Surfin' USA!

Raglan is a small beachside community of about 3000 people, 48km west of Hamilton. It is world renowned for its surf beaches - in fact, Bruce Brown's classic 1964 film The Endless Summer about surfies roaming the world in search of the perfect wave features footage shot at Manu Bay, just west of Raglan. My plan was to visit this place, stay the night, watch some surfing and just generally hang out on the beach before taking off further north... As we all know, my plans are always changing and I actually ended up staying a week and a half! And what a fantastically relaxed week and a half!
I met up with Suze, her two new mates, sisters Lucy and Amy, and the rest of the Raglan crew that were soon to become my adoptive family. Pretty much straight away, we all cruised down to watch some surfing on the stunning and expansive black-sand Ngarunui beach. This is generally where all the beginners come to hone and show off their skills.
In the morning everyone, except for myself, went surfing. In fact it was a few of these guys' first time, but they all seemed to have heaps of fun and did really well - including standing up on their boards - I got a little envious.. So I decided, a little reluctantly, that Thursday was going to be my turn! I donned the wetsuit, picked a board and headed for the beach in the hostel car. Heading out into the waves, I didn't feel all that uncomfortable because I knew I'd only be staying in the shallows. I found a wave, caught it, and I stood up... First time of many! Gee, it's such good fun this surfing business.. Don't know why I didn't get into it before?!
Over the next few days I chilled in the hammocks at the wonderful Raglan Backpackers, taught myself to juggle 4 balls, searched for satellites and shooting stars almost every night, played a spot of tennis against Amy and Lucy, golf with the Raglan clan, kayaking once with Chris and Maike for cockles down the Opotoru river, and then a second time with Ames and Lucy a little further up where we spotted what I assume were trout jumping out of the water near our kayaks, trekked (or slipped, slid, rockclimbed and clambered if you will) to the top of extinct volcano Mt Karioi with Pam, found out my gearbox was stuffed and then got it fixed for $30 (awesome!), played a marathon session of twister, and attended a dress-up party in the nighttime for which we all decided to make masquerade-style masks.... Breathe in....
After getting in my last bit of surfing and being buried in the sand to keep the sandflies away (I think I got bitten no less than 50 times during my Raglan stint - I kid you not!) on Tuesday, we all took to the beach near the mouth of Raglan harbour for a bonfire - and of course toasting marshmallows - which lasted well into the night. What a brilliant way to end my time there!
Wednesday (25/4) was, as everyone knows, ANZAC Day and they held a touching, if a little unorganised, ceremony in the main street with bagpipes and even the resident donkey to represent the donkey "Murphy" used by Australian Private John Simpson in Gallipoli to carry more than 300 wounded men to safety over a period of 24 days before Simpson was killed by Turkish fire.
After the ceremony, I said goodbye to all who I had met, got in my car and headed north towards Auckland to meet up with a friend of mine...

Photos:
1. Me and "SurfBetty"
2. Rippin' it up on the world's smallest wave!
3. I think I've found my twin! Me and Lucy
4. At the masquerade party, from left: Lucy, Pam, Maike, Amy and Patrick.. That's an attractive fellow in the background!
5. Ngarunui beach
6. Beach bums: The Raglan clan
7. Negotiating the climb down a rock face on Mt. Karioi
8. Beach bums II: The Raglan clan revisited
9. When I asked for insect repellant this is not what I had in mind!
10. Bonfire on the beach.. Mmm, toasty..
11. Me, just before getting arrested for trespassing

