Our journey in the south island has finally come to an end. We departed early morning from Nelson towards Picton to catch the afternoon ferry. Before embarkation, we managed to walk down towards the Picton Harbour where most of the sight-seeing and a market were located in the vicinity.
The ferry with its interior looked pretty much like a cruise ship, but it was not as grand as the latter. However, there were some services and facilities set up such as cinema, game machines, cafes, bars and VIP rooms for guests to spend their 3 hours fruitfully. But of course, you will need to pay to use those. So, we opt for a better choice – catch some forty winks…….great idea right? LOL.
The moment we arrived in Wellington, we were totally startled by the recklessness and rudeness of the motorists! The roads were congested with traffic (it was 5 pm) with lots of pedestrian on the move. Some of the road signs did create confusion, and it was like driving in a labyrinth. This was the second time we were experiencing the hustle and bustle of city since Christchurch. We finally navigated our way to the backpacker hostel. However, yet another annoying and unwelcome situation came to play. The bathrooms were seriously filthy and looked like it has never been washed for a decade! The kitchens were packed with people; the pots and dishes were just left in the sink; the utensils, dishware and cups were missing; the dish-washing liquid was not refilled; some of the doors were damaged. All in all, the whole place was a pile of mess! My first impression of Wellington turned out to be kind of disastrous, and at the very moment, there was a feeling of abhorrence towards the big cities in NZ.
Unlike Christchurch, goods prices in Wellington are extremely cut-throat. A good way to describe this is to metaphor with cities in Malaysia. Wellington is the capital of NZ, so does KL is to Malaysia, where the city standards of living are the highest in their corresponding countries, notwithstanding the heavy traffic especially during peak hours. Christchurch is similar to that Penang, as both experienced “tremors”- earthquake and political tsunami, respectively. Auckland has the poorest public security of them all, and that is inevitable in JB too. But I’ve yet to discover that (Hopefully not…=.=|||). All I know was, getting out of Wellington as soon as possible would be the best idea, although the conveniences of getting free wifi are truly irrefutable. They were all over the town centre, free, use as much as you can.
Wellington is a big city, but its tourist destinations are quite limited and less attractive, I would say. I mean there were a vast number of theatres, museums, art galleries and churches, but seeing too many of them at the same place will turned out quite dreary. Anyway, we did some walks along the Lambton Harbour, Frank Kitts Park, Cuba Street and visited some of the more “interesting places” such as the Museum of Wellington City & Sea, the huge Botanic Gardens, the Beehive Parliament and the Old St Paul’s church (but there’s wedding function). We were privileged to have free tour around the interior of the parliament buildings, entering the House of Representatives, the former Upper House and some of the function rooms. It was quite informative, and I'd learnt that their way of electing MPs and passing of bills are definitely more effective and justified than that of our country, at least we don’t see a bunch of monkeys fooling around in the House!!
It’s time to move on. After staying in the WORST backpacker hostel, enduring three nights of nasty conditions and obnoxious smell in the room, we were finally leaving here. Thank goodness! Soon after, we reached the Hawke’s Bay region, where apples are mushrooming here, particularly at Hastings. We checked into the hostel as soon as we arrived in Napier. It was a real pleasure to have free breakfast served at hostel again, since the last time we had it in Christchurch. So, it was hefty meal every morning before we kicked off our scheduled outing of the day. Our main reason of coming here was to find jobs in apple packhouses. However, the available vacancies seemed to be quite limited judging by the huge number of people also striving to look for employment opportunities here. After searching high and low for several orchards and packhouses, we had little hope…and we planned to call it off again this time and look for kiwi jobs later on. Subsequently, it’s playtime again!
