Mt. Manganui + Auckland Round Two

Friday we got picked up by the bus and went out to Mt. Manganui, which is on the east coast of the North Island. It is a beach town with a very amazing beach. We got there in the afternoon and walked around on the beach for a long time, about 3 hours I would guess, definitely was a long walk on the beach. And I liked it. Ha ha ha. I was hanging out with the German girl from before and a new Irish girl, as most of the other backpackers I had been chillen with had continued on to the South Island instead of heading back north. We were pretty tired from the hike still and had a quiet night of watching American Beauty and cooking the most lazy meal I can think of – instant noodles with crackers and cheese singles, and museli (granola) bars for dessert. Most everyone else around us was cooking this elaborate stuff, chopping vegetables and such, we were just like eh this is good, ready in 3 minutes!

Next day we headed back to Auckland. We got to stop at the harbor bridge and do a walk across it to see cool views of the city and watch someone do a bungy jump from the AJ Hackett Bunjy off the bridge. After that our driver dropped us off at the CBD and I went and walked around the Victoria markets before Alex picked me up in the afternoon. We chilled out at his house and had dinner and then went over to one of his mate’s places for a house party. It was a lot of fun, reminded me of hangouts back home. He has a good group of friends, they’re all really nice and fun to hang out with. They had a DJ rig set up at the house and one of the guys was showing me how to use it and switch up tracks, it was neat. The Australia vs. New Zealand rugby league championship game was on, and NZ was not favored to win but they did by over 10 points, everyone was really excited about it, especially since it is such a big rivalry. About 11, most everyone and us took off to this dance party/DJ event at Vector Arena called Deep Hard n Funky. It was sweet, there were a bunch of different guys spinning and they had three different areas set up with trance, house, drum n bass… was a lot of fun and a real good night, good way to finish off my trip down under, just danced a lot. We got home and slept til the afternoon and then got up and he dropped me off at the airport, which was another experience because I was there when the All Blacks came back from Australia. There was a huge crowd there to greet them all chanting ‘New Zealand!’ It was really neat to be there at the same time. I left Auckland at 7:30pm and got into San Francisco at 10:30am the same day. Time change is insane for that flight, I got to go back in time. This was for sure an amazing year, such good times and met such awesome people, doing an exchange year was pretty much the best decision ever. In conclusion, Australia and Australians are sweet as. And New Zealanders too. Just heaps good really, I will for sure be back!

Pix: Mt. Manganui beach, first pic is the Mt. Manganui, and the sign on the toilet at the AJ Hackett bunjy place

I guess this is the end of my Down Unda blog, it's been fun to write, hope you all enjoyed it whoever checked it out. I might try to keep something else up, it's pretty cool to look back on all this stuff, so I'll post the link if I ever get around to starting a new one.

Actually, here is the link if I get around to writing in it. I figured I would just reserve the address and see what happens. If I am struck with any genius thoughts, I will record them here. Peace1love.

http://slowerkarate.blogspot.com/

Taupo

Our next stop down the road was Taupo. It was beautiful. There was a huge lake and snow covered mountains and a waterfall and hot springs, it really had everything. It reminded me of Tahoe a lot, especially driving on the road around the lake seemed like the exact same road as the one around Lake Tahoe. We got in and I decided that I was going to go skydiving. Taupo is one of the most popular places to skydive, and they do the most dives out of anywhere else in the world, and its about $100 cheaper than anywhere else as well. And it is a very scenic place, so I figured this was the place to do it. I wasn’t one of those people that was super keen to go skydiving and have it on the top of their list as one of the things to do down under, but I was really happy that I went. I was a bit uneasy on the ground, but once the plane took off, I was allright. You get connected to a guy behind you that pretty much does everything and you don’t have to think about anything, and another guy jumps with you to film it on video and also has a trigger in his mouth to take photos with. I was second to last to go out and the guy scooted me up to the side of the plane and I was sitting on the edge and was pretty freaked out for a second, but then just got rocketed out and my brain went oh! Ok this is allright! And then it was just awesome. The freefall lasted 45 seconds (I jumped from 12,000 feet), and then you have a couple minutes of parachuting until you get to the ground. It was really a big rush, you feel all excited awhile after. The video is really funny too, they do a good job of editing it. The view was just amazing too, such a different perspective to see the world like that from above.

The skydive people were nice enough to drop us (me and some other backpacker friends from the Magic Bus) off at the Huka Falls, the waterfall on the outskirts of the city. We hung out there a bit and then walked back to our hostel, it took about an hour and a half and was a good walk. We went to this Irish pub for awhile and watched the rugby game, All Blacks vs. Munster (Ireland), and NZ won. We already knew this before we got there because the game was played that morning, but one girl with us is a diehard Munster fan and was still watching the game like maybe they would win. It was probably more entertaining watching her yell at the TV than watching a game were you already know the outcome. There is a lot of rugby going on right now, and NZ is cleaning up for sure. The All Blacks have two teams, one for Union and one for League, and they are just both dominating every other team they play.

