Homecoming

Yeah. It's been a while. But you guys should be used to that by now, right?

Once again, there hasn't been much to report on. There really aren't many touristy, fun things to do here in Whangarei, and besides that we're trying to save all our money for the upcoming trip to Australia... which we have finally purchased tickets for!

We leave New Zealand next Friday, the 24th for Sydney. From Sydney we'll fly up to Cairns and then begin our 16 day journey down the east cost, from Cairns to Sydney. Along the way we'll see the Great Barrier Reef, rainforests, opera houses, and probably lots of Kangaroos, Koalas, and all those other crazy Australia-exclusive animals. Once we're finished up in Sydney, we'll fly back to Auckland for a brief 2-day stopover to pick up our excess baggage (we're going to store the stuff we don't need for Australia so we don't have to haul everything around) and then board our final flight back to the States on August 12th. The flight leaves at 2:30 pm and gets in at 9 pm on the same day, even though it's over 24 hours of travel time. Time zones are so fun!

So there's the big news for the day. This could be my last post until I'm back home. Internet connections at hostels are always sketchy and/or expensive, so I'm not sure if I'll be updating on the go.

If not, I'll see you all sometime after August 12th! Now I've got Australia-trip-planning to do.

Pictures Galore

It's been a while, but there hasn't been too much to report on.

In my last post I promised pictures of the famed shark and other underwater beasties, but as it turns out my underwater photography skills are not up to par. No shark picture came out when I got the photos developed. A few pictures were actually missing from the set, so I guess the guy didn't bother developing those that came out too dark. A few decent underwater shots came out, though, and you can find them in one of the new albums on the right-hand sidebar. I've addded Albums Nine, Ten, and Eleven, which span from our trip to Doubtful Sound in late March all the way through the present, so you'll find more pictures of Franz Josef, Abel Tasman National Park, and Fiji.

In other news, I've acquired a very part-time job, just doing odd work around Plunket, a child care agency's office for a few hours every week. It's not much, but it's enough to pay the rent and keep me floating for the next month Sometime in late July we'll be heading off to Australia for a trip from Cairns to Sydney and then we'll be back in the States in mid-late August.

I guess that's about it for now. Even though I don't have much to say, though, I'm sure you'll find plenty of entertainment in the new albums. There's something like 150 new pictures between the three albums. Knock yourselves out!

Bula!

We're back from Fiji! It was a great trip, even though we had two days of rain. The other three days were perfect and sunny, and even the rainy days weren't so bad since the rain mostly came at night time and it stayed warm during the day.

Over the course of our trip we explored Nadi, took a day trip to a private island, snorkelled, spent plenty of time relaxing by our hotel's pool, and endured a combined total of over 24 hours in airports. Yep, over 24 hours. Thanks to our early flight, the bus schedule from Whangarei to Auckland, and our not wanting to pay for a hostel room for only a few hours, we slept in Auckland airport both before our departure and after our return. Good thing they have padded benches!

The best day was definitely Friday, when we went out to the island. Beaches on the mainland are pretty dirty and covered in trash (near Nadi, at least). Fiji is another of those countries where most of the locals live in poverty while tourists come and live in luxury. Fortunately, the indigenous Fijians had some foresight when they became a British colony and kept some rights to themselves. Over 80% of Fiji's land is owned by the indigenous people, and it can't be taken away. Instead, they lease out the land at high cost. So all of the big fancy resorts have to pay the indigenous Fijians for the use of their land. The money goes straight back to the villages, so the Fijians in those lucky villages don't have it quite so bad.

But back to the island. The pristine, white sand beaches are found on the many smaller islands such as South Sea island. This is where we spent the day:



For a ridicuously-cheap price (especially after the exchange rate) we were ferried out to the island for the day. With less than thirty in our group, it wasn't a crowded trip. We had a huge lunch buffet, as well as all we could drink (water, beer, wine, soda) for the entire day, unlimited access to snorkelling equipment, kayaks, two snorkelling trips off a boat, and two trips in this semi-submersible boat (like glass bottom, but glass sides instead). Basically, we spent eight hours in an all-inclusive paradise.

Snorkelling made the trip for me. Apart from the two boat trips, they had a large roped-off area where you could snorkel by the beach. It turns out the reef starts only 10-15 feet away from the shore, so there was plenty to see. On the second trip out I even saw a shark! It was about 5-6 feet long and was just swimming around about ten feet below me. Only four others were out on the trip, and I swam up to the boat and said, "Uh... I just saw a shark. Is that okay?" The guide said it was probably just a reef shark and it was perfectly fine. So I swam back and found the shark again and took a picture before he disappeared into the deeper water. Very cool.

