Easter Break P.4 - 5:30am Wake-up, Waterfalls, Waka 'Cave', Wellington and Home

Saturday : We wake up at 5:30 AM and start getting ready for the 8 hour hike that we were going to do! Alex and I were talking the day before and discussed that we didn’t REALLY want to do it, but would feel bad because we knew Matt really wanted to. We (Alex and I) were still so exhausted and didn’t think that we were really going to ‘miss’ anything if we didn’t do it (We later heard of the amazing views they saw, and I was a bit disappointed I didn’t do it...but that morning I was really just focused on how tired I was! Hah). So, we decided that we would drive the boys there and pick them up after. On the way to the Crossing, the sun rose over Lake Taupo which was one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen and the view on the way to the crossing was beautiful. When we dropped off the boys, the wind was RIDICULOUS! So, they layered up, and Alex (the mothering person she is) tried to give them some of her clothes...which didn’t fit because she is so skinny! But Mark took her hat, and Matt took my gloves and they were off! As, it was barely 8am, when they left for their hike, we had a good 7 hours to do whatever we wanted. We were pretty hungry, so we went to Taranaki, a little town, and found a cafe to have a big breakfast. Alex had eggs benedict and I had bacon and eggs. We then drove to a little campsite that we saw driving back to town and had a wonderful hour nap in the car! It was MUCH needed! We then went to the iSite and looked for short trails that we could do (so we didn’t seem lazy compared to the boys). The woman suggested a trail to a waterfall that was near to the crossing, so we decided on that one. It was an hour there and an hour back, so we felt good about the distance! The waterfall was AMAZING! SO Beautiful! It was a long drop with a nice round pool at the bottom. You could climb behind the waterfall and there were lots of rocks around that we could sit on. Alex and I rested there for a bit, it was in a closed area that you couldn’t feel the wind. It was just a relaxing afternoon and it was nice to not be in the car again. We wanted to be at the pickup site before the boys so they didn’t have to wait for us after hiking for 7 and a half hours. They told us how amazing the crossing was and Matt told us about climbing up Mount Doom. Of course, Matt Vloged a lot of the hike as well as taking lots of pictures so Alex and I could see what we missed! We decide to drive back to Taupo and spend another night there because the boys were too tired to drive and there really isn’t much in between Taupo and Wellington (which is where we had to be to fly out Monday). So, we phoned the hostel we stayed at and booked a room for another night. Alex and I had realized earlier in the day that we had somehow misplaced our wet clothes, including both our bathing suits and my towel. So we were happy to go back and see if we left them at the hostel. (Unfortunately, this was not the case, and they disappeared somewhere.) When we got back to base, the boys were exhausted and just wanted to get food and then go to bed. So we all got supper different places and the boys slept, while Alex and I showered and caught up with the facebook world. We were exhausted from the busy day! So, went to bed pretty early.

Sunday : Got up to sign out of base, packed up the car and started driving to Wellington. The road between Taupo and Wellington is called desert highway, and it is for a reason. There was literally nothing between the two cities except a small little army town. I think all of us slept for a little (well, except for Mark, who was driving). Some highlights of this boring trip was seeing the crossing which the boys had climbed the day before, a cow running on the side of the road, lots of slow moving trucks/combines, a long straight flat road (for once!) and a stop at a gas station to pick up lunch items and go to the bathroom. Then we were in Wellington! It reminded Alex and I of Toronto so it was a little home-y which is nice! We signed into the hostel , had trouble finding the parking lot and got our own room once again! We took a half an hour nap before going to find a place for supper. We found a nice Italian place and each got pizza, except for Matt who got a pasta dish. Matt had been the one commenting on his hunger before we got there and when our meals came out, we couldn’t help but laugh. Matt’s pasta dish was SO small! Luckily, Alex and I didn’t eat all of our pizzas and Matt ended up eating some of ours! On the way back, there was a very good busker singing so we stopped and watched her last song and then continued back to the hostel.  We met up with other exchange students that Mark knew and had a fun night chatting with them!

 

