perjantai 13. huhtikuuta 2018

NZ North

Me and Matias arrived to Auckland fairly late on 31st of January. We figured we'd need sim cards and some data as the two of us were planning to stay 6 weeks in NZ. After immigration etc we found booths for Spark and Vodafone and based on some Google search we decided to go with Spark. But at their store I learned that their sims may not work as they should with my Honor 8 so I ended up taking Vodafone and Matias opted for Spark with his Samsung Galaxy S7. They cost the same amount and had 3GB of data for 2 months with 200 min of calls and 200 sms in NZ. (We didn't notice any difference with the connections but with Spark you can get 1GB extra data per day in "phonebooths" a.k.a wifi hotspots in bigger towns, so that's a nice bonus)

Hotspot

Getting away and to airport


The easiest way is probably to take the SkyBus which operates 24/7, but it does cost 18$ one way (17$ online) and it's a bit cheaper if you buy the return ticket also right away. But if you feel more adventurous, want to save some cash and have some time then you could take the 380 airporter bus  and change once if you are going to/coming from the city center. Without local transportation card (AT Hop, also available online) that will cost around 13$ and with Hop less than 8$. If you're traveling with more than two persons in a group, taxi/Uber would also be an ok option.

So yeah, this time me and Matias hopped on the SkyBus and went to stay in Bamber House near Mount Eden and my mum and sis went to a hotel in the city. The first 36 hours we didn't get to do much as the weather was really wet and grey. After Australia's sunny days we thought "uh oh.. is it gonna be like this the whole 6 weeks..?" luckily that was not the case.

Lovely weather in Auckland

Cruising around


On Friday the sky opened up a bit and that was nice as we went to pick up a SUV from Ezi car rental. (We got a tip from a kiwi living in Brisbane and this was the company she uses the most. The car was a really nice last year's Toyota RAV4 with adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitor, rear cross-traffic alert, back up cam and a smart key so we can definitely recommend this company).
We drove to pick up my mum and sis, packed ourselves and our stuff to the car and started our journey towards Whitianga. We only stayed there one night and in retrospect two nights would have been better, but in short time one can only do so much.
The drive didn't feel very easy. It was serpentine road up and down and when I wasn't driving, I got a bit nauseous. That was also the case with the backseat members so at some point we had to get our minds out of the serpentine and feeling sick (or cuckoo). So we started to play a game. A game that I remember playing as a kid, which gets kids (and adults) to focus on something else as the time flies.. what was it, you may ask.. :) So everybody picks a color and gets a point for every oncoming car that's the color you picked :) Soo simple! And then you just select a score like let's say the one with 21 points wins. My sis picked a successful color and was pretty much unbeatable the whole time. And the time went little bit faster 👍


Whitianga & Hot water beach


Once we got to Whitianga we unloaded our stuff (me and Matias stayed at On the Beach Backpackers Lodge and mum and sis a little bit further from the beach) and then we decided to drive to Hahei Beach and more specifically to Hot Water Beach. We knew that there one needs a shovel to dig deep enough to get to the hot water and in order to make a nice pool for you and your mates. We didn't find a shovel rental place so we just went on checking the beach.. and what did we see.. loads of people digging and chilling on weird pits. We were little skeptical at first but as we walked closer and then stood in a hot water vein for a bit (like a second, it was freaking hot!) we were convinced that the water is actually really hot there! We found one abandoned pit and stood there for awhile. It was fun and enough for us. Our feet got a nice burn and must have gotten younger as the skin almost peeled off :D

Hot water holes

In order to have a full hot water beach experience you should have some time, shovels and beer but we didn't have any of those so we headed back to Whitianga for some food and chilling.
I really liked Whitianga and our hostel. It was basically on the beach so we finally got to witness a sunrise with Matias :) also with more time, we could have gone kayaking as they were free of charge in our hostel 👍

Hot water beach
Sunrise in Whitianga


The smelly town of Rotorua


After Whitianga we headed to Rotorua. The drive was something like 3 hours, mainly because of the serpentine roads. Getting closer to Rotorua the scenery got really unbelievable.. all the green humps and bumps with sheep and cows.. it just looked like Hobbiton and I could just imagine little hobbits wander around, drinking Hobbit beer and have fun all day long (except the few fellows with the ring and all..)

Humps´n bumps

When we got to Rotorua we instantly noticed the smell.. it was like the whole town had eaten beans and eggs for breakfast :D
Little by little we got used to the smell but still from time to time we got a little whiff of the interesting odor and wrinkled our noses a bit :D
First day was for strolling around in the center and the in the park there. We soaked our feet in a thermal pool and witnessed some bubbly ponds. We didn't have too much time as mum and sis wanted to chill in their hotel's spa area and we wanted to see how did the Rotorua disc golf park look like.

We have found out that there are quite a few disc golf courses in NZ, but it was a surprise that many of the courses did not have permanent baskets or proper tees. This one in Rotorua for example offered a good place to practice but it was difficult to find all the tees and we weren't able to play the whole round.

Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland


The next day we woke up rather early and started the engine again. It was time to see some thermal action! In Wai-O-Tapu area there are few free options if you want to experience natural hot pools and see some bubbling mud lakes. There is also the thermal park that offers a chance to see a geyser show, or might I say geyser blow as they briefly talk about the geyser and then activate one with some sort of powder to make it shoot water high up. After the geyser show we headed to the park and it was like walking into some child's colored book. There were pools filled with boiling mud and water pools colored from bright orange to toxic green.

Thermal pools

On the way back to Auckland we still had a little bit of time left so we drove to the place where they had something called OVO aka putting one or two person inside a ball and throwing it down a hill (this was supposed to be the original place where they started this madness). Matias wanted to have it a go and had a good time sliding down the hill :)

Ready for rollin'


Auckland Auckland


For the last days together in NZ we rented an Airbnb in Kingsland. It was so nice that my mum and sis finally had their own rooms, we had two toilets (always a luxury) and a nice balcony with a view.
We went sightseeing around the city and strolled around in the Winyard Quarter which was really pretty. Mum and sis visited the zoo as me and Matias tried to find a frisbee golf course from Monte Cecilia park, but there weren't any permanent baskets unfortunately so we just hung around there and threw some shots just for funzies.

Kingsland
Winyard Quarter

All good things come to end and we had to say bye byes to my mum and sis. We had at this point two months to go and it sure felt really empty after they left.
It wasn't fun to be in Auckland anymore as the place reminded of them and I missed them already. Luckily we only had one more day in the North and then it was time to fly to the beautiful South island :)

Travel light

- Sini




Our route so far

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