North Island Adventures Part 2

So our initial plan was to go to The Bay of Islands, rent a boat, and cruise around the islands for a day, then head back the next day. Plans changed.

So first we made it to Whangarei, (here in NZ, the “wh” makes the “f” sound just like the “ph” does) and decided to stop over for the evening. This is still an hour or so south of the Bay of Islands, but we read about some fun things to do here so we decided to stay a while. Why not? We got a camper van. 

It was a little too cold and cloudy to go to beaches, so we decided to scare ourselves by going caving instead. The caves were unguided, had running water flowing through it, and were completely dark requiring us to use our headlamps to find our way. The water ranged from being ankle deep to waist deep, and it was cold! Lucky for us, and our lack of cave experience, there was only one path in and out, and it was impossible to get lost. The main attraction of the caves was glowworms, and these could be seen when we turned off our headlamps. There were some glowworms by themselves, but then there were also clusters of hundreds of glowworms that lit up the ceilings of the cave like tiny little stars. This was such a cool thing to experience, and being unguided, added extra excitement and a little bit of fear (we’ve seen one to many movies with caves, ie “The Descent”).

Once we were almost to the end of the cave, Jeremy decided to read the brochure/map of what other life we might also find in the cave…and sure enough, shortly after that we saw a fresh water eel right in the water we were walking in! Jeremy spotted it with his headlamp in the waist deep pool we had to walk through. It must have been at least 3 feet long, and it was ugly.  So now not only are we in a dark cave, we now had to wade in water knowing there’s at least one big eel in it. Eventually the eel swam under some rocks and allowed us to pass by.  We got through that pool as fast as we could! After that, we saw 3 more eels on our way out of the cave. Each time we were trying to keep our feet out of the water and use our rock climbing experience to keep us away from the eels.  We eventually made it out, and it’s a good thing Jeremy didn’t mention the eels any sooner, or I might not have gone into that cave.

The following day in Whangarei we did a small hike in the area that went through an old tree forest, along a river and to a waterfall. This forest was unique for the type of trees it had, which was called the Kauri tree. These trees are gigantic, both wide and tall, and now are being protected from getting cut down for lodging. After spending the night in Whangarei, we thought we were going to the Bay of Islands, but plans changed again, and we headed further north. We decided to go to the top of the North Island, to a spot called Cape Reinga.

After driving for hours on hilly roads with many winds and turns, we finally got to Cape Reinga. The roads here are ridiculous and they never stay straight for too long, making me (Michelle) a little car sick. We finally made it to Cape Reinga and this is where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea come together.  What a cool thing to see with waves from both waters colliding together! At the end of the peninsula there is a spectacular light house that we hiked out to.

While we were up North we read about some great fishing in the area but we were totally clueless on what to buy, what to use, where to go, and what to expect. We went to a local shop and they gave us some tips, but the fishing is much different than what we are used to. We decided to give it a try at the campground we were staying at. Since it was a little chilly and windy I carried Michelle across a small river and we fished from the rocks in order to get the bait deeper (compared to the beach).

I fished for about an hour with no luck. I was wet and cold so I was ready to pack up and head in.  I handed the pole to Michelle so I could clean up and sure enough she got a bite. I carried her across the river, I froze my ass off, I baited the hook, and SHE gets the fish? Well actually it spit the hook out after a couple minutes of fighting, but it was enough to keep us out there for another 30 minutes or so. We ended up getting a couple more bites, but couldn’t land any because we were on the rocks. The next day we tried a different spot, closer to the beach, and I was able to land a 30 inch Kahawai. Later on that day, after fishing, we hiked about an hour to a huge secluded beach and I had to go swimming since I've never been in the Tasman Sea before.

So after the 3 day detour we finally headed to The Bay of Islands. We’ve been told that the bay is nothing special from shore. If you really want to experience the bay of islands you need to do it on a boat. We found a cheap boat rental for the day. We grabbed our fishing rod and bait, a couple of pops and snacks and we were on our way. We were both anxious to catch some snapper fish so we immediately started fishing. Again, we are new to the ocean fishing and we were totally clueless on the techniques. About 10 minutes later were trying a different spot. Lets try this spot then… 20 minutes later and we’re pulling anchor to try a new spot. After some time we decided to drive around the islands and take in all that the area has to offer. The islands were beautiful and the ride was quite nice, but we still needed to catch a fish. So Michelle took control of the boat and drove us to what she said was a good fishing spot (as if she does it all the time). Sure enough after 20 minutes, Michelle pulls up a snapper. She/we were so excited to finally catch one. Our trip was complete, but a couple minutes passed and she’s pulling up another one! This one is a bit bigger. Apparently, Michelle knows what she’s doing when it come snapper fishing. 

She gave me some “tips” and with the last piece of bait I was able to pull up one as well. Mine was the biggest, but she got more. It was a great way to end the day. We got a great cruise in, had fun fishing, and got a nice meal out of it too.

