Dunedin and The Catlins

The next morning we checked out and got on our way to Dunedin which was a 5 hour drive. The drive was nice in parts but boring the rest. We stopped to stock up on food at Pak n Save on the way and reached the campsite at around 3.30pm. The campsite was nice. It was pretty windy and cold and we couldn’t face another frozen night in a tent so we decided not to put the tent up and just sleep in the car the next two nights! We pretty much headed straight out to the Otago Peninsula as we’d read you can see blue penguins come in of an evening after their day out at sea. It is also where the Royal Albatross Centre is and the only royal albatross colony in the world lives. We got there just after 4pm and went straight down to the beach to see some penguins. It was blowing a gale and absolutely freezing. We read the sign to get more information and realised you really have to come later as it is getting dark to see them, and it says to wrap up warm. We weren’t prepared, so we didn’t last long and decided we’d come back the next day. We cooked our meals and sat and watched telly for the evening! Sleeping in the car that night was far warmer, but very uncomfortable.

Dunedin railway station

We were up early the next day, and we headed out into the city late morning. We drove through the middle of the city centre which was really nice, and then struggled to find a parking space! The city seemed quite buzzing for a week day, in comparison to other cities we have visited which seemed fairly quiet. We got one eventually and then went into the Otago Museum, it was really interesting and we ended up spending 2 hours in there, which didn't leave us a lot of time to wander into the centre as we only had a 3 hour ticket. But we walked briskly into town, got stuck behind a faux funeral procession, who were students protesting against the use of fossil fuels.. Interesting, but we carried on whizzing round town, went down the road to get a picture of ’the most pictured building on the South Island’ (apparently), the railway station. It is a beautiful building. I quickly tried to find somewhere to send a postcard to my Grandparents that I’d written back in Wellington, but to no avail! Every time I have needed to post something there are no post boxes in sight! And then we headed back to the car. Dunedin is a very nice city. We got back to the campsite around 2ish and had some lunch, then we went to the beach that was just across the way. It was a lovely hot day for a change, so we enjoyed soaking up the sun a little bit. There were quite a few people in the sea, one girl who’d just got to the beach went straight in no problem, so I thought it couldn't be too cold and dipped my toe in, but it was freezing! Around 4.30, we left the beach and set off for Otago Peninsula again, to actually go to the Royal Albatross Centre and then hope to see some penguins later on. We stopped at Sandfly Bay on the way to see some seals, but there were none. Nice views though. We reached the centre at 5pm, just as it was closing. Annoying! The opening times only said ‘closes 4pm in the winter, 7pm in the summer‘, we are in spring, so it was a guessing game really. We didn't want to get there too early though, so we didn’t have to sit for ages to see the penguins. We just sat in the car, and before long we realised that amongst the hundreds of sea gulls, you would occasionally actually see an albatross glide around before swooping into its colony. It was amazing to see them, they are so elegant and they are absolutely massive, and it was probably once in a lifetime chance to see one. A sea gull looked minuscule in comparison. I got a couple of photos and a few videos, but you can’t really capture the scale of how big they really are. Why pay to see them when you can watch them from the car park! That kept us occupied for an hour anyway, and then around 6.30pm we decided to walk down to the beach and await the penguins. We were better prepared this time, we had two jumpers and a raincoat on, and I had a scarf, but after an hour of waiting, we were frozen through. We were determined to stick it out though, and soon after, people began turning up. We got chatting to a really nice English couple who were from the Cotswolds and knew Aylesbury, Thame, Waddesdon, as the lady had worked in Aylesbury, small world! That wasted some more time. Just after 8pm, some official looking people turned up, which we weren't expecting. After 15 minutes or so, once they’d looked around, they called everyone over for a talk and said they were just volunteers, there is a group of them that take shifts in going up every night to count the penguins. The little talk they gave was very informative, and they told us the exact routine the penguins would go through as they start coming in. It was very exciting! We waited another half an hour, it was almost dark, and then suddenly we saw one penguin come in shore! The rest gather themselves into groups called ‘rafts’ and then come in together. Once a raft came in, they made their way across the beach and then wait at the bottom of the steps up from the beach (which are barricaded off from the public now). It was so incredible seeing wild penguins go about their natural daily routine. I tried to get pictures, but you couldn't use a flash and it was so dark by this point. They wait as more penguins come in to the beach in their rafts, and then after about 10 minutes once they've dried a little, they begin to come up to the mainland and slowly scatter about to make their way to their nests. The nests were everywhere, we had no idea there were that many nests around us, up to 100 the volunteers said. When they had come up to the mainland, they were sharing the ground with us, we had all been told in advance to spread out, crouch down, stay quiet and dead still when this moment came and they start moving to their nests. Two penguins started walking right towards us, and they slowly made their way right in front of us and stopped for a minute! I nearly exploded, they were unbelievably cute. They stretched their little wings and had a clean and they walked right through, it was such a fascinating experience. Totally wild and natural. As more work their ways to their nests, you begin to hear the chicks inside getting very noisy, and in some instances they actually come out of the hole in anticipation of the food they have sat and waited for all day. It got very noisy! The penguins leave before day light in the morning, and don’t come back until dusk. As we got up to walk back to the view point over the beach, two more penguins ran right in front of us! It was just so amazing. It was almost pitch black by this point and we were both frozen and hungry as we’d had no tea. So we worked our way back up to the car and the penguin chicks were so noisy I recorded some of it on my camera. Despite being cold, tired and hungry by this point, it was so worth the 4 hour wait to experience that amazing wildlife. Just before we got in the car I saw a shooting star, and then as we set off we nearly hit a possum (first time I had seen one!). What an incredible day we had. It was almost 10pm when we left, and our campsite kitchen closed at 10 every night (stupid) so we just grabbed a McDonalds on the way home! After that, Phil seemed to lose his marbles and got on the wrong side of the road to get back to the campsite, despite not doing any driving in the USA! It was pretty scary but it wasn't busy, so we got back on track with little problems. I think that shook Phil up a little as he continued to have a shocker when we got back to the campsite, he tried to drive across a bit you can’t drive across, and then sailed past the turning for where we had been parking! Dear oh dear. It had been a long day and we’d not had very much sleep so we just but it down to that and went to sleep!

