My Last Week in the North Island

I left dad's house en route to meet my friend Martin in Rotorua to go Zorbing. This is a Kiwi phenomenon, where you essentially roll down a hill inside a giant inflatable ball. Having not actually spoken to anyone who had done this, I went for the 'wet' option, in conjunction with the 'zig zag' slope. Good choice :)

I made my way up to the top of the hill, did a 'superman' flying leap into the ball, and was greeted by a couple of inches of freezing cold water... Eeeek! Then I was told to start pushing myself onto the slope using my hands against the side, like a hamster would move in a wheel. When the ball had enough momentum, it was off, and I was just thrown about inside this huge, wet inflatable ball, with absolutely no idea of orientation. As I chose to go on the 'zig zag' course, each time the ball hit a corner, it threw me over to the other side of the ball anyway, making the disorientation even more pronounced! Towards the end (when I was going really quite fast!), I was thinking 'this amount of jerking should probably be making me nauseous' - but it wasn't. It was just heaps of fun! Apparently my friend could hear my shreaks of laughter from all the way up the top, and could see my smile even through the inflatable ball as I approached the bottom. Definitely recommended.

In the zorb...

My 'rebirth' exiting the zorb, and a thumbs-up recommendation

After the zorbing, my plan was to head west to New Plymouth. I asked Martin where he was headed, and he said Raglan. Raglan is the 'surfer's paradise' of the North Island, and as I'd had a go surfing before, I figured I'd give it another go. But I was very unsure as to whether or not I'd be able to, as I'd previously injured my left thumb pretty badly. I figured that Raglan was only a bit out of my way, and having only spent one1 night there before, I was keen to go back. So my plans changed (the beauty of travelling on your own!) and we both set off, bound for Raglan.

When we arrived, I remembered that my old co-worker at Oaklands Lodge, Martine, was in Raglan. So I tried to get in touch with her, to no avail. We checked into a backpackers hostel for a night (purely because they offered free kayak rental to guests!). When we checked in, I asked if they by chance knew an American girl called Martine? Complete stab in the dark, I know. But when he replied that he did, and she worked there, I couldn't believe it! Then I heard her voice coming from the TV room, and she shrieked with surprise when she saw me and Martin :) It was great to see her, and she was absolutely glowing - I guess Raglan life agrees with her!

Me, Martin & Martine at the 'Raglan Backpackers'

The next day, I tried to do a 'pop-up' (where you go from lying position to standing position really quickly in surfing) on the floor, and had excrutiating agony from my thumb. Great. No surfing for me then. But that didn't matter - I still had a lot of fun.

I went to the beach

We all walked to the Bridal Veil Falls

I relaxed in a hamock and just read :)

And then my good friends Belle and Josh (who I'd met in Auckland) came to see us on their way down to Wellington, which was awsome! They'd been working as extras in Auckland, and one of the episodes of 'Shortland Street' (a Kiwi soap similar to, but more popular than 'Doctors', I guess) that they had worked in was being aired on TV that night, so we had great fun laughing at them in that!

Please excuse my poor camera direction... I guess I was laughing too much! Belle is the brunette in the background in the white shirt.

The next day we went sea kayacking to the 'Pancake Rocks', which we'd geard you could jump off at a certain spot, but we couldn't for the life of us work out where (turns out it was about 20 more minutes around the coast, so it's a good job we didn't just guess and start jumping!!).

Kayaking through the Pancake Rocks

I'd spent 3 nights in Raglan, and it was time to move on. But not before doing a bridge jump. Martin, Josh and I walked down to the centre of the bridge, climbed over the railings, counted to 3 and jumped. Into the cold, cold, cold water below. It really was cold! And then we had to swim to the side of the river to get out. Now I've never ever considered myself a strong swimmer, but I've always been ok with back crawl, so I decided to swim to the side of the water using this method. The problem was that this meant that my only reference point was some telephone wires above me, which had started moving above me sideways, rather than the direction that they should have been moving. 'OH SH*T' I thought. 'I'm not moving towards the shore at all! I'm being carried out to sea!!'. I know this is a pretty rediculous thought now, but at the time, it panicked me - especially as I could hear the others on the shore getting farther and farther away. So I turned around, trod water for a bit, let the others know that I was worried, and was greeted by a very masculin reply of something along the lines of 'come on you fool, just get to the shore!' Ok. I wasn't going to drown. And I got there fine. But I was absolutely knackered, and it reinforsed to me the fact that I don't particularly like being in water.

