Category: 2006 Trip

One thing I knew I wanted to do in New Zealand was blackwater rafting. What this involves is sitting in an innertube and floating through caves in the dark. And checking out the glowworms, which are the larvae of the fungus gnat and glow a greenish sort of light as they dangle from the ceiling.

After leaving Hahei, we headed straight for Waitomo, where we knew we would find glowworms, caves, and the opportunity to go blackwater rafting. Those of us who signed up for the TumuTumu TOObing got decked out in wetsuits, rubber boots, hard hats and head lamps, before making the trek to the cave. For some reason, I expected the activity to involve a lot of sitting in a rubber raft of some sort. I couldn’t really have been more wrong.

We walked for quite a while through Shire-like terrain to get to the entrance to the TumuTumu Cave. Then we had to work our way backwards, one by one, down a rickety ladder into the cave. Once we were all in and accounted for, we began the more than 2 hours of climbing/sliding/swimming/floating through the caves. It was a bit like the Cango Caves that I visited with Cullen when we were in South Africa. And by this, I mean challenging! And this time were were told to not touch any of the stalactites or stalagmites, since they were more likely to break than to support us as we manoevered through the tight spaces (though, thankfully, not as narrow as many of the spaces in the Cango Caves). And we had water and mud and many sharp surfaces to deal with.

In the long run, I think I felt safer in these caves because of the water. I had been very afraid of falling in the Cango Caves (I had slipped on the ice in Canada in the not-too-distant past and I didn’t want to damage my knees or tailbone any further), but I found that wearing boots, a wetsuit, and a helmet made me feel a little tougher this time – at least my ankles, knees, and head would have some protection if they came in contact with the hard and slippery surroundings. But if you ask the people I was with whether I seemed calm, I think you’d get a different response. The person who sat behind me when we had to grip each other’s feet to link the tubes together said that she thought the circulation in her legs would be cut off if I held on any tighter.

At last we made it to the end of the cold, wet journey, and bid farewell to the glowworms and the dark. It was wonderful to take off the sort of clammy wetsuits and dump out the water that had collected in our well-used rubber boots.

Once everyone was back on the bus, we headed off for the next destination and the place where I would stop off for a few days: Rotorua (which I was told is nicknamed ‘Roto Vegas,’ probably because of the dazzling array of things people can do in the area).

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to get around New Zealand.

Now compared to Canada, South Africa, and Australia, New Zealand is not a very large country. Still, I figured that visiting different parts of it would involve more than hopping on a local bus and ringing the bell when I saw somewhere I wanted to stop. I’d heard that the best way to really see the country was to rent a car and travel around it, but I wasn’t eager to do all that driving myself. I was also a bit afraid that I would get it into my head that I could in fact see the entire country in 2 weeks, and that if I was left to my own devices I would try to do this (and then possibly end up hours from an airport in the South Island, moments before my flight was scheduled to leave Auckland in the North Island… ).

Fortunately, my friend Mel had been to New Zealand recently and had a good sense of what I was looking for in terms of getting around. She suggested that I sign up with Stray Travel – I managed to visit the Stray office my second day in Auckland and booked a couple of sectors of travel with them right away. I was all set to head off to explore the North Island first thing on Tuesday morning.

What appealed to me about Stray is that it seemed to be a very relaxed travel company. The brochure mentioned that you shouldn’t travel with them if you don’t like to walk (I love to walk!). They also pride themselves on taking people off the beaten track (sounds good to me!). And they said that the drivers can change the schedule depending on what comes up (I’m flexible!), and that you shouldn’t panic or anything if your driver doesn’t show up at precisely the time given (I’m even flexible about punctuality!) – they’ll always show up, just not absolutely according to a totally set schedule.

So I tried my best to get myself to the meeting spot at the right time on Tuesday morning. It’s always my fear that I’ll be the one holding everyone up, and I didn’t want that to be my introduction to the group. I was a little embarassed that I wasn’t travelling with just a simple backpack – I’d left my petite yet hefty backpack at Julie and Raf’s place, since the smaller bag (with wheels, much to the delight of my back and shoulders but to the extreme horror of my wannabe backpacker sensibilities) which I had acquired along the way was actually a whole lot easier to pack.

I was told to be outside the Stray office by 7:50 am. Or, well, 8 am. Well, between 7:50 and 8… anytime around then should be fine. And if I somehow missed the bus, it wouldn’t be a problem for one of the people from the office to drive me over to where the bus would be. So it all sounded easy. I left Julie and Raf’s place around 7:45 am, and made it to the office a few minutes before 8, and started to wait. And wait. And worry (a little) but I didn’t want the staff to know in case they thought I was one of those people who had to do everything according to a schedule and maybe wasn’t cut out for their kind of travel after all. I just wondered whether somehow I had already missed the bus, and should already be asking for that ride to meet it before it left the city.

