Who Moved My Steering Wheel?! Jumping Off Tall Shit, Shiny Maggots, and Other Kiwi Adventures.
02 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in Crossing It Off, Love This!, New Adventures, Round the World Tags: Auckland, beach, black water rafting, bungy jumping, goat island, New Zealand, Polynesian Spa, rotorua, round the world, sky tower, taupo bungy, travel, waitomo, Waitomo Caves
Alrighty then! A few days into the trip and I need to get a serious grip on this whole “budget” concept I hear people talkin about … But whatevs, I’ll get it down or … Run out of money? I need to find those trees that grow money, I think they’re near the fountain of youth.
There is so much to say, so I’m just gonna dive right in!
Jan 30, left SF at 7:00pm. Bitter sweet because I’ll miss everyone (esp my boo—143) but SOFA king excited! Landed in Auckland at 5:00am on Feb 1. Got my bags, went through customs, got my rental car, got in the car, realized there was no steering wheel, got in the right (literally and figuratively) side of the car, and off I went!
Driving on the left side of the road is trippy. I am so glad the first 2 hours I spent in the car were in the wee hours of the morning so there weren’t as many possible victims on the road. It’s not the actual driving, it’s the little things that successfully make you feel like a complete moron. For instance:
Blinker. Oops that’s the windshield wiper. Other side, oh, it’s opposite: flick up for left blinker, down for right.
Left hand turn. Staring into traffic. Realize you are turning with traffic instead of across it. Pull out like a moron who was holding up traffic for 3 minutes.
Rear view mirror. Oh that’s the door jam, the rest of the car is on the other side. Including the rear view.
Why is everyone going so slow (obviously I think this)?! Ohhh, the left hand lane is the SLOW lane.
Exits are on the left.
A roundabout going to the left …………….. WTFFFFF?!?!? …………………. Okay, just don’t die. Success.
You get it. Crossing the street as a pedestrian is also weird. Make sure you look both ways—8 times—to process what you’re seeing.
So I drove to Rotorua and went to the Polynesian Spa and checked out the town. The Polynesian Spa is one of the top 10 spas in the word and they have pools that they fill with water from the local hot springs that you soak in as you look out across the lake at the volcano. Absolutely amazing. I got a Manuka Honey Body Polish/Aix Combo massage … which means they basically scrub your entire body with this awesome smelling stuff, then give you a massage underneath a five-foot-long shower head. I want to go back already.
Then I drove down to Lake Taupo and went bungy jumping at Taupo Bungy!! (I am super excited that I can cross another thing off my Life List!) I could try to describe it … but here are a few pictures and you can watch the whole thing on video on the SanFranciscoSooner Facebook page:
It was so crazy. I signed up to go at 3:00pm and I was running late getting there and didn’t know how strict they were about schedule so I was stressing about being late all the way there, and since I had already pre-paid all I had to do when I got there was sign my life away and get weighed. Once that was over they told me to walk out to the platform, where I met a dude who put the harness on me and before I knew it I was shuffling up to the edge of the jump platform. I was seriously there for mayyyybe 10 minutes before I was jumping. So I didn’t really have any time to get super nervous before hand … that was probably a good thing. It was so awesome, and it’s seriously over like THAT! So much adrenaline after. I felt like boxing a grizzly bear in a rattlesnake pit after I was done. Challenge accepted!
After that, I wandered around Taupo for a little bit then drove on over to Waitomo and stayed at the Waitomo Caves Guest Lodge Bed & Breakfast. Super cute place, and the people were so nice. And the husband of the couple who ran it made homemade “biscuits” and they were SO good. Omg so good. I laid my tiny, tired baby head on the pillow at about 9:30pm and I was out like a light!
The next morning I woke up, ate breakfast with the other inhabitants of the B&B, and then ventured up the road to the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company to do some black water rafting. That was so much fun. They deck you out in wet suits, boots, and helmets, make you look like a royal douche, give you an inner-tube, show you how to jump off waterfalls, and then take you down into a cave filled with water and you climb/float along in the mostly dark. The roofs of the caves are covered with glow worms, so there is one part where all the members of the group form an “eel” (which means you put your feet under the armpits of someone and someone puts their feet under yours and form a line) and just float along with the helmet lights off, staring up at the glowing dots all over the top of the cave. Sooo pretty. The whole thing was so fun, minus the water being freezing balls, and the tour guides were legitimately funny. Always a plus. Love me some humor.
After the rafting adventure, I drove back up to Auckland and explored the city and found a hostel to stay at. Auckland is pretty cool, it’s compact and small and kinda reminds me of SF in that aspect. It’s kind of a quiet city … everything closes relatively early. It’s weird to be walking around a big city and half the stores are closed at 8pm. I walked up to the Sky Tower and checked out the siiiiiiick views of the city from up there, and had me a little glass of wine. Then I went down to the Viaduct District, which is where the harbor is and there are a lot of cool/nice restaurants and bars. I got myself some prawn and scallop fettuccine and some more wine, and then went around the corner to meet up with a friend of a friend who lives in Auckland for some drinks.
