pretty early night as I had an early bus in the morning to Dunedin.

I arrived in Dunedin around lunchtime on Easter Sunday, and to say it was quiet was a bit of an understatement. Not a lot was open and there were very few people about. After a little walk around to get my bearings, I retreated back to the hostel to do some much needed laundry. Cheapest so far, only $2 for a wash.

As it was so quiet, and there was little else to do in the evening, I went to the only thing open – the cinema. I’ll be turning into a film buff at this rate! This time it was My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which I found surprisingly poignant.

Easter Monday was back to something approaching normality. Things were open so I was out of the hostel mid morning to see what Dunedin had to offer. First up, the Chinese Gardens. It turns out that the Chinese have a longish history with Dunedin following the gold rush in the 1800s, and there is a decent sized Chinese population in this area.

The gardens were opened in 2008 (i think, I don’t remember them being here in 2004), and are very tranquil and peaceful.

  
Next, I went to the Otago Settlers Museum, which was an interesting look at how various peoples settled in Dunedin and Otago, including the Maori, and the Scottish. Dunedin has a strong Scottish heritage, which is patently evident from walking around the city. It definitely felt like I was in a city in northern Britain. They even have a statue of Robert Burns in the city centre.

  
Next up was a tour around Cadbury World, and more free chocolate than I could shake a stick at. British people – be warned that Cadburys chocolate tastes weird in Oz and NZ. They put extra ingredients in to stop it melting in the heat.

  
Finally on Easter Monday I had a quick walk around Dunedin Railway Station, apparently the second most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere. Guess what’s first?

  
After a hectic day I had a quiet evening in the hostel.

The next day I went to the Botanical Gardens, and had a nice long walk around there.

In the afternoon I went to the Otago Museum, which had quite a few exhibits including some personal possessions belonging to Sir Edmund Hillary from the first successful ascent of Everest.

I then had a quick look around Dunedin Art Gallery in the hope that the more I look at art, the more I might ‘get’ it.

After a long day walking around in my new boots, it was time to put my feet up in the evening.

I had one final morning in Dunedin before getting the bus back to Queenstown. I spent most of the morning searching for eye cream and consuming vast quantities of my new favourite drink – chai latte.

After a seemingly never-ending bus journey back to Queenstown, I arrived back at around 7pm, and am bracing myself for another early start as we head to Milford Sound.

Wellington and the West Coast of the South Island

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It’s been a while so strap in for a long-ish update.

After 2 days of rain in National Park village (where I caught up on my previous blog posts), we headed south to Wellington (or Wellie-bobs as mum called it 😄). It was still raining when we arrived in Wellington. I went on a tour around the parliament building in the afternoon. The NZ parliament building is known as the Beehive:

  
It continued to rain after I’d finished the tour so then it was a quick dash to the supermarket and then an evening of reading and watching Dawson’s Creek on my iPad. The dialogue is as wordy as I remembered, Dawson’s hair is terrible, I would totally still wear Joey’s wardrobe, and the soundtrack is awesome.

The next day I visited the Te Papa national museum. It is a massive museum over 6 floors with lots of different exhibits including lots of stuff on plate tectonics (you’ll remember from an earlier blog post that I like all that kind of stuff), wildlife in NZ (lots of which is only found in NZ), and an interesting exhibit on Gallipoli. I spent a good chunk of the day there before heading to the Wellington Museum later in the afternoon.

After being a bit museumed out, I went for a long walk around the botanical gardens the following day. You can take a cable car from the city centre up to the botanical gardens, where you get a great view of the city.

    
After a nice walk around the gardens I headed back to the centre for a wander round, followed by a nice pint of cider. Although it should probably have been a Guinness as it was St Patrick’s Day.

