SO the car didn't sell but the good news was that Kate Schafer and her boyfriend BJ managed to get off Great barrier island- something we thought would never happen- and we gave it to them for its next set of adventure.
Cassy and rich got us drunk on sat, or really it was just that the horse races were BYO so it was all down hill from there. After the races we went to the blues game which none of us really remember very well, but i know it was good and that they came back to make it a five point game after being behind by like 30 points. the rest of the day was mostly a hang over.
having nine people in the apartment for two days turned out to be fun, probably because it was only for two days, but having other travelers around gives some level of normalcy to life, or at least made us feel less like vagabonds.
the rest of our time in NZ was spent mostly hanging out enjoying being in an apartment with friends, cooking, watching old weeds and simpsons episodes on rich's computer and finally seeing Kate after being in the same country for almost a month.
They dropped us off at the airport on thurs night at 9pm and we reached LAX Thurs. morning some six hours before we left.
Landing on American soil felt almost as good as getting through customs and finding our luggage in less than 15 minutes. Our first meal back was tex mex at Chevy's followed by 12 hours of straight sleep, well Aaron is going on 14.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Northland
After two quiet days in Auckland Aaron and I decided to have one last trip before selling the car, so we got up Tuesday morning and headed for the Northland. The Northland is the long stretch of twin coast beaches north of Auckland and its beautiful. We went up on a hot sunny day and planned to stay there laying around on various beaches until Friday, but lucky us a storm blew in Wednesday morning and we only lasted out there until the wind kept us up all Wednesday night and headed back to Rich and Cassy's Thursday morning. There were good parts in between though.
Tuesday we drove all the way up to the Bay of Islands which turned out to be a longer drive than we expected, but beautiful winding through rolling hills and coastline. The towns around the bay of islands are the most populated and touristy of the Northland. The bay itself is just as it says, big and full of little islands and the marina was busy with ferries and helicopters taking loads of people out to the different islands for swimming, fishing, bird watching and other tours. We explored the downtown area but decided not to bother with ferries and drive further up the coast instead to find a less populated area. We found this camp site about half way up the east side of the twin coasts called Rarawa right on the beach. The sand was bright white and velvety soft and the water was crystal clear with nothing in it except for the odd shell. The dunes were marked off because several families of oyster catches were nesting, something we didn't notice until one of them came flying at our heads screaming, once we noticed we enjoyed looking at the chicks from a distance. When the sun began to set the clouds were bright purple and orange and they reflected in the long tide of the beach like a mirror. It was probably one of the best photo opportunities we have had this whole trip so it was a good thing we forgot the camera. Oh well. The water was so warm and clear though we walked around in it until the sun went down. The tides are so long and flat here that you can walk out a really good distance into the water and have it barely reach your knees.
We got up the next morning to go swimming but the first gust of the storm were blowing clouds in and even the warm water wasn't enough to get us in. Instead we drove up to the cape, Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga was originally important to the Mauri because it is the place spirits fly from on their way home to the place of their ancestors. Later a Mauri man looking for enlightenment went there to hear the spirits leaving and made a prophecy that one day a light would shine on the world from that point, and two hundred years later or so a lighthouse was built there. There are also crazy views of amazingly long beaches and sand dunes and straight out from the light house you can see the swirls and torments of water where the Tasman Sea collides with the Pacific ocean.
The sand dunes looked so fun from the distance that we drove out to them next. After crossing a stream and climbing the steep side of the huge dune that blocks the rest, we were sand blasted from head to toe so we ran across to get a view of the ocean and then jumped back down the side to escape the wind.
We realized that a lot of 4 wheel drive cars had gotten to the sad dues by driving along 90mile beach, which is more like 65miles long, because its faster at low tide so we decided our next stop should be there. The water was clear and beautiful like Rarawa except it was mainly used for fishing and so many people were driving up and down looking for good fishing spots and four wheeling that it felt more like a long wet highway than a beach. Rich and Cassy had said that if we drove down to the town at the southern point it was much nicer. There were still a lot of cars but the weather had warmed up enough that we got about a half hour of body surfing in before it started raining.
We decided to try another beach camping area that night because it looked nice, but ended up driving much further than we thought we would have to and when we got there found out that the water was contaminated and you couldn't swim in it. That was also when the storm really started to roll in and we were kept up all night by loud swirling wind that pulled our tent stakes out of the ground making out tent breath around us with the wind waking us up every half hour or so.
Oh well, at least it was nice for two days, I just wish we could have taken advantage of some of those beaches a little more.
