East coast shenanigans

Good morning folks!

I've been terrible at updating, four months terrible in fact. So, there's a lot to say but I'll divide it up so you're not plagued with a big old wall of text.

Ron's kiwifruit orchard

I left my dear readership on the precipice of my hunt for fortune in Napier. Being the ridiculously lucky geezer that I am, i did not have to ask for a job but was offered one at a kiwi orchard not 5 km away. The next hurdle was for car-less me to get there in a timely fashion. This was provided in the form of Tjade and Katie, two friendly Germans who got the same job. So, up at the butt-crack of dawn for the next week at least. The work was exhilarating... I jest of course, but my paycheck made it bearable. Towards the end of the week, I realised that I should probably go about finding further employment... the Germans, again came to my rescue - the following week I would be thinning apples. Again, this is not nearly as interesting as it may at  first appear. I resorted to re-teaching myself some french in order to relieve the monotony. Weekends and evenings were spent at the beach and jumping into waterfalls with more Germans. The toad hall backpackers was mostly populated by these lovely Europeans, and as a result, much of my conversation was not in English.

The open road

After two and a half weeks in the glaring sun of Napier, I quit work and started making my merry way north, up to Auckland... but the long way around. On the first day of hitchhiking I intended to make it to Gisborne and was about three hours away by five that evening. This was facilitated by the kindness of some four parties of kiwis - including a truck driver! It was empowering to be so high up on the road trailing a few tonnes of manure which swang like a giant, putrid tail behind us on the winding coastal road. Three hours later, I was still in Wairoa, still three hours away, hungry and grumpy. I started walking along the road with my thumb out, scouting out somewhere to put up my tent. Within minutes, I was picked up by a hunter who had started in Christchurch that morning (a good 13 hours south, on the south island). After a few hours of chatting, he offered me a place to put up my tent in Gisborne at his friend's house... this patch of grass quickly became a queen size bed in their newly renovated historic home by the river.


Well rested and eager to move on, I left for the town at around 10 and met up with Alice - a local who I'd met at Uni last semester. She showed me some lovely sites on the coast, we had a swim, and then I was on my way. My destination this time was East Cape - the easternmost point in New Zealand and the first spot to see the sun. Lifts were a bit slow again that day as I was really leaving civilisation, however by four in the afternoon I had made it about half way. I was picked up by a Filipino lady who wasn't able to take me very far but asked if I'd like to have a drink at her house. There, I talked to her husband for a couple of hours about hydrogen fuel cells and he asked me to work for him, developing a method of using hydrogen from a process that he uses at his wood mill. He doesn't wish to patent or sell the idea, but simply to use it in his own home for power. So there's an opportunity I suppose.

Joseph and his truck

     It was getting late, and I really wanted to see the sunrise the following morning so I decided to continue.
Joseph picked me up in his beat-up old van and took me to his home-town of Tikitiki, where he introduced me to to his home, his animals and various members of his family. This left me still 70 km on gravel road away from the East Cape lighthouse - and Joseph, out of the kindness of his heart took me all the way there... where his battery died. He told me to by a tiki necklace, which I'm still wearing and I have promised to get him a classic black cowboy hat. After climbing the stairs up to the lighthouse I collapsed in my tent, finally at my destination.

The sunrise... was slightly disappointing, but nonetheless I've seen it. I was woken up by the excited chatter of some Chinese tourists and had breakfast there. So then it was down the stairs, and back along the unsealed road in hopes of catching another lift. My load was far to heavy for this sort of thing... but I

Pohutakawa in Te Araroa

survived and after two hours got picked up by a dutch couple who took me to the oldest Pohutakawa tree in

the world at Te Araroa. Nice shady spot to hichhike from. I got back to civilisation, a bit away from the coast. A very rainy civilisation. After mosying about a bit, I ended up getting my second ride in a truck, for which I had to run. He took me as far as Rotorua, and gave me beer. The rest of the trip was pretty simple. I stayed the night in Tauranga, right by the highway and got to Auckland by the afternoon to catch Marion at the market. There, I rested up before the start of the next adventure... we'll stop there for now, kiddies.

Mountains of things to say

Lou and I in Hamilton Gardens

Gah! I meant to finish this off sooner, but ah well, I've finally gotten round to it... ish. I think I'll condense 4 adventures into one wall of text. Happy reading!

