Northland!!

Day 9 (Wednesday, May 26)
Today was another day of classes and as soon as the snarky French Graphics lecturer finished, we zoomed out to pick up the rental car and load up to get on the road. Apparently, we timed our exit from Auckland to match perfectly with rush hour. I made PB&J sammitches in the car as we crawled northward, over the bridge and finally said goodbye to the Sky Tower. It was practically dark at this point so we only drove for another hour or so to find a campground. That way, we wouldn't miss the majestic landscape. We set up camp next to a lake and cooked a pasta dinner on a moonlit beach. We topped off the meal with some yummy ginger beers (it's becoming an epicurean staple!)

Day 10 (Thursday, May 27)
We spent a while exploring the rocks along the coast. Read: Jeremy climbed all over them and Siena tried to figure out their geologic content and take pictures. Since it was low tide, they were climbable for quite a ways out to sea. When we returned to the car, we were greeted by a bunch of ducks swarming our car. They eventually started circling the car...but other than an ominous start to the day, nothing else came of it. We drove into Warkworth to pick up groceries and more propane gas for the trusty cooking stove that has supplied many a meal during our adventures. We started driving west and then north toward the Kauri forest on the west coast of Northland. We arrived after dark (it's easy to do when the sun goes down at 5:30!) at a Holiday Park. Holiday Parks are campgrounds with nice facilities, such as laundry, a kitchen, sometimes a tv. This one in particular had a TRAMPOLINE. We made sure to jump to get our money's worth. And after we had tuckered ourselves out with the trampoline, we discovered something even cooler shrouded in darkness...a ZIPLINE!! Lots of fun :)

Day 11 (Friday, May 28)
After a filling breakfast of pancakes and eggs and an encounter with a couple speaking a language I could not recognize, we set out to the Kauri Forest a few km away. We strolled leisurely through the leering green shroud of ancient trees, some of which were over 1000 years old! There were a couple audio accompaniments that gave some background on some of the really gigantic trees. Driving around nearby, we stumbled upon an amazing rainbow overlooking fields of animals at pasture. The rest of the day was spent primarily in the car, driving all the way up to Cape Reinga (the northernmost point of NZ). We raced the sun and arrived at the Giant Te Paki Sand Dunes with enough time to explore and toboggan down the sand slopes a few times. I was astounded at how cool the dunes were. I've seen sand dunes, but I've never seen sand dunes like these. The electric sky lit the dunes up with seismic splendor. I couldn't stop caressing the compressed sand and observing how compacted the sand really gets. This experience finally clarified how crossbeds form in sand dunes, a concept that I had heretofore reasoned inconceivable. Thank you, Te Paki Sand Dunes for furthering my geologic understanding. With clothes caked in sand, we hurried back to the car to make it up the lighthouse at Cape Reinga before sundown. The road to the cape was a maddening tease that kept going and going. We knew we were getting close when we could see the ocean on both sides of us. At the tip, we walked down the path to the lighthouse, that was ablaze with self-automated glory, and saw where the Tasman Sea (west side) and the Pacific Ocean (east side) join. You could tell because there were giant waves in the middle of the water.


Day 12 (Saturday, May 29)
I drove a lot of the way back south on beautiful windy roads through endless hills dotted with sheep of varying nakedness (sheared or super fluffy). We stopped in a couple bays and ended up eating lunch at Taupo Bay. We continued south along the Bay of Islands, taking a ferry at some point and then driving along meandering roads, pulling over at sunset to soak in the view. As the light faded, we drove through some janky roads to end up at Kawakawa, a sleepy town (pop 1300) that's home to very unique and interesting public toilets. They were designed by Austrian Architect Freidrich Hundertwasser in the late 90s when Hundertwasser was living nearby Kawakawa, a NZ citizen since 1986. We had read a lot about these toilets so we made sure to check them out (all the way out). Afterwards, we stopped into a little cafe that advertised $1 garlic bread for a quick snack and after learning of our crazy intention to camp outside, the owner surprised us with free hot cocoa :) (to offset the inevitable hypothermia, perhaps). We set up camp yet again near a body of water and went to sleep after a quick pasta snack.


