The air is different in New Zealand. It just is. When I take a deep breath here, I feel energised, energised in a way that I don’t at home. This could be addictive…

At the end of Australia, I’d been travelling through Asia and Australasia for 4 months, travel fatigue had started to set in and my excitement levels for New Zealand had waned considerably. People always say that New Zealand is incredible, a life changing experience even, but I didn’t care, I wanted to go home. How quickly things change. Auckland was a fantastic city. As nice as my Australia favourite Adelaide, not in the same league as Sydney, but with a population of only 4.3 million people, New Zealand couldn’t have a mega city like that. Even Auckland, its’ most populace city with 1.3 million residents, feels very sparsely populated and light on people. It is lovely though. Businesses like Deloitte and PWC have set up shop here, there’s plenty of money coming in and a fair bit to do but it has this small city charm that’s just so at odds with its relatively high population. I don’t know how they managed that. The Sky Tower here is the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand and the viewing level (138m high), is the highest point you can be at in any New Zealand city. It felt a little strange with the Christmas lights and such still up on the streets and in the shopping centres (I saw a very different, much shitter version of Westfield here) but it was very nice walking around. Jill found another ‘Lush’ shop here, making it four countries she’s now seen them in (America, England, Australia and now New Zealand), and we had dinner at a Thai place. I ended up eating chicken larb though. I really didn’t think I’d ever eat that again after leaving Laos, I really need to find a place that sells it back home. The weather was overcast and very reminiscent of home, I was reassuringly informed the next day that the highest temperature Auckland sees (Auckland being the city furthest up New Zealand and thus closest to the equator), is around 26 or 27. Fantastic! No Cairns and Mission Beach style oven makings for me!

We left our Auckland hostel, Base, and caught a taxi to the campervan place. The only problem being that Jill wasn’t nearly as good with her choice of vehicle this time around. Campervan? Mini-van more like! It was a people carrier, a fucking people carrier! This would not be as comfortable as our campervan in Australia and it took a while for the shock to subside. Nonetheless, we made the most of it and set off.

The beautiful New Zealand countryside, beautiful in a way that Australia wasn’t, had a very calming effect on me. I could feel the stress leaving my body. Driving this automatic barely felt like driving at all, it was very relaxing. We drove through Otorohanga and arrived in the world famous Waitomo at around 2pm. After we’d rearranged our ‘camper’ and put our bags into the storage areas we had, things were looking much better. Also, when Jill was clearing up she found a six pack of beer! And four of them were still in there, unopened! We left the caravan park in good spirits and headed towards our first activity of New Zealand, the Ruakuri bushwalk trail. Ruakuri is one of the most stunning caves in the Waitomo region and as such, this trail did not disappoint. We walked through a trail covered with thick vegetation and forest, saw rivers as they entered and exited various cave openings and even walked through small sections of Ruakuri cave itself. The trail was very picturesque and very easily accessible. You’d normally have to travel quite far outside a city to see something like this but here we were, only 2 and a half hours from New Zealand’s most populace city and we couldn’t have felt further from civilisation. There was an incredible feeling of being one with nature, a feeling of remoteness and isolation but there were people so nearby. These ancient caves and trees were stunning and this was only the beginning of our New Zealand adventure. There was so much more to come, I quickly realised that I’d come to love this place. And it wouldn’t take very long.

Not very long indeed. A month before my trip began I asked Jill what her six most anticipated activities of Australia and New Zealand were. I also wrote such a list. With the wealth of activities we’d be doing, the rich beauty and natural wonder of the places we’d be visiting, I managed to write a list with only six things on it. And at the top of that list? The thing I’d be doing today. Of all the incredible things I’d be doing, the tour of a New Zealand cave system was my most anticipated activity. This tour was carrying a huge weight of expectation from me but you know what? It still blew me away. The Black Abyss Tour by the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company was absolutely amazing. There are not enough superlatives for this adventure activity, black water rafting is just amazing.

