Adventures Down Under: New Zealand

Classes began two Mondays ago and so far so good. It is a little difficult figuring out how the schooling system works here, but I am getting the hang of it. I only had one mishap of getting lost because I thought I was heading to a lecture and not a tutorial so I went to the wrong classroom. Luckily, the class I was looking for only consists of myself and two other internationals.

Friday, I had class till two, packed then hopped onto a bus to Melbourne's main train station with Abby, Lauren and Ryan. We had to catch an earlier bus/train than we wanted to give us time to buy tickets and such. We got to the airport to Auckland, New Zealand with sometime to kill. Our flight was even a bit delayed, but we eventually boarded. I thought I would be able to sleep the four hour flight, but I couldn't get comfortable. The flight itself ended up being a running joke throughout the trip because it felt super rushed. We took off and before we leveled out the seatbelt sign went off. They announced the decent into Auckland and next thing we knew we were zooming onto the ground. The landing was not gradual. It felt like we were going abnormally fast, and once we landed the walls shook on the plane. Even as we were still moving they announced for the flight attendants to open the doors. We stopped and everyone zipped off the plane. Lauren found a highlighter on the seat and went to ask Abby if it was hers and I was like, "LEAVE IT LET'S GO" because everyone seemed to be running off the plane.

For a 5am arrival, Auckland airport was busy. We had to call the car company to pick us up from the airport to get our rental car. While waiting, I asked the help desk people what we should do in Auckland. After picking up our mini lime green rental car, Ryan practiced driving on the opposite side of the road for a little bit then we were off! We drove to Auckland city center, found a parking garage and began exploring the city. Auckland has to be one of the coolest cities I have ever been to. It had tons of skyscrapers, but at the same time was rural. There was a beautiful harbor, cool architecture and was very open. The rugby world cup was actually happening when we were there, so rugby teams from around the world were walking the streets as well. Because we began exploring at 6am, nothing was open except an occasional cafe, so we found a place to get some coffee and breakfast. Around 10am places began to open, so until then we found our way to the famous Sky Tower. The walk up to the top of the Sky Tower we decided was too expensive, so instead we asked the man working what else we should do. Previously, I read about the cheap ferry rides to islands off the coast of Auckland and he recommended those, along with some shopping markets that are held on weekends. We took up his ideas and walked to the French Markets where there were tons of free samples of cheeses, breads, balsamic vinegars, fruit, meat, veggies. The cheeses were phenomenal. I also bought some blueberries that were delicious.

After we got our fair share of free samples we walked to the ferry building to catch the next Ferry to Devonport, a small beach town on an island 12 minutes away from Auckland Harbor. We picked a good weekend to head to New Zealand because it is the end of their summer and it was a warm weekend before the cold came in. Devonport was pretty cool. Everyone road bikes and walked barefoot and the streets are lined with shops and little cafes. We ate lunch then headed to the beach where we sat on a bench and decided we were all exhausted. We laid down in the grass beside the sand and actually fell asleep for an hour plus. Once we woke up, we shopped around then took a ferry back to Auckland and found our hostel and checked in. After freshening up we found a place to eat then went to the roof of our hostel where a lot of backpackers hang out. We met a few guys from Ireland and Sweden. We asked why the Irishmen were in New Zealand for St. Patrick's day and they said they were actually headed to Hong Kong next.

The next morning we checked out bright and early and hit the road to Matamata. The landscape in New Zealand is beautiful and full of cows and sheep. In New Zealand the population is about 4.2 million people. The population of sheep is about 40 million. This number even went down from 70 million because a lot of farmers are switching over to cows because meat and milk is in more demand. We got to Matamata and Hobbiton aka the Lord of the Rings movie set. We paid for a tour and actually were told that Hobbiton was supposed to be closed due to the fact that they are in the process of filming the Hobbit! Peter Jackson, the director was ill so that is why we could still tour. Pretty luck he was sick because the website says nothing about the filming of the next two movies. Also, because of this we had to sign our lives away saying we would not post pictures or any information about what we will see on the tour or we will be sued for all we are worth and then some. I figured Mama and Papa Cap would not be thrilled to receive that letter in the mail. This means I will be able to share all of my movie set pictures with you all in 3-6 years, or whenever the next two movies are out in theaters. After the movie set tour we watched a sheep shearing because the movie set is on a cow and sheep farm. Then we got to feed the lambs. Overall, the tour was really cool. It was nice to find out what was actually filmed on the movie set, and what was filmed in the studio in Wellington.

