My Kiwi Experience: part 1

Frozen. I shivered my way from the airport to the city to find my hostel. I was, as predicted, entirely delirious due to skipping a day and on-off sleeping roughly 2 hours on the flight. I always plan it to work perfectly. To sleep when it's night time in my destination country, hoping to arrive slotting nicely into the next time zone. However, this never works which is mostly the airplanes fault. I was sound asleep and then the tannoy blasted out and the lights switched on announcing breakfast. It was 2am New Zealand time. I wasn't best impressed.

My incoherence was instantly noticeable when I thought I'd successfully completed customs; a self serve machine where I answered two questions, scanned my passport and was granted a visa. I grabbed my bag then noticed the long lines and realised that even in New Zealand, they don't let you in that easily. If any of you remember my Australian experience of customs three years ago, you'll know that I declared everything. This time around I tried so hard to be realistic, though I desperately wanted to flag up the trainers I had and my three packets of sweets - such a rebel.

Anyway, eventually I caught up on sleep/ drank enough coffee to feel (almost) alive again and enjoyed my two days exploring Auckland. This involved walking around like a zombie, so much so that I probably looked drunk, chilling by the harbour with my book, climbing a mount to get a lovely view of the city and getting many recommendations of places to visit in New Zealand from proud Kiwis, making me very excited for my onwards journey. 

I say I must have looked drunk and I was certainly acting that way through my exhaustion because at one point Google Maps was directing me to the mount and it wasn't until it told me to 'merge onto the motorway' (which I almost did), that I realised I was following driven instructions. Doh. Another time I noticed my fatigue was when I spent about five solid minutes worrying I had actually flown home because I saw 'Newmarket' written on a bus.

After Auckland, I caught the Kiwi Experience bus north to the bay of islands. Our jolly driver led the way telling us fun facts about each place we passed through, while we fought with the constant changing temperature of the north island. We only had two days here so packed our schedules full. We went on a boat trip to Hole in the Rock, where we witnessed dolphins playfully swimming and jumping around us. The guides had names for every one and knew each of their unique characteristics, which though I thought was cute, I thought they were making it up. It wasn't until I spoke to my sister who knows a lot more about it than me when I realised that they probably weren't. Dolphins are amazing and so interesting I could have watched them all day. We even managed to drive through the hole in the rock which was a gap that I never in a million years thought our boat would fit through, so obviously I got video evidence for proof. Everyone was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed my first day of the tour, finishing it off nicely with a few beers and a BBQ back at the hostel with all the survivors of jet lag who hadn't fallen asleep already.

The following day, we got up at the crack of dawn to set out to cape Regina, the furthest point north of New Zealand. Our Maori driver guide gave a great commentary along the way, including songs, an insight into the culture and many stories mostly involving a death of some kind - nice. On route to the tip top of New Zealand we made many stops and saw so many amazing things. 

We stopped for a fifteen minute stroll through the rainforest, drove along 90 mile beach which is a public highway where we saw a seal, tried out sand boarding down the biggest dunes I've ever seen and ate fish and chips looking out to another stunning view. Cape Regina was, like everything I've seen in the north island so far, gorgeous. We mooched about taking in the views and threw off our coats, cheering with happiness because it was warm and sunny enough to just wear t-shirts. Finally.

Returning back to Auckland for the night, I felt it was about time I updated you all before my post got rather long. Besides, I feel I've done so much already so wanted you to be able to take it all in! The only stress came with planning our trips which apparently is no way near as easy as the company make out. We spent our Sunday stressing, coming up with individual  plans, then someone pointing something out that messes our plans, and ripping up our schedules and starting over. All sorted now though and I've teamed up with a few people doing much the same or very similar trips. 

Onwards and upwards to hot water beach tomorrow so stay tuned for more of my Kiwi Experience. 

Things I've learnt:

-a kiwi is a bird

-guys seem much more chatty/ approachable than the girls I've met who come in packs and eyeball you mostly

-there is no fighting jet lag, you've just got to sleep

-Newmarket exists elsewhere

-you'll experience 4 seasons in a day and winter is COLD

-Dolphins are the most interesting and fun to watch animals

-Tim Tams are a necessity when it comes to travel snacks

-the north island is stunning and everyone says the south is so much better so I have very high hopes and am so excited to continue my journey