“I rolled on as the sky grew dark/I put the pedal down to make some time/There’s something good waiting down this road/I’m pickin’ up whatever’s mine.” –Tom Petty, "Running Down a Dream"

After five months, Brad and I have finally packed up and left the brilliant wildlife, terrible weather, steady jobs, nutty housemates and GREAT friends of Dunedin.  It was five months well spent and we did a ton of travelling from there, but after a sad goodbye to Gavin and Rich, we hopped in a taxi to the railway station to begin the 26 hours of driving to The Bay of Islands, specifically Kerikeri.  On a side note, the night before we left, my rather reclusive but very nice flatmate Kenny came and knocked on our door and gave Brad and I two things of Korean instant noodles for the road and told us good luck on our trip.  I am often moved by gestures involving food, so you can only imagine how touched I was.

Brad at work

Last view of the railway station

We spent 6 days taking the journey and saw some amazing (and some not-so-amazing) things on the way from the South end to the North end of the country.  The first leg involved a 6-hour bus ride to Christchurch, where we spent as little time as possible considering in the previous 24 hours they had 41 earthquakes.  No thanks.  We hopped into our relocator campervan (the car companies let you drive the cars for free because they have too many in one city- sweet!) and drove an hour and a half to Hanmer Springs, which is famous for its thermal springs.  We definitely weren’t expecting the rat race of a tourist trap that this place was.  Let me preface by saying that there are thermal springs all over NZ and if you don’t want to pay to soak in a formal pool, you can take a little hike and pop into a natural spring for free.  So why people would flock to this place like it’s Disney World is beyond me.  I was much more entertained by the first 3 episodes of Dexter season 6 (amazing… private message me if you’ve seen it because OMG!!!) which Brad and I watched from the comfort of our campervan.  Next please.

Classiest campervan in the park...

Bridge of doom out of Hanmer Springs

View from bridge of doom

 

We got up the next morning and bailed via the bridge of death (see pics above- no mom, we’re not going over this when you visit J) and drove 3.5 hours to Nelson.  I just lied.  It should have taken 3.5 but took us 5 because that’s how Brad and I roll… leisurely and inefficiently.  Nelson is another place that Brad and I would like to spend a month or two in while we’re abroad, but we decided to put it on hold because there has been some really bad flooding, but we wanted to spend a night there and scope it out.  Turns out you can’t tell at all that the flooding happened and the town was a really cool little place. With the relocator car we only had 4 days to get to Auckland, so we didn’t have nearly enough time as we would have liked, but we got to walk around and enjoy the shops and had a mean pizza at Pizza Bar.  The beaches were a bit of a let down (they are right next to a major road) but other than that we were smitten.  

Driving to Nelson

Nelson

Church in Nelson

Pohutukawa

The next morning we got up and boogied to Picton, which is where the ferry to The North Island leaves from.  Even though I’ve done it twice before, it just doesn’t get old.  It’s a 3-hour ride and the scenery when you go through the sounds is gorgeous.  They also have a movie theater, arcade, café, and bar on board, but I decided to pass out for 2 hours to get ready for the 5-hour drive still ahead.  Only after taking in some sweet scenery of course.

Oh him?  Just some teenager smoking a pipe.  Weird.

We got off the ferry and on the road at about 2:30 and made up our minds that we would drive until we couldn’t stand it.  Or at least until I couldn’t stand it because the car is a stick shift and I was doing all of the driving.  We made it about 5 hours to Taupo and it was so busy we were barely able to book into a campsite (they kind of put us next to a barbed wire fence, but we were still grateful not to have to drive around aimlessly).  It was pretty uneventful as we got there late and had to get up early to get to Auckland by 3:00.

Volcano used as Mt. Doom in LOTR

We got up early and cranked out the last 4 hours of driving making it to Auckland by 1:00.  We grabbed up all of our bags (you really cannot appreciate what a pain in the butt lugging a massive suitcase, large backpack, duffle, and ukulele is until you’ve heaved them around several city blocks stopping every few inches to pick up all the stuff you’ve dropped and readjust because you’re losing circulation to everything.  There is no picture of this because A) it’s a memory I would like to forget and B) if I tried to get my camera out during this process it would take 3 hours.  We checked into our hostel, dropped our bags, and hit the town.  We grabbed a quick dinner at Nando’s then checked out the arcade, which contained the obvious: video games, prizes, and a lady who had to have been on heroin.  I wouldn’t have mentioned her except that we proceeded to see her the next morning in McDonalds cussing someone out, later by the movie theater dancing in the rain with an umbrella, and once more a few hours later doing a crossword puzzle in a record shop.  By God she was a productive little menace, and alarmingly had a very similar agenda as us.  On a happier note, we also successfully went to the Art Gallery (amazing, junkie-less, and free!), and had a few great meals.  After 2 nights in the city, we were ready to head north and get out of the city.

How did they miss "Auck-upy?"

Earthquake-proof container store

Just a little Buddhist parade zipping through town...

Auckland Art Gallery

The Kumara [sweet potato] God

Maori Portrait Gallery

Auckland harbor bridge

Finally we got on the bus to Kerikeri for the final 4 hours of our trip.  Within 30 miles, the scenery was already drastically changing.  Huge, lush ferns, gorgeous gardens, beautiful rocky beaches, and plenty of cute small towns were all along the way and making me very excited for our move.  Almost like finding heaven… time to kick up my heels and raise hell <3.