As I've mentioned, I was going to partake in a road trip going from Wellington all the way up to Auckland, code named: F.A.R.T. '08 (F*cking Awesome Road Trip 2008) click link for a map. On this wild adventure was My Special German Friend (MSGF) and The Sh*tting Dutchman (TSD). Both of these names will be explained - later.
We had planned this trip about 2-3 weeks ago, and well, it all seemed hopeless. The rental companies didn't hire out camper vans down here in Wellington - except for one! Backpacker Rentals. We got a quote on one campervan, the Nomad which was a sweet deal, cheaper than the other campervans which were smaller even! And when we went to pick it up, we were given a nice surprise - they gave us the wrong one! Instead, we got the Wanderer for a small extra price too, but something we were willing to pay. This beast made us 100% self sufficient! And boy, it was a real beast. It had a 3.5L engine, and weighed a ton...or more. I don't actually think I was legally allowed to drive it, but hey man, we had a blast! And something that really bummed me out, the company demanded that my driver's license be in English, so instead, I went to the Swedish consulate and had a translation made for 40 NZD, no biggy. But here's what really f'ed me off, when I went to pick up the van, they didn't even ask to see it! Not even hinted at it! Did I ask them about it? I sort of hinted at it, but no, they weren't all to fussed about it. Lame! But whatever, I was determined not to let that get me down.
Our first destination was New Plymoth, we didn't really know what was going to be up there, but we all had decided to head on up there and see what happened. Well, how can I put this...empty. There's not a whole lot to see up there, but I thought that I would of been able to score us a place to crash for the night (real toilet and shower) for that night through a friend I met up in Paihia, but I didn't have his number, when I thought I did the whole time. So, we went to Pak'n Save and bought our selves some food for our first dinner, and of course, beer. Yum! We ended up driving a bit west of NP and found a nice spot next to an oil refinery, right next to the beach, as you can see on the map. When we parked up, we were looking for signs saying anything about us not allowed to camp there, but after no signs were found, we settled right on it. After about 2 minutes of being in the van, we noticed what a sail our van was and how bloody windy it was outside. Imagine being in a bed where people are having sex ALL the time, yeah, that's how it felt the whole damn night.
It was a real chill night (and cold) and the morning was even better! We were greeted with an amazing view when we opened up the rear doors and we could see some small peaks in the water and the beautiful sunrise!
Yeah bro, it was noice! We then walked down to the beach and had a small photo session and just enjoyed the morning sea breeze - unforgettable! 
This beach was just amazing, I can't really explain why, it was just...gah!!! You'll just have to be there. Just being there with friends and being on the road again, unbeatable. And on the walk back to the van, we saw a double rainbow!!! 
We headed back to Pak'n Save and bought ourselves a meat platter for 20NZD (SUPER CHEAP!!!) which had some sausages, minced meat, chicken, schnitzel, and beef fillet. Our dinners for the next couple of days was sorted.
Next stop: Taupo. The drive out there was just amazing (as is everything here :P). After consulting the map which would be the most adventurous, we took the back roads which led us to Mt. Damper falls. You needed to cross a muddy as sheep field to get to the falls, and man, were we muddy, but it was fun as shit! Check out the photo! We ended up crashing a bit outside of Taupo in Mission Bay, which is just a rest stop where we tried to hide our mini-tank behind some trees. I don't think it was too well concealed, but we woke up lying next to Lake Taupo, which, yet again, was another sweet way to wake up. :D
Before we had gone to bed, we had discussed what to do the following day, and we had decided to go on a boat cruise to see some modern Maori rock carvings, and then check out the Huka Falls - RIGHT after we had had some nice breakfast in town. We ended up having some pancakes which were absolutely amazing! A bit expensive, but well worth the money! The rock carvings were pretty sweet, sadly we couldn't get to close to them with the ferry because of the swell we had that day, but I feel I got some relatively good photos of them.
Our journey was going to take us North towards Rotorua, and on this night, we had decided to crash at a motor camp just so we could take a proper shower and so MSGF and TSD could watch the European Finals: Germany vs. Spain. Nothing too special happened this night. Meh. We woke up and headed back down SH5 towards Waiotapu so TSD could check out the thermal pools while in the mean time MSGF would do something else.