The Road Trip

So myself and the Frenchies left Hamilton around lunchtime, stopping to check out a 7m waterfall over which they had gone earlier that week whilst white-water rafting - don't think I'm that keen... By the end of the day we had ended up a couple of hours northwest in Tauranga (adjacent to Mt. Maunganui where I spent NYE). We played a few games of pool (Kiwi rules - only a one-shot penalty when the white or opponent's ball is potted) and the guys tried to teach me some French: cela fait mille fois je te le répète!
On our way out in the morning, we thought we'd take a casual stroll up Mt. Maunganui, which boasts lovely views over the picturesque shoreline and nearby islands and the not-as-picturesque township. After some fish and chips on the beach, we headed further north to the quiet historical town of Thames in the Coromandel peninsula, detouring briefly to Opoutere for another sandy stint on the wide and serene (apart from the occasional motorbike) beach there. The Sunkist backpackers where we stayed in Thames was actually very nice, but I've never seen such high bunk beds in my life - and with no safety rails!!! Good old OH&S (or OSH over here) in action.
Saturday morning, we shot off early to get back to Hamilton for the boys' rugby match. The hot-air balloon festival was postponed that night due to bad weather, so after the guys left I took to the streets instead. It was this night I came across an interesting statue of a man in drag.. Turns out that the idea for the cult-classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show was born in the mind of its writer, Hamilton local Richard O'Brien, right there at the now-demolished Embassy theatre in the centre of town in the early 1970s. The random things we discover whilst wandering aimlessly!
I awoke at about 0630hr to the sound of the roaring burners of hot-air balloons flying overhead, obviously having a bit of fun before the big event that night. I had to wait around for that big event so I filled my Sunday with walking around the Hamilton Gardens - very nice - and visiting the Māori Queen's official residence, Tūrongo House at Tūrangawaewae marae in Ngāruawāhia: By the 1850s, the Māori people were feeling quite intimidated by the increased colonisation of their country by the British following the Treaty of Waitangi, and so around this time many tribal chiefs started what is known today at the Māori King Movement whereby they elect a particular chief into a symbolic role similar in status to the British monarch.
The balloon festival was quite cool, about 12 huge colourful balloons lit up in a field within the Waikato University.. including a big red inflatable dog! I thought they were going to go for a night flight, but I was sadly disappointed. The fireworks later on were pretty speccy too.
And then on to my next stop...

Photos:
1. Supermen at the base of the Mount
2. How's my hair? Julien on top of Mt. Maunganui
3. A giant bunny? Where's Donny?
4. Moi at the beach in Opoutere
5. A little high for my liking!
6. Julien (left) and JC posing as my rather inconspicuous bodyguards..
7. Oooooh! Ahhhhh!
8. It's just a jump to the left...

