Finally I arrived in Auckland on Feb. 5th (actually in the very early morning).
I took the shuttle bus to the city center to my booked YHA-Hostel, one of the very few hostels with a 24H-reception. As my airport host had canceled on me a day earlier, because they had discovered that I was booked for a dorm, they had told me: sorry, our guests need to sleep because of early-morning-flights, you can’t enter the dorm after 8pm. Which is chicken shit, because I would also have been a guest arriving late and wanting to sleep because of being very tired.
Well the youth hostel in the city center was okay, but I didn’t see much of it as I had to checkout at 10 am already. So I walked over with my always-getting-huger-and-huger backpack to the YMCA-hostel. Formerly that was a hostel only for men (Young Men’s Christian Association), but nowadays they are letting a few women in as well.
At 12pm sharp I met Tina again: in front of the elevator! We were happily hugging each other and then realizing that we were blocking the way for everybody.
We walked a little around town, along Queens Street and then onto K’Road (Karagahape Rd, which is too long for everyone). There you find the nicest little cafes, lots of second hand clothing-and-everythings shops and we had a coffee and a carrot cake (yummy!) in a very cute café overlooking the garden to the back.
In New Zealand there is an ebay-like website called Gumtree, where you can trade basically everything. And guess what we found ourselves there? An almost full camping gear (including a tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 mattresses, cooking stuff and much more, for about 50 EURO.
The 2 German guys who had used it before had bought it all for a much higher price at the local Warehouse (a Walmart or Real equivalent) and we just had to add a little to it to satisfy our needs.
We got the stuff at their hostel and had to transport it all back on the public bus, where everybody was looking at us, like: chicks, you’re going camping via bus???
We also explored the Second Hand shops on K’Road and bought several clothes and some old-fashioned cutlery.
The next 2 days I spent most of my time at Tina’s hostel Verandah’s, which was situated 10 min from the YMCA (and where I unfortunately could not get a room anymore as it is always booked out quickly). People there were unbelievably nice and I was allowed to turn up as a guest. Tina had gotten to know several people there and some Germans came together for cooking dinner and breakfast and everything. So I came to meet Anne and Stefan and others and we had several fantastic meals together, under which self-made pasta salad, pancakes and a local specialty: pavlova (which is a super sweet dessert).
On our last day (Saturday) in Auckland we both checked out of our hostels, but left everything there.
Then after another breakfast at Verandah’s we headed for the city center, did some more shopping and had lunch at a fantastic Hanoi café, which had our beloved Ca Phe Sua Da (Vietnamese ice-coffee). Mmmmmh.
At around 4 pm we went to get our pre-booked rental car. Or we thought we would!
When arriving at ACE car rental the guy there told us: sorry, never heard of you. Naaaw, just go down the road, there is another company, we can’t help you.
(I had a voucher in my hand stating the name, date and everything of our deal. Not worth a thing!)
We insisted that the guy wrote us a cancelation paper so that we wouldn’t have any trouble getting our money back from our German car rental company who had made a deal with them.
Then we headed off to USAVE, down the road and even when it was already closing time (nearly 5 pm) the guys there were very very helpful and gave us the car we had wanted in the first place: a nice old Nissan Sunny with a HUGE trunk to fit all our stuff in (camping gear, 2 backpacks etc.).
Happy we drove off to collect our stuff from the two hostels and then we headed towards the North.
Our first stop, as it was already evening, was not too far away in Waipu. We wanted to visit the non-famous caves there the next day, so we had booked a twin room in a garden house. The two other guests there were a little strange and the granny of the house, who was cleaning the next day, obviously thought of us as strange people as we were still hanging around for 1-2 hours after check-out to sort all of our stuff and to pack it in a way that it would fit the trunk. And it did!!! Exactly.
We also created an extra bag with stuff that we didn’t want to drag into every accommodation and put it in the very back of the car.
We visited the monthly Boutique Market at Waipu, where lots of locals came to chat and to buy and sell their self-made things (plaids, baby shoes, food…). We had a coffee and then went off towards the caves, which were not even on any sign boards, so we had to navigate on our own around the country lanes. But we made it!