Day 13 (Sunday, May 30)
After efficiently packing everything up, we headed out to see Kawiti Caves, advertised to have glow worms. We had a private tour of the compact, yet interesting cave complete with limestone stalactites, stalagmites, a creek with eels, and a LOT of glow worms on the ceiling. Fun facts: the glowy part is actually the butt of the glow worm (the glow is from an enzyme released in accordance with their metabolism, shining brighter when they are hungrier). The whole worm is about the size of the match (with the red part of a match corresponding to the glowing butt). They live in the moist ceilings of caves and lower strings coated in sticky saliva to catch insects such as mosquitoes. Their life cycle is about 11 months, most of which is in the larval (glowy) phase. Once the worms go into their cocoon for 2 weeks, they emerge and have three days to mate and lay eggs before dying. There was a section of the cave called "the Milky Way" and a lot of other parts where the worms were pretty densely packed and shining very brightly. Just outside the cave, we walked through an area of huge limestone rocks jutting upward. Back at the car, we continued south, eventually coming to Whangarei, where we headed to the Whangerei Heads to do one last bit of hiking before heading back to Auckland. The drive back to Auckland was about two hours filled with lots and lots of pretty pastoral views.

Land of the Long White Cloud or Land of the Long Awaited Reunion

Day One (Tuesday, May 18):

My arrival into Auckland International Airport was preceded by a vegetarian breakfast and some light reading. It was even more preceded by listening to Kiwi “radio” and watching a very strange Kiwi movie called Eagle vs. Shark (one of the Flight of the Conchords guys was in it, to give you an idea of the caliber of humor). My new noise-reducing headphones were a life saver (also, the eye patch my mother lovingly packed for me). I was sandwiched between two very friendly Kiwi business men for the duration of the 12h55min flight. Neither of them went to the bathroom the entire flight! I guess if they make the trip regularly they must have some sort of bladder regimen that eliminates the need to bumble around a crowded airplane. Quite useful, actually. (As I’m typing this I hear my voice with a Kiwi-ish accent. Just to be more fun, I suppose). The Air New Zealand flight was quite delightful; there was coffee after each of the two meals served in a cute little actual cup. You gotta love British influence.

So, as my anxious heart crescendoed to a gallop, I could not fall asleep for the last two hours of the trip. My personal screen was having some trouble so I was forced to *gasp* read a book. Don’t worry, folks, it wasn’t as terrifying as it sounds. I had brought such book for just such an occasion; however, as this particular book is of an esteemed literary caliber, I knew I couldn’t pay 100% attention to it since my mind kept wandering, so I was left with no other option than to abandon my reading 16 pages in and resolve to sit quietly and contemplate. Surprisingly, the time passed pretty quickly and soon enough I found myself Passport Control where the woman asked me about my plans (mostly for governmental purposes (?) but she seemed friendly enough to be frank) so I said I was visiting my boyfriend who had been studying in Auckland since the end of January, to which she replied, “It’s been an awfully long time since you’ve seen him, hasn’t it?.” Ah, yes and the waiting was mere minutes from being over. At Baggage claim, my two cleverly non-camouflaged bags popped out pretty early on and I was on my way to Bio-Security! The only item that was “suspicious” was a food item. The officer asked me what food item I was bringing in and my answer was corn grits, which seemed to confuse him to no end so I restated it as “a hot cereal of crushed bits of corn. You can’t plant them, don’t worry.” I’m sure he was relieved at my qualifying statement and seemed satisfied enough to let me pass. There was just one more stop (I had already brushed my teeth in the bathroom by baggage claim) to make it through the x-ray machines and then I was through the one-way doors…

My bugaboo was sitting with his neTbooK wearing the “Cuddlefish” shirt I fashioned for him at Christmas and holding a lovely bouquet of flowers. Needless, to say I rushed over with the no-charge-luggage-cart (this country had already won me over) and dove into a long-awaited embrace. We eventually made our way to the shuttle that would take us back to his apartment area. Technically, the Auckland airport isn’t in Auckland; it’s in Manakau (home of MIT: Manikau Institute of Technology). The ride was about 30 minutes and the scenery outside the window wasn’t captivating enough to really hold my attention. We were dropped off on a street already bustling at 7:45 am. I got a preview of the essence of Auckland as we walked toward the student apartments. I accompanied Jeremy to his classes and realized how snarky Computer Science teachers of foreign origin can be. One teacher is Indian and another sounded French. They were full of attitude, accents, and strange analogies. I even learned about Median filters (kind of) in his Graphics class. During lunch, we picnicked in Albert park and climbed on some huge, interesting-looking trees. Later, we walked around the city more extensively: touring the harbor area laden with gorgeous mandarin orange peel clouds, meandering accidentally through a construction site, checking out public art at the major transit station and getting some oven-fresh cookies along the way. Since it is autumn here, the sun goes down around 5:30 pm so we made dinner after our outdoor escapades. I was exhausted from my approx. 4 hours of sleep on the plane so I petered out pretty quickly after dinner.