The following day was an early start to catch the ferry to the South Island. The Cook Strait (which separates the 2 main islands) is a narrow stretch of water, but the ferry journey is 3 and a half hours as the ferry has to negotiate its way through the Marlborough Sounds. We arrived in Picton at lunchtime and then drove through Nelson (doesn’t bear much resemblance to either the one in Lancashire or the one in south Wales) before heading to the next stop in Marahou. Marahou is on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park, and it’s not somewhere I’ve been on either of my previous 2 trips to NZ. 

I stayed 3 nights (2 full days) in Marahou. On the first day I did a trip which involved about 3 hours of kayaking in the morning, out from Marahou to Watering Cove, and then a 4 hour (12km) hike back to Marahou on the Abel Tasman Coastal Path. It was absolutely stunning.

   
        
The following day I walked back along the coastal path for about 90 minutes and fell asleep on a beach for most of the afternoon.

The next day we continued our journey down the West Coast to Westport. There’s not much to see in Westport itself, but nearby is Cape Foulwind where there is a sea colony (spot the seals!)

  
In the evening we had a scavenger hunt around Westport. It’s a town where you have to make your own entertainment.

We continued our journey down the west coast the next day. The first stop of the day was at the pancake rocks. Guess how they got their name:

  
After stopping in a rainy Greymouth for supplies, we headed to Franz Josef Glacier where we were staying for 2 nights. One of the best things I’ve done previously in NZ was take a helicopter flight to the glacier and then spent a few hours walking on the glacier. Having done this before, I couldn’t really justify doing it again, and it turned out to be just as well because for the 2 nights we were in Franz Josef it absolutely poured down. Part of the town was flooded when the river burst its banks, and the whole town was issued with a ‘boil water’ notice. It made the national news here.

As the weather was fairly miserable, I had several glasses of wine on our first evening there whilst watching England produce another fine batting collapse against Afghanistan. The satellite signal couldn’t cope with the weather and gave up when we were 85-7.

After a slightly slow start the next day (and with the weather, there was no need to rush!), I went jade carving with one of the girls on the bus, and then we walked to a glacier viewpoint:

  
The glacier is somewhere in the clouds!

Typically, the day we left Franz Josef was a beautiful day. We stopped to look at Fox Glacier (seeing as we were unable to see Franz Josef Glacier):

  
And we also had a short walk to Lake Matheson, which is a mirror lake:

  
Mount Cook and Mount Tasman are the 2 peaks on the right, though I forget which way round they are.

As we drove towards Wanaka, we passed lots more stunning scenery. I will never get tired of looking at these views.

   
    
 
As Wanaka is inland, I’ll talk about that on my next post. Hopefully I’ll get myself organised and post it in the next couple of days.

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

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We awoke at some ungodly hour (5am) in Whakahoro so that we could drive to National Park to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, one of the best one-day walks in the world according to Lonely Planet. It would be hard to disagree with that statement.

We arrived in National Park Village at around 7.45am, and I hired myself some walking poles as I’d found them invaluable on the Inca Trail last November. After a warming cup of hot chocolate we set off for the start of the crossing at Mangatepopo car park. It was a beautifully clear day and we had 19.4km of hiking ahead of us.

  
The first hour or so of the hike was relatively flat, but we started to climb in the second hour. The track is well marked out, but the terrain wasn’t always easy to walk on. This is a live volcanic area and there is a lot of loose rock around.

After the first ascent we arrived at the south crater and had a rather glorious view of Mt Ngauruhoe (now-roo-ho-ey), probably better known these days as Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings films.

 
The volcano has such a wonderful, conical shape. It’s really something to behold.

We then walked through the south crater:

 
 

There was the option, if you were particularly fit and a speedy walker, to climb Mt Ngauruhoe, but that was never an option for me in the timeframe that we had.

There was then another ascent to the Red Crater:

 
 

Then there was a final ascent to view the Emerald Lakes before what I can only describe as a terrifying descent down a narrow path with lots of very loose volcanic sand and rocks.

  

This next picture doesn’t really capture the magnitude or scariness of the descent. It makes it look like a gentle walk downhill, but I assure you it wasn’t!

