Our Arrival in the land of Kiwi

Written by Kim on October 6, 2010 in Russell, New Zealand

Again, you’ll have to forgive our long-winded postings.  They may seem drawn out and detailed, but they are doubling as our personal journal, and the details are important to us.  So, some of you may prefer to simply scan and check out the picture highlights of our experiences.  Don’t worry, we won’t know, or be offended ;)

Back to blogging...

We arrived in Auckland on the morning of October 2 after an exciting morning in Samoa.  The taxi we had organized to pick us up at our hotel at 4am to take us to the airport never showed, and waiting for another to arrive put us behind schedule.  On top of that, when we arrived to the counter at the airport, we did not have a print out of our flight out of New Zealand, and therefore could not complete our check in.  With only 45 minutes until our flight took off, Aus had to run to the nearby internet cafe to print out proof of a flight leaving New Zealand.  You think that having travelled as much as we have, we would have had this sorted.  But, we booked this flight last minute in Samoa after learning we had to have an outgoing flight in order to get into New Zealand.  We had so much difficulty using the internet to book the flight that we couldn’t bear the thought of trying to find somewhere that might be able to print it.  Instead, Austin saved the itinerary/e-tickets digitally on the little laptop we’re carrying with us.  We figured that in this digital age, bringing up our itinerary/e-tickets on our computer would suffice.  Not so much.  With only 20 minutes until the departure of our Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland, we were handed our boarding passes and ran over to the bank counter to pay our departure taxes, and then rushed through security to arrive at our gate with literally only minutes to spare.  As it turns out, luck was on our side that morning! PHEW!

Though we were sad to leave Samoa, we were excited for what lay ahead in New Zealand.  Our first impression was interesting.  I had always thought that Canada and the U.S. had very strict entry regulations, but came to find out that the Kiwi’s are even more rigid.  Because New Zealanders rely so heavily on their farming, they are strict about letting ANY food in, even if it’s packaged.   So, our container of Blue Diamond almonds we’d be keeping handy as our snack for travel days had to be tossed in the rubbage bin, or we risked a hefty $250 fine.   Also, because Austin and I had already put our hiking shoes to use in other countries, we had to declare them as a potential 'biosecurty' threat and stand in a relatively long line at immigration to have our shoes wiped so that they could be sure we weren’t bringing in any foreign and harmful bacteria that we may have picked up along our way.  In the end it was pretty impressive what they go through to ensure protection.  We were thrilled when we were finally through customs and look forward to what lay ahead.

Our excitement for New Zealand began because everyone we had talked to who had ever been here had raved about how beautiful it is and about how many unique adventures would be at our disposal.  We were also excited because we were meeting up with a fellow Canadian and Midland’er – Christina Tubman (NE: Hanmore), and her family.  When we arrived in Auckland we had only been on the road two weeks, but having a home base with Tina, her husband Kelvin, and her two kiddies, Cooper and Madi, was exactly what we needed!  They were VERY accommodating, letting us take over the living room with a big Queen size mattress and our huge backpacks.  The Tubmans also very generously allowed us to do what must have seemed like endless amounts of laundry.  I can’t imagine how we smelled when we arrived on their doorstep, as neither of us had had any clean clothes in days and had been sweating uncontrollably all day every day the entire time we were in the south pacific islands, but I know we smelt fantastic when we left as we both also took advantage of access to hot showers.  We were also very well rested when we left the Tubman residence.  The mattress Tina and Kelvin provided us was by far the most comfortable sleeping arrangements we’ve had thus far. 

Midland'ers re-unite!  Me, Cooper, Tina, Madi & Aus...

Adorable Madi (4) and Cooper (5)...

Our first night in Auckland with Tina and Kelvin was really good fun. Before our night out we went for a fantastic meal at a local Thai restaurant.   Great timing meant that we arrived on the evening that Kelvin and Tina’s favourite Kiwi band, Opshop, with another Kiwi band, The Early Birds, were playing at a local pub.  It was a really good show.  We recommend checking out both bands’ albums.  Our second day in Auckland was very low key but was spent doing some much needed catching up.  We did tons of laundry and spent time on the internet getting all caught up with our blogging. We also took a walk around Tina and Kelvin’s suburb of Torbay and into Brown’s Bay where Tina works.  Our third day was probably our most thrilling day in Auckland.  Austin and I ventured into the city centre to do some exploring.  After checking out Queen St. we ventured into the Sky Tower, which for those of you who don’t know is comparable to Seattle’s Space Needle, or Toronto’s CN Tower.  Standing approximately 230m high at its highest point, Austin and I decided it would be a fabulous idea to venture up to see what views we could get.  For those of you who know us well, simply climbing the elevator to look out through a window or glass floor wasn’t exactly exciting enough for us.  Instead, we signed up for the Sky Tower’s, ‘Sky Walk’, which involved us suiting up, gearing up, and heading out onto a metre-wide, grated, platform that lined the entire circumference of the Sky Tower at the 192m mark.  Attached with two cords –one on the front, and one on the back – we were able to do some insane things like lean forward on our tippy-toes on the edge of the platform looking straight down at the city that lay WAY below.  Hey, why not?!  I have to admit, if you see the video of the experience, you’ll know I definitely had a healthy amount of fear.  When we first got out onto the platform, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to talk my brain into making my feet move.  I found it even more difficult when I had to watch Austin hanging out over the edge.  Not something you want to see only two months into your marriage!  Haha.

