Comings and goings

Now comes the sad part since the van plan is coming to a close :( After leaving Rotorua we cruised up the coast to Tauranga for a look before busting back to Auckland. Was a fabulous day in Tauranga/Mt Manganui - neither of us had ever been there so was good to see what it was all about. We saw a Destiny Church billboard! haha! ate HEAPS of sushi and went for a walk on the beach and up the Mount a bit - once again... NO SURF! ugh. then it was back up to the big smoke. so ended our last day in the van together :( sad times
the next few weeks were a little nutty and em and i didn't really spend them together all that much. she was staying with her friend ange and i with lauren in completely different parts of the city. i got completely and utterly lost when going out to laurens once. haha! but otherwise navigated the city pretty well i thought. caught up with a few more people who have relocated to the land of orcs. did some exploring and shopping and went to a few films in the italian film fest. nothing amazingly exciting.
lauren and i did do a weekend trip to the coromandel which was awesome. the sunniest hottest weekend ever - got to bust out the new togs. there are some advantages to the city :) we went to hahei and cathedral cove and ate hot chips at whitianga. stayed illegally in a reserve up some peninsula. ate yummo food in coromandel itself, visited a butterfly house in thames where the butterflys liked my yellow t shirt, did some walks and more gravel road driving. found some rad kauri trees just outta coromandel town which i recommend. and finished the weekend off by stopping at the miranda hot pools for a good soak. gave us a taste of the coromandel with a nice mix of relaxing and doing.

Cathedral Cove

So sunny!

Making friends with butterflies :)

the next week i became an expert on newmarket - where can i park for free? where can i get internet? those kinds of things. went to a few movies in the italian film fest at the rialto which was a good time killer. halfway through the week i relocated to my friend janelles house who, in remuera, was within walking distance of newmarket. em stole the van for that weekend as erwin had come up to see her off and they went up north for a bit. i felt quite wierd not having el capitan as a constant companion. i have become unhealthily attached to that vehicle :)
and then it turns into a return journey....
i left auckland and em and went back to rotorua for a few more days with mel, steve and phaedra. then continued down to wellington for labour weekend with my friend laura. on that voyage i did manage to get stung by a pesky bee that flew in the open window of the van. grr!! then it was back to blen. and i started work on tuesday. at 8am. oh no! reality shock!!! if only the van plan could go on forever............

Family Times

Phaedra eating her first ever birthday cake :)

the weekend of oct 7th was a momentous occasion coz it was my neice phaedra's 1st birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! cool to be there for her milestone. so we cruised into rotorua for some home comforts at my sis mel and bro in law steve's house. steves bro's matt and jimmy and steve's parents were staying there too so it was a full house! therefore we offered to sleep in the van... which reminds me.. the bed in the van is AMAZING!! its so comfy and has no roll together and despite what many of my (male) friends like to think - we did not spoon!!! anyhoo... em and i had previously talked about how when we went metro to visit people we were often offered the blow up air mattress/the couch/the fold out couch etc... we always took people up on these offers but really, the van was so much more comfy i don't know why we did! so the van was a good place to be
went out to lone star on that friday night for dinner. jimmy works for lone star in chch so we went as anonymous diners and had to rate our experience. i have to say the service was pretty shit. and by some unfortunate circumstances me, jimmy and em, all veteran hospo workers, were all sitting together at one end of the table so the poor people didn't stand a chance against our combined critical eyes :) when we got home we busted out aladdin as turns out steve's fam are big fans too! i'm sure it ws annoying for everyone else when we were all reciting the lines and singing along to the songs. but really.. thats what disney movies are for!! oo and heres some disney trivia for you... guess who the voice of aladdin is? for all you 80s kids out there that remember full house... its dj's boyfriend! haha! scott someone-or-other
so dawned saturday... THE BIG DAY!! phaedra was LOVING all the attention from her attentive extended family. i have to say that she has matt and jimmy wrapped around her chubby little fingers! mel's brother's family joined us for the day from hamilton. as did mel's mum. so was quite the family event (em being a hanger-on of course) we had some good food and chatter and presents were opened. what do you get a 1yr old?!?! i got her jandals. they were so cute i couldn't resist! and really.. every kiwi kid needs jandals! i think we had more fun opening the presents than phaedra did. in the afternoon me, em, jimmy and matt had the most mammoth game of frisbee ever! we started off playing vortex which was all good and well until someone threw the vortex into this ginormous tree. we spent the next 15mins throwing things at the tree to try and get it to fall down. it didn't. in fact the tree just seemed to suck up the sticks and rocks too! so eventually jimmy had to battle through the dense branches to get it out. haha! hence we started playing frisbee. i suck at frisbee. but eventually got my groove on. we were in a reserve out the back and i was in the 'badlands' were there were heaps of ruts and random holes in the ground. not surprisingly i twisted my ankle. who twists there ankle playing frisbee? apparently i do. the next day we were all rather sore from our frisbee experience. though jimmy was the only one really complaining about it :)
a nice soak in the hot pools sorted us out though. me, em, phaedra, mel and steve went. good times! though there was a FREAKY lifeguard who was rather obsessed with phaedra. he kept following us around the pool, waving at her, popping out from behind poles to surprise her, he even grabbed her hand at one stage without asking! FREAKY!!!
now you may think i haven't mentioned phaedra all that much in this blog. but c'mon people, she is only one so there is only so much you can say about her! but shes cool. and i have seen her since and she is turning into a cool little person :)

