Day 54: Selfie Road Trip - Wellington

Today marked the last part in my selfie road trip. It feels so weird to think that I have reached the last three weeks of my trip and no more driving for me until I get home. Still another exciting three weeks left though!

Today was pretty uneventful in that it was just a short hour drive into New Zealand's capital, Wellington, which got me to my hostel late morning. Still with my hitchhiker in tow, we decided to ambitiously walk from one side of the city (from the car depot) to the other. I say ambitious but this may be the smallest capital city I've ever seen. Quite sweet really, and a beautiful walk around Wellington's bays and mountains where we could see all the houses rising up the hills. Some of them even had private mini cable cars up to their front doors! I thought that was pretty awesome... We also stopped in at a bizarre sheep skin and possum fur 'shop'... Looked like a good setting for a horror movie if you ask me...

I had my lunch looking out into the bay and on the beach, then we stopped for a much needed refresher at one of NZ's Mac's Brew Bars, a chain micro brewery done up in retro 70s style right on the waterfront. 

From my travels so far I've been told one thing again and again about wellington and that is that if I do anything, I have to visit the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. A huge building right on the water, it's hard to miss it... And it was definitely worth a look. We only went on one floor and were there over 2 hours learning about NZ's history, geography, scientific breakthroughs and a bizarre and slightly scary experimental fashion exhibition (a few too many life size stuffed dolls for my liking, all da ding round... Told you it was strange...). 

It was interesting to learn more about the failure of the Waitangi Treaty for the protection of Maori lands and customs and more generally about Maori and pakeha history. What I loved almost more though was seeing history that I've already been taught (the wold wars, Queen Victoria, the cultural movements of the 60s and 70s, right up to the present day) but through NZ's eyes.

Don't know why I've out this picture in but in lieu of museum photos, I thought this was pretty cool.

After stocking up on snacks for the next 2 weeks I said bye to Sawyer and went to meet my 13 companions for the next 2 weeks on my group tour of NZ's South Island. Compared to the last one, everyone is on there own save one pair of friends travelling together. Anyway they all seem awesome so feeling excited for my next 2 weeks! Been told the South Island isn't well acquainted with wifi though so may be a while before you get a new post... Lucky you. 

Day 53: Selfie Road Trip - Tongariro, Mount Doom to Otaki

Last night I got chatting to a random trio of travellers made up of one pretty drunk and broke Bristolian Kiwi (who was still getting over the fact he had lost his car keys on the Tongariro Crossing), one an emphatic Argentinian determined (I think jokingly :p) to get down to the bottom of the issue of the Faulkland Islands, and a fresh faced eighteen year old American kid who does the best accents I have heard in a long while...

Anyway, it turned out hey were going their separate ways after 2 months together and the American, named Sawyer, was planning to hitchhike. Mother hen kicks in and I could not let this guy hitchhike his way south and so I gained a passenger on the Selfie Road trip (pictured).

Gutted that I couldn't do the Tongariro Crossing with so little time on my hands, I dragged Sawyer to do a short walk I'm Tongariro National Park just so I could at least see Mordor and Mount Doom for myself. You can see why Peter Jackson felt inspired, this beast of a volcano, with another huge snow capped volcano just a coupl of miles to the south, feels very intimidating. I'm just going to have to come back to NZ one day and climb it myself. 

Not all was lost though as we the walk took us round a beautiful route that opened up onto a fast stream and another waterfall, Tamaki Falls. We climbed up the rocks and sat ourselves right in front of the falls. The place was dead empty, so so peaceful that I could have stayed there all day. 

But I had a big drive ahead so we carried on south through the National Park and down towards Wellington to the busy bustling town of Otaki. Or not, this place is empty (even more so with it being a Sunday) but the motel is adorable. Little caravan like apartments set in a little cottage park. Cute. 

