Mini Update

My research in New Zealand resulted in two talks at UNH, a poster that I presented at the Undergraduate Research Conference at UNH and at the Council for Undergraduate Research in Washington D.C., as well as an Undergraduate Thesis =)

Leaving New Zealand

My flight to LAX leaves today! Wow, it seems like time flew by and I feel like I just boarded my plane to New Zealand yesterday!

My bags were all pretty much packed (from last night).
I ate breakfast with Camilla (who had to go to class at 8am) and then I checked my email and called my mom ( "see you soon :)" )

I also met up with my roommates before I left, and said "bye" to some other friends at The Railway Campus.

Luckily, I could leave my bags at the reception, so I was free to stroll downtown Auckland and find some lunch.

I walked down to the waterfront one last time, and got a burrito at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. I actually just picked the place because they had chairs outside on a deck overlooking the harbour. But as soon as I made a move to take a first bite out of my burrito, something small collided with my hands. As it turns out, little birds also fancy Mexican food, and quite a few of them were brave enough to try to pick my food off the plate.
I finished my meal inside (still a nice view through the window).

Afterwards, I wandered around some more and then returned to The Railway Campus for my bags.

I planned to take the Airbus to the airport again (I took it before, when I went to Christchurch, and it worked out well).
The Airbus just recently changed its route, and there is now a stop that is even closer to The Railway Campus. Somehow, over night, my bags became about 20 lbs heavier... so I was quite glad about the new stop ;)

We arrived at the airport about 45 minutes later. I checked in my bags immediately because I really didn't feel like carrying them.
Since I got to the check-in early (yeah, about 3.5 hrs early!) I was able to change my seating arrangement - my old seat was at the very back of the plane.
Also, with some clever rearranging and repacking, I managed to stay just below the limit of 40 kg (for checked-in luggage) and 7 kg (carry-on).

Relieved of my bags, I had to make one final mandatory stop to pay the "Departure Fee."
As it turns out, everyone leaving New Zealand needs to pay a 25 NZD fee. I'm not quite sure where the money goes (hopefully to some good cause, but I doubt it...).
My friends had warned me about the fee, so I had saved some cash earlier this morning. Instead of a paper receipt, I got a nice little sticker on my boarding pass.

Since I had gotten to the airport rather early, I had a lot of extra time to kill. I strolled through the shops, bought some "last" New Zealand chocolate with left-over coins and played with my laptop :)

At 6:30, I went to the gate, and we got to board the plane around 7pm.
This time, I sat in the middle row in the plane, but the seat next to me was empty :)

As this was an overnight flight, the flight attendants pretty much served dinner and then shut off the lights - "bedtime, everyone" *lol*

To my utter disappointment, they did not show the new Simpson's movie. Instead, I watched "Blades of Glory" (what a silly movie, but funny, too) and "Becoming Jane" (almost boring).
I also slept a little, but not as much as on the flight to NZ - not enough space to stretch out this time :)

The lights magically turned on again, we got breakfast, and before we knew it, we could see L.A. underneath us! As it turned out, the flight was only 12 hours long (when I flew the other way, it took us 14 hours - probably because of the winds).

We got to L.A. on time, but they didn't have a gate ready for us! So we hung out on the runway a little longer (only about 20 minutes, but you could tell that everyone was anxious to get off the plane now).
Getting through the passport controls was quick (*yay* for the green card) and literally 10 minutes later, I was waiting at the baggage claim area.

However, there was no baggage to be claimed...! Apparently, the crew had problems unloading the containers from the plane. About 20 minutes later, some bags slowly came trickling in. However, half of the baggage carousel wasn't working! So they divided the bags between two baggage carousels...

I got so far already today that I didn't care about things like that anymore :) However, I realized how very useful an embarrassing bag can be (did I mention that I bought a bigger bag a few days ago? Well, the right-size bag came in the wrong color... bright pink... think "Barbie's Dream House" here *haha*).

Anyways - it was very easy to pick out my baggage because of the pink bag :)

One final security-officer-squinting-at-my-passport later, and I was out the door and smack in the middle of California temperatures and L.A. smog!

