If anyone ever finds themselves in the Bay of Islands, I would thoroughly recommend they stay at Cook’s Lookout (the above photo is evidence as to why). Though I was slightly disappointed in discovering that the fantastically named owners, Norm and Sheila, were from Liverpool. Still, Cook’s Lookout was a brilliant two-night stopover in the breathtakingly beautiful Paihia (pronounced Pie-hee-uh, and not, as my mother insisted, Pie-high).
The Bay of Islands is my new answer to anyone who asks me where I would emigrate to, and for many good reasons. The sheer gorgeousness (is that a word?) was one, the friendly people were another (though it must be noted that, of these lovely people, one was from Derby, two from Liverpool and one from Ireland), and the general atmosphere was a finishing flourish.
But the boat trip we took was the cherry on top of a fantastic location. What with the warm (if cloudy) weather, top-deck seats and the tall, rather gorgeous Kiwi who charmingly gave me a hand onto the boat (I suffered a sudden and brief loss of balance on approach...it was very odd...), I was already pretty happy. But the three hour trip had only just begun. Even though my dolphin phase was several years ago, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see bottlenose dolphins in the wild, and that was before they started doing somersaults (and, less fortunately, mating) a foot away from our boat. I’m a sucker for boat trips anyway, but this one surpassed all others; performing wild dolphins, gorgeous crew, witty tour guides, fascinating stories and beautiful islands. My grin was virtually splitting my face.
I could have happily stayed on that boat all day, despite the cloudy weather. Though, apparently, the New Zealand sun pwns (I can’t believe I used that term either...jet lag is setting in...) all obstacles, clouds included, and I have once again been bitten in the arse by the Gods of sunburn. I’m particularly sore (pun...get it?) about this occasion, partly because there was no effing sun visible, but mainly because I was wearing sunglasses all day, and thus am sporting the oh-so-sexy anti-panda eyes. That, plus a recent lack of access to competent straighteners has resulted in the vision of perfection you see below. (I don’t know why I put that photo on the internet either.)
The Bay of Islands is my new answer to anyone who asks me where I would emigrate to, and for many good reasons. The sheer gorgeousness (is that a word?) was one, the friendly people were another (though it must be noted that, of these lovely people, one was from Derby, two from Liverpool and one from Ireland), and the general atmosphere was a finishing flourish.
But the boat trip we took was the cherry on top of a fantastic location. What with the warm (if cloudy) weather, top-deck seats and the tall, rather gorgeous Kiwi who charmingly gave me a hand onto the boat (I suffered a sudden and brief loss of balance on approach...it was very odd...), I was already pretty happy. But the three hour trip had only just begun. Even though my dolphin phase was several years ago, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see bottlenose dolphins in the wild, and that was before they started doing somersaults (and, less fortunately, mating) a foot away from our boat. I’m a sucker for boat trips anyway, but this one surpassed all others; performing wild dolphins, gorgeous crew, witty tour guides, fascinating stories and beautiful islands. My grin was virtually splitting my face.
I could have happily stayed on that boat all day, despite the cloudy weather. Though, apparently, the New Zealand sun pwns (I can’t believe I used that term either...jet lag is setting in...) all obstacles, clouds included, and I have once again been bitten in the arse by the Gods of sunburn. I’m particularly sore (pun...get it?) about this occasion, partly because there was no effing sun visible, but mainly because I was wearing sunglasses all day, and thus am sporting the oh-so-sexy anti-panda eyes. That, plus a recent lack of access to competent straighteners has resulted in the vision of perfection you see below. (I don’t know why I put that photo on the internet either.)
Anyway, this morning I was dragged (kicking and screaming) from the Bay of Islands and back to Auckland. Here we met up with an old friend of my mum’s, who was – thankfully – exactly how I like my family friends to be; talkative, blunt and slightly batty. The fact that she promised I could stay with her in my gap year and has a 6’4’’ son didn’t exactly embitter me towards her, either.
I was all geared up to say that Auckland had been a bit of a disappointment, but this morning I saw it from a whole new angle. Literally. My brother and I both jumped off the Sky Tower (the tallest building in New Zealand), which - to give you the statistics that meant nothing to me - is 192 metres, 630 feet, 11 seconds of freefall high. That's big. And I have to say, it was not as terrifying as I expected it to be -- my knees held out throughout being suited up, all the way up the lift, during the thousands of checks and even whilst walking onto the platform. The only moment where I really felt The Fear was when my toes were hanging off the edge, I was staring down at nearly 200 metres of air and the guy said "3...2...1 GO!" By the time he got to '2', I literally had every instinct in my body screaming abuse at me: "WE HAVE KEPT YOU ALIVE FOR SEVENTEEN AND A HALF YEARS, ONLY FOR YOU TO THROW YOURSELF OFF A BLOODY BUILDING ON PURPOSE?!?!!?!??" (Which, coincidentally, was more or less my mother's attitude as well.) But the free fall was absolutely incredible, and I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't made physically ill by heights...
That should have been the highlight of the day, but then we drove down to an area called Matamata, which was the location used for Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings. Now, for those of you who don't know, I am a hardcore film geek, and Lord of the Rings is a particular point of nerdiness in me - I was in heaven. Especially since after the initial trilogy was filmed, the 'hobbit holes' at Matamata had been demolished, and all that was left were plywood fronts and big empty circles where doors used to be. BUT....they are of course re-using the set for the filming of The Hobbit, which begins production some time next year. Cue; embarrassing levels of excitement. This basically means that they have rebuilt the Hobbiton set from scratch, and not only does it look EXACTLY the same as it did in the original films, but there are EXTRA BITS!!! And these are so secretive, that I had to sign a contract saying I wouldn't post my Hobbiton photos on the internet :P So obviously I can't really expand, other than to say that it was one of the nerdiest, and happiest, afternoons of my existence.
So, all in all, it's hard to see how the rest of the holiday is really going to compare......
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