Meeting the pavement and North Island Tour
Door: timonkrause
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Timon
25 April 2011 | Nieuw Zeeland, Hamilton
Hey there!
How are you? If you had asked me two weeks ago ( yes, that's how long ago my last blog entry is. I am ashamed. ) I would've told you that I'm pretty crap. My left knee & whole foot were bandaged. What happened? Well, I was walking through Hamilton Zoo, thinking of the birds singing ( and about where I could get some food ) when suddenly some tiger attacked me. I kicked it away but it got me in my leg. But boy, oh boy, you should see the tiger..the poor thing had to be put down.
Well, that's the official version. A bit closer to the truth would be that I was biking from Rotary to school. On my way I did a double backflip with a twist in the air. I didn't have enough torque and hit the ground when I was just about to complete the second flip. Damn it.
Alright, alright. I actually was just biking from Rotary to school when I had to go around this pedestrian, when I did that I slipped with the bike and hit the floor. I always wondered if the street is harder than me. Turns out it is. My left knee was bleeding, the top of my foot was bleeding too and my big toe was kind of ... skinned. Don't worry with imagining it, I got photo proof.
So I went to the nurse and she checked it and bandaged it, unfortunately so tight that at night I couldn't sleep since everytime I'd get up the blood would flow back into my foot and it'd hurt like...it'd hurt. The next day I went to the doc and he bandaged it ( in a human way, not so tight! ) and gave me more stuff to bandage it on my own. The nurse who helped him turned out to be the wife of my jazzbandleader. Mean.
Anyways, that was two weeks ago. It's nearly healed now. Tim ( hostdad ) reckons they should've stitched the wounds and they'd be healed completely by now.
On Monday two weeks ago we started our North Island Tour, it was excellent (: The Europeans are still the same, but let me introduce the new South Americans to you:
Agustin Rudisi:
He lives in Hamilton and goes to Hillcrest High School, too. From Argentina. He's the man.
Juan Suarez:
From Argentina, too. With Agustin he forms the pool-elite ( pool as in billiard ).
Beatriz 'Bia' Gil:
From Brasil. Very quiet but lovely (:
Lucas Klein:
From Brasil, too. He's the man. Always wearing a woolen hat.
Trinidad 'Trini' Lavin:
She's from Chile and very cool (:
Yeaaaah...those were...short introductions. Haha.
Anyways. We started our Tour on Monday and went up to "Rainbow's End" in Auckland. It's an adventure park. Well, it's more of a park actually. It really wasn't too amazing and unfortunately very empty, but of course we still had fun due to the fact that we were with 14 exchangees. Some of us actually started their journey on Sunday and spent one night in Hamilton before we met up with everyone on Monday.
Afterwards we went to Wairere/Hibiscus Coast and hung out at the holiday park. Franzi went for a 'run' and we had some feijoa fruits - I ate the first feijoa of my life and they're really nice :).
My roommates for this tour were Jan and Juan - excellent roommates!
Tuesday morning we went up to the Bay of Islands. We stopped at the Kauri Museum. Kauri trees are the second largest trees in the world, second only to the North American Redwoods. In the museum they had a huge showroom for kaurigum ( similar to amber ) and explained a lot of stuff to us. Kaurigumcollectors had these long sticks they tried to find gum with in the ground, others went up the trees and collected gum from the tree. Some lost their ropes while on the tree and had to wait for help - help often didn't arrive before they ended up as a skeleton. Bad luck.
We then went to see Tane Mahuta, the biggest living Kauri Tree. And man, Tane Mahuta is one big tree. We went down a path to see him and some of us just walked past him. He stood at the side of the path but they were so engaged in conversation that they literally oversaw this massive tree :D.
Tane Mahuta is pretty amazing, in the maori believe he's the son of heaven & earth and seperated heaven and earth when he was born.
In the evening we finally made it to the Bay of Islands Holiday Park. It's a very nice park and we'd spent 4 nights there. Most of us went to the hot Pools, but Jan, Juan, Agustin and I didn't go. We played pool instead. I couldn't have gone anyways because of my leg & foot.