Monday : Got up and checked out of our hostel. Once again, Matt had read up on what to do in Wellington. He read about this cave and it sounded really cool. So, we all got in the car excited to explore this cave. On the way, we got lost a couple times, but asked for directions and ended up on this street full of house and couldn’t figure out where this cave was. Then Alex spotted a sign on the house on the corner of the street saying “Waka Cave”. All of us decide that they must have built a house over the cave. Matt had said that it was Gollum’s cave from Lord of the Rings and we still believed that there was a cave inside this building. We go in and realise we were sadly mistaken. It was the workshop where people had made sets and digital characters for many movies, including Lord of the Rings. It was quite funny and we all had a good laugh about it. Matt had also read about a “Writers Walk” that was a bunch of quotes written around the harbour. We went to look, and this was actually what we expected it to be! It was a miracle! Hahah! The boardwalks on the harbour were beautiful, and the harbour itself was breathtaking. The boardwalk looked out towards mountains across the bay, and on each side of the harbour, house were lined up and right to the top of the hills. The city was to the right and created a beautiful atmosphere of both the busy streets and the peaceful harbour. We then had to drop of our car which was a fair drive outside of town. We got a ride back into town, and explored the Te Papa museum (which is the museum of New Zealand). We found a huge floor map of New Zealand, and mapped out the trip that we had just taken. We then went on a crazy interactive movie ride, which once again, my motion sickness enjoyed and then decided that we needed to eat something so we walked back through the busy streets of Wellington to find food. We watched another great busker and as the rain started to fall, Alex and I went to look through antique shops while the boys tried to find a sports bar to watch a game. Alex and I ended up at a cute cafe, had tea, and talked about the trip we just had. We eventually met up with the boys at an internet cafe, and had time to relax before catching the shuttle to the airport. Once at the airport, our tickets had been put on hold so we could be asked if we wanted to catch an earlier flight, which we did.  We put our bags in checked baggage, and we were talking about lost luggage and how it really can’t happen when there are no transfers in the trip. We all got seats together and were able to talk with each other, which was a nice change from the plane ride there. It was also the SHORTEST plane ride I’ve ever been on (besides the one I jumped out of).  We had a total air time of 28 minutes, from Wellington to Christchurch. Once in Christchurch, we went to get our luggage and Matt’s bag never came out. This is very odd; as his bag was in between Alex’s and mine when we checked them in. Anyways, we figured that it would be coming on the next flight (which was the one we were SUPPOSED to be on). Sure enough, it did. While waiting, Alex got us a motel which was the last one that still had some free space. Once we got there (by shuttle) we got a discount! Instead of $50 each, we somehow got the rooms for $26 each! BONUS! We were exhausted from the day, so we rented a movie and went to bed. 

Tuesday : Our bus back to Dunedin was at 8 o’clock in the morning. We called a taxi, and had our confirmation numbers ready. Luckily, we did NOT have another $100 taxi ride and we got to the bus in time. The bus was about 5 hours long and we all slept for most of it. We had the full back seat to ourselves, plus Mark had gotten the seat in front, so we all got a lot of space to spread out! For the last, leg of the trip another girl had to share the back bench with us, but it was just for about an hour. We finally got back to Dunedin, and we were exhausted. We had one last group hug and parted ways. 

It was a fabulous trip with wonderful people! In total, We spent 1,526km on a plane, 2,740km driving a rental car, white water rafted 8km and spent 359km on a bus - Next year's Easter has a lot to live up to! 

That is all for now!

Love to all,

K. 

For a map of everywhere we drove: 

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Auckland+Airport,+Auckland&daddr=Paihia,+Northland+to:-35.08464,173.72861+to:Cape+Reinga,+Northland+to:Kaitaia,+Northland+to:Kaikohe,+Northland+to:Dargaville,+Northland+to:Wellsford,+Auckland+to:Helensville,+Auckland+to:Auckland+Central,+Auckland+to:Coromandel,+Waikato+to:Tauranga,+Bay+Of+Plenty+to:Rotorua,+Bay+Of+Plenty+to:Taupo,+Waikato+to:Wellington&hl=en&geocode=FaNvy_0dQQ1rCikftvyf6E8NbTHQs6JDYe8ABQ%3BFeSo5f0dGmtgCilPHpE6tqILbTGA86JDYe8ABQ%3BFaCm6P0dYuNaCimvhrhB7dILbTFBoIEGYe8AEw%3BFZWo8v0dJ-VKCikjX3NXixgIbTFguqJDYe8ABQ%3BFe4m6P0dZ9pTCintANJ9SXcJbTGw0aJDYe8ABQ%3BFaa64_0dlglcCikT7jdutekLbTHg0KJDYe8ABQ%3BFd-Y2_0dVwhdCik_xmFipHIMbTEgv6JDYe8ABQ%3BFawy1v0dBQZnCikXi1twE-8MbTEQGaNDYe8ABQ%3BFWxY0P0dy-ZlCimLnqKGaBANbTFAy6JDYe8ABQ%3BFbS8zf0dRK1qCin75pxa-0cNbTEXmaJDYe8ABQ%3BFTkRz_0dkON1CikJtWI8pvFybTHQvaJDYe8ABQ%3BFQvuwP0dChGACinlZNR753ZubTEmmaNDYe8ABQ%3BFfATuv0dkluBCikrsvaCPZhubTExmaNDYe8ABQ%3BFQS0sf0dQp5-CilbFksUd-9rbTHgCaNDYe8ABQ%3BFTLtif0d89NqCinLdOlJ_LE4bTFwtBOiY-8ACg&mra=mrv&via=2&sll=-38.83115,178.242188&sspn=5.767447,9.876709&ie=UTF8&ll=-36.897194,179.538574&spn=8.765608,19.753418&t=h&z=6

Easter Break P.3 - 'Beach Day', Spicy Indian Food, White Water Rafting, and Craters of the Moon.

