Travel Story «Orc Land.... ok Auckland»

New Zealand | 0 Comments 20 November 2006 - Last Update 29 January 2007

So we lost Aisling - (by accident!!) and Grainne and myself, after a swift sleep-deprived goodbye and a short plane ride, found ourselves in Christchurch - we had made it to New Zealand!  The sun was shining, and although it was a little on the chilly side (ok it was goddam freezing) the Garden City as it is so called, looked very pretty and welcoming and I got a little over excited, squealing and pointing at everything. Grainne looked perturbed..... The drive in from the airport is impressive - not your typical tour of the industrial estates as in other countries but rather a pleasant and relaxed spin along flower lined roads.  We checked into our hostel and strolled about the city with great intentions of doing a walking tour and then taking the Gondola up to the viewing point overlooking the city.... But..., we are not perfect, and have never claimed to be (ok there were those two times that I scremed "I AM perfect" at my mother but who counts teenage years? Fine, they weren't exactly teenage years but if 40 is the new 30 then 22 is the new 12, so there...oh God, here I am regressing again).  Anyway, we finally gave into our cinema urges and spent the afternoon watching Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Kostner in The Gaurdian -  a grand way to put down a leisurely afternoon but I wouldn't rush out to see it, if you know what I mean.  Our hangovers and sleep deprived states got the better of us and we headed for an ealy night, not feeling too guilty about our lack of cultural exploration as we knew we would be back in Christchurch for Christmas.  See - we're not lazy, we're just procrastinaters - an entirely different kettle of fish altogether.  
After a pleasant but brief 24 hours in Christchurch on the South Island, Grainne and myself flew to Auckland to re-join Lorna, Aisling was to follow once she managed to pry herself away from Australia - (despite all rumours I can now confirm that Aisling Carroll's delay into NZ was in no way related to her being questioned by the police, and she has not been charged with any crime. Thank you. No more questions).   After the initial reunion and catch up, it became apparent that Lorna had managed fine in NZ without us and had not, as some of us suspected she would, turned to alcohol (often referred to as the devils urine by Ms Crowley) for solace. Hmmm.... we are not indispensible after all....  As the day progressed, it became even more apparent that Lorna Winifred Honor Stuart Trainor the 1st, knew everybody worth knowing in NZ (and then some) as she randomly bumped into people on the street that she knew, and casually brushed off the chance meeting (I mean HELLO - there's only 1.3 million people in Auckland!) as someone she shared a room with in a hostel one time... Yep, yep, I hear you - rent a crowd, yep, that occurred to me too.... but she must have been earning the megga bucks to rent that big of a crowd.  That evening, Ms A Carroll (you may recognise her from other stories such as Stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you) rang to inform us she was indeed in NZ and would be joining us the next evening.  As a police siren could be heard in the distance, the phrase referring to counting and chickens popped into my head, but being the quiet type I said nothing.
Day Two in Auckland and we had a full day before the elusive (not fugitive) Aisling Carroll joined us so we decided to climb a mountain. Yes people, climb a MOUNTAIN. And not just any old mountain. A Volcano. Hello adventure junkies. There has to be something in the air on this side of the world that makes you take an ordinary SAFE activity, such as walking and put a life threatening spin on it... like walking on a volcano.  Now, this may have been at my suggestion, but now that I look back, I'm not sure that my travel insurance would cover me if I fell and broke my neck/sprained an ankle on a Volcano...
(Ok, slight exageration there as it was the crater of a volcano we would be climbing but hey, who would read these stories if you didn't embellish a little - maybe I should look into becoming a politician.....?)  So of all the volcanoes surrounding Auckland (and there are a few) we selected Mount Eden, (the Maori name for the site is Maungawhau - "Mountain of the Whau tree") located 5 km from the city centre and also the name of a suburb of Auckland.  We got a bus out to the start of the walk but missed our stop (angry lady bus driver shouted at us for not knowing where our stop was and ommitting to tell her we didn't know where our stop was so she could tell us to GET OFF the bus, which she kinda did anyway....) so before we had even really started the walk we already had an extra bit to walk! And this was supposed to be a harmless easy morning excursion.... So after a small bit more confusion we found the bottom of the mountain - hurrah! And then looked up to the top - Gulp. This is when I heard a little voice in my head reminding me that this dormant volcanos' summit (196 metres above sea level) is the highest on the Auckland isthmus. I decided not to impart this bit of knowledge to the girls pre-climb for fear of being murdered.  Is there no bus that goes to the top!?!?  Apparently no. Damnation. We were going to have to walk the walk. The injustice of it all!!  After a solid...ooh 30 minutes? climbing the grass verge of the stupid crater (who's idea was this!?) we reached a windy road that circled the mountain and followed this the rest of the way to the top, CONVINCED that one of the passing cars would offer us a lift the rest of the way.  
They didn't.  Oh how we cursed them!! That is, until another car could be heard coming round the corner and then we stopped cursing all automobile owners, turned and smiled sweetly while trying to stem the sweat pouring out of us in the vain hope that chivalry was not dead and someone - ANYONE - would be courteous enough to help three poor exhausted girls.
Again, no such luck. What is the world coming to? I blame TV.
Somehow (I can't be certain of the details because I blacked out 4 times on the way up and I am told I am an unreliable witness) we made it to the top. Here is the proof:

The smiles are fake.  FYI - Photos are also unreliable evidence.  This is the view that our bodies are hiding.

   

Having exercised enough for the rest of the year, Lorna and I took ourselves off for a stroll around the city ending at the Wharf which, as luck would have it, also served as the going out area! (Imagine that!) and settled into a pub for the afternoon while Grainne returned to the hostel to nap and check her vitals.   An hour or so later and Gra joined us for a few more beverages and some fodder. We returned to the hostel in time to meet a barely breathing Aisling (the hostel, as is all of Auckland, is situated on the steepest hill imaginable and the poor lass had just walked up it - sideways she tells us - with her 20kg backpack.  I mean it's no volcano summit but it is a tough climb...) and we nattered away into the night sipping vino, regrouping as a foursome - it had been some time since we were all together - and planning our next steps.  A few more glasses of wine and our excitement levels at the prospect of the road trip were escalating.  A few more glasses of wine and Grainne whipped out her CamCorder to record our hilarious and witty conversations.  Please note this tape has since been destroyed as it contains much damning evidence, most of which proved that we are neither hilarious nor witty but merely drunkards.  We don't like to be reminded of this.
Day three in Auckland was designated to car hunting. The plan was to buy an automobile and with a budget in mind and a headache to match we set off bright and early to a dealership that we had read specialised in backpacker car sales - they offered a 50% buy back deal at the end of your travels which we felt offered us security in the well being of the car and also greater flexibility on the price of the vehicle seeing as we were gauranteed being able to sell the car back and also gauranteed a price.  Despite our eagerness and early start  - the early bird catches the worm and all that - we were still waiting outside the locked gates of the car saleroom 45 minutes after we had arrived and no one was answering the business phone number we were continually ringing.  Er... What to do!? Anxious that we would be missing the Greatest Deal On Earth all around the city, we divided into 2 groups and Lorna and Grainne got the bus back into town to check out the Car Sale Market in town- our second option for buying a car.  This was a traditional Backpackers meeting place for the buying and selling of used cars ideal for travelling round the islands for a few months in - there was no gaurantee for resale but people we had met had assured us we would be able to find some poor sucker to take on the old vehicle, and as for the cars roadworthiness - we felt sure fellow backpackers would not screw us over and there was the option to have the car vetted by an AA mechanic for $100.  Not such a bad deal either.
Aisling and I waited at the first place.  As luck would have it, the minute the girls left the car lot, the owner turned up and we explained we were interested in buying a vehicle under their backpacker Buy Back deals.  Sean Hogan, the owner, informed us we would get a better deal renting a car and that he had an 8 year old station wagon coming back on Saturday if we were interested.  Now, we had decided we wanted to buy a car and being my usual pig headed stubborn cynical self I assumed he was out to screw us over and saw us as 2 silly little girls with next to knowledge on cars - which, in fairness was not far from the truth but hey - we weren't admitting to that, No Siree!  So we politely asked him about the rental option (although I personally was already dead set against it) and to see a similar car and if there were any conditions to this rental agreement - 
Age restriction? All drivers must be over 21 (that's fine we all were) and hold a full licence (also fine)
Unlimited milage? Yes
Could we take the car to both islands - north and south? Yes
Excess insurance to be paid? Up to $1000 (which when divided by 4, if there was an incident wouldn't break the bank)
AA road side assistance? Yes
How much for 2 months rental? $1500
We were sold - there didn't seem to be any catches and the price was half what we had agreed we would pay for a car! We rang the girls and they told us to go for it so we accepted the deal and offered a credit card deposit to secure the car for Saturday.  Not necessary, Sean told us. Are you sure?! Just be here Sarturday lunch time, he said.  While everything seemed fine, I was nervous that all he (and we) were relying on was each others word - it had all seemed to casual and not very business like.... still, we had a car. I think.... We met up with the girls in a coffee house to celebrate our efficiency (it was not even 11am and we had a car sorted when we had planned to allocate a few days searching for one to buy - God I was anxious about it - what if we didn't have it? I put it to the back of my mind and hoped all would be well).  
The afternoon was whiled away in the Auckland War Museum, supposedly one of the best Museums in the Southern Hemisphere dedicated to the Natural, Geographical, Military and Social History of New Zealand and their interaction with the rest of the world.  This has to have been one of my favourite museums we have visited so far since we have been away (and boy have we seen some museums) as its emphasis lay on the history of New Zealand peoples, something I was far from knowledgeable about.  Also available at the Auckland Museum is the option to watch the Maori cultural performance group, Manaia, who use song, dance and stories to inform, educate and entertain. This comes highly recommended from me and had to be one of the highlights of my time in New Zealand.  The performers are the face of Ngati Whatua O Orakei, the home tribe (tangata whenua) of Auckland                                                                           