Day Two (Wednesday May 19):

Of course I woke up at 5 am…after some zen-inspired wishful thinking, I managed to fall back asleep until 8 am. Today was the first day of a long weekend trip to the Coromandel Peninsula! With packed bags ready to go, we walked to the car rental place and picked up a white Toyota Corolla complete with lots of safety information…in Japanese… We drove back to pick up our bags and then we were on our way! It’s funny how little kilometers are. Such big numbers dwindle oh-so-quickly on the open road. In about two hours we were in Thames where we stopped for lunch (my first fish and chips!) and to get information about a hiking place Jeremy wanted to go to. We ended up on 20 “k’s” (short for km) of unpaved road to the head of a trail that would lead up to a hut in the Pinnacles where we would sleep and then wake up and hike back down. The trip was to take three hours each way and since the sun sets at 5:30 we were hurrying to get on our way before 3. We packed water, food, sleeping bags, camera, extra clothes, and a headlamp. The trail started out up and down and then eventually became consistently steep as we started following in the footsteps of workhorses that used to make this trek to get to mines up in the Pinnacles. There were plenty of opportunities to pause and take in the beauteous landscape. We maintained a clipping pace for the most part (aside from re-tying shoes and taking pictures) and were only in darkness for 20 minutes. Luckily, Jeremy was clever enough to bring a headlamp, which I wore so I wouldn’t trip on the very uneven ground. We arrived at the Hut in total darkness clocking in a 2 hours 35 minutes and gave our ticket to the Hut Warden who proceeded to give us information including but not limited to the fact that there would be chainsaw activity at 7:30 the next morning. We dropped our gear and proceeded to make dinner (pesto pasta!) in the very unheated kitchen. The toilets aka “loos” were outside and on the way I stopped in my tracks as the night sky caught my eye; this was byfar the least light-polluted sky I had ever seen. There were so many visible teeny tiny stars!! It was amazing! I wish I had star gazed more, but it was just too chilly to lounge around in wet grass. I realized how easy it is to fall asleep early when the sun goes down so early. This marks the beginning of my skewed sleeping cycle to follow the cycle of the sun.

Day Three (Thursday, May 20):

We woke up before the chainsaw alarm and made pancakes, which were delicious. The gingerbeers we started the night before were still carbonated and delicious and paired quite well with the one-step-pancakes flipped to perfection by Chef Jeremy. The hut is situated a 40 minute walk from the peak of the Pinnacles, but the weather was very very foggy. We attempted the climb, but realized we would just be disappointed at the white mass after an exhausting uphill trek so we turned around after 15 minutes or so. Back at the hut, we ate some kiwi fruit and then started the 3+ hour hike back. I would consider myself in good shape from all the biking and running around I do on a regular basis, but man oh man, did that hike up craggy stone steps wipe me out. I was ready to be back at the rental car about 20 minutes into the trip downhill. To avoid the very steep (and sure to be slippery) downhill steps of the Webb Creek path, we opted to take the Billygoat Landing path, which was a little longer, but we saw some different sights. It was a cool, foggy day, and it started to rain when we had about half an hour more to go. The hiking trek started out with rock hopping across a creek, and that’s how it ended. We collapsed into the car and after a bit we retreated out of the backwoods carpark and back on the highway toward Coromandel, the namesake of the peninsula.

After eating a late lunch, we continued northward up to the very tippy top of the peninsula. I had my first foray in to left side driving on a quintessential New Zealand road: very windy, along the coast, and it turned into an unpaved trail with lots of one lane bridges. I preferred the unpaved portion simply because there were no other cars that I had to keep up with. My comfortable hairpin turn speed is apparently much slower than the Kiwi standard. We arrived at the beach campground after dark and fell asleep to the sound of rain falling and waves crashing.

Day Four (Friday, May 21)

We woke up with the sun, or what there was to see of the sun through rain clouds. Thankfully, there was a shelter to shield us from the wind and rain while we made breakfast. We had a piping hot pan of beans and rice to start the day off, which was unorthodox albeit quite filling. The rain throughout the night worked well to fill our pan with fresh water, but it also gorged the rivers. We had half-laughed at the signs that said FORD! on the way up, but as we headed south, there were several instances where we literally had to ford some rivers. I put my geology knowledge to use and reassured Jeremy that it takes a foot and a half of rushing water to wash a car away. He remained unconvinced, so I waded out in the freezing cold water with my pant legs rolled up to see how deep the water was. I did this twice, mind you, and the water was very very cold. The final ford challenge involved frighteningly high water, and we delayed crossing it for quite a while. A sheep farmer crossed it in a big truck and trailer, which was plenty of weight to keep from sliding off the concrete slab. He reassured us that we just needed to go slowly and we would be fine. So, we went ahead and forged into the rushing vortex. I felt like Odysseus conquering Charibdys as the water began to swallow up the sides of the vehicle, only to spit us out on the other side in one piece.