Lou!

The weekend following my adventures in Whirinaki, I elected to spend some time with the lovely Louise who happens to be a friend from Cardiff. She was a lovely guide and showed me around Hamilton gardens, Port Waikato and various members of her family. It's nice to have a connection with home, and I'll certainly be back in Tuakau!

Stunning

Mordor

And then... more tramping! 11 of us did the famous Tongariro crossing, which passes between mounts Tongariro and Ngauruhoe (otherwise known as Mt Doom). And indeed, this is where various scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed. Dave and I hitchhiked down, while the nine others drove. We actually beat the conventional travelers to Turangi - a town close to the start of the track - proving the efficacy of kiwi hitching. The first day was Liam's birthday, and we celebrated in style by doing the 5 hour tramp in terrible visibility, piercing rain and blustery wind. We truly felt that we had conquered mordor by the end, with Haylee and I bringing up the rear - no one died! On the way back, however views were stunning. On the first day we had completely passed by towering mountains and blue lakes and thermal springs without realising - survival was more important than beauty. We even conquered mount Ngauruhoe in a hail storm!

 North

Jono and his home (oh and Clement)

The weather liked us the following three day labour weekend and so we took full advantage and drove up north. If you've looked at a map of New Zealand, you'll be aware that the northern bit is a long skinny bit with just 1 road. On the first night, we had the hospitality of Jono's family in Whangarei who hosted all 12 of us and showed us some pretty stunning scenery.  I hadn't actually heard much about northland and so I was pleasantly surprised! I suppose the message is that New Zealand is just beautiful.
     The following day was a full day of driving, taking us via Paihia to the tippidy-top of the island called Cape Reinga. The cape is actually very biologically interesting as it's soil is quite unique in its hostility meaning that there are a lot of unusual plant species found there. Save for the tourists, Cape Reinga was very peaceful. We camped a few km down the road that night at Spirit's Bay, had drinks on the beach, made the most hilarious attempt at dinner and crashed in our tents.
     The following morning I woke up while most people were still asleep and decided to take a wee wander to a peninsula where I got to watch dolphins play for about half an hour! That made me very happy. We then started our amble back to Auckland to complete our final week of study, but not without visiting the sand dunes and the oldest Kauri tree in New Zealand.

Coromandel

On of the campsites

My most recent adventure took place right before the start of my final exams, because screw studying. A corsican girl who doesn't want her life on the internet and I went to "where kiwi's go on holiday". We hitched to the Cormandel peninsula there without much plan apart from to camp where we landed! On the way, we found a hitchhiking buddy by the name of Freddy and travelled with him up to Thames.

Cathedral Cove

     We enjoyed the scenery, did a bit of tramping and swapped philosophies. The final night, however was the best. Hot water beach is an interesting beach on the east coast of the Coromandel where a certain area of the beach is 'heated', but is only accessible at low tide - one of our rides had informed us that low tide was at 1am. Excited by this prospect, we set up camp by the beach and waited... and waited and waited, until my companion woke me up at around 12 and we ran to the hot pools. About 20 people were already there and had dug pools of various degrees of scalding in the sand. We stole the best one and looked up at the full moon and bright stars for who knows how long. Unfortunately I didn't really get any pictures of this. We headed back the following day to study for finals.

 

... and now for something completely different

So exams are done, and I've said TTFN to Auckland. I hitchhiked yesterday to the town of Napier to seek my fortune in fruitpicking and got a job at 10am today picking kiwi fruit - hope I get to eat some! I start in the morning. I've got lots more adventures planned in New Zealand, Australia, Oklahoma and possibly somewhere else. I don't have to be back in school until March 2nd, so yeah... lots of things will be done.

Sweet as bro!

Spring adventures

Kia Ora! it's been a long time since I've updated this and a lot has happened. I mean heaps! I haven't been home for the weekend in I think 5 weeks? I'm not really sure - it's kind of a blur. But this time I have pictures! In the mean time and between time I've been doing school... but that's almost done with now - kinda crazy to think that it's been a whole semester.

