NZ Travels - Out on the beaten track

15th October 2010
So I am writing from a Motel room in Auckland having left Ohakune. I wanted to write a blog on the way from Ohakune to Auckland as it was a 6 hr bus journey and I was feeling quite reflective. The whole journey went really quickly – I was really away with my thoughts thinking about life, people and the times I had in Ohakune. In between dozing and thinking the 6 hrs flew bye and before I knew it I was back in the big city of Auckland.
After my last blog the last couple of days in Ohakune weren’t that eventful. A lot of people were in exams and the mountain the majority of the time was closed. I got a couple of runs in before the wind took over on one of those days but it wasn’t that epic. I managed to sell my Ride DH2 15108/09 to Adam for the bargain basement price of $80. It was his birthday on the 13th which coincided with my last evening so I didnt get to spend much with him. I was busy sorting through my itinerary for our travels and getting stuff together for my trip. I had a wonderful last meal with Sarah, Doug, Nicole and Casper at Miro St – Nicole made a lasagne and apple crumble and it went down a treat...I was so full...it was so nice to spend my last evening with the people I first met and started the trip with. I look back to how scared I was about being in a new place and how easy it was to settle in afterward. The whole luggage situation rocked the boat a lot but it all worked out. It always does and I need to learn to not stress myself out too much in those situations. I am going to have to go through that a little in Japan, at least I will know Ollie, Larissa and Ocean and Andy out there and my shared accommodation is sorted which means I will have an instant friend base.
On my last day I did some more last minute planning at Miro St and then had an incredible leaving breakfast at the Utopia Cafe, Rob, Chloe, Stu, Jonny, Tony, Ollie, Larissa, Adam, Toby, Shannan, Chris H, Stu (Tash’s Stu), Lindsay, Chris Halpin were all there mowing down reminiscing and just enjoying good times. I got to say bye to everyone and that was awesome. What I wasn’t expecting is when the bus arrived everyone and more people were back there to wave me off. It was pretty special/emo...I didnt really shred a tear but the bus journey back was pretty sad and reflectful. I did nothing bus think and doze on the bus. As I was on the bus back I knew it was the last day of the snowboard level 2 exams and was keen to find out how the rookies and tony got on and amazingly they all passed which was awesome news. As it stands Tony will not be coming to Japan with me, but will be there working at Bandai mountain...pretty sick just slightly concerned about the quality of the snow school given he didnt even need a level 2 or an interview to work there. I am sure it will work out...cant say I am not pissed off, I hussled my manager pretty hard for him to get work and was looking forward to his company...but I think it makes sense now he has his level 2 to actually get some practical experience instructing. I think there was more to his decision than just that but I cant really say much. Lets just say I know situations a little better than people actually think I do.
On the other hand I am hoping and praying Chloe gets the job at Evergreen, I havent heard from her but I am hoping for the best for sure.
So I arrived in Auckland and the instant busyness of the city overwhealmed me. I needed Anna to pick me up quickly. Amazingly she was pretty rapid and it was amazing to see her! She is a genuinely funny good girl. She wasn’t doing so good, completely messed up her right hand falling down some stairs loosing feeling and having a massive scar...meant she had to drop out of school, though I am pretty sure she wanted to anyway. I got to her amazing town house in central Auckland and settled in. Met her lovely mother Kathy and brother Adam and later on that evening her father Mark (god i hope thats right) we had a lovely falafel dinner and I got to connect with the whole family especially her parents. We discussed the UK and NZ economy and how things are going, and generally discussed what I had been upto in Ohakune. I think they wanted to sus out what Anna was getting herself into, as a result of dropping out of Uni she has now decided to do the Snowboard Rookies program at Ruapehu next winter! I am happy for her but she needs to make sure she gets the position. We watched some outrageous fortune (torture) and talked and had a relatively early night.
Today we got up, I did some more replanning not really sure what we were going to do, and then repacked leaving a lot of stuff at Annas house...we had some breakfast, chatted a little more and then Anna the little star took me to the mall first to get some playing cards and headphones, and then dropped me to the airport. She did me so proud and I was so grateful. I cant wait to pick up my baggage from her house and see her again one last time before I leave.
Got the airport and hung around arrivals for about 20 mins before my parents walked through the arrivals area! It was awesome seeing them. I told them about my lack of planning and it was a little stressy...but we will figure it all out. My uncle called and told us to go South, but we have no time...so my plans around to head up the Northlands and then across to the Coromandel Peninsular then over to Mount Manganui/Tauranga – we will decide from there whether to head straight back to Auckland for our flight to Oz or head back via Rotoroua for some geothermal activity action!!
We picked up the “El Cheapo” rental car and my dad was pleased with the car and the price, but not so pleased with my driving licence expiring meaning I cant do any driving – It sucks because after my 10 hr drive across USA to Canada I felt pretty confident I would nail the driving here too but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. We got the car and hunted for a Motel. Found one settled in its about 5 ks from town so we drove to town after settling in. We walked around the shops and then over the Quay/Viaduct. We had an incredible dinner and then did a little more walking before heading back to the motel.
1000 + words into this post I better wrap it up brief plan tomo is to check out of Auckland drive up north starting at the gateway to the Northlands – Warkworth heading the Leigh/Matakana/Snells/Omaha beaches. Then off to Matakana to do a pottery tour and check out the town. We will the drive to Whangarei and stop there. Hopefully it will be scenic, chilled and eventful I am hoping cards on the beach will be a winner with the folks but we shall see.



