Taupo - Rain that Never Went Away

Same damn thing. Waiting for the weather to clear so I can do the Tongariro. No luck tho. Rained the whole damn week. Probably the most miserable week I've had since I started travelling. Rain rain go away. Got pretty home sick this week too. Missed Thanksgiving with my family :(

Rotorua - Again

I'm not even going to waste too much time writing here since I just came back to kill time before heading to Wellington. I'm still waiting for the weather to clear up so I can head down to Taupo and do the Tongariro Crossing. I did enjoy the Lake Spa Retreat at the Polynesian Spa tho. The most interesting part was chatting with some Japanese guys who gave me lots of tips on how I can try to save money while backpacking around Japan. Lot of the ideas involved bumming off of the nice people in the country tho.

Taupo - World Rugby Cup Final

Our next day was a bit of a wash out. We had initially planned to hike the Tongariro Crossing together, but because of poor weather, the trip was cancelled. We spent a good chunk of time in the morning trying to figure out what to do now. New Zealand, and especially Taupo, was such an outdoor country that you were so limited in indoor activities. Cinema, museum, Honey Bee farm, bowling, reading....

It turns out Claire has some friends in Wellington who were going to come up and hang with us for the weekend. They arrived about 11 ish, and were against the museum idea, and there was nothing good playing in the cinema. We decided on going to a hot pool. The hot pool was pretty nice. We enjoyed ourselves in different pools of varying temperature. There was also a water slide, and although I knew that we weren't supposed to go on it without having paid extra, I pretended to be ignorant and kept my mouth shut when Claire suggested we go up it. Despite being in a proper hot pool 'facility', we had to be careful in some of the pools to not get our head wet because of amoebic meningitis.

The rest of the day was just time killing - driving out of town for a giant cookie, watching people bungy jump and mountain board, etc. It wasn't until end of the day when things got exciting again.

Today was the finals for the World Rugby Cup played in Sydney. Let me just skip all of the boring bits and tell you how sexy Jonny Wilkinson is. Actually, just have a look at these photos. (No, I didn't join the fan club.) It was England v. Australia.

I had never watched a game of rugby before I started travelling. The World Rugby Cup 2003 started in October, and I started catching games here and there while in South Africa. One of the first memorable games was the England vs. South Africa game that we watched in Rafters bar in Swakopmund, Namibia. England won 25-6. I had first noticed flyhalf Wilkinson in this game, but it wasn't until I watched some of the quarterfinal and semifinal games in New Zealand. that I noticed the French flyhalf, Frederik Michalak. The two flyhalfs made the games veeeery exciting. However, Michalak was no match for superstar Jonny in the England v. France semifinals.

We watched the game in Finn MacCuhal's (?? some Irish bar) amongst tons of other Rugby fans. Watching a popular game such as the finals of any 'Cup' is not something to be done when you're short like me. As I bobbed my head up and down, and side to side, I overlooked the effort I had to make to watch this game, for the many close up shots of Jonny made it all worthwhile. Just like most other games, it was Jonny who did most of the scoring. At full-time, the score was 14-14, and it went into overtime with 10 minutes extra time going each way. With 30 seconds left in the game, the score was 17-17 with a threat of going into another overtime (I was getting tired of standing by then), when my Jonny scores a drop goal to put the score 20-17!! Game ended, and cup goes to England for the first time in history (not that it was a long one in rugby).

With Claire and Chrissy at the bar watching the finals.

Taupo - The Geyserland Experience

Claire, Dave, and I left this morning for Taupo in their 4x4 Charlotte the Chariott. Before leaving Rotorua, we stopped at the Kuirau Park. Amazingly, this place was not listed in my Let's Go budget guidebook, or their Lonely Planet. The park was free, full of beautiful landscape and geothermal activities not seen anywhere else but in commercial parks. This park was free tho! Lots of mud pools and dormant looking geysers abound. Definitely worth a mention in guidebooks - it's free, beautiful, and in walking distance of town center.

Our first stop out of town was at Kerosene Creek (probably named for the smell of the place). It was a free thermal river. We stopped there for a quick bath and the only thing that surrounds us was nature, one naked old man swimming, and a few people on a picnic. The water was like perfect bath temperature and had a small little waterfall set in the background. Felt very good in the water, but the nearby sign warning us of amoebic meningitis was a put off. We could not put our heads under water because if the water gets up our nose, we could catch the disease and die (there is no cure apparently).

As we were leaving, we passed bunch of school children. We were grateful for the perfect timing. How traumatic it would have been for these kids to see our naked asses as we stripped to change by our cars in the parking area.

Our next stop was the Hidden Valley Orakei Korako Geyserland. There were lots of neat geysers and colorful mud pools, as well as one of the world's only 2 geothermal caves. This place is a bit far from Rotorua or Taupo (tho it is in between the two), so it is less touristed. The surrounding trees gave a jungle-ish feel to the place, and with the steams coming out from underground here and there, I almost felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie... only if there weren't these wooden platforms for us to walk on. We walked around the park - cheering as the Diamond Geyser spouted hot water in the air, marvelling at the colorful formations made by the lava flows and stuff, and made a wish as we stuck our left hand into the water in the geothermal cave.

Our unplanned stops for the day was the Huka Falls and Craters of the Moon. The water in the Huka Falls was so clear it was such a pretty blue when the sun reflected off of it. It was also a very powerful fall, tho a short fall, after a very powerful rapids down the river. We wondered how fun it must be to white water raft down that river, only if it weren't for the rocks on either side and the possibility of getting sucked under the falls. Claire and Dave theorized that, perhaps like a James Bond movie, if you went fast enough on the river, you would get shot out and land past the falls instead of falling with the falls. Surely, someone out there is stupid enough to try and find out.

The Craters of the Moon was another geothermal area full of mud pools and such. The landscape was relatively flat, and as you look across the area, you can see steam, lots of steam, coming out of the ground all over the place. The unique thing about this place are the craters that are formed from the geothermal activities. As pressure builds up underneath, the surface is blasted open by steam.

After we turned what's normally a one hour drive to Taupo into an all day drive, we arrived in Rainbow Lodge. We stopped in Woolworths to grab some groceries and made chicken fajitas for dinner. For once I didn't have to eat my 2 minute noodles. I slept well tonight, having had one of the most enjoyable, and productive (got the most for what I spent), days yet in NZ.

Rotorua

Rotorua is the hot spring capital of New Zealand. The town rests on tons of geothermal activity which oozes out into mud pools, geysers, hot springs, etc. My plan was to spend a few days to soak in the hot springs and relax to kill time before I hit Taupo and Wellington. However, after meeting up and talking with Claire and Dave, I decided to leave with them tomorrow to do the Tongariro Crossing with them. Taupo was only an hour away so it will be fairly easy to make my back to Rotorua to spend more time here.

Dave and Claire was going to a Maori cultural dinner and Hangi thing (i.e. local dinner and dance). I spent my evening walking around Rotorua, sniffing the smell of sulfur (you know, the rotten egg smell) in the thermal areas. Not a whole lot to be done here, but it's a small, cozy town perfect for time killing.

Waitomo - Home of the Glowworm Caves

Finally I am leaving Auckland for good, never to return, maybe except to fly out of. I arrived in Juno Hall backpackers of Waitomo by noon, and headed out to explore the area. Waitomo is the home of the glowworm caves. Glowworms are these larvae that are unique to New Zealand. They emit light to attract their food and you can see tons of them in the dark caves. I went on a 30 minute tour of the Waitomo glowworm caves which was a brief walk through the caves with some informative, yet dry, commentary, followed by an even briefer boat ride through the glowworm grotto to view the glowworms. The most interesting part of it all is learning that when these glowworms turn into adult flies, they die of starvation after 2 days because its creator forgot to give them a mouth.

After the glowworm caves, I set out to find the trailhead for the Waitomo walkway. On my way up the road, a car whizzed by me and some lady behind the wheel gave me one of those stick-your-neck-out stares. It didn't occur to me until a second later that it was Claire and Dave!! They recognized me as well and came to a skidding stop. Claire and Dave were 2 English folks on my 3 week Cape to Vic Falls tour with Nomads. We got all excited about bumping into each other like this and chatted a bit, made plans to see each other in Rotorua the next day, and split off. I knew they were in New Zealand, but never thought I'd run it to them like this. What a small world.

The Waitomo walk itself was a short trek through the hillsides where you can see many sheep and cows grazing in the grass. The walk leads you to the Aranui caves, which were closed by then, and onto another walk. The next bush walk took me into a natural underground cave viewing platform. I was inside a cave all to myself, with no other tourists. This is what I liked. Apparently, if you come here at night, there are glowworms in this cave too. I could have seen them for free!!

