New Zealand Day 1 - Cramming
It is actually the morning of day 2 about 8:30am when I am writing this. Yesterday was such a busy day I ended up writing notes for my blog so I would not forget anything and am now typing them up.
We made it through security at SFO fairly easily – although returning the laptop to my daypack took a long time. The girls did fine although I guess I forgot to mention to Allysha she could not wear her back and drag her luggage through the metal detector. After adding her luggage to the x-ray machine we were through! Our gate was close down an escalator to the waiting area – we sat for a minute – gathered ourselves then off to the restrooms, bookstore and expensive Mexican restaurant. When we returned to the waiting area it was packed. Pam inquired about pre-boarding due to children – I felt uncomfortable but we did so – sent to the non-business class but told me not to question my "manhood" by the gate agent when I verified the "non-business" class ramp. The bags fit easily into the overhead bins but they had to be turned sideways allowing on one of the rollers per bin – technically we had three bins but used a fourth. My daypack was under the seat in front of Allysha and remained their throughout the flight.
We depart SFO on time – flew on a 777 from Air New Zealand – originally it was scheduled 13 hours but we arrived about 45 minutes early -4:10am Local Time. There were a couple screaming kids that made it difficult to sleep -Pam and I both took sleeping pills – I think Allysha and I are the only ones that got any real sleep – Pam had difficulty as did Aria. My sleep was not great but the pills helped.
There were many on-demand options for entertainment shipped directly to the monitor in the seat back in front of you – Aria started watching Super-Bad – I decided to check it out and oops – quickly asked her to pick another movie. Super-Bad was an apt title –I did not even finish it. I read the tourist guide and watched the New Zealand travel related videos. I forced Aria and Pam to watch a couple of the guidesJ
[It is now Dec 8 Saturday morning 6am and I am continuing work on this entry]
We made our way off of the plane – I had told Allysha to make sure she did not have any food items with her – I guess Pam did not her here and packed the fruit bar snack that the airline give us. This might have been ok but I did not want to risk anything or have to declare anything so when I asked Pam about the bar we ended up ransacking our bags to find and dispose of the snack, moving our place in the line back by about 40. The agent asked about our accommodations –we said we had not made any plans yet – Pam asked if she thought that was going to be a problem and the agent expressed some concern since Justin Timberlake had just sold out every hotel in Auckland. I was not too worried - consider the source. We showed our departure tickets to Sydney and in short order we were on – although we packed the customs cards not realizing there was one more checkpoint where they are actually collected – lesson learned.
I purchased a SIM chip and we picked up our rental car – a manual Toyota Corolla. Definitely a compact car - we struggled to load our luggage – I am so glad we packed light.
It was dark out and drizzling and the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car. Pam said I should drive around the rental car lot – a 200 meter circle – to get used to having the steering wheel on the wrong side. I mentioned I was more worried about not having driven a stick in years and having to drive on the left side of the road – he chimed in that we did not have to drive on the left – they just had the steering wheel on the wrong side – a brief discussion followed – and I had to point out that the signs were all on the left hand side of the road. She conceded eventually and off we went.
We headed for Hamilton – south of Auckland and in the general vicinity of Raglan the famous surfing beach. The roads were insane – navigation was a difficult task – it seemed the favorite pastime was chaining roundabouts together – one after another – I was finding myself "giving way" or yielding at the entrance to a roundabout every 15 seconds or 50 meters. After a few wrongs and rights we eventually found ourselves in Hamilton where we stopped for Breakfast at Scotts Epicurean – straight out of the travel guide. It was a fine breakfast – much of the menu we did not understand muesli? for example and ordering coffee was interesting – they do not seem to serve brewed coffee – so we ended up with a long black – 2 shots of espresso – then Pam asked for milk – the waitress looked at her oddly but brought her the milk. Everything was palatable but nothing stood out, although had to explain the 2 buttons on the toiletJ
From there we were off to Raglan beach – we spent the first 25 minutes of the drive lost in Hamilton but eventually made it to the road to Raglan.
Many of the names of places are quite hard to figure out how to pronounce – the w and wh consonants seem to be pronounced as a f sound and the string of vowels such as ei that seem to populate each word at the beginning and end leaves one constantly wondering if our pronunciation will even be understood. I am also having a terrible time remembering the names of the towns – I think it is due to the vowel overload – my mind just can't grasp quite that many.
We arrived at Raglan and somehow ended up at the world famous beach. There were tons of waves and a good number of surfers – with more and more school children showing up during our brief visit. The waves were small and we decided to head back to the surf shop to get information on the local breaks and best tide conditions. We headed back to the town – hit the visitor center and ATM an Ice Cream shop and then the surf shop. I have had a hard time understanding the local accents so far – many times I have found my head nodding and my mind racing – what the heck did he/she just say.
