Hi friends! I want to continue sharing my journies in New Zealand. When I think back to my time in New Zealand, it feels like a whole other universe. New Zealand is such a peaceful country, boasting more sheep than humans. I lived in New Zealand in 2014 while studying abroad at the University of Auckland. However, I did not want to be in the center of the city, so I ended up WWOOFing on a farm 1 hour west of Auckland. I also wanted to see as much of the country as I could, so I found a "hop-on hop-off" bus company called Stray. Basically, I bought a "bus pass" of a certain route that allowed me to hop on and hop off the bus whenever I wanted to. The buses ranged from 10-40 passengers and one amazing bus driver, who was also the guide. It was an amazing way to meet other travelers from so many different countries. It also offered an easy way to travel, which I don't usually prefer, but when I was juggling a full course load and working on a farm, I didn't have much time to plan my travels or flexibility to "get lost".
I bought a bus pass that looped around both the North Island and South Island. My first leg of the trip started in Auckland, and I began to explore the most Northern part of the North Island. I wrote about the beginning of that journey in a post here. We had just returned from a beautiful day at Cape Reinga, the most northern tip of New Zealand, and settled back into our hostel in Paihia in the Bay of Islands. The next morning we woke up and set off on a long and wonderous hike.
We decided to do the full circle hike around the Bay of Islands. It was around 11 miles and took around 6 hours (including stopping for lunch and hanging out in Russel for a while). We started walking along the coastline in Paihia, heading towards Opua. Along the way I saw a beautiful rock pile in the shallows of the bay, setting the stage for a perfect day.
One of my favorite activities to do while traveling is hiking. Where do I even begin? I think it's a great way to slow down and take in a new environment, a wonderful way to meet fellow travelers and locals, a great change of pace from all of the sitting and driving that happens while traveling, and hiking overall just makes me happy :-) I had a wonderful time getting to know other travelers on the bus throughout the day.
The sky was clear, the weather was perfect, and we passed through so many different environments! We walked through marshlands, hugged the shoreline while dipping our hands in the bay, walked through canopied forests, and walked next to rolling hills of farmland.
Once we arrived at Opua, we waited for the ferry to take us across to Okaito. From Okaito, we still had 10 more miles to get to Russel, and some fun hills were waiting for us. We entered into a forest canopy with huge ferns that transported me to the dinosaur era.
We hiked, and hiked, and hiked some more...
And yet no one wanted to eat lunch until we reached Russel, except for me...
But views like this kept me going on a grumbly stomach...
We made it to Russel! Russel is an adorable little town filled with B&B's and gift shops. It has a cute "beach" on the waterfront that we layed our blankets down and rested. A few of us even took a quick dip in the cold water. We ate our sandwiches and fruit, and I wandered into a chocolate shop (how could I not?).
We then took the ferry back to Paihia, and enjoyed our journey back through the many islands of the area. We finished off the day with some gentle yoga, a dip in the hostel's hottub, and all slept like babies that night.
The next day, we woke up and set off to the kayak rentels. We hopped in our single kayaks and set out into the bay to explore the 144 islands in the area. There were SO MANY islands to explore!!! The water was mostly calm, but there were some choppy areas that made the journey even more fun. Any time we came across an intriguing island, we would kayak to the shore and start exploring. We practiced some hatha yoga on one island, some acro yoga on another, and just flopped around on yet another.
We didn't take any photos on this journey, as our cameras and phones were not waterproof. It was a truely unique kayaking journey, and seems otherworldly while remembering the day. In the afternoon, we kayaked back to land and hopped in the bus to return to Auckland. So long to the Bay of Islands, you will always hold sweet memories for me!
We returned to Auckland by that evening, and I headed to a hostel close to University of Auckland. I was studying abroad at the time, and my first day of classes was the very next morning at 8am! That night I wandered around the park in between my hostel and the University, and there was a huge festival, the Auckland Lantern Festival. It was such an interesting experience, as I realized how many Chinese people had moved to New Zealand and were mostly living around the Auckland area. Throughout my time in New Zealand, race relations kept on uncovering, and I learned how much tension there is between Caucasian New Zealanders and immigrants of other ethnicities. I headed back to my hostel, and was excited for the next day to journey into a new university setting. I went to my first classes the next day and immediately fell in love with my International Development class, where my professor was highly critical of development work and taught from a Foucauldian lens (discourse and power).
