Showing Off My City

On day 1 of the 2 days left at our disposal, Wellington put on an absolute stunner. The decision as to what to do was pretty much made for us so we caught a bus to the CBD and set off on a cable car adventure.

The iconic Wellington cable car is a must see for anyone with a bit of spare time in the city and it leads to another one of the city's must see sites, the Botanical Gardens. I hadn't taken the cable car for a good few years so it was a novel experience for me as well as Beckett.

We bought our tickets from the old school ticketing booth, proceeded through the gates into the dingy tunnel at the bottom of the track and waited for one of the cars to make its way down. I imagine the novelty of the experience wears off for those that take the cable car often from the top of hill down to work around Lambton Quay area but I feel like it'd be awesome to commute via cable car on a daily basis.

Unfortunately we picked a time and day to make the trip that lined up with the time and day that a local high school had decided to take a French class on an outing so we were stuck in an enclosed space with about 30 teenage girls giggling and speaking in broken French. We were pretty glad to not have to listen to that racket any more when we hit the top.

At the top we wandered around the gardens for a bit, although I am not particularly interested in any form of Botany it's still nice to wander around nature for a bit when the weather is good. We weren't there particularly long before we decided we'd had enough of strolling amongst the trees and decided to head back towards town.

On the ride back down there were also quite a few people joining us so the car was quite loud but at least it was loud English, the girls earlier had given me a headache. There were hardly any seats free and the one Beckett was on was not particularly wide. At the start of our trip a small child (Beckett's least favourite form of human) sat right next to him and was half on his lap the entire trip. Half way through the trip, the kid re - adjusted and actually did end up on Beckett's lap which I found hilarious. I think he was somewhere between yelling at the top of his lungs and throwing the kid out of the window judging by his expression at the time.

When we did make it down to the bottom I figured we were on this side of town so might as well visit parliament. Beckett didn't seem too keen but I managed to talk him into it and we arrived just in time for one of their free guided tours. I hadn't had a tour of parliament since I was 14, when Helen Clarke was Prime Minister of New Zealand and we visited with my Social Studies class to watch question time.

Beckett seemed to gain interest as the tour went on and in the end I think we both enjoyed the experience quite a bit. As they take you around the various rooms and areas of parliament they talk a bit about how New Zealand politics works and where certain offices are, where foreign dignitaries are received and things of the like which fascinates me.

After the tour, it was heading into late afternoon and the weather was still holding up so I decided that a nice way to cap off the day might be to go for a quick walk around the waterfront area. We walked pretty much end to end along the wharf area, starting down near the events centre end. Personally I think the waterfront area is the most beautiful spot in the whole city so I wasn't going to pass up the chance to show that off.

We spent a beautiful Wellington day exploring some of the most Wellington - esque Wellington things you can do on a fine day. In hindsight I can't think of a better way to have spent the day.

In the next post here I'll cover the last day we had in Wellington and what we got up to during that, including how I justified skipping out on one of the most iconic visitor spots in the city.

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Home Again

For the first time all trip, we had no real time restraints on us. The goal was to be in Wellington by the end of the day but whether that came at 4 in the afternoon or midnight was of no consequence. That being the case, we had the luxury of sleeping in and lazing around camp until we felt like moving on.

When we did eventually polish off our liquor, clear our rubbish out and pack the car again, we drove off in the direction of Huka Falls, approximately 5 minutes up the road from the camp.

The Huka Falls are a series of waterfalls that drain Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand by surface area (616 square km), into the longest river in the country, the Waikato (425 km). The Falls thunder an immense volume of water through a narrow canyon approximately 15 metres in width before the river opens out to around 100 metres wide. The water from the Huka Falls at times flows at a volume of 220,000 litres per second which some loose internet pseudo research tells me would fill an Olympic swimming pool in 11 seconds. 

We arrived at the viewing area and ran into a German guy we'd met briefly at the camp ground who had apparently hitched a ride there for a look around. After a quick chat with him we wandered around and watched the foaming white water coming down from the falls and rampaging down under the bridge we were standing on.

Being a North Islander (albeit from the very south of the north) who has had his fair share of cross country road trips, I had visited the falls several times prior, the first time as a very small child. I always seem to end up on the same train of thought with the tremendous sight of the water rushing through and the overpowering sound of it in my ears. 

