When I made my travel arrangements, I decided to arrive a week or so before orientation, to give myself a chance to explore Auckland and the North Island a bit before school. Fortunately, I wasn't the only person with this plan, and my friend Lydia - another Rotary scholar, from North Carolina, getting her masters in Creative Writing - suggested that we rent a camper van and explore Northland for a few days this past week.
Because we were planning with so little advance notice, and because it's the end of summer vacation here, our options were quite limited. However, a company called Wicked, which rents out vans all over the world, had an open vehicle, so we made plans to leave at 9:30 Wednesday morning for a few days of fun with her flatmate, Kate, a German undergrad student here on exchange.
Of course, we did NOT get off to a smooth start. Lydia and Kate had located Wicked in downtown Auckland, but it turns out that when the reservation was made, it was made at the main Wicked location out in the suburbs. Once we noticed this, Lydia gave the company a call, but there was no option - instead of a leisurely 15 minute stroll, we had to find a bus station, hop the number 012 bus, and ride a good hour out into the suburbs. And then wander around Onehunga until we found the place, which was not as easy to find as we'd been promised.
When we arrived, I was a bit taken aback - the vans were all painted with crazy cartoon characters and marginally offensive slogans. My favorite was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles van, but we got stuck with "Captain Caveman," which Lydia adored. However, the slogan on the back left something to be desired: "A blowjob is a great last minute gift." (Sorry, Grandma.) Definitely in bad taste, but whatever - we gave it a chuckle and moved on.
The van had been converted to contain an eating/sleeping area, and then a tiny kitchenette in the trunk. This meant that the three of us had to share the bench seat in the front. Not as comfortable as it sounds (and I'm well aware that it doesn't sound comfy at ALL), but certainly an amusing way to spend a few days. Lydia volunteered to drive first, and actually wound up doing most of the driving - good for me, because then I didn't have to drive a giant automatic transmission van on the wrong side of the road, and good for her, because she gets carsick otherwise. After a brief scare - we had to drive back through the city, and accidentally exited the motorway on a poorly marked offramp - we were off and running! Our first destination was Paihia, the tourist gateway to the Bay of Islands. We had grand plans for the Bay of Islands - kayaking, skydiving, even a motorboat trip out to the famous "Hole in the Rock" (Kiwis aren't super creative when it comes to naming things) - but arrived too late on Wednesday to do much more than relax on the beach.
Not that we minded, of course. We checked into a campground, changed into our bathing suits, and wandered over to a nearby beach. The water was lovely, and there were two Maori men there. Lydia, who's trying to gather traditional stories from all segments of NZ society, struck up a conversation, and they promised to tell her some stories if we met them out at a bar later that night.
Thus, after a pasta dinner cooked in the campground kitchen, and a nicely chilled beer (or two), we headed into town. The gate to the campground closed at ten, so we had to make the 2 mile trek by foot, which meant we were pretty late for our pre-arranged meeting. Fortunately, the guys were still there, and Lydia spent the evening getting all sorts of great material for her collection of short stories. Kate and I, meanwhile, made friends with quite the variety of drunken underage travelers, as well as a guy who claimed to be half Kiwi and half Scottish, and thus technically "a local."
We finally headed back to our campground, when the bar closed at 1:00. The Maori men lived fairly close to the campground, and so intended to walk us back. However, with about 1/4 mile to go, we were stopped by the police. Apparently, there had been an 'incident,' and so they insisted on driving us the rest of the way. We asked once we were in the car, and they told us that they were bringing in a drug dog, and so didn't want to confuse it by allowing additional people to walk through the area. Seemed odd, but whatever the truth, it saved us a bit of walking and a few minutes. So about 1:30, we finally climbed into "bed" in our camper van. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangement, but after the day we'd had, we were all asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.
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