On Wednesday we went onto a catamaran that took us around the Bay of Islands. The highlight was when we approached the hole in the rock at the northern end of New Zealand. It's basically a rock about 160 or so meter high, with a massive hole or cave or tunnel in it. The maori used to paddle through that hole before long journeys for good luck. If they couldn't make it through they wouldn't go onto the journey and try again on another day. We went through the hole with the catamaran ( one with a motor, not a sail ) and it was pretty epic. Apparently anyone who gets a drop of water on her or his head inside the hole in the rock is granted eternal youth - guess what. I came out of the hole with completely wet hair 8-). Just kidding.
The tour guide said that sometimes when the sea is high the water literally shoots into one end of the hole and shoots out of the other end. We didn't get to see that ( if we did we couldn't have gone through ) but I imagine it'd be epic.
On the catamaran cruise we also saw a couple of dolphins, they followed the ship and some of us got great close up shots :) It was beautiful to see!
We spent the afternoon at Russel and then had dinner at the holiday park.
Thursday was one of the most amazing days. We went onto a bustour along the 90 mile beach ( which actually is only 64 miles long ) and saw the hole in the rock from the beach again. We then saw the big sanddunes. We got the opportunity to get something like sleighs ( tobbogans ) and go down on the sanddunes on them. I didn't do it since I couldn't cross the water in front of the dunes with my leg - my bandage couldn't get wet. It seemd to be fun though!
Afterwards we had lunch at Rarawa beach and then went to see Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga ( Te Rerenga Wairua ) is the most northern point of New Zealand that one could comfortably walk to.
In the maori mythology the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga where they leap off the headland and then use the roots of the 800 year old tree ( the 'ancient survivor' , it can be seen from Cape Reinga ) to climb down into the underworld where they'd use the Te Ara Wairua ( Spirit's Pathway ) to return to their homeland ( Hawaiiki-a-nui ). Before they leave the mainland they briefly turn to look at the Islands of the Three Kings which can be seen from Cape Reinga, too.
Now, what makes Cape Reinga very special, too, is the fact that the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet in front of it. It can actually be seen and it is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. On the left side the Tasman Sea, greenish, on the right side the Pacific Ocean, blue. And in the middle they clash and have these big waves smashing onto each other, a distinct line can be seen. It totally wow-ed me.
There is a lighthouse at Cape Reinga where we took some photos. We now have been to New Zealands southernmost and northernmost point.
Before we left Cape Reinga we bought a little native tree with our group and planted it and Amy said a prayer for it and we took some photos.
Back at the Holiday Park we just relaxed. I guess we deserved it after a day like this.
On Friday we had our day off. We went shopping in Paihia, a little town at the bay of islands. We got some badges and funny ( a little bit dodgy ) things made of possum fur ( 'willywarmers' and g-strings. haha :D. ).
In the afternoon we went to play paintball. Since I couldn't run yet I put on an orange vest and took some action-shots ;). There were some arguments about people shooting from too close up and so on and some persons seemed to really get into the thing ( quoting a boy: "This is war, don't complain!" ). In the end most of us seemed to have fun though.
Saturday we had to get from the Bay of Islands all the way down to the Waitomo Caves. We stopped at the Skytower in Auckland and watched people doing bungy from up there. Pretty high. It was rainy though so we couldn't see too much. We had lunch in Auckland and Nick and Carl used the opportunity to buy some underwear since they didn't take enough xD Carl seemed to find his new underpanties a bit weird.
We made it down to the Waitomo Caves before dark and had a nice dinner there, Pizza.
Sunday morning we went into the caves in two groups. It was a little bit badly organised, we went in one group of 11 and the other group of 3 went with a few other people. I went in the group of 3, the other people we went with were supernice though (: and our guide was amazing. He welcomed us to the glow-shitting-maggot-caves. It was pretty mean. Since I kept talking he decided to spray me off with a cold water hose at the end of the tour. He also kicked us off our tubes inside the caves ( quoting Juan: "Timon, stop kicking me off!" - "I'm over here man! Not even touching you! I mean...oh shit. I gotta swim. Someone kicked me off. Thanks anyways!" )
After the caves we packed our things and went to see Trinidad's hostparents Ross and Debbie Loomans. They did a sheep-sheering show and we could sheer a sheep on our own. Of course we had to try to catch it on our own and throw it back on our own. It was pretty cool. We then had lunch at the loomans' house and said goodbye to Trini. Oh, we also ate some passion fruit. First passion fruit of my life. Yummy.
