What a whirlwind the last few days in New Zealand’s North Island have been! I’m finding that one of the benefits, and contradictions, of traveling alone is that I’m never actually alone. Sure, it’s annoying to have the same conversation 10 times a day with different people: “Where are you from? How many days are you in New Zealand? Where do you go next? Where’d you get those pants? My you have a funny accent…” These are all with amazingly interesting people mind you, and I love love LOVE that I have yet to meet another American in New Zealand. Yet amidst the same-old, I’ve consistently been refreshed by funny, eye-opening, sometimes life-changing conversations with people who I randomly click with. One of these people is my new friend Surekha Gollapudi, who for whatever reason felt like an old friend from the moment I first met her. That’s probably why we got into a ton of adventures or trouble together, depending on how you look at it. :)
For the past week, I’ve been attached to the hip to my faithful friend, an English girl of Indian descent who’s also a mid-twenties solo traveler. She’s witty, geeky, ambitious, and has a guy-oriented sense of humor—all the qualities that make me swoon. Throughout a week of bonding on the North Island, we constantly laughed at the small differences among our ways of speaking (i.e. ice lolly vs. popsicle, swimming costume vs. swimsuit, vest tops vs. tank tops). We also found ourselves on five “girl dates,” almost died twice during extended nature walks, and finally solidified our friendship—not only on Facebook—but by giving each other smart knick-names on our last names (she’s Golly and I’m Gardy, in case you didn’t notice… apparently this is common in Britain :) .) I’m now devoted to making sure that Golly visits my best friend Adriana while she’s in LA, so that our friendship circle is complete, and also to seeing her again either in New Zealand or Australia. Yay for accomplishing the first goal of my trip, to meet amazing people!
After I last wrote on Sunday January 17th, Golly and I set out from our Urban Retreat hostel for a hike around Huka Falls, a gorgeous set of rapids just 4km (1 hour walk) outside the city of Taupo. We took a shuttle to the falls and proceeded to walk in a 12km loop for 3 hours, before we headed off on another 4km hour-long walk to the natural hot springs. Since I’d gone for a 4 mile run the day before, my leg joints were pretty worn after a 10 mile “bush walk” through seemingly untouched jungles and forests, so the naturally hot water from the springs was just the ticket for me to feel 100%. After lounging for an hour, we got out and realized to our dismay that a) we were dehydrated with no water, b) we were starving with no food, and c) we had been devoured by sandflies. As we melodramatically crawled the 4km back to town, we couldn’t stop cracking up about our predicament, and finally arrived at a restaurant where we demolished two loaves of garlic bread, two personal pizzas, and two beers. For being our third girl date after our museum-day and dinner-extravaganza in Rotorua, we had a great time!
The next day, Monday January 18th, Golly and I split up and I hiked the 19km/12 mile/6.5 hour Tongariro Alpine Crossing, hailed as New Zealand’s best one-day walk. I was a bit unprepared, having walked nearly a half marathon the previous day, gotten 4 hours of sleep due to some partying neighbors in my hostel, and forgotten the food that I had packed for myself in the van; yet it was a fantastic hike. Due to the kindness of strangers, I gleaned an apple, two bananas, a salami and cheese sandwich, as well as fistfuls of peanuts and raisins from my new friends, probably eating more than others who had actually prepared. :) The weather had been reported as gloomy, but only the first 20-30 minutes were rainy (I was fine because I’d borrowed a rain-jacket from a nice Irish woman), and after that it was misty as we ascended into the clouds. We saw beautiful views of the “emerald lakes” on the way down, as well as clear views of crystal-blue Lake Taupo in the distance. Realizing that I should probably up my standards for food intake, that night I impulsively bought 12 sandwiches which went stale after a day and a half, but at least I didn’t starve. :)
Tuesday January 19th, I jumped on the Magic Bus to continue south to my final destination on the North Island, the capital city of Wellington. After an uneventful bus ride except for a rousing game of “bus bowling,” whereby passengers competed amongst ourselves to knock over six soda bottles with tennis balls on a moving bus (seriously… only in New Zealand), we arrived in the city. I was psyched to meet up with Golly right away at our Nomad Hostel, and since it was still light out we decided to go for an 8km/5 mile/3 hour hike uphill to watch the sunset from Mount Victoria. We loved the spectacular views of the South Island so much that we forgot about the time, and ended up being stranded at the top of the hill with only a dark, steep nature trail leading back to our hostel! I had accidentally lost my water bottle, so again we resorted to survival skills and decided to walk instead of risking sleeping for a night on a park bench. I busted out a handy lipstick case with a small LED light on the end, which we used to find the streets below without twisting an ankle. Again, we melodramatically cracked up at our predicament, and decided to take it easy the next day with just visiting the Parliament and a museum.
Wednesday January 20th, Golly and Gardy continued our adventures by sharing breakfast, shopping, and then visiting the “Beehive” in the afternoon, New Zealand’s circular-shaped parliament and executive building. I was surprised to learn about how the country belongs to the U.K. Commonwealth and therefore acknowledges Britain’s Queen. It was too bad that we had just missed Prince William who had been in the capital the previous few days, as well as Hillary Clinton who decided to visit Haiti instead of New Zealand that week. We shared lunch, then walked to the famous Te Papa museum where we enjoyed its interactive art, geologic and cultural exhibits. We rounded out our fifth and final girl date with ice cream on the pier, followed by dinner at the hostel and 3 jovial beers.
