After leaving the cheerful Uni town of Dunedin, I headed out to see the sights of New Zealand! I took a bus to Christchurch, where I boarded a bus and met some fabulous people (mostly canadians, not surprisingly), and we drove off into the blue sky...err...ok, so actually, it was a misty, drizzly, rainy day, as it always is in New Zealand, but our spirits were high! Our tour manager and Bus Driver were both Kiwi, and full of knowledge about the land and culture. Although perhaps not as Maori as one would have liked? Forgive my 'pakeha' cynicalness. There were a ton of canadians and germans, and only one guy, with 24 girls. (I think he felt very special...if only his friends could have seen him in the hot tub with us all). Strangely, I didn't feel as canadian as they all did, I think I had become too much of a local to be real tourist. it just wasn't nearly as exciting to me, with the exception of seeing sheep... To be honest though, I felt more of a local than a tourist, having already been living in NZ for almost a year...ah well.... We made our way through the sleepy town of Kaikoura, where we saw whales (ok, I didn't actually SEE them, but they were there!) and some very smelly seals. I must admit, after Alaska and the Canadian West Coast, whales are not too much of a thrilling attraction. I was anticipating sights never seen before, such as volcanoes and bubbling mud...anyways, I digress...
I love this photo...where else in the world but New Zealand can you see the mountains meet the ocean like this?
Smelly seals
I absolutely LOVE this photo...I wasn't lucky enough to take it though, I bought it off a Photographer.
After Kaikoura, we arrived in Picton, to board the ultra-modern, luxurious steam liner...ok, so it was actually a very old Ferry, and it was a 3 hour crossing to Wellington. Curiuosly, the crossing from the South Island to the North Island in New Zealand is the world's second most roughest and dangerous crossing in the world! second only to some strait by Spain. anyhoo, it was rather calm and we did not meet the same fate as hundreds of other boats and ships that have sank in these waters. Interstingly, there was a Russian cruise ship that sank there in 1986, after hitting some rocks.
Aboard the Ferry, one can while away the hours by watching a movie in the cinema ($8) or watching the waves and the wild wind, or perhaps converse with the locals. I met a business man enroute home at the end of the week, as he "commutes" the 3 hour ferry ride from Picton to Wellington every week.
Then we arrived in the capital city of New Zealand and Hobbiton, Wellington! (Lord of the Rings, anyone?) A cosmopolitan city, full of old and new and every shade between. Of course, it was another tragically rainy day(s) but we made the most of it. My favorite, and my obsession to see for years, was the one and only Te Papa Tongerewa...The national Musuem of New Zealand, and indeed my first love.... I actually wrote a paper about it back at the U of A! Well, it was everything and more than I could have ever expecedt! It was 6 levels of pure new zealand...culture, history, dance, Maori-ness, Land, Sea....Most interesting was the section on the treaty of Waitangi, which is what signed NZ over to the Brits/Poms, depending on where you stand on the issue.
Wellington also has a parliament building shaped much like a beehive, which is what kiwi's sometimes call it, and refering to the female Prime Minister as the Queen. Another interesting point of little value, New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote, and to the Maori as well. Its a very liberal place...
On the road to Lake Taupo, we passed by 3 ancient volcanoes, known as Tongariro National Park. This is the peak of one of the volcano's, it is only dormant, and they say it may erupt again! New Zealand has many natural disasters, and hot molten lava flowing from the crater of an explosive volcano might perhaps be just another day...although you're much more likely to meet your end through an earthquake or landslide!
Then we went to lake Taupo and we did a fishing cruise on the lake, which was fun. the lake is the crater from a volcanoe that erupted millions of years ago. Interestingly, that eruption was the largest the earth has ever seen! At Te Papa we discovered that week there had been 8 earthquakes in new zealand! but they had all been tiny, around 3-5 on the scale. A fault line runs through the whole country, right through the north and south, resulting in many volcanic and earthquake activity. After Taupo, we went to my favorite place..Rotorua, home of bubbling mud pools, hot springs and Maori culture. I went to Whakatererua (I can't say it either, and I practised) to see the geysers, geothermal activity and mud pools, plus some Maori action.