We had our own tiny lamps and entered the caves with our sneakers. As the ground was quite slippery and muddy we left the shoes on a rock sideboard and went barefoot. Unfortunately now more people were entering the cave and got a little on our nerves as everything was sooooo awesome all the time.
Behind a bend we finally saw some glowworms, which was pretty cool.
After leaving the cave we headed on towards Whangerei, a bit bigger town. There we had booked a twin cabin next to the Abbey caves at Little Earth Lodge. The host there, David, was so unbelievably nice and showed us around, talked to us a great deal and also told that he and his wife had just took over two years ago coming from England.
There were chicken (and a rooster who crowed me out of bed pretty early!) all about and also running around in the spacious kitchen and also visiting us on our little terrace.
This day we were so exhausted – I don’ really know of what – that we just got some stuff from Warehouse and Pak’n’Save (a cheap gigantic supermarket) and cooked dinner.
Food is our thing! We buy, we cook, we eat! And that happens a lot. Tina and I are practically hungry all the time – as we had been in Vietnam. And over are our days of saving on food. We don’t go out eating or buying ready-made food much, but we cook things ourselves and are not satisfied with just a cheese toast in the morning. We want to add avocado and tomato. And have a fancy coffee in our very own plunger (“Plantscher” I would call it in German..haha)…
We both know this will be our financial ruin somehow, but who cares – we are camping in between to save a little.
When we had already checked out of the Lodge we could still rent some cave-stuff from David. 6$ for closed water shoes, a helmet and a waterproof helmet lamp. We didn’t want to take the helmets at first, but they proved to be very useful as we hit our heads quite a few times.
So we went off to our little walk. We had heard that the caves carried quite a bit of water, but what we experienced in all 3 caves was this: a very tricky and also dangerous climb down into the cave. Then the caves were quite shallow, but took us around bends with more rocks to climb, at times with water up to our hips and once even to just under our breasts. Well our clothes were wet now anyway, so who cared?!
The climbing and wandering around itself was pretty awesome!!! But the best thing that when turning off the lights we were surrounded by glowworms sitting under the ceiling and looking like a starry night! We also met 2 eals in the shallow water. And we were ALONE all the time. It felt like being on another planet all by ourselves! Really really cool!
When returning to the lodge David asked us if we had got lost. No, we were just exploring every little detail and climbed to the end of all 3 caves. We returned the stuff and drove off to another lodge in Whangerei near the waterfall as David had been booked out for several days.
Being rather tired we still made the 2-hour-walk to the waterfall and along its creek to a famous Kauri forest and back. Kauri are huge trees which are holy to the Maori.
The next morning after visiting the town basin of Whangerei we took a turn towards the sea and heading to Matapouri where – so we had been told – there was an awesome beach and even some natural rock pools (rocky holes flooded with seawater) called Mermaid pools.
This was correct: the beach was awesome, with shallow turquoise water, very soft light sand and a few peninsulas at the far back.
After swimming at the beach we headed off for the hilly peninsula in the very back and climbed on top of it and back down to the pools. These looked pretty cool but most of the holes were surrounded by different species of seaweed which took me quite a bit of effort to cross without touching them and jump into the pool (not to mention the way out).
After the exhausting way back to the car and some fish/chicken and chips we had to drive 2 hours on winding roads to reach Paihia at the Bay of Islands.
We arrived at a camping site quite late and had to start building up the tent for the first time in wind and a slight drizzle. But we finally managed and finished the day then and there.
The tent and mattresses were okay, but I definitely prefer a normal bed.
The next day was quite layed-back. We just drove around town and visited a small waterfall near the famous Waitangi treaty grounds.
On Thursday we had booked ourselves a kayak tour for the afternoon, which lead us back to the waterfall and through some mangroves, passing several water birds and having a tea near the waterfall. We talked quite a bit to our guide Matty, who told us he had 4 kids and just started working as a kayak guide for the same company again. He also taught us a lot about the local water flora and fauna and it was really fun talking to him, though the paddling was quite heavy at the end of the trip due to heavy winds and a sea current, who was working against us.
On Friday we went on another boat trip, this time to the Hole in the Rock at Cape Brett.
But the first thing at 4 am in the morning was that Tina’s mattress exploded underneath her – it was Friday the 13th.
