We arrived in Auckland at 5:00am and crossed the time/date border, thus almost completely skipping the 19th of March. So far Auckland appears to be a great city. It's the 4th largest city in the world, area wise, an has a population of 1.4 million. It's highly industrialized and looks very similiar to Calgary with a touch of Montreal's cutlure and Ottawa's colonialism. I'm looking forward to futher exploring the city over the next two days.
03.21.01 -- Day 11, Auckland, New Zealand
I love Auckland! Last night we had the oppurtunity to go to the Sky Tower similiar to The Calgary Tower and see the 4th largest city, area wise, in the World. Auckland is a beautiful city surronded by active volcanic islands and the ocean. The weather is gorgeous here! Today was spent walking around the downtown core, visiting a nearby island called Davenport and sitting on the hill top of the volcanic peak chatting and enjoying the sunshine. Later in the afternoon we visited an absolutely amazing and huge Muesum and this evening we had a lecture in the park and ate a delicious dinner at an Indian food restuarant. Tommorow its off to the North part of the island where we will get to see glaciers sitting next to volcanic islands. We will be driving through one of New Zealand's many conversation parks, so its should be a great drive. Stay tuned for more adventures in NZ. . .
Our morning started off with an interesting twist. We left the city of Auckland at 8:45am with big plans to head up the northern part of the island all the way to the Bay of Islands. About 15 minutes out of Auckland the clutch on our bus stopped working and we had to wait around for about 2 hours to get a new bus. Lucky for me our bus stopped right in front of a YMCA, so I was able to use the time to work out! My workout was much needed and felt wonderful! When our bus finally did start working we drove to a museum where the Treaty of Watangi was signed and saw the largest Maori canoe in the world. We then headed up to KeriKeri where we stayed the night at a quaint hostel in the small town. The drive from Auckland to KeriKeri was very beautiful and scenic. The landscape changes from minute to minute, but every minute the ground is covered with lush green tress and beautiful rolling hills.
Today was spent doing a lot of driving on our tour bus. The drive was beautiful, but twisty, whindy roads made for some unhappy passengers and one person even got sick. Our first stop was made at the Waipoua Kauri Forest where we saw HUGE Kauri trees, known for their fine wood, which were over 2000 years old and reached heights of over 17 meteres! Next we stopped at a historic museum which detailed the history of the Kauri tree and we landed at a nice hostel in Orewa Beach for a pleasent and relaxing evening.
The morning started off with a pleasent and much needed run along the beach. Much of the day was spent driving down from Orewa Beach to Rotorua. The drive was nice and varied topography along the way made for some scenic views. We arrived in Rotorua around 17:00, had a guest lecture and enjoyed a yummy dinner at a really neat cafe called The Fat Dog. All in all a really good day.
Finally I got to sleep in this morning, but woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy, congested feeling. Aside from feeling under the weather the day was good. About 10 of us went to a historical park to see live Kiwi birds, boiling mud pools and shooting guisers. After we checked out the botanical gardens and did a little shopping and then headed back to our hotel for a traditional Maori dinner and dance. The dinner was tasty, but the environment where the ceremony was held seemed to be anything but traditional. Basically it was a way to lure in tourist dollars. After our Maori night a few of us headed to the Polynesian Spa, a world renowned natural mineral spa with 10 different pools and temperatures of naturally heated spring water. The spa was a refreshing change from the "public swimming pool" of the Banff Hotsprings. The day certainly ended with a splash. ;)
Today was spent driving on our coach bus from Rotorua to "Palmy" as the locals call it. Frequent pit stops along the way made for an event filled day. One noteworthy stop was a visit to the Mount Ruapehu Volcano in Tongariro National Park. Mount Ruapehu is the largest volcanic explosion in the world. An amazing interactive video on the formation of the volcano proved to be an interesting educational experience. Tonight is reserved for exploring the town of Palmerston and setteling into our hostel where we will be staying for the next two days until heading off to the South Island of New Zealand.
This morning saw us on a visit to a local sheep farm where we got to watch sheep being sheered and ride around on a 1936 tractor, until the weight of our group of 49 people popped two of the tires on the tractor cart. After visiting the sheep farm we were given free range to explore the small town of Palmerston North which is really little more than a whole in the middle of no where. Much of the afternoon was spent napping and catching up on e-mail as well as working on my feild notebook. Tommorow it's off to the South Island. . .
We left Palmy bright and early and headed south towards Wellington, New Zealand's capital. After about a four hour bus ride we arrived in Wellington and had a few hours to explore the third largest city in New Zealand. Although I've never considered myself to be a huge museum buff, I found the Wellington Museum to be absolutely amazing! Free admission and informative, interactive displays made for a great afternoon of learning. The remainder of the day was spent on a three hour ferry ride crossing from the North Island of New Zealand over the Cook's Straight onto the South Island. When we arrived at our hostel in Picton I dropped on my bed and was out for the night.
Without getting a chance to see much of Picton we left the town early and headed off for a nine hour bus ride to the South Western town of Greymouth. The bus ride felt long and although the scenery was nice, especially along the coast of the Tasman Sea, I must say I'm getting pretty sick of spending so much time on the bus! The highlight of the day was stopping to look at the Pancake rock formations, a naturally occuring formation of huge, flat limestone rocks which are about 100 meters high and look flat like pancakes. I took many pictures of this natural beauty and hope to post them to my website soon. When we finally arrived in Greymouth a group of us headed to a fancy looking resturant for a very expensive and unsatisfying dinner and then joined the others for a key party.
Today was an excellent day! We woke up early and headed to the Franz Josef Glacier, which was about a two and a half hour bus ride from Greymouth. Out of our group of 49 people only myself and two other guys climbed the glacier. We got about half way up the 14km chunk of ice and felt very proud of our accomplishment. Beautiful scenery, rushing waterfalls and heavily treed areas made the climb difficult, but I definately enjoyed the adventure. The evening was spent catching up on some much needed homework and working on a group presentation about sheep.
Today was a pretty decent day, though more time spent on the bus made for a somewhat grumpy dEb. The bus ride from Greymouth to Christchurch was only about two and a half hours, but frequent stops along the way drew the bus ride out so that it took up most of the day. My group presented our project on sheep and it was very well received. :)
Upon arriving in Christchurch we were given time to grab some dinner and then we headed off to watch a Rugby game. I really enjoyed watching the game, as it's the first time I've ever seen rugby played. It's a really exciting sport and very fast paced. I really feel as though I'm becoming cultured in New Zeland sport and drink!
Happy April Fool's day. Today was a rehreshing change from the normal pace of the trip. We were given a free day to do whatever we choose, so I naturally choose to sleep in! I then went for a run along the river, ate a tasty breakfast, took a long, hot shower and then a nap. I've since spent some time e-mailing and plan to do some work on my feild notebook before the evening is up. Tonight at 5:00am we leave New Zealand and head to Tasmania. Stay tuned for travel updates from Tasmania. . .