The local said high tide was best for Raglan and that there were much bigger waves south in Rapunoke? – When it's 2 feet in Raglan it is 4 there. Only the Raglan beach has rentals at the beach – it would be nearly impossible to carry surf boards in our small rental car. We mentioned that we were planning on hitting the east coast and he thought the waves would be much better there. After a short discussion and walking around town with the guide book in my hands – something I swore I would not do we piled back into the car and decided to head south towards Waitomo. I saw a road that seemed tracked the coastline and went by several beaches the Bridal Veil Falls and would allow us to head to Kawei if we wanted to. Sounds nice – off we go – everything is beautiful – there is a slight drizzle and the roads are wet but of such beauty – we head south past whale bay and then we hit a road that shows up on the map as a "gravel road." We did not notice this fact earlier and even had we the term gravel road seems innocuous enough – plus didn't the surf guy tell us to head to this beach? So we continue on – it soon becomes apparent that we are not properly equipped for this road. There are tire tracks where there is a red mud exposed – the little front wheel drive car with 300lbs of baggage in the trunk is more sliding then motoring along. Soon the road opens on the right to the vast Tasman Sea – about 1000ft below us – a fairly sever drop off – call it a cliff – with just a wire sheep fence between us and the sea. I was forced to concentrate on driving – my neck started cramping and my heart was beating strangely as we topped many hills with switch backs to the left – covered in mud and long descents where we were skiing down the mud – I was merely suggesting where the car should go and most of the time it followed its own path. The tail end of the car often felt like it was over my right shoulder – but I dared not look – never look down they say. I am not quite sure how far the drive was it seemed like eternity at the end of a 12 hour flight, and needless to say we did not stop at any of the beaches on the way. We almost got stuck a number of times – mostly when we encountered oncoming traffic – once this was in a left turning curve where I was forced to move into what looked like 6 inches of mud that had accumulated on the down slope of the curve – we barely escaped – I had visions of me in ankle deep mud trying to extricate the rented car. By the end of the trek the inside of the car as well as the outside was covered in mud – the inside was exposed when I had to roll down the windows to evaporate the nerve induced drenching sweat from my brow and neck (did not want to use the AC- we needed the power). Many ties we emerged onto blacktop with huge sighs of relief only to switch back to the gravel/mud road a short time later. Needless to say I was quite exhausted – this drive was a tremendous challenge of my driving ability and required good mastery of the manual transmission – eventually we hit blacktop and the Bridal Veil Falls.
Bridal Veil Falls – how spectacular – a short hike – numerous observation decks and the girls even swam in the pool at the bottom – I am so glad they did. The hike back up the stairs – wow – I wish I had been able to work-out before our trip. I still have not mentally come to terms with the fact that we are in New Zealand – the first leg of out adventure – I have not got my travelling mentality or skin on just yet – hopefully soon.
Most of the day it was drizzling although sunlight came through in a few places throughout the day.
Just driving (on paved roads) is amazing. The countryside is obviously formed from volcanic activity but is completely covered in foliage of every shade of green imaginable. It is quite breathtaking.
We decide to head to Kawei – again gravel roads but we made it to the small town. We decided not to stay – it was small –we were a little disappointed. We got some snacks at the general store and then decided we might as well continue to the Ocean Beach since we had come this far – it was only a few more km's.
We parked at a car park – signs saying lock your car – thieves are active – it turns out these signs are everywhere. We seemed so remote and the only car in the park but we covered our bags the best we could grabbed my day back and started a hike up a 200ft dune. My ankle hurt and walking in sand – especially up hill was difficult. Pam stopped half-way and asked if it was worthwhile to continue up – she wanted the girls to look over the top of the dune. I said we had come this far we were going to continue – this will become our mantra on this trip I think because when we reached the top the most amazing site. Miles of beaches – not a person in site and steam floating a few feet off of the sand - incredible! We started the much easier down dune trek and as we reached the black sand I started feeling waves of heat coming from the ground. The sand was hotter than could be explained by sun – it was overcast. As we waded out into the low tides waves the water was warm to the touch. This was the first time I had touched the Tasman Sea so naturally I thought how incredible – the oceans are warm – Aria and I continued out towards the waves and the water suddenly got colder – cold enough for me to require a wetsuit to surf or snorkel. Finally comprehension – the warmth was from Geo-Thermal activity – springs rising through the beach at low tide – I have never had such an experience. We dug holes and the water inside was warms – in some places burying you feet was almost too hot to stand – what an incredible place. The beach was ours for miles- only interrupted by a couple with 2 dogs cruising by on quads. Pam and I agreed – we will not turn back – we could have easily missed this experience. The girls were happy – I was overwhelmed – what a tremendous place!
The hike back to the car was a little tedious and we passed 2 couples on their way to the beach. I am glad we had it to ourselves.
Back in the car and on the Waitomo Caves. We arrived at 5:30pm – found a place to stay on the second try – the Holiday Park was full – but the Kiwi Paka had a two bedroom suite. A short walk to the Curly's bar where we ordered dinner – I had fish and chips – very good – although the Tomato Sauce (Ketchup) is quite sweet -I liked it.
Tried to find internet access – all that is available are cafes where you use their computers and pay by the minute – I really need VPN access from my machine.
On the way back to the room we stopped and got some water. They had a pizzeria and we got Hawaiian pizza – Aria waited for it and brought it back to the room. I had 2 small pieces a bedtime snackJ
At 7:25 it was still light out – quick showers (glad we had our travel towels as the Inn did not have any) – closed the drapes and started everything recharging, downloaded pictures and GPS track's and put on a movie (National Treasure) I was asleep before the opening scene was done. I woke up at 1:30am – could not get back to sleep – my mind was racing with thoughts of work, internet access – I switched over some of the charging devices – laid back in bed and eventually found my flashlight and a sleeping pill – back to sleep eventually.