The next day we got up really early and got bussed out to the base of these volcanoes to do the Tongariro Crossing hike. It is known as New Zealands best day hike and was pretty epic. It is 20 kilometers and you hike up this one volcano and then walk across the crater and then hike out of the crater and up the side of another one and then down a long way. It was a lot of fun, the views were amazing, and I got to play in the snow that was still up there. The Lord of the Rings was filmed on one of these mountains and I would think it would be quite a chore to get all that filming equipment out there, because it is definitely not a super easy hike. There are some pretty long climbs, ‘The Devil’s Staircase’ name of the first section might hint that it’s a bit rough going up. The group I was with was an interesting team to hike with. Two other girls, a German and a Scot, were pretty quick, but then we also had two Irish with us, and one had thrombosis which gave him blood clots in his legs, and I later found out the other slow girl has arthritis. So kudos to them for doing that trek, but wow, at some points you are just waiting for them and starting to get really cold when you stop for too long. It was all good though, we did get some longer times to check out the views, there were also some really beautiful lakes on the way down, really vibrant green color, and I got to meet some other people that you end up walking next to. At some points you could feel the ground and it would be warm, these volcanoes are still active and you can actually physically tell from the surface that there is some thermal action going on underneath you. One of the nearby mountains is the biggest skiing area in NZ, that's pretty sweet to be able to ski/board on a volcano. Some parts of the hike felt like being on Mars, especially when we were going through the crater. It definitely tired you out after trekking around for 6.5 hours, but was a very worthwhile hike, probably the best one I have done, just really amazing views and was a great way to spend the day. Had awesome canned spaghetti for dinner and hung out in the jacuzzi at the hostel. These New Zealand hostels really got it going on with these bonus additions I must say, I don't remember hardly any of the Aussie ones having such crazy stuff.

Pix: skydiving and Tongariro Crossing photos. The mountain in the last one was in Lord of the Rings at some point (not really sure, I haven't really seen the movies but some people were stoked on that), and the group one is when we just got to the top and feelin pretty accomplished. Note my clothes when compared to the others, yes I really did prepare well for this trip and totally packed such appropriate and insulated gear...

Rotorua: The City that Reeks of Sulfur, But is Still Pretty Sweet

We got into Rotorua about 6pm and got picked up pretty quickly after that to go to the Tamaki Village which was this Maori cultural presentation and traditional hangi dinner where the food is cooked from steam from heated volcanic rock put in a ditch dug in the ground. It was actually a much better event than I thought it would be, it started off with a challenge from the warriors to see if our group should enter the village, and then you get to walk around the village for a bit and go to different huts where you learn how they lived before Europeans invaded the place. They wore all the traditional clothes and face tattoos and everything, it was really well done. Then we went into a bigger hut and they did a singing and dancing presentation which was awesome. They don’t use any instruments except some drums, and they really do create some beautiful music. They have great harmony and make some awesome songs with lots of stamping, clapping, and singing. They also did the Haka, a traditional dance that is better known as the dance that the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team does before they play every match. Then we got to go eat a really good dinner, it was a buffet of everything you could want (chicken, fish, lamb, stuffing, salad, vegetables, cranberry sauce…), it was a bit like thanksgiving. They also had pavlova at the end for dessert and then a few more songs to end the night. I feel like the Maoris here are much better off than the Aboriginals in Australia, they seem to be much more a part of society and all seem to have jobs are not living in such poverty. You see the Maoris around the cities and they all seem to be pretty happy and doing fine, in Australia I hardly saw any Aboriginals, but I hear there are tons of them up north just living in really bad conditions with bad education and lots of alcoholism and not much being done about it. It was just interesting to me to see how different it is for at least the Maoris that I met or saw around the places I visited.

The next day I got picked up to go whitewater sledging on the Kaituna(?) river. It was sweet, it’s like whitewater rafting except you are on a boogie board type thing and you have fins and you go through all the rapids like that. It is definitely more scary than rafting through rapids, its just crazier, but it was so much fun. It was only an hour, I would have liked to go longer, but they can only do part of the river because there are huge waterfalls that you would die if you went down them on the river sledge. They also raft the river, and the highest rafted waterfall is on that trip, it’s 7 meters and we saw one of the boats go down it and flip over, it was pretty funny. People were stuck under it and floating away, it was chaotic. Ended up fine though, they were really quick in getting everyone back in. This rafting company looked like the coolest place ever to work, everyone was so chilled out, they hang out in this building and just blast reggae from these speakers with big subs and go rafting a few times a day. A lot of Maoris worked there along with other white guy Kiwis, they are just some of the chillest people ever, very ‘no worries’ attitude in New Zealand for sure. A lot of them got excited when I said I was from California, a lot of them go out there to work on the American River and really like it up near Sacramento. One of them has a wife out in California that is kayaking all over the States in training for the London Olympics. He said she may be the best female kayaker in the world, pretty neat stuff.

