Northland Tour

Although I did leave Christchurch, my advenutres weren't quite over - I flew to Auckland 4 days before my flight left for home, so I decided to try and tackle the peninsula North of Auckland - Northland - over those 4 days! Lucky for me, a friend I met while I was in Peru 3 years ago lives in Auckland and was AWESOME and decided to make the trip with me (thanks Mike)! Definitely saw more than I would have if I had been on a bus / tour kind of deal. So on June 24, I flew to Auckland ridiculously early, took the opportunity to store one of my suitcases so I didn't have to deal with it for the next 4 days, and grabbed some breakfast while I waited for Mike! On Sunday afternoon we headed up the east side of the peninsula North of Auckland and ended up staying in Paihia overnight. I was SO tired as it had been about 24 hours since I packed my room / finished exams / flew to Auckland, so I basically just crashed. The next morning, however, I discovered that it was SO WARM - break out the sandals yes please. By so warm I mean probably about 20 degrees - maybe 15 when it was cloudy. But WAY warmer than it had been in Christchurch and I was like WHAT this is winter??? No this is not. Ridiculous. After a brief exploration of the beach, we grabbed some breakfast and hit the road. We kept going North and visited the Waitangi reserve / park, where the Waitangi treaty was signed between Maori chiefs and the British in the 19th century. We lucked out and it was SUPER sunny! We explored the colonial house, the grounds and the marae (meeting house) that were on the property. Continuing North, we checked out a viewpoint and then a Huau (maybe? might be the wrong name) Falls along the way. We then hit Kerikeri, another town along the eastern side of the peninsula. Picking up some ingredients, we stopped on the road for a lunch break and discovered this random pile or pyramid of rocks with a cross on top, that was a cairn marking the graves of some important guys. Then the beach times began! The first one we checked out was Mike's favourite and was called Taupo Bay - as far as I know it is not related to Lake Taupo but I do wonder what the word means. The bar was so nice and the sand was so nice and it was so calm! The tiniest little beach community that seemed like I would just melt into a hammock and chill if I stayed there. It was especially cool because the beach was suuuper shallow and the tide was out, so the beach area was GIANT. After a beach walk, we continuing on our way, our next little side tour was of the Karikari peninsula. We had been advised of another great beach we should check out for sure. So we drove out and ended up at somewherr we don't think was the right place BUT it was still sweet! It was so different from the other beach - it had the grass covered dunes behind the beach and the sand was super light coloured and not gritty. Plus it was SO long. So, we did a little beach investigation and then ended up finding the intended beach on the way out. So beach #3 was sweet. Sand was super white and it was kind of a mix between the first two. We found a hostel not too far out of the next town and called it a day. Day #3 was the out and back to Cape Reinga day! The map is deceiving.... it was farther than it looked! It essentially took us a whole day to out and back from just South of 90 Mile Beach (with stops along the way of course!). Our first stop was to check out an ancient buried Kauri forest! The park was closed but they had a box out for money and said you could show yourselves around! Pretty cool. There were pathways through a forest of mainly manuka and kanuka trees, which were actually growing overtop of a buried Kauri forest - nobody really knows why but the trees are thought to have been destroyed by some cataclasmic event and buried at an angle into the ground.... BUT the trees are massive and were buried in an environment where they basically didn't decompose. So, nowadays, they use the 'swamp Kauri' as it is called, for construction and artwork. The wood gathered this way is usually about 45,00-100,000 years old!! What we checked out though was an old school gumdiggers comp - seemed to me like a mixture of logging and mining... the sap from the Kauri trees or 'gum', was extremely valuable and people made a living of digging holes down to the buried trees and gathering the petrified or hardened sap! Sounds like their lives were pretty rough and dirty... but I now know the reason they are called 'gumboots'!. After checking out the gumdiggers place, we continued on our way. We got to Cape Reinga around lunchtime and hurried down to check it out to avoid a storm we could see coming from miles away - we made it in time BUT had to take refuge behind the lighthouse and wait for a break to run back up to the car! SERIOUS downpour / wind time. The lighthouse at Cape Reinga ISN'T actually the Northernmost point.... there is somewhere else that's 3km further. But probably isn't accessible. Also they didn't tell you that till you got there. Haha. That's ok with me! In Maori belief, Cape Reinga or spirits leap is where the spirits of the deceased leave NZ and return to the ancestral homeland. So it is significant that way as well a geographically! Having to double back on our tracks to get back down the cape, we made some good time and had enough daylight left to check out 90 Mile Beach!! Which isn't actually 90 miles. I think it is actually 90 km. Deceiving but its fine. We did not drive on the beach but rather just walked out and check out the shore - stretched on FOREVER. Couldn't see the end. I could definitely see how you can drive on it though, the beach was super flat again and was like cement at the right distance between the water and dry sand. The good thing about checking out the beaches in the evening meant the tide was always out! Score. We stayed back at the same hostel as the night before and had one more day to check some more sights out and get back to Auckland. BUT YOU'LL HAVE TO WAIT to hear about that day cause my flight is boarding!!! :)

Last post from Christchurch!

So the last 2 weeks have pretty much been nuts.... I managed to fit in 4 exams, a trip to the Antarctic Centre here in Christchurch and a trip to Banks Peninsula. It was a whirlwind trip, but we managed to see a lot!!Including the Akaroa harbour, the scenic route around te peninsula, a family-owned heritage and Maori museum (very cool), and Lyttleton harbour!!! Also during this time I've been getting organized for my journey home! HOME - can't believe it. Time has flown, it has been amazing, and I think I finally realized that I am leaving as I was cleaning out my room today. It now looks like it did when I arrived - ready for someone else!! I've got a few days left in NZ, the plan is a) to head to Auckland BRIGHT AND EARLY tomorrow morning, b) meet up with my friend Mike (who I met in Peru!), c) head North for a couple of days, d) come back to Auckland to head home! We'll just see if they let me leave with the amount of luggage I have..... I mean I have plenty of extra room but they are SO heavy. But all in all, my time in NZ has FLOWN by, as I have said many times before, and I am sad to leave... because there's so much more I would have wanted to do and see!! I guess - that just means a return trip, sooner rather than later :) Next time I 'see' you I may just be across the Pacific! P.S. I WILL be wearing rainboots on the plane.

