Unemployment - Part 2: North Island

North Island? You mean New Zealand's North Island? Didn't you live there for over a year and write about it a lot? Yeah, I did, but this is different I promise. For starters, I was travelling outside of Auckland. For seconds, I was with a new travel group - the entire Morgan family (Dakota and his parents Kathy and Bill). For thirds, why do you need three reasons? It's my blog.

Again because of time constraints (Dakota and I had a flight to Asia to catch), we only had 4 days to peruse some of Auckland's closer sights. We started on day one with a wine tour on Waiheke Island, about which I've written roughly a year ago. It was a lovely day typical of Auckland spring weather - cloudy and windy, threats of rain with the sun peeking through intermittently. 

Look who joined us!

I'm sure there's a part of my brain that is storing specific detail about each of the wineries we visited and the wines we tried. But at this moment jumping to the forefront of my memory are the tour guides (a Frenchman, an Argentinian, and a Dutchman) and their respective swooning sexualizations of each vino we sipped. It was pleasing and engaging and inebriating...and felt ephemeral. Suddenly we were finished with the last tasting and taking a group photo on the top of a windswept hill.

Steady, Eric, steady.

Goodbye alcohol producing isle. The maritime Red Ensign, I think, should replace the current NZ flag.

After a relaxing night in Auckland, the Morgans and I embarked in our rental car (named Steve-3PO), first stopping to give me a final climb up Mt. Eden. This is my favorite destination in Auckland, namely as a running and reading venue, but also for the splendid 360 degree city views.

Also a good spot to get some push-ups in. Good form Daks.

We ventured out of Auckland city congestion and into the stereotypical New Zealand green hills flocked with sheep and cows. Lake Taupo, our destination, is a place I had actually not been to despite my many excursions out of Auckland. Just a 3.5 hour drive south, the lake is a freshwater filled caldera, a result of the world's largest eruption in the past 70,000 years. It's located in the highly active geothermic center of the North Island, and for that reason garners a lot of tourism...during the tourist season. We were there in mid-October, just before the deluge of tour buses and German backpackers besieged the area. 

Just outside of our rustic hotel. The lake stretches out of sight to the west.

A black swan in the surf of Lake Taupo. I am fascinated by yet hate swan necks.

Lake Taupo is only another hour or so drive south to Tongariro National Park. The terrain along the route morphs from rocky lakeside to alpine, with towering pine trees and dry lowland tussocks dominating the scenery. With each passing turn, a snow-capped peak comes into view. This is Mt Ruapehu, where the North Island skiing enthusiasts come to ply their trade on the Whakapapa ski field (pronounced 'Fah-kah-pa-pa). As an aside, I'm going to miss the strange and fun Maori names in New Zealand. We only had a few hours to explore, so we drove up to the park and went for two short hikes to a scenic overlook and to a rocky waterfall.

A cloud-cap for your snow-cap?

Dakota never fears a cliff's edge.

The rest of the day was spent watching a sunset, eating at a restaurant where Dakota ordered a raw steak and a hot stone on which to cook it (?), and enjoying a few local brews. The next day we set out north and east toward the Coromandel Peninsula. First we stopped to watch the opening of a dam on the Waikato River,

Aratiatia Rapids. The water's power is impressive and pee-inducing. Let's just call it impressively pee-inducing.

and to cross over the Mamaku ranges into the beautiful beach port city of Tauranga (the largest port in New Zealand),

Looking south over the isthmus from atop Mt. Maunganui.

before heading up the east coast of the North Island into the Coromandel Peninsula. I've had a run-in or two with the Coromandel, most notably in October 2015 when I contracted some terrible food poisoning at a holiday park and lost a night of sleep and several pounds. Rhiannon and I also spent a wonderful Easter weekend drinking and eating at a resort on the peninsula, so I have mixed feelings about it. 

We stayed at an old Methodist church called The Church, converted into a restaurant and small stand alone rentals. It was just a few minutes walk away from Hahei beach, a local brewery called The Pour House, and the trail to Cathedral Cove. It was a pretty fun couple of days.

Panorama of Gemstone Bay.

High tide on the far side of Cathedral cove forces a hiking up of shorts to get back through the cave on the right.

Friends aren't afraid of showing physical affection.

We also spent a few hours dredging our own spa pools at Hot Water Beach just down the road. I've found over the past year that digging holes in beaches is a very fun activity at any age. 

