New Zealand - The Northlands

We're off, we're off, we're off in a motercar!

Off up North from Auckland we head. The weather is looking gooood and Duncan has decided that we will indeed camp...hmmmm. Apparently he believed me when I said 'sure we can camp'. We have been to The Warehouse (Duncan's favourote shop as he can buy a fleece in there for 5 English Pounds!) to stock up on all kinds of crap in the camping section, including a whistling kettle and outdoor shower thing. Nice.

First stop Piha. After getting lost in the very steep forest mountain we finally got to the coast, a gorgeous black sandy beach that sparkled like it was home to thousands of diamonds as the sun set across the crashing wave backdrop surrounding Lions Tooth rock.

Duncan was a true man and pitched a tent and cooked on an open flame, a gas powered flame but still many man points he did gain. Camping wasn't as cold as I thought it might be either, probably due to the fact that I insisted we bought the sleeping bags intended for 0 degree temperature climates!

We have, however, learnt that if you get in the tent with a torch and watch a movie on your ipod Do Not then get out of the tent to go the toilets! It turns out bugs are attracted to the light (who knew!) and all flew in the miute we opened the door so we then had to play squat the mosquito. I think I won and the black marks now on teh inside if the tent prove it....  The next morning it was bloody raining though wasn't it! No more romantic picnic blanket meals and sunshine. Now we have a wet tent in the car and cherrio's all over the front seat from me trying to eat from a shallow bowl. hmmmm. Grumpy Annie.

I decided to take the wheel on the way to the next place, up the West coast, and apart from Duncan pushing me out of a dip which I thought I would do a u-turn in I am loving the driving! We found a cute little vineyard and winery to have a few tasters. Apparently NZ is famous for it's Sav's and Pinot Noir's so they'll be my drink of choice for the next few months. We bought a couple of bottles, had a wander around the vineyard and headed onwards and upwards slightly drunk as the breakfast thing hadn't quite worked out...oops. Luckily the scenic roads of NZ have lots of little stop off bviewing points and picnic breaks, unfortunatly it is a crazy windy day and making jam sandwiches turns out more tricky than planned!

We stopped at our first Top 10 campsite in Waitomo forest this evening (after the cheaper government campsite option was spookily empty).  and wow! This place is beautiful - the moutains, covered in trees, create a stunning background to the clear running river that babbles along the bottom of the campsite.

I accidentally left Duncan to put up the tent by himself as I discovered a zip wire and trampoline playground. hehe. Again, the sun was shining this afternoon and it was a lovely day. Which obviously changed the minute morning broke...and it rained. again. I do not enjoy this.

We are continuing upwards for one more night, to eventually be able to get o the northernmost point, but on the way we have to stop at the famous (in NZ maybe) Kauri tree. It is 2,000  years old and it it HUGE! The daddy of the forest. A lot of the Kauri trees were once cut down but are now protected although a lot are being dug up from swamps where they were buried hundreds of thousands of years ago. My history on the trees is a bit patchy and the tree is well, just a big tree, so let's move on.

Kaitaia. This is just a stop for the night so we can go the on the bus tour up the Ninty Mile Beach tomorrow but oh joy of joys....we stay in a hostel! 2 nights of rain and the idea of getting up early (well, 8am) and packing up a tent helped me pursuade Duncan. This evening we have been told to head over to Mangonui to get the 'best' fish and chips in the whole of New Zealand. You don't need to tell me twice. Sadly, they were probably not the best we've ever had (is this because we are British?) the chips were McCains oven chips - weird. and the fish was good but not worth the reputation. Beautiful view over the sea whilst we ate though.

A day of not driving, hurrah! It is crazy how tiring driving can be when you haven't done it in years and today we are getting a bus tour up to Cape Reinga, the top of NZ. Getting a bus through the narrow twisting lanes and mountains of NZ is the scariest thing ever but our driver seemed completly crazy so we thought we were probably in safe hands. We made a few stops on the way up at the Kauri museum where they made some beautiful furniture out of the swamp Kauri and a lovely stop on a beach for lunch.

At the top of the land we walked to the lighthouse which is at the point where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet. This is also said to be the point, in Kauri legend, where the souls of the dead leave NZ to go on to the spirit world. The toilets here also cost about 1,000,000 NZD to build. (I was listening see!)

On the way back we go down the 90 mile beach (which is actually only 63miles). This is something you are not insured to do in a car because of all the quicksand and if you stop in the wrong place for long enough then that is it, you're stuck! but first - we get to go sand tabogganing! The climb up is seriously steep though. I just got Duncan to carry my toboggan so all was well!

