Enforced relaxation!

It was a short drive from Paihia to Hokianga on the west coast. I hadn’t realised that accommodation was going to be an issue due to the Easter weekend so was left with only one option, Oponoko Lodge. The bus dropped me, along with 2 other English girls, at the bottom of Mountain Road. Our driver told us the owner of the lodge would be down to pick us up soon. Sure enough a lady drove down in her car to pick us up. It was only a few minutes up the hill to what was actually a chalet type building in the back of their field! Only after I had dumped my bags and walked out onto the terrace could I appreciate the beauty of its setting. It was in the middle of nowhere, we had cows munching on the grass outside our window, home baked bread and home-grown fruit and veg and very friendly hosts. Off the beaten track and not filled with the usual coach loads of backpackers, I’d recommend it to everyone, although maybe if you stayed longer than a couple of nights you may go stir-crazy!

So I had nothing to do except relax in the garden reading my book without any guilty feelings that I should be doing something, as there was nothing to do!

But, I did have nocturnal activities planned, no not that!

I had booked the Footprints of Waipoua, http://www.footprintswaipoua.com/, I’ve put the link in mainly because I still can’t find a way to describe the evening. Lonely Planet included it in their Code Green-Experiences of a Lifetime. It was an amazing night, one that has to be experienced to be believed.

The next day I was sad to be leaving Oponoko Lodge so soon, it was a fairly long drive back to Auckland where I met Emma (from the South Island) and caught up over a glass of wine or 2. Thankfully I only had to be in Auckland for the one night before heading down to Rotorua.

Absolute Bliss

Not only was I grateful to be escaping Auckland but I was greeted in Paihia, Bay of Islands with glorious sunshine and views across the Bay with numerous boats sailing around the islands and a very clean, friendly hostel. Not only was it clean and friendly but also quiet giving me a 4 bed dorm all to myself!

I spent the first afternoon investigating the various activities on off, my first full day on the Northland was already filled with a day trip to Cape Reinga, the northern most tip of New Zealand. I then booked a ‘Day in the Bay’ which involved a boat trip around the islands visiting the ‘Hole in the Rock’ and viewing some of the dolphins that occupied the area. I then booked a days sailing, making sure I avoided the big catamarans that took tourists in their droves, I booked to go on Gungha (meaning strong in India apparently) with Skipper, Mike. With so much planned and with a forecast of good weather all week, I decided to chill out on day 4 before travelling to the west coast of the Northland.

My day trip to Cape Reinga started early with a fairly long drive stopping for refreshments before arriving at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach. Our off-road bus drove us along the beach, an experience not dissimilar to Fraser Island, stopping briefly for us to get photos and take in the rugged coastline. When we exited the beach we stopped at the giant sand-dunes for Sand Boarding! After a strenuous walk up the sand dune we got to surf back down on a body board, great fun and if it hadn’t been such hard work to get to the top I’d have had more than 2 goes!!

We then headed further north to Cape Reinga and the lighthouse with time to walk out and see where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. We finished the afternoon with an hour to chill out on the beach in a scluded cove nearby.

My ‘Day in the Bay’ was another enjoyable day, we had several Pods of dolphins swimming with us all morning which was spectacular and I got some good photos. I must admit the ‘Hole in the Rock’ is a tourist rip-off, a fact to be confirmed by Skipper Mike! But it did mean we got to see Cape Brett and the lighthouse with great views back across Pahia. We got an hour to relax in Cook Bay before we were going to try to swim with the dolphins, unfortunately the dolphins must get used to the afternoon frenzy of waterborne tourists and did a disappearing act! Nevertheless it was a pleasant cruise back.

When I got back to my room I had company, in the shape of Mandy from Chelmsford!!!! Lots of chat about home over a couple of glasses of wine made for a nice evening!

My decision to avoid the tourist boats paid off. I was greet by Mike (Later to be named Mad-Mike!) and my fellow crew-mates, all 3 of them! So a 45ft sailing boat was more than adequate to take the 5 of us off for the day. Mike’s first question was “Do you sail?” So I confessed and 2 minutes later I was sailing the boat away from the Wharf and around the Bay of Islands!!! It was a lovely day, lots of entertainment from Mike and more stunning scenery around the Bay of Islands.

