Settle in for the long read...

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Tonight Melissa and I went to Western Springs Park to check the spot where I am suppose to meet Anna, one of Eddie's profs next Friday to pick up something from her. I found the spot just fine. We walked through the park in the evening, kind oflike the Halifax Public Gardens only bigger and of course better. It borders the zoo, so we could actually walk behind some trees and see the elephants. Then after our walk, we went out to eat at a well recommended pizza placecalled "Hell", yes that is the name. Scary place, but fabulous pizza, its just made me top 2 things to eat in NZ. Too bad we waited until now to find it. Then we hung out at the bookstore downtown until almost midnight trying todecide which NZ book to buy. After 2 hours tonight(prob about 15 in total, still no decision).

Friday, January 26, 2007

Tonight we went back to Newmarket to the shopping villa. I FINALLY found the CD “Oceania” which has the incredible song on it that I have been hunting for “Kotahitanga”. It my official anthem for this trip. Not like this post isn’t long enough, but here are the lyrics, of course the song is in Maori.

Kotahitanga
Püpüngia te käkaho e kore e whatiTü tira täua kia tü tahi
Hei aha te tü weteweteKia kotahi tätou mä kia kotahi räTuia ki te whakaro tahi E patu atu ai te wehewehe
Tü tahi tätou mäE puta ai ki te ao märama
Tü ana I te taumataKia kotahi tätou mäKia tü tira eKaua e noho mararaNoho wetewete
Anö te rito roto pä harakekeTe tipu kaha ake nei eHütia ana ko te rito e töna mutungaHe mate
Pakopako ai te poiKotahi te tangiPakopako ai te poiKo tahi te tangiMe tü tahi Koia te pakö o te poi

Tonight I came home and ate uncooked rolls and uncooked apple pies. I seem to be eating a lot of unbaked bread products and only realizing after I eat it. The packaging here is awful.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Today I woke up early, but Melissa wanted to sleep in and get the 10:00 am ferryto Waiheke Island. I wanted to go earlier so I let her sleep and I got up anyways and took another ferry to Devonport to see if I could buy a quilt making kit at the fabric store there. I will be taking that up when I get back, and am all alone in Campbellton....But when I got there, it was closed. So 15 minutes later back tothe ferry. I ate breakfast at a waterfront cafe by myself and then met Melissa at the Waiheke ferry at 10:00. It was a 35 minute ride over to the Island, far past where we had been so far. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, notbetter not worse, just different. We spent the first 1.5 hours touring theclifftop "Sculptures on the Gulf", this long walking trail around one of the points that was lined with huge sculptures that you can actually see from the ferry coming over. Some of them were impressive, some funny (like a 3 meter by 3 meters giant bathtub plug just floating in the ocean…) and some, you just ask "why?"...but it was pretty awesome. We had to move through really fast inorder to get back to our tour starting. We sweated about 12 lbs off. But wemade it back and caught our tour around the island. We went to the highest point on the island and stopped for pics, went to Onetangi beach for a stop and then to the main town of Oneroa. We went to the Oneroa beach for the afternoon and then tried to get something to eat. "Tried" meaning just that, it is impossible to find food in this country. In the whole town, there appeared to be one place open, and all they had was hot fried, greasy food. Last thing I wanted on this blistering hot day. But Melissa got fries and nuggets there and then we found another place (a sit down restaurant) where I could get a mesclun salad. They wouldn’t let us eat there b/c Melissa had hers in a take out box, so I asked for mine to go. They gave it to me but didnt have any forks and well...I forgot to pack my own silver fork in my purse today, silly me. So I said that I wouldhave to eat it there, so there we sat, in the waiting area of the restaurant(where you wait for your table), chomping down on our take out boxes. I guess you had to be there...it really was embarassing. Then we went to an outdoor concert in Rocky Bay called "Little Day In", only called that b/c last week inAuckland was the big concert "Big Day Out". The set up was cool, like the concerts on the citadel hill, with everyone on their blankets, beer, etc. But overall the music, It wasn't really my thing. It was the head banging, jump up and down in front of the stage type event, "Koru" was the band that was supposedly famous here. No thanks, so I took off up this massive hilly trail, that was so steep it was almost vertical. When I finally reached the top, I was able to see the whole other side of Waiheke, the vineyards, and the whole concert below. I caught up with Melissa when she was done watching the concert and then we left and caught the late night ferry back to the city.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

