Land of the Kiwis

As our readers will surely have worked out by now, we typically write these blogs ‘in arrears’; that is, we’re usually a couple of weeks behind/ahead (depending on how you look at things) and writing about what has happened a couple of weeks ago. During my last writing session, I was being serenaded by the sweet ‘thump crack’ of tear gas canisters in Santiago. Oh how things have changed! I’m currently sat in the passenger seat of Kitty, the name that we have given to our bargain Nissan (other brands are available) rental car, swigging incredibly nice Argentinian wine (brought with us of course from South America) from my travel thermos mug (cheaply acquired in the USA). Hoff is sat next to me also drinking wine and deep in planning mode for the next part of our trip. It’s probably worth mentioning that the car is stationary and Hoff is outside to my left on a picnic bench at our campsite (I’m sure you all had visions of Hoff hands off the wheel, reading a map and chugging back Malbec as we cruised through the NZ countryside).

Anyway, back to New Zealand. After 12.5 hours, two awful inflight meals and almost as many Star Wars films as you can handle in one sitting (the force was strong in me by the end), we were in NZ. To say I was excited about this part of the trip was an understatement – people have been telling me for years that I would love the country and Hoff, having been here before, concurred. We weren’t taking any chances through customs and declared everything we possibly could – tents, walking boots, milk powder, the whole shooting match. Like many people I never quite know how to handle customs and immigration officers – do you play the chatty, friendly card and hope they don’t think you’re hiding something, or the uninterested tourist with the ‘I’ve nothing to hide’ look on your face (and in the process end up looking exactly like you have something to hide even though you’ve absolutely nothing to hide at all)? I could never be a drug smuggler – I’d be crap at it. Anyway, luckily we whizzed through and were soon on the bus to Auckland. We were too early to check in at our BnB so we dropped our bags off and walked into town, where we found a sports bar doing a full fatboys breakfast. It was the breakfast that dreams are made of and had everything from proper bacon to baked beans. We devoured it in seconds. We’d been hankering for baked beans for months and the moment the sweet tomato sauce-covered goodness hit our lips we were in heaven. I was in love with NZ already!

We knew we had to stay awake for as long as possible – our bodies thought it was late afternoon the previous day so we just needed to push through to the NZ evening and then get a good night of sleep to hopefully reset our body clocks. To keep us awake we joined a free walking tour – standard for us – and toured the main sights of the city. I was basically a walking zombie by the end and Hoff was getting close to going full Zombieland on me, given how much I was complaining about falling asleep whilst standing up, but I gallantly fought through and we celebrated with sushi for lunch. That afternoon we checked in to our BnB and succumbed to sleep, catching a few hours of shut eye before we did our first NZ shop. We were quite surprised at how expensive everything was, although I wasn’t sure if that was just because we were used to South American prices. We did however pick up a box of local beers so we washed down our supermarket curry (not bad actually) with Auckland-brewed lager and retired to bed to get some well needed sleep.

Thursday dawned and we were up early – Hoff informing me that she’d been awake for hours already by the time I’d woken up around 6am (I think she was looking for a medal…). Today was Waitangi Day in NZ, the day that the Maoris and the British signed their land and rule of law sharing agreement back in the 1800s. We decided to walk the 5km to the next bay where we had read there was going to be a celebratory festival in a park. On the way we dodged roller skating, running, cycling and scootering Kiwis, and marvelled at all the yachts heading out for a bank holiday sail. At the festival we grabbed a coffee and watched the local Maori tribe conducting a welcome ceremony for the visiting dignitaries. It was quite a poignant moment and both of us had goosebumps as we watched the warriors postulate and chant in front of the crowd. It was all meant to signify the welcome that their Maori ancestors had previously given the British and it was actually quite moving. We also learnt about the issues that the locals had faced with Crown government land grabs as well as getting our blood pressure checked – they were running a free health clinic so we thought we might as well get involved.

After walking back to the city we hopped on a ferry over to Devonport, the village across the bay from Auckland. There we wandered down the coast to the naval museum, which was actually ‘pretty interesting’ (Hoff’s words, not mine). It was a trip back through time and we learnt about how New Zealand had supported the British First and Second World War efforts, and the modern face of the NZ Navy. Devonport ended up being a bit boring (less the museum) so we got the ferry back across the Bay and went back to our apartment to cook dinner. We were still a bit jaded after the flight however popped out later on to see the lights on Auckland bridge, which turned out to be a bit crap, so very sleepy and full from dinner we pootled home and hit the sack to regenerate our energy ahead of tomorrow’s planned trek.

We were up bright and early again the next day, and fuelled by a breakfast of beans on toast (mmmmm, beans……….) we jumped on the early ferry to Rangitoto, a dormant volcano on an island at the far end of the Auckland bay. There we hiked up to the crater and enjoyed the amazing views back over to the city as well as out to sea. I was quickly realising that New Zealand is land of breathtaking scenery and every day was presenting us with something new and exciting to look at. We ate our lunch whilst waiting for the ferry, avoiding huge sea gulls who were looking longingly at our egg mayonnaise sandwiches, and listening to a teacher chat to her students (they’d clearly just spent the night camping in the island). The teacher asked all her students to pick up a rock, a leaf and a stick. She then asked each of them in turn to say something to the group about their time on the island – something that had ‘rock’ed, something they’d ‘leaf’ behind, and something that would ‘stick’ with them. I thought it was a bit cheesy but fun nonetheless, so Hoff and I did the same with our trip so far.

For me, what ‘rocked’ was our time in Patagonia, what ‘stuck’ with me was the realisation that we really didn’t need very much to be happy (you can’t have much when you’re living out of a backpack) and what I had left behind in South America was perhaps a little of the impatience that I sometimes felt when things didn’t happen on time or in the way I wanted them to – it’s hard to be impatient when dealing with ‘Bolivia time’, i.e. things happening whenever the people they are dependent on, feeling like they can be bothered to do them, as opposed to sticking to some kind of prescribed schedule. It was a fun way to pass the time waiting for the boat to arrive and also interesting to see what we each had taken away from our time in the Americas.

A quick ferry ride later and we were wandering into the marina area of Auckland. Being ‘boaties’ ourselves, it was fun to see all the yachts moored up, and we got a table at a bar overlooking the marina and decided to treat ourselves to a drink as a well done for the morning’s walk. As we were sipping our wine, a man invited us to join him on his table so that we could see more of the boats. As we sat down, he asked us what we were drinking, and proceeded to go to the bar and buy us a whole bottle of wine. He was from Auckland and on a long around the world trip with his wife, and wanted us to have a good time in the city. He was over the moon when he found out we were on an extended honeymoon ourselves, and almost as happy as we were with a free bottle of wine. He left with us promising to pass on the favour, and indeed we shared the love pretty quickly as we spotted a nearby couple who were clearly on a first date and decided to speed up the romance by giving them a free glass of wine (plus we were also struggling to see away the whole bottle and needed some help). Anyway, to whomever the phantom wine buyer was (we never got his name), thank you and rest assured we will pass on the favour properly before we leave NZ.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the fish market near the marina and sampling a local fish burger, before we went out for an amazing Thai meal at a nearby restaurant (Hoff proclaimed that it might possibly have been the best Chicken Massaman she’d ever had, which is strong praise indeed). We waddled back to our BnB and packed up all our kit in preparation for picking up our hire car the next day. Our next stop was Tutukaka and the Poor Knights Islands for a spot of cold water diving, but I’ll hand the baton back to Hoff to take you through our first NZ dive experience.