Day 52: Selfie Road Trip - Rotorua to Taupo

Last night at the Tamaki Maori experience I adopted a young German girl called Sonia who was also staying at my hostel. No car and wanting company, I offered her a drive out into the Redwoods Forest to see the much talked about blue and green lakes that sit side by side but are different colours. Much to our disappointment (as per above photo) the day started cloudy and so the lakes were distinctly lake coloured, not blue or green, just lakey. But we got a nice walk out of it before heading back into Rotorua to see what the rest of the town offered and have a much needed coffee.

By the time I let rotorua after lunch it was sunny again so when I passed by a different Green Lake, this time it was actually green and steaming from the hot springs. My first port of call was a hidden hot spring and waterfall that a few people have pointed me in the direction of. For this I had to turn my elderly hire car into a gravel road and panic my way up it at 7mph. Half way up and I'm thinking I'll never find his stupid place but eventually there's a clearing and a faint path into the forest. So I'm getting into my costume thinking if anyone is watching and there isn't a spring here I'm going to look mental... But thankfully I found it and got straight in. Ahhhhhh so so warm and made my skin feel amazing, even if my car grunted for a good 10 minutes afterwards sending me into a fit of panic...

I stopped again at the North end of Lake Taupo to walk the hour and a half round trip up Huka Creek to Huka Falls, an aggressive but stunning waterfall. Literally looks like some giant has emptied their bath water all in one go... With tonnes of almost fluorescent water chuckling itself down stream. And the sound, my god.

Then turning south again the reach my hostel in Turangi at the south end of the lake, I got to see the end of the day driving along the edge of Lake Taupo as the clouds started to come over and the sun start setting. A very lovely end to a very lovely day.

Day 51: Selfie Road Trip - Coromandel to Rotorua

So as to get the full Coromandel experience, I decided not to retrace my steps and instead head north to go north and drive round the top of the peninsula. At the top, the rocks turn from white to a charcoal colour, so a much more dark, eerie scene but no less striking or beautiful than Cathedral Cove yesterday. 

Curving round the top I wound around some extremely tight mountain turns unable to see much at all before I dropped down south and the tiny speck that is Cormomandel Town appeared below, and the massive Firth of Thames begins.

I follows the Firth of Thames all the way and continue south to one of NZ's first tourist attractions, Rotorua (or ) Rotorua is the second largest lake on NZ's North island and was formed from the crater of an extinct volcano. It's geological heritage means the lake is a hub for geothermal activity. There are hot mud pools, bursting geysers and an unfortunate stench of sulphur which can be smelt from the city centre...  I can tell you the lake looks a whole lot more beautiful than it smells.

I took a walk around the south end of the lake and down to the appropriately named Sulphur Bay to get a glimpse of some of the belching hot water holes (one named the laughing pool after the gases emitted got the reputation for sending people into hysterical laughter after too much exposure). The bay is also the home to loads of NZ's bird wildlife, hundreds of them chilling out on a rock in the middle.

Rotorua also has a very striking museum, spa and governmental gardens which provided a nice alternative to the smell.

In the evening I braved the Tamaki tribe's Maori experience night. Finally I have got round to learning a bit about NZ's aboriginal communities and in the most fun way possible! The evening started off with our coach driver persuading us that our bus was in fact a whaka - a canoe, and proceeded to entertain us for the next half hour by teaching us Maori words, songs, etiquette. He nominated a 'chief' to represent our 'tribe' during the welcome ceremony on arrival at the Tamaki village. The welcomed 'huka' dance was terrifying, with warriors skilfully throwing spears around and pulling intimidating faces.

We then got a tour of the village to learn their various skills and mottos handed down through generations including hangi, their special cooking method that uses hot rocks buried with food in deep pits. Luckily for us, we got to demolish the result - a feast of chicken, lamb, potato, sweet potato, salad, stuffing, chutneys finished off with a classic NZ pavlova. I should never eat again... But there are still chocolate strawberries left...

Day 50: Selfie Road Trip - Hunua Falls, Cathedral Cove, Whitianga

And so begins what I am calling the 'Selfie Road Trip' because basically, I'm going to have to get over my fear of 'the selfie', or more accurately, my fear of being seen taking a selfie... I've had some practice and eased my way in with Em but travelling on my own is going to be a whole different ball game, my friends.