I got up this morning at 7:00. I realized that we hadn't made definite plans for today so I thought that it would be a good idea to get down to the Information site on the waterfront early to check and see what our options were for the day. Our original plan was to look at our choices for getting to Coromandel, maybe try and rent a car and to drive, (this is where the Hot Pool Beach (where you dig in the sandand make your own hot pool, and the Cathedral Cove are)). Well I woke Melissa up at 7:15 and told her that I planned to leave at 8:15, so she had enough time to get ready. Well she wasn’t ready at 8:15 so I left to go and find out what theoptions were. I had to go early b/c a lot of the transportation leaves between 8 and 8:30 so I had hoped to have been out of there by then. So I asked the tourist agent how long it would take to drive to the Coromandel penninsula and she said3.5-4 hours. Well, right away I knew that that was not sensible because that would be 8 hours of driving (and probably more than that for us b/c we havent driven there yet) and it was already almost 9:00. I thought we could take a bus, but there was only 1 bus leaving today and it only got to Coromandel at 3pm and there were No buses at all home today, so the ONLY option was the ferry, which was only a 1.45 hour ride and fairly cheap. I told Melissa where Iwould be at 8:30, but by 9:00, she was nowhere to be seen, and the ferry was leaving at 9:00. I waited to the last minute I possibly could and then at 9, I decided that I better get on the ferry to go to Coromandel. Otherwise, I wouldnever have the chance to see it again as this is our last weekend. And I couldn'thave gone tomorrow b/c it only goes every 2nd day, therefore we couldn’t go tomorrow (our last day off). So I got on it, after asking the skipper to wait while I ran down and left a message for Melissa. He waited to leave until about at 9:10, and still no Melissa. I felt bad, especially that it worked out that way, but I really wanted to goand had no idea where she was 2 hours after waking up. So off I went on an adventure of my own. It was an amazing ferry ride, higher cliffs and mountains than I'd seen yet. Once I arrived, I was put on a tour bus and driven into Coromandel township. It was a very cute town, mostly filled with local artists work, paintings, carvings,etc. I decided that it was hiking (or "tramping" as they call it here) that I wanted to do today, and another girl from Germany that I met on the ferry also was travelling alone and wanted to go hiking, so we found some of the best trails on the peninsula and took to a great 2 hour hiking trail called KauriReserve trail. It led me to very high lookout, including Pa Lookout, one of thehighest in the Coromandel. It was beautiful, some different views that some ofthe other cliff tops we had seen before, looking down on most of the fishing villages below. When I was out there, I did think that it was quite nice to be on my own. I really could go at my own pace and really take it all in. Sometimes I feel like I am rushing Melissa, so it was nice to move fast and get a lot done. The hike was awesome, lots of ranges and layers before layers of mountains. I was impressed. I visited a local art gallery of local paintings too. I didn’t get a chance to go to Cathedral Cove b/c that was another 1.5 hour ride from the part of Coromandel that I visited. Next time, with Eddie maybe??? :o). I thought about you today a ton Eddie, it was really a fishing town and I am sure you would have been in your glory. So it was an awesome day, overall. I got tons of sun, well I am not sure if my feet are tanned or if they are just permanently dirty. On the way home after getting off the ferry, I walked through Albert Park where there was another huge outdoor concert happening. I am so tired tonight. Chronic fatigue may be setting in.

