After 12 hours of flying Bethany and I were excited to be in our first destination: Paihia, NZ.. just to relax on the beach and read the guidebooks, unwind and decide what we wanted to do. Neither of us had a a plan or wanted a plan for our extended trip. Bethany has 6 weeks to travel New Zealand and anywhere we end up in the South Pacific before she returns home to spend Christmans with her family in Danville, CA.

Bethany wanted to stay at a hostel chain known as Base, Pipi Patch. She has stayed at this Hostel in Queenstown about 3 years ago and had an amazing time.

Pipi Patch

Just as I had envisioned , I took a long nap on the Paihia Beach on the first day. The second day we rented bikes. We had an amazing ride to a horseshoe shaped waterfall, Haruru and rode around the grounds of the Treaty of Waitangi. This is where the Maori and the New Zealanders decided to share the Island a long time ago.

The next day, again, without plans we ended up boarding a The Rock Tour by the recommendation of our bunk mate Laura Gill, a young british woman traveling alone since her split with her boyfirend. The Rock is an oversized houseboat that houses 28 travelers and a staff of about 5. The bunk rooms were no more than 6 cots (3 bunks) and a small place 3x3 ft area to stand. Bethany and I shared our small room with a family from Uraguay; a mother, daughter, about 23 and a son, 28. The daughter had been there for quite some time on a working/holiday visa. The mother and son had come out for 3 weeks to vist and tour NZ. The majority of passangers were on working/holidy visa; a yourg girl from Germany, Barbara from Argentina, with a remarkable American Accent due to a prior profession as an MSN technical support at a call in center, and several traveling couples from aroung the world.

That night we night kayaked off of the The Rock to an island and watched the shooting stars. Bethany made fast friends with a number of the crew and as usual was the life of the eveining... well she would have been if it wasn't for the sloshed girls from I'm not sure where.

The next day were were pleasantly greeted by playful dolphins trailed by dolphin tour boats. I got one good shot. I'm still learning all of the settings on my camera.

The Rock docked at a beautiful beach on the other side of a town called Russell. To us it felt as if we were on the edge of the Pacific.

There we kayaked, hiked to the top of a scenic view, played a game of beach cricket and lunched.

After the Rock, we entered the Harbor and returned to the Pipi Patch where our belongings were stored in a locker waiting for our return.

There were stayed two more nights. Those days included a Rock reunion at our Pipi Patch bar, an amazing filo chicken curry wrap at a cafe overlooking the Bay of Islands and a lounging day at Base skyping and relaxing.

This little town, population 2,700, is home to surfers and laid back Kiwis seeking the quiet life. This town is home to 3 famous surf beaches including Whale Bay, Ng.... (I have know idea how to pronounce or spell) and M.... (same).:) These 3 spots are featured in all of the hottest New Zealand surf films.

The first day we arrived, we window shopped and rested in the most zen hostel I have ever seen.

That evening we bought plastic cups, wine, the NZ equivlent of Rondelle, and crackers and headed over the foot bridge and onto the bay for a 40 minute walk to the famous Ng.... beach to dine and watch the sunset.

That night we learned more about our friend Laura and her past as a bank bond trader in London and exchanged stories of the corporate lives we left behind.

That night we walked back along the beach, plastic cups in hand. Bethany and I practiced our proper English accents and pushed Laura our of her Comfort zone to speak like a Californian.

The next day we lounged, kayaked around the bay and were careful not to go under the footbridge per the instruction of our Hostel Manager, Josh. We took the bikes, the mountian way, to the beach and back, sweat in the sauna and soaked in the spa. Another Great Day in NZ.

written by  Carissa on November 16, 2010 from Raglan, New Zealand
from the travel blog: World Tour Nov. 2010- ?
tagged Sunset and Raglan
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Bethany, Laura and I piled back into the car for the next adventure in the caves. Laura booked a trip with 5 different abseils into a cave abseiling though waterfalls. Bethany and I booked a 5 hour tour with a variety of activities including an abseil.

The tour guide was a 24 year old Kiwi living in Hamilton. He had been guiding caves for the last month prior to working in restaurants in Australia. When we arrived at the changing area, we were instructed to put on thick long wetsuits, with leggings over the top, a wetsuit jacket and large white rubber boots, complete with a hard hat and waterproof light.

First we abseiled on a harness and ropes 27 meters into the cave. We landed in a river of freezing cave water. We entered one arm of the cave holding onto innertubes. The cave was completely dark. Even with our headlamps we could only see about a 3 feet in front of us. We started in ankle deep water that quickly turned thigh high, we were all of a sudden up to our armpits in cave water. The next part we followed our guide through the smallest cave opening. At first glance, it would appear that our hard hats wouldn't even fit through it. Apparently the appropriate way to cave is to go arms first, head, body, then push with your feet and pull with your arms. I'm not kidding when I say that me to this opening was like a worm to a worm hole. They were that tight.

On the other side of the worm hole, the cave opened up into a giant catherdral room. Glowworms in the ceiling lite up the entire cave like the Milky Way. We could see the other cavers silhouettes without our headlamps. It was incredible!

The rest of the caving experience included floating in tubes, jumping from ledges and more worm holes. On one particularily tight squeeze, my leggings and rubber boots came off.

At the end of our 5 hour tour we scaled back up the wall that we abseiled at the start and piled back nto the van or a hot shower and tomato soup back at the cave shop.

Pictures soon to come. :)

written by  Carissa on November 18, 2010 from Waitomo Caves, New Zealand
from the travel blog: World Tour Nov. 2010- ?
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