Some other people on another bus arrived just after us and they had boogie boards which went seriously fast down the slopes. Three of them decided to go down together, which didn't look like a good idea, and low and behold one swerved into the path of the others and they whacked heads. He had no memory afterwards of what had happened and she had a huge bump, at times like this I wish I was more useful with first aid, but I'm not and the tide was coming in so our bus left. We then shot down the beach at about 100km which was just pretty awesome really! We even saw a car in the quicksand that was apparently resurfacing after several years.and the best news yet, we get to stay in a hostel at Paihai tonight because by the time we get there it'll be too dark to put up the tent - yay! We found a lovely bar on the seafront and had a chilled out evening.

Duncan spotted a cafe last night that serves huge fry-ups so guess where we went this morning? After a huge breakfast and a little wander around a craft market in Paihai it started to rain, again, so we headed to see some nearby waterfalls. 

The first one we headed to had a sign about an hour and a half walk and since we haven't done much exercise so far we decided this might be a good idea! We packed the bag with all essentials, water, coats, chocolate (Duncan faffed for what seemed like 15minutes) to then walk from the car park and realise the waterfall was right there, and a bit shit. oh well. We then went on to the Whangerai Waterfall which is like the Paris Hilton of waterfalls apparently - the most photographed but not the best. It was ok and I had a nice drink....

Continuing south, Duncan needed a relief break, or just wanted to go see the famous (again probably only in New Zealand) toilets designed by some Austrian artist (paying attention again) They were quite pretty in a mosaic kind of way but bizarrly are on the map and had loads of German tourists visiting and taking loads of photos... even if Duncan was taking a wee (mind you why would you take a wee in a urinal if there were people taking photo's of the facilities?!)

We thought we might stop in Whangerai for the night but it reminded us of Stoke-On-Trent and why would you choose to stay in Stoke? So we powered on to Orewa Beach and camping, again... hmmm. Orewa is a lovely coastal place that is getting really 'built up' (not like a city but built up for NZ) and is quite touristy and popular for surfers in the summer. It was a bit windy and wet whilst we were here though so we didn't get to spend any time on the beach. We did find a bowling place where Duncan whooped my ass - everything really is upside on the other side of the world!

We also went to the Thermal Spring Baths in Waiwera. The baths are lovely...mmmm. Especially after a cold night in the tent! haha. The best pool by far had to be the movie pool which was 40degrees and had movies on - sadly we got there at 11am and the movies didn't start until 4pm and my resolve to stay there for 5 hours to see The Blind Side didn't hold out that long! Getting out of the pool into the freezing air was not so lovely. This evening we headed into town and like proper tourists had out all our guide books and maps planning the next part of the trip. New Zealanders are so lovely - seeing that we were touring they came up to us giving us advice on where to go and welcoming us to their country. Sweet as.

I have decided to let Duncan drive today and the car has broken down. A direct correlation I can not suggest but it is a coincidence....haha! We spent the next 4 hours of our day in a petro station just north of Auckland whilst we first waited an hour for the AA, who said the radiator had a leak and it wasn't safe to drive (Quality Rentals my arse!) so we then had to get the rental company to agree to a tow truck. An hour later the tow truck arrives and appologises as he has just had a call from the rental firm saying they don't want to pay for a tow and instead they are sending someone with a car to exchange with us. 2 hours later again we have been sitting in the car, in the blistering heat (of course it is hot today!) and we finally have a new car - just in time to hit the rush hour traffic going through Auckland on Labour Day weekend! We have decided that tonight we will drink....

Middle Earth - Well, Auckland anyway

Quick update before we head on out of Auckland on our New Zealand leg of the tour - can't wait to see something slightly prettier and 'outdoorsy' than Auckland. We had planned to be here for 2/3 days whilst we found a camper van and planned a route but because we are ridiculously bad at making decisions we have ended up staying a week! oops. The days pretty much went - camper? car? van? tent? camper? car? camper? car? stay in NZ for 2.5months? don't stay that long? stay? don't stay? arrrrrgggghhhhh! We thought we had fund a compromise with a car that turns into a bed but at the last second found that camp sites are as expensive, if not more so than hostels to camper van stay soooo as it is actually still quite cold in New Zealand and will be even colder on the South Island I decided we should stay in hostels because I Do Not want to be running round freezing campsites from shower to van wrapped in just a towel. I have 'promised' Duncan that we can camp out a couple of nights on the North Island as well as when we get to Australia...we'll see.


So Auckland... it is freaking cold here after the tropical heat of Fiji! We have stocked up on extra jumpers and long sleeved tops. We found some funky vintage clothes shops in the K road area and a market area similar to Camden called Victoria Park Market, although it wasn't as big as Camden.