The next morning I awoke to my first international parking ticket! Woohoo! $65 … WTF! I wandered around the city some more and then headed north up the coast to get a little beach action. The weather was overcast and a little chilly but I wanted to see all that I could while I was there. I ended up at Goat Island which was so cool. The ocean’s expansiveness takes my breath away every time I look at it. That pretty much summed up my last day in New Zealand.
Next stop is Sydney, Australia! If you have any suggestions of things I can do while I’m there or things I absolutely have to do, PLEASE let me know in the comments!!
I Hope You Have a Big Trunk, Cuz I’m Puttin’ My Bike In It. Well, I Have a Bag, What Can You Fit In There? Answer: EVERYTHING.
30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Crossing It Off, New Adventures, Round the World Tags: #rtw2012, adventure, Auckland, backpacking, New Zealand, Polynesian Spa, round the world, san francisco, sooner, taupo bungy, travel, travel advice, Waitomo Caves
So hey how ya doin’? I’ve just been the busiest little bee (I really wish there was some notation that I could put around sentences to key you in to the fact that as I’m typing this I am talking typing in an accent) this week … trying to get all my stuff ready to leave, packing, and planning my first set of adventures. Gotta say, planning is definitely the most fun, until you have to start making decisions—total buzzkill right thurr. Anywho, when I finally decided on a game plan for New Zealand (I will share in a minute, let me tell you this AWESOME story first, jeez), it was a momentous occasion to which I celebrated by sending a little texty-poo to my lil LoLo (Laura). This is how that conversation went:
Me: I have decided that I am going to go bungy jumping the first day I’m in NZ!!!!!!!!!!!
Laura: Did you see that video of the girl who did it and her cord snapped?!? I’m sure you’ll be fine …
Heart stops beating. THE HORROR! I’m sure she meant well ……………… just kidding. She didn’t. Aren’t you so glad I told you that story?! Okay … onto my adventures in planning.
After a short counsel with a good friend and super informative travel guide (thanks JRay!), I decided there is too much to see in New Zealand in the short time I will be there to have to work around bus schedules and all that type of shit. I like to go at my own pace, and my pace of choice is obvs fucking lightening speed—I didn’t get rejected from ZipCar for no reason (mostly because they’re assholes, but partially because I have more speeding tickets than, like, everyone I know … combined)! Thus, I rented a car … and will be driving on the left side of the road all over North Island. When I land at 5:00 a.m. on Feb 1, I’ll be picking up my rental car and beebopping down to Waitomo Glowworm Caves to do some Black Water Rafting at 9:00 a.m. After that, I’m gonna scoot on over to Taupo Lake and do some bungy jumping at Taupo Bungy!!! THEN I’m going to (insert stupid synonym for go) to Rotorua and visit the Polynesian Spa and check out that area and get some sleepy sleep. And that’s the first day 
. On the second day … ha! Who are we kidding, I haven’t planned that far in advance. Maybe some sailing? Swimming with dolphins? Lying on the beach? Who knows … but I’m sure it will be fucking glorious!!
I totes prom to keep you up to date though, fa sho!
Moving on … before I can hike my happy little ass all over the world, I have to pack. Which, I am happy to report, I fucking did. Look, look, looky at all this crap I put in my bag:
HOLLAAAAAAAAAA!!! Three things I would like to address … because I am sure some of you are maybe thinking possibly about them (works every time, 70% of the time.) Or the alternative and probably more acurate: none of you are thinking about these things, in which case, I really just want to point them out to you:
1. Jewelry? Jeeeeweelryyyy? Jewelry. Yes. I packed jewelry, no I didn’t pack valuable jewelry. How else do you expect me to make a white t-shirt work for 10 weeks? … JEWELRY, that’s how.
2. This is one of the times in my life I am so glad I have gravity resistant breasticles … 5 bras, 1 snack-size ziplock bag. Boom!
3. You can follow my progress on my travels with this SWEET ASS GPS tracking device I got (CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I AM)… My Spot Connect pairs with my iPhone via bluetooth (hey! There is a use for this technology) and allows me to send messages to people even if I have zero cell reception, sends satellite transmissions every 10 minutes so my parents can worry a little less knowing they can stalk me via satellite whenever they want, and—AND—it has a nifty little SOS button and if you push it, it’s like a Bond movie from what I hear … sirens, helicopters, they FIND you! So in response to “OMG have you seen Taken? Hostel? Sanctum?” Yes. No. No. But it’s fiiiiine because I have a Spot Connect with an SOS button! Wha whaaaa! And mace, I brought mace too.
