The story goes that Maui, was hated by all four of his brothers and was never allowed to go fishing with them. One day he hid in the boat, Te waka-a-Maui (the canoe of Maui), and jumped out when they were out at sea. The brothers would not give Maui any bait to fish with so he broke his own nose and dripped the blood onto his deceased grandmother's jawbone. With this he caught the biggest fish anyone had ever seen, and he hauled it up to the surface where it can still be found, Te Ika-a-Maui (the fish of Maui).
This is part of the Maori creation story, and is the story behind the names of the North and South islands of New Zealand.
So, for the last 2 weeks I have been travelling down The Fish of Maui, having lots of fun and completely neglecting you lot back home... :)
I left Auckland bright and early on Friday the 5th February on a Big Green Bus, trademark of the KiwiExperience. In the whole of the two weeks, it's the only green bus I've been on - some people only booked this trip for the colour of the bus!
We arrived in the Bay of Islands around lunchtime which allowed me plenty of time to explore Paihia and set my affairs in order, or in fact, as actually happened - sleep on the beach.
As you know, the 6th was Waitangi Day, and as it turned out, no buses were running. So I had a whole day to enjoy the festivities, which were pretty expansive. The day began with a demonstration of the Maori wakas (canoes) in the bay. There were about 8 canoes in total each filled with 50 to 100 Maori warriors in each. They performed a haka - though without much stamping - presumably so as not to rock the boat too much, and the chief waded out into the sea to greet one waka which had been renovated for the celebration. Following this was a 21 gun salute, which was quite exciting at first as there was some commotion as to whether the Prime Minister was safe and whether the shots were aimed at him (apparantly there was an assassination attempt last year!) but everyone quickly regained composure as we realised what was going on. After all the excitement of the morning, I took a peaceful stroll up to Haruru Falls and then promptly returned to my position on the beach for another afternoon nap - well, I wouldn't like to overexert myself so early on in the trip!
The trip back to Auckland was an indication of what travelling with Kiwi is like in peak season, i.e. chaos. 54 people turned up to get on a bus intended for 48. I was 49th on the list. Us surplus were told that we were being transferred to another company's bus which would leave in 4 hours. So we made our way to this other bus company and tried to check when we would be leaving. Unfortunately we weren't on the list for this bus either... it was looking pretty grim for getting back to Auckland at all until 10 minutes before the bus was due to leave when Kiwi got in contact and confirmed our seats. Some hours later we were back in Auckland and ready for the Southbound part of our trip.
Come Monday, I was leaving Auckland for the second time - this time to Mercury Bay, or Whitianga to the locals. On the way we stopped off at Hot Water Beach and although the tide was in, a few of us did venture in to find the hot springs which come up under the sand. It was a very odd experience - being frozen by the waves crashing over you, whilst your feet were being scalded by the springs below the ground. when the tide is out you can dig pools and create your own natural hot tub!
We stopped again at Cathedral Cove, filming spot for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which was absolutley beautiful with stunning blue sea and cliffs surrounding it. Water was cold though! We arrived at our destination fairly late on and sat down to the typical traveller's meal - noodles. My noodles were definitely superior to some of those around, which was almost certainly down to my amazing culinary skills of being able to boil water...
On arrival, our bus driver Dave had told us that the sunrise over the bay was absolutely beautiful and should we be so inclined we could get up and go down and watch it before catching the bus. So that is what I did. I got up at quater to six, and went for a run down to the beach. I got to the beach, no sun. I ran a bit further down to the end of town and back, no sun. So I sat and waited a bit. Eventually it was light enough for me to see that in fact the sun was probably already up but that the thickest blanket of cloud ever was getting in the way of my picturesque view. Nevertheless, I got some quite nice pictures of the sun not coming up... I walked back; I wasn't in the mood for running.
