Hi everyone! I'm back from my adventure to the North Island! I reside in the south east region of the south island, so this was (probably) my only opportunity to hop up north and explore. And boy did I see a lot! I visited every dot on this map, along with Caitlin and our friend Miriam. Some days were great and others tested my patience, but I really think it was a successful vacation!
On Wednesday the 19th, I flew from Dunedin to Auckland. Caitlin and Miriam both had obligations on Thursday so I had the night to myself. I arrived to Auckland around 6:30 and took a 40 minute bus ride to the hostel. As we drove we passed a ton of little Asian takeaway (aka food to-go) places. I initially thought we were driving through some sort of Chinatown-esque part of town, but since NZ is so close to Asia there's a lot of Asian influence everywhere. There's definitely no shortage of Chinese, Japanese and Indian food in Auckland!
After studying my map meticulously, I got off the bus on Queen St and walked confidently in the direction of my hostel. I got a little confused, though, because it was nowhere to be found. I walked down a huge hill, all the way back up the hill, then down and back up, then down, then back up one more time before I realized that I had to turn off Queen St onto a little side alleyway. (Phew!) I finally arrived to my hostel around 8pm, hungry and exhausted. I went to a little takeaway place and got a stomachache which didn't help my mood, so I decided to just go to bed. I was asleep by 9:30!
The next morning, I took a trip to the Sky Tower. This 328m tower is the highest man-made structure in the southern hemisphere! The observation level is 190m up. I'm pretty much terrified of heights so I had my eyes squeezed shut on the elevator ride. Once I got up to the top, though, it was pretty cool. It rains a LOT in NZ so I was lucky to have such a clear day to see the city!
While I was up there, two people bungee jumped off the side of the building. It was fun to watch, but it made my palms sweat just watching them, so I decided to save that for another time ;)
After studying my map meticulously, I got off the bus on Queen St and walked confidently in the direction of my hostel. I got a little confused, though, because it was nowhere to be found. I walked down a huge hill, all the way back up the hill, then down and back up, then down, then back up one more time before I realized that I had to turn off Queen St onto a little side alleyway. (Phew!) I finally arrived to my hostel around 8pm, hungry and exhausted. I went to a little takeaway place and got a stomachache which didn't help my mood, so I decided to just go to bed. I was asleep by 9:30!
The next morning, I took a trip to the Sky Tower. This 328m tower is the highest man-made structure in the southern hemisphere! The observation level is 190m up. I'm pretty much terrified of heights so I had my eyes squeezed shut on the elevator ride. Once I got up to the top, though, it was pretty cool. It rains a LOT in NZ so I was lucky to have such a clear day to see the city!
While I was up there, two people bungee jumped off the side of the building. It was fun to watch, but it made my palms sweat just watching them, so I decided to save that for another time ;)
By the time I came back down to the ground, it had started raining so I couldn't have timed that better. I stopped for lunch at a little sushi restaurant, then I walked around the harbor and watched some ferries come and go. By mid-afternoon it started raining quite hard, so I ducked into a mall and walked around there for a while.
I went back to my hostel to wait for Miriam and Caitlin to arrive. Miriam took a different flight than Caitlin and didn't arrive to Auckland until after midnight, so Caitlin and I headed to the Mexican Café for dinner. It was a little pricy but so worth it.
The next morning, the three of us went on a hike to Mt Eden. There was more of a crater than a mountain so it wasn't so much of a vertical endeavour as a long walk, but it made for pretty cool pictures of the city!
I went back to my hostel to wait for Miriam and Caitlin to arrive. Miriam took a different flight than Caitlin and didn't arrive to Auckland until after midnight, so Caitlin and I headed to the Mexican Café for dinner. It was a little pricy but so worth it.
The next morning, the three of us went on a hike to Mt Eden. There was more of a crater than a mountain so it wasn't so much of a vertical endeavour as a long walk, but it made for pretty cool pictures of the city!
(That tall thing is the Sky Tower)
After Mt Eden, we headed back to city center. Then we decided to go to Waiheke Island! See the orange dot called B in my map - this was about a 40 minute ferry ride. It was stunning. It doesn't hurt that it was sunny and kind of warm, too :)
After Mt Eden, we headed back to city center. Then we decided to go to Waiheke Island! See the orange dot called B in my map - this was about a 40 minute ferry ride. It was stunning. It doesn't hurt that it was sunny and kind of warm, too :)
After Waiheke Island, Miriam headed over to the Sky Tower and Caitlin and I went back to the hostel to make ourselves dinner: we had chicken, broccoli and sweet potatoes with peanut butter. A pretty awesome meal after such a busy day!
The next morning we bussed to Matamata (marker labeled C) at 8 am. We had a little trouble finding the bus stop, but luckily we made it with a few minutes to spare so we were fine! We got to Matamata at 11:15. Our accommodation for the night was in Te Aroha. In retrospect we should've looked up how far Te Aroha was from Matamata. Because it's definitely not walking distance. We asked the woman at the information site to call a taxi for us... there's one taxi in Matamata. No, not one taxi company. Just one taxi. The line was busy. So we went and found lunch, came back and asked her to call again. Still no answer. So she recommeded that we just hitch hike to Te Aroha!
