the downside of sleeping in a dorm is that you wake up together with the first person to wake up – in my case, 6am. the alarms continued to ring at 6:15, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 7:45 and mine rang at 8, and there was still a person sleeping!
oleg was already at the counter checking out. he also found a cruise that we can take, which departed at 9 – boarding at 8:45am. we quickly parked nearby the pier, got coffee and sandwiches, and soon after left for the cruise on the yellow shiny boat.
cruise on the bay
the cruise was 4 hours long, and surprisingly awesome. the boat was one of those that hops on the waves instead of cutting through them, which lead to first me getting sea sick, and then oleg. however despite those two minor moments of inconvinience, we generally were very happy with lots of sun and lots of wind and sometimes even splashes of sea water (i know that all of my hands, face and hair was salty tasting afterwards… don’t ask how i tasted my hair).
we first went to find some dolhpins, where i shot some videos which kinda suck, and photos which really suck, and oleg got some incredible photographs. i’ll just defer to “yay teamwork” on this one. after looking at those awesome animals bouncing around, and listening to all the abilities that they posses (far more than humans), i’m firmly convinced that HHGTG had it right.
the second and final part of the trip was bouncing out to the pacific ocean, which was anything but pacified, and looking at some islands, rocks, beaches, listening to some kiwi history and going through a hole in a rock. it was far more exciting than what it sounds like! the hole in the rock is essentially a … well .. hole that lets a fairly big boat and go out into the pacific ocean. its pretty worrysome when you see how huge the waves are, but our captain managed to do it without killing us. after all the excitement and wind and speed and dangerousness, i found a sunny, windless corner on the top part of the ship and i just napped there. it was beautifully warm. i still can’t get enough of the warmth and sun. feels like the cold of toronto won’t ever leave me!
upon completion of the tour, i finally got to try out the card and found out they ripped me off – paid $10 for a $5 and didn’t notice. however, all is well as now a connection exists between the continents. and furthermore, we can make reservations without spending $.50/minute on local calls. those vodaphone people are NUTS.
after extensive testing of the card we started driving back down south. the road was astoundingly pretty, with more new and beautiful surprises around each corner. one place in particular just took our breath away – it was this absolutely awesome, soft white beach, pearly blue water and mountains on the horizon. we stopped, walked around, i got ice cream, and we soon continued on our way south towards new adventures. but that place was something special. and the most incredible thing is that people here seem to take places like that as normal.
one of the reasons why we ended up going this way in the first place was because of the kaori trees of the area. kaori trees are a NZ speciality – they are HUGE, white, smooth, tall trees, and on the west coast of northern NZ there is a whole forest of them.
we stopped by one tree in particular. neither words or pictures can describe how huge it is – let me try numbers. its thought to be around 2000 years old. at least. it is 50 meters tall, and 13 meters girth. like oleg said “if i lived here a few hundred years ago and saw this thing in the forest i’d start worshipping it too”.
after the tree, we whirled down the curving roadways towards our hostel, both being pretty tired of driving. the road through the forest was incredibly happy, and you can see some videos of how awesome it looks here.
after leaving the forest, and doing some more scenic driving we arrived to our hostel which turned out to be yet another awesome thing in a pretty awesome day. the road to the hostel is a curving 200m long driveway that goes STEPLY down. a very interesting idea of driving.
the hostel turned out to be a really pleasant, quaint, country style place. except i tore the curtain (a bit) and broke the window handle (one of the two). i’m just going to pretend nothing happened and hope for the best. its up to them to keep this place running in face of clumsy travellers like me! especially given how “strong” i am, that window handle was about to break anyway.
the hostel offered fresh farm eggs for 40 cents (boiled eggs never have tasted so good), and homecooked steak dinner for $12, served at 7pm. we eagerly signed up for that (the time was 5:30), and i made myself 2 above mentioned boiled eggs (oleg didn’t feel like any). the time before dinner was spent lounging around the place, unpacking, reserving the stay for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and just relaxing.
the dinner was incredibly filling – steak and lots of veggies. tried kaura, like sweet potatoes (never tried before, but tastes exactly as described. sweet. potatoey.), except local to NZ. and absolutely mindblowingly awesome bbq sauce. imagine very pleasant bbq taste in a thick, juicy, warm, dark red sauce, with a strong, pleasant sensation of wasabi. turns out the owners grow wasabi. must… resist… temptation.. to… ask.. for… some… i think they could sell that recipe to restaurants easily. so awesome.
evening was spent editing photographs, typing a little of the blog (i’m finishing right now, which is next day in the car on the way further down the island) and staying up till late talking to other hostelers. they’ve got tents and they pitch them in the backyard and then cook in the hostel kitchen. we intend on buying food tomorrow and starting to cook as of tomorrow. i’m mostly likely going to be responsible for figuring out what to buy, so that will be interesting. we have no fridge at the moment, or box, to use a fridge (plan is to freeze water bottles and just store stuff there). hopefully we’ll find one when we stop for supplies.
only 2 (3 nights) days in NZ and i’m already overwhelmed! doesn’t feel this short, but instead more like a week.