It was a fairly long drive down to Rotorua from Whitianga and on the way we paused for a walk through an abandoned goldmine at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve. I even saw three gloworms. From there we drove straight into Middle-Earth to stop for lunch in Hobbiton. The houses had all been long since removed, but there were plently of signs around to let you know where you were. In fact, Hobbiton was about 20 minutes down the road, we stopped in Matamata, but the signs were still there!)
Getting off the bus in Rotorua is a bit like walking into S20 at Harrogate Grammar School (a chemistry lab). The smell of Sulphur is so overpowering that you think you're going to faint; five minutes later and you barely notice it at all.
the Hot Springs at the Polynesian Spa remedy this however, and you are definitely reminded of the smell as you ease into the pools overlooking the crater lake. Although it smells bad, (and you'll probably have to throw away the swimmers you used in the pools) the water is supposed to be a miracle cure for a myriad of illnesses. It's reported that a lady suffering from lead poisoning, recovered fully after soaking in the pools once daily.
Once we'd finished relaxing in the pools, and then scrubbed ourselves to within an inch of our lives in the shower to get rid of the smell (I don't think you're getting quite how pungent it was) - we were transported to a traditional Maori village and introduced to its inhabitants. Before we were allowed in, we had to elect ourselves a chief (I was hoping it would be me, but apparently girls aren't allowed to be chiefs...) who would be challenged on arrival, and if he did not complete the challenge with appropriate dignity, could expect to be severely pummelled. Thankfully, our Chief Dave (not the driver - we switched drivers at Matamata, now we're onto Dylan) performed the ceremony almost perfectly and we were allowed in to be treated to a concert of traditional Maori songs and dance and to listen to a haka. (I didn't know before I got here that actually there are hundreds of different hakas for different occasions and for different tribes - so when the All Blacks do The Haka, they are in fact only doing a haka. Makes them seem much less scary...) Following the concert we sat down to be served the most enormous meal ever, Hangi. It was cooked in the traditional way, i.e. in a pit, and tasted so good. I piled my plate high in order to make the most of every penny I'd spent and was happily munching my way through that when one of the servers came out and announced that the pudding table was now ready. What?! They never said there'd be pudding as well! Thankfully, I had trained myself in early childhood for moments like these, designating part of my stomach the 'pudding hole'. Nom nom nom. I could barely move after that.
On the 10th, (I've lost track of what day that was), we headed down to Waitomo where six of us were put up in Juno Lodge, which was a lovely little cottagey type hostel with a pool and a trampoline. While some opted for Black Water Rafting, i.e. sitting in a rubber tube and floating down a river through the gloworm caves, I chose the rather more sedate wander round the caves and surrounding bushland. We six, rejected from the main group, discovered weird and wonderful facts about each other whilst chatting on the sofas and were reminded that the world is a very small place.
Coming down from Matamata, the bus had been experiencing some problems and had in fact borken down twice in that time so we were relieved when it turned up for us on the morning of the 11th to take us to Taupo. Taupo is set on a big lake, which is in fact not a lake, but a volcano. This volcano is still active, it erupts every thousand years or so, but none of the locals can quite remember when the last eruption was. Not far from Taupo is another cluster of volcanoes, used in the Lord of the Rings films to depict Mount Doom. Naturally, the only sensible thing to do would be to climb it. So I did. It's known as the Tongariro Crossing and on a fine day has spectacular views. On the day we climbed it, the rain came down and the winds tried to push us off the top of the mountain; it was so cold at the top that there was frost on the little hairs on my legs - yes, I was wearing shorts.
Nevertheless, it was a brilliant walk - though very challenging in places, but definitely worth it. I celebrated the next day by tying my ankles to a bridge and jumping off... Interesting way to celebrate you say? Well, yes, there were moments when I regretted handing over the $95 (about 95% of the moments, I would say) but it was incredible! and terrifying! and absolutely the stupidest thing I have done in my life! But I enjoyed it :)
Valentine's Day:
Once again there were difficulties with buses and myself and two friends I have made, Caroline and Julie, volunteered to skip the drive to River Valley and head straight to Wellington. We were put onto an intercity bus where we met Skippy Nate. We had stopped about an hour into the journey to take photos of Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom) and off the bus bounded a labrador. He ran up to Caroline who had moved away from the bus and practically leapt into her arms. Ok, so it was probably unfair to describe him as a labrador, but that it truly how he came across. Obviously he had decided to make Caroline his Valentine and wouldn't leave her side for the rest of the journey. Once we reached Wellington, he disappeared off into the city with a little wave and was gone...