We are now back at Hamish and Heather’s place in Orewa for a few days. We are looking for paying work, but if that doesn’t happen soon, we will go back to the “farm-stay” work. Hamish took me out fishing this morning and we did quite well. I caught about 6-7 snapper and Hamish got 6-7 too. I’m finally getting used to the snapper fishing here, I just hope my small cheap reel holds up.

So we have had an amazing experience so far. We are just going with the flow and taking every opportunity given to us. We are about done exploring the north part of the island and are planning to head south soon (the south part of the north island). We hope you are all enjoying this blog and we love reading the comments; keep them coming!

Picasa link: Northland Pics including Bethel's beach

Previous blog's pics: Tawharnui Regional Park

North Island Adventures

We are pumped to have our own transportation now, and we were anxious to get out on the road. Our friends we were staying with, Hamish and Heather, told us about a few beaches and hikes to check out while we were in town. We drove to the Tawharanui and Mahurangi Peninsulas (on the Pacific Ocean) and did some nice hikes that took us along beaches, to the top of cliffs, and through different forests.

The forests have many different trees and bushes than what we are used to at home. Some of their ferns grow to the size of our pine trees, and there is one plant that smells like maple syrup (there weren’t any maple trees there).

Being here in a foreign place is so exciting partly because the wildlife and plant life is so different from what we are used too. Many trails cut through cow and sheep pastures. A simple handclap startles the sheep so they take off running and collide into each other. It nearly puts me to tears every time. 

The hiking along the coastal cliffs offered some amazing views of the crashing waves, beautiful turquoise water, a lonely sea lion, and rocky coastlines. While hiking along the beach we saw more crabs. It’s fun chasing them around and trying to catch them without getting pinched.

It’s amazing, for us Michiganders, how the coastlines vary with the high and low tides. They actually made quite the impact on our hikes (we couldn’t do one due to the high tide). When the tides were low we were able to explore the tide pools and have access to caves and other rock formations that are under water during high tides.

Last Friday we left our friends place on the east coast, and headed out to the west coast (about a 3 hr drive).  Bethels Beach was the first beach we visited and we weren’t prepared for its beauty and power. To start, the beach was a black sand beach. Although it looks like mud, the sand is actually quite soft and it shines tints of blue when the sun hits it. The high winds created 10-15 ft waves that crashed with such power, it was quite intimidating. The surroundings of the beach seemed almost landscaped. Huge mountainous cliffs on each side of the beach with gigantic boulders scattered through out. The only downside was the weather. It was really windy, which made it really cold. It was too windy, too cold and too rough for Jeremy to jump in, but we still loved this amazing experience.

Our first “farm stay” job was/is quite the experience. They hired us because they would like to spend more time with their 7 and 9 year-old sons. We became their gardeners. We weeded their gardens; we dug up and relocated dozens of plants, and then relocated more plants. After that, we relocated some plants. We worked 4-5 hrs a day and in return we got 3 meals a day and a place to sleep (poolside cabana). There were a couple of odd things that we got to experience. All of our meals were organic, which was pretty cool, but we were also informed with great detail about the importance of the meal and its preparation. They were excellent cooks and we ate many interesting foods that we’ve never heard of and can’t pronounce. We also hiked a few recommended trails in the area and traveled to a couple more splendid black sand beaches. They were great hosts and it was a fun and unique experience.

They knew that we wanted to travel and told us to feel free to leave for a couple days and check some places out. We took this opportunity and made plans to leave for about 2 days. Once we told them our plans, they acted as if we were never coming back and gave us a farewell goodbye.  We’re not sure if they were saying goodbye for a few days, or if they really thought we were leaving for good (there’s some miscommunication). Either way, they said to contact them when we’re back and they’ll let us know about any future work.

So we left for what was planned to be a 2-day trip and has now turned into quite a journey.

Picasa Link: Tawharnui Regional Park

To be continued…..

Our New Zealand Home

The past week in New Zealand has been a roller coaster of excitement and stress. We initially stayed in downtown Auckland, at a hostel for four nights to get things set up. The first day we accomplished so much in terms of setting up accounts and planning the following days. We knew that finding our camper van was going to be a trying task. We stopped at a garage that sold camper vans and they were actually very helpful, even though we weren't interested in their vans. Their advice helped guide us into finding the right van. At this point Michelle and I were very anxious about getting our van. All the vans that we showed interest in were either too far away, or they were sold. A few days have passed and we've seen about 4 vans, but they weren't what we've wanted. The other problem, and kind of a big one, is that we didn't have any money to buy a van! How are we supposed to buy a van when we don't have any money? I could just imagine the conversation," Yes, we'll take the van, but your asking price is a little too high." 
Actually, the bank transfer takes multiple days and we knew that our money wasn't going to come in for a while. So the searching continued and we found the perfect van on an auction website. The seller would not reveal the reserve price, but we had a rough idea of what it should cost. 
"Okay, lets bid on it"
"We don't have any money"
"Lets at least go see it" 
"We don't have transportation"
"Would if somebody else gets it?"
"Call him again"
The games continued for a few days. We needed to wait 2 days until the auction was over. Every hour checking and hoping nobody else bids on it. Every few hours checking our bank to see if our money transfer went through. Finally, the bidding closed and the van wasn't sold. Jeremy has some friends that live just North of Auckland and they were able to put us up for a couple of nights, drive us around, and help us with getting our van. We scheduled a meeting the next day with the seller, but those plans fell through and had to reschedule for the following day. A half hour before we met up with the seller we got our money! The van was everything we hoped for, and it has nearly everything we would need; chairs, table, grill, water jug, pots, plates, glasses etc... So we got it! A 2000 diesel Nissan Caravan. 

