Touring New Zealand like a man possessed.
Tis Monday again, can you believe that!
Happy Mother's day to me Mammy! :) as it's Sunday back home.
Well I'll tell you 'bout my journey back, as I've transposed my diary entry of the way up, at the end of this post.
I made it as far as Auckland, in my brief, but wonderous tour of the north island.
Auckland was Auckland, another city, it's getting hard to find decernable differences between big cities. I'm glad I went though, it has some nice architecture, and alot of little shops hidden down side alleys, and a great asian area, with good food and cheap wee fiddley yokes. I'll try get some photos up when I'm back in OZ.
From Auckland on Friday night, I drove down through Hobbiton saturday, well Matamata is the towns real name, but thats where The Shire was built on a farm, twas $50 bucks to do the tour of the Hobbit holes, which I hadn't got, a bit on the expensive side says you!
On to Rotorua, what a cool place, so active: volcanoes, geysers, hot springs, and a plethora of activities. I drove a bit out of town and found a geyser/hot spring down a side road that I heard about of someone, sure enough it was as hot as a jacuzzi!
Jealous?
I wouldn't be yet, in the waters of the natural springs lives an organism that causes amoebic meningitis, it takes 3-7 days for signs to start showing, so wait until next weekend to be jealous!
From there I went down to Taupo, on the north east of Lake Taupo, a nice view of the lake with Mordor in the backround. I would've liked to have spent a couple of days, doing all the activities in the local area.
Sunday I drove to the east coast: Napier, Hastings, and North Havelock and the like, full off Art Deco, full of it, everywhere. An earthquake around 1930, levelled the place so all the buildings were built around that era. Nice looking place with a great coast line, I took a trip 50km south to Ocean Beach for a surf, wasn't great at the time, but I could see the potential for some really good waves on the right days.
Twas then I decided to abandon my plan of staying in Napier and getting up super early at 5.00AM and driving back to Wellington, so I just did and evening drive through some beautiful mountains, at times in neutral for 10-15minutes as the gentle curves down the mountain side opened gorgeous views around each bend.
I passed the longest place name in the world!
OK this time I'll write it down, although its a shortened version of the full name, it's still the longest in the world.
Here goes, deep, deep breath now:
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.
- which is an 85 character shortened version of this: "The brow of a hill where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as land eater, played his flute to his lover" - Maori names kick ass!
And yes it's longer than this place in Wales which I used to believe was the longest name:
Deep breath again, although it need not be quite as deep as the last one.
Llanfairpwllgwyngllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
A mere 57 characters - second place Wales!
A late night check-in to a hostel in Wellington, as I didn't want to wake up Irene with my late arrival back to the city, an early rise and dropping the car back, visiting Irene at work, getting "Fush n' chups", and typing all this down finds me here.
I'm looking forward to getting back to Oz, to see everyone again, to go surfing with the gang, and the Grand Prix, then getting up to Sydney to meet Mam coming on the 10th April.
Busy times!
OK here's the interesting part; enjoy!
My diary entry: Friday 24th March 2006
Last Monday I rented a car from the airport, a beautiful car at that; a Holden Commodore Executive, brand new station wagon with all the trimmings, cruise control, cd player, automatic this and that. A waste of my budget you say? Ney, it was on offer, the same price as the cheap one (give or take 5 bucks!)
I took off on my way, having no real plans, which is quite a good thing to do in this situation, it gives a great sense of how much there is to offer.
I drove up the coast for a time, slowly making my way inland then, to my first port of call, Tongariro Range, what a landscape.... almost other worldly, the rocks are sharp and look as if they were strewn across the volcano only yesterday in preparation for my arrival. Horizontal lines mark the hills, where the last eruptions flow stopped, and creates a washboard effect.
Tongariro played Mordor in Lord of the Rings - I can see why.
After spending the afternoon around there, I made my way north again, the road clipping the western edge of the mountains that hold the massive volume of Lake Taupo.
At this point I had decided where I would try and get too that night: Raglan.
I didn't make it.
I made it to Hamilton, an hour or so east of Raglan, it was 550km I had driven, so I said I'll bed down there for the night and make an early start. Hamilton was nice, NZ largest inland city, but I couldn't see myself staying any longer than a day there.
7.00AM on to Raglan, by far the highlight of my trip to NZ.
RAGLAN
Surf
Mmmmm..... surfing
Rumour has it that Manu Bay (Star of 1964 film "The Endless Summer") has the longest left break in the world.
What does this surf lingo mean?
It means you can catch a wave and stay on it while you make the tea, in fact, you can probably have tea while on it, and clean up, depending on how much stuff you can fit on the board with you.
Suffice to say, I saw alot of acrobats on surfboards here, I believe they werew just bored, having a perfect wave of this length, the mind yearns for something to do while on it. And so handstands, breakdancing, and what can only be described as cheerleading were observed by Bean.