I took the FlyAway bus to the Union Station. By now, I had missed my train (too many delays at the airport) so I booked a new ticket for the later train.

The train ride took about three hours, and I got to San Diego at 7pm.
My journey took about 21 hours.
Now I'm exhausted... I want a shower.

Taking a walk to Opua

Our last day in Paihia! We need to catch the bus back to Auckland at 4 pm.

We needed to check out at 10am, so we ate breakfast and packed up our bags. Fortunately, we could leave our luggage at the reception of the hostel, so we were free to go wherever today!

We decided to follow the recommendations of our guide books, and go for a walk from Paihia to Opua, a little village further South. The walkway follows the coast line, and it takes about 2 hours one way.

Due to the floods and storms a few weeks ago, the trails were still very muddy (you should have seen my pants!!), but we did make it to Opua in one piece :)

However, when we got to Opua, we realized that there was no way back to Paihia (other than walking, of course).
By that time we were sick of muddy trails, so we contemplated walking back on the road.
Fortunately, we met a nice woman in a little store that offered to give us a ride back. She lives in Paihia, but works in the store every day during the week in Opua.

Back in Paihia, we got lunch and coffee, walked around the waterfront some more, and grabbed an ice cream cone.
Then it was time to get back to the Saltwater Lodge to pick up our luggage.
We left Paihia at 4:30, with a full bus and got back to Auckland at 8pm.

Long beaches and Cape Reinga

I got up before 6 this morning, because we had booked a bus tour to Cape Reinga. The bus was supposed to pick us up at 7:10.

Along with many other tourists from the hostels down the street, we lined up at the street at 7 to wait for the bus.
In the end, a total of four busses showed up. We found "our" bus and were on our way to a Kauri forest.

The Waipoua Kauri forest was very impressive. The leaves were still wet (it's a rain forest, after all) and the bounty of different green colors looked beautiful.

We continued our drive up North and stopped in Awanui for coffee. We also got some sandwiches (for lunch later on).

From Awanui, we drove up to the "Ninety Mile Beach."
In reality, the beach is only 64 miles long (some sources say 55 miles, I guess it depends where you start measuring). As the story goes, the settlers back in the 1800s thought their cattle caravans and horses could cover 30 miles a day. They needed three days to walk down the beach, so someone came up with the estimate that the beach was 90 miles long.
According to our guide, the name was never changed to "Sixty-four Mile Beach" because Australia apparently has an "Eighty Mile Beach" (which in reality is only 72 miles long - but that's still longer than 64 miles...). No Kiwi would ever admit defeat to the Australians... *lol*

The "Ninety Mile Beach," by the way, is registered as an official street. The speed limit is 100 kmh (about 65 mph). Driving along it is pretty safe, as long as you stay out of the water (driving through the water with passengers is actually illegal, as our guide explained) and be careful about dry quicksand (we did see the remains of car that got stuck in the sand last easter... the driver could rescue himself but the vehicle is still stuck in the sand, barely visible by now).

Next up, we stopped at a cliff jutting out into the sea. Half of the cliff is sacred Maori ground (tourists aren't allowed there) but we climbed up on the other side and got to watch the raging sea (it was really windy out there!)

A herd of wild horses lives in the sand dunes and surrounding forest. Sometimes, they apparently come out of hiding, but we couldn't find them. There were strong winds going, so I assume they stayed sheltered in the forests.

We did take a drive through the sand dunes, and this is when we truly experienced the potential of our bus :)
Among the four busses this morning, our bus was the smallest. We were a group of only 18 people and our bus wasn't one of the conventional tourist busses - it was a converted military vehicle, all set with 4-wheel drive, a strong engine, and massive tires!

Cruising through the dunes, we stopped at a rather large one - perfect for sand boarding!
My friend and a group of about ten people took off their shoes and socks, and got ready to climb the dune with a boogey board. Once on top of the dune, any style of surfing down is acceptable :)
I didn't go (not really my cup of tea) but Camilla had a lot of fun, and I got to take the pictures to prove it ;)

After the sand boarding, we took off for Cape Reinga, the northern most point on the North Island, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea.