After the tour we asked where we should head next in Matamata, and we were told the waterfall down the road was pretty and free. We were told we had to walk to the physical waterfall, so off we went. We soon found out that that "walk" to the waterfall was actually a major hike up a rocky mountain. We were all not dressed for a hike, but we made the most of it. On the way up we saw these two guys carrying rifles and a deer leg sticking out of their backpacks. No big deal. Ryan led us up the mountain, but his strides was equivalent to Lauren, Abby and I running. In other words, we were sweaty messes once we reached the first lookout. We decided not to hike the additional 150 meters up the mountain to the summit and headed back down after we caught our breaths.

We grabbed some lunch then hit the road again to Waitomo. Once in Waitomo we found our way to the center of town to eat and checked into the hostel. Waitomo is known for their glow worm caves which i heard were a must-see, but because they are very expensive tours I researched these free glow worm tunnel walks that you do at night. We found the park they begin in, parked the car, grabbed some flashlights and began the walk. The glow worms give off a greenish light that is more visible when you shut your lights off. We got to the first tunnel which we had to crouch down in to get through, but right at the beginning we saw MASSIVE spiders on the walls and ceiling, and a lot of them. Immediately we turned around and decided there was no way we were crawling through four tunnels filled with thick, fuzzy spiders the size of Texas.

The next morning we started to drive around the same time as sunrise because we wanted a full say in Rotorua. The sunrise with the hills and mountains and caves of Waitomo were very pretty and we got to Rotorua around 9:30 where we changed into bathing suits, and got breakfast. Rotorua is known as the Thermal Wonderland filled with hot springs, mud pools etc... Because of this, the town smells of sulfur. We found the ZORBING location and were told we could not do the dry Zorb because of the winds. In 17 years, the company had one person go off the path accidentally. In the past month, 3 people have flown off the path, over the back fence, into the road. No one was hurt, but because of this they are only allowing Zydro, or the wet Zorb. Abby and I went up the mountain first. The guy driving us up told us the zig-zag track was the most fun, no one has ever gotten hurt and Zorbing is awesome. I went first and to get into the Zorb ball you have to dive through a small hole. Because it was the wet Zorb I slid up the side of the Zorb once I dove in. The guy zipped me in and I was off! You first start walking as if its a hamster ball then you hit the path and start flipping and rolling and its awesome!!!!!! I wish I could have gone again, or a thousand more times.

After Zorbing, because we were still wet we decided to go swimming at Kerosene Creek, a natural hot spring. We had to drive down a long dirt road before finding it. The stream and pool itself are steaming and surrounded by waterfalls. The water was probably close to 95 degrees, so because it was warm out it was hard to stay in for a while. After swimming, we dried off and got some lunch then went to check out how expensive tours were for mud pools, hot springs, geysers, and volcanic craters. We decided it was too expensive to see all of these, so we checked out the free mud pools then head up the road to see some natural springs and hot springs. We encountered this place that had eight different pools all heated by naturally boiling water. Pretty cool. We explored Rotorua a little more then began our drive back to Auckland. We wanted to take a different route to see different things, so we drove through the city of Hamilton. Hamilton was like a mini Auckland. All their fast food restaurants looked like diners, which I thought was funny. We finally got back to Auckland, returned our mini car, and checked into the hostel and basically fell asleep right away after showering because we had a taxi to the airport at 4:30am. Ouch.

The flight home was delayed and not as frantic as the speedy flight there, but we got back to Deakin safe and sound and in time for classes. Australians think it is funny we went to New Zealand for a weekend.

Here are some pictures. I need to go back to New Zealand, especially the South Island once Christchurch is built up again!