After almost 3 months, we are finally in the south island of New Zealand! We left Windy Welly on Tuesday & took the ferry from the north island to the south island. The ferry itself was quite large & rather posh with reclining cushy seats. However, the weather made our 3-hour ferry ride a little less than fun. I went outside to get some pictures at one point & almost got blown away. The scenery we passed along the way was so incredibly gorgeous though--massive green mountains surrounding us on all sides, with fog hovering just above the mountaintops. We arrived in Picton, a quaint town on the tip of the south island, and I couldn't help but think of Lord of The Rings as I looked around and saw all of the huge green mountains all around us.
Sadly, the weather was just as crappy in Picton as it had been in Wellington, if not worse. So, our first day and a half in Picton was mostly spent inside our hostel watching movies, reading, and relaxing. We did manage to get some picture-taking done around the city though when the rain let up for a few hours, so that was good. The hostel was really nice and extremely clean, plus for $22 per night, you got free breakfast in the morning & free homemade dessert every evening. However, Sontsa & I have learned (the hard way) that many hostels in NZ are not heated, including this one. Yeahhh...it has been in the 30s and 40s here, so having no heat is pretty miserable. Everyone walks around the hostels with multiple layers of clothing, scarves, hats, and always a warm cup of tea or coffee in their hands haha. Oh, and you also go to sleep wearing just as much clothing. In the future, Sontsa & I are going to be much more careful about picking out our hostels; fully heated rooms will now be one of our requirements!
For the next 3-4 weeks, we are only staying 1-3 nights in each town we visit in the south island, except for Queenstown where we plan to stay a bit longer. Picton was the first & we only stayed 2 nights there. Our second day there, we met a couple of cool Belgium guys, Gerome and Regis. The four of us went to the local Irish pub Wed night & hung out there for a couple of hours. An older local Kiwi guy came over & chatted with us for a bit as well. Plus, he gave us some free food! I should probably mention that In NZ, nothing is open past 7:00 pm except for McDonalds (that is if the town is big enough to have one--sad I know) & maybe one or two bars/pubs. So, when I keep talking about going to the pubs and bars in every town, trust me it's not to get sloshed; it's just that there is literally nothing else open. I wouldn't want my readers to think I'm off getting wasted every evening in NZ haha. Backpackers can barely afford to buy just one beer when going out, let alone multiple drinks!
Before Sontsa & I left town the next day, we grabbed some hot chocolate/coffee with Gerome & Regis at a chill little coffee shop as well, then headed out. As it turned out, we could have hung out with them for a bit longer because our stupid bus was an hour and 15 minutes late! That's right...we were standing in the freezing cold at the bus stop for over an hour. Needless to say, we were not happy campers when the bus finally arrived. I must admit it can be pretty stressful having to rely on alternative forms of transportation & not having your own vehicle. Sontsa & I are hoping that we will save enough money from couchsurfing that we can get a rental car for the last 2 weeks of our trip around the south island. Crossing our fingers! Anyway, we took the bus 2 hours away to our next destination, a city called Nelson. Out of the last 4 cities we've visited, it was the first place with sunshine. I can't tell you how thrilled we were to see sunlight again after not having ANY for 7 days! The hostel we stayed at was called Paradiso & it was pretty awesome--free internet, free breakfast, free soup & fresh baked bread every evening at 6:00 pm, plus a sauna & jacuzzi. However, once again, no heat. No worries though...the hostel we've chosen for the next city is fully heated!
We didn't actually spend a lot of time in Nelson itself during our 2 nights there because the first evening we arrived in town, we booked to be picked up the next morning at 7:00 am to go to Abel Tasman for the day! Like Cathedral Cove we saw in the north island, Abel Tasman in the south island is one of those locations that you always see on NZ postcards & advertisements. It is absolutely GORGEOUS! A lot of people kayak there, whereas many others go trekking. Depending on your level of expertise, you can do anything from a 4-hour, one-day hike to a full-on 3-day hike. Sontsa & I opted for the 4-hour hike =) A shuttle picked us up from our hostel early yesterday morning & drove us an hour away to Abel Tasman. From there, we were to take a water taxi ride to the drop-off point for our chosen trek. While waiting for our taxi to arrive, Sontsa pointed & said "Look who it is." It was a woman Celina from France who we had shared a room with in the Wellington hostel...smallest country in the world. Now, the interesting part of the water taxi ride was that you boarded the water taxi on land while it was actually on a trailer, attached to the back of a large tractor (New Zealanders like tractors, eh?). Our driver handed us life jackets to wear while we were sitting in the boat...on land. So, we all looked rather funny wearing life jackets in this boat, passing cars on the road while we drove toward the trailer put-in point in the water haha.