I know I said I wanted to address three things, but I’m going to quickly justify one other thing that I packed … because I know some of you are still scoffing at the fact that I brought five pairs of shoes. They’re small. And flat. I did refrain from packing boots and heels, go me! Let’s give credit where credit is due.
Check it:
And then in the green bag are my truly essential items: passport, phone, computer, chargers, adapters, etc.
SO! Looks like I am alllll ready to go! My flight leaves at 7:00 p.m. tonight and I can’t friggen wait!! If you have any travel advice, words of wisdom, or anything else you would like to share, leave it in the comments!!
Like my page on Facebook to keep in the loop!
Hokay So, Around the World I Go–If Those Assholes Would Just Let Me Have a Visa … and Other Travel Prep Insights.
24 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in Crossing It Off, New Adventures, Round the World Tags: adventure, Auckland, backpacking, India, New Zealand, planning, round the world, travel, travel tips, visa
Hokay so! Here is the earth. And I am going to travel arouuundddd it.
I have been “planning” a trip since May. And that “planning” really only involved spending hours and hours and hours on Google and travel websites and Wikipedia reading about ALLLLL the places in the world that I wanted to go, and building an internal Life List longer than 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Which I also bought, and poured over for hours on end. A real time suck that is—planning an imaginary-ish trip where you just say “ohhh I want to do that too” and never mind that it costs thousands of dollars …
Well I worked a shit ton this summer slash July-October, saved up a nice amount of moolah, and decided that I was gonna make this imaginary plan a reality. Like two weeks ago. I settled on a vague path and looked at ticket prices and bought a one-way ticket to Auckland, New Zealand. And since then the actual planning and preparation has taken place. A few things have happened:
1. I did a bunch of research on some travel credit cards—since I’m traveling around the world I figure I should probably rack up some airline miles. I went with a card that gives me 2 points for every dollar I spend regardless of what I spend it on, a card that gave me a decent amount of points just for signing up, and one that had a tolerable annual fee.
2. I bought a sweet ass backpack. I got a North Face Crestone 60 backpack so I can put a bunch of shit in it. I think that I should get a medal for packing a few months worth of clothes in ONE bag. Go ahead, be impressed. Well, not yet, because I haven’t done it yet. PREPARE to be impressed. Kthxbye.
3. Now, the third thing … probbbbably not something I should have done, but hey, when does that ever stop me? So here’s a don’t <- that’s a contraction for do not, incase anyone was unclear. NOT being the operative word. Carrying on: after I booked my flight to Auckland I realized that most of the countries that I wanted to go to between New Zealand and Europe require a visa … and I didn’t have any. What an idiot!
Haaanywayzz … my vague plan is to go from New Zealand to Australia (which you need a visa for, but it’s an almost instant application process that you submit online and then your visa is electronically linked to your passport—no stamp necessary) to Singapore to Malaysia (both of which you don’t need a visa for) to Thailand (no visa needed as long as you don’t stay more than 30 days) to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (ALL of which you need a visa for, but thankfully you can get a visa upon arrival at Laos). Cambodia has an expedited service where you can get your visa processed the next day after they receive your passport, but the Vietnam visa will take 3-4 business days. So I filled out both visa applications on VisaHQ.com (a service you have to pay a little more for but they do all the leg work for you) and sent my supporting documents and passport to them and I am hoping that I get my passport back in time … you know … so I can actually go on my trip. I hear passports are strongly encouraged when traveling between countries. ‘Bout that time, ay chaps. Right o.
After SE Asia, I was planning on going to India, then to Jordan, to Egypt, to Turkey, and then from there explore eastern Europe and move west. Well, who would have known? You need a visa for India, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey too. As luck would have it, I can get visas for all of those countries upon arrival (which I expect will be a joyous experience each and every time), all of those countries except India. I really had my heart set on going to India—it was one of the places I wanted to see most (and I really wanted to eat real Indian food!) so I was heartbroken to find out that it takes 9-15 business days to process an Indian visa. And I don’t have 9-15 business days, or a passport right now for the Indian Embassy to process my application. So I called to see if there was any way I could a visa any sooner … and my only option is to go to the Indian Consulate in Houston to have my visa processed in person. Wellllll, we’ll just see when I get my passport back and how badly I really want to go to India … and if it’s worth the 20-hour roundtrip drive down there. But I am le tired. Well have a nap … then fire ‘ze missiles!
Now … I just have to figure out how exactly to fit everything I need into one bag. It should be pretty interesting. If you have any suggestions as to things I should bring with me that might not seem obvious (or things that seem obvious, whatevs), feel free to impart your wisdom via comment. After I figure out what all I “need” to pack, attempt to pack it all, and then decide I can’t bring 75% of it (for those of you who don’t know, I overpack … a LOT) and pack what I actually need sans air quotes, I will figure out what I am going to do once I arrive in New Zealand!! Stay tuned! Shit, guys! Fire ‘ze missiles! Alaska can come too. THE END!
They said whaaa?!