Let the Truth Offend You: New Zealand: North Island!

It was an early 6am train that took me from my pseudo home in Fortitude Valley to the Airport.

Too early.

I was excited to catch my flight to New Zealand that morning; however I was also incredibly tired. What should have been a two-thousand-three-hundred and sixty-five kilometre flight of pure sleep turned into a two-thousand-three-hundred and sixty-five kilometre flight of Fast and Furious 6.

At least the film didn’t disappoint.

I reached the northern-most city of Auckland (NZ’s most populous) late in the afternoon and caught the bus downtown to the Nomads hostel where I would be staying the night. Bunk Backpackers was also a Nomads affiliated hostel so I decided to give it a try in Auckland.

Down the street was the ‘Stray’ office where I needed to go to plan my month long trip. Now, I had purchased a ticket on a backpacker bus known as Stray. This company would take you and a whole bunch of other backpackers around NZ and plan out all your activities. There was also another such company, Kiwi Experience (both tours owned by the same guy; talk about cornering the market!), but it was known for obnoxious English ‘lads’ and I didn’t particularly want to spend my time drowned out.

So I chose Stray. It also had its fair share of craziness and the occasional lad, but it was full of people who wanted to enjoy the natural views of New Zealand while still being able to party.

The attendant at the office was a great help to me and planned my entire trip. It was here that I realized that one month was not nearly enough. I was to cover both the North and South Islands and I was cutting it close.

I caught the Stray bus early the next morning. It was a big orange beast of a vehicle, seating at least forty people. Our driver was a Kiwi named Sandfly (nicknamed as such for reasons best left unsaid) who quickly got to work having us introduce ourselves. It was a nice icebreaker and a great way to spend the time as we drove towards Raglan where we would be staying at Karioi Surf school for the night. As we drove down gravel roads, we were surrounded by green, rolling hills that stretched on for as far as the eye could see. And the amount of sheep there! It’s no wonder why they call Kiwis sheep-shaggers!

It was in Raglan where we had our first bonding session. We spent the night playing cards, joking with each other and checking out the glow worms that hid in the bushes around the school. My roommates were two cool girls, Laura from England and Yana from Russia. They both had lived in London and had traveled here together.

Raglan was also where I was trying to negotiate my next geology job. I had received word from my university professor that a Lakehead alumni (now a senior geologist) was looking for a young geologist to join the team at a gold exploration camp in the country of Myanmar.

This would be perfect for me! It would be cool to work in South-East Asia and I pounced at the opportunity. However, I was having trouble organizing an interview. The contact at the company was in Vancouver! And on top of the time difference, I was on a bus every day! So we tried to organize a time to call, but due to a lack of phone signal, I was out of luck. I was on the bus on the way to the next location when my phone popped into service and I received a call. It was the Myanmar contact and he wanted to have the interview on the bus! So we talked about the project and about my previous experience and what he would expect from someone working there. The cellular reception cut in and out a few times, but after a few calls we had finished the interview. Now I just had to wait.

I was in an excited mood when we pulled into the parking lot of the Waitomo Caves. We would be doing spelunking here! So we got on our wetsuits and harnesses and made our way into the darkness. The caves were limestone and as such were full of stalagmites and stalactites. Our team consisted of Alex (an American girl), Graham from Alberta, and Yana, and we were led by our guide who lowered us each down alongside waterfalls and large limestone caverns. It took us over an hour to make it out, but we emerged, dirty and wet but with smiles on our faces.

After a nice hot shower, we made our way towards Mourea where we would spend the night at a Maori cultural centre, actually sleeping in their temple. Now, the Maori were New Zealand’s first inhabitants. They are of the Polynesian islands and traveled to NZ by boats. We were greeted at the centre by the elders and, as it is their custom, we touched noses twice. I don’t believe it was supposed to happen, but we all began our touching noses together, so we went through the entire line of until we had all touched noses with each other. Talk about getting acquainted!

The evening unfolded with a traditional Maori ceremony and a generous dinner spread. It was at dinner that I met Katelyn, another American traveler. Afterwards we were all treated to a show of dances by the Maori, and we were fortunate enough to take part ourselves. They split up the group by gender; the girls would learn the Poi and the guys would learn the Huka. It was a lot of fun going through the actions, especially the part where we make our most grimacing face! We performed the dances for each other and all had a good laugh at our attempts.

We returned to the temple where sleeping bags and mattresses had been laid out for us. We were gonna spend the night together! As we readied ourselves for sleep, we were treated to interesting stories of Maori legends .

We woke with an anticipation of the day. Two adrenaline-packed activities were lined up for us. First, we would go white-water rafting down rapids and waterfalls, and then later that day we would reach Lake Taupo where we would skydive!