It's all about the balance of scalding incoming water, depth, and a quick release outflow.

The Morgan family gets in on the push-up craze. All perfect form.

After just a short few days we were on our way back to Auckland, stopping first in Piha to take in some misty views. The Morgans are a delightful family, so calm and collected and sure of themselves. They are equally delightful travel companions - willing to change plans on the fly, unafraid of trying new things, and generous to a fault. I'll always remember Bill and Kathy passing freshly crafted PB&J sandwiches up from the back seat as Dakota and I navigated Steve-3PO around the North Island.

As I sat at the Auckland airport with Dakota that evening for a flight bound to Bangkok via Singapore, I was abruptly melancholy to be leaving. This was Thursday October 20th, my last few hours in Auckland and New Zealand, and I was unsure of my when next visit might be. Fifteen months of exploring LOTR country, being remote beyond anything I had experienced before, and making a slew of new friends, all of it felt suddenly left behind. In my past. Travelling to new places and a new life feels lonely and intimidating, no matter how well planned it is.

New Zealand:  come for the views, stay for the people, leave but never forget!

Cheers!

A last necessary stop at Rhiannon's mom's place to see this listless and impassive fluff ball.

Unemployment - Part 1: South Island

Hey everyone. Man this is awkward. I mean what kind of friend goes 8 weeks (my last blog post was on October 9th) without calling, emailing, or even writing about themselves? I'm better than that and hold myself to higher standards. I promise to do good by you now.

Rhiannon and I have been in our new city of Toronto for two weeks. The past 2 months have been a whirlwind of once-in-a-lifetime and truly unique experiences in some of the most beautiful places on Earth. 

I'm no novelist, namely because I've never written and published a novel. That's my only hold up. I couldn't possibly keep a theme strung throughout a long story, especially here when describing the variety of destinations I've been recently. So I'll take it all piece by piece, hopefully writing in chronological and otherwise logical order.

*     *     *

This week I tackle the first part of my travels, in which Dakota and I traverse New Zealand's South Island. Dakota RM Morgan, gamer tag bigdickhenr, has been a technical writer for Epic for 5 years. This is relevant because aside from designing and installing electronic medical records in hospitals all over the world, Epic is also known for giving its employees a paid 'sabbatical' every 5 years. Good for me, because as of October 8th I was jobless, homeless, and itching to travel again.

I met him at the Auckland airport fresh off a transpacific flight, where we immediately boarded another (domestic) flight bound for Nelson, near the tip top of the South Island. For various time constraint reasons, we only had 4 days to madly careen south and see as much as possible. 

On this day one, we rented a car and drove to Abel Tasman National Park, which its website tells me is renowned for 'its golden beaches, sculptured granite cliffs, and world-famous coastal track.'  Well-said. Naturally I made sleep-deprived Dakota try to tackle an overnight backpacking trip hours after arriving in New Zealand. Mostly he enjoyed it, because it was spectacular, serene, and eerily devoid of humans on a Tuesday afternoon in early October.

"Yeah this is alright I guess, gosh."

A man and his thoughts. Incidentally, this was moments after we saw a single Canadian goose fly low overhead, which made no sense.

The coastal track winds along the cliff with dozens of opportunities to climb down to secluded beaches. 

There were also several chances to prod beached jellyfish.

After a somewhat uncomfortable night sleeping in a very modern track hut (they had free wifi!) and waiting out the morning rain (with nothing else to do we ate nearly a jar of PB), we set out to our water taxi pickup point. The rest of the track was smooth and sunny, and included a low-tide tidal plain crossing full of shells and crabs, seals playfully rolling in a river, and jungle and desert climes.

We hit the road, driving south along the South Island's west coast. This is one of the more breath-taking drives in the world, with night and day differences in scenery on a seemingly minute-to-minute basis. I won't go into too much detail about every vista and stop along the drive, but here's a few highlights:  

Pancake rocks and blowholes - crazy rock formations just south of Punakaiki, where Dakota and I spent our second night in the beachiest beach hostel there ever was.

Pancakes because they're stacked. But they aren't edible. Now I'm hungry.

A glacial river with abandoned train bridge stanchions.

Someone's plans went way awry here.

Advertisements for NZ tourism.

This was our view for a solid 3 hours that day. Our car's name was Steve 2.0.

