Rotorua

Hello everyone. I've now officially made my way out of the shadows of Auckland City. On the 18th I took the NakedBus, a very low-cost long distance bus, down to Rotorua. NZ's first tourist town, it is about a 3 1/2 hour ride from Auckland, located in the center of the north island. I decided to check it out because of the geothermal activity, geysers, and natural hot springs in the area. I underestimated how much of a tourist town it was though, everything related to the hot springs was ridiculously expensive and catered towards the older tourist crowd. It reminded me a lot of Branson, MO, look they even have DUCKS!


Arriving around noon in town, I made my way to the hostel, the Funky Green Voyager, where I checked in and then looked for cheaper/free things to do. After some bus confusion, I made it out to Whakarewarewa Forest National Park southeast of town and hiked a path there for 5 hours or so. It was a tough beginning, rising 500m within the first hour, but the view over the city and Lake Rotorua was worth it. The park was called The Redwoods, but only a small portion of the park was redwoods, there were a lot of European trees mixed with the native foliage. It was a nice day, very relaxing.

I'm glad I took the bottom bunk at the hostel because the girl above me woke up with some kind of insect bites all over her face. She looked miserable, blotchy and red. I didn't use a hostel blanket, maybe that was the difference?

Anyways, the next day I walked to the north of town and the formal Government Gardens situated on the south shore of Lake Rotorua. They were pretty, in the center of them were several yards where aged people were playing lawn bowling and croquet. I sat and watched lawn bowling for a little while, and it just seemed like madness, I couldn't make sense of it. I walked around the lake and saw some neat sights, and some geothermal activity on the beach and across the lake. Tired of Rotorua, I caught the earlier bus back to Auckland and rested before I went to the pub with my friend Rachel from TN, whom I met at the hostel. We went to Shakespeare's Brewery downtown and tried some of their house brews. They were very delicious and strong, it was a long walk back to my apartment and I was out as soon as I hit the bed. Cheers all.

Rangitoto Island

Hey all, I had quite the adventure today. I made my way to Rangitoto Island, northeast of Auckland City in the harbour. It was a 25-minute ferry ride to the 600 year old volcano, the newest island in the area. You could definitely tell, much of the island was covered by large black igneous rocks, remnants of the relatively recent emergence of the island from the sea. The rest of the island was covered by native bush, including plants found only on Rangitoto. Motutapu, a much older island very close to Rangitoto to the east, was a sharp contrast to the black rock fields and forests of Rangitoto. Motutapu is mostly covered with short yellow grass, rolling hills with few trees. In the very blue water of the harbour it looked golden.

Most tourists that go to the island opt for the bus tour; the tramping trails are for those up for a challenge. The rough path and sharp inclines on the way to the summit, and along the coasts were definitely the hardest walk I've had so far in NZ. Here is the path I took, in darker blue.

I took the central path up to the summit, and talk about steep. When I was getting close to the summit I was stopping every 10 minutes to catch my breath before I moved on. The view of the crater and then the surrounding harbour from the summit was worth it though. It was cloudy and raining a little when I got to the top but I could still see for miles and miles. I skipped the lava caves because the torch(flashlight) I bought today wasn't charged out of the package, a common problem for explorers of any age. I got caught in a sudden heavy rainstorm on the way to the east coast, but I had my jacket and it only lasted 20 minutes.

The island looked very tropical at times, but the temperature was in the 70s most of the time, which was great. Since the opossum and wallaby eradication of the 1980s the island has no large animals. While walking through the bush there were no bird calls, and rarely the chirping of insects. It was a very tranquil feeling to hear nothing but the sound of my boots as I made my way. I met two German girls, Anita and Desiree, on the east coast and traveled with them through the uneven and exhausting East Coast Track back to Rangitoto Wharf, where I caught the 3:30 ferry back into the city. I bought groceries for the first time, made a delicious meal, and am now off to clean up, nurse my sunburned hands, and decide where I'm going tomorrow. Take care everyone.

Arrival

So here I am in the fourth night of my stay in New Zealand. So far everything has been amazing, and sometimes overwhelming. I'm trying to get used to 1. Learning the ins and outs of Kiwi culture, and 2. Learning the ins and outs of living in such a large city. Auckland is beautiful; very busy in the city centre but there are parks and natural areas dispersed throughout. After arriving at my hostel on Hopetoun Street in the morning, I took a walk through West Park while I was waiting for my room to open up. What an introduction to the city; the park is beautiful, right on the backside of the hostel.

