New Zealand (North Island)

After leaving one continent behind us, and a rather comfortable 13-hour flight, we arrived at Auckland Airport in New Zealand (NZ) on the 5th of November. We landed early in the morning and since the immigration phase did not take long at all, we were in the bus towards the city center by sunrise. It was funny to hear English everywhere, also the cars were of course driving on the left-hand side of the road (it took a couple of days to get used to that when crossing the streets!).
Our hostel was just at the end of Queens Street – one of the main streets in Auckland City. After more than 48 hours of traveling and 2 nights in a bus and airplane, we decided to take the day very easy. We only left the hostel for a couple of hours, before getting comfortable in bed behind the laptop, watching movies. The time difference was 16 hours (we skipped a whole day), so both of us noticed the Jetlag quite a bit.
The weather was quite similar to the weather we had in Pucón in Chile – sunny with a cool spring breeze. The city really gave us a feeling of being back in the ‘western world’: skyscrapers, Starbucks, MacDonald’s and fancy clothing stores downtown.
For transportation around the country we had decided to try out our luck with hitchhiking: a cheap way of traveling but above all ideally to meet many awesome kiwis.
The other important aspect was work: We wanted (and needed) to earn some money, and it would also be cool to experience farm life. Already before we came to NZ, we had a contact in Hawkes Bay for some fruit picking. Since the season only started later this year, we would have to wait until the end of November before contacting him again to settle things. So we made up a little plan for the next couple of days and then go with the flow.

After exploring Auckland and Devonport (a small part of the city reached by ferry), we had planned to go to Hamilton. Since we had far family friends living there and we wanted to go south anyway, it was nice to have a stop at Francoise and Ian. We were able to stay at their very lovely house and enjoy delicious food for 3 days. Since Hamilton was not very big, we visited the Hamilton Gardens one day, and the other day we went for a day trip to Reglan.
Reglan is a small town, just to the west of Hamilton and known as a very good spot for surfing. We could have gone by bus, but since the hitch hiking went very smooth so far (it literally only took us 2 minutes to get a ride out of Auckland and one other one to Hamilton), we tried our luck again. The hitchhiking went very smooth and soon we arrived in Reglan. The sun was out that day, but the air temperature at the beach did not really make us want to swim in the ocean yet. Nevertheless, it was very nice to feel the sand between the toes, walking along the kilometer-long beach. For the way back home we only needed one ride to the center of Hamilton.
While we were staying in Hamilton, we also got lucky with some more work. Ian knew a friend near Waitomo (south of Hamilton), who runs a cattle farm, and could need some help for a couple of weeks. We thought: perfect, exactly what we wanted to experience. After a phone call and a quick explanations of our plans, we were more than welcome there in a couple of days.
To fill up our last days before work would start, we hitch hiked to Rotorua, a nice little town in the heart of the North Island. Getting out of town was quite an effort (more than 1h hour walking with our big bags was required), but the ride we got in the end was cool – a kiwi who was on the way to work, who bought us a pie, drinks and even an ice-cream for the road. After an 1,5 hour drive, he dropped us right at the hostel. Rotorua is known for all kinds of outdoor activities and the Volcanic Valley. We decided to go for a day trip to the Volcanic Valley – a large area created by eruptions of Mount Tarawera in 1886. The landscape was beautiful and we were happy that we saw that part of the region.

Then it was time do get serious again and hard work was waiting for us. We left Rotorua early in the morning to make sure to have enough time to get to Waitomo. Technically, it is only a 2-3 hour drive, but with the hitch hiking it took us 5-6 hours including 5 different rides: what an adventure! We even had a ride in a big truck, very cool!
When arriving at the Juno Hall Backpackers in Waitomo, we were told that Alan (the man how owns the farm as well as that hostel) could pick us up the next morning. That night we slept in our new tent & sleeping bags, and after a rather cold and therefore sleepless night, we left to the farm. It was an hour drive northeast before we got to his property in den Waikato region.

We were welcomed by many dogs including 6 little puppies, and we could notice right away that Alan owned an immense property: 1800 hectare with cows, sheep and horses. The surroundings were very green and we had a beautiful view all around. Graeme, Alans’ brother, lives and works on the farm since a couple of years, whereas Alan drives out here every morning from Waitomo. Therefore we would be working with both of them.

We had a room to ourselves and could use all facilities in the house. In the beginning we were planning to stay for about 1-2 weeks and see how it would go. Unfortunately, the first couple of days the weather was very bad and not much work could be done. Then after, we were enjoying this farm life so much, that we decided to change our entire plan: We would skip on the fruit picking and stay here for 5 weeks in total. Also, we planned our trip to the south island for after Sydney. This gave us a bit more time for everything, and then Karen (Sven’s mom) would be joining us to the south island.

Now we were a bit more relaxed and had more time with the joy of the farm. Although it was very hard work from time to time, we had a blast most of the time. Our work included moving cattle and sheep, fence building (battening), taking care of the dogs and puppies, docking of lambs (giving vaccination, cutting the tails and marking their ears), driving the tractor and bulldozer and mostly heaps of wood chopping. In our free time we did some horse riding, experimenting with a little dirt-bike and we could even go hunting with Alan. Since the farm is right beside the forest it was ideal for deer and wild-pig hunting. And both times we got very lucky and therefore could enjoy delicious venison and pork meet! The afternoon/evenings were often filled by lazy couch-and-tv sessions.

Since Waitomo is known for the glowworm caves, rafting and cannoning, Alan organized us a trip in one of the best caves. The trip took 7 hours and included all gear and two good meals, a 100m rappel, diving through wholes under water, climbing up little water falls and of course looking at thousands of glowworms in the dark. That trip was absolutely fantastic. Technically that trip would have cost us NZ$400 each, but since Alan knew the people at the shop, he had a deal and we just had to fill up a couple of trailers with fire wood – an awesome deal for us : )!

Those 5 weeks just flew by, and after a helicopter ride on our last day, we had to pack our bags again.
It was a really great experience for both of us, and we don’t think there are many things left that we haven’t done in our time up there!

Alan also owns a beach house up at the Coromandel Peninsula (at Opito Bay) and we would be more than welcome up there for a couple of days the next week to do some fishing and scuba diving (and maybe even spend Christmas there). We thought – just perfect, exactly what we were looking for! But first we would hitch hike to the Tongariro National Park to do some trekking again.

Tongariro National Park is a volcanic area with Mt Ngauruhoe as center point. This Volcano is the “Mount Doom” in Lord of the Rings, where Frodo needs to drop the ring. It was a beautiful scenic hike with colorful mineral lakes and a stunning 360° view.

The next morning we started a new hitchhike adventure towards Coromandel. However, about halve-way, around Tauranga, we got a ride of two very nice yoga- and acupuncture kiwis who offered us to stay at their place at Mt Maunganui, a very lovely beach area. We enjoyed their hospitality but early in the morning we continued further to Opito Bay.

When we arrived in Opito Bay, we right away went out with the boat to get some fish and scallops. We saw many seabirds and even a few penguins! We caught two fish and about 120 scallops, of which Sven and the others were eating a bunch already raw in the boat. Alan had to leave the same day again, but we could spend the next couple of days, including Christmas, at their place.
Besides some rain on Christmas day, we had perfect weather to finally enjoy the sun and the ocean again: playing beach ball, reading books and doing some workouts on the beach. A unique summery Christmas.
Our last night we spent in Auckland before we left to Sydney, Australia. However, we would be back in NZ very soon!