This is a postcard of the bubbling mud pools....the fault line is so close to the surface in some places, which is why there is so mcuh gepthermal activiity! They use hot mud for cosmetics, and truly, the Maori and many South Pacific Women are very beautiful, perhaps second only to the south american women. In my opinion, anyways!
This is me in front of some of the steaming geysers and hot springs that are all over the land up here...you can't walk off the path in some areas, as the ground had waters that is boiling, and obviuosly you woul burn your foot!
This is a geyser, its just amazing the geothermal activity everywhere. They say the Maori used to use the hot springs and steam to cook food.
We went to a "hangi", a traditional Maori dinner, altough I have to admit the western style-buffet wasn't very 'authentic'! But the dancing and culture was very cool. This is a traditional Marae, or "meeting house" used for traditional meetings, dances, cultural activities and the like. They are actually all over the country, and this one was more for show. Maori put on a show for the tourists, to display the dancing and weaponry. You have to take your shoes off as a sign of respect if you want to go inside the marae.
This is the traditional Maori greeting, you touch noses twice.
And this is me with some very fierce Maori warriors at the hangi we went to...its actually a father and son!
I think its a bit weird they have to be so stereo-typical for the tourists...hmmm....wait, thats similiar to what I wrote about in my thesis....
And my favorite part...we went to the Agrodome (hee hee) where...yes.....I got to see sheep being sheared and hold a lamb! wheeeeeee....very exciting. and yes, for those of you wondering, I did
buy my own sheepskin so I could have my very own sheep.
After Roturua, we went to the Waitomo Caves. We stayed over ngith after exploring the GlowWorm caves. The worms emit a light that causes them to glow in the dark, and it looks EXACTLY like gazing up into the stars on a clear night. We floated in wooden boats through the caves in the pitch dark.
We also stopped off at a Angora Bunny farm, to visit the bunnies and see the soft fur. Now I know why angora is SO expensive...a sweater costs $300+! After Waitmo we travelled North to the Bay of Islands, after stopping for lunch in Auckland.
The Bay of Islands consists of over 180 islands, and is the most tropical part of nz. I spent 3 days lounging by the pool, sunburning under the ozone hole and sitting on wasps by accident!
The beaches sadly were not that great, but perhaspsd I'm a wee bit hard to impress on that matter? How does one compare with South Africa and the caribbean?
I went to Waitangi, where the treaty of Waitangi was signed, the most important document in New Zealand's history. crash course for you non-kiwi's, it basically signed nz over to the brits. While walking back, I met an older maori who invited me into the Marae and he told me all kinds of fascinating things about the Maori today and how he felt about the treaty, which is very controversial.
We also watched what I consider to be one of the greatest sports events I've seen...the Rugby World Cup, although Eengland did win and not my beloved All Blacks...it was a terribly exciting game.
As we made our way back to Auckland, we stopped off at some waterfalls that I thought were breathtaking.
Then we ended in Auckland where I managed to meet up with some friends from the Vision, Shannon and Noel. Shannon had been studying in Brisbane, Australia and it was just a coincidence we were in Auckland at the same time! We explored the city and poked about in the shops.
As we all know how much I adore my sheep...this was a blanket made of 5 or 6 sheepskins...at the hefty price of $800! but its nice to dream...
This is Noel and Shannon, as we took a look at all the boats and even the America's Cup boat. They say 1 out of 3 New Zealander's own a boat.
This is saying good bye to people from the tour in Auckland
We climbed a peak on Rangiototo, a volcanic island a mere 600 years old.
This is the view of Auckland in the background as we took the ferry over
And this is me standing on hot, molten lava....ok, it was hundreds of years old lava rocks turned black
After a few days in Auckland, I boarded a plane and said goodbye to new zealand and many months of hard work and a dream come true. I then stopped over in Honolulu for 5 days, where I met up with Catch-of-the-day Claire, my cabinmate and youth staff from the Explorer and enjoyed some sun and rain.
I hope you have enjoyed these pictures, they are bit some of the highlights...I have over 200 pictures of New Zealand, and you just can't put them all on here! truly though, I am not doing the beauty of the land or the people any justice....you simply can not capture that on film. However, if you ever feel a desire to see some websites about new zealand, and places I have mentioned here, check out these links:
