Paihia: Day 1

The bus that was going to be taking us out of Auckland was due to leave at 7:45am. We guessed it would take us about 15 minutes to walk there comfortably, and so we aimed to have checked out and left the hostel by 7:30. 

I still have no idea how it happened, but we weren’t even checking out until 7:25. We had had to strip our bed linen and I think one of us couldn’t find our key? Either way, it was a mad rush to try and get to the bus station. 

I can tell you now, half running with that massive rucksack on my back is one of my least favourite things to do. And there are so many random hills in Auckland!? It was the worst 10 minutes ever. Poor Tom’s arm almost fell off dragging his bike bag along, and I have no idea how Meryn survived as well as she did. 

The only good thing was that we arrived on time. We half threw our bags at the bus driver, just so that we could go sit down and rest. We had 4 hours of sitting to make up for the horror that was our morning scramble! 

(Thinking about it, it's probably also lucky that the bus wasn't delayed... Because that would haven't have been a surprise). 

The difference in scenery was apparent as soon as we left Auckland. It didn’t take long for us to have left the built up greyness of the city, and before long we were driving through sloping green hills. It started to look like the New Zealand we had been imagining. You could almost see Gandalf leading a collection of Hobbits in the distance… (hahaha)

When we arrived in Paihia we couldn’t believe our luck. The sun was shining, there was a beach, people sailing out on the water… You could visibly see all of our spirits lift. 

That feeling continued when we reached the hostel as well. We were on our own in our 6 bed dorm so we had loads of space to spread out. There was a double bed! And the beds were comfy and colourful, and there were lockers as well. The showers weren’t grubby, there was a hot tub, a swimming pool, tennis courts… The kitchen was bigger and cleaner than our last one, and most importantly… people were friendly here! 

That’s one of the main things we’ve learn in the week or 2 that we’ve been here. People in city hostels are a lot less friendly than people in hostels elsewhere. I’m writing this in Hamilton right now, and so far we have had a conversation with the girl on reception and some guy that offered Tom a dodgy sounding job. That’s it. We’re in a full 6 bed dorm and there are 3 other people in the common room with me and that’s all the interaction we’ve been able to get out of people. 

That’s why Paihia was so nice (and why we miss it so much). People were so friendly and so willing to chat! We even had people stopping us and asking about Tom’s bike bag as we were on the way to the hostel. 

While we were out and about exploring the town, we came across one of those tour companies on the sea front. One of the tours they were offering was to Cape Reinga, a place at the top of the North Island. This has been on top of my New Zealand bucket list and I was so desperate to book and go see it. The guy at the desk offered us the 3 day combo tour at a slightly discounted rate with lunch included on the Cape Reinga tour. I’m not sure what the other 2 initially said but I was immediately all for it. We debated it for a while, and had a look to see if there were cheaper options. We couldn’t find any and since we would be going back South as soon as we left Paihia, we didn’t really think we could give it a miss. 

So with our next 3 days planned out, we decided to top up our food supply. We wandered around the little town in search of a food shop. That’s when we found the cheap flip flops. 

I was the only one who brought flip flops here with me. This was more because shower floors can be gross than any kind of fashion statement/footwear choice. Meryn was planning to buy a cheap pair out here (a lot harder than we thought it would be?). Tom on the other hand, rejected the very idea of flip flops and instead brought crocs. 

Did you know that crocs fill with water when you wear them in a shower?

Did you also know that as practical as crocs are on a farm, they are less so when you wear them in public where people with eyes can see them?

You could tell it pained him to even consider an alternative option for his feet. He dillied and dallied, and picked them up and put them down, and eventually we convinced him to try them on. 

However it wasn’t until he had bought them that we discovered that Tom can’t actually walk in flip flops.

Like, at all.

His inability to use flip flops (a thing I didn’t think was possible?) was overshadowed only by his heartbreak when he discovered more flip flops in the shop we went into after. And these weren’t just any flip flops… These flips flops had New Zealand on them. 

These were premium flip flops, for the same price. 

I think he may have actually threatened Meryn out of buying herself a pair of them. She didn’t want them anyway but I don’t think Tom could handle the thought of her buying herself his dream flip flops…

We did our food shop after our flip flop shop, and stocked up on food for the next few days. This was the first time we discovered the $6 pre-cooked sausages (12 in a pack) that would be part of our meals for the next few days. They probably looked worse than you’re imagining right now. They didn’t actually taste awful. Like, they were edible but we wouldn’t have eaten them if we weren’t on such a tight budget. They kind of expand/explode once you’ve cooked them as well which is slightly alarming… 

Our first day in Paihia got even better when we found out that Finn and Emily, the two people we had met in Auckland, were staying in the same hostel as us as well. Yay! We decided to celebrate by going out for drinks. 

That’s when we discovered just how small the world can actually be by bumping into a group of friends that Finn and Emily had made while they were staying in Fiji a week or so before. No one could believe they’d bumped into each other. In a little seaside town at the top of New Zealand as well! 

We ended up drinking with them (I say drinking, at $8 a cider we only had one each) and it was so funny. The three guys were so loud and their personalities seemed to fill the room. They had all of us laughing with their Fiji stories and their impressions of the people they had met. 

It was such a great day, and did so much to raise our spirits after Auckland. We loved it so much we decided to extend our stay from 4 nights to 6 and were really looking forward to the next few days. 

And I'm happy to say that that turned out to be a really great idea!