Tuesday we drove all the way up to the Bay of Islands which turned out to be a longer drive than we expected, but beautiful winding through rolling hills and coastline. The towns around the bay of islands are the most populated and touristy of the Northland. The bay itself is just as it says, big and full of little islands and the marina was busy with ferries and helicopters taking loads of people out to the different islands for swimming, fishing, bird watching and other tours. We explored the downtown area but decided not to bother with ferries and drive further up the coast instead to find a less populated area. We found this camp site about half way up the east side of the twin coasts called Rarawa right on the beach. The sand was bright white and velvety soft and the water was crystal clear with nothing in it except for the odd shell. The dunes were marked off because several families of oyster catches were nesting, something we didn't notice until one of them came flying at our heads screaming, once we noticed we enjoyed looking at the chicks from a distance. When the sun began to set the clouds were bright purple and orange and they reflected in the long tide of the beach like a mirror. It was probably one of the best photo opportunities we have had this whole trip so it was a good thing we forgot the camera. Oh well. The water was so warm and clear though we walked around in it until the sun went down. The tides are so long and flat here that you can walk out a really good distance into the water and have it barely reach your knees.
We got up the next morning to go swimming but the first gust of the storm were blowing clouds in and even the warm water wasn't enough to get us in. Instead we drove up to the cape, Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga was originally important to the Mauri because it is the place spirits fly from on their way home to the place of their ancestors. Later a Mauri man looking for enlightenment went there to hear the spirits leaving and made a prophecy that one day a light would shine on the world from that point, and two hundred years later or so a lighthouse was built there. There are also crazy views of amazingly long beaches and sand dunes and straight out from the light house you can see the swirls and torments of water where the Tasman Sea collides with the Pacific ocean.
The sand dunes looked so fun from the distance that we drove out to them next. After crossing a stream and climbing the steep side of the huge dune that blocks the rest, we were sand blasted from head to toe so we ran across to get a view of the ocean and then jumped back down the side to escape the wind.
We realized that a lot of 4 wheel drive cars had gotten to the sad dues by driving along 90mile beach, which is more like 65miles long, because its faster at low tide so we decided our next stop should be there. The water was clear and beautiful like Rarawa except it was mainly used for fishing and so many people were driving up and down looking for good fishing spots and four wheeling that it felt more like a long wet highway than a beach. Rich and Cassy had said that if we drove down to the town at the southern point it was much nicer. There were still a lot of cars but the weather had warmed up enough that we got about a half hour of body surfing in before it started raining.
We decided to try another beach camping area that night because it looked nice, but ended up driving much further than we thought we would have to and when we got there found out that the water was contaminated and you couldn't swim in it. That was also when the storm really started to roll in and we were kept up all night by loud swirling wind that pulled our tent stakes out of the ground making out tent breath around us with the wind waking us up every half hour or so.
Oh well, at least it was nice for two days, I just wish we could have taken advantage of some of those beaches a little more.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
We left Art Deco weekend with a serious itch to do another backpacking trip so we headed straight to lake Waikaremoana. The drive was one of those two hour windy dirt roads that likely began as a logging road and dropped us off at a harbor with a holiday park. That night I thought the wind was going to blow our tent into the water with us in it and even after putting the rain fly on at 3:30am to try and soften it, the sound kept us up most of the night. The next morning we boarded a water taxi with all the people that were to be our bunk mates for the next three days and headed to the start of the track. The first day appears to be a short one, only 8km or so, but it is straight up a hill and took us four hours to reach the summit. 
Once on the top though you are walking along sandstone cliffs looking down on the whole lake, then from the hut you can see the lake on one side and the ocean in Hawks bay -Napier- on the other. It was really spectacular! We stayed in the hut with three girls probably a few years younger than us, a man from Auckland, an Australian couple that avidly hike in retirement, an older pair of ex-palm ladies who left their husbands in the camper van while they took off on this trip, and a lake 20's IT guy from DC on his first overnight tramp. It was quite the crew. All us young ones got up around 9 or 10 the next morning because the second days hike was only supposed to take four hours, and everyone else had gone. It turned out to be almost entirely downhill to the hut in a beautiful bay with a beach, and we ended up reaching it much faster. It rained pretty hard the rest of the afternoon though so it was good we decided not to press on, however that poor group of girls had decided to camp so they were stuck in the rain. Day three was a long one, we decided to finish instead of take four days and pay he extra $50 in hut fees. It was 8 hours of undulating hills- up and over, down to a beach, up and over down to a river crossing etc. with views the whole way, birds everywhere and no other people in sight. We reached our taxi pick up spot an hour and a half ahead of schedule and before we could even think about how to spend the time, a nice retired kiwi couple on a sailboat docked near by and invited us aboard for tea and biscuits. It was one of those moments where nothing better could have possibly happened- hot chocolate with chocolate biscuits, boots off relaxing with great company. Before we knew it our water taxi arrived and we were back to the car and off to Gisbourne for the night.