The mighty BOP

So after our crazy time in Gizzy we were keen for a bit of normality. Drove through the gorge to Whakatane - a real nice drive if you are heading that way. It had one of the prettiest rivers I saw in the North Island. Green and nice. We had read that Ohope was a good place to be so headed there for a looksy. Em became CONVINCED that the surf was going to pick up marginally so we could actually catch some damn waves. Therefore we both suited up (I was reluctant at first) and then proceeded to have a great swim with our boards. Yep you guessed it... once again NO SURF!! still it was a rad swimming beach and worth it because em was freaking out when the cockle shells kept hitting her and shrieking like a little girl. haha! :)

Ohope Beach

now when you live in a van for a few months you tend to become a bit lax about your sense of privacy when doing things like changing. so it came that after our swim i was getting changed and realised my bra needed tightening so was standing there, in the carpark, in my bra and a towel while em was tightening it. didn't seem wierd to me at all. and really, not indecent either. but then a truckload of workmen drove past and were staring like nobodys business and 5mins later when they drove back again we realised that perhaps we were a bit of a spectacle. whoops! haha! oh well - prob made their day :)
cruised into whakatane for a spot of food and somehow ended up at a pub where we ordered some $5 fish and chip meals. it took FOREVER for them to come out! we were sitting outside in the sun thinking 'what the fuck?' so eventually i went in to ask what the dealio was. she asked if we had changed tables. no. and some other pointless questions and then said it would be out soon. we waited for another 10-15mins and were on the brink of leaving when ta-da! our meals arrived. except we got upgraded :) the dumbass waitress (i tell you its hard to get good service!) had given our $5 meals to someone else so we were getting their $15 fish of the day meals! YUSS!!! was worth the wait methinks :)
feeling nice and full we left whakatane and drove up the coast to matata where there was a $4 park up/camping spot with some very permanent looking campervans. it was just over the sand dunes to the beach and was wicked. had a cool shower thing too and a pump for water. good find

East Side!

So we continued our adventures through to the East Coast. Yeah! First stop was Napier where a bit of the old VD struck (VD being vague dissatisfaction not an STI). I went to the museum and Em read her book and then we ate apple and cheese on crackers. don't knock it til you've tried it! we stayed in a holiday park that night. there was a crazy man working there who said El Capitan didn't sound very healthy and that he could fix it. personally i didn't want a man who had one eye that looked in a different direction touching my baby! so we ran away :) went out to dinner in Napier with my friend sunny, who i haven't seen since forever, and her boyfriend. was the best thing about napier :) we went to lone star and ate heaps of yummy yummy food and em and sunny talked canada coz, small world that it is, sunny was born in saskatchewan too! crazy shit.
sunny said i had to write about her on my blog so there you go sunny! was great to see you :)