Auckland - Yet Again

These couple of days were really just a waste of time. I came back here only for my free haircut at Toni & Guy that I booked before I left for Coromandel. These guys gave me something called a 'natural inversion'. Looks alright for the most part, but it's so short at the top and sides that it's hard to keep my hair in a pony tail.

I also had a few other errands to run so I ended up staying here another night. Nothing really worth mentioning except for the fact that I'm starting to get a tad bored of New Zealand. It's like the USA in many ways. It's westernized, it's expensive, and the people here look like Americans and speak English. The country caters well to tourists and they are everywhere. I can't escape them. Everything is too easy - easy to get around, easy to find a place to stay, easy to eat, easy to find an activity. It's not much of an adventure. All of the sudden, I am very much looking forward to China. Ofcourse, the best bits of New Zealand are to come when I get to South Island.

Coromandel - The Hitch Hiking Experience

I had a few days to kill until my haircut on Monday, and I was not about to hang around Auckland much longer. I didn't want to start heading towards Wellington too soon either, as I'm trying to time it so that I will be there for the world premiere of the LOTR III - Return of the King on December 1. So, I decided to go to Coromandel, which is an easy trip there and back, but not part of my NZ bus pass.

Again, I was trying to be cheap. Apparently, it is quite difficult to get around the Coromandel area without a car. I didn't want to go on a tour tho - I am avoiding them like the plague. What I did was buy a one way ticket out to Coromandel town, in hopes of meeting people with cars along the way who will give me lifts around. Or, maybe I will try hitch hiking....

Lucky for me, as soon as I arrived in the Lion's Den hostel, there were a group of people going up to the tip of Coromandel to do the walk up there. I jumped in on the offer to come along right away and I was on my way. After 2 gruesome hours of drive up windy, gravel roads, we came to the start of the walkway and hiked 1.5 hrs to the viewpoint, and another 1.5 hrs back.

On the following morning, I managed to catch a ride to Whitianga with Brendon, a guy who plans to start his own 5 day tour between Auckland and Wellington. He plans to call it Adodgy Tour.
I arrived quite early in Whitianga since Brendon had a long drive today and wanted an early start. As quickly as I checked into On The Beach Hostel, I was out and about. I took the passenger ferry across the bay to the side where all the popular beaches are. However, they are still a good 10+ km or so out of the way so I could not walk it. A bus there and back would cost me $20-$30. Quite overpriced in my opinion. The owner at the hostel seemed to encourage hitch hiking. I've been advised against it, and the smart side of me tells me that I should not do it, but the cheap and adventurous side of me says, "Heck, let's give it a try." I'm sure it was quite stupid for a solo female to hitch hike, but I think the martial arts experience and knife I carry around with me gave me some sort of, perhaps false, confidence.

I did not enjoy hitch hiking. I found it to be quite demoralizing, not to mention I don't have a whole lot of patience for waiting around. About six cars whizzed by me in about 10 minutes time as I held out my thumb. Everyone has told me that hitch hiking in New Zealand was easy. I'm an innocent looking girl at that. Surely I'd get picked up right away. Or so I thought. Everyone just kept going by. I felt rejected. Did I look dodgy or something? What was I doing wrong? I was in the middle of nowhere, far from where I want to be, and I was not about to walk it all. Then I saw a car, with and old, unsuspecting, man inside. He stopped for a view of the beach. Here was my chance. I walked over to the car and as he was about to pull out, I flagged him down and pretty much forced him to give me a ride. "You're going this way right? Can I have a lift?" I was dropped off at about half way point to my destination. Luckily, the next car that came by actually picked me up. She was an English girl here on WHV and was on her way to work. Cool girl. She knows the deal.

The girl dropped me off at Hahei beach, about 30 min scenic walk to the start of the trail to Cathedral Cove. Close enough for me. So I walked couple hours to Cathedral Cove and back, not quite impressed with what I got in return for my efforts. Plus, I still had to find a ride back. I was in the Cathedral Cove parking lot now. Plenty of opportunities. I accosted the first people that came out into the parking lot - an elderly couple. They were on their way to Hot Water Beach, so I decided to check that out.

