Starting the trip

Leaving Auckland

So,

After a couple of nerve wrecking days in Auckland, realizing I’m lost within myself, I started to get around, and build myself a trip plan.
First step was to neglect the hitch-hiking plan, and buy a car in the car fare.
I went with a great guy I met here named Rob to the local car market and after looking through some real pieces of shit – my eyes lied upon a real beauty…
Buying a car here is nothing like doing it back home – first of all, because of the huge amount of tourists here, there’s a totally different market for used cars. The used car market here has cars starting from 1000$, and in good shape – but already undergone around 200,000 km.

I found myself a 94’ blue Mitzubishi Magna in great shape, for only 1500$, so I really hope to sell it for the same price, making the transportation here petrol cost only…

Stating my way up north

When I finally left Auckland, I started to make my way up north, to see the northland.
The roads here are amazingly beautiful, and the scenery around you is striking. The only (good) problem is that a 60km road takes 2 hours, as you stop every 5 minutes to take pictures.

I arrived to a city called Whangarei, which is another thing about NZ – most cities are Maori named, so you find yourself babbling and stuttering a bunch of letters and syllables, hoping to get a positive response from the local trying to help you…

The city was boring in itself, but I met in the hostel an incredibly intelligent and smart 60 years old traveller, who usually works as a tour guide in NZ for tourists, but now just travelling the country for his own pleasure. He happen to be married to a Chinese woman, and I happen to just finish reading a book about Chinese religion – so you might imagine my enjoyment from talking to him. We went to the city to eat dinner together and stumbled upon a huge Irish family jamming in a local bar – about 15 people travelling together, each with a different instrument, just playing old and unfamiliar Irish songs.

The next day I went to see the Whangarei falls – a nice reserve just outside the city, and went tracking for a couple of hours there.

On my way up north, I stopped for a short time, to see a cave filled with Glowing worms, flashing their tiny lights in the darkness.

Summer at last!

I drove another 2 hours and came to a beautiful little town called Pahia, which is sitting on a small bay surrounded by a huge evergreen forest. The town is small but full of nice café’s and restaurants, a beautiful beach strip with 3 small islands rising from sea, filling the blue horizon with a bit of green.
The area is called the Bay Of Islands, which is practically 135 different sized islands scattered around the bay.
I found myself a place to sleep, and headed for the beach, for some real summer action. After 3 days time, I was still in the same position – lying on the sand, listening to music & relaxing.

I decided to have a small adventure, so I took a kayak from the hostel, and paddled my way to some of the

islands close to the town.

After paddling for 2 hours, I found a beautiful bird standing on a rock, spreading it’s wings and waiting for me to photo it. I found a nice deserted beach along one of the islands, parked there for some time, ate lunch and read my book. The way back was exhausting, as I had to paddle 2 more hours against the wind and currents, but luckily enough it fell right on my “back & biceps” workout day. The next day, needless to say, I couldn’t move from bed.

On my last day in Pahia I booked the “Bay of islands” ferry tour, and for 8 hours cruised on board with 30 more tourists between the islands. The tour was beautiful and we say dolphins and penguins on the way but a bit too touristy for my taste.

Just before leaving Pahia I met Rob again (who had just arrived), and hit the beach together one last time, and then I was off to the far north.

Beach rider

In Maori mythology, NZ’s islands are in fact the sea god (the south island) chasing a huge fish (the north island), so in that sense, I began my way up the fish’s long nose. The north part of the far north is a very long and narrow stretch of land (110km long, 10 km wide). The west part of it is called “The 90 miles beach”, which is in fact only 90 km, and if you have 4x4 wheel drive, you can drive on it (just don’t go under 40, as you might sink). Although my Magna is a private, I decided to broaden the definition to 4x2, meaning 2 wheels & two feet outside the car pushing it.

Instead of not going under 40 I decided to play it safe and not go under 120, so I found myself flying in a blue mitzubishi on the shore. According to the map I was supposed to take a turn inland 4 km before the beach ends in high cliffs of black rocks, but I didn’t have enough multitasking powers to look at the map zooming through the beach scaring crabs, birds and such, so when I came to the end of the beach and tried to turn around, I found myself sinking in the sand. Although any other person might be stressed in that situation, I remembered all my sad experiences of sinking mom’s jeep in Hertzeliya's sandy beaches, so I used that experienced and after swinging the wheels from side to side quickly, and reversing and going forward again, I found myself on top of a sand mountain, wheels not touching the ground. Luckily enough, a jeep with a Korean family was behind me, so they came to my rescue. The sand was too deep for their lousy Rav4 to handle, but they courteously offered to help. I thanked them and asked them to push the car, as I was sitting inside (with the AC on) and tried to pull myself out. I might have missed something, because after one small gas paddle push I looked in the rear view mirror, and saw that the Korean family somehow transformed themselves into 4 sand charecters, spitting. Weird Koreans.

