Vacationing on the North Island

On the early morning of May 25^th, Christchurch shook some of its residents awake.  I had already gotten out of bed – I had a 7:00 a.m. bus to catch and had woken up early – but I didn’t feel a thing. Not sure why. Oh well. 

In any case, catch my bus I did and I was off to Blenheim.  There were five reasons for me to return there, and all of them were conveniently living under one roof: Hannah, Laura, Ben, Nathan and Kim.  Still in town awaiting the start of pruning, they’ve moved out of Koanui and into a house that they’ve furnished quite nicely. Though it had only been a few weeks since I’d seen them (and only a week and a half since I’d seen Hannah), it felt like much more. I was great to be with the gang again.

Two movies, one trip to the library, a somewhat disastrous attempt at making pizza (hint: “tomato sauce” in NZ means “ketchup”), one short night, and a yoga session later, I had to take my leave. It was hard to say goodbye, but I had a good reason to head out – Leah was waiting for me in Wellington!

Yet another ex-Koanuite, Leah is a Canadian Christian-hippy-outdoorswoman, and she’s awesome.  She’d left Blenheim a month ago to travel around South-East-Asia, and was back in NZ.  She had been staying with her sister in Wellington but was itching to head North to Tauranga and the kiwi orchards.  When she suggested I meet up with her in the capital city and travel up together, I jumped at the chance.  

Wellington's harbourfront has a strangely placed hopscotch thingy.  We played.  Leah won. :(

Over the course of three days, we made our way from Wellington to Tauranga via Taihape (a tiny spot on the map), Taupo and Rotorua.  It was a fun journey; we saw someone warming up to attempt a world record bike jump (he did it too!  Triple back flip http://www.biketaupo.org.nz/content/view/606/1/), splashed around in a hot spring, met a helicopter pilot who’s coworker was flying Peter Jackson around the Tongariro area (lucky!) and even saw some trout trying to spawn up a waterfall (cool!)

One tiny section of Okere Falls.  That's where we saw the fish spawning. 

Leah in the mists of a steaming Rotorua pool in the park.

One of the foot baths in the park.

Some dude doing a crazy flip.

Leah in Taupo's hot spring

 But the best part of the journey was the destination: the new home of six other friends from Blenheim. Aline, Andrea, Sinead, Joe/Adrienne, Hiroshi and Rob have set themselves up in a nice apartment (though condo is a more apt description) in gorgeous, beachy Mount Manganui (which is basically a suburb of Tauranga).  It’s très sweet here. 

The others (including Leah now) are all working on the kiwi orchards, picking now, pruning later.  I’ve been enjoying their company while their around, and enjoying my solitude while they aren’t.

Over the past two days I’ve walked at least 25km while exploring the town and searching out the best deal for a ski jacket ($159, as it turns out). I’ve also hiked up Mount Manganui again, and even gone for a (very short) dip in the ocean – which is great, considering June 1^st marks the first official day of winter here.  Crazy! And how did I celebrate?  By sunbathing on the beach J

Leah on the beach.

The beach from the top of Mount Manganui.

Perched precariously on a rock on top of Mount Manganui.