19.06.2011 – 29.08.2011 BAY OF PLENTY

We arrived in Te Puke in the evening so booked ourselves into the Corral Hostel as we were starting the kiwifruit orchard work the next day.

"Kiwi 360"

The hostel is very basic and doesn't have much to offer, but for $20 each (dorm) it was fine. It is located next to the famous “Kiwi360” theme park – as Te Puke is called “the kiwifruit capital of the world”. Kiwi360's kiwifruit-shaped viewing tower was rated The Tackiest Tourist Attraction of BOP by the Lonely Planet guide-book and we can't argue with that, although their little shop is quite nice and we bought some kiwifruit jam and kiwifruit wine and loved both :)

A lonely gold kiwifruit

Working on a kiwifruit orchard was definitely an interesting experience.

We were staying in the orchard house with some other backpackers that we were working with and with some rats. We were quite a mixture: there was Hoon from South Korea, Felipe from Chile, Mike from Sweden, Bonnie from China, Nicolas from France, Rob and I representing England & Poland and the rats – probably local folks, which we managed to get rid of eventually, but it took a few weeks of fighting.

It was interesting to get to know all of those backpackers and we also met some other people (some lovely and some weird ones) working on the orchard.

Some strings were harder to pull out than others

The work itself was fun at the beginning and quite hard and more and more boring for the rest of our kiwifruit adventure. We were working all day, practically everyday, from before sunrise till after sunset, in the cold (note it was winter time in NZ), and the rain. We were pulling strings out of the canopy, cutting branches off, fixing sprinklers, backsealing, cleaning orchard tools, driving tractors, quad bikes, trucks, forklifts and doing lots of other little jobs. We had some good times working there and some ridiculously sunny & hot winter days, so it wasn't always just wet and cold ;)

Fantail :)

Friendly fantails

Fantails often provided a welcome distraction during work - they were singing and following us throughout the day.

The Sun has risen = we're late to work

Our new favourite word: "smoko" - morning break time :)

Sunset doesn't mean home time...

We took a couple of weekends off and travelled to Auckland hunting for a suitable vehicle to buy and one day we found a nice van looking for new owners and we decided that this was The One, so we called him “Tofik”, we drove him back to the Bay of Plenty and spent almost all of our free time (not that we had much of it) working on it.

To find out more about how Tofik was born see the next post.

Before purchasing our van it was hard to get anywhere in the area. The closest supermarket and shops in Te Puke were 8 km away, we were 2 km of the main road and then you could try your luck at hitchhiking if you didn't want to walk (there was only one bus a day). Having a car helped us to move around. Our little trips in the area included:

Mount Maunganui with a lovely beach, where we climbed “The Mount” (232m) to see the beautiful views. About half an hour walk up was totally worth it!
 

Te Puke Waterfalls – not too far from town, when we eventually found the right track – it was quite a steep walk down in the bush, took about 20-30 minutes and the waterfalls were very nice :)
 

        
      

Rotorua – famous for its hot springs and mud pools, although we didn't have time for those attractions. We went there for an interview for a job in a hostel and we only managed to squeeze in a quick lunch by the huge Lake Rotorua. The town looks really nice and we hope to visit it again one day.
 

Maketu Beach – just 10 minutes drive from the orchard house. We tried to walk there one day but got caught out by a really heavy shower and hail and got soaked in 5 seconds, so we didn't make it to the beach that time. The second attempt (with Tofik) was more succesful and we could enjoy a little walk on this lovely beach.

Although the orchard job was meant to last for 6 weeks, we stayed there for 10 weeks, still working but on more casual basis and also getting Tofik ready for being our home for when we would eventually start travelling. In the mean-time we were hunting for other jobs.

This time we were more lucky with our searching and we both found job opportunities in our field. Both jobs in the Wellington area, we both had our phone interviews first and Rob after a few days was offered a position (he makes quite an impression, I tell you!), while I was invited for a face-to-face interview following my phone interview with the potential employer.

It was fantastic news and meant packing again, saying goodbye to the orchard house and to Hoon (our only housemate at that time, as most of the backpackers had left after 6 weeks of work) and travelling further south – to “Windy Welly”.

AUCKLAND 30.05.2011 - 19.06.2011

After two 12 hour long flights we finally landed in Auckland :) Very excited about our first day in New Zealand and very tired after a long journey, for the very first time we got the meet a New Zealander - Sandie :) Sandie is a friend of my dear friend from the UK and we met her at the airport as she kindly offered to pick us up and also to have us stay with her for our first days in New Zealand. 

Auckland

We had a wonderful time with Sandie and her dog (Maui) and started exploring the new country. It surprised us how busy Auckland was and how many Asian people live there, we couldn't understand why so many people walk around shops and petrol stations bare-foot, we learnt that parrots just randomly visit Sandie's garden (and she said it was normal hmm) and we started getting used to tui – one of the weirdest birds we have ever heard. 

After staying with Sandie & Maui for a little bit longer than planned (we are very grateful for Sandie's hospitality) we found a hostel in Auckland which had weekly rates for double rooms, so worked out cheaper and we were quite happy with it. It's called City Lodge (Vincent St, Auckland) and our bedroom was on the 3rd floor, but on our first night, after we unpacked everything and organised ourselves in our new little temporary "home", when we were coming back from dinner it turned out that we couldn't get in! Something was wrong with the lock and after half an hour of trying we finally managed to get in, but in case it happened again, we had to move to a new room. Although we had to pack and unpack once again, we moved into a room on the 7th floor and now it had a view of the Sky Tower.