Today, an automated light house stands on the Cape. We went down to look at it (quickly, because the wind picked up again!) and enjoyed the great views.

According to Maori legends, the spirits of the dead people leave Aoteaora (Maori word for New Zealand) at Cape Reinga and travel on to the mythical country of Hawaiki. The spot on Cape Reinga where the souls leave the country is also sacred Maori ground. Tourists are not allowed, and our guide asked us to stay off the forbidden hill. Of course, at some point, someone was standing up there taking touristy pictures (he might have been from a different tour - there were quite a few tourists around).

We settled down in the bus to eat our lunch, when the weather turned stormy in seconds!
All of the sudden, rain storms were pounding the busses, coming in at horizontal angles, whipping around the cars.
The busses (still sandy from driving down the beach) got a good washing, and the spook was over in 20 to 30 minutes.

We turned around and drove back towards Paihia. On our way, we stopped at the "Kauri Kingdom," a cafe and store selling mostly wooden objects carved from ancient Kauri trees.
Nowadays, it is illegal to cut down Kauri trees. However, people found ancient Kauri trees preserved in swamps. Some of them are more than 45,000 years old! Today, people dig up the giant tree stumps and turn them into (expensive) furniture and household items.

We also stopped in Mangonui, a little town on the coast, for some Fish 'n Chips. Apparently, they have the best fish 'n chips in this area because the fish is so fresh (caught around three hours earlier).
I'm not a huge fish 'n chips fan, so I hoped for some other kind of fish, but they really didn't have anything else. The fish of the day was bluenose, and it really did taste deliciously fresh!

For dessert, we stopped at a farmer's fruit store. Stewie, the owner, gave us free samples of fresh organic fruit, like mandarins, oranges, and kiwi fruit.
I bought a small bag of golden kiwi fruit (four for a dollar). Sounds like a nice addition to breakfast tomorrow :)

We got back around 6pm after an eventful day. Now I'm a little tired ;)

Exploring Russell and Waitangi

We hadn't made any concrete plans for today, but after a healthy müsli breakfast (oh, so good!), we set off to the ferry wharf.
We decided to take a look at Russell, the nation's very first capital (back in 1840).

The ferry to Russell took only about 10 minutes.
Russell itself is a very quaint little town, with not much going on in winter *haha*

We walked up a little hill to look at a famous "flagstaff." In 1845, during the "Flagstaff Wars," Hone Heke, a Maori warrior, repeatedly felled down the flagstaff flying the British flag, challenging the British rule in the area.

Down in the town, we looked at some small shops full of useless little knick-knacks. We decided to skip the museum (probably not much different than the one in Auckland) but we did stop by the Department of Conservation house.
The Department of Conservation set up a small museum in Russell, with information about the wild life in the area, as well as some information about the geological aspects of the Bay of Islands (different kinds of rocks on the islands, major volcanic erruptions that shaped the area, etc).
They kept the information short, relevant, and to the point - very nice if you don't have a day to spend at a museum!

We stopped for lunch in a small cafe (the only one that was open around this time of the year). The food was pretty good. We ended up staying a little longer, because half way through dessert, the heavens opened once again. This was the first major rain shower of the day, though, so we just sat it out in front of cups of hot coffee and tea :)

That was pretty much all that was going on in Russell, so we took the ferry back to Paihia and walked North, on the beach, towards Waitangi.

Waitangi is the place where the British and the Maori signed the "Treaty of Waitangi" in 1840. This treaty was supposed to give the Maori the rights of British citizens. However, the English and the Maori language versions of the treaty differed slightly, leading to a long debate (still being discussed today) about the rights given to each group.

We decided not to go into the museum after all (I can only take so many museums in one day... *haha*).
Unfortunately, the walk to the Haruru water falls was closed (curtesy of the storms from a few weeks ago), so we looked around the golf course instead :)

By now, it began to get darker. We walked back to Paihia, played some cards at the hostel (not much of a night life here in the winter) and got a late dinner at the beachhouse.

Setting off for Paihia

I woke up early today to meet up with my friend Camilla. We had booked a bus tour (StrayTravel) and we needed to be at the pick-up location at 7:30am.