Okay so I'm sort of a goody two shoes. I don't do things like hitchhike. I don't get into strangers' cars. But here I was, sticking my thumb out on the side of the road. I was terrified, but also internally laughing at the whole situation. I'm back in Dunedin now so obviously everything went fine! The hitchhike culture is really different here compared to the US. I'd never do it in the US and I hope to never do it again, but I'd definitely prefer to do it here in NZ over anywhere else.
It took three separate drivers to get us to our destination but we finally made it! We stayed in a holiday park in a little camper fan. Running water was only in the bathroom, not in our camper, and soap didn't exist. Heat/power/WiFi were luxuries that we got for a few hours before losing them. There was a zip line on the holiday park's land that all three of us went on:
The next morning we bussed to Matamata (marker labeled C) at 8 am. We had a little trouble finding the bus stop, but luckily we made it with a few minutes to spare so we were fine! We got to Matamata at 11:15. Our accommodation for the night was in Te Aroha. In retrospect we should've looked up how far Te Aroha was from Matamata. Because it's definitely not walking distance. We asked the woman at the information site to call a taxi for us... there's one taxi in Matamata. No, not one taxi company. Just one taxi. The line was busy. So we went and found lunch, came back and asked her to call again. Still no answer. So she recommeded that we just hitch hike to Te Aroha!
Okay so I'm sort of a goody two shoes. I don't do things like hitchhike. I don't get into strangers' cars. But here I was, sticking my thumb out on the side of the road. I was terrified, but also internally laughing at the whole situation. I'm back in Dunedin now so obviously everything went fine! The hitchhike culture is really different here compared to the US. I'd never do it in the US and I hope to never do it again, but I'd definitely prefer to do it here in NZ over anywhere else.
It took three separate drivers to get us to our destination but we finally made it! We stayed in a holiday park in a little camper fan. Running water was only in the bathroom, not in our camper, and soap didn't exist. Heat/power/WiFi were luxuries that we got for a few hours before losing them. There was a zip line on the holiday park's land that all three of us went on:
That was super fun. Somehow I got *ahem* stuck... the tail rope got stuck to the pole at the end so I was briefly suspended in the air almost horizontally. That was scary but thankfully Miriam came to the rescue and was able to unhook the rope! I got a really vibrant bruise on my thigh from the rope, but ziplining was a great way to unwind from the earlier stress!
That night we went in the hot tub. A rather threatening-looking (seriously) water bug was swimming around and the water was a little questionably cloudy, so we didn't stay in there long at all. Life is an adventure, right?
Sunday morning, we woke up and had to make it back to Matamata to catch a bus. Long story short, we ended up hitching a ride to Morrinsville, missed our bus by two minutes, found another bus and rode from there to Rotorua, then later learned that the original bus that we missed was actually delayed by 3 hours. So it worked out in our favor!
Rotorua is described as the greatest geothermal area on earth. It also has tons of volcanic enzymes in the soil which cause trees to grow twice as fast as in the northern hemisphere. I didn't notice any crazily tall trees, but they were probably all tall for their age! We went to a little park and saw some boiling mud... this reminds me of the boiling mud at Russia's Grizzly Coast in the MN Zoo - when I used to work there, kids would always comment that their favorite part of the zoo was the "bubble mud". Well, I saw "bubble mud" in real life! Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so we turned back and went to our hostel for the night.
The next morning we went to Hobbiton. We left our hostel at 8 am and took a bus to Middle Earth(!). Actually, Hobbiton's set was built into the middle of a farm where they also raise 13,000 sheep. It's early spring here, so there were little lambs everywhere. That was pretty magical :)
That night we went in the hot tub. A rather threatening-looking (seriously) water bug was swimming around and the water was a little questionably cloudy, so we didn't stay in there long at all. Life is an adventure, right?
Sunday morning, we woke up and had to make it back to Matamata to catch a bus. Long story short, we ended up hitching a ride to Morrinsville, missed our bus by two minutes, found another bus and rode from there to Rotorua, then later learned that the original bus that we missed was actually delayed by 3 hours. So it worked out in our favor!
Rotorua is described as the greatest geothermal area on earth. It also has tons of volcanic enzymes in the soil which cause trees to grow twice as fast as in the northern hemisphere. I didn't notice any crazily tall trees, but they were probably all tall for their age! We went to a little park and saw some boiling mud... this reminds me of the boiling mud at Russia's Grizzly Coast in the MN Zoo - when I used to work there, kids would always comment that their favorite part of the zoo was the "bubble mud". Well, I saw "bubble mud" in real life! Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so we turned back and went to our hostel for the night.