Around 8:20 am or so, my driver Rob (aka “Pops,” since he was older than most of the other drivers but apparently not as old as the one they called “Gramps”) pulled up in front of the Stray office. Phew! It was such a relief to see him. And he didn’t even make any snide remarks when he tossed my wheeled bag into the storage compartment (I was very pleased about this!).

I was the only one getting on at the Stray office, so we left from there to pick up the others. Fourteen people, all located at hostels around Auckland. And if I thought I looked relieved to see Rob pick me up, it was probably nothing compared to how relieved some of these people were. It turns out that when one of the girls on the trip booked her ticket (from Australia), she was told to be ready at 7:30 in the morning. She had been waiting outside her hostel for more than an hour before the bus pulled up! But no one was upset about the later-than-expected start, and we were soon on our way to Mt Eden.

Mt Eden is the highest volcanic cone in the Auckland area (OK, I got this fact from Lonely Planet), and from its summit you can see a great view of the city. But what really impressed me was that the crater is filled with grass. And cows. Cows! The cows were grazing on the grass. I was totally surprised. After being caught a bit off-guard by all the trees inside Rangitoto’s crater, I truly didn’t expect to see just grass inside Mt Eden. And I never expected to see cows. When I asked Rob about this, he said that local farmers are paid to bring their cows there to graze – it helps preserve the archaelogical site.

After driving down Mt Eden, we were finally on the road – out of Auckland, and on our way to the Coromandel Peninsula on the east side of the country. We stayed at a campsite in Hahei (no tents required) and were able to walk to Cathedral Cove that afternoon. Most of the walking I had done in Australia required footwear, and by this they meant that you should wear flip-flops (or ‘thongs’ as they call them). It was warm when we reached Hahei, so I was eager to take off my woolen hiking socks and put on my ‘jandals’ (kiwi term for thongs). When Rob saw me come out of the cabin like this, he asked whether I had any proper shoes along – apparently, the walk was going to be more challenging than I had expected! I was so glad he had encouraged us not to wear sandals for the walk. Like Rangitoto Island, it wasn’t too tough a walk but it would have been very uncomfortable (and possibly dangerous) in just flimsy jandals.

The walk was beautiful. I’ve never seen so many rainbows in my life.

We returned to the campsite around 5 pm, and headed off for Hot Water Beach around 6 pm. This was one of those really neat things that you hope you can do in New Zealand but that I wasn’t sure I would get the chance to do. Rob picked up the necessary spades for us, and dropped us off at the parking lot near the beach with instructions to just look for the people lying close to the rocks and start digging around there.

We found the people – lots of them. Way more than Rob had expected. What was harder to find were free places to dig. It seemed like everyone else had got there early and already dug the prime places. Eventually, our group figured out what to do and we ended up with some nifty hot water bathing holes. You dig a hole big enough for a few people to lounge in, then let it naturally fill with hot water and get in and enjoy. Some of the places were so hot that we could see the water bubbling through the sand. At times, I could even feel my toes burning. Then the tide would come in (we were very close to the edge of the beach and really couldn’t be any closer to the water), and we would be flooded by cold water.

When we were ready to go, we went back to the campsite for a BBQ. Earlier that day, Rob had told us about his family’s ancestry – like many people in New Zealand, he is part Maori. Just before we ate, he led us in a Maori prayer (this felt very appropriate).

The next day we were off again, with one additional person added to the group (she had jumped off the Stray bus a day or two earlier and stayed in Hahei longer than the others in her group). This time, our destination was Raglan, a beach area on the opposite side of the North Island. Somewhere along the way, I decided that I would sign up for the surfing lessons that are offered there. It was fun, but I don’t think I’ll be signing up for a surfing contest anytime soon. I’m better at it than I am at snowboarding, but that really isn’t saying much. At least learning to surf doesn’t really hurt!

Julie and Raf suggested that I check out Rangitoto, a dormant volcano and Auckland’s youngest (it was created about 600 years ago). They hadn’t been there yet themselves, but they had heard that the walk up the volcano was good and the views of the city from the top would be worth the trek up there.

The day I decided to go was one of the few days that I haven’t been travelling, so I was a big sluggish (needed a break from moving far distances over a short span of time!). So taking the ferry over to Rangitoto Island seemed like a good idea (the pier for the ferry is a very short walk from Julie and Raf’s place, and the ferry ride itself only takes about 40 minutes).

