If you Would Spell it Like you Say it, I wouldn't be Lost Right Now

Good thing I'm not driving.

Around Auckland and Travel to Whitianga, New Zealand
Friday, August 5th and Saturday, August 6th, 2011

Friday morning I got up nice and early (by my holiday standards) wandered up the hill (seriously, the hills are getting a little old?) and made my way to the YHA where I met up with my tour guide and tour group. With the short time that I have here in New Zealand I decided that I wasn't going to waste anytime waiting for buses or looking for hotels or trying to figure out the best places to see. I figured I'd let someone else figure that out and booked a 16 day tour with a small adventure company (Haka tours).

The day started with a meeting at 0800 at the YHA. We met our driver and we met each other and then had some breakfast before part of the group headed off to do some adventures. Everyday of this trip there is the opportunity to do some adventure activities. Some of the group had pre-booked into things. I figured I would just see how things went and do things as I went along. There were a few things I knew I absolutely had to do and really wanted to do but in many cases I was just going to see what other people were doing. Things are always more fun in a group.

New Zealand is the adventure capital of the world (or so I'm told). People here like to throw themselves off anything and everything and climb through things and float over stuff. I was a little more interested in the climbing and hiking and frankly just the sightseeing........there is a reason why so many movies are filmed here. Such a beautiful country.

Anyway, after breakfast, those of us who were not going canyoning or caving or whatever it was, got to hangout with our driver/guide (Mike Burton........but we will call him by his nickname Burto). He took us on a little tour of the the Auckland area. First off, he felt that we should stand on a volcano..... I had already done it but always fun to do it again.

The view from Cornwall Park. Today, we got a little bit of rain in Auckland, but that didn't dampen our spirits. Auckland is New Zealand's largest city with a population of 1.4 million.....which happens to be about 1/4 of the country's population. So you can guess that as we travel on this tour, we will be traveling through some very unpopulated areas.

The Obelisk on One Tree Hill in Cornwall Park. This is the top of the volcano. Yes, that is a rain drop on my camera. Hopefully we wouldn't be seeing too many more of those.

We then headed out to check out Achilles Point. A really pretty spot but historical as well. It is named after the HMS Achilles. The area commemorates the 1939 battle of the River Plate where the New Zealand crewed Achilles engaged with other allied vessels to defeat legendary German cruiser Graf Spee.

The beautiful view from Achilles Point.....and look, I think that's sunshine.

That most definitely is sunshine. You will also find this at Achilles Point.

From Achilles Point we headed out of the sunshine and into the snow. That's right....snow. But not what you think. We headed to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Adventure and Underwater World. Kelly Tarlton was a treasure hunter/diver/explorer/inventor etc. He was not a rich man but had a dream to bring some of the world to the people of New Zealand.

The entrance into the Antarctic Encounter.

This is what you will find on the other side.....penguins.....about 80 of them. The enclosure makes about 3 tonnes of snow every day for these little guys. The environment is computer controlled to simulate the day/night cycles the penguins would normally experience.

Kelly's big dream however was to allow people to view the wildlife of the oceans the way a diver does......surrounded by it. I'm told that it was here at Kelly Tarlton's that the first underwater observation tubes were built. And now they're everywhere.

The underwater tube I'm talking about. The floor down the centre moves on its own so you can just stand there and look at the fish and sharks and rays as they swim around you.

A few more of those fish. Kelly Tarlton's is built in an old sewage treatment area so a lot of the infrastructure required was already in place. Once started it took about 10 months to build. In opened to the public for the first time in 1985.......the realization of Kelly's dream. Kelly Tarlton died 3 months later.

We arrived in time for feeding time . Here is a small little video I made of the eels being fed. I have firmly established that I do not like eels. They look far too much like snakes. Just really creepy. And apparently they have one hell of a bite so keep your hands way out of the way....especially during feeding time.

Once we left Kelly Tarlton's we settled into our accommodation for the night......I took a nap (that sinus infection has seriously moved into my chest) and waited for everyone else to come back from their activities. We then headed out for dinner and a bunch of us headed out to sample some of the Auckland night life.

City Hall at night. The city is really pretty.

Sampling some beer. I feel this will become a theme of the trip.

Eventually we made our way back to bed. We would be heading out on the road the next day. Lots of New Zealand to see and not much time to do it.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Saturday morning we hit the road at around 0900. Our destination was Fitianga but before you look for it (and can't find it) on a map (like I did), you have to be aware of the fact that when a Maori word is spelt with a "wh" it is actually pronounced as a "f". So in fact where we were heading was Whitianga. It sits on the Coramandel Peninsula and the road we took was narrow and windy and really beautiful. It's a range of old volcanoes but you probably wouldn't notice that much at all. We followed a gorgeous coastline and of course had a few stops along the way.

The Old Star and Garter Hotel in Coramandel Town. You will be happy to know that they are biker friendly (it even says so on their website) so if you're a biker and in town, stop by.

Some of the view we enjoyed while travelling along the Coramandel Peninsula. So pretty. You can just make out some of the wheki (tree ferns) in this picture. On many of them you will see a spiral growing out of the centre of it. The spiral is symbol the Maori use to represent the beginning of new life.

A little look at the road. I enjoyed the ride but Katie (one of the other girls on the trip) did not so much. Car sickness and this road do not get along.

This is the van. Certainly a cozy little fit for the group for 16 days.

Some more of the road.

Our drive took us past some very beautiful beach spots so we had to make a break for some beach time.

Our attempt to get to a very private secret beach was derailed by this very deep water crossing. The tide was just a little bit too far in still. The boys attempted it (that's Evan in the water, Burto in the black hoodie) but the girls decided that we were not going to. When you've got 6 girls and 2 guys riding around together, I think the girls are calling a lot of the shots.

It was a pretty spot. Can imagine it would be really nice in the summer sun.

We decided to head to another spot at The Otama Reserve. The group consists of Evan from Australia, Louise and Nikki from the UK, Eilidh (pronounced like Eely) from Scotland, Katie and Jenn from Toronto and Me (and of course Burto from New Zealand. Everyone on this tour is pretty much a teacher except Evan (who is a journalism student) and myself. The Rugby World Cup is being hosted by New Zealand starting in September, so we made a lot of rugby stops. Now I think we know I like rugby but you can't throw the ball quite like a football.

The beach at Otama Reserve. Another gorgeous location even in the overcast weather.

Upon arrival in Whitanaga we went to participate in our first surprise of the trip, although it was ruined by some continual guessing by certain group members (Ok that would be Nikki). That surprise was that we were going to do some bone carving. A much more labour intensive process than I ever expected, I totally understand why bone carved items are so expensive in stores. If they aren't a little expensive.....they aren't hand carved. My little fishhook necklace took me a good 2 hours.....and I had help.

Looks pretty good right? And yes it did take me like 2 hours. To wear a Fish Hook shows to be witty, friendly, strong willed, determined to succeed until the end of life. The Fish Hook is also a part of the Legend of Maui, who was half man and half-god. It is said that his fish hook caught the greatest catch in history, The North Island of New Zealand.

After our bone carving we headed back to our accommodation for the night for dinner before heading to a local pub to watch some Tri Nations Rugby. The Tri Nations is New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. This first game was between the Wallabies (that's Australia) and the All Blacks (obviously New Zealand).

Is Evan waiting for a bus? No, just having a beer all alone on the street (that doesn't seem strange does it). The place where we stayed had a bar so no BYOB. This is how he got around it.

The game was pretty good and it was fun to see how excited everyone here gets over the games. The All Blacks won by the way and I got to taste some very good New Zealand beer.

Two days down.....so much more fun to come.

Julie