Super Bowl Monday in Taupo (Feb. 5)

Congratulations are in order! For whom, you might ask? Well, us, of course! Today marks the one month anniversary of the date your intrepid world travelers struck out from Mt. Gretna, PA to travel to this lovely little piece of the planet. An anniversary calls for a proper celebration, and we opted to celebrate the best way we know - by watching the Super Bowl. That’s right – through the power of satellite television, Andrew and I sat down in a sports bar in Taupo at noon on Monday afternoon to watch the game that our friends and family (and according to the announcers, one billion other people worldwide, umm… right) were watching on Sunday evening. Sadly, the Super Bowl commercials were not part of the broadcast, but we did see many promos for the upcoming program on the illustrious history of cricket – you won’t find be able to enjoy that one on ESPN in the States! Also sadly, the game sucked from the other side of the planet, as the Colts and the Bears failed to excite in the big game. It certainly didn’t have the excitement of, say, the Curling World Championship.

Earlier, we stopped by Waipa Brewing, a very small brewery in Rotorua that was on our list of breweries to try and visit. I think Graeme, Waipa’s manager, was surprised to see us at 9 o’clock on a Monday morning, but after we explained we were interested in small breweries and not looking to get our buzzes on that early, he was happy to show us around their small operation. They’re a pretty small-scale operation, using extract instead of grain and fermenting in 50L buckets, but what blew our minds most was that they are currently hand-filling all their bottles for sale! Having filled our fair share of bottles homebrewing, Becky and I certainly don’t envy the poor sods who have to manually fill them from the taps, then capping each one.

Site of the infamous camera fumble

Graeme did mention that they’ve only being bottling beer for sale for less than a year, and that with a deal in the works to greatly expand the brewery, they would need to really modernize and upsize their facility. He gave us a free four-pack of their beer, a terrific gesture that we’ve been appreciating the last couple days. Cheers, Graeme!

Unfortunately, things haven’t gone completely smoothly here, as I dropped our new camera on the concrete floor at Waipa. At first, it seemed to work fine (which left us thinking, that was a freebie!), taking perfect pictures at the brewery, but once we got to Huka Falls near Taupo, it ceased taking clear pictures, and will have to be serviced somehow. Hopefully Kodak has a service center in NZ? Fortunately, we do have a backup, so we will continue to have pictures of the trip until our new camera has been repaired.

Otherwise, we are continuing on our whirlwind tour of the North Island. After two days in Roturua, we have commenced our travel southward, stopping in Taupo (famous for the cheapest skydives available in NZ) and Turangi (favorite spot of trout fisherman). Tomorrow we will embark on the Tongariro Crossing, billed as the best day hike in New Zealand. After the tourist crowds we experienced over the last few days in Rotorua, we really struggled with the best way to do the Tongariro Crossing without having to walk shoulder to shoulder with five hundred other people. In the end, we have decided to do what most people do – take the shuttle. It will drop us off at one end of the track in the morning and pick us up about eight hours later in the afternoon. Other than walking approximately 34 km round trip or hitchhiking back to our car, it seems to be the best (and really only) option. We are opting to take the early shuttle in hopes of beating the crowds. Hopefully Andrew finds 6:00 AM more appealing tomorrow than he does on most mornings.

It certainly feels as if we have increased the pace of travel these last few days. We have spent two nights in Tauranga, and two nights in Rotorua, but places don’t take on the same familiar sense when you’re not experiencing them with the locals. We really haven’t traveled that great of distance in miles, but it still feels like we are moving at a intense pace. Towards what? The South Island sounds good to us.

More Roto-Vegas (Feb. 4)

First off, it’s kind of hilarious to us that Kiwis like to call Rotorua Roto-Vegas. Although maybe it’s a bit like Vermonters calling Rutland Rut-Vegas. If you’ve been to Vegas, there’s about 0% chance you’d mistake Rotorua (or Rutland for that matter) for it, but maybe they’re just being cheeky here?

Today we did more of the tourist thing and went to Wai-O-Tapu, a slightly overpriced geothermal park south of town where you can see a host of pretty interesting geysers, craters, and other formations caused by the hot water and minerals shooting to the surface from deep underground. While in Rotorua, we felt somewhat compelled to go, though perhaps the Waitangi Day weekend was not the best of timing: the place was packed with other tourists, which was less than awesome.

