Kiwi Fever, Baby!

I made it to New Zealand!!! Yes that’s right…I am here and I absolutely love it! But I am jumping ahead from my last post.

I made it home from Mexico City safe and sound with almost no issues. Customs was a breeze (even though I was sweating because I knew that I had a Cuban cigar in my bag), my flight was great because no one sat next to me and I was able to lay across 3 seats and sleep, and even though I had no cell phone to call my parents to tell then when I arrived they showed up almost exactly when I walked outside of the airport! The only thing that didn’t go as planned was my unfortunate case of food poising that I received after eating what I thought were delicious nachos in the airport.

The food poisoning set me back a bit. I spent my first night home hanging my head over the toilet unable to get that good night sleep in my nice comfy bed that I had dreamed while on my travels. My body was so week that I could barely leave the house to do the one million things that I NEEDED to do before I left again. Long story short, thank God I had 3 days to be home and I didn’t fly straight to New Zealand…I think that would have been my definition of hell: food poisoning on a 12 hour flight…ugh!

Sick or not, however, it was great to be home to see friends and family! The timing was perfect to because of Thanksgiving. It was nice to eat something different than beans, eggs and tortillas! The food was great and seeing my friends gave me the rejuvenating force to start my new adventure!

So here I am now. New Zealand. I will say this one time and I mean it with all of my heart…if you have never been here and you have any kind of appreciation for nature, beautiful landscape and friendly people…GET ON A FLIGHT NOW! I have only seen maybe 1/10 of the north island and I am already in love.

I flew into Auckland (probably one of the biggest cities in NZ). Worried about what I was going to see I didn’t know if customs were going to welcome me with my 12 month work visa or hassle me about what my intentions were for my travels abroad and tell me that I wasn’t worthy of staying a whole year in their beautiful land. But alas…I was welcomed with a smile and stamped with my visa! I was also welcomed by a half asleep but smiling German and that is when the adventure began…

We spent my first day walking around Auckland figuring out plans for what we would do about seeing the north island. There are so many options as to how you can get around. You can pay a tour bus company to drive you around to major sights, hoping on and off the bus at your leisure. The tour companies stop in cities where there are hostels, bar and general tourist attractions so that you don’t really have to think much. You just have to make sure you catch the bus and find a hostel. You can also rent an RV, camper van or car and drive around yourself seeing what you want to see when you want to see it. And in doing that you can choose to camp in a tent, in your van or just sleep under the stars.

We decided that renting a car and buying a tent and sleeping bags was going to be the most fun for us and the most economical. So while we were in Auckland we stocked up on camping gear, rented a really classing 1997 Toyota Carolla and hit the 1 North in search for beaches, rolling hills and adventure.

Its been almost a week and we are having a blast. The weather here has been a bit rainy and wet, but it doesn’t subtract from the countries beauty! If anything, the weather has made it more mystical and more intriguing. I am definitely having Lord of the Rings flashes in my head as we drive…

Oh! And about driving…yeah, we drive on the left side of the road here, with our steering wheel on the right. That was a bit hard to get use to at first, but now it feels natural. (Don’t worry mom and dad—Niki is doing most of the driving, but I did have to try it out once!)

Yesterday we went to 90 mike beach (which is only 64 miles long) and to the most northern point of NZ—Cape Reinga—and see the famous light house that is on so many postcards.

That’s all for now. I guess I can’t say ADIOS anymore…so, until next time—SEE YA LATER MATES!

P.S. The internet is really expensive and hard to come by while you are camping….so these posts are going to be more and more difficult to do, but I will try and get one up at least once a week!!

Lots of Kiwi Love!!