New Zealand - the North Island!

This post is very late! We were in New Zealand for most of June so this could end up being a very long post as we did many a thing and saw many a place. I will try not to make it too long and boring and so shall maybe only focus on main bits! 

In New Zealand I met my friend Sophie. Sophie is one of my best friends and we go a little bit weird when we're together. It is fun. She has been in Australia since November doing the working holiday visa thing. So I flew from Sydney to Auckland and Sophie flew from Melbourne to Auckland. We had no plan for New Zealand. Well the plan was to meet in Auckland and decide what to do while we were there. We knew we wanted to travel around both islands using some kind of hop on hop off bus thing. We had spoken a lot about the trip before hand but we never managed to decide anything solid. 

So we had an emotional meeting at the airport and went and stayed with some of Sophie's family friends just outside of Auckland. We did quite a bit of research and planning and had a day in the city. We wandered around, did sight see-y stuff including going up the Sky Tower which looks over the whole city. It is high and cool. We didn't really do much, it was just nice wandering around and getting lost and stuff. We bought our bus pass thingy with Inter City buses the night before we left Auckland. We booked our first leg of the journey - we were off to Paihia in the Bay of Islands! 

Paihia was lovely - a very small but beautiful town. We were supposed to go on a boat trip while we were there with the possibility of seeing dolphins but unfortunately it was cancelled as it pissed it down and was windy amd stormy the whole time we were there! Never mind. So we caught a little ferry over to a place called Russel and had a walk round there. Very beautiful, even with the rain! We had a pie in Paihia (pie here...get it??!) After Paihia we had a short bus journey down to Whangarei. Don't ask me how to pronounce it because I don't know how! We stayed in a funny old fashioned hostel at the top of a steep hill. It pissed it down again. Even more this time! Got absolutely drenched. Even my waterproof shoes were sodden. We took refuge in Pak'n'Save (massive cheap supermarket!) Met an old family friend of Sophie's in the evening. She took us out for drinks and some food. Smashies in an Irish bar. SO TASTY!! 

After Whangarei we headed down to Rotorua. It smells like eggs as it is built on a geothermal activity area so there's sulphur emitting from the ground everywhere. Pretty amazing really, you can see it all bubbling up from the ground. Went for a delicious meal at a Kiwi pub with amazing burgers (I love food). The next day we went to Hobbiton which was one of the best things ever!!! it was fricking awesome and looked exactly like the film which I suppose is the point. You get a guided tour and learn some cool insider information about the films. At the end you go into the Green Dragon pub and get a drink. I had cider out of a lovely blue clay cup. SUCH A GOOD DAY!!! That evening we went to a Maori cultural experience night. You learn all about Maori culture, they perform the Haka and other chants/songs/sacred rituals etc. Was amazing. And all the Maoris are beautiful! Aaand you get to eat the hangi which is basically a traditional Maori way of cooking food underground using heated rocks. We got to watch the unveiling of the food and then the food gets blessed by everyone present. And it was seriously delicious. Like one of the best meals I have ever had. Just thinking about it now is making me drool. I want it again!!! 

After Rotorua we went to Taupo which is a town next to the biggest lake in New Zealand - Lake Taupo. We went on a hike to see the famous Huka falls. So so beautiful and the water was amazingly clear. Sophie got cramp in her bum. We almost stole some walking boots which we thought had been abandoned until we got some dirty looks from people in a cafe. so we ram away instead. On the way back we had a McDonalds in a plane. It was cool. Stayed in a rubbish hostel and had to share a room with a boy who sat and ate crisps in his bed ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT. Stupid crisp boy. 

