I really wasn't sure to expect going to NZ. I had attempted and failed to study abroad there a few years back and was extremely excited about the opportunity to get there. In the end it lived up to the expectations but there were some unexpected bumps along the way.
The thing about NZ is that, simply put, it puts nearly all other countries to shame in terms of beauty. It has beaches that would make Thailand envious, mountains as pretty as any I'd seen outside of Nepal, rainforest, volcanoes, glaciers, and nearly every other type terrain that one could desire (aside from maybe red rock canyons). The country is truly majestic and densely packed with beauty.
My means of traveling came as a bit of a surprise to me, and was both a blessing and a curse. I ended up being handed $400 to a Kiwi Experience ticket, which is one of the many tour buses that go around the country. It is a hop-on, hop-off service that follows specific routes meaning that you get on the bus, stay at their compulsorary stops and hop-off as you please for as long as you please. In theory it is phenomenol. The drivers are very knowledgeable about the area and can tell you cool places to hop-off to explore the area and they even stop at scenic overlooks along the way. If it weren't for Kiwi there is no way I would have ever found the baby seal colony just north of Kaikoura on my own. So in that sense, the Kiwi Experience was an absolute blessing. Unfortunately, it did have a dark side, and what makes it worse is that the dark side were the people that used the bus service. 95% were from the UK, primarily England, which wouldn't have bothered me if it weren't for the fact that 90% of them were robots. When you meet people along the road you often ask the same questions, where are you from, where are you going, what do you do, etc etc. I could answer that question for nearly all of them before it was ever asked. They were from England, either 18 or 23 years old (before or after college), traveling to Australia, NZ, Fiji, the USA, then back home (occasionally they stopped over in SE Asia) and every country they went to they hopped on tourist buses similar to the Kiwi Experience. This still wasn't my problem with them because aside from the route, I basically fit this description. It was the attitude of most of these people. They came to NZ for usually 6-8 weeks, same as me, but they never, and I mean never, did anything other than what Kiwi told them to do. They did all the activities that Kiwi said to do, stayed where Kiwi said, and never hopped-off the bus to actually see the country. When we came to one of the scenic walks that I just wrote about you heard more complaints and "do we have to" then awesome, baby seal colonies, cool waterfalls, mirror lakes overlooking the mountains this is why I came to NZ. The people hopped on the bus and followed it around the country in pursuit of getting to Queenstown ASAP, because as several of them said, "it's all about Queenstown". Reason, the partying. It is endless in Queenstown. When I finally got there after taking my time on the gorgeous west coast of the South Island I saw someone that I had started on the Kiwi bus with in Christchurch 3 weeks before. Asked how he was doing and how long he had been there, 10 days already, then he asked where I had been. I told him I took my time along the coast and hopped off pretty much everywhere, the response....."why would you do that?". Why would I hop off the bus, maybe to see the country, I mean, I thought that is what traveling was about. I think that epitomized the Kiwi Experience for me, these people had nothing on their mind but partying and when they were conviently presented the opportunity to see some amazing scenery they might take advantage of it. It was really a shame that they typically wouldn't get out of bed before 2pm because they were too hung over to do anything else. In the end I'm not sure that I would ever recommend or go back to use Kiwi Experience again.
This was only a minor problem with my travels though and it really didn't affect me from seeing the stuff that I wanted to do. The coolest people that I met in NZ were the ones that I met when I hopped off the bus to more or less do the hiking tracks that I wanted, which were everywhere.
The activities in NZ were simply world class. Dolphin swimming, walking and climbing on glaciers, bungy jumping, jet boating, black water rafting, and endless hiking.....all amazing. I felt so fortunate to get to do all of this, particularly getting to spend some time up in the NZ wilderness. The great thing about NZ is that they truly care about their country and make all the efforts in the world to conserve it, so the National Parks and very well maintained and have an extensive system of trails to any type of scenery your heart could desire, all of which was truly majestic. The only downfall was the time of year that I went because some of the high mountain trails that passed above treeline were essentially closed from my use. I was unable to complete things like the Milford or Routeburn tracks, but I have all the reason in the world to go back to NZ to see them. I mean, they are the 2 tracks that get all the attention in NZ when the rest of the country is some of the most scenic land that I have ever seen.