After helping them to clean up, I asked them to go and get help from someone who has a real jeep, and so I spent the next 45 minutes digging sand from under my car. As I started to picture myself sleeping on the beach, a real Isuzu Trooper came from around the sand dunes, much to my delight, and helped me out with a single tug of rope.

After the beach escapade, the rest of the drive was calm, having cows and sheep on either sides of the road.

I arrived to the end of the land, on a point where the two seas (The ocean on the eastern side of NZ, and the

Tasman Sea – on the western side) meet.

This spot is called Cape Reinga, and is famous for the lighthouse situated on the northest point of the island.
The view from there was spectacular.

On the way back I decided to neglect the treacherous 90 mile beach to the other way down on a curvy road going up and down hills and valleys. Sometime you rise high enough to see both seas on each side of the car, and sometime you plunge so you are between huge walls of green.
I stopped to have the famous “fish & chips” in a restaurant on the way down, and kept on until I got to Tutukaka, for my Scuba dive course.

Here fishy fishy…

I arrived to Tutukaka, a tiny town on a beautiful turquoise watered bay. This location is famous for being known as one of the 10 most beautiful diving sites in the world (according to Jeac Cousto – the guy who invented the Scuba equipment), so I though this is the place I should pick up diving. The dive site is infact an island called “Poor Knights Island”, an hour cruise from Tutukaka by boat. I met my fellow diving mates, a large group of 12 people. The whole group had a great chemistry from the start, and luckily enough, most people were travelling alone, and from different places in the world, so no inner clicks were made. We had people from the UK, Germany, Canada, Belgium, France and even a father and son from New Zealand.

Our two amazing diving instructors were a girl from the UK, and a local Kiwi girl. They were really great teachers, and also good fun - hanging around with us during the breaks and after class.

The first 3 days were mainly theory with one day being a pool exercise, but on the last two days we went for 4

dives in the “Poor knights island”, which was amazing. The weather was great, and I had an awesome time diving and seeing a totally new and different world. Among beautiful corals and big packs of bluefish, I had the chance to see a Manta-ray and Eagle-Ray – royally floating around us. Diving was more than I expected, and I’ve started making plans to include diving in my trip to Fiji, between NZ and Australia.

After the last dive we all went to Whangarei to loosen up a bit and drink and we had a great time dancing in one of the local clubs.

Among all of the great people I met in the diving course, I really got close to jimmy from the UK, and to Jullie from Germany, who was my buddie in the dives. Each of us with his own car, we decided to meet on the way down and travel some more together. Jimmy is flying to Fiji next, but then to Australia, so i'll try and meet with him there...

Making the way down…

After finishing the diving course, I left Tutukaka and all of my new friends, and went to see the giant Kauri trees. These trees are one of the biggest trees in the world, where their height is up to 60m, and girth is up to 16m. These trees were quite awesome, with some of them being about 1700-1900 years old (!).

I drove back to Auckland on my way south, and surprisingly arrived to the same hostel as jimmy, who was trying to sell his van, as he is leaving to Fiji in a week’s time. I offered him to join me in Raglan, which is my next destination – a gnarly surfing town southwest of Auckland, where I want to learn how to surf. We are planning to go there tomorrow, to meet Julie from the diving course, who also wants to surf.

Steve Who?

As I meet people along the way, a need to introduce myself arises.
“Silbam”, “Siban”, “Silvan”, and “What?” are the names I’m being called most of the time, so I started introducing myself as Steven (but you can call me steve), as it kinda sounds like Sivan.
It’s not as difficult as I though to get use to a new name, making it my sweet escape for the following 6 months.

A final thought

NZ is amazing. After a few rough days as I landed here, I really fill I bounced back completely. I’m having a great time, meeting people and doing things. It’s unbelievable how you meet more people and do more stuff here in a week than in a years time back home. The experiences here are so dense and intense, and you can have a great time with a group of people, leave them and meet another great group after 3 days only. I look back at the past 3 weeks, and can’t believe so much has passed in such a short time.

Driving on the left side of the road took it’s time to get use to (mainly in round-abouts - KIKAROT), especially with such a wonderful scenery outside (I nearly found myself in the side of the road a couple of times, after looking to long out the window).

People here are great. The locals are so welcoming and nice, and it’s really easy getting around. The roads are in great conditions, and there are so many hostels that make NZ really easy to travel in. I try to meet as many locals as possible, and try to get a sense of how it’s like to live here. I met 2 really nice locals in Tutukaka, which are wine makers down south, so I promised them to drop by for a visit and a free taste when I make it there.

Although everyone is telling me how beautiful the south island is, I’m still having such a great time in the north island, so I’m in no rush to make my way there. I’m really looking forward to my parents arriving in mid march (provided they book a flight already – dad!), and already have some great plans for us during those two weeks.

I’m starting to miss everyone just in the right amount, as I have such long drives alone in the countryside (good thing I have such a huge experience driving alone to Be’er Sheva for 4 years…).

Have a great week, and stay in touch.

Sivan.