 

              

The price was great too. We are thrilled with our new home and to make things even better..... we got our first job! Starting this Friday we will be doing a farm stay for two weeks. We will be working on somebody's private orchard/gardens for 4 hrs a day. In return, we will stay in the private guest house next to the pool, and get 3 meals a day. 
After a couple stressful days, things have finally settled down and the excitement is building again. We are ready and equipped to start our New Zealand journey.

Our Fiji Trip

It was a long trip from Detroit to Fiji and we were exhausted from the jet lag. It took a few days to recover after about 24 hours of flying and traveling. We arrived to Fiji around 5:30am Fiji time and almost missed our boat, the Yasawa Flyer at the Denaru Marina at 8:30am. Our bus driver told us boarding was at 8:50. Fortunately, as we were eating breakfast at the marina, we heard the horn blow, scarfed down half of our meal, and we boarded as they were untying the boat. It was close… a little too close. 

The country of Fiji consists of 322 islands, and the area we choose was the Yasawa Island group. You have to take a boat or sea plane to get to these islands and we were told they are the most beautiful islands in Fiji. It took approximately 3 hrs to arrive by boat to our first destination in the Yasawa Islands. These islands contain mountainous peaks, sandy beaches, palm trees, teal water and reefs full of marine life.

Once we reached Drawaqa, our destined island, a water tax picked us up from the Yasawa Flyer and drove us to shore to the Barefoot Island Resort. We were given a tour of the island and then escorted to our bure (room/hut; whatever you want to call it). Our bure we stayed in was much nicer than we expected, meaning that we had our own restroom and shower, not community shared. We had a beautiful view of the sunset beach; palm trees, white sand, huge waves crashing off the reef in the distance and all the other things you normally associate with paradise.

Once we dropped off our bags, settled in to our room, and had a delicious lunch, we made an attempt to lie around on the beach to rest from traveling, but we were too excited and had to get out and snorkel. We went on a snorkel reef safari, a guided snorkel trip. Jeremy thought this would be best since he’s never snorkeled in the ocean before and wanted to know what he was looking at. We both loved the snorkeling, so we pretty much snorkeled for the remainder of our trip (rain or shine). It’s amazing how much life there is on the reef and how many bright colored fish, animals and coral there are! We saw a handful of things that were really cool besides the common reef fish. We saw squid that changed all sorts of colors, a puffer fish and boxfish, clown fish, octopus that turned colors to camouflage itself, lion fish which are beautiful and  also extremely poisonous (Link), and a Maori wrasse (Link) which was gigantic and scared the $#%! out of Jeremy. Besides snorkeling, we did manage to do a few hikes around the island, have long walks on the beach, played a couple games of volleyball with the locals (they are very good at volleyball), and also a couple games of dice with our new friends.

After 3 nights at Barefoot resort it was time to leave. It was bitter-sweet because our time at barefoot was awesome, but we knew we were going on to explore more of Fiji. Back aboard the Yasawa flyer (no issues this time), we traveled another hour or so passing about a dozen more beautiful islands. Every one was more beautiful the last. We arrived at Blue lagoon beach resort and this resort was a bit fancier. Michelle will tell you we stayed there because it was close by to the limestone caves, but she had a hidden agenda, this place is known for its curries and other great foods. We did quite a bit of snorkeling, but it wasn’t as good as barefoot. 

 The limestone caves were fun to explore; we swam through an underwater tunnel to enter a second hidden cave… kind of spooky.  Here at Blue Lagoon we did much more lying around, reading, and sleeping on the beach ; probably because of all the food we ate. However, we did manage to do a few hikes to the top of the mountain to take in the best views we've ever seen. The pictures don't do it justice! 

The resorts put on many shows for us too. We saw an interesting coconut demonstration and got to taste different preparations of coconut, including coconut water, raw, shredded and fried. We had a few hermit crab races, which got pretty competitive. Saw the lovo demonstration, in which the food is cooked under ground. We also participated in a couple rituals and ceremonies. 
Our overall impression of Fiji was amazing. It really was paradise. If it wasn't for the 16hrs of flying, we would recommend it to everyone. We have now arrived into Auckland, NZ and have been busy setting up accounts and running errands. We will be here for the net few days looking for our camper van. Once we find one we'll post it up on here so you'll be able to see where we'll be living while were down here.
We also have more pictures on picasa just click on the link. Our Fiji Trip

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