A Stopover in Whakatane

Nestled in the east of Bay of Plenty, Whakatane is situated between Te Puke and Opotiki. It takes less than an hour drive traveling from Te Puke or Opotiki. Since we drove between both places quite often, a stopover in Whakatane was expected. However, we didn’t pay much attention to the city’s must-see or must-do lists. Still, we had scenery watching at Kohi Point Scenic Reserve and around Whakatane River.

View of Ohope Beach from Kohi Point lookout



Beautiful floras with oceanic views at the scenic reserve

At Whakatane riverside

 

Picturesque waterfront view of Whakatane River



Pohutukawa(New Zealand's Christmas Tree) at the riverside
  

Job Hunting in Bay of Plenty

Bay of Plenty is an important region of fruits and vegetables growing and it’s particularly recognized for the kiwifruit plantation in Te Puke. In fact, Te Puke is given a name as ‘Kiwifruit capital of the world’. I knew that many backpackers normally will come to the town around April for kiwifruit picking when the season started. Nonetheless, I came to the region on October-November and the only jobs I could find was kiwifruit pruning and kiwifruit flower picking on occasion. The work in Te Puke wasn't steady and I almost had days off more than work days. 

One day, Gavin and I met a Malaysian lady contractor by chance while we're having dinner in a Chinese restaurant in Te Puke. She invited us to work with her in the kiwifruit orchards in Opotiki and she claimed that she could offer steadier works. I actually had never heard about the town before, but Gavin asked me to go there with him and try our luck in any case. Other than working in kiwifruit orchards again, I can’t think of any other jobs available for us at the moment. So, we tried. 

For the first few days, we traveled between Te Puke and Opotiki every day since we still stayed in Te Puke and we took approximately 3 hours for return trip. Frankly, staying in Opotiki wasn't part of my working holiday plan. Allowing for the distance, we moved to stay in the township in the end. There're just a few main streets in the town, the supermarket was limited. Luckily, my accommodation in Royal Hotel was pretty good.

Opotiki town viewed from the Royal Hotel

The works in kiwifruit orchards were the same, we mostly did pruning. Male workers were relatively more than female workers since it’s a pretty tough work. Anyway, Gavin and I stayed at the place just about 2 weeks given that the contractor didn’t provide us what she had promised and worse it’s always challenging to get the pay from her.

Kiwifruit orchard



Kiwifruits hanging with the support of vine

Close-up of kiwifruits



Unqualified kiwifruits



Another one meant to be threw away

The last job I did in Bay of Plenty was kiwifruit thinning in Te Puke orchard again. I knew the job from a friend of mine but it’s much better than the previous ones. Instead of using long and heavy cutter to trim the kiwifruit branches, we only need to pick the unusual kiwifruits and threw them away. Moreover, our new Nepal contractor was friendlier and paid us on time. I liked the latest job but I couldn’t stay long for it as my planned itinerary to other places was about to begin. In fact, this is also the last job I did before I left New Zealand.

A Lunch at Fishermans Table

I targeted Bay of Plenty as the next region to go from Wellington and Gavin agreed to go with me. On the day of our leaving, we came across the Fishermans Table by coincidence while driving on the road. Hence, we stopped by for a lunch. Fishermans Table is a great restaurant to serve seafood lovers. Still, many others come to enjoy meals for the reason of the waterfront views over Kapita Coast.

Air-conditioned indoor dining area

Outdoor dining area facing the ocean

'All you can eat' salad boat

Fishermans Table

Location: 29 State Highway 1, Paekakariki, Kapita Coast, Wellington.
Tel: (04) 2928125
Opening hours: 11.30am - 9pm everyday
Price: from $15.95(subject to change)

Bye-bye South Island...I’m back, Wellington!

After spending almost 6 months and the greatest moments in South Island, I eventually returned to North Island. My housemate Gavin gave me a ride from Ashburton to Christchurch Airport. I took the Pacific Blue domestic flight leaving to Wellington and the flight took less than an hour journey. I reached Wellington in the afternoon and my friends Park & Ting came to pick me up at the airport.

On my second visit to Wellington, I could really feel that it’s a very windy city as what stated in the Lonely Planet. I think ladies may find difficulty walking on the streets with skirt :P


5 weeks in the capital city and I had some part time jobs during my stay. I usually worked as waitress in restaurants and ice-cream kiosk in a shopping mall.


Whenever I had free time, I liked to walk around and explore things. In the city centre, I found a place where computers with free internet access are available and that is the National Library of New Zealand. It’s located at 70 Molesworth Street, Thorndon and it’s opened at 10am – 5pm Monday to Saturday. There’s a time limit of usage but it’s fine to continue as long as there’s no other people waiting to use. Besides, this is also a place where some arts exist for browsing.