My ‘chill-out’ day wasn’t quite as relaxing as I planned! I started with a walk to the Treaty Ground for an injection of history and culture and then decided to walk to the Haruru. Luckily I had packed a lunch as the walk turned out to be a 12km round trip! It was very pleasant though and I only saw 2 other people on the entire trip. I had my lunch on the edge of the falls before heading back to town to browse the shops and make the most of my last evening in Paihia.

Get me out of here!

Well Auckland goes down as my biggest disappointment so far, second to, no actually beating Brisbane!

The city itself is crowded, noisy and pretty dirty. However, I did spend my second day getting out of the city, first on the ferry to Devonport. Devonport is a pretty little town with stunning views from the top of Mount Victoria, its actually hard to believe you are only 10 minutes from the city. I then managed to figure out the public transport system and got buses to Mission Beach, Ponsonby, Parnell and Newmarket. All nice suburbs with a more relaxed feel than Auckland.

Having had enough of city life (yes 2 days was enough!) I booked my trip to the Northland; the Bay of Islands, Cape Reinga and Hokianga.

Farewell to the South Island

I spent my last day and night in Christchurch making further use of my hotel as well as seeing Christchurch Cathedral, the Arts Centre, the Botanical Gardens and the Museum. I can also recommend the Honeypot Cafe (one to add to your list Mark!) for the best French Toast with Bacon, Banana and Maple Syrup I’ve had so far!!

It would seem my short period of luxury was to be extended! I checked in online for my flight from Christchurch to Auckland and noticed some seats were available in a section with only 2 seats per row instead of three!! I chose one such seat and sure enough when I boarded the plane I had an extra wide fully reclining seat with pillow and blanket!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only problem was that the flight was only an hour and a half but hey not bad for a $70 (less than 30 pounds) flight!!

So 90 minutes later I safely landed in Auckland ready for my month on the North Island.

All on the credit card!!!

So I booked into Hotel So and found my room on the 4th floor, having only opened in October everything was new and shiny.My room had a double bed, ensuite shower room, plasma screen TV, Ipod docking station, climate control and a very complex alarm clock!!

The alarm clock came complete with manual! Basically you told it when you wanted to go to sleep and when you wanted to wake and it would adjust the room’s lighting and the sound on the TV to slowly send you to sleep and then slowly wake you, how cool!!!!

 Throughout the hotel there was free internet access via Apple Mac computers (I want one!),there was a gym and sauna, a bar and restaurant as well as a large kitchen, dining room and lounge.

In my room I found a little stack of gift boxes,the first contain chocolates, the second some fancy toiletries and the third some tea and coffee. Oh and the in-room fridge had the milk!!

A booklet in the room directed me to a nice shopping area called Sol Square so I felt it needed investigating. Unfortunately it led to a rather expensive afternoon and I returned to the hotel with a complete new outfit (plus some!) which meant I needed to wear it somewhere! Having made full use of my new surroundings I wound up in the bar for a very nice glass of New Zealand wine (on my room please!) and then a short walk to Oxford Terrace to a restaurant called Sticky Fingers, as recommended by Mark on his Blog! I agree very good pizza and more good wine!

I returned to my room to make use of the plasma TV and the ’sleep system’!

Too excited about getting to Christchurch!

For those who have been there you may be wondering why but all will become clear!

On route back up to Christchurch I went to Dunedin which was fairy uneventful other than climbing the World’s steepest street!

It was then onto Lake Tekapo via the Moeraki Boulders. Lake Tekapo had some stunning views of Mount Cook and the lake, I stayed overnight in Lake Tekapo before heading up to Mount Cook for the day. Sadly the weather turned and my hike in Mount Cook was made somewhat difficult by strong winds and rain. A second night back in Lake Tekapo set me up for the drive back to Christchurch where I booked into Hotel SO, very excited, 2 nights of relative luxury in a very cool, brand new hotel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An action packed day

We were up early (Vicky, Emma and I) to go Canyoning. Basically hiking, abseiling, jumping, swimming our way through a canyon! It started with the hike to the beginning of a zip-wire which took us over the top of the canyon. We then abseiled down the other side and dropped into a pool of FREEZING water! Its the first time I’ve truly experienced cold water shock and it was not pleasant! We then worked our way through a series of pools until we came to a ledge which was about 10 ft above the next level of the canyon. We had to jump off this ledge into the waterfall and into the water below! Having recovered from this we then had the opportunity to climb back up to various heights and repeat the experience, I managed one higher jump before I felt exhausted! (So grateful we only booked a half-day trip!). Vicky had had a panic attack at the first obstacle and was unable to attempt any jumps which was sad. We worked our way through the rest of the canyon finally reaching the end at about midday, cold, wet and tired but happy to have survived! After a much needed lunch break, we had all booked to do the Canyon Swing, an alternative to bungy jumping and involves jumping off the side of a canyon attached to a wire which swings you out and down through the canyon, only thing is its 109m high with a free-fall of 60m!