Monday, January 29, 2007

This morning we decided that today was Piha beach day! This is the most popular beach in New Zealand, and where all the surf competitions are held. It is also the beach where the Maui dolphins swim. These are the dolphins that “Maui”, the legendary Maori man rode while he fished the North Island out of the ocean. They are named after him. So the only way to get to Piha beach is by shuttle, $50 each for a 45 minute drive. But there was no way around it, we had to pay. When we approached the west coast, the sky was so dark and it started to pour, the hardest we have seen yet since here. Well, the shuttle guy gave us a great commentary on the way about the rainforests that we were driving through and about the lack of wild animals in it. He said that New Zealand does not have any snakes at ALL! Cathy, now I know you will come here! And the only wild animals that can be found in the rainforests here are possums, ferrets, that kind of stuff, and they were actually all introduced to NZ from Australia, they were brought over to increase gaming. So we get to Piha, and the shuttle driver tells us that there is a rainforest walk, the Kitekite Trail in the Waitakere Ranges National Park, just across from the beach that takes you up to the famous Kitekite Falls, a 40 metre cascading waterfall. We decided that since it was still pouring, we would attempt that for the morning and hope for the afternoon to get sunny for the beach. I was lucky and had brought my umbrella but Melissa had too much faith and didn’t bring her rain jacket. Its interesting b/c we never care how wet we get but we both start to panic when we think that our cameras could be endangered by the rain. :o) The cover brush in the rainforest was so dense that we didn’t get wet at all. It was about a 45 minute hike to the Kite Kite Falls. The trail was amazing, huge raindrops resting on bright green fern, a rainbow mixture of wild flowers and bush. The waterfalls were spectacular, I could hear them getting closer and closer and then when I finally reached them, I was in awe. To see that high of a waterfall, so tall and narrow, it looked like it was literally falling from the sky. We got some great shots at the bottom and then hiked up to the top of the falls and had some great views below. From the top you couldn’t actually see the bottom, just the pool from the next drop. As I was getting my stuff ready to continue, Melissa had already taken off. There were two trails in which she could have went. I didn’t think she would have went far, after all, this is a rainforest, huge and we had never done it before. When she didn’t come back, I decided that the smartest thing to do would be to wait at the spot where she left me, because eventually she would realize that I wasn’t with her and come back. Well, she didn’t, so I decided to scream her name numerous times, no response, so I followed a short ways down the trail that I thought she took and eventually came to a 4-way crossing. Well surely, she would know that once I caught up here that I would not know where to go. So I figured that I would just head back to the main entrance the way that I came just to be safe. Once I got onto the main trail again, there she was. I was furious, but she tried to film me having a hissy fit, I told her to turn it off b/c I had to swear , but she kept up, which I couldn’t help but eventually laugh at, so we just went on our way. Out we came to a hot, clear and beautiful day. Took some photos underneath some of the ranges that we passed and then made our way to the beach. It was blistering. I ordered a hamburger from the beachside grill, first meat I’ve eaten here. It tasted really wonky. I thoroughly examined my burger and condiments and determined that it was the raspberry vinaigrette on the burger that was the culprite. Once I knew that it wasn’t the meat, it actually tasted good. Amazing how much of it is mental. :op.