I think the best way for me to do this is to do a brief summary of each weekend... so here goes! (In chronological order)

The Mount

So, after my very successful hitchhiking tour over spring break, Ben (who's blog you can peak at here) decided he wanted to try his hand - I was so happy to get to share the hitchhiking love. Plus it makes waiting a helluvalot less boring. So, we skipped class on the last Friday of September and set off for mount Maunganui- a popular surf destination  and mountain on the east coast. Funnily, the hitchhiking failed! After 2 hours standing in the spot where I got picked up on my way to Taranaki we started thinking about buses to Bombay (a renowned 'spot' just outside of Auckland)... turns out the bus to the mount was $10 cheaper!

Ben and I on top of the mount

So, we arrived late at our hostel at the base of the mountain (hill), having made friends of Siri the Swede and Oreet the American on the bus. Which is good as we would have never found the hostel otherwise! Our new-found companions accompanied us for the following day as we hiked up the mount, tanned at the beach and explored some rock pools - the final activity resulting in a hilariously soggy but undamaged Ben.

Ben looking the part

Unfortunately, due to this terrible thing called school, we had to start making our way back on Sunday afternoon... but we got to hitch! Ben especially looked the type as he had no wearable shoes. Our three rides allowed us to see the towns of Tauranga, Bethlehem, Waihi and Paeroa, and safely home.

 Whirinaki Tramp

You may remember that I am a member of the tramping club at the University. As such, the weekend following my adventures by the seaside I and about 12 others undertook a tramp involving a lot of river crossings (164 according to Emily, in fact), meaning that we got our feet a bit wet. Now, despite this area being beautiful, almost no one has heard of it!

Lambs are much more photogenic than I

To start the weekend off, we drove to Anna's family farm near Rotorua where we were very much pampered by her parents with lambs and food and beer. The first day was very, very wet and so we took the short way to the hut where we found plenty of dry firewood and whiled away our time roasting marshmallows and eating burritos. The way back took 8 hours (and the aforementioned river crossings) to complete. Stunning views as usual! We went back via Anna's house for warm soup and more lamb feeding... to start another week in school.

Whirinaki forest!

I think that'll have to be all for now. I'll finish the rest of the stories later as I need to get some good sleep tonight before heading off to the Corommandel peninsula in the morning.

On being a vagabond

Pertty Mountain

So, someone really ought to tell me to bring my fully charged, memory-card accompanied camera with me. So yeah, now I have a lot of pictures on various mediums over the last few weeks. Sooooo... what's happened? The All Blacks beat the Wallabies 51-20. That was pretty cool, then the following weekend I set off hitchhiking to Taranaki which contains the mountain of the same name, so that I could undertake a help exchange. Clearly the mode of transport lends itself to some stories, so many of which, in fact that I've had to include 'appendices' to this entry.

I have never hitchhiked before. My mother was just a little bit worried when I mentioned the notion to her about an hour before I left, but undeterred I set off with a cardboard sign and a backpack to a petrol station right before the exit for SH1 south out of Auckland. Actually I started in a terrible place, but some lovely man told me to go further up the road. So, after about 20 minutes, I started my first lift from Auckland

How I've been rolling

to Hamilton - in a taxi nonetheless! Four lifts later, and not a single penny paid, it was getting dark and I was in the middle of nowhere. Another lift got me to Te Kuiti - about halfway to where I needed to be. It was 8pm, but it was warm. After sitting at a park bench for a while contemplating my situation, I decided that rather than pay for a place to stay for the night I should do as the homeless do and sleep under a bridge. Unlike the homeless do, I had a 4 season sleeping bag with me.
     The following morning, I set off to try to make it to my destination. Three more lifts got me there around 12pm. Soooo... clearly this took a lot longer than it would have if I'd paid for it (24 hours versus 4). And yeah, being by the side of the road with loads of cars passing by your can kinda suck. However, I met 7 sets of people through it, and stopped in places that I would not otherwise stop. For example, I saw Mokau where I got stuck for about an hour (not much traffic), which is beautiful.

Vance and Kathryn's garden

     Anywho, I made it to where I was supposed to be and promptly crashed out before work started in the morning. Contrary to popular belief, I was not picking asparagus but instead helping at a garden, so that meant painting, planting and pulling up seedlings for the wonderful Vance and Kathryn. These few hours of morning work left me with afternoons to hitchhike around the mountain and the beaches and finish the day off with a hot meal. Highlights of this were climbing mount Taranaki (a dormant volcano), and Paritutu rock (a big rock), the former of which resulted in me thigh-deep in snow and thoroughly off the beaten path a couple of times.