This morning, January 21st, we caught the ferry to Picton, where we jumped on another Magic Bus and drove straight to Nelson where I jumped off to meet my wonderful WWOOFING hosts, Bruce and Guruvati of the Vistara Bed and Breakfast. I will miss Golly a great deal, but I’m also excited for my next adventure—volunteering, learning about organic farming, and meditation. So far the food here is delicious, local and vegetarian… here’s to not starving! :)
For the past week, I’ve been attached to the hip to my faithful friend, an English girl of Indian descent who’s also a mid-twenties solo traveler. She’s witty, geeky, ambitious, and has a guy-oriented sense of humor—all the qualities that make me swoon. Throughout a week of bonding on the North Island, we constantly laughed at the small differences among our ways of speaking (i.e. ice lolly vs. popsicle, swimming costume vs. swimsuit, vest tops vs. tank tops). We also found ourselves on five “girl dates,” almost died twice during extended nature walks, and finally solidified our friendship—not only on Facebook—but by giving each other smart knick-names on our last names (she’s Golly and I’m Gardy, in case you didn’t notice… apparently this is common in Britain :) .) I’m now devoted to making sure that Golly visits my best friend Adriana while she’s in LA, so that our friendship circle is complete, and also to seeing her again either in New Zealand or Australia. Yay for accomplishing the first goal of my trip, to meet amazing people!
After I last wrote on Sunday January 17th, Golly and I set out from our Urban Retreat hostel for a hike around Huka Falls, a gorgeous set of rapids just 4km (1 hour walk) outside the city of Taupo. We took a shuttle to the falls and proceeded to walk in a 12km loop for 3 hours, before we headed off on another 4km hour-long walk to the natural hot springs. Since I’d gone for a 4 mile run the day before, my leg joints were pretty worn after a 10 mile “bush walk” through seemingly untouched jungles and forests, so the naturally hot water from the springs was just the ticket for me to feel 100%. After lounging for an hour, we got out and realized to our dismay that a) we were dehydrated with no water, b) we were starving with no food, and c) we had been devoured by sandflies. As we melodramatically crawled the 4km back to town, we couldn’t stop cracking up about our predicament, and finally arrived at a restaurant where we demolished two loaves of garlic bread, two personal pizzas, and two beers. For being our third girl date after our museum-day and dinner-extravaganza in Rotorua, we had a great time!
The next day, Monday January 18th, Golly and I split up and I hiked the 19km/12 mile/6.5 hour Tongariro Alpine Crossing, hailed as New Zealand’s best one-day walk. I was a bit unprepared, having walked nearly a half marathon the previous day, gotten 4 hours of sleep due to some partying neighbors in my hostel, and forgotten the food that I had packed for myself in the van; yet it was a fantastic hike. Due to the kindness of strangers, I gleaned an apple, two bananas, a salami and cheese sandwich, as well as fistfuls of peanuts and raisins from my new friends, probably eating more than others who had actually prepared. :) The weather had been reported as gloomy, but only the first 20-30 minutes were rainy (I was fine because I’d borrowed a rain-jacket from a nice Irish woman), and after that it was misty as we ascended into the clouds. We saw beautiful views of the “emerald lakes” on the way down, as well as clear views of crystal-blue Lake Taupo in the distance. Realizing that I should probably up my standards for food intake, that night I impulsively bought 12 sandwiches which went stale after a day and a half, but at least I didn’t starve. :)
Tuesday January 19th, I jumped on the Magic Bus to continue south to my final destination on the North Island, the capital city of Wellington. After an uneventful bus ride except for a rousing game of “bus bowling,” whereby passengers competed amongst ourselves to knock over six soda bottles with tennis balls on a moving bus (seriously… only in New Zealand), we arrived in the city. I was psyched to meet up with Golly right away at our Nomad Hostel, and since it was still light out we decided to go for an 8km/5 mile/3 hour hike uphill to watch the sunset from Mount Victoria. We loved the spectacular views of the South Island so much that we forgot about the time, and ended up being stranded at the top of the hill with only a dark, steep nature trail leading back to our hostel! I had accidentally lost my water bottle, so again we resorted to survival skills and decided to walk instead of risking sleeping for a night on a park bench. I busted out a handy lipstick case with a small LED light on the end, which we used to find the streets below without twisting an ankle. Again, we melodramatically cracked up at our predicament, and decided to take it easy the next day with just visiting the Parliament and a museum.Wednesday January 20th, Golly and Gardy continued our adventures by sharing breakfast, shopping, and then visiting the “Beehive” in the afternoon, New Zealand’s circular-shaped parliament and executive building. I was surprised to learn about how the country belongs to the U.K. Commonwealth and therefore acknowledges Britain’s Queen. It was too bad that we had just missed Prince William who had been in the capital the previous few days, as well as Hillary Clinton who decided to visit Haiti instead of New Zealand that week. We shared lunch, then walked to the famous Te Papa museum where we enjoyed its interactive art, geologic and cultural exhibits. We rounded out our fifth and final girl date with ice cream on the pier, followed by dinner at the hostel and 3 jovial beers.
This morning, January 21st, we caught the ferry to Picton, where we jumped on another Magic Bus and drove straight to Nelson where I jumped off to meet my wonderful WWOOFING hosts, Bruce and Guruvati of the Vistara Bed and Breakfast. I will miss Golly a great deal, but I’m also excited for my next adventure—volunteering, learning about organic farming, and meditation. So far the food here is delicious, local and vegetarian… here’s to not starving! :)
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