Then we hit the surf. The waves were like the movies. You always here about big waves and surfing, but when you get there, you are like “where are the waves that you see in the movies that are so big when they break that the surfer can actually be inside the tunnel?” Well, the answer is here! We took turns taking to the battle with the waves one at a time (so that we could guard our stuff but also b/c I had surf shorts and she had a rashguard, and neither of us had the opposite, so we had to switch clothes back and forth to have the full outfit. Bikinis stood no chance in that surf. We would have been coming out of the water wearing only our tan lines…As we fought for our lives in the ocean, when I was out, I saw the most spectacular scene. As I was awaiting a monstrous wave, about 2 meters high, as it got about 3 meters away it peaked, ready to break, but at the very top of the wave, I saw 3 huge fish swim right across the top of the wave. It was the most beautiful natural event that I think I have ever scene. I try and think about it often so that I don’t forget the image. I wish I could have got that one on record. The things that you see here aren’t just things that you’ve thought about, but thought you’d never get to see them in your life time, but also things that would never cross your mind in your wildest dreams in the first place, things you never thought possible. So, also located in the middle of Piha beach (divides the beach in 2-one side you can’t swim on because of some of the most dangerous rip currents in the world) is Lion Rock, a massive mountain of a rock in the shape of a lion crouching and looking out into the Tasman Sea. There is a path to tramp up this rock, it used to go to the top until (b/c of its steepness) the steps gave way and the whole path collapsed at night not too long ago. Now you can only hike halfway up. We ran out of time to do that b/c our driver was taking us back to the city at 4:00. While we were at the beach, we noticed a film crew from the hit tv series “Piha Beach Rescue” filming. There is this reality rescue show that is filmed on most weekends at this beach because there are so many live rescues, they make a hit tv series out of it. Surprisingly so, we didn’t make it on. But they rescue boats were out full force so I am sure that we might be in the background of some shots…It was amazing the size and age of some of the kids that were out in the waves, I was shocked.

We made it home and decided to take one more trip out to Mission Bay by bus to say an official good bye to Movenpick, the Switzerland Ice Cream Gallery. It was a sad time, but at least now I feel a sense of closure. Melissa thinks that my addiction to icecream is majorly out of control. For my birthday, she tried to get me hooked up to it through I.V., but in New Zealand, they don’t seem to do that! We dressed up in the same outfit that we bought together and headed with our icecreams to the beach. We’ve never had as many people talk to us here as we did that night b/c of our matching outfits. From this guy from New York in our apartment building, people on the beach, every one wanted to find out what was going on. Well, with all the fashion mistakes that happen here, I didn’t even think people would notice.

On the way home, we were walking through Albert Park, by our apartment and came across a load of papers scattered across the path. After closer investigation we determined them to be official passport information and photos and flight tickets for a fellow Canadian (from Alberta) with all the personal information it contained, we decided that we should pay a visit to the Auckland police department and deliver the goods, just incase our fellow countryman may have met with some bad luck.

Today was our last staff meeting at work. Tonight we are off to the Sky Tower Orbit Restaurant. This is at the top of the Sky Tower and is a revolving restaurant. We are going at 8:15 so that we will get to view the city in both the day and the night time scene. We can go up to 0.5 hour early to visit the official observatory. I have been looking forward dining here since day 1. We waited till the end b/c it is pricy but we really haven’t eaten out that much and feel we should have one fancy dinner out. So getting all dressed up!

In closing, I would just like to fill you in on what I ate for lunch today. First of all, in preparation for the event, I chewed on a piece of Canadian Berry Trident gum, just to get the salivary glands functioning properly. Then, for the first course, I ate a whole roll of Sweet Hearts candy. Then onto a real treat, a box of REAL LIVE smarties! Well of course you say, that’s not enough for a meal, well NO WORRIES! It was a king size box! Then I ate a few tic tac candies to get rid if the chocolate after taste. I decided that that was not a good idea so ate a bag of smartie eggs to restore the milk chocolate after taste. I polished the meal off with a base coat of Blistex SPF lip balm, covered with a sticky layer of Lip Smackers raspberry lip gloss using good Canadian tissues to wipe off the access.Yummy! This entire meal comes to you by courtesy of Annie Q! What a sweetheart. She even considered the fact that after eating I would feel stuffed and would want to get rid of some of the excess weight by cleaning the pounds of wax out of my ears. She included a monstrous bag of Q-tips. My life is complete. Annie, when I opened the parcel that I got this morning, it was like Christmas, to see all that stuff fall out of that package was so exciting. My feet were bouncing on the floor and my mouth was hanging open in awe. Thank you so much, you are such a good friend and so, so thoughtful. I owe you one. You may have saved my sanity, as well as my hearing… :op. And LOVED the card! Love you!