After that event everything was great (well, apart from when the only lift broke down and we was out of order for a few days! ;) suddenly the 7th floor didn't seem so great), it was fairly quiet and close to the library which we were visiting a lot. The library is great, very impressive, big and modern and it offers free wireless internet, so we were spending long hours in there while looking for jobs. 

We thought it would be very easy to find some kind of job(s) in Auckland, as 1/4 of the NZ population lives there, but we weren't so lucky… Partly it was caused by the conditions of our visas - I can only work for up to 3 months for one employer (on a polish scheme) and Rob can work for 12 months (english scheme for working holiday visa).

While looking for jobs  we were enjoying busy Auckland, visited some food places (we would recommend Little Turkish Café on K Road and Hell Pizza - yum), the Art Gallery (they had an interesting photography exhibit at that time) and lots of shops (mostly outdoor ones).

Maui

We had a chance to do some dog-sitting over one weekend, which we loved! 

It is quite common in NZ that the owners of a dog or a cat, if going away for a few days/weeks, would find a sitter for their pet. Then that person takes a pet for walks/feeds it/washes it/etc, it's an unpaid job, but a sitter has a use of the whole house (and sometimes a car) and if she/he is not local, it's a good opportunity to explore a new area. 

We were taking Maui for walks and runs and swims, we played, we got chased by some bulls (well, there was only one bull and didn't exactly chase us but gave us this look so we ran just in case). 

Maui is a lovely dog and it was hard to say goodbye after that weekend :)

WAITAKERE RANGES  +  MURIWAI BEACH

Lookout at Waitakere Visitor Centre

One day Sandie (and Maui) took us for a wonderful day trip. We drove up to Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, where we saw the NZ bush for the very first time and were shocked how stunning it was! Fantastic place with a choice of some easy walks and more challenging tramping options available, there is a lovely visitor centre with all the information you need (and a lookout point and so much more that you would have to go there yourself and check it out!). 

Muriwai Beach

We spent a good while in the visitors centre and went for a short walk, then Sandie took us to another awesome place: Muriwai Beach, which because of its black sand at first made an impression of being dirty, but after a while you get used to the difference and it's absolutely amazing how sparkly the sand is in the Sun. 

Muriwai Beach

We had some lunch there (lovely little café on the way to the beach - you can eat in or take away), Maui had a swim and Rob and I were trying to take in all the beautiful scenery.

There is also a gannet colony not far from the beach, so we went to see it, but at that time the gannets weren't there. Maybe next time :)

On our way back to Auckland we also stopped at one of many vineyards for our first ever wine tasting. It was a great experience, but it felt a little bit strange being watched by the ladies behind the counter and having to comment on the differences between the wines we were tasting etc. Our very limited wine knowledge made us feel a little shy and not very confident. But it's nice to try those new things sometimes and we enjoyed it, so we even purchased a couple of bottles of wine.

We had a super wonderful day and when we went to sleep and closed our eyes we could still hear the waves of Tasman Sea and see the Waitakere Ranges bush. We slept well that night.

DEVONPORT

Mt Victoria, Devonport

To have a break from our job hunting we decided to go for a trip to Devonport, which is a part of Auckland easily accessible by the ferry from the city centre. It is a lovely place with a nice atmosphere and we climbed up the two volcanic cones - Mt Victoria and North Head, we loved the views of Auckland and even saw a kingfisher.

We also visited the Navy Museum which was quite interesting even for me (I normally get very bored very quickly in museums). Devonport made a nice day trip and it's definitely worth a visit - it is a nice escape from a busy city centre.

North Head, the view of Mt Victoria and Auckland city centre

Our day out in Devonport was followed by some great news - we got a job! :)

We were looking for work in our fields for the first week, but not having much luck with that, we started searching for any temporary work all over New Zealand and applying for many random job offers on trademe, seek and backpackerboard websites.

We had an email waiting for us from one of the kiwifruit orchards that the job was ours "if we wanted it". Well, we still wanted it. The job was for 6 weeks in the Bay of Plenty, so we started organising our move down south.

KELLY TARLTON'S

There are so many other things we wanted to do and see in Auckland, but we didn't have time for them as we were too busy looking for jobs and now that we had found jobs we were about to leave Auckland. We decided to visit Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World before leaving the city.

We had loads of fun and loved the whole experience. The place offers plenty of attractions and it is a must for adults travelling with children, but adults without children (like us) can also enjoy this fantastic adventure. 

Feeding sharks

We are glad that we left plenty of time as when you buy a ticket you can stay in for the whole day. I was even tempted to swim with the sharks (in a cage), Rob didn't seem too keen…, but eventually I decided to leave it for the future. It looked quite cool, but I may prefer to swim with dolphins instead :) 

The penguins were awesome, too! We went for a few extra rides aboard a Snow Cat to see the penguins up close , as we couldn't get enough of them. 

Kelly Tarlton's - both thumbs up! :)

Naked bus booked and we were ready for our new adventure in the Bay of Plenty. Our life-saver Sandie kindly offered to hold on to our suitcases, so we didn't have to take everything with us and we only packed what we thought was necessary. On our last minute shopping we also invested some money in a couple of sleeping bags from MacPac which may turn out to be the best investment of our lives ;)

After a lovely cooked breakfast that we had with Sandie in one of the cafés in Auckland's suburbs it was time to say goodbye and jump on board the bus to the BOP.

The new chapter of our NZ adventure begins…