Fresh off the boat and inappropriate footwear

It may be the general saying here, but the fact that I’ve not been here long and everyone says ‘you’re fresh off the boat then’ is really beginning to piss me off! I am now a New Zealand resident on an actual visa, not just a tourist!

I got talking to a guy today (Thurs) who I met whilst having a coffee in a coffee shop, and he asked me how long I’d been here, almost 3 weeks was my reply, to which I heard the horrific sound of ‘oh so you’re fresh off the boat’. In fact I’m not fresh of the boat, I’ve been here 3 weeks and I didn’t actually come here on a boat, I came on a plane. Not that I said any of that to him, as he turned out to be a nice guy and gave me some good travel tips on where to go and what to do.

Auckland is so different from Hong Kong, but yet I feel equally as comfortable here as I did there, and it seems so strange to think that in 5 weeks of being away from home I’ve been through 3 continents and ended up as far away as you can get. Auckland has far less people than any city, and is spread over a vast distance which is mottled with the odd volcano here and there which makes for interesting walking times. It’s a very pretty city, I get a warm feeling inside when I drive over the harbour bridge when it’s getting dark and you see Sky Tower light up. I also get this feeling when I open my blind in the morning and see the city, then take the dog for a walk and enjoy a sea front walk.

I have had a good time here so far, all it has pretty much included is relaxing, visits to the pub and trying to work out how to make the best of my time here. Whilst stripping the tourist information centre of their many free maps and brochures, I came across a very interesting brochure….The Kiwi Experience. This was when my plans all changed. For a very reasonable amount of money, I can do a combo trip for bus travel all around the North island, South island and Fiji – one of my sought after destinations. This is now my new plan until Christmas, plus a visit to Australia. According to Jason, the Kiwi Experience buses are basically 18-30 style party buses, which sounds exactly what I need right now, hence my over excited 5 year old resembling enthusiasm.

I was all set on the job front, however now I feel slightly differently. If I’m going to come back to England and give the next 4 years of my life to a PhD, I intend to make the most of my freedom here while I have it. I want to experience the country for what it is, not just do the average 9-5 job and come home and become one of the many thousands of commuters that forget to appreciate their surroundings.

Needless to say I was down to the tourist office the very next day to book myself on one of these magical sounding trips. First stop Bay of Islands, my favourite memory from our last holiday to New Zealand.

After an incredibly early 4.30am start to Friday morning, it was time to head to the ferry to town to pick up the magical Kiwi bus to Paihia. I met my first companions on the bus – Ben and Melanie. We got on really well and had a fun journey up to Paihia, stopping off at a place where bees make Manuka honey – Ben & I could have been amused for hours at this! However after a short break it was time to get back on the bus and continue with our journey. We arrived in Paihia just after midday and checked into our base hostel which was nicer than I’d imagined it to be after being told some hostel horror stories from Ben!

After a quick stop at the hostel, we headed for our afternoon boat trip around the Bay of Islands. We made it to the hole in the rock, however shortly after this, we all fell asleep in the warm cosy cabin of the boat, therefore missing the journey back – although as I have done this trip twice before I didn’t feel too deprived and had a really good sleep which made up for it. On our first night back at Base, we had a BBQ dinner which was washed down with my nightly glass of white wine which was lovely.

Saturday saw us up early and off to Cape Reinga & 90 mile beach for the day. We had an insane bus driver called Spike, whose favourite phrases were ‘sweet as’, ‘lets bugger off then dudes’ and putting the word ‘bloody’ before/after as many words as he could. We had our first stop at a Kauri tree forest and then onto a café for brunch. After another long bus ride, we eventually arrived at Cape Reinga and made our way to the lighthouse on the furthest Northern point of the island for pictures. We then stopped at a beach for lunch and then headed to the 150m sand dunes on ninety mile beach for our sand boarding stop.