After sledging, I went with these two Irish girls that had been with me that morning and we went out to the Zorb on the outskirts of Rotorua. A Zorb is a big rubber ball with a smaller rubber ball inside it that is suspended all around with rubber strings that they stuff a few people inside with some water and throw the ball down a hill. I went Zorbing with the two girls and it was really fun, you fall all over each other on the way down and bounce down the track and its just hilarious. I feel like I should start a franchise of this at home, you could make a fortune. They charge way too much for what it is, and all you need is a ball and a hill and you’re set. It’s good times for sure.

On the way out of Rotorua, we went to Wai-O-Tapu, a park where there is lots of thermal volcanic activity that leads to the creation of hot springs, sulfur pools, and mud pools. We saw the Lady Knox geyser erupt and then walked around the park and saw lots of really neat colored pools. My favorite was Artist’s Palette, it was orange and yellow and red, and changed colors all throughout it because of different minerals. Many of the pools had names like ‘Devil’s Home’ or ‘Hell Hole’ or things like that, it was pretty satanic and hellish I guess. All of Rotorua and this place as well are known for the distinct smell of sulfur everywhere. You do get used to it pretty quick, but in the beginning it is a bit nasty. The joke of calling the place Roto-Rooter instead of Rotorua came up a few times, such clever clever people. There are also a lot of spas and health centers around the area, it’s known for mud baths and sulfur pools that are supposed to exfoliate and whatnot, even my hostel had this weird sulfur pool inside what seemed to be a closet. I was going to get in it, but then I saw a sign on the wall that said “Do not put your head under water – Prevent Amoebal Meningitis.” I didn’t feel the need to risk something that sounded that terrible, so I went outside where there was a pool (this hostel was really awesome, there weren’t even bunk beds!) that was actually really warm anyways and was really nice. Rotorua was cool for sure.

Pix: shot from the Maori cultural night (one of the warriors), zorb photos, and shots from the Wai-O-Tapu thermal pools with all the different colored photos and the geyser.

New Zealand Layover Trip: Auckland and Waitomo

I had a layover through Auckland on the way home so I decided to extend it and spend a bit of time visiting my friend Alex and also traveling around the North Island. I got into Auckland and went to the Nomads hostel where I was staying, and was pretty tired from everything from the week before so didn’t do very much but go to sleep after wandering around the city a bit. It’s not a very huge CBD, really easy to navigate and get around; it’s got a harbor and some parks and is known as the City of Sails because of all the boats. I got up the next day and got breakfast at the grocery store, then passed out on the couch watching the rugby league of NZ vs England. NZ won I found out later, I was just so tired and could not stay awake. My friend Alex picked me up at 1pm, he was my across the hall neighbor at Union the first semester I was there and it was really good to see him again especially after having to leave everyone from college the day before. We went around the city a bit, went to One Tree Hill and walked around. The hill is this really big park, there are sheep just wandering around everywhere and people hiking around or playing ball, its for sure a cool area to have in the city. We went back to Alex’s house and watched some Mighty Boosh episodes (amazing show, everyone check it out), and he even got me all 3 seasons on a jump drive he found at his uni, pretty excited about that. I got to meet his family, it was funny to be back in a family environment again with all the arguments and everything, reminded me of home. His two brothers are funny, you can definitely see the famlily resemblance, they're like different versions of Alex. His mom is so so nice, really cool woman, she did architecture, not sure what she’s doing now but is really into art and is a great cook. Had an awesome dinner of kebabs and sausages, potatoes, salad, and a pavlova with great fruit. It was amazing after coming from Union cafeteria that had been getting progressively worse while trying to use the rest of their leftover food in the back of the fridge as the end of the year was coming up. Two of Alex’s friends were also over for dinner, they were cool guys and we went and climbed up this hill near his house after dinner and watched the clouds and just chilled out. Went back home and watched some more Mighty Boosh, and then got dropped back to the hostel at 12:30 or so, passed out hard and got up at 6:20 the next day to start my trip south to a couple towns in the North Island.