This is the best of of only 2 pictures I  managed to get of a royal albatross! You can not gage the sheer size of this bird from this picture, it probably looks like a standard seagull, but it has a 3 meter wide wingspan!

The next morning we left the campsite, and went to Baldwin Street, the steepest residential street in the world! We were planning on driving to the top and back down, but when we turned onto it, my God that was steep, so we scrapped that idea, parked it at the bottom and walked up! We thought driving in San Francisco was stomach churning, but this was extremely steep. Walking up it made us a little dizzy! But produced amazing views. You would need a big engine and must waste a lot of petrol having to drive up that every day to get home. People use the street to run up and down to keep fit! We stopped at the top for a while to catch our breath, and a guy who had ran up and down a few times in the time it took us to walk up started talking to us, and he turned out to be the Guinness world record holder of running up and down the street the most times! Every day he does it, several times, he must have the best lungs on the planet to handle that. After we were done there we got on our way to The Catlins. The Catlins is a big forest park and our campsite was nestled in the middle of it. It was very tranquil and green, and we were also still very close to the coast. We were so tired we decided not to do anything that day and just recuperate for the afternoon. After a few hours we got pretty bored though, McLean Falls was only 3km up the road so we went up there and walked to the falls. It was an impressive one! There was a big rock platform right in front of the main fall, but the path stops before that and you have to climb up if you want to get there. So we clambered up the side of the waterfall, me in flip flops, to get to the upper platform! I struggled in parts, which made amusing viewing for Phil, but we made it to the top! Little bit of raw rock climbing done! That tired us out even more so we just chilled for the rest of the evening, decided we would sleep in the tent as it had been dry all day, but it was still a cold night. 

The beautiful Southland coast along The Catlins

Another bad nights sleep, and the tiredness is really catching up with us by this point. Looking forward to having a bed again in Te Anau. We got up and showered, we got chatting to a German girl who said she could tell we were from England by what we ate for breakfast! (Beans on toast for Phil and porridge for me!) That was funny. We set off driving for the day to explore the area. We drove to Nugget Point which had beautifully serene beaches and ocean, and right at the tip of the point there is a light house, and some big rocks off shore which I can only assume are the ‘nuggets’. There were seals down below too. It was a blazing day, it was so lovely to have the sun on our faces yet again. We sat up there for a while and then drove back down. We stopped off at the beach as the tide was out, and there were loads of rock pools so we thought we’d have a look! Didn't see a great deal, but lots of crustaceans. And I collected a few nice shells. We left again, stopped off for some petrol in the closest village, and then pulled over for a walk off the side of the road to Lake Wilkie. This was a really nice walk through the forest and to the lake which was very peaceful, but smelly. I was done in by this point, my legs couldn't take anymore, so we got back to the camp and sat in front of the telly for the rest of the afternoon and evening, almost dozing off at various points, it was nice to be able to do that. Then we got set to spend another cold night in the tent! 