Stop one was the Hunua Falls, an impressive waterfall set in the Hunua Ranges, just an hour south of Auckland. Only an hour in to my road trip I decided to opt for the short loop walk but got some fantastic views.

I then headed off East, passing by the hot springs of Miranda near the Firth of Thames. The route took me through some beautiful countryside, largely flat near the water with the mountains of the Coromandel Penninsula providing a brilliant backdrop. One thing, I was promised a lot of sheep. I have seen zero fluffy animals of any kind, but a billion cows. Do New Zealanders realise these are different animals??

Arriving on the Coromandel Peninsula on the North East coast, I follow the diagonal route which takes me straight through the mountains. Amid the amazing views, I found myself behind an old fashioned red sports car. Posh area, I thought, but then I saw another one, and another one, until the mountains opened up into a small lakeside town completely packed with shiny old cars. Literally could not see the road through a sea of cars... The Coromandel Beach Hop the radio kindly informs me. Such a funny thing to come across after miles of silent roads!

After befriending some chickens at a roadside stop... Don't ask... I headed to Hahei, a beach town which gave me my first view of the Coromandel coast and the gateway to the 45 minute walk to Cathedral Cove, which was the place that first made me want to visit New Zealand. I don't think I've seen a more beautiful coastline... Rolling green hills falling onto white sands, with clear blue sea stretching for miles and rounded green rocks emerging out of the water.

Cathedral Cove itself is only reachable via a mountain track so I sort of felt I'd earned this view by the time i got there. A huge white rock archway pushing out into the water revealing the beach behind it. Think this might be paradise...

That evening I drove to Whitianga (lesson no.1, anything whit 'Wh' is incomprehensibly pronounced 'F'. So Fitianga... The hostel is right on the beach so I spent the rest of my afternoon reading on the beach with my chocolate covered strawberries.

Day 49: Auckland - Puhoi and Matakana

Today I finally got to see my other bud out here on the other side of the world, Luke. It's so weird seeing people you know so well out here in a country you know next to nothing about. Weird but lovely.

We went off on a mini road trip up north into wine country. I'm not sure I can call Matakana wine country when it seems most of NZ is wine country... But as I couldn't squeeze Hawkes Bay into my trip (which is renowned for delicious NZ wine), I was determined to get some tasting in. Clearly very determined when even after Luke says he is saving Matakana for his birthday trip next month, somehow we still ended up there, sipping wine at, accidentally, the exact place he's being taken in a few weeks time... Oops.

Anyway, our first stop was Puhoi, a tiny tiny 'historical village' as the sign describes it, on a river with the best bridge for pooh sticks I ever saw... Sadly we didn't play, because I mean... There's just so much to do. There's the HUGE square foot library, and the general store looked a laugh... Ok so this was the smallest village I've ever seen but it was adorable. I wanted to wrap it up and out it in my pocket.

We then went for a lovely scenic drive inland up a dirt track where there were miles of bright green hills and forests before returning back to the coast for wiiinneeee. 

Sadly the wine was a little disappointing, though. The woman who owned the place was a little prickly but she warmed up a little. Sadly the wine did not. They were all made from Italian grapes and should have been delicious but they were all just a little bitter for us. Subjective of course but not for me. The grape juice though was yum. They should be pushing that stuff rather than the wine if you ask me... That and the rafia, a spiced white wine drunk a lot during the Regency period we were told, and which was strangely delicious.

Our last stop before heading back to Auckland was Snells Beach. It didn't have the pristine sands I've become accustomed to, even if the water was stilly crazily clear and warm, but the shells and seaweed were strangely a relief somehow. I suppose they sort of gave the beach texture, literally and figuratively. 

