Adventures In New Zealand, Part One

Leaving everyone in Singapore was very sad, but onwards we must go, and at least I had Aoife to keep me company.  Some of us were soon to be travelling alone, and after not being alone at all for the past six months, that was a strange feeling.

So, it was off to Singapore airport where we were headed to Auckland, New Zealand for three weeks of travelling around the North Island before I headed off and Aoife tried to find some work in the South Island.

We boarded the plane which was to to be our bed for the next ten hours, only to hear a commotion in the next carriage in front with a man shouting, "Let me go to the toilet, you B******S!! I'm never flying Jet Star or Quantas again".  
This went on for a few minutes with everyone feeling very uncomfortable and wondering what was happening.  We thought that he would be removed from the plane and we would be delayed with take off, but with that we started taxi-ing to
the runway and with that we were in the air and quick as you like the seat belt signs were switched off, but the guy didn't leg it to the toilet as we all thought he would, instead all the air stewards gathered around his seat, and it turns out he had an accident from both ends and there was a lot of clearing up to do.  Luckily for the passengers seated near him, the flight was half empty so they all moved back to our carriage to get away from the smell.   The Captain even had to
come out and talk to the passenger who was moved elsewhere on the plane (I think business class) and the Captain then spent the next 20 minutes chatting with disgruntled passengers before heading back to the cock pit. With that, everyone settled down and started wondering what to have for their evening meal and what to drink, when I read that the flight we were on was a card only payment flight.  This would be ok in normal circumstances, but I had no cards after being robbed in Thailand and Aoife's cards weren't working as she had only two hours before tried to pay for her out-bound flight from New Zealand and her cards were declined so she paid cash.   I informed the air strewardess of our plight and my robbery etc and she handed us one bottle of water "to share" for the ten hour flight!  We were in for a long night.  There were only a few tv screens dotted around the plane and we weren't given earphones and it was bloody freezing and we had to pay for blankets which obviously we couldn't.  Aoife ended up ripping the inflight magazine to shreds and stuffed it under her clothes for extra warmth!  Let me just say it was a long night, and I was glad to get off that plane!  To top it off Aoife broke her sunglasses. We've stopped counting the number of sunglasses casualties there have been since the start, but let's just say you need at least two pairs of hands to count them all.


We stayed in Auckland for the next few nights  and worked out our plan of action.  We met up with Aoife's friends from Dublin who had just emigrated to Auckland a month before and we stayed with Serafine, Dan and little Robyn for our last two nights in Auckland before we headed on a bus to Rotorua.

Aoife, me, Dan, Serafine, Penny, John and little Robyn on the 'K' Road

Aoife with a cute camper van

Aoife and Serafine

On our last night in Auckland, Aoife and I wandered down to the Cloud fan Zone to watch the rugby and to soak up the atmosphere.  We got a beer and within a few minutes were approached by a South African girl who was flogging tickets for the match which was due to start in a few hours.  Immediately we said "no" as we didn't really have that much interest in a Wales versus France match, but then we both thought about it and changed our minds whipping the tickets from her grasp and paying the money.  It's not everyday you get to a semi final match at the Rugby World Cup for a bargain price.  So off we toddled and got a bus to Eden Park where we took our seats and it promptly started to rain, we were not under cover so got completely drenched.  Aoife started to wonder why
the hell she was there, but as soon as the players came out, the rain stopped and the atmosphere took over.  The match didn't go our way and France won, but it was a great night, topped off by us heading to the pub and having drinks with ex All Black Murray Mexted.  So it was late to bed and up early to catch the bus to Rotorua..........

France and Wales!

With Murray Mexted

Now I've been to Rotorua before, but nothing prepares you for the stink that eminates from that place, rotten eggs, and lots of them.  We stayed in a backpackers, and the welcome from fellow backpackers was about as warm as that Jet Star flight from Singapore, pretty icy.

We wondered around the town and I held my nose a lot. It's a fascinating place to visit, where the earths crust is so thin and everywhere you go there are exploding mud pools or hot sulphurous steam spewing from the ground.

What a stench

Tradtional Maori meeting house

My lovely mum's name on the side of a random building

We also visited the Maori Thermal village of Whakarewarewa, a village that is situated on geothermal activity and bubbling hot pools around the houses.  The villagers still live there now, and there is no water in the houses so the everyone comes down to the communal bathing area to wash in the hot pools before the public arrive at 7.30am and after they leave around 8pm, otherwise we'd all get a good eyeful!

It was an interesting place to visit, and for lunch we ate sweetcorn cooked in the hot pools outside, and saw traditional Maori dancing and the Haka performed.

Maori carving on top of the meeting house

Bell retrieved from the buried village from a volcanic eruption

Hot pools where our sweetcorn was cooked

communal baths

me with our guide demonstrating traditional weaving

Maori show

Aoife and I

Outside the village

Pretty tree

Geothermal activity

Next on our hit list of places to visit was Taupo, and a short bus ride from Rotorua found us in Taupo late afternoon.

We arrived at our backpackers and the welcome was a lot warmer, it was a fun place to stay with a cheap bar and offered chilli and rice every evening at a reasonable price.

When I was last in Taupo, I did a sky dive over the lake, this time the adrenaline sport of choice was a jet boat along the Waitako River.  Aoife and I grabbed the best seats at the front, and away we went at high speed, twisting and turning along the rapids, and spinning 180 degrees at high speed.  We were going so fast, at one point I thought I had lost all my eyelashes!! It certainly got the heart beat raised, but it was over all too soon.

Getting rigged up

Getting soaked!

The Waitako river, and the spot where Taupo bungy takes place

Next stop after Taupo was Napier, and Colin and Wendy's!!  We were excited to see them and had missed them since leaving them in Singapore.

So it was on another bus to Napier, and we were greeted by Colin and Wendy as we got off the bus.  We headed to Janelle and Kiel's house, their daughter and son in law, and we stayed with them as Colin and Wendy's house was being decorated after being let out whilst they'd been away.

Aoife and I did an art deco tour of Napier, and saw all the post earthquake buildings that had been erected around the art deco era.  The next day Colin was running a wine tour, so we were lucky enough to go along and sample all the
wines from four different wineries around the Hawke's Bay region.  It was great fun and we were a little tipsy by the end of the afternoon, and the party continued into the evening as it was the Rugby World Cup final, and we all know the outcome of that, so there was a great evening at Janelle and Kiel's house that night.

Art Deco

Aoife and some random guy on our tour - Aoife was nosing at some interior art deco

Me in Napier with a statue

The Irish girl by the Irish pub

Me outside the first winery of the day......

Wine barrels

The girls on tour, 3rd winery of the day, cheers!

At the end of the day, still standing

View out to sea from Napier

Colin, Kiel, Janelle, Wendy and Aoife

Napier was a lot of fun with great food, wine and fantastic hosts.  We were spoilt, and it was hard to leave there after five nights, but we had to leave, so it was another farewell to fellow Calysoites once more, and then we hit the road
again.  This time to Tauranga, and little did we know we would be dicing with death!!