Dive! Tutukaka (posted by Caitlin)

Sunday, 5th July

Woke to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean, and headed down to the Tutukaka marina to get suited up for our dive and snorkel adventure. It was cold and early, but luckily the weather was beautiful. We found our boat, which was surprisingly small (could only take 14 when full), especially after the huge boat we'd been on in Cairns. It being off season, it was just the 3 of us and a Spanish couple, with 2 skippers/dive masters. Rachel and the Spanish guy were both going on the certified dive with Sam, Tiffany and the girl were snorkeling, and I wa

s doing the try dive with Luke. It was

an hour ride out to the Poor Knights Islands where our dive sites were. Unfortunately it was pretty rough going, and we had 3 sickies on the boat (I was feeling good as I took my Dramamine since I normally get sick). But everyone sucked it up (for the most part) and completed their activities.

We arrived to the islands through t

he huge and impressive Southern Arch, in the appropriately named Archway Island. As soon as we got into the shelter of the islands the se

a was calm and flat. The sun was out which kept us slightly warm against the chilly air and wind. Our first site was Frazers Landing, an area of rocky reefs near the high shear cliffs of Aorangi Island. The Poor Knights are some

of the only (maybe the only) islands left in New Zealand where there have been no introduced pests like rats or possums. This has allowed the native flora and fauna to live and evolve undisturbed, and giant wetas, giant centipedes, and tuataras (a real live dinosaur) can be found there, along with thousands of migratory nesting seabirds. It is a nature preserve above the water level (people are strictly forbidden from landing), and a marine reserve below for 800 meters out from the land. It was the first marine reserve created in NZ, and has been completely untouched by fishing for 11 years. The affects of this preservation could easily be seen, as the life was abundant and thriving, unlike the heavily trafficked patches of the Great Barrier Reef we'd seen.

The first group of divers got kitted up and set off. Luke suggested I go in with the snorkelers for a few minutes just to get used to the water temp. We were all in thick 7mm wetsuits

, complete with booties, gloves, a hood, and the very flattering butt flap feature. You literally cannot sink while wearing those suits! We all struggled to get them on, and we had to bounce Tiffany into hers! When we wer

e ready I hopped in with her and the other girl, who was pretty freaked out since she had never been snorkeling before. The water was not as cold as I'd been prepared for, and it was clear as anything. From the surface you could see perfe

ctly all the way to the bottom and everything around, probably like 20 meters. It was so incredible! And nothing like the tropical reef, there were large rock buttresses covered with soft corals, short kelp, and small schools of silvery fish. It reminded me more of the Monterey Bay sea life, but the swells are too strong to support the tall kelp forests. The Poor Knights are also unique, as they're the first islands south of Australia that the warm EAC hits. In the summer it sweeps down tropical fish you wouldn't normally find there, and some have actually adapted to live there year round. Sometimes they get turtles, and its a big breeding area for stingrays in summer (love to see that!).

Finally Rachel's group got back, and it

was my turn to dive! First we practiced my skills -mask clearing, regulator clearing and recovery. Then we descended slowly, using the rocks for stability. Not controlling my own buoyancy was diffic

ult, especially with the push and pull of the swells hitting the nearby land. Luckily, I got to just hang onto Luke and didn't worry about it much. We set of exploring, and came across several grey and yellow morey eels, tiny brightly colored nudibranchs, buggy-eyed blennies chilling on the rocks, and urchins that I avoided putting my hands down on. Little groups of demoiselle fish hung out in the kelp, and big red scorpionfish tried to blend in on the rocks. Luke picked up a brittle star that rarely comes that far out of its dark caves, and we spotted a huge mosaic morey squeezed into a long crevice with a yellow morey. Eels usually scare the pants off me, but they didn't seem in any hurry to clamp down on a diver, so it was okay. It was actually pretty awesome to see them in their natural environment instead of an aquarium tank.