We saw a sign to a volcanic valley which looked sweet, but when we found out that there was a 30 buck entry fee, we changed our minds. We then headed down the road until we came to a lake and decided to have some lunch there. While we were waiting for the food to cook, MSGF began to harass the local chicken population by saying some pretty random stuff which I don't plan to repeat. It was pretty damn funny! Once TSD was done in Waiotapu, we went and picked him up and decided to make a quick detour Hobbiton, but when we found out it was 75bucks and we missed the last tour, we thought otherwise (yes, we were a bit stingy, I know). Adjusted our compasses and began heading up North to a town I remember driving past with Mom and the Troll when they came to visit me: Tairua. It was pretty dark driving up, and my personal Magelan wasn't paying attention as to where we were going, so i took a wrong turn and then had to do a U-turn. Ended up me pulling up to poor hitchhiker, giving her false hope, and then quickly driving away from her in the direction we came from. MSGF and TSD are still teasing me about it. I felt like I hurt her. Oh well, that's life!
Tairua: it was dark when we got there, and I figured it be best if we crashed outside of the town center, and ended up parking in another No Camping area right next to the water.
I bet you know what I'm about to say about this spot too, aye? So i won't. We climbed up the hill in the background which gave us a 360 degree view over the bay and sister town. You have to go there. Legend has it, that once you climb up, you'll return in 7 years. Someone starting the countdown? Once we had made our way back down, the Beast was awoken and began taking us to Hahei, and Cathedral Cove.
On arrival, we still had plenty of sun light, so we decided to check out the cove and see what all the hubbub was about. Once we got down there, yeah, we understood. Just look at the photos, my vocab is too crap to even begin describing what it looks like. On our way out of it, we saw a pod of orcas swimming right by the shore line, mag-bloody-nificent! I think that's probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen, it was just so captivating. They were bloody far away, but you could still make them out under water and their distinctive fin, yeah man...amazing. When we got back to the car and watched the sunset, we bought some beer for the night at the local dairy and set up base in the Parking Lot for Cathedral Cover where two other vans had setup base. I saw potential in this: Potluck dinner. One of the vans pulled out before I could talk to him about it, so I approached the other van and presented my idea and they were keen. Score! I made a tuna/salmon stir fry which was pretty spicy (surprise) along with some flavored rice. The German couple brought some spicy tomato sauce and pasta. Turned out that they were vegetarian. Only in the Oceanic though, strange. Apparently they don't like the meat here, meh.
The 3rd van pulled in and invited him in, also turned out to be a German. They're frikkin' everywhere in this country! So there were 4 Germans, one Dutch, and me crammed into our van, drinking beer, sharing stories, debating what it means to be Kiwi, sharing my disturbing humor. Yeah man, it was a good time :D In the morning, we headed out to the Hotwater beach, and planned to make a bad ass pool. Yeah, F-that! Low tide my ass! The waves kept on killing our walls, no matter what we did! Well, we had a whole EU effort going on, we recruited two other people, tried to build something bigger and stronger, but nej...mother nature kicked us in the head and denied us a nice pool. Ok, I lie, our first attempt was good, but didn't last long. I got to enjoy 30-40 seconds of it...gay.
One more night, destination: Piha. Windy, real windy roads...damn, it was crazy driving the van through those roads, but good fun! We arrived a bit past sunset, but we could see a sweet silhouette of Lion Rock, which was just magical. And it was windy, real windy on the beach. That night I made some hamburgers for the boys and it was just phenomenal - yummy to my large tummy! Upon waking up, we were, yet again, graced with NZ's amazing landscape right out of our rear door...I'm speechless man. I woke up before everyone else to go to the WC, but I figured take some photos at the same time. The sun hadn't fully risen just yet, so I just had to exploit the opportunity, and it was well worth it. Wrote some stuff in the sand, said Hi to a dog, and got to see Piha in all it's glory.
When we were all awake, we cleaned up the van a bit and found some Mid-Winter Christmas crackers that we played with before continuing with the day. We tried popping one, which sucked, no crack, so next we tried 3 - not big change. We then had to try the remaining 6 - it was better, but not that fun...random. After all the shenanigans climbed up Lion Rock that is one of it's main attractions, and we took some photos from the top...yeah, you can see for yourself on that part. While we were on the top, we were just looking over the town Piha and just dreamed of living there or owning a batch (Kiwi for weekend home) of some sort there. I'm going to try to take us there Ruffus!
Once our little adventure was over, we had to drop off the Beast back to it's righteous owner, which was a messy business. Yuck.
This road trip was really amazing, to say the least. Memories that I'm going to look back to when times are dark and bleak. I'm truly going to miss the good times we had together on that trip...man. I don't know what else write except for when we split up in Auckland it was quite a drag, but I knew that I was going to see them later on back down here in Wellington not to shortly. TSD still owes me 28 bucks...or bugs as MSGF would spell.
That concludes F.A.R.T '08 <- Link to web album.
Part 2: My trip up to Paihia and how I hitchhiked back to Wellington in only two rides!
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