Tom and Andy, our fantastic tour guides, showed us the ropes (literally) and made sure we knew what we were doing. Soon after that we began our tour, starting with the 35 metre abseil down into the stunning Ruakuri cave. There were some very narrow sections on the descent, narrow enough that claustrophobics would not have had an easy time of it. Going down into a pitch black hole with no idea how far away the bottom is wasn’t an easy proposition to begin with though. On the bottom we waited for everyone else before walking a short section on the very uneven and rocky cave floor. We were walking to a zipline in the cave. Tom hooked us up and we were off. I’ve been on a number of ziplines by this point, including a 100 metre long one, high above the rainforest canopy in Langkawi but this, this was something else. Flying down a zipline of any length in pitch black darkness is a very cool experience. Another rocky walk after that and we were at our inner tubes. We sat down with our legs dangling over the edge of the rocks for a bit. Like every other point in the cave it was pitch black, the only illumination was from our head lights. The underground river was about 2 metres below our feet, if I leaned over my knees I could see my headlight reflected in it. We had some hot chocolate and something like a flapjack. Before, you guessed it; we jumped in to the river with our inner tubes held firmly against our arses! We each generated a thunderous noise upon contact with the river. The water was bloody freezing! Tom got some good pictures of us jumping in. We paddled a bit (our arses were still in the tube so we used our hands) to a rope that was attached to one of the cave walls. We pulled ourselves upstream using the rope, my arms were pretty tired by the end of it, we must have been going for about 15-20 minutes. The surroundings were amazing. Our headlights were providing only a faint illumination but I could still make out that this cave was massive, the cave ceiling went up really far. And on that ceiling there were hundreds, no thousands, of tiny blue lights. Glow worms (or as we were later informed, glow maggots). They were beautiful and we got a much better look shortly when our lights were out. At the end of the rope we pulled ourselves up and climbed onto some rocks. We walked along them for about 10 metres before coming to another point from which we could jump. Inner tubes held firmly against our bums, in we went again. This time though we were going with the current. We all turned off our headlights, I took Jill’s hand and we floated down the river in darkness, the cave ceiling faintly visible because of the glow ‘worms’ (glow maggots doesn’t sound as nice). We briefly came to a stop by a cave wall so Tom could give us a closer look at the worms and show us the fine, dangling, spider web like threads they spin to catch food. He explained how it is that they glow (apparently, it’s their physical waste), this was also when he told us that they’re maggots, not worms. We formed a long line after that, there were 8 of us and we each put our feet under the arms of the person in front. I was on the end. As we drifted down that cave in darkness, the only illumination coming from glowing worms on the ceiling and walls, it became so easy to let the rest of the world slide away. Any stress that you might have in your body, it just evaporates, it fades away. I’m only 3 days into my New Zealand adventure and I’ve already been treated to one of the most incredible sights I’ve ever seen.

When we arrived back at our starting point, we threw our tube up to Andy (who was on the rocks that we had first jumped from) and continued with Tom down what’s called the drunken walk. Because of the uneven rocks and relatively fast flowing water, it simulates being drunk without you having drank anything. Walking down it was pretty fun, there were few sections where the cave ceiling dipped down very low, low enough that there was maybe only a foot between the water and the top of the cave. Those sections were really narrow too. Going through them was interesting. The water got pretty rough in places, there was this really cool slide the guys had set up when we got to our first mini waterfall too. It wasn’t very long and the angle of descent was pretty shallow but it was cool. We were wading through some very deep water in that cave and with pretty rough and slippery terrain underfoot. I was submerged to my neck so with the exception of the only other guy on the tour, everyone else had to swim those sections. There were some more low ceilings and narrow passages too. We had a short break after that. Tom and Andy treated us to some chocolate and hot lemon juice. It was the calm before the storm. Our time in the cave was coming to an end and there were two ways back to the top: a path filled with, as Tom put it, bunnies, beer and good times, or a gruesome, spirit destroying slog that would put us all to the test and shake us to our very core. Guess what we picked?

