New Zealand.
Aotearoa.
Land of the Long White Cloud.
Land of Mulk and Hunee.
Place of Sheep Shaggers.
Kiwiland.
En Zid.
(other associated names)
...
FREAKING AWESOME.
I started the day before my tour in Auckland. My mind was melted when I got in, as I woke early the day before, my first flight left Perth just before midnight, didn't sleep on either flight, and hit Auckland at roughly 2:30pm local time.
Auckland airport is a pretty cool place to be. In the international terminal, they have a nice selection of cool calm Maori tracks playing over the speakers as you enter, with the architecture somewhat mimicking rockface that has been carved traditionally. This calm vibe starts unravelling a bit at Customs, as some of the lines seem a bit unruly... though, that said, they are very cruisy in there and it was a sign of things to come. The locals here are even more laid back than Australia and even Kalgoorlie.
The calm vibe was virtually non-existent, though, by the time you hit the arrivals area. That place is Chaos and possibly a little too small for what is needed. Not to be unexpected, I suppose.
The following sign filled me with confidence:
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This is a bus station, where the buses are going to Auckland - sorry - Akland.
By AIR.
Uh Oh. |
Moving on.
The trip in to Auckland is long and largely uneventful. I did manage to see Elvis serenading a parking meter, but was too slow on the camera to get a shot.
Stopped in near my accommodation, the YHA International, and spent a decent portion of the afternoon actually trying to find it.
Driver said "Go down this hill and turn right when you hit the traffic lights."
Well... Went to the bottom of the hill and turned right at the lights. Didn't spot it.
Did a lap of the main street and a few surrounding ones, and still ended up nowhere, so I got to the start again an hour later. Turns out the driver did not mean the main set of lights at the bottom of the street, but a set of pedestrian lights halfway to the bottom of the hill.
Meh.
On the way, I found an awesome music store. If you are ever in Auckland, find a place called "Real Groovy". It has probably the largest selection of music (bigger than JBs) in both modern and vinyl. Massive variety of all types. Is a bit hipsterish, but pretty damn cool. I hadn't started the tour, but already I was filling my suitcase.
Got the accommodation keys, went to the room.
This is the first time I met a person on the tour:
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Stephen.
British.
Manager of some description (unknown/forgotten) |
I'll go through the rest of the starting crew later, amusing story time.
We got chatting and we decided that we would go to a pub down the road, called "Father Ted's". Obviously, I would be up for that... but he decided that he would nap first. I decided to read and, at some point, drifted off also. Woke up at 10:30ish, and a few minutes later, he came in.
"Right, so I went to the pub and bought a beer..."
These stories always end well.
In short, he got a raffle ticket. He traded it off to the guy next to him, both saying that it probably wouldn't matter. He won off the other guy's ticket, giving him a shot at "Pick the Joker"...
And now he is up NZ$1600.
Anyhew... time to meet the rest of the Original Crew:
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Andy
British
Marketing (?Research, I think... can't remember exactly)
Nice guy. |
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Jaco (pronounce "Yaco")
Dutch
... can't remember occupation
Likes phones, internet and connectivity. Constantly.
Nice bloke and up for most activities. |
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Laure
Switzerland
Accountant
Lord of the Rings fanatic. Fun. |
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Torsten
German
IT Security(?) Consultant
Dislikes Social Network security. Nice. |
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Jan (pronounced "Yan")
German
Anaesthetist
Reserved. |
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Steve
Australian (Newcastle. Seriously, WTF?)
Engineer (can't remember what sort... designs trains... electrical?)
Good Bloke. Father of.... | |
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Dean
Australian
Studying Chemical Engineering and Science at Uni of Newcastle
Metal Head. Pretty cool. |
 |
Gwen
Cayman Islands
Banker (?)
Fun and Bubbly. Married to... |
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Will
Cayman Islands
Journalist/(?Chamber of Commerce)
Top Bloke with incredible history and stories. |
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Nicola
New Zealand
Just started with Haka Tours (not as a guide, just using the trip for the experience).
Fun and up for pretty much anything on tour. |
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Mike
New Zealand
Tour Guide
Knows EVERYONE in New Zealand. Damn good tour guide and top bloke. Just a pity he had done an ACL late last year, otherwise he would have done a lot of the activities on the tour. |
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Veronica
New Zealand
Tour Bus
Seats up to 20-24, but comfortable with 16 or less.
Slow up hills. |
We had more people attach and disappear on the tour. We'll get to them when they come on.
The first morning, the 15th of Feb, was a get together to sort out how the trip was going to work.
Auckland is a city built on 55 Volcanoes. Though they are all thought to be inactive, they do tend to make the land hilly. Hilly to the point that it takes about an hour out of Auckland to get to flat land.
On the way out, I spied something magical:
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| For those of you who can't cast spells at critical times, blame these guys. |
This was spotted quite near a cemetery, which made it doubly hilarious (for Maoris, Mana is life energy).
The cemeteries double up as good parkland in the middle of the city, with plenty of walks and open space near them. Quite an efficient and interesting use of the space.
Though I didn't get a picture of it, you should be informed that the On Ramp to the highway at Auckland has a set of traffic lights, stopping every car as they enter the on ramp's.... ramp.
The thing about this trip is that there were a lot of times when we were driving. Quite often it would take 4-6 hours to get where we were going. Quite often these would be through windy mountain passes. There were, of course, places to stop and sight-see, and the drives themselves are gorgeous... but there are a lot of times where it would be a little boring. Pay attention, though, and you get to see such interesting sights as the following:
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| Umm... ok... |
There was also a winery/pub on the way that whose major sponsor was VB, but alas... I missed that photo opportunity (not strictly true... just the result is so blurry that you can not see it properly).
We learnt on the trip that ~90% of the Kauri tree forests were removed for farming purposes. The Kauri tree requires 150 years to mature, and are now a protected species.
The Coromandel Peninsula is quite a nice location. Just as good as most, if not all, of Eastern Australia.
Here, I went Kayaking around the peninsula to Cathedral Cove.
I'm going to leave it here for the time being:
I'm just not really interested in writing at this point in time. I'll try to get more out later.
