Ponsonby & Central North Island

Kaitiaki white water rafting

Kaitiaki white water rafting

Kaitiaki white water rafting

Kaitiaki white water rafting

Waitomo Caves
TumuTumu Toobing/black water rafting

Waitomo Caves
Mud facial!

Hot thermal mud pools
Rotorua

Hongi
Uncle Boy and me

Uncle Boy's marae
Maori brothers

Traditional Maori dance and song
Uncle Boy's

Cultural performance
Uncle Boy's

View from Karioi Lodge balcony
Raglan

Hot Water Beach

Hot Water Beach
Digging out our pool

Hot chocolate and cookies!
Cathedral Cove kayak trip
Hahei, Coromandel Peninsula

Cathedral Cove
Hahei, Coromandel Peninsula

Cathedral Cove

Enjoying the view
Western Springs Park

Mother and baby ducks!

Western Springs Park

Western Spring Park

The Stone Trio

Western Springs Park

Western Park
Buried architecture

I stayed at Verandahs in Ponsonby for several days and met lots of new people. Many of them had been there consistently, so we hung out quite a bit - and there were so many Germans! There and everywhere. They were joking that there are no young Germans left in Germany.

Friday night was christened Zombie Night - one of the girls (Maria from the UK) does movie makeup for a living and we somehow ended up giving her practice - 12 of us were all zombified...wounds, bruises, gashes, bullet holes...Halloween came early!

(I had bruise marks and scratches on my neck...a little hard to see in this photo, but I liked this shot!)

Helen (UK), Biaget and Sylvette (Germany)

Sebastian & Tim (Germany) and ??

Bit of a morbid night, eh?

They all headed out to a bar afterwards and maybe I should have gone, but I was getting tired. Climbed up to bed instead. They told me the next morning that the band played Zombie by the Cranberries three times in their honor!

The following day Helen and I took the bus over to Parnell to browse in the shops, and the day after I decided to visit a few parks - Western Park, which is literally in the hostel's backyard, and the famous Western Springs Park (famous because that's where Eddie proposed to Jo-anna!) It's a beautiful park. Populated by hundreds of geese! White ones, black ones, big ones, baby ones...Dr. Seuss would have been right at home. I wondered where exactly Edde had been waiting for Jo-anna.

After my park visits, I decided to go check out a Bikram yoga studio near the hostel. I had never done Bikram before but I was missing my yoga classes. I'm not sure I liked it. I know you're supposed to give it a chance and going to two or three classes before making up your mind, but high heat weighs heavy on my chest, and breathing felt difficult at times. I don't like feeling panicky for breath. I can accept that dizziness and nauseousness occurs for first timers, but the difficulty breathingmade me decide it's not for me! After dinner, a few of the girls and I decided to go back into Central Aucklandto the Diwali festival - also a first for me. It was great! There was a dance competition we caught the tail end of(in whatever style Hindus and Seiks dance) and fireworks. Good finale to my stay in Ponsonby.