For my final evening Em and I took a stroll down Auckland's viaduct on theatre in the CBD. It was nicely quiet on a Wednesday night but in summer and on the weekends I can imagine it's packed. It's got an awesome 'industrial' feel, with the boats, the pier, the warehouse-like buildings now housing trendy restaurants and bars, and the huge chimneys, some decorated, some not, and one used to screen outdoor cinema in the nice weather.

Days 47 to 48: Auckland

I cannot tell you how excited I was to have 2 days slobbing around at Em's while she was at work. To be honest, just staying somewhere that isn't a hostel and that I can stay for longer than 1 or 2 nights feels pretty heavenly right now.

My first ambition is to investigate the television situation. Oh. Dear. God. The TV in NZ is so very bad. The adverts are strange for starters, with all of them being super cheesy to-camera sales pitches (and I finally get to hear the jingles that Em couldn't stop singing in Australia... New Zealanders sure do love a jingle!). The breakfast TV. which is pretty much as far as I got before giving up, is certainly entertaining. Their equivalent of 'Daybreak' and, I suppose, 'Lorraine', have serious comedy value in the form of two of the dumbest most annoying women I've ever seen. Oh the hilarity. Wish you could see a clip so that this paragraph wasn't so boring for y'all (sorry, too much Beyoncé).

Contrary to what that paraphraph might imply, I did actually leave the house during these 2 days. Right outside Em's place, the jammy dodger has got herself a beautiful reserve, the Kepa Reserve, which you can go in and take some nice walks so I went for a little explore. After nearly peeing myself when some dogs barked at me the whole way there... pathetic... it is beautiful down there. It's really rugged, with the path constantly being taken over by overgrown shrubbery and trees growing seemingly upside down and sideways and in and out of the moss covered stream that follows the path around. 

It's much warmer in Nz than I was expecting, so I took a stroll down to Mission Bay, the nearest beach to Em's place - only 20 minutes walk away and quiet being the middle of the working week. I can certainly see the appeal completely of being 15 minutes drive from their centre, but also 20 minutes from the beach and a protected reserve in your back yard.

For my penultimate night, Em took me an hour out West to the Waitakere Ranges so that we could take in the sunset on Piha Beach. A surfer's paradise to rival Australia I'm sure, if not a bit chilly. The black sand beach weirdly reminds me of beaches in Jersey, and what I imagine the north west coast of US to look like - super beautiful, huge green mountains with golden grasses lining the flat sand with its Kodak-worthy footprints while the huge, brooding Lion Rock stretches out determined into the ocean.

Day 46: Auckland - Mount Eden and Long Bay BBQ

Time for country number 5 - New Zealand! Like Australia, I'm kind of surprised how different it feels to home. Even more surprised given that for my first 4 days I'm staying with Em at her place in Auckland.

After over ambitiously planning to get ourselves over to waiheke island for some walking, benching, wining, having got in at ridiculous o'clock from our flight the night before, we opted for a little more chilled start to our Sunday morning. We headed over to Mount Eden for breakfast at a brunch hotspot called Frasers. Granola, yoghurt, cooked pears and some kind of berry compte got me in the right mood I can tell you... Then we walked up Mount Eden itself, one of a number of small volcanoes that the city is built around and took in the amazing view: A very small but refreshingly flat cityscape with the striking sky tower striking out from the middle.

 

We then went for a driving tour of the CBD, the city's beaches, Mission Bay, St Hellier, before heading off food shopping. This may extremely dull for you but I love going food shopping in other countries. You get such a distinct feel for a place when you see what they stock, how they lay it all out. Plus there's that familiarity which is always comforting. In NZ they are super health conscious... People running everywhere, health food cafés etc, so the supermarket reflected that. Needless to say I didn't opt for health... I walked away with some chocolate flavoured strawberries on my next visit. One of my 5 a day...

In the evening we headed up to the North Shore, to Long Bay national park to have a BBQ with some of Em and Hakan's friends by the beach. I do love how nz and Australia have these random public BBQs everywhere... Not much use in the uk I suspect sadly... The food and the location were perfect. Finished off with a nice cuppa and my first ever caramel tim tam... Basically an elite form of Penguin... (The chocolate bar... Not the animal..)

