Our adventure began on Friday. On our way back from Rarotonga we stopped in Auckland and stayed there. We got to the airport at some ridiculously early hour, like 5:30 or something like that.
So we just chilled at the airport before heading to our hostel, Base. To be honest, we were all really exhausted and hungry. So after a delicious meal we headed to Base to take a short nap. Our short nap turned into a 6 hour sleep. Not surprising.
We woke up and got to take hot showers for the first time in a while. And then the nicest guy in the world who was also staying at our hostel gave us all of his leftover food. Score! After dinner, we decided to check out the town. After a while, we went back to the hostel to sleep again. Clearly we were incredibly exhausted. Soon, we were woken up by the fire alarm. Seriously, why does this happen to us all the time?! So we were all ushered into the streets to stare at the building that was definitely NOT burning. After a while we were brought back in only to be woken up periodically by the fire alarm going off for split seconds. This WOULD happen to us.
Saturday began the camper van adventure.
Cathy volunteered to go and pick Flossy up so Courtney and I checked out and then just chilled in the lobby of the hostel. It was nice. Soon Cathy called us and we walked outside to the cutest little camper van of all time and thus began our journey. We drove to a small little town called Hamilton and got a few more groceries and then cooked some grilled cheese in the parking lot.
Then we decided to head straight for Wanganui. Of course, the ride did not disappoint with it's beautiful landscapes. The whole time we rocked out and played soulmate. Just all around bonding time. Once we got to the town, there was the problem of where to park. After driving around using a totally screwed up map we ended up in a sketchy parking lot next to some public restrooms. Late in the night, we were woken up by banging on the door. All of us thought this would have been a policeman because you're not technically supposed to just park wherever you want. So I chose to pretend to be sleeping still. We all know how I am with cops. Courtney, being the responsible one, opened the curtains to find a guy about our age telling us that our lights were left on. Nice.
The next morning (Sunday) we woke up to the sound of rain.
And it was perfect. Once it stopped raining we looked outside to see that we were parked by a really pretty lake. After cooking some breakfast, we decided to check out the town of Wanganui. We went to a nice little cafe and stopped in a couple shops. Every store was having excellent sales, especially on baby clothes. So I bought a million things for Holly's baby. Since we're not sure yet if it's a boy or a girl, I just got both type of clothes and figured that there's always someone pregnant in my house anyway.
After shopping for a little bit, we got back in the camper van and headed towards Wellington. I was driving, and doing pretty well I might add, that is until a yield sign just jumped up out of nowhere. And Courtney was in the back eating some yogurt. Let's just say, it didn't end up pretty. Yogurt was everywhere. We like to refer to this as the Yogurt Incident of 2010. After spending a good while cleaning everything up, we got back on the road towards Wellington.
Once in Wellington, Cathy and I decided to check out the town. This place was pretty awesome. We ended up in the cutest little bookstore. Nerdy, I know. But I loved it. We returned to the van and decided to find a place to park for the night. This becomes quite the endeavor and we end up driving through random neighborhoods everywhere. Finally, we find the Titahi Bay and park beside there. It was quite the place to wake up to, let me tell you. Later, we found out that where we parked was a site where some orcs were frolicking about doing scary things in The Lord of the Rings.
The next morning, (Monday) we woke up to this beautiful bay and were stoked to being our day.
We drove into town and checked out the Te Papa Museum. Wow. This thing was seriously cool, and I'm not even big into museums. The first floor had a lot of natural type history which was cool and all, but I wondered up to the 5th and 6th floors where the art was. This stuff was seriously incredible. I really wish we could've had more time there, but our next adventure awaited.
The next adventure was none other than a Lord of the Rings tour. Now, I know what you're thinking, "What a nerd!". And yes,
you are probably correct in thinking that. But, honestly, this tour was really really cool because not only were we seeing a lot of the Lord of the Rings sites, we also got to see a whole lot of Wellington, which is a pretty awesome city. So before you judge, maybe you should try one of these tours. I would go into crazy detail about the tour, but I am afraid it will only prove the nerdiness of the situation. Let's just say, I got to see a whole lot of great stuff, walk where all of these people walked, and now I'm stoked to watch the movies again.
