Interesting fact- in Maori, if the word begins with wh it has a f sound. So the city I'm in tonight, Whangarei, is pronounced "fongaray". Same with Whitianga (fitianga) where I was last week.
So pulling into town today, I wasn't super stoked to be here. It was raining, the bus stop area was not impressive, and my hostel was located way out of town, so the hostel people came and picked me up. But my attitude changed when I went out to see the Whangarei Falls. Just about a 2 minute walk from my hostel, I went with a German girl I met at the hostel, Katalina. Gorgeous, lush greenery. Incredible waterfalls. Right then I was glad I stopped here in this town. And from there we walked around, down around the falls, through the Kauri tree forest, on countryside roads, to the Abbey Caves. Took about an hour to walk there, but a very pretty rural walk. Prepared with our "torches", we headed into the caves - barefoot, because we heard there was knee deep water to walk through. The caves are in their natural state, so no lights, handrails, walkways, etc. so lots of climbing, ducking, wading, and exploring! And there really was a section of water that I walked through that was crotch-deep. All for fun though. It wasn't too bad going barefoot either. All part of the fun. And the glow worms were neat. And the stalagmites, tites, limestone, all that cave stuff. Very cool.
Didn't get a chance to walk around town, because the local buses weren't running today, so that's a bummer, but oh well, I'm off to Orewa tomorrow. Spending Easter on my own in a strange and distant land. And get this- New Zealand, home of Cadbury chocolate, does not have the Cadbury eggs that you can get around Easter in the states that I love so much. What's up with that? Lame.
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