Auckland adventures

'Have you got a map of the city I could take please?' I ask a friendly looking member of staff in the Auckland bus terminal.

'No, sorry...where do you need to go?'

'131 Beach Road. The Station Backpackers.' I then stand and listen to her well-meaning but rather jumbled directions, knowing I will have to ask someone else immediately after exiting the building. The way she's describing it, my hostel is located approximately five hundred thousand miles away, so I ask whether it's best to get a taxi.

'Hmm...maybe,' she replies. 'Let me just show you how far we're talking.' She rummages around for a minute before FINDING A MAP and placing it down on the counter in front of me. I look at her in disbelief.

'Erm, can I take this?'

'Yes of course,' she answers, cheerfully oblivious to what's just happened. Sigh. I go on my way, chuckling to myself firstly on account of this and secondly because I've spotted a skyscraper with the word 'Babbage' emblazoned in huge letters across the top and it reminds me of minions. Bapple?

Stupidities aside, here's what I got up to in Auckland:

Whale & dolphin safari

Whale watching! Finally! Wooho...no. Four hours on the water and NO whales. Boo! Cancelled in Kaikoura and now this, I'm not doing too well with marine mammals over here. However, we saw lots of Common Dolphins and hundreds of sea birds all feeding in the same small area, which was quite a sight - I felt like I'd stepped into the making of Blue Planet. 

It was hard to tell where the sea ended and the sky began

While I was gutted to miss out on whales again, I didn't mind that I'd spent more money seeing dolphins in the wild; the cash helps to fund wildlife safaris that are eco-friendly and treat marine mammals with care & respect - heaps better than seeing them in captivity which shaves a horrible number of years off their average life span (around 40 in the wild and more like 5 in places like Sea World...where apparently trainers use starvation techniques to coerce them into doing tricks like jumping through hoops and all that. So cruel).

Black water rafting

Since I was in Auckland, I decided to spent my second day black water rafting through glow worm lit caves 3 hours away in Waitomo. As you do! It was a 6.30am pick up so a very early start but SO worth it. When the (awesome) guide asked how I'd found the whole experience, I replied that it was one of the best things I've done, and I genuinely think it is. As well as having amazing fun, it made me realise that I need to try new things, be more adventurous and push myself out of my comfort zone more often! The first challenge was getting into a wet wetsuit, which is much harder than it sounds (although far worse by miles is taking off a wet wetsuit in front of a bunch of strangers and your bikini almost coming off with it). We had a practice jump off a waterfall in our tubes/rubber rings and then headed for the Ruakuri Cave, where we waded through the river, floated down it in near silence gazing in awe at the glow worms above and jumped backwards off a couple of waterfalls for good measure! The floor was uneven, the darkness meant we didn't know where we were putting our feet and it was rather chilly - did I mention there are also eels in the water? - but all the challenges upped the fun factor and made me feel even more proud of myself at the end! We were told to turn off our head torches near the end and find our way out of the cave in the dark using the GPS (glow worm positioning system) i.e. follow the trail of glow worms above which mirrors the curves of the river. At one point we had to tube through parts of the cave with a very low ceiling, using our fingertips to pull ourselves through. Such an epic new experience. I'm so glad I did this!! 

Flattering...

Cave exit - pretty sweet view after an hour and a half underground 

I was also lucky enough to go into the Waitomo Cave, which I actually thought was already included but turns out it wasn't - lucky it got thrown in as a freebie because these are the world famous caves that people come to visit from all four corners of the globe. The limestone caves were formed around 30 million years ago (amazing in itself) and are made up almost entirely of ancient fossils and calcium carbonate. They're decorated by myriad stalactites and stalagmites which have formed familiar shapes including a pipe organ and an elephant - and some have even grown crystal layers. We kicked things off with a walk and an introduction to the glow worms, which emit a bright blue light (known as bioluminescence) to attract prey, but what the prey doesn't see is the fine thread hanging down from the pretty blue light, which traps and paralyses them ready for the glow worms (technically still larvae at this stage) to drill a hole in their heads and suck out their insides. Nice! The ceiling of the cave was just absolutely covered in these tiny blue dots; it felt like I was looking up at a starry night sky. We finished the short tour by drifting down the river in a boat in complete silence. I was utterly wowed by the thousands of glow worms above and the beautiful reflections on the still water. My excitement may also have partially been down to the fact that the scene (boat, water, darkness, weird creatures) reminded me of the Harry Potter movie where he goes with Dumbledore to find his first Horcrux! What a day, thank you New Zealand! :)

You can't take photos in the cave but here are a couple of Google Images that give you the general idea:

Source: http://www.thriftytours.co.nz/images/uploads/Waitomo_Glowworm_Caves_tour.jpg

Source: http://www.new-zealand-travel-showcase.com/images/WaitomoGlowwormCavesboatCourtesywaitomo.com.jpg

Waiheke Island

On my last day in Auckland and New Zealand, I jumped on the ferry to Waiheke Island to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. I've heard rave reviews about this place but to be honest it wasn't quite the amazing paradise island I expected it to be. A quiet retreat, sure - the entire population seems to be 80+ and I didn't encounter a single person on the walking trail to the village - and it did have a nice beach (below) but other than that I wasn't massively fussed! I think I'm tired; so looking forward to chilling out at Sarah's in Brisbane. I have very little planned other than relaxing, reading and putting a 500 word entry together for a travel writing competition. 

Despite what I've heard, there seems to be a fair amount to do in Auckland, especially if you're outdoorsy. Heaps of islands to explore (I didn't get a chance to see Goat Island which is good for snorkelling or the city's popular volcanic island which I was thinking about kayaking around), lots of wildlife and just generally a buzzing city. This will probably surprise some people but I would definitely choose Auckland over Wellington in terms of a place to settle down. Being able to walk around outside in a T-shirt at 8am has its perks too! That's all folks - thanks for tuning into my New Zealand travels. In the meantime, I've got a flight to Brisbane to catch...see you on the east coast!