New Zealand - Don't Bother With An Itinerary.

kia ora :),

i should preface this post by saying it is a post that was begun at least two weeks ago and so the opening time context is not accurate at all. i figured i would keep it the same as i am so, so unforgivably behind in my posting. essentially, besides all the minutia and life observations that zip through my head daily that i would love to share with you (but lack the mental glue traps to catch and process) there have been three really big weekend trips i have done since i posted last - one to the coromandel peninsula, the next to mt. taranaki in edgmont national park down in new plymouth, and this past weekend to the bay of islands, about four hours north of auckland and almost at the top of the north island. my posting tardiness is shameful but i am going to try and stick to the chronological order of things anyway! so, coromandel - the weekend of march 6th and 7th! here follows the post i started so long ago. editor's note: ALL the following pictures were not taken by myself but either colleen or henry! this was before i got my pretty new camera.
its about 5.30 on this lovely monday evening as i'm beginning this post, and i'm only just now itching to start making non-plans for more adventures! this past weekend was definitely packed full of adventure, beginning with a quasi-impromptu roadtrip to the coromandel peninsula. though my friend henry had suggested this trip earlier in the week, the likelihood of us going was dampened quite literally on friday morning with steady rainfall through friday afternoon. however, as the rain slowed and the sun began to eventually shine out, we felt the adventure tide turning back in our favor, and me, colleen, and henry jumped in a rental car and headed out of auckland on route one. the drive was essentially smooth sailing until we got to the peninsula, and after crossing over and heading up into the hills and mountains, the clouds expanded over us and the rain began falling, lightly at first, then with more force as we climbed higher and higher up the most meandering, winding roads i think i've driven on in years. they eventually became all gravel and twisted sharply around cliffs with 'falling rock' signs every few kilometers and actual piles of fallen rock as if to prove a point. we realized as were driving that we had no particular destination in mind besides 'coromandel', and now that we were on the very large peninsula, we had to start picking some destinations! we decided to head for the hot water beach, which is a very popular spot for tourists (and normal people), where it is possible to dig a hole in the sand by the waves and have hot water seep into the hole. something to do with geothermal activity close to the beach? i regret not taking geology or ecology. we finally arrived in the misty grey rain and it looked more like Britain than sunny kiwi-land. We were soaked through in less than 2 minutes, but we were in such good spirits about the whole thing that we weren't really bothered, and we trekked out to the beach and set about digging holes to test the hot water capabilities. alas, we discovered a little too late that one required a shovel to move the wet, heavy sand and construct a hole adequately large enough to fill with hot water. we abandoned our quest and went to wash off in the waves, only to discover there were hot spots right under our feet! as the cool ocean water rushed around our ankles and the rain continued to fall, i let the tide going out suck my feet into the sand and felt the space fill with piping hot water, to the point where it felt like burning! it was an incredible sensation. we all stood there for a few minutes just letting the rain hit us with our feet toasty warm under the sand...amazing! then colleen and henry tried to teach me to do cartwheels, as they are something i have never been able to master. i think its purely psychological but i can never kick my feet up high enough. after a few sandy falls and laughs i managed to do a couple of BARELY acceptable versions and decided that was enough for the day. stay tuned for my cartwheel exploits part deux in my soon to be posted tales of the bay of islands on bonfire night! not really that exciting, just that i kind of did a few. they are still a work in progress. anyway! so we decided since it was pretty dark and wet out now that we should find shelter for the evening, something we hadn't really considered looking into with much detail beforehand. we put our damp sandy carcasses in the car and started to drive in the direction of cathedral cove, a famously beautiful beach cove we wanted to explore in the morning. we figured if we could find a backpacker's or a motel close by, we could zip down to it in the morning and then hike back up to auckland for the rugby game! after driving around and around in the dark with our fuel needle showing a dwindling amount of juice, we managed to find a motel/backpacker's at around 10.30pm. the three of us completely lucked out and got the last available room that just happened to have three sleeping spots! after a much needed shower and change, we walked down the street to a local bar where a couple of guys were jamming on guitar and what may have been a mandolin. it had a large patio where most everyone was drinking and relaxing (some far too relaxed) and it had the vibe of a very local watering hole. we were on the peripheral at first, but after a few drinks and exchanges with some of the locals we closed out the night dancing with everyone out on the patio! great fun. we got up the next morning (a little early given the evening we'd had before) but we gassed up and made it over to cathedral cove in no time. because we were there so early, there were only a few other cars and almost no one around - perfect. after we got out of the car and walked to the viewing platform i thought i was in a movie or a dream. it looked like something completely out of 'pirates of the carribbean', and i hoped aloud that captain jack sparrow might sail into view at any moment on the black pearl with a pirate flag waving, ready to sail us out into that perfect blue-green pacific. instead, we began what the department of conservation called a 45 minute trail, but because it was up and down hill, felt much longer. it was very beautiful but a bit humid, though i shouldn't complain as the most incredible thing was that the rain and dreary overcastness had completely disappeared, and the sun was shining out in full force! as we began a steep descent down to the beach, i could see some small brushy trees below me growing out of the sand. when we finally got down there, we walked through the trees and into the most picturesque beach view you can imagine.

the sand was almost white from the crushed up shells that composed it, the sea was rolling and frothing aquamarine and so clear, and the sun was washing over us. we turned and saw a massive hole in the rock cliff that jutted out into the water, well earning itself the name Cathedral Cove. we were all so excited to finally be there and to see just how beautiful it was made us pretty giddy. we took some silly pictures :)

we couldn't resist the water for long. i didn't have my suit so i had to create a makeshift acceptable bathing outfit, but i didn't even care. i felt so relaxed and at ease in that moment, running into enormous waves and diving in, that it barely crossed my mind. floating in the cool of the sea in such a beautiful environment was probably one of my favorite moments here thus far.