I booked into an unbeleavable hostel, Solscape was it's name, its marketing approach was that it was a retreat (mainly for surfers as it overlooked the beach and coastline from around 60M up)
I loved it, you slept in old converted trains! I had two carriagesto myself in the beginning, one being a hangout and kitchen carriage. Everyone was so chilled out and I met alot of people who were around my level of surfing (being not great/good, but not starting out level either, in limbo I suppose!) and we all headed out together, one night turned into two, and two into three, but on the third day there was no surf ( and no sun - up until this point the weather had been beautiful, which was a welcome change from the south of the island)
Two surfs a day, trying out different beaches and breaks almost every time, sometimes beach breaks, sometimes black sand beaches, some point breaks.
Good times.
So after checking in that mornign at round 8.00AM, I decided to head out at Manu Bay, why not eh?
It's the angle the tide comes in(around 45degrees) to the outcrop of stoney land that creates this long wave.
So out I go, caught a few small ones to the side, not to get in the locals way, then on moving out of one guys path I jumped off the board and sliced my foot and leg on reef. Not too bad, but the next time I got off the back of the board and saw the red all over the end of it, I thought maybe it was bad, checked it, nope, just must have hit a vein or something.
Then it happened.
It was beautiful at first.
A wee fish, no longer than 4inches, hopped up and said hello beside me.
Isn't it wonderful to be out here surrounded by nature? - I thought.
Then about twenty of them started hopping out of the water in a ten foot radius around myself.
That's odd - I thought.
Then I saw a 7 inch fella, and I joked to myself - That must be the chief!
No.
Wait.
That wasn't a fish.
That was too wide, more like a pyramid.
Oh shit.
That was a nose.
The world became a movie, I could here no sound, but the beating of my heart.
This isn't like in OZ - I thought to myself. This time he's come for me, and my silly foot bleeding all over the place.
All of a sudden I heard the sound of a breaking wave.
Salvation 20 feet away.
10feet, 5feet.
Yes!
I'm surfing a getaway wave!
All the way in, darting among the protruding rocks in the two foot water, still aware that sharks are not dissuaded by shallow waters.
I didn't care if my board scrapped along behind the car for 50km after this, I was staying on it.
Pretty soon I realised, I had to get up out of the fetal position I had taken at some stage during the ride in, and wade around these rocks.
Three guys who were on there way out, had seen the disturbance around me, so I informed them that a pretty meaty, and possibly pretty hungry reef shark was out there.
"Oh! Thanks bro!"
And out they went.
Happy Mother's day to me Mammy! :) as it's Sunday back home.
Well I'll tell you 'bout my journey back, as I've transposed my diary entry of the way up, at the end of this post.
I made it as far as Auckland, in my brief, but wonderous tour of the north island.
Auckland was Auckland, another city, it's getting hard to find decernable differences between big cities. I'm glad I went though, it has some nice architecture, and alot of little shops hidden down side alleys, and a great asian area, with good food and cheap wee fiddley yokes. I'll try get some photos up when I'm back in OZ.
From Auckland on Friday night, I drove down through Hobbiton saturday, well Matamata is the towns real name, but thats where The Shire was built on a farm, twas $50 bucks to do the tour of the Hobbit holes, which I hadn't got, a bit on the expensive side says you!
On to Rotorua, what a cool place, so active: volcanoes, geysers, hot springs, and a plethora of activities. I drove a bit out of town and found a geyser/hot spring down a side road that I heard about of someone, sure enough it was as hot as a jacuzzi!
Jealous?
I wouldn't be yet, in the waters of the natural springs lives an organism that causes amoebic meningitis, it takes 3-7 days for signs to start showing, so wait until next weekend to be jealous!
From there I went down to Taupo, on the north east of Lake Taupo, a nice view of the lake with Mordor in the backround. I would've liked to have spent a couple of days, doing all the activities in the local area.
Sunday I drove to the east coast: Napier, Hastings, and North Havelock and the like, full off Art Deco, full of it, everywhere. An earthquake around 1930, levelled the place so all the buildings were built around that era. Nice looking place with a great coast line, I took a trip 50km south to Ocean Beach for a surf, wasn't great at the time, but I could see the potential for some really good waves on the right days.
Twas then I decided to abandon my plan of staying in Napier and getting up super early at 5.00AM and driving back to Wellington, so I just did and evening drive through some beautiful mountains, at times in neutral for 10-15minutes as the gentle curves down the mountain side opened gorgeous views around each bend.
I passed the longest place name in the world!
OK this time I'll write it down, although its a shortened version of the full name, it's still the longest in the world.
Here goes, deep, deep breath now:
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.
- which is an 85 character shortened version of this: "The brow of a hill where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as land eater, played his flute to his lover" - Maori names kick ass!
And yes it's longer than this place in Wales which I used to believe was the longest name:
Deep breath again, although it need not be quite as deep as the last one.
Llanfairpwllgwyngllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
A mere 57 characters - second place Wales!
