TWALK

"What is a TWALK?" you may be wondering. It is a twenty-four-hour walk (get it?) where teams attempt to find checkpoints based on vague clues, a map, and their orienteering skills. Did I mention everyone gets dropped off in an unknown location? Yup. You've got no clue where you start. TWALK is an event put on by the tramping club, so I signed up with a few friends. Everyone dresses up for the first leg of the event (unicorns, clowns, Osama Bin Laden, Tron, you name it) and we did a Cat in the Hat theme.

The event started without a hitch, but my team quickly realized we weren’t nearly as competitive as we thought we’d be. We ran into a group of “ladies” (a team of 4 guys wearing dresses, wigs, purses, jewelry, nail polish, the whole deal) who were having a blast – one was drunk, the others hopelessly incapable of finding anything. These guys made us laugh for the rest of the leg, right until we pulled into the headquarters at around 6pm.

Hiking as the sun sets is pretty beautiful

After a break and some food, we headed out on Leg 2 at 7pm (the event consists of 5 legs with about 15 checkpoints each, ranging from 15-25km in distance), somehow still teamed up with those crazy guys. Orienteering is much more difficult in the dark (the event goes all night long and people continue tramping using flashlights), but with some rogaining champs on the team, I felt like we had nothing to worry about. 

“12 hours left! 8 hours till sunrise!” one of the guys said happily.

When it’s dark and you’re tired, you tend to listen to whatever someone says and if they sound convincing enough you’ll follow them. While looking for checkpoint 12 in Leg 2 we didn’t see any torches any more and didn’t recognize where we were. But we kept following the directions of whoever was holding a map and said “This is the way!”

Wishing we were back here!

Eventually it was 4 in the morning and we were aimlessly following farm tracks, not knowing where we were on the map and therefore having no idea which way to walk. The group desire was to head down, not up, but that got us nowhere … Dehydration was taking over and we made the decision to retrace our steps, hoping to end up back near checkpoint 12 (or at least somewhere we recognized). We wandered along tracks hoping to see a notable landmark or perhaps lights that looked like the hash house, but instead we just ended up on some cliffs.

Our eyes were barely staying open by 6am, so we got nice and cozy in a cow pasture; as soon as my head hit my backpack I was asleep and dreaming that I was not lost in the hills of New Zealand. I was awoken 30 minutes later to fat, cold raindrops landing on my face and the realization that we were still completely and utterly lost.

With a bit of light to aid us, things were looking better despite getting soaked through by the rain. We could see farms and walked down a track past herds of sheep toward them, miserably getting muddy and drenched. The first farm we got to was unoccupied, but as we walked along the road toward what we hoped would be another house, we saw a man walking in a field. Nearly simultaneously, Search & Rescue called and they said they’d radio the TWALK organizers and make sure someone would be along to pick us up.

We warmed up by the lovely farmer's fire, and soon enough we were all conked out in the back of a car on our way back to the TWALK HQ. It turns out that during the night we'd walked over 2km past where we'd originally been dropped off; that meant somehow we'd travelled so far off Leg 2 that we'd passed all of Leg 1. I have no idea how we did it, but I'm just glad we all ended up hypothermia-free and safe.

I slept like a baby that night, and am now proud to know that when I need to, I can push my body to its limits and walk for hours and hours on little food if I need to. Not sure if the girls are going to do TWALK again next year, but I'm kind of glad I'll have the excuse of living over 10 000kms away ...

Bay of Islands

Waiting for us on the Paihia wharf at 4:00pm were the crew of The Rock, an overnight boat cruise. We were ferried out to the boat with the 30-or-so other people joining us for the next 24 hours. The vessel itself is a big red ferry-type boat with a lower deck devoted to food and entertainment, and an upper deck full of cabins.

Sunset on the boat

I felt somewhat like I was at Spring Camp at RKY, knowing that the crew does the exact same routine day after day after day to the same bunch of smiling tourists; I hope we do as good a job back at camp as these guys, because they genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves. The fun began with everyone on board taking aim at a plastic duck floating behind the boat with a paintball gun; shoot the duck and you'd win a free drink at the bar. No one managed to hit her. Trailing next to the duck was a fishing line which bobbed up when a fish bit - whoever noticed would yell "Fish on!" and a crew member would pull it in; we managed to catch a couple of fish that way. When the boat was anchored, about 15 fishing rods were pulled out and everyone took their chances at catching some snapper. I got nothing but a couple of nibbles, but wasn't too fazed. The fish contributed to the massive buffet dinner we ate at around 8, which also included steak, potato salad, greens, beets, bread, and more.