On the road again

Well I'm on the move again.. And how refreshing that is!!! I do miss Wellington - especially the wonderful people I've met there - but the thrill of experiencing new places, new faces, new pubs certainly acts to counteract that in some sense.. At the moment I am sitting in an internet café on Victoria Street, the main street of Hamilton, about 1½ hours south of Auckland.
Tuesday of last week, whilst still in Welly, I visited the political hub of the country - the Beehive, and parliament buildings. I guess you'll see from the photo why it's called the Beehive. After a bit of a tour through the buildings, I also sat in on question time which was quite interesting. For a while there I thought I was back in the playground with people calling each other names, yelling, laughing, talking over each other, even reading the newspaper whilst parliament was in session. I also bumped into a (very politically-minded) homeless man by the name of Ben, who (or whom... take a look at the Usage Note and tell me if you can figure it out?) I met when I first arrived in Welly. He was listening very carefully to the topics of discussion and attempted to explain to me that he sensed a shift in power and focus on the topic of equal opportunity for fathers within family structures - even though there wasn't anything remotely like that touched on during this session.. I wish him luck though in what he is trying to accomplish with his activistic pursuits against parliament and the church.
After taking many photos and saying ciao to everyone etc., I left early Thursday afternoon in the direction of Taupo. On the way, I stopped at the Tararua Wind Farm (reputedly the largest in the Southern Hemisphere).. Huge, huge!! Then onto the big lake itself. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in New Zealand with a surface area of 616 sq.km and perimeter of just over 190km. It is actually a caldera - a crater formed by a massive volcanic eruption 26,500 years ago, the most recent eruption being 181 AD. Pretty scary stuff to realise this huge thing is still active!!!
The township of Taupo is a beautifully located centre on the north-eastern shore overlooking the magnificent lake with the still-active volcanoes Mounts Ruapehu (which you may have seen the news a little while ago with the recent lahar), Tongariro and Ngauruhoe in the distance on the southern side as a backdrop. By the time I had arrived, it was quite late so I did nothing the first night, just chilled out at the hostel. The next day, however, myself and Vicky - a gal from England (where else?) - visited a place called Craters of the Moon. Thermal activity in the area has caused the collapse of large areas of land creating a cratered effect over the landscape, and coupling that with the constant flow of steam seeping (and sometimes bellowing) from the ground it is a very eerie, almost alien, place to stand. Following that, I checked out the Huka Falls - another waterfall (although admittedly quite stunning) - and then trekked to the top of Mount Tauhara for some spectacular views over the lake and surrounding areas, always with the volcanoes in the background. It's a shame a camera can't capture the sensation along with an image.
The next day I didn't really get upto much apart from drinking with some American girls, Karin and Amanda(rin) - word association, it helps (I'm still quite bad with names) - and somehow ending up on the swings in a playground with them for a few hours on Saturday night. Easter came and I awoke to the smell of hot cross buns in the kitchen for everyone, how lovely! After the girls left to do a skydive, I cruised down to the Volcanic Activity Centre to brush up on my geothermal knowledge and then ended up out again that night with Suze, her friend Damian and Mel (from Welly).
Monday. Next stop. Rotorua. The eggy capital of NZ. There is so much geothermal activity going on around this large town that the smell of hydrogen sulphide is always lingering around every corner, hence its alias "Sulphur City". Despite this stigma, Rotorua happens to be the most popular place to visit in the North Island, and so is inevitably the most commercialised. The city itself is actually quite nice once you have accustomed yourself to the smell. The North Island is without a doubt more Māori-oriented than the South with most of the tribes inhabiting the warmer areas of the country, and Rotorua seems to be a hub for Māori cultural events and sights such as traditional carvings, dances, etc.
Just before I arrived in Rotorua, I took a slight detour to a little place they like to call Hobbiton (or its real name, Matamata). Here, I met up with Karin and Amanda again and we departed on a bus to a huge property owned by a local farmer about 20km from the centre of town. Rolling green pastures, lots of sheep.. And little hobbit holes! Yes, this was the field where they shot the Hobbiton village scenes used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.. It was a bit of fun, we got to climb into Bilbo Baggins's house and took a few photos. Some of the stuff they did for this movie was amazing: for instance, cutting down a neighbouring farmer's huge oak tree, cutting it into small chunks, transporting it using an army truck to the movie set, reassembling it on set by bolting it back together and then after all of that, sticking on tens of thousands of individual leaves that were imported specially from Taiwan to match the type of tree as described in JRR Tolkien's books. Amazing! Why not just do it by computer???
Tuesday morning, I met up again with Vicky and we went to a place called Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (very commercialised, yes) where we were able to watch a geyser erupt (helped along slightly by a soap-like substance as a catalyst to make sure it erupts at the right time, but still very natural in the way it actually does its thing), check out some more craters and other very interesting geothermal sights. Then onto more adrenalin-fuelled fun with Zorbing. This is a kiwi invention, basically just a big ball rolling down a hill.. With you inside! I decided to do the 'wet' zorb where they throw in some water for good measure - it's quite hard (make that impossible) to stand up after you've taken a few steps to get the thing rolling. Essentially just a big washing machine! Awesome fun, but quite short.. It's only 150m downhill. I did, however, score a free 'Zorbonaut' t-shirt and pair of board shorts to indicate my newly acquired qualification.. Yay me!! It is here that I met 2 French dudes by the names of Julien and Jean-Charles.
I finished off the day with a traditional Māori show and hangi. A very entertaining and informative night about how the Māori people used to live (and still do in some places) before European settlement. The hangi - a traditional way of cooking food, similar to that used during a luau in Hawaii, where they heat volcanic rocks until they are white-hot then bury them with the food in the ground for a few hours - was delicious, and the dances (including the haka and poi demonstations) and music performed throughout the night were fantastic! A thoroughly enjoyable, and tiring day!
Yesterday I walked around town looking at some more thermal sights including a steaming lake near the city centre, then drove with Julien and JC up this way to Hamilton. We managed to find a motel room for really a cheap price because the owners told us there was no power. Once they left, all we had to do was switch on the mains power inside and voila, there was light! Today, we start a two-day road trip around this area, maybe through the Coromandel and then back here to Hamilton on Saturday for a rugby match the boys are going to and a hot-air balloon festival in the night time.

Anyways, this internet costs quite a bit so I'd better finish off and get back sometime soon to put photos up. I hope everyone had a brilliant Easter weekend!

Photos:
1. The Beehive and Parliament Buildings
2. How many fans do they need? And that's not half of them!!!
3. A good way to remember your wedding anniversary!
4. Craters of the Moon..
5. View from the top of Mt Tauhara - the volcanoes in the background (left-most)
6. Part of the Huka Falls
7. In the playground - Karin, Amandarin and myself (clockwise)
8. Me, Damian, Suze and Mel on a night out in Taupo
9. Indoor tornado? In the Volcanic Activity Centre
10. Do I look like a hobbit to you?
11. Two geysers
12. The Champagne Pools in Wai-o-Tapu
13. Vicky and I
14. Mud pools!!! Mmmm, cleansing!
15. Zorbonauts ready for take off!
16. Challenging our nominated chiefs at the Māori gathering
17. He's gone craaaazy! One of the kapa haka performers
18. The lake in Rotorua's Kuirau Park
19. Bloody big mosquito in Rotorua!

How do you get an elephant into a fridge?