Middle Earth - A Place of Firsts

I am a bit behind on blogging.  I’m really good about uploading the photos but not so good about writing the stories to go along with them.  As a result, most of my posts are a 1-2 months delayed.

In January I flew to Auckland, New Zealand for 11 days to apply for a work and holiday visa for Australia.  Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to apply for one while in the country so I had to leave.  So, off to the land of Middle Earth I went.  New Zealand is a lovely country, however, I wasn’t able to see much of the beauty which means I’ll be going back one day. 

  

This land mark helped me navigate around
the city.  Any time I was lost I looked for
the tower and started walking toward it.

New Zealand was not the epic landscape and scenery trip I envisioned it to be (thank you Lord of the Rings for that image), however, it was incredible in other ways.  I won’t say it restored my faith in humanity because that implies my faith in humanity is lacking, and at the moment it’s the contrary.  I suppose you can say it further deepened my faith in humanity.  I saw so much goodness in people while I was there. 

It was a trip of many firsts for me.  The first “first” was the fact that it was the first completely solo international trip I have ever taken.  I’ve always gone places where I know people or traveled with other people.  I went to Auckland alone without plans to meet anyone I knew prior to the trip.  This was a big moment for me.  I’ve traveled alone around the US, but not in foreign countries.  There has always been a safety net of someone close by who is able to come to the rescue if needed.  There was no safety net on this trip.

The second “first” was couch surfing.  For those of you who don’t know what couch surfing is, it’s a website where you can find strangers who are willing to open up their home to you during your trip and allow you to stay with them for free.  I have friends who have done this and have all said wonderful things about their experiences.  I love the idea of it and decided to give it a go partially because I think it’s an incredible thing to open your house to a stranger and share knowledge of your city and partially because I’m to the point now where I’m running out of money.  I contacted a woman who agreed to allow me to stay for the entirety of my trip, which was a huge relief to know I had somewhere to stay each night.  Prior to going I did a fair bit of internet stalking and left the person’s address and phone number with my cousin with instructions to send out the search party if he didn’t hear from me within 2 days.  Thankfully, Operation: Initiate Search Party Because Tawny Might Have Been Serial Killed remained inactive.  In fact, all my fears of being locked in a basement vanished the second I walked into my host’s house and was introduced to 5 other couch surfers.  This was one of those moments where my faith in humanity was confirmed.  This woman and her roommates opened their house up to 6 strangers… WOW!  While I was there several different travelers passed through the house including myself, 3 French girls, 2 Polish girls, 1 Finnish girl, 1 Canadian, and 1 German girl (I think I remembered everyone).  Again, I say WOW!

My third “first” was hitch hiking.  I know, I know, it’s dangerous and all that, but I’m glad I did it.  I was with a fellow couch surfer and we were on our way into the city.  Unfortunately, we missed the bus and had to wait an hour before the next one.  This wasn’t going to work because Morgane, fellow couch surfer, needed to be in town before that.  So she stuck out her thumb and a very nice couple around our age pulled over and gave us a lift into town.  Now I could have let Morgane go on her own while I waited for the next bus, but where's the fun in riding a bus when you have the option to have a conversation with a stranger during car ride?  Plus, I’m a believer in safety in numbers.  Hopefully having 2 people would deter someone from trying any funny business.  The couple that picked us up were lovely!  Hitch hiking is not something I plan on doing often, or even again, but I’m glad I did it once and even more happy it was a good experience.

My fourth “first” is a simple one.  My friend Belinda gave me the name and number of a friend of hers to contact while in Auckland.  Usually I would say something along the lines of “Ok, cool man I’ll def give her a call” and in the moment I would honestly mean it.  Then I’d think about it and start to feel awkward about contacting a stranger and those feelings of awkwardness would stop me from sending a quick email or making a phone call.  This time I actually sent that email and as a result I met one of the warmest, most effervescent people I’ve ever encountered.  This is something very small, but I often find it hard to climb out of my introvert shell to meet new people.  (I’m sure most people would never use the word “introvert” to describe me, but I am a bit shy when I first meet people and have to actively try not to retreat and hide).

Now that I’ve shared my "firsts" it’s time to share a few of my adventures.  The first couple days I spent adventuring with 3 fellow couch surfers, Christele, Solene, and Morgane.  They are all from France and I picked up little bits of French here and there while with them.  I’ve always wanted to learn French and spending a couple days surrounded by it amplified the desire.  Our exploring involved walking around the city, having lunch with a group of birds in a park, visiting the Auckland Art Gallery, trampsing around an island, swimming on a black sand beach, and cave exploring. 