Napier is a big town and there were lots of happenings and events going around such as the “Art Deco Weekend”. Erm….personally, I’m not of particular interest with arty kind of stuff, and the streets will be crowded like hell. I don’t really like that atmosphere. We wouldn’t get to see it anyway, because we will be leaving for Bay of Plenty region after four nights stay. :) Most of the places of interests require, well, entrance fees. Then and again, we ought to avoid these. While there were some other options that provided free tours such as the Arataki Honey Visitor Centre and Classic Sheepskin Factory. The honey centre offers visitors to sample various types of honey flavour and there were lots of educational boards being put up to furnish visitors about the facts of bees and honey. We walked towards the Bluff Hill lookout where a clear view of Port Napier can be seen. And there was this Marine Parade which was like a hub for most of the activities to be carried out. Beautiful flowers, art sculptures, buildings, and scenic views also converged in this area. Last but not least, we had the chance to indulge in another serving of ice-cream here – Rush Munro’s 100% Natural. Which was better? I couldn’t really tell. But we know we had to pamper our taste buds once in a blue moon……Hahaha! Oh……yea!
It was time to move again. Our next destinations, Te Puke and Tauranga, were situated along the Bay of Plenty. With full blast of sun glazing over the region, it was a great spot for kiwifruit to grow in abundance. However, it would be quite a torture for us to walk on the streets under the sizzling hot sun, especially when it was still summertime. Upon arrival at the Kiwifruit Capital – Te Puke, we popped into several packhouses to fill in the employment forms, hoping that one of them would get us hired. Well, lady luck was with us. One of the packhouses agreed to employ us despite the fact that our visas will expire in a couple of months’ time. Owing to that, we drove to the New Zealand Immigration Department in Hamilton to clarify some queries regarding immigration and visa extension matters. Hamilton is a city, and like any other city, there’s nothing much to see. So, it’s all the way there and all the way back. Our accommodation was located in Tauranga, where we stayed there for one week, and it shot us to sheer boredom just hanging around, doing almost nothing. It’s a city, either you choose to pay for the entrance fees and activities or enjoy the “free” stuffs such as leisure walk on the streets or botanical gardens and parks or beaches or take a hike up treks or hills…blah blah blah………That was what we’ve been doing for the past three months. Seriously!! Frankly speaking, it’s not that bad anyway. That’s what backpacking is all about, isn’t it? We did a few retreats to some of the attractions and a nearby small town called Mt. Manganui. As the name suggested, there stood a mountain. We walked around the circumference of the foothill and along the coastline before heading back to Tauranga.
Finally, we shoved our butts away from Tauranga to Auckland, another big city……WHAAAAAAAT?? AGAIN?!! When we got there, it was noon, and the roads were jamming like hell, but it’s still at ease compared to that of KL. We inched our way through the traffic, and got ourselves almost lost in the web of roads and motorways. People were seen thronging the streets, especially students, as the University of Auckland was located right in the city centre. The next day started off with a hike towards Mt. Eden (Maungawhau), a sleep volcano forming the highest point on the Auckland isthmus. We were pretty lucky enough for not having to climb our way up to the summit as we happened to run into a shuttle bus in which the driver offered us a lift there. There are walkways surrounding the summit point, allowing tourists to have a view at the crater. With this, it ends our journey in Auckland, well……for now, as we will be back very soon. When there’s really no place to go in a city or town, supermarkets became our place to loiter. @@. “Countdown”, “New World”, and “Pak n’ Save” were those giants that dominated the whole of NZ. But most of the time, we did lots of window shopping. Yeah right, groceries are expensive and we would usually target at “Budget” or “Pams” brand, because they are the cheap ones. @@.
Whangarei was our next pit stop. Some of the more popular tourist attractions were the Town Basin, Claphams Clock Museum and the Whangarei Falls. We had a real perfect timing checking into the backpacker lodge that day, as the owner was organizing a buffet dinner to celebrate his birthday, alongside with his friends and relatives. The good news was, of course, we were invited too!! Muahahahahahahaha… We had a typical western style buffet, served with steaks, sausages and salads. It had been the greatest dinner so far, after so many days of pastas, breads, instant noodles, pastas, breads and instant noodles…….Gosh! Our journey continues up north, a few hundred km away to a small town known as Paihia, which is categorized in the Bay of Islands region.