After I had a quick lunch, and Rachel and Tiffany worked up the courage to get back in the water without spewing, we arrived at our 2nd spot about 50m from the first. We were going to Blue Maomao Arch, and it was supposed to be fantastic, so it couldn't be missed. Luke took the 3 of us divers out, while Tiffany snorkeled and the other girl sat it out. We dove down to the boulders at the base of the arch, and hovered just above the rocks. As we entered

the arch, it got very dim and we stopped at a l

ow rock. It took a moment to realize it wasn't dark because we were under the rock arch, but because the entire area underwater was filled with a giant school of Blue Maomao! There were probably 20,000 of the slivery-blue fish just hanging motionless in the narrow space. The sunlight was filtering in behind them, and it seemed like a dream. We swam slowly through the arch, into the school or fish. They parted slowly, swimming with us then reforming a living curtain behind us. On the other side there was a large kelp bed that we dove right into. We spotted a cute little sharpnosed pufferfish under the kelp fronds, and a few cool leatherfish with undulating fins and spikes hovering above the kelp. Sandagers wrasse swam right up to us, and we passed some pretty red pigfish. Both the wrasse and pigfish change from female to male, and can be identified by their colouring (we saw both). Rachel indicated that her weight belt w

as either making her puke or sink, so we turned and headed back. Through the school of blue maomaos again, and back over the shallow boulders. We spotted a small, pretty yellow morey sunning itself on a rock, a rare sight. Then the ascent to the boat, which we had to watch swinging above us til it got to the right an

gle and we could grab onto the back. I was relieved to get out of the water as it had gotten ch

illy and I was pretty tired. We had been down for 59mins, which seemed impossible.

After a rough ride back, we arrived back at the dive shop to fill out logs and look up the fish we had seen. We chatted to Luke for a bit, and he told me I should go for my open water certification, which I will definitely do! What an awesome day! Still can't decide if it was better than caving, but both were pretty equally amazing and crazy. New Zealand rules!

Kicking Back in Tutukaka

Monday July 6th

After our exhausting day of diving (more to come on that from Caitlin) we finally had a morning to sleep in, and woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We spent some time with the alpacas and Kathy, the woman who owns the farm. She and her husband Dan are from Florida originally and had been sailing around the world for a few years when they pulled up in Tutukaka and fell in love with the place and have been there ever since. The pacas came in about 10 years ago, and she has them because she likes them, not because she does much with them. Apparently they are very stoic creatures, which to some is the finest trait imaginable, I suppose. They do make some pretty funny sounds, and sometims they get their lips caught behind their big front teeth and look around with their goofy underbite sticking out.
We drove back to Whangarei and poked around the shops for a bit. It's a sizable and sprawling town, but the Town Basin near the water is quite pretty. Just out of town there was a kauri stand with a "canopy walkway" which was no where near the canopy- it was just a few feet off the ground in most places, but still cool to see some big old trees and do a bit of a walk. We also stopped over to see Whangarei Falls which were impressive. It used to be a Maori right of passage for boys to jump off the falls, but there was none of that for us, especially when we saw the sign that sewage had leaked last week in the area.

We stopped in the one of the 2 resturants in Tutukaka for a drink by the fire before returning to our cozy guesthouse and another night of one-pot-electric-fryingpan cooking!

Horses, Goat (Island), Alpacas!