Guess what the best thing about Auckland is though? It isn't the Sky Tower which gave us 360degree panoramic views of Auckland and information about all the different landmarks. It wasn't the really cool pub with table and floor lamps attached to the ceiling and the most difficult and high-tech pub quiz I have ever seen. It wasn't Kelly's Aquarium and Antarctic featuring the cutest penguins, hugest stingrays, shark tunnel and various other tropical fish. It was, in fact, visiting the Parnell Village with it's cute village shops with large bay windows, brick cobbled streets, and wood direction signs. This place is home to the best Hot Chocolate I have EVER had! (I forgot my camera this day so sadly have no photos) It was huge, dark, thick and glooped off the spoon. Topped with cream and chocolate shavings ...DELICIOUS.

Time to get the hire car now and explore Middle Earth, xxx

Fiji Time

BULA!

It's Fiji Time! After a mammoth 30-something hour journey via train, tube, plane, foot, plane, bus, boat and smaller boat we arrive in Fiji! This place is out of a holiday brochure, without all the photoshopping.


Our first resort is Blue Lagoon and I am still in 'active' mode so first day 7am I have decided we are going on the mountain hike. The clue should have been in the word 'mountain'... as I looked around at the group of children, those erring on the plus-side of middle aged, and an older fellow, I confidently, and apparently arrogantly, thought I am going to rock this walk. Oh, how wrong could I be? Turns out they were all hikers and the older guy was a hiking instructor in Canada - this is the guy who practically carried me down the mountain, until I discovered you could slide down the soil practically the whole way! We did get to see a wonderful view of the island, down to the local village we visited later in the day and then had a beautiful walk along the beach back to the resort seeing how they are using the local land and villagers to run and support the hotel as environmentally friendly as possible.

Visiting the village in the afternoon was a great way to see Fijian village life. The houses are basic as you'd expect but everyone was hugely friendly and welcoming. We have been encouraged to shout BULA to pretty much everyone we have met... hmmm something we continued doing for two weeks to much amusement.... not sure how shouting HELLO at strangers would go down in London! Anyway, the village-people (oh how I tried not to write that) did a welcome meke dance for us. (We saw 3 of these during our stay in Fiji!) We got to get up and have a boogie too, well we did a backwards forwards dance and something like follow-the-leader-conga. We then got in a circle and one guy did a solo dance, then dragged me into the middle...so obviously I did some funky moves... I don't think the Fijians were expecting that and all bent over laughing. :) The ladies of the village then put on a craft market selling necklaces, fans, bookmarks and sarongs. We felt so guilty only buying off 3 or 4 of the ladies. We then visited the local school where most of the children live-in. They sang a few songs too including 'If you're happy and you know it', and 'Kum-by-ya'. They were super cute but also like every other child in the world, a bot grumpy at having to stay late after school to sing to strangers, well until they started enjoying having an audience and starting being really cheeky and dancing for us! haha.

We have taken part in a few less cultural activities too including eating way to much, crab racing ( we always seem to get into the final but never win that bar tab!) and volleyball (Duncan not me!).

I also went snorkeling for the first time! After panicking a bit about breathing underwater and shark and sting-ray attacks I really loved it. The coral was beautiful and the fish so colourful! We were also right by the shelf which was amazing! I was not expecting it and all of a sudden the coral just dropped away under us like walking off the edge of a cliff! wow!

One of the cheesiest things (and maybe my favourite activity) was watching a movie outdoors, they strung some canvas between two palm trees and projected Blue Lagoon The Movie onto it! So we watched Blue Lagoon, at the Blue Lagoon and Blue Lagoon cocktail was on happy hour...geddit! ok, next... 


Next stop was Manta Ray. hmmm, the resort was about half the price and half the nice. We had to sign a disclaimer on the way in saying we wouldn't sue the resort if we should we die or injure ourselves in anyway including poisonous snakes, spiders, tripping on man-made objects or by any fault of the resort. ok glad we got that all cleared up. Out tree house was actually quite sweet all on it's own in the woodland area...well until I realised that trees attract animals and a HUGE lizard decided to run around our room... cue Duncan standing on a chair, on the bed (with me holding it for safety), stuffing all the holes where the Lizard could get in, maybe this is why they made us sign a disclaimer.... the resort was ok here, more 'backpacker-y' and younger. There was a group of 5 American lads who I kid you not went 'spriiiing break' during their stay and one of them looked like Stiffler from American Pie.

Anyway, we thought we might get some resting and book-reading in here but the activities manager had other ideas and told us we couldn't be lazy all day so we should weave a basket, and a very fine basket I did weave too!