The next morning we went to Hobbiton. We left our hostel at 8 am and took a bus to Middle Earth(!). Actually, Hobbiton's set was built into the middle of a farm where they also raise 13,000 sheep. It's early spring here, so there were little lambs everywhere. That was pretty magical :)
Here are some of the many pictures I took - you may wonder why I took a picture of an old fence post? Well, this wood is actually about seven years old. It was aged with vinegar, then the lichen growths were created from a mix of glue and paint. I was blown away with how much detail there was throughout the set!
I learned a few other fun facts about the movies... when Gandalf hits his head in Bag End (Bilbo' house), that was not acting! And when Gandalf and Bilbo are smoking in the sunset, it's actually a sun rise. They had to wake up really really early to get into costume and shoot that in reverse!
I learned a few other fun facts about the movies... when Gandalf hits his head in Bag End (Bilbo' house), that was not acting! And when Gandalf and Bilbo are smoking in the sunset, it's actually a sun rise. They had to wake up really really early to get into costume and shoot that in reverse!
After the morning's adventure in Middle Earth, we came back to Rotorua and walked around and saw some more geothermal sights. Then we went to see Southpaw (movie) to kill a few hours, because we had a bus ride that night at 11pm!
We got on the bus and I tried hard to sleep. Unfortunately that didn't happen. My Fitbit data told me that I got about 2h20m of sleep that night. Oof. But we got off the bus at 6:30am in Wellington, the capital of NZ! We dropped our backpacks off at our hostel then went to Drexel's for breakfast. It was awesome. We were all super hungry, so a huge breakfast of eggs/bacon/hash browns/waffles/coffee tasted pretty great.
The weather was icky yet again so we decided to go to a museum. The first museum we went to was interactive and a little loud for our sleepy selves, so we walked half a block to another museum, the Te Papa. This is a free museum and if you ever find yourself in Wellington, I HIGHLY recommend it. There were lots of cool things to see and they had huge wings of the museum about NZ wildlife, NZ culture and NZ history. I really enjoyed it!
We got on the bus and I tried hard to sleep. Unfortunately that didn't happen. My Fitbit data told me that I got about 2h20m of sleep that night. Oof. But we got off the bus at 6:30am in Wellington, the capital of NZ! We dropped our backpacks off at our hostel then went to Drexel's for breakfast. It was awesome. We were all super hungry, so a huge breakfast of eggs/bacon/hash browns/waffles/coffee tasted pretty great.
The weather was icky yet again so we decided to go to a museum. The first museum we went to was interactive and a little loud for our sleepy selves, so we walked half a block to another museum, the Te Papa. This is a free museum and if you ever find yourself in Wellington, I HIGHLY recommend it. There were lots of cool things to see and they had huge wings of the museum about NZ wildlife, NZ culture and NZ history. I really enjoyed it!
That first picture shows two birds called moas, which are extinct flightless birds. I wish I had gotten a better picture so you could see how strangely proportioned they are, but I'll blame it on lack of sleep. Their bodies look like a mix between a two-legged giraffe and an ostrich!
After getting stared at at a Chinese restaurant during lunch (but hey, I successfully ate my whole meal with chopsticks!), we went to our hostel for a shower and to relax. My travel book listed Wellington's cable car as a must-see, so we went out for frozen yogurt (yoghurt, if we're spelling the NZ way) then walked to the cable car. It was, well, it was a cable car. It was definitely not as exciting as the book made it sound. It seems like an efficient way for people who live up the mountain to get into the city, but I guess I wouldn't consider it a tourist attraction. The fro-yo was probably the best part of the night :)
Then it was Wednesday already, the day that Caitlin and I had to leave! (Miriam stayed in the north island a few more days then meandered down the south island back to Dunedin.) We spent the morning in the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Holy pretty.
After getting stared at at a Chinese restaurant during lunch (but hey, I successfully ate my whole meal with chopsticks!), we went to our hostel for a shower and to relax. My travel book listed Wellington's cable car as a must-see, so we went out for frozen yogurt (yoghurt, if we're spelling the NZ way) then walked to the cable car. It was, well, it was a cable car. It was definitely not as exciting as the book made it sound. It seems like an efficient way for people who live up the mountain to get into the city, but I guess I wouldn't consider it a tourist attraction. The fro-yo was probably the best part of the night :)
Then it was Wednesday already, the day that Caitlin and I had to leave! (Miriam stayed in the north island a few more days then meandered down the south island back to Dunedin.) We spent the morning in the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Holy pretty.
After the Botans, Caitlin and I were off to the Wellington Airport. They had a HUGE statue of Gollum, so Typical Tourist Betsy took a picture:
And now I'm back in Dunedin! I think I have a sinus infection - all the moving around finally caught up with me. Caitlin and I rented a car on Friday and drove around the Otago Peninsula which was a lot of fun!
And now it's Sunday afternoon here, and I have school tomorrow. It was really nice to have a week off and explore this beautiful country I'm calling home! But it's back to reality so soon.
Have a great week everyone!
Have a great week everyone!