15k

I had another pitch black landing, this time into Auckland at around 10pm. You can tell how excited I was, I could barley keep the camera straight!

Customs was a breeze and I caught a bus into Auckland central right as I left the airport. I made it to the hostel in no time and checked in. Peter had already claimed the room having been in Auckland the previous two days so it was just up to me to find it. He was asleep as I walked in so I headed downstairs for a kebab.

Unfortunately it was dry and terrible. I was exhausted and didn't care much. After inhaling it I went right to bed. I awoke early again but the view from our hostel window is quite impressive. We are staying right in the middle of downtown.

We stopped for a quick breakfast at a local pub. I got the Belgian breakfast which was a weird take on eggs benedict. It was poached eggs over two large potato cakes covered in hollandaise. It was really missing the saltiness of the ham that a traditional benedict offers. Ill stick with the original for the time being.

After we fueled up we caught a train to Ellerslie. Nearby was our first stop, One Tree Hill.

Now I don't want you CW fans too get too excited. This is not the location of the popular coming of age show in which teens learn about their feelings or something. One Tree Hill is a volcanic peak in suburban Auckland that serves as a memorial for New Zealanders. On our way to the top we decided to take a shortcut over what we hoped was not an electric fence. 

Having survived the treacherous obstacle we set out looking for the one tree. There were many trees but here were some candidates.

Alright, that last one is me, but i thought it looked neat. The actual one tree and its subsequent replacements were all cut down in a spite war between the Maori and the white man. what stands at the top of the hill now is a large monument for all to enjoy.

The view from the top gives a 360 view of Auckland as well, Peter was super excited.

Our next stop was Mt. Eden. This is second highest natural point in the area that features a large crater at the top formed from an eruption in the area. We made our way through more of the Auckland suburbs and arrived at the base of the scoria cone. To our disappointment a total fire ban was in place. We had been hoping for only a partial fire ban but we had to acknowledge our defeat.

At the top the view was even better than that at one tree. We even had a neat creator to include in our tourist shots.

I really wanted to jump and roll into the crater but it had some local significance and was blocked off. I will have to just get my adrenalin rush some other place. We headed down the mountain and set off for some food. We were instantly presented with a foot long version of the McRib that was impossible to turn down.

 By impossible I mean debatable. The conversation went like this:

Jake - Holy crap they have a foot long McRib here! We have to get it!
Peter - Screw you
Jake - okay....

We ended up setteling on a pub right down the road. It does beg the question why does a country with the metric system have foot long subs? I guess $7 1/3 meter long didn't flow as well in jingle format? Maybe they think footlong is some sort of outrageous american portion just like supersize. Subway did trademark it after all.

Well regardless we went with the local fare and I got some kind of chicken/goat cheese/sun dried tomatoes/spinach concoction wrapped in fillo dough. It was good by itself but it came with some weird plumb sauce that threw all of the flavors out of whack  I just stuck to the jumbo mediterranean spring roll sans sauce. I don't remember what Peter got so you will have to ask him.

After lunch we headed back into town on foot towards the Sky Tower; the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere (328 metres/1,076 ft). There was even a rainbow there to greet us.

The view was really the only noteworthy thing, but it was pretty good. Views of the city seem to be the theme of the day.

If you look closely at the next shot you can see a guy jumping off from the top of the observatory. It looked neat but it is a controlled fall so you don't reach the maximum velocity for the space. The have two lines on each side of you that slow your fall down. I think I will save my money for a true free fall.  

It was at this point we decided to take a break. We had been walking all day and needed a rest. The weather felt it was time to cool us off so massive rains followed us home. Peter realized a white button up with no undershirt was a poor choice. 

We had walked all over the city and were quite pooped. Google maps estimates the rout at around 15k. Ill accept that give or take.

View Larger Map

After some rest we decided to walk along the port. It was a nice little walk free of rain.

It was at this point we reached the most useless structure known to man. Not sure what it was for but it was full of levels and stairs that lead to nowhere. It didn't cross anything significant and didn't serve a purpose. We climbed it anyway.

From the top we watched some local Aucklanders attempting to play basketball. We accurately criticized them and moved on. I don't think team USA has much to worry about. Dinner came and because of bad service at a meat pie pub we ended up at a Japanese joint. I got a good set of seaweed salad, udon, and oyako donburi. Peter had the same. It was delish.  