A night stop off near Fox Glacier and Franz Josef glacier, both of which are beautiful and strange (they butt against rainforest and are just about sea level, meaning they are very accessible). Through global warming, these glaciers are fractions of what they once were. For me the 45 minute hike through rainforest and a valley strewn with shattered boulders and impromptu waterfalls was more striking than the glaciers.

The approach.

Dakota makes friends wherever he can.

I'm getting attached to these gifs.

How monolithic. 

And on we went. From the glaciers, our final destination was Queenstown. To get there, we had to drive through the Haast Pass, where rocks start to really jut out of the earth and get snow-capped. The road winds over the Southern Alps through Mt. Aspiring National Park. It's a somewhat stressful and long drive, comprising of what I estimate to be 6 million switchbacks, S-curves, and one-lane bridges. But there are scores of stops along the way to climb to the actual pass or hike down to the river for some striking mountain jungle waterfalls.

Fantail falls, named after my favorite tiny New Zealand bird.

Prime phone lock screen photo material.

"This reminds me of the Pacific Northwest." -Dakota attempting to compare all NZ scenery to someplace in the USA.

Thirsty I guess.

We were happy to crest the pass and descend toward Wanaka and Queenstown. And on cue the weather turned bright and blue and warm for the first time since we started our drive. I've written about Wanaka in the past, so will just say the highlight was a short walk by the lake.

Finally, we arrived in Queenstown. It's majestically beautiful, situated on a massive lake and surrounded by towering sharp peaks. We were fortunate to arrive just after a fresh snowfall but also when the weather was comfortable and sunny. It was perfect. Because the town is nestled amidst so much geological grandeur, I'm starting to think the only way to properly photograph this area of NZ is with panorama setting turned on.

View from our Airbnb, was a short walk to town. Could have stayed in this one spot for a week.

From atop the gondola, at a sky bar overlooking the town. 

The next morning we went for a 2 hour jaunt around Moke Lake. This was my absolute zen location, with perfectly still water, easy undulating walking paths, and mountainside cows and sheep bleating in the distance. I highly recommend this hike for its remoteness, simplicity, and splendor. 

Dakota thinks he could run up all of the hills in New Zealand.

Unghh.

And that was it. It was an exhausting and exhilarating start to 6 weeks of travel. I personally cannot wait to go back and explore more of the South Island in the future. 

Next week:  North Island scamper with the Morgan family.

Cheers!

Bonus! 

Had to include this sunset shot from above Queenstown:

Tired of looking at Dakota yet?

And on the last day. A grueling vertical climb back up to the Queenstown overlook:

If I fits I sits.

So long Auckland!

I haven't traveled much recently - just a few trips out of town for some beach time,

First totally sunny Spring day, and a return trip to Tawharanui.

 and Rotorua to watch Rhiannon best her workmates in a mud run.

So chipper, must have been all that victory coursing through her veins...

Have no fears, for I'm about to travel a lot. For those of you who don't know, Rhiannon and I are moving to Toronto! We arrive in the chilly North in the third week of November, and my contract in Auckland just ended. So that means, yes, I need to fill 6 weeks of unemployment. Fill with what you ask?

So. much. traveling.

What better way to end a New Zealand travel blog than to adopt a truly Kiwi mentality and live out of a backpack in various countries for almost 5 weeks? Oh, and write about it. Granted, I won't always have time to meticulously update this blog, so I'll likely take a backlog approach and do the best I can when I have the time to do it.

But that's not why I'm writing this post. Think of this as a personal ode to Auckland, its many positive aspects (which I've written about extensively in the past), and the people who have made this short 14+ months I've spent in New Zealand pleasantly and wholly memorable.

"Life is a series of meetings and partings. That is the way of it." That's from Bob Cratchit a.k.a. Kermit the Frog in the 1992 classic The Muppet Christmas Carol. The context in the movie is that the ghost of future Christmas is portending the Cratchit family after Tiny Tim dies. So it's not totally relevant here, but this quote always comes to mind when friends are leaving. Making companions all around the world is undoubtedly fun and interesting and experiential. But it can be sad and overwhelming and sometimes frustrating when people come into and exit your life with such mercurial frequency. I think this is particularly evident in Auckland, where the import/export of short term international visitors is so high and flats are in a constant state of flux.

A throwback picture to late May - a hike in Piha that half of us almost didn't return from. Great terrifying memories and great picture!

The past two weeks have been a kind of celebration of the people I've met in Auckland. Especially since it was my last week of work, and especially since it was my birthday, and especially since it was the last week at my flat.