In Gisbourne we stayed at this hippie compound/holiday park on the beach with community gardens, compost for the pigs and camp sites as close to the beach as you can get with out getting wet.
The following day was a driving day- we explored the whole East Cape, the farthest east point, Hicks bay, a whole series of beautiful beaches and hill top views. Somehow that was more exhausting than than the tramp so we headed in early and camped by a lake in Cambridge on the road to Hamilton. As luck would have it this campsite was also NZ National Rowing Headquarters and they were preparing for a high school rowing regatta. Aaron was like a kid in a candy store looking at all the crews, their equipment and watching them practice. I don't think he was very impressed, but it made for a fun evening and following morning.
Saturday morning we drive to Hamilton and met up with Daniel French, a fellow camp councilor who just got to NZ about a week ago for a semester at Waikato University. He showed us around campus and downtown, and we went out for Fish and Chips in the rain. It rained all day really, harder than anything we had seen our whole time in NZ, but for Aaron it meant going back to the dorms and watching an NBA game so it wasn't a total loss. The real fun was that night when we got student $10 tickets for the Waikato Cheifs super 14 game against the SA Sharks. The rain stopped and we got a double rainbow over the field starting right below the tower holding the mascot with a chainsaw. The sharks totally dominated until the Cheifs finally decided to start playing the last fifteen minutes or so to make it a close game, and they really should have at least tied too, but the ref called two of their tries back in the last ten minutes of the game and they just couldn't put in a third.
No camping for us that night, we made it all the way back to Rich and Cassy's in the Newmarket neighborhood of Auckland.
Once on the top though you are walking along sandstone cliffs looking down on the whole lake, then from the hut you can see the lake on one side and the ocean in Hawks bay -Napier- on the other. It was really spectacular! We stayed in the hut with three girls probably a few years younger than us, a man from Auckland, an Australian couple that avidly hike in retirement, an older pair of ex-palm ladies who left their husbands in the camper van while they took off on this trip, and a lake 20's IT guy from DC on his first overnight tramp. It was quite the crew. All us young ones got up around 9 or 10 the next morning because the second days hike was only supposed to take four hours, and everyone else had gone. It turned out to be almost entirely downhill to the hut in a beautiful bay with a beach, and we ended up reaching it much faster. It rained pretty hard the rest of the afternoon though so it was good we decided not to press on, however that poor group of girls had decided to camp so they were stuck in the rain. Day three was a long one, we decided to finish instead of take four days and pay he extra $50 in hut fees. It was 8 hours of undulating hills- up and over, down to a beach, up and over down to a river crossing etc. with views the whole way, birds everywhere and no other people in sight. We reached our taxi pick up spot an hour and a half ahead of schedule and before we could even think about how to spend the time, a nice retired kiwi couple on a sailboat docked near by and invited us aboard for tea and biscuits. It was one of those moments where nothing better could have possibly happened- hot chocolate with chocolate biscuits, boots off relaxing with great company. Before we knew it our water taxi arrived and we were back to the car and off to Gisbourne for the night.In Gisbourne we stayed at this hippie compound/holiday park on the beach with community gardens, compost for the pigs and camp sites as close to the beach as you can get with out getting wet.
The following day was a driving day- we explored the whole East Cape, the farthest east point, Hicks bay, a whole series of beautiful beaches and hill top views. Somehow that was more exhausting than than the tramp so we headed in early and camped by a lake in Cambridge on the road to Hamilton. As luck would have it this campsite was also NZ National Rowing Headquarters and they were preparing for a high school rowing regatta. Aaron was like a kid in a candy store looking at all the crews, their equipment and watching them practice. I don't think he was very impressed, but it made for a fun evening and following morning.Saturday morning we drive to Hamilton and met up with Daniel French, a fellow camp councilor who just got to NZ about a week ago for a semester at Waikato University. He showed us around campus and downtown, and we went out for Fish and Chips in the rain. It rained all day really, harder than anything we had seen our whole time in NZ, but for Aaron it meant going back to the dorms and watching an NBA game so it wasn't a total loss. The real fun was that night when we got student $10 tickets for the Waikato Cheifs super 14 game against the SA Sharks. The rain stopped and we got a double rainbow over the field starting right below the tower holding the mascot with a chainsaw. The sharks totally dominated until the Cheifs finally decided to start playing the last fifteen minutes or so to make it a close game, and they really should have at least tied too, but the ref called two of their tries back in the last ten minutes of the game and they just couldn't put in a third.
No camping for us that night, we made it all the way back to Rich and Cassy's in the Newmarket neighborhood of Auckland.
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