The motel

Next big trip I took was a week later, to the small town of Karewau, near Rotorua. I again hitchhiked there, starting with a guy hauling a 1964 (?) VW bug who again dropped me off in the vicinity of Hamilton. I'd been advised not to try hitchhiking all the way, so when I got to Rotorua I took a 10 minute bus, which lead me to meeting my first hitchhiking 'buddy', who we shall call Jamie as that is his name.
     Again, I undertook a help exchange, but this time working at a motel for Raewyn and Peter. I had plenty of time to do things but unfortunately the weather turned a bit sour so my second week was slightly less eventful - though I did see some geysers with the other help exchange Fionahula (yes that's a real name). The second week is also currently slightly picture deficient - I forgot my camera charger - but this will be fixed when I get the pictures from my disposable developed.

So, that about sums it all up! I may go more in depth at some point - probably not. But there will be more pictures! It's back to school now for me. Oh, and although it is unlikely that any of the 43 people who gave me lifts will ever read this, I'd like to thank each and every one of them. I met so many people - from gangsters to grandfathers and from farmers to financiers. It does kinda show you that people are alright, really.

Pretty Mokau

The approximate route. Around 1000 km, not including day trips.

I'm not dead

I apologise to everyone who has been waiting with bated breath for the latest updates in my world. It appears that I'm a rather busy man on this little island in the pacific and despite reminders from my dear sisters to keep people updated I... well, haven't.

Auckland city skyline

So, where did I mark the page last time? Ah yes, I'd just fallen 13000 feet from a perfectly good aeroplane. As should be expected, my adventures have died down a little bit since then due to starting a routine (what dastardly things those are) but there have still been a few. In fact a result of my routine was that I got to observe and create something quite spectacular - a superconductor. If you don't know what those are (and care at all about what they might be), then google is your friend. If, however you don't like to browse wikipedia like me, then basically they make magnets float! I had a video of my group's (read: someone else's, as ours didn't work), but i have no idea where it's gone so you'll just have to contend with imagining it. Other school things include doing a ridonculously interesting maths class and designing possible drugs!

Scott against Devonport

I've explored a little bit, going across Waitemata harbour to Devonport a couple of times on the ferry. The view of the city on this journey is spectacular (see above photo). Devonport actually contains a bit of a military outpost, including some gunnery stations and a barracks left over from World War II just in case the Germans or Japanese decided it was a good idea to invade a small set of islands over 4000 km from the closest land mass (Australia). You can never be too safe. What I find really cool about Auckland is that due to the fact that it is built across a few bays and islands, it is not uncommon to take the ferry to work. I mean, imagine seeing the above view every morning and every evening. Allowing for rain of course.

Waitakere ranges and the gang

I've joined the international students network and the tramping (hiking) club at the university. This has allowed me to make a few more chums and to explore the country a bit more. They even give me free food sometimes! So last weekend, the tramping club went west up to the Waitakere ranges to celebrate their hut's 70th birthday. I was, as most people can imagine pretty unorganised for this tramp so had to buy a butt-tonne of stuff to prepare at very short notice. The hut is called Ongaruanuku (say that 5 times fast), and I of course joined in the short hike, potluck dinner and merriment. The landscape actually kind of reminds me a little bit of George of the Jungle or maybe a tropical rain forest. I slept outside on Ongarauanuku's porch as it was bloody warm inside. The stars were the best I've seen since I trekked up the atlas mountains 6 years ago (almost exactly). I was woken up by beautiful  mostly beautiful bird calls, and hiked back home through the bush. It's been said, many times, many ways but New Zealand truly is a beautiful country.

Oh, and a couple more things - I have tickets to see the All Blacks vs Australia next weekend. Squeeeee! Also the mid-semester break is coming up after I get all these assignments turned in and tests written. As I'm not as financially well off as I'd hope to be, I'm going to go south for the two weeks and pick fruit - possibly asparagus. This will be my first non-Auckland kiwi experience and I have high hopes for it. Oh, and most importantly, I now have furniture in my room (including a bed and the desk from which I'm writing this). Living in this house has taught me a very important lesson - don't buy things, just wait for someone to move out!

All Blacks!

Two weeks later...