The whole morning we tried to decided were to get a new mattress and in the end we decided to follow our initial plans to take a ferry boat to Russell on the other side of the bay and to visit the Hammer hardware shop as our receptionist had told us that this shop would be our nearest option.
We enjoyed the ferry and were glad that we just had 2 hours in Russell until pickup of our tour-boat, because Russell was quite cute but also very small. We drank a coffee at the shore, watched the crazy sea gulls chasing each other in the hope of some leftovers and took a round around town on foot. The hardware shop had a type of mattress that we took a fancy to in the believe that we would get better quality, so we took two, imagining how my mattress would go the same way of the dodo than Tina’s had. Unfortunately later at home we noticed: exact same product, only for a higher price.
Well, anyway we got picked up by the yellow catamaran that would take us to the Hole in the Rock.
Our first stop was somewhere in the middle of the bay where we looked around for a group of dolphins playing around near our ship. When they had vanished we continued among the many islands in the bay towards Cape Brett, at the far Eastern side of the bay.
The sea was a little rocky but okay for both our stomachs, so we enjoyed the passage a lot, trying to capture rocks and islands on our way. The Hole itself was very spectacular being situated on a single rock islet off Cape Brett, it actually was an enormous arch. The trip brochure had mentioned that it might be possible to pass the hole by boat but I couldn’t imagine that, it being too narrow and the sea being too rough. Tina and I tried to take several photos with ourselves and the Hole in the middle. After this we turned and headed back to Urupukapuka Island in the center of the Bay of Islands. This is the only light green island with meadows and a lot of sheep on it.
When we landed we were greeted by a group of Maori with a song in which we had to participate (the Germans always sing best, we were told). After this we were split into groups and could do workshops: either creating flowers out of long green grass or making our own traditional healing balm. We chose the latter and were told by a charming and funny Maori how to take leafs from the Kawakawa plant (can be very intoxicating!), mixing it with olive oil and then putting this together (while heating) with bee wax. This already creates a natural balm to which we could add either orange or lavender oil (1-2 drops). Orange attracts, he told us, and lavender always defenses.
After this we took our included high tea with marvelous lemon cake and puffed sausages (together on one plate) on the café terrace.
Shortly after the boat left to return back to Russell/Paihia, but we had earlier booked a longer stay, so that we had 2-3 hours more on the island to explore. We took a walk amongst the sheepish inhabitants of the island which were grazing on the hills. Enjoying ourselves we tried to talk to them in their language and they answered us frequently. I guess we must have hit their accent perfectly, because other people passing did not get any response.
The hills gave us an amazing overview over the surrounding islands and islets and we enjoyed every minute of our walk. When back at the pier we hung a bit around at the beach there until the small ferry boat came to pick us up to get back.
The evening we spend in our usual way by cooking dinner and being quite exhausted by the day trip.
We had to get up quite early the next morning because we had to check out at 10 am, pack the usual chaotic stuff plus the tent, sleeping bags etc and eat breakfast, so that was a bit of a challenge.
When everything was ready and packed, Tina noticed that she missed her visa papers and it took us an hour until the car was searched through and repacked etc. The papers had been in one of the lockers near the kitchen and were fortunately discovered.
We left for Kawakawa to get back to chill mode and drink a coffee and found a neat café with free wifi. They had a tiny dog there lying on top of the fridge and both of us couldn’t leave without cuddling it thoroughly.
We headed on towards a 30km gravel road (we had not expected it to be so long and so dusty and lonely) which took us to the bay south of Cape Brett which was called Te Uenga Bay, where we spend a few hours in a very secluded part of a quite lonely beach. There were a few boats anchoring in the small bay there but I did not expect anyone to be on board and as I had left my bikini in the car I just stripped and went into the water. But there was one boat moving and it took a lot of turns and seemed to take a good look. This was of course foolish as I had long dived under water. Later on I was told that New Zealanders are quite prude. So I must have been a real sensation.
We took the ferry back to Opua, but because it was still a little early we lingered in our old location, Paihia, to take a break on the beach before getting back to Opua Marina and meeting Vera and Ernesto in the Opua Cruising Club for the first time. They were still having a drink with the group of friends they had been sailing with that day, so we sat down and chatted a little.