After the tractor drove into the water and we were detached from the trailer, we were taken on a 20-minute water taxi ride to a part of the Abel Tasman coastline called Anchorage where we would begin our hike. The trek through the mountains was really beautiful with mini waterfalls, creeks & scenery that resembled a jungle or rainforest (minus the wildlife). Plus, the beaches we stopped off at were stunning! A couple of hours into our hike, we stopped for lunch (PB&J's of course) at one beach that was just breathtaking. I think every picture we took there basically looked photoshopped because the backgrounds were so perfect. It was so nice to just sit there in the sun for a while and look at the scenery though.
We also did some climbing and jumping across these huge rocks that jutted out into the sea in order to get a better view of the beach =) It was a completely perfect day! We didn't get back to the hostel in Nelson until later in the evening, so we just ate some dinner, then chatted with one of our roommates, an American guy from California who is in NZ studying Geology for a semester. He said that 85% of the foreign students studying in Dunedin, NZ are Americans! I couldn't believe it. After talking to him for a while, Sontsa & I walked around town for a very short period of time before heading back to the hostel again--there wasn't too much to see & it was crazy cold outside. We got up really early again this morning to catch a 7:30 am bus to move on to the next city, Greymouth. Oh, just one more example of how small of a country NZ is, Sontsa & I keep running into this one guy all over the south island--we were at the same hostel together in Picton, saw him in Nelson, then again this morning at some tiny random town both of our separate buses happened to stop at for a coffee break. We don't actually know his name or where he's from, but we'll find out soon enough; I'm sure we'll see him again. Sontsa & I are considering making bets on who we will run into next, what town, etc. haha
Cheers,
Ash
Sontsa & I arrived in Wellington last Saturday to make our way toward the south island. Sadly, the weather was just as bad in Welly as it was in Taupo. Wellington is actually referred to as "Windy Welly," and it definitely lived up to its expectations. Plus, it was raining most of the time & was really cold. We still managed to have a really great experience there overall though, mostly due to the people who we spent time with while we were there. The first afternoon we arrived to town, Sontsa & I walked around a bit. When we were about to cross over to the other side of one of the main streets, we looked across the road and saw Rachel who we worked with in Napier & her boyfriend Vinny!! So awesome; I love how small this country is! They are both from Ireland traveling around NZ on Holiday Working Visas as well. So, we crossed the road & chatted with them for a bit, then made plans to meet up for coffee the next day. A few hours later, Sontsa & I were walking down another street when Sontsa turned to me and said, "Is that Danny?" Sure enough, it was Danny from America who we had originally met in Auckland 3 months ago & who I had just run into again in Waiheke Island a few weeks ago! Seriously...it is crazzzy how you run into people here haha.
The hostel we stayed at the first two nights we were in town was pretty crappy. First, most of the people staying at the hostel didn't clean up after themselves. So, there were dirty dishes everywhere in the kitchen & hardly ever any clean mugs or glasses to use. We had to get one of the many dirty cups from the countertops & wash them in order to drink anything. Oh, and the couches in the lounge area were completely disgusting---all of the lining just hanging off with the inside of the couches exposed. To make the hostel experience even better, it was Easter weekend...and our hostel was apparently very kid-friendly. Yeahhh...if you know me well at all, you can imagine how ecstatic I was to have noisey kids running around the hostel. At one point, Sontsa & I were in the common showers/sinks area and I said, "Man, what is that smell?" Sontsa pointed to a trash can nearby and stated, "It's the diaper." My immediate response was, "I'm sorry...did you just say diaper? I'm staying in a hostel with DIAPERS in the trash cans?! Oh no no." Haha. So, needless to say, we tried not to spend too much time at the hostel.
