Grannies and graffiti

Hi dear readers,

When traveling you do meet a lot of people. When traveling alone, people tend to talk to you. They’re either interested in why you are traveling alone or they feel sorry for you and so they talk to you. Either way, I’m fine with it. Sometimes when I meet people I can hear myself thinking: Mel, now it’s time to shut up, let the other person say something. When I finally meet people again, I speak a lot. It’s as if I have to make up for the time I spent alone.

You know, I’m a people-person. I learned that during my exchange in Finland. Being too isolated isn’t really my thing. I like traveling alone because it gives me all the freedom of doing whatever I like, whenever I like. Traveling alone is also pretty boring from time to time. I have to admit I caught myself a few times…. Talking to myself.

Having that much free time also gives me the opportunity to think for example about my next topic for my blog!

Sometimes I tend to overthink things. That’s when things get scary you know. People have asked me many times if I’m not scared of traveling alone. Well, I’m not scared of traveling alone. I am scared of being alone.

During my exchange in Finland I didn’t realize that I was homesick at the time when I was in fact homesick. After the Finland-experience I have been teaching many other youngsters all these little tricks of being a “good” exchange student and how to handle homesickness. Right now I’m overthinking homesickness. Soon it might become a selfullfilling prophecy.

Over time I’ve gotten to know myself pretty good. I’m a people-person so I’m pretty sure that living in the middle of nowhere would slowly kill me.

During this trip I found myself quit a few times in places with no one else to be seen.

When driving from Whakathane (via east coast) to Gisborne I was really lucky to reach the gas station without having to push my own car. Lesson learned there.

Back up North in the “Utea camp ground” I met two Scottish girls. I loved spending time with them because by just being “them” they were like some stand up comedy show. When I left that place I thought: Ha, they were funny! I should have asked their FB-contacts. Anyway.

I was still having car-troubles so I decided to drive from Kaitaia (North of north island) back to Auckland. It’s quit a long drive (4 hours and a bit) and it was raining. I didn’t really feel like it but I didn’t have much choice there. All of the sudden I saw a hitchhiker (and it was raining!). I believe she wasn’t very experienced because she was trying to get a ride in a place no car could safely stop. I felt bad for not stopping because it was raining. Why did she have to stand in such an impossible spot?

I said to myself: You selfish human being! It’s raining! You have a free place in your car! When all of the sudden I saw another hitchhiker and so I (safely) stopped (so I could make up for that bad karma). I asked where she was going and she said: Paihia. I was going to Auckland so Paihia wasn’t really on my way. She said; Ok, let’s go to Auckland then. I thought, OK, cool!

She put her backpack in my car and got in. Florence is a French girl from Grenoble. Cool!

The moment she got in my car (I have to admit) I thought: Sh*t. What if this is a really boring or annoying person? I would be stuck with her for the next 3,5 hours…

Luckily Florence was a really nice girl! We had a lot of time to talk and we had some good conversations. Because her English wasn’t as good as she wants (your English is good Florence! Don’t give up!) And my French isn’t as good as I want, we decided to talk one hour French and the next hour English. We ended up speaking only in French. I don’t know how that happened. I was very proud of myself! Even though it was only 4 hours, I think my French improved there. Merci Florence!

Right before arriving to Auckland I admitted to Florence to be very nervous for meeting the scamming mechanic again. When she suggested coming with me I was so relieved!

In the end we ended up having dinner together and because we didn’t know where to stay we even ended up in the same hostel. So sometimes all you need to prevent getting lonely is a lovely hitchhiker to spend some time with!

Florence; Si on ce revoit, on doit boire un café. J’espère que je te revois!

After the whole car-thing in Auckland I moved on to the “Coromandel peninsula”. I didn’t really have a plan at that moment because I didn’t know what was going to happen to the car in Auckland. (By the way: the guy looked at the car and said he fixed it. I don’t believe it AT ALL! Whatever.) I needed a nice place to prepare the next part of my travel and I choose the first cheap campground I could find in the direction I was heading.

I arrived at a nice quiet place and all of the sudden … The Scottish girls were there again! It was unbelievable that we met especially because there was a distance of about 8 hours driving between these two campgrounds. It was nice to see them again! That night I found out they get even funnier when they’re a little drunk, haha.

We decided to dig our hole together at the hot water beach and we’d probably meet again going to the cathedral cove.

