Hello from the bottom of the world! Seriously though….talk
about a place far from everything! To arrive in Auckland from Amsterdam, I
first took an 11.5 hour flight to Singapore (Singapore Airlines=AMAZING!),
where I then chilled in the enormously ostentatious airport for 3 hours (it
takes over an hour to walk from one end of the airport to the other! But hey at
lease I could window shop at all the duty free stuff along the way…), THEN
another 10 hour flight to Auckland! By the time I arrived I had spent 22 out of
24 hours on an airplane (not including boarding and such) and completely lost
June 31, 2016!!! But not to worry, I filled the time well with movies,
knitting, coloring, naps and chatting with my neighbors. In addition, is one of the lightest trips
I’ve ever packed for and I must say it is AWESOME!!! Note to self: less is
better!
Anywho, once I finally arrived in Auckland I stayed the
night at a nearby airport hotel and picked up my rental car the next morning.
Before hitting the road, I thought it a service to my fellow drivers that I did
a few practice laps around the airport as I actually haven’t driven in a year
and now I was alone, in a tiny red car, with a stick shift, on the left
side…talk about a steep learning curve! But aside from some minor glitches and
a curb or two cut too close, I made it successfully to the grocery store for
supplies and safely out of Auckland, south to Lake Taupo.
North Island
I stopped for a picnic lunch outside of Taupo at a roadside
pull out and continued on to a small, yet adorable town, called Turangi (gotta
love the names here…) at the southern tip of Lake Taupo, where I stayed the
night. One of the major benefits of visiting a place in its off-season, is
things are mostly quiet. I had only two companions that night in my little
hostel, two traveling girls from Germany. We ate dinner together and although I
would have liked to visit more, my jet lag caught up with me and I found myself
in bed at 8:30pm!
The following morning, I realized the downside of visiting a
place in its off-season as I defrosted the windshield on my car…in a sweater.
Yeah, I was a human popsicle until about 9am when the sun finally was high
enough to bask in. I took a 2 hour hike along the Tongariro River, which was
very lovely and I was lucky as there were no clouds and the views were great!
The original plan was to do the full 4 hour hike, but on account of the cold
and my unpreparedness, that just didn’t happen! Instead I used the extra time
to search out a Salvation Army and buy myself a proper coat (can’t whine about
a $3 jacket!).
I then continued south to Wellington, where I stayed the
night. After reading the previous sentence, it sounds so easy…drove to
Wellington and slept…no. To be more specific, yes I DID drive to Wellington
which although super pretty all the way and really nice, once I got to the city
everything really went to hell. I am a nervous city driver in the best of
conditions, but given the current situation I thought I would die of heart
attack on all the one-way streets, heavy traffic, honking, pedestrians and
narrow streets. BUT I did eventually reach my hotel, where I took a bath, made
dinner and fell asleep again at 8:30pm, leaving no time to enjoy such a cool city.
Ooops!
The next morning was a Friday and I started early by taking
the ferry from Wellington to Picton.
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