Wednesday :  We got up early, to check out of our hostel, and then went to the other end of town because that was where a mountain (small mountain) and beach that we could lie on. Sadly, it was still a little overcast, and not really warm. BUT NOT raining, which was a bonus. So, we decided to go to a little cafe, and then went to walk up this mountain. Matt had already done it when he went with his Dad but he was willing to do it again. We started out on the path but soon made our own path because we (Mark and I) followed Matt and Alex on their “off path” adventures. It was worth it, and we got a beautiful view from the top. This mountain is literally on the edge of the water. So on one side of the mountain is the harbour and the other side was the beach and the ocean. By this time, the sun had come out so we decided to rush down and enjoy the beach for a little. Since all of us got soaked kayaking, we had put our wet clothes in bags. Us girls had remembered to take them out and dry them somewhat, but the boys had forgotten and produced some pretty disgusting smelling bathing suits. Before the hike, they had set out their bathing suits on top of the car, hoping that would de-stink them, unfortunately, that did nothing and it was pretty stinky once we got on the beach.  The clouds had come back when we got to the beach, but we decided to try and lie out anyways. It didn’t last very long, we slowly put on our clothes over our bathing suits as the wind and cloud cover was not helping our ‘beach day’. It was nice to not be in a car for once though! There was another little outlet from the beach, that we decided to adventure to, we ended up basically rock climbing to get down to the water, and we scaled back up to the top (some more than others...can you guess who?). I took the easy way, and Matt and Alex basically free climbed to the top. Mark had decided to stay at the top. We were all getting hungry, and found a place that made ‘toasties’ (toasted sandwiches). Mark, Matt and I got them and Alex got pumpkin soup. The boys wanted to watch the basketball game and Alex and I wanted to look around at the shops, so we went our separate ways for a little and then decided to meet up at get on our way to Rotorua. Alex was getting good at remembering to book a hostel ahead of time, so we got into Base (the Backpackers) and decided that we wanted to go out for food and where did we end up? Indian food, once again. We got there and Mark saw other exchange students from Dunedin, and they told us their story of their rental car getting stolen! We soon got our own table and ordered food. Matt got REALLY spicy Indian food and soon suffered the consequences of it. He was sweating almost immediately and ended up eating some of my food to cool down his mouth! I tried some as well, and my mouth was burning for a few minutes after. Let’s just say, it was an amusing dinner! We ended up having our room to ourselves, even though it was a room for eight which was pretty sweet. Hung out and then ended up skyping with Alex's boyfriend, Brody, and then going to bed.

Thursday : We decided to stay in Rotorua for two days and we had a much needed sleep in! Matt woke us up at 11 and we slowly but surely got up. We had some plans to see if we could go white water rafting or sledging (basically going down on boogie boards). By this time, we figured out we were all pretty indecisive so we were all up for anything. Alex said that she would skype with her mom that day so she went down to do that, and I went down and we discussed that we wanted a chill morning and then maybe white water raft in the afternoon. So, I went up and told the boys “I think we should basically just do our own thing in the morning, so we don’t kill each other, you know...”. I later, really regretted this... My ‘humour’ was not appreciated...ha! Anyways, Alex and I shopped around a bit, and then found a little cafe to sit down and read at and I believe the boys tried to find a sports bar that had a game playing. They later came and joined us (It didn’t seem like they had a grudge about the ‘joke’ I made that morning) and then told us about their grand plan to ‘destink’ their bathing suits. Our hostel had a heated pool attached to it, and they decided that the chlorine would get rid of the awful smell. IT DID and JUST in time before the rafting people picked us up! I had been warned about the smell of Rotorua, as it has a lot of sulphur from the volcanoes around/in it, but I hadn’t really smelt it until I got to the rafting place and it smelt ROTTEN! The town LITERALLY smells like rotting eggs. Matt said that “It’s like they are living in a big fart” and it seriously smells like that. I don’t understand how anyone could live there. Haha! Anyways, we had a boat to ourselves, and of course a guide. There was another group of girls going rafting, and two of them were from Ontario, they were studying in Sydney and came over for reading week! Anyways, rafting was A BLAST! As I have gone before, I knew what to expect, and it was just as, and maybe even more, enjoyable as before! We went over the highest commercialized waterfall you can white water raft over in the world! It was scary, but also a LOT of fun! Alex and I got thrown out of the raft by our guide and I got left by my raft, to be picked up by the one behind us. It was a scary experience thinking that you are getting sucked into a cave where Maori put bones of the people they ate (or maybe it was just a burial cave, but still...bones in a cave that I was being sucked into). Luckily, I survived this incident and live to tell the tale! It was REALLY funny and a good group ‘building’ activity (much needed after I told them that I was going to ‘kill’ them...). We got back from rafting, cold and wet but jumped into the heated pool to warm up and slowly one by one got out to shower. With booking the rafting through our hostel, we each got a free pizza and drink from the bar attached to the hostel. So we went and ate and drank! It was delicious! Later that night, Alex brought up my ‘joke’ and I expressed my regret to that statement. Both boys were very understanding. We hung out and then got ready for bed and went to sleep! 

