Day 18: 0 Day in Whangarei — Heading Outbound

Tourist day! After waking up around 6:30 or 7 (camping has made me unable to sleep in), I made breakfast and caught the first bus into town around 8:30. Since it's a Saturday, the last bus to the campground is at 1 pm, so I was planning on spending the day in town and walking the river walk from downtown Whangarei to the waterfall by the YHA and Holiday Park.

Although Saturday meant less bus service, it meant there was an artists' market downtown. That seemed like a good place to start my day! There were some really neat items and I bought a huge piece of focaccia bread that I ate the rest of the afternoon.

There were lots of other little galleries around The Basin. One even had a glass blower working! After checking those out I walked over to the Quarry Arts Centre. It's a really neat place where you can watch artists work, but 11 am on a Saturday may have been too early to get there. Only 2 artists were in, but it was a beautiful place and still pretty neat. You could tell there were at least 10 studios so it's probably pretty amazing when a lot of artists are in.

Whangarei is the largest town I've been in since flying into Auckland, so the post office was open til 1 on Saturday! I walked over there to mail the few items and cards I had bought.

I also wanted to figure out the best way to get back on the trail tomorrow, so I walked to the iSITE to get their opinion (nearly every town in NZ has one of these information centers and it's so helpful!). I explained I was walking the TA to the nice lady there and she told me I could take a bus from the iSITE to Ruakaka for $16. That only cuts about 10 kilometers off the trail and I don't have to worry about trying to hitch in the morning to a less populated area on a Sunday. Sounded good to me!

After that I had an even more important decision to make. I could go to the clock museum and art museum, or I could go to the movie theater and watch the new Star Wars movie - it was starting in 30 minutes. If you know me at all, you know I'm a huge Star Wars fan, so I didn't have to think to hard. I really enjoyed it! But I won't spoil it for anyone.

Then I walked back to the hostel and campground via Whangarei Falls. The falls were beautiful! There was a couple there and I asked the lady if she would take my picture and then I could take theirs. They were both so nice and we started talking for a bit.

They are from Singapore and are finishing the end of their two week trip on the North Island. She's a biology teacher, and in Singapore they get 2 2-week breaks during the school year in December and June (students get 2 4-week breaks but teachers get 2). Then we learned we were all staying at the same place!

I headed back to the campsite to pack and eat dinner and they explored the waterfall a bit more. Staying at the hostels and campgrounds is pretty interesting. You meet people from all over the world and hear all kinds of different languages. I've met lots of people from Germany, some from Spain, England, France, Israel, Sweden and more.

Back to the trail tomorrow!

A cool thing you can walk around at The Basin, an area along the water in downtown Whangarei

A beautiful purple tree by city hall and the library

Stamps in NZ are so cool! These ones are just for domestic letters though so I can't send them to the US. Fish and Chips and these meat pies are by far my favorite foods in NZ

Wondering what to do with your old microwave? Just turn in into a mailbox!

Walking through a kauri forest on the way to Whangarei Falls