University has finished for me for another year so that
means I am going away on my usual big trip that will always for some time be in
New Zealand. Not only just to see family, but to see more of the country that I
have not seen before especially new towns that I have either gone through or
not been to that are interesting. By now I seem to have stopped within nearly
all bigger towns in the North Island. Lets say there is still plenty to explore
and I can only go so far by bus before sorting something else out like a tour.
The last time I did two bigish tours or trips to another
country in the one year was back in 2010 when I visited England twice for the
reason other than to visit a girl and I will try not to follow my heart like
that again as its annoying. I did need the rest at the time too after failing
one unit at university, but that was due to being over worked and coming back
to work the day after landing. I just never got over the jetlag. This time I am
trying to line my trips away back to where they usually are as last year I
never did that due to a concert that got in the way, but was happy I seen ACDC.
I found since I work in retail it makes life tougher if you go on holidays when
school is out with fellow workers who are parents who also want to spend time
with their kids. I am happy to work with them for a compromise and I got it
with Waitangi Day.
This time around I am going to a few new places and some old
ones. I quickly planned and then put in for holidays. By accident I placed an
extra week without realising what I had done. This worked out pretty well as I
could stay longer with family and add several extra locations to the trip. I
was going to fly to Auckland and hop onto the earliest bus after I landed to
Hamilton, but remembered last time I flew we were delayed by a big storm on the
Gold Coast. We were over an hour late landing and I don’t want to lose like
that again. Luckily I never had anything other than the city to stay in.
This trip I am heading to, Hamilton, Huntly, Whakatane,
Gisborne, Whangarei, Waiheke Island and Kaitaia. I am wanting to visit places
like White Island an active volcano and Waiheke, I didn’t know about until mum came
home from two weeks away in New Zealand. I managed to find a reasonably priced
cottage there and will learn some lessons about staying on an island. Since I
will be in Auckland for around 5 days I have plans to visit the national archives
and other areas like Manakau for the Botanic gardens. Elsewhere I will plan
closer to the time especially when I know there are some heritage trails.
Huntly I made a stop at on a whim as I have never been there other than on the
bus and learnt it has a coal field museum. Sounds like an interesting place to
visit, rough, but nice.
Planning some transport around Auckland seems to have become
easier with the At Hop card, which I think is universal in the city. I remember
last time I needed two cards depending on where I wanted to travel on the bus
like to Motat and Bastion Point. As I do, I look at the routes the airport bus
takes and since I will be going to Waiheke Island I wanted to get the bus from
Britomart to upper Queen street around Grafton Bridge. The journey planner on the
website is funny as it told me to walk to my finishing location. 24 mins walk
it told me up hill as I had done that once before after doing the train from
Wellington to Auckland. Hot hard walk with a heavy bag and then a very steep
street. I have learnt to keep going up Queen street and then go around the back
way due to the flat ground.
After seeing an article about riding motorcycles around the
world including how you can do a tour to Base camp of Everest, I thought that
next year I can hire a Spyder and tour the South Island. It will have to take
in some thought and research, but I think it will be a good idea. I don’t want
to go with other people as its something I want to do on my own. There are many
places to visit like Haast, Gore, Bluff and even see the Dusky Sounds. I have
been to some of the locations like Dunedin and Christchurch. I will keep that
in mind and see what happens next year.
