North Shores of Paradise and Penguins

FRIDAY:

Whew. So this has been a VERY long week. Last weekend was an extremely liberating and eventful few days. It was our second group trip through GOOT (Get out of town) travel. The night before departure, last Friday, a few of my friends and I discovered a new dance club called GLOBE. It was full of energy and friendly people because it was located right next to a Backpackers hostel. Outside the club, we ran into these two guys as we ate some 50 cent ice cream from McDonalds and we were entertained by their antics and the kept asking us about Opus. One guy sat down next to me and insisted I tell his friend that Opus was a dolphin, and not a whale. We then sadly informed him that we had no idea who the heck Opus was, and he stared disbelieving at us for a moment before sauntering after other late night club goers. It was hilarious. Anyway, the strobe lights and dancing at GLOBE provided a good night of merriment, though we were all exhausted as we trudged down to the bus the next morning. Actually, I sort of half ran because, not surprisingly, I was late. I think I have already successfully gained the routinely late label. It was bound to happen eventually.

Anyway, I was quite thankful for being late this time because it meant I got the last seat the front of the bus next to Kahurangi, one of our professors. Kahu works at the University of Auckland and at the University’s Marae (religious-like meeting and gathering place), Kahu is definitely one of my favorite people I’ve met so far. He is fun loving and just unbelievably kind and warm hearted. He laughs at his own jokes which I enjoy, and I have never seen him when he hasn’t been smiling and upbeat. We spent most of the bus ride talking about music and while he shared his music on the bus speakers, I showed him some of the tunes on my ipod. I showed him how I had Fat Freddy’s Drop and Katchafire on my ipod, two of New Zealand’s best bands, and they gained me major brownie points. Kahu stated he had way more respect for me than before because of my music selection, which I guess was a compliment haha.

After a little ride, Joe, our extremely attractive tour guide, pulled out a list of Maori words that make up the names of places in New Zealand. He explained that you can actually tell a lot about a town you are visiting just by breaking down its name. For example, Rotorua, broken into two words reads Roto, meaning lake, and Rua, meaning two. So, Rotorua is the land of two lakes. Joe then proceeded to give us all the task of giving the person sitting next to us a new Maori name. Kahu already had one: Kahurangi , which means either blue or precious sky. But I decided to give him another name anyway. Thinking of his kind and gentle nature, I decided on Punahau, or Spring Wind. I thought it was pretty appropriate, but Joe started laughing when I told him. Feeling slightly mocked I asked him why it was so funny and that I thought was an appropriate name. Kahu, who had also begun to break out into small bursts of loud giggles, then explained to me that the name was closer to calling him a toilet, because spring was not a season, but in fact spinging water. Whoops. Good thing Kahu already has a good name. Kahu’s name for me was not on our sheet, but he chose one he felt would be appropriate for me giving what I had told him about myself (including the detail that I was from North Carolina). The name he chose for me was was Ngeru Panglo, Panther. (Kahu is a big American football fan) The name translated literally actually means black cat. I liked it a lot. I’m still trying to figure out how to say it correctly though.

Ugh, after that activity though I started to get really carsick, along with half of our bus. The roads were pretty windy, and our very skilled bus driver was able to navigate them with quite a bit of speed. After a few hours of staring straight ahead, I was very pleased to grab a quick stop for lunch in Dargaville at a the Blah, Blah, Blah café (yes, that’s its name, I didn’t just forget). After that we headed to the Waipoua Kauri Forest to see Tane Mahuta- the Biggest Kauri tree in the forest. It was HUGE. We joked that you could have an entire village up there. The grass that grew up in the trees made appear that you could even play soccer across the trunk of the tree, between the branches. It looked like something straight out of the Swiss family Robinson. The pictures I took don’t really do the tree justice, so you will all just have to come see the tree for yourselves.


After that pit stop we all headed to Opononi to go sand boarding. As we entered the small coastal town, Joe began the story fo Opo the friendly dolphin. Cait and I suddenly began laughing hysterically at the first mention of the creature that was in fact a dolphin, and not a whale. The whole bus stared at us in silence as we tried to regain our breath. After excusing our outburst, Joe continued to tell us about Opo. Opo was a dolphin that entered the harbor waters in Opononi and would swim with the locals and children in the water, and he attracted tons of tourist during the summer he arrived, putting sleepy little Opononi temporarily on the map.