A late night check-in to a hostel in Wellington, as I didn't want to wake up Irene with my late arrival back to the city, an early rise and dropping the car back, visiting Irene at work, getting "Fush n' chups", and typing all this down finds me here.
I'm looking forward to getting back to Oz, to see everyone again, to go surfing with the gang, and the Grand Prix, then getting up to Sydney to meet Mam coming on the 10th April.
Busy times!
OK here's the interesting part; enjoy!
My diary entry: Friday 24th March 2006
Last Monday I rented a car from the airport, a beautiful car at that; a Holden Commodore Executive, brand new station wagon with all the trimmings, cruise control, cd player, automatic this and that. A waste of my budget you say? Ney, it was on offer, the same price as the cheap one (give or take 5 bucks!)
I took off on my way, having no real plans, which is quite a good thing to do in this situation, it gives a great sense of how much there is to offer.
I drove up the coast for a time, slowly making my way inland then, to my first port of call, Tongariro Range, what a landscape.... almost other worldly, the rocks are sharp and look as if they were strewn across the volcano only yesterday in preparation for my arrival. Horizontal lines mark the hills, where the last eruptions flow stopped, and creates a washboard effect.
Tongariro played Mordor in Lord of the Rings - I can see why.
After spending the afternoon around there, I made my way north again, the road clipping the western edge of the mountains that hold the massive volume of Lake Taupo.
At this point I had decided where I would try and get too that night: Raglan.
I didn't make it.
I made it to Hamilton, an hour or so east of Raglan, it was 550km I had driven, so I said I'll bed down there for the night and make an early start. Hamilton was nice, NZ largest inland city, but I couldn't see myself staying any longer than a day there.
7.00AM on to Raglan, by far the highlight of my trip to NZ.
RAGLAN
Surf
Mmmmm..... surfing
Rumour has it that Manu Bay (Star of 1964 film "The Endless Summer") has the longest left break in the world.
What does this surf lingo mean?
It means you can catch a wave and stay on it while you make the tea, in fact, you can probably have tea while on it, and clean up, depending on how much stuff you can fit on the board with you.
Suffice to say, I saw alot of acrobats on surfboards here, I believe they werew just bored, having a perfect wave of this length, the mind yearns for something to do while on it. And so handstands, breakdancing, and what can only be described as cheerleading were observed by Bean.
I booked into an unbeleavable hostel, Solscape was it's name, its marketing approach was that it was a retreat (mainly for surfers as it overlooked the beach and coastline from around 60M up)
I loved it, you slept in old converted trains! I had two carriagesto myself in the beginning, one being a hangout and kitchen carriage. Everyone was so chilled out and I met alot of people who were around my level of surfing (being not great/good, but not starting out level either, in limbo I suppose!) and we all headed out together, one night turned into two, and two into three, but on the third day there was no surf ( and no sun - up until this point the weather had been beautiful, which was a welcome change from the south of the island)
Two surfs a day, trying out different beaches and breaks almost every time, sometimes beach breaks, sometimes black sand beaches, some point breaks.
Good times.
So after checking in that mornign at round 8.00AM, I decided to head out at Manu Bay, why not eh?
It's the angle the tide comes in(around 45degrees) to the outcrop of stoney land that creates this long wave.
So out I go, caught a few small ones to the side, not to get in the locals way, then on moving out of one guys path I jumped off the board and sliced my foot and leg on reef. Not too bad, but the next time I got off the back of the board and saw the red all over the end of it, I thought maybe it was bad, checked it, nope, just must have hit a vein or something.
Then it happened.
It was beautiful at first.
A wee fish, no longer than 4inches, hopped up and said hello beside me.
Isn't it wonderful to be out here surrounded by nature? - I thought.
Then about twenty of them started hopping out of the water in a ten foot radius around myself.
That's odd - I thought.
Then I saw a 7 inch fella, and I joked to myself - That must be the chief!
No.
Wait.
That wasn't a fish.
That was too wide, more like a pyramid.
Oh shit.
That was a nose.
The world became a movie, I could here no sound, but the beating of my heart.
This isn't like in OZ - I thought to myself. This time he's come for me, and my silly foot bleeding all over the place.
All of a sudden I heard the sound of a breaking wave.
Salvation 20 feet away.
10feet, 5feet.
Yes!
I'm surfing a getaway wave!
All the way in, darting among the protruding rocks in the two foot water, still aware that sharks are not dissuaded by shallow waters.
I didn't care if my board scrapped along behind the car for 50km after this, I was staying on it.
Pretty soon I realised, I had to get up out of the fetal position I had taken at some stage during the ride in, and wade around these rocks.
Three guys who were on there way out, had seen the disturbance around me, so I informed them that a pretty meaty, and possibly pretty hungry reef shark was out there.
"Oh! Thanks bro!"
And out they went.
posted by Bean | 7:55 a.m.
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