auckland, new zealand - march 2008

Again, a long and overdue post.
As usual, photos are more important and they are the first priority. They are now live at my Flickr.

Alright, here goes. My first trip to New Zealand or in the language of the Maori, Te Aotearoa, which means the land of the long white cloud.

22nd March
Melbourne to Auckland
Imagine arriving at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport to find yourself surrounded by gazzillions of people, like in a crowded market. I'd never thought of that before. It was even confusing of where to queue.


Here (this photo above) we were standing at the apex of Qantas' queue for checking in. Apparently they had three flights that afternoon around the same time. Maybe it's time to expand the terminals? Anyway, after an hour (more or less) we finally got our boarding passes and away we flew.

Arrived at Auckland International Airport that afternoon (it's two hours earlier than Melbourne) so almost the whole day was basically wasted doing airport times. And this is the first time I took the camera out from my backpack that afternoon, at the welcome gate of Auckland's Airport.


Customs and security were a lot tougher than Australia. I thought Australia's customs and security were already quite tough, but this is even more. Even souvenir t-shirts with a slightly sensitive quote made it slower to go out of the customs (drug related quote and pics on t-shirt). Anyway, we got out. The airport looked like this.


My friend's cousind picked us up and we went to her place, unpacked a bit, went for dinner, got back, showered and took a finally deserved rest for the day.

23rd March
Day 2, Rotorua
Drove to Rotorua where the whole city smells of sulphur (stinks) and went straight to Te Puia, where we experienced the Maori cultural and geothermal experience. Entrance was NZ$50 per person which was quite steep. We got a corn cob complimentary (which wasn't much I think) and got to see the Maori welcome dance.


The entrance of Te Puia welcomes you (if you have NZ$50).


This is one of the signs we encounter during the walk and tell me that isn't the longest name you've ever encountered... Maybe not, but that's quite long for me.


Here is the cooking pool for the corn cobs and eggs. This area has a lot of sulphuric pools but this one particular pool's water was crystal clear. The air still smells bad though. We were quite hungry at this stage as we haven't had lunch yet, so my girlfriend cleaned up a few corn cobs.


Hehe, just kidding, we only had one each (still hungry). The other ones were just leftovers from other people (including us). So we went to see the Maori welcome dance afterwards.


And last but not least, to Pohutu Geyser.


Very very nice. I think it was around 5PM when we were done at Te Puia and we drove around in Rotorua (the city wasn't that big) after lunch/dinner. Took photos at the Museum of Art and History (which is this building). We stayed there until the sun almost went down.



Went to our accommodation afterwards, checked in, showered and basically spent the night watching TV and sleeping.

24th March
Day 3, Rotorua, Taupo
Got up pretty early in the morning (6AM) and tried to catch the sunset. Didn't succeed as it was cloudy that morning. Damn you clouds. Here's what I got instead.


I was quite happy with that. So we went back to the hotel and showered. We went to Tarawera Lake which (according to Wikipedia) was primarily filled by the Green (Rotokakahi) and Blue (Tikitapu) Lakes (which we went to as well).

Orakei Korako Geyserland was next. It was situated betweek Rotorua and Taupo. Entry was NZ$28 if I'm not mistaken. A ferry will take you across the river (and back).



The second photo is the emerald lake in Ruatapu Cave which is part of the Geyserland. Too bad the sun wasn't shining into the cave by the time we got there. It was quite a walk too, I think around an hour and a half if you wanted to see the whole complex. I was quite hopeful to see the hot mud pool but they didn't have anything like what the leaflet has. Bummer.

And after finishing a meat pie from the shop there, Huka Falls was next. The current there was pretty strong and is used for jetboating.


Not far from there is the Huka Prawn Park. I think we went to Pizza Hut to (again) have lunch/dinner. But we just had to try it. We're already here anyway. And that set us back NZ$90 for one kilo of prawns plus pita bread and rice. So we started eating.


Not five minutes after...


Tada!!! Finished!!! Imagine how hungry we were (even though we had pizza beforehand). Too bad the bucket and prawn skin weren't edible otherwise I'm not sure if there would be anything left. And so we drove back to Auckland.