In the end, aside from the hiking, the things that will forever stick out in my mind were the dolphin swim in Kaikoura, bungy jumps in Queenstown, the trip to the Milford Sound, and the blackwater rafting in Waitomo. These activities are more or less unique to NZ and far exceeded every expectation I ever had, they really made my trip unforgettable. Swimming with wild dolphins was unreal. Seeing a dozen or so racing circles around you, bumping into you, and looking you directly in the eye is an experience not soon to be forgotten in my mind. Over coming the fear of jumping over 400 feet into a canyon with latex attached to your feet is out of this world. My first thought after having jumped and safely gotten back up was, "I never realized anything could be so fun". Words can't describe the feeling of plummiting face first at nearly 100mph at the ground. The Milford Sound, and I don't say this lightly, was quite possibly the most beautiful place that I have ever been. The tranquility fo the area was unreal. Waveless water surrounded by thousand meter peaks blanketed in forest and snow presents a sight that is impossible to capture with picture or words, all that is left to do was soak it all in and enjoy. And finally, the blackwater rafting. Not necessarily something that took my breath away and I'm not even sure that something like this couldn't be replicated elsewhere in the world, but it was just pure fun. The guides for the trip were probably the best guides for any activity that I've ever had and the experience of floating through glow-worm filled caves and crawling around tunnels where I feared for my life the entire time was just plain awesome.
Bottom line, NZ has been hands down my favorite country that I've visited, and I can't imagine that changing anytime soon, or ever. Beauty beyond words and countless adventures at your fingertips around every corner. The country was a thing of beauty and I cannot wait for the day when I can return.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
The end of the world
Paihia is located about half-way between Auckland and the very northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, so I decided to take a day trip up there with Awesome Adventures, I really like that name.
Heading north we first stopped off at an ancient Kauri forest. The trees here are roughly 4,000 years old and used to cover the entire region and much of NZ until England decided that the trees would make lovely boats, houses, etc. and decided to cut them all down leaving 2-3% of the original population remaining. Hooray imperialism! The forest was pretty cool, but in the end they were just really big trees to look at...I prefer mountains.
Further north we left all signs of society behind and made it to the furthest northern point in NZ. Here the Tasman Sea meets up with the Pacific Ocean to create big waves and a lot of wind. At the point at Cape Reinga is a light house surrounded by large forested hills. I don't know what it was about the area, but it felt to me like the end of the world, that I was looking out into vast ocean where there was complete nothingness. It was an odd feeling because I've sat on oceans and beaches and looked out to see nothing before, but the area felt extremely desolute, void of life outside of the forest and at world's end. This was despite the fact that we drove here on an unpaved road and I knew exactly how far from civilization we were, about 100 miles. But it had an odd, yet awesome, feeling to it.
After the lighthouse came the highlight of the trip.....sand boarding. Essentially the same thing as sledding but on sand. You grab a sand board, climb a sand dune, sit on top and push off then go wizzing down. The first run was a bit nerve racking, the dunes after all are big and you do pick up a lot of speed. If done properly in the best conditions you can hit 60mph on the dune we were heading down, at first we were probably only going about 30mph down it. At the end of the sand dune is obviously the steepest part that then goes to a completely flat area that is covered with a thin layer of water, essentially a really wide stream, that you slide out onto. Well, my first go didn't go well. I made it to the flat part just fine, then hit it, got knocked around a bit, my sand board stopped but I didn't. It was pretty much the coolest slip n' slide I'd ever been on as I went sliding out like superman across the ground. It was pretty awesome, minus my pants sliding off and me mooning the people on top of the dune.
The next few runs were a bit more intense. Instead of sitting down on top and pushing off we got the courage for a running and jumping start. It started off slow, just a step then jump, then gradually progressed to an all out sprint and huge leap over the lip of the dune. After the first run I even managed to stay on the board when I hit stream below and went out really far across the water...until the last run. I knew it was the last run of the day so I really went for it, ran, jumped and started going down. I was flying, I don't know how fast it was but I'm guessing somewhere around 50mph. When I got to the steep part at the end instead of smoothly going down it, I got some air. Upon landing my face slammed into the sand board, it stopped and I get sliding. I don't exactly know what happened or what it looked like but it felt like I took an upper-cut to the face and somehow managed to mangle my wrist so that it didn't like being twisted for the rest of the day. It was awesome though.
From the dunes we drove down New Zealands oldest and newest highway, 90 mile beach (the highway is literally on the beach). It is the oldest highway in NZ and probably the world because the beach has been there for thousands of years, but it is also the newest because it gets re "paved" everyday when the tide comes in and then goes out leaving a new layer of sand. The beach is named 90 mile beach for pretty much no reason, it is not 90 miles from anything nor is it 90 miles wrong, the founders of the beach just named it wrong. The drive down the beach was relaxing and gorgeous. We stopped off a few times to play some touch rugby and eat some shellfish before heading back down the coast to Paihia.
