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| my route through NZ |
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| Auckland Skyline |
at last i have made my way up to Auckland. not the capital of New Zealand but by far the largest city in the land.roughly 1.3 million people live in the sprawling metropolis. there are only 4 million people in this country one third are in this city. it was a little bit of a shock to arrive in the Auckland area after spending the past 5 weeks in mostly smaller unpopulated regions of the country. i moved up the center of the North Island to lake Taupo and then spent a couple days in the very touristy town of Rotorua,the center of Maori culture and major hotspot of geothermal activity. there are hot springs seemly everywhere surrounding this town which is accompanied by a distinct and ubiquitous sulphouric smell. from here i had to decide if i was to go east or west and eventually decided to send my trajectory west to the famous surf town of Raglan. this mellow/chic town is best known for its surf. Eight kilometers from the Raglan township is a series of surf breaks including Indicators, Whale Bay, Manu Bay and Vortex Bay. Manu Bay was featured in the 1966 movie The Endless Summer and has one of the longest left hand point breaks in the world. i figured that this would be as good a place as any to give surfing a try so i signed on at the Raglan Surf School for a 3 hour lesson. unfortunately it was a gloomy overcast day and the wave conditions
were not very good but i did manage to learn the basics and was able to stand up on the board a few times and got a small taste of the surfing sensation. perhaps when i am in Australia i will be to commit some more time to this amazing sport.
from Raglan i spent a night camping at a hot springs resort and the next day rode to a town on the outskirts of Auckland and put myself and bike on a bus into the city. i am glad that i did not ride into the heart of the city as the traffic looked treacherous.
so i now have a few days here in the big city before flying to Melbourne, Australia. From Melbourne i will take a ferry over to Tasmania for x-mas and new years, very much looking forward to the vast landscape in the land down under.
i have had a great time here in New Zealand and very happy with how things have unfolded although in hindsight i would have spent more time exploring the South Island.
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| camp at Waingamo Hot Springs |
My impressions of New Zealand:
a very impressive country with a large variety of natural wonders. beautiful and diverse landscape filled with mountains ,volcanoes, hot springs,fjords and glaciers (and 40 million sheep). a new country with a rich history inhabited by the indigenous people of Polynesian decent. unfortunately it seems that due to globalization or perhaps westernization New Zealand has adopted most of their cultural traits from the British and more recently the United States. New Zealanders seem to be a very proper bunch with a sometimes staunch emphasis on order and obedience.
as a bike tourist here there are some difficulties to deal with. such as the small size roads with a very limited shoulder. the magpie birds dive bomb cyclists in the spring time when they are protecting their nests. if you are within a couple hundred meters of their nest they will follow you from behind and dive down and nail you on the head with their feet and beaks. some people even go as far as painting eyes on top of their helmet as they will not attack if you are looking at them. the weather can also be very unpredictable with a lot strong winds and rain moving in unexpectedly.
I have learned a lot from this place. Thank you New Zealand!