I always wonder first what it must have been like for the first Maori people coming down the Waikato in their waka to come across this spectacle. I wonder if the first people to come across it recognised the power of it as insurmountable or if there were attempts made to traverse it. Even the first British settlers must have been astonished by it as they floated their way down the Waikato, exploring the land. I'd hate to think what that volume and speed of rapid could do to the most robust of vessels let alone an old - time wooden craft. I imagine it'd go from boat to splinters in the space of a minute or so.

I think Beckett was also pretty taken with the sheer power of the water and the beautiful colouring of it between the clear blue of the water and the bright white of the foam as it struck the rocks around it. It was definitely a spot I wasn't going to miss out on sharing with him, an iconic feature of New Zealand geography at the meeting point between the two water giants Taupo and Waikato. It really is little wonder that the Maori have such great spiritual connection to these places when you witness the profound dominance over humanity that they exhibit.

We spent a good half hour or so at the falls before hitting the road back towards Wellington. We split the driving between us which made the trip a lot easier to do without copious amounts of rest time along the way.

Apart from a few gas station food stops which as you all know are a staple of every road trip, the drive home went smoothly with nothing particularly notable occurring. We had some great music, courtesy if Beckett's i - phone blasting through the sound system, a reliable and easy to drive vehicle courtesy of my mother (cheers Mum) and a fantastic set of scenery along the drive courtesy of New Zealand.

We arrived back at my place not too late into the evening, unpacked the car as much as we could be bothered and settled in for the night. We had 2 days at or disposal for me to finish showing off Wellington and so I had the usual suspects scheduled (cable car, te papa,waterfront area, cuba street shopping, drinking on courtenay place) with the weather being the deciding factor in which ones we did at which time.

In the next post I'll talk about our last couple of days in Wellington and the remainder of our shenanigans before I eventually agreed to let Beckett go back to Wisconsin.

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On the Road

As was beginning to become a theme for the trip we were up relatively early in the morning to pack up and hit the road out of Orewa. This time we had the luxury of not having to be up before the sun and it was about 8.30 AM before we were fed, packed and ready to go.

The goal for the day was to get to Taupo where there was a free camp ground I'd heard about. I'd had the thought that it would be fun to spend the day in Rotorua before ending up in Taupo to set the tent up before sunset so that was the loose plan going into the day.

On the road I had the thought of getting in touch with my grandparents in Tauranga to see if they were free for a catch up. I knew we didn't have time to stop off in Tauranga if we were going to do anything worthwhile in Rotorua but I thought if they were free they might like to meet us there as a good halfway point considering it's not often I get the opportunity to see them.

They got back and said they'd love to catch up so we co - ordinated to meet them for lunch in Rotorua. With a little bit of directing over the phone and the good luck the orienteering gods blessed us with our entire trip, we found our way to our meeting point; the Rotorua Pizza Hutt.

It was awesome catching up with Grandma and Grandad, and we had a pretty good feed for lunch taking advantage of an "All You Can Eat" type deal. Even with our relatively hectic schedule spurred on by Beckett's late arrival and needing to be back in Wellington in time to fly home, we managed to get an hour or so of catch up time before heading off which was nice.

Our next stop from there was to the Rotorua Luge by way of their gondolas up to the track. We each bought five rides and we started out on the intermediate level track. With neither of us having much regard for our personal safety we had some great races and terrific near misses down that track before deciding to upgrade to the advanced route.

Along the advanced track I lost count of how many times I skidded round corners with only one wheel touching the ground or almost rolled out entirely. Beckett's trouble with the turning mechanism almost sent him head into a head - on collision with one of the track dividers until he managed to make an extremely sharp turn at the absolute last second to avoid it. We had a lot of fun.

I found it funny to see how fast Beckett hurtled down the tracks without fear but almost shook with anxiety on the chairlift back to the top.

After a good day of luging and the obligatory sniff around the jelly bean shop at the top, we went back towards Rotorua to have a look at the hot pools because leaving those out would have been an unforgivable sin as a local playing host to a foreigner. 

We had a quick walk around a park in town that has a few thermal mud pools around it and dipped our toes in the naturally heated pools they have set up around the place for that purpose before calling it a day and venturing off towards our accommodation for the night.