Alright, moving on, after the tour we drove to Lake Taupo and stayed at a really sweet campsite. The next day, (Tuesday) we headed into the Lake Taupo town and sat down and charged up at a little cafe. The people there were super sweet and it was just fun to hang out with the locals. But, we couldn't stay for too long because Rotorua awaited. The drive to Rotorua was absolutely amazing, as always. I've said it once and I'll say it again, there is literally no prettier place than New Zealand.
Once we got to Rotorua, Cathy and Courtney really wanted to do this thing called Zorbing, which is basically rolling down a hill in a giant ball. Because of lack of funds and a desire to spend my limited funds on this experience, I opted to check out the town while they did this. And I am SO HAPPY that I did. This place was extraordinary. I started out on this gorgeous dock reading (reminded me of Lake Robinson except far more huge and beautiful).
Once I had my fill of that, I meandered around and somehow stumbled upon this awesome pathway that ended up being the Rotorua Walkway. As my walk began, I put my headphones in and listened to the Resonate Podcast. I feel like perfect is the only way to describe the rest of my afternoon. Absolutely astoundingly beautiful. In every way. Sometimes I forget how much I need time by myself. This showed me how much I truly enjoy it.
Once the girls had finished, they called me and we met up and headed for the Blue and Green Lakes. We arrived there at just the right time - as the sun was setting. Once again, Rotorua did not fail to disappoint with the absolute beauty of it all. We decided to eat dinner by the Green Lake and after dinner sat on this dock eating Tim-Tams, listening to Jack Johnson, and staring at the stars which were appearing shockingly quicker than they do around dusk in America. Probably because of the lack of pollution.
The evening only continued with it's perfectness as we got back in the car, drove through Bethlehem (seriously, it was the name of a town), saw the city lights by night, and then drove into a remote part of The Corromandel and walked outside of our campervan only to see that the stars had exponentially grown in number. I literally have never seen the sky like this. It was completely breath-taking. I could have sat out there for hours, literally. What a perfect day!
Wednesday began with us waking up to see where exactly we parked because when we arrive it was pitch black and we had no idea what our
surroundings looked like. You can imagine how excited we were to find ourselves to be the only people in this entire campsite amidst a sunny field. So we sat outside in the sun and ate our breakfast.
Once we forced ourselves to step away from the greatness, we headed towards Cathedral Cove. On the way, we stopped at a Hot Water Beach. Now, the sign definitely lied because the water at this beach was far from hot, but trust me, I didn't mind. This was probably in the top three of favorite moments of the entire New Zealand trip, which is saying a whole lot.
There was another spot of beach unable to be attained unless one was willing to splash through the water to get there. Beyond that, there were some rocks that you could climb over in order to disappear from the rest of the world. And beyond the rocks was another long stretch of beach where you could walk for forever and have an entire beach all to yourself. So of course, that is exactly what I did. And, once again, I had some great 'me' time, as some would call it. I really can't describe how amazing this was. Let's just say, God blew my mind. In a really really awesome way. I'll probably tell you the story if you ask.
Either way, once I meandered back to where Cathy and Courtney were we headed towards Cathedral Cove. We had short hike to this place, but it was nothing compared to the hikes we've been doing. Cathedral Cove was stunning.
It's a little beach surrounded by huge boulders. I can see why so many people say it's their favorite place in New Zealand. When we got there, there was no one there so we just walked around the place and enjoyed having it all to ourselves. Once people started coming, we decided to head out. But it was amazing while it lasted.
On the way back we saw a sign for Gemstone Bay so we decided to take it. We were all a little surprised to walk straight onto rocks. There was no sand, just huge rocks and then the ocean. It was so so cool. So we hung out there for a while and then decided to head back to catch the sunrise. Um...wow.
