30, HOME FREE AND UNEMPLOYED

4whtundra

Adventurer
North Island, New Zealand, Part I

One of the worst things I can do while traveling is NOT write in my journal. At 31 I have a horrible memory, sometimes not remembering what I had for breakfast that day. The next best thing to that is to just take as many photos as I can of all the places and events I've been. The photos are somewhat of a reminder of the different things I went through and more important an easy reminder of all the things that happened that day and so on.

From Adelaide, South Australia, New Zealand is an easy flight at around 4.5 hours or so. Landing in Auckland gave me a little scare as the runway was built right into the ocean, so when landing I thought we were actually landing in the water. Customs was a breeze, and although I usually wing it I actually had a place booked out for the first night. A 45 min ride to the city via the airbus plopped me in the center of Auckland city. I checked in to my hostel, Queens Street Backpackers, I got a 8 bedroom dorm which deemed to be pretty horrible as 8 dudes, their dirty laundry and dishes were pretty smelly, not to mention we were right next to the main street with the windows open. I was unsure of my plans for NZ, so I emailed a few people and looked into various deals on gumtree. To my surprise I got a message back from "Kim" from the Great Barrier Island north of Auckland. Kim and his wife (plus 5 kids) run a small outdoor furniture business and "employ woofers" from time to time. They said a spot will open if I am interested in about 9 days. I agreed and decided with the time in between to take a guided bus trip with other backpackers through the north island. Day 2 I booked a single room to get my stuff sorted and take care of my laundry. Day 3 I boarded the Stray bus (that's the company the holds the trips) and headed into the unknown with now 30 or so other backpackers from around the world.

I was stoked to be around other people, I feel it's hard to meet people when you are always on the go and not settled anywhere for more than a day or so. Plus the social anxiety of traveling by yourself can sometimes get the best of you. The driver Kea was a local Kiwi and was full of life. Once out of the city my eyes where glued to the scenery. Our first stop was a bit North East of Auckland and a good 2 hours away, Hahei was the town and we stayed at a little holiday park with rooms for backpackers. A bunch of us did a small hike to Cathedral Cove and went swimming and rock jumping. After the hike we had a communal BBQ of steak, sausage and salad, and of course some local brews.

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The main event for the night was the hot pools. So we all piled in the bus at around 8PM and headed to the beach. This beach is one of only a few in the world where the tectonic plates have shifted which actually heats the water from the ground in the sand. It was a strange site to see, imagine 100 or so people grouped together on a beach during low tide, sitting in "pools" of steaming dirty water. We headed out with some shovels and once finding a couple spots dug our way to a nice warm sitting pool to lounge in for the night.

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7AM, back on the bus, out for another adventure. This time we headed to the coast South West of Auckland, the trip was awesome and soon our bus pulled up a steep gravel road, the sign read "Karioi Lodge and outdoor center". It felt well off the beaten path, almost as if we were in Vietnam or something. The hostel lodge was built into the side of the hill, almost like steps. We all got our rooms, 4 people to each one, I was happy to get a bottom bunk this time. Once settled we did a small hike to the beach and tried to swim on the rocky coast, no bueno, so I came back as the sun was nuking me. PB&J tonight, one of my all time favorites, a good bunch of us stayed up later until around one, joking and having some cocktails, it was great to be with people around the world hearing stores of travel and adventure, politics and what not.

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4whtundra

Adventurer
Hobbiton

I've grown to appreciate what an early day really is, after the whole 4:30am business in Nigeria a 7am after a pretty epic night is nothing. Back on the road, this day was sort of a rest day for me and a few of the others as we didn't plan to drop the extra money on the cave tours and rafting. I got a small hike in at Waitomo then our bus headed to Rotorua city for a stay at X-Base hostel. We went out to the Lava bar for a couple and just chilled most of that day. In the am the following day about 15 of us climbed onto a "Hobbiton" bus for the tour of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings set. I'm not a Lord of the Rings nut nor a Hobbit freak and I usually only see one of the movies if I'm on a long flight heading who knows where but I thought it was one of those once in a lifetime things and wanted to give it a go. The tour was way over priced but I was very impressed with the houses and setup, loads of money and man hours were spent crafting the town. The level of craftsmanship was really not what I had expected, all the materials where real and looked as if they had been there for centuries, although only built about 10 years ago. I may someday like to build my kid his/hers own hobbit hole.

