Goodbye is soon

So, I have two days left in my island paradise and am feeling very nostalgic. Since my last post, things have been relatively quiet. I climbed some rocks, I went to a friend's Bach in Corromandel (cheers Bryce!), walked up a volcano... and I got older.

Rocks and beaches and friends

Also I had an adventure involving a cowboy hat. Joseph hasn't contacted me but I assume he got the hat? Here's hoping.

The finally few weeks have been a bit more studious and less... fun. However, they were punctuated by a trip to the small tropical island of Niue (pronounced new-way). Danielle and I spent three days there because we found tickets on the cheap. It's an amazing place in the fact that it's largely undisturbed by western culture. People - of which there are between 800 and 1000, depending on who you ask - mainly farm and fish there and seem pretty happy with that. We snorkelled and got some decent pics with Bryce's GoPro (thanks again), and wore ourselves out cycling all over the island as well as experiencing local culture. It was awesome to be so isolated. We spent the three days in relative luxury - I swapped the bivouac for a guest house this time, and didn't hitch a single ride. Only disappointment was that we didn't see any amorous whales...

A selection of Niue!

So this is the end of my New Zealand adventure. I'm packing right now actually. I'm leaving with less stuff, less hair and lots of memories. I've hitchhiked a total of 14276 km since coming here - that's greater than the distance between Auckland and Oklahoma.

Goodbye, Auckland

A chapter in the life of a cowboy hat

 

One day, I was sitting on my door, minding my own business... watching people go past. I liked my door. I liked this shop. I heard someone talking about me.

 

Before I knew it, the world was spinning! I was moving... somewhere. Outside! How exciting! How bright! I remembered this feeling. This was what it was like to be "worn". I wanted to be worn for the rest of my life.

But the good times didn't last. I found myself in the dark. I found myself in the dark for a very very long time.

After what felt like an eternity, I saw light! I got to be worn again! 

My new wearer's name is Scott. He says that I'd come all the way from Shawnee, Oklahoma to Auckland, New Zealand.

I didn't know what a Zealand was. 

Scott said he had a mission.

 

 And so a month later, we left on the mission. 

The road was beautiful. Scott let me see out the whole time. 

He said he was taking him to see Joseph. 

Joseph had helped him out a lot a while ago and Scott wanted to say thankyou.

 

I even got to meet Ondra, Scott's friend who was driving us!

But Ondra could only take us about half way, then he had to drop us off again.

Scott said we'd have to hitchhike the rest of the way.

I'd never hitchhiked before.

 

We got picked up by a man named Ron, in a big big truck!

He dropped us off in Te Kaha. Scott said  we'd travelled 400 km that day and it was time to take a rest.

 

We tried to go to this 'backpackers' place. They wouldn't let us stay.

It was getting so windy... I thought I'd get blown away. 

Scott decided we should stay in this old abandoned building.

I'll admit it... I was scared.

 

In the morning, we got on the road again.

More hitchhiking....

 

 I met some really nice people. Unfortunately i didn't sit on all of their heads.

It seemed like we were going pretty slowly.

Scott was getting worried. The sun was going down and we had so far to go. We'd seen maybe 7 cars in the last 3 hours. No one wanted to stop for us.

I could tell he was kind of sad that we wouldn't get to Joseph.

Scott had promised Joseph that he'd bring him a cowboy hat. He was about to give up and that's not something he wanted to do.

Just as we started heading back the other way... We got a ride!

And another, and another and another!

 

Until we ended up in Tikitiki - in a pub. Scott told me this was kind of like a Saloon.

We met Pat and a few other folks.

They told us where to find Joseph!

 

We found Joseph's place. He wasn't around. I got to meet his horses and cows and turkeys though.

He has a microwave for a mailbox - Scott put me in there for safe-keeping. 

I hope Joseph comes back soon.

Scott said he had to go. I'll miss him, but I'm glad I could help him.

The final hitchhiking hurrah... for a while

From my new thumbing spot on Hobson street, I set off again down south. The next morning, I got up and decided to try to get to Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu - the longest place name in New Zealand and second longest in the world. It didn't take me long to get to Waipukurau where Delwin stopped and said she'd take me to Parangahau. We had a pint together and Del decided that I shouldn't go there, but instead should spend the afternoon and early evening in a pub garden with her and her mates. I agreed, and had an awesome time. Delwin gave me her son's bed for the night and took me to Dannevirke in the morning.

