Auckland, Tairua, and a storm the size of Australia!

Day 5. I can’t believe it’s only day 5. I feel like we’ve been here a month!

DAY ONE: The longest day ever.

We arrived on Friday Sept 17—that’s right we left on a Wednesday and arrived on a Friday. After 18 hours of air time, 5 hours of airport time, and 16 hours of time zone difference…we arrived safe and sound in Auckland. The day started at 3:30am NZ time (11:30pm EST) with a tasty omelet breakfast (breakfast 1) on the plane. After breakfast we were pretty awake, given the excitement and what time our bodies THOUGHT it was so we spent the rest of the flight reading (me) and watching Ironman 2 (Stu). The flight landed at 5:30 or 6am but it took us nearly an hour to claim our baggage and pass through customs. After going through customs Stu and I found Paul and Rich waiting for us at the international arrivals area of the Auckland airport. It was so good to see some familiar faces after such a long journey!! Our welcoming party took us back to Rich’s house in the city where Stu and I had showers and our wonderful hosts cooked us up a delicious champagne breakfast (breakfast 2). By 9:30am I was almost ready to go to bed but our day was just beginning--our orientation with BUNAC/IEP began at 10am and lasted until 1pm. There we learned all about our work options, travel options, important tax and document information....it was loads of information but it got both Stu and I really excited about all the places we hope to see and gave us plenty of ideas about how to get there (physically and financially). After orientation we went back to Rich's for a quick lunch and then back into the city to sort out our IRD numbers (basically a social security number) and open bank accounts. Basically....really boring but necessary stuff. Our day ended back at Rich's where he cooked us some chicken pesto pasta for dinner. We had high hopes for a night of catching up with Paul and Rich and Judy (all old camp friends) but Stu passed out on the couch by 9pm so I set up our bed with Rich (a duvet stuffed with insulation left over from a practical joke played on one of Rich's flatmates who was in Christchurch for the earthquake---the bed is actually QUITE comfortable). After moving Stu off the couch we went to bed and we were both out for the night by 9:30pm.

DAYS TWO & THREE: Off to the beach!

Thanks to Paul, we spent our first kiwi weekend in true kiwi fashion--at the beach! Paul, who just recently arrived back in NZ after a year and a half of traveling in US and Canada, was off to see some childhood friends and kindly invited Stu and I to come along. We went to a town called Tairua on the Coromandel Peninsula, just about an hour and a half driving from Paul's house. Despite loads of wind and rain, we were all able to take full advantage of the beach. (Note: NZ is currently suffering loads of bad weather from a huge low pressure front the size of Australia! It's the storm of a century! The bad weather started the day we arrived and is due to continue through the week.) We caught 2 snapper on a long line that Paul swam out far into the ocean, and we ate them within an hour of coming out of the water-YUM. Stu tried his hand at surfing despite the extremely cold water and the faulty wetsuit he wore. He even stood up a few times! Go Stu! I went into the water sans wetsuit, like a fool, and only made it about 2 minutes before I ran back out and sat under a towel until I warmed up. We also had our first taste of authentic fish and chips, which we ate just before a wildly competative game of pictionary Saturday night. Stu and I were on a team with a guy called Matt and we really struggled; I think it took us half an hour to get off the starting square. To be fair, international differences definitely worked to our disadvantage. One round Matt got the word "kick off" and tried to get us to guess it by drawing a rugby pitch which Stu and I interpreted as an elevator..... my incredible drawing skills didn't really help either (my horses looked like cats, apparently). But of course it's not about winning, is it? Just having a good time and making friends along the way.

Sunday afternoon we headed back to Auckland, with an extended stop in Papakura for a lovely tea (that's what they call dinner here) with Paul and his family. We'll be staying at their house in far south Auckland next week and stopping over got me SO excited for that. The live in a highly agricultural area (Paul's dad and grandfather were both dairy farmers) but their land is not really farm so much as forest. The back door of the house opens up in to a beautiful field with a creek running through it and forested hills with trails running all through them. Apparently there's a hut somewhere back in the woods that the Franks men built some years back so if it's not too cold, and the rats haven't moved back in this winter, Stu and I might spent a night out there. Anyway, that's next week. The Sunday dinner was lovely--sausage and beef cooked on the grill, kumara (sweet potato) & beet salad, green salad, garlic bread, and jelly tip ice cream for dessert (vanilla ice cream with bits of chocolate and jello!). Paul's brother Dave and his fiance, Sarah, who live close to Rich, dropped us back in the city to sleep that night. We found a wonderful surprise waiting for us-- a fellow American camp traveler, Allison Burn! We all hung out for a bit and watched a bit of Twilight on TV (you never can escape bad American pop-culture, eh?) until bed.