We went back to Hamilton and there said goodbye to some more of the students and our ways parted again. All in all the tour was ingenious (: thanks to everyone involved!
Pew, that was a lot I wrote there. When I came back the easter holidays had started. I helped my friend Brahm in his t-shirt shop and I still do, we're having a lot of fun. I chilled in town. Brahm and his girlfriend Summer and I went to the cinema and saw 'Sucker Punch' - it was great :D hot chicks + guns + dragons + robots = mean :D We also met Summer's sister Poppy and Brahm and I did a few walks around town when we had a break from the shop. Unfortunately the shop is closing down at the end of this week but it'll still go on on the internet. Here's the link:
http://www.shirtaddiction.co.nz/
the shirts are awesome (:
I got a new ring and got a necklace with my name and mentalism-logo on it.
Over the easter-weekend Libby & Tim & Danae & I went up to Tauranga and stayed at Tony and Helen's house, they're friends of Libby and Tim. Danae and I went to a shopping center ( didn't buy anything anyways ). Oh, Friday I also got to know Brahm's family.
My previous hostmum Maria went over to the Netherlands and met my parents, gave them some stuff from me and brought some stuff back for me :). That was great!
Today I helped Brahm in the shop again. Yeaaaah. I also found out that on Good Friday people in NZ eat hot cross buns because they have a cross on top of it aaaaand I ate the least amount of chocolate I ever ate for easter. Oh, and I lost my house key. It fell down the elevator-tunnel. Libby and Danae thought it was funny :D
Anyways, it's getting late and I'm wanting to skype a friend so I'd say I'll see you guys soon! Have a great day (:
All the best,
from New Zealand,
yours,
with too many goodbye-sayings,
Timon.
How are you? If you had asked me two weeks ago ( yes, that's how long ago my last blog entry is. I am ashamed. ) I would've told you that I'm pretty crap. My left knee & whole foot were bandaged. What happened? Well, I was walking through Hamilton Zoo, thinking of the birds singing ( and about where I could get some food ) when suddenly some tiger attacked me. I kicked it away but it got me in my leg. But boy, oh boy, you should see the tiger..the poor thing had to be put down.
Well, that's the official version. A bit closer to the truth would be that I was biking from Rotary to school. On my way I did a double backflip with a twist in the air. I didn't have enough torque and hit the ground when I was just about to complete the second flip. Damn it.
Alright, alright. I actually was just biking from Rotary to school when I had to go around this pedestrian, when I did that I slipped with the bike and hit the floor. I always wondered if the street is harder than me. Turns out it is. My left knee was bleeding, the top of my foot was bleeding too and my big toe was kind of ... skinned. Don't worry with imagining it, I got photo proof.
So I went to the nurse and she checked it and bandaged it, unfortunately so tight that at night I couldn't sleep since everytime I'd get up the blood would flow back into my foot and it'd hurt like...it'd hurt. The next day I went to the doc and he bandaged it ( in a human way, not so tight! ) and gave me more stuff to bandage it on my own. The nurse who helped him turned out to be the wife of my jazzbandleader. Mean.
Anyways, that was two weeks ago. It's nearly healed now. Tim ( hostdad ) reckons they should've stitched the wounds and they'd be healed completely by now.
On Monday two weeks ago we started our North Island Tour, it was excellent (: The Europeans are still the same, but let me introduce the new South Americans to you:
Agustin Rudisi:
He lives in Hamilton and goes to Hillcrest High School, too. From Argentina. He's the man.
Juan Suarez:
From Argentina, too. With Agustin he forms the pool-elite ( pool as in billiard ).