Hot Water Beach is famous for the geothermal activity that occurs underneath. While the water is cold and not fit for swimming because of the rocks that are around, during the low tide, you can actually take a spade and dig your own hot spring. Any other times tho, like when I went, it's just another beach.

Now I was further away from where I started. Yet again, I had to accost some people for a ride back. I saw two Japanese girls. I usually don't like to begin a conversation with a Japanese stranger in Japanese, as I may come across as being arrogant. (They may think "So you speak Japanese, so what? You're not the only foreigner who does.") This time tho, I kind of wanted to impress these girls and befriend them with out the long, drawn out introduction and conversation that it usually takes before I let on that I speak their language. The girls were Yumiko and Ai. Ai-chan is a senior in high school here, and Yumiko is here on WHV. They were with couple of guys - Gary, Yumiko's fiance from NZ, and Kevin, Gary's friend. They were the nicest people.

They were actually planning to go all the way to the passenger ferry to go to Whitianga - exactly where I needed to go. After couple of scenic detours to Cook's beach and Shakespeare's lookout, we were back at the ferry. They even paid for my $1 ferry across, and bought me a hot chocolate once on the other side. They even offered me a place to stay when I'm in their neighborhood. It's people like this who make travelling enjoyable. Not like the hypocritical owner, Jim, of On The Beach hostel. While he encouraged me to hitch hike, he acted repulsed and said something along the lines of "No way. Not going to happen." when I suggested the possibility that I could catch a ride with his brother who might be going near Thames, where the bus back to Auckland was cheaper. I hate that man. If the hostel itself wasn't actually nice and spotlessly clean, I'd be starting a boycott campaign against them.

Back in Auckland

Back in Auckland for the day while I figure out my next move. I only really have half the day, so not really much time for sightseeing. This time though, I did check in to a hostel in the city centre (Albert Park Backpackers) so I have easy access to shops and stuff. Turns out this place is nicer than the one out in Parnell, which is surprising because hostels in city centres are usually crap.

Anyhow, the big revelation of the day is that there is no way I will stay anywhere near my budget at the pace I am spending money. As of today, I committed myself to self-catering instead of eating out like I used to. This is a challenge for me because I don't cook. Plus, I'll have to schlep some food around with me. Now that I'm determined to self-cater tho, I had to go find a supermarket. The nearest decent place to my hostel was 20-25 f***ing minutes walk away. (I took the bus back). I loaded my grocery basket with all the essentials of cooking - apples, bananas, yogurts, and ofcourse, 2 minute noodles and instant pastas. Little did I know how sad I would be as I sat in the kitchen, picking at my pathetic dinner, while other travellers somehow manage to make 3 course meals. I would recommend to anyone thinking of travelling on a budget to LEARN TO COOK before you go!

It's now been about 2 months since I had my last haircut at the Trenzo in Johannesburg. I feel desparately in need of another one, despite my original plan to go 6 months, if not the year, w/o a haircut. Ofcourse, a decent haircut would set me back another $60 or $80 here. But how lucky am I? The popular Toni & Guy hair salon is looking for hair models. Basically, I can get a free hair cut if I stand as guinea pigs for trainees. I missed my chance to get a cut today, but I booked myself in for Monday's session.

Northland

I finally gave up on trying to do any sightseeing in Auckland and headed out to Northland, the tiny bit at the northern most part of New Zealand. The bus took me up along the west coast and made stops to view the Big Tree in Waipoua Forest, and the Hokianga Bay. I made a stop over in Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Small and nice, but very touristy. Lots of activities, but very expensive. (Btw, NZ is so expensive that they have no dollar store - it's a two dollar store. A McDonald's value menu is $1.95, not $1.) I wasn't ready to blow all my money just yet, so I hot tailed it out of there the next day and headed over to Wharengei. I hiked over to the falls and around. At the end of my hike, I saw some guy setting up abseiling (rapelling). He let me have a go!!! It was not a very high abseil, but as it was my first time and I am not too keen on heights, it was just right for me. I got more than what I'd bargained for in Wharengei.

Auckland - The Arrival

I arrived in a Auckland with no plan and no bookings for a room. The first thing I did was pull NZ dollars from an ATM. Then I bought a $5 phone card and made call to book a room at the Lantana Lodge in Parnell. Then I caught the AirBus into city centre, and the Link bus to Parnell.