I got a bus pass where you can get on and off the bus at different stops and stay as many nights as you want before getting back on the bus. It was called the Magic Bus, and it was quite magical. I got on in Auckland and mostly slept until we got to Waitomo, where we stopped for a couple hours to explore the caves that are in the area. You could do a wet option or dry option, and I chose the blackwater rafting trip where you go through the cave while sitting in these tiny inner tubes with helmets and headlamps and thankfully wetsuits because it was pretty cold. It was really awesome, at some points everyone had their headlamps off and you could see tons of glow worms on the walls. It looked so cool, they are neon green and glow brighter if you make a big noise, so the guides would smack the water hard with something and the worms would get really bright. The cave was really fun to explore, there is a section where you had to jump off a ledge back into the creek below and also a waterslide that descended into a black hole, it was a somewhat surprising when it ended partially at a wall. I slammed my leg into it a bit, it seemed like that was not the optimal end point for a waterslide but it was fun anyway. This was definitely not the way that a tour like this would be set up in the US, I could think of many lawsuits that could be filed against this place if it were at home. It was awesome though, the guides were neat too. They were both really country guys, one older white guy and a really big Maori guy with three teeth, and you couldn’t hardly understand anything they were saying because they had really strong accents. We got to the end and they gave us soup after we showered, which was really nice because it was a pretty cold and rainy day. I had already realized that my thin sweatshirt and many pairs of shorts were not the best choice of things to bring to NZ, it really is a much different climate from Australia. But I did survive with my thin sweatshirt and mostly board shorts the whole week, was pretty bad one night but didn't want to buy more stuff to carry around, so I pretty much just put up with the cold.

Pix: Auckland city, our rafting guide, me after jumping off one of the drops in the cave back into the creek, and the rafting train.

Last Week in Oz: Go Hard, Go Home

The week after I finished exams was amazing. I finished a week before most people and as others got done with their tests people were really keen to go out and have fun. I went to Family with a bunch of good friends on the Saturday that I finished my exams. We got out to the valley and the train had been delayed a bit so we were running down Brunswick Street to get to the door by 10pm to get the discount for the cover charge. It was a busy night and we were running in between people and jumping over homeless sleeping guys, it really was an obstacle course. We made it there in time and got stamped and then went on our ritual stop to the RG. Went back over to Family about 11:30 and after a brief hiccup at the door with security not being completely satisfied with my state of sobriety, I got in about 12. It was such a fun night, danced the whole time and everything was super good except having to deal with some slight wardrobe malfunctions with my shirt, but its all good haha. We got kicked out at 5am, they turned the lights on and it was pretty anti-climactic. We got a cab back and went and hung out on the oval some more til 6 or so. Most everyone passed out after that, but I went and hung out with Tom on my floor for awhile until breakfast. He had been up all night studying, we went down to breakfast together and then I went to sleep. Was a long night, definitely lots of fun.

I took Sunday and Monday night off, and then Tuesday was Dunder night! Really fun time, it was ladies night when they have a male stripper that comes in all dressed up like a firefighter. It's always hilarious, he just straight up humiliates all the girls he pulls up to dance with him. They were playing really great music after that too, all the good club tracks, Presets, that uptown/downtown song, all the good danceable ones. We had coordinated dance moves and were just having a great night. After we got home, I went up to the roof with Zara and Tom and hung out there for awhile. We saw a bird come up and sit on the ledge right in front of us, and it had a huge dead toad in its beak, it freaked us out and we thought it was a satanic omen. We also put on the salmon dance on my ipod and sang all the different parts a capella, I was way too amused by it, thought it was the funniest thing ever (check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVu2cX0jEYk if you dont know what I'm talking about). Zara was doing the dance and I just couldn’t stop laughing. Made it to bed around breakfast time again, really been having some late nights. Had a quiet night Wednesday and then the last Thursday out with college forever was at UJs! Was a really fun time, good way to finish off the nights of going out in massive groups and invading clubs/bars. I will definitely miss that.

The night before we all got kicked out of college we had an awesome time out on the oval. I had some Passion Pop, so classy, its like fake champagne mixed with sugar, $5 a bottle which is quite affordable. We ran around kicking the semi-flat soccer ball and just hung out. It was much better than going out, I was happy to just get to hang out with everyone for the last time. We went and get kebabs later on, and then we dragged all our mattresses into the hallway and everyone slept out there. Saying goodbye the next day was definitely not my favorite thing to do. Got a ride to the airport with some friends Cam and Lindsay, was really nice of him to drive. I got on the plane and was asleep instantly, never been so sleep deprived in my life. I didn’t even feel us take off, I was pretty much passed out until we landed. Such a great week though, definitely worth being sleepy for a couple days, was a good note to leave the country on.

Pix: first 3 are from Dunder/Down Under Bar, Tom and I being such high rollers at the bar, and the dancing coordination effort in the second one. Third is the stripper guy assaulting some poor girl. Last one is from Family with Mitch's mad camera skills from the upper level