Friday : We slept in past ten, as none of us put an alarm on, and got woken up by the cleaning ladies. We were apologetic and hurried to pack and check out of the hostel. We were then, once again on our way, this time headed towards Taupo. On the way, Matt had read about a hot spring which sounded quite lovely! So, we stopped at Kerosene creek (fortunately, not toxic) for quite a while. The river was SOOOO warm, that is was quite difficult to get out of but the smell did help a little. While in the spring, Matt and Mark met the ‘love’ of their life, which was a South African girl who woo-ed their hearts...unfortunately for them, no phone numbers were exchanged. We eventually got back into the car, and started, once again, to Taupo. Matt, as the great tour guide he was, read about a huge waterfall and “Craters of the Moon” which were also on the way. So, taking advantage of any opportunity that we could take to not be in the car, we went to both. Huka falls had the blue-ist water I have ever seen and there was just SO much of it! It was pretty commercialized unlike most things in New Zealand and there were a lot of people there to see it. It was in a big gorge and lots of rapids. We were discussing if we could raft over it, and decided that we couldn’t. Haha! We got back in the car, and crossed the highway toward “The Craters of the Moon” which a man at the Falls said was good. There is a lot of volcanic activity in the area we were in and the craters of the moon were supposed to show steam and bubbling mud. We got there, paid $6 and started walking. There were board walks throughout this field that led to different landmarks, none too exciting. After about 5 minutes of looking at steam coming from the ground, it becomes quite monotonous but there was only one way out, so we kept walking for another 20-30 minutes. We then got back into the car, and complained how ridiculous it was. We got to Taupo an hour or so before dark and went to the iSite to discuss the ‘hike’ we were going to do the next day. The next thing we know, the boys hop back in the car, and tell us they are going skydiving. We get to the skydiving place and within half an hour, the boys had skydived! It was a sweet experience to see from the ground, especially because I had done it before and knew the feelings they were experiencing! I was a little jealous though, because the sun was setting as they were jumping and that would have been amazing from 15000 ft. Anyways, after that was done, we went to our hostel and got settled in our room. We planned on cooking our supper, as we had been dining out a lot. So we got a lot of pasta and made our own! It was great to eat ‘a home cooked’ meal. We were all pretty tired, so we went on the computers, and watched the pre-show to the royal wedding. Alex and I went to bed pretty early, as Matt informed us that we would be getting up at 5:30am to get to the Tongariro Crossing. The boys stayed up a little later, and informed us, the next day, that they watched the wedding. 

Still too lazy to upload pictures, and most people who read this have me on facebook and have probably already creeped my pictures! 

Hope everyone is well! 

Love,
K

Easter Break P.2 - Big Boulders, Giant Trees, Old Gold Mines and Flooded Roads.

