Hawaii (Part 1) Oahu

Oahu

After 10 days of non-stop torrential rain, we crossed over the International Date Line and re-lived February 3rd for the second time. We were finally in Hawaii. It felt strange and overwhelming to be back in the United States. American accents actually sounded like accents to me. Our first American meal in four months was at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) which is funny because I think their only international restaurants are still located in North America (in Mexico and Canada). Also because pancakes seem to be a solely American meal. In some places we went there would be a sort of variation on the pancake but nothing that was quite like an American pancake. There also seems to be a complete absence of maple syrup in other parts of the world and this makes me sad for I don't think anyone should go through life without experiencing the joy of tasting maple syrup.

So there we were back in the United States and sitting in IHOP. Yesterday was February 3rd and today was February 3rd. We were completely exhausted, jet-lagged, and overwhelmed with the excess and abundance of American culture and I cried into my pancakes. The reality of having nowhere to live and not knowing how we would survive hit me all at once and I started to panic. Accommodation in Hawaii was very expensive so we needed to find a permanent residence very quickly or we'd run out of money. We were currently on the island of Oahu. No. We had never been to Hawaii before. Who moves to a place sight unseen where they don't know a single person? We do. It's all part of the adventure or the insanity depending on which way you look at it. Our exact location was Honolulu which is where all the jobs seemed to be but it felt way too busy and too much like New York City to really feel like a change and change was what we were looking for.

For $4.00 round trip a person can take a bus around the entire island so we got on the bus and set out to explore other places to live. We really liked the North Shore. It's very hard not to like it with its beautiful beaches and world-famous surfing but it was desolate. Unless there's a surf competition there is pretty much nothing going on. The only resort was Turtle Bay and that would also be the only place to find employment. The North Shore is a great place to retire but not a great place to earn a living. We spent the week trying to get ourselves organized and so we went to Walmart and bought a phone. Walmart is another very American experience. It makes me laugh when people act like traveling to foreign countries is so dangerous when we live in a country where a person can walk into a Walmart and buy anything from bananas to a gun. The first time our new phone rang we just looked at each other, completely incapable of figuring out what the noise was. Even receiving a text message seemed like a huge and annoying distraction. And we realized that's because it is. Life had been so peaceful without that constant beep beep beep.

After about a week on Oahu, we decided it wasn't a place we could live in for long term so we booked a flight over to Maui for the next morning. We do plan to go back to visit Oahu because I don't feel like we really had the opportunity to relax and enjoy ourselves there but before we left we made it a priority to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

There are many monuments and exhibits to see within the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites. Some are free exhibits and some are paid exhibits and they all take at least an hour to visit so depending on what you would like to see you will need to plan ahead. The free tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial are given out on a first come first serve basis. Your ticket will have a time on it for when your tour will begin so while you wait you can visit the other exhibits.

Before visitors board the U.S. Navy shuttle boat to the memorial, a brief talk is given by a National Park Service Ranger followed by a 23-minute film on the Pearl Harbor attack. The film shows real footage and pictures of the attack and sets the tone for the visit to the memorial. People are reminded that this is not just a museum with cool battleships and warplanes. Japan's attack killed 2,390 people-1,999 sailors, 233 soldiers and airmen, 109 Marines, and 49 civilians. Military and civilian wounded totaled 1,178.

The USS Arizona Memorial is built over the sunken hull which still has over 900 sailors entombed within. The USS Oklahoma Memorial honors 429 sailors who died when the ship capsized. The visible hull at the USS Utah memorial commemorates the 58 who died.

I don't like to use words like wonderful or great to describe exhibits about war and tragedy because of the horrific subject matter but it was done very tastefully and respectfully and it was a beautiful memorial to those who lost their lives. After visiting Pearl Harbor, Darren and I both agreed that we have seen way too many war museums and war memorials in such a short period of time. But, I think it's important if you're visiting Oahu to visit and pay your respects at Pearl Harbor and I was glad we got the opportunity to do so.

The next day we left Oahu and flew to Maui... Please come back soon to read the second part of this post: Hawaii (Part 2) Maui.

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Fiji

Flooded. That's the one word that comes to mind when I think about Fiji. 

It was to be our last stop before heading back to the United States after nearly four months of traveling abroad. The vision I had of Fiji was that it would be an exotic tropical paradise and the perfect place to recharge after so many weeks of backpacking. We thought it would be a great finale to our trip where we could just lie on the beach and relax before we landed in Hawaii and had to search for a place to live and look for jobs. Like most of the countries we had visited, it was nothing like we'd expected but if every place was just as we'd imagined then there would be no point in traveling. We might as well have stayed home and read a guide book instead.

