Auckland (the end): sad face.

Saturday morning I waited until the five very nice but very chatty Slovenian girls sharing my dorm room headed out for their own Tongariro Alpine Crossing adventure, then I packed up and started the drive to Auckland.

Natch, as compared to the day before it was a gorgeous day and I bet they had a gorgeous hike. (I suspected I would remember mine more than they would remember theirs though.)

the only kiwi I saw the whole trip,

Ngauruhoe in the background -
which I could not see the day before!

Pieke had recommended a few stops along the way, which I gladly indulged in.

Lake Taupo vista point

Huka Falls

Huka Falls turned out to be beautiful but quite touristy so I opted for a side walk from the main strip. Along the way there were lovely views and lookout points.

Spa Park walk - population: me

Continuing north I stopped off for coffee with an attitude...

I agree!

... followed by a quick visit to Cornwall Park in Auckland. My intention was to finally see One Tree Hill to pay homage to the tale I'd heard where a Maori chopped the latest tree down in protest to the monument ("this is in honor of a dying culture? our culture is not dying, thank you very much, and now I shall chop down your monument" - my words, legend sentiment).

But in the short time I had, I never did find it. Instead I wandered among the tall trees and lovely flowers in the amazing old park for a bit...

not One Tree Hill

... and then headed to Auckland airport to end my three-week adventure. What a fantastic trip, and I am so grateful that I could share it with good friends.

farewell for now, New Zealand

Auckland, Day 2: it's no spreadsheet, but...

pet a friendly eel
in a cave lit by glowworms
how was YOUR monday?

Auckland, Day 2: a little R&R&R.

Monday was a holiday and we worried that we wouldn't find breakfast, but Jill came to the rescue through a supermarket discovery during an early morning walk.

Mango yogurt... YUM

After breakfast Kim drove us 2.5 hours south to rappel, raft and rock climb in the Waitomo Caves. The countryside along the drive was really lovely - rolling green hills, lots of farmhouses, some mountains and lots of cows. Later I would learn that one of their top three industries is dairy, so the cows made sense, but at the time I was just wondering where all the sheep were!

Before checking in for the cave tour we stopped for lunch at The Big Apple (where I vowed off New Zealand "bacon" for a little while, and also vowed to eat a salad at some point on this trip). Energized, we headed into our 5-hour adventure which consisted of:

rappelling 129 meters down a cave shaft

walking up the river a bit to see a constellation of glowworms

tubing down the river a bit, including
a random jump off the cave wall at one
point (they do love their action down here)

crawling through crevices for photo opportunities

stopping to pet a friendly little eel who swam
right up to us and moved from person to person

rock climbing back up the 129 meter shaft

The cave was beautiful, the glowworms were really amazing and the rappelling/rock climbing were an adrenaline rush. It was definitely not like the eco-tours I'm used to, though. The tour owner opts to leave the cave in its natural condition instead of installing ramps and ropes and other accessibility features, which is great, and the cave itself doesn't seem too prone to damage from human touch like some of the other delicate caves I've visited.

But the guide poured the leftover juice directly into the river before packing up, and I actually winced. It didn't pain me as much after he explained that the water contained farm run-off and was probably all kinds of contaminated (information which would've been helpful to know BEFORE we got wet, actually), but a few minutes later when I saw the little eel I couldn't help but wonder how healthy it and the rest of the river inhabitants were. I just kept picturing Blinky.

Then again, maybe that little eel really likes mango orange juice. Stranger things have happened.

I got to drive back to Auckland. Driving on the other side of the road was weird but not too bad. The whole time I thought about how I needed a little more practice with my travel zen. There wasn't a moment of silence on the cave tour - the guide and other guests chattered the whole time, whereas I just wanted 5 minutes of quiet while I lay on the rocks in that underground cavern, staring up at the glowworms. I ended up lagging behind the group just to have a few moments to myself in that gorgeous cave. Hopefully the people on the overnight trek next week will appreciate silence, for a little while anyway.

Dinner at the apartment was delivery Indian food (Little India this time), to supplement the leftovers from the night before - good call, great food to get us ready for Part 2 - Wellington!

Auckland, Day 1: a driving homage.

windshield wiper turns,
sweaty palms, good directions -
keep to the left, please!

Auckland, Day 1: getting acclimated.

After a rousing airline safety talk featuring Richard Simmons (yes, THAT Richard Simmons), the 14 hour flight in wasn't so bad. The food was decent, the wine was free and there were some excellent movies to choose from (on this leg, I opted for "Life in a Day" and "Drive"). We arrived at the Auckland airport and picked up the car.

(I should note that after just two days, I already anticipate a lot of "yes, THAT..." disclaimers on this trip.)

Other than a few mishaps confusing the windshield wipers and turn signal, and me as a very confused passenger on the left side, Kim's first experience driving opposite was successful and we made it to the Waldorf Stadium Apartments around 10am to meet up with Jill. Determined not to nap, we headed downtown to see what Auckland was all about.

Our first priority was food - the Occidental Belgian Beer Cafe showed us how Auckland does breakfast:

"Bacon" is actually more like ham,
and "bloody mary" is actually really
tomato juice with tobasco and vodka

Then we headed over to the Sky Tower's Sky Deck, 220 metres/722 feet high, for a panoramic view of Auckland. Fun facts: Sky Tower is the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand, is as tall as 37 buses laid end to end, and weighs the same as 6,000 elephants. (There, now I can ditch this brochure.) It wasn't the clearest day but we got some good views:

One Tree Hill in the background

If one so chooses, one can bungee jump off the tower or take a walk around the perimeter. We did not so choose but others did:

Truth in advertising

From the Sky Tower we'd noticed a colorful park, which turned out to be Albert Park, so we headed in that direction. (And by "headed," I mean we wandered around for half an hour attempting to find the park.) The colors were from the Auckland Lantern Festival in honor of the Year of Dragon. This 13 year tradition hosted over 200,000 visitors last year. Our visit was not that populated but the lanterns were neat:

Not pictured: butterfly and rose lanterns,
gorgeous garden flowers

And the views of the Sky Tower were amusing.

I squish your Sky Tower!

Next we headed over to the Auckland Museum to see their amazing gallery of Maori artifacts and history. By this point I was fading a bit and having trouble absorbing facts and culture, but the canoes and intricate sculptures were really interesting and I look forward to learning more about the Maori throughout the trip.

Finally, we headed over to The Eagle to enjoy a celebratory drink and then to Satya for a very good Indian dinner. We managed to stay up until at least 9pm - something to celebrate for sure!

Cheers!