So what have we actually been DOING?!
Well. I’ll take you on a (relatively) quick gander around our first few weeks in NZ(ed) – side note, Kiwis say “Z” as “Zed”. Fun little fact, but I digress (which may happen often – I apologize in advance, but this as much for you as it is us, so I’ll take my liberties whenever I want. I’d like to reminisce on these details when I’m 80). ;)
SO – from the beginning – Colin and I spent our first two weeks on a sofa bed in an Airbnb of a shared young-professionals home (much like the one we came from in Denver) in the Ponsonby neighborhood of Auckland. We chose this approach out of a mutual desire to initiate connections right off the bat in our newly-adopted homeland. And it rendered exactly what we were hoping for – good times garnering friendships we look forward returning to in “the city.” One of our Ponsonby housemates, Jeremy, is an excellent mixologist at craft cocktail bar Mea Culpa, just a 15 minute walk from the house, and graciously treated us to his concoctions several evenings throughout our stay. We (the housemates) all spent a few of nights out together – one being a trivia night on my birthday (I reluctantly turned 30 just a couple days in to our move). Colin also took me to an Ellie Goulding concert as a surprise present on our second night – something I’d been pining to do for a while (he’s a thoughtful one, that partner of mine).
Side note: Auckland is rainy and COLD in October, their spring. I got - self-diagnosed - bronchitis JUST as we were about to embark on our journey living in a campervan – which, if you don’t already know me well, is an EXTREMELY HUGE departure from the way I’m used to living. Ask my friend Brooke who initiated bets amongst friends on how long I’d last.
Other than nights out drinking cocktails such as “I Would Drive, but I Don’t Avocado”, the two weeks sufficiently allowed us time to get organized - buy new phone plans, set up New Zealand bank accounts, secure IRD #s (the equivalent to SS#s in the States), and “adopt” Bethell (our Mitsubishi L300 retro-fitted campervan, so affectionately named after our first mini road trip in her to Bethell’s Beach, just west of Auckland). The location was at the suggestion of a friend of a friend’s, who had us to dinner in his home with his family and their friends – a young couple whom he deemed good connections for us to make. Indeed, they turned out to be incredibly helpful with a wealth of knowledge on where we should set our sights during our “walkabout” through their country. One of them, Meg, even invited us to stay on her family’s farm on our way up through Northland. Hopefully by now you’ve gleaned that Kiwis are incredibly hospitable and friendly folks!
We did stay on the family farm just outside of Matakohe, which included a short stint on horseback and a hike that Colin and I were wholly unprepared for through the “bush” (see Hunt for the Wilderpeople), sinking in ankle-deep mud on every hillside. This ended up being quite the detour from our original route plan, but a welcome one at that (I’ve quickly learned to relinquish my desire to have everything planned right down to the last detail – so worth it).
After nights spent in Tawharanui (another side note: ‘wh’ sounds like ‘f’ in Māori names), Opanoni, and Ahipara, I’m taking the liberty to fast-forward to my favorite campsite thus far, which (surprisingly) is a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite – Tapotupotu Bay. “DOC” means that it’s a federally funded/run campground, with basic facilities such as drop toilets and cold, open-air showers (the aforementioned sites all had running hot water, laundry and kitchen facilities at privately, locally owned “campgrounds,” so this will come as a shock to some). It’s just east down the coast (about 5kms) from Cape Reigna, the northernmost tip of New Zealand. We would’ve completely missed out on this whole experience had we followed our original plan, mind you. En route to this area, and whilst consulting “Camping NZ” (a production of Rankers and the BEST app I’ve discovered for our purposes), we decided on-the-fly that Tapotupotu sounded like a worthy diversion, and, as we rounded the corner to the bay, were met with complete validation. To say it as succinctly as possible in my terms, this bay inspired my first concentrated effort at my own originally drafted yoga class (which I practiced myself on a grassy knoll just a stone’s throw from the beach). Simply gorgeous, remote, disconnected and all-things tranquil. We ended up spending a couple nights here, with one day occupied by a hike to Cape Reigna, wherein we found a seemingly private bay on the way, as well as a feral pig family (again, see Hunt for the Wilderpeople – I was terrified).
Taking a more introspective approach, as soon as Colin and I took a subconscious respite from what I’ve come to term as “survival mode” – eat, sleep, drive to the next location, repeat – we were met with the type of experience we’ve been gunning for this whole time. Efforts to strike a balance between maximizing our experience (seeing everything isn’t feasible), managing our budget, and actually enjoying this time together can be accompanied by irritable decision-making between me and Colin. A hiatus like the one at Tapotupotu is absolutely necessary to our enjoying and loving each other daily, which is paramount to the overall experience in the end. Although, for the moment, we’re on a “funemployment vacation” devoid of working life stressors, we still need to remind ourselves to relax and – forgive the cliché – enjoy the ride. :)