  

We stopped at the Emerald Lakes for lunch. We’d been walking for about 3hrs and 45 minutes at this point.

After lunch we headed on to the Blue Lake

  

And after this, we continued the long descent to the finish point at Ketetahi car park. There were some glorious view of Lake Taupo in the distance (behind the hills) on the way down:

 
As well as a reminder that this is an active volcanic zone with steam coming out of the mountain:

  

In the end it took me 7 hours and 15 minutes including breaks. We were given 8 hours to complete it (that’s when the bus would pick us up from the finishing point). Big thanks to my walking buddy Tamsin for keeping me going despite numerous breaks.

After coming here with G Adventures in November 2014 and not being able to attempt the crossing due to the poor weather, I’m so glad I was able to complete it this time round. I highly recommend doing this if you are ever in New Zealand, but don’t take it lightly. This was a tough walk and if you don’t have some level of fitness, it will be a massive challenge.

  

A few days off the grid

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After hopping back on the Stray bus, we headed about an hour out of Rotorua to Lake Aniwhenua. Definitely not on most tourists/backpackers hitlist. 

We stayed in a lodge on the edge of the lake run by a local Maori family who are trying to regenerate the area through tourism. The nearby town of Murupara was very prosperous due to the forestry industry around 30-40 years ago. One of the largest man made forests in the Southern Hemisphere, Kaingaroa Forest, is close by, and was the centre of the local industry. Unfortunately in the intervening years, there have been changes in the forestry industry which means that Murupara is now a very poor area with lots of poverty, which was evident as we drove through the town.

The family who run the lodge recognise that the local area has lots of features which would be ideal to attract tourists – lakes, rivers, forests, waterfalls and other awesome scenery and are trying to encourage the tourist industry to grow.

We had a stop at some stone carvings which pre-date the supposed arrival of the Maori in NZ by around 400 years. The Maori arrived in the 1400s and these carvings have been dated to around 1050:

  
We then went to see a waterfall near to the lake before heading to the lodge on the lake itself.

   
 
The lodge offered several activities including kayaking, cooking and eeling. I opted for some traditional Maori weaving and created this ‘unique’ bracelet:

  
I may have been drinking whilst doing it…

We had a traditional hangi feast for dinner. A hangi is when the food is cooked on hot stones underground. Huge joints of pork and whole chickens, along with kumara (sweet potato) cook in around 2 and a half hours. The food was delicious.

  
The evening saw yet another spectacular sunset. I’ve lost count of how many of these I’ve seen.

  
The next day we stopped by the local school in Murupara to drop off leftovers from our hangi. A lot of the kids here come to school without breakfast and may not eat when they get home so the food that is provided from the lodge is invaluable. There were about 100 5-9 year olds who we met. They did a (really cute) haka for us, and sang some songs, and then we got to join in with play time. Just like the kids I met at the school in Fiji, these kids have loads of energy and are so happy and smiley. It really gives you a warm feeling inside.

After we left the school, we headed for a brief stop in Taupo. On the way we stopped at the Huka Falls. There is a tremendous amount of water flowing through here as it exits Lake Taupo into the Waikato River.

  
We then headed towards Whakahoro, where we were spending 2 nights. Again, this is not on most backpackers’ itineraries. There is no phone coverage and expensive wifi, so I was cut off from the rest of the world for a day and a half. It was quite nice not to have any internet, and as we all sat around in the accommodation in the evening, it was noted that it was nice that we were talking to each other rather than being glued to our phones.

There were opportunities for horse riding, hunting and jet boating at Whakahoro, but I opted for the gentler option of a walk to a(nother) waterfall.

  
After another ridiculous sunset, it was relatively early to bed before the 5am alarm call before tackling the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

East Bro

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For the last few days I’ve been travelling around the eastern part of the north island – lesser travelled by the backpacker, and as a result, much quieter and more chilled out.