The 'nuggets' at Nugget Point

The spectacular South

A sleepy seal

Despite getting up early we still found ourselves rushing last minute to get to the ferry on time! We made it with a few minutes to spare, parked up and got settled in. I was a bit worried about motion sickness on the ferry as I’ve not had the best of times on a ferry before, and this was a 3 hour journey. It was a big ferry though and had a nice bar so we just set up camp in there, and ended up watching two football matches back to back, Phil was in his element and it helped distract me from the movement of the ferry! The journey went nice and quickly and we were at the Picton terminal by 11.30am. We set on our way to Kaikoura, which took us 2 hours and the drive was smooth. We got to our campsite which was a really nice one, and just after getting the tent up, a whole family of ducklings came charging over to us, it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! We got a slice of bread and sat and fed them. They were very cheeky jumping up trying to get it out my hand and pecking at the toggle on my raincoat! Then some sea gulls game flocking in, they got rowdy and started fighting and all sorts! After that was over we went out and drove to Point Kean on the peninsula, where there are various walks and a seal colony. It was so lovely seeing the seals up so very close, they were all just laying out on the beach, sunbathing. Signs warn you to stay about 10 meters from them as they can attack quite viciously. People were getting fairly close to them and they didn’t seem phased, I’m sure they’re quite tame after being used to having flocks of people round them day in day out. Unfortunately just up the way, there was a large, backwards family thinking it was hilarious to throw sticks and rocks and the seals as they lay relaxing, to try and get them to do something. We were both so furious, the middle aged parents were getting involved and all. We wanted to walk away, but I felt the longer we stood there staring at them and shaking our heads, the more they’d become aware of their behaviour and how unacceptable it was. And sure enough they moved on, after making the remark ’dumb animals’ to which I replied ’probably cleverer than you’. They proceeded to get more shocked and disapproving looks from the other people in the main bit, and then after the little girl threw a rock that very nearly got a seal right on it’s head, they left altogether, thank God. Absolutely disgusting people. We both ranted about that for a long time after, it really put a bit of a dampener on the day having to witness people like that existing on the same planet as us. Still, we did enjoy it and we walked up to the top of the hill to get some amazing views out of the ocean. When we got back we had some dinner and then cracked open some drinks in preparation of the rugby world cup final! We wandered up to the Kaikoura RFC to watch the game with a pint of Tui! It was a very tense game, but so good to see the All Blacks get the win they deserved.

Stunning view from the camp site

It was freezing again that night, but dry at least. We both ended up needing the loo in the middle of the night and on returning to the tent, decided to sleep in the car to help keep warm! It was a bit awkward sleeping in the car but definitely warmer. We woke up to a clear blue sky and blazing sunshine, and discovered we had the most amazing view of the mountains in the Alpine Pacific Triangle right at the back of the camp site, it was really beautiful. A few people looked a little weary in the morning as we packed our stuff up! We watched the reports on the celebrations in Auckland that had been going on all night, and they said the All Blacks would be doing their victory parade in Auckland on the Monday, and then Christchurch on Tuesday, when we are there! Before finishing on Wednesday in Wellington. So we excitedly set off for Christchurch, on a very nice scenic drive, and arrived just after mid day. The hostel we were at was very small but very nice. We went out for the afternoon to wander around what parts of the city we could. Such a huge chunk of it is in the ‘red zone’ which is inaccessible. It was really very shocking and eerie seeing the destruction that the earthquake caused earlier this year. It was a very solemn and thought provoking walk. Christchurch is a very beautiful city, very picturesque, it is so sad that a disaster of this magnitude occurred in this city. We got ourselves a Pizza Hut takeaway for the evening and got another early night.

A destroyed city

We had a relaxing morning, and then went for a drive to Lyttelton just outside Christchurch to absorb some nice scenery. All roads were small and residential around Lyttelton and we got really lost. When we eventually found the road we needed to be on to get to the peninsula, it was closed off due to damage caused by the earthquake. So that was a short lived trip and we headed back to the hostel for some lunch and to get ready for the All Blacks victory parade! So after lunch we walked up to the edge of Hagley Park and got there early enough to get a front row view at the edge of the curb! We waited for an hour for the parade to reach us, eventually a brass band came along, doing their version of Katrina and the Waves - Walking on sunshine. They were really good and then they suddenly stopped and crouched down, so people clapped thinking they’d finished, but then they broke into the haka, it was amazing! After they’d finished that they carried on and finished the song. Shortly after came the All Blacks players, with the cup at the end. It was amazing to see them in person, I filmed them all go by and then when they finished they all went on a big stage which was in the park, so we stood and watched that too. We got back to the hostel around 5pm, had some dinner and then relaxed for the evening. How lucky we were to experience that!

The All Blacks and their world cup!

North Island final week: Napier to Wellington

We watched the rugby in the hostel and saw Wales painfully lose out on a place in the final and then we left in the morning for Napier. We had a very comfortable stay at that hostel.

We got to Napier with a little confusion towards the end thanks to Google maps. Driving has been really testing out here, as there is a severe lack of road signs! Phil has been driving mostly, which is nice for me to be able to relax. The place we were staying at was very nice, I thought it was another hostel but it was actually a ’serviced apartment’ with our own kitchen, dishwasher and all. It felt like being back in Las Vegas again! It was so nice to lap up some luxury before camping and going back to hostels. We were only staying one night in Napier, so we headed straight out. We pretty much just walked the whole of the coastal walkway. It had black pebbles but the sea was turquoise blue like it was in Gisborne. We went into a strange place called ’Opossum World’ which was like someone had just made up their own museum about possums. We got tempted by the aquarium, but decided against it. There was another sea life place just up the road which was closed, but round the back there were holes in the fences where we looked in and could see seal lions playing around, so that was good enough for us! I stopped for an ice cream, couldn’t resist. And we just carried on and saw the rest of the sights that there were to see; gardens, sculptures, etc. We wandered back through the middle of town, which was pretty quiet, got back to our room, ate and then watched New Zealand beat Australia. I had a bit of a rough night through out the night but I was almost back to normal.