During some of the bad weather times, we of course took advantage of the free wifi at McDonalds & sent out some more couchsurfing messages (and perhaps checked our facebooks). When we used up our allotted data limit on the McDonalds network, we moved on to another spot that we'd heard had free wifi. Now this is where it gets pathetic..haha. The other free wifi was at the harbour, which wouldn't have been a problem except that it was REALLY windy & cold outside at that point. So, we found a spot underneath the deck at the harbour that looked like a spot a homeless person may have chosen , away from the wind. We must have looked slightly amusing because a group of people walked nearby, saw us, pointed, laughed, talked, then took our picture! Haha...we were apparently one of the tourist attractions in Wellington. I promise we did more in Welly than stalk out free wifi though. We actually spent the rest of the afternoon in the huge Te Papa Museum looking at the exhibits.
Our last day in town was by far the best, partly because we had our first couchsurfing experience! A guy named Ricky had answered one of our couchsurfing requests. So, Sontsa & I checked out of our dreadful diaper-filled hostel, walked down the road, and Ricky & one of his flatmates Carlos came and picked Sontsa & I up with all of our bags in front of the McDonalds. Ricky had actually invited us to go fishing with them ealier that morning, but we had kindly declined his thoughtful offer since fishing in the rain wasn't exactly our thing =) After they picked us up, the four of us headed to their flat about 10 minutes drive outside of the town center. It was a sweet house up on a hill with a great view. We chilled there for a bit, had some warm tea & chatted. Since Ricky had to go to work from 2:00 to 10:00 pm that day, he offered to give Sontsa & I a ride back into town to do some sightseeing. He first stopped off at a place called Victoria Lookout for us though, where we were able to get a fantastic view of the city & take some pictures. Then, we made a quick trip to the local organic supermarket so Ricky could buy some food for his work. He is originally from Bali, Indonesia but has been living in NZ the past 5 years working as a chef. After the short grocery trip, he dropped us off at the town center & gave us some pointers on what to see and where to go. Oh, and since he said we'd probably get back to the flat before he did, he gave us his house key! That's right...I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: New Zealanders are different in a very wonderful way.
Sontsa & I spent our afternoon doing some proper sightseeing---rode the cable car, walked around the botanical gardens, checked out the parliament building, and explored the city a bit. Oh, we also went shoe shopping for Sontsa to get some PROPER walking shoes. You see, she came to NZ with NO warm clothes, NO jeans, and NO walking shoes. Carl & Megan from Napier had luckily given her some of their old hoodies, but the only shoes she has been wearing for the past 3 months have been flip-flops and girly slip-on shoes. Since a huge part of experiencing NZ, especially in the south island, is hiking, trekking, and exploring the amazing scenery, we went into the shoe store that Ricky suggested. I proceeded to walk toward the back of the shop where the walking shoes were & after a few moments realized that Sontsa was not with me. I found her near the front of the store trying on HIGH HEELS! Gotta love her. After some convincing, I eventually got her to try on REAL shoes & she successfully found a pair for $19.99.
We then met up with Rachel & Vinny at a cool little place called Enigma to grab some hot chocolate. The four of us had such a good time!! Before we knew it, we had been there for over 3 hours chatting and laughing. It was sooo nice to unexpectantly see them in Wellington & hopefully we'll all run into each other again in the south island. Since it was close to the time that Ricky was scheduled to get off of work, Sontsa & I just decided to wait for him instead of going back to the flat right away. So, Ricky came & picked us up and we all went out to play some pool. Sontsa & I played on a team against Ricky for the second game, and we all made a bet that the loser(s) had to crawl underneath the pool table from one side to the other. Yeahh..Sontsa & I lost (go figure), and did some lovely army crawling underneath the table. After we left there, we all went to bar that had a sweet fireplace in it & we stayed there chatting for a while. A small group of local kiwis in their mid-twenties (two girls & a guy) also came over to talk with us during the evening, which turned out to be really amusing at times. Jacqueline, one of the girls, should be a character on that stupid American show Jersey Shore haha.
After the bar, we went back to Ricky's and the three of us stayed up ridiculously late drinking a couple glasses of wine, chatting, looking at pictures of mine & Sontsa's trip, and singing songs while Ricky played the guitar. Such a fun night & a wonderful first couchsurfing experience! It would have been great if we could have stayed longer, but Sontsa & I had to catch our ferry to the south island the next morning. Ricky drove us to the ferry terminal & stayed with us a bit before heading out. Now, for those of you who think Sontsa & I are crazy for crashing on the couches of people we don't know, let me ease your mind a bit. We only send messages to people that other couchsurfers have previously stayed with & have left good reviews concerning their stays. Ricky had over 60 positive reviews from other backpackers who had stayed with him before, and for good reason. So please don't worry; we will only stay with people who we feel completely secure about. =) We actually already have couches to stay on for our trips to Queenstown, Invercargill & Dunedin as well!