Again, we were blessed in our ability to find our camp site just outside of Taupo, largely helped by pre - printed directions from google maps. We arrived in good time, beating out the setting sun by at least a couple of hours which was nice. We set up the tent when we got there and decided to drive into Taupo for dinner.

At Taupo, we ate and had a brief scout around of the area, including a quick look at the lake area. There wasn't really anything that I could think of that we absolutely had to do in Taupo itself so we decided that the next day we'd continue on our journey towards Wellington. I did, however, feel obligated to take Beckett by the Huka falls to check out the sheer force of nature on display there, so we planned that stop for the next morning.

To cap off an action - packed day, we set up the camping chairs we'd borrowed from mum outside our tent, and relaxed in those with a bottle of Southern Comfort and a large bottle of coke to mix. I've definitely had worse days.

My next post here will briefly touch on our visit to the Huka falls and the rest of our commute down to Wellington which went off without too much trouble.

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Out of Auckland

Once again we were up before the sun to beat traffic out of Papakura into Auckland but this time we had to get ourselves around so lacked the luxury of being able to sleep through the car trip. I decided that it would be fun to briefly go North of Auckland and if the weather was god perhaps find a nice beach.

When we arrived in Central Auckland we found a place to park up and slept for a couple of hours while we waited for places to open. Beckett needed to get some more NZ cash and we both needed a quick breakfast.

After stopping by a money exchange and my favourite coffee shop in all of Auckland for food (The Strand Arcade Cafe off lower Queen Street) we hit the road and headed up towards Warkworth since I knew how to get there and figured it was close to some nice beaches if we still wanted to do that with our day.

We found our way up to Warkworth and after walking around for a bit, stopped for lunch at Pizza Co (which I recommend to anyone ever passing by Warkworth area) to plan out the day. We were both still relatively tired and neither of us was particularly keen on swimming or anything so we decided in the end to give the beach a miss.

Over lunch I had the thought to get in touch with my step - mother who lives in Wellsford, only a 20 minute drive from where we were to see if she was free for us to visit and see my little brother. She got back to us pretty quick and said she'd love for us to stop by so we decided that would be a fun thing to do. We were booked in that night at a campground in Orewa so our timing worked out for us to spend a few hours in Wellsford and then head over there for the evening.

When we got to Wellsford, Tania (step-mum) suggested we bail Levi out of kindy a couple of hours early and get some decent hang time with him. He was absolutely stoked to see me, something that doesn't happen to often with us living so far apart from each other. I got to have a look around his school and see some of the stuff he'd made there which he was pretty proud to show me.

We took him down to the park near the library and had a run around with him that wore us out more than him. Being a typical 5 year old kid, he kept going at about 100 miles an hour the whole time we were with him. He showed us around the library a little bit and took me to where all of the childrens books are which was pretty cool.

Tania invited us around for an early dinner after Levi sufficiently tuckered us all out and I figured it'd be cool to maximise our time there so we accepted. I sat and read books with Levi on the couch until dinner was ready and he picked out his favourite ones for me. It was awesome being able to spend some quality time with the kid.

After dinner, it was time for us to get back on the road and head out to our accommodation at Red Beach, Orewa. It was a relatively good day weather - wise so we had no problems on the road and generally made good time.

When we were all set up with the tent pitched on our site, we went for a quick drive down to the beach which was about a 5 minute drive from the campground. We had arrived around 6.30 PM so we still had a couple of daylight hours to enjoy the beach before sundown. We took a couple of beers and a rugby ball with us and enjoyed the last bit of our day in good old fashioned kiwi style, which capped it all off perfectly.

As the sun began to drop and the heat consequently began to back off with it, we settled back at the campground, ate some of the food we'd been given by Aida (leftover meat and salads from a barbecue we had the night before) and knocked back a couple more beers (for the record, we were drinking Speight's; the best New Zealand has to offer) and hit the hay in preparation for the next leg of our trip, cruising from Orewa down to Taupo.

In the next post I will be covering our journey to the free campsite just outside of Taupo and what we got up to when we were down there.

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Back on the Mainland

Our last day on The Barrier could be considered a half day . We weren't due out until mid afternoon but with a couple of hours drive ahead, we pretty much had to leave as soon as we were up and fed.

