Winding Down

My final day here. Sigh. I woke up this morning to discover that my sun burns were doing much better; yay! The sheets on the bed no longer felt like sharp knives and the shower water no longer stung. I credit my Syrian blood, the New Zealand Cancer Society aloe vera gel, and the long epsom salt bath I was able to take at my farmstay (part of the reason I booked that place was for the bathtub, and I was lucky that the local Countdown sold bags of pure epsom salts!). Even more exciting, when I stood up there was no sharp pain in my hips. I’m able to sit and stand again without groaning aloud in pain! Don’t get me wrong, I still hurt but it’s better and I’m no longer limping. It was about 8:30am and I was starting to get ready leisurely when a message came through on my phone. My AirBnB hosts were requesting that I leave by 9:30am, before the normal check-out time. Their new guests for the night were arriving on a flight at 8:30am and had asked if they could check-in early. I was pissed. Why the fuck was this my problem? Sure, I had asked AirBnB hosts on this trip if I could check in earlier and they all had said that they would let me know when the current guest left and the home was ready. A perfectly acceptable response, I would never expect someone to be kicked out early. These people may have come across as nice human beings but they were asshole hosts.

I packed up and got the hell out of dodge. I still needed to figure out my plan for the day; it was 9:30am; I had only 7 hours left to enjoy this amazing country. At a local cafe I talked with the staff and did some quick research while enjoying another delicious chai latte and mushroom spinach eggs Benedict. I love love love how places in New Zealand serve their lattes at the perfect drinking temperature, there’s no burning your tongue waiting while it cools down. And the chai here has been fantastic; nice and spicy. I am still befuddled by the use of bagels in place of english muffins and toast. Figuring out how to properly eat a Benedict on top of a bagel was a challenge. The Lion’s Rock at Piha and the Karekare falls were on my original list of possible places to visit around Auckland and the waitress suggested the black sand Muriwai beach. Both were on the western coast, which I had yet to see. I did some quick mapping and was off.

An hour later I arrived at Muriwai Beach. It was pretty. A nice little black sand beach. But also busy being only 45 minutes from Auckland. The sand was incredibly soft and again my feet loved the cool salt water. I walked along a little narrow rock shelf to see a little cave and watch the surfers, it was prime surfing conditions, being careful to stay towards the shore as I hadn’t changed into my bikini and wasn’t planning on getting wet above the knees. I was cognizant today that I would be going straight to the airport and wanted to stay relatively cleanish. I soaked my feet and looked around and realized the tide was moving in. Hmm, perhaps I should head back. My time was on a tight budget anyways. I started back along the narrow ridge when splash! Big waves started crashing against it, soaking me pretty much to my waist. Well played mother nature, well played. I got back to my car and once again stripped down and changed in the back seat this time putting on bikini bottoms and board shorts since the next couple spots also involved water!

About an hour later I arrived at Lion Rock at Piha. Lion Rock is a giant rock popping out of the beach with climb that’s supposed to offer impressive views. The weather was gloomy, the beach was crowded. I parked and hopped out of the car to snap a couple pictures. I could see the steep stairs and grades of the hike up the walk. Do I do it? It was hot, humid, my body just barely starting to forgive me for the Tongariro. I stared for a couple minutes, got back in the car, and bid adieu. Maybe if I’d had a chance to shower before the airport I would have but nah.

From there I was off to the Karekare Falls; a mere 15ish minutes up the road. The vast majority of those 15 minutes was spent on the last 1.5 miles down to the falls. The road was the scariest I had driven in New Zealand. Super windy, super narrow (maybe 1 1/2 lanes wind), and blind turns every 20m or so. Horrible. But I made it. Thankfully the falls were only about a 5 minute walk from the car park. There was a gorgeous wooden home on the hillside overlooking the falls. I was taken by it and oh so jealous of whomever was lucky enough to live there.

The falls were lovely, there were few other people around but not many. I sat on a dry rock and put my feet in the pool, washing off the black sand that was still hanging on from Muriwai. Again, my feet were grateful for the cool water. As I had with Marokopa Falls, I sat and traced the paths of water down the falls. Just the same, the falls suddenly became clearer. Every time I started this trace I would notice new crevices and outcrops that I hadn’t before. This would be my last site to see before I headed back to Auckland. As I sat there following the paths down the falls my eyes welled with tears. I had no idea why and I quickly brushed them away. Sad to go I peeled myself and headed back to the car. There was another smaller falls along the way with an inviting little basin, the size of a backyard hot tub. I wished I had time to take a dip but that will have to be saved for next time.

I headed back to Auckland, stopping for some lunch and a quick trip into the Countdown. All that chocolate I’d bought when I first arrived? It had melted from days on end of being left with my bags in the warm car while I explored. Oh well. Plus, it’s not like I had picked up nearly enough. Yes, I am traveling home with an entire backpack (thank god I had packed my empty trail pack!) full of nothing but chocolate and tea.

I still had to change into my travel clothes and repack all my bags; I knew exactly where I wanted to do it. At the same spot where I stopped the first day, after returning my wrecked rental car, and found solace amongst the cows. Today, however, the damn spot was full of cars and there were no cows to be seen! Grr. I found the one empty place to park and crawled into the back seat to change. When the car next to me left, a Maori woman with an actual whakapapa tattoo on her chin pulled in. The whakapapa displays lineage and heritage. I tried not to stare, I wanted to engage her and ask about it but did not have time.

I made my way to the airport, which is incredibly efficient – it’s taken me longer to get through TSA pre-check lines than it took me to get through international security here! And here I am, boarding a plane in 15 minutes to begin the trek home. I am forever changed from being here; and I WILL be back. And soon. My heart belongs to New Zealand. I will have at least one more blog posts of final thoughts. Hopefully this trusty bluetooth keyboard lasts long enough for me to write on the plane; I lost the charger somewhere along my way. It is clear to me, this was not a vacation. It was a journey.