The first day was from Rotorua to Gisborne. When we headed towards Whakatane (pronounced faka-tar-ney, ‘wh’ is ‘f’ in Maori), I got a little worried. Consult your map – Whakatane is in the opposite direction! It soon transpired though that in order to be on the main road to Gisborne, you do in fact need to go this way.

I have been to Whakatane before. In the dim and distant past on my first trip to New Zealand, I stayed for a few days in Whakatane with friends of my grandparents (hello Grandma *waves* – I know you’re reading this). This time we didn’t stay long in Whakatane, just long enough to stock up at the supermarket. We then headed along the coast to Opotiki before heading south towards Gisborne. Some beautiful coastline on the northern coast:

  
I stayed in Gisborne for 3 nights – essentially 2 days as it was the evening by the time we arrived. This area is famous for being where Captain Cook first sighted land and came ashore. His crew promptly shot and killed several Maori who were performing their traditional welcome – killing the indigenous population seems to be something of a calling card… This memorial marks the area where Cook came ashore:

  
Gisborne is quite a cute little town with some great beaches and lots of wine. Thought it would be rude not to give both of these a go:

   
 
Bit of a palaver trying to catch the bus out of Gisborne. In New Zealand I’m largely travelling on a ‘hop on – hop off’ backpacker bus. You can either do the circuit just spending 1 night in each place, or you can ‘hop off’ and spend a few days in each place. I’ve booked everything in to hop off and then hop back on the bus so that I know I can get back to Auckland in time for my flight out in May, and so I was booked back on a bus out of Gisborne on Monday morning. I had 2 different pick up times given to me – 10.30am and 11am – only slightly confusing. When the bus hadn’t appeared at 11.15am I was a little worried. After ringing the office I was told they would be along just after 12 – basically if I hadn’t have rung I’d have been left behind 😳

Once I got picked up we headed north up the coast from Gisborne, and stopped at Tolaga Bay. Despite having glorious weather in Gisborne, the rain arrived in force today and stayed with us for the rest of the trip around the east. 

Tolaga Bay has a very long wharf, which we walked along in the rain.

  
After this we headed to the overnight stop at Tokomaru Bay, another gorgeous bay, even in the rain.

  
The following day we carried on our journey round the coast, stopping off at a church which had a nice mixture of Maori and Christian themes

  
We then headed to East Cape and to the most easterly lighthouse in New Zealand. After climbing 785 steps up to it, this was the view:

   
 
We stopped in a cute bay for lunch before heading to Maraehako Bay for the night. The hostel was really quirky, nestled into the bay:

  
Some of the interior was a little dated, but the bed was the comfiest one yet.

This morning after the obligatory group photo we headed back to Rotorua, where the weather has cheered up. I’d forgotten about the smell though…

  
Tomorrow I’m off to Napier for a couple of days before coming back to Rotorua once again.

Bits between Auckland and Rotorua

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The hop-on-hop-off bus that I’m using in New Zealand doesn’t go everywhere that I want to go, so I’m taking a few side trips. The first of which was to the Coromandel Peninsula. I had booked a ferry ticket but due to some slightly dodgy weather the ferry was cancelled and a replacement bus service was put on.

When I arrived in Coromandel Town I had lunch and then had a trip on the Driving Creek Railway. This is a narrow gauge railway and was built pretty much single-handedly. It’s an impressive feat of engineering:

   
 
I met a chap who must have been in his 80s and he told me that he’d started backpacking when he was 70 and had visited 46 countries so far. His last trip was to India a couple of years ago and he had been planning on going to west Africa last year but Ebola put paid to that. An inspiring gentleman, and proof that you are never too old!

As the weather for the rest of the day was a bit damp, I just had a wander around Coromandel Town itself. 

Overnight there was torrential rain and it hadn’t  improved by the morning so I wasn’t holding out much hope for Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. However, by the time we had driven over to the other side of the peninsula, the rain and eased off, and after a cafe stop the weather had cheered up a lot.