We had the good fortune of being able to borrow Mum's car to take off island and down from Auckland to Wellington so we had to take the slow ferry back; about a 5 hour ride, leaving out of Port Fitzroy (an area of the island I forever want to call Fort Pitzroy).

After eating, packing the car with our stuff and some basic camping supplies and stopping by the school to say goodbye to Mum we were off towards the next part of our adventure, traversing the Mainland, or at least the North Island which to those on the Barrier is considered the Mainland.

Upon arrival at the Port, we parked up with an hour or so to kill and went in search of a place called The Hub. We'd been recommended by Mum to stop there for a burger and she'd heard that they had the best burgers on the island there.

We found it right by the launch. It was basically just a serve - over counter with a grill and deep fryer inside. The recommendation was a good one, the place did a pretty solid burger for us each with decent chips and a canned drink to boot. I had a very kiwi burger with a bit of egg in it as well as the standard meat patty, lettuce, and a bit of tomato sauce which matched well with the scorching hot day.

Once the boat got in, we waited for the workers to unload whatever supplies and such the ship had brought over from Auckland before they started to load us all on. In true island style, taking the car on board was a very casual experience. We basically just drove it down the road from where it was parked and backed it straight onto the main deck of the boat, left it be and found a seat up the top.

The view as we left the Great Barrier Island remains one of the most spectacular sights I have yet seen in my life. It even tops coming into the Marlborough Sounds on the Cook Strait ferry from Wellington to Picton. Beckett and I were pretty much out on deck looking out at everything until we were well away from the island into the Hauraki Gulf.

Once we were away from the island itself, there wasn't a whole lot to see except a wide expanse of water so Beckett and I settled into a few quick card games before nodding off for an hour or two of sleep.

The only thing of real note to happen during the trip other than the incredible views on the way out was some of the crew fishing off the back of it. They put out a line as the boat was going along and a little while into the trip there was an announcement over the loudspeaker from the captain to go down to the back of the boat and have a look because they'd caught something.

From memory it was a Kahawai that they were pulling in but I could be wrong on that. We watched them reel it in on a hand line and bash it over the head to kill it once it was on deck. It was a good 10 to 15 minutes of entertainment for all of us on board.

As I said before not a lot else of note happened on the ferry. We slept and played cards when we were both awake. After what felt like a long time but in hindsight wasn't a very long time at all we arrived safely at the port of Auckland.

By the time we arrived and disembarked with the car it was dark and neither of us, Beckett less than I for obvious reasons, were hugely confident on the navigational side of things. We were all booked in again at Aida's for the night, which was lovely of her so all we had to do was find out way out of central and into Papapakura.

Eventually by some miracle and my very limited knowledge of Auckland geography we found our way onto the motorway headed south. We got into Papakura somewhere between 8 and 9 PM and were expecting to just crash out after a day of not really doing a whole lot.

Erica had other plans though and we ended up spending the evening going around a bunch of the clubs in central Auckland which was fun even though it was a relatively quiet night.

We had an absolutely stunning time visiting The Barrier and a relatively smooth journey home from an utterly surreal place which I hope I will continue to be able to visit often in years to come.

The next post here will be about the beginning of our journey out of Auckland and down the North Island.

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Hot Springs, Kayaks and Another Irish Pub

Our second day in the Barrier was an action - packed one, as is to be expected when you only have 2 and a half days to see a place.

The first of the interesting things we did involved a long and arduous journey...across the road. The school Mum works at is literally across the road from her house and the piece of land it sits on connects down to the beach.

Mum had to work so we went over to make use of the school kayaks. Before we had much of a chance to get to the shed with the boats in it, we were met by a large group of local school children who were most interested in meeting us foreigners and were particularly intrigued that I was the son of their teacher.

While they were on their morning break, Beckett and I joined them in a game of soccer and some back and forth rugby goal - kicking which was enjoyed by everyone involved. After sufficiently hyping up the kids and sufficiently wearing ourselves out, they were ushered back inside for class and we finally got to taking one of the boats out.

The kayaks available were two person boats, so we each donned a life jacket, grabbed a paddle and launched ourselves into the sea after hobbling down barefoot over many a sharp stone to get there. We were probably only out there for half an hour before we turned around and came back in but I think it was enough to enjoy it without over - tiring ourselves.

