Northern New Zeland Cape Adventure- Part 2

After recovering from food poisoning and hanging out in Hayden's living room watching DVD's for a few days, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Whit and Claire back to Auckland on Friday and the rendezvous with Ashley. After a quick lunch we headed to Whangarei to pick up Ashley Black of Austin fame and California up-bringings. Ashley is traveling through New Zealand until July and is another good friend we met through frisbee.

{In Hayden's backyard with my Valentine's Sunflower from Cara...still recovering}




Hayden lived up to being the greatest host to a traveller by lending us his car for a week long road trip to the northern cape of the North island. The plan was to drive to the Ocean Beach Hat tourney for a weekend of beach ultimate and fun and then to head north for a hike around Cape Reinga.

{Whit and Ashley hanging out at Ocean Beach}

Whit and Ashley were chosen for the Chocolate team. Claire and I were on the Tan team. And Cara was all alone on team orange, she was just happy she didn't get here third green jersey. There were 6 teams total and about 60 players at the tournament. It was the tournaments 5th year. Here is the weekend in quick summary: Nic from Switzerland (played with Cara and I in Hawkes Bay) was on my team again along with one NZ'er - Van, Nicko from France/NZ, Jordan and Bec from Canada/NZ, and Ben from the UK. Cara's team had a good mix of players as well. Team Tan's international strength led us to the finals after a tie in the go-to game against Team Green to face them again in the finals. Down 4-6 at half, we rallied in the second half scoring 7 in a row to win the game 12-8, coming away with some super sweet cooler bags as our prize! We met a lot of good frisbee people and had a great weekend at a beautiful beach. Besides the frisbee, the main highlight was seeing a pod of dolphins jumping high out of the water to celebrate the perfect weather and beautiful water.

Sunday afternoon we headed north and found a campsite in hilly farmland. We were a little worried a farmer would come along in the early morning and let us know we shouldn't be there, but it was not a problem and we all had a pretty good night's sleep. It was reassuring to know NZ doesn't have any animals or insects that can hurt you while we were setting up our tents at dusk in thick 3 foot high grass.

Monday we headed to the Bay of Islands to check it out and stock up on food for the week. Our next stop was Matauri Bay where we were told was camping. It turned out to be a camper van resort (not what we were looking for) but a beautiful bay where we stopped to have lunch, read, and go for a swim. After lunch we headed to the Manginangina Kauri forest to camp and relax for the evening. On the way to our campsite we stopped for some tree appreciation. In short, Kauri's are a super old tree with think trunks and cool adaptations which have helped them to survive all these years.

Tuesday we headed north to Cape Reinga. In Te Paki we rented sand boards and drove to the giant sand dunes for some "sledding." We made the most of our 4-hour rental. After each of successfully went down a huge dune headfirst...very fast! We started experimenting on smaller dunes with surfing, bobsledding, dual slides, and completed the first ever 5 person slide on 2 boards!
{We had a couple spills, but everyone came out injury free}














That night we camped at Spirits Bay, which would be the beginning of our 3-day backcountry hike. Our hike around Cape Reinga would take us 41 km's over quiet beaches, hills, sand dunes, streams, quick sand and tidal pools. We had beautiful sunsets, a little rain, amazing sunshine, cool (with one muggy) nights, treated water (boiling and iodine) and great camping meals. We experienced hitchhiking (to get back to our car at the beginning of the trail), the best fish and chips in NZ (at Waitiki Landing restaurant), and generous ice cream scoops after we finished the hike. It was a great hiking crew and we all got the most of our three days in the backcountry. It was our first backcountry trip, and we are excited for our next one on the South Island. Here are some pictures to show you some of the beauty we experienced.

After our walk we returned to Hayden's house to relax and get things together before our next adventures. Claire and Whit are on their way to London to start their European adventures, while Ashley, Cara, and I will make our way to the South island to play frisbee this weekend and then find some work and more walks!

North Island, New Zealand: Part 1

We arrived in Auckland on Feb. 4th. Piers, from Brisbane, called a friend and fellow ultimate player Hayden Glass who graciously offered up his house, and the use of his car, for the following weeks. We had signed up for a beach tourney the 10th and 11th of Feb. so we decided to hit the road in Hayden's sweet ride and do some exploring before the tournament. What follows is our first road trip and tramp (Kiwi for "hike") in New Zed.

The skyline of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and our home base for exploring the north island. This picture was taken from One Tree Hill, one of the 48 extinct volcanic cones that dot the city. It used to have a single tree on top, until some environmental extremist cut it down with a chainsaw because it wasn't a native species. You can see the remains of the stump in the foreground.





Our first sheep in New Zealand; One Tree Hill is still used as active pasture land, so they were all over it. Sheep are quickly becoming one of my favorite animals. Fun fact: New Zealand has almost 4 million people and an estimated 30 million sheep.









Cows have the right of way here...good policy.












The first place we stopped on the road was Kiwi 360, an ambitious collaboration of all things Kiwi (the fruit). I thought kiwi fruit grew on trees, but they actually grow on hearty vines, like grapes. They had yellow kiwis, mini kiwis, kiwi wine, kiwi jelly, kiwi face scrub, and a ginormous kiwi slice the size of a sfour story building that you could climb up in.













The road on our way to our campsite in Coromandel Forest Park.