We then grabbed a pint,

Watched some guys prevent a bank from falling apart, 

and headed home. Legs tired, clothes wet, we need a good sleep and then its driving time tomorrow. 

Coast to Coast

After a night of heavy rains I woke up to find a wet environment around the hostel compound. With a bit of jet lag still hanging on my body was done sleeping by 5am. After sitting in bed wide awake for an hour I decided I would try out the communal sea kayak since the sun was now rising. I was on the wrong side of the island to see it clear the horizon but crystal clear water made up or it.

There is a large coral reef that surrounds most of the island. Its pretty vast and seems to go on forever. I was able to spot a number of things without the aid of a snorkel set. The views both towards and away from the island where competing against each other.

After making my way around the coast I came back onto shore and showered off. I had been out long enough for everyone else to wake up and it was now breakfast time. I was given a platter of Polynesian donuts and fruit.

This included passion fruit which I don't think I had ever seen in fruit form. As sad as it is I had to ask what it was. I consumed one and learned I really like passion fruit, who knew. After breakfast I set off to the beach once again, this time sans kayak. The clouds from the day before were now gone and the sun shined over all. 

My first stop was this resort beach that I was able to just walk onto without question because of my porcelain skin. It offered the advantage of free beach chairs and a relaxed uncrowded atmosphere. It was also at this time I casually looked up to my book to find naked people walking around. Apparently all the beaches here are clothing optional, those silly french.

After a few chapters I decided I would hit up the public beach and see what that had to offer. Until now I had just been sneaking onto resort beaches. The public beach although more crowded had a lot more to offer. The entrance is lined with a palm tree forest over rolling hills.

The beach wasn't half bad either.

It also had a lot of yachts in the area because it was public. The rich french came in on their small boats and enjoyed the beach next to me.

This is pretty much what I did all day. Nothing too exciting just relaxing. After my time was up I returned my car, caught the ferry back to Tahiti, got a cab to the airport, and I was off to NZ.

The in flight meal was pretty decent. Chicken Tikka with what appeared to be a quinoa salad.

I will be arriving again late at night so hopefully it does not take me too long to find peter.

Night Rider

The cuisine in Moorea has been a bit confusing for a for me, granted I have only been on the island for a day. All that I have found while exploring the island are either pizza parlors or burger stands. I know that the burger I consumed earlier had a kind of island spin on it but I was expecting more of a food culture. Especially for an island in a French territory. At least they have a strong showing of other international options...

By the time that dinner time rolled around the sun was long gone. I was not that hungry at the time but because of my jet lag schedule I was positive I would wake up in the middle of the night starving. I decided to grab some dinner as to avoid this awkward conversation with my stomach. Driving being my only real option to obtain nutrition I set off down the road. Lets just say that driving on a small island with no lights in the middle of the night is terrifying.

After some pitch black maneuvering I manged to find two places that were still open; A pizza place and a unidentifiable food truck glowing on the side of the road. Having experienced the horror of international pizza multiple times I opted for the cart.

The cook didn't speak English but they had a small menu written in French that allowed me to point at things which I always enjoy. I only had enough money with me for one item on the menu so that's where my finger crept. It turned out to be a rib eye steak over a large bed of french fries with a dixie cup full of melted roquefort cheese and a side of french bread. There was that french flair I was looking for!

It turned out to be pretty good but extraordinarily rich. So rich that I got tired of the sauce rather quickly and just went to town on the steak. I was in no means able to finish the thing but I got enough food in me to prevent a late night craving. I am hoping to find something other than island style fast food tomorrow. Moorea seems like the kind of place where only visitors eat out so I may be out of luck in my search of local fare unless I somehow get invited to a local home for dinner which with my shy demeanor and awkward stance will never happen. Oh well, I guess island pizza is in my future.   

Lets see some of the thoughtful reviews from the trip advisor community for Pizza Daniel, the second best rated restaurant on the island:

This french guy lives in his house and makes pizza all day long. He was very nice and made some mean pizza!

I only gave it a 4 star because of the flies and how it's all outside

I tried a lot because my wife doesn't eat seafood.

