New Zealand with Alex Fenn & Pall Baggett

So here we are… Landing in the beautiful city of Auckland, New Zealand, the largest city in New Zealand with a population of just 4 million. For a couple days we are staying with some of Alex’s family then will be beginning a another unforgettable journey; backpacking the north island with the ‘Kiwi Experience Bus’. The Kiwi Experience is basically a hop on hop off bus that backpackers use to get around New Zealand and meet new people along the way. Mostly made up of 18 to 25 year olds all with a common interest. Travel, live life and have fun doing it.

On the 1^st of February we departed from downtown Auckland unsure of what to expect. And when I say unsure what to expect, I mean it. We didn’t exactly know where we were going to go, how long we would be there for or the people we were going to be with. A quote by Alexander Pope says it all, “Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”  The only thing we were certain of is we had a flight out of Auckland the morning of the 12^th and we had 12 days to do everything we could.

 

 

Day 1 Hot water beach.

Hot water beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world finding itself in the top ten voted by trip advisor. Upon arriving at the hostel, we were offered an opportunity to go kayaking along the surrounding islands. So for about 3 hours a group of us kayaked throughout and actually made it to cathedral cove. A Marine Reserve is on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand popular for the movie Narnia being filmed there. Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why hot water beach has its name… There’s boiling hot water!! And I mean it! All you do it dig about two feet down and you find yourself in boiling hot water. The water gets so hot that the  Maori natives use to actually cook their food in these holes. 

However hot water beach is not what made day 1 memorable. It was the people we met. Two people specially. Cedric and Vikor. Cedric, from Montreal Canada, just graduated law school and is now traveling for 4 months. Vikor is a Swedish carpenter trying to travel New Zealand, find work and live a simple life here. It was definitely these guys and several others we met along the way that made a difference in our travels.

Day 3 Waitomo

After hot water beach, we were off to Waitomo. Here we were able to go black water rafting with the ‘legendary black water rafting company’. When we first heard our bus driver say “black water rafting”, we truly had no idea what it was. He explained that black water rafting was basically rafting on rivers in underground caves. These caves are known for look like stars above glowing on the walls.r having these species called glowworms exclusively found in New Zealand. Up close they resemble maggots but from a distance they glow like stars. After our adventures in Waitomo, we hopped back on the bus to head to Rotorua.

Day 4 Rotorua

Rotorua was memorable for several reasons. Here we stayed in a Maori village and got to experience a bit of their culture. Before this stay we had stayed in hostels the entire way with public bathrooms and uncomfortable beds. as how our food was prepared. They used However, here, the accommodations were a bit different. We slept 30 to a room in the most comfortable beds imaginable. At the village we were introduced to the culture and lifestyle of the Maori natives. The one thing that stood out that was the  traditional Maori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven, called Hāngi.

 

Day 5 Taupo

One of the most popular cities in New Zealand, Taupo, offered us the opportunities to do a variety of activities, including bungee jumping, cliff swinging, and sailing. Due to the weather we were unable to go skydiving but it didn’t stop us from bungee jumping and I have to say, it was a bit nerve wrecking. Having skydived before we thought they would be similar… boy were we wrong. The act of jumping alone towards a large body of water is just as nerve wrecking as it sounds. Although, once you actually jump…the adrenaline is incredible. It was definitely something I would do again given the opportunity.

 

Day 6 River Valley

Alex and I both agreed that this place was our favorite stop. It was a hidden spot with epic scenery and logging. The hostel was in a valley in the middle of no where surrounded by beautiful hills and mountains. Here we got to chose between two activities…horseback riding or white water rafting.  We ended up rafting on New Zealand’s longest river, The Rangitikei River. Followed by the long day of rafting, our next stop was Wellington.

 

Day 7 Wellington

Unlike Auckland, which is known to by an outdoor city, Wellington is known as the indoor city with many museums, cafes and amazing restaurants. Here we we stayed a couple days so we could have some time to relax and catch up on laundry and sleep. We also got to ride on wellington cable car. A railway the connect the city to Lambton Quay, a suburb that overlooks the city. This cable car has been recognized as a symbol of Wellington for over a century.

 

Day 10 Back to Rotarua

Leaving Wellington meant leaving much of our friends we made along the way. When we left, we were headed north while most of the others continued south. Our first stop on the trek back north was Rotaura. Here instead of staying in the Mauri village, we rented some bikes to go mountain biking. Rotarua has some of the best and hardest mountain biking in the world, and it was obvious to Alex and I. After mountain biking, our plan was to go lugging right outside of town. We were told that going late was the best because it wouldn’t be so busy, but when we got there, Alex read a sign that killed us both – “Closing early”. The luge was closing at 6pm that evening, and it was 5:50 when we got there. This might have ruined our chances to luge but right next door we noticed a small mini golf course. Given that we had about 30 minutes to kill before the next bus, we decided to give it a look and after telling the owner, Fiona, our situation, she didn’t hesitate to give us a free round of golf. We may have missed that next bus and had to walk about 6km back to the hostel, but it didn’t change the fact that we had an unforgettable day.

Back in Auckland.

At about 5pm on the 11^th of February, we got back to Auckland where Alex’s uncle was waiting for us. We got back to the house and his family wanted to know everything we had done. One question after another. What’d you do? What type of people did we meet? Favorite part? They wanted to know everything. That’s when I realized that we just made memories that will last a lifetime. Its not everyday that one gets to backpack the beautiful country of New Zealand and meet such great people along the way. It was definitely a trip to remember that will bring great memories for years to come.

 

 

20 hour layover in Tahiti

It’s time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I’d much rather say hello; hello to a new adventure. January 27th was the first day of our adventure. As we said our goodbyes, Alex and I looked at each other and smiled, knowing that this is going to be an unforgettable trip.  Though we knew the trip there may be long, we were going to make the most out of the journey. Our first flight was to LAX, which was about 4 hours with a 3 hour layover. Our next flight, from LAX to Tahiti,  was an 8 hour flight followed by a long 20 hour layover. We landed in Tahiti at about 6 am and had to fly out at 2 am the following day. We  figured that if we just walked, we would find something to do; there was only one main road on the island that circled the perimeter and at the very least we could walk toward the water and snorkel.

 

After about 20 minutes of walking and no success, we started to doubt our decision … just before we were about to turn around, we saw what looked like a beautiful hotel and figured it would be worth checking out. Here we met Roland, the director of the marina there, who was one of few who actually spoke English. Roland was the most helpful person we met that day. He made a few phone calls to see what our best option was and he said since all the tours were booked due to a cruise that just docked, our best option was to rent a car and tour ourselves. He personally drove us to the rental location and set us all up. It was his selflessness that allowed us to experience the best of Tahiti. It is people like him that we are excited to meet during our journey. Throughout the day, we drove down the entire West coast of  the island, went snorkeling and were able to relax at the  Intercontinental Resort. Unfortunately the videos were cut short because of the GoPro dying; nevertheless, we had an amazing time..It was definitely the best layover we could have asked for.