We had a long bus journey down to Wellington. We stayed with a man I had met in Cape Town airport in his house just outside of Wellington. Some of my friends have told me that we were stupid for doing this and he was probably a perv but I stand by my opinion that he was simply a nice bloke offering us a place to stay. I did let my parents know and told them if we disappeared then we had probably been murdered in our beds. Anyway that didn't happen and we felt perfectly safe there and the night we got there he had cooked us a sea food chowder which was delicious. We had a day in Wellington going to museums and exploring the city and eating sushi and Chinese food. That evening he cooked us green lipped mussels which is a delicacy of New Zealand. Neither of us had tried mussels before and I was definitely a bit nervous but we couldn't really refuse. Anyway, they did taste nice but I nearly gagged on a number of occacions as the texture was DISGUSTING. Ew ew ew ew ew!!! Thinking about it now makes me want to throw up in my mouth. I don't think it helped that I had spent 8 weeks in South Africa preparing raw mussels to feed the turtles with. Anyway we ate nearly all of them as we didn't want to seem rude (luckily Sophie felt the same way about me as them!). Eewww. 

The morning after the awful mussels experience we got up early to go and catch the ferry over to the South Island! Yay South Island, it is awesome. 

Sydney!

Although I am now back in the UK I thought I should write a few more posts about what I did after I left South Africa just in case anyone was interested. 

I had a week in Sydney and it was great. Although I only had a short time there I really liked Sydney as a city. Everyone seemed very friendly and there was a lot to see and do, always something exciting going on. I stayed with friends which was great as it saved me loads of money on having to pay out for expensive Sydney hostels. So thanks Anthony and Ross!! Their apartment was in a really tall building and had a spectacular view over the city. You could see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. It really was amazing. So what did I do while I was there? Let's see if I can remember!

I was really lucky with the weather while I was there as it was approaching winter. Most days it was really warm and I could walk around in shorts and t shirt. It was funny as the locals were walking round all wrapped up with scarves and everything. I think they should come and experience British winter sometime!! Anthony and Ross took me out for a lovely meal on the Sunday to a famous fish and chip restaurant. Can't remember what it was called but it was Irish. And it was yum. 

I did a lot of sight seeing - Bridge, Opera House, Darling Harbour, Bondi Beach etc. The Opera House is an impressive building but it looked a little grubby - it's actually kind of grey close up. It felt kind of weird being so close to it - it's such an iconic building it felt kind of like i wasn't really there! I went to quite a few museums and art galleries (I love art galleries, yay). What else did I do...?

I went MOTHER FLIPPIN' WHALE WATCHING!!! You might be thinking I'd have had enough of that but I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. They are the most amazing creatures. On the trip I saw two sperm whales, which is really unusual as they are hardly ever seen in that area, aaand I saw humpback whales :) I love them so bloody much. 

While I was there there was an arts and music festival going on at Circular Quay. It happens every year, is called Vivid and is a festival of light. All the buildings around Circular Quay get lit up including the opera house, the bridge, the art gallery, the train station and many others and its all accompanied by music. There's also loads of art/light installations dotted about the place. I spent one evening mooching around there looking at everything. It was really cool and so glad I was there when it was on!  The whole thing just looked really spectacular.

On the Friday I went diving. It was awesome. I caught the ferry over to Manly in the early morning and did two shore dives off of Shelly beach. It was great and I'm so glad I did it. I saw soooo many fish and a couple of large Wobbegong sharks aaand loads of other stuff. No turtles though which was sad. It was quite different from where I'd learnt in South Africa as the water was much warmer and the visibility was much better. It was really really great. In a funny/nice coincidence the place I dived with in Sydney were called Pro Dive which happened to also be the name of the place I learned with in Plett! I was assured that there was no affiliation, just a nice coincidence. It made me smile. 

Very stupidly I forgot about the fact that you're not supposed to go diving before going on a plane because of the pressure, and you might get decompression sickness and die or something. I only remembered this the next day when I was sitting on the plane to New Zealand as it was taking off. I started panicking that I was going to get paralysed and die (I admit I am a it of a hypochondriac!!) until I realised it had been around 20 hours since I had gone diving and that I would most probably be ok. I was still a bit worried however and only felt sure I wasn't going to die when I was still alive 24 hours later. Yay for not dying!! 

So that was Sydney! I am sure I have forgotten to include stuff but you get the general idea of what I got up to. Next, onto to New Zealand!!