Some other people doing a bridge jump

Having left Raglan, I headed for the Waitomo Caves, which were pretty much en-route for me to get to New Plymouth. I booked myself into a tour (the most extreme one I could get, of course), donned the (very necessary) wetsuit and welly boots, and joined the others who had booked onto the tour. I didn't buy any photos, so I'll try to explain this as best i can...

The first thing to do was a 70ft (ish - I think) absail down into the rocks, through a VERY narrow opening. Great fun for me (although I managed to rip some of the skin off my right hand through being unable to use my hurting left thumb to 'break'), but others didn't find it quite so enjoyable. Then we crawled through some low caves, at which point I realised that my headtorch had stopped working. Grrrrr! So I was to be the first one to do the 'flying fox' zipline down to the next stage. It was so much fun! And without a light, I could see all of the beautiful glowworms (what the Waitomo caves are renowned for) all around me, like a sky full of blue stars. Then I saw a light come on, and someone had been waiting down there to help me down from the zip-line.

Once everyone had come down, we stopped for some hot chocolate and biscuits, and then picked an inner-tube. My headtorch was declared broken, so I was given one of our guides' ones as he had another hand-held torch that he could use. Phew. Once we'd selected the innertubes, we had to jump down into the water... and it was quite a long drop down! We had to jump with our innertubes behind us, so that when we landed in the water, we were sitting in the inner-tube. Easier said than done! I somehow managed to land half-on, half-off, and found myself gasping for breath in the icy water below. WOW, that was cold! The wetsuits really were ESENTIAL! Not everone had the bottle to jump in, so they made it down via an alternate route.

Then came the relaxing part: sitting in the innertubes, gazing up at the ceiling of the caves as the river carried you along beneath the millions of little blue shining lights above. I had managed to position myself at the back for this, and as I was sitting in the tube, floating backwards down the river, my viewpoint was behind us all, facing in the direction we'd just come from. This meant that I could just see the whole cave lit up with no other objects in the way, and it was absolutely spectacular.

Then, after this, we had to go down 'drunken alley', so-called because you're walking along the cave floor, through water at varying depths (between knee and waist), but the rocks on the floor are so higgledy-piggledy, that you're constantly losing your footing and falling over. Very funny. But again, not everone on the tour enjoyed this. I guess you had to be able to laugh at yourself... Then to the best bit: rock-climbing through waterfalls to get out of the caves. There were just 2 big waterfalls, and it was extremely rewarding when you got to the top, because it was quite physically challenging. And although my thumb hurt a bit doing it, it wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated. Again, not everyone did the waterfall climbs, which made me feel all the more smug about the fact that I'd done them. All in all, a fun 5 hours - but I wouldn't recommend it to those who don't like a challenge, and if I'm honest, it probably wasn't worth what I paid for it...

Where I did the 'Abyss' cave tour

The guide asked me where I was staying that night, and I said I didn't know. So he recommended I take the 'back route' down to New Plymouth via the coastal roads, and stay next to the ocean en-route. But he didn't tell me just how far away this was, and I didn't end up finding a spot to sleep until it was almost pitch black outside. Now this only poses a problem for one reason: when I stop, I have to sort my car out so that I can sleep in it. When it's dark outside, I need to have the interior light on to see what I'm doing, and this attracts mosquitos. Mosquitos then bite me thoughout the night. Not fun. Somehow on this occasion, I didn't end up with a car-full of mosquitos. Phew. But it did mean that I settled on a not quite-so idyllic spot to sleep in, so that I could get the car sorted.

