Spring Break: NZ Style

Well, for the past couple of years, I have spent my spring break out in California with my sister, Heather. Seeing as I wasn't able to make it there this year, ha ha, spending my time in the Bay of Islands seemed like a good alternative. I hadn't planned much for my two week semester break, other than my bungee jump, which I wrote about before. It was a last minute decision and I was very happy it all worked out ok.I spent my first weekend of break with Rebecca, props to her for letting me stay with her and her family in Palmerston North!! They were great, and hope to stay in touch with them after I leave here.

After a few days at her house, I hoped on a bus all the wa

y to Auckland. Now, if you don't have a map of the north island of New Zealand, Palmerston North is near the bottom and Auckland is almost at the very top of the island. This meant that I had a long long 10 hour bus ride that day. After a few mishaps and overheating of the bus, i finally made it through a snow storm (crazy right?!) and to Auckland only an hour late. That night I stayed at the Nomads Hostel in the city where I met up with Amy, her roommate Brenda, Megan, and Morgan for the start of our trip up north.

Although, at this point I was completely sick of buses, we took another bus about 3 hours north to a town called Pahia, in the Bay of Islands. There aren't a lot of big cities in New Zealand, and this town was perfect for a little getaway from the hustle and bustle of Wellington. We stayed at this awesome hostel called the Mouse Trap (which actually had a huge mouse statue sitting in a lawn chair on top of the house, lol). We met a lot of interesting people staying here, including people from England, Greece, (probably china, we called this man Mulan), and Germany all of which were pretty nice.

Our first official full day in the BOI(bay of islands) was a day bus trip, not too excited to be spending even more time on a bus, up to Cape Reinga. Fun fact: this is the most northern point of New Zealand and where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean collide. You can kind of see the difference in color of the water in the pictures. After making some stops for photo opportunities and lunch, we headed to 90 mile beach (actually only about 60 miles, but they thought that 90 mile sounded better haha), on the west coast of the New Zealand. Here we went sandboarding down huge sand dunes and took some more typical tourist photos on the beach.

The second day trip was the Great Sights, Fullers Cream Cruise. It was so nice to be out on the water for the day, taking in the sights of the many islands in the BOI. We made our way around several private islands, must be nice to own one lol, and some cool black rocks. Our destination for the day was the Hole in the Rock, self explanatory. Didn't realize that we were actually going to drive through the hole, but we did with great success and some nervous moments as well. As we made our way back to Pahia, we were told we could swim with the dolphins. This day however, there was a baby in the pod so we were unable to get in the water with the dolphins but had an amazing time watching them swim along side the boat. We did have the opportunity later to go boom-netting. Basically, this is when we stand with a death grip on a net that is tied up on the side of the boat while it moves. It was definitely not as relaxing as the pictures in the brochure made it out to be. While that day was filled with sitting on a boat and sight seeing, the next day was much more active. We decided to take a walk to Haruru Falls, and the Waitangi Treaty House. We spent a good walking around the Waitangi Treaty grounds, checking out the Wakas (maori canoes), Flagstaff, and Treaty House. This might have been the first time, like EVER, that I was greatly interested in history. We learned about the Treaty of Waitangi, and how it was signed in 1840 between the English settlers and the Maori tribes at that time, in order tolive together in peace.

Later, we ventured onto the hour hike to Haruru Falls. It ended up being quite the ordeal walking there and back. We didn't realize how long the hike was going to be until we ended up at the Falls near sunset, which meant we had to walk back through the forest in the dark. With only our cellphone flashlights and my 'stay safe in the city' flashlight key chain, we made it back, but only after an encounter with one mean looking possum. It took us a while to realize what it actually was, and after finding out we bolted in the other direction.

Our last full day in the BOI, we spent in Russel. This was the very first capital of New Zealand, and was the capital at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. We saw the first bar, and a cool printing press house as well. This interested me because I had learned about the process of the printing newspapers in my History of Journalism class here at Massey. That night, Amy, Brenda, and I treated ourselves to some amazing seafood at Only Seafood restaurant right around the corner from our hostel. 3 course meal for under 40$ I thought was a pretty good deal.

After our week of relaxing in Pahia, we all headed back to the Auckland, where the rest of the group caught a flight to Queenstown while I stayed another night. That next week I spent back in New Plymouth with Natalie and her family again. I got to meet a lot of her friends, seeing everyone was on mid-semester break at the time. I even met on guy that was completely obsessed with the Chicago Bears. Who knew that I could fly half way across the world and meet a Chicago football fan??!!

Natalie and I headed back to Wellington the sunday before school started again, which meant I had a ton of homework to do and papers to write. The month of May was the busiest I have been since being here in New Zealand, with 6 papers due, and a presentation in one of my classes. What a whirlwind of a time. I did however, get some breaks from all the school. Check out my next post for my next Wellington Adventure.

Until Next Time