The End is in Sight

Not only is in the end in sight for my semester (only exams remain), but for my trip as well. Which I basically can't believe. It blows my mind that it has already been close to 6 months since I left. I can't believe how time has FLOWN! Anyways, let's just cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, around the end of classes I did a couple hikes close to town since I actually had to get some homework done on the weekends - classic last week of classes. Everything was due. Did a day hike about 2 hours from Christchurch in the Peel forest (mountain was also called Mt Peel) where we got a fantastic view of the Canterbury plains out the Pacific ocean to the East, and over the Alps to the West. Turned out the be a perfect day too - sunny and great. After finishing the last week of assignments/essays, I took off to Queenstown for a few days to hang out down there and to see Milford Sound (because I figured it is something I MUST see before it is time to leave!) The first day in Queenstown we decided to go out at night - in the freezing temperatures - which was great. Until we tried to leave and I discovered that the 2 layers I had worn were both missing. The coat racks at the front had about 30 coats on them (including NICE ones), and I had smartly separated my 2 layers just in case someone decided to 'borrow' from the coat rack. This did not help. Everyone found their coats except me. And BOTH of mine were gone. I searched for about 20 minutes in every pile of coats I could find and decided to come back the next day to check if they had turned up (no dice). SO awesome. I was beyond mad, and still am. So now I am down one sweatshirt + one raincoat. Perfect, let me replace those with my overflowing bank account (NOT). The next day we headed out bright and early as 2 of the girls had a bungee appointment and one was doing the Shotover canyon swing. I did not go for this. Maybe MAYBE before I leave but it is a pricy 3 seconds.... and slightly terrifying. The 3 of us who did not jump were the camera crew for the jumpers. I thoroughly enjoyed watching haha :) Following the morning activity, we returned to town to grab some Fergburger (necessary) and this time I went for falafel which was the BOMB. There was 6 of us and everyone got a different type of burger - you can't go wrong. In the afternoon we did some shopping around and ate a cheap hostel-made meal and watched star wars. Solid. ALSO a highlight of this trip was the serious amount of Thai restaurants in Queenstown - definitely indulged in some green curry and it was awesome. Another activity one night, we decided to check out a self-serve wine tasting place; essentially, you get a little scan card (kinda like a credit card I guess) and at every station there is a slot for your card, and you can choose what amount of wine you'd like to try (75ml, 150ml or full glass I think it was), all of which are designated a different price. So, whichever amount you choose, the price adds onto your card and then at the end you just pay the balance on your card. PRETTY cool. I discovered I think I like white wine a lot more than red wine? BUT who know cause I really don't know anything about wine.... It was a great time regardless. As the others headed to Dunedin, it was my time to head out to Milford Sound!! WAY easier to book things now, not nearly the same amount of tourists hanging around! But this also means less tours running. I ended up booking a cruise as the kayaking runs pretty infrequently in the winter. I thought it was ok since I got the chance to kayak in Abel Tasman! The drive out to the actual sound was beautiful - we had many photo op stops along the way and were lucky enough to have a SUNNY cloudless day! Perfect! It was quite chilly though. I think I have become a baby when it comes to colder temperatures. I've skipped out on too many Calgary winters recently. I also blame the fact that my wardrobe is basically for temperatures above 10. Anyway, we arrived at the Sound around noon and hopped onto our small (compared to the other giant boats) cruiser where I parked myself upstairs for some outdoor viewing. We went all the way out to where Milford Sound opens up to the Tasman Sea - if we kept sailing we would've arrived in Australia after about 5 days! Another tidbit - Milford SOUND is not actually a sound (a ocean-flooded river valley) it is a FJORD (valley carved by glaciers, filled in by the ocean as the glaciers retreated). In fact, all the 'sounds' in Fiordland National Park are fjords; they got the name of the national park right, except for using an 'i' instead of a 'j'. They're named sounds because that is what the Europeans first named them when they were discovered + the name just stuck. Regardless of what they're called, they were AWESOME. The boat was able to sail SUPER close to the water's edge because even that close to the edge the water is over 100m deep. There is some serious vertical going on. The fact that it had rained the day before was perfect - we got to see a few more waterfalls than normal, and a few of the permanent waterfalls in full force. I took about a million photos basically. After Milford time, I journeyed back to Queenstown for one more day, did some hiking and adventuring around the lake (basically avoided buying anything unnecessary) and headed back to Christchurch at the end of the week. The best thing - the whole time we were getting sunny, cloudless sky weather in Queenstown/Milford, the rest of the country was getting the worst weather, and Chirstchruch had a snow day! Well on the day it snowed school was closed down at noon, and remained closed the next day because it was so icy!! I realized how seriously icy it was when I got back from Queenstown and it was going on day 3 of school closure - walking to my place from the bus was a TASK - sidewalks COVERED with patchy, uneven ice (no 'shovel your walk' rule here) and the roads were essentially paved with a thin layer of ice. Super safe. The snow is pretty much gone now though, as the sun has returned! I am back in Christchurch now, studying away, first final in 2 days! Probably will be hanging out here till I head to Auckland at the end of the month, with the exception of some day trips :)

Photos: Twalk

Just some landscape / views of where the event took place. About an hour and half from Christchurch