Beatriz 'Bia' Gil:
From Brasil. Very quiet but lovely (:
Lucas Klein:
From Brasil, too. He's the man. Always wearing a woolen hat.
Trinidad 'Trini' Lavin:
She's from Chile and very cool (:
Yeaaaah...those were...short introductions. Haha.
Anyways. We started our Tour on Monday and went up to "Rainbow's End" in Auckland. It's an adventure park. Well, it's more of a park actually. It really wasn't too amazing and unfortunately very empty, but of course we still had fun due to the fact that we were with 14 exchangees. Some of us actually started their journey on Sunday and spent one night in Hamilton before we met up with everyone on Monday.
Afterwards we went to Wairere/Hibiscus Coast and hung out at the holiday park. Franzi went for a 'run' and we had some feijoa fruits - I ate the first feijoa of my life and they're really nice :).
My roommates for this tour were Jan and Juan - excellent roommates!
Tuesday morning we went up to the Bay of Islands. We stopped at the Kauri Museum. Kauri trees are the second largest trees in the world, second only to the North American Redwoods. In the museum they had a huge showroom for kaurigum ( similar to amber ) and explained a lot of stuff to us. Kaurigumcollectors had these long sticks they tried to find gum with in the ground, others went up the trees and collected gum from the tree. Some lost their ropes while on the tree and had to wait for help - help often didn't arrive before they ended up as a skeleton. Bad luck.
We then went to see Tane Mahuta, the biggest living Kauri Tree. And man, Tane Mahuta is one big tree. We went down a path to see him and some of us just walked past him. He stood at the side of the path but they were so engaged in conversation that they literally oversaw this massive tree :D.
Tane Mahuta is pretty amazing, in the maori believe he's the son of heaven & earth and seperated heaven and earth when he was born.
In the evening we finally made it to the Bay of Islands Holiday Park. It's a very nice park and we'd spent 4 nights there. Most of us went to the hot Pools, but Jan, Juan, Agustin and I didn't go. We played pool instead. I couldn't have gone anyways because of my leg & foot.
On Wednesday we went onto a catamaran that took us around the Bay of Islands. The highlight was when we approached the hole in the rock at the northern end of New Zealand. It's basically a rock about 160 or so meter high, with a massive hole or cave or tunnel in it. The maori used to paddle through that hole before long journeys for good luck. If they couldn't make it through they wouldn't go onto the journey and try again on another day. We went through the hole with the catamaran ( one with a motor, not a sail ) and it was pretty epic. Apparently anyone who gets a drop of water on her or his head inside the hole in the rock is granted eternal youth - guess what. I came out of the hole with completely wet hair 8-). Just kidding.
The tour guide said that sometimes when the sea is high the water literally shoots into one end of the hole and shoots out of the other end. We didn't get to see that ( if we did we couldn't have gone through ) but I imagine it'd be epic.
On the catamaran cruise we also saw a couple of dolphins, they followed the ship and some of us got great close up shots :) It was beautiful to see!
We spent the afternoon at Russel and then had dinner at the holiday park.
Thursday was one of the most amazing days. We went onto a bustour along the 90 mile beach ( which actually is only 64 miles long ) and saw the hole in the rock from the beach again. We then saw the big sanddunes. We got the opportunity to get something like sleighs ( tobbogans ) and go down on the sanddunes on them. I didn't do it since I couldn't cross the water in front of the dunes with my leg - my bandage couldn't get wet. It seemd to be fun though!
Afterwards we had lunch at Rarawa beach and then went to see Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga ( Te Rerenga Wairua ) is the most northern point of New Zealand that one could comfortably walk to.
In the maori mythology the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga where they leap off the headland and then use the roots of the 800 year old tree ( the 'ancient survivor' , it can be seen from Cape Reinga ) to climb down into the underworld where they'd use the Te Ara Wairua ( Spirit's Pathway ) to return to their homeland ( Hawaiiki-a-nui ). Before they leave the mainland they briefly turn to look at the Islands of the Three Kings which can be seen from Cape Reinga, too.