Friday July 3rd, Saturday 4th of July

Sadly we had to leave Hahei, but we made ourselves feel better by riding horses this morning! We drove up to Twin Oaks Ranch and went for a lovely "trek" around the 900 acre property. It is a working farm so we rode amongst the cattle, goats, and sheep- of which they have 2,000! Up on top of a few big hills we had a great view of Mercury Bay, but from the other side, and we could actually look across and see Shakespeare's Cliff where we were standing yesterday which was quite cool.We spent most of the afternoon poking around Coromandel Town and drinking coffee and eating cake at Success Cafe which was lovely.
We made our way all the way around the Peninsula- the driving is so curvy that it makes the going really slow- and stayed at the Sunkist Backpackers. Craig, the guy who runs the place, was full of the funniest stories and lots of good tips for us. He has done a lot of traveling and was a tour bus driver for a lot of years in NZ and Europe. Apparently he would tell backpackers they had to change money when they went from the North Island to the South Island, and eventually the ferry had to take down their Bureau de Change sign they had so many requests! He also told people he was driving around Switzerland that this tall waterfall was turned off every night at exactly 10pm. So all the tourists would be outside with their cameras, waiting to see the water stop and the "end" of the fall. Nevermind water doesn't just stop in a wave, or that the whole idea is ridiculous. Craig clearly really enjoyed his job.
We drove further north on Saturday and passed by Auckland. The one toll road on the island is here, and we figured it would be a piece of cake after years of living on the MassPike. Wrong! There are no toll booths here. To pay you have to go inside the service station and que up for the one working machine that takes cash. Otherwise you can call up and pay with your credit card or go online. Apparently some guy was charged $200 instead of $2.00 when he did that, so most people seemed to think waiting inside was the way to go.
We took Craig's advice and stopped at Goat Island for our picnic. It's a marine reserve and in the summer they have a glass bottom boat you can go in and the snorkeling is supposed to be excellent. It was cold and overcast when we were there. The water was really clear, but a bit too choppy to see much. We got glimpses of a few fish, so that was fun. It is a beautiful area nonetheless, and a nice break from the road! There was a colony of nesting shags (birds that are very similar to cormorants). It is called Goat Island because back in the day, sailors would call any small offshore island with no fresh water Goat because they could put goats out there that could feed any shipwreck survivors. There is no indications there were ever any goats on Goat Island, but at one point there were pigs. They escaped by swimming to shore.
We arrived at Rocky Bay Alpacas around 6pm. It was dark and rainy, but we saw a few pacas chilling in their paddocks. We were hoping to have a BBQ 4th of July celebration, but it was cold and we couldn't quite figure out the grill (sometimes you really do need a guy around!). We hadn't realized the kitchen accomodations would be quite so minimal, so we improvised and cooked our veggie sausages and french fries in an electric pan! They were accompanied by a lovely custard apple boozy drink from our friend Danny. It was the strangest 4th of July celebration ever, but we made an effort, and it was memorable- if not delicious!

Hey There Hahei

Thursday July 2nd

After our long day of driving yesterday we arrived in the tiny town of Hahei on the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in Tatahi Lodge which was small and cozy. Our first spot this morning was Hot Water Beach. There is actually hot water in certain spots under the sand, on on 2 hours either side of low tide you can get to it by digging with a shovel and sit in your own personal thermal pool. We got there about 9am, and the tide was just coming in so we were hit with just enough waves to make many digging efforts obsolete. We did manage to find some hot areas, and got our feet nice and toasty. The sea water was freezing so it was a crazy combo. There were a few other people digging, but apparently in the summer the place is swarming (like the rest of the Peninsula).

By late morning we were trekking up to Cathedral Cove. A guy we were staying with told us it would be a 5 min walk to the start of the trail, but he was off by about 30min and a couple very steep hills. It was a good workout though, and we got some amazing views of Mercury Bay (so named because Captain Cook measured the transit of Mercury here when he was sailing around claiming things for England back in the 1700's). It was a beautiful day out and once we hit the trail head the scenery was unbelievable. The water is clear and blue, the sand is white, and everything in between is bright green. It looks just like a postcard.

