makumaro.net is the rented space of HC Mak, built on Back from Kiwiland.
It’s been an exciting experience, at least something different from the day to day cityscape of Melbourne. As it was Easter break from Vyanne, it was the only chance we had to hop on a plane for a week’s holiday somewhere else.
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Arrived in Auckland around midnight, and didn’t see many cars on the roads. I guess, the rest of what I’d say would be in contrast to Melbourne (or some other Australian city I’ve been to) as that’s the only thing I have a direct comparison to.
On the first day in Auckland, we got up early and my friend cj (who’s place I was staying at) drove us down to Rotorua. It’s about 300km south of Auckland and the trip took around 3 hours. Stopped by for McDonalds (universal food) and had my first go at using New Zealand dollars. They use the same materials as Australian currency but have chosen rather drab colours to represent their notes. New Zealand coins are also much smaller as the ones a few years back were too big and bulky, hence the changeover. There are also no 1c or 5c coins involved, so things from 1 to 5 are rounded down to 0 and 6 to 9 are rounded up.
Loaded up on breakfast muffins there and continued on our journey. Auckland is much greener than Melbourne is now, and there’s plenty of foliage all around. It’s also more hilly and you find yourself going up and down rolling hills.
Arrived at Rotorua late in the morning and after stopping by the info centre, made our way to Waiotapo Geyser park. Everything is distanced a fair bit away and we needed another 20 minutes to reach our destination. Have to mention that Rotorua smells a little like egg salad (contrary to what my friend thinks) due to the sulphur spewing out from the geysers. Heh, went to see mud pools and smoke.
After all that, made our way to a prawn farm about 40 minutes drive away. Yes, it’s a prawn farm, and for $15 you can fish for prawns as long as you like plus whatever you catch you get to keep. The catch is you fish with a stick and a string. Heh, we came here only because cj had friends doing just that here. Being lazy, we just made our way to the accompanying restaurant and had our fill of prawns. Ordered some prawn pate with bread and a kilo of small prawns plus a bowl of chips. Feasted while taking in the scenery nearby.
After eating, it was already quite late by the time we got back to Rotorua. Only managed one more activity before the sun had completely gone. Rotorua is actually a tourist attraction and there’s a variety of activities you could do if you were interested. There was white water rafting, spelunking, rolling down a hill in a ball or just riding go karts based on gravity down a hill. The last bit was what we actually did. The activity is called the Luge and basically you take a gondola up a hill and you seat yourself in some plastic with wheels, the only control being a steering wheel and a stick to slow down the cart, with everything else left to gravity.
That was real fun and by the time it ended, the wind and air was quite chilly. cj drove all the way back to Auckland, and it was another 3 hour trip. Got back to the city and got a guided tour. Saw the outskirts of the University of Auckland. Then had one of the better Japanese dinners I knew of. The place is called Ken Yakitori Bar, and they served a variety of exotic Japanese dishes. Camembert cheese wrapped in a wanton skin and deepfried served with marmalade for example.
And this was the highlight of the first day in Auckland. Pictures to follow.