Sand boarding was sooo much fun. It was one of the first moments of realization that I actually was in New Zealand. The shock was over and I felt as if I had finally arrived there. The backdrop of mountains of ocean was like an unreal theme park. We all went sliding down the dunes on boogie boards and would shoot out yards into the ocean. Unbelievable.


After a short chat with some local kids (one of them had a Boston basketball jersey on), we all piled back on the bus and headed to Paihia, our final destination of the night. There we all ate some FANTASTIC bbq cooked by the lovely hostel staff. The night was pretty chill, spread across hanging out at the hostel, singing some brief karaoke, and walking down on the beach under the stars. I can’t believe they call this school. It’s basically a 6 month vacation.

SATURDAY:

On Saturday morning, we got up and at ‘em at 8:30am, prepping for a day of tours and free exploration. I was supposed to go horseback riding in the afternoon, but unfortunately the ride was canceled because the guide was in the hospital after a skydiving accident. Though disappointed and worried for the lady, I was pleased to add that incident to my list of arguments for why bungee jumping is way better than skydiving, an ongoing debate between myself and a few of the guys on our trip.
During the morning we rode the Ferry over to Russel, where we went on a tour of the Pompallier House. The house was the site of a printing press and book binding workplace run by missionaries in the 1800s. The books created there were only printed in Maori and were all distributed for free. The mission of the printing was to improve the literacy and availability of Maori literature to the people of Russell and surrounding areas. I had no idea how much work it used to be to make leather and to print and make a book. The leather had to soak for 2 and a half years to tan! And every day it had to be taken out and dried to trick it into soaking up more dye. Crazy! The tour was really entertaining and the lady was very informed about what went on in the town so many years ago.



After the tour, Cait, Eric, Laurie, Long, Jeff, Hector and I all headed back to Paihia to rent some Kayaks. But not after some amazing fish and chips and corn fritters from an AMAZING restaurant in Russell. We paddled the rest of the afternoon, first to an island, and then across to Russell again. We explored the islands, went shell hunting, and sipped wine on the beach. It was such a great balance of activity and relaxation. On the return from Russell we had some kayak wars, imagining we all had war canoes, or wakas, and claimed our own iwi, or tribe. It was like turning back time to childhood games, but with so much more understanding of a history and a people. Then we saw a wild penguin! It was quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. Unfortunately, we did not bring any cameras with us in the kayaks. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of the little guy, and also of Long trying to chase after it and then flipping his kayak. He was bailing water out of it for the whole trip back. Hector was hilarious the whole time too. He got the baby kayak that nearly flipped on all of the big waves and was much harder to paddle. I think he enjoyed his little “Frenzy” though because he wouldn’t trade with anyone. He entertained all of us with his panicked cries and frustrated hilarity. The way back was extremely testing. The wind was not with us, we were all exhausted, and for some reason, the darned shore would not get any closer. We paddled steadily for a solid hour and a half on the way back. I made it through nearly two hundred bottles of beer on the wall as I tried to keep my strokes steady. I think we Kayaked about 5 miles in total.

Saturday night was a pretty big party. We went and ate dinner at an Indian restaurant and the hit a few bars for dancing and then had some quality talks on the beach. With 40 people all together on the trip, there is never a dull moment and endless opportunities to enjoy others’ company.

SUNDAY:

Sunday we were all pretty pooped and sort of snoozed through the educational tours at Waitangi about the Waitangi Treaty and war canoe chants. The place was very pretty, but we were all pretty dead. After a short bus ride we hopped out at Haruru Falls, which were hardly worth the stop. Pretty, sure. Impressive, no. It was just a few feet tall and only a few feet from the highway. But we did get a good roommate picture!


A nap or two later we stopped at Joe's hometown in Kawakawa to see its famous toilets. Our final stop was at Wenderholm Regional Park, a very pretty beach area. Kahu and Joe teached some of us to play touch rugby on the sand it was a lot of fun. I found out I’m pretty good at defense, but not so much at offense. I feel like I understand the rules a lot better now though and should be able to follow the games better on television!