We perched in Paihia for 6 nights. From there, we departed to several other surrounding regions and its vicinity. Our first stopover was at Hokianga, which is famous for hosting behemoth Kauri trees. Two of the largest trees in NZ, with over 2000 years old, lie within the bush sheltered area of Waipoua Forest. There are walking tracks constructed to prevent people from stepping onto the roots of Kauri trees as they are easily infected with diseases once contaminated by fungal spores and germs. In this rainforest, we entered three different walking tracks to see some of the unique Kauri trees. Tane Mahuta, which means “God of the Forest”, hosted the largest Kauri tree, while the “Father of the Forest”, known by the name of Te Matua Ngahere housed the second largest Kauri in NZ. Another one was named the “Four Sisters” due to the positioning of four Kauri trees close to each other. Prior to that, we stopped at Wairere Boulders, as it was greatly recommended in the visitor’s brochure. But to our disappointment, we just managed to walk down a few minutes track and decided to have a turn back because there was really nothing much to see, and to make matters worse, it began to pour. This was also the first time we had to pay to see something belonging to the nature. Besides, the road leading to the site was mainly gravel, dirt road that stretched for over 10 km. It was quite a lame one actually. :(
Our next terminus stood at Kerikeri, another sunny place with rich history. We went to the Makana Confectionery to have a sampling taste on some of the hand-made chocolates. It was exquisite; but of course, the pricing was “exquisite” as well! So, we walked out empty-handed. Chris Booth Sculpture, a landmark mounted next to the visitor centre, was made up of vertically and horizontally stacked boulders. There were two historic buildings – the oldest wooden building known as Kemp House and oldest stone building, the Stone Store. We only visited the latter because the former required guided tour fees. Anyway, we walked around the Kerikeri Basin and went on towards the walkway which led to four scenic spots (Historic power house, Wharepare falls, Fairy pool, Rainbow falls). The walk itself took us an entire 2-hour, to and fro. It was a fatigue day indeed!
The next day was a full-day journey to the Northland. We had booked a “cape runner” trip prior to which departed from Kataia. So, it was an early drive to there from Paihia, just before the break of dawn. Our first stop of the trip was at Ancient Kauri Kingdom, a place selling handcrafted wooden (kauri) furniture, arts, crafts and other souvenirs. Then it was a ride along the 90 mile beach, which is a stretch of coastline heading towards the northern part of the island. Only buses, 4WD and jeeps can make through this distance as there could be quicksand laying somewhere. We reached Te Paki where heaps of huge sand dunes can be found. This section hosts a famous activity of sand-tobogganing and sand-boarding. The difference between this two is that one sits on the sledge, while the other lie (face down) on top of the board. But before one can slide down the sand, one would need to climb up the steep slope of the sand dunes. It was pathetically tiring, and everyone was panting and gasping for air upon reaching the highest point. However, it was really fun gliding down the dunes, although that lasted only within a split of a second. We pulled over at Taputaputa Bay for picnic lunch, which include scones, snack bars and drinks provided by the tour company. It was not long before we reached the northern tip of NZ North Island, which is Cape Reinga, located at the Te Paki recreation reserves, with a magnificent breath-taking view overlooking the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean. We continued back on our journey towards the south via the state highway, an alternative route for those who planned to head Northland by themselves, instead of taking coaches. Along there, we stopped at several places such as the Rarewa Beach, where fine white crystallite sands embraced the beach and Houhora Heads, where Mt. Camel, a hill protrudes forming the North Head.
It has come to the time for us to end our on-the-move life and settle down while waiting for jobs to commence. We had rented two rooms from a Chinese landlady in Te Puke, and came to agreement terms that we must move in beginning of March. So, we started driving our way back to Te Puke, but made a halfway pit stop at Auckland again. The weather in Auckland was significantly different compared to that when we first arrived. It began to drizzle, and then stop. Several minutes later, it began to pour, with a spasmodic strong wind blowing until my umbrella almost flown away. Soon, the sun began to shine again. And it continued in this precedent. At night, even burying under the blanket, we can still feel the chillness coming in. This “i-don’t-know-what-the-hell” type of weather was probably a sign of autumn coming I guess.