Now, what makes Cape Reinga very special, too, is the fact that the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet in front of it. It can actually be seen and it is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. On the left side the Tasman Sea, greenish, on the right side the Pacific Ocean, blue. And in the middle they clash and have these big waves smashing onto each other, a distinct line can be seen. It totally wow-ed me.
There is a lighthouse at Cape Reinga where we took some photos. We now have been to New Zealands southernmost and northernmost point.
Before we left Cape Reinga we bought a little native tree with our group and planted it and Amy said a prayer for it and we took some photos.
Back at the Holiday Park we just relaxed. I guess we deserved it after a day like this.
On Friday we had our day off. We went shopping in Paihia, a little town at the bay of islands. We got some badges and funny ( a little bit dodgy ) things made of possum fur ( 'willywarmers' and g-strings. haha :D. ).
In the afternoon we went to play paintball. Since I couldn't run yet I put on an orange vest and took some action-shots ;). There were some arguments about people shooting from too close up and so on and some persons seemed to really get into the thing ( quoting a boy: "This is war, don't complain!" ). In the end most of us seemed to have fun though.
Saturday we had to get from the Bay of Islands all the way down to the Waitomo Caves. We stopped at the Skytower in Auckland and watched people doing bungy from up there. Pretty high. It was rainy though so we couldn't see too much. We had lunch in Auckland and Nick and Carl used the opportunity to buy some underwear since they didn't take enough xD Carl seemed to find his new underpanties a bit weird.
We made it down to the Waitomo Caves before dark and had a nice dinner there, Pizza.
Sunday morning we went into the caves in two groups. It was a little bit badly organised, we went in one group of 11 and the other group of 3 went with a few other people. I went in the group of 3, the other people we went with were supernice though (: and our guide was amazing. He welcomed us to the glow-shitting-maggot-caves. It was pretty mean. Since I kept talking he decided to spray me off with a cold water hose at the end of the tour. He also kicked us off our tubes inside the caves ( quoting Juan: "Timon, stop kicking me off!" - "I'm over here man! Not even touching you! I mean...oh shit. I gotta swim. Someone kicked me off. Thanks anyways!" )
After the caves we packed our things and went to see Trinidad's hostparents Ross and Debbie Loomans. They did a sheep-sheering show and we could sheer a sheep on our own. Of course we had to try to catch it on our own and throw it back on our own. It was pretty cool. We then had lunch at the loomans' house and said goodbye to Trini. Oh, we also ate some passion fruit. First passion fruit of my life. Yummy.
We went back to Hamilton and there said goodbye to some more of the students and our ways parted again. All in all the tour was ingenious (: thanks to everyone involved!
Pew, that was a lot I wrote there. When I came back the easter holidays had started. I helped my friend Brahm in his t-shirt shop and I still do, we're having a lot of fun. I chilled in town. Brahm and his girlfriend Summer and I went to the cinema and saw 'Sucker Punch' - it was great :D hot chicks + guns + dragons + robots = mean :D We also met Summer's sister Poppy and Brahm and I did a few walks around town when we had a break from the shop. Unfortunately the shop is closing down at the end of this week but it'll still go on on the internet. Here's the link:
http://www.shirtaddiction.co.nz/
the shirts are awesome (:
I got a new ring and got a necklace with my name and mentalism-logo on it.
Over the easter-weekend Libby & Tim & Danae & I went up to Tauranga and stayed at Tony and Helen's house, they're friends of Libby and Tim. Danae and I went to a shopping center ( didn't buy anything anyways ). Oh, Friday I also got to know Brahm's family.
My previous hostmum Maria went over to the Netherlands and met my parents, gave them some stuff from me and brought some stuff back for me :). That was great!
Today I helped Brahm in the shop again. Yeaaaah. I also found out that on Good Friday people in NZ eat hot cross buns because they have a cross on top of it aaaaand I ate the least amount of chocolate I ever ate for easter. Oh, and I lost my house key. It fell down the elevator-tunnel. Libby and Danae thought it was funny :D
Anyways, it's getting late and I'm wanting to skype a friend so I'd say I'll see you guys soon! Have a great day (:
All the best,
from New Zealand,
yours,
with too many goodbye-sayings,
Timon.
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