Monday morning I set off on my next journey with Stray - central North Island this time. We started with a drive up Mount Eden, a dormant volcano. Spectacular views of the city, but I found it more interesting to gaze down into the green cone of the volcano! We also made a brief stop in Thames, but the main attraction was Hahei, in the Coromandel Peninsula. I loved the drive up! It reminded me a bit of Costa Rica with the endless stretches of green rainforest, driving up and down volcanos and mountains, while our driver talked about the symbiosis of trees, plants, birds and animals in the region. He also told us that the Coromandel Ranges used to be covered in Kauri trees...what a magnificent drive it would have been if they had still been there! Driving through those huge, ancient, straight-trunked trees...it's sad to think so many of them were cut down during the last 200 years knowing they take centuries to become as magnificent as they are meant to.
In Hahei, I signed up for a kayak tour to Cathedral Cove. The scenery was even better than the paddle I did in the Bay of Islands! Absolutely beautiful. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if I was in a single kayak - we were all paired up in double kayaks. And everyone else was a first-timer. The guy I was paired with had no sense of balance and was deaf in one ear. Thought for sure we were going to flip a few times! Two girls in one of the other kayaks had a hard time figuring out the rudder steering and were zig-zagging all over the place, giggling the whole time. Have I commented yet on how few similarly-aged people I'm meeting? Ah, but it's not so bad. I have met some great people and regardless of age, everyone makes my journey interesting in one way or another! Anyway, the paddle was fantastic. Our guide talked about many Maori legends related to the islands and beaches we passed. When we stopped on Cathedral Cove beach (beautiful spot, widely photographed in NZ), she set up a little picnic blanket for hot drinks and cookies! She pulled out a steamer and real metal cups and saucers. Hot chocolate...mmmmmm. From there we paddled into Lover's Cave and then through a tunnel carved through one of the rock islands - great acoustics in there! So much fun! We returned to the beach where we started and for once the winds and tide actually HELPED us back in. They usually tend towork against me when I'm fatigued on the journey back.
We headed back to our cabins (Hahei Holiday Park - it was like a big campground) for a quick change and off we went to Hot Water Beach. The name speaks for itself: a beach where between the water line and some big rocks, we dug a big hole in the sand into which HOT water fills in. NZ falls within the Pacific ring of fire and water close to the magma running deep underground gets heated to very high temperatures. It follows the path of least resistance, i.e. towards the shore, and gets trapped against the big rocks. Water buried beneath the sand is about 64 degrees Celcius! So people go to the beach, dig holes, and the hot water pools in. It was crazy cool! The water in the freshly dug pools is so hot you can't even stand in it. Isn't Mother Nature grand?

Tuesday morning we headed for Raglan (Karioi Lodge), a much-loved surfer town. When in transit, the drivers always sprinkle the journey with Maori legends, which I enjoy hearing. Unfortunately, they are often quite long so I often forget a lot of the important details I'd need to relay them back to you! We pass so many scenic views too, and because we're zooming along on the bus, there's many missed photo opportunities! But they do stop at a few of the popular photo spots. It wasn't very sunny in Raglan and the surf was pretty tame so there weren't many surfers in the water. I wanted to pop down to the beach to see the black sand but we weren't close enough to walk there. I don't think I really got to appreciate Raglan during our short stay. Maybe I'll go back later in the year. I keep hearing what a fantastic spot it is. One story some of you will get a laugh out of: a bunch of us had been in the kitchen preparing our dinners - I was simply stirfrying/steaming some basic veggies with balsamic vinegar, and had a small pot of quinoa simmering. Many in the group kept coming over, sniffing, to see what I was preparing. One of them said, you're a chef, aren't you? I said no, I'm 32.

Oh - and I have to tell Josiah (that monopoly-addicted godson of mine) that we played Star Wars monopoly in Raglan!

The destination on Wednesday was the Waitomo Caves where I went TumuTumu Toobing, aka blackwater rafting. This was awesome! We were expecting basically to sit on tubes and float on a lazy river running through underground caves. Not so! We were actually caving for a lot of it - geared up in wetsuits and helmets with lights, manouvering through the underground tunnels. Sometimes wading through water ankle deep, knee deep, armpit deep, even over our heads at one point where we had to swim...I loved it! We started with tradition and donned our faces with mud. At one spot, we all crawled up onto this flat rock, laid on our backs, turned off our headlamps and stared at the cave walls and ceiling in the black darkness to view the glowworms. It was spectacular! Like staring at millions of stars that aren't quite so far away. Completely silent except for the sound of the water running through the caves; completely pitch-black dark except for the glowworms glowing their little pinpricks of light. An incredibly surreal experience! Loved it! At another spot, where we actually got onto rubber tubes to float down a section of water in the tunnels, I volunteered to demonstrate how to get on the tubes, based on the guide's instruction. The first option was to stand with my back to the water, hold the tube behind me against my butt, and fall back into the water. Easy enough. The second option was to climb up onto a ledge and do the same thing. Kinda scary, but it had to be done! Once we were all in the water, we linked together in a chain, feet under armpits, doused the headlamps again, and just floated down the tunnel with the current in complete darkness...save for the luminescent glowworm dots of light above us. According to our guide, two eels live in that stretch of water, both about 1 meter long, but we apparently didn't interest them because we never saw, or should I say felt, them. Wonder how high I would have jumped, being in an underground cave, in black water, in complete darkness, having a meter-long eel sidle past my rump. Surprisingly, I was so calm, so in awe and enjoying the experience that I don't think it really would have fazed me in the least. I think I'd enjoy being one of the guides, going down into those caves twice a day. I found it so fascinating...a different world. What do you think? Possible career change in the making?