I concluded my last post (New Zealand-North Island) with Darren's television interview at the Auckland Airport. That was how we found out about the floods in Nadi but we had already booked the outbound ticket and checked in for our flight. We hoped it wasn't as bad as the reporters were making it out to be. 

We were lucky in that our hotel in Nadi was not far from the airport and the surrounding roads were still somewhat drivable. Most people on our flight were left stranded and hotel reservations had to be canceled. All of the roads out of Nadi were flooded and impassable. They scrambled to find hotels nearby that had rooms available. Thousands had lost their homes. Crops were destroyed. The water was contaminated and undrinkable.  Livestock and people had drowned. 

It was raining hard the night we arrived but for the next day or two, the weather was fairly clear. We thought we had caught the last of the monsoon. The roads were still flooded so we were pretty much stuck at the hotel which was in the middle of nowhere. The nearest store was a twenty-five-minute walk and most of the stores had lost power and were closed. It was about a fifteen-minute walk to the beach so we decided to go explore. When we got there, we did not find an exotic tropical paradise. The beach was destroyed. Trees had been uprooted due to the erosion, the water was brown and the sand was covered in debris that had washed ashore. The water level was so high that the locals had to wade into the water up to their necks to cross to the other side. They scavenged for lobsters and crabs to eat for dinner, everyone with a machete in their hand. We even saw a child in diapers scavenging the beach with a machete nearly as big as himself. It's extremely unnerving to be walking down the street and see someone coming your way wielding a sixteen-inch blade and just when you think they're going to hack you into pieces, they shout "Bula!" and give you a big warm grin. The word "Bula" literally means "Life" but it is used as a greeting like "hello" and is also a blessing for happiness and good health. 

We decided to walk into town to get some groceries and hoped the market would be open. While walking along the road, a car stopped and a woman offered us a ride. Her name was Margaret and she told us that the roads would be clear soon and she gave us information on where to get the bus. We were expecting her to ask us for money but it never happened. Typically, our experience while traveling was that if someone approached us offering help, they ultimately asked us for money in return. In Fiji, where they are dirt poor, the people are as genuine and kind as they get. 

The grocery store was the only store that seemed to have electricity but the produce was rotten and the shelves were pretty much empty except for giant sacks of rice. We were shocked at the prices as well. Many of Fiji's products are imported from other countries like New Zealand and India so it costs the average person in Fiji a week's wages to buy a loaf of bread. 

One night we walked to a guest house down the road for some dinner and got to see a show with fire dancing. It was pretty exciting especially since the dancers repeatedly dropped their flaming machetes so the chances of one of the performers or an audience member getting maimed were pretty high. The guest house was offering kava tasting before the show and I think the performers had too many tastes. In Fiji, the roots of the kava plant are used to make a drink that has sedative and anesthetic properties.

That was the one and only activity we were able to do while in Fiji. We were told that the roads were finally clear so I booked a rental car for the next morning so we could get out and see some of the island. When we woke up the next morning the monsoon was back so I had to cancel the car. The same day I booked the rental car, I also booked a room at the Westin. We thought we'd end the trip with a bang and stay in a really nice place. The Westin was located on Denarau Island and when the rain started again we were worried that we wouldn't even be able to get there. 

Darren, who grew up in Ireland which is well known for its rain, said he'd never experienced rain like this in his life. It was violent and relentless, not letting up for a solid week. Our hotel was packed with stranded travelers because their flight back home to Australia was canceled. The roads were closed again and the airport had shut down. 

Darren shot this video. You can hear the rain but it's coming down so hard that you can't even see it. 

For days we were confined to our hotel room. We had a TV that had three channels but only one was in English and it played non-stop reruns of the old Hawaii Five-O but because of the weather it often didn't work at all. Sometimes we went swimming in the pool. It had a huge water slide that was a big hit with a family of young Fijian kids. Their family was staying there to get away from the floods and school was closed. There were seven kids in total-five boys and two girls and they told us their parents were about 30 years old. The boys were sweet and polite and for some reason, they loved to talk to us even though we were adults. One boy named Junior liked to show off for Darren by diving in the pool. He would land on his face every time which would crack us up and then he'd casually look at Darren just to make sure he saw. Another poolside friend we had was a 13-year-old boy named Neil from New Zealand who introduced himself to us one day. We affectionately called him Neily, the Mayor of Nadi because he was our source of all the information around the island. When the electricity went out in the town, it was Neily who reported the news to us. When the roads were opened again the hotel staff were completely unaware and we found out the news from Neily.

