Blade NZ: A Travel Documentary By Matt

Wow, what a crazy adventure so far.  It’s amazing how much fun you can have in your own country, and how much you can really push yourself if you try.

After seven different rides via hitchhiking and one night sleeping on the side of the road, we finally make it to Cape Reinga.  Neither Josh or myself have done much hitchhiking before but we learn pretty quickly that you spend a lot of time waiting on the side of the road.

Life on the road

There is a common theme with people that pick up hitchhikers – they have usually hitched themselves sometime in their past. We have so much gear that we can’t fit our blades in our packs, so they dangle off to the side. When we tell people that we are traveling from Cape Reinga to the Bluff we get mixed responses, from ‘what is wrong with you?’, to ‘that sounds like a cool adventure’.

We finally make to Cape Reinga, and we’re both excited to start this epic adventure. Cape Reigna is a famous spot, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. More importantly, there is some nice concrete around these parts so we strap on the blades and get a roll on.

Blading at the Cape

We start blading towards the nearest DOC campsite.  There are DOC sites spotted all over New Zealand, and most of them cost next to nothing to camp at. It’s a good feeling to finally be on the road heading south, and although our blading skills aren’t the best, we still manage to make cover some ground. We finally arrive at Tapotupotu Bay and its beautiful.  

We establish pretty quickly that camping at this time of the year is not ideal, and the first night is freezing. I’m wearing a polyprop, a woolen jersey, beanie, woolen socks, a one-piece ski suit and it’s still incredible cold.  I don’t know how we are going to survive when we get down south.  On the plus side, traveling at this time of year is a lot quieter and there are less people around. 

DOC Campsite: Tapotupotu Bay

We decide to blade Ninety Mile Beach the next day. When we arrive it becomes clear that Ninety Mile beach is not ‘blader friendly’, and the wheels are hardly spinning on the coarse sand. Ninety Mile beach is an official NZ highway, which is cool, but NZ Transport could you please sort out some decent concrete for bladers?

Locals catching some kaimoana for tea near the Cape 

Our next stop is Maitai Bay, which is