Once our caving adventures were finished, Noddy (the driver) took us to Uncle Boy's in Maketu to experience real Maori culture (www.uncleboysplace.com). We were taken to a real Maori meeting house, a marae. In addition to our arrival, some of Uncle Boy's "family" had also shown up. (Some of them run white water rafting trips which were one of the potential activities available to us for the following day.) They had been given an open invitation to come and see what Uncle Boy does and coincidentally chose to go the same night we were there. I thought it worked out for the best - we got to meet and talk with more Maori (and I must say, some of those Maori men are quite attractive!), as well as observe just how Maori interact with each other. There was a profound sense of family and closeness, tradition and respect. Among the unnecessary apologies Uncle Boy kept expressing due to the extra people, he also kept pointing out how we were getting to witness REAL Maori culture, how they were helping each other. The other arrivals had jumped in to help him prepare extra meals and clean up afterwards. A traditional Maori meal, a hangi, was prepared for us - which is prepared by heating rocks, burying them underground with wrapped food and letting it slowly cook for several hours. For dessert, the famed pavlova awaited us. Pavlova is incredibly popular in New Zealand and Australia - with both countries debating over who first created it. It's like eating a cloud, it's so light. Noddy told us that it was proven in a court case that New Zealand was the creator. Pretty serious stuff! The meal was delicious! After dinner, Uncle Boy asked us to leave the eating area and go back outside. The eldest male in our group (Chris) was selected as our chief. We had to remove our shoes and enter the other half of the marae behind our chief, who had to accept a challenge from a traditionally dressed Maori warrior before we could enter. Standing just inside the door, one of the Maori warriors (who was much younger than me) advanced towards us, towards our chief. He was incredibly intense, incredibly intimidating, pulling intimidating faces, shouting Maori words in challenge as he moved closer and closer. At our chief's feet, a spear was placed. Chris had to lower down and pick it up without breaking eye contact with the Maori warrior. If he did it wrong, declining to pick it up, or not taking the challenge seriously, it is considered an insult to the Maori culture and the warrior would thunk him in the face with his spear. But Chris did well! We were invited in and a Maori family performed various songs and dances for us. I took several pictures but they didn't come out very well. They asked for volunteers to join them in the last performance, which I did. Then we were all invited to get involved. The boys were taken into the other room to practice the haka, while the girls learned the poi dance (our song, in Maori, was actually to the tune of My Guy: "Nothing you can do, would make me be untrue to my guy...my guy..."). And then we had to perform for each other! Very entertaining...the boys had to perform with their shirts off. Yup...the guys in our group might not have been much to write home about, but let's just say again how glad I was that the group of Maori's had shown up (strikingly handsome Maori men with no shirts on, need I say more?) But alas, they were't staying the night like we all were. Dance performances finished, it was time to say thanks and goodbye. In sort of a reception line, the Maori who had performed for us and taught us the poi and haka lined up and we all passed along the line, pressing nose to nose in the traditional hongi greeting (which many of you witnessed at Eddie and Jo-anna's wedding). It's a very intimate greeting. After they left, we all set up our beds. There were stacks of single mattresses, sheets, blankets, and pillows from which we grabbed, and set up side by side. We were sleeping in the marae, in one big room all together. It was surprisingly one of the best sleeps I had since I got here. As a result of the cultural interactions and traditions we did, Uncle Boy told us that we are now his extended family, welcome anytime. I am so appreciative that he welcomed us into his world, so grateful that he makes such an effort to teach others about the Maori culture, and I made sure to tell him. I enjoyed the experience immensely. I'd love to learn more about and interact more with the Maori during my stay in NZ. I loved this whole day!

