Australasia Ends, Americas Begin!

Well, I've had my final week in New Zealand! In hindsight, I did it a bit wrong, but never mind! I should have headed into Northland last Saturday evening as soon as I arrived in Auckland, but at least I got really cheap accommodation here (even though I've had to share it with cockroaches!) Anyway, Easter Monday was very similar to Easter Sunday - I wandered around Downtown again, went to the market, bought a cheap $3 bone pendant (rather than a $60+ greenstone one!) and spent at least an hour in a outdoor pursuits shop looking at daysacks. They had an 11 litre one and a 21 litre one. I, of course, wanted something in between! I'm sure the staff thought I was a nutter, but hey, I had HOURS to kill!

I caught the bus up to Whangarei around 4pm, and 3 hours later, I arrived and thus began the trek to the YHA. I'd been told that it was around 20 minutes walk away from the bus stop, and involved a hill, but you know me, was I going to spend money on a taxi??? Nope. Once there, I had just about enough energy left to cook a bit of pasta and pack my daysack (my old one from Fiji as I never made a decision in the shop!) for diving the next day. So, on Tuesday, I was collected bright and early by Dive Tutakaka and promptly checked in at the dive centre. I'd found a voucher in a magazine the night before for a free lunch, which they happily accepted (so i didn't need to eat the bag of cold pasta I'd prepared the night before!) Soon, I'd boarded "Perfect Day" which is the nicest boat I've dived from yet! Our skipper, Luke, introduced the crew and gave us some info about the Poor Knights islands and it looked like it was going to be a great day at sea!

Poor Knights Islands

Our first dive was at Blue Maomao Arch, one of Jacques Cousteau's top ten spots! I swathed myself in 14mm of wetsuit, and strapped on 12kg of weights!!! That's double my usual amount, so I was a bit concerned I'd hit the seabed like a rock, but then realised that of course, it was to compensate for the extra neoprene! The water was damn cold but extremely clear, the best visibility I've ever had whilst diving. We began our descent and headed through the arch and for the first time, I was greeted with an underwater view that was exactly how I'd imagined scuba diving would be, before I'd ever tried it! The arch was full of shoals of blue maomao and the rocks covered in a multitude of colourful marine life. Shafts of blue light came down through gaps in the arch above, and it looked like David Attenborough was due to arrive at any moment!

It was really interesting to be diving in cold water as there were no corals, but lots of kelp and fish that I'd never seen before. We saw long and short tailed stingrays and an eagle ray silently swam right by, its fins rising and falling like a bird on the wing. After about 30 mins, I was really shivering , but there was no way I was going to ascend until I had to, and in the end I broke my own diving record - 63 minutes!!! Back on the boat, the sun had finally broken through the clouds and so we all sat on deck with hot tea, trying to warm up again! After lunch, we had our second dive at Trevor's Pools, another great spot with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. Again, I was really cold after a while, but smashed my new record - 67 minutes! I swear, I could have gone for 70, it was time to head back to the boat! It was a great trip and the crew were smashing.

Once back at the hostel, which was very small but really cosy, I met John-Paul (Ireland) and Kathy (Northern Ireland) and we just chilled out in the TV room watching Tommy Tiernan. I then bent Kathy's ear about South America as she's just spent 3½ months over there. It was great to chat to her as she's stayed in the hostels I'm booked into in Santiago and Easter Island and she put my fears to rest about the former being too noisy and that 2 days should be enough to get around the island after all! Besides, it would be an extra $100 to move my E.I. flights now, so I'm resigned to making the most of the time I've got over there!

Whangarei

On Wednesday, I had a full day in Whangarei so what better to do than some geocaching! A multi-cache, that should have taken around an hour to complete, took up half of the day and had me on the opposite side of town by the end of it! Luckily, after seeing me walk all the way up the main hill, I was offered a lift down again by a kind couple, who became absolutely fascinated once I explained what I was up to! That evening, I walked all the way back to the bus-stop with my gear, although I was sat on the street for over an hour as the bus was 40 minutes late! so, by the time I arrived in Paihia after 8.30pm, I basically dumped my bags and got into bed!

On Thursday, I was up early and bumped into John-Paul, so we decided to head into town and have a wander around. I was just leisurely walking by a travel shop when before you know it, despite not wanting to spend any money until I was back in Auckland, I'd booked a parasailing trip around the Bay of Islands! I swear, that woman could have sold possums to the Kiwis! Anyway, a few hours later, I was suspended high above the bay on a 1200ft rope (NZ's highest nonetheless) and the view was amazing. It was very sedate though and I'm not sure what it going to cut it now in terms of adrenaline after my skydive! Back at the hostel, we watched the World's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins. It was really good and surprisingly funny in parts!

Yesterday, I arrived back in Auckland, I collected my Poste Restante and went out last night to Eden Park to watch Auckland Blues play Otago Highlanders in the Super Fourteens. I have no idea what any of that means, but I was rooting for the Blues and the won! However, I didn't realise how much stopping there is in Rugby Union, so it wasn't as high-octane as I'd expected. Hopefully a soccer game in Argentina will change all that!

So, I've just got a few loose ends to tie up here before my ELEVEN hour flight across the Pacific tomorrow. I can't send a parcel home because the P.O. is shut on a Saturday here. I want to change US $100 in traveller's cheques into cash, but it would have to be changed in and out of NZ$ first, meaning I'd lose US $15 in the process! I need a new pair of trousers as I've had to make three repair jobs on them this week, all in one spot! Well, at least I got to use my sewing kit after seven months on the road! I have just bought a new daysack though, I decided on the larger one after all, as I think I'm going to leave my main backpack in Santiago and just have hand luggage for Easter Island. Good grief, this time next week I will be about to leave there and I'm still in NZ at this moment in time! I don't half pack it all in!

That's all folks for New Zealand. It's a lovely country but I didn't quite have the amazing experience here that I thought I would, going on what everyone had told me. I think it's a gret place to share with someone and I probably would have got a lot more out of it had I been able to drive around and camp at my own pace. I'm not sure I would come back here again specifically, but I would hop over from Australia and it's highly likely that I'd be back there at some point in the future, so you never know! However, I was EXTREMELY lucky with the weather here, I jumped out of a plane and swam with dolphins... so it definitely had some great moments!

Next stop Chile and the adventure racks up a few notches I think! I'll have to learn Spanish and cover huge distances if I'm to pack in as much as I want to over the next five months... Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina. Hopefully, there'll be a trip to the Galapagos Islands in there at some point as well, watch this space! Now, I'm not sure when I'llbe back online as I don't think the internet is going to be quite as widespread over there, but I'll be in touch, dear reader, you haven't heard the last of me yet!