Jerry parked up at the Marokopa River Mouth, where I slept the night and almost got stuck trying to (accidentally in the dark) drive Jerry onto the beach. Whoops!

The next morning, I carried on along the coastal track (which soon turned into a single-lane dirt track) towards New Plymouth. I had one reason for coming to this western town: the Pukeiti Gardens where my Nan's (Dad's mum) ashes had been scattered approx. 10 years ago. I stopped briefly in New Plymouth, and headed south out of town along a beautiful winding road through native bush. The scenery driving in New Zealand always amazes me - you drive through such varying landscapes all of the time, each of which is truly beautiful, but so different from the last.

I finally made it to the gardens at about 4.55pm. The gardens were due to close at 5pm. Uh-oh.
I saw a lady as I entered the gate, explained my situation, and she said that as long as I pomised not to get lost, I could spend as long as I liked in the gardens and just jump the gate (which she was about to lock) when I'd finished. Perfect. So I ended up being the only one in the gardens, on a misty Saturday evening.

I followed the map to the far corner, and felt at perfect peace walking though the gardens. It was wet all around me, so everywhere felt extremely fresh. The mist created a spooky effect, yet the birds were still singing and the landscape was beautiful. I could see why my Nan had loved this place. When I reached the Keiller Rhododendron Garden where Nan's ashes were scattered, I sat down under a shelter, and as I did so, the heavens opened with a tremendous downpour. It was lovely to be able to look out at this wonderful place, without having to worry about anything. I ddn't have to worry about getting wet. I didn't have to worry about other people coming and ruining my 'zen' moment. I didn't have to worry about making it back to the car in time for closing time. At that moment I just was. And I used it as a base to exude my gratitude for everything, and to think about my Nan. I must have spent a good hour or so in that spot, and I then headed back to the car and drove on to find a spot to sleep for the night.
   

The shelter under which I sat...

Rhododendrons

I carried on, bound for Wellington. It was so misty and had become very rainy - so much so, that although I knew that Mt. Taranaki was directly to my left, I couldn't see it. At all. I drove all the way around it, without even catching a glimpse. This was the mountain that I had managed to see from 2,500km away when I did the Tongariro Crossing 5 months previous, and I couldn't even see it from 5km away!

The drive for the rest of the evening was a bit tense, as I was running out of petrol, and couldn't find a petrol station that was open. I considered parking up and getting petrol in the morning, but realised that the next day was a Sunday, so it really wouldn't help the situation as I'd probably just end up stranded for another day. Eventually I stopped to ask where I'd find a petrol station that was open, and was greeted with the amazing (and surprising) news that there was an un-manned petro station across the road that accepted card payment only. RESULT!! So onwards I went to find a place to sleep for the night. The only place I could find was a bit of  side-verge along a 'no exit' street. Ah well - at least I could lock my doors!

I carried on along the coastal highway to Wellington. Found a hostel with the cheapest beds I'd come across ($15, but located right next to the hostel bar. But it was a Sunday so the bar wasn't open - result again!). I went to the Te Papa Museum, which was really great. There was a simulation of an earthquake in one of the exhibits, which I felt a bit strange going into, as the Christcurch earthquake had only just happened the previous week. I felt somber, and it yet again took my focus to those affected by the earthquake and my desire to help in some way.

Te Papa Museum, Wellington

  

Wellington

I got back to the hostel, booked my ferry for the following afternoon, and slept very well considering I was sharing my dorm with about 11 other people, and when I awoke there were two people sharing the bottom bunk beneath me... Oh the joys of large backpacker hostels!!

The next morning, I met up with my friends Josh & Belle for a breakfast brunch as it was Belle's birthday. We went to a VERY cool cafe where everything was organic, mostly vegitarian, with the coolest music playing, and even a table which also had a pac-man game underneath that you could play. Awesome.

So after that, it was time to head to the ferry terminal, to board a ferry for the almighty South Island.

To view the rest of my photos relating to this post, go to https://picasaweb.google.com/104325393129888199376/201102201103NZRaglanNewPlymouthWellington?authkey=Gv1sRgCOalvZ-ioZ3bTw