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
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