The building of National Library of New Zealand

I had fun visiting a nursery school; I asked permission to take videos and photos of the kids’ activities. Looking at those lovely kids, it reminded me how nice it’s being a child with stress-free life.

  

One amusing scenario I witnessed while walking in the city was a remonstration shown by a group of teenagers. I had no idea what’s going on but the police seemed capable to tackle the issue promptly.

Hot Air Ballooning in Queenstown

From my experience, hot air balloon flights very depend on the weather. Even if booking is made in advance, yet the authority has the right to cancel the flights for safety reason, if the weather is not allowed such as raining or windy day.


The next early morning after the rafting, I called to the sunrise balloons and checked if the weather of the day is appropriate for the adventure. It's fine, the person told. Later, my friend Gavin and I were picked up in front of our hostel to the launch field. Before the trip, I had no idea whatsoever about how the hot air balloon works. It’s funny that I thought we could simply jump on the ready balloon basket and the air journey will be started immediately. Hmmm…no no! At least it’s not that simple. In reality, there're some preparations need to be done before everyone could jump on the basket.

Some of the passengers especially men were readily to assist the crew to fill the balloon with air patiently. When the balloon was fully filled, every passenger got on the attached basket. At that point, the basket slowly departed from the field and we’re up up away. Looking down from 7900 feet height, most of the panoramic sceneries of Queenstown were captured into my eyes and I couldn’t help myself from shooting them. On the other hand, a climb at such height made me freezing in the air.

After less than an hour, the basket of the hot air balloon was slowly landed on the field again and then we cooperated to pack the air-released balloon away when the flight was complete.

Pleasingly, we’re handed a certificate each while enjoying the champagne breakfast with everybody in the field.

I eventually did what I longing for, so I would say 28th Sept 2008 was a memorable day and it’s an enjoyable trip for me in Queenstown!

White Water Rafting in Queenstown

The first morning in Queenstown, my friend Gavin and I went to book the rafting at Queenstown Rafting retail centre. We’re given 2 selections to pick, either do it in Shotover River or Kawarau River. The differences are mainly the grade of excitement and the duration. For Kawarau River rafting, it is 2-3 grade rafting and it’ll take 4 hours to complete. As for the Shotover, it is 3-5 grade rafting and it’ll spend about half day. Of course, we choose the rafting in Shotover River since I failed to experience it on my previous visit. We paid $165 each and booked the 1.15 pm route. Yes! This time we eventually got it!


We returned to the retail centre in the afternoon and ready to be picked up by a coach leaving from the downtown. Together with others, we boarded the coach and on an awesome trip traverse the rocky Skippers Canyon. But before we came to the river, we’re sent to a hub to equip ourselves with wetsuit, booties, helmet, both spray and life jackets.


Now we’re at the riverside. All of us were arranged into 4 boats and there's a guide on each boat. After a full safety briefing and instruction were given, we all together put in the boats to the river and our rafting journey started.


Woo…hoo...holding the paddles, we’re excited to raft the river according to the command given by the guide. The water was cold but we had fun. We seemed relaxed and enjoyed the natural surroundings traverse the Red Rocks and Rock Garden section. Conversely, we’re shocked when reached the nerve-wracking rapids of rafting, expressly passed through the Oxenbridge Tunnel! Wow! Extremely excited. Lastly we truly had an adventurous day!

Second Road Trip to Queenstown on Spring

I had no luck to experience the rafting adventure in Queenstown during my first visit on late autumn. The rafting company claimed that there’s road inaccessibility caused by snow issue. As a result, all the regular road trips for rafting activities were cancelled remaining the helicopter option. To save cost, I gave up for the time being.


Hot air ballooning was the other adventure that I wished to experience all along. In fact, balloon flights are available and popular in Christchurch and Methven. Unfortunately, I was unable to try it in both places although they're closed to Asburton where I stayed. The bookings of the activity were cancelled by the authorities owing to the bad weathers :(


Due to the happenings, I decided to revisit Queenstown for both adventures when winter was finally over. My housemate Gavin joined me for my second trip to Queenstown leaving from Ashburton. We drove on the State Highway 1 and turned into State Highway 79 (Geraldine-Fairlie Hwy) instead of following the East Coast. Then we drove forward into State Highway 8 and 6 passed through Cromwell and Frankton. We took about 6 hour drive with some breaks in between.


In the middle of the journey, we experienced an unfamiliar scenario. It was spring, but it’s snowing deeply like in winter. Outside the car, we saw everything is covered with thick snows; the sky was cloudy but sometimes it was sunny.

We’re delayed awhile due to the traffic roadblock but we’re excited instead to make the most of it by taking pictures on the road. The snowy panoramas were striking indeed.