After a long lie-in and a late start, we headed down to the Te Papa museum for a bit of (free) culture. It's a particularly good musuem, with plenty of information and interactive displays and stuff going on. The shop is also pretty good... As we were about to leave, however, who should we spy but our mate Skippy Nate? Whilst we were hiding from him, we had plenty of time to admire postcards and the gorgeous paua and jadestone jewellery which you find all over NZ.
On an aside, there are plans in action to actually change the name of the country from New Zealand, which was given by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, to Aoteroa, the Maori name for the country which means Land of the Long White Cloud... at least that explains the weather.
Yesterday, was Shrove Tuesday :) nomful pancakes for everyone. My sister's friend, Hywel, who I am staying with in Wellington, made me the fanciest pancakes ever. For mains we had pesto pancakes with cashew nuts and parmesan (nom nom) and for dessert we had pancakes with nutella and chopped almonds followed by the traditional lemon and sugar (nom nom nom). I ate almost as much last night as I did at the Hangi! Anyway, yesterday - Caroline and I went to the botanical gardens on the Cable car which was fun and then wandered down into the city to have a look at the Parliament buildings which are very grand, the Beehive is a slightly bizarre building for governemnt but I suppose it's good to be different? We also made our way to the Archives to go and view the Treaty of Waitangi itself. My cultural tour of New Zealand certainly leaves nothing to be desired!
Which brings me to today. I haven't done a lot so far today (unless you count the 1.5hours of blogging), but I shall make myself some lunch shortly and go and climb Mount Victoria where the best views of the capital city are. I will also be purchasing my ferry ticket for tomorrow morning, in order to continue my trip down onto Te Waka-a-Maui.
Much love,
Missing you all heaps!
xxxx
This is part of the Maori creation story, and is the story behind the names of the North and South islands of New Zealand.
So, for the last 2 weeks I have been travelling down The Fish of Maui, having lots of fun and completely neglecting you lot back home... :)
I left Auckland bright and early on Friday the 5th February on a Big Green Bus, trademark of the KiwiExperience. In the whole of the two weeks, it's the only green bus I've been on - some people only booked this trip for the colour of the bus!
We arrived in the Bay of Islands around lunchtime which allowed me plenty of time to explore Paihia and set my affairs in order, or in fact, as actually happened - sleep on the beach.
As you know, the 6th was Waitangi Day, and as it turned out, no buses were running. So I had a whole day to enjoy the festivities, which were pretty expansive. The day began with a demonstration of the Maori wakas (canoes) in the bay. There were about 8 canoes in total each filled with 50 to 100 Maori warriors in each. They performed a haka - though without much stamping - presumably so as not to rock the boat too much, and the chief waded out into the sea to greet one waka which had been renovated for the celebration. Following this was a 21 gun salute, which was quite exciting at first as there was some commotion as to whether the Prime Minister was safe and whether the shots were aimed at him (apparantly there was an assassination attempt last year!) but everyone quickly regained composure as we realised what was going on. After all the excitement of the morning, I took a peaceful stroll up to Haruru Falls and then promptly returned to my position on the beach for another afternoon nap - well, I wouldn't like to overexert myself so early on in the trip!
The trip back to Auckland was an indication of what travelling with Kiwi is like in peak season, i.e. chaos. 54 people turned up to get on a bus intended for 48. I was 49th on the list. Us surplus were told that we were being transferred to another company's bus which would leave in 4 hours. So we made our way to this other bus company and tried to check when we would be leaving. Unfortunately we weren't on the list for this bus either... it was looking pretty grim for getting back to Auckland at all until 10 minutes before the bus was due to leave when Kiwi got in contact and confirmed our seats. Some hours later we were back in Auckland and ready for the Southbound part of our trip.