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4whtundra

Adventurer
North Island, New Zealand, Part II

After the Hobbiton stop off we regrouped at the hostel and made our way out of the city towards Lake Aniwhenua. Here we stayed at a gorgeous lodge ran by some of the local Maori people. A traditional ground cooked hangi feast was prepared for us as we spent some time playing volleyball, kayaking and visiting with the ostrich. After dinner a couple of us tried eel fishing, I caught one of these slimy things but through it back as it was a bit too small. I shared a small cabin with a guy from Holland which stayed up with me to mess with my camera a bit, it was nice to spend time with another night owl.

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4whtundra

Adventurer
North Island, New Zealand, Part III

After a quick breakfast we were off again. We stopped at a volcanic mud pool and watched them bubble away and also checked out an intense looking rapid. The destination of the day was The Blue Duck Lodge, I opted out of the activities but was excited to get into the back country. The ranch was 5000 acres of rugged terrain, they offered skeet shooting, hunting, horseback riding and of course a little hiking. Once we arrived the place had a nice feel to it and reminded me a little of Montana, just because of the western feel and there was old trucks around and one of the family members had been restoring classic Farmalls in one of the barns. After a day of exploring we had a nice home cook meal inside the lodge. I stayed up late with an Irishman named Willy chatting about our lives and what was next while sipping on some local NZ brew.

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Today was going to be the last full day with everyone as the crew was heading south towards Wellington and the south island and I was heading north and off of the bus. The plan for today was the Tongariro Alpine crossing outside of National Park, NZ. I hadn't had a real strong want to do it, but I was planning on it if the weather was okay. The weather ended up being crap and I knew that might slightly small shoes would have given me hell. I opted for a much shorter 3 hour hike with a nice waterfall, it was raining pretty hard and lots of fog. I was in the back of the pack snapping pictures and taking my time, by the time I got done there was no one to be seen. I hung out at the "pickup spot" for the bus, or so I thought. Around 1pm, there was still no sign of anyone, so I walked to the corner only to find the bus speeding away, I ran and waved my hands at them but no luck. I started to walk back but knew the walk would've been far and threw the old thumb up in the air and found a hitched ride withing 5 minutes with a nice English fellow. Back at the hostel we soaked in the hot tubs, had a communal Valentines Day dinner and finished the night with some karaoke.

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4whtundra

Adventurer
Great Barrier Island, New Zealand

From National Park a few of us took another bus back to Auckland, the rest took a bus south to the south island. I hung out in Auckland with the Irishman Willy and his friends from Brisbane for a few days, it was nice to have friends in the city. On the 17th of February I flew over to the Great Barrier Island and Willy went back to Ireland. I was initially planning to take the ferry but failed to get a ticket in time and it was booked out for a week, after finding out the trip was 4.5 hours I felt better that the puddle jumper was the way to go. I had previously set up a "woofing" host family on the island. Woofing is basically working on an organic farm or home business for the exchange of food and housing. The family was to provide me my own private cottage, food and a Ute (truck). After the ride on the little 8 person plane I was picked up by Mary and Sally, both of which were not my host family. They drove me through the winding, rugged and narrow terrain and dropped me at a corner with directions like this: walk up this road for 15 minutes, take the second left over the bridge, walk 10 more minutes and take the driveway with the outboard motor. Seemed simple enough and I had no other choice. The road was narrow and only a single vehicle could manage at a time, plus it lined the ocean, one wrong move and you would end up in the drink! After about 10 minutes of walking I heard the long sound of a horn and turned to find a Toyota Landcruiser Prado coming to a halt with 5 chatty kids and Kim the father who handed me a Heineken and said jump in. He brought me to his place and introduced me to his spot, kids, wife, dog, chickens and pigs. The house was sweet, sat on top of a hill, 13 acres in all. They had 3 gardens, a green house, two shops and an arrangement of little bungalows for when the kids get older.