Monday : We woke up and checked out of our motel. It was a rainy day, we were kind of glad, because we knew the day was going to be filled with driving. Matt had read about the Wairere boulders that were on the way, so we decided to stop there to check them out. It was still wet but we decided to explore anyways. The woman who worked there was very expressive of how the Maori people around the area that we were the most savage, as they were cannibals. Interesting stuff... So we went along the footpaths and explored through little caves. The boulders were GIANT, and the river running through it was “Coca-cola coloured” which was a nice way of saying it was brown. There were boardwalks across them, and paths through the boulders, it was real adventure. As always, Matt was climbing on the rocks and exploring off the path while, Alex, Mark and I basically just stuck to the path. We piled back into the car, and headed in the direction that we THOUGHT was towards Auckland. The road kept getting smaller, and soon turned into gravel, and then there was suddenly a fence across the road, and horses on the other side. We had looked at a map, and it seemed like we were going in the right direction, but obviously, we had made a wrong turn somewhere. So, we started to turn around, and then a car came the same way we did and was just as confused. There was a driveway just down the road a little, so we followed the car ahead (who looked like a family) to the house and they had said that we ‘missed’ a fork in the road a while back. So, we backtracked until we got back to the boulders entrance and just kept driving down that road. It turned out, if we had just turned the other way down the road we went on, we would have been on the right track. Once again, we were running low on gas, so throughout this entire time, we were wondering if we were going to break down or not (or at least I was thinking that) Oh well, it was an adventure. So, we were on our way once again. We drove through a national park, which was pretty, but had VERY curvy road through it, so all of us, besides Mark (because he was driving) were getting pretty motion sick but we survived without anyone actually becoming sick! Matt had also read about the giant Kauri trees that were in the national park, so we stopped to look at “the Father of the Forest”. Now, we were walking through the forest, and there were signs to different trees, and paths. Matt had said that it was near “The Four Sisters” so we followed that sign, and saw this pretty big tree. It was impressive, but we were like “We thought ‘the father of the forest’ would be bigger”. We took pictures and saw ‘The four sisters” which are four trees that share the same roots. Matt was sure that the tree that we saw wasn’t the Father. SO, we keep exploring, and followed a path and THERE IT WAS! It was LITERALLY the biggest thing I have ever seen! It was REALLY the “Father” of the forest. The pictures really don’t do it justice and there are no words to really describe it, other than it was a GIGANTIC tree. Haha! Anyways, we got back on the road to Auckland. About an hour or two outside of Auckland, we got to stop and go traffic, we figured it was because it was the end of Easter Weekend, and everyone wanted to get back for work the next day. We soon realise that there is a road closure too, so we get on another highway heading for Auckland but there was still slow traffic. By this time, we had been in the car for about 6 hours and we getting a little ‘cabin (or should I say car) fever’-ish. We were acting crazy. Matt really wanted to find a song that was on one of the 6 CDs that Mark had brought (by the end of the trip, we basically knew all of the words to all the songs...well...except for me, who just made up words to go with the songs)... Anyways, Matt knew it was on one of the CDs and had gone through them all but still didn’t find it. So we made a plan to go through each CD and once we realised that it wasn’t on the CD, he would give it back to us girls in the backseat. This didn’t work...he still didn’t find it. So, I handed him each CD one by one, and one time I handed him one, he put the CD I JUST gave him into the glove compartment and put the one he just took out of the CD player back in it. This was the affect of being in the car for that amount of time. Once we got into Auckland, Mark drove down three one way roads in a row, but somehow none of us reacted in any way, or no one else on the roads did anything to warn us. We were, once again, hungry, tired and wanted out of the car. So, we first found an Indian restaurant to eat at (“We went out for an Indian” as Mark would say in his Scottish language...haha). The food was delicious but the service was not. By this time, we were just happy to have food to eat. Alex was smart and book a hostel for us in Auckland and we then drove there. When we were walking from the car park to hostel, I slipped on the sidewalk and totally bailed. Luckily, Alex was too tired to laugh, and we just kept walking. Haha! They had made a mistake with our rooms though, so we got two double rooms, for the price we would have got for being in a ten person room. It was pretty great deal. We showered, hung around and then went to bed.

Tuesday : Once again, we got up and checked out. And decided to go up to Coromandel which is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL! But, as with our luck, it was once again rainy. We had decided that we wanted a beach day, and there were hot spring beaches there. So we drove up there and just as we were getting there, in front of us there was a HUGE amount of water flowing (not just sitting, but actually moving) over the road. There was a police officer there, and we asked him if there was another way there, and if not, if he thought we could make it across. He said that it was the only way over, and that we could TRY, but high tide would be in a few hours and he doubted that we would be able to get back. Meanwhile, there were plenty of cars driving through this flowing water, but we decided, that in a rental car, it probably wasn’t the greatest idea. So, there went our plans of sitting on the beach in a hot spring. So, our plans changed and we decided to just go onto our next destination. As Matt was the one to know where things were and was the one to read the travel book, he noted that there was a nice waterfall on the way and a gorge with some paths around it. So, we went adventuring and found what we THOUGHT to be the place to park for the waterfall and trails. Unfortunately, we were wrong once again. We were walking down a wide gravel path, past a old cyanide plant and found a trickling creek, which we thought MIGHT be the waterfall...we were wrong...again. We asked a woman who was walking her dog and we found out we had to go up the road a bit more. So, once again, we got back in the car, and drove to where the gorge was and decided to take a while walking around it, and it was BEAUTIFUL! The place we were was also an old mine. Matt went exploring in some old mining caves. There were suspension bridges over the gorge as well as parts of the paths through old gold mines. Unfortunately, we did not have a torch (or flashlight) but Matt wanted to explore. I made everyone join hands, so we didn’t get lost, or step in a hole, and we managed to find our way through the mining holes with Matt’s direction and a camera flash. I have to say that this adventure was one of the highlights of the trip. We saw such a gorgeous gorge (hahah! ) and cool goldmines with glow worms. It was SO sweet, and reminded me of what a beautiful country I am in! After this adventure, we wanted to see the waterfall, so a little drive up another street and we saw the waterfall that Matt had read about and it was BEAUTIFUL! After we had seen a few waterfalls, Alex posed the question of why we think that waterfalls are so beautiful. And it’s true...it’s just a bunch of water flowing over a cliff, but I still believe that they are one of the most beautiful things! They just seem so enchanting and somehow mysterious. (Note: If anyone really wants to impress me...bring me to a waterfall... ; ) hahah!). We once again piled into the car and drove down to Tauranga where Alex had already booked a room at backpackers. We got there, unpacked our things and meet our roommates who were mostly from Canada (One from Nova Scotia, Two from Quebec). The other girl was from New Zealand, but was travelling for work. We were exhausted from once again being in the car all day so we decided to get something to eat and have a relaxing night. We went out for ‘an Italian’ and went back to our hostel and played scattergories and just relaxed before bed.  