We continued driving south to Coromandel and then east to Whitianga and then around to Hahei, all the while lapping up the beautiful scenery of the bucolic paradise. We stopped periodically so I could document the majesty via multiple cameras. After we checked in at the holiday park in Hahei, we drove 200 m to Hot Water Beach, named for the two springs that reach up to 64 degrees Celsius heated by a hot rock under the sand. The springs are only accessible an hour before and after low tide during which time one must dig with a shovel or some other instrument to reveal the hot water a few inches under the surface of the sand. We made dinner back at the holiday park and then mentally prepped to wake up before sunrise the next morning.

Day Five (Saturday, May 22)

Success at waking up without an alarm clock! We moseyed over to the beach and lay huddled on the cold sand patiently waiting to witness the first sunrise in the world (for May 22, that is). The curtain of clouds parted as the sun made its grand entrance. We started cooking eggs in the early light of dawn as we saw some people scurrying around trying to find the hot spring spot. Just as we were walking over there was another couple who said they were just leaving and that we could have their already dug hottub. What luck! The water was wonderful, almost too hot in some spots. When the ocean water swashed slightly into our “tub” there was a peculiar sensation of very hot water swirled with very cold water. It was soooooo pleasant, and a fantastic harbinger of how great the rest of the day would be.

After we took down our campsite and watched some cows, we drove 6 or so k’s north toward Hahei proper. We were headed to Cathedral Cove! Jeremy was really excited about seeing this, and the weather was absolutely perfect for a jaunt through the woods to end up at a gorgeous beach of sea arches and sea stacks. (yay geology knowledge!) The actual “cathedral” is a sea arch that we traversed to get to a semi-private beach where we made a yummy lunch and then soaked up some sun. After the cramp window elapsed, we went swimming for a tiny bit and then re-dried in the sun. Getting back the way we came was tricky since the tide had gotten higher. When we originally passed through the “cathedral” we had to time our run in between waves since the tide was already touching the far edge of the arch. We way miscalculated how to get back and my jeans ended up getting soaked all the way up to my waist as waves came crashing faster than we could maneuver. Aside from having to change out of my sopping wet jeans and stubbing my toe on the 40 minute hike back, I took lots of pictures and had a lovely time. We checked into another holiday park in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the day setting up camp, eating bread and cheese appetizers on the lawn, walking around the nearby beach, eavesdropping on French hitchhikers, and making pesto pasta for dinner. Yum!

Day Six (Sunday, May 23)

We woke up less early and had a leisurely morning of packing things up. One of the last orders of business was to wash the sarong Jeremy had made me in Rarotonga in the ocean before it could be washed in not-ocean water. Since both of us were wearing pants, socks, and shoes, we had to get creative to get the sarong fully submerged. Solution: a one-of-a-kind Jeremy-rigged fishing pole of wild ocean grass. He tied the sarong to one end of the foliage and then sort of used a fly fishing technique to launch it into the water several times as waves swashed onto the berm. After we were all packed up, we headed south on the coast to see the rest of the peninsula and then northwest back to Auckland. We stopped for lunch at a picnic area and decided to set up our lunch camp on a boulder next to a peaceful river rapid in a valley covered in coniferous splendor. It was charming, to say the least. I snapped some pictures after we had packed up and then gazed out the window for the rest of the ride back.

Back in Auckland, we finally found parking after searching high and low, brought in our stuff, returned the rental car, and then walked back to the student apartments. Dinner was a student classic: Heat Pizza and then another early night.

Day Seven (Monday, May 24)

After breakfast, I channeled my older sister and started to download and edit pictures from the weekend! That kept me busy during Jeremy’s morning class, and then I met him on campus for lunch with some other of his cohorts. Everyone shared their weekend adventure stories from their respective trips around New Zealand. Our tale of sweet success at Hot Water Beach blew everyone else away since no one had had a good time there before. Score. It was fun to hear how many places there are to see. Exchanging information with other students is a great way to get ideas for future trips. Jeremy is scheming our upcoming trip this weekend with helpful tidbits from people who made a similar trip recently.

I tagged along to Jeremy’s afternoon class after he helped me combine some photo panoramas in the computer lab. Afterwards, we had a banana-chocolate muffin and a Lemon & Paeroa drink (“world famous in New Zealand” – we had driven through Paeroa on the Coromandel Peninsula, which is very proud of being the home to this carbonated lemony drink. It’s quite tasty.) I continued to edit photos until it was time to make dinner. We ate magnum ice cream pops and watched a movie after dinner to try to readjust to a more normal sleep cycle.

Day Eight (Tuesday, May 25)

Early-ish morning (the sun had already risen) so Jeremy could study for a test. I made breakfast and then finished typing up this blog. Another day of tagging along to classes, etc. I've been here a whole week already!! Crazy!