Hot Water Beach draws crowds of people for a couple of hours either side of low tide who starts digging pools. The water under the sand is hot. And by hot I mean burning. If you dig in the right place, you can dig yourself a very nice spa pool:

  
After spending about 90 minutes here we drove the short distance to the Cathedral Cove walk. I’d been here 15 months since on the G tour and it was just as spectacular as I remember it:

   
   
We got back to Coromandel Town in the late afternoon and I went to see some more kauri trees before getting the ferry back to Auckland.

After a laundry day in Auckland, the following day I hopped back on the Stray bus and headed south to Raglan, and laid back surf town that is how I imagine Byron Bay would have been 30 years ago. No surfing for me this time though, just a chilled afternoon admiring the views

  
The hostel that Stray usually use in Raglan couldn’t take the whole bus so some of us ended up at a different hostel about 5 minutes up the road. Definitely lucked out with this as I had my own cabin with a double bed – result!! And my best nights’ sleep in almost 2 months.

The next day we went to Waitomo Caves to see some caves and glow worms. I’d been to Waitomo when I was here in 2004 but I went in some different caves this time and we were allowed to take pictures of the glow worms (last time I was here we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the caves). My camera is a bit rubbish, but you can just about see them here:

  
My eyes could see a whole lot more than this.

After Waitomo, we headed to our overnight stop at a Maori marae in Mourea, on the shores of Lake Rotorua. A marae is a meeting house. We were welcomed into the family and then had dinner (slightly disappointingly not a hangi) before watching a show of traditional dancing and singing. After this the guys in our group learned the haka and the girls learned the art of pui dancing.

  
Sleeping was interesting as we all bedded down in the meeting house. As there were 37 of us it was certainly cosy!

The next morning was an early start as we had to be in Rotorua by 8am so that people could go to Hobbiton. As I was staying in Rotorua for a couple of days, I went to Hobbiton the following day.

We arrived far too early for me to check into my hostel so I dumped my bags and wandered around Rotorua for the rest of the morning. It smells of rotten eggs here due to the sulphur in all the geothermal activity, but it’s not too bad. In fact the smell isn’t there all the time, and it’s easy to forget about it until you get a sudden whiff of it.

I’ve had 3 days in Rotorua and enjoyed not rushing around. I went to the museum on the first day, Hobbiton on the second day, and yesterday I went to Te Puia geothermal park to see the Pohutu geyser, apparently the tallest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere. It erupts a couple of times an hour (compared to Lady Knox geyser, also near Rotorua, which goes off with some assistance as 10am each day), and while I was there it was erupting pretty much all the time.

 

 
Today I’m going onto Gisborne for a couple of days before going around the eastern cape.

The Bay Of Islands

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I’ve had a week of relaxation in Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Paihia holds a special place in my heart as I spent around 3 weeks here back in 2004, and I really, really love it. This is the longest I will be in one place on this trip and it was always my intention to spend a good chunk of time here. Although my intention was to relax and take it easy this week, I still managed to get quite a lot done.

I went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds on my first day here. It had just been Waitangi Day (on the 6th February) which celebrates the signing of the treaty between the British and the Maori. Both the New Zealand and British flags are flown here:

  
The next day I took the short ferry ride over to Russell. Russell was the first capital of New Zealand, and had something of a reputation back in the day…its nickname was ‘the hellhole of the Pacific’. These days it has a much more genteel pace of life.

I went to the Pompallier Mission which was a tannery and printworks in the 1800s. The guided tour was very informative and gave a fascinating insight into how books were printed in those days. The majority of the books were printed in Maori, and it sounds like this helped relations between the Europeans (the printers had come over from France) and the Maori.

  
There is a gorgeous beach in Russell which I sat and spent a while at in the afternoon:

  
In the evening I went river kayaking up to the Haruru Falls. This was really good fun. We went part way up the river in a boat before getting into the kayaks and kayaking the rest of the way up the river to the waterfalls. After getting a bit damp under the falls, we kayaked back downstream and enjoyed the sunset and the stars. When it gets dark, the water in the river glows which is really cool.

