January 23, 2001 Tuesday - Auckland to Whangarei, New Zealand
I boarded the Magic Bus after waiting for a while and was finally off to my first New Zealand Magic Bus adventure. The crowd on the bus was a really dead and old. The group didn't laugh much at the Johnno, the bus driver's jokes and was fairly subdued most of the time.
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| Sheep - a male Kiwi's best friend - On the way to Whangarei, New Zealand |
The rolling hills and grazing domestic animals reminded me of the countryside of Virginia. We drove into a small town for breakfast and the continued driving until we got to one of the Goat Islands. The area was like many swim hole / tidal pool area that I've seen at the past 3 islands I visited. Once exception was that the water was bone-chilling and it had a different variety of seaweed growing in it.
The tidal pool area was very interesting however - there were gobies in the pool that looked more like fish but still behave similar to other gobies that I've observed. There were also snails and hermit crabs and an octopus hiding in a crevice. After looking around a little bit, everyone hopped on the bus and we continued on.
We stopped at a horse ranch for lunch and took a hike down to the beach afterward. There were rolling dunes of sand with grass right before the shore. The beach area was plain and flat but beautiful nevertheless, with many variety of shells strewn everywhere.
After the beach, we continued on and I was dropped off at my hostel so I could get away from this dead group. The Bunk Down Hostel was a cozy huge Victorian house converted into a hostel. It felt like living in a home but the people here were segregated and into their little groups already, and not too friendly.
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| Town Basin, Whangarei, New Zealand |
The downtown area surrounding the Town Basin was pretty much dead. Most shops closed after 5:00 except for a few pubs and restaurants. I strolled along the river and after a while, was approached by two drunks. One was almost staggering into the road and I decided to help him walk home.
He only lived less than 10 minutes away and he had heavy smell of alcohol on his breath. I talked to him while walking him home and found out that he has 3 daughters and 1 son but have been living with a friend who took him in a few months ago. We reached the house and it looked small and a bit rundown, perched on the hill. A guy working in the garden greeted me.
Graham, the drunk went into the house and I didn't see him again. Johnny, the guy who was looking after him has been planting some exotic trees on his properties. He assured me that the trees wouldn't spread throughout the country. They are mostly fruiting trees and the temperature here is just warm enough for the tree's lowest temperature tolerance.
After a little tour on the grounds, I went back to the hostel and hit the sacks.
I got up a bit late the next day and headed down to the town basin again. My original agenda was to hike some trails but when I saw some kayakers in the water, I changed my mind and hired a kayak instead.
It cost me $NZ 25 and the scenery were only OK. I thought I would see more things up river but the kayak was stopped by shallow water and river rocks. I tuned back and headed down river for a little more than a mile. The mud bank of the river was sparsely covered by mangroves and I was able to spot a few interesting looking birds that I haven't seen in the wild before.
I stopped at a row of boathouse where people dock to fix their boats and filled up my canteen with water provided by a nice Kiwi. I returned to the basin 4 hours later. The rows and rows of sailboats sat idled in the harbor and people went about doing their boat-fixing tasks in the setting sun. It was a nice mellow scene to come upon.
Back at the hostel, I showered went on a glowworm tour. It was a group of Japanese people with a Brit. We saw these little worms with a glow at their tail. They were about an inch long each and spun a light cocoon against the rock face or leaves.
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| A Weta in a cave, Whangarei, New Zealand |
We also saw these larger critters called a Wetta - looked like giant grasshoppers but brown. They were crawling on the top of the caves along the path. The Japanese backpackers squealed in fright when they saw them. Later that night I played a few games of chess with some Brits before hitting the sack.
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