After several days of being cooped up in our room because of the non-stop pouring rain, Darren decided he was going to run into town to get groceries because we had run out of food. On his way, a taxi driver picked him up and offered him a ride-for FREE. It was his job to drive people places for money but he wouldn't accept money for the ride. The kindness of the people in this country was overwhelming and humbling. Traveling had made us wary and cynical of people. We had learned that when someone offers you tea they want to sell you a rug and when someone gives you directions and they follow you, it's not to make sure you get there safely but because they are waiting for you to give them money. But in Fiji, they help people for purely genuine and unselfish reasons. This is an interesting concept that I think many countries can learn from.

While Darren was grocery shopping I hung out with my buddy Neily in the pool. He was 13 but based on his gangly frame I would have guessed 11. He was of Indian descent and reminded me of the character Mowgli from The Jungle Book. We were unlikely friends but as it turned out I had a lot in common with this 13-year-old Kiwi boy. Despite his young age, he was very smart and had also done a fair amount of traveling. He said Fiji was boring and that there was no sight-seeing. He was homesick and missed his friends in New Zealand. He had visited India and said his shoes were stolen outside the Taj Mahal so he didn't care for India too much. Thinking back on our crazy trip to India, this made me laugh. I told him how much I loved New Zealand and he asked me about New York. For some reason this boy opened up to me, a stranger he'd known for less than a week. He said he really wanted to go to New York someday. It was his cousin's favorite place in the whole world. She was 20 years old and went to New York City to seek treatment at Sloan Kettering Hospital for a brain tumor. He dunked his head under the water. His family would be going to NY in a couple weeks for her funeral because that is where she wished her ashes to be scattered. He wouldn't be going with them because he had school and important exams to take.
"It's important that I remain focused on my studies so that I can get a scholarship for college."
 These sounded more like an adult's words than a 13-year-old boy's. He dunked again. I told him my Aunt had recently died of a brain tumor as well. She passed away while we were in Ireland and we also didn't make it to the funeral.
"It sucks."
"Yeah...it sucks."
And here we were a 33 year old American and a 13-year-old New Zealander in a pool in Fiji. He dunked his head. This time staying under for a while.
"Where's Darren?"
"He ran into town. He should be back any minute."
And just a few seconds later Darren is back. He jumped into the pool and we barely recognized him with his freshly shaved head. He had stopped at the barber on his way back. The boredom had gotten to him. Then the Fijian boys were back and everyone began chasing each other and sliding down the water slide.

When the Fijian family left, things got really quiet. Then it was Neily's last day and we went to say goodbye, meeting his parents for the first time. And then we were alone again. The next day we made it to Denarau Island. On the drive over, we got a tour of the mess the monsoon had created. It was still raining non-stop. The beautiful Westin resort wasn't holding up too well either. We settled into our room and unpacked but then had to pack up and move to another room because it was literally raining in the room. The water was coming in through the ceiling and the light fixtures making it a very dangerous situation. Our next room was slightly better. It had a much better ocean view but the floor was flooded. We accepted this because at least we didn't have to fear electrocution.