We stopped at Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay- which, according to our reputable local, was named that because back when the first European family settled in Hahei their daughter didn't notice a giant stingray basking on a rock and stood on it. The ray swam back out to sea, taking the girl 30m out into the bay on its back. Both were lovely spots and apparently great to snorkel, but Cathedral Cove was spectacular. It is a pristine beach with interesting rocks just off the shore and a huge natural arch (the cathedral) on one side that you can walk through to another beach at low tide. Being winter, we had the place practically to ourselves and took plenty of time to take photos and do gymnastics.
We walked all the way back to Hahei Beach which was a mass of white sand and more blue water and not a soul in sight. We would have stayed longer if we weren't famished, so went to the single cafe in town for lunch. Our next stop was organic Perengi Winery where we met Danny, one of the funniest and most interesting people I've come across. He told us a mix of New Zealand history from the Maori that used to inhabit the Coromandel to the introduction of the amazing feijoa fruit from Brazil and why it is so much better than the Kiwi fruit- which is actually from China. He had us sample wines and all sorts of fruit liquors of varying deliciousness- most delicious being a lemon gin and the feijoa liquor, least delicious were the ginger and a potent licorice tasting thing. He had us practically rolling on the floor laughing at what we could understand- he talked a mile a minute with his crazy kiwi accent and dialect, and did impressions and poked fun at pretty much everyone imaginable. He showed us his found collection of kauri gum, Maori stone artefacts, and best of all little stones that were in the gizzards of moas, the giant extinct birds. He said he found them as a kid and used them to play knuckle bones, or jacks with. Obviously, though, he referred to them as "moa vom". Made my day.

On his recommendation when we left we stopped at Shakespeare's Cliff. And we did like the locals and walked past (ok, climbed around) the little fence, through a bit of brush, and found ourselves on a rock point with a jaw dropping, practically 360% view of Mercury Bay.

We took the ferry across to the town of Whitianga where the only grocery store is. It's a 2min boat ride or a 45min drive. Plus the boat was mildly exciting.

In the evening we headed back to the winery. We had been invited to crash the Board Riders monthly get together of drinking, smoking, and playing table tennis (which I learned is different from ping pong). It was definitely a local event- we were a bit of a curiosity to the group of self-described "crusty old surfers". We met a whole load of characters, saw some great outfits- gum boots, shorts, and giant woolly sweaters with yaks on them. No joke. Most of these guys were sustainable farmers and had some good stories to tell. I also made friends with Kittybus, the resident kitten who had a love for Doritos. Tiffany and I convinced Danny that he wanted to hire us for the summer in the cafe and now we have a whole group of people willing to teach us how to surf!

Take II Waitomo- blogged by Tiffany

Wednesday July 1st

Not only did Waitomo offer glow worm caves to explore and climb around in, but it also had one of the most unique places to stay the night. We spent our Waitomo night at Woodlyn Park where you have your choice of staying in a refurbished plane (one of the last allied in Vietnam), train (1950's rail car), ship (WWII Patrol Boat), or hobbit motel (like in Lord of the Rings duh!). We chose the plane and after hearing the sad news that the cock pit motel unit we had booked was having some leak problems, we opted to spend our night in the tail fo the plane. So random but we were all pleasantly surprised to find that the plane was actually quite cozy. We had our own little kitchen, bed with mattress heaters (sweet!), a shower with hot water (FINALLY), a porch, a picnic table, plus a huge electric heater that was basically like having our own little fire to sit around at night and in the morning. All in all I'd say it was a perfect way to round out our unique experience in Waitomo.


The day after our big adventure in the caves we decided to spend the morning exploring a few local sights we hard heard about the day before. First, we headed out to hike to the Mangapohue Natural Bridge. After crossing a very questionable wobbly little bridge whose limit was 5 people, we found ourselves in front of a a huge limestone arch. It was a nice to be able to see what we were climbing for a change! Not only was the arch-way 17m high and spectacular but it was also a neat place to visit because our guide from the Cave tour Bryde had been married there. It was hard to imagine exactly where the wedding happened since all there was were a few short walkways and a very narrow wooden stairway. Guessing it was a pretty quaint get together. Either way, it seemed like the most ideal and appropriate place for two cave guides to get married.

We continued on our way to Marokopa Falls. It was a lot bigger than we all expected, possibly due to the fact that we didn't really have much of an expectation and possibly because of the rainfall from the days before. The Falls were beautiful and on our little hike in we saw a very lush assortment of trees and ferns. We didn't stay long at the Falls since we had a show to catch back at Woodlyn Park- The Billy Black Culture Show!