Even aside from the shark, snorkelling was great fun. I think I spent a combined three or so hours snorkelling, getting my back sunburned and my arms and legs chewed up by sea lice. Yes, sea lice. Apparently these are microscopic little nasties whose bites feel similar to a mild jelly-fish sting, but the pain only lasts for a few minutes. Seeing the many varieties of multi-colored fish in every shape and size made it all worthwhile. It certainly has gotten me excited for seeing the Great Barrier Reef when we head to Australia--as long as the mean sharks keep their distance.

Sadly, Mr. Shark and our other snorkelling pictures will have to wait. We bought a waterproof camera that uses this weird stuff called "film." And you have to "wind" this weird knob after every picture, and when it's all finished you have to get it "developed." There's not even a screen on the camera. Crazy, I know. At any rate I will try to get the pictures "deveoped" as soon as possible so you all can have a look.

We also took a half day bus tour of the Nadi area. Alexa and I ended up being the only people on the tour that day, so we more or less had a private drive around Nadi. We saw a Fijian village, a downtown fruit market, a large Hindu temple, and the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, which lies at the base of the Mountain of the Sleeping Giant:


The far left is his head, the radio tower is his belly, and the mound on the right are his feet. Actually fairly proportionate, huh? Except he has super short legs.

Here's the open air market in Fiji:


Downtown Nadi is a sketchy sort of place. We learned one lesson really quick: if a slick-looking dude comes up to you and says, "Bula!" and starts asking you a bunch of friendly questions, he isn't just being nice. He will walk and talk with you for about twenty feet, until suddenly you find yourself at the entrance to a dingy shop and your way down the sidewalk is blocked by two or three of his friends. At this point you're supposed to feel compelled to enter the shop, where they offer you Kava, show you pictures of their village, and then ask you for donations for said village while urging you to buy crappy, over-priced trinkets. We only fell for this once, but quickly left the shop after glancing at a few price tags.

We spent the rest of our time in Fiji hanging out at our hotel's pool, venturing into downtown Nadi for souviniers, and checking out a local beach. Not much else too exciting. Like I said before, the highlight was our day on South Sea Island.

Upon returning to New Zealand, we had to resume our job hunt. Boo. It actually got so bad we were seriously considering just going to Australia next week and then coming home early. But just as we'd resigned ourselves to this, Alexa got a job! She's nannying for a family with two little girls 4 days a week, with an optional extra day depending if the parents' shop is busy. Sweet. With any luck I too will find some means of employment.

Here's hoping that by my next post I'll be a working man!

Anti-bula! (Good bye in Fijian, obviously)

An inviting hammock on South Sea Island:

The view off our hotel room's balcony:

Nadi's huge Hindu temple, as seen from the front:

April Adventures, Part 3

Here we go! The final segment of our April Adventures!

Wellington - Taupo - Rotorua

We got away from Wellington later than intended and started the five hour drive to Taupo, where I was planning on doing an awesome 15,000 foot skydive! An hour into the drive, the weather began to cast doubts on whether I would actually be doing any skydiving. Skydive companies only operate in near-perfect weather: low winds, clear blue skies with maybe a cloud or two. Rainy, cloudy days are a no-go. But since the weather had turned in our favor for Franz Josef and Abel Tasman, I remained cautiously optimistic.

The rain hadn't relented by the time we pulled into our hostel in Taupo, and the next morning we woke to a sullen, grey sky. No skydiving that day, so we carried on to Rotorua. We planned on spending three nights in Rotorua, and it's only an hour from Taupo, so I figured I could easily drive back to Taupo should the weather clear up.

It never happened. It rained all three days. Fortunately rain wasn't enough to ruin our good time in Rotorua.

Sunday we went to quiz night at Hennessey's, the Irish pub Alexa and I first went to back in September. In honor of Wellington's icon, we named our team Blanket Man, and finished 7th place out of 11. Woo hoo! Some controversy: One question asked, "What's the largest predator in North America?" We wrote grizzly, but then I remembered hearing polar bears are the largest predators in the world. Furthermore, I was almost positive they lived in North America, thanks to Sarah Palin. The animal-hating witch wanted polar bears taken off the threatened species list to legalize their habitat's destruction in the name of oil-drilling in Alaska. For the first time in her meaningless life, Sarah Palin served a mildly-useful purpose: my memory was jogged and we changed our answer!

Unfortunately the "correct" answer ended up being grizzly bear. Back at the hostel I checked wikipedia, and sure enough, polar bears are the largest land predator in the world and they do live in North America, therefore polar bears are the largest predator in North America. Not that one point would've done so much as bump us up to 6th place, let alone make us the winners. As a side note, the wicked witch of Alaska didn't have her way, and polar bears are indeed a protected species.