16th October 2010

WASSSUUPP! So I am sat here 11pm at night after a long day listening to some shapeshifting wanting to write all about the day we just had. Soooo where to begin, at the end of last night we went for a little walk to help digest the mega dinner we had I got a double lamb shank so the walk was definitely needed.
The next morning we faffed around for a while but managed to get ourselves in gear and packed up the car checked out and yammed down on some breakfast. We headed on highway 1 north of Auckland, our first stop was to Warkworth to then figure out a plan for the rest of the day J. We had 2 options getting to Warkie, either a toll road motorway or a more scenic route, at the last minute we chose the scenic route which worked out to be a mean decision! We stopped at Orewa beach and had a little walk, it was a nice clean beach only we were a little early so it was a little cold, we didnt stay to long as we had to get to Warkie! After a little shop at Orewa we pushed on arriving to Warkie not too long after.
Warkworth seemed like a small pleasant little town with quaint little cafes and shops. We went to the iSite to figure out our plan and the very kind lady in the info centre got us a detailed map of the area and we had a mini itinerary sorted. We started our trip in Matakana about 20 mins east of Warkworth were there was a farmers market on at the time which was nothing short of awesome. Matakana is lovely! So nice and on a Saturday from 8am to 1pm people come from the North and South to attend the farmers market and go for a little wander down the river. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and bought an epic pie!
From Matakana we then drove onto Omaha beach and the weather became awesome – real sunny and perfect. Omaha beach was incredible – so clean and so beautiful – it was a surfers paradise. I recognised a few people from the Market at the beach a lot with their surfboards just out riding waves. Made me think how incredible a summer on the beach learning how to surf would be. I just seem to want to keep travelling and living the dream. I can quite clearly see from the rentals their distaste in my thoughts about living the dream but oh well. We are having fun! Some of the houses in Omaha were incredible, beautiful beach houses. The place stank of city money, where the yuppies purchase their holiday homes on the beach...they were soo nice! We had some lunch in Omie and then continued the adventure to Tawaranui Regional park...mum and I went for a little walk, then we all drove to Anchor Bay at the peak of the park and just hung out a little on the beach there. We were getting beached az but were chilling. After we went to Goat Island, we wanted to get a boat tour of the island but we missed the last ferry @ 5pm which was annoying. We admired the incredible scenery and took some photos of the island before heading to Whangerei. We found some decent accommodation had a lovely Indian meal. I am now in my room reminiscing on the day and the highlights were definitely the weather, the sun set, Matakana Villiage, the amazing scenery and my parents actually looking like they were enjoying themselves from time to time. I can see why lord of the rings was filmed here the natural beauty is far beyond belief. Not going to lie I am a little beached az so am keen to actually do some attractions tomo. We will go to see some waterfalls and caves and the bay of islands, but then after i am keen for going to the kauri forest and the kauri museum....we shall see how it goes.
Peace out

17th October 2010
Sooooo we had a lovely lie in this morning, the lovely landlady said we could pretty much check out whenever we want, and the rentals were keen to get a lie in and a bit of a rest so we definitely did that this morning. We didn’t get going on our travels today until about 12pm, we decided to have breakfast in the motel going to Pak n Save and buying loads of breakkie items. It was a good idea saving us a little bit of cash.
We started off in Whangerei going to the falls, they were soo nice, natural beauty in abundance. Our final destination was to be Paiha on the northern coast next to the bay of islands. En route we made a few stops to fill up the day, as well as the falls we stopped off at yet another beach I have forgotten the name of, mum wasn’t massively interested I think we were pretty beached out so didnt stick around too long. Continued the scenic coastal drive up through and then stopped at a small Kauri Wood carving shop, it was more a hut in a mans drive but it was nice, we had a good old chat about his life and how he initially grew up carving kauri wood in mass selling onto wholesalers and distributers, and these days cannot do that because he cannot get the price he wants. With the emergence of machines there are much cheaper ways of making wooden carvings and when made by hand the cost is just too great for everyone, so its made it harder for him to make a living out of. We didnt buy anything and travelled on. We then stopped 5 ks short of KawKawa to Kawiti Glow Worm Cave, and it was pretty spectacular. The tour was fun, we learnt about cave formations, limestone, stalactites and stalagmites and more facisnating was the glo worms. The brighter they glow the more hungry they are as they are trying to attract prey like flies etc... to eat! It was awesome!
We continued on to KawaKawa and stopped for lunch, not before seeing the Hunterwasser toilets, I don’t know the story behind them, but they were pretty unique ceramic public toilets! People went in and came out with a smile so there must be something good going on with them. Post toilets we went to Paiha near the bay of islands to our final destination and now have a rough plan for tomo.
We managed to find a lovely room for the night @ $99 and its huge! We are all pretty happy right now. We saved some more $$ and cooked some spaghetti and watched a couple of movies to chillax!!
Massively enjoying the trip and am looking forward to what each day will bring. Think the folks are too which is pretty dope!
Right I better roll out – peace and love people!