It continued to pour. We listened to the radio. The winds were picking up threatening a cyclone. The second night the gale-force winds knocked out the power. We woke up to suffocating heat in the middle of the night. The generator restored the lights but not the air conditioning. We checked out the next morning but had to waste time all day hanging around the hotel lobby because our flight wasn't until 8:30 that night. We were tired and both of us had pounding headaches from the heat and lack of sleep. We watched the Rugby Sevens with the hotel staff and walked around in the rain. There wasn't much else to do but reflect upon the amazing journey we'd just had and hopefully would continue to have. We thought about all of the incredible things we'd done over the past few months. We had visited museums, zoos, aquariums, farms, mosques, temples, churches, palaces, shrines, and caves. We'd traveled by plane, train, bus, car, tuk-tuk, rickshaw, boats, motorcycle, bicycle, and an elephant. We'd survived several earthquakes, a cyclone, and a monsoon. We climbed mountains and a glacier. We'd trekked through the Himalayas, hiked up volcanoes, kayaked, surfed, and swam in the South Pacific Ocean and the Arabian, South China, Coral, Tasman, and the Andaman Sea. We had slept in hostels, backpackers, tea houses, hotels, motels, trains, planes, buses, airports, a car, a van and sometimes we didn't sleep at all. I had vomited more times over the past few months than I had in my whole life combined. At any point in time, one or both of us were tired and/or hungry but we would both do it all over again. Having given up the comforts of home to spend a lot of time dirty and uncomfortable, we did things we never thought we could do and met so many amazing people along the way. We wondered how they are all doing now. We thought about Mel and Louise from our train ride in India, and Alex from our trip to Turkey. There was a Welsh couple we kept running into in South Africa and a German couple we met in Nepal who invited us to stay with them in their home in Malaysia. I still email with Bishnu from Nature Trail in Nepal and he tells me that our friend Dharma is doing well and has just returned from another Poon Hill trek. They are busy now but soon the monsoons will be coming and there will be no work for several months. I wondered if Steve is making any progress in his fight for freedom camping in New Zealand. We think about Tuan, a 30-year-old hotel manager in Vietnam. He was unhappy because he was being forced by his family into an arranged marriage. He told us he did not love this girl but he was expected to get married and produce a son. We wonder if he went through with it. I thought about the little boy we saw running barefoot and half-naked in the middle of the night in Agra, India. I saw him for only a brief moment but he has stayed with me ever since. Is he still alive?  When I was sick in Thailand, I had a nightmare about that little boy. Darren woke me up in the middle of the night because I was choking. I was burning up with a fever and thought we were still in India. In this dream, I saw my Aunt and she said to me, "Don't worry. The boy is with me now."
And then I think and I hope that wherever they are Neily's cousin is with them too.

We tried to use our time in Fiji wisely. We spent a lot of time stuck inside our room so we took the opportunity to start planning for Hawaii. We had given up our jobs and home in New York and decided we'd try to live in Hawaii for a while. Neither of us had ever been there before nor did we know anyone who lived there so many people thought we were crazy. We had absolutely no plan for where we'd work or live. Every once in awhile we'd freak out about being homeless but I saw no point in going on a journey like this only to go back to exactly the life we had before it started. We had been living so much in the moment that we hadn't had time to worry about where we'd wind up when the trip was over. When we were in South Africa, our trip to Turkey just the week before seemed like it happened a lifetime ago. We were living day by day. Not focused on the future and what was going to happen the following weeks in Nepal or India or Vietnam. Each day we had to find a place to sleep for the night so I wasn't worried about where I would be sleeping three months in the future. So now we were less than 24 hours away from entering back into the United States after three and a half months and eleven countries. We were starting over with practically nothing but just one backpack each but whenever I'd start to panic about the future I'd think of Dharma in Nepal holding my hand so I wouldn't fall. "Ali, Ali Kim (Slowly, slowly) One step at a time."

As we were packing to leave Fiji, Darren showed me something he wrote in his notebook at the very beginning of our trip which feels more like 4 years ago than 4 months ago. He had been reading a book called, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, by Dean Karnazes and he wrote down this passage:

["Running has taught me that the pursuit of a passion matters more than the passion itself.

Immerse yourself in something deeply and with heartfelt intensity, continually improve, never give up-this is fulfillment, this is success.

Fulfillment: Most people never get there. They're afraid or unwilling to demand enough of themselves and take the easy road, the path of least resistance. But struggling and suffering, as I now saw it, were the essence of a life worth living. If you're not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if you're not constantly demanding more from yourself-expanding and learning as you go-you're choosing a numb existence. You're denying yourself an extraordinary trip. 

As a running buddy once said to me: Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, "Wow!! What a Ride!"]

 At the airport, we were just a half-hour away from boarding our flight. Darren commented to me on how lucky we were that we had flown on over twenty flights without a single incident. Our longest flight delay was 5 hours for our shortest trip from Kathmandu to Pokhara Nepal, a 30-minute flight.

A few minutes later they announced that our flight was canceled and rescheduled for 5 am the following morning. We all had to reclaim our checked luggage and they would put all the passengers up in a hotel for the night. It took two hours to organize this. When we finally found our bags, we had to wait in line for the shuttle to the hotel. It held about fifteen people so it had to keep dropping groups off and coming back for the next fifteen people and all the while the rain was still pouring down. We had already exchanged our money for US dollars in the airport so it was good news when we learned they were also giving us a free buffet dinner. We were hungry and exhausted from not sleeping the night before so this really lifted Darren's mood. While we ate, he wistfully reminisced about the amazing buffet dinner we had in India as if it was the most memorable experience of our whole trip.