It wasn't long after we got the boat back into the lock - up and the salt hosed off of our skin before Mum was done with her working day, so we soon had our local host again with another cool spot to show us.

The next must - see place for us was a natural hot spring off of one of the walking tracks. I can't remember how long the drive was to the start of the track but it was at most 30 - 40 minutes, and the track itself was an easy 20 minute trek to the pools.

We decided beforehand to pack a couple of cold drinks to take with us so when we got there we felt like we were living in absolute luxury. The pools at the time of our visit were about the same temperature as a standard spa pool and in the middle of native bushland are easily the top spot I've ever had the pleasure of hanging out with a cold beer in hand.

Much like spending time in a spa pool, it wasn't long before the heat became too much and we decided we'd had sufficient R & R time in the middle of nature. We packed up our gear, walked the 20 minutes or so back to the car and cruised back to Mum's thinking we'd made a pretty good day of it.

When we got back, Mum had one more plan for us. She took us out for dinner at the Irish pub just up the road from her house. I was slightly dumbfounded that an island so small had its own Irish pub and even more so when I was informed that in another part of the island there's a Thai restaurant as well. Quite the mix for such a small and relatively unpopulated spot.

We arrived at The Currach (name of the pub) and perused the menu for a bit before we decided to just get a sampler platter type thing with a little bit of everything on the menu along with a beer each. It was a neat little spot and the food was okay but I think the company really made the evening. It was the perfect way to cap off a good day, eating a shared meal together in a warm country pub environment.

There was quite a bit packed into our one full day on the island and I feel that we made the most of it. I'll re - cap real quick on some recommended spots when you visit The Barrier and I'll make some recommendations of a couple of places I didn't find room in this blog to write about.

Firstly, make sure you visit Medlands beach, it's an impressive spot and there's some great lookout spots in the surrounding area which you should stop at as you're driving past because they give a spectacular vantage point to look out over the island's coastline.

Definitely make sure you find out about the Hot Springs track and wear a swimsuit so you can have a dip in those, it's one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in my life. If you come in the peak summer season there are heaps of places to hire kayaks, surfboards and whatever gear you might need to make the best use of the island's beaches. I highly recommend kayaking around Tryphena if the opportunity presents itself.

There are a number of great artists of various mediums around the island and a fantastic gallery, so make a point of visiting the various studios around as well as the centralised gallery spaces.

There are also a number of great food places around and I can personally recommend The Burger Shack in Claris, The Hub in Port Fitzroy right next to where the boat comes in (both do spectacular burgers) or The Currach if you're after a nice place to have a beer. The Thai restaurant (which is called Angsana) is also a good spot if you're after ethnic food. They seem to open on a when they feel like it basis, which I guess is the general vibe of the whole island, so make sure you call them before you make the drive over there.

So there you have my top tips on things to do and see on G.B.I. which I think completes the list of nicknames the place goes by.

The next post is going to be about our trip back to Auckland leading into the first leg of our cross-country (or at least cross North Island) car trip back to Wellington.

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Great Barrier Island, The Final Frontier

Early in the morning, when the day was dawning... Beckett and I woke up ever so slightly hungover, groggily got our gear together and shuffled into the back of Aida's(My "other mother's") car to be taken to Auckland airport.

In order to beat commuter traffic into the city and get to the airport on time we had to be on the road by about 5 AM.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and after saying our thank-yous and goodbyes to Aida and Erica who'd tagged along for the trip, we had a couple of hours to kill before our Barrier flight. We got a quick Mc-breakfast and checked ourselves in at the miniscule check-in desk for FlyMySky airlines, one of two companies that operates flights on and off Great Barrier Island.

The check-in process essentially involved a quick weighing of our stuff to make sure we were within weight limits and paying some excess fees to get some boxes of grocery supplies across to mum. The stores on the island are limited and charge a lot because of the costs involved in getting shipments across, so mum tends to do big shops off island or have people that are coming to visit bring things over.

After a couple of hours we boarded our flight onto a propeller plane with room for about 12 people per flight in seats that resemble bus benches. The flight took the standard 35 minutes because the weather was awesome, and was an absolutely beautiful journey over the Hauraki Gulf.

