by Mandeep Gaygoat
There are a number of ways to get from Auckland airport to downtown Auckland:
1) Taxi, nice and easy and will take you to your destination but it will cost you NZ$70.00
2) Shuttle, depending on how many people are traveling can work out cheap
3) Airbus, will cost NZ$16 for a single trip and will drop you off downtown.
4) Bus to the train station and then train town downtown Auckland,total cost NZ$3.80
We only found out about the bus and train option later in the day, we took option 3 the airbus and got off at stop 3, we had booked into XBase hostel, a room, with no window cost NZ$65.00 it would have cost NZ$75.00 with a window, at the time I thought who needs a window!?!!
As we arrived there was the usual formalities fill out the registration form and give a NZ$20.00 room key deposit. We arrived at 12:30 and check in opens at 1pm so we waited in the foyer. This place feels more like a business then a cosy hostel, I know hostels are there to make money but they also have the homely atmosphere, this is what is missing here.
After checking in and leaving our luggage in the window less room, which felt strange, we headed out to lunch. Sangeet found a fantastic vegan restaurant called
Loving Hut
61 Victoria Street West
CBD
Auckland
New Zealand
T: 09 303 2531
w: www.lovinghutnz.com
World vegan world peace
The restaurant is 3 minutes walk from our hostel. At first I was not looking forward to it, thought I would be cold salads but as soon as I found out they do fake meats I was very happy. Sangeet ordered sweet and sour tofu, I ordered roast duck, they had this down to a tee, it was perfect! The ‘duck’ had the fatty texture, if the restaurant did real meats alongside the fake meats I would have questioned asking if they had brought out the real duck!!
After lunch we walked past the Skytower, a tall impressive building in downtown Auckland which has a restaurant, people also sky dive from the top or you can do a sky walk around the edge of the tower. We were last here seven years ago and do not remember the surrounding area being so built up. We then had a walk around downtown to get our bearings, the library offers free wifi so we popped there, we are looking to do some WWOOF work (organic farming) whilst here in New Zealand, Sangeet registered us and contacted some hosts and posted our listing whilst I uploaded some pictures, unfortunately it kicked me out as soon as I exceed the 100 mb limit. Whist here we have found the internet pretty slow, also in Auckland there are very few spots it is free!
We spent 3 hours in the library and decided to go out for dinner, whilst walking a white New Zealander Paul said Sat Sri Akal to us, then asks Sangeet if it is usual for Sikh women to wear a turban, he said he knew about Yogi Bhajan and the women in that community wear turbans but thought that was all, he then gave us some information on Yogi Bhajan! We said we were familiar and that we were both Kundalini Yoga Teachers, the chaps name was Paul and we stood on the corner for half an hour chatting. He is pretty knowledgable about eastern philosophy for a westerner. All of a sudden Nolan walks around the corner, we met Nolan in Rarotonga. Nolan was WWOOFing with Doug, the coconut guy. It felt odd seeing Nolan in a built up city after meeting him in remote and relaxed Rarotonga! We decided to go to dinner together and popped into Dosa Plaza where we enjoyed good food and conversation. Nolan is inspiring, he just left high school and wanted to see the world through different eyes so decided to travel the world alone, all at the age of 18. Listening to Nolan and his experiences we can sense how he is being protected and guided during this amazing adventure he is on.
by Mandeep Gaygoat
The Swiss Army knife was a 21st birthday present from my chahchaji (uncle) at the time I was getting presents like money so as soon as I got the knife I never appreciated it, it was chunky and heavy. How wrong I was this knife travels everywhere with us, it is the most essential peace of kit I have ever had. Pucha chahchaji has travelled well and knows exactly what will come in handy, just goes to show your elders always know best. Thank you Pucha chahchaji for a very valuable gift.
by Mandeep Gaygoat
We have arrived in Auckland, unfortunately there are very few free wifi spots! We have plenty of posts and pics to upload, please bear with us!
Just looking for accommodation……..
by Mandeep Gaygoat
Well today is our last day in Rarotonga and the Cook Islands. We spent a little time admiring the view from our balcony and Sangeet wrote a couple of postcards. As we still had the car we then decided to drive around the island.
Whilst walking out of the hostel we bumped into a couple from Blenheim, New Zealand who we have met before, they were going to the Mooring restaurant so we decided to give them a lift, especially as they were a great couple. They invited us to stay at their house they gave us their address and even said “we can pick you up from Picton.
Once we dropped them off we went to an Internet cafe Deli-licious, Sangeet tried the fruit smoothie made with local papaya and banana, I had a cappuccino. We logged onto the computer and booked the accommodation for New Zealand. (Our flight is today at 4:15pm the length is four and a half hours yet we get to New Zealand tomorrow at 8pm, I still find it so fascinating. Some people left New Zealand on a Friday evening and arrived in Rarotonga on Thursday evening so relived their Friday again! Just imagine that….you are having a bad day so you can fly to the Cook Islands and relive that day again!!!)
