Auckland & Northland

Auckland

Bro. That's the easiest way to spot a Kiwi from an Aussie - every sentence seems to end in Bro. Hey Bro. Sweet as Bro. See ya later Bro. Men talking to men. Men talking to women. Women talking to women, everyone says it. Obviously those of Maori and Aboriginal descent are easy to spot, but another way to tell the difference is their pronunciation of i's and e's; in New Zealand 'is' is pronounced 'eez' and 'yes' is pronounced 'yeeez'. Or something like that. You have to hear it to know what I'm talking about.

So, 6 days in Auckland before myself and the three girls set off for our road trip around the cold and rugged dual islands of New Zealand. We'd booked a 4 berth camper van through a small but cheap company complete with hobs, grill, kettle, toaster, microwave, heater, shower, toilet and complimentary TV for just £6 a say each, not bad at all even with fuel and campsites added on.

Lisa and I had 3 days before the other 2 girls arrived from Fiji and that time was spent planning, doing a bit of shopping, visiting the museum which was interesting enough but also a little too big, taking a ferry to Devonport and walking up Mount Victoria (an extinct volcano), and finally going up the prominent but slightly disappointing Sky Tower for some views of the city.

I'd been expecting some pretty cold weather after reports of -10 degrees in the south island but Auckland, near the northern tip of the north island, is surprisingly just cool and a bit nippy in the evenings. Still, warm clothes would be needed later so a trip to a cheap shop called The Warehouse led to a complete stock-up without spending an obscene amount of money.

I met the other 2 girls - Sarah and Lydia - with Lisa over a drink or six in our hostel bar the night they arrived. They're both 20, from Leeds, and are engaged to each other. Lisa met them in Africa on her way to Australia. They're a bit different from you're everyday Jo...they look very young, act very young and are always either arguing or are all over each other in a pretty embarassing way. Over the next few days we did a bit more shopping and went to Rangitito, a Hauraki Gulf island just north of Auckland. Rangitito is a 'presumed' extinct volcano that was the scene of a massive eruption about 700 years ago. We took the hour long (and steep) track to the summit, enjoyed the views of the city and the other gulf islands and then strolled back down to get the last ferry via some dark and narrow caves. Judging by the pictures I've seen of New Zealand this was a pretty gentle introduction to some of the walking and scenery to come in the next month or so.

A few notes about Auckland. Although Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, Auckland is well known as the major city. It has a population of approximately 1.5 million, 11% of which are Maori, 55% are European descendants, and 34% are other foreigners. It has two harbours, about 50 extinct volcanoes and is closely situated to the Hauraki Gulf islands (you can get 30 minute ferries from the end of Queen Street, the main street in the city centre), which are very popular visiting spots for tourists and locals alike. Waiheke island, the most visited of all the Gulf islands, is home to some nice scenery, lots of posh artists and museums and some of the best wineries in New Zealand; wine tours are frequent but also expensive. We didn't have time to visit it, opting for the cheaper, smaller and more adventurous Rangitito instead, which is a shame but not one I'll worry about given the vast array of better stuff to do in the rest of the country.

I'll leave this entry on the night before we picked up the van...we went to watch some truly dreadful stand-up acts at the local Comedy Club - it was 'first-timer' night (and hopefully their last) - and then retired about midnight with excited anticipation...

Northland

The Northland lies on the north west of the north island, above Auckland, and has a subtropical climate. A deep Maori culture is steeped throughout; for example, at the peak of the north at Cape Reinga they used to send their dead out to sea on rafts. Among the highlights of the Northland are the Bay of Islands, diving at the Poor Knights island (rated amongst the top 10 in the world), Doubtless Bay, 90 Mile Beach, Cape Reinga and the Waipoua Forest, home of the biggest tree in New Zealand (a very old kauri tree called Tane Mahuta).

Our trip started with a taxi ride to the rental depot, near the airport, which the rental company paid for. After spending ages doing the usual checks we piled our stuff into the van and I sat in the driver's seat ready to go; as a free extra they's given us a portable TV which we thought might be useful, but unfortunately no-one remembered to secure it and as soon as I pulled away it slid off the side and smashed on the floor. Great start. I drove straight up the coast to Paihia, near the Bay of Islands, and we stopped at a campsite in a place called Haruru Falls. Unfortunately the power in the van didn't work so in the morning we decided to move and the van and try a different power supply, but due to all the rain that had fallen we were quickly wheel spinning and then moments later well and truly bogged in. All in all, not the best start to the trip. And it was raining too. The owner came down to help us get out with his two sons but to no avail, until finally someone spotted us from across the falls and came all the way round to tow us using their 4x4. We checked the power on another outlet - it worked - and 2 hours later than planned we were on our way with Lisa behind the wheel stalling the van at every opportunity.