Geothermal wonders at Wai-O-Tapu

One thing that was pretty awesome was Kerosene Creek, a naturally heated creek near Wai-O-Tapu that is somewhat akin to sitting in a hot tub with a waterfall. And it was free, which as always is the right price for us. We deserved it after overpaying for Wai-O-Tapu, we thought. The owner of the hostel we’re staying at, The Funky Green Voyager (which by the way is an excellent little hostel), warned us that a lot of thefts have occurred there since Lonely Planet, the guidebook that basically every backpacker here has (us included), recommended it in the last edition.

Sorry, ladies, he's already taken

Prior to that Kerosene Creek was a bit of a local secret, which was blown by LP, and subsequently has become the target of unsavory characters looking to take shiny things from people’s cars. Apparently the local uproar has caused LP to remove the portion on Kerosene Creek from the next edition, which hopefully will restore things somewhat. The hostel owner alluded to another similar but largely unknown creek, but was noticeably silent on details about it. Guess they want to keep some secrets to themselves, not that we really can blame them.

Last, we hit the Redwoods park outside of town. They planted a forest of California redwoods here a long time ago (probably 50+), making a scenic reserve with walking paths. Becky had never seen redwoods before, so she was excited to see them. It was quite a nice little park, and we managed to avoid the bus-full of Japanese tourists for the most part, which was a definite plus. If you see a group of Japanese tourists disembarking a bus at a tourist destination, run, don’t walk. The only bummer about this forest was that they don’t have any trees on the scale of the largest ones in Cali yet, so someday we’ll have to visit the originals. Until then, the NZ versions will have to do, not that we’re complaining.

Tree hugger at heart

Something’s Rotten in the State of Rotorua (Feb. 3)

Just an hour south of Tauranga lies our next stop in our Kiwi tour, Rotorua. Rotorua is the most popular tourist spot of New Zealanders, which seems funny at first, seeing as how there are so many gorgeous beaches. But an economist would probably reason that none of the beaches ranks as the single most popular spot because they’re all such close substitutes for each other. Leaving Rotorua (or as Kiwis are wont to call it, Roto-Vegas), which has its charms, but also its fair share of peculiarities, as the top domestic tourist area.

Rotorua is a Maori word meaning “second lake”, but a more fitting name would be whatever the Maori word is for rotten eggs. Rotorua has a lot of geothermal activity going on below the surface, which reveals itself in the form of geysers and bubbling springs, but most notably through a strong sulfurous smell that permeates the entire region. In any event, there’s a lot to enjoy in Rotorua, but the sulfur never lets you forget that it’s here to stay.

We did quite the set of touristy things today in Rotorua, which I guess is only fitting. First, I Zorbed down a hill north of town. I felt compelled to go Zorbing since it’s a uniquely New Zealand activity, as this is the only location in the world that it’s done. Also, as the Romans would say, I am the ne plus ultra of extreme. Basically, you hop in a giant cushioned beach ball, which may or may not be filled with water, and are rolled down a 200m hill. It’s a good time, even if there really isn’t much point to the whole thing besides a fun ride. If you’re ever in Rotorua, you might as well. Hopefully, video will be available in the near future.

Empty zorbs on the top of the hill

Our zorbonaut, Andrew, after a successful voyage

Walking through Rotorua was interesting, as there was a Maori church on the lakefront, in what we can only describe as the Maori Tudor style. Also, there’s a free park downtown where you can see a bit of the geothermal activity going on underneath the surface. At the very least, it was more interesting than the La Brea Tar Pits in LA. Sorry Chipper…

The Maori church in Rotorua

Becky, wide-mouthed, by a Maori tiki

The second touristy thing we did was going to a hangi, which is roughly the Maori equivalent of a luau. We generally hate doing the really touristy group activities, but this was billed as a good cultural activity in the literature we’d read, so even though it was a bit expensive, we decided that we really should attend one in New Zealand, just to judge for ourselves. Overall, it had its good and bad parts.

The good: some parts of the entertainment/cultural show were quite interesting. The actors sang, danced, and used and explained some Maori musical instruments. They also re-enacted peace ceremonies and war dances (haka), and by and large did a good job communicating the significance of those things and of their culture. Also, the hangi dinner was good, plentiful, and filling. I tried to eat enough for three days to try and offset the expense, but unfortunately you can’t store up calories for future use, even when backpacking.