While in Rotorua we did a handful of touristy activities. It turns out Rotorua has a gondola and luge just like Queenstown, except there are three luge tracks totalling 5 km in length, much longer than Queenstown's measly two 800 meter tracks. The luge carts themselves weren't in tip-top shape, though, so the brakes and steering didn't always work properly. Adding to that, the tracks were freshly-wet with rain, which made the rides quite interesting! We all made it down alive, don't worry.

We also went Zorbing again, since we couldn't let Mike come to New Zealand without trying the crazy sport. If you don't remember from when Alexa and I Zorbed in December, Zorbing is the where you climb into a big plastic water-filled ball and roll down the side of a hill.

Lastly, Alexa and I finally made it to a Maori cultural show/hangi. Basically you go to a Maori "village" where a bunch of Maoris await in traditional costume and they put on a show. I went in with very low expectations. I thought it would be a really cheesy sort of thing. You know, "Hoo hoo hah hah, look at us dance for the white man!" kind of deal. But it wasn't. It was actually really informative and the performers seemed genuinely interested in preserving their culture.

The best part came after the performance: the hangi.

Hangi is the method Maoris traditionally used to cook their meals. It involves heating a bunch of huge rocks on a fire for several hours, then placing those rocks into a large hole in the ground. The food (typically meats and root vegetables) goes on top of the rocks, then the food is covered with damp cloth to lock in the heat and create steam. This is left to sit for another couple hours until the food is ready. Our hangi consisted of lamb, chicken, potatoes, and kumara, along with non-traditional foods like stuffing, scalloped potatoes, a few different salads, and dessert.

Our last full day in Rotorua we just chilled out and went to the Waikite Valley thermal pools, a welcome period of relaxation after all the rushing around we did during our trip. Once finished in the geothermal capital of New Zealand, we hit the road for the last leg of our journey with Mike.

Auckland

We spent our first hour in Auckland trying to find our hostel. It was on Owens road, but what Google Maps failed to tell us is there are two Owens roads in Auckland, and the incorrect one is located across a bridge on the other side of the harbor. And of course our directions were for the incorrect one.

We finally made it to our hostel, Yaping House, quite the dirty little joint. The rooms seriously needed cleaning, and the mold growing around the windowsills and skirting boards meant Alexa had to pop Claritin whenever we were inside. Fortunately we didn't spent much time at the hostel.

Our first day was X-Men Origins: Wolverine's opening day (2 days before it came out in the US, what!) so we went to the cinema to check it out. The movie was pretty good, but the best part was seeing all the familiar scenes from Queenstown/Glenorchy. If you've seen the movie, or plan on seeing it, whenever they're in the "Canadian Rockies," they're actually in Deer Park Heights or Glenorchy. Thanks to this, there's a fantastic goof-up. About half an hour into the movie, a farmer is driving over a bridge in the "Canadian Rockies." In New Zealand it's not uncommon for arrows to be painted on the road, indicating to drive in the left-hand lane. It sounds silly, but south island roads often have no traffic. Without other cars passing by as reminders, tourists can lapse and slip into the wrong lane. Maybe by accident or maybe just for fun, one of these arrows is clearly visible as the farmer crosses the other side of the bridge--on the wrong side!

After the movie we had dinner at an awesome Japanese restaurant and walked around to take in Auckland by night.

The next morning we headed out of town a few kilometers to the Tip Top Ice Cream Factory for a tour, which ended up being my most awkward experience in recent memory. Upon arrival we realized the rest of the tour group consisted of a bunch of school kids. Picture it: Mike, Eoin, and Alexa crammed into a colorful meeting room with a bunch of uniformed tweens and their teachers (who gave us a few odd looks). If there could've been just one other small group, or a couple, or even just one individual who wasn't part of the school group it would've been okay. But nope, just us. The three American weirdos field-trip crashing. If we weren't conspicuous enough, I screwed up by taking a picture at the beginning of the tour. Just as the flash was going off, our tour guide shouted, "Sir! No pictures, please!" Whoops.

To make matters worse, our tour guide was insane. From the way she lectured the tour group, you'd think we were delinquent Tip Top employees. For example, at one stage of the tour she was discussing the process of cooking fruit ripple for the ice cream. "If you cook it too long," she ranted, "it becomes jelly! And we don't want to make jelly at an ice cream factory, do we? So it all has to be thrown out and the whole day is wasted, and that's why it's important to work carefully!" I don't know about the kids, but I sure as hell was frightened.

At least we got free ice cream.