When their friends left, we all went to the marina, where their boat, the Libertee, was sitting for the moment. We dragged so much stuff on board (incl. sleeping bags and food) that we had problems fitting them into our small cabin. I slept in a small cove with very shallow ‘ceiling’, so I had to climb over Tina to even leave the cabin.
The evening we four spent talking a lot, about life and Fiji, the islands where Vera and Ernesto usually spend their winters. They mostly split their year between New Zealand and Fiji, sometimes visiting home in Germany by plane.
We took the boat to its mooring a place, a small buoy in the middle of the marina (no pier), where they always place their boat.
We had a good night with the marina water just swapping against the boat a little, but otherwise very quiet.
The next morning we were lucky: breakfast was already prepared and we just had to freshen up (no shower on board) and sit down.
Rules about cleaning, using water and stowing everything at its place are quite strict on a sailing boat, because you don’t want everything to hit the floor while sailing.
At around 10 am we started leaving the marina by motor for the Bay of Islands. When we reached open water we Ernesto switched out the motor and hoisted the two main sails.
I quickly discovered that I am – again – not always sea-safe, which means that after going below deck for a short time I was feeling a little sick. Vera handed me some salty cookies and I drank water which helped. But I stayed on deck from now on. We saw several other sailing boats, even a very old big one which is still doing day trips for tourists.
After cruising around a little we headed for Moturua Island, one of the biggest islands in the bay.
Ernesto put the boat a small distance from the short and prepared the small borrowed dingy to come to shore. A friend of the pair had lost his dingy a day before and so they had lent him their motor dingy and borrowed another one, a tiny pink rowing boat from another friend. This rowing boat was named Thunderpussy (nice touch!) and was hardly big enough to fit all four of us. Tina and I decided to just jump the plank and swim to the shore. When I dived headfirst into the water I received a small cold shock but it was fantastic to be in the water. While on deck and being a little sick I had longed for it – the sea really draw me to it.
The distance was a little longer than we had expected from looking from the boat but it was okay. Tina said in the middle of it that now would be a nice time to have some dolphins come and swim with us, but I disagreed. This now would have really given me a heart attack having some biiig animals swimming around me which looked like a crossing of sharks and whales. Of course I like dolphins and watching them as well but I am not sure if I want to swim with them.
Ernesto and Vera followed in the dingy and we girls spent some time on the beach. I read a little – the other two were taking photos of birds and collecting shells, while Ernesto had to get back and to repair something underneath the boat.
When he came back all others decided to go for a walk to another small beach, but I just stayed and read on (and watched our stuff). After a while I started exploring the beach. There was nobody there at all except some other small sailing boats out in the bay.
I collecting a few shells myself and was fascinated by the total loneliness of my – at the time – very own island. I should consider having a sailing license and buy myself a catamaran (better for women, because we have more problems with our inner ear, that’s why I get sick) and sail to New Zealand. ;-)
When the three others got back we spent some more time on the island just relaxing and then heading back to the boat. This time all of us girls swam and Ernesto had to row our belongings back.
On our way back across the bay we saw a big trip boat looking for dolphins, so we followed and saw some from far away jumping around.
For the night we had to return unfortunately, because we had to give back the borrowed dingy, so we returned at about 7 pm to the mooring. The evening we spent eating our prepared pasta salad and playing Yatzee (Kniffel in German). We were all very good. Tina even had to Kniffels (5xsame number) and won by far.
We had another quiet watery sleep and the next morning we had to get up quite early, because Ernesto had to get back to the marina to get to work. So we just joined in with all of our stuff and took a shower at the marina and used a little internet in the office where Vera sat to also check her mails. We said our goodbyes after some time and took off to the Northwest for Coopers Beach and then Karikari Peninsula with a beautiful white sandy beach, which was at least 15 km long. We spent a couple of hours there collecting biiiig venus sea shells, walking around, enjoying the trabsparent turquoise water and watching a naked lady with a black scarf being photographed on the dunes.
I am almost sure we both had 5kg shells alltogether which leaves us still to decide if we keep them or what we will do with them.
But now the next peninsula awaited us already: the Far North with Cape Reinga at the top.
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