And so my travels in New Zealand have finally come to a
close. I spent an additional 9 and a half days running around being a crazy
tourist, and I was quite happy with everything that I saw. Definitely worth the
return trip!
So I flew back from Glen Helen on April 11th and spent a few
days re-organizing myself. I shipped home one of my giant suitcases! I’m
starting my preparations to go home at the end of August. I’d like to be able
to get on the airplane without checking additional bags at extra cost and
without paying heavy baggage fees. It’s going to be tough, but I am determined
to make it work! I’d like to say
that my time in Sydney was enjoyable, but it was not. While I very much liked
being in a city again (although being amongst massive quantities of people
again was a bit strange…) and eating lots of thai food and soup dumplings, the
hostel I stayed in was absolutely awful. I tried a new one this time because it
was in my old neighborhood, but it was terrible. Gross, uninhabitable, and
filled with inconsiderate nitwits. I was not a fan at all. I will not be
returning.
I flew in to Wellington to start NZ round 2, which is the
capital of the country at the bottom of the north island. I was standing in
line to get through customs when I saw someone who looked like Orlando Bloom. I
said to myself: that looks like Orlando Bloom! Then I took another look at the
dark-haired guy carrying the year-old baby who looked to be the same age as
Orlando’s son Flynn, and then I said to myself: That IS Orlando Bloom and
Flynn! An A-list celebrity and a celebrity offspring sighting! So exciting!
What better welcome back to New Zealand present than having Legolas himself
greet me at the airport! I guess it does make sense though. He is filming The
Hobbit movie in Wellington, and he has to get there somehow! I was quite pumped
to be back in Kiwi land after that. I’d been in the country for like 7 seconds
and I was already seeing some cool stuff J
The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the hostel in
Wellington. I’d stayed at the place a couple of times when I was in town before
– it’s a nice hostel, converted from a hotel, so it has much more of a
hotel-vibe to it than a backpacker joint.
Day 1 in New Zealand Round 2 was spent at Te Papa, New
Zealand’s national museum. It’s a pretty hi-tech place. Very modern, with
exhibits on New Zealand’s geology and geography, Maori culture, and European
history. I went on an introductory tour first, and then wandered around for the
rest of the day myself. I was quite impressed with everything. They had a giant
colorful marae (Maori meeting house), a hologram show, a house that shakes to
simulate an earthquake and a couple of motion simulator rides. Te Papa was much
more bad-ass than any museum I can recall visiting in the recent past. I was already pleased with my decision
to return to the country. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that experience.
Day 2 was also spent in Wellington. I went on my first Lord
of the Rings tour! It was a day trip through the Wellington area to visit film
locations, as well as to visit the Weta Caves, which is where a lot of movie
production is done for films made in New Zealand. The tour group was small that
day, just me and one other girl – ironically, a Cornell undergrad from
Trumansburg. Small world! We visited lots of places in the Wellington area. It
was neat to see where they filmed stuff, but it was also nice to get to drive
around Wellington and the surrounding area just to see what it looked like. We
took a bunch of super dorky photos at the different film locations; and while I
think they are super awesome, some of them are so nerdy that I dare not
actually post them on the blog (or facebook J)
Here are a couple of non-dorky ones though:
We learned quite a bit about how they filmed things to give
the appearance of people being all different sizes. Here’s an example shot of
me and the other chick – both of us are about the same height, but not in the
photo:
Pretty cool trick, eh? Here’s another picture:
Looks pretty dull, but this is THE spot where they hobbits
hid from the Nazgul in the first movie (the tree was computer generated):
Day 3 was a travel day. I took a bus from Wellington to
Rotorua, which is about a 7 hour drive. Once I got to Rotorua I went souvenir
shopping for all the things that I didn’t buy last time. I also have to mention
the Rotorua hostel. Super nice, and one of my favorite hostels I’ve stayed at
thus far on this whole trip. It was a big old house, and the place was run by a
very nice husband and wife team. There were beds only, NO bunks, and the
mattresses were quite comfy. I managed to sneak a bed in an alcove, so it felt
like I was sharing the room with only one other person. Plus the place had
bathtubs and a hot tub outside. Not bad for $22 a night!
Day 4 was the start of the last section of the Stray bus
tour. There is a 3 day side trip based out of Rotorua that I didn’t have time
to do on the first trip, so I scheduled it for round 2. It was just a small
van, only 8 of us plus the driver. We went out to the eastern cape of the north
island, which has a very high population of Maori people. The drive out to the
first overnight stop was lovely, but the roads were super windy and I got a bit
of motion sickness. I’m getting old! Here’s a photo of the place we stayed at:
We had a nice bbq dinner that night (including freshly
caught lobsters J)
that our driver prepared, and then stayed up late chit chatting. It was nice
and relaxing.
