travels.of.tara

After my city rejuvenation in Christchurch and Auckland I was eager to get back into some nature exploration. On Thursday, Albert dropped me off at the bus station downtown for my day trip up north to explore the appropriately-named Bay of Islands. I booked the cheapest day tour I could find through Intercity, which is sort of like the MegaBus for New Zealand. The bus was not the most comfortable and made a lot of stops along the way in small towns plus one rest stop for coffee. Four hours later I reached Paihia. I had about an hour and a half, so I walked around the small waterfront town, got pizza for lunch, and tried some homemade blueberry ice cream at a farmers market. Then I boarded a sightseeing boat tour to see the “World Famous Hole in the Rock” and maybe some dolphins. The weather was good again and the windy boat ride was nice, with lots of views of pretty islands along the way. Even though not all the seats were filled there were a ton of people, all walking around and trying to find the best photo spot. It was a bit much. But as we got to the world famous hole in the rock I was right in the thick of it with my camera. The rock was really pretty and extra special because it’s so isolated from roads and development. We also saw some dolphins which was cool, though hard to get a good photo. Still, I wasn’t convinced it was worth the whole long day trip just to see the rock. I enjoyed the day more just for the chill travel after some long walking days, and watching nice scenery go by in the buses and boat. The bus ride back fortunately was with a different bus company and designed for sightseers, and it was pretty empty and nonstop 3 hours back to Auckland. Albert met me back, I got some chain food from “Pita Pit” for dinner, and by the time we got back it was bedtime.

Friday morning I woke up and did it all over again, once again getting dropped off at the bus station at 7:30am. This time the bus was taking me south to Waitomo for a more active adventure, and later that night I would take a bus from Waitomo to Rotorua where I would meet Albert, Clarie, and Michelle for the weekend. This time I was on a proper sightseeing bus, with a driver who talked almost the whole time. I was interested to learn some of what he said, like about plants and whatnot, but mostly I wanted to tune him out and snooze. He would often break into hearty solitary laughter, which was weird enough to pull me out of my headphones and back to attention. I learned about the Kiwifruit (Kiwis in the US – in NZ you need the fruit at the end), which came from China. There are also kiwis the birds and kiwis the people (nickname for New Zealanders). I experienced all 3 in New Zealand.

Anyway, in Waitomo I got dropped off with a German girl named Pia before the rest of the bus, which was heading to the main attraction of the town, a walk and boat ride through the glow worm caves. Glow worms are a big draw and I was excited to see them, after skipping the nighttime nature search for them in the rain in Franz Josef. In Waitomo the glow worms reliably live in these caves, and you can pay money to go see them. I opted to see them by “black water rafting,” a more adrenaline-filled tour that I was pretty excited for. I joined 10 people and 3 guides for our tour. We changed into wetsuits, helmets, and boots, were given floating tubes, and got driven to the entrance to a cave. First we had to practice jumping backwards into some water while wearing our tubes, to prepare for jumping off waterfalls! It was a little scary but once I jumped it was fine. So we make it to the cave and down we climbed, into a dark enclosed cave with water flowing through. We spent about an hour and a half making our way through to an exit. A lot of it was spent carefully walking through water, using our headlamps, and other times we floated in our tubes. We started seeing glow worms right away, and they were really cool! Apparently they were in the larvae stage, so they looked like little greenish twinkle lights, and at times like looking at the night sky. Then of course were the waterfall jumps. It was just adventurous enough for me, and really fun. One of the guides brought a camera. They make you buy the pictures, but I split them with Pia the German girl and a guy named Daniel who was traveling solo from China while studying in Brisbane.

We ended the trip with free soup and bagels, and then the 3 of us solo travelers got driven to the main attraction glow worm caves entrance, where we got another meal at the café which was included in the tour and we had about 2 hours until our bus came. I walked around a little, and we mostly sat there and chatted. Daniel was struggling to learn English, in his first year learning it at school now, but he was having a great time. So great, that he wandered off and left his bag at our table, and then failed to come back as it was time for the bus to leave. Our morning bus driver had warned us the next bus sometimes comes early, and we told Daniel but I guess he didn’t process it. We saw the driver and grabbed his bag, and were looking everywhere to find him. Finally we see him running toward the bus, just in time. Apparently he decided to climb a big hill across the road and was running down to make it. It was pretty funny. So on we went, with a bus filled with just a handful of people making our way the 2 hours to Rotorua. This driver was also giving commentary, but fortunately not the whole time. I dozed off and watched lots of rolling green hills with grazing cows and sheep (the sheep to human ratio is about 10:1 in NZ! Also, dairy is the biggest export).

So we made it to Rotorua, a touristy town known for its geothermal features and cultural experiences. My confused friend Daniel ran off to his hostel where he had his cash to pay me for the photos. He came back about 20 minutes later, which was longer than I was expecting, but at least he came back. Then it was time for me to walk to my next activity, which I had just booked the night before: a Maori village experience and dinner, the Tamaki Maori Village. Albert and Claire left after work and weren’t scheduled in to our AirBnb until 9 or 10, and they were not interested in this activity so it worked out well. They likened it to me going to see a Native American show – they had grown up with these experiences. But for me it was very exciting and a must-do cultural New Zealand activity.