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I spent two weeks on the island. The island is completely off the grid, every house and business runs on solar, wind generators or generators. It's a trip to see how a fully isolated island does life. Most of the first week I worked in their wood shop building outdoor furniture, I got a good gist of the work, making frames, running the saws and even some upholstery. The second week I did a bunch of landscape maintenance, running a weed eater, mowing the lawn, taking care of their 5 kids and of course fishing! Kim and I had a nice little routine going, fishing towards dawn, then pulling the lobster pots (crayfish they called them but they were the size of lobsters) and baiting them with the fish we caught (after filleting them). We would get up in the morning, check the pots and retrieve the "bugs" as they came. We would get about 6-8 per day. We ate crayfish for lunch and dinner for 4 days straight, fresh from the pot and always switching up the recipe.

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Towards the end of my trip I got to spend some time with Nikki (Kim's wife) and their kids doing some clam digging and visiting the mermaid pools. At the end of the day Nikki made a clam chowder with the clams we harvested, crayfish Kim and I caught and some snapper we caught as well. It was delish! The experience was top notch, I had a good amount of time to reflect on life and what was important. The time in the shop reminded me of how much I loved to work with my hands and the good feeling that a hard days work brought.

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Wainiha

Explorer
I second the good feeling of hard work and the rewarding feeling you have at dinner time.

NZ is beautiful and so was your hosts area.
 

Rumpig

Adventurer
So what's your plans for seeing Eastern Australia, do you have a rough idea where you intend to go and see at all?
 

4whtundra

Adventurer
Rumpig,

My plans have sort of took a turn within the last couple weeks. My plan was to stay in New Zealand for a month and a half, but that was obviously not enough time as I've been here more than a month and only saw the North Island, then I thought I would travel the South Island until the 5th of April and head to Brisbane after that to work and travel. But things have been shifted around a little at home so I am heading back to the states a little earlier than I had planned to help my Brother out in Montana. I just don't want to rush my time in Eastern Australia. There's a small possibility that I would return to Eastern Australia in November, after the summer/fall in the states and finish my traveling of the east coast for two months until Christmas but we will see.
 

Jeremy P.

Adventurer
It looks like you're having a great time; you will really enjoy the south island, which is where we spent most of our time. We spent 2 1/2 weeks in New Zealand a couple years ago, and it wasn't nearly enough time. We went Christchurch-Mt. Cook-Queenstown-kepler track-milford sound-up the west coast-Abel Tazmen-Wellington-Rotorua-Auckland. We had a rental car and put a lot of miles on it in that short time. I would love to go back and have more time to explore. With all that we did the flight still cost more than everything else combined.
 
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Rumpig

Adventurer
Rumpig,

My plans have sort of took a turn within the last couple weeks. My plan was to stay in New Zealand for a month and a half, but that was obviously not enough time as I've been here more than a month and only saw the North Island, then I thought I would travel the South Island until the 5th of April and head to Brisbane after that to work and travel. But things have been shifted around a little at home so I am heading back to the states a little earlier than I had planned to help my Brother out in Montana. I just don't want to rush my time in Eastern Australia. There's a small possibility that I would return to Eastern Australia in November, after the summer/fall in the states and finish my traveling of the east coast for two months until Christmas but we will see.
your travels certainly have plenty of twists and turns in them...lol...safe travels home, give me a shout if you end up back this way later in the year and i'll try and get time to show you around a touch.
 

grotto

Observer
Found your thread and have read through it over the last few days. Been an interesting last couple years for you to say the least. Too bad I didn't catch you when you went through my town. Thanks for sharing, have enjoyed your travels. Carry on.
 

Cummins_expo

Adventurer
Just read the first couple of posts and then skipped to the end... You went from riding old choppers to exploring NZ... Now I have to go back and read everything to get all caught up. AWESOME!!!!!
 

Alain Martinez

New member
Thanks for all your posts. I wish I had your ability to write everything down. I too hit 30 and was unhappy with where my life had taken me, I packed all my stuff into my truck and hit the road. Ended up in Colorado and the last year has been the happiest if my life.

Hopefully I'll write some of my travels down at some point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

4whtundra

Adventurer
An update soon

Sorry for a lack of an update, I've been mostly without internet.

I've bought a van and found a new travel partner in Christchurch and we've been putting some serious K's on the odometer. We are about 3/4 the way around the South Island in New Zealand so once I get back to Christchurch I promise to get everything back up to speed.

Again everyone, thanks for all the support, I love hearing the comments!
 

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