While feeding the birds, one flew up to Morgane's
hand and had a sit for a while.

I love the huge trees here.

Hiding under a giant tree to escape the rain
while we ate lunch… and fed the birds.

One of my favorite pieces.

They look like they're dancing…
it's like a musical captured in a painting.

Stunning!

If all else fails, I'm becoming
a street performer.

The view of Auckland from the boat
we took to get to Rangitoto Island.

Volcanic rock modeling.

Auckland in the background.

B-E-A-Utiful!

Cave exploring.

One of the tunnels we went through.

Black sand beach sunbathing. 

Morgane and I took a walk one afternoon through a reserve.

This cat joined us on our walk home.
If Morgane stopped walking, the cat
stopped walking.  Then when Morgane
started walking again the cat would follow.

At one point I decided to venture about 4 hours south of Auckland to a town called Rotorua (where I stayed in a hostel… another first).  The first day was spent exploring the town checking out some of the geothermal activity (Nerd Mode). The second day I did two hikes through The Redwoods totaling about 11 miles (in addition to the 3.5 miles there and 3.5 miles back to the hostel… I had a Forrest Gump moment… “I just felt like running” except I walked).

On the way to Rotorua we passed the meeting point to go to
The Shire.  Not gonna lie, I almost got off the bus to do a tour
of The Shire.  This is another reason I need to go back to NZ.

Mud pools

Geothermal activity

If pictures could smell you'd be smelling sulfur right now.

At one point on this path I couldn't see farther
than 2 feet in front of me.

My favorite place of the whole trip.

Early the next day I hopped on a bus and went to Waitomo to do a tour of  a glow worms cave.  Not gonna lie, it was spectacular!  My only complaint is that the background info leading up to the cave tour took about 30 minutes.  Then the part of the tour where you were able to see the glow worms was about 10 minutes long.  I could have spent all day starring at the glow worms.  It was like staring at thousands of stars in the sky.  So cool!  If you are ever in New Zealand or on the East Coast of Australia (the only two places they exist) and have the opportunity to do a glow worm tour, do it!

I lied, this was my favorite place.

*Not My Photo* - You weren't allowed to take pictures.

*Not My Photo*

This was were we came out of the cave.

Then it was back to Auckland after Waitomo to do a few more days of exploring.  One day was spent “hiking” to the top of a volcano.  I say “hiking” because it was a 15 minute walk.  The following day I rented a car with three other girls, Morgane, Lucille and Maria, and we had a beach day.  We spent the afternoon baking on a lovely black sand beach.  I, of course, got over cooked.  On our way to a second beach we made a pit stop at a hiking trail which led to a waterfall.  It was stunning!  The water was freezing but there was no way I was missing out on my Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition photo shoot. The second beach we went to was supposed to have an amazing sunset.  The beach was lovely, however, the sunset was unimpressive.  Lucky me, I changed a couple settings on my camera (and by that I mean I clicked buttons without any knowledge of what those buttons do) and was able to get some decent photos that made the sunset look far more beautiful than it actually was.

Mt. Eden Summit.

The crater of Mt. Eden.

There was a compass of sorts which showed you which direction
different cities were from the summit.

Crater below and Auckland in the distance.

Black sand beach

Check out my sweet tan.

My photo shoot

Me, Lucille and Morgane.

Selfie

Bongo's selfie.

Piha Beach

Morgane and I climbed to the top of
that rock in the middle of the beach.

View of the beach from the rock we climbed.

Me and Maria hanging out.

Lucille, Morgane and Maria.

Me

Bongo's turn.

I feel like my sweatshirt should say LVHS
and Bongo should be a volleyball.

The sunset we waited about 5 hours to see.

And before I knew it, my final day in the Land of Middle Earth had arrived.  I chose to spend this day alone reflecting on my trip.  I set out to do a walk from one wharf to another across town. Part of the way into my walk I got off the trail.  Instead of back tracking I just kept walking.  I found myself meandering through a park which randomly had a set of abandoned train tracks ANNNND a couple of abandoned trains.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE trains so this find made me very happy. 

I have a morbid fascination with cemeteries.

An awesome tree!

Trains! Trains! Trains!

And there you have it.  My trip to New Zealand was over as quick as it began and it was back to the Land of Oz to look for a job and settle in to one place for the next year.