After Vicky’s unpleasant experience canyoning she decided against going so Emma and I set off. We got to the top of the canyon and had to decide which jump to attempt, Emma did the pin-drop and I did Gimp Boy Goes to Hollywood!! This involved dangling upside down over the edge of the canyon, being let go and free-falling upside down!!! It was great fun, we need this stuff in the UK!

We finished our last night in Queenstown with a famous Fergburger and several beers!

Milford Sound

I’m sure it’s stunning, but I was very tired, not in the best of moods and it was a grey damp day. So I didn’t get too much from my day at the Milford Sounds, I also think I had been spoilt by the stunning scenery at the Queen Charlotte Sounds.

The journey back to Queenstown (4 hours) was brightened by watching Oceans Eleven, I’ve not seen it before and it brought back great memories of Vegas!! I guess it would have been cheaper to stay in Queenstown and rent a DVD!!!!

Retail therapy…..

…..again!

Day 2 in Queenstown was fairly uneventful, mainly because the activities we wanted to do were fully booked. This lead to lots of window shopping which in turn lead to shopping!

After a long day I planned an early night as I had to be up early the next day. This was all going to plan until about midnight when a German girl ran into the room with a split lip and cuts to her hands. A quick assessment from under my duvet told me it wasn’t serious and absolutely did not require me to be disturbed!!! Sadly the chaos that followed meant I was going to be anyway. It turned out that a guy in the hostel (possibly on drugs) had hit the girl with a glass, had a general rant and ran away. Unfortunately the victim and her friends decided to use my dorm as a conference room/first aid station (I know I should be more sympathetic but I was tired, and you know I don’t do sympathy!) After much consultation, the hostel manager was called who came to the room and advised the girl to see the local doctor in the morning and took the group downstairs (hooray!) to take the details. The end, or so I thought. Maybe 10 minutes later, there was screaming from downstairs. I looked out the window to see the Police wrestling with the guy involved, after a few minutes they managed to restrain him and bundle him into a car where he proceeded to scream constantly, until a Police Officer told him to shut the #*&@-up! It turned out that the guy involved had decided to hide in one of the bathrooms and tried to run when he heard the police arrive. Unfortunately he was British so has not done much to enhance the reputation of British backpackers.

So finally I got to sleep at about 3am and got up at 6am, obviously not in the best of moods!

Delayed Blog

Well this entry has been intentionally delayed as I wanted to add my photos to my Snapfish site before I revealed all, see ‘Scary stuff!”.

On route from Lake Wanaka to Queenstown I was quite happily snoozing away when the bus pulled to a stop. The driver let us know that we were stopping at Kawarau Bridge, home of the world’s first commercial bungy site, owned by AJ Hackett.

I bumbled off the bus into a cinema room to watch ‘The History of Bungy!’ Somehow I went from bleary eyed to wide eyed and standing on the edge of a bridge with a piece of elastic tied to my ankles!!!

Emma and Vicky (and most other people who know me) were as shocked as I was, I’d made it quite clear that I had no interest in throwing myself off anything!

Having checked several times with the guy that had attached the elastic that it was indeed attached, I jumped! All I can remember thinking was “AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH, please bounce, please bounce!” Sure enough I bounced, shortly after contact with the water at the bottom! Hysteria quickly set in and the ‘recovery’ guys helped me into the inflatable boat and somehow I managed to climb back up to the bridge, must admit the legs were wobbling ever so slightly!!!

I still have no idea what came over me in those few minutes but must say it was great fun and very addictive, sadly expensive so my addiction has been overcome!!

Welcome to Queenstown, the home of adrenaline sports!

The day was finished with a well needed drink or 2 in a few of the many bars and clubs of Queenstown.