We also helped prepare a Lovo dinner on Friday night which is where they burn rocks in the ground, layer them with banana leaves (any other leaves would burn the food apparently), then the food (potatoes, kasava and chicken) gets wrapped in palm leaves (like the basket), put in and covered with more palm leaves and material and dirt. This actually tasted really yummy and the food was really moist. And a nice step on from that...this place was my first encounter with 'the long drop', yep compost toilets.....gross enough and then I saw a cockroach climbing UP the toilet....I quickly learnt how to pee ski-pose! I think we should move on...


Octopus was our third stop where we met up with our new friends Andy and Gemma again. This mainly meant hours of Monopoly Deal playing! We finally had a chill out and read most of the time.

We went to the local church service on Sunday thinking it would be a really lovely uplifting, spiritual, song-filled service...Oh My God...after two hours and this minister preaching at us in Fijian really, really loudly through a microphone (why shout into a microphone in a church that fits about 100 people in?!) in Fijian about something I think that roughly translated as 'god will punish you' we got up and left. hmmm.

We had a fabulous beach bonfire night here also which was only dampened slightly by the massive tropical storm. Ok so it pretty much put the fire out so we went back to Monopoly Deal. We really had a great time at Octopus, watching another movie under the stars (Good morning Vietnam, I was wondering if we'd get Octopussy!), crab racing (and losing) and snorkeling again. We also tried our hands at light writing with Andy and Gemma and I had a lovely relaxing massage looking out to sea...mmm chillaxed to the max!

I am now becoming at one with the local lizard wildlife, apparently they eat mossies, and have three pet lizards living outside our bungalow (Garry Gecko is my favourite but don't tell the others!) Also, the food is way to good here and I really need to watch my belly! Oh well, surely walking along he beach and snorkeling counts as exercise?!


And onto Waya Lai Lai, the worst worst place ever! Our room smelt like damp, and was home to several bugs and ants - I feel itchy now talking about it. We went to afternoon tea and biscuits - or more accurately tea and cream crackers, weird... worst yet was dinner. It was served school canteen style, grumpy staff and one of each item only. Also, I was very worried about the lack of electricity meaning the bottles of coke were not cold... no that's not what I was worried about.. it was the thought of how the chicken and meat was kept cold every day... Back at the room we thought maybe we'll just wait until morning as all this moving around can be unsettling, and coming from a great holiday resort can be misleading... well so I though until the hugest, darkest cockroach in the world crawled up the curtains and this time there were too many holes to block anything out! I wrapped up tight in sock, pajamas, a shirt, and a hat made from a top plus three sheets... and then the electricity shut down and the fan went off... it was a battle between my fear of the bugs and a fear of dying of heat - the bugs won. The next day after a disappointing breakfast of bread and jelly jam, we got on the first boat going North again to anywhere... we ended up all the way back at The Blue Lagoon but something felt odd...


... back at The Blue Lagoon I felt different to the first time we were here, sort of calm and easy-going, is this what relaxed is? hurrah!

We should have only been at Blue Lagoon for 1 night and then Bounty for 3 but our friends from earlier (Andy and Gemma) had been there and written to us with a disturbing review of 'the hostel with blood on the sheets' so we decided to stay at Blue Lagoon! Which also worked out well as we made a whole load of new friends and Monopoly Deal buddies! 2 sisters from Australia, a Canadian lady, a British pair - one of whom worked with Dewynters through radio once and wants to work in theatre advertising in Melbourne, small world - and an Irish couple. We got to see another movie under the stars - DIRTY DANCING!! I laid back and closed my eyes, listening to the beautiful words. Duncan asked why I had voted for Dirty Dancing if I wasn't going to watch it, to which I told him 'I don't need to 'watch' it, I know exactly what they are doing' duh! We also crab raced, and lost, again. Our Canadian friend's crab won though! Very exciting times in Fiji for us. Also we got to see another Meke, eat another Lovo and enjoy another beach bonfire...this one had fire-dancing before it and petrol on it which was much more exciting! We also went out on a boat trip to a nearby sand bar..I thought this was a beach bar which sold drinks, it is a bar of sand that goes out into the ocean actually. I bet you all know that! The tide was really strong out on the bar 'cause for some reason we went at high tide so it wasn't showing rather than low tide so we could walk up it! So we went back to the beach, played cards, and listened to some choons on the pod... nice.

We have had a great time time in Fiji but sadly it is time to move on. Now we are in New Zealand (and cold) we will try to update more frequently as we go.

VINAKA (or thank you) and goodbye for now!

Link to Fiji Photos