Delwin, and sunrise

The weather looked pretty foreboding, but after about an hour I got picked up by a swanky business car and a man in a suit. After about three minutes of casual chit-chat, he asked me "have you hitchhiked in the Bay of Plenty?" I responded that I had... turns out that this sharply dressed well-to-do hitchhikee had been a tattooed, backwards-baseball-capped hitchhiker in August. I'd hitchhiked with him from Rotorua to Whakatane, and apparently his fates had changed for the better! While we were freaking out about how cool this was, I noticed a strange red glow on the horizon. Turns out, that was the Southern Lights (like the Northern Lights, but down south) and we'd got to see them in the day. How crazy is that? My pictures don't do it justice unfortunately. I intended to make it to Wellington that night but instead made it to the Hutt Valley where I saw the set for Rivendell and slept in the hollow of a tree in the rain forest.

Fading southern lights; My tree cave; Rainforest Pahutakawa

It took me a little while to get to Wellington the next morning, in part due to the fact that my first ride, Felicity was fairly insistent on taking me to the closest train station. Very kind, but not exactly my style. I found some delicious vegan Malaysian food as well as old flatmate Steph from Auckland! Lovely catch-up and I got to sleep inside another night.
     Now that it was getting late in the week, I began to think about getting home to study. So, I headed north along the west coast. I made it to Wanganui and couldn't find anything I could do in my time so I decided to head inland towards Tongariro. Just as a woman and her dogs stopped to wish me good luck, a black camper van pulled over for me. Turned out that they wanted to go the other way towards Mt Taranaki but that worked for me too. We stopped to explore an abandoned railway station by the river - and we slept nearby

Laksa and abandoned railway station

The next morning was to be the return journey. But first we checked out the beach. Seems like people had had fun with the abundant driftwood on the black sands. When I got to Harewa, a Malaysian man invited me into his house for coffee which I accepted and offered to take me as far as Stratford. He promptly disappeared so I decided to make my own way (not knowing how fast he'd get back). I got to Stratford and decided to take an alternate route back along the Forgotten World Highway - no fuel for 100 km... making me unsure as to whether this was my brightest idea. Fortunately I got picked up and taken all the way through to Taumaranui. Though my chances were getting a bit slim to get a lift back to Auckland before dark (the sun was setting over the hill and I was about 3 hours away). But, a couple of Iranians facilitated my safe return by 10 pm. About 50 km out, we got pulled over for speeding... another hitchhiking first for me.

Patea beach; Fogotten World Highway: Taumaranui

Now we got back to school again. The weather's getting pretty awful, so hitchhiking adventures may be over for a bit... definitely not forever though!

Scott and Ely's Easter Epic

About six weeks ago, a lawyer from Abu Dhabi told me that she wanted to come hitchhiking with me... so on Good Friday we stuck our thumbs out about 200 yards away from my flat on Hobson Street. After a couple of hours, Elizbeth and I were on our way south with a Lebanese-Japanese couple. We made it to the beautiful Rheid's Farm campsite just outside Taupō by dark and set up camp. The following day we went to the lake to witness the VW convention and then chilled in some hot pools by the river. Easter Sunday got us as far as Napier (after another long wait), where we managed to convince Elise, a petite French lady to take us north to Lake Tutira to camp.

Campsite and VWs

In the morning I got attacked by a lamentation* of swans before we started on our merry way, facilitated by a kindly policeman. We decided to try to get to Lake Waikaremoana, which proved surprisingly easy considering there are pretty much no settlements anywhere near it. A hunter got us to Rosie's bay campsite and I got some bouldering in, before we hit the hay. The issue with camping when it gets dark at like 6 is that there it becomes very difficult to find things to do apart from sleep.

Swan friend and Lake Tutira

     Now comes the epic day of hitchhiking. Elizbeth's birthday was coming and we had to get back to Auckland that day. We woke up early and tried to beg a ride west from some of the other campers with no luck. Fortunately a DoC (Department of Conservation) ranger got us about 10 km up the road to Aniwaniwa where we found groovy waterfalls... and ended up walking two hours to get our next ride. We didn't get to a village until about 2 in the afternoon, and it wasn't until 3:30 that we made it to Rotorua, where we desperately needed chips. After some poor route choices, we were about 100 km away... on the wrong side of town, at 9 pm. Ely's chances of seeing her 27th birthday in a tent were getting higher. Some kindhearted people got us onto a more suitable road, but as the hour reached 10 and the traffic started to come in drips and drabs a hidden patch of grass by the shopping center began to look more and more inviting. Just as we were about to give up, our saviour came! He took us right to my front door. Home-sweet-home!

Waterfall; Mushroom; We made it!!!

*Apparently, "lamentation" is an acceptable collective noun for swans. This makes me extremely happy.

