Notes from a boat

Hello all, NZ has been amazing (minus the spotty internet access) and as I type we are on a ferry from the North Island to the South Island. I promise we'll catch up on pics and vids at some point soon cause we've got loads of em' but for now here's a recap of the last 3 days in the North Island. Thanks for keeping up with us and see you all soon. Love Tash and Sean

Day 3 Redwoods and Geothermal Jam

So today we woke up on “the Mount” and after a 12K false start in the wrong direction we headed south to Rotorura, our destination for the day. We were a little worried after researching things last night that many of the best activities in Rotorura would be out of our homeless/jobless van-people price range. It is a center of geothermal activity in the North Island (think geysers, mud pools, mineral baths etc.) and has become heavily touristed and pretty pricy. But fear not dear blog friends, we’re Deiter’s! and thus undefeatable, so we used the last drops of our free wifi and found a free Frisbee golf course in Rotorua thats nestled in an ancient redwood forest (yeah, so that’s a thing here). So we started the day with 150+ foot tall red woods, the first disc golf of the trip, and a black lab named “wonder woman” losing her mind swimming in a circle in a stream chasing her own splashes. From there we went in to town to a section that was noted in the guide for being a “blend of Maori and European cultures.” We were on guard for over the top expensive cheesiness, but instead found a village (a village square really) that would not be out of place in some out of the way spot in Europe except for all of the intricate Maori carvings that lined the edges and doorways of the buildings. One highlight was a very well kept cemetery with graves from WWI and WWII that made you think about 20 somethings from Rotorura who fell half a world away in Flanders or Anzio or some other place fighting with a “maori expeditionary company.” Another highlight was a Anglican church featuring a stained glass window with my man Jesus in traditional Maori dress. (Why not?). From there we walked around a free park in town that had a bunch of steamy, bubbly pools until we got creeped out by a sign that noted that the ground is “very unstable” and that new pools can form very quickly without much warning (does this mud feel warm to you?) Then we hit the Pakn'save (New Zealand Walmart style supermarket) and picked up food to cook for tonight’s dinner (chicken schnitzel with mashed potatoes and mushrooms) and headed south towards lake Taupo where we’re going tomorrow. We stopped at a $44 campsite with 9 geothermal pools that went a long way towards soothing 3 nights of weary van sleepin muscles. As I type were tucked in the happy Diwali planning out tomorrow’s adventure.

 

 

Day 4: Land-o-Lakes (well lake really)

Today we woke up and couldn’t resist another dip in the hot pools before we set off south for lake Taupo. Some nice people from New Zealand (I should really just say “people from NZ” because everyone here is so nice) tipped us off to a waterfall that is just outside of the lake, in addition to hand writing us a 3 page list of cool things to see on our way to Wellington (see what I mean). It was a great tip as the waterfall was free and really cool and ended up being better than the lake itself as budget/time restraints prevented us from doing all the fishing/hiking/helicoptering that make the lake so cool. That’s not to say the lake was a bust however, It was beautiful, and bigger than Singapore (an odd reference I know but that’s what the guide says) and was created by a volcanic explosion many, many moons ago. We stopped and walked around the nice little atrsy-fartsy lake town and snapped some pics before heading south towards Wellington. We decided to cover most of the 5 hour drive to today so that we could get up and spend the day walking around the city which is supposed to be really cool. After a quick stop at the trusty pakn'save to pick up 3 strip steaks for $6 (meat is wildly inexpensive here) we dropped $100 worth of gas in the Diwali (gas is not inexpensive) and headed to the campsite. It was a night of many firsts. It was our first free campsite, which looked like a place where they hunt people for sport or cook meth laced moonshine, but turned out to be great.  We found the first gross bathroom in NZ, it was an outhouse that is probably good prep for India. We made our first couple friends, 2 Germans named Iris and Sasha who were very friendly and are on a world trip of their own, and it was our first campfire which took a while to get going, made our clothes and van stink like smoke, but was an undeniably awesome addition to a great night in the woods.

 

Day 5 Windy Welly

Today began with breakfast at the happy Diwali café and after 45 minutes of waiting for our coffee water to boil, and one almost explosion when the butane canister came loose, we were packed up and ready to go. Another 45minutes had us in wellington at the “wellington waterfront motor park” which is a parking lot next to a shipyard except with nice clean bathrooms instead of surly longshoreman. It’s a great spot because its in the heart of the city and right next to the ferry terminal where we catch our boat to the south island at 7am tomorrow. Wellington was recently rated the number 3 city in the world based on the happiness of its inhabitants (in some random survey) and its easy to see why. The city is fun and funky and clean with lots of good food and bars as well as plenty of free activities. We started with a quick walk to an incline cable car train that takes you up the mountain/hill next to the city. The view at the top was cool and we walked back down to the city through a giant free botanical garden. We are probably 2 or 3 weeks away from the flowers really blooming (as its just getting into their spring) but it was still a beautiful walk. Once we were back at sea level we went and grabbed some Malaysian food and then headed to the national museum, Te Papa (also free). It was a super sweet 6 story building that basically combines all of the smithsonian’s (natural history, air and space, art etc) into one place. There was lots of interesting historical stuff, a house that simulates an earthquake and interactive computer games that show how the Maori spread out from east asia through the south pacific over 2000 years ago (spoiler alert: they used the stars and followed the birds). From there we walked along the harbor back to our van where we cleaned up and went out for dinner. We stopped in a bar and watched some or the Australia v New Zealand rugby match that was randomly on and it was a really cool atmosphere cause “the all blacks” (NZ’s national rugby team) were winning. Then we went and treated ourselves to a delicious wood fired pizza (it was great to have food that was not cooked out of the back of a van, and to not do dishes in our pump sink) before walking back down “cuba street” which is a cool bar/restaurant area with street musicians and a guy tossing around a fire baton. As I type we are back in the van getting psyched for the South Island and wondering how it is that we’ve only been here for 5 days. NZ is action packed.