NZ/AUS EPIC HOLIDAY - Days 1-4

Auckland and Northland

Journey to New Zealand - 27th Jan - London Heathrow to Auckland (via LA)

It took me around 29 hours to get from London to Auckland which I must admit wasn't all that bad. Having endured a 40 hour journey from Sydney to Edinburgh I felt that I could take on almost anything. In addition I also found that the presence of movie on demand entertainment really made the time fly. While some would prefer the distraction of a book I must admit that, despite my enjoyment of reading, passenger airlines are just to stuffy, loud and distracting. I find that watching a movie with the volume turned way up is the closest I can get to forgetting where I am. After enduring my way through 6 movies and countless TV comedies I found myself in New Zealand.


Day 1 - 29th Jan - Auckland

Jet-lagged beyond exhaustion I checked into my pre-booked single room at around 8am. Though I would be sleeping in shared accommodation for most of this trip I wanted a single room to crash in after my long journey. I accomplished absolutely nothing that day apart from managing to book my first few days of bus travel.


Day 2 - 30th Jan - Auckland to Paihia

I boarded the Kiwi Experience bus as the somewhat early hour of 7am but then I was still on British time where it was still 6pm so I suppose that wasn't so bad.

We drove off and left Auckland behind and headed north to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. The weather was scorching and quite a welcome change from the positively execrable near arctic bitterness of Edinburgh. I mentioned this in the last time I was in New Zealand but I still can't get over how much like Britain the countryside looked from the road. Not only is there an abundance of quaint rolling hills and fields full of plenty of sheep but they even drive on the wrong side of the road like us Brits (or Poms as they call us). Even the roadside signs look exactly like ours!

We arrived in Paihia before midday just in time to board a small boat that was to take us on a dolphin spotting trip around the bay. Unfortunately luck was against us and we didn't find any, a very rare occurrence here in the normally crowded bay. It seems that some orcas (killer whales) were spotted recently and dolphins know to remain extremely inconspicuous when the number one predators are in town. Fortunately we received free tickets to come again anytime. I headed to my hostel for some dinner and booze before calling it an early night.


Day 3 - 31st Jan - Paihia to Cape Reinga and back

Now THIS was a fun packed day. It was time to take the bus on a day-trip around the northern tip of New Zealand. Firstly we drove on our modified off-road coach northbound along ninety mile beach, which I should point out is actually only 64 miles long. It was almost deserted but it was interesting so go flying down the coast at 60 miles per hour. What made it quite surreal was that the scenery seemed to go on forever without any sign of ending. It was all rather pleasant. We stopped to get off and admire the view and the serenity of being in such a remote place before heading on to what would be the highlight of the day.

After driving slightly inland we stopped in front of some enormous sand dunes to engage in the wonderfully exciting passtime known as sand-boarding. Basically it involved climbing up the massive dunes with a boogie board (a miniature surfboard) and then barreling down at top speed. It's much faster than it looks and actually quite dangerous. People have frequently broken bones and knocked teeth out. I tried it several times and would have gladly done it all day but climbing up steep inclines in soft sand under a near tropical sun can tire you out amazingly quickly. It was still quite an interesting alternative to sledding, given the delightfully hot weather.

Next we were off to the beach for a quick dip before heading up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of the country. Apparently the place has spiritual significance to the native Maori who believe it's where the spirits of the dead go before leaving this plane of existence. Or something to that effect It was certainly a place of quite stunning natural beauty, something that is abundant in New Zealand.

We then headed back to Paihia, stopping off briefly at an area of New Zealand rainforest before finally arriving at our hostel in the evening. Bloody knackered, I retired to my room for an early night.

Cape Reinga

The North end of New Zealand

Day 4 - 1st Feb - Paihia to Auckland

I decided to try my luck again with the dolphins this morning. After all I had the free ticket since we didn't spot anything last time. It seems that luck was on our side today for it wasn't too long before we found a small pod of dolphins that seemed to be in a playful mood.

Sadly we were not able to swim with them due to there being a baby dolphin there but we were still able to get very close by leaning over the side of the boat. Some people even got soaked when on of the dolphins splashed a large amount of water over them. They really enjoyed interacting with the boat and the people on board. It seems they were as fascinated with us as we were with them. As our guide put it: ''we're here to entertain them, not the other way round''. Of course that didn't stop any of us from enjoying their antics. I wasn't fast enough to get any midair shots of them as they leaped out of the water though!

Later that day I boarded the Kiwi experience bus to return to Auckland. It seems that the Kiwi experience bus company likes to pander to the truly lowest common denominator in regards to on-screen entertainment as our in-bus movie was an absolute abortion of a movie starring that irksomely puerile cretin Adam Sandler. The fact that this man is incredibly popular around the world seems to support the theory that humanity has lost it's way and should be violently eradicated from the surface of the earth immediately. Before I watched the movie I merely held the opinion that Adam Sandler was a harmless, stupefyingly unfunny buffoon with no talent. Now I want to break into his home while he is sleeping and punch him in the face with absolutely breathtaking force. This man must be STOPPED before he can make any more movies. Incidentally so does Michael Bay but don't ever get me started on HIM!

We rolled on into Auckland around 7pm.