I decided to go on to Tauranga. Very close to Tauranga there is a little mountain called Mount Manganui. I decided to try this hike to test my own limits. I mean, it’s really just a hill compared to some others mountains around here. But I decided to take it step by step and see how long my knees will hold on because f***, climbing a hill that hurts! It’s not only exhausting but I also got two bad knees, that’s why I’ll try hill by hill, haha.

So when I tried to get some more information about this hill in the tourist information, guess whom I bumped into there?! The Scottish girls!! Un-be-lie-va-ble!

And the next day on the hill… they were there again. It started to feel like stalking at that moment.

I guess everybody’s doing the same things so we might meet each other again.

While meeting the Scottish girls once in a while I also started to meet Elly and John. They’re an English couple and they’ve been traveling for 2,5 years now! The first time we met we didn’t speak much but just like with the Scottish girls I kept bumping into them and so we talked more and more. It’s nice meeting people that way.

So, for those who want to know where I went; After the Coromandel Peninsula I kept following the coastline towards Napier. I made a stop in McLarren Falls, Whatakane (pronounced as: Fakatane), Te Puke, Opotiki, the East cape light house (Te Araroa), Gisborne and then Napier.

At the McLarren Falls I met another French couple. They’ve been here for a while and they shared many tips about the skiing season and region. I think my French might improve this year. Haha!

It’s obvious among backpackers how many German and French people there are. Everybody assumes, when they meet you, you’re either German or French. It’s cool thought because I understand both German and French. I’m like a chameleon :-)

Many travel guides mentioned a Kiwi park for tourists in Te Puke. Te puke seems to be where the booming of the kiwi (fruit) happened. It’s the place to be if you want to see kiwis.

The word “Kiwi” is a confusing word op here. It can refer to several things:

1 Kiwi: the green or golden delicious fruit

2 Kiwi: a –not so smart- bird, looking like a chicken

3 Kiwi: a person from New Zealand

When I visited Japan I went to the Pineapple-park in Okinawa. It was an interesting park and it was very funny to see how many pineapple-objects exist. The Japanese also presented at least a dozen of different pineapple-cakes. Everything you saw was made of pineapples somehow. Imagine pineapples everywhere, a small train guiding you trough the pineapple-park. Add some cuteness to your thoughts and you’ll come very close to what I saw there, haha.

When arriving in Te Puke, the Walhalla of Kiwi’s (fruit) I was really looking forward to visiting the kiwi-park only to find out at the entrance that it permanently closed!!!! I was very disappointed there. I really wanted to drown in kiwi-cuteness.

I continued my journey towards the East Cape. I had visited the most northern lighthouse (Cape Reinga) already so I thought it would be nice to visit the most eastern lighthouse in the whole wide world!

This is the closest point you can get to the International Date Line. How cool is that? I was at that moment one of the first people in the world experiencing that day. I will never forget that feeling. Haha. Besides the lighthouse there was nothing to see. It was a boring (and long) ride out there. I was hoping the lighthouse was really worth it because after driving for 3 hours, I was really looking forward to something nice.

800 steps up a hill… It was worth it! The views in New Zealand keep being amazing.

After visiting the lighthouse I had to drive another 3 hours to get to the closest “city”, Gisborne. I didn’t really feel like driving another 3 hours, singing alone in my car so I decided to camp there.

I wasn’t alone in this campground; in fact it was very crowded, which is strange because high season hasn’t started yet. Seemingly the “Rotorua camping club” was there as well. Some of the members sat in their camping chair and invited me to join them. So I did, because what would I have said? No, thanks, I like to sit alone in my car?

More and more members joined and there I sat. There were about 30 of them and me. There must have been an age gap (between me and the youngest of them) of about 30 years? Haha

SO I was in the middle of nowhere… me and a bunch of grannies. They were nice you know but I did feel like the one thing that didn’t fit. I decided to make my own dinner and head to bed early.

The next morning I woke up pretty early and headed to a place with more (and younger) people. There’s an app for everything these days. Campermate is the best app in New Zealand when it comes down to find a campground. I found a cool and cheap place called “The pirate ship”.

When arriving at the Pirate ship, I was happy to see some youngsters. There were some good vibes here but the difference with my prior place couldn’t have been bigger. These guys were like modern hippies. They were into skating and graffiti.

Waking up I noticed that the eye infection I had earlier, came back and worse this time. I decided it was time to meet a doctor. Doctors are pretty expensive here (40-80€ for one consult!). It might have something to do with the fact that I’m not a local.

