Steve’s Travel Blog

Hello all,

Well it has been a bit since I wrote on the blog and there is good reason.  I really wasn’t feeling that up to it as I have sustained my first real injury/pain.  My last night in Fiji I was stupid and decided not to use and mosquito spray.  Well that turned out to be a very bad choice and I was biten really bad on my right leg.  By the time I got to NZ it was already infected and Saturday and Sunday I had a hard time walking.  I saw a doctor on Monday morning and got some antibiotics and cream to put on them nd they started feeling beter right away.  I needed some paim killers as well because it was quite bad but I have not taken any for the last 2 days and the bites are slowly going away. I got confirmation from the doctor today that it is nothing serious and the meds I am on should be all that I need.  I guess it will be the first bill to the medical insurance company.  It cost $82 for the doctor visit and another $100 for medicine.  I was feeling so good that I decided to start touring the rest of NZ because I was really tires of the big city of Auckland.  So the rest of this blog wil be the good news of my travels and adventures on the last 3 days.

I booked a tour thru a company called Stray tours to travel thru all of NZ at my pace and alomst anywhere I want.  I cost mt $1415 for all my bus travel and the tours that they take you on.  My only other costs will be rooms and food.

We left Auckland on Wednesday morning over the Harbour Bridge and went to the hilside and on top of some hill and looked back at Aucklnd and the country side ahead and stopped to pick up some food for the day.  Our next stop was in the forest to see Kauri Trees ( these trees are very old and there are not many left because they were so tall and straight they were used as ships masts) that it would take at least 4 people to get around holding hands.  I can’t believe I am going to say this but yes I did hug the tree.  That was no where near as good as hugging the girls.  We then went to Goats Island Marine Reserve that was on Cape Rodney (that’s for my bro) but the weather was not very good so we vould not get all the way out to where the fish were.  I went the furthest as the water was cold and most were in pants and runners but I got out i there in my shorts and flip flops and walked out a far as I could.  One other guy followed for a while but did not want to get wet and another girl came for a few steps and then gave up.  After that because of the weather we made a few changes to the itinerary and went to a Native bird recovery center that was pretty neat.  This guy gets all kinds of birds that have been hurt and he gets them better and then sends them back out into the wild.  THere are some that just can’t go back and he uses those to show others what some of them look like up close.  We saw a Tui bird that talked it was prety funny and kept on wishing us a merry christmas.  After we saw a hwak and then the very rare Kiwi bird.  After that we saw a toilet, yes i said toilet.  The guy that created was an artist and no I am not putting it on the blog.  The toen folk love him but I think he must have been stoned when he did it. We got to Paihia and stayed there.  Iwas invited to a cultural show by Gemma who was also there but came on a different bus and it was awesome.  We got invited itno the show in traditional Mauri fashion and then it was like a play for the rest of the evening.  I child was asking her granfather about her heritage and then actors/singers did the performance.  After that I was really tired and went straight to bed after 1 drink.

THe next morning we got up and were on our way to the top of NZ (Cape Reinga).  We stoped at the top of a hill and looked back at Paihia and there were so many sail boats (nice toys).  We then went to 90 mile beach which is only 64 miles long.  We got the bus on the beach and just started driving down it.  It was really cool, at low tide it is like a highway that yu can use.  We saw a couple of cars that did not make it out before high tide came in.  After that I got to go sand surfing again which was much beter than the first time because i knew what I was doing and got a great photo.  From there we went to Cape Reinga which was really cool.  THis is were the Tasman Sean and the Pacific Ocean meet.  It is the battle of the waves as the 2 bodies of ater meet and it looks so amazing as waves in 2 different directions meet.  In parts the water just doesn’t look right, I have never seen anything like this before.  From there we stopped at Gum Diggers Park and saw how the used to dig up the roots of these trees to make gum (not chewing gum).  Some of the roots are 40,000- 100,000 years old.  Our last stop was at a Kauri tree work shop.  THey had some amazing furniture and the staircase to the 2nd level was carved out of a kauri tree (unbelievable).  We stayed back in Paihia again and I relaxed after a couple of drinks.  The bar we were in was giving 2 for 1 adventures and we won all kinds of things to do on the next day.  I almost forgot to tell you about the new friends that I have met.  We have a nice litlle group together (Sam as in Samantha, Iris, Karin, another girl I can’t remember her name and Liam.  We have been having a great time together but not all seem to want to be a part of it.  I was rooming with 3 German girls and for the first day and a half they never even talked to me, I just don’t get it, even Iris who is german tried talking with them and got no where.  Oh well I guess not everybody loves me. Today we had a free day in Paihia and the girls went wakeboarding and the on a jet boat.  Iris and I were supposed to go parasailing but neither of us were feeling that well so we chilled on the beach instead.  I will probably come back here when I have more time and do some sailing and fishing.  We left Paihia at 4:30 and came back to Auckland.  I leave tomorrow with the same group and start making our way south.  I will folow the tour day by day until Dec. 23rd and then I will be in a town called Taupo.  Gemma and her friend will be meeting up with me there for xmas.  I will be there until the 27th and then I continue going south.  Now here is the really exciting news, we are planning to sky dive on boxing day which will be your xmas day and I hope to get some great photos and maybe a video.

It is really hard to put lots of picks on here so I have now signed up on Facebook where it is reallt easy to put pics on.  If you sign up to Facebook and look me up as Steve Dietrich then you will find 100’s of other photo’s that I have taken and that my friends have of me as well.  My profile photo is the one of me as a Toaona Guard in Fiji.  Someone please help my parents with how to get an account.

That’s all for now but as you can see things are going great.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 4:10 am and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.