it’s been a while

I know I haven’t said anything about my travels for a long time. I’ll try to fill in the gaps in the next week or so.

After traveling around the North Island for a bit, I ended up in Napier. It’s in Hawke’s Bay, sort of in the middle of the East Coast of the North Island. I spent just under three months living and working there (living in a hostel; working in an Irish Pub). I loved most of the people and the bar I worked in, but sometimes had a bit of a hard time with living in a small town [pop: 45,000] without very much to do).

In March I went with some friends to an awesome festival - Wild Foods - on the west coast of the South Island. In April, I left Napier and did some traveling around the South Island that I’ll talk about in another post. In the end of April, I moved to Australia - two weeks in Melbourne before moving to Darwin, where I am now.

That’s the short version of what I’ve been up to. I promise to fill in details, bit-by-bit.

paihia

Spent about a week in Paihia. Spent allll my money.

I took a bus trip up to Cape Reinga. It’s gorgeous that far north. We drove up on Ninety Mile Beach. It’s just this beach that’s used as a highway at low tide. Really cool. Then we went sandboarding on some enormous dunes toward the end of the beach. Lots of fun, but climbing up them was brutal. We spent some time at the northernmost beach in NZ, swimming and having lunch, and then went to the Cape. It’s incredible to see the line in the water where Pacific meets Tasman. You can see why it’s considered sacred. We stopped for some fantastic fish and chips on the way back, haha.

I also went on an overnight cruise thing around the islands. It was probably the best thing I’ve done since being in NZ. We did a bit of fishing (I didn’t catch anything, haha), kayaking (night and day times), snorkeling (and collecting kina), walked around one of the islands, etc. I hand-fed a fish with some kina. It bit me when I wasn’t paying attention, haha. It was just a really cool trip. I do love being on boats and in the water.

— Randy Pausch (via creatingaquietmind)

gone north

I spent two weeks in Whitianga. Two lovely, relaxing weeks. Visited as many beaches as possible (Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove, Cooks Beach, Lonely Bay, Flaxmill Bay, Back Bay, Buffalo Beach, Otama, and one more I can’t remember the name of). Worked on my tan. Dug up pipis (likes mussel/clam things) and cooked them up for lunch one day.I felt like a proper hunter/gatherer haha.

I also got my Open Water Dive certificate! Had to do a test and four dives. Passed the test with a lovely 98% and spent both Saturday and Sunday diving. Shore diving and pool time on Saturday. Shore diving is weird. Kept thinking I was going to wipe out in the sand with all my gear on (I didn’t). Saw lots of fish. Got to touch one when my instructor grabbed it. Saw some sea slug things that I forget the name of —- really bright and colorful.

We went out on the boat on Sunday for a couple of dives out by one of the islands. Saw plenty more fish - snapper, black angelfish, many more I can’t remember the name of. Touched another one. Saw tons of crayfish (some of the other divers caught a couple). Eagle rays, a little moray eel in a crab pot. Went all the way down to 16 meters. It’s a bit weird because it’s all rock diving, which I haven’t done before (usually coral). And because we weren’t in the marine reserve we could touch things and open kina (sea urchin) for fish to eat, catch the crays, etc. I was asking about kina when we were up on the surface and of course got roped into trying some. Bleh. It’s like the fishy kind of mussel taste with a pile of salt all rolled into yellow mush. Apparently some people like it. Each to their own.

I got all my scuba skills anyway. Had a couple problems with buoyancy on one of the dives and totally don’t understand navigation, but whatever. It’s not like I can navigate when I’m on land either.

Left Whitianga on Monday. Spent the night in Whangarei. Not really a fan of it there. I might go back to do some diving at Poor Knights Island. Or I might just see if I can get to Tutukaka. Or I could just end up being out of money anyway. Distinct possibility.

Now I’m in Paihia. Nice little resort town. There’s a bit more here than in Whitianga in terms of shops and boat tour stuff, but less beaches (and less-nice ones). I’m thinking I’ll spend a day going up to Cape Reinga, just for the hell of it.

an update

So here I am in Whitianga - traveling again.

I got here Monday afternoon, after leaving Wellington on Sunday night. Such a long journey. Went to the beach for a bit, grocery store, etc, before passing out early. As it turns out, it’s pretty difficult to sleep on an overnight bus.

Tuesday the weather was terrible. Of course. One of the guys in the hostel had a car so four of us took the 309 road (scenic road) over to Coromandel Town. It’s a mostly-gravel road that goes through the mountains, which are wildlife preserves or something like that. It’s basically like driving through the jungle. In fact, we passed a big film crew by the Waiau waterfall making a green tea commercial. Weird, right? Bummed around Coromandel Town for a bit. Had a paua fritter for lunch. They’re the ones found in the pretty shells you see everywhere. It’s black and a member of the abalone family. Tastes a bit like a mussel/fish combo - but not overly strong.

On the drive back we nearly ran into a little herd of cows. Then stopped when we saw pigs everywhere. Turns out they belong to this guy Stephen who keeps them as pets. He’s got 44 adult pigs, 30-something babies, cows (the ones we nearly drove into), roosters, chickens. Super-friendly guy but a bit weird. As you can imagine by the fact that he has all these animals in some wild land with trailers and stuff. We did get to pet the pigs though and hold some of the really little ones — 17 days old! They’re adorable. We also stopped at a Kauri grove to poke around there. They’re awesome trees - and these ones were only 600 years old. They can get up to 4000.

A huge group of us from the hostel went to Hot Water Beach later that night. It’s basically a smaller part of this enormous beach with a hot water spring underneath. For two hours on either side of the low tide you can dig a hole and have it fill with hot water. Then you sit in said hole. So relaxing.

Yesterday I went windsurfing at one of the further-out bays. I think I did pretty well for myself by the end of it - going out far and coming back to nearly the same area I started (instead of being blown downwind). The instructor did take over for a little bit when I ended up out farrrr in the bay and it got too wavy for me to be able to sail properly in the direction I wanted. It’s safe to say that I hurt right now though. Haven’t used some of these muscles in ages, haha.

Today I think I’m going to Hahei.