Birthday lunch with lab-mates at an appropriately Canadian themed deli. Also Dr. Beier in graduation garb.

Also an appropriately Canadian-ish birthday gift from the lab. Ready for Toronto winter!

To celebrate our friends and to say good-bye, Rhiannon and I hosted a leaving party. It consisted of drinking and eating, late night dancing to 'club bangers', and a 'dress as a famous person or character' theme. There were some excellent outfits:

Imperator Furiosa and Pablo Escobar - maybe not the most obvious costumes but still really fun.

Cool historical photo - the only time a Colombian drug lord and Jesus were pictured together. Also pictured:  Amy Winehouse, Mexican wrestler, every ABBA member morphed into one, and I think Waldo is somewhere in there but I can't find him.

Furiosa also made a delicious over the top chocolate and M&M birthday cake for me. Definitely elicited a lot of childhood nostalgia.

For the last week I've been bumming around Auckland, selling or donating most of my belongings and slowly morphing into the nearly material-less nomad that travelling requires. And while shedding things can be trying (think how long it takes you to pick out socks just to throw them away), it's the goodbyes and 'I don't know if I'll ever see this person again' moments that are most difficult. I'll miss Auckland:  the little cafes and bars tucked into odd places, the international and cosmopolitan feeling (though mostly it's a patchwork of conglomerated suburbs), green spaces necessitated by the abundant volcanic outcroppings, the proximity to beaches and beautiful landscapes. But of course what I'll miss most are my lab-mates, my flatmates, my soccer teammates, and the variety of other mates I've picked up along the way.

Cheers!

Bonus:  Bumming around Auckland means walking through parks, drinking coffee, and taking pictures of water fowl.

A pretty intimidating path to ascend.

Fee-jee part 3

In Fee-jee part 2 I calmly and efficiently berated the artificiality of resorts. This week I intend to take a 180 degree turn. Because I've already talked in depth about Fiji, and rather than point by point contradicting everything I wrote in part 2, I'll let our photos from the Sheraton (and surrounding resorts) on Denarau Island do most of the talking.

The view from our room, equipped with teasing view of water.

Pools:  While the surrealness of resorts can be confining, it also elicits an appreciation for the creative imagination that must go into planning them. This was especially true in and around our resort, where grandiosely oversized pools wound their way through palm trees, straw huts, and under bridges. The water was also relatively cold which meant I was one of the few idiots splashing around in the seemingly endless watery expanse.

The perfection of the many variations on poolside lounge chair positions, shapes, and comfort.

Despite its appearance, this photo was not taken from a brochure for the Sheraton.

At a neighboring resort, the pool lit up at night. Yet closed at 7 pm, so it was just for looks.

Dine in lower leg drenched luxury!

Food/drink:  We spent a lot of time drinking duty-free spirits picked up at the Auckland airport. This was to avoid the sometimes outrageously priced poolside fruity cocktails that resorts are known for. I personally am perfectly happy sipping a whiskey-coke or screwdriver rather than a $25 pina colada. Though we did get some crazy cherry amaretto thing the last night that made me regret my frugality slightly. There was one meal in which all parsimoniousness was thrown out the window - a buffet at one of the many resort restaurants. It was seafood night.

Taken moments before I exploded this claw that shot in a slow-motion arc across the restaurant.

Plate 2? 3? 4?!?!

Always, always space for dessert.

Normal things done slightly differently:  Resorts want you to stay at the resort (to spend more money) and enjoy the laid back lifestyle (to give a better review), but they also want you to have a unique experience.

Barefoot at the driving range with very used clubs. I can't get over how big my hobbit feet look.

Giant chess! I won't say who won, but let's just say that my new chess strategy is to drag out the match long enough that my opponent gets drunk and loses interest...

Our room cleaners repeatedly left us one bathrobe only. 1 star.

And of course - sunsets:  Ahh the sky is on fire!

The apocalypse approaches.

Run for your lives!

It's too late for us, I guess we have to sit here and accept our fate..

All in all, Fiji was a great 4 days (must have been if it gave me source material for 3 blog posts). I recommend visiting, especially if you have the budget to really live the resort lifestyle or travel from one tiny scuba/snorkel island to the next. However I would probably avoid going back in the near term, given the plethora of other Pacific island nations there are to visit.

Cheers!

::Lets out contented sigh::