Cheers,
Ash
I would love to be able to start this blog by describing mine & Sontsa's amazing experience skydiving. Unfortunately, nothing in Taupo went according to plan. You see, Sontsa & I have become what some might describe as...lazy. We didn't book our buses to Taupo or our accomodation until the very last minute. We didn't check the weather forecast in Taupo before we went, nor did we call & book our skydives. Well, we have gotten away with such poor planning in the past, but this time was different...it bit us in the ass big time. It was dreadfully cloudy ALL day yesterday, along with scattered showers throughout the day. The forecast for today wasn't any better, so not only could we NOT skydive yesterday, but we also couldn't do the 1-day hike at the Tongariro Crossing today, which is known for being an incredible walk through mountainous and volcanic areas. So, instead of wasting extra money on accomodation waiting for the weather to clear (which didn't look hopeful), we decided to check out of the hostel a day early & make our way down to Wellington. Since I will be in NZ for a while longer, I can always return to Taupo later to do the Tongariro, so no worries.
To try and avoid further issues with poor planning, we spent a lot of time yesterday in McDonalds on the free wi-fi getting some things done. We created an account on couchsurfing.org, filled out a profile, uploaded a picture, then sent tons of messages to people in the next five cities that we will be visiting to see if they would have couches available for us. The money we would save on accomodation would be huge! So, we'll see. We also researched places in the south island of New Zealand where we could do our skydives. There are plenty of options, including jumping over an area in NZ that has a massive glacier (Fox Glacier), which I'm sure would be a stunning view. I haven't decided for sure if I also want to do a bungy jump while I'm here, but I think I will. I find it odd that I'm hesitant to bungy jump from a height of 120-350 feet, but I'm pretty thrilled about jumping out of a plane at 12,000-15,000 feet high haha.
Other than that, we walked around the town a bit, went down by Lake Taupo & took pictures. We were amazed to find out that Lake Taupo is the same size as Singapore. Crazy! Most all of the shops were closed since it was Good Friday, but we did manage to get some NZ beanies & gloves for really cheap from one souvenir shop that was actually open. Later, we spent our evening eating a nice steak meal at the hostel, then went to the cinema. We made the mistake of watching Just Go With It, but in my defense we only had a total of 3 mediocre movies to choose from. For those of you who haven't seen it, don't. Those were 2 of the most incredibly painful hours of my life haha. After the movie though, we went back to our hostel room and had a lot of fun chatting with our four roommates--Hayley, Halie, Shaun & Dominic. They were all architecture students from Australia on a short 12-day trip in NZ; I really enjoyed them...really funny & easy to talk with. The hostel (Rainbow Lodge) was pretty good too & had a fantastic staff.
I should probably mention mine & Sontsa's first evening cooking at the hostel too, just for kicks =) We needed to cook fettucine noodles, minced beef, and a tomato mushroom sauce to make pasta (what else?). Problem #1: The stovetops were gas-fired. We don't smoke, don't have lighters, and someone had apparently stolen the matches that were in the kitchen. Problem #2: We needed a can opener for our can of sauce. One of the counter tops had this huge strange-looking device on the end that people claimed was a can opener, but I am still not convinced. Honestly, it was unlike anything I have ever seen before & it beared absolutley no resemblence to something that could open a can. I searched & searched all the drawers for a real can opener, but to no avail. I then tried to poke holes in the top of the can with a knife, but that was also unsuccessful. You can imagine just how helpless we looked wandering around the kitchen, messing with this huge 'can opener' on the end of the counter with puzzled faces, then repeatedly banging a can with a knife. It eventually all worked out when a woman came in & let us borrow her lighter, then another woman magically found a small can opener in one of the drawers I had previously looked through. Of course, the can opener was complete crap so we ended up having to pry most of the lid open with a knife anyway. All in all, it was a comical start to Sontsa & I traveling together once again. Man, we would make wretched housewives. =)
Also, a couple of things happened on the bus going to Taupo that are worth mentioning. The bus was really full, so Sontsa & I couldn't sit together. Instead, we sat diagnol to one another. There was a young couple probably in their late teens that were sitting in front of me & across from Sontsa. The first hour going to Taupo, the couple was incessantly making out. I wanted to get some newspaper and tape it to the back of their seats so I could no longer see their ridiculous behavior--I mean really. The good part of this story is that all of a sudden, without warning, the boy projectile-vomited! The vomit flew over the tops of the seats in front of him and luckily went into an empty seat next to an unprepared woman, as well as all over the window haha. Oh, and he got some on his girlfriend.
