I can't believe its November already. Ace car rental forgot to pick us up this morning but with a phone call arrived ten minutes later at our hotel which gave us some time to do some planning from all the pamphlets we got from the tourist agency.
NZ is really well set up this way for tourism. They have iSite offices pretty much in all their cities that help with booking rentals, accommodations and activities for free. The offices are also stocked with free literature and advice from the people who work there.
We got a Nissan Tiida with about 80k on it. Steering wheel on the right of course, and it came with automatic transmission luckily.
Our first stop was Countdown, a grocery store where we bought a chicken lunch and all sorts of junk food, fruit and muffins now that we have a car. Then we drove up to Newmarket where I found a backpacking store that sold tent repair tape to seal a tear on my bag. I bought some in Vancouver actually and didn't think I needed it, but I guess for a longer trip, having it for my only bag, which is a great water resistant bag, but very light in terms of weight and material, wouldn't be a bad idea.
Then it was off on highway 1, driving by downtown and across the harbor bridge, out north towards the Bay of Islands.
Driving on the left isn't too bad. I knew this having rented a car when I visited Margaret River south of Perth. Actually, driving in NZ is quite straightforward as the traffic lights tell you exactly what you need to do. You can turn only with an arrow or green light. Usually pedestrians have their own signal so you don't have to worry about them crossing on your green.
The landscape is quite compressed to what we're used to. Endless hills are not the gentle rolling variety like in North America, but many mini mountains with steep green grades populated by sheep and patches of trees that seem too tall and skinny. It seems like every hill just had its grass mowed and landscaped. Either the grasses don't grow long here or the animals take care of everything.
We did a couple of hikes, the first one spontaneously off the side of the road to Pohuehue waterfall. The trail around Pohuehue stream leading up to the falls was impressive in its upkeep and very easy to walk. The vegetation was very varied with fern-like palm trees, broad and narrow leafed plants of all different shades. It seems more diverse than back at home. The plants seemed perfectly planted for our hiking pleasure.
The drive up to Whangarei was on a windy two laned highway with speed limits ranging from 80-100 km/h.
At Whangarei, we found the peak lookout point to the city, snapped some pictures and quickly made our way to the much more interesting Whangarei waterfall, just at the edge of town. This beautiful falls is supposedly the most photographed and I think very pretty. The water falls into a perfect tree encircled pond with a small stream draining the water away. A bridge arcs over the stream so that it can be hiked on both sides. If this was secluded, it'd be the perfect fantasy swimming pond.
We arrived at Paihia around 6:30pm when most shops had closed and restaurants opened for dinner. It was quite quiet and similar to Sylvan Lake in that the main drag ran along the water. Sailboats anchored just off shore with the famous picturesque islands out in the bay.
We had a delicious pizza dinner at La Scala after a bout of indecisive wandering.
Our accommodations for the night was noisy again, but we should have seen this coming. It was the Base Hostel, one of the better rated hostels which I'd agree with in terms of backpacker social atmosphere. But maybe we're of the wrong demographic for this sort of thing now. Especially after our recent track record. Our private double was opposite the bar which blasted music late into the night.
We (ie. Shannon) reaffirmed our plan to once again not book our accommodations ahead of time from pictures off the Internet. I think we've arrived in NZ just before high season and it seemed like rooms were aplenty everywhere. We strolled across the street and managed to negotiate a last minute room for tomorrow night at The Paihia Pacific Resort Hotel for $70 CAD, pretty much the same price as the hostel.
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