New Zealand - Absof---inglutely Fantastic!

As you can see from the title, I had a GREAT time in NZ. We failed to read up about it at all, save for the 3 hour plane ride from Melbourne. We had no expectations, but it has completely impressed us.

NZ has a population of about 4 million people and has 2 main islands, the north and the south. We stayed only on the north. The sheep population of NZ is about 40 million. No joke. You'd think they'd be all over the place, but we actually saw more cows than sheep.

We flew into Auckland and decided to rent a car so we could see as much as possible. We estimate that we drove about 2100 km over our stay there. And it wasn't easy driving. Going up, down and around the mountains wasn't fun. And I even drove for quite a bit too - on the other side of the road!

Auckland is a nice city. We managed to see the sights in about a day and a half. We were surprised to find a substantial Korean section there. Korean food doesn't seem to have the same popularity in Australia. There is also a very nice waterfront section in Auckland. It seems to be the place to hang out on the weekends, although much too expensive for us.

From Auckland we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula, more specifically to Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. To be able to dig up the hot water and Hot Water Beach you need to make it for low tide, which we missed, but we did picnic there. Swimming at the hot water beach is out of the questions because of the strong undertow and large waves. It was a surfer's paradise - we saw plenty trying to catch a wave. We then headed over to Cathedral Cove. The Cove can only be accessed by either boat or a 25 minute walk down to the beach. It was well worth the walk! It was absolutely beautiful and has now been put on the top of my list of favourite beaches! It helped that it was a perfect day to go to the beach as well. The water was a bit calmer than hot water beach and perfect for swimming. It's named Cathedral Cove because water has eroded a hole into a section of rock that creates a cove. You can actually walk through the cove to another beach that was more quiet and secluded. Definitely a must see on the north island of NZ.

We then headed to Te Kuiti for the night. We ended up using the BBH guide to hostels in NZ. They have a range of places to stay from big hostels to farms stays. The place in Te Kuiti would definitely rank as a farm stay. This family had built a set of rooms behind their house - which was pretty high in the mountains. It was a really nice place with very nice owners. Te Kuiti is actually the shearing capital of the world. Interesting, eh? Not only do they shear sheep, but they shear rabbits too for making angora scarves and others products. WE didn't see that, but we heard that it's a pretty weird sight to see a rabbit with no fur. Te Kuiti is also in an area that has a lot of caves. We decided to do a day long caving tour out of the town of Waitomo. Waitomo is a Maori word for water cave (Don't quote me on that, I can't remember exactly what our guide said. I know that Wai is water and tomo is when there is enough erosion to show an opening to a cave.)

Our cave tour was fantastic! It was one of the cheaper options, but it managed to do everything the other companies do as well. What's nice about the Waitomo region is that every company has their own cave. Therefore, there's not a lot of tourists in the same cave at once. Our tour had us rappelling (or abseilling as it's called in NZ) down 27 meters into the cave. And yes, I did it with just a little hesitation. The guide had to tell me a couple of times to put my feet on the edge and that everything would be ok. After all the anticipation, it was a lot of fun and it's wasn't that high either. The next part of the tour involved trekking through the cave. It's pretty wet down therewith water reaching up to our chest at points. The company provided all the gear including wetsuits that reeked of our people's sweat! Not that pleasant, but necessary. It was realy cold down there. We rode around on inner tubes for a while looking up at the glow worms. Glow worms are a big attraction. They are actually fly larvae. They live in the glow worm stage for nine months. During that time, they live in the tops of caves in order to feed. They drop down very fine lines and wait for insects to get caught. They attract the insects by glowing. A bugs natural instinct once in a cave is to fly out. Glow worms sense their vibration and begin to glow to convince the bug to fly towards what looks like the night sky. Pretty clever. What's even more interesting is how they glow. They don't have any digestive system, hence no way to expel waste. They are actually burning off waste. So we were watching shit burn. The last part of the tour involved rock climbing out of the cave, and yes I did it too. (the guide made me go first so I wouldn't have any time to think about it.) It wasn't so bad and I made it up pretty quickly. Overall, it was a great day!

That night we headed to Tongariro National Park Village. The next morning we were set to do the Tongariro Crossing. It's considered the best 1 day walk in NZ. It's a 17 km tramp (NZ speak for hike)that takes you between 2 volcanoes to see some crater lakes and down again through the bush and the last 2 hours our spent in a rain forest. It took us 7 and a half hours to complete with a half hour stop for lunch. There's a good 2 hours, if not more of challenging steep climb up volcanic rock and ash. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't make it. This is by far the most physically challenging thing I've ever done, but it was worth it. I thought I'd be ready to collapse on the way down, but instead I had so much energy from all of the adrenaline. There's no way out if you don't make it. No one is there to get you if you can't continue. The bus drops you off at the beginning and picks you up at the end. No buses go back to the beginning after dropping you off in the morning. If you don't make it, you become a permanent fixture of the park.

After a very physically demanding few days, we decided we needed a break. W headed to Taupo, which is the centre of geothermal activity in the north island. There's a large lake and it's quite the resort spot. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great day, but we did manage to see some stuff. We saw some geothermal hotspots where steam was coming out of the earth. We then went to swim in a hot pool heated by the steam. It's just like a hot pool, but heated naturally. It felt so good to immerse ourselves in that water after the physically demanding days before.

Next, we headed over to Paihia, which is in an area called the Bay of Islands. We weren't blessed with great weather there either, but that didn't ruin our fun. We took a day long cruise through the islands out to a point called Hole in the Rock. Again formed from the water eroding a massive rock. We also got to see lots of the islands in the bay. The water is very calm in the bay and it looks like a really nice place to spend time. Each island had a few permanent residents who paid a ton of money for the property. Sure would be nice to afford that!

From Paihia we moved to a town called Ahipara. This town is located at the beginning of 90 mile beach. It's not actually 90 miles, but it is long. This stretch of beach is along the north west coast of the island. We weren't going all the way to the top, but it was nice to have the beach right across the street from our hostel and to have the waves put us to sleep.

Can you tell - I love NZ. It's a bit cheaper than Australia and we are finding that in terms of accommodation you get much more value for what you pay. We stayed in some very nice backpacker places throughout the country. Most of the towns we visited were pretty small and isolated. They call it kiwi outback. I'm pretty jealous of all the Brits and Canadians who can get working holiday visas. This is definitely a place I'd like to stay for a while.

Well, back in Australia now. Currently in Sydney. We aren't too happy to be paying a lot for crappy accommodation, but I guess that's how it goes.

Hope all is well!

P.S. Nancy - that Sex and the City reference was just for you!