I felt bad for the guy, but at the same time, the incident really ruled in my favor; the rest of my bus ride was much more enjoyable because he & the girlfriend didn't make out anymore after that haha. :) To add a little more humor to the story, Sontsa was the one sitting right across the aisle from him during the projectile-vomitting incident & she slept right through it! Awesome. Besides that lovely part of the bus ride, I also sat next to a local Kiwi woman who was in her 50s or 60s. She was SOO nice & was slightly concerned about Sontsa and I traveling around by ourselves. So, she is going to check in with me once a week to make sure Sontsa & I are okay haha. I just love the people here! Oh, and she told me that the further south you go in NZ, especially in the south island, the nicer the people get. I just can't even imagine that--the people in the north are already so nice! I have a feeling I will have a really hard time leaving this country, when that time does indeed come.
Cheers,
Ash
Greg, Paulo & I left Waiheke last Friday and took the ferry back to Auckland. From there, we caught a bus down to a city called Hamilton. The boys wanted to go to a big car racing event that was going on that weekend in Hamilton & I just came along for the ride since it meant going back down toward the south, which was the general direction I wanted to go. Once the bus dropped us off, we walked toward a house that Greg had previously stayed in some time before. Many backpackers use websites like couchsurfing.org and easyroommate.co.nz to find local Kiwis to stay with during their travels. Greg had done exactly that & had stayed at this particular house in Hamilton for 3 weeks when he first arrived in the country and didn't know any English. So, the same people he stayed with all that time ago were nice enough to let all 3 of us stay on their couches for the short time we'd be in Hamilton. Paulo & I met the flatmates Steph and Lucy, as well as Jesse, Lucy's boyfriend, and Caleb, Steph's brother. We all just hung out at the house for the evening; it was an interesting experience, to say the very least. I can't go into too much detail, but let's just say I wasn't sad to leave.
I had already planned to meet back up with Sonja after spending a couple of weeks with Greg, but I just didn't know exactly when or where. Well, when Sonja took the Kiwi Experience bus to Taupo a couple of weeks ago, she couldn't find work & actually ended up going back to Napier since she knew more job opportunities were available there. She got a job doing orange picking & orange packing with Rory, Torni & Neil (part of our Napier hostel family). So, during my evening in Hamilton, I decided to join Sonja back in Napier & booked a bus for the next day. I said goodbye to Greg & Paulo the following afternoon when they left for the car races, and I walked around the town for a couple of hours until it was time to catch my bus. Let's just say that you can learn a lot about a person & your connection with him or her (or lack thereof) when you travel together one on one...hence the rushed booking of my bus back to Napier. Oh, and I have also never been one to appreciate being blatantly lied to either. But hey, it's always amusing when liars actually think you believe their lies, eh? =) Still, I did have some good times, saw some wonderful new places, and met great new people over the past 2 weeks. Plus, everything is a learning experience!
On a brighter note, after 5 hours on the bus, I started seeing familiar sights out of the window & was sooo excited--felt like a little school girl! Sonja & Neil picked me up from the bus stop with the hostel van & I couldn't have been more happy to see my little Sontsa!!! It was SOOO good to be back in my NZ home away from home with my favorite travelmate. We quickly went to the hostel & met up with Sontsa's friend Simon from France. The three of us were picked up a few minutes later by Eva from Germany and Patrick from France in their little camper van. We all drove to the next small town Clive about 20 minutes away to go to a small house party thrown by a couple of guys Sontsa had previously met at the hostel. There, I met Sontsa's friends Christian from Italy & Max from Chile, as well as their other two flatmates Felipe & Alberto from Chile. The 9 of us had a fun night chilling out, playing pool, having a few drinks & a lot of laughs. They lived in a nice house owned by a local Maori guy that hads sleeping space for at least 7 people. Since Eva & Patrick left early (and they were our transportation), Simon, Sontsa & I just crashed at the house. Philipe gave us all a ride back to the hostel the next morning.