Come Monday, I was leaving Auckland for the second time - this time to Mercury Bay, or Whitianga to the locals. On the way we stopped off at Hot Water Beach and although the tide was in, a few of us did venture in to find the hot springs which come up under the sand. It was a very odd experience - being frozen by the waves crashing over you, whilst your feet were being scalded by the springs below the ground. when the tide is out you can dig pools and create your own natural hot tub!
We stopped again at Cathedral Cove, filming spot for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which was absolutley beautiful with stunning blue sea and cliffs surrounding it. Water was cold though! We arrived at our destination fairly late on and sat down to the typical traveller's meal - noodles. My noodles were definitely superior to some of those around, which was almost certainly down to my amazing culinary skills of being able to boil water...
On arrival, our bus driver Dave had told us that the sunrise over the bay was absolutely beautiful and should we be so inclined we could get up and go down and watch it before catching the bus. So that is what I did. I got up at quater to six, and went for a run down to the beach. I got to the beach, no sun. I ran a bit further down to the end of town and back, no sun. So I sat and waited a bit. Eventually it was light enough for me to see that in fact the sun was probably already up but that the thickest blanket of cloud ever was getting in the way of my picturesque view. Nevertheless, I got some quite nice pictures of the sun not coming up... I walked back; I wasn't in the mood for running.
It was a fairly long drive down to Rotorua from Whitianga and on the way we paused for a walk through an abandoned goldmine at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve. I even saw three gloworms. From there we drove straight into Middle-Earth to stop for lunch in Hobbiton. The houses had all been long since removed, but there were plently of signs around to let you know where you were. In fact, Hobbiton was about 20 minutes down the road, we stopped in Matamata, but the signs were still there!)
Getting off the bus in Rotorua is a bit like walking into S20 at Harrogate Grammar School (a chemistry lab). The smell of Sulphur is so overpowering that you think you're going to faint; five minutes later and you barely notice it at all.
the Hot Springs at the Polynesian Spa remedy this however, and you are definitely reminded of the smell as you ease into the pools overlooking the crater lake. Although it smells bad, (and you'll probably have to throw away the swimmers you used in the pools) the water is supposed to be a miracle cure for a myriad of illnesses. It's reported that a lady suffering from lead poisoning, recovered fully after soaking in the pools once daily.
Once we'd finished relaxing in the pools, and then scrubbed ourselves to within an inch of our lives in the shower to get rid of the smell (I don't think you're getting quite how pungent it was) - we were transported to a traditional Maori village and introduced to its inhabitants. Before we were allowed in, we had to elect ourselves a chief (I was hoping it would be me, but apparently girls aren't allowed to be chiefs...) who would be challenged on arrival, and if he did not complete the challenge with appropriate dignity, could expect to be severely pummelled. Thankfully, our Chief Dave (not the driver - we switched drivers at Matamata, now we're onto Dylan) performed the ceremony almost perfectly and we were allowed in to be treated to a concert of traditional Maori songs and dance and to listen to a haka. (I didn't know before I got here that actually there are hundreds of different hakas for different occasions and for different tribes - so when the All Blacks do The Haka, they are in fact only doing a haka. Makes them seem much less scary...) Following the concert we sat down to be served the most enormous meal ever, Hangi. It was cooked in the traditional way, i.e. in a pit, and tasted so good. I piled my plate high in order to make the most of every penny I'd spent and was happily munching my way through that when one of the servers came out and announced that the pudding table was now ready. What?! They never said there'd be pudding as well! Thankfully, I had trained myself in early childhood for moments like these, designating part of my stomach the 'pudding hole'. Nom nom nom. I could barely move after that.
