Darren Watt – Travel 2006

It’s been a busy couple of days. We arrived in Auckland on Saturday, and from there had to research and book a trip up North, so we could dive the ‘Poor Knights Islands’, off Tutukaka. Everything that could go wrong, did, starting off with leaving our shopping on the Stray Bus (Ok George, free rolls for you guys). Then we checked into the YHA that we’d pre-booked, only for the French chap on the desk to look at us blankly, “No, there is nothing on the system”…. long pause… no apology for the messup… no attempt to find us another room. Sigh. In the end we managed to get him to do his job, but it was all annoying. Lots of other stuff went wrong apart from that but I won’t go into it because it all gets very tedious, but its all along the same lines as that.

“No, we don’t a have no rooms!”

So… Got to Whangarei, and got picked up by the owner of the hostel. We stayed at the Little Earth Lodge, which was a great place. Onsite DVD room, kitchen, chickens and cows! Also, free eggs from the chickens (not allowed to eat the chickens) and miniture horses! All miles away from everywhere. Can’t recommend this hostel enough. Rather than packing in backpackers to the roof, they only have a few beds and make an effort to ensure the place is nice. It’s like the opposite end of the hostel scale to Base hostels.

Stock Photo

Yesterday morning we were up pretty early for some Scuba Diving at the Poor Knights Islands, rated by Jaques Cousteau (who would know) as one of the Top 10 diving destinations in the World. First time we’ve dived in these, cold, temperatures. Even with 7mm wetsuits and hoods you can still tell the water is bloody freezing. The first dive of the day was not the best, we followed the guide as well we could in low visibility, and with 6 of us following him we were often bumping into each other, or getting a fin in the face.

Saw some of these.

The second dive was much better – I headed out just with Jodie, and first in the water we had a decent search around without the crowds. Followed along one end, saw a lot of kelp, other vegetation, a few nudibranches, but then as we headed to the opposite wall I spotted a turtle. A massive one! I signalled to Jodie, but couldn’t remember what the turtle signal was and so it ended up like that bit in Team America! As soon as the turtle spotted us he started to leg it / float away, so we followed for a bit, then left him to it. When we got back to the boat, we explained our findings to the other divers. No one else spotted him, and the guide who had worked there for 2 years told us he’d never seen turtles here. So, we were either very jammy… or we saw a radio controlled turtle. I think jammy.

REMEMBER THE SIGNAL!

We’re off to Fiji on Thursday, for a two week holiday. All this travel is getting to us now, so we need a bit of time off

Hee hee. Oh, then it’s off to the States for a bit.

They film these things with handicam’s on the end of their arms now! Better than having the camera bloke along for the ride. Video evidence can be found here….

Jodie’s Skydive (Moon-face)
Darren’s Skydive (Flappy-face)

Great fun! Isn’t Google Video & Youtube top stuff.

It’s the 16th November, and since leaving Auckland in the Stray Bus we have already seen and done so much. New Zealand is fantastic!

We headed for the Hahei coast, a beautiful beach and the awesome Cathedral Cave. In the evening we headed off to Hot Water Beach, so called due to geothermal activity which causes the water to heat up. So you dig a hole and sit in a nice warm bath. Bizarre!

From NZ – Hahei

That night our driver Nads (or Go-Nads) cooked us up a fab BBQ introducing us to the Kumara, the Kiwi sweet potato, very yummy. We then headed west to Raglan, for you surfers out there you’ll know this is a wicked place to surf. Darren decided against it due to his only one lesson and thought best not risk the 10ft waves and rocky coastline!!! So we had a go at the Flying Fox instead – in pitch black I might add. A Flying Fox is like a zip wire. Very cool, especially as your only light is from the resident Glow Worms.

From NZ – Raglan

After chilling out there for an extra day, we caught the next bus to come along and headed for Rotorua via the Waitamo Caves. This is where Darren and I ventured on the ‘Tuma Tuma Toobing’. AWESOME! Geared up in wet-suits, helmets and welly boots we trudged across a farmers field getting very odd looks from the sheep and climbed into a teeny tiny hole in the ground. Not sure what lay ahead off us, we gingerly staggered over rocky paths avoiding the million year old stalactites and waded through the icy cold under ground rivers. Our guide decided we should be safer from the legend deep-cave monster by pasting mud all over our faces and sliding down a mud hill, it was like being six years old again it was great fun. The fun didn’t end there, we then were given rubber tubes to lie back on and slip quietly through the caves on the river with no lights to see the thousands of glow worms lighting up the cave ceiling, it was incredible. Very magical.