Later that day, Sontsa & I walked about 40 minutes down to the port of Napier to meet up with Daniel who we used to work with at the restaurant. We hadn't seen him in ages & weren't able to say goodbye to him when we'd left Napier before, so it was really great to see him again. The port area was really beautiful too--Daniel told us that they have little blue penguins that come through there every day, as well as dolphins & even whales on occasion. The three of us stayed there for a while chatting & just sitting by the water while Daniel tried to catch some fish. He is like the little brother I never had =) His mom came by later & gave Sontsa & I a ride back to the hostel, so that was really sweet. Not too much else has been going on in Napier the past few days. Sontsa & I stopped by the restaurant Sunday morning to go visit Carl for a few minutes. It was of course great to see him again! I would so love to see everyone else in our Napier family as well, but just haven't been able to work it out.
Other than that, I've been spending a lot of time with Mia from the hostel, which has been wonderful =) Mia even made me an omelette the other day to show me how it's done. Oh, and I have been cleaning around the hostel a few hours each day in exchange for accommodation...pretty sweet setup. I must say Mia & Greg are pretty awesome to have as bosses =) They also got an air hockey table for the hostel since I was last here! Greg challenged me to a game the other day, which I accepted. I didn't end up doing so well, but that game is so much fun! I've also met a couple of new people at the hostel, Julian from Germany & Lorna from England. They are really great. Julian & I went to Starbucks yesterday afternoon, then walked around town a bit while the weather was still really nice outside. Last night, Sontsa, Mia, Neil, Rory & I went to the local pub for a couple of hours and had a relaxing evening out. This afternoon, Sontsa, Mia, Neil & I challenged one another to a game of mini golf haha. It was a lot of fun. Tonight, Lorna & Julian are cooking some dinner and have invited me to join. Then after dinner, we are all planning on staying in & watching a good DVD. The big news, however, is for what is planned in the next couple of day. Sontsa & I are leaving Napier tomorrow once again and heading to Taupo to...dum dum dum....SKYDIVE!! It is going to be amazing.
Cheers,
Ash
After Raglan, mine & Greg's next stop in NZ was Waiheke Island. So, we traveled back up to Auckland, then took the ferry over to the island. Waiheke is made up of about 10 really small towns and due to the island's numerous hills, you need to take a small city bus to get from town to town if you don't have a car. So, after arriving by ferry, we took the bus to Onetangi, the last town on the island, which was where our hostel was located. The hostel was REALLY high up on a hill, which made for a lot of exercise to get down to the beach, but the view was completely breathtaking. You just walked 50 feet outside the front of the hostel and you were standing near a cliff overlooking a beutiful beach with rich, green hills on either side. To actually get to the beach, however, you had to walk down a ton of steps (I think about 150?). Going down wasn't so bad; the killer was going back up! The view was worth it though =)
Since Greg had been working in Waiheke for about 3 weeks prior to our travels together, he had already built up a friend base at the hostel. So, I got to meet all of the people I had previously only heard Greg talk about--Frederic (Fred) from France, Phillipo from Italy, Robby from Scotland, Nina & Martha from England, Manuel and Sebastian from Argentina, Lucy from France, AND I was reunited with Paulo! They were a tight group from working together in the vineyards& living together in the hostel. One of their favorite things to do after work was to come back to the hostel, crank up some sweet reggae music on the kitchen stereo, and dance around the kitchen while cooking up a mad meal. Robbie quite enjoyed pulling out some Scottish dance moves too haha. Paulo described it right when he said the group had a good ambience. Greg & I stayed in Waiheke for 4 nights. We just lounged around for a couple of days (you do a lot of that in NZ if you haven't noticed) & spent one afternoon down at the beach. Finally, I got some more sun! The weather in NZ basically everywhere outside of Auckland and Waiheke has cooled down now, with the temperature usually being in the 50s or 60s. So, it was nice to be able to sit out on the beach & soak up some sun.
