Sunday, February 21, 2010
Slept in and Josni came in my room to store her bags and hang out. She still doesn’t have a place to live and has to leave Nexus today since everyone else is moving in, so she’s staying in my room while I’m gone. Went to get a comforter at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (might as well since Nexus will be paying us back for lenins), then we went up to campus for internet. We were heading back down for dinner, but ran into a few people at the top of Hell’s Staircase who said there was free pizza for Nexus residents. There are only about 70 people staying in Nexus. We had been tricked into cheesy ice breaker games. After we finally got the pizza, all the international students snuck out, but two accidentally stayed and later reported the horrors of the freshman orientation week intro.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Got up early and caught the 9 am inter-city bus to Auckland. Had a lunch break at Flat Hills, and a dinner break at another town later on. Got in to Auckland at 8 pm and checked in to Nomads Backpackers.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Had breakfast at the French deli again, and got on the very crowded 8 am Stray bus. It’s a bus-van that holds 24 people and has a trailer for luggage. Went over the Auckland harbor bridge and had a tree-hugging rest stop. If you hug and kiss this 2,000 year old Kauri tree, it will rain in the evening.
The Hugging Tree
Also stopped at Goat Island, NZs first national marine reserve, for a glass bottom boat tour that was included in our Stray bus passes. We circled the island and backed up into a little cave, and saw lots of snapper fish.
Went to Whangarei, Northlands largest city, for lunch. The final rest stop was at the Kawakawa toilets, Freidrich Hundertwasser’s last creation, and the only toilets in the world that has a brochure for it.
Hundertwasser's KawakawaToilets
Bay of Islands, Kiwi Island. See the Kiwi head?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Got up very early for the Dune Rider trip up to Cape Reinga. It was raining and cloudy but the driver said the weather is always different at the top of the island. Tea break at Tiapa Bay, then down to 90 Mile Beach, which is officially considered a national highway, but no insurance companies will cover you if something happens on it. 90 Mile Beach is actually only 64 miles long, and we drove 71 km (44 miles) of it. The waves were supposedly a lot smaller than usual. They have wild horses near the beach but we only saw some tracks from the morning.
90 Mile Beach
Then to the sand dunes for some dune surfing! Since it was raining very slightly off and on, the sand wasn’t too difficult to hike on, but it was still quite a struggle to get to the top of the 70 meter dunes (230 feet). And down we went on boogie boards.
The Dunes
Hiking up the dunes
Boogie boarding down
From there we continued up the rest of highway 1 to Cape Reinga. The water was an amazing blue and the fog was very thick at first, but burned off a little when we hiked down to the lighthouse where the Tasman Sea and Pacific ocean collide.
Cape Reinga
Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean
Heather and I at Cape Reinga
Next was a tour of Gumdiggers Park, an ancient buried Kauri tree forest. The park has some of the oldest wood and rarest orchids in the world. The theory is 45,000 years ago a tidal wave buried the Kauri forest in peat, which has preserved the wood, not petrifying it or letting it rot. The gum rush of Northland was much larger than the gold rush of the South Island, not many people know about the gumdiggers. Gum is the state of the tree sap before it becomes amber.
45,000 year old log
Huge tree trunk in Gumdiggers Park
After that we stopped at Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a large Kauri wood art gallery and store. Kauri is the oldest workable wood. In the center was a famous 30 ton log that had been carved into a staircase. Browsed the store while the driver washed the beach sand off the bus.
30 Ton Staircase
Wood Carvings
Stopped at the Mangonui Fish Shop for dinner, one of the best fish and chip places in the country. Bluenose was the fish of the day. The last stop was a photo opportunity in Kerikeri of the Old Stone Store, the oldest and first stone structure in NZ. After we got back I did some quick online research to see if we could make it up to Aroha Island to see wild Kiwi birds, but decided we didn’t have time.
Best Fish and Chips in NZ
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Hole in the rock tour day with Dolphin Discoveries. There was a triple rainbow over Paihia as we went to Russell to pick up more passengers. Not far into the journey we found a group of bottlenose dolphins. The crew kept commenting how surprisingly clear the water was in the bay today.