25th March
Day 4, Auckland
Devonport Wharf (below) was the first meeting point. Met up with my friend's relatives there. Didn't spend a lot of time there. Went to lunch afterwards.


After lunch, we visited the Wintergarden Pavillion which, for me, is a huge indoor garden with a lot of pretty plants. Here's one of my favourite plants there.


Last visit of the day was the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial.


Dinner, then home.

26th March
Day 5, Thames & Hahei
Karaka Bird Hide was the first visit of the day. Literally hundreds of birds were there. Not in species (I'm guessing) but in quantity.


Then we had a long walk at Hahei's Cathedral Cove. It was a 45-minute walk and most is ascending. I even went to two out of the three detours available which wasn't too bad, but was so tiring. Here's a shot of it from afar.


And the actual views from the Cathedral Cove.



On the way here, I asked my girlfriend to go through a fenced area and sit at a bench so I could take her photo looking at the sea. What we didn't know was that the fence was electric. Ouch! And we didn't find out until we walked on the way back. Glad she didn't touch any of those wires. Will have to be more careful next time. Look for signs!


And some beef, I mean cow. Hmm... food glorious food.


And back at the carpark, I saw this caravan parked and I just had to take a photo of it.


Went to Hahei beach but I didn't take any photos there. My friend was going to try to dig the sand as if you dig deep enough, they had hot water springs underneath. Didn't do it in the end. And that ended day five.

27th March
Day 6, Waitomo
The glow worm cave. It was a shame that we weren't allowed photographs and videos inside. We were told that the worms are very sensitive to sound and light and they will turn their glow off if they feel unsafe.

Went a bit further afterwards and reached this beautiful waterfall after walking for about five minutes, the Marokopa Falls. There was literally nobody there. Sweet.


My friend went to the very bottom and almost fell in the process but he got a much better photo of the falls than I did. It was just a much better composition PLUS there was a rainbow if you shoot from the bottom. Damn, should've went the extra mile (figurative speech) there.

And so we drove back (yet again) to Auckland and we stopped at the side road next to a corn farm.


God bless the sun, gotta love those flares.

Day six, finished, but not before we went to Wendy's for dinner. YES, Wendy's, how I love the chilli there.

28th March
Day 7, Auckland
Spent the whole day at Sylvia Park shopping centre.



Didn't buy a thing.

I hate the guy who runs Nik's photo in here, I really do. It was hard even just to get service from the guy. Not sure if he was busy or what, but as a customer, I'd expect a descent service from a photo print shop.

29th March
Day 8, Auckland
Went to my friend's cousin's baby's Christening. Spent time in the city afterwards. Skytower was the highlight of the day. Even though I have vertigo, I still went up and walked around the observation deck.


Had lunch at The foodcourt. Japanese food in Auckland is great. I mean, where else can you find a California Roll as big as your fist?


We also discovered Burger Fuel. An instant favourite from it's menu is the Ford Freakout.

Auckland also has a NZ$3 Japanese shop which we all went mad at.

Later that day, we went to Piha's Lion Rock then to Mt Eden.



The wind at Mt Eden was so strong that all my photos there (even taken on a Manfrotto tripod) is still a bit blurry. Dammit.

Had some snack (bubble tea + satay) at Momotea House and apparently that's dinner. Went under the Harbour Bridge to take photos then went home.

30th March
Day 9, Auckland
We were trying to get souvenirs from the Victoria Park Market but prices were more expensive there compared to the city but it was the last day, and the flight was in the afternoon, so bought some stuff here.


Had lunch at QQ Rice. This one is a unique Taiwanese shop selling sort of like a Japanese onigiri but with the filling of your choice. See below for instructions.


Here's the packet and I asked, of course, my girlfriend again to pose for the camera before actually eating it.



Yummy!!! Half that and half Ford Freakout made my day.

Went back to the NZ$3 Japanese shop again before finally packing everything and went back to Melbourne that afternoon.

It was a fun trip, but I would still come back and sightsee the South Island. The whole trip cost me a bit less than AU$1500 (that's including the seven nights free accommodation). That's not too bad I guess. I only had AU$500 spending money there and on the last day I only had NZ$10 left. Right on target.

Again, photos are live at my Flickr (except for some).

My upcoming trip (which is this Thursday) is to Hobart, so Hobart, here I come.