We got four hours of sleep and then had to wake up to catch a 3 am shuttle back to the airport, check our bags again and go through customs and immigration again. It was now February 4th. We had a layover in Samoa to pick up more passengers who also had to be put up in a hotel for the night and then we finally landed in Hawaii. We traveled over the International Date Line and so it was February 3rd again. Would this day ever end?!

Come back soon to read about how things turned out for us in Hawaii.

New Zealand- North Island

Little K & D surfing Franz Josef Glacier

When I ended my last post we were on a ferry headed from the south island to the north island of New Zealand. After a glorious three-hour ferry ride we disembarked in Wellington around 1 pm. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and it is a quaint and lively city. It has a mixture of modern and old historical buildings with houses all along the hillside, seemingly everyone with a stunning harbor view.

From Wellington, we continued driving north and stopped in a tiny Maori town to find some dinner. It was only 5 pm and we went to all three restaurants in the town but all the shops were already closed. Our only options were McDonald's or another family-run fast food establishment. We chose the family-owned place and got some burgers and fries but then drove to McDonald's to use their WiFi so I could book a tour for the Waitomo caves.

We continued driving to a cute little ski town called Ohakune. One of the great things about visiting New Zealand in the summertime is that the sun stays out until almost 11 pm so we didn't have to worry too much about trying to find campsites in the dark. We found a cheap Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite just outside of town located in Tongariro National Park another World Heritage Site. We had met a couple at another campsite who had hiked the Tongariro Alpine Crossing and said they loved it so we planned to do the hike the next day except it was raining so hard the next morning that we got a very late start. We got free trail maps from the information center in town and found out that the whole crossing was 19.7 km and would take approximately seven hours. Due to the rain, we didn't start hiking until 2 pm so we weren't able to go the whole way. We hiked about 2 hours to Soda Springs and then turned around and came back. The trail wasn't as scenic as I'd expected but definitely very different from any hikes we'd ever done before. The hike led us around Mt. Tongariro, an active volcano and through fields of volcanic rock. At some point, we were climbing up and down the rocks and over streams and there were even some waterfalls.

 Mt. Tongariro

When we finished hiking we started driving again. I wanted Darren to see Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in New Zealand, so we drove north up through the town of Turangi. It was impossible to drive straight through without stopping several times to admire the scenery. We found a campsite not far from the Waitomo caves where we had our tour scheduled for the next day. There wasn't another town for miles and there was only one other car at the campsite. All we could hear were the sounds of crickets, cows, and native birds.

Lake Taupo

The next morning we drove to the town of Te Kuiti which is about 10 minutes from the caves. Te Kuiti is another tiny one-street town but it also happens to be the sheep shearing capital of the world. We went to the information center and asked to use their Internet so we could see if our tour had been confirmed. The nice lady working there told us that we'd have to pay to use their Internet so instead, she gave us a map to the library where the Internet was free. I wish all countries were as accommodating to tourists as New Zealand. They really make it so easy and safe for foreigners to travel. Then we asked her if she knew where we could take showers. She told us that we could pay to get into the public pool and use their showers or there was a campsite next door to the pool and we could possibly pay for their showers. We went to the library and got our confirmation email for the tour and then wound up showering at the campsite. The pool charged $4.10 per person and the campsite charged just $2.50 for a six-minute shower. It had been four days since our last shower but I'm proud to report that we were both able to thoroughly soap, scrub, and shampoo in under six minutes and it felt wonderful to be clean again. 

This was the first sunny day we'd had in a long time and we had spent most of it in the library and now we were going to spend the rest of it in a cave but it was worth missing a long-awaited day of sunshine. I'd recommend that the Waitomo caves be added to the list of things you shouldn't miss when visiting New Zealand. We went on two tours. The first was the Ruakuri caves and they were truly like nothing I have ever seen before. We had visited the limestone caves in Vietnam (http://kimwagnerdesigns.blogspot.com/2012/01/vietnam.html) but these caves were unique in that they were covered with thousands of little green glow worms (Arachnocampa Luminosa). The caves got so dark that it looked like millions of little green stars in the sky. There were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. They only grow about one centimeter a year and judging by their length this tells us that they are millions of years old. Some of the stalactites and stalagmites grew so long that they connected in the middle forming columns. Nature is an amazing architect. There was also an underground river below us and when we looked down we could see a group of people black water rafting. The caves were amazing but I seriously wished we had booked the black water rafting tour. People were drifting down the river in the dark looking up at the glow worms all over the cave walls. Next time we go back to New Zealand I am definitely trying this! They also have tours that take groups abseiling (rappelling in American English) down into the caves as well. In New Zealand, they like to do everything to the extreme so even going on a cave tour becomes an extreme sporting adventure. Another nice thing about this cave is that if you're not capable of participating in extreme sports, it is also wheelchair accessible. After the Ruakuri tour, we went on the Waitomo tour. It was very similar except that we got to go on a rowboat down the river. It was like a trip to outer space. We drifted down the river in almost complete darkness. All that we could see was the green glow of the glow worms all around us.