DAY FOUR: Free tour of Auckland and one expensive jump.

One Monday (Sept 20) Stu and I headed back into downtown to go on a tour of Auckland with a tour company called Stray. They have a pretty neat business that allows people to travel all over NZ with stops in all the major cities and most national parks. You can hop on and hop off their route at any time and the pass you buy is good for up to a year. So you could travel all over the two islands in under a month, hitting all the major sites, or you could take a full year to make that route working in different towns along the way.

One of their pitches is to offer a free tour of Auckland to all the backpackers in the hopes that they'll like Stray's style (which we did) and buy a travel pass. The tour took us all over central Auckland--we drove along the water; we went to the Skye Tower (tallest point in the Southern hemisphere) where one lucky bus member jumped off it for free; we went to the Michael Joseph Savage memorial up on a big hill with a great view of the city; we went to a cool pub for lunch; and we finished up the tour at the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The bridge is one of many places to bungee jump in NZ and when we arrived they asked who wanted to jump so...on impulse....I said yes.

New Zealand is a haven for extreme sports and I knew bungee jumping was something I wanted to do while I was in NZ (along with skye diving and zorbing), but I didn't expect I'd be doing it so soon. However, the Harbour Bridge is the cheapest place to jump and we got an extra discount for going with Stray so it was only NZ$105 for 40m of free fall and a t-shirt proving that I did it. (I know that sounds expensive, and it is, but for some perspective the next cheapest jump is NZ$170). The whole tour group got to walk out to the jump spot--right in the middle of the bridge. This is about 10 minutes of walking out over the water on only a thin metal walkway (you are strapped in with harnesses). Oh, and thanks to the storm of the century, there were 35 knot winds blowing as we walked out. I had plenty of time to think about the upcoming jump (and so did Stu--poor Stu who doesn't like heights was not having a good time of it). I was the second of 2 jumpers and I'm proud to say that I was not shaking like the Irish guy who jumped first. I was quite nervous of course but I stayed calm listening to the Shapeshifter playing and thinking of the most fearless person I know, Lynn Lakin. The fall was like...nothing I have ever felt before. Free fall is just indescribable if you've never experienced it. It's sort of like the falling bit of a roller coaster or that jumpy feeling in your stomach when you're in an elevator but a million times more. I think I screamed louder than I ever have in my entire life, but after a few bounces I just felt AMAZING, hanging from this huge bridge over the water with amazing views of the water, the boats in the harbor and the buildings of downtown Auckland. Amazing. Amazing. AMAZING. Definitely expensive but an experience worth paying for. I was buzzing off the experience all day long.

After heading back to Queen St. (the main drag in downtown Auckland) we headed to the bank to pick up our EFTPOS cards (ATM cards) and managed to take a bus back to Rich's! I was pretty proud of that, figuring out public transit and all. Monday night wrapped up with a big grocery store run (vegetables are so cheap! 4 kiwi fruits for 50 cents and red bell peppers for $99 each!) and pizza making with Rich and his flatmate Mark.

DAY FIVE: Recovery, Reflection, and general Relaxation.

Today (Sept 21) has been quite the lazy day. Stu and I slept in and spent most of the day reading, which was wonderful. We also did a bit of strategizing for our NZ year to come. So far I have only left the house for a quick run which was cut short due to the rain (storm of the century!). Then dinner with Judy and her boyfriend, Alan, and her friend, Stacy, plus Paul and his friend Anya and Stu and I. We went to an Indian place with $10 main dishes on Tuesday night's (hollaaaa) and just had a great time catching up and drinking NZ wine.

Today's the Day and Stories of Home

So today we set off, meeting at the airport at 2:30.  For me today has been laid back, as I finished packing last night, an outfit laid out like it was the first day of school.  Using my last day as one last chance to relax before the excitement of boarding the plane.  Maggie has been running errands (since 6am) and packing, putting the final touches on a years worth of stuff.

Since we left camp we have visited many friends and family, I have been to Atlanta, Asheville and ECU (including the best football game I have ever witnessed) and Maggie has been to Chapel Hill and DC.  Last Night we had a big joint family dinner, celebrating and hanging out, jon even came down for the send off!