We left at checkout for Taupo, our first time camping! It was a pretty smooth drive up. We stayed in a nice little campsite not far from anything, and with views over the lake. The tent didn’t take long to put up! Unfortunately the weather remained grim as it has most part of our time in New Zealand so far! I was beginning to feel quite flu like again once we’d set up, it was like I’d just done a full circle and the process was starting again. If I was to fall ill again I figured we ought to get out while we can! So we went out and drove to Huka Falls, which was more of a rapids than a falls, but that was really cool to see. There were some people jet boating at the base of it, we’ll be doing that when we get to Queenstown. Then we stopped at a place called ‘Honey Hive’ which was a free place to go and learn about honey, taste samples, see the bees, etc. It was pretty handy as I was feeling pretty run down so we had some tasters of Manuka and other honies high in anti oxidants! Then we tried some boysenberry wine which was delicious, and then some honey, lemon and ginger syrup stuff, we both felt like we’d had a bit of a health boost after being there! They sold loads of great stuff, I could’ve bought the shop! After that we drove to a dam/rapids, where they release the water every few hours, it’s all to do with hydroelectricity I think, but that was really fascinating to watch as it filled up the channels in the rocks and turned into rapids until the water was blocked off again and it drained away.

Huka Falls

We were pretty much done after this, so we went via our favourite supermarket Pak N Save on the way home and I stocked up on some vegetables to warm me up and help my immune system get back on it‘s way. I felt a whole lot better afterwards and we just sat in the lounge watching TV for the evening before bed. It was nice and cosy in our tent, but it rained all night! Luckily we didn’t get wet but it always makes it a less enjoyable experience when you’re camping and it rains. We had a reasonable nights sleep anyway and I felt 100% by the morning, it felt so good! Definitely needed a little health boost I think. So we left for Tongariro National Park for our second nights camping.

We had a bit of a nightmare trying to find our campsite, again thanks to Google maps failing us! An hour journey pretty much took us 2 hours, but we got there eventually. The campsite was literally in the middle of nowhere! Closest village was about 20km away. Clouds were looming again and it was pretty chilly, so we got the tent up sharpish, had some lunch and then headed out. We went on a 2 hour walk to Taranaki Falls, which, despite the rain and hail, was really good. We haven’t really come here prepared for much in the way of outdoorsy things, but it felt nice to go on a hike and do what you should do in a place like New Zealand! The Alpine Crossing was meant to be THE walk to go on, but it was a 5 hour hike and the guy at reception said people shouldn’t be going out there with the current weather conditions. You can’t see, or be seen, and he said you’re likely to make the news for the wrong reasons. We were done in after our walk anyway so got back and settled into the lounge again. The campsite was pretty dead, there was only really us and one other group of guys, so it was a little creepy! We had dinner and stayed in the lounge until about 10ish. The weather was dreadful, it was just torrential rain and hail. The tent took a real bashing. It was absolutely freezing that night, the car was almost frozen. So it was pretty uncomfortable and very cold sleeping directly on the ground, my feet didn’t warm up the slightest all night. Not a nice camping experience, so we pretty much left as soon as we got up the next morning, we had a long drive and just wanted a nice hot shower and a bed!

The drive to New Plymouth seemed to go on forever. It took us along steep, narrow, unsealed roads, but it was a nice, very scenic drive all the same, despite the weather. The hostel we stayed at was really nice and homely like. That afternoon we just wandered through town to the coast and walked along the coastal walkway for a bit, and then just went to the i-Site/library and caught up with internet. The next day we went to the library again, Puke Ariki is a museum located within the same building. It had New Plymouth through the ages which was really cool, information on the wildlife and Mount Taranaki, and a big section on the history of rugby, and best of all it was free. After that we went to Pukekura Park which is a huge park that has sports grounds, racing track, gardens, lakes, theatre, all sorts wih in it. It was absolutely massive and took us the rest of the day to get round it. There was loads of  different things to see, it was so nice. It even had a little zoo in the middle with monkeys, otters and various farm animals, and again, it was all for free. That was a massively well spent day and we didn’t have to spend a penny. Later on we attempted to walk to Paritutu which is a big hill that has great views over the city, but we got half way there and turned back because my legs just couldn’t carry on! We had a long drive the next day so we just had a nice relaxing evening.

