Pahia - The Bay of Islands

Kia Ora!!

Well, after 2 years this trip has FINALLY begun!! And although I am very much missing everyone from home (don't ever doubt that, you guys!), this journey is already off to a fun and adventurous start!!

So first off, there was about 17 hours of flying and 10 hours of layovers which took me from Vancouver through to LAX, Nadi (Fiji), and then Auckland. The flights were okay as I always had someone friendly to chat with (not to mention meeting up randomly with Dustin Timms, a guy I went to school with at Sardis Secondary, while at the LAX airport! We flew together from Vancouver to Nadi and had a delirously good time with Derek and Jo (Torontans) whom we also met on the 11 hour, red-eye flight. Having a giddy good time while flying for that long is always a good time!) The crew on this Air Pacific flight is worth mentioning....they were so nice!! I guess that's why Air Pacific is called the friendliest airline in the world. They definitely lived up to their name! After landing in Fiji at 5 am local time, we were greeted with bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Fijian men who played ukeleles and guitars and sang traditional songs. Anyone that can make me get dancing at 5 am after a long flight is amazing! This made me extend my Fiji trip from one week to 12 days, and I hadn't even left the airport!

Auckland is as most big cities are, although the skyline (with their enormous Sky Tour) is breathtaking at night and the beaches all around the city are quite inviting. I stayed up in Parnell at City Garden Lodge which was laid-back and easygoing...just what I needed for getting over jet-lag. Oh, and I had my first hammock encounter of the trip there! I do looooove hammocks! The hostel is about $30 NZ a night, and is well-worth it. [btw, i'm going to be giving some hostel info throughout the blog just for those of you who may be planning a trip to NZ, or anywhere I'm travelling, soon].

I met a group of friends at the hostel (Michelle and Emily (saskatchewan), David (UK), and another girl from North Carolina), and we took in Waitangi day on February 6th down at Okahu Bay just on the outskirts of Auckland. Waitangi day is the day that the Maori people signed a treaty with the English. This music festival that we lounged around at featured local NZ artists and LOTS of reggae.....soooo perfect for a sunny day (although, it was this day that I realized that North American sunscreen is not nearly cut out for the lack-of-ozone NZ sun :S I suffered a minor tanline across my head. Okay, so it's more like a dark red line arcing across my forehead, tracing the line of my headband! Ugh! a few more days and it should be gone, haha). We then walked to Mission Bay for some swimming (not the best of swimming around Auckland...the ground was a little muddy), and then to sleep for the next day to Pahia.

Pahia is known as the Bay of Islands. On the Kiwi Experience bus trip I met some great people whom it will be sad to say good-bye to (although some of them will be travelling with me for most of my NZ trip), and we've taken boat trips through holes in rocks (haha, sounds funny when said that way), dolphin sightings, bar trips (Straight arm drinking! so funny!), bus tours to Cape Reinga (where the pacific ocean and the tasman sea meet) which included speeding buses along the 90 mile beach (that was a strange feeling!), SAND DUNE BOARDING, beautiful tropical beaches, and....fish and chips :P [Check facebook for pics of all these adventures!] We're staying at the Pipi Patch hostel in Pahia: about $25 CND a night, and that included a big bbq dinner on the first night!

Today we head back to Auckland on the bus and then onto more of the North Island tomorrow. It's misty and cool today, but I am loving the reprieve from the nasty sun that's been following me around for the last few days! I'm sure my skin will level-out eventually :P

xxooO