We were hoping to get up to Cape Reinga that day but we'd lost too much time so after checking out Doubtless Bay - a bit gloomy and not very interesting - we stopped for the night in Kaituia, still a bit of a trek from Cape Reinga but about as close as you can stay without going the whole way. The next morning we set off and, well, Cape Reinga was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Low hanging clouds and fog obstructed all our views which are apparently spectacular, and most of the area is under maintenance with cones and tape stretched out all the way across the entrance and the first part of the lighthouse path. And, to add insult to injury, even the tacky little signpost near the lighthouse that points to places across the world had been vandalised, leaving just a post.

It was Sarah's turn to drive so I sat in the back and carried on reading my new book, the Penguin History of New Zealand, from which I learnt far more about Cape Reinga than I did from visiting it. Pretty soon we were lost trying to find the way to the Waipoua Forest and so I laid back and gave Sarah and Lydia a chance to right their wrong by getting us back on track. Unfortunately they failed by not only trying to take the wrong road but even failing to find that one and taking us away from our destination and into the middle of nowhere. After 3 more hours of driving around and wasting petrol Sarah pulled into a layby for the night with my enthusiasm for the trip at a very low ebb. After another evening of not getting on with the couple from Leeds and generally not wanting to be there I made an executive decision to get the hell out of that van and make different plans. I just can't spend 6 weeks of my life doing something I hate.

The next day I drove us the rest of the journey to the forest and we checked out Tane Mahuta, king of the forest, and it was certainly impressive. It's between 1,000 and 2,000 years old and Maoris believe it is responsible for all life. Not sure about that one but it's a massive tree alright. Next stop was Waitingi for a look around the Treaty Grounds where Maoris agreed to British sovereignty back in 1840, although if you looked into the treaty you'd see that they were actually duped by a pretty poorly translated version which differed from the English version in some very important areas (I'll bore you with more history in later updates). The Treaty Grounds were fairly interesting, although nothing more than that. Finally we decided we'd had enough of Northland and the crummy weather (I certainly had anyway) and so I drove towards Auckland with plans in my mind to stop off in Orewa the next morning, just north of Auckland, and see the 3 girls I met on the Whitsunday Islands in Australia. When we reached Te Hana I veered inside of someone who suddenly decided he wanted to turn right into a petrol station, and then just as quickly changed his mind and turned back to the left, catching the rear drivers side of our van and crunching the front left of his. What a plonker. After taking pictures, swapping details and inspecting the damage (not much wrong with our van, just a dented plate acting as a vent cover) we were on our way again.

We stopped in a layby for the night in the pouring rain and I told the girls that I'd be leaving them the next day. I decided to be tactful and not tell them that they got on my tits, but I think somehow they knew why I was leaving and had guessed that I might do this as I really was miserable as sin. Well, bring on the next day and a new chapter in the great New Zealand adventure.

New Beginnings

I had a great time in Orewa, we got trashed on the Saturday night playing drinking games and then went to a 70s/80s fancy dress bash at the bar Hollie works at, and then slobbed about on Sunday and ate pizza and rented a DVD. Perfect. On Monday I booked myself into a hostel in Auckland and the girls kindly gave me a lift down there, at which point I had a sudden sense of deja vu - on my own in a big city trying to work out what to do next. My energy levels were low and I didn't fancy putting in the effort needed to travel round on a party bus like the Kiwi experience so the next day I started hunting around for vans.

The girls in Orewa were going to be travelling too but for now they were working and saving some cash so I knew I was on my own for at least the majority of my trip, and pretty quickly worked out that I'd have to rent a van by myself. I wanted one with a power point and plug sockets to charge everything up so I eventually settled on a Jucy Cruiza for $32 a day (about £12) with a free ferry journey from the north to the south island thrown it, saving me about $100. That was clearly the best I was going to get do after a few days of downloading films and games to play on my own I was bored of Auckland pretty excited about having the freedom of doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

A bit expensive but hopefully worth it...