Heading north we first stopped off at an ancient Kauri forest. The trees here are roughly 4,000 years old and used to cover the entire region and much of NZ until England decided that the trees would make lovely boats, houses, etc. and decided to cut them all down leaving 2-3% of the original population remaining. Hooray imperialism! The forest was pretty cool, but in the end they were just really big trees to look at...I prefer mountains.
Further north we left all signs of society behind and made it to the furthest northern point in NZ. Here the Tasman Sea meets up with the Pacific Ocean to create big waves and a lot of wind. At the point at Cape Reinga is a light house surrounded by large forested hills. I don't know what it was about the area, but it felt to me like the end of the world, that I was looking out into vast ocean where there was complete nothingness. It was an odd feeling because I've sat on oceans and beaches and looked out to see nothing before, but the area felt extremely desolute, void of life outside of the forest and at world's end. This was despite the fact that we drove here on an unpaved road and I knew exactly how far from civilization we were, about 100 miles. But it had an odd, yet awesome, feeling to it.
After the lighthouse came the highlight of the trip.....sand boarding. Essentially the same thing as sledding but on sand. You grab a sand board, climb a sand dune, sit on top and push off then go wizzing down. The first run was a bit nerve racking, the dunes after all are big and you do pick up a lot of speed. If done properly in the best conditions you can hit 60mph on the dune we were heading down, at first we were probably only going about 30mph down it. At the end of the sand dune is obviously the steepest part that then goes to a completely flat area that is covered with a thin layer of water, essentially a really wide stream, that you slide out onto. Well, my first go didn't go well. I made it to the flat part just fine, then hit it, got knocked around a bit, my sand board stopped but I didn't. It was pretty much the coolest slip n' slide I'd ever been on as I went sliding out like superman across the ground. It was pretty awesome, minus my pants sliding off and me mooning the people on top of the dune.
The next few runs were a bit more intense. Instead of sitting down on top and pushing off we got the courage for a running and jumping start. It started off slow, just a step then jump, then gradually progressed to an all out sprint and huge leap over the lip of the dune. After the first run I even managed to stay on the board when I hit stream below and went out really far across the water...until the last run. I knew it was the last run of the day so I really went for it, ran, jumped and started going down. I was flying, I don't know how fast it was but I'm guessing somewhere around 50mph. When I got to the steep part at the end instead of smoothly going down it, I got some air. Upon landing my face slammed into the sand board, it stopped and I get sliding. I don't exactly know what happened or what it looked like but it felt like I took an upper-cut to the face and somehow managed to mangle my wrist so that it didn't like being twisted for the rest of the day. It was awesome though.
From the dunes we drove down New Zealands oldest and newest highway, 90 mile beach (the highway is literally on the beach). It is the oldest highway in NZ and probably the world because the beach has been there for thousands of years, but it is also the newest because it gets re "paved" everyday when the tide comes in and then goes out leaving a new layer of sand. The beach is named 90 mile beach for pretty much no reason, it is not 90 miles from anything nor is it 90 miles wrong, the founders of the beach just named it wrong. The drive down the beach was relaxing and gorgeous. We stopped off a few times to play some touch rugby and eat some shellfish before heading back down the coast to Paihia.
The endless summer
In the very northern part of NZ is a long peninsula containing what is known as the Bay of Islands. There are immaculate beaches and pristine coastline contained in this area and it is described by many as the endless summer. Relatively speaking it was quite warm up here but I wouldn't exactly describe it as summer conditions.
I was staying in a town called Paihia which is home to the Bay itself. The town is situated on the waterfront and is quite adorable. The golden sand beaches overlook the blueish/green tropical water and the weather was quite nice upon our arrival. My first day was spent soaking in some sun on the beach and braving the frigid cold waters of the bay much to the delight of the onlookers. I figured I wouldn't have many chances to swim in the Pacific down here so I might as well right?
The rest of my day was spent sorting out some activities for the next few days. The area is home to one of the top 10 dive sites in the world according to Jacque Cousteau so I was looking forward to taking a crack at that. Sorry, the "endless" summer apparently ends in the winter months when the dive trips don't really run. Well, I haven't sky dived either might as well try that out and heck, I'll even do that on the 4th of July because I doubt that I'll be seeing any fireworks down here. Sorry, plane is broken.