But anyways, where maggie is the planner and experienced traveler, I am more fly by the seat of our pants, brimming with (over?)confidence that anything we decide to do will be great and will be nice and smooth.  Except for 2 things, driving a manual car and plane travel.  For me the planning of where we wanted to visit ranked far below learning to drive stick.  My thinking was, we could get really hurt if we dont know what we are doing, so before we are trying to drive on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, better get comfortable with driving a manual.  Our first test vehicle was the 1970 Moo truck at Gwynn Valley with farmer arrington as instructor.  I can proudly say that I started it up first time running, despite numerous warnings that it was the hardest manual car to drive, ever.  Im not saying I didnt stall out some, but It was a good feeling. Then maggie got behind the wheel, also with pretty good luck until about 5 minutes in, she jammed the clutch pretty hard, and couldnt get it back into gear.  Luckily Jacob came over and saved the day, as maggie and arrington were already sweating buckets at the thought of telling Dale that they had broken a farm truck.  Lesson over.

Luckily, maggies dad also has a straight drive, a bmw wagon, which he was kind enough to let us practice (learn) on.   So for 3 days we commandeered the car and began taking laps around the neighborhood, focusing on that whole getting into first gear thing.  I think we did a pretty good job.  Soon we were tackling hills and getting onto bigger streets without the fear of stalling as we are pulling out into the traffic.  The running joke became that it was the blind leading the blind, as whenever we had a question would arise that needed answering, neither of us were much help to the other.  Generally we would just respond, why do you think I would know that?  In the end we both learned how to get up and going with enough confidence for the streets of Auckland.

Onto my other fear, airplane travel.  While watching a last bit of american tv this morning my mom came down with both maggie and my plane tickets and pointed out that in the pack they came in it says we need to reconfirm our flight details at least 72 hours in advance.  She thought it was fine that it was going to be only 8 hours in advance, but that we should still try and do it.  So i looked up the number on the usair website and called it.  So after dealing with the automated options, i get sent to an actual person because it cant even find the flight Im on.  Then after finding my flight the woman over the phone tells me that there is no registration for anyone named Howe on my flight. panic level about a 6.  Then after checking again and asking a few more questions, including making sure that Auckland NZ is not in the US, she informs me that I am calling the domestic flight number and she give me the international one.  So call the international number, and go through the same automated numbers until once again I am sent to an actual person.  She also cannot find any record of of a Howe on either the first or second flight. Panic level about 8.5.  After more talking she tells me I need to call travel cuts because there is no Howe on either of the passenger lists, and that travel cuts has somehow made a mistake.   Panic level about 12 on a scale to 10 (im starting to shake, ive already been sweating).  Luckily my persistent are you sure? and what does this mean? and what should I do? she figures out that I have a paper ticket sitting in front of me, even though I have said this a few times, and realizes that paper tickets are on some other list or something and finally reads out a number that is actually printed on my ticket.  So turns out I do have a seat on both flights and that maggie and I are sitting one seat apart on the same row.  Thank god I dont have pre-existing heart conditions.  disaster avoided.

Hours later we check in and turns out we dont even have to pay for our baggage, when we thought that we were going to have to pay 60 bucks each for our to bags.  score.  Then goodbyes to our family, where my mom held it together surprisingly well, and onto the security line.  So happy reading from outside of gate B8 at charlotte airport, we leave in 30 minutes!

also, sorry about my grammar and whatnot, I just have more important things going on than making sure all of my contractions have apostrophes in them

hiking in flip flips (self-titled blog entry)

Dear family, friends and total strangers,

Welcome to our travel blog! Here Stuart and I hope to document our traveling adventures in New Zealand and…wherever else we end up going (options currently on the table: Australia, Southeast Asia). The last few weeks have been devoted to all the things you would expect from two people who are leaving the country. We spent our time eating delicious American meals, visiting family and friends, reading up on NZ and buying things that may or may not fit in our over-full suitcases. We have great hopes for the next 12-24 months, namely that they will be jam-packed with fun and great stories, all of which we will share with you here on the blog!

Today is officially our last full day in the USA and my first thought when writing this first blog entry is “GOOD GREIF where has the time gone?” It seems just yesterday we were graduating from university.... but in reality the summer has come and gone and here we find ourselves on September 14^th: not fully packed, our trip not fully planned, and our goodbyes not fully said. Don’t misinterpret us…we’re prepared for just about anything but part of our mission is to not over-plan. This is especially hard for me (Maggie) but also especially good for me. We are learning how to think and make decisions on our feet, live in the moment, and experience life as it comes. The title of our blog originated with this sentiment. Though we both have hiking boots (Stuart after a bit of resistance) there will inevitably be trails we want to explore when all we have are the flip flops on our feet. So what do we do? WE GO HIKING IN FLIP FLOPS.