We did a tramp called "The Pinnacles", an estimated 8-9 hour tramp on in the Kauaeranga Valley on the Coromadel Peninsula. We passed through a fern engulfed forests, crossed over raging streams, climbed boulders as big as buses, and climbed at least 2000 stairs. All in all it was about 12-14 kilometers up and down a mountain.








The weather was clear until we got to the top, which was a series of ragged peaks , hence the name "The Pinnacles" . By the time we climbed the mega stairmaster and huge Agrocrag sized boulders, the top was in a cloud. Luckily, we got a sweet view from right below the top before the fog started rolling in (left). You could see the sea and a string of islands to the west and beautiful valleys on all sides.





























Usually you can just ford the rivers on foot, but there had been a lot of rain recently so we had to cross the rivers on these single person wire suspension bridges. It was so Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom, except there were no crazy zombies chasing us.

Yosemite Sam.



















The view from a hill above Hahei, NZ. This is a popular town for it's proximity to Cathedral Cove, the Hot Water Beach, and the Coromandel Peninsula Parks.











Mike did a tramp down to Cathedral Cove, a huge cave formed by two caves eroding together to form an arch.


















A fence post on the Cathedral Cove hike.















The track to Cathedral Cove. He got a little carried away with the camera, but it's beautiful.












Hot Water Beach near Hahei, NZ. At low tide, you can get a shovel (or a frisbee) and dig a hole in the sand which fills up with scalding hot water
from under the sand. You can make your own little spa. The only trouble is, low tide is not really "low", and every few waves, you get totally covered in cold water. It's a good equalizer though, otherwise the scalding hot beach water would probably burn your ars off. We came back at low tide, 6:00, the next morning to have the beach mainly to ourselves. The people watching here was fantastic.


Sunset at Hot Water Beach the morning we went to dig our spa.














Our team at the Boutique Beach Hat Tournament in Hawkes Bay. Specifically, we were on Waipatiki Beach, a secluded beach just north of Napier on the North Island. We were a green machine! Mike, Nick (from Switzerland), Sean (from San Diego), Becky, Nobi, and I ended up winning the tournament and winning some sweet shot glasses as prizes.




In order to get back to our campsite after playing on the beach we could either wade through waste deep creek or try to fit as many people as possible on a little homemade pontoon and try not to fall off.


















After the tournament, Mike and I drove to Rotaurua, the city famous for it's geo-thermal activity.There are hot springs, geysers, and mud pools everywhere! We stopped at Kerosene Creek, a creek that runs with steaming hot water...incredible...and just what we needed after a lactic acid inducing beach tourney. And it was free! Wee!

A black sand beach that we stopped and ogled at on our way to the tourney. Just north of Napier.

After the tourney we needed to get the car back to Auckland to pick Hayden up for our next adventure, another beach tournament north of Auckland in Whangerai Heads. Our plans to spend a few days in Rotarua exploring the area were abandoned when Mike came down with food poisoning Sunday night from something he ate at the tournament. So we hauled it back to Auckland so he could have a comfortable place to stay in between trips to the bathroom. He was a soldier, and we spent the next few days watching movies at Hayden's and occasionally venturing out for sustenance and nature while Mike recovered.


View of city from Mt. Eden, the tallest and most scenic of the Auckland's volcanic cones.












A view across Mt. Eden's crater at sunset.

Best of Australia!
*Check out our last two weeks in Oz in the finally updated post below this one.

As we leave this nation of paradise, I've compiled a list of the "Best Of's"...things that were my favorite of something we did a lot, things that were uniquely Australian and totally awesome, or things that stand out as being favorite moments on the trip. Links and pictures provided when possible.

Best...:
Phrase of Encouragement: "Good on-ya mate!"
Tim Tam flavor: Caramel
Dessert: Pavlova
Beer: Beez Neez
Non-beer: Lemon-Lime Bitter
Way to order coffee: Flat White (Espresso with lots of steamed milk)
Hostel: Tim's Place- Halls Gap, Victoria
State: Western Australia
Home cooked meal: The Ride house (Perth, WA) Lisa, James, Elizabeth, Georgina, and Charlotte
Restaurant: Vegie Bar, Melbourne, Victoria
Beach: North Sydney beaches
Sunset: Yuragir National Park



















Body of Water: Lake McKenzie- Fraser Island, QL
Native animal: Platypus, Wombat a close second
Native animal that can kill you: Saltwater Crocodile
Form of transportation: The Wombie (our campervan from Adelaide to Alice Springs)
Tournament: Melbourne Hat Tournament
Campsite: Yuragir National Park
Waterfall: Protestor Falls, Nighcap National Park
National Park: Litchfield, Northern Territory (too hard!)
Cityscape/skyline: Sydney
Most interesting/creepiest city: Coober Pedy
Hike: Glow worm tunnel- Newnes, NSW























Island: Fraser Island
Museum: National Museum of Australia- Canberra, ACT (closely followed by Museum of the Northern Territory- Darwin, NT)

The last three months have been one adventure, beautiful vista, and good beer after another. I'm very sad to leave as I'm positive that I could easily live happily in many of the places we've visited in our time here; if only I could transplant all of my loved ones to live in paradise with me. But alas, it is time to move on to the lush alpine meadows and staggering glaciers of New Zealand. Life is tough sometimes, but you've just got to get through it. =)

G'day mates,
Cara