there was still a lot of crazy weather around the place on the east coast so we didn't hang around too much. cruised down to hastings where em had fruit picked in the past and went and scoped out her old house. went to see cape kidnappers and then hit the road towards gizzy - it really is as far away from everywhere as it looks!
the drive was quite rad really. a cool gorge to drive through. first thing that struck me about the area was that there were heaps of really cool trees around the place. oh god that makes me sound like a hippy! yeah but it'd be a good place to be a cow i reckon
it was quite late by the time we got to gizzy so just went for a quick walk and then went and sussed out some surf beaches out wainui bay way. of course, the surf was shit, but us being the eternal optimists that we are figured it could pick up in the morning! so we parked up right by the beach amongst some sand dunes for the night
BAD IDEA!!! that was the start of the WORST NIGHT IN THE VAN EVER!!! oh god it was so shit. so we had been in bed for all of 5mins when it starts raining. sweet. and then the wind picks up. and i mean picks up! it got so fricken windy that the van was shaking like you wouldn't believe! it was quite scary. and then our boards underneath were rattling around like no ones business. the old sleep brain was thinking we were gonna get blown over! we had been talking that day about maori legends for some reason and i was praying like nothing to the god of the wind (tu something) for the damn wind to stop so i could get some sleep! sooo sooo bad. em and i both woke up at midnightish and em uttered "kim are we in a hurricane?" nope we weren't but it damn near felt like it! she was thinking we were in the eye of the storm and were gonna get completely smashed. sooo sooo sleepy....
needless to say there was no surf in the morning. was still too damn windy anyway. we sort refuge in a coffee shop and then hightailed it outta there! yes gisbourne, i see your potential but the memories are not pleasant

shawn the prawn and other stories

hm, this is quite good as i can pretend i am still on fun adventures! and not back in blenheim already (sigh)
so on the monday after our weekend in the naki we decided to head eastwards - looked in our trusty road atlas and found a route which meant we could go a different way than we had come in. seemed like a good idea.... surely some alarm bells would've been raised when we went past signs saying that it was the "forgotten world highway" but apparently not... first part was sweet as. though we saw no other cars. then we passed a sign saying "please have passports ready. you are entering the republic of whangamomona" what the shit? we drove on. whangamomona is WIERD!!! we saw a total of 5 people when we stopped for a toilet break there... 2 workmen on the side of the road who were not actually working, 1 man in a house bus and his 2 kiddies running round. one of whom was called blaze. uh. drive on! freaky! it was real the hills have eyes stuff so we just continued on our journey - no stopping for us in this "forgotten world" i have never been so happy to see taumaranui in my life!
we continued on to taupo that day. unfortunately it wasn't a fantastic day so the lake was looking somewhat average but we went for a lovely walk and then went and found a mint as camp spot that was... wait for it... FREE!!! right next to the waikato river on huka falls road. i imagine it gets pretty crazy in summer but worth a look if you are passing through that way.

Next to the Waikato

during the night it rained considerably. (the first of the crazy weather) to the point that my in and out of sleep brain thought the river was going to rise and we would awake to find ourselves flying towards the huka falls! thankfully this was not the case :) for our morning in taupo we ventured northwards and went to the waiariki thermal park which is right next to the massive geothermal power pipes - steam rising out of the cracks - impressive! there was bugger all people at the park which suited us fine. we had a foot soak there, saw some impressive geysers, some sleeping (massive) kuni kuni pigs.. but the best bit was they are attempting to recreate a mini pink and white terraces. they have built the terraces and supplied the geyser and hopefuly the silica deposits will, over time, create a similar effect. quite cool. also went to this craters of the moon place which was less impressive but alright all the same. i had a burning desire to go to the prawn park for some reason but we had to hit the road... though on the way out i did get a brochure for it and was so disappointed we didn't go! the brochure was rad - there was this character 'shawn the prawn' who introduced everything - you can go eat prawns (of course), go feed the baby prawns who are in geothermal pools, even hit golf balls into the pools (and shawn says not to worry, this won't hurt the prawns) and the park is sunny 395 days of the year (did you seethat, hes being tricksy!) it looked hilarious! i wanted to go meet shawn! em found it amusing too but no one else has. please let me know if you think i am crazy. or go experience the coolness of the prawn park yourself!

Go Shawn the prawn!

the wacky naki

3 go wild in the wacky naki!

