Hitchhikers and wet sleeping bags...

I woke up fairly early this morning – around 8 or so (that's early in vacation terms :-) Checked my email with fingers crossed that I had gotten some positive response from my CS requests. But, no luck.

John asked me again if I was interested in going to the Bay of Islands and then on to Cape Reinga with him, and I figured, well, what the hell, no reason to stay in Auckland if I don't have a place to stay. Plus, he was thinking of camping for the night, so I was up for using my sleeping bag and not paying for accommodation. Its the backpackers way :-)

So, this time I took the navigators seat on the left side of the car...pretty weird at first to be in the American “drivers” seat but not steering...hehe. But, John seemed pretty comfortable with the driving on the other side of the road thing already. It was hilarious though, because, every once in a while, he would go to put his turn signal on and would hit the windshield wipers instead – they're switched! I cracked up every time. :-D

It felt good to finally be getting out of the big city. Not long into the drive we hit beautiful landscapes. The trees and mountains are incredible - lush and green. I can't even imagine what it would look like if it rained a bit. The Northland of the north island is in a drought right now – we kept seeing signs for Very High or Extreme Fire Danger the farther north we got. Rain is definitely an asset up here!

We chatted and munched on food as we drove. Got to know John a bit better. And of course, every now and again one of us would exclaim...Wow!! Look at that! Or, Cows!! Sheep! Haha, not much wildlife up here except for the frequent dead opossum on the side or middle of the road...yuck. I learned about opossum hunting in NZ too. Just take your car late at night, and drive down a dirt road. The opossums practically leap out in front of the car and consequently, smash into your grill...sheesh! Apparently, it's a fun hobby for some kiwis...lol.

We continued on driving north up the east coast of NZ. The sun was shining bright, the windows of the car were rolled all the way down, and the radio was blasting. Ahh, I love road tripping in the summer :-)

As we rolled on through a smaller town, we saw a guy on the side of the road walking with a backpack on. I told John that he was probably hitchhiking and that we should give him a ride! But John goes, “Maybe...but he doesn't have his thumb out...” I figured you can only stick your thumb out for so long before your arm gets tired. hehe. So, we pulled off on a side street and yelled out to the guy to see if he needed a ride. Sure enough, he was heading to Piahia – where we were going! So, he jumped in the backseat, and we were on our way!

Jamie (the hitchhiker from Canada), John and I decided to check out the Whangarei Falls in Whangarei (pronounced “Fengarei” - the “Wha” is actually an “F” sound.) It was a very pretty falls that people used to jump off of, but they no longer allow it. Looked like a fun jump though!

We hung around there for a bit and took some pictures, then filled up our water bottle and headed out again. We became very intrigued when we passed by a sign that said “Famous Hundertwasser Toilets in Kawakawa.” We're like, we have got to see these toilets!! The facilities were actually really cool, kind of mosaic like with glass bottles and lots of color. Pretty! :-)

We dropped off Jamie in Piahia and then found a place to park by the beach. We strolled around the town for a little bit. My first impression was that it was pretty quiet with lots of hostels, hotels, restaurants and the like. Which was kind of a good thing because this is where I hope to find work and live for a while – there are a lot of adventure things going on in town, like kayaking, skydiving, tours, swimming with dolphins, and deep sea fishing. So, looks like there are plenty of things to do! Plus, it is on the water with beautiful views, so that's a definite plus.

For dinner, we went with Fish and Chips. (Or “Fush and Chups” as the kiwi's say). We found a place to sit by the water front and I ate my first “real” meal since arriving here! Thus far I have been surviving off apples, bananas, trail mix, bread, carrots, peanut butter, and yogurt and cheese when a fridge is available. Pretty simple, but it works and it all travels pretty well too.

John wanted to head farther up north to get closer to the Cape, so I said I was in. Plus, he was planning on coming back through Piahia the next day so I figured it wouldn't hurt to put off job hunting for another day. :-)

We got to see a little bit of the sunset, but it got dark pretty soon after we started driving. John was doing the hand out of the window thing, riding the air and all of a sudden I heard this “Thuap!” I thought a bug had hit the windshield, but John goes “Ow! That damn bug hit me!” Hahaha, I couldn't stop laughing. Just the combo of the sound and his reaction was too much...lol.

After a couple hours of driving, I spotted a sign for lake, so I told John we should check it out and see if it would be a good place to set up camp. It was really dark out but when we pulled in we saw a camper van and a tent in the same area, so we figured, good place to stop! I was exhausted, so we both pulled out our sleeping bags and brought them outside to lay on a gaze up a the stars. It was so beautiful! I told John I was just going to sleep outside in my sleeping bag. It was a clear night so I wasn't worried about rain.

Not sure what time I woke up, but it had started to sprinkle...man!! So, I woke John up and we grabbed our sleeping bags and headed to the car. We were both swapping away bugs the whole night too, so it was good to get into the car. No sooner had we closed the car door then it completely started down pouring! I am so glad I woke up! I didn't think I was going to be able to fall asleep in the car, but I eventually found a comfortable position and drifted off.