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.
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| Jellyfish on Long Beach, Russel |
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Wainui Beach |
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