That's all I have to say about it. We ended up on this absolutely amazing hill overlooking the ocean and the mountains and sat and basked in the sun until it set. It was amazing. Gorgeous beyond belief, I'm not even kidding.Once the sun set and the wind picked up, we headed to the campervan, cooked some dinner and then sat outside and stared at the stars all over again. We actually got to see a Red Dwarf, which was super cool since I've never seen one before. I think we could've sat out there all night, but we knew we had to find a place to park our campervan so we headed to the Corromandel Town. I'm going to go ahead and forewarn you, this is where the perfectness of the day ends.
The sketchiness begins when we reach the town and follow motorhome signs that lead to dead ends and large No Camping signs. This seems a little weird, but we persist in finding a place to sleep. Since, we had such good luck with sleeping by the bays before, when we saw a sign for Kennedy Bay, we thought it would be an excellent place to stay. So we headed that way. As we turned on the road, there was this creepy old man walking all alone in the pitch black dark on the road. When I commented about how creepy it was that he was doing this, the other girls were like "Aw, he's a sweet old man." Um.. no. This was not normal. I knew it was a bad omen.
The road that we were on suddenly turned into a gravel drive that could barely fit our campervan on it, let alone a car that would be passing us on the other side. As if that wasn't it enough, it was going straight up a mountain. Now, this doesn't make much sense if we're trying to go to a bay, but we still thought it would all work out. Well, the longer we climbed the lower our gas tank got. But still, we weren't worried. That is until Cathy realized that there was no way this was right. But, for some reason, we continued on. Finally, we got to the top of this mountain, and then the road started going down. And kept going down. And never really stopped going down.
And so then we all started to get really creeped out by the dirt road and the fact that we were the ONLY people on this road and that the road NEVER ended. Oh and there was that whole not sure if we'd have enough gas thing. So, finally, after traveling on this creepy road with a whole lot of crazy possums everywhere, we decided to turn around. Well, in our eager anticipation to leave, the driver (who shall remain nameless -- and no, it wasn't me) tried to do a three point turn in the first possible place she could. This proved to be a bad mistake when she tried to back out and realized we were stuck in the mud.
Yes, you heard that right, in the middle of the creepiest and tiniest dirt road in the entire world, with no cellphone service or battery for that matter, and a million sketchy little possums everywhere, we were stuck in the mud. Now Cathy and Courtney took charge and got right out of the car to access the situation. I, on the other hand, couldn't move from the position I was in and was absolutely petrified that they were going to get eaten or abducted or something crazy like that right in front of my eyes. Thankfully, none of that happened. Instead, Courtney directed Cathy in the best way to got out and we drove out as fast as we possibly could. I'm pretty sure none of really breathed correctly until we got completely out of this place with gas enough to get us out of the town.
I was finally starting to regain my composure as we searched for a new campsite when I looked out the window and I saw, I KID YOU NOT, a man dressed in all black crouching down hiding on the side of the road. WHAT THE HECK?! I STILL don't understand what was up with that. Needless to say, I freaked out. Let's be real, what other reason than the fact that he wanted to attack someone could there be for him to be dressed like that and crouching like that?! I'll tell you, there is none.
Let's just say, we drove as far away as possible from this dodgy town, drove into a campervan site, left a frantic note on the window and attempted to sleep after the scariest couple hours ever. The next morning, (Thursday) was much more pleasant. Our surroundings were very beautiful. We began our drive to Auckland to head for the airport. After eating some Pita Pit, we got to the airport with many hours to spare and basically just hung out until our flight.
Once again, really long recap. But how do you expect me to do a short recap when my weeks are so event-filled. I mean seriously. Overall, a perfect trip. I can't help but love my life. I mean, can you blame me?!
Why am I not surprised that you were driving when the Yogurt Incident of 2010 happened?!?! Just saying. Please be careful with the sketchies out there! But all in all, sounds like another fun time was had.
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