February 14th
Valentine’s Day! Which I didn’t even realize until I finally figured out why so many people were wandering around with flowers…between the time difference and not having a set schedule to follow I managed to lose complete track of what day it was after only 4 days of travel! Being alone in a foreign country, what better way to spend Valentine’s than relaxing on the beach? None! The previous day I’d bought a ticket for a ferry and bus tour to Waiheke Island, about a 40 minute ferry ride from Auckland’s harbor. I didn’t realize how many small islands there were just off the coast of the mainland, but the scenery on the ride was absolutely breathtaking. Pictures really couldn’t do it justice, with all of the rolling hills and bright turquoise waters. There was also one island whose cliffs must have been eroded away over time so that it was just a huge sheer rock face that dropped straight into the ocean…no wonder Kiwis love extreme sports…spelunking, anyone? It was a nearly perfect day for an island tour, only a few moments of overcast weather and it’s been unusually warm in New Zealand this year, which is a great change for me from the frigid temperatures of the Midwest!
Once on the island, I took a bus tour around the western half and learned about the lifestyles of the people who live there year-round (very few actually do, most homes which we saw were “lifestyle homes” which were huge and bought for vacationing [easily over $1 million] or rented homes on the beaches) and got to see a couple of wineries and beautiful views of various beaches from the top of the island. This was all very interesting, but I couldn’t wait to get dropped off back at the harbor so that I could hop on a bus to Palm Beach, which had been recommended to me by a couple people whom I’d met in the hostel the previous night. A very short ride later and I was at the beach with only a few minor problems: no towel and no sunglasses. Since these were out of my control, however (didn’t want to waste precious suitcase space packing a towel and sunglasses got squished somewhere on my travels L) I plopped myself down on the sand and held my book above my face to block the sun. The beach was very reminiscent of Puerto Lopez in Ecuador, from the layout of the sand and rocks to the relative calm and isolation. Based on these similarities, I decided to avoid the rocks on the far right side, just in case New Zealand waters house sting rays as well, best to avoid a repeat of that situation. The water was nice and cool, but I didn’t venture too far in due to my limited drying options. I also entertained some people with my attempts at self-timing photography, but hey, I’ll never see them again! Once I’d been sufficiently fried (only got burned on the top of my shoulders, but that took about 3 days to fade completely…that’s what being under the hole in the ozone will do to you, I guess…duly noted), I took another bus to the main (very small) town and found a pizza restaurant that was reasonably priced and overlooked a beach, the price qualification being the standard which was much more difficult to meet, unfortunately. However, I was able to get a small pizza and then had leftovers for dinner later!
I caught the 4:00 ferry back to Auckland and had a great view of the skyline and sky tower coming into the harbor. I decided to treat myself to some gelato from a self-proclaimed “award winning” shop that was right by the ferry landing. New Zealand has a special flavor called “Hokey Pokey” which is vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls and little chunks of honey comb candy, aka DELICIOUS. I wandered over to a park by the University to eat my cone and do a little people watching before heading back to the hostel for the night. Jet lag was finally starting to catch up with me, so after chatting a bit with the other girls in my room, who were both from England but had met while travelling in Australia, I called it an early night and made good use of the sleeping mask which the Foot family gave me in my bag of travel wonders J
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