Tripple Rainbow
Bottlenose Dolphins
From there we went to drop off passengers at the Otehei Bay Resort, then an island with a lighthouse, and then to hole in the rock. Went through the hole and circled the island, then found a large group of common dolphin. They said it’s pretty rare to find both species in one trip, and the water was perfectly clear to watch them darting around the boat. Stopped at Otehei Bay Resort for a quick lunch break, then back to Paihia.
Hole in the Rock, you can see the boat before us just got through
Common Dolphin
Crystal clear water
Otehei Bay Resort
Caught the Stray Bus as soon as we landed and headed down to the Whangarei Native Bird Recovery Centre. Here we met Woof Woof, the talking Tui bird, and only permanent resident at the recovery centre. The Tui has two voice boxes so they can mimic a wide range of sounds. It took awhile for everyone to realize the scratchy radio was actually the bird talking. To me he sounds just like a ghost box.
Tui Bird
Two videos I took of the bird talking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXeTUKiNw6I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf4MKBN6p1k
They dropped Heather and I off at the i-site, and someone from the Whangarei Falls Holiday Park and Backpackers came to pick us up. We walked back up the street to the Tikipunga Bake House, which had the best meat pies we’ve had so far. From there we walked all the way down into town, only to discover everything had just closed. Took the bus back up and walked around Whangarei Falls, then back to the Backpackers.
Whangarei Falls
Friday, February 26, 2010
Slept in a bit then went back to the pie place for breakfast. Then headed out to Zion Wildlife Gardens. The tour went through the park around the 60 or so animals they have. First past a small group of breed of lions that don’t exist in the wild anymore, the black leopard, a very old baboon, a smaller cat, cheetahs (that you can pay extra for an encounter to hand feed and pet), a huge pen of lions (never seen white lions so white before!), pair of tigers, trio of white tigers, more lions, more lions, and Zion, the star of the park. He’s been in several commercials and TV shows, and was Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The tour guide was one of the trainers and talked a lot about his personal experiences with the animals.
A very happy sleeping lion.
I would have tried for a better photo, but shortly after I took this another male lion came over and sat on top of him. Then they both rolled over and fell asleep.
I would have tried for a better photo, but shortly after I took this another male lion came over and sat on top of him. Then they both rolled over and fell asleep.
Zion, star of the park
Went back to the i-site and caught the next Stray bus. Quick stop at Waipu Gorge Scenic Reserve for a few people to take a dip under the waterfall, then back to Auckland. Stopped at Nomads and had dinner at The White Lady, a nighttime hamburger trailer that has been here in Auckland since 1948. One night in 1998 when there was a power outage in Auckland was the only day it has ever been closed.
Waipu Gorge
Auckland
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Left early and stopped at a coffee shop for breakfast muffins, and went to the Sky Tower for the 7:45 am inter-city bus. This time we got a huge double decker bus. Lunch in Taupo, and dinner break in Flat Hills. Got back to Nexus just after 7 pm, and guess what we still don’t have? That’s right, internet. Surprise, surprise. The side of the building with Ethernet outlets in their rooms has net, but not our side. Eventually they’re going to get wireless, but they said only for the common area and not our individual rooms. We all got letters emphasizing how limited the bandwidth will be and saying we shouldn’t use the net for anything non-university related. I think everyone just laughed and threw them away. Josni still doesn’t have a place to live, so she’s still in my room and sleeping on the floor. The accommodation office put her at the bottom of the waiting list since they think she’s more capable of finding her own housing since she traveled halfway around the world. Interesting they would do that after promising housing for all international students, but they’re placing people who had a 1.5 hour commute to the Uni from home before her.
Huge intercity bus
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Rumor of an earthquake in Chile going around the flat, but how are we supposed to know anything with a sketchy TV and no internet? We found out when someone’s aunt called this morning and asked about it. Josni, Heather, and I went to the farmer’s market near Te Papa museum and the New World supermarket. It was ridiculously windy and cheap. The food was way less than anything in the grocery stores, so we’re all very happy the market is ever Sunday all year long. Stopped by the New World for the dairy before walking back to Nexus. Josni made guacamole from everything she got at the farmers market, then we went up to campus for internet. Back to Nexus and Heather left, then we went downstairs for free ice cream as an ending to orientation week.
Farmers Market
That's all for now! And remember, keep an eye on your David Hasselhoff Photos!
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