So There I Was…

Since my last post I spent another night in Paihia, caught the Magic bus back down to Auckland for a night and then took the Intercity Coach from Auckland to New Plymouth. I’m now in Opunake, a small beach town on highway 45, also known as the Surf Highway. The Surf Highway runs along the west coast of the North Island from New Plymouth to Hawera. I arrived in Opunake Sunday afternoon spending the weekend in New Plymouth.

My last night in Paihia was quite fun. I had spent the day just kind of walking around town, doing laundry, and mostly just relaxing. That evening I went to the bar below the backpackers for a couple of beers and met a couple of locals from Auckland, Mike and Adrian, who were in town for work for a few days. Both were sales reps and were in Paihia calling on clients. I had been sitting by myself in the bar when they invited me to join them. This was a little surprising, but the New Zealanders are a freindly lot. We chatted over beers for some time, and they were even nice enough to offer me a ride back to Auckland with them the next day. I had already booked my ticket on Magic, but thought I’d skip it and join them anyway since they had offerred to show me some more of the north coast and share a room with them in Monterey. Unfortunately, as the night wore on and we all got more drunk, we lost track of each other and never did work it out. It was all just as well though because after the hard night of partying, I wasn’t that keen on getting up early to leave by 8:00. So I stuck with the original plan and caught the Magic back to Auckland at 1:30, arrivng at my backpackers around 6:00 that evening. I stayed at a new place in Auckland called the City Garden Lodge, in a district called Parnell. Parnell is a cool little burb near the University with lots of shops and cafes. After I got checked in, I rang Gavin, my friend from the Habitat build, and we met at a local pub for a burger and beer. Gavin had just finished up his work at the University of Auckland and was preparing to leave that weekend for a 5 week trip to Dubai and Europe, and will be running the Paris Marathon next weekend. We exchanged travel notes and talked about the Habitat build some more, but called it an early night and I got back to the backpackers about 9:00 or 10:00.

THe next morning I checked out of the backpackers by 10:00 AM and started the walk back downtown to the Sky Tower where the Intercity terminal is located. Along the way I stopped for a quiche and coffee at the local Starbucks. Yep, they have Starbucks in New Zealand, and although I haven’t been in one since I left the U.S., I was curious to see if the menu was the same. I usually drink an Americano in the U.S., but most of the places here call the same drink a Long Black. But, sure enough, on the menuboard in the Starbucks was the familiar Cafe Americano. After ensuring that I was sufficiently caffeinated, I walked down the hill toward the harbor, stopping at the grocery to pick up a couple of things I needed, and then headed back uptown to the bus terminal. It was about a 45 minute walk in all, and not bad considering I had my backpack and shoulder bag. I haven’t had a chance to weigh my pack yet, but I’m guessing that it probably comes in at around 40-50 pounds. At the terminal I met a wonderful couple from Ontario who were native Kiwis and on holiday in New Zealand. We chatted for about an hour until it was time for me to board my bus for New Plymouth.

The ride to New Plymouth took about six and a half hours, but it went by pretty quickly. We made a couple of stops for tea and arrived in New Plymouth just before 7:00. I was met at the bus station by Liz, a woman I met through Couchsurfing.com, who was nice enough to put me up at her place for a couple of nights. I could tell it was going to be a good weekend, when the first thing she suggested we do was head to the pub for a beer. At the pub I met several of Liz’s friends, along with three young guys from England who were also traveling through NZ. They were fun guys, and very nice despite all of the hobbit jokes they had to endure. After a couple of beers Liz and I headed back to her place and were later joined by a couple of her girlfriends. They were a riot to listen too, not seeming to care that I was there as they talked mostly about shopping and men. It was quite funny, and even made me a bit homesick as they reminded me a lot of some of my good girl friends from home.

