Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Oh I couldn’t WAIT to get to New Zealand!!


Ever since I lived in Australia, New Zealand was always on my list to visit. It was a main reason why I decided to join the ship. I didn’t have enough money after traveling around Australia, so I left the area with a lil bit of sadness because I never knew if I was going to ever make it back to this part of the world.

Auckland was the first stop for the ship. I was so excited! Now It wasn’t the sunny, warm New Zealand everyone was expecting. I knew it wasn’t going to be because they are just starting spring. It’ll be like we are back in Alaska. Lol.
The ship docks right in downtown Auckland which is awesome. Right now the rugby world cup is going on. The security is really strict too.

My tour started out with a really friendly guide. We headed to the west coast of the north island. Auckland sits on the east coast. You could see the hills in the distance, and we were headed to them.

Our first stop was in one village, not to far from Piha Beach. It was a small hike to see this really cool waterfall. Like I said before waterfalls are kinda getting old, but I always like seeing them regardless. Lol.


We headed to Piha Beach. I loved it! Really Soft sand! Nice views. It was a bit chilly, but it didn’t matter. Massive waves too! I loved shooting there, some of my best video composition for me. It looked a lot like my still photography. It’s where I kinda realized that I need to start shooting video like I do with the still camera. The wind was blowing something fierce, so it made the sand sparkle, and the patterns that it blew across the beach were just so cool looking.

After, we headed to a national park where they have Kauri trees. Now, these trees are really desired. They grow really straight, and they don’t have branches so, the wood produces nice grain with no holes in it. When the Europeans came to New Zealand back in the day, they cut all these trees down because the wood was so great. They cut down trees that were about 2000 years old, allegedly. The live tree that I saw was only 80 years old, that one was massive! I would have loved to see an tree that is 2000 years old. I gotta make my way to the parks in California to see the redwood trees. Yeah, I don’t know, I have a thing for trees. Lol.

We headed to the Arataki center. It was basically a center for the nature in the area, and describes a lil bit of the culture that is there. It wasn’t my favorite stop. Nice view though.

All in all, I liked the tour. Good, first impression of the people and area. After, I got to go about the city a lil bit with Joe. It was a good day. ☺

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