The bad: there were a lot of people attending the dinner, which made us feel like cattle being herded during the walking tours, especially since people felt the need to jostle their way up to the front any time there might be something of interest going on. This type of show always makes us feel like ridiculous tourists, too, which is funny. Also, though the presenters generally did a good job presenting aspects of their culture, it still ended up feeling a bit voyeuristic and slightly exploitative, even though the Maori people were clearly OK doing the show. I hate to be depressing, but it made me think: the winners write history, and the losers are perhaps doomed to re-enacting it as dinner theater in future generations. But I’m glad that we went and did our hangi; now we can continue to explore New Zealand and enjoy the rest of our meals here free of moral ambiguity…

Mt. Maunganui (Feb. 2)

So we’re in Tauranga on the northern part of the Bay of Plenty right now, enjoying a stretch of terrific weather. We had a few days of rainy weather in Auckland when we arrived in mid-January, but since then the weather has been terrific. Hopefully I’ve not jinxed it by talking about it, so I’ll stop now.

In that time, we’ve gotten so much sun, it’s been ridiculous. Gas has been a bit expensive, yes, and Internet a bit more than we expected, but at this rate, sunscreen will turn out to be a major expense. Even driving around, you can just feel the sun beating on you. When you combine the twelve hours of sunshine a day in summer owing to NZ’s extreme southern position along with cloudless days and either the hole in the ozone or NZ’s naturally pollution-free skies (depending on who you believe), you end up with a lot of sun exposure. At least we’re getting our vitamin D. In spades.

Today we continued our sun-worshiping at Mt. Maunganui, right across the water from Tauranga. It’s quite a cool geological formation, with a mountain formed by an extinct volcano at the end of a narrow isthmus jutting into the ocean. Mt. Maunganui is quite built-up, especially in terms of New Zealand beaches, but I still thought it was nice.

From the base of Mt. Maunganui

We hiked the mountain in the morning, a steep but quick 20 or so minutes to the top. Afterwards, we went to the somewhat famous hot salt water pools at the base of the mountain. I could’ve used some overcast skies; hot water pools on a very warm, sunny day wasn’t the most refreshing way to do it, but it was still nice. We then hit the beach for a little bit before deciding that was enough sun for one day. All in all, Tauranga is a bit more resort-towny than most NZ beaches, but not all beaches here will be desolate and wind-swept, much to Becky’s chagrin, I suspect...

Picture at the top of the Mount

Enjoying the sun at the beach in Mt. Maunganui

A Post In Which We Pose With Large Objects (Feb. 1)

This week has found us leaving Tony’s alternative-lifestyling bucolic paradise in the Coromandel for more southern destinations. Our original plan was to run back up to Auckland to grab our IRD documents (tax papers) that we figured should arrive at our mailbox at a downtown Auckland hostel. We called them to inquire whether anything had arrived for us and they said no, which led us to skip going to Auckland and head directly for Tauranga, a seaside town on the northern part of the Bay of Plenty.

Unfortunately, they were either having technical difficulties, or they are idiots, because when we checked our email in Tauranga, we were informed that we did indeed have two letters at our mailbox. We can have them forwarded to us at a post office elsewhere, so that’s no problem, and it’s nice not having to traipse back up to Auckland, which we could do without anyway. But it doesn’t necessarily give us a lot of faith in our choice of mail handlers…

Driving from Thames, our stay last night, and Tauranga, we drive very near two large photo-op-worthy touristy destinations, a large L&P soda bottle in Paeroa, and a large kiwifruit structure in Te Puke. As you can see, these are indeed very large objects. Usually, in the States, such tourist traps at least have a good T-shirt to buy, commemorating one’s visit to such a prestigious location.

Unfortunately, the rampages of capitalism apparently haven’t reached New Zealand, as these places were woefully short on respectable souvenirs. Our guidebooks told us to expect L&P ice cream in Paeroa, but guess what they didn’t have? If you guessed anything other than L&P ice cream, please hit yourself.