The outside stage in the middle of Pukekura Park

The next morning we just got up, checked out, and set on our way to Wellington. I had put down to stop at Egmont National Park/Mount Taranaki, but we had incredible views of it whilst in the city and for the first part of the journey which was satisfying enough for us. It took us 5 hours to get to Wellington, but it was a smooth drive. The hostel we stayed in was absolutely massive, really old fashioned and a bit creepy at the same time, but cool, it was in a big art deco building. Parking was a bit of a pain being in a city but we sorted it out. We went out wandering to find the library late in the afternoon, saw the parliament buildings, found the library was closed for reconstruction and went to the New Zealand Archives which closed shortly after we got there. We ended up having McDonalds for dinner and staying in there for a while as they have free WiFi over here! After that we just showered and then got ready for the Wales v Australia game. We watched it in the hostel lounge which was like a cinema lounge. Shame about the result. We had to get up early the next morning to move the car to a car park, so we got up and had breakfast, and I discovered my freshly opened orange juice carton had been stolen from the fridge. I was so annoyed. The fridge was huge and I only had 3 items in it, so very frustrating something of mine got taken, and I was just pretty gutted that someone thought it would be OK in the first place to take someone else’s food. Neither of us are in the financial position to have to replace food like that so it has better not happen again. Once we’d sorted the car and been to the supermarket, we walked into the city centre which was nice, although very quiet for a Saturday! And then went on the cable car to the top of the hill, looked in the cable car museum and  wandered around the botanic gardens. After that we took the cable car back down and went to the Museum of Wellington City and Sea. It was really interesting looking at Wellington’s history and learning about the Wahine disaster in the 60‘s. Later in the day we drove up to the peak of Mount Victoria (after going on a wild goose chase to get there) and saw some amazing views over Wellington and the harbour. That evening we got our stuff sorted and had early night again as we had to be at the ferry terminal for 7.25am the next morning. Goodbye North Island!

View over Wellington from the top of Mount Victoria 

Part 2: Auckland to Gisborne.. It's a long read

We arrived in Auckland just after 9 am. We had a very good flight, Qantas seem to go that extra mile for you, really nice staff. We got a meal at around 1.30 am, which Phil and I both struggled to eat after stuffing ourselves silly at the airport, not realising we would be getting a meal shortly after take off! Urgh. We both failed to get much sleep, despite not having slept well all week and despite the fact it was an over night flight. So we spent the 13 and a half hours feeling pretty groggy and just watching films and TV programmes. When breakfast came around I was so ready for it, and it was very tasty! Asparagus omelette amongst other tasty things! As we were landing, it was very turbulent and I felt so sick, I did not enjoy that at all. Anyway we got collected by Phil’s family friend who we were staying with in Titirangi, just outside of Auckland. The weather was pretty awful, despite the captain telling us it was a ‘pleasant’ morning! Still, home from home I suppose! (even though I am aware you were having a heat wave, typical!).

It was pretty strange leaving LA on Saturday night (Sunday morning at home) and not arriving until Monday morning (still Sunday at home). We planned to just have a few hours sleep, so as not to waste the whole day, before heading over to Ponsonby where a friend of Melissa’s lived, who we had arranged to meet up with for the evening. Also, a lifelong friend of my Brother’s was over for the rugby world cup and was staying here too. So we all went out and got some food and some drinks and had a very nice evening, despite feeling like a absolute zombie.. Phil and I must have been awake nearly 36 hours by now (minus the 3 hours sleep we had)! The next morning, Phil and I Skyped home which was much needed. So good to hear and see my family again. Then we headed into Auckland around lunchtime and had a nice wander around the shops, went down to the waterfront and just soaked up the busy atmosphere. We took the bus back to the place we were originally staying in Titirangi, and just relaxed for the evening.

The next day we had to collect our hire car from the airport, which went a lot smoother than the last time. We got given a manual which took me a while to get used to, especially being back on the other side of the road again. There were moments I’d be screeching up the road in first gear wondering why it wasn’t changing gear, forgetting I was supposed to do that part again! We hit the road, picking up George (Chris’ friend) from Ponsonby (after getting completely lost due to a lack of road signs), and headed up to Whangarei, where Melissa’s grandparents live. It was a pretty easy trip up, and when we arrived we got the loveliest welcome from Kizzy, Gar and Oscar the Corgi. It was so nice to meet some of my wonderful Sister-in-Law’s family. They have the most gorgeous little house on a hill, in some beautiful, quiet surroundings. You really could just stand on the decking all day just taking it in. Possums, peacocks, rabbits, sheep, roosters, fan-tails, and various other wildlife surround them. Kizzy really pulled out all the stops for us, she even brought us a lovely Maori necklace as a welcome gift. The rest of the evening we just drank, chatted, got a pizza takeaway and just had such a laugh, it was bliss.