We geared up for rafting, slipping into wetsuits and helmets. Our guide, Drax, led us into the boat and down the river. I was in the front of the raft with another Canadian as we cascaded down our first waterfall, water surging up and drenching us all. We all stood up on the raft at one point and Drax signalled to a few passengers to push someone out of the raft. The other Canadian acted quickly and I found myself falling backwards out of the boat only to be saved by pure luck! My foot had been in the foot sleeve up front and as I fell backwards into the water, I bounced back into the raft. Needless to say, it was a miraculous save.

Once back on land, we continued our drive toward Lake Taupo and our next activity. We were met at our hostel by a sleek, black limo which would take us to our plane in style. I shared the ride with Katelyn, Graham, and Holly and Dionne (two girls from Britain).

We watched the safety videos, picked our skydive packages and got suited up. We looked mighty fine in our jumpsuits! The three girls had picked the twelve-thousand foot skydive, but I opted for fifteen-thousand feet, as high as this company could go tandem! I met my guide Joe who I would be jumping with and we stepped into the pink plane that would take us into the clouds and to an uncertain fate.

My mind was swirling as we ascended. Two-thousand feet, five-thousand feet, ten-thousand feet. Finally we reached twelve-thousand and the door opened. I watched as Holly, Dionne and Katelyn disappeared off the edge, into the sky where I would soon follow.

I was not nervous as Joe nudged us closer to the edge. I can only say I was anxious to jump, just to see what would happen!

The door opened for us at fifteen-thousand feet, the blue sky greeting us with litters of clouds below. My camera man jumped first, waving as he casually fell out of the plane.

Joe swung our feet over the edge, hovering there a few seconds before letting go.

As we somersaulted out of the plane, my stomach churned and I experienced a sudden stab of fear. I remember mouthing the words, “OH SHIT” as the plane became a distant memory and an impossible route of escape. There was no going back now.

But fear gave way to instant excitement and awe, and we freefell for nearly a whole minute. My mind was racing, unable to take in this insane new sensation. It was amazing.

The clouds passed us by as we fell, offering an unparalleled view of the globe and the surrounding blue sky. We spun, dove and posed on the way down. And then Joe pulled the chute. The sudden action pulled us back up and slowed our descent. The cameraman disappeared into cloud cover below as we floated down.

We made it through the clouds too (which strangely don’t really feel like anything) and were greeted by the sight of a sparkling Lake Taupo and the town below. It was a fantastic vantage point.

My heart was still pounding when Joe raised a concern. It turned out our parachute was a little tangled and he needed my help. He directed me to extend my arm out, assumingly to alter the air flow around us. It didn’t work.

So this is how it would all end. That was the thought that shot into my head.

He asked me to extend my arm again, and we got it! So we descended, gracefully gliding onto the field below for a solid landing.

I had just skydived and lived to tell the tale!!

We returned to the hostel in quite the partying mood. We didn’t want to let go of our high!

The next day provided us a relaxing opportunity at Blue Duck Lodge at Whakahoro (pronounced Fuckawhoro). I chilled in the lodge with two other English girls, Freya and Sarah and we traded stories and photos of our journeys so far. The day ended with some claybird shooting and a warm campfire.

The next day we were treated with a Lord of the Rings experience. We rolled into Tongariro National Park, staring up at Mount Ngauruhoe aka Mount Doom!

We were going to complete the Tongariro crossing and it was going to be chilly up there. The hiking outfit provided us with gloves, boots, jackets and a hat and we set off. There were twenty of us on the hike, but we split into smaller groups varying due to pace and stamina.

The six hour hike took us up through the craggy volcanic mountains offering spectacular views of the valley below, known to LOTR fans as Mordor. We passed by hot sulphur pipes with smoke clouds, and past beautiful emerald lakes.

We were pretty tuckered out by the time we reached the parking lot, but we were rewarded for our efforts with a cold Tui beer.

A hot tub awaited us back at our lodge, and I enjoyed the movie Kill Bill with Freya and Sarah that night.

Back on the bus in the morning, Sandfly decided that it was time to bring out the superhero costumes. Whenever we got off at a stop, he announced that the last person back on the bus would have to wear a suit for the rest of the day. Daphne (from the Netherlands) was awarded the batsuit, Andrew (from Scotland) chose Superman and Freya was given Spiderman.

I’m sure they made for quite an interesting spectacle as we disembarked in Wellington! This was the second biggest city in NZ, and we made haste to explore as most of us were only going to be here for one night. We made a trip to the free museum and decided on a $5 Dominoes pizza for dinner!

About ten people were leaving our bus to have an extended stay in Wellington, and this included Alex, Freya and Sarah. So we celebrated our time together at our hostel bar. It was a fantastic night.

The next day marked a new leg of our trip. We were now going to leave the North Island, and travel by ferry to the South Island. A whole different type of adventures awaited us there.

We left our bus behind and boarded the gigantic ferry, excited to find out what was destined for us on the other side.