The next day was an early start for a day trip up to Cape Reinga at the top of New Zealand. We drove up 90 Mile Beach:

  
And went sand boarding down some enormous sand dunes:

  
We went from the highest point on the right – don’t forget to keep your mouth closed or you get a mouthful of sand!!

After lunch we made it to Cape Reinga. This is the most northerly point you can drive to to NZ, but is not quite the most northerly point.

At Cape Reinga you can see where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea:

  
  
On the way back we stopped off for some ‘fush & chups’:

  
The following day I had a proper chilled out day following 2 fairly hectic days. I only left the hostel to go to the supermarket. Every now and then you need a day when you do nothing, even when you’re travelling!

On Monday I walked along the coastal walkway to Opua. Opua has a marina and not much else but the walk was nice and long and gave me lots of time to think.

   
   
Yesterday I went on a boat tour to the Hole In The Rock. The weather has been beautiful for most of the time I’ve been here but has just started to turn as the remnants of a cyclone are on their way. Because of this the sea was very choppy and the captain wasn’t confident that we’d be able to get all the way out to see the Hole in the Rock. Thankfully, even thought the sea was choppy, we were able to make it out to Cape Brett to see the hole:

  
We also stopped off at Urupukapuka Island, the largest island in the bay, to admire the views:

  
I’m going back to Auckland this afternoon and then onto Coromandel for a couple of days. I’ve had a lovely time in Paihia. Possibly had built it up in my head to be more than it was, after all, almost 12 years have passed since I was last here, but it’s still been good, and it’s been nice not to have to cram everything into my bag every day.

 

Auckland

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For those of you who don’t know, I have previously spent quite a lot of time in Auckland. Well, relatively quite a lot of time considering Auckland is on the other side of the world from where I live. In 2004, as a shy and naive 19 year old, I spent 3 months in New Zealand on a working holiday visa. During that time I spent around 3 weeks in Auckland working in a call centre in Takapuna on the North Shore. It was for an outbound telemarketing company and it was just as awful as it sounds. I also seem to remember having a sore throat and croaky voice for most of the time I worked there…fond memories 😁

Anyway, the job was in the evenings so it gave me plenty of time during the day to explore what Auckland had to offer. I took the ferry to Devonport, went up the Sky Tower, took a tour of Auckland and walked up Mount Eden, went to the city suburbs of Ponsonby and Parnell, and walked miles and miles up and down Queen Street and around the harbour.

Having taken a holiday in NZ 15 months ago which also involved a stop in Auckland, you might have thought there was not a lot else for me to see in Auckland. Well, having decided to spend 5 nights here chilling after a hectic 5 weeks hot-footing it around Hong Kong, Australia and Fiji, I was keen to see things I’ve not seen before.

On my first day I took a long walk around the harbour to the base of the harbour bridge. Despite travelling over it many times when working at that call centre, I’d never seen it from this angle:  

It also gave a great view back over downtown Auckland, and you can certainly see how it got its nickname – the city of sails:

 
The next day I went to Waiheke Island, an island in the Hauraki Gulf, about 40 minutes by ferry from downtown Auckland. In 2004 I didn’t have the money, and in 2014 I didn’t have the time to go to Waiheke, but now, fortunately, I had both. Waiheke Island is famous for producing wine as it has a microclimate which is much warmer and drier than Auckland and the surrounding mainland. I had booked myself on a ‘Taste of Waiheke’ tour which included visits to 3 vineyards (all with wine tasting, 1 with lunch and 1 with beer tasting) and an olive grove. We also saw some of the beautiful scenery on the island:   

  

The next couple of days I decided to try and be cultured. I went to the Auckland Art Gallery one day and to the War Memorial Museum the next day. As much as I try, I still struggle to appreciate art. I think I could produce some of the stuff in there, and I haven’t picked up a paintbrush in anger in 15+ years. 