Our first look at the Sky Tower up close...

Living on the edge and checking out the observation deck and the great views of the city...

Leaning out over the large windows may be scary enough for some...

The look down through the class floor gives you a good idea of just how high you are... Can you see how small the cars look?

Another great view out over the city....

From the highest observation deck you can see some crazies gathered on the grated platform...

Well, we decided we wanted to be that crazy!  Here we are 192m high on a grated, one meter wide platform...

And here's a picture of Aus truly living on the edge...

Our afternoon in Auckland was also fantastic because both Austin and I had the chance to call our parents and talk to them for the first time since we left Canada.  Tina and Kelvin kindly leant us a mobile phone to use.  We found a great plan that costs us only $2 to call Canada and talk for up to an hour.  Very exciting!  We also ate a fab lunch on a patio at a pub called appropriately 'The Patio', overlooking Queen St. While in town took the time to book our campervan that is to be our home for the next few weeks while we explore the rest of New Zealand.  Around 6pm we then met up with Kelvin and headed home to cook a Mexican meal for our hosts.

Our journey outside of Auckland started yesterday.  We picked up our Spaceship, which is the name of the campervan company we went with.  Our specific vehicle is nicknamed Dexter, and we’ve began to refer to him as such.   He's a bit old, a '94 model and over 335,000 kilometres, but it does the job.  Once Dexter was in our possession, we said our goodbyes to the Tubman’s and to the comfort of their home, where we felt so welcomed and so comfortable.  We hit the road around 3:30pm and headed to the historic coastal town of Russell, in the Bay of Islands, which is part of the northernmost region in NZ, Northland.

In attempt to be prepared, Austin and I brought our GPS along with us to help navigate during our road trip here in NZ, and the driving we will do in Australia.  Austin was able to find some maps at good price within a few hours of hopping on NZ's equivalent to Ebay, called TradeMe.  Austin successfully uploaded the maps we needed and we put it to use for the first time yesterday.  It didn’t exactly have a problem-free start.  We ended up getting off the highway much sooner than necessary.  As we are travelling in out-of the-way areas, the road we ended up on was both very windy, and very mountainous and also very far from any other connecting roads.  So, by the time we’d realized we were taking the long way, we were too far gone to turn back.  I’d say that it’s a good thing I’ve had experience driving on the left-hand side, and was therefore given  the job of driving our first leg, because otherwise I would have been sick as a dog as passenger on such a windy, up and down drive.  The other downfall to having taken the long way was that we had planned to be to Russell for dinner and before dark.  The kilometres ticked by slowly and dark began to settle in.  This was worrisome as these mountain roads not only had no lighting, but had no side rails and VERY steep drop offs.  However, despite our growing anxieties about the danger and wanting to reach our destination, we managed to enjoy the beauty this drive provided.  Here are some pictures from the scenic drive...

The wildlife...

We pulled into Russell around 8:30pm, two hours after our ETA.  We found a nice campground and parked Dexter, our Spaceship for the night.  We’re not sure if it was through our error, or if there are a few quirks with the new maps we’ve uploaded onto the GPS, but we’ve acquired some standard road maps to use for our next leg of the journey while we try to determine if the GPS is going to work as hoped.

This morning we booked a sailing tour with Great Sights so that we could get a better look at the Bay of Islands.  We headed out onto the water around 9:30am.  Almost immediately we were surrounded by a pod of Bottle-Nosed Dolphins.  Unfortunately, the camera we had at hand had dead batteries, and we were unable to get pictures of our visitors.  We continued on our way north and were given many interesting historical facts about the area as we went.  Here are some pictures from today’s events:

"Hole in the Rock" in the Bay of Islands.  On calm days the boat goes through this hole... impressive!

On one of our stops, Austin and I took a walk to learn more about Maori history in the area...

 A view from the highest point in our walk on Urupukapuka Island... our boat in the harbour...

John, whose Maori name I could never pronounce or write because it's 105 letters long, gave us some interesting historic facts about his people.  He grew up in the village just over his left shoulder.  We found it interesting to find out that John is a Christian, even though he and his people also feel that Christian missionaries were responsible for the destruction of the traditional Maori way of life.  John reconciles that faith in God is what helped the Maori peacefully endure all that they did.  Interesting to ponder anyway.

We will be spending two more nights in Russell before heading south again.  We’re still not sure where we’ll end up for Thanksgiving.  We hope everyone at home is enjoying planning and preparing for their Thanksgiving gatherings.  I imagine the air is now crisp, the leaves have fallen, and that the feeling of Fall is very much in the air.  We’ll be thinking of everyone this coming weekend and wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Until next time!

Love and hugs,

The Knotty Travellers