the weekend after northland we picked up lauren in auckland and then made our way southwards to the wacky naki (that is.. after a long procrastination over bought breakfast and coffee in parnell. ooo posh!)
stayed at laurens parents house who were soooo hospitable! we had some amazing meals... steak on friday when we arrived, cooked brekky on sunday, so many snacks of cheese etc.. and a ginormous pork roast on sunday night with lemon meringue pie for dessert!!! rad
on saturday we had some good chilling time at the house and then went out to tea with some of laurens friends. they had been at the races all day so turned up pretty pissed and entertaining! was a great dinner - cheap but really good venison sammies and some bottles of wine helped it along. after dinner we moved on to the classy classy grumpy mole (damn sarcasm doesn't work in writing does it?) one of the guys at dinner was a lion nathan rep so he bought us a round of his product and we proceeded to drink the night away whilst laughing at the late 90s/early 00s music vids - they know their audience thats for sure
got chatting to a bunch of liverpudlians who we kept banging in to during the night and one become rather attached to lauren. did a bit of boogie-ing but our night was cut short by stupid daylight savings! still it was 2am/3am by that stage so off home we went - only to find that laurens parents got home after us! shame!
there seems to be a recurring theme of our trip that sunday turns into a funday - as it should! went out to oakura to check out the surf... not happening - story of our lives!! so went for a walk along the stormy beach and played some impromptu cricket with a lemon and some driftwood! then we filled our hungover tummies with a gigantic plate of nachos and wedges in the local pub. they probably were wondering what had hit them as we spent the best part of 2hrs sitting there cracking up!!
sunday night was the epic meal and then we went to see 'step up' which is a dancy fun movie with a rather good looking lead male :) i recommend if you're after some shameless entertainment.

Lemon + stick = great fun!!

At Oakura Beach

so was our weekend in the wacky naki. i feel it revealed its wackyness to us. what did not reveal itself was the so called 'mountain'. em and i are sceptical as to whether it actually exists or not. hows that for a conspiracy?

so much to say...

We did it! All the way to the top - Cape Reinga

okay so i have lots of days/weeks to catch up on but will put them on here in bits and pieces so its more exciting (and not to boring for me)
NORTHLAND aka paradise! was our first stop after auckland. great to get out of the city. we had a week of fantastic fantastic sunshine and warmth. it was so hot sometimes i was actually losing my mind! went swimming heaps - personal fav at maitai bay on the karekare peninsula. there was no surf anywhere though :(

Maitai Bay aka... heaven! :)

had an epic epic day where we went all the way to the top baby! cape reinga is pretty spectacular and worth the drive for sure. as are the giant sand dunes. next time will have to remember to take a boogie board. nearly ran outta petrol (again) on the way back - thank god for 24hr services - at that petrol station we were also reduced to eating dried 2min noodles coz we wanted to get as far south as poss. they were surprisingly good :)

Te Paki Sand Dunes

also went to visit waipu which was em's hood over the summer. glorious glorious. cool waterfall there too - pirau falls. if it was a bit hotter would def have gone for a swim. as it was i did go in up to my knees, inadvertently that is. whoops!
cruised back down the west coast and went and saw tane mahuta. hes awesome (big kauri tree for those that don't know). plus stopped off at a couple of places that i had been to as a kid but not since (my mum was born in dargaville) kaiwi lakes were just as magic as i remembered, bayly's beach has had soooo much more development since i went there. but that seems to be the way its going eh?

em at the funky fish cafe at bayleys beach - chlax!

Pirau Falls

also went on 2 vehicle ferries - one in russell and one on the hokianga harbour. ooo ps... russell used to be known as "the hellhole of the pacific"and was quite the piratey haven. it is also the home of one of the coolest trees i have ever seen - imagine the things this puppy has seen!


had the most enthusiastic responses to the van in northland - a bunch of maori kids on the back of a ute waved and smiled at us. a hell bro dude saluted us. a wee girl (about 12yrs) ran across a field towards us waving and laughing and in wellsford em got hounded by a (white) bro who then asked for her number and when she refused said "well what about some tits then?" ?!?!?!?!? ahh.... does that work for you often dude??!!? we died laughing!
thats enough to keep you going i hope. more soon. :)

hobos go city

yeah yeah i suck! we are now in the north island! auckland in fact. the land of orcs itself. uh, just a quickie at the mo coz have to go out to tea. had a few days in welly - caught up with quite a few people which was great. went out and hit welly town on first night there. and i feel like we ate a bit of food. generally a safe assumption :) i know em was a little wary of how we would feel in a big city - being that we are hobos and all - but it was sweet eh. so big ups to welly and all the people we caught up with there!!
then we moved on to raglan where em's friend angelique came and met us. had some fantastic lazy days there - went for a coupla surfs even though the waves were pretty av. soooo much warmer than in kaiks though!! one day we got up, went for surf, and then spent the rest of the day lying in the back of anges van in the sunshine. good times :)

Ocean Beach at Raglan... beautiful!

