There’s nothing much I can say except that THE THIRD DAY FAILED HARD.I’ll get to it soon, but let me just start from the beginning – from before we checked out. I woke up early as usual, at 6am. Atie woke up around the same time too. I decided to let Mira sleep in for an hour more, just because. I took my bath and changed into a fresh new shirt. Looking out of the window, the view was quite spectacular. I forgot Omapere was a bay. Last night was too dark for us to note the beauty.
We kind of made friend with the resident cat, Tequilla, and a little girl called Rubie. She clung to us. She even got into our car and wanted to go with us. It was kind of cute, in an annoying way. I’m glad her mom took her away though she was kicking and screaming when she was taken away from our car.
Hm. The way down from Omapere to Piha was very challenging. It felt like we were driving through a mist, but I realised that it wasn’t so. We were just so high up in the mountain that we were actually driving in the clouds. While it sounded almost romantic to drive in the clouds, it was not when our safety was at stake. We had no choice but to switched the heater on to see the through the windows clearly. Otherwise, they would have clouded over and make navigating (for me) and driving (for Atie) really troublesome.
Before leaving Northland, we stopped by a scenic lookout near Omapere, still in the Hokianga region. The view was breathtaking. We took a few pictures before running back to the comfort and warmth of the car. The wind was too strong and the air too cold.Further down, we made our way through the highway, stopping in the Waiopu forest where the biggest and oldest Kauri tree stood.
The tree was even more breathtaking than the scenic view we saw earlier.
It’s insane, I know it myself. I was a little bit surprised to find small well of tears prickling my eyes. I felt a wave of emotion crashing down on me. The tree standing big and tall before me was over 2000 years old. It had outlived many people, and it was still standing tall and proud.
Moving on. The road to Piha had so many twists and turns. So many that it made me want to throw up. By the time we left Northland and was back in Auckland region, the weather turned back. The nearer we were to Piha, the harder the rain grew. In the end, we didn’t go to the beach even though the sun was shining again by the time we stopped to have lunch. We were already running low on fuel, so we decided to head back to the nearest town to refill the fuel tank.
Looking at the clock, we should be early by two hours in getting to Hamilton. Such was not the case. On the way to the state highway from Auckland, we were hit with a much annoying problem.
TRAFFIC JAM
I felt sick as the car rode very slowly through the evil traffic condition, so I sat back to make myself feel better. Mira helped navigate our way, no worries there. We were stuck in the jam for more than an hour, much to our chagrin. As we arrived in Hamilton, it was already quite late. We were really lucky we didn’t go to Piha. Otherwise, we might not have made it early to J’s Backpackers to check in. We were already late even without stopping by at the beach.
J’s Backpackers was a lively place. Everybody seemed friendly. The hostess was wonderful too. Our room was even more wonderful. We didn’t have to share our room with others. Only the three of us. The room was very homey, pink everywhere. We felt at home there.
There was a slight change in our original holiday plan. Atie reminded us about our plan to spend a night in the car at Waitomo, but then we realised it won’t be safe because Waitomo was full of caves. Not the best place for a small group of only girls to sleep through the night, in a small cramped car no less. So we decided to look for accommodation in Taupo for the next night. If we don’t get Taupo, maybe Rotorua. I tried checking for availability in Taupo (where can be checked instantly online), but none was vacant. We then decidedto try our luck the next day.
Hamilton was cold. Very cold. Upon checking the temperature on Metservice, I was shocked to find out that the current temperature was 2 celcius! A mere 2 celcius! No wonder we were freezing. Atie even remarked that the air felt almost the same as Queenstown.
And so we slept. I slept last, because I was fiddling with my laptop and the internet before going to sleep. It was freezing. I even borrowed Mira’s sweater for my legs. The duvet was not enough.
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