Afterwards we drove to the Maire Nui Gardens where Sangeet fell in love with the garden and atmosphere. We walked around the garden and saw some amazing plants, tropical flowers and vegetables, a lot of which is served in the on site cafe. They had mangos and papaya growing in the garden too. After the walk we ordered a feta cheese salad and a fruit smoothie with local fruits, Sangeet could taste the freshness I could not!
There are two roads that circle the island, an inner road and outer road. all the shops, restaurants, resorts etc are on the outer road which is the road most people use. we decided to drive on the inner road today where we saw lots of houses and plantations. Yesterday when we finished the walk all three of us were so glad that we just walked towards the car, apparently there is a waterfall (Papua or Wigmore’s Waterfall) at the end near the car park which we totally missed! Today we went back to have a look at it. As the tmpretaure was hot (around 30 degrees C) the waterfall was dry. Also the area around the waterfall is not well looked after. The little waterfalls that we saw as we walked down through the rainforest from the Needle were much more impressive.
After seeing the dismal waterfall we spent a little time at Aro’a beach, got gas, had a look at the golf course near the airport then headed to the post office to send the postcards. We then went to check in. There is a departure tax to pay, NZ$55.00 per person! just before security there is the bank Westpac where they take payment and stamp your boarding pass to say you have paid.
I still cannot get over the fact the flight will be four and a half hours yet we arrive 23 hours later, amazing!
After arriving in Auckland we checked into the airport across the road from the airport:
Novotel Auckland airport
Auckland International Airport
Ray Emery Drive
Auckland 2022
by Mandeep Gaygoat
Today we decided to walk the cross island walk, an amazing walk which starts in the north of the island and finishes in the south. One can do the walk from south to north but best starting it in the north, as you can see the marked route more clearly so there is a greater chance of taking a wrong turn, if started from the south. The walk is very challenging but you are rewarded with passing through some of the islands most impressive natural scenery. The walk is about three to four hours, in wet weather it can get very slippery, remember to take plenty of water and mosquito repellent.
About 2km into the walk we met Lee who arrived this morning from LA. he lives in Perth, Scotland. He joined us for the walk which was nice. We did not see anybody else at all during the walk.
Before heading out for the walk we decided to hire a car from the hostel, 24 hours hire for NZ$40, Paul the manager said it will help us tomorrow as we can just leave the car at the airport and he will pick it up. We drove the car to the south of the island and parked it at the end of the cross island walk route, we then took the anticlockwise bus to the north, it was very busy. We began the walk by celebrating with an ice lolly!
After completing the walk we picked up the car and drove to town, where we dropped off Lee after exchanging contact details. We went for a drink at Club Bana Bistro, Sangeet had a mango, pineapple, papaya and banana smoothie, I had a cappuccino. The smoothie was huge and very tasty!
As we needed to use the internet we popped over to ‘click internet’, a internet shop to use their computers, unfortunately the internet for the whole island was down!! We then popped into the ‘Perfumes of Rarotonga’ I bought a couple of ice pops which were very nice, reminded me of my school days. Sangeet bought a couple of postcards and some gifts. The shop makes soap from the local coconuts.
After some time relaxing at Cooks Corner terminal and watching people go by, we popped back to the car where Sangeet saw a chicken with 11 very young chicks and fell in love with them! She started feeding them salt and vinegar crisps!
We then drove to a restaurant called Tamarind the location and restaurant looked amazing, Sangeet decided to check out the restaurant, whilst I stayed in the car as there were dogs walking around and eyeing up the ‘brown meat’. Sangeet came back and said I should take a look, we ended up ordering drinks and enjoying the views, Sangeet had hot chocolate I had cappuccino. The restaurant had some vegetarian options but could not say if the cheese was vegetarian. We then went to the Indian restaurant called Raviz, we ordered take away and vegetable and onion pakoras to eat there, the pakoras had no flavour and were a disappointment. I ate a few and got the rest to take away, along with Sangeet’s mutter paneer and rice. We arrived back to the hotel in time to see the very cloudy sunset. After some time we popped out to a nearby village hall to see the locals who were singing, it seemed like a play and the singing sounded amazing, it was all in the local language so we are not sure what it was about but still enjoyed it! We stayed there for about thirty minutes before heading back to the hostel.