 I might upload pictures a bit later! But for now this is all you get! :) 

Hope everyone is well, 

Love, 

K

Easter Break P.1 - Crazy Taxi Rides, Long Drives North, and Many Memories...

Hey All! 

It has been too long since I have written anything on this blog! After Wanaka, I didn’t leave Dunedin, or do much of anything besides school assignments and go to class! I had the occasional sleep over at Alex and Brie’s but truthfully not much happened!  The week before Easter was the busiest week since I’ve been here! I had two major essays due on the Thursday. I attempted to work on them the week before but as I need a sort of pressure to get assignments done, I left them both to that week. I got them in on time and have gotten one back since, which I received a 90% on. I’m pretty happy about that.

So, this blog will probably be a novel, as it is ALL about my Easter Break (Reading week) with I spent with Alex, Mark and Matt on the North Island. Alex had invited me along to the trip and I hadn’t really planned anything for reading week before so I agreed enthusiastically.  This was about two weeks before reading week. In the next few weeks, we booked our flights from Christchurch to Auckland and from Wellington to Christchurch, and booked our bus back from Christchurch to Dunedin. Up until a couple days before we had no idea of how to get to Christchurch on Friday before our plane on Saturday morning. Alex and Matt got in touch with some car sharing people who were going up to Christchurch anyways. 

Thursday : Both of my papers were due and I had to finish editing my one paper to hand in before 5pm.  Luckily, I didn’t have much more to do on the last paper so I finished it up quickly before noon when Noora and Nikki (another girl in my class) decided to go out for lunch! It was a good celebration as I had just finished my two long essay, Nikki had finished the one paper she had due and Noora had finished her THREE major assignments that she had due! After I handed in my papers, I caught the bus home and packed for the next day. Unfortunately, I didn’t have many clean clothes, and G&C don’t use their dryer, so I thought it might be rude to use theirs. LUCKILY, Noora does directly pay for her electricity but pays weekly for as much as she wants. So, I packed all my dirty clothes that I was going to take on the trip, as well as packed all my things that I was going to take on the trip (because buses didn’t run on Good Friday) and went down to Noora’s. I had to go shopping in town for contact solution and other such things for the trip. So, I shopped while my laundry was cleaning and drying. The dryers aren’t as efficient here as they are back home and take a MUCH longer time. So, by the time I was done shopping I just went back to Alex’s and waited until my laundry was done. Brie and Sophie (Alex and Brie’s Kiwi Host) were planning on going to the gym so I decided to join them, because I hadn’t been to the gym since I got to NZ and every student gets a free membership! After the gym, we ‘cooled’ down in the sauna. We then went back to their house, I picked up my wash from Noora and packed for the next day. 