Upon arrival on The Barrier, mum picked us up from the airport in Claris (one of the several regions of the island) and drove us over to her house in Tryphena (another region of the island) which took about 40 minutes.

I think the most striking thing about the island when you first visit is the massive expanse of untouched land and the lack of people. There's a lot of bush track and beachland that contributes to the 285 square kilometre land area. The official permanent population is listed at just under 1000 people with a boost in numbers over the summer with tourists and holiday home owners coming over.

On our first day, all we really did was catch up with mum, write up a rough draft for the rest of the trip and make a quick visit to Medlands beach for a walk around. Medlands is a massively renowned surfing beach and a lot of people in the summer come over to ride the awesome waves there. It was nice being able to walk along it and experience it in the off season with not so many people around.

I think Beckett was pretty impressed with the sheer natural beauty of The Barrier and of New Zealand in general, I know I definitely was. Before mum moved over there, I had no idea it even existed. I can safely say it's one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand that I have seen and I've seen most of the country. I highly recommend visiting if you're in New Zealand for any reason at any time. It's well worth working into your trip.

In the next post I'll talk about the rest of our Barrier trip and recommend some of the must-sees and do's of the island because I know you'll be visiting at some point.

St Patrick's Day 2014

Earlier in the year (2014) Beckett, my best friend from Wisconsin, had talked about the possibility of coming out to visit me in New Zealand. I can't imagine what about my country would appeal to a 19 year old Wisconsinite, surely not the R18 drinking age? Definitely not the spectacular scenery and unparalleled beauty of the place. He must just have been missing me a lot.

At any rate, in March he stopped speculating and came over, arriving a couple of days later than originally anticipated on the 17th. That's right, he arrived just in time for St Patrick's Day, the only day of the year where it's socially acceptable to be drunk before lunchtime. He'd been delayed on a couple of flights and had to spend some unexpected time in Australia where he had a small win at a local casino and made fast friends with a few locals in true Beckett style.

I had already drawn up a rough itinerary for us, involving a trip up North to Auckland, over to Great Barrier Island and then back down in mum's car to Wellington sight-seeing along the way but aside from times for needing to be on and off the barrier we had a very loose schedule.

We were booked to fly to Auckland the evening of the 17th so I decided the best thing to do was to drop luggage off at my place and head into town for some quick drinking as soon as Beckett got in. He seemed happy enough with that as the plan and so began our St Patty's Day celebrations.

We hit up a couple of the Irish bars around the Cuba Street area for the traditional dose of Irish stout before it was time to bus home and gear up for Auckland. Beckett decided it was a good idea to match me in pace and number on the drinking front and at this point was keeping up admirably, his college drinking paying dividends.

The plan for the night in Auckland was to stay with family of mine in South Auckland who had generously offered to pick us up from the airport and drive us back there the next morning for our flight over to the Barrier.

Our flight up went smoothly and we were soon greeted by the familiar faces (well familiar to me) of my "other mother" and her youngest daughter who I usually refer to as my sister, who is about 2 years younger than me. Soon after arriving we were roped into her St Patrick's Day plans which involved visiting their local Irish bar and downing even more of the good stuff, an endeavour we were more than happy to involve ourselves with.

Once we were settled in there with Erica (afore-mentioned sister), Emerald (Erica's older sister, also usually referred to as my sister) and some of their friends, we sat drinking Guinness whilst listening to a Celtic band playing in the courtyard and felt just a little bit Irish.

Thankfully we had a designated driver for the night as alcohol was cheap and we managed to score a few free drinks from particularly merry co-patrons. I was definitely feeling it by the end of the night and Beckett kept good pace up until about the last two drinks where he fell behind a little bit so I imagine at the time he was also feeling particularly jolly. He also managed to find himself a female counterpart for our time there so I think he was a little smitten about that as well as our general level of pleasant intoxication.

St Patrick's Day 2014 was really the first time I ever decided to go out and do something for the occasion and that was largely spurred on by playing host to Beckett. It was amazing to have him in the country even if only for a week and in the coming few posts I'll elaborate on the adventure we had whilst he was in town. I don't think we could've packed more into the 9 or so days he was visiting if we'd tried (well maybe if I'd organised some hallucinogenics or something but that's a different train of thought all together).

In the next post I'll talk about our trip to the Barrier, which was my first trip out there to see Mum in her new set-up.