The third night we were in Waiheke, a couple people from Greg's vineyard (Lucy & Robby) were having a get-together at their house & invited us over. They had previously stayed at the same hostel with everyone else too, but were lucky enough to find a great deal staying in a house nearby. A really nice rich woman who lives in Waiheke apparently owns 5 properties & lets backpackers stay in this one for $70 to $85 a week, which is much cheaper than any hostel. The house is on a huge property surrounded by vineyards, orchards, hills, and has a great outside deck complete with a foosball table. So, a group of us walked over there with some wine & beer in hand. When we walked in, there was a guy who also lived there that didn't work the vineyards, so the group from the hostel didn't know him & were doing introductions. I was shocked, however, to realize that I recognized him immediately; it was Danny from Missouri who Sontsa, Brigita & I had met in Auckland our first week in NZ two and half months ago! It is soo crazy how you run into people multiple times while you're traveling around this country. I caught up with Danny a bit, and had a really fun night hanging out with him, Greg, Robby, Manuel, Sebastian, Fred, Lucy, and two other guys that were there, Carlos from Mexico & Andrew from Canada. Lucy was a trip...and that's all I'm going to say about that haha.
My favorite night, however, was the next night. Although Lucy, Robby & Danny have it really good living at the house they're in, Paulo has it even better. He works at a different vineyard than all the others & the owner of his vineyard has Paulo set up in a house with the owner's son and a few other people living there for FREE, with FREE internet. They even feed him! The only thing Paulo has to pay is $25 a week to go toward the food. So, our last night on the island, Paulo invited Greg & I over for a dinner at their house. Now, I first have to describe our trek (hike) to get to Paulo's house..oh my. Haha. Greg had told me in his French accent, "Paulo lives just around the corner..not far." So, we start walking at about 6:45 pm when it is already practically pitch black outside. We turn some corners & get to the top of this hill. Looking down, all you see is what seems like acres of olive tree orchards and vineyards. I asked where Paulo's house was from there, and Greg pointed to a small yellow light in the far off distance and matter-of-factly said "That's Paulo's house." Ha! Our definitions of 'around the corner' are apparently a little different. =)
So, we headed down the steep hill, walked through these lines of olive trees in the dark, across this little bridge where I saw a rat the size of a small cat, through some vineyards, and finally reached the house. I swear...everything in NZ is an experiene haha. When we got to the house, we met the vineyard owner's son Sam, his girlfriend Michelle from Canada, Scully another local Kiwi, and Elliott from Canada. Andrew was also there who we had met the night before. It was a blast! Paulo, Sam & Michelle cooked a wonderful meal for us all. We had bruschetta with bacon for an appetizer. Then, steaks, potatoes, and bread for our main course. We also had a couple of different red wines to enjoy with our meal. These wines came from particularly special vineyards though--Te Motu, the vineyard Sam's dad owns where Paulo works, and Chateau de Roques, Greg's family's vineyard back in France. Greg had been carrying around his bottle of red wine from his home vineyard for months & finally opened it for that evening =) For dessert, we had some white chocolate and dessert wine. Mmm...it was all sooo good! I can definitely say that being in NZ and around Greg & Paulo has made me gain an appreciation for wine. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Waiheke and was a bit sad to leave so soon. I would have liked to spend more time with all of the new people I had met, but maybe I'll run into them again later =)
Cheers,
Ash
Greg and I arrived in Raglan last Wed, a place that can properly be described as a cozy little surf town with a really relaxed vibe to it. Walking around town you see many surfer dudes and chicks with their long hair, board shorts, and flip flops. The hostel we stayed at was great--hammocks everywhere, a jacuzzi, a small sauna, free kayaks, and free bikes. The people at the hostel were pretty sweet too. The jacuzzi stopped working for a couple of days when we were there, but that didn't stop our fellow backpackers from enjoying it. They just started filling up big pots of boiling water from the kitchen and dumping it in the jacuzzi to warm up the water haha. Love it. We stayed there for 5 nights, mostly just chilled out around the hostel and cooked some really tasty meals. In the course of our stay there, Greg officially accomplished the impossible: he taught me how to cook! I know....believe me, I am just as shocked as you are. =) Turns out that cooking is not as difficult as I always made it out to be---it just involves entirely too many dishes haha. But when you are a backpacker, you have the time to make a nice meal, enjoy, and clean up afterward without having to worry about being rushed or anything. So, it is well worth the effort.