The War Memorial Museum wasn’t just about war. It contained, among other things, a fascinating exhibit about volcanoes. I love plate tectonics, volcanoes and geological activity, and if I’d have done a degree in something I was interested in rather than something useful for my career, it would have been something down the geographical/geological line. I spent over 3 hours at the museum and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I also found time for a cinema trip, which was another feature of my travels here in 2004. I very rarely go to the cinema back home, so I actually quite enjoy going whilst abroad as it isn’t something I normally do. I went to watch The Big Short, which is about a group of traders who bet against the US economy during the financial crisis. Certainly an interesting story, and timely given what seems to be happening to stock markets at the moment (yes, I am keeping an eye on things, can’t completely switch off…if someone can tell me why Lloyds shares are tanking, I’m all ears!).

As I write this from Paihia, I will be back in Auckland in a few days on my way to Coromandel and further south. My NZ trip will finish up in Auckland in May, so I will be back again. I’m sure there are still more things for me to discover in AKL.

Fiji

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My flight left Melbourne at 11.50pm and arrived in Nadi, Fiji at 5.30am. Needless to say, sleeping was not a success! I arrived at my hostel/hotel (it was a slightly strange set-up. I was in a room with 1 bunk bed only. Many of the other rooms seemed to be doubles/family rooms like a regular hotel) at 7.15am. I was able to check in shortly after 9am so in the meantime I snoozed in the lobby. Once I got into the room, I had another couple of hours’ sleep before spending the rest of the day on the beach and in and around the hotel pool. The hotel was on the beach and faced west, so gave a great view of the sunset:

  
The next day was the start of my tour around Fiji with Feejee Experience. Our first stop was to Robinson Crusoe Island:

  
This is the view from the beach. In the afternoon I went snorkelling, which was fun, though I couldn’t see too much without my specs.

In the evening, we enjoyed some traditional Fijian dancing and fire dancing (don’t try this at home!)

 

 
The next morning we left Robinson Crusoe Island after breakfast and drove to Uprising Beach Resort on the south of Viti Levu. In the afternoon we went on a walk through the rainforest to a waterfall. The heavens opened and we all got soaked to the bone. Warm rain was quite an experience though. I persevered with an umbrella whilst everyone else just went for it. To be honest, in a tropical downpour, an umbrella becomes a bit useless after a while. It did help keep the rain of my specs though!

The next day we drove to Suva, the capital, in the morning. This chap was standing guard outside the president’s house:

  
It was extremely warm but he didn’t move a muscle. We then drove inland to a village to experience what Fiji is really like. We all had to cover up in sarongs and make sure our shoulders were covered. We were welcomed by the village and then had a traditional kava ceremony. Kava is a drink made from a root which looks like muddy water. It does not taste too good, and leaves a tingling sensation in the mouth. I definitely preferred the coca tea in Peru!

We had a delicious lunch of traditional Fijian food which largely consisted of spinach several ways – fried, fritters, rolls, sautéed with coconut cream – along with chicken, plantain, prawns and fruit. Also eaten in the traditional way with our hands…

After lunch we went bilibili rafting (bamboo rafts) before visiting a school. The kids danced and sang for us and were so happy and enthusiastic, asking us all loads of questions. This was actually quite a cool thing to do, and not something you normally get to see on holiday.

After we left the school, we drove to our accommodation for the evening on the north side of the island at Rakiraki.

The following day was a relatively long drive back to Nadi, with a stop off for lunch in the second largest city of Lautoka. We opted for the traditional Fijian ‘McDonalds’ 😁 We also visited the mud pools in the afternoon. It was good fun, but a bikini was sacrificed:

   

When we got back to Nadi, it turned out that we were staying in different hostels. We all met up for dinner and drinks in the evening as it was our last night as a group. Some were staying in Nadi, some were going to Mantaray Island, some were coming with me to Beachcomber Island, and some were moving on to New Zealand.