On the 10th, (I've lost track of what day that was), we headed down to Waitomo where six of us were put up in Juno Lodge, which was a lovely little cottagey type hostel with a pool and a trampoline. While some opted for Black Water Rafting, i.e. sitting in a rubber tube and floating down a river through the gloworm caves, I chose the rather more sedate wander round the caves and surrounding bushland. We six, rejected from the main group, discovered weird and wonderful facts about each other whilst chatting on the sofas and were reminded that the world is a very small place.
Coming down from Matamata, the bus had been experiencing some problems and had in fact borken down twice in that time so we were relieved when it turned up for us on the morning of the 11th to take us to Taupo. Taupo is set on a big lake, which is in fact not a lake, but a volcano. This volcano is still active, it erupts every thousand years or so, but none of the locals can quite remember when the last eruption was. Not far from Taupo is another cluster of volcanoes, used in the Lord of the Rings films to depict Mount Doom. Naturally, the only sensible thing to do would be to climb it. So I did. It's known as the Tongariro Crossing and on a fine day has spectacular views. On the day we climbed it, the rain came down and the winds tried to push us off the top of the mountain; it was so cold at the top that there was frost on the little hairs on my legs - yes, I was wearing shorts.
Nevertheless, it was a brilliant walk - though very challenging in places, but definitely worth it. I celebrated the next day by tying my ankles to a bridge and jumping off... Interesting way to celebrate you say? Well, yes, there were moments when I regretted handing over the $95 (about 95% of the moments, I would say) but it was incredible! and terrifying! and absolutely the stupidest thing I have done in my life! But I enjoyed it :)
Valentine's Day:
Once again there were difficulties with buses and myself and two friends I have made, Caroline and Julie, volunteered to skip the drive to River Valley and head straight to Wellington. We were put onto an intercity bus where we met Skippy Nate. We had stopped about an hour into the journey to take photos of Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom) and off the bus bounded a labrador. He ran up to Caroline who had moved away from the bus and practically leapt into her arms. Ok, so it was probably unfair to describe him as a labrador, but that it truly how he came across. Obviously he had decided to make Caroline his Valentine and wouldn't leave her side for the rest of the journey. Once we reached Wellington, he disappeared off into the city with a little wave and was gone...
After a long lie-in and a late start, we headed down to the Te Papa museum for a bit of (free) culture. It's a particularly good musuem, with plenty of information and interactive displays and stuff going on. The shop is also pretty good... As we were about to leave, however, who should we spy but our mate Skippy Nate? Whilst we were hiding from him, we had plenty of time to admire postcards and the gorgeous paua and jadestone jewellery which you find all over NZ.
On an aside, there are plans in action to actually change the name of the country from New Zealand, which was given by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, to Aoteroa, the Maori name for the country which means Land of the Long White Cloud... at least that explains the weather.
Yesterday, was Shrove Tuesday :) nomful pancakes for everyone. My sister's friend, Hywel, who I am staying with in Wellington, made me the fanciest pancakes ever. For mains we had pesto pancakes with cashew nuts and parmesan (nom nom) and for dessert we had pancakes with nutella and chopped almonds followed by the traditional lemon and sugar (nom nom nom). I ate almost as much last night as I did at the Hangi! Anyway, yesterday - Caroline and I went to the botanical gardens on the Cable car which was fun and then wandered down into the city to have a look at the Parliament buildings which are very grand, the Beehive is a slightly bizarre building for governemnt but I suppose it's good to be different? We also made our way to the Archives to go and view the Treaty of Waitangi itself. My cultural tour of New Zealand certainly leaves nothing to be desired!
Which brings me to today. I haven't done a lot so far today (unless you count the 1.5hours of blogging), but I shall make myself some lunch shortly and go and climb Mount Victoria where the best views of the capital city are. I will also be purchasing my ferry ticket for tomorrow morning, in order to continue my trip down onto Te Waka-a-Maui.
Much love,
Missing you all heaps!
xxxx