El Capitan finds a friend... Ange's van Rodriguez

then we booted it up to auckland. staying at laurens flat which is very flash (cheers dude). went to beauty and the beast (the disney musical) on friday which was awesome. cool dancing and costumes and stuff. beauty was kinda annoying though. whiny.
and we went to the auckland zoo yesterday - animal fun! the elephants were rad - one gave itself a mud bath which kinda looked fun :) and then we went out last night - first to my friend janelles for some drinks and then to a party of some guy lauren knew and then in to town. was soooo random!! but heapsa fun and got to get our groove shoes on for a bit
tomorrow we are moving on up north - up to waipu tomorrow and then around there a bit. only a month left! and we have been on the road for 50+ days. woop woop!

2 monkeys hiding behind an elephant

See.. told you it looked fun!

Monkeys are rad

hey hey (its the hobos)

so we are now in golden bay! well nearly... currently in motueka. had some great days in blen with my ma and pa. ate some great food (cher mum!) had some great showers and spas and generally sorted our shit out. managed to catch up with my friend ingrid too which was rad. good luck for the job hunting ingy!
we also went down to our bach in the marlborough sounds on friday (went swimming - we're hardcore!) and then went out fishing (in the sounds again) on saturday. we caught a wee bit between us but my blue cod was the only edible one. still, a great day... esp coz we saw a gigantic pod of dolphins! we went and played with them and then they were swimming in the wake of the motor right behind the boat! like you could see the big grey masses under the water and if we'd had a large pole we totally would've been able to touch them!
this greatness continued on monday when we drove down to kaikoura and went for a walk with our icecreams on the beach when this lady starting yelling at us to look at something and we looked out at the sea and there was a WHALE!! woooooaaahh!! that NEVER happens. coolest thing ever eh. esp coz it was hardcore jumping right into the air and then it dived so we got the whole tail fluke thing too. there were a couple out there and you could see them spouting away. rad... i tell you the animal kingdom loves the van plan. we have had too many random occurences with them for it to be coincedence.

Beeeauuutiful!!! The view from the surf :)

Em & her board Charlie at Maungas

went for a surf in kaiks too. weellll... an extended paddle since we didn't actually catch anything but it was fun all the same. we rented booties too - genius! warm tootsies are great :) and also purchased a crayfish from the famous cays crays! i named him merv. he was delicious :)

Merv the crayfish

then drove to hamner and spent a whole morning (2hrs) in the thermal pools... mmmm.... and then took an extended drive to nelson area. on the way we nearly ran outta petrol!! haha!! got so freaked that when we were going down a big hill (not the hope saddle with those 35k corners) we turned the car off and cruised down!! hahaha!!! ah we can laugh about it now :) also stopped in at maruia falls which is the one all those crazy paddling people go off. the word - nuts - comes to mind....
are booked on the ferry to go to welly on saturday afternoon. prob a good thing coz i swear i could spent a whole month here alone! doesn't matter how much time you have its never enough.....
laters!

just some tales and phots from golden bay since i have otherwise missed it!...
we stayed at this gold little camping spot called mckees which is before mot. its something like $2 a person and has a fantastic view over towards nelson. heres a photo of em cooking brekky on the beach... a task we did at many fantastic locations!



our 1st proper day we decided to drive as far as we could and then make our way back. our initial plan was to go to abel tassie and maybe do some kayaking but that didn't happen. we'd both been there before anyway. never enough time!!! we battled over takaka hill - all without sounds as the stereo had eaten our cd - which led to a MAJOR case of vd (vague dissatisfaction) setting in. we went to pupu springs which just made it worse coz you can't touch the water!! do you know how tortuous it is seeing all that delicious clear water and not being able to touch it?!?!? eventually we got rid of the vd in the only way we knew how... we bought a 6pk and headed to the beach :) perfect! whilst there em practising her surfing pop up... i love this photo :)



stayed at pakawau that night and awoke to yet another beautiful day. it was so clear you could see over to farewell spit. that was a good day - we managed to fix the sounds! went to wharareki beach where there are sand dunes galore! unfortunately it was windy as hell at the beach and the sand felt like tiny razors hitting every available peace of skin! i battled on feeling like a desert explorer but em retired to the comfort of el capitan :)

Pakawau beach - looking towards Farewell Spit

we also stopped off at mapua - a wicked little seaside town with a definite hippy feel. while there we stumbled across an ice cream parlour called hamishs.... so you're in australia in the outback eh hamish? haha!!




captain jack also found a boat that he took a particular liking too. aarrgghh!! :)

so golden bay was rad. we both understood how people can go and never return. its a different pace and way of life for sure. we could've spent a lot more time there but it was time to venture onwards to the north island! cruised back through the queen charlotte drive, had a coffee in picton, and made our way across the strait on the blue bridge... which, by the way, kicks the interislanders ass!