On Thursday, Phil, George and I took off (later than planned) for the day to do some exploring. We reached Paihia, where we took a little ferry across Bay of Islands, to a place called Russell. It was lovely, but the weather was still grim which was a shame. We wandered around, came across a beach that had loads of washed up jelly fish! There were hundreds of them, it was absolutely fascinating, I’ve never seen a jellyfish in the wild before! We stopped for a pint before getting on the ferry back, realising it was 4pm by this point, and we still had so much to do! We’d only planned on spending an hour or so there, but managed to spend three. We were obviously engrossed in the jellyfish longer than we thought! Next, we stopped at Kerikeri where we were told are some impressive falls, called Rainbow Falls. We had a complete failure trying to find it, going round in circles, until we realised it was about a 4km walk from the road to get to it. We had to abandon that idea, which was a real shame, but it was getting on and we still had a couple of hours driving to do and the Northland West coast and Waipoua Forest to see before it got dark. We caught a glimpse of the West coast whilst driving, and just made a beeline for the forest. The road took us right through the middle of the forest which was nice to drive through, especially when the weather wasn’t so good, something nice about wooded areas when it’s raining. We stopped at the main attraction Tane Mahuta which is basically a really huge ancient tree, and it really was huge! After that, we just made our way back to Whangarei, it was getting dark, we were low on petrol, and we had a home cooked roast dinner waiting for us! We didn’t get back until 9pm, it was a long day, but worth it, and Kizzy’s roast was absolutely delicious! So good to taste home cooked food again.

Jellyfish on Long Beach, Russel

Tane Mahuta

On the Friday, we stayed local and went to the Town Basin area which has the marina and cafes and various other things. And then Whangarei Falls which was so pretty. I love waterfalls. You could walk around on the top of it and then a path takes you down to the bottom, it was lovely and the weather remained dry all day. Kizzy and Gar arranged a BBQ and party to happen the Friday evening, it was great to meet lots of people and it was a LOT of fun! As expected we had a late start the Saturday morning, but slowly we packed up and got ourselves ready to go. All three of us had such a great time that we really didn’t feel ready to leave, I had a sense of feeling I was leaving home again to go on our travels round New Zealand! We stopped on our way out to see Melissa’s Aunty, and we met the lovely children and the lovely two Golden Retrievers. They had a beautiful place too, it was absolute bliss. The dogs can’t get enough of the  grapefruits that fall off the tree, one even had two in his mouth at one point! Eventually we got going, we dropped George back off in Auckland as he was going to the England game that evening, and then Phil and I headed up the Coromandel Peninsula to Coromandel Town. It was a lovely drive, a long one, but nice. When we got there it was fairly late and we were both shattered so we just watched the rugby (well I fell asleep half way through, good job too!).

The next day we started early to make the most of the day, we’re on a pretty tight budget now so can’t really afford to spend money on entry fees to places that may not be worth our while, this happened to us in America a lot. So we just went through town, drove up the ‘309 road’ which is a scenic road that has various attractions along the way. There was a little open farm area on the side of the road and there were piglets and chicks and all sorts walking around in the road! And we stopped at another falls, I’ll never see too many of them. We weren’t really overwhelmed by Coromandel for the effort it takes to get there, but we were only there one night and there is some cool things to see and do so I don’t feel we can make a decent judgement on the place really. So we left for Rotorua around lunch time.

We got there late afternoon and checked into our hostel. The sulphur smell in Rotorua is very potent! It’s such a strong smell of egg that it put me off eggs. The weather was grim again which was a shame, but that evening we just went for a wander round the Government Gardens which is a nice area and then walked on a track which took you along the edge of Sulphur Bay, and then on round to Lake Rotorua which joins on. The hot thermal pools and geysers are really very fascinating. Ducks and seagulls love the hot sulphur lake, the ground is so volcanic it steams up all around you where ever it can get through! After we had some dinner we sat in the lounge and watched the rugby. The hostel had a handy list of ’free things to do’ which was great for us and so we thought we’d try and do as many of the things on the list!

Thermal pool

The next day, Monday, we drove out of town to ’The Redwoods’ and had a wander through there.. Reminded me of Center Parcs a little bit! Then went out to Okere Falls and went on a walk along the river, went to the trout river and then saw the falls (which were the least impressive we’d seen!) and then there was a descent down to a man made Maori cave, tucked away next to the falls. You couldn’t walk far into it but it was pretty cool! After that we went back to town, dropped the car off and followed Lonely Planet’s map of a walking tour round the town. We got a little lost but covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of things so it was good and we went via Kirau Park on the way back which is a volcanic area and had lots of thermal pools, and even a free hot foot spa! It pretty much rained all day which was a shame but it was a day well spent. I started to feel like I was coming down with something towards the end of the day and so we just rested for the evening.