After getting in, I traveled down stylish(and expensive) Ponosby Road and also walked down Karangahope Road. Crossing the Grafton Bridge from K'Road I ended up at the Auckland Domain, a huge city park with open fields for recreation, flower gardens, walking trails, and the enormous Auckland Museum.Here are the pictures I took that day:



After sleeping in the next day I decided to catch a bus to Mount Eden in the south part of Auckland. The extinct volcano is the tallest in Auckland at almost 200 meters above sea level. It was a refreshing walk, the slopes pastoral with cows grazing alongside the path. There was a main path of red gravel and also dirt paths, lots of options for outstanding views of the surrounding city and harbor to the north. Returning back to the hostel I found a new person in the room, Nick a Brit freshly arrived from Fiji, so we made our way up to K'Road and had an interesting night at the pubs. We learned that the gay bars aren't quite so obvious as you may think, and ended up having a pint at two or three before we caught on.



Yesterday morning I got a cab from the hostel to take my to my new place in the Columbia apartment complex. I am staying in a tiny three-bedroom apartment. There is not really a common area, just a kitchenette, restroom, and shower, but at around $600 a month it's a pretty good deal for the inner city. I have a seldom-there roommate from Italy named Marco for now. I met Nick at the Sky Tower at noon and we hopped a bus to the Auckland Museum inside the Domain. The museum was very interesting, and massive. There were three floors but we were only able to make it to two. The first floor was mostly focused on the cultural history of New Zealand, European and Maori, and the cultures of the peoples of the hundreds of South Pacific islands to the north. The second floor displayed the natural history of New Zealand and its wildlife. The volcano exhibit was neat; they had rocks formed from many different types of magma. Some of them were very heavy, dense with rare minerals.

After the museum we went back to the hostel to pick up Rachel, a Tennessee native taking a sailing class in the harbor for a week, and took a bus to One Tree Hill, the second-tallest volcano in Auckland, south of Mount Eden. The road up it was paved, and very steep. We took two rest breaks on our way up. We were amazed to see natives biking and running up the steep path. One young father was running while pushing his child in a stroller up the hill, while his wife kept pace alongside. The level of activity, and fitness, in this country is unlike anything I've seen in the US. The summit gave a beautiful 360 view of surrounding South Auckland, and we were able to see the terraces the Maori had carved into the slopes of the volcano years ago. No crops are planted there now; instead sheep graze the slopes.

Returning to central Auckland we journeyed to K'Road again and fared better this time at the pubs, not being accosted by spirit mediums, angry Russians, or flirtatious transvestites like the night before.



I unpacked today and cleaned up the apartment; my body needed some rest after the 8 hour plus days of walking. Tomorrow I'm going to catch the ferry in the morning out to Rangitoto Island, New Zealand's newest volcano, for a day of hiking. My address is:

15 Whitaker Place
Apt 14E3
Grafton Auckland 1010
New Zealand

The address for my photo albums is http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/dustinrcollins although I think you can just click on the slideshow to bring the page up. I'll be in touch; leave me some comments.

Prologue

If you're reading this you probably already know, but my name is Dustin and I'm a senior at the University of Northern Iowa. I'll be heading to the Auckland University of Technology to study computer science and electrical engineering for a year. More importantly, I'll be exploring New Zealand for the better part of a year. Here is where Auckland is, on the North Island.

I'll be living and studying in the main business suburb of Auckland, called Auckland City. It will be the end of summer in New Zealand, about 70 degrees every day. I'm going to try and travel some of the colder South Island before winter, cooler and rainy, hits in May or June. I made sure to buy sunscreen for the first few months there. The hole in the ozone layer above makes it easy to get burnt in 15 minutes, no joke for an Irish American.


I've been hanging out in the Danish hamlet that is Kimballton for the better part of two months now, but I'll be bidding Iowa farewell on Feb 10th and hopping planes to St. Louis, Los Angeles and finally Auckland. Since the plane will cross the date line I'll arrive on Feb 12th at 6:30am. I've booked a hostel for a couple nights while I get my bearings in the city(home to 1.2million people) and go apartment hunting.

Sooner than later I'll start posting up as many pictures as possible. It'll definitely be an experience; I can't wait to jump in to the Kiwi lifestyle. I haven't decided what I'm going to do about a phone yet, but I'm going to try to set up Skype before I leave and then try to find a good deal on a local cell when I get there. Leave me some comments/advice.