(that's my friend colleen testing out the water!)

like all good things, our time at the beach had to come to an end, but it was pretty much the most perfect morning i think i've had in ages. we washed off in a little waterfall we found coming down off of one of the cliffs (!so cool!) and hiked it back up to the car to make it back to auckland for the rugby game. this time, we took the pacific coast highway home, which follows the coast through the coromandel and back up to auckland. it was a beautiful ride that included a pretty funny stop at a beach that was famous for its bird life, where i made the poor life choice to go walking out onto what i thought was firm and solid sand but what turned out to be thick layer of goopy mud over a billion mussels. ouch! had to scrub my feet forever on the grass to get it off! we made it back to auckland in practically perfect time, though poor henry had to drop the car off and then book it back to shower and THEN meet the group at the globe bar and backpacker's. the rugby game was a ton of fun, much more chilled out atmosphere than i would have anticipated, though we did paint our faces and brought an acceptable level of rowdiness to the stadium.

one picture is of me and my friends emily and colleen enjoying the sun on our face paint, and the other picture is of my future husband, and who happens to be one of the auckland blues who also plays for the (gasp) All Blacks! can you tell which is which? haha. though the blues lost, it was a pretty awesome weekend all in all and i definitely want to go back to coromandel before the weather gets less than perfect around here. i think that's enough for one overdue post! remind me that i have to post about mt. taranaki and bay of islands before i am allowed to post anything else! in most recent news, tomorrow me and a few friends are taking the ferry over to beautiful waiheke island just a spit and a throw from downtown auckland. i have grand designs of going to about 3 vineyards and an outdoor market and 4 or 5 beaches but hey. if i've learned anything here, you don't need an itinerary to have an adventure, and most times, you're better off finding it without one. cheers :)

New Zealand - Sweet Bruises, Sweeter Stories.

hello all,

i finally have internet in my flat! glory be! although the internet is a bit finickity and sometimes chooses to not respond when i attempt to connect. generally though the signal is pretty good and hopefully i will be able to update more frequently. katie COUGH COUGH. i will take my uglydoll to the top of skytower if it means provoking more photos of babo in scotland! i eagerly await more photos of babo's misadventures. but for the time being, i thought i would post a few pictures of my own orientation travels and beyond. i'm in the process of getting a new camera but i've been pilfering photographs from my snap-happy friends to document the incredible day-to-day activities here. the title of my post is in reference to the dotting of small purple-green-black brusies on my shins, legs, elbows and arms, including a pretty spectacular and jagged tadpole-shaped one on the inside of my arm that is about 4 inches long (including the tail!). i don't want to oversell it - i'm not too beaten up, but when paired with my fair irish skin such items tend to present much more vigorously. i am in the process of getting the photographs of our caving trip to Waitomo, which was without a doubt one of the most incredible natural wonders i've yet to witness. in the briefest of terms, we went with a very down-home, no-frills tour experience who loaded me, ayelet, kevin, maura, micah, and another lady who joined out tour last minute into a turbo van and drove us 20 minutes out into gravel roads on the crests of hills and to our portal of entry into the underground world. we abseiled 90 feet (i read the wrong brochure!) to the cave floor where an underground river coursed from one hole of darkness to another hole of darkness. we were given tubes and told to walk upstream in our sweet wetsuits and helmets (functioning light included!) until the light from the mouth of the cave had essentially faded and we were in the dark with water rushing around us. the further into the cave and the darker it became, the more we noticed a faint glow coming from the ceiling of the cave, and it became clearer as it became darker that the ceiling of the cave was covered with glow-worms, thousands and thousands of them, forming what looked like constellations of stars all positioned just so. our guide had us continue walking to the end of the cave, navigating through water up to chest height and back down to ankle-depth, admiring the countless stalagmites and stalactites that were hundreds if not thousands of years old. once we reached the end of the cave, our guide had us all form a train with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us and walk back to a point where the river was wide enough to tube. we got into our tubes and were told to shut our lights off and everyone fell silent as we floated slowly down the river in the dark underneath the thousand tiny lights of the glow worms. it was breathakingly beautiful. and after coming back out into the light we we continued on into the other half of the cave, and into the rapids! kevin got stuck between two rocks in front of me and my tube crashed into his and i went completely upside down and got sucked under! it was pretty hilarious, i had to let everyone else tube by as i dripped and sputtered everywhere. we tubed until it got too shallow and then hiked and clambered to the end of that cave, sneaking through narrow tunnels and falling down chutes and slithering on our hands and knees through passages (note: where and how i beat the hell out of my elbows), and reached the end. I saw a cave weta!! It was more cool than gross. We had tea in the dark from a flash provided by our fearless leader, and then we trekked back upstream (note: where i fell and got my tadpole bruise) and when we made it back out into the light, we had to rock climb almost the whole 90 feet up back to where we started. i was petrified and excited, and there were two very tricky parts, but after i pushed myself off of a rock face behind me and hauled myself over the side i felt like i could do anything. when we had all made it to victory we loaded back in the van and collapsed in tired joy on the way back to base camp. it was a wet, slimy, awesome, awesome day.

obviously that is not me, but its the promotional shot the company uses to show the glow worms!! i hope i can add my own soon! xx.