As I thought, I woke up the next day feeling like I had the flu. Every joint in my body hurt and I had the worst headache. We had thought there was free WiFi at the library which was only round the corner so after dosing up on painkillers and water, I thought it’d be a good idea to take a little slow walk round there and get some (not so) fresh air. It took me ages to walk there and I felt so faint and sick and achey by the time we got there, I was glad to find the internet wasn’t free so we could just go back to the hostel and I could get to bed. I spent the next 3 days in bed, unable to move, developing a stomach bug and just feeling worse as the days went on. Phil spent the time fetching me things, watching films downstairs and on the Thursday George had come to Rotorua before flying home again, so it was nice for Phil to go out and enjoy a pint with him. I have never felt that ill. The morning we had to check out, I really didn’t think it was going to happen. I had been having the worst hot and cold flushes that night. From 5am, I was so cold I was completely wrapped up, with the heater on full, and I was shivering uncontrollably for 3 hours. Then to suddenly switch and I was so hot I was sweating buckets and had a very red face. After thinking I needed to get to a doctor as it had been 4 days and I had been dehydrated, by  9.30am I miraculously felt well enough to get my self from the bed, to the car, and endure the 4 hour journey to Gisborne. And we made it with no problems on my part.. But when we arrived at where we had booked to stay, we found it had closed down. Great. But luckily someone was in there and she told us where there was another hostel just up the road, and it was such a nice hostel compared to the last. And by the Thursday evening I was definitely feeling slightly brighter, I even managed to eat some crisps!

First morning in Gisborne we took it slow, I was feeling up for going out and had managed a small portion of cornflakes so around midday we slowly walked round to the beach near us and paddled in the sea which was reasonably warm! The weather was great. We did a little rock pooling and I saw a hermit crab for the first time! Just off the beach was the landing sight of Captain Cook and Kaiti Hill area which has the Captain Cook observatory amongst other things. We attempted to walk along the path round the hill some way but that was way too much for me so we just headed back and I rested for the afternoon whilst Phil watched Ghostbusters (for the 100th time) in the lounge! At night the sky was so clear and the stars were so vibrant it was amazing.

So today, I had a rough-ish night but again feeling almost there today. We went to the botanic gardens and it was so pretty, so many different colours and they had a 'Palm Desert Garden' with trees donated from Palm Desert in California which was cool. There was a nice duck pond and various other parts to it all too. We drove out to another beach up the road which was gorgeous. We spent the time drawing in the sand and relaxing. It really was nice. On the way back we thought we'd attempt Kaiti Hill again, but by car this time! We got to the top and saw the observatory which wasn't very exciting but it was nice to sit down and take in the view. This evening we will watch the rugby game again and then we check out tomorrow for Napier.

Wainui Beach

Catch up: Part 1..

Universal!

We didn’t get a very good nights sleep the first night. People were very noisey (which I expected to some extent) and some of our room mates came in noisily at 2am and then there is a post office right next to our window which is SO noisy at 6am. We got up early for Universal and took advantage of the free pancakes! Anyway Universal Studios was really good. It was only one stop away on the underground so very easy to get to. It’s a lot smaller than I thought and only has 3 actual rides but still, we used the full day. I loved the ‘animal actors’ show, where animals used in movies perform various things on stage. The animals we saw were misbehaving though! One of the birds wouldn’t quite do what it was supposed to, and one dog in particular was having an ‘off’ day and was very distracted! The new Simpsons ride they have was amazing, it’s a 3D simulator which has a little story and takes you on rides around ’Krusty Land’, it was very realistic and felt like you were on a roller coaster and there was a bit where you go in Maggie’s mouth and they spray water and baby powder for effect. I have been on simulators before but this was something else. Another favourite was House of Horrors, a walk through ride where there are real actors posed as characters from horror films, it was absolutely terrifying! I screamed so much my throat got sore. We did it again later in the day, and it was even worse because we knew what was coming. At one point, in a sheer terror panic, Phil ran off and I ran straight into the wall! It was so funny, good to know what we‘d both do in a situation! It’s really good though and realistic, you feel like you are in the films. The Universal Studios tour was also really cool, they were actually filming CSI: New York and Parenthood while we went round but I don’t watch either of those so I wouldn’t know if I saw any of the cast! The King Kong 3D bit was impressive. And it took us down Wysteria Lane, which I thought was actually a real road until then! It’s truly amazing how a film or TV programme is put together really. We got back to the hostel and ended up chatting to one of our room mates until pretty late.


On Wednesday we had a relaxed morning, and wandered down to Trader Joe’s for some supplies. Later in the afternoon we did a walking tour up to Runyon Canyon which is a park in the Hollywood Hills that celebrities frequent. Didn’t see any though! It was a tough hike up to the top of a steep hill, but had amazing views over LA and lots of nice big houses hidden amongst the trees. There were lots of people jogging and walking their dogs about, don’t know how they do that in the heat. We met some nice people while out walking and when the tour finished we walked back with them to the hostel. We had signed up for the bar crawl for the evening so we ate, then met up with the people from the walk and had some drinks in the hostel bar, while some people played beer pong. The bar crawl was a good night out, there was a really cool jazz bar we went to. We left the last place about 1ish then when we got back to the hostel we got stuck chatting until 2!