At the hostel Sangeet had the mutter paneer with rice which were VERY chilli, I had a couple more pakoras which tasted awful. Around the hostel there is a dog, the owners live a few houses away, I gave the pakoras to the dog, he loved them and ate every bit up. I then gave it crackers which it also loved and ate. Unfortunatley I could not find any other food and Sangeet would not allow me to give it the hot mutter paneer. I think I have a new friend especially as it is now sleeping on our balcony!
by Mandeep Gaygoat
Today was suppose to be a relaxing day, just sitting on the balcony, reading, doodling. Sangeet said “do you fancy getting the 2:30 bus to Muri beach?” It sounded like a good idea, we could have a wander on Muri beach and catch the last bus back to the hostel which would have been around 4:30pm.
Muri beach is a very nice part of the island. The lagoon is supposed to be the best for Rarotonga and the beach is also meant to be nice. The problem is after Aitutaki the lagoon and beach is not up to that standard – we have been spoilt!
Nevertheless it was still a nice lagoon, much wider than at the hostel and there was a strange soft spongy seaweed around the beach. We spent around an hour walking down the beach watching kite surfers and some older folk enjoying playing with their remote controlled boats. We also saw some small islands (motus) in the lagoon on the coast off Muri. Our bus was due to arrive so we walked towards the road but there was no path to the road so we had to climb over some big rocks! Sangeet went first then held the rucksack whilst I climbed up. We walked along the road, every so often we would look back hoping to catch the bus coming. We came to a stall selling coconut chips with different flavours, there was coconut with ginger, coconut with coffee, coconut with chill also there was chocolate, salt and pepper. We enjoyed the ginger flavour so bought two boxes of that. The owners name is Doug, who said his mum used to make this with the ‘secret recipe’ I think the stall was called ‘aunty Pats coco candy’ as there was no real marking we could not tell. We spent about an hour here chatting to the guys. Every so often we would look back at the road hoping the bus would show….Doug is setting up a website to promote his business and picked my brains on how best promote it.
We also met a guy there called Nolan, he is wwoofing with Dougs and helping him by climbing the trees to collect the coconuts, opening and grinding the coconuts and other jobs that need doing. Nolan is from Calgary and traveling for a year. He has just completed high school.
We bought a couple of the coconut and ginger tubs and carried on our journey. Every so often we would look back and hope the bus was coming. From Muri Beach to the hostel is around 15 km luckily it was cloudy and not as hot as it has been on the previous days. Probably around 25degrees C. By now we knew we had missed the bus so decided to walk along the beach. It was quite nice seeing the expensive resorts and wondering what it would be like to stay there!
As we were walking along the beach three dogs started barking at me, Sangeet who was walking behind me just carried on walking towards me the dogs turned back and just walked passed Sangeet, I think they could sense my fear….long story which goes back to my childhood!
We carried on walking and another three dogs surrounded us, Sangeet said show no fear and just carry on walking. The dogs started following us once in a while two of the dogs would have a play fight with each other. That was fine until they started growling and one of them looked a bit crazed like it might have rabies….we carried on walking chanting Waheguru….! As we walked on we saw another pack of dogs further along the beach so I suggested we walk along the road. The three dogs that had been following us for a while now followed us onto the road. As Sangeet said goodbye to the dogs, I popped into a restaurant called Vaima to have a look at the menu, the only thing we could eat was a veg stir fry, we decided just to get a drink, Sangeet had pineapple juice and I had diet coke. A much needed refreshing drink.
We carried on with our walk and thankfully the dogs had disappeared. We went back onto the beach which is very nice here, peaceful, soft and clean sand called Aro a beach and carried on walking. Even though it was cloudy the sunset was amazing, pink patterns in the sky. It is only when we got to the Rarotongan Beach Resort that we moved to the road as there wasn’t beach access past it. As it was getting later and dark we decided to hitch hike, cars passed us but nobody stopped, Sangeet tried and a very kind lady called Cel stopped, asked us where are we going, we mentioned the Rarotonga Backpackers hostel, she mentioned she is going that way and to get in! Wow we were relieved. She was curious to know where we were coming from, we said Muri Beach, she was amazed we had walked that far. We then proceeded to tell her about our travels and asked her what does she do, she said she was a taxi driver, my heart sank thinking here goes another NZ$40.00!! Luckily she said do not worry I am not charging you for this journey…We were so relieved and thankful.
When you guys are over this way please use Cel for your taxi needs and mention us…
Pecel Taxi
T: 72888
E: [email protected]
As a thank you we gave her one of the ginger coconut tubs…..this must be why we got two tubs!
As soon as we got into our room which was at 7:30pm, I went to get a chinese takeaway and Sangeet warmed up some leftover pasta. Just being my luck on the way to the chinese I get followed by some dogs! We ate on the balcony where a dog decided to join us for dinner! What is it with us and dogs today?!?
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