Finding My Fix: Chronicles of a Travel Junkie

So here I am in New Zealand, Nueva Zalandia, Wellington, the capital. It has been much more stressful, much more confusing, frustrating, exhausting than I’d ever expected. It may be English, but I wasn’t prepared for no one to understand what a “bathroom” is, what “dinner” is. Driving on the Left hand side of the road, or more like my Mum driving, and me helplessly watching as we come within millimeters of cars parked on our left. And the driver’s here are insane. They drive like Americans only their idea of a major highway is not a 4-10 lane, raised cement platform, it is a 2 lane winding country road with no shoulder. And they still go faster than the usual 100kph (62mph) speed limit. In this sense, and in many other ways, I’m actually reminded of Costa Rica. Hell, I could just write an entry listing the differences, none of which I actually expected.

I am surprised to have to admit that since I boarded the plane from LA, I have had two nightmares, both about spiders crawling on me of all things, and both times I ended up waking up flailing and kicking. I must say, it’s very interesting when this happens on a plane. TO NEW ZEALAND, land of few spiders and almost no dangerous things (aside from drivers and volcanoes however).

So here’s the lowdown on what’s been going on. 6:15, June 18 (about 14:15 June 17 EST I believe) we arrived on our double-decker jumbo jet, and skidded on the runway . It was raining, cold, and very dark. By the time we used the “toilets” as they are referred to here, got through customs, got sniffed by a security beagle, had the bottom of my mom’s hiking boots specially inspected as a biochemical hazard, got our rental car, and got out into the open air for the first time in 26 hours, I was sick of the whole travel business. But the air was surprisingly clean. It smelled sweet and fresh, cool and wet. First thing we noticed were some of the coolest trees we’ve ever seen in our lives. They look like evergreens in the sense that they’re cone shaped and have branches that stick out with gigantic needles. You would have to see them to know what I’m talking about.

Mum and I took turns at going to the wrong side of the car before we were finally on our way. Let me tell you, after living all your life in a country that drives on the right side of the road (which would be almost everyone on the planet minus the few rebellious types who speak British, Kiwi, Australian, Japanese, or Welsh). We made it very frustratedly to our hotel where we were greeted by a man in a tophat.

We decided we’d take a walk around Auckland after being couped up on airplanes and in airports for 26 hours straight. Which by the way, I’ll have to tell later the tale of how I almost didn’t make it to New Zealand thanks to a double generator malfunction on the plane I took from Denver to LA leaving me with only about 5 minutes to spare before boarding the next plane. Anway, we walked around Auckland, went shopping a bit, and by noon, I’d lost all my energy, so I went back to the hotel to sleep, woke up at 11:30pm feeling gloomy for wasting an entire day, and went back to sleep for another 3.5 hours. 15 hours sleep, and a horribly messed up sleep schedule was what I woke up with.

We pushed on as soon as we could and made our way out of Auckland and south to Waitomo. The drive was beautiful cattle country and the valleys were filled with fog that gave the impression that the ocean had filled them. Everything was so green and the sun was poking through the clouds. We got to Waitomo Caves around lunch time (dinner time for us) and had pumpkin pizza which was alright. Now, if ever in New Zealand, Waitomo Glowworm caves are an absolute must! It was the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. Fifteen minutes walking through boring old run of the mill caves with limestone walls cut out by rivers, and stalactites and stalagmites, etc, followed by ten minutes in a boat on an underground river, staring up silently at what looks like a million blue stars burning in the sky. The blackness is infinite, and the three dimensional twinkling insects above you are, indescribable, and not photographable.

After that we made our way back up to Hamilton and had some trouble finding our hotel. We also found out the hardway that in New Zealand, they don’t always give you bags at the grocery store. You bring your own or you buy them. 10 cents a bag. Bizarre. And while I’m mentioning this, I might as well also mention the mystery of the two buttoned flush on the toilet, which we figured out were the half-flush and the full-flush…. think about it. And every outlet has a switch next to it so you can turn it on and off at the wall. And some bathrooms don’t have light bulbs, they have skylights. Anyway, we bought our groceries, and I managed to procure, from the nice young man at the front desk as my mother dubbed him, with my magical feminine powers, some utensils with which to eat our salads. Unfortunately there was another female in the chain, and thus I would up with two spoons and two knives instead of two forks. I also managed to end up with an invitation to be shown the local sites. All in all a success.

The next day we headed to Rotarua to see a Maori village, but I think I will have to leave you with what I’ve written this far because this internet cafe is not cheap.

Tags: 1. Australasia, 1A. New Zealand, 1A1. North Island

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