Later in the evening we went night kayaking in small groups to check out the bioluminescent plankton in the water (haven't taken oceanography? Youtube "bioluminescence" and there are plenty of cool creatures to see - this video is similar to what we were experiencing). It was pretty cool, but not as cool as when we decided to go for a night swim and suddenly the water lit up bright green with every stroke. It was chilly though so we didn't last long; we warmed up by the fire at the back of the boat before heading to bed. 

Sunrise

Kina

It was a squishy sleep - I feel bad for anyone tall considering my head and feet were both touching the walls! I got up before sunrise, and was lucky enough to see that another gorgeous day was unfolding. After a big breakfast, we went snorkeling. I didn't see too many exciting creatures apart from a school of electric blue fish, but our mission was to collect kina, a spiky type of sea urchin whose innards are popular among kiwis. When they'd been cracked open and scooped out, everyone got a taste - I can't say I'm a big fan of salty brown goo.

Next, the boat took us to a large beach we had all to ourselves on one of the many islands. We walked up to the top of the island and the view was incredible - blue water and green islands for 360 degrees. Back on the beach I played a little volleyball with some Norwegians, an Irishman and some Americans while Kelsey and Drea read. After a picnic lunch we returned to the boat and basked in the afternoon sun while we putted back to Paihia. The boat trip had gone by so quickly but was a TON of fun, I'd recommend it to anyone who is heading to the Bay of Islands!

We took the bus back to Auckland that afternoon, crashed in a hostel that night (our sweet slumber interrupted by two shuffly, angry, swearing older guys at about midnight ... not so fun) and flew back to Christchurch the next morning. It hadn't been a long trip but it was so worth it! Seeing the sub-tropical part of New Zealand really made me realize how insanely gorgeous this country is considering its size. The beauty of New Zealand was confirmed even more by our flight back to Christchurch; the skies were crystal clear so we had an amazing view of the Southern Alps and hills of Canterbury.

View from the plane

Paihia

After an early rise and 4 hours on a bus, we arrived in Paihia. Once again, I've created a high-tech digital image for anyone who finds typing Auckland and Paihia into Google too difficult. They are both located in the Northern tip of New Zealand, which is what the map shows:

Auckland in the lower right, Paihia marked by the A.

Excellent - now we're all geographically set. When we arrived in Paihia the weather was miserable. We explored a bit but were deterred by the rain, so we ended up snuggling in front of the TV in our hostel, the amazing Saltwater Lodge, and watching a movie. Nothing else of any excitement happened that day.

The next morning, I woke up and was incredibly happy to see the sun was shining. Drea had been predicting another day of rain, but my optimism won out (or NZ's lack of correct meteorological data, either one) and it was a beautiful day. I took a few shots in the early morning fearing it would cloud over again, but the day just got even better.

 











Our hostel had bikes that were free to take out for a ride, so we all hopped on enthusiastically. Sadly, they were poor fits and the biking was pretty uncomfortable, but we toughed it out anyway. We rode to Waitangi, the area where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. It suddenly looked like we were in Ireland - the scenery of New Zealand never ceases to amaze me.

 
While Drea went for a run, Kelsey and I hiked through mangrove forests and along boardwalks to Haruru Falls. It was a beautiful walk and the falls were a lot bigger than we'd been expecting!

After biking back to Paihia, we regrouped and spent the afternoon lying on the beach enjoying the sun. Our next adventure awaited us out on the water ...

Auckland

Auckland Sky Tower

After what felt like too long being static in Christchurch, Easter break finally arrived and it was time for another adventure. Drea, Kelsey and I flew up to Auckland on April 24th and spent the day exploring the city. Unfortunately for us, Easter Sunday is not a very exciting day in a city. Needless to say we got pretty bored and ended up seeing an IMAX movie, but not before I tried on a leather jacket in one of the few stores that was open, which turned out to cost an incredible $1500!!! It was made from BABY LAMB wool and skin, and apparently not that many baby lambs die each year, resulting in the outrageous cost.

We went out for dinner after the movie (lucky for us most restaurants were open so we had a lot of choice). We chose a restaurant called Buffalo which had great food but very poor ambiance - conveniently there was good music at the restaurant next door so we tuned out our place's pop beats and listened to the Spanish guitarist instead. I decided to put being a vegetarian on a bit of a hold (sorry Mar) and celebrate Easter with lamb shanks and mashed potatoes - thought about my dad while eating them, hope you're proud! It was absolutely delicious.

In Albert Park

We spent the night at a hostel and got up early the next morning for our bus ride which would be taking us up north (remember, Northern Hemisphere inhabitants, that heading north in NZ means getting warmer!).