He may have thought we were American as he brought out some great hot sauce right away! :)

Our family of 4 ate 2 1/2 pizzas

Island Hopping

I arrived on the island of Tahiti at 5am which meant I missed out on the fantastic views the decent had to offer. By the time I made it through customs the sun started to peak its head out over the mountains and everything came into focus. Suddenly I was surrounded by lush green scenery. I don’t know why I would have expected anything else but it was overwhelming none the less.  

I caught the first taxi I could find and I was off to the port to catch the ferry to Moorea. This was my first introduction to 'nothing is cheap in French Polynesia'. Around 12$ just to get in the cab and then 1.90 each km. I negotiated a lower rate before we left but it was still up there. What I can say is my cabbie was quite polite, a good driver, and dropped my off right at the ticket office which was a bit out of her way. The first ferry out did not leave until 7:30am so I had some time to kill. I decided to explore the surrounding area a bit. Nothing was open but there was plenty to look at.  

The ferry was prompt and left right on time. The inside resembled a movie theater with the front windows acting as the screen.

We all watched as the island suddenly came into view and gradually grew before our eyes. Jurassic Park comes to mind.

My original plan after arriving was to rent a scooter and collect my barrings. My plans quickly changed as I saw that renting a car was not much more of a financial burden than a scooter. On top of that it had been raining off and on and I had two bags strapped to my back so the car was really the only sane choice. The rental lady even gave me a map resembling a Denny's place mat that had all of the local attractions highlighted in big fun drawings.

After some light paperwork I was off. My first stop was the main viewpoint in town. The roads around the island are not too horrible, but once you start venturing up the mountains they tend to be narrower, run down, and full of curves and hair pin turns. Resembled Morocco a bit.

I did not have the pleasure of attacking this challenge with the aid of a Dacia Logan but I was armed with a fierce little Fiat that handled things like a champ.

The views did not disappoint. At the top of the road was a dead end with a viewing platform where you could see both of the main bays on the island separated by massive cliffs. The peaks were unfortunately covered by clouds that plagued most of my morning.

I found a small somewhat hidden hiking trail at the back of the road that I decided to follow. There were some pretty dinosauric looking plants on the hike that kind of sparked my excitement but also terrified me.

There were multiple splits in the path but I stuck to the ones that maintained an uphill direction. My persistence paid off as I was presented with an unobstructed view of the islands bays.

Feeling satisfied I made my way back to the parking lot and hopped in the Fiat. On the way down I stopped at a set of ruins that the rental lady had circled on my cartoon map. Being a lover of ruins I was pretty pumped. I headed out on the trail to find some pretty disappointing kindergarten Lego projects.

It was hard for me to accept this was one of the attractions the tourism department wanted to highlight. There had to be more. On the other side of one of the formations I saw another path. I walked around and spiraled down the rabbit hole which is the Moorea (rain?) forest. I spent a couple of hours hiking around searching for something significant but found only mentions of various plants. The forest was neat and all but I wanted ruins.

After trying multiple paths I was about to turn around when I noticed some light in the clearing. I followed it and in turn stumbled into a pineapple plantation.

  

The photos don’t look like much but they really don’t do it justice. It was the best surrounding view I had the entire time I was in Moorea. It was pretty fantastic. Not knowing if this was private property or not I decided to snap my few photos, take everything in, and then head back to the car. This proved to be a little more difficult than I had anticipated. Everything started to look the same and although it took my nonexistent boy scout experience to guide me north I finally made it back to my vehicle. Very hungry I made my way to a snack shack I noticed when I exited the boat. They only had cheese burgers and chicken nuggets so I went with the burger. Fully expecting a mustard filled mayo packed beef bomb I was pleasantly surprised.

The burger featured a fancy pants bun, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, swiss, and some sort of sweet island sauce that strangely worked. It was surprisingly delicious and I was elated with my decision. Having burned enough time in the day it was now time to check in to the b&b I had booked. Driving around this island is quite impressive as each turn offers another amazing view that renders the last photo you took irrelevant.

I found the property and checked in. Sensing nothing was going on at the place I headed to the beach where I spent the rest of my day. It was good timing too as the sun decided to finally make an appearance. Suck it America.