The bus showed up a little later, at 7:45 (I had already begun to panic and called the office twice, because I wasn't sure if we had missed it - I knew the bus was on a tight schedule).

We picked up two more people (two students from Canada) at a backpackers hostel and then we got on our way North.

We made a first stop at a giant Kauri tree. Kauri trees are on the verge of going extinct, so it is forbidden to chop them down nowadays. However, the Maori and also the white settlers back in the day cut them down merrily, building everything out of them, from Maori war canoes, to houses and furniture.

This particular Kauri tree is said to be the son of Tane, the great god of the forest. According to Maori legends, Tane helped separate the Earth and the Sky, shaping the world as we know it today (read about it here).
Also, hugging the 800 year old Kauri tree apparently brings good luck.





After a quick drive, we stopped in Warkworth to get coffee. Then we continued our drive North to stop and take a look at Goat Island.
Goat Island is one of many islands along the coast that have no natural fresh water source. Back in the days, the settlers would leave goats on the islands (they seemed tough enough to survive on these barren islands) for sailors that needed supplies of fresh meat.
Ironically, goat island never housed goats. Instead, the settlers left pigs on the island. Oftentimes, however, the pigs simply jumped into the water and swam back to the main lands when they got thirsty... ;)
Behind Goat Island, there is also a group of smaller islands that looks like a crocodile lying in the water. These are the Chicken Islands (I believe they had actual chicken on these islands).

While our driver settled down with the day's news paper, us four tourists climbed down a cliff to the beach. We climbed around some volcanic rocks and watched snappers and blue maomao fish come close to the surface of the water! The whole area is a Marine Reserve so fishing is not allowed and the fish can safely be curious :)
In the summer, many people come to go diving in the area.

By now, the landscape we drove through had become quite rural. The houses disappeared and were replaced by cows and sheep. Around this time of the year, all the little baby cows and sheep are born, and I saw many of them trying their first steps next to their moms in the grass :)
Also, the roads got worse as we continued up North. Even though we were still driving on "State Highway 1," don't let the name fool you... In many areas, "State Highway 1" is merely a gravel road complete with pot holes - and our driver did his best to speed up, down, and around the mountains at a constant speed of 80 kmh... When I started to feel queasy in the stomach, I simply went to sleep :)

Next, we stopped in Whangirai and got lunch at a small cafe. Here, the two Canadians left us (they had registered for a five-day diving course in Whangirai).

We made another stop in Kawakawa where we looked at the (possibly) most popular public bathrooms in the world ;)
This public bathroom, as well as some store fronts in Kawakawa were designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The famous Austrian designer had moved to Kawakawa and was buried there after his death in 2000.
Hundertwasser also designed the "Koru flag," which some New Zealanders would like to see adopted as the official flag. The current flag reminds them too much of the British Empire and British colonialism.

At around 2:30 that afternoon, we reached Paihia, a small village on the coast about half-way between Auckland and the northern most tip of the island.
We booked into the "Saltwater Lodge" backpackers hostel (a 5-star backpacker's place!). Since it isn't high tourist season yet, Camilla and I got a four-person bedroom to ourselves. We also had our private bathroom, and there was a communal kitchen (fully stocked with dishes, silverware, and appliances) and living room area (with couches, tables, a big TV, and a large collection of movies).

We left our bags at the hostel and went about exploring Paihia.
A one-minute walk brought us to the beach. We took a look at the ferry wharf, and ventured up into the rainforest surrounding the small bay.
An easy one-hour hike took us up to a look-out with a beautiful view over the bay. However, as soon as we got up there, it started to rain... :)

For dinner, we stopped at a little restaurant called "beach house" next to our hostel. They had amazing homemade burgers!

Packing

I started packing up my stuff today.
Tomorrow, I'm leaving on a short trip to the Bay of Islands (further North on the North Island). I am going with a friend from The Railway Campus.
The weather has been a little rainy lately (what else is new *haha*) but I hope it'll be a little nicer up there!

For now, I'll leave my big suitcase with my roommates. My flight back to the states is on August 9th :)