Good afternoon people,
I’ve now been back at work in Auckland at the Seek Adventure Travel desk (ground floor of Nomads Fat Camel Backpackers Hostel) for a few days and only now am i starting to regain the feeling in my fingers and toes.
Probably should rewind to last Thursday morning 8am, the only time i have been up that early apart from when I’m still up from the night before, normally thanks to Fusion Backpackers nightclub on Fort Street. Loaded up with a large coffee and a bag i headed to meet the Stray bus for the north island fa-mil, little did i know that the next 4 days were gonna be some of the longest & coldest days of my life, Jack Bauer had it easy!
Day 1
We set off heading towards the Coromandel Peninsula stopping first at Mt Eden then heading via Thames, where we fully stocked with supplies for the next few days, on to Hahei. After slipping in & out of conscious on the bus we arrived to be herded straight to the beach where we met Mike from Cathedral Cove Kayaking, 1 hour later, aching arms and a little damp we were sat on Cathedral Cove having mocha’s and latte’s as prepared by our guide, who in a past life i’m guessing was a 5 star Barrista, with less than minimal resources, nice touch.
My rowing companion was a strange German lad called Flo and also a rather large puffer fish which sat on the bow.
After a quick exploration of the beach and the adjoining cove we set sail heading around the rugged coastline, minus everyone else due to a wrong turn, ineffective steering I blame the German, well they do drive on the wrong side, that was until we managed to catch back up with them & followed the group back to the lodge for a hearty BBQ as prepared by our resident chef, Stray driver BP and that was followed by more than a few healthy drinks.
The evening consisted of a pleasure pain experiment on Hot Water Beach, after waiting till 8.30pm for the correct tide times we drove the short distance and starting digging. It took no time at all for me to understand how the beach got its name as burning water flowed around my feet before a cold wave brought me down to earth, this carried on for the next couple of hours, great fun but could also be classed as a mild form of torture as we were all dancing to the beat of the waves. A few token gesture Jim Beam’s back at the camp set us up for half a nights sleep which I was hoping would be enough to survive another fun packed day aboard the Stray Express!
Day 2
Skipped brekkie, every minute in bed was crucial and it was freezing at 7.30am in the morning! On the bus only 10 mins late, we were getting much better, then on the road heading first to Paeroa, the famous home to Lemon & Paeroa drink, signified by a giant imitation bottle in the town centre, a quick history lesson from Stray duo BP and Dribbles then to the Koriai Lodge Raglan for another introduction to the ice cold sea with a surf lesson laid on by the Raglan Surf School.
Was hoping for a few Baywatch moments from the Lifeguard Tower but sadly just got to see people wiping out at sea whilst trying to stand up, this lasted a few hours before hypo-thermia and darkness started to set in, the stray family outing looked cold but content as the troops marched back up the beach.
Headed into the town for pizza before hitting the sauna to combat the frost bitten fingers & toes, after relaxing for several hours the flying fox started to appeal so in the pitch black off we went screaming down the zip line late into the night, allegedly some people were naked but it was dark & cold so no conclusive prove.
Day 3
Another ridiculously bright and wheezy morning and by now i had firmly forgotten the word holiday, 2 mugs of coffee and 2 Winfield Gold was the only chance i had to regain my senses and that was quite crucial seeing as we were due at Waitomo Adventure Caves by 10.30am.
The idea of crawling through tunnels and abseiling down waterfalls 80m below the surface was fine, i just really didn’t want to spend another day shivering. After a pie and some training with our guides Dean & Jimmy from Waitomo Adventures, wearing a wetsuit, lamp helmets and looking like an extra to a Daft Punk video, we entered Haggas Honking Holes finally ready to go exploring.
After conquering the first 20m abseil, it was followed by the two waterfall abseils, some rock-climbs, squeezing and commando crawling around under & through places I would normally leave to things with 8 legs. Ever wondered what it would be like to be flushed down the toilet or complete a full spin in a washing machine …Well this is it… and what an amazing place it is! We saw stalactites and stalagmites, even NZ’s famous glowworms made an appearance & 4 hours later I popped my head above ground level again almost content regardless of my body temperature, score!
Next Maketu and before we’d even arrived out came the face paint as we got into character for the Maori Cultural Show. We stayed with a local Maori (indigenous people of New Zealand!) so had to learn the Maori greeting on the way there so we could greet them properly, then had a Hangi meal and went in to the meeting house, Marae, in which no shoes, food or drink are allowed! Nate, was the chief and had to go through an official ceremony in which the Maori chief placed a gift on the floor….if had stepped over it he would have been beaten with a stick, if he refused to pick it up we would all have been asked to leave straight away and never come back and if he picked it up, took 2 steps back keeping eye contact then we would be accepted into the community and become part of Uncle Boys, the owner of the Marae, extended family of 45000, I think he’s had a lot of Stray visitors!
Luckily Nate didn’t mix up his options and we were allowed to stay! Then came the formal greeting where the Maori tribe lined up and we greeted each one by touching foreheads and noses with them (found this slightly weird with people you don’t know….I was a bit worried id get over-excited or nervous and end up head-butting one of them, instead i nutted Flo for fun!) and then the family performed a song and dance for us!
The girls and the boys then had to split up to learn the traditional song and dance which we would then have to perform to each other and the rest of the group - the lads had to do the Haka just like the All Blacks in rugby, well nearly bless, we tried and the girls had to learn poy and dressup in traditional clothes!
After the show some random Canadian girls introduced us to the game Flippy Cup, a new drinking game which worked very well and also set us up for a good half nights sleep, really should consider hitting the pillow a little earlier but never want to miss a thing.
That night we all slept on 50 mattresses together on the floor in the big Marae, officially the largest dorm I’ve ever stayed in and also potentially a new world record for the largest bed, you just couldn’t move without stepping on someone!
Day 4
We had an early start again the next morning, Uncle Boy told us he would be waking us up to ABBA music because that was his favourite, I wished he was lying but true to his word I tried to block out the sound just to get another few crucial minutes of sleep.
Off to Rotorua, next stop water rafting on the Kaituna River with the Kaitiaki Adventure boys which is always a great experience! Actually, im not sure I did find it that fun….there were 3 waterfalls, the first one 2.5m, the second one just 1m and the third one 7m Tutea Falls which is the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world…which sounded really really cool but turned out to just be plain cold!
I’ve now tried to conquer the river twice and my raft has flipped both times, I knew we were in trouble when Gopher our crazy guide started telling me he’d only capsized twice in 3 months, his & also my time had come once again, least the photo’s highlight the look of shock and disbelief as I go sailing through the air before being plucked from under the raft and dropped back into the now upright vessel looking that blue that I could’ve been an extra in an episode of the smurfs!
Cold, wet and pumped I ran round the corner to Hells Gate, Rotorua’s most active thermal reserve, with no pause or hesitation I leaped into 40 degree water, instantly causing 3rd degree burns but really enjoying the fact that for the first time since we left Auckland finally I was relaxed, stress free and more importantly warm, let the holiday begin. 30 mins later it ended as we returned to a BBQ with the Kaitiaki Instructors before heading home, still in one piece!
Myself & Flo had an absolutely awesome time away even though being English I had to moan constantly about the weather and being cold and wet, and with Flo being an efficient German, I could not work out why we always slept in late and were always last on the bus. Big thanks to Stray, Nomads and all the tour operators involved in making this trip happen!
Cheers guys its been wicked!
Mark