L&P (Lemon & Paeroa) is a popular New Zealand soda, “World Famous in New Zealand,” which sums up the appeal of the beverage quite well. It’s a lemony soda with a hint of some other secret flavor, exactly what they won’t say, but we have a guess: Windex. At least that’s what it seems to us, although that hasn’t stopped us from ordering a few while we’re here. I think I’m secretly hoping it will grow on me, then I will love it, and will feel compelled to tell people of it in the States, and then maybe someday it will be sold in the States, and most people won’t like it because it’s kind of unpalatable, and then I can feel superior since I have a more developed sense of taste. Or something like that. Or maybe it’s just not very good; Kiwis also love Vegemite.

L&P - World Famous in New Zealand

Also disappointingly, they didn’t have kiwifruit ice cream in Te Puke, which seemed a bit odd seeing as they had about a dozen other flavors, including perennial favorite boysenberry. I’ll do some research, and unless kiwifruit is for some reason completely unfit for production of ice creams and sorbets, WTF? Also, their orchard tour was NZ$20pp, which seemed exorbitant, especially seeing as we may end up picking kiwifruit at a real orchard someday. The irony of paying for a tour of a menial job we might end up doing soon was just too rich for us. Plus most of the tourists in the Kiwifruit tram were old, not in our young and hip demographic. Te Puke, you’re on notice. But as I appreciate any good photo-op with large fruit, here you go.

A Week in the Coromandel: Part Two (Jan. 24-31)

Probably the most memorable part of this week, aside from the views and unspoiled scenery of the Coromandel, is the people that populate Tony’s little corner of the world, Waitaia Community. On the property which spans parts of three valleys, Tony has his house, a structure down his driveway that a guy Phil and his Belgian girlfriend Katrine live in, a currently unused caravan (that we painted) next to Phil’s, a caravan on top of the hill above Tony’s that Claudia from Germany lives in during the summer, a small building (shaped like an upside-down U) that a woman, Leigh, lives in, and somewhat permanent camping sites that Tony’s cousins use in the summertime. Tony’s friend Mikalee, who works as a grip in film shoots in NZ, also stops by from time to time, staying in his van, but he plans to build a permanent house on the property in the near future.

Claudia's caravan on top of the mountain

Claudia, originally from Germany, used to be an actress until she decided to take up work as a professional golf instructor but hasn’t really worked at any job for several years now. She now divides her time between New Zealand and Switzerland. While living here, she stays in a caravan on top of Tony’s mountain but also has a coverted garage in town that she can live in (but her father is staying there now). She is really lovely and interesting, and it’s pretty cool that she makes this lifestyle work. We also really liked Mikalee, who was a really great and mellow guy (unfortunately doesn’t dig getting his picture taken) who made us dinner the one night and taught us how to play Sh*thead. Good game.

Becky and Claudia on our last morning in Coromandel

Just about all of the above people, and a few more, were at Tony’s the other night. It was an eclectic group, to say the least. Much wine was drunk, and everyone seemed to be in high spirits. It was a good time, but then again you’d expect the alternative lifestylers to be fun, eh?

Overall, I think we’ve had a good experience at Tony’s, as the work hasn’t been too bad, the food and accommodations quite nice, and the outdoor opportunities fantastic. We’ve been to so many nice beaches and done a few nice hikes while we’ve been here, so that’s been quite a boon. It’s hard to complain, but it has been awkward interacting with Tony for the most part, however. Sometimes it seemed like we were getting along quite well, and then it would just go a bit distant. I’m not sure what it is, but we haven’t gotten the instant sense of warmth from Tony that we did with our CouchSurfing hosts over the past few weeks. It might be that he’s a bit aloof, or because he doesn’t seem to like most American things, because we don’t have tons of practical farming skills, or that we’re not “cruisey” enough, as he might put it, but it’s seemed slightly strained at times. In any event, we have had free room and board and we did enjoy the good views, food, and beaches for the week, which was quite nice. Perhaps you’re just not destined to really get on with everyone, but we tried, so we can’t regret any of it.