When we finished at the caves we had to drive back to Te Kuiti to get petrol because the next petrol station would be too far to make it without filling up. So we stopped there for petrol and got dinner before getting back on the road. Then we headed northeast across the island towards Mount Maunganui. I've written a lot about Mount Maunganui in the past as it is my favorite place in the whole world (http://kimwagnerdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/03/mount-maunganui-tauranga-new-zealand.html). When we had our late night chat with another camper named Steve, who I mentioned in my last post about the South Island, he had said that he had also been traveling around the world and he too had gone to Mount Maunganui. He was trying to find the words to explain his experience and he said, "there's just something about that place. It's just....it's just so..." and I said, "Special." and he answered, "yeah, that's it. It really is a special place."

When we arrived at Mount Maunganui it was very late and already completely dark. I was anxious for Darren to see it in the daylight. It was so dark that he couldn't even see the volcano or the "The Mount" as they call it, which comes from the Maori word "Mauao". The campsite located at the base of the Mount was $55 so that was out of the question. A guy we met told us it would be safe to park on the beach without getting a fine. It was very late and we were too tired to keep driving so we took our chances and parked the car in a spot facing the beach. We went to a public restroom so we could wash up and brush our teeth but it was already locked. Luckily, New Zealand being so thoughtful, there was a map to another open restroom posted on the door. So we drove a few blocks to the open public restroom and then parked our car for the night. It was too dark to see the ocean but we fell asleep to the sound of the crashing waves.

We were woken up bright and early the next morning when someone came along and put something under our windshield wiper. I got very nervous that it was going to be a ticket for freedom camping but it was just a warning with a list of local campsites that we should go to.

We were up just in time to watch the sunrise on the beach. We ate our breakfast while watching the surfers catch some waves before going to work. We also got to witness a truly amazing event. Back in October my beloved Mount Maunganui was polluted by an oil spill from a cargo ship that ran aground. The ship named Rena was carrying containers of hazardous cargo which also washed ashore. It was the country's worst maritime environmental disaster in history. The beach on this particular morning was filled with volunteers who had been coming since October to help with the cleanup. They were also releasing some baby penguins that they had rescued from the oil and cleaned. On this morning January 18th we got to witness them being set free into the ocean again. It was an amazing event and one that I will never forget.

I took Darren for a walk on Moturiki Island and then we hiked up to the top of the Mount. It wasn't long before Darren declared that Mount Maunganui was also his favorite place in New Zealand.

We looked for a campsite to stay for another night because Darren wanted to spend another day and I was also in no rush to leave my favorite place. After receiving the warning on our windshield we didn't want to risk freedom camping another night. It was very difficult to be inconspicuous when driving a lime green and purple van but it was fun traveling in the Jucy. Darren got a great kick out of the waves, honks, and flashing headlights we received every time we passed another Jucy vehicle on the road. One site was charging $44 which was better than the one by the Mount which charged $55 but it still seemed out of the question to pay that much just to park the van for the night. We eventually settled on a site in Papamoa which was the next town over and paid an absurd amount of $40. There were no DOC sites nearby and we didn't want to risk a fine so we had no choice but to stay at the $40 campsite.

The next day was a beautiful sunny day so we wanted to hike up the Mount again. I actually had to attempt it in flip flops this time because after putting so much mileage and wear and tear on my feet they had started to crack and bleed. I had written about wearing through a two-month-old pair of flip flops in Australia (http://kimwagnerdesigns.blogspot.com/2012/03/australia.html) and now I was wearing through my feet themselves. Darren's feet weren't in any better condition but mine were to the point that it hurt too bad to even wear shoes. So like a true Kiwi, I did the hike in flip flops.

View from the peak of Mt. Maunganui

Before leaving Mount Maunganui we took a relaxing dip at the saltwater hot pools (For more information about the saltwater hot pools, read my post: Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, New Zealand). We shared the pools with an entire rugby team who had the same idea. I'm not sure what team they played for but they caused quite a stir and the locals all seemed to know who they were. We couldn't leave the pools without taking advantage of their showers so once we were clean again we got back in the Jucy and said goodbye to Mount Maunganui. I was sad to leave again but I have a feeling it will be a place that I keep coming back to.