Guess that all I was left with were the gorgeous views of the area...I live such a hard life. I did end up taking a boat cruise around the Bay to visit the 144 islands there and got to see some tropical paradise that has remained largely untouched. The "highlight" of the tour according to the boat operator is the "Hole-in-the-Rock" which is a massive cave cutting through one of the islands in the Bay. It was cool, but the best part was hoping off the boat to walk around the largest of the islands. I hiked up to the highest point on the island to get some rather breathtaking views of the area. The island itself had some gorgeous terrain, partly blanketed in forests while some of it remained open grass land for the sheep. On top, the views of the Bay itself was awe inspiring. Crystal clear tropical water surrounded the islands with secluded golden sand beaches everywhere. Not since Abel Tasman had I seen terrain like this and I found this area to be more appealing. The nature of the islands dotted throughout the water was more beautiful to me then the coastline of Abel Tasman, in the end both are gorgeous and I felt lucky to be there on such a nice day.
I was staying in a town called Paihia which is home to the Bay itself. The town is situated on the waterfront and is quite adorable. The golden sand beaches overlook the blueish/green tropical water and the weather was quite nice upon our arrival. My first day was spent soaking in some sun on the beach and braving the frigid cold waters of the bay much to the delight of the onlookers. I figured I wouldn't have many chances to swim in the Pacific down here so I might as well right?
The rest of my day was spent sorting out some activities for the next few days. The area is home to one of the top 10 dive sites in the world according to Jacque Cousteau so I was looking forward to taking a crack at that. Sorry, the "endless" summer apparently ends in the winter months when the dive trips don't really run. Well, I haven't sky dived either might as well try that out and heck, I'll even do that on the 4th of July because I doubt that I'll be seeing any fireworks down here. Sorry, plane is broken.
Guess that all I was left with were the gorgeous views of the area...I live such a hard life. I did end up taking a boat cruise around the Bay to visit the 144 islands there and got to see some tropical paradise that has remained largely untouched. The "highlight" of the tour according to the boat operator is the "Hole-in-the-Rock" which is a massive cave cutting through one of the islands in the Bay. It was cool, but the best part was hoping off the boat to walk around the largest of the islands. I hiked up to the highest point on the island to get some rather breathtaking views of the area. The island itself had some gorgeous terrain, partly blanketed in forests while some of it remained open grass land for the sheep. On top, the views of the Bay itself was awe inspiring. Crystal clear tropical water surrounded the islands with secluded golden sand beaches everywhere. Not since Abel Tasman had I seen terrain like this and I found this area to be more appealing. The nature of the islands dotted throughout the water was more beautiful to me then the coastline of Abel Tasman, in the end both are gorgeous and I felt lucky to be there on such a nice day.
Jafa
JAFA - Just another flippin' Aucklander
Auckland is home to more than a quarter of the New Zealand population and is by far the largest city in the country. If you ask New Zealanders about a rivalry between the north and south islands, they will say that one exists but the real rivalry is between Auckland and the rest of New Zealand because most Kiwis don't like the concrete jungle known as Auckland and the jafa's living there.
Well, it was my turn to go check out all that Auckland had to offer. And as soon as I got there I wanted to leave. To be fair, it was an actual city which was a nice change of pace but there is really nothing at all to do there. It really just isn't fun so I didn't end up spending much time here. The biggest attraction, literally and figuratively, is the Sky Tower that looms high above the city. It is better viewed from a distance so I strolled over to the university to see what I missed out on (I was suppose to study abroad here until a registraring snafu screwed that all up) and to get some views of the city. Once that was done and I walked around the city museum for a bit I had pretty much done everything I wanted to do there, and got out of town ASAP.
Auckland is home to more than a quarter of the New Zealand population and is by far the largest city in the country. If you ask New Zealanders about a rivalry between the north and south islands, they will say that one exists but the real rivalry is between Auckland and the rest of New Zealand because most Kiwis don't like the concrete jungle known as Auckland and the jafa's living there.
Well, it was my turn to go check out all that Auckland had to offer. And as soon as I got there I wanted to leave. To be fair, it was an actual city which was a nice change of pace but there is really nothing at all to do there. It really just isn't fun so I didn't end up spending much time here. The biggest attraction, literally and figuratively, is the Sky Tower that looms high above the city. It is better viewed from a distance so I strolled over to the university to see what I missed out on (I was suppose to study abroad here until a registraring snafu screwed that all up) and to get some views of the city. Once that was done and I walked around the city museum for a bit I had pretty much done everything I wanted to do there, and got out of town ASAP.
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