Andrew cooling off in Tony's homemade pool after a hard day's work

In sum, this was a good week. After the non-stop travel of the past few weeks, it was great to recharge for a week at one place and gear up for some more traveling. I don’t think we’ve ever been so excited to be able to put down our toothbrush in the same place for a whole week! The stop also allowed us to meet some interesting people and catch the Coromandel from a local perspective. It’s not everyday that you meet such an eclectic bunch who are doing their own thing away from the city, working as little as possible but still managing to stay quite busy. As always, interesting times…

The cruisey view from Tony's house

A Week in the Coromandel: Part One (Jan. 24-31)

After the nearly constant traveling of last week, we decided that it would be nice to stay in one spot for awhile – even better to stay there with free room and board. Becky had signed us up for WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) before we left the States, and we were interested in visiting the Coromandel Peninsula, a largely undeveloped area across a body of water, the Firth of Thames, from Auckland.

Over the past week we had been in contact via email with Tony, who lives on a mountainside near Kuaotunu on the Coromandel Peninsula. We had agreed to an arrival date and one week stay. As wwoofers, we would receive free room and board in exchange for four hours of farm work each day. Becky reckons this experience would possibly be her first stint at manual labor ever?

Our alternative host, Tony

We met Tony and his daughter Cheyenne after a harrowing car ride from Auckland. The roads are steep and curvy everywhere in this country, and this drive was no exception. Unfortunately, we hadn’t received directions right to Tony’s house. But your intrepid explorers looked up the street on a map, and we were on our way. Expecting to see some sort of “sign” to lead us the way to Tony’s, we were a bit disappointed when we found none and continued driving far longer than reasonable up a ridiculously uneven and steep dirt and gravel road up the mountain, taking us into a kiwi preserve. Poor Ron, how we abuse you!

Fortunately, we managed to get ourselves turned around and back to the nearest town. Showing that we have skills outside of using the internet, we chatted up some locals and asked for directions. As if to reinforce the fact that Kuaotunu is a rather small town, they knew exactly who we meant when we mentioned we were looking for “Tony”, and asked if we were doing some wwoofing? At least we were probably not the first ones who couldn’t find his house.

Tony lives in a house that he built largely by himself. For power, he uses solar panels and a water wheel when there’s enough of a stream, and he also gets his water right off the mountain. As far as we can tell, he seems to have some vegetable beds (in dire state of neglect), some greenhouses (also neglected), and some sheep and cows (no evidence yet of their likely state of neglect, although the adult sheep were in need of some serious shearing as they looked like pillows running around the paddock). Our accommodation is in a room underneath the house. It’s the most privacy we’ve had in days, and that part is nice. A little rustic, but hey we’re used to it by now.

Tony is an alternative lifestyler who used to work as an electrical technician in the city before quitting his job and buying his 60 acres of land here. He’s lived here for about fifteen years but doesn’t seem to work much as far as we can tell. On our first night he cooked us a dinner of fresh paua and mussels that he and his daughter and a friend had caught that day. The paua in particular were quite tasty, though I couldn’t see paying NZ$50 for them, which seems to be their going retail price.

Paua, yum

On the next several days we fell into a bit of a routine, which was nice. We’d wake up around 8-9 AM, have some breakfast, and start in on our day’s work. Most of our work consisted of odd jobs around the farm: mowing, weeding, picking wildflowers, painting one of Tony’s caravans, washing cars, etc. Not really ‘organic’ work per se, but I didn’t really mind as that’s really more Becky’s thing anyway. Tony’s place really needed a good weeding as his beds appeared to have been neglected for awhile (Tony had gone to visit his girlfriend in Switzerland so was a bit behind).

After work most days, we went to check out a number of the local beaches and sights. New Chums Beach, an isolated beach with cliffs on both sides, was quite nice. Tony told us it was voted the second best beach in all of New Zealand (although he couldn’t recall what had been the best beach). It seems as if we’ve been on a beach vacation for the past three weeks, as we’ve been to the beach most days on this trip! One of these days we’ll have to find something else to do, but with the lovely weather we’ve been having here, might as well live it up while you can.

One of the few cathedrals you'll probably catch us in on this trip

Becky admires Cathedral Rock

Of the local sights, Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach were highlights in our mind. Cathedral Cove, as you can see, really does resemble a cathedral. Hot Water Beach is pretty neat because near low tide you can dig holes in the sand, which fill up with hot water that you can relax in. The only tricky part is finding a good spot for a hole, especially as it’s quite popular with tourists, and most of the spots are either too cold, or too hot, with just a few that are just right...

Andrew never stops working, even at the beach

Enjoying the fruits of Andrew's labors