From NZ – Rotorua

Three hours later we climbed out back into the field to then make our way to Rotorua. Blimey, you know when you reach Rotorua ’cause it stinks of eggs! This is because of the geothermal activity in the area. With bubbly mud pools and geysers (not the dodgy kind) the Maori people still to this day use the geothermal activity to cook, bath and do their laundry. We visited a village that shows just this. We were also shown the Maori traditional dances and songs and the infamous Haka. Great stuff.

From NZ – Rotorua

After Rotorua we then headed to Taupo, where the lake is so big they say it can fit Singapore into it! And guess what? Both Darren and I saw it from 12,000ft above it whilst jumping out of a plane!!!!!! I’ll let that sink in parents……………………………………….

From NZ – Lake Tau…

YEE HAA we dived out of a plane over Lake Taupo at 12,000ft altitude, free-falling for 7000ft of that and then gracefully parachuting down to earth. How very cool, in fact too cool for school. We’ll post the videos of it soon… (On a more important note, check out this video of japanese t-shirt folding which is a new skill we’ve learnt from ‘Rich’ of the Stray West Coast Crew; It’s borderline witchcraft!).

So after coming back down from such a high we are now chilling out in Taupo for a few days before we head back north to Auckland to hook up with a few people and then catch our flights to Fiji. Go get yourselves a coffee now as I know you all need to relax after reading such extreme adventures!

After travelling back up the East coast leaving the South behind us (not much to see down there anyway) oh except Speights Brewery, most excellent! Very interesting, especially the guide telling us that Gales Brewery has been bought out by a French company and they have closed it down!!!! Shock horror, we had to go the other side of the world to hear this! We then had to console ourselves with five different types of beers Speights produce and they’re so lazy out here in NZ we had to serve it ourselves… what a pity…

From NZ – Dunedin …

We all then decided Pizza was on the menu for the night so we went in search of Hells Pizza – the best in town. Half an hour later, having walked into an Industrial Estate with the rain lashing our faces and soaking our jeans to our legs we spy the Hells Pizza signboard like a mirage out of the desert. Only to find it to be a TAKE AWAY! Who’s flippin’ idea was it to go for pizza???? As usual us girlies were desperate for a pee and now hungry and very soggy! We ordered our pizzas waited for taxis only to be then deserted and forgotten. 25 mins later with cold pizza in hand we stumble into the hotel order beers and head to bed. What an afternoon!

From NZ – Dunedin …

Once we got back to Christchurch this is where the West Coast Crew went their separate ways. A very sad occasion, but with great memories and some corking photos! We had such a giggle and met some great new friends – it’s ok to be Stray! : )

We are now in Auckland, we do get around a bit ay! We had an offer from one of the lasses on board the bus, Bonnie (aka Badonna) to deliver a car up to Auckland. But it was not going to be just any old road trip, we were to go on a quest, in search of the LOTR locations! Ok for those not geeky enough LOTR = Lord of the Rings!!!

Setting off in Shadowfax our strong and loyal steed (a mitsabushi lancer) we headed North to the ferry to cross to the North Island. On our way we stopped off at a seal colony where baby seals were playing in the pool under a waterfall, it was so cool. Then headed to Picton. Caught the ferry, and found a nice little couch in the Club Class lounge. An hour later, two cups of free tea and biccies we were busted and sent on our way to the commoners bar to spend the rest of the journey eating ham sarnies washed down with a few bottles of Speights. (Darren’s official sponsor)

11.30pm we rock into Windy Wellington and kip for the night to head North in the morning.

From NZ – Road Trip

Our first destination led us to Scorching Bay, to a little cafe called Chocolate Fish Cafe. Noted as a regular to Peter Jackson, Orlando Bloom, Liv Tyler etc for morning brekkie. They did awesome scrambled eggs and bacon.

From NZ – Road Trip

After leaving there at 12 we consider our journey ahead and decide we have left it far too late to go exploring and head straight for Auckland via beautiful hills and scenery. We had a very intense moment when the fuel light glowed and we were in the middle of well, Middle-Earth, it went very quiet for about 50km when a Shell came to our rescue and we refueled. Exciting stuff!

From NZ – Road Trip

We eventually arrived at our hostel at 8.30pm very tired. The plan was to drop Bonnie off at the airport tomorrow and we drop the car off.

That is where we are now, back in Auckland, our fellowship broken up and now sitting in the Internet cafe hiding from the rain. The quest was semi successful, well we got the car back in one piece and we found Auckland.

More adventures from us two soon…