Nathan and I

In a few hours, I will have completed my second week in Auckland. I find the concept of inner-city life in one of the most untouched countries on earth to be quite ironic. So, what have I been doing with myself I hear you ask?

I spent three nights on Nathan's couch. We ate, we laughed, we talked, we walked. If you visit Auckland, I highly recommend you go to Herne Bay - it's got all your nice little hippy shops as well as beautiful beaches which were sunny and only 15C/60F, in the middle of winter.

The clocktower at the University of Auckland

After the pleasant introductory weekend in Auckland, I became faced with the daunting issue of finding a place to live, and the weather changed to reflect this fact. Fear not, I did not sleep on the streets for I had booked... a hostel. And there I met among many other wonderful people, some French and American exchange students who happen to be studying at UoA! Yay friends!
    So on Thursday, the newly formed fellowship undertook the backpackers bar crawl (Baptists, I can feel you judging me). Usually I would expect this to end quite badly, but instead, the one of the newer members of the troupe (Beth) drank water through my sock in order to win a cornucopia of prizes including a two for one skydive. I got to be her buddy XD!

Obligatory sheep on One Tree Hill

I'm sure you are all in suspense as to my living conditions. Well, on Friday night, I thought I was pretty screwed - I might have been able to move into on the Sunday, that was all - and the hostel was fully booked. But then came along my trio of french saviours, who each in their own way introduced me to a house of students and travelers within walking distance of Uni, as well as the cheapest supermarket ever. Bonus! My housemates are just my sort of people. Furthermore, Marion, who now is my classmate and saviour will now be moonlighting as my housemate!
So.... since then, the troupe and I have been entertaining ourselves with climbing up volcanoes such as One Tree Hill and Mount Eden, walking ridiculous distances to get to beaches and attending a haka at Uni. I've embedded a video of one of the dances, which was shorter, but you can also view the first 'welcome' performance here. I was proud that I could make out some of the words that they said in Māori.

Preparing for liftoff

This was definitely the highlight of my Wednesday. Oh, and today I actually undertook the skydive with Beth. If you have the means to do so, please do jump out of a perfectly good plane. Especially if it's in New Zealand - I think I took in the maximum amount of scenery in the shortest amount of time. Unfortunately I couldn't justify spending the extra NZ$120 or so to get professional photos taken, but I do have mind pictures. We had the
best day for it - in every direction I could see until the curvature of the earth blocked my view. Cold though. Really, really cold.

So, apart from a few bits of furniture, I'm all set up! The next step is actually starting school and getting my head in the books. We'll see how that goes, eh?

I'm in Sydney. It must be Thursday.

 Well it's actually Saturday now, but let's pretend.

So apparently I really have not mastered the art of sleeping on planes. Nevertheless, I arrived bright-eyed and bushy tailed in the city of Finding Nemo to witness a gorgeous sunrise. Feeling ambitious on the total of around 5 hours sleep I'd had in the past 48 hours, I made my way down to the famed Sydney harbour having no idea quite how beautiful the place would be. After fortifying myself with an aussie breakfast from the appropriately-named G'day cafe I decided that I really had to get down to the opera house before I died of fatigue.

The trek from the other side of the harbour to the opera house took quite a bit longer than intended due to my baby-crawl pace and the fact that I found the most amazing botanical garden on the way. I got lost amongst these crazy tomb-stone-like sculptures and massive millenia-old trees and the friendliest birds you ever did meet.

I finally got there and got some Aussies to take a picture of me which equally exhibits the state of exhaust I was in and my inability to make a forced smile. The opera house, if you are unaware is quite a feet of engineering and mathematics as well as the obvious artistry. I can't be bothered to find a link to the history of it all, but basically all the waves are based on one hemisphere. Despite having 6 hours until my next flight, I decided to head back to the airport as my mind was in a far too grumpy state to take in any more Sydney. This proved to be a wise and important decision, as upon my return I passed out for about an hour, woke up and started hallucinating for about fifteen minutes. Word to the wise - sleep is a rather important bodily function!

Final destination.

After another few hours, I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand to be greeted by the lovely Louise Breen, and driven to the home of sculpture artist, flower-child and all-round good guy - Nathan. Sleep came and went, and I explored my third city in as many days, before sleep took me again.

Now the travelling ends, and the settling begins. Thanks for reading, chaps.