Talk about a memorable show! The host Billy Black found a way to combine live animals, audience participation, and a bit of factual Kiwi information all into a very entertaining afternoon. It started with some basic history about how timber was cut back in the day. According to Mr. Black, the loggers used to secure planks into the large trees to get some leverage before hacking away at them with their axes. After the little history lesson the show continued with a very cute in-training dancing pig (pigs are actually the 4th smartest animal and dogs are the 12th!), a "kiwi-bear" more commonly known as a possum around these parts, a donkey, a cow named Big-Mac (who will happily live his life out at Woodlyn Park...phew!), and four very naughty little sheep who clearly did not want to listen to the sheepdog or Billy. Not only was it a good time but it was especially fun to see so many of the animals that we see while we're driving along the roads up close and personal.

We finished out our day with a drive up to Hahei. It seems as we go more North, the roads get curvier and narrower. We stopped in a very small, random town of Whangamata where we grabbed a quick bite to eat. A couple eating at the same restaurant seemed surprised to see us there (guessing they don't get too many tourist) and were sweet enough to offer us a place to stay for the night. Since we already had lodging booked we had to continue our way North but nevertheless it was nice to see how sweet all the locals are. We arrived safely in Hahei and all crashed hard after an exhausting two days!

Hey You Guuuuysssss

Waitomo! Glow worm caves extraordinaire! This place looks like any other idyllic farmland- rolling hills, lots of grass and sheep, but just underground are crazy limestone caves. And these aren't just any limestone caves- they are full of glowworms. And underground rivers. Touring the caves is the big activity in the area, and we could have gone like normal people on a walking or little boat trip through them. But, seeing as we are in New Zealand (adventure capital of the world) we decided to try out a little Blackwater Rafting in which you are put in a wetsuit, boots and helmet, given a floaty inner tube, and sent out over rapids in the freezing cold water where you can look up and see the glow worms on the cave ceiling. But, naturally we took it one step further and opted for the most extreme package that included absailing (repelling) into the cave, a flying fox or zip line in the dark, and jumping backwards into the water and climbing water falls.

To make everything even better, there has been a lot of rain in the last few days and the caves were closed due to high water levels yesterday. Fortunately today they were open for us, and there were only the three of us on the trip! We had two excellent guides, Doug and Brydie, who got us all suited up and took plenty of ridiculous pictures of us (to come when I can get a computer that is fully functional!). We got out to the caves and did some practice absailing on a little hill. I totally fell down on my butt- not really a good sign. Then we had a quick run down of safety lines that could save your life, and off we went!

Caitlin was the first down the hole- and it really was a hole. You start off on a platform probably 10 feet above this narrow little passageway you have to shimmy yourself through, and once you pass through that it is a 30 meter descent. Into the dark. Of course. Tiffany and I followed- Doug was holding the safety line luckily! Even though none of us had done anything like that before, it wasn't nearly as scary or difficult as it seems! Once underground we got to see some fossilized sand dollars and shells- the rock had been the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago and has been pushed upwards through lots of tectonic movement. That was pretty cool, but not as good as the flying fox! Once again we were attached to a line, our helmet lights were switched off, and one at a time we went zipping into the pitch blackness- all you could see were little blue glowworm buts in the "sky"! I could have zipped around for ages- it really was a bit better than the playground a few days ago- but we had hot chocolate and cookies- the strangest tea party ever- then had to jump backwards off a ledge into the dark, freezing water. I was really graceful and fell off my tube straight away, but managed to shimmy back on. Tiffany and Caitlin were a little concerned I was floating towards the sound of a steadily rushing waterfall, but we all managed to get into the water in one piece.

We floated around and pulled ourselves along a rope tied to the side. We checked out some cave formations- stalactites, shawls, cave coral, and then came to a little waterfall that we slid down which was good fun. We all hooked ourselves together in a line- someones feet under your armpits, turned out our headlamps, and Doug paddled us down the river so we could lay back and look at the glowworms above. These crazy insects are in the larval stage. They drop little silky threads to catch little bugs, and create some sort of substance in their butts that glows- so the glowing bits are kind of like their poo. This attracts the insects to their threads where they get tangled, then the worms munch them down. Kind of gross, but it looks really cool from below!

