Surviving Car Sickness 101

Driving away from the city of Auckland

Only one day after my arrival in New Zealand my Loyola group left for a weekend trip to visit the Bay of Islands and explore pretty much the whole entire northern part of the North Island. Early the morning of February 17^th, we all boarded the bus to take us to our destination. Despite the early hour, I was wide awake and eager to go see some new sites. While long cars rides generally tend to make me sleepy, I couldn’t let all this beautiful scenery pass me by. I suppose this is one time I could be thankful for jet lag. With my biological clock still set to thinking it was afternoon time, I was easily able to fight the urge of sleep. For the next four hours I sat gazing out the window, devoting all my energy and focus to taking snap shot after snap shot of this gorgeous new land.

Beach in Paihia, right down the street from our hostel.

Finally at one point in the drive we turned a corner to witness the most amazing view of this incredible blue, clear water. Jutting out of the water for as far as the eye could see were all these tiny little islands of all shapes and sizes. It was here (nearly right across the street from the beach) that I learned was the hostel we’d be staying at for the next two nights. I couldn’t be more ecstatic (especially to get in that water!). Right after arriving and having a delicious lunch it was off to the beach and into the ocean. Now it’s actually been a really long time since I’ve swam in an ocean (while Long Island Sound isn’t exactly ‘the ocean’ it still doesn’t appeal to me too much). However, these were the perfect waters to go into. It was crazy to think how I was currently in these warm, teal, crystal clear waters right then and there, when nearly a couple days before I had been in what seemed to be the arctic tundra of the Northeast. It was a pretty amazing experience for my first ever encounter of stepping into the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Heading into the cave.

Looking attractive with wind blown hair inside the cave.

After our brief swim session we were soon in for the ride of a life time. We boarded a speed boat call ‘Mack Attack’ to take us to see the famous ‘Hole in the Rock’. What I didn’t know was that we were going to see a whole lot more than that. Cruising through the Bay of Islands on this boat I’m pretty sure I had a smile plastered to my face the whole entire time. I couldn’t have been more happy and having more fun. Going over all these big waves on this speedboat gave me the feeling that I was on a rollercoaster. Plus, the views I was seeing were certainly spectacular. Here we were boating around all these millions of insane little islands, all with perhaps maybe one house plopped on top of them. I kept thinking to myself how lucky some person must be to have a house on an island all to themselves. Finally we arrived at this enormous rock just right in the middle of the ocean. In the side of the rock was a cavernous opening that we started steering towards. I thought to myself we couldn’t possibly be going inside it, but boy was I wrong. Inside it was certainly unreal. The inside of the cave was monstrously big and dripping with lots of water. We all kept saying to one another that it felt like we were on some sort of Disney fantasy ride, but it wasn’t fantasy it was real. Next to this cave was what was actually the ‘Hole in the Rock’ that we were able to sail all the way through as well.

After all this excitement on the way back we were cruising along at full speed, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the speedboat just stopped. The driver came out and told us to look over the edge of the boat. Low and behold…there were dolphins! I’ve always heard of dolphins to be friendly and I guess the rumor holds true. About 5 or 6 dolphins just kept swimming all around our boat until we were the ones to finally leave. I think this is the first time I've ever seen dolphins in their natural habitat.

The next day going on a bus tour of the North Island to the northern most tip was the main event on our itinerary. Now if anyone reading this ever plans on going to New Zealand this is something I highly recommend that you must do, however, I repeat, DO NOT sit at the back of the bus. The day before on the bus I sat at the back (where all the cool kids sit, of course) and I was fine, but this was clearly not the case today. As a kid I went through a phase where I would get car sick all the time, and it was on this day that it came back in full swing. As I’ve told all my readers before New Zealand is a very mountainous country. Being as hilly of a country as it is one can only imagine that all its roads going up this mountains greatly zig zag back and forth to do so. All these windy roads, mixed with being in the back of a bus (so that you’re constantly being swung back and forth) do not mix for a good time. That bus ride certainly made my stomach feel a little uneasy.

What made everything all the better was that while the trip lasted the whole entire day, the bus ride did not. With the good luck that I must’ve had, every time just before the uneasiness would ever become unbearable we always made a stop to look at/or do something really cool. These intermittent stops certainly allowed for some fresh air and fun, that both played a huge part in turning my frown upside down. Things we saw/did included seeing a buried forest, a visit to cape Reinga, sandboarding, and a drive down 90 mile beach.

Thousands of years old buried tree.

View from down in the buried Kauri Forest.

In the background the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. At Cape Reinga! View from the bus of heading to the sand dunes!  This man rode this bicycle all the way from the bottom of the south island and we saw him completing his last leg almost to Cape Reigna! Sandboarding! View down 90 mile beach. My first ever encounter of stepping into the waters of the Tasman Sea! Digging for Tuatuas. Yes I too can't believe I ate raw shellfish right off the beach, another first time experience! The next day we had a trip to a Maori reserve in which we saw and learned about their culture before heading back home (Auckland already feels like home to me!). This time I sat at the front of bus and had a much better ride. My advice to anyone ever touring New Zealand on a bus (or really any vechicle for that matter) would to not sit in the back! Also, if you’re ever feeling queasy because of the ride some fresh air and fun will always do the trick to heal you right up. Well that seems to be about it for now, until next time, cheers!