Thursday, in Rotorua, I had planned on zorbing (getting inside a big inflated ball and being rolled down a hill.) But after talking with a few of the rafting Maori at Uncle Boy's, I decided to give the white water rafting a try instead. I'm so glad I did! After having met the guys the prior night at Uncle Boy's, we were greeted differently, more personally, than the other people who arrived to raft. It was very warm, like we were family, or atleast good friends, after only an evening. We rafted over a 2 meter waterfall, then a 1 meter, then a 7 METER fall - which is supposedly the highest commercially rafted fall in the world, a class 5! The six of us in our raft were all novices, but we had a great guide and we didn't flip the raft or fall out. Woo-hoo! It was so exhilarating! Strong, brave women! Once the rafting was done, we headed down to Taupo. Along the way we stopped at Kerosene Creek (warm water!), hot thermal mud pools, and Huka Falls. The night was spent in a hostel called Taupo Urban Retreat. We headed out to a bar that evening, since it was the last night with the group for Sylvie (Belgium) and I. Funnily enough, we ended up ditching the others to go to a dance bar. Didn't stay out too late though. The next day, after email addresses and hugs were exchanged, the group we had been a part of since Monday all piled back into the bus and pulled away, leaving Sylvie and I standing alone on the sidewalk. Sad picture, isn't it? It was a little sad. It's really strange, the way this kind of life goes. You are thrown together, sometimes rather intimately, with groups of strangers; you learn to coexist, sometimes connect; and then part ways. But I have been randomly running into some of the people I met my first few days here, which is kind of nice. While Sylvie and I were standing on the sidewalk waiting for the bus to leave, someone got off of it and ran over to me - it was Alexandra, the girl from France I had roomed with in Auckland, visited Auckland Domain park with, and went out salsa dancing with! She was jumping onto the bus I had been travelling on. And two of the girls who I had travelled with on the Northland trip were staying at the hostel when we arrived. It's a nice thought to realize that the more people I meet, the more likely I am to continue running into people I know. Anyway, Sylvie and I wandered around Taupo for an hour or so, then parted ways ourselves. She headed back to Auckland, while I caught a bus headed down to Napier. I'm staying in a place called Wally's Backpackers for the weekend and am glad I booked in advance - the hostels are packed because it's a long weekend (Labour Day is Monday.) Napier has tons of 1940s art-deco style. The town had been demolished by an earthquake earlier in the century and when it was rebuilt, art-deco was used. I'll wander the town and the waterfront and Sunday I'll catch another bus down to Hastings, where Greg from the farm will pick me up - and the next chapter will begin! I'm really looking forward to starting at the farm. It will be great to be able to settle someplace for a bit, which I think I said in my last entry.

Odd notes:

For those of you who saw it, the pink in my hair is pretty much gone. It IS spring here, but I find it damp and therefore cold. Couldn't handle the thought of cool showers.
I was thinking yesterday about how, not too long ago, when I was only here two or three days, I remember talking topeople who had been here two or three weeks. How quickly I have become one of them! Hard to believe I've been here almost three weeks. Sometimes it feels shorter, sometimes much longer.
Gas stoves are popular here - maybe it's a hostel/backpacker thing, but they make me nervous! I hate that instant when the flame ignites and your fingers are still close to the burner! And many buildings don't have central heat. There are fans and electric heaters instead. Great for the electric bill and environment, but the odd place we've stayed had no heater and the nights can be a bit cool yet...it's been hard to get out of bed in the mornings after being burrowed under the blankets!
Been slowly learning some Maori language, like how to pronounce the city names. The Stray bus drivers teach us bits and pieces as we go. Normally, a vowel ends a syllable. "WH" is pronounced like an "F". And there's a place called Whukapapa (if I'm spelling it correctly). Sound it out. Not good when North Americans are saying it! And I'm quickly learning differences in the names of some much-loved veggies! Bell peppers are capsicums, sweet potatoes are kumari, zucchinis are courgettes...it's a whole new world over here!
And I've yet to get a picture, but as we drive, I've been noticing herds of deer grazing on hillsides. It captures my attention everytime! I've expected cattle and sheep, but herds of deer...not a sight we see at home, eh?
So yes, another LOOOONNNNNNGGGGG entry. The bus trips keep us busy and there's not always time or availability to get on the internet. So much fun stuff has been happening - I wanted to log it all at once so it doesn't get forgotten. But I expect the entries will be shorter for a while. Life should be a little tamer working on the farm. But time will tell!
Kia Ora!