We did some more floating and walking and jumping off things, then came to a tunnel where we had some juice and chocolate and prepared for the next adventure. The water in the caves was pretty high- another 10cm and the trips would have been cancelled- so in some areas we were up to our necks in water, with just enough room for our heads under the rock ceilings. So when we saw the rushing waterfalls, and they told us we were going to climb them, it didn't seem that surprising. But out of all the crazy things we did, this was by far the most insane! To let you know how much water there was, imagine standing under Niagara falls. No, not really, but there was a lot, and we had to climb straight up. Rock climbing is tricky at the best of times, but we were really getting pelted. At one point Doug told Tiffany it would be easier if she had her eyes open, but easier said than done. The water level in the cave was about 48cm, and even the guides can't climb the waterfalls if it is above 50cm. But after a lot of struggling and ungraceful maneuvers, we all emerged...above ground! The hole we came out of was tiny, and there was a proper river running into it, which is what we fought against coming up. Like I said, it was insane, but thankfully less scary at the moment than in hindsight!
Since there were only 3 of us and we were rocking right along, we actually got to do everything the shorter tours do as well. So we walked a little ways, went down another hole into the ground, and boom! Back in the dark. This tour was much more mellow. We jumped backwards off a waterfall with our tubes on our butts. Caitlin went off while Tiffany and I watched. Doug counted "three, two..." and then she just kind of disappeared. Apparently she thought there was a step behind her and went over the edge, surprising all of us as much as herself. But again, no harm no foul. We got to do another glowworm float in the dark which was really just mind blowing. It kind of felt like a Disneyland ride but for real. When we finished we came out into a beautiful forested grotto. All told the trip lasted about 5 hours, and it was really one of the coolest/craziest/best things I've ever done!

Roto-vegas

Monday June 29

Our first night in the seemingly lovely Treks YHA was slightly less than pleasant- the heaters in our building were not on nor could they be turned on, and in the morning the hot water was fickle and went between luke warm and ice cold. So we were not so warm when we set off into the gray drizzle and rotten egg smell Rotorua had to offer. 

We drove about 20km out of town to Waimangu which is the only hydrothermal system in the world whose surface activity can be named to an exact date- 10 June 1886 ("this morning in geological times"). The whole place looked like Jurassic Park and we kept expecting dinosaurs to jump out at us. We saw Frying Pan Lake with steam coming up, and Echo Crater that used to be a geyser and a tourist attraction in the early 1900's before it went extinct. A lot of the area looked like a science project with bubbling water, neon slime, and tons of steam. We did a self guided tour with little blurbs of information for various formations and points of interest and did a nice (steep) hike that gave us views of the valley and Lake Rorotonga(?). The track ended at the lake- which formed when the ground shifted and combined two smaller lakes and destroyed the famous Pink and White Terraces. There were a lot of giant black swans on the lake, and the whole thing was creepy and beautiful.

We warmed up in our car with our toasty heater, and headed out to go Zorbing! Tiffany and I changed into swimsuits (which was harder than it sounds, seeing as it was sooo cold out) but were told to keep our socks on. When we asked the guy why, he replied "some people have really long toe nails". Disgusting. We were driven up a windy dirt track in probably record time. We then were escorted onto a platform where our giant inflatable ball was procured, had some warm water added to the inner bubble, then she and I jumped, Superman style, into it. The guy zipped the little hole shut and said "when I bang on the outside, start running". So he went "bang bang" and like hamsters, we went running and sent the ball spinning down the hill. With the water inside it was like a big slip and slide and we were tumbling all over and shrieking our heads off. It was really good. That evening Caitlin went to a Maori cultural show and presentation. Tiffany and I got fish and chips then went to the Polynesian Spa where we soaked in hot mineral water for a few hours and had a wonderful and relaxing time (it was beautiful but we didn't take any pictures polynesianspa.co.nz). It was also the warmest we'd been in days!