Days 44 to 45: Noosa

Me having done my surfing, it was now Em's turn to try her hand at something she had never done before. Horse riding. 

Behind our little cabin is a national park, most of which is taken up with the huge Lake Weyba. On the other side of the lake is a stables. The sarcastic but charming and chatty Dave, who is the epitome of Australian laid backness, took us for a beginners trek through the bush and in and out of the lake itself - so much more fun than I expected!

My horse was a slightly slow, lazy dude called Chappy whereas Em's horse, Matty, was clearly raring to go - much to Em's horror... Saying that, it was my horse that suddenly decided after plodding along for ages at 0 mph that it wanted to go for a run... So, I'm miles above the ground, in the middle of a frickin lake, and I'm holding on for dear effing life as my horse starts galloping! Can't stop laughing whenever I think about it now! Otherwise, what a beautiful morning horse riding with no one but us and our guide, oh and some wildlife friends - we unexpectedly got to see our first wild kangaroos!

In the evening we decided to take a walk that the owner of the place we were staying in had recommended. She described a hidden track behind the house that went out in the bush, unsigned but with a clear track until we hit a little bit of forest where you could weave through 50 yards to Lake Weyba. There waiting would be a clearing, a log to sit on and a perfect evening. "Flip flops would be fine" was the closing agreement. Unfortunately our plan for a delightful evening sipping Fourex by the lake was thwarted and, believe it or not, actually became more eventful than the horse riding.

Firstly, flip flops were not fine. Stumbling over rocks and down steep uneven slopes coated with leaves and thistles to a point where honestly, there wasn't just no path, there was no ground at all, just bush. When we finally got there, it's fair to say the spot was stunning, save the insect infested log which we opted against. With 45 minutes until dark and 20 minutes walk back, we decided to head home. Only we couldn't, because we could not for the life of us find our way back. 20 minutes later, we are both sweating, Em's planning a night in the bush as it's 20 minutes til sunset and my leg is dripping with blood. A low point was the moment my foot fell about a foot down through some fragile undergrowth. I don't want to think about the snakes we must have narrowly missed... 

Needless to say, we did find our way home. But we can't quite laugh about the incident just yet... The potential newspaper headlines are still in our minds... 

Our final day requires us to drive back to Brisbane to fly out to New Zealand. On our way we stopped at the popular Eumundi Market, a huge arts and crafts market with food stalls too. I say huge and I mean huuuugggeee. You could spend hours there and not see it all. It was adorable though, with kids riding ponys, hippies playing drum and bass vs. digeredoo, homemade sweets, soap, paintings, everything really.

Next stop Auckland! Feels weird and sad to be leaving Australia after nearly a month but what a great few weeks! We briefly stopped in Deception Bay on our way back down to Brisbane, which was a strange, bleak place... Comforted me that out of all the places we missed on this huge trip, some of them were worth missing... 

Days 42 to 43: Noosa

After 2 weeks of continuous driving north up Australia's east coast in up to 39 degree weather you can imagine finally turning back south for three days relaxation on the Sunshine Coast was quite appealing by this point.

After celebrating our amazing teamwork saw that we found our cosy beach hut retreat in the pitch black after a long drive, on our first morning we eagerly tucked into the aforementioned homemade granola and fresh strawberries. We then preceded to lounge about reading and eating all morning in the sunshine.

Our rented place is at Marcus Beach, one of several beaches that line the north end of the Sunshine Coast, just south of Noosa Heads. Noosa itself is a sizeable beach town surrounded by national parks. Its main street is flanked with an inlet of water on one side, a river or lake really where you can swim and boat, and the town's main beach. Despite the plethora (check me out with the big words) of beaches that continue south (sunrise, sunshine, castaways, marcus, peregian, coolum), this beach is really the main beach for the entire area because the others are simply too rough and dangerous to swim in. Instead they are a surfer's paradise. With 2 deaths in 2 weeks, I'm not about to test it out... The one beach with a slightly different deterrent is Alexandra Bay which, according to the locals, has become an unofficial nudist beach with some quite persistent, shall we say, frequenters...