It ended up being a perfect day for a walk up a volcano. The sun was shining and it was warm, but not too hot. A large group of elementary school students was also there, so I let the kids get a head start and then followed up the trails behind them.

The walk was much more strenuous than I had expected! It’s not very steep, but the incline is such that it really tired me out. I kept running into the other stragglers who had let the school group pass them, and then I found out that one of the stragglers was giving up (it was just too much for her, so she headed back down to wait for the ferry).

By the time I reached the crater and the summit, I was tired and hungry. I joined the school group and took out my lunch. At the bottom of the volcano, signs warned about the presence of bees at the top. And those warnings weren’t false – the bees loved being near the students, and our food! I’m not really afraid of bees, but I get very panicked when I’m eating and they won’t leave me alone.

Anyway, it took a while for me to finish eating (I had to keep getting up and moving around to try to lose the very curious bees) so the school group was gone by the time I was ready to walk around the rim of the crater and start the decent. I had put my bags down while I was eating and then noticed that there was a bee on the water bottle that Julie had lent me. I didn’t want to abandon the bottle up there, so I found a way to shake the bag and get the bottle free (I also really wanted the water that was in it!).

The bee then found something much more interesting inside the bag, and really made himself comfortable. I didn’t want to leave the plastic bag there, either, not because I needed it but because I didn’t want to litter. So I waited. When I figured the bee was gone (I couldn’t see it anymore, and I’d kicked the bag a little to check) I picked the bag up and started walking over to the crater.

Suddenly, there was a bee on my hand (nestled between my ring finger and my pinky)! I freaked out, dropped the bag, and started trying to get the bee off my hand. Man, I never knew bees were so sticky. Somehow I managed to get the bee off without getting stung or killing the bee (how, I’ll never know) and it dived right back into the plastic bag. I poured some of my water on the bag to try to get the bee to leave, but that didn’t do anything. I realized that, if anything, my efforts were just making the bee more angry so I decided to cut my losses and leave the top of the volcano. Who wants to be alone at the top of a volcano with an angry (and possibly vengeful) bee?

So I started a brisk walk around Rangitoto’s crater. The volcano has been dormant for so long that there is a lot of vegetation inside the crater (I hadn’t expected this). And by vegetation, I don’t just mean grass. There are tonnes of trees – it’s like looking into a very shallow valley rather than into a hole that once shot out lava and rocks.

I made it back to the meeting spot for the ferry on time (thank goodness!), put a small donation in the box to ease my conscience and hopefully make up for leaving litter behind, and took at look at some of the historic baches along the coast. A bach (sounds like ‘batch’) is a beach house, sort of like a cottage. Families own them and pass the ownership through generations. The baches on Rangitoto Island were controversial, I think because the land became national park land and then it was an issue for people to own property there.

What I normally love most about travelling is having hours of uninterrupted time for reading. (Sounds exciting, I know!) I just love being able to have so much time available to read as much as I like. Luckily, I’m able to read under almost any condition (in cars, on boats, on planes, standing up, in the dark… and noise doesn’t really distract me while I’m reading, either, so I can pretty much read anywhere).

I wasn’t sure how many novels to bring with me for a trip that would be 8 weeks long. Especially considering that most of those 8 weeks would involve long hours spent in transit.

Much to my amazement, I’m nearing the end of my trip and I’ve only finished reading one book. Just one! I’m about halfway through another. And these aren’t even enormous books, since I was really limited with what I could bring along.

So why is this? I think it’s that the scenery has just been too good not to spend hours looking at. And I guess I’ve also done a lot of travelling overnight, so I’ve done my best to get some sleep when looking out the window doesn’t offer much.

Anyway, just had to take note of this since it’s something that has really surprised me.

I arrived in Auckland on Saturday night, and after quite some time with the officers in quarantine, finally met up with Julie and Raf. [I had to check off nearly every box on the form they make you fill out: wooden items? (X) dried fruit? (X) hiking shoes that have been through a national park in the past 30 days? (X) – at least they cleaned my shoes for me, which was really appreciated – I had been ready to throw them out, and now they’re like new again!]

Julie and Raf’s apartment is in a great location, right in the central business district. Auckland has really surprised me so far – I hadn’t expected the city to look so new.

It was raining today, so we spent the afternoon in the museum. I was glad to get a bit of an overview of New Zealand, so early in the trip! To be honest, I hadn’t realized what a big part volcanoes have played in the formation of this country. The museum had a lot of information on this, which we really appreciated!