The following morning was an earlyish start to catch the boat over to Beachcomber Island. The Fijian islands really are like tropical islands you imagine in paradise.

   
Beachcomber involved a lot of chilling out and a little bit of snorkelling. The sea was a lot choppier here so I didn’t enjoy it as much as before. Mainly I tried to take in the view, and pinch myself that I really was here on this tropical island a long way from home.

   
I returned to Nadi late the following day and had 1 night there before heading off for the next leg of my trip to my favourite place in the world, New Zealand.

Adelaide to Melbourne

~ Cat ~ 1 Comment

We arrived in Adelaide quite late on the Sunday evening, and as we left first thing the following day there wasn’t much (any) opportunity to have a look at Adelaide, which was a bit of a shame as I’ve heard it’s quite a nice city. I’ve also missed out on Perth. Nevermind, I’ll just have to come back next time the Ashes are on and take in the Adelaide and Perth tests…

We left Adelaide early to drive to the Grampians national park. We took a short walk to the MacKenzie Falls:    

The Grampians were very scenic, and welcome change following several days of vast nothingness in the outback

    
We stayed at an eco YHA in Halls Gap, probably one of the nicer places we stayed on the trip.

Another early start the next day – Australia Day (26th January). Australia Day is on the day that Captain Cook arrived in Australia. It seems that it is becoming a bit contentious with it being on that day as it is not very sensitive to the indigenous population. They view Cook as an invader rather than explorer. As it happened, we went to a cultural centre that morning to learn more about the indigenous people. It was a lot more informative than the one we had previously gone to a Uluru.

After that we drove to the coast and the Great Ocean Road. Bit of a hiccup on the drive – as it was Australia Day, very few shops and petrol stations were open. We had to resort to using the emergency fuel at one point…

The Great Ocean Road was one of the things that I was really looking forward to seeing in Australia. The sky was a bit ominous but it stayed fine thankfully. We saw the London Arch (formerly London Bridge until part of it collapsed) in the afternoon before heading to Port Campbell for the evening.

   
The next day (the final day of the tour) we carried on travelling east along the Great Ocean Road and saw Loch Ard Gorge and the 12 Apostles (apparently there weren’t ever 12 and there are even fewer now as the sea erodes the rock away). I really loved this part of the trip, great scenery and interesting rock formations appealing to my geographic/geological side.

       
We arrived in Melbourne mid afternoon, and I headed off to the Australian Open. I had decided on a whim in Cairns that as I would be in Melbourne whilst the tennis was on, I might as well go and see some. I bought a ground pass for after 5pm for $30 (about £15) online and the ticket was sent via text message.

It was about a 35 minute walk to tennis from the hostel I was staying at. I managed to luck out on Andy Murray playing his quarter final match so when I got there, I got a glass of vino and headed for the big screens (budget didn’t stretch to tickets in the Rod Laver Arena itself). As I arrived, they were in the process of closing the roof on the arena as a massive rainstorm was heading our way. I got my brolly up and waited it out sat in the open for as long as I could, but eventually I had to retreat indoors. I watched the conclusion of the Murray game on TV from the concourse inside the Rod Laver Arena. Shortly afterwards the weather cleared up and I watched the conclusion of a women’s doubles match before heading back to the hostel. 

My flight to Fiji was the following day but not until 11.50pm so I had a whole day to explore Melbourne. I went to the Old Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was imprisoned, the aquarium (where I finally saw Nemo) and the Melbourne Museum. 

   
Also sat next to Lleyton Hewitt in Starbucks who was giving some tennis advice (‘you should work on your forehand’) to a bloke who I didn’t recognise but I assume must have been at the Australian Open. First celeb spot of the trip!

I had a great time in Oz. The bits I was looking forward to (Uluru and the Great Ocean Road) were as good as is hoped, and things which I hadn’t given much though to (Fraser Island and the Whitsundays) were excellent. I travelled with a great group of people who really added to the whole experience. Still a few things I’d like to see in Oz but they’ll have to wait until next time!