Dec 2007

I suppose I opened my mouth too early in Fiji - bragging about our lack of travel troubles. It seems like ever since we got to New Zealand we have been stuck in the middle of a bad luck streak. Our hostels have been like a scene from Animal House (they are full of young people who just want to party). Our busses have broken down. I've been sick. Brody's been sunburned and stung by a bee. And to top it off, we seemed to have found the lemons of all lemons in the camper van we purchased (stay tuned for more details).

New Zealand, itself, is beautiful. We headed up north for Christmas to the Bay of Islands and stayed in a little beach town called Paihia. Christmas day was a little dreary so we couldn’t do much around town. We spent most of the day reading at our hostel while everyone else was in party mode (we tried to go to bed to escape the noise, but found a roommate and his visitor already in the room). But the next day we took a ferry across the bay and got in a good hike in quaint little Russell.

The summit of the "hill" we climbed had some amazing views of the electric blue bay. Later that day, we took some bikes around the area. We found a waterfall on the map we were given, and made an attempt to get to it. Nowhere on the map was the warning, "not to scale," and it took a bit longer than we expected. There were quite a few big climbs and some unpaved roads, and our little cruiser bikes with no gears were not properly equipped to handle the conditions. We walked a lot. Which was especially unnerving when we tried a different way back and got stuck on a highway.

We didn’t stay in the Bay of Islands area as long as we initially thought because Brody was antsy to get back to Auckland to find a campervan. After the crazy partying type that we ran across in the hostels, and the simple fact that its miserable to sleep with 8 other people who are all on different schedules, we decided it was time to venture out on our own. For those of you who were previously unaware, NZ is full of renovated campervans that tourists use to get around the country. The backseats are usually replaced by beds and gas stoves. Once you drive the van around, you sell it to other backpackers. We happened to find the most deceitful backpacker and the crummiest van.

I'm pretty convinced he fed the van magic pills before we bought it because it seemed to run well on our test drive. We slept on our decision to buy and went back in the morning to get the vehicle checked at a garage. However, we couldn’t find the garage. Against our better judgement, we bought it. About 15 minutes down the road, it severely overheated on us. We had it towed to Papakura - a suburb of south Auckland and quite possibly one of the most unappealing towns to be stranded in. The mechanics told us there was a problem with the radiator, and that we would have to wait until Jan 7th to see a specialist (Kiwis take massive vacations this time of year. They have about 15 public holidays where they are required by the government to shut down business. And entry-level jobs come with 4 weeks of paid vacation. So they seem to always be on holiday). The mechanic patched whatever hose was leaking coolant and told us not to drive in the middle of the day. We thought, "Hey, that just might work. We will drive for a few hours each night, sleep, and then see the sights during the day." Much to our disappointment, the patch didn’t last long and we were stuck again. We made it about 5 hours down the road to Whitanga in the Coromandel Peninsula. The car overheated on our way to a local beach that was only 14km out of town. The distance was deceiving in a busted vehicle since it took us almost 2 hours to get there. We had to stop every 3 minutes of driving to let the van cool down for 20 minutes.

Once we got to the beach, we enjoyed ourselves. The beach is called Hot Water Beach because there is a geothermal hotspot under the sand. During low tide, you can dig holes in the sand and make your own little spa pools. The pools got pretty hot - there were some we couldn’t stand to put our feet in. The waves at the beach were also amazing. I wish we knew how to surf or body board. The water is pretty cold, though, so we would also need to scrounge up some wetsuits. Its bearable once you get in, but only for a bit. I'm guessing it’s comparable to the ocean temperature in San Francisco.

When the sun went down, we limped the van into the next town, Tairua, which is where we are now. We still have to wait around for a mechanic to open up, but at least we’re in a nicer area where we can dig for mussels on the beach and swim in the ocean.

I'm actually not surprised that the van overheats or makes creaking noises around corners because Kiwis drive their cars fast and hard. This is especially disconcerting in the winding, hilly roads in this area. I consider Brody and I to be decent mountain drivers, but we don’t go anywhere NEAR as fast as the Kiwis want us to go. I can’t imagine what a "flatlander" would experience here.

We will update more on our travels later. Internet is expensive in these beach towns!