Friday : Alex and I got up, packed our last minute things and were off to Mark’s to meet up with him and Matt before getting picked up by our car share at 11am. Rachel came to pick us up and we all piled in her little car. We were ready for the 4 hour trip to Christchurch. Rachel was a VERY open person, explaining her life story and many jobs that she has had. We had decided that it would be fun to take things easy, and stop different places on our way. All of us wanted to stop at the Moeraki Boulders so that was our first stop, just an hour or so outside of Dunedin. The first thing we notice when going into the parking lot was there were a bunch of flags right at the start. The highest being, no, not the New Zealand flag...but the American! Matt (being from California) was pretty proud of this. Yes, if you were wondering the Canadian flag was one of these, but was lower than both the American and New Zealand flag.  The boulders are the extremely round boulders that are on the beach. They look like giant soccer balls, or as Alex said, “Dinosaur Eggs”. Most have been cracked open from waves but some are still in shape and are a pretty cool formation. We stopped to eat something, as we were all a little hungry. Alex had made a LOT of curry the night before (being the mother figure in our group) and so a lot of us ate that, while Mark got his ham and cheese sandwich. We were then on our way again, and next stop was in Oamaru where there was old distillery which was turned into a pub/cafe, we stopped some coffee and Alex and I split two chocolate chip cookies. Then, we were once again on our way again, We drove through a Timaru (I think) that was made all with this old stone. The old part of the city was all made of it and all white. It was pretty. So, on this trip, we still didn’t know where we were staying that night, or how we were going to get to the airport, and what we were going to do at all on this trip. Luckily, one of our friend’s Kiwi host (Emily’s) lives in Christchurch and was having people over anyways. So, He invited us over to his place for the night. Once we got to Christchurch, we didn’t know where Aaron’s house was yet, so we explored the downtown of Christchurch (which is where the big earthquake was in February. There is still lots of damage and rumble to look at and the town centre is still fenced off.  Rachel was meeting a friend in Christchurch and was staying over with her friend, who was house-sitting one of her co-worker’s house. So, we went with Rachel to her friends place to pick her up and go to the house she was house-sitting. Alex was on the phone with Aaron getting his address while we went into Rachel’s friend’s house, which was actually so sweet. It’s an old workshop, which is converted into an apartment. There are three people living there. All of their beds were in the rafters, and they had a recording studio in the back of their apartment. They had lots of musical instruments lying around, and just a laid back atmosphere. I have to say it was a pretty sweet apartment! We then tagged along once more to Rachel’s friend’s house-sitting house, which had two huge dogs, and a couple rabbits. It was a BEAUTIFUL house! We then called a cab to get to Aaron’s. Now, prepare yourself for this. Aaron had said he lived IN Christchurch...this was NOT the truth. He lives on the outskirts of Christchurch, past the airport (which is on the outskirts of Christchurch). So, this cab was supposed to be about 20 minutes and with four of us, we would split it and the cost wouldn’t be too bad. So, we start driving up to Aaron’s.  Get on to a country road, and the fare is getting higher and higher. As I was in the back middle, I saw the fare get higher and higher and eventually saw the number $140 AND we weren’t even to Aaron’s yet. Fortunately, the taxi driver was lost and went way past Aaron’s house. We phoned him and he noted a gas station near him that he could pick us up from. So, the taxi driver gave us ‘a discount’ of $110 for the ride, even though she didn’t even get us to where we were headed. Oh well, it could have been worse! Aaron picked us up at the gas station and we got to his house, tired and hungry. There were a lot of exchange students at Aaron’s so we chatted with them until Aaron suggested a game of ‘kick the can’ (They called it something else, but the aim of the game was the same as kick the can). Aaron lives in the country so he has a lot of space to run around. Though some of us girls were reluctant to play at first, all of us got into the game pretty quickly and it was great fun! We then settled down and watched a movie before we got settled for bed. The girls were in the living room, while the boys settled in the tv room. 

Saturday: Our plane left at 9:50am, so we got up early and repacked our things and Aaron drove us to the airport! (Even though it costs us a lot to get to Aaron’s, we realized that it was probably the cheapest we could have done, because we would have had to pay for a cab to a motel (no backpackers were open in CHCH), pay for a motel and then a cab to the airport. Plus, it was a lot more fun at Aaron’s then it would have been at a motel! So, we were in a happier mood after some sleep and that realisation!) Everything went smoothly at the airport, no lost luggage, no ticket mix ups. It was lovely. We all had separate seats, as we just got the cheapest seats, so it was a quiet plane ride to Auckland. Once we were there, we still hadn’t figured out really where we were going, and had to figure out where to pick up the rental car. After trying to find the kiosk at the airport, we asked the info desk, and were told, the “airport” rental car place, was not ACTUALLY at the airport, we had to take a shuttle (free) to the rental car place. We got there, signed papers, paid and had our very own car, with LOTS of space! We then had to figure out where we were going and how much time we could spend in each place. We drove across the bay to Davenport. It was beautiful sunny day and we just wanted to spend time outside. We were extremely hungry, as we only had a small breakfast and by the time we got to Auckland and figured out the car situation, it was around 11:30am. We walked through the shops in Davenport and decided on a fish and chips store, which Alex got fish and chips and the rest of us got burgers. If you are EVER in Davenport on vacation, do NOT get fish and chips OR burgers from the shop we did. They were absolutely disgusting. Like absolutely. We ate them because they were food, but it was greasy and..well...just plain gross. Matt had been on a cruise with his Dad before getting to Dunedin, and had stopped in Auckland before and knew of a small little hill that we could climb. We drove to the base, and it turned out to be an old army bunker (or that’s what I would call it). It had a place where a ‘disappearing canon’ was, and underground rooms. Pretty neat! There were a lot of families out and some kids were sliding down the steep hill on cardboard. We made it to the top, got out a travel guide that we had just bought and mapped out where we were going to go in the next week. Matt then decided to start his video blog that he starts every time by the phrase “Hey Guys, we’re here...”. We headed back down to the car to buy groceries for breakfasts. On the way down we decided to try out sliding down the hill with cardboard. Alex tried it first, and was mostly successful. The cardboard ripped a bit but she stayed on and stopped at an appropriate time. Matt was next, and he was also pretty successful. Then I went. Let’s just say, I was NOT successful. I ended up flipping and there is a great video of it, for proof. Mark then went, he was more graceful then I was but still ended up falling. It was good ‘bonding’ time. Haha! We went grocery shopping and were on our way to Paihia which is on the Bay of Islands north of Auckland. So, we started driving and decided it was only a few hours there. It was mid-afternoon by the time we left Davenport, and arrived in Paihia around 8pm. On the way, we played a few car games like “contact” where one person thinks of a word and the others have to guess it. Some jokes came out of this game as well (like “Feeling isn’t an emotion”...”It’s something you feel”). We stopped on the way to see a little waterfall and noticed a tree house (literally a house in a tree) and wanted to explore it, but we couldn’t find it. So, back on the road we went. We stopped at One Tree Hill, which was a beach, and not the place where they filmed the show “One Tree Hill”. It was beautiful, the sun was just setting and it was nice to get a little fresh air after being in the car for a while. As this trip was all about spare of the moment plans, we did not book a hostel ahead of time, and as it was Easter Weekend, all of the hostels and motels were full, and most offices were closed. We drove around to each hostel, and some motels and hotels to see if any were open, and if they were, if they still had space. There were none. Finally, we found an office that was open, and hoped that it had space. It didn’t. BUT the lady in the office was nice enough to phone around and found a hotel that we could stay in. The hotel was a little far away from the city centre and everyone wanted a night out in town, so I volunteered to be DD and got a little practice in on the way to the hotel. In New Zealand, cars drive on the left-hand side, which was really the only difference. I was confident in my skills as a driver, but the others were a little less confident in me (which was actually good, because I wasn’t actually that good. Haha!). The other three were extra eyes, as I had to go over a one way bridge (a lot of these in NZ) and try and stay in the lane (It seems like you have to be on top of the middle line). I ‘jokingly’ almost hit a cat, because Alex told me to watch out for it. Overall, it was an interesting experience, with a lot of relief when we got to the hotel alive. The hotel gave us a nice discount, so we each stayed at a BEAUTIFUL resort for $50 that night. We got two different rooms and decided after the long day, we wanted to go out. We showered and got ready to go out, I drove into town (which much more ease then the drive there) and realised that everything was closed at 12, so we sat down and had one drink and went back to the hotel and went to bed. 