Most of my time in Aucland was spent getting over jetlag. I don't usually suffer it much, but either my travels through Africa did me in, or the 2 day flight over did. I spent the first day walking to and around city center, down Queens St. The city of Auckland is very hilly, which is good because I need the exercise. There is also a very large Asian community here, so there's tons of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese restaurants. I can see I am going to like Auckland.

Later the first day, I went up the Sky Tower and caught a nice view of the city and people jumping off. The next day, I slept in until 1430 (mind you, I went to bed at 11 the night before) so the late afternoon and evening was spent checking out Newmarket, a shopping district near Parnell. A repeat of day wasting occurred the next couple of days. I gave up trying to sightsee around Auckland and resorted to hitting the internet cafe to update my websites when I can. There are tons of internet cafes around that have high-speed connections, CD burners, and CF card readers for digital cameras. It's probably just as well tho, since Auckland is very expensive and spending money on the harbor cruises and ferries to go to near by islands would put me way over budget.

The evenings were generally spent reading The Hobbit, or watching the World Rugby Cup games.

Flight to New Zealand

Okay, I'm not quite in NZ at this point, but thought I'd write a little about my flight over. I boarded a Cathay Pacific flight (CX748) at about 1300 on 11/4. It was a 13 hr flight over to Hong Kong, where I had a 7 hr layover until I caugh CX117, another 11 hrs, over to Auckland. I didn't sleep much on the planes, so I spent most of the time watching movies I've already seen American Wedding and Pirates of the Carribean. In Hong Kong, I luckily found a cafe with free, high-speed internet, so I killed my time there. I was supposed to buy coffee or something in the cafe, but I mananaged to stay on most of the day with one drink.

Flight Info:

Depart JNB 1310 on CX748
Arrive Hong Kong at 0700 ish
Depart Hong Kong at 1535 on CX117
Arrive Auckland at 0730ish

Southern Africa Highlights

After the overland trip, I flew back to Johannesburg to catch my flight to New Zealand. Here is a video highlighting my Southern Africa trip:

3 Week Overland Trip through Southern Africa

From Capetown, I took a 3 week overland trip with Nomad's. The tour piled us all into one big truck with our backpacks and tents. We camped almost every night, and ate cucumber-tomato-cheese sandwiches almsot every day. It was a great trip, allowing me to cover a lot of distance and seeing a lot. There were many hours spent in the truck tho. Some times we played games, sometimes we slept. The trip took us through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.

Dates: 10/12/03-11/3/03 (Days 42-64)

Highlights:
Truck breakdown ♦ 6 hr canoeing on Orange River ♦ sunrise hike up Dune 45 ♦ Soussuvlei guided desert walk walk walk ♦ Niña ♦ "Hey, Linkie! Put on some music!" ♦ England 25 - South Africa 6 ♦ Rafters ♦ sandboarding ♦ bush, bush, camp ♦ BURRO ♦ lion kill ♦ vultures ♦ Walvis Bay Flamingos ♦ Mokoro race ♦ drinking river water ♦ bye, Jill ♦ shithead ♦ "Where's the toilet paper" ♦ "I have enough photos of elephants." ♦ Dave the spade ♦ bird watchers ♦ cucumber, tomatoe, and cheese sandwhich ♦ hippo chase ♦ Z$4500 to US$1 ♦ Cape Cross Cape Fur Seal Colony ♦ "Doctor" Carlos ♦ "I felt something sleep next to me last night. It wasn't Katharina. It wasn't Sonia..." ♦ Springbok good-byes to Alex ♦ 5 border crossings ♦ Rafting on the Zambezi ♦ Flipping the raft on the Zambezi ♦ no buses or trains out ♦ swimming at camps ♦ sunsets by the waterhole ♦ "Welcome to..." ♦ 4600km &diams 2 extra days in Vic Falls for me

Itinerary: Cedarberg, Namaqualand, Gariep (Orange) River, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, Swakopmund, Spitzkoppe, Etosha NP, Rundu, Okavango Delta, Chobe NP, Victoria Falls

Participants: Bea & Sonia (Spain), Stefanie (Holland), Alex (UK), Dave & Claire (UK); Anna, Rosa, & Carlos (Spain); Mar & Raul (Spain), Tom (US), Beth & Jill (US); Esther (Germany),Chang (S.Korea), Katharina & Roger (Holland); Perveen (US), Diana K. & Liane (Holland); Linda (Holland)

Guides: Johan, Linkie, and Dumi Sani