New Zealand: North Island

New Zealand is the single most beautiful place I have ever been. Anytime someone mentions this country, this is my automatic reply. Someone recently told me they lived in New Zealand for a year, and she said that every single thing was postcard worthy. This is exactly accurate.

New Zealand is also the adventure capital of the world. Seriously, type “adventure capital of the world” into Google and New Zealand will be at the top of the page. And the middle. And it may even make its way down to the bottom. So I’m here to tell you about all of the adventures I had in the adventure capital of the world.

I went to New Zealand twice during my semester abroad. Once to the North Island with Eric, and then back to the North Island with Jen before our spring break trip to the South Island (more on that in the next post).

Our homebase on the North Island for both trips was Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. This is where I had my first bungy jumping experience. As you know if you’ve been following along, I went skydiving in Sydney. The fear I felt skydiving was basically zero in comparison to bungy jumping. It is the scariest thing I have ever done, and I did it four times. It did not get less scary with each jump. 

The first time was when Eric basically forced me to do it. The second and third time were when I then proceeded to force Jen to do it. They had some deal where the second jump was much cheaper, so I went for it. The last time was on the South Island, so more on that later. 

There are two ways that you can be hooked in when bungy jumping. The first is the traditional way you’ve probably seen most often where your ankles are attached to the cord. This is the option I chose for my first and second jumps. When you bungy jump in Auckland, you’re jumping off a bridge over the ocean. If you choose, you can actually take a dip in the ocean on the way down as well. They tell you that you can’t hesitate, because when they say “1-2-3-JUMP” they’re timing it with the boats below the bridge. If you don’t jump when they say jump, you can hit a boat, so if you feel like you’re going to hesitate then you need to step back and start over. I hesitated. And then I hesitated again. And then I hesitated one more time before they offered to push me off. Obviously, this is the better option as I preferred to not have to jump myself (part of the reason I found skydiving less scary), and I preferred not knowing when it was coming so I couldn’t think about it or hesitate. And that’s the story of how I got pushed off a bridge in New Zealand. 

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The second time I went with Jen, and I decided if I was going to bungy jump multiple times I may as well make it a little different each time. So this time, while I still had my ankles attached to the cord, I decided to go backwards instead of forwards (also Eric’s choice in the photo above for his second jump). And also, this was less scary to me because again, you don’t have to jump yourself – the guy holds your harness and then you lean back off the ledge and he lets go. It’s easy to close your eyes and pretend it’s not happening.

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And then the third time, which was right after the second time, I decided to keep with the theme of “something different every time” and I opted to be connected in the center of my body instead of my ankles. And friends, if you thought regular bungy jumping was scary, then do not try this. This was the single most petrifying moment of my life (besides when I did it again on the South Island). When you are connected by your ankles, you feel connected because you can’t really walk and your ankles are attached to each other. When are are connected in the center, you don’t feel the cord. You jump off a bridge (and you really have to do the jumping yourself here) and your arms and legs are flailing in every direction until you land, and bounce, and keep flailing. You actually feel like you are falling to your death. 

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Anyway, I think bungy jumping is an experience that many people are NOT interested in, so let’s move on to the rest of the adventure through the adventure capital of the world.

Another thing I did with Eric, and then made Jen do as well, was visit the Auckland Sky Tower. There are towers like this all around the world. In most normal places, you can go to the top of the tower, take a walk around and look out and see the sights from high up. Maybe there’s a restaurant up there. Maybe there’s even a revolving restaurant so you can see the entire city while you eat. In Vegas, there’s some rides on the top which are pretty cool. If you read my Sydney post, you’ll remember that they took it a step further, and we got to walk around the outside of the building on glass floors with glass walls. Well, Auckland took it two steps further than that. 

In Auckland, like Sydney, you can walk around the outside on the top of the tower. However, there are no walls. You can lean over the side and see the street from 192 meters (630 feet) up while walking on a 1.2 meter (4 ft) wide platform similar to the grates above the subways that you can see right through. The only barrier you have is a harness. Unfortunately I could not get pictures of this experience, but check out the Auckland Sky Tower Website to get the image.

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And I said two steps further, because you could also jump off the tower. We can call this bungy jumping lite, or ziplining on crack. You basically jump and zip all the way down to the ground from the top of the tower, moving pretty fast at first and slowing down as you come in for a landing.

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By the way, Auckland also has an aquarium for those of you who are afraid of heights.

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When I went to the North Island with Eric, we also decided to escape the city for a day. We did a bus tour to the Bay of Islands, where we visited the town of Paihia. We passed some amazing sights on the bus ride and had some time to walk around this beautiful area on the water and just explore the nature and calmness of the town.

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We also spent a little time at the Waitangi treaty grounds, where the first treaty between the British people and the Maori (aboriginal population in New Zealand) was signed. Here, we experienced some of the Maori culture present in the area.

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And then we got ready to board our speedboat to the famous hole in the rock. This was one of those speedboat experiences that goes through big waves that feel like rapids for the thrill seekers among us. This was easily one of the worst experiences of my life, and I have vivid memories or myself trying to pretend the tears running down my face were actually just splashes of water coming up over the side of the boat. 

Let me explain. This was early enough in our relationship that Eric knew I was scared of boats but did not quite understand the seriousness of this. He convinced me that it would be fine, and this boat wouldn’t be that scary. It was not fine, and it was that scary. Not bungy jumping scary, where it’s clearly a one time (or four time) experience and I know I will not die so I am doing it for the thrill. This is the type of scary where I do believe I will die and there is no thrill, just waiting for it all to be over. When the water comes up higher than the side of the boat, I am NOT OKAY. Eric learned from this experience. He does not opt to experience boats with me anymore.

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That being said, if you do not have an irrational fear of water sports this was probably a great experience. Eric loved it, and it is definitely a cool and different way to see the famous hole in the rock. They actually stop or slow the boat when you get there, and it was a pretty great sight. I don’t have pictures because my camera was not water proof. Google it.

Our trips to the North Island were clearly packed with adventure. Stay tuned for the South Island where there was still plenty of adventure, but also the real postcard beauty I talked about in the beginning of this post.