Back to School

So a Monday in March came and I went back to University, with lots of hours of class and labs. Fortunately
it's not all work and no play - the five flatties (amongst others) have managed to escape a fair bit at the weekends for less boring activities. I also have started rock-climbing through Uni every Wednesday night. Bouldering in the south island inspired me to take up the sport in earnest.
     The first weekend brought us to the Te Atatu peninsula where we took part in a mud run (more of a swim for most) that I did surprisingly well in despite my lack of penchant for balance on normal flat ground. Lots of muddy fun and then blasted with by a fire engine to wash it off. A week later Ella, Danni and I headed out the Matakana Animal Sanctuary with the Auckland University Animal Rights Group and I got to climb trees! Oh and we survived Cyclone Pam.

Muddy people and animal people

In my last few weeks I've injured my arm climbing, sneaked into a surprisingly beautiful hydroelectric dam and gotten very muddy in some glow worm caves close to Ella's awesome grandmother's house. Actually this brings us to the story of Dr Seuss. Driving back from a lovely meal at the local pizzeria with Ella's Aunt and Nana, Danni spotted a pair of eyes on the road, which turned out to belong to the cutest little black kitten. Ella was adamant that he shouldn't be left there and so we (I stood around helplessly for most of this) rooted for him through the bushes and managed to snag the abandoned animal. The search for his buddy was unfortunately unsuccessful, but we got the cat in a hat (hence the name) back to Auckland on the bus.  Unable to take a sixth member of our family in our tiny flat with two allergic humans we have had to adopt him out. I'm sure he's doing better though.

A Cat in a Hat and a Muddy Scott

My five week study period is now over. Time for two weeks of adventures!

Akaroa and beyond!

We left our family in Arthur's pass to go to the "French" town of Akaroa. Everything is "French" there - except the people. The people are Kiwis. We had a gorgeous, civilised meal at the Braserie Kitchen, a nice change from our usual fare. The rest of the day was spent on the beach, taking walks and chatting with Fionnahula, a friend I'd made in Karewau months before. Fi was nice enough to lend us her van to sleep in that night before we headed to Christchurch - our last day of hitchhiking. Marion was to catch her flight to Australia and I was to find a place to stay and, eventually a job in the earthquake-defaced city. At around 4 pm, I began to realise that the first task might be hopeless, with all hostels fully booked for the Cricket World Cup! In a desperate attempt to escape a night in the rain, I consulted the google machine - "free places to stay in christchurch" and guess what? A phone number came up accompanying a very friendly message from a man named Martin. I tried the phone number, and within 20 minutes we were on the way to Martin's via the airport for Marion.

Glimpses of Akaroa

Martin was a generous, gracious, unassuming host. I stayed with him for a week, all in all and began the hunt for employment in Christchurch's rebuild. The various agencies that I signed up to were not particularly helpful. In fact, work came via my Aunt Kristi 12 500 km away in Fairbanks, Alaska. Having discovered I was in Christchurch, Kristi sent an email to Murray - the leader of a church close by - and in less than 24 hours I had a casual job! I also met up with Chris and Ginger from Wales in my time there.

Work and friends in Christchurch

I worked for about a week and a half and then started on my merry way back to Auckland, which involved hitchhiking up to Picton, sleeping on beaches and a 9 hour almost non-stop night drive from Wellington to Auckland with Matej (one of the Gypsy Family). We arrived at 3 am to a new flat and comfy beds. Back to school for the last semester in Auckland and the end of adventures for a while.

A view from a place I slept (Picton)... and back to Auckland

Adventures of the International Gypsy Family

Moeraki, Clay Cliffs, and the family at Rohan

Our family had nine members from four countries in three cars. On the first day we discovered Oamaru's 
steam punk victorian architecture and some very distant penguins as well as the boulders at Moeraki. The next day brought us inland to the Elephant Rocks (for climbing) and Mount Cook - New Zealand's highest mountain at 3754 m. We visited the bizarre Clay Cliffs on our way, which look like a  Lord of the Rings backdrop but aren't. The mountain was beautiful and looked sunny and inviting but turned out to be a terrifying storm center that damaged our tent, which contained four people that night to conserve warmth. Driving out towards the stunning Lake Tekapo allowed us to escape the rain, but not the cold and wind which we fully experienced the following day on a hike up to the Tekapo observatory.

Our German member left us about four days into the trip at Geraldine, where we had the final family meal of crepes (bloody French) and a rather heated game of football. Marion and I were meant to splinter off with Lukas but instead decided to carry on with the crew to Castle Hill - one of the best bouldering sites in the southern hemisphere. On the way we visited Mt Summer - Rohan in LOTR - and picked up a temporary member of the family, an American named Henry. We explored the Cave Stream near Castle Hill the following morning and learned the meaning of cold, then did some more climbing at Castle Hill. Now we came to our final evening which we spent watching Kea at Arthurs's pass. The family became truly fractured at this point, with the French couple also separating from the main group. After one week together, it was truly sad to leave. Our thumbs were getting restless.