I had wanted to take Darren up the Coromandel Peninsula (read post: New Zealand-Tauranga & the Coromandel Peninsula) as I had done last year but because we stayed in Mount Maunganui an extra day there wouldn't be enough time. There are a lot of other fun things I did on the north island that I've written about before like Kiwi 360, Te Puna Quarry Park, Auckland Zoo, Sky Tower and Tongariro River Rafting. Rather than writing about the same destinations again, please read my previous posts: Adventures in Kiwi Land, Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, New Zealand, New Zealand-Tauranga & the Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand Continued, and New Zealand-Goodbye for now...
We wouldn't be able to do all of the same things again but we did get to visit some new places like the Tongariro crossing, Wellington, and the Waitomo Caves. We had to be back in Auckland in a couple of days to return the Jucy van so we drove west and looked for the DOC campsite near Karangahake Gorge. The campsite was so hidden away that we drove back and forth for a while before finally having to stop for directions. When we finally located it, the sun was setting and the entire sky looked like one giant rainbow.

The next morning we hiked the Karangahake Gorge. I wrote about this in my post last year but I did some new trails this time worth noting. One of the trails led us through some old gold mining tunnels. They were pitch black so we weren't able to get very far without a flashlight. The trail was called "Windows Walk." There were holes cut out in the side of the mountain so when we were walking through the dark tunnels we'd eventually see a light ahead and we'd find a break in the rock wall that was like a window looking down onto the river below. We also took a trail that led us through an abandoned train tunnel. It was dark and damp and seemed endless. The train tunnel was so long that we couldn't see the end of it from where we started. I think we must have been walking for almost an hour before we made it to the other side. The trails were an adventure with lots of unexpected tunnels, windows, rope bridges and mine shafts to explore. I liked that they had an element of surprise and danger without actually being dangerous.

                     

The Karangahake Gorge was very close to Paeroa, home of the "World Famous in New Zealand" Lemon and Paeroa soda so I had to take Darren to the L & P cafe to try one. L & P is a delicious and refreshing fizzy lemon drink that is sold only in New Zealand so you can't travel all the way to New Zealand and not try one. Once we quenched our thirst we were on our way to Auckland again. We stopped for fuel just outside the city. There was an information center right next to the petrol station. We had no idea where we could camp for the night as there were no DOC campsites in the area so we picked up a pamphlet that had a list of all of the cheap campsites around Auckland. It was just too easy.

One Tree Hill

Before we went to the campsite I wanted to take Darren to see One Tree Hill which I visited on my last trip to New Zealand. It is a well-known landmark thanks to the song "One Tree Hill" by U2. The obelisk on top of the hill was erected as a memorial to the Maori people but you won't find a tree up there. In 1852 British settlers planted a Monterey Pine to make amends for chopping down a sacred totara. The Moari's offended that it was not a native tree, chopped it down in 2000. One Tree Hill is located in beautiful Cornwall Park and from the top of One Tree Hill, you will have an amazing 360 view of Auckland and all the sheep grazing the fields below. 

Our campsite was located in Ambury Regional Park. It was a working farm that also had many walking tracks. Campers were allowed to explore the tracks and pet the animals but we were "Not allowed to chase the chickens!" Darren and I took advantage of the walking tracks and found some really cool fields of volcanic rock. 

The next day we woke up early so we could pack up and clean the Jucy before turning her in. We found our hotel and dropped off our backpacks. It was 8:30 am and we wouldn't be able to check-in until 1 or 2pm. Then we dropped off the Jucy van and I took Darren on a walking tour of Auckland. The big excitement of the day was the notion of actually being able to sleep in a bed in a room with running water. We had been sleeping in a van for two weeks and we couldn't wait to have a roof over our heads and a hot shower. It felt strange and luxurious to have an entire room to spread out in. 

Auckland, NZ

The following day we were off to a slow start due to the relentless rain. We eventually made it to Auckland Domain (see post: New Zealand-Goodbye for now...) but it wasn't the best day to be outside in a park. I suggested we go to the Auckland Museum which is located in the park. It was a nice indoor activity that would complement the rainy weather. Darren wasn't in the mood for a museum but there wasn't much else we could do on a rainy day. Admission was just a $10 donation and once Darren was inside he was happy to be there.