We got up early again Thursday, and we had booked on to do the film locations walking tour so left for that at 10am. It was interesting, pretty cool seeing places that were used to for filming but there were only a few films we were interested in and it was all so local we could’ve just done it ourselves. Phil got stuck with a guy who was supposedly giving away his CD’s but then as soon as he took one he started hassling him and asking for money so gave it back, there were a few guys doing it and got a bit funny when people weren’t willing to part with their money. But anyway when the tour finished, we went to the Kodak Theatre and Chinese Theatre, saw the hand and feet prints, then just wandered around the shopping bit and soaked it all up. When we got back to the hostel we just relaxed for the afternoon, before getting ready to see Jimmy Eat World at The Wiltern Theatre! We had to queue for an hour before being let in the theatre, which was a haven for homeless people trying to get money off you when you can’t walk away from them, had a pretty scary guy quite exuberantly ask for money, he was quite funny but it made me a little edgy. We had a great night seeing Jimmy Eat World anyway, it was such a good gig. We didn’t get back until fairly late and then crashed.. Early morning again the next day.

Friday was Universal Studios day two! We were up early and met up with a friend we made from Wednesday and she was leaving so gave us her food she couldn’t use up which was very nice of her. We’d been back to our room briefly just before we left and suddenly couldn’t find the room key, looked everywhere and was totally speechless as to where it could’ve gone. Concluded we’d left it in the door as we came in, so just went to the desk and asked if someone had handed it in thinking maybe we’d gone somewhere and left it there. They said no and said we’d lose one of the deposits, but then basically handed over the key straight away. Someone did hand it in but they said no just to get more money out of us which was a bit disappointing. Still, it was great to go back to Universal and not feel the need to rush and get everything crammed in. The only thing we missed was the Terminator 2 3D show, so we did that first. That was pretty impressive, as they all were really. Then we just wandered around at our leisure, saw the animal actors show again, different animals this time and they were much more obedient! Found out there was a dog in the last show that was meant to cock his leg to look like he had a wee on a volunteer from the audience, it was all part of the show, we actually thought he'd been bad and weed! Right at the end they brought out an orang-utan who was so cute. He was really funny imitating the trainer and doing his little part. We got lots of pictures with the characters that wander round the park so was pretty pleased with that! House of Horrors never got any less scary! I loved that thing. I had a huge lunch which Phil had to help me out with, never seen so much food on a plate! After I wasn’t feeling so stuffed, we did all the other rides again, and then stuff starting closing to prepare for the Halloween nights so we left and went to the city walk to explore that a bit better, that was pretty cool. When we got back we packed ready to check out the next day, and then Phil had some dinner with the food we acquired and I made a nice pasta salad for the next day. I had to wait until 11.40pm to check in online, but it was worth it as I got some great seats!

Didn’t sleep very well again but checked out on time, and we got both our deposits back in the end anyway, so I reckon they knew that we knew what had happened and felt guilty charging us for a lost key when that wasn’t the case. We left for the day to go to Santa Monica, realised we left all our food for the day behind so had to run back in quickly and grab that, and were on our way! Couldn’t believe how fast a month had gone by, and we had completed the first part of our trip. Santa Monica was amazing, really loved it. It was a gorgeous day. The pier was buzzing, we stopped for a moment for a drink and witnessed someone who was preaching religious stuff, and a lady trying to set up her stall on his place on the pier having an argument over pier territory. He was saying she’d go to hell and stuff, couldn’t hear what she was saying, as he was on a microphone, but it was entertaining. After exploring the pier we carried on up, reached Muscle Beach! Saw some people flexing their muscles, and there were swings on the beach so we played on those for a while, which was very nice! Walked up further and reached Venice Beach which was a happening place. Lots going on, stalls, DJ’s, skaters, buskers. It was a really great place to visit and soak up some atmosphere. Once we’d had enough we walked all the way back to the car which seemed like it took forever! But a day very well spent. So we left for the airport at 5ish, dropped the car off smoothly, and hit the airport. Had to completely re-pack Phil’s suitcase before we checked in. Someone dropped their Tom-Tom so I ran after them and handed that back, how thankful they were (reminds me of someone!). So dropped our bags off and went through security no problems. Had a big bite to eat and then waited really! Right before we were due to board our flight, we saw Fergie from The Black Eyes Peas stroll past us, she’d just flown in from New York! She had an important looking man with her with a clipboard and a big guy carrying her suitcase. We got pretty excited about that, we’d been wanting to see at least one famous person while in LA! Everyone else had their noses buried in books/iPads and didn’t even notice her. So we boarded our flight and off we went for New Zealand! Pretty ready to get to a new place by this point. We really loved it in the States but at the same time it was stressful, a lot of things are pretty annoying, it was scary in places, and they have a unbelievable homeless problem on a scale you couldn’t imagine without seeing for yourself. I got a bit sick of being made to feel guilty for their misfortune that was caused by their own governments. They really need to sort that out and help them, rather them palming them off to each other‘s states to deal with. America hides their not so nice underside very, very well, but there is a lot of that side that you have to see.

Anyway, Goodbye USA!

Lovely Santa Monica