 - Tamaki Makaurau - and were not only sincere, powerful and proud, but funny, energetic and enthusiastic.  The singing was amazing, strong and pure and all I could think when watching them was WHY ARE THEY NOT TRAVELLING THE WORLD PERFORMING THIS?!  Their final perfomace of the Haka raised the hairs on the back of my neck, and although there was only 6 of them on the small stage compared to the 45 of us in the audience, they felt like an army and boy was I glad I never had to face the Maori in battle, or the All Blacks on the rugby field.   I was seriously pysched out. 
Day four was a lazy day - we explored the city, shopped (yes I know I know, we are supposed to be backpackers but we have long come to accept ourselves as Flashpackers so you should all learn to accept us too) and headed out in the evening to explore Kiwi Social life.  We moseyed down to the "going out area" of Auckland - the Wharf and entered a bar for a few drinks - bet you didn't see that coming.  Auckland was quite jammered this weekend because another famous group of Irish were in town - the little-known up-and-coming band U2.  The odd encounter with a Kiwi passed the time (we didn't meet anyone who was an extra in Lord of the Rings - nor did we meet an All Black, past or present) until a weary Lorna and Grainne called it a night.  Aisling and I stayed on a while longer and as the night cooled and the pub emptied out we moved the party indoors - such was the change in atmosphere I thought we had entered a whole new pub, but alas I was mistaken.  Some time in the wee hours Aisling brought me home. I was pooped. 
Day 5 was car collection day - oh how excited we were - despite all my internal fretting, nothing went awry and our car was collected and returned to the Hostel by 2pm all paid for - yea us! We christened her Dory on account of being so obsessed with the film FInding Nemo.  We don't get out much.... 
That said, it was Saturday night and Lorna had more people/rent a crowd to meet and greet/pay so it was back down to the Wharf to meet David English (a native of Ireland) and his wife Sonja (Kiwi who charmed him into leaving the Emerald Isle) and their friends and watch the Kiwis lose to the Australians (boo! - sorry OZ but we support NZ now) in the Tri-Nations by one point in extra time....  After the game we resumed conversation and bombarded our new friends with questions, requests for Must-Do's on places to go and things not to miss but forgot all of this after a few more drinks...ah well. 
Sunday we rose, packed up Dory (that's the car people - keep up!) and set off on our road trip!! New Zealand, here we come!!
Ta ta. Emily