To say I was nervous about sand boarding would be an understatement. Petrified kind of covers it better. Whilst walking up the dunes I was getting nervous about the height we were climbing and inevitably going to have to board down again. The fact there was a deep stream at the bottom of the dune and not having a towel/spare clothes on me didn’t help my nerves either! However once at the top I hopped onto my board and was quickly pushed on my way by Spike. I screamed loud enough so that probably the whole of the Southern hemisphere could hear me but after the initial speed, it was actually quite fun. Needless to say I quickly made my way up behind Ben up the dunes for my second go. After tiring ourselves out trudging up the dunes for a few seconds of thrill boarding down, we made our way on the bus and drove down ninety mile beach which was fun.

On arrival back at the hostel, we were all pretty tired so chilled out in the lounge. The rugby was on (NZ vs Aus) and we settled in for the night to watch. I made friends with a German guy called Nick who turned out to be studying in England and for some reason I was trying to convince him to read Harry Potter (I think this was because we were watching HP before the rugby and I was drinking wine)!

Sunday was a far more chilled day, Ben headed out for a days sailing and Melanie and I went on the ferry to Russell, however with it being Sunday, most places were closed, but we did have a really nice walk up a hill to look at Russell from above – the views were gorgeous. As Melanie was heading back to Auckland in the afternoon we got the ferry back and I met Nick who convinced me that swimming in the sea when it was only 15 degrees was a good idea. After this mission and walking down the street in a towel, we got into the spa which was absolutely gorgeous (wine induced and raining)!

We had heard about a walk to Haruru waterfalls and so on Monday, Becky, Ben and I decided to try and find this walk. We were under the impression it would be about an hour and a half walk so I chose to wear my flat boots – mistake! It was actually a 7 mile round trip which took us just over 4 hours. With intermittent rain patches the walkway was soggy and muddy which didn’t do my footwear choice any good – they were covered in mud. The views from the waterfalls were awesome and the walk was enjoyable nonetheless. We were about halfway home and the heavens opened, like properly opened (although not quite Hong Kong typhoon style), and we got soaked. Becky and I braved it to the supermarket while Ben went back to Base, and by the time we arrived we were like drowned rats – it was that bad people were actually laughing at us. The one day I put mascara on, it bloody rains so I had mascara running down my face and I was that wet the water was just dripping from every pore. A checkout lady took pity on us and gave us a roll of kitchen towel like stuff which we could dry ourselves off with as best we could. At the checkout I got talking to a guy who said I wanted to be careful I didn’t catch flu, my reply (between the sneezes), were ‘I think it’s a bit late for that!’ This nice guy also took pity on us and gave Becky & I a lift home which was very nice of him – he even put a blanket in the back for us to sit on! On arrival back at Base the only thing to do was de-clothe myself and have the world’s hottest shower which was sooooooo nice!

Tues was a far more chilled day as we were all preparing to leave. Chris & I went for breakfast (after scrambled eggs breakfast in the hostel this is) to a café which made the most gorgeous pancakes in the entire world! We had blueberry, butterscotch sauce with greek yoghurt pancakes and they were beautiful. We then decided to walk off this meal and hiked up to the highest point in Paihia. Again our footwear choices were not ideal – I was wearing my flat boots again and Chris was wearing flip flops – not the best of choices! The track was muddy and slippery and quite steep at times but it was a fun walk and worth it for the views. We made it back to Base with an hour to spare before our bus pick up and spent this time chilling and getting our stuff together. It was then time for our bus journey home, so Ben, Becky, Chris, Justine & me all got on the magical Kiwi bus and headed back to Auckland. On the journey back we had a driver called Fly and watched a film called RocknRolla, which in proper Kate tradition, I spent most of the journey asleep.

During the weekend I also visited the Mousetrap hostel, which is where my temp job is going to be. The place looked lovely on the pictures and was just as nice in real life, the people were lovely and I could definitely see myself staying here for a month. First job when back in Auckland – book myself on the first bus out of here!

But for now, am back in Auckland (until Friday)……over and out