After my classes were over, I took the train about 1.5 hours west of Auckland to meet the lovely couple who owned the farm that I would be WWOOFing on for the next four months. I wrote about that experience in another post that you can find here. I will forever be grateful for my experience at SingingHeart Farm, and for the lessons and haven that New Zealand offered me.
Awesome photos!
Sounds like a nice journey! We really love travelling! :D
(We will follow you! :))
Those fuzzy trees are awesome!
Beautiful photos. I need to visit new Zealand. Great post! liked and Followed
Happy to have found you. Nice write-up and travel story. Now I want to plan my next trip to New Zealand. :)
Amazing story!
Hi @anwenbaumeister,
I would really love to visit New Zealand in the future. What would be your advice for beginner on how to manage and save your money, since traveling can be expensive?
Also, thank you for sharing your experience with us!!
Thanks for a great question! I think I'll do a blog post specifically about that this week. Some tips off the top of my head...
For free accommodations and work exchanges - couchsurfing, WWOOFing, workaway.info, helpx, staying in a hostel for $
For food - making your own food, in NZ coffee was usually $5 per cup so I carried around a french press and my own coffee grounds, and made sandwiches for the road
For travel - taking buses, hitchhiking (super safe in NZ and pretty common)
NZ also offers 1 year work visas for US, Canadian, and UK citizens
I hope that helps!
Wow. I love your pictures..that was an amazing story. Hicking is awsome an all but trying to continue to keep going when your hungry is hard lol.. glad you had a great time can't wait to see more from you +1follower
This one is beautiful and you are looking resplendent
upvoted and followed
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Great pictures! When I get to college maybe I will go there too. You are lucky!
New Zealand is very good country to travel, very peaceful, libaral and resourceful with nature beauty.
You should write something about costing and budgeting and best time to travel in very concisely rather than vast writing.
Wow! Beautiful place and pictures. Big fan of travelling here. Looking forward for more posts of travelling!
Very beautiful place and photographed very well. Upvoted and resteemed.
These are places that are definitely worth visiting.
Wow, you went from one end of the world to another such a nice place.
I love to see those ferns growing on the tree like that from the first shot.
wow...very beautiful....just amazing.
Cool , check my posts too , follow back. thanks.
My Niece and her Family have recently moved there, What a Beautiful Place. I see no Photos of Hobbits?, or even Elves?
travel is also one of my passions but due to lack of proper support and finance i will add this to my future destinations list, right now i will only explore local beauty of nature...
New Zealand is a paradise. Such a wonderful place to visit! Nice story Anwen!
it's really amazing & beatiful!
gotta visit it
Hi sir,
An awesome adventurer your are. You have completed an amazing journey. Dont be stagnant now,I wish you shall travel the world. Loved your photos. :-)
@nilesh.sharma3
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Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing. Check out my travel posts as well! Followed!
Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing. The colors are so bright and vibrant!
@anwenbaumeister the kayaking looked like an amazing trip with views of the islands. Let's hope you get a waterproof camera for your next trip!
Great post. Lovely photos. I have plan to visit Australia, but New Zealand truly looks like paradise.
@anwenbaumister v nice upvoted
Here is my article i hope you like it ...thanks
https://steemit.com/travel/@diverse-thinker/journey-to-the-white-palace-1
I've traveled to New Zealand, and my favorite part about new Zealand was getting the opportunity to bungee jump of the Kuwari bridge (not sure if I spelled that right) and ice hike Fox Glacier. Awesome you were there too!
Good place for nature loving people.
Wow! What beautiful pictures.
Thanks for bring me to New Zealand!
Everyone says such great things about NZ.
I hope I can make it out there someday :)
Very cool. NZ looks amazing! I did some WOOFing 12 years ago in Spain and it was a great experience.
Awesome experience and a valuable one for life! Our travels through south america and africa were truly rewarding and a life changer! Follow back if you might be interested:)
I've always wonder life in NZ. Such a beautiful country. Reading post about it just make me more exciting to plan my trip. Hope to visit it next year :D
Beautiful photos, would love to take my family over for a holiday! One day maybe.
New Zealand is definitely on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing your pictures, they're beautiful!
Wow its so amazing . I want to go their in near future :)
Omg i would love to do this, amazing post
Hope you keep making post like that. I feel verry good vibes after reading the post :)))