The Maori are the native inhabitants of New Zealand, who through a treaty in the 1840s and some related wars agreed to become British citizens in New Zealand (before the country’s independence around 1900) – so it feels a little less “stealing their land” than other indigenous groups, and they are very frequently acknowledged around the country. We were driven out to their traditional village (presumably a replica where people no longer actually live, but you know, I’m really not sure), and as the 5 bus loads of people arrived from town each bus chose a male “chief” who had to perform a welcome ceremony with the Maori. We then walked around to different stations to learn about education, carving, dances, tattoos, and other things. I got selected to try a game of keeping up sticks while running around them. I was a little put off by the traditional gender roles – women aren’t allowed to be chiefs, they have smaller tattoos than men on their chins to represent the preciousness of their child-rearing abilities, and they aren’t allowed to do the “haka,” the traditional aggressive war dance that involves tongues and eyes bulging out. Women have their own dance with props called the poi, but it seems to have developed later. We got to watch a nice performance of both these dances. The haka is really unique and impressive. Then we ate a buffet dinner, made in the traditional style of roasting big baskets in the ground for a few hours, of great veggies and some meats. As we got driven back to town our Maori driver impressed us by singing songs from the different countries on the bus in those languages. He kindly dropped me off at the AirBnb.

A standout of my time in New Zealand has been seeing how ubiquitous the Maori language is, like in town names and the frequent use of “kia ora” to say hello/welcome etc (like aloha). But most people don’t really speak it. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the movie Moana. Not only did I go through the town of Moana on the train in the South Island, but the legends from the movie are very true to the real legends, like Maui’s hook pulling up the oceanic islands from the sea. I definitely watched this movie on the plane ride home.

The next day we fit in lots of activities. After eating breakfast out and walking around the town park, we started at Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal park you have to drive to. First we watched a fun presentation and a geyser erupt, which happens the same time every day. I was a little dismayed to see the presented pour something into the geyser to activate it, especially having seen bigger geysers at Yellowstone and in Iceland. Then you walk through the rest of the park. I again got strong Yellowstone vibes, with the mud pools, sulpher rock formations, and deep pools, all while a gross sulpheric smell permeates the air. Still everything was really cool. I ran into Daniel and Pia individually throughout the walk. I walked further than Michelle and family (the whole thing was about a 90 minute walk through) and met them back for some food.

It was afternoon nap time, so I got dropped off to do another activity, a redwoods treewalk. Redwoods aren’t native to NZ but many have been planted there for the industrial uses. The treewalk was fun – you climb up a spiral and then there are about 30 swinging bridges through the trees – just a little scary and very pretty. There was an info sign at one of the platforms showing Prince Harry and Meagan doing it on a visit last year. It was a short activity but very nice!

After a short break at the AirBnb we chose our next activity, a place called the Skyline that included a Gondola ride up a mountain. From there we did a few luge rides down, on gravity-fueled carts that steered and had breaks. It was faster and longer than I was expecting and pretty fun! We took ski lifts back up and little 2-year old Michelle did great on both of these things. We ate dinner at a café at the top with nice outdoor mountain and lake views. We stopped at the supermarket for some dessert and wine, and after Michelle went to bed the 3 of us did Rotorua mud masks and enjoyed the AirBnb for a bit before bed.

Sunday morning I was getting the last travel day blues. We started with a nice breakfast in town, then walked through another local park with thermal pools and bad smells, but here there was a nice hot pool you could sit at with your feet in. On our drive out of town we stopped at an attraction called the Agrodome, but instead of paying to watch them shear a sheep we just walked around and saw lots of sheep, goats, hairy cows, a random emu, and 2 ostriches who were scarily close to us behind the fence. After another half hour of driving we stopped in a cute town called Tirau for some snacks and shopping (inside a giant sheep-shaped building), and then on for another 2 hours back to Auckland, through which Michelle slept.

After a break Albert and I went back out to see more Auckland things for my last night. We walked up the much-hyped One Tree Hill, a hill/park/Auckland mountain that formerly had a tree up top which was cut down, and an obelisk statue. It was another great 360 degree view, and to my knowledge has nothing to do with the old TV show about North Carolina (though it is the basis of a U2 song). Then we drove to see lots of roses, a view of some docks and the water, and into a nice suburban town where we got dinner at an Italian place, ending off the night at a mall for some last-minute shopping at some less touristy shops. It was nice to chat about travel and reflect on my awesome trip before I leave!

I had to leave at 6am on Monday so I didn’t get to say goodbye to Michelle, but off to the airport for my 3 flights and 28+ hour journey I went. (Auckland to Sydney to Dallas to LaGuardia). I could probably write a whole post about the experience of these flights, but frankly they were just something to get through. I was mostly focused on logistics (make sure I eat and sleep at the right times; make connections; American airports and security are the worst, etc) and catching up on my blog and photos. I’m less in reflection mode, through as I finish writing this on my last flight home I am starting to feel the enormity of what I’ve done over the last 3.5 weeks, and feeling that fulfilled travel buzz that I crave. I’ve loved disappearing from my day-to-day life, and truly feel like I could keep going. I’m already thinking ahead to what’s next!