North Island, New Zealand

Ok, we are back! Now that we have started travelling again, I'd like to keep on top of the blog as much as possible. The following post is an accumulation of the past week. Since our Internet access is few and far between, they won't be regular and unfortunately until I can figure out how to upload photos, there won't be any photos either. However, this gives you a bit of a taste of what we are doing! Enjoy! (Ps. Please ignore and spelling/grammar mistakes as I am writing this on the iPad).

We got up at 5:40am after only 3 hours of sleep after my Gde ball...amazing!

We said goodbye to 41-43 Bourne st and took a quick last look around, it was somewhat sad to leave the gong....we loved it there!

We then headed to the train station for 6:18 but then realized that it didn't actually come until 6:45! Damn, could have got a few more minutes of sleep. Jordan slept on the train ride there (2 hrs) and then we dropped off our one jammed suitcase at the storage lockup where a friend of ours, Ashley, would pick it up on the Monday and bring it back to Canada with  her...we owe you ash!!

Waited at the airport for 3 hours..my need to be early had evidently rubbed off on Jordan who planned this leg. We then flew to Auckland with Air New Zealand...highly recommended! The safety video was all LOTR and we both actually watched the entire thing...so cool and very smart!

When we landed in Auckland it was freezing and raining. Since we landed after the campervan rental placed closed (such a pain) we had to pay $32 bucks to get into Auckland, $22/each to stay in a hostel and another $30+ bucks to get back to the airport area to pick up our home for the next 29 days. After picking up the van, we drove around getting breaks and groceries/supplies for the next week or so. We then drove up north to the town of Puhia, in the Bay of Islands district, where we spent the night at a campground for $20. When we first arrived in Puhia we immediately went to book an overnight boat trip on "The Rock"- which came highly recommended by our good friends from home Isaac and Mia who lived in NZ for a year or so. After looking our trip we went back to our campsite had some din (chewiest steak we've ever had) and headed over to the local pub called Shippey's-an actual ship...very cool! 

Turned in for an early night...still exhausted from the Gde ball I think...we partied hard!

Well, woke up this am on a boat called The Rock. Surprisingly I slept like a baby and was not motion sick at all..yay! The night prior we jetted off on this overnight tour boat and got to fish off the back and ended up having a late dinner with the crew and fellow passengers. We also went night kayaking and saw the phosphorescence in the water (algae that glow when you touch the water...think Disney water! Very cool!) However, I was freezing this entire time and despite the on board fired, I couldn't shake the cold feeling. The next am we woke up and had NZ traditional porridge (same as home) and went snorkelling for some sea urchins. I, however, already feeling a bit under the weather, decided not to venture into the freezing water. The air temperature was probably only 17 degrees as well and pouring rain. Jordan did go in but was back in a jiffy after collecting eight spikey sea urchins that we later ate (their eggs which tasted like slimy salt and looked like an over saturated crouton). After that , we ventured up a mountain in the pouring rain...very cool but again, freezing.

 We then were back on land by 3pm and driving north to the Coromandel Peninsula. That night we stayed at a beautiful campsite that was at the bottom of a huge mountain. Going off track a bit, NZ is such a beautiful country. I can't even begin to describe what it lookalike by it encompasses so many features from, other countries into one. First of all, if you hAve seen LOTR, those little (and massive) green rolling hills with little "stairs" going up them actually do exist...duh, the film was shot here! On top of the rolling arm hills/mountains, there are rivers and beautiful ocean drives everywhere. I have never been in such a green country. Completely and utterly green everywhere you look.

Anyways, after spending the night in Thames, we drove to the Peninsula and man was it beautiful! Our main goal however was to go t the Cathedral Cove, apparently stunning. But since we had been driving forever and we so caught up in the scenery, we drove way, wayyyy passed it. Unfortunately we drove too far to turn around and ended up continuing on to Raglan for the night. Raglan, well, it's a pretty town ill give ya that but not a whole lot to do. However, since the whole boat trip the day prior, I was getting pretty sick and having (and still) the worst allergies ever. Not sure how I got the short end of the stick and Jordan went swimming n the freezing cold and is fine but that's the way the cookie crumbles haha. 

We ended up spending the night at the local, and only campsite. In NZ there are very few places where you can damp for free. They have no camping signs everywhere and if you do and get caught, which you will, it's a $200 fine. So, each night we've had to pay for 'accommodation' even though we sleep and cook from our van. This, in turn, has added on a whole other cost that we were not accounting for. Not entirely pleased about this but what can ya do?

Anyways, the next am we went to Kawhia (pronounced kaf-ee-a) to check out the hot water beach!  There is a very popular and famous beach called Hot Water Beach, however, we heard through Our friends Isaac and Mia that this one in Kawhia was much better and we might find ourselves the only ones there...which we were! In short, there are old volcanic remnants that lay under the sand and heat up the water like a hot tub. When the tide goes out, you can literally see the water boiling up through the sand! We just dug a little tub for us to sit in and voila, our own personal hot tub with a view of the ocean and mountains. The water was so hot that we actually got a little bit burnt! The beach also has black sand so walking on it was somewhat painful. We had to wear flip flops and even then it was incredibly hot. Jordan decided to try and test his limits and ran..literally sprinted...down the dune in bare feet and burnt his feet so badly that he had blisters! 

Later on the afternoon we drove to Waitomo Caves to book our black water rafting trip. More about that tomorrow! We carried on to Te Kuiti where we found a beautiful spot to park the van for the night...alongside a river on a reserve. Best part- it is free and there are no signs saying we can't camp here! If we had more time, we definitely would have stayed longer....beauty spot!

Well, that caught you up to the last few days...more to come about Waitomo Caves and Rotorua soon!