 The Auckland Museum was really top-notch. It's exhibits covered a wide range of subject matter so there really was something for everyone to enjoy. There were exhibits displaying Maori artifacts, toys, furniture, clothing, marine life, rugby, dinosaurs, and an interactive children's exhibit called "Weird and Wonderful." There were also war and history exhibits, art exhibits as well as a Maori cultural performance. 

My favorite part of the museum was the Volcanoes exhibit. I loved the immersive environment they created in the space with the small scale volcano complete with lava and ash cloud. At the end of the exhibit, we entered a small house. While sitting in the family room we watched a mock news report on the television broadcasting a volcanic eruption nearby. The house began to shake, the TV went blank and the lights went out simulating what a volcanic eruption would feel like, similar to the Pompeii exhibit I visited at the Discovery Museum in Times Square (see post: Pompeii comes to Times Square).  New Zealand sits on two of the Earth's huge tectonic plates and the Auckland museum itself sits on the edge of Pukekawa, one of Auckland's oldest volcanic cones. The exhibit taught visitors how volcanoes are formed and how volcanic eruptions occur and it did a great job of educating people about the seriousness of a volcanic eruption. It informed visitors, without creating panic and terror, about what to do in the event of future eruptions. I appreciate when museums choose a subject matter that is relevant to their geographical region. They play an important role in teaching people about their culture and history and in this case, if an eruption were to occur in the near future, the information shared in this exhibit could potentially save lives. When we left the museum Darren had a smile on his face and said he didn't want to go at first but he wound up really enjoying it.

Volcanoes Exhibit at Auckland Museum

The sun was shining again the next day so we rented mountain bikes and took a ferry to Waiheke Island. We got a tip from the ferry ticket agent that if we were to rent the bikes in the city it would be a lot cheaper than renting them once we got to Waiheke Island and it was free to bring bikes on the ferry. Everyone in New Zealand is so helpful! She also gave us a map, of course, that had all of the bike trails on Waiheke Island. If wine tasting is your thing, you can also go on a guided wine tasting tour of Waiheke Island. You can also bring a tent and go camping as well. We rode our bikes around the island all day and stopped to check out all of the beautiful beaches and enjoy the quaint and serene surroundings on our last full day in New Zealand.

Waiheke Island

The next morning we packed up and got ready to go to the airport. Check-out time was 10am and our airport shuttle picked us up at 10:20. No more waiting around killing time for hours in airport limbo (you know, when you have to check out of your hotel at 10am but your flight isn't until 8pm). We were at the airport the standard three hours before our international flight to Fiji. There were no lines and we cruised right up to the check-in counter. We had just commented to each other how nice it was to finally be in an airport where things were going so smoothly. Then the woman at the check-in desk asked to see our outbound tickets leaving Fiji. Oh no. Not again! You'd think we would have learned after we had to race around Sydney International airport trying to book tickets out of New Zealand (see post: Australia) but NO, here we were again. We ran to an Internet kiosk at the airport but it cost $10 an hour. Then we tried going to Flight Centre, a travel agency located in the airport. They were charging $800 each for a one-way ticket from Fiji to Honolulu. I knew this was a rip-off because I had actually already checked out the prices for tickets online. I just didn't have the common sense to book the tickets. We really just wanted to stay for as long as we liked without a deadline for having to leave the same as we'd planned for New Zealand but in many countries, that's just not allowed. Of course, we checked and double-checked their policies before our trip but there was no mention of an outbound ticket requirement. 

Travel tip: Be aware when traveling that the rules can always change without notice!

I ran back to the Internet kiosk and went online to book our tickets while Darren ran around the airport looking for a printer because we had to have a PRINTED ticket. I kept dropping change into the machine until I finally found fares for $600 each and booked our flights. Then we had to run to the other end of the airport to use the printer where we had to pay $2 per page! Then we had to get back on the check-in line to get our boarding passes. Once we were finally checked-in we breathed a sigh of relief and as we were walking to our gate a news reporter with a camera crew approached us, shoved a microphone in our faces, and asked if we were concerned about the floods in Fiji. She wanted to know if we were going to cancel our trip, to which we replied, "uh what floods in Fiji!?" This information would have been helpful before we ran all over the airport trying to buy tickets. We might have booked an earlier flight out. I shied away from the camera while the reporter interviewed Darren. He told her we had already survived several earthquakes and a cyclone in the past three months so we weren't about to be deterred by a flood. 

Come back soon to find out what happened when we finally landed in Fiji...