After several more beers, we finally called it a night. The next morning we had coffee on the deck and then went up to the beach with Liz’s dog, Magpie. New Plymouth has a great beach with a walking track that runs the entire length, and also a nice lake at the north end of town with great views of Mt. Taranaki, also known as Mt. Egmont. Magpie, aka Maggie, had a great time chasing all the sticks and rocks we could throw (she’s one of the few dogs I’ve met that will play fetch with rocks). Mt. Taranaki is a popular tramping spot, and you can easily hike to the summit in a day. The summit is 2518 metres, or about 8,000 ft. After we’d had enough stick throwing at the lake, we took Maggie back home and then headed up to Pukekura Park, a large urban park in the center of towm. Pukeruka park is home to an ampitheatre, a zoo, a racetrack, and several trails, ponds, and gardens. The ampitheatre, the Brooklands, recently hosted Stevie Nicks, and is bringing in Jimmy Cliff later this month. Part of Pukekura Park was also used in the movie The Last Samurai, which was filmed in New Zealand.

After our sightseeing tour we went downtown for lunch and then headed up to visit some of Liz’s family that live outside of town along the river near the base of Mt. Taranaki. We hung out there for a while and then later went to another friend’s house to watch the rugby match between the local Taranki team, the Hurricanes, and the team from Christchurch, the Crusaders. Unfortunately, the Crusaders won easily, but it was still a fun evening, which we topped of by going out to the pubs. We hit several pubs that night, eventually ending up at a place called The Basement Bar, which was hosting a couple of great bands. The first band, The Twitch, was the winner of the New Zealand finals for the World Battle of the Bands in 2005 and came in second in the world finals in Hong Kong. They rocked hard, and I was really impressed. The headliners were a band called Jaggedy Ann, an all-girl group from the States. They were great too and the whole night was a blast. After the show we weren’t quite ready to call it a night, so we caught a cab back to Liz’s friend Jill’s house where we had a few more beers and hit the spa. Finally the sun came up and it was time for breakfast. Liz and Jill cooked up some bacon and eggs, and after we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves, we headed back to Liz’s for a few hours of shut eye.

The plan for Sunday was to head to Opunake, about an hour south of New Plymouth. Unfortunately, the main bus lines don’t travel down the coast highway, but instead go inland around the other side of the mountain. I was ready to hitch, but it was raining pretty hard, so Liz was great enough to offer me a ride. I have to say that Liz really went above and beyond as far as hosting me and showing me the town. She was really great, but I can’t help but think part of her wanted to offer me a ride to opunake just to get me out of her damn house. 🙂

Anyway, we arrived in Opunake about 2:30 in the afternoon. Liz dropped me off at the Opunake Beach Camp and I got a small cabin for a night. This “cabin” is really just a small room, probably 7′ X 10′, with a set of bunk beds, a small dorm fridge, and a cafe table and chairs. It’s really tiny, but it was only $25 a night. The camp has a large common area with a lounge, kitchen and laundry facilities, and hot showers, so I had all I needed. The cabin is only about 100 metres from the beach, and after walking around for a while and checking out the town I decided to book two more nights here before heading off to Wellington and the South Island. I spent most of yesterday relaxing, reading, doing laundry, etc. and got to watch some of the surfers try out the waves. I stopped to talk to one couple that had been surfing who turned out to be from Canada, near Banff. They had been traveling around the South Island in a rented van and were heading north. I’m finding that it’s pretty easy to meet people when traveling, even if it’s just to stop and chat for a few minutes and compare notes. Traveling alone has it’s benefits and it’s downfalls, but I think it just depends on your attitude and wilingness to extend yourself a little.

The weather here is pretty nice, but I woke up to a pretty hard rain last night. There have been some pretty hard storms brewing up in Southwestern Australia, and I think some of that might be passing through here. I’ve got one more night here in Opunake, than I’m going to try and hitch down to Hawera. It’s about 35 minutes down the road, and once I get there I’ll be back on the main bus route and can hop a bus to Wellington. I hope to be in the South Island by the end of the week.

Pahia and the Bay of Islands

New Plymouth Beach and Mt. Taranaki

Pukekura Park Zoo and Gardens

Opunake; Beach shots, the car camp, my cabin, and Opunake’s main street

Tags: Cool Stuff, Music, New Zealand, Photos, Travel, Tag Index

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