After the tour Mike wasn't feeling so hot, so Alexa and I headed to the Auckland Museum while he rested. The Museum isn't as impressive as Te Papa, but it had several interesting exhibits. The volcano exhibit was the best. It had a simulation of one what would happen if one of Auckland's volcanoes decided to erupt. Basically, it would be Bad. They also had a replica of a giant moa, birds that roamed New Zealand before Maori and European settlers wiped them out:

The museum with Sky Tower in the background:

Later that night, Mike and I produced the greatest picture to come out of this entire trip. It took a lot of planning: First, we had to polish off the bottle of whiskey he'd bought for our night out in Wellington. Next, we had to decide it wasn't enough and surely we must go out in search of more. After that, we had to wander the outer-suburbs of Auckland (our hostel wasn't quite in city center) in search of some place, any place selling liquor after midnight. Mike's first attempt, a gas station, had him shouting through the window at the attendant, "Hey! Can I buy liquor from you?" Obviously not. Still unsatisfied, we continued into a larger shopping area where we eventually found an open bar. A girl outside told us we couldn't come in because it was a pajama party and we didn't have pajamas, but the bouncer let us in anyway. Finally, we had to make our way to the second floor, where we spotted a flashing, colorful dance floor. Only one person was dancing. A lone young man in his flamboyant pajamas. And then Mike did what he does best:

Later he would insist he was "following the lights," not dancing with the pajama dude. But we all know the truth.

Our final day in Auckland I was feeling a little under the weather for some reason, so we just sort of wandered aimlessly. At some point we found a $2 shop and went inside. I don't know what made us head to the toy section, but I'm very glad we did. We probably spent close to an hour looking at the toys. What made the toys so intriguing, you ask?

Special for you of children design. It will give you infinite pleasure!

They were all cheap knock-offs made in China. Other gems include "Pursue the Vogue," a bratz-style doll, a "4-D Reptile Puzzle" (yes, 4-D. "Three dimensions + details!" as the box explained), and a number of Spiderman-themed toys, including a set with handcuffs, badge, and gun that inexplicably had the Spiderman 2 logo attached to it.

Eventually we had to take Mike to the airport and bid him farewell. The two and a half weeks went by really quickly, but I think we all had a great time during Mike's visit. Especially dancing pajama man.

Whangarei - Kerikeri - Whangarei

After depositing Mike at the airport, Alexa and I fought Auckland's horrible traffic congestion for over an hour before finally making it on the road to Whangarei, our next stop.

It didn't take long to assess Whangarei isn't a very exciting place. Sure, it's a bigger city than Queenstown and has a larger variety of shops, but it lacks severely in the "things to do" department. Noting this, we continued on to Kerikeri the next morning. Kerikeri is an even smaller town. One grocery store, one McDonald's, one video rental shop... and not much else. If we stayed in Kerikeri, fruit-picking would be our only option for work. And the way it works out isn't that great: you stay at a hostel, and they help you find work and drive you to and from work each day. Staying at the hostel would've run us $260/week because they were out of the "cheap" rooms (cheap being relative, at $240/week). After paying the hostel, we probably would've made less than $200/week each. No good.

So we turned down the work offer (we could've been packing kiwi-fruit into crates that very day) and drove back down to Whangarei, checking out a few smaller towns along the way. The smaller towns, like Pahia, were situated on lovely little beaches and seemed really nice, but didn't have any work available.

We've been in Whangarei for a little over two weeks now, and I can assuredly say it is the ugliest little city I've seen in New Zealand. Whangarei Harbor is disgraceful. Nowhere else in New Zealand have I seen such dirty water. Even Wellington and Auckland, the two largest ports brimming with boats, have clean, clear water. But for whatever reason, dingy little Whangarei Harbor is murky and filled with floating rubbish.

BLECH.

On a redeeming note, Whangarei isn't too far from the prettier parts of Northland, and boat trips leave frequently to the Poor Knights' Islands, which Jacques Cousteau rated as one of the top ten diving spots in the world. Time and money permitting, I just may have to go and try out an introductory diving lesson.

So far we've had no luck with jobs, despite applying for many. Fortunately we secured cheap accommodation. We're staying in a room in a house owned by three Filipino guys. They're all really nice and the common areas are kept clean. So while it's not the same as having our own place like we did in Queenstown, it's still a lot better than the situation in Wellington.

In two days we're heading to Auckland to catch a plane to Fiji! Remember the holiday we booked back in February? Well, time has flown right on by and we'll be in the tiny island nation this time on Thursday. Excellent.

Anyway, I think I've written more than enough for now. I'll update again once I'm back from Fiji, and I'll be sure to fill the post with jealousy-inducing images of beautiful beaches and crazy Fijians yelling "Bula!" (Don't ask me, that's just what they do in all the Fiji tourism commercials here).