Day 5 we slowly made our way over to Gisborne, which is the
biggest city on the east cape. We stopped at a few little touristy spots along
the way before arriving at our hostel, which was another beach shack, only this
one had a farm in the backyard. Ocean in the front and farm in the back – not
too bad! Here’s a picture of the yard right out front:
We had a traditional Maori hangi meal for dinner that night
in an enclosed fire pit - also
quite a nice evening. I wasn’t too hungry, so I ended up feeding most of the
meat in my meal to the hostel cat in a weak attempt to buy his affection.
The morning of day 6 was spent at the beach hostel. A lot of
people went surfing with the free surfboards provided, but I took the
opportunity to hang out solo in the hot tub instead. I then spent the rest of
the morning chasing around the cat, with partial success. We took a slow
afternoon drive back to Rotorua, again stopping at a few local tourist spots
along the way. We got back to town around 5:30, where I hopped off the Stray
bus for the final time! The hop on hop off bus ended up being a great move for
me. I took advantage of the hopping off feature when I travelled most of the
country in December/early January, plus I was able to see so much more than I
would have with a regular tour. I will miss the orange Stray bus!
Day 7 was back to me on my own. My first stop was a morning
trip to Rainbow Springs Wildlife Park. It was just outside the Rotorua CBD, so
it was a short bus ride. The main reason for my trip to the wildlife park was
to see a kiwi bird. In fact, one of the main reasons I returned to New Zealand
was to see a kiwi. It seemed criminal to have spent all that time in Kiwi land
without actually seeing one of the
famous endangered national birds! I took a 10 am tour of the country’s largest
kiwi hatchery. I didn’t get to see any birds in the hatchery, but there were 4
in the nocturnal viewing area, including one who was running laps like a madman.
They’re so cute! I learned quite a bit about them on the tour – I really didn’t
know much at all beforehand. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to get any
pictures of them. They’re very sensitive to light, so you can’t take any photos
of them L.
The rest of the park was nice as well. Tons of native birds and trees, including
a kea bird who danced better than I can.
The afternoon of day 7 was spent going on a 2 hour walking
tour of Rotorua that was recommended by one of the hostel owners. It took me
first through Kuirau park, which is a free area of geothermal activity to walk
through. Rotorua is famous for its steam vents and boiling mud pools and sulphur
smell – it’s an area of very active volcanic and geothermal activity. The next
stop on the walk was through a Maori village on the shores of lake rotorua. The
village itself was interesting enough, but the fact that some of the homes had
backyards with steam rising out of them was pretty awesome; although I think
I’d find that more amusing in theory than in practice – having a geothermal
steam vent in my backyard might freak me out a bit. The last part of the walk
took me by the shores of lake rotorua around a golf course. Lots more random
steam vents, pretty views, and a wildlife reserve. I returned to my hostel 2
hours later with sore feet and a lot of awesome pictures.
I went to the pools at the Polynesian spa that night. It’s
rated as one of the world’s top 10 spas, and it was only 2 blocks from where I
was staying. There were 7 pools in total, including one that overlooked the
lake. I sat in the lakeside pool and watched the sun set over the water. It was
pretty cool J
I woke up early on day 8 to take a bus to a farm outside of Matamata
– the home of HOBBITON! The actual Hobbiton set isn’t exactly the one that was used in Lord of the Rings – they
unfortunately dismantled it after they were done filming. The current set is
the re-created one that was built for the filming of the upcoming Hobbit films.
Whatever, it’s still Hobbiton! It was unreal being on a LOTR set – like
stepping into a movie! Here I am in front of one of the hobbit holes:
I even bought the Hobbit book at the Hobbiton store. I
haven’t read it yet, so I figured what better place on earth to buy the book
than the homeland of the Hobbits? It was the perfect souvenir for the perfect
morning out in the Shire.
I spent that afternoon at Te Puia, which is sort of a Maori
cultural park. They had a carving school where you could watch the apprentices
learn traditional carving skills, a weaving school, a model village, a kiwi
house (this kiwi was sleeping though), and a thermal area with a geyser that
went off every 30 minutes or so. Here’s a picture of the landscape at Te Puia:
My last stop of the day was at a local spa for a mud bath.
It was 20 minutes in a super hot bathtub filled with thermal mud. It was fun!
The water was a bit too warm though, and I ended up giving myself a headache by
sitting in there and playing with the mud for too long.
Day 9 was my last full day in New Zealand. I spent the morning
at Wai-O-Tapu, which is another thermal area. I’d already seen a bunch of
thermal stuff, but this place was known for being particularly spectacular –
and it certainly was! The colors and the features at this place are really
indescribable. It was like walking through another planet. Here’s one photo of
the landscape:
And here’s me in front of a pool of water that’s naturally neon green:
The rest of the afternoon was spent waiting for 5 pm to get
on my bus back up to Auckland. The next morning I got up at 4:45 in the morning
and flew back to Sydney. The morning that followed that was a flight back up to Alice Springs for a
few days rest at Glen Helen – and then the big schlep begins. 2 and a half
months starting in Tasmania, and then going allllll the way around the country.
But my plan for the next few days involves a lot of sitting and coke drinking
and watching tv J.