On our first night we took the national park's must-do coastal path just in time to get the sunset back at the main beach. Aside from being a beautiful walk, it's also the best place to watch the surfers. All lined up waiting for the next big wave, it's quite a sight and then are actually all bloody good. With rocks to your left and rocks to your right, though, you'd have to be... Downside of the walk? Em and I managed to accumulate about 100 insect bites between us...

After weeks now of watching surfers on every single beach, I decided it was high time I had a go at it. I'm not going to say I was good, because it would make you feel bad. It would also not be true. Despite the (you might think convenient) lack of photographic evidence. I did actually manage to get up on my board a number of times... So I'm feeling pretty chuffed with myself and will proceed to tell most people from now on that 'I would have been a surfing champion, IF I lived in Australia...) like that's the only reason :D

Day 41: Fraser Island

Today was the longest day so far but oh so worth it. Up at 6 to get the bus and ferry to Fraser Island, one of Australia's most famous gems, the largest sand island in the world on which somehow a huge rainforest thrives and an impressive number of lakes emerged.

There are zero roads which makes driving interesting... This huge 4 wheel bus is trying to get through I and we are all literally being chucked around violently every moment of the drive...

Our first stop on the island was Central Station, a now deserted clearing where those that first arrived on the island as part of the logging industry set up their community. It is right in the middle of the rainforest so the trees are ginormous and varies. We get a little tour of all of them while walking through the forest alongside a fresh water creek - I have honestly never seen such clear water...

The only word to describe our next stop is paradise. After years of vegetation lining the dip between sand dunes, a huge lake with crystal clear water emerged - Lake Mackenzie. I'll let the photos do the talking here...

After an all you can eat buffet... Nom... We drove down to the beach which spans the entirety of the island's east coast, about 75 miles of Pacific Ocean... And just drove along it at high speed. I've never experienced anything quite like it. There's an element of the feeling you get when you walk out in the middle of a main road when there's no traffic or something.

Along the beach we stopped at three different spots. The first was the iconic wreck of an old cruise ship that had hit a cyclone in the early 1900s. Rust red and buried deep in the sand, it was a striking image and felt super eerie. Apparently the ship was huge but most of it is buried under the sand.

We were told not to swim in the sea because of the high number of sharks. This, however, was apparently the signal for two fellow travellers (who clearly love themselves and swan around half naked with no shoes and zero charm) to run into the sea neck deep and frolick together like tanned douche bags. The guides were literally just staring at them thinking what utter idiots...

Next stop, the pinnacles. Apparently there we could see hundreds of different colours of sand. Me and me found 2.

Further along the beach we spotted three wild dingos, which was fun. I feel I've now seen all the most important wildlife sights of Australia after the red centre and the sanctuary yesterday!

Then one of the highlights, Eli Creek. The creek comes out onto the beach into a shallow pool and from there you can walk up the creek into the mangroves and float your way back down to the bottom using the current!

The highlight though has to be mine and Em's spontaneous decision to take a plane flight over the island. The tiny plane took off from the beach, right over the Pacific Ocean where we could see animals swimming below. We then turned left to get a view of the island from top to bottom with the miles of rainforest and lakes below. Ahhhh still feeling the high (pardon the pun...).

The ferry back to the mainland was delayed due to low sea levels. When I say low sea levels... I'm talking sand. Just sand. I momentarily wondered if we would be staying the night on Fraser, but by the time we got going, we had the sunset as a reward to enjoy the whole way back, which was pretty spectacular.

If only that were the end of a perfect day, but we stills had a three hour drive to go to Noosa. But when we finally arrived at our final stop in Oz, tired and sticky with beachness, I think we almost cried. Our little private yurt is beautiful, white, clean with everything you'd want. A little patio and in the fridge a gift from the owners, some homemade granola, milk and fresh strawberries. The next few days are going to be pure bliss.