For those of you who know me well, you will remember that I have avoided eating most red meat for about 9 years now. Well, the first night I met back up with Greg in Auckland, he brought steaks with him to cook us for dinner. Of course, I wasn't about to be like "Umm....yeah, I'm not eating that." So, I was a trooper and put my red meat issues aside. Greg prepared the steaks for us with some potatoes & it was DELICIOUS! Since then, I have eaten A LOT of steak...and will continue to do so haha. In NZ, you can get a package of 2 good steaks for $4.00 in the supermarket,then add a couple of fresh onions and peppers (or capsicums as they are called in NZ) and potatoes for a couple more dollars. By the end of it, you can have a nice home-cooked steak meal for two at the low cost of about $7.00 total. Not too shabby, eh? A guy staying at our hostel in Raglan told Greg & I one evening that our dinner was the best meal he had seen cooked in that kitchen all night. Never thought I would hear something like that even remotely directed at me! Haha.
We did have a couple non-lazy days in Raglan as well. One afternoon, we rented out a double-kayak and went kayaking in the Tasman Sea for a few hours. It was really great! Before then, I had only ever been kayaking in springs that had no waves & that you mainly just moved forward with the current. The Tasman Sea was a bit different---small constant waves and a strong current that we had to paddle against at times. Awesome workout though! I may be skinny, but I don't think my legs, arms, and shoulders have ever been so strong =). We first kayaked to an area not far from our hostel where there were rock formations called "Pancake Rocks." As the name describes, they kind of looked like tons of small pancake-shaped rocks stacked all on top of each other. So, we kayaked all around and imbetween the rocks and took some pictures. It was sweet. The water was a really gorgeous turquoise too.
Then, we headed on to one of the many green hills in front of us so we could have a picnic. After some hardcore paddling, we got to our (Greg's) chosen hill and docked the kayak onto some rocks. I have mentioned before that Greg is like a monkey when it comes to exploring spots in NZ...well, our kayaking day was no different. He wanted to go to the top of the hill, so we climbed our way through long, thick grass up a steep incline, having to take our shoes off along the way because it had recently rained and the grass was too slippery for our inappropriate footwear. Finally, after a long trek, we reached the top of the hill, barefoot and red-faced. The wind was soo strong and cold, but the view was wonderful. After taking a few pictures, we walked back down about 30 feet and found a spot away from the wind between some rocks & had our picnic. No weird food this time---just sandwiches =) After our picnic, we hiked our way back down to the kayak & set back off on the Tasman toward the hostel. It was another great day in NZ.
The next day, we decided to walk down to one of the Raglan beaches to go watch the surfers. I know I said that Raglan was small (and it is), but like most cities in NZ, it is just big enough that it is so much better to have a car to properly explore it. We started our walk following a sign to the beach that said "Whale Bay - 8 km." So, after almost an hour and a half of walking & with absolutely no more signs pointing the way to the beach, we came across this park that had a bunch of different walking trails in it, including one that said "Manui Reserve (Beach)." Naturally, we took the beach trail in hopes of finally reaching our destination. We followed the trail for about 15 minutes, then all of a sudden, we came to a pasture with some huge creepy cows & saw this really small wooden posting in the shape of a makeshift arrow that said "Manui Reserve." The tricky part is that the arrow pointed in the direction of a hilly pasture that was surrounded with a small electric fence directly next to the cow pasture that had about 15 massive cows in it intensely staring us down.
Plus, because the pasture we were apparently supposed to go through was hilly, you couldn't see much of the pasture to see if there was anything in it...you know, like a raging mad bull! Adding to my concern, Greg was wearing red haha. Anyway, Greg convinced me it was fine and not to worry. We climbed over the electric fence & headed across the pasture, being watched by the neighboring cows the whole time. We went over the last hill in the pasture, and to my amazement, we could actually see the beach! Only in NZ would there be a trail like that! We climbed back over the electric fence and headed down the hill to the beach to watch the surfers. Sadly, after all that, the beach we reached was only for beginners. So, we sat down and watched about 30-40 newbies sit (not surf) in the water with their boards haha. Oh well; it was a pretty walk all the same. We only stayed for about 20 minutes, then repated our long trek back to the hostel. I really liked Raglan though...definitely somewhere I wouldn't mind visiting again.
Cheers,
Ash
