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North Island, New
Zealand
Sep 22, 2004 21:37 ( local time )
Written by jeffs
So, Sarah and i left hot tropical Fiji and arrived in cold wet New
Zealand on the 22nd September. The question of 'did we make the
right choice?' echoed in my mind. You see, we cut Fiji short as
everyone i'd met had raved about New Zealand, and in particular,
to get down to the south island quickly. We spent around 10 days
in the north island and went to the following places..... Auckland,
Bay of Islands, Rotaura, Taupo and wellington.
Also, we were in 2 minds as to what sort of mode of transport we
should use. Several companies offer bus transport across the north
and south island for unlimited stops within a year, but from what
i've heard from fellow backpackers these tour guides seem to value
alcohol as a number one priority with sight seeing coming a poor
second. Because of this, and because we wanted to do our own agenda,
we opted to hire a camper van for the duration to hopefully cut
costs in accomodation and to travel as and when WE wanted to and
not have out travel dictated to us be a bus timetable. The backpackers
where Sarah and i stayed for 2 days also arranged our van for us.
We had a few simple questions and requirements but you could hear
the cogs whirring in the head of the girl behind the desk. For example,
i asked whether or not the van came with a tv or not. She told me
no, so my next question was along the lines of, if we brought one,
could it be connected to the vans power supply. A look of pure confusion
spread across her face quicker than acne did over mine as a 15 year
old. She had to telephone the van rental company to find out. Mid
way through her conversation where she was simply not getting my
point across, she addressed me and questioned 'an electrical tv,
right?' Hmmmmmmm. Does that mean the 'gas' tv i brought earlier
today is useless? 'yes, an ELECTRICAL TV' i said, emphasising the
word electrical... She still didn't get it. Sarah and i laughed
though. So, after a stressful van booking scenario we finally managed
to get it sorted.
We left the next day 24th September i think) in our 3 year old van
which was to be our home for the next 5 weeks. I must say that i
was impressed with how modern it was inside, how big it was and
how easy to drive it turned out to be. First port of call was the
bay of islands. We only stayed her for one night before leaving
the following day and back tracking on ourselves with voices in
our heads shouting 'why the hell did you go there?!' No real answer
to that so we decided that we would research places to go to from
now on rather than just get in the van and drive. Bay of islands
was a sleepy little town and i guess it was worth the journey for
the fantastic views. Second port of call was a place called Rotaura
which is supposed to be the smaller brother of Queenstown, offering
many of Queenstowns adrenaline activities at a discounted rate.
The town of Rotaura itself wasn't up to much - a few bars scattered
around but with no real feel to it. We left after 2 days without
doing anything worthy of a mention. From here we ventured South
to Taupo and again, stopped only for a couple of days doing not
a lot. We left via the countrys capital city, Wellington, a few
days later and enjoyed a 3 hour boat journey to the south island
and took in some amazing scenery en-route.
Upon arival in the South Island we headed towards Nelson as i'd
sent a few bits 'n' bobs over to a friend who lives there named
Jules. Basically, i sent all my cold weather gear to her to store
for me after i finished my trek in Nepal as i really had no use
for it in the rest of SE Asia. Sarah and i drove to her house to
discover that she was out, although her mum, and friendly dogs were
in. Jules's mum made us feel very welcome, offering us coffee and
cakes etc (so welcome infact that i made a return journey just before
i left NZ!) So, we spent about 10 or so days in the North Island
having taken advice and headed for the South Island quickly....
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