No prizes for getting it right! Really tight, narrow tunnels to squeeze through (Jill’s mild claustrophobia was tested), water up to our necks and real, unassisted rock climbing. We squeezed through a narrow tunnel only to be greeted by a raging waterfall. It wouldn’t have looked very big if seen from afar but because the cavern it was feeding into was so small, it seemed immense. There was definitely a huge volume of water passing through every second. Being right under it was savage. It was dumping rocks along with the water so we had to stay clear of the main flow but the dense spray coming off of it was only amplified by the close quarters. You couldn’t see unless you squinted and it was difficult to hear what even the person next to you was saying. Our backs hugged the cavern wall as we made our way around from the back of the waterfall to the front. We were going to fucking climb this beast! There were plenty of places to put our hands and feet but it was tight and there were no safety ropes. It was only wide enough for one person to go through at a time but if you slipped and took a drop there was a good chance you’d die. Once we’d scaled it and were at the top we had to climb another waterfall! At the top of that one there was one more tight, narrow, almost flooded tunnel to crawl through before the first signs of daylight were visible. We climbed a little more before finally, we had reached the surface! The sun was a glorious sight after having been 25 metres underground in a flooded, pitch black cave. We took some more pictures by a small waterfall at the cave exit (or entrance depending on which way you were going) and started our hike back to the van.

Continuing on from the previous picture post, our last day in Byron Bay was on Christmas Eve. When I was planning our trip originally, I wasn’t sure where we’d be for Christmas, but luckily Helen and Frank, a couple we had also met on our trip in Africa, generously offered to let us spend the holidays with their family. They picked us up in Byron Bay and gave us a tour of the coastline on the way down to their house. First we stopped right near by at the Byron Bay lighthouse, the easternmost point in Australia.

Although for both of us, spending Christmas away from home was very different, I think for me especially, it was strange just to have the warm weather and not have any snow. Hearing Winter Wonderland on the radio just didn’t seem right when the temperatures were in the 80s and the sun was brightly shining. Helen and Frank made us feel a part of their Christmas though, and we participated in a normal Australian activity – visiting the beach on Christmas.

Staying at their house for a couple days made us feel part of the family, and Jaz was especially happy to be able to have a new dog to play with. Certainly no one protested when Jaz volunteered to walk the dog each day! (I told him it could be his practice since he so badly wants a dog now.)

After our morning enjoying the waves at the beach, we drove down to pick up Helen’s uncle and headed to her brother’s house where we had a lovely Christmas dinner. (And in case anyone is wondering, because I didn’t know what Christmas crackers were, they are party favor type things that include paper crowns.)

Leaving Helen and Frank’s, we headed to our final stop in Australia, Sydney. Because of the craziness over New Year’s, many places require minimum lengths of stay, so we spent the longest time out of any city there, a whole week. Our only major activity we had planned was to climb the Sydney Harbor bridge. Billed as an adventure activity, it was more of a sightseeing tour, but still tons of fun to be able to walk up the steel onto the very top of the bridge, where we saw fabulous views of the harbor. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take our cameras up onto the bridge, I guess the fear of it being dropped onto a passing car below are slightly justified.

The week in Sydney was overall a lot of fun, but our main purpose for being there was to celebrate New Year’s Eve on the harbor with the fireworks. I had scoped out where we should sit on my previous visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens, and the night before looked up the gate times. We arrived at 8 am since the gates opened at 10 am to find several thousand people already lined up waiting to get a spot on the lawn.

By noon we had made it through the security check to our location for the day, slightly farther back than I had wanted, but still a great view of the bridge and Opera House. Waiting the whole day was not as boring as one might think, I mostly read and napped and Jaz did a lot of people watching (and napping as well).

Sydney this year had a 7 million dollar budget for fireworks, and after the 9 pm display for the kids, we knew we were going to be impressed with the midnight ones. A minute before midnight, the countdown began, and everyone rushed down to the front of the lawn to get the best view.

Since not much can compare to New Year’s Eve in Sydney, the rest of our time there we spent relaxing and exploring the city. We took a ferry out to see the views on the harbor; we also walked the old section of town in The Rocks.

I had finally become accustomed to Australia in the almost two months we spent there, and to be leaving was a little bittersweet. Just looking again at my spreadsheet (again, not ridiculously long) though was enough to make me excited to be leaving for New Zealand!