Sunday : We woke up to check out of our hotel, and decided that we felt like kayaking. We stopped at a few kayak rental stores and found one that would rent to us pretty cheap and we went up a river towards a waterfall. We got double kayaks and had one girl and one guy in each, because both Alex and I are too strong for our own good. We were afraid that guys wouldn’t be able to keep up with us if we went separately. HA! No, it was the total opposite way. So we paddled down the river, and saw lots of funny looking birds (they looked like penguins, but they could fly), and along with them, funny looking trees (I forget the name of them). Anyways, we paddled down, had an iPod with a speaker and brought some lunch food along, and got to the waterfall! By that time, we were pretty hot from paddling, so we decided to paddle into the waterfall. Matt and I went first, and soon realized that it was quite hard to paddle into a waterfall, as the current takes you away quite quickly. So after a few tries, Matt just keeps paddling the front part of the boat...which I am sitting in INTO the waterfall... I was soaked. Mark and Alex went next and basically did the same thing. Alex and I were good spirited about it, as we did agree to go near the waterfall. We, then, stopped at a tree and had our lunch there and paddled back, against the wind to the rental place. It was a very fun morning. We then changed and went on our way to Cape Reinga, the northern most tip of New Zealand. We figured it would be 4 or 5 hours up so we started out around 2:30ish. On the way, there is a beach that you can drive along, which we thought might be fun, so we stopped there, and drove down the beach for a while. When on the beach, we realised that we were slowly losing gas, so we were down to below a ¼ of a tank. Back on the main road, that was the first thing we looked for, and quickly found one (It was literally the first thing on the side of the main road!). Matt was driving once again, and wanted to get to Cape Reinga before the sun set. So, speeding down the curvy mountainous road, singing “I can’t stop...”, we managed to get to the northern most tip of New Zealand, alive and JUST in time to see where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet. It was pretty sweet! We then drove back to a little hotel/restaurant and had some things to eat (I say this not because I don’t remember, but because I don’t particularly want to remember).  We did a lot of driving, but wanted to do a little more before we stopped so we could drive less the next day as we were driving all the way back to Auckland. So, we got to a little town, and obviously hadn’t called ahead, but found a little motel where we rented a room. We watched sports highlights and relaxed. We got free wifi so we could update the facebook world to our whereabouts and see what had been happening with everyone else.  I also finally charged my camera, as I had forgotten to do so ahead of time! 

 Unfortunately because I did not have my camera charged, I have no pictures from this part of my trip on my computer! There will be pictures in the next sections! 

I hope everyone is doing well! 

Love to all, 

K