I had to fill out some forms in the medical center.

THE LADY behind the counter: Ok, so you have an appointment at 3 a clock.

THE LADY: So you didn’t write your address on this form.

ME: I don’t have an address here in New Zealand

THE LADY: Ok, no problem. Could you maybe give me the address of your hostel?

ME: I’m staying in a campground.

THE LADY: That will do as well. What’s the name of the campground?

ME: The pirate ship.

THE LADY and some OTHER PEOPLE:

THE LADY: I never heard of that campground.

ME: I think they recently changed their name.

THE LADY: Oh, I see.

That’s when I thought: Mel, next time when visiting a doctor, try to choose a campground with a slightly more serious name perhaps?

Otherwise Gisborne was a nice little town but after my doctor visit I headed to Napier.

Ow, I seemed to have caught a bacterial eye infection. The doctor said it might have come from a hostel or something similar.

I thought; Jak! I was just getting into this backpacking-world.

Two days later, with the best eye drops in the world, the eye infection is gone. Yeeha!

Napier is a really cool city! I fell in love at first sight! Napier was heavily damaged in 1931 due to a severe earthquake. The whole city was rebuild in art deco-style. Some people wandering around Napier are still dressed as if it’s 1931!

I saw a few oldtimer-cars and immediately I felt at home there. I didn’t see any 2cv’s yet. When I see one, I’ll let you know :-)

I talked a lot about food with Elly and John. They’ve been traveling for quite a long time now so I asked them about tips to keep things low budget. They said to try to eat local.

It was so very true you know.

The other day in the shop I saw “witloof” (chicory). I love that vegetable!

I decided to buy it, but I didn’t really check the price. It’s only when I received the ticket after paying that I saw how expensive it was! I paid 3,4$ (+/-2€) for the chicory you can see in my picture. The tomato is not even included in that 2€.

My jaw dropped to the floor.

Dear colleagues of “Proefcentrum Herent”; I miss you… and witloof… and the ice cream on Wednesdays :p

I enjoyed that meal. I will probably not eat chicory in the next 10 months. Its just waaaaaaaay too expensive!

Elly and John were right. Try to eat local, that’s cheaper.

Driving from Gisborne to Napier I saw an older guy next to the road selling avocado’s. I pulled over and bought one for 0,80$ (0,50€)! I never buy avocados in Belgium but I bet you can’t find them for 50 cent. I also bought some lemons from the guy. At least I thought they were lemons. He told me they were yellow limes. I thought limes were always green. The guy was very kind! (2,5$ for 5 limes =+/- 2€)

A few kilometers further I saw a sign of people selling nectarines. I absolutely love nectarines. So again I pulled over and bought some. I saw they were a bit smaller than the once you get in Belgium. The guy told me they were “early nectarines”. So I’ll have to buy the big ones later this season. (2$ for 4 nectarines =+/-1,5=€)

Another few kilometers later I saw another shop selling local fruit and vegetables. In this shop I bought a sweet potato (gold kumara) and a feijoa-flavored ice cream. I had never heard of feijoa (fruit) so it seemed like the time to try it. My ice cream wasn’t supposed to look pink but because the woman before me ordered a strawberry ice cream (and they use the same machine) my ice cream looked pink. (Don’t remember the price here)

In the grocery store I saw the golden kiwis for 2,79$ (2 something €) which is cheap! So I bought them. But… it’s not kiwi-season… That might have been the reason why the kiwis were so cheap. I should have known because I met some German guys working on a kiwi-farm. They told me it’s not kiwi-season yet.

These are probably the worst kiwi’s I ever ate. Bah. At least they were cheap, haha.

I absolutely loved the Sundays farmer market in Hastings!!! It's a good place to find local stuff. Things were a bit more expensive here though so I didn't buy much.

The last thing I did so far was walking to “Kidnappers cape”. I read that when Captain Cook (the guy that thought he was the first one to find NZ) tried to sail around this point of the country, the Maori-guys thought that a Tahiti-guy on board was there against his will. So they “freed” him from the crew. Actually that guy was part of the crew so later on he tried to escape from the Maori and made it back to his crew. That’s why Captain Cook named this place: Kidnappers cape.

Walking there has to be done at low tide. It takes about 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get back. In this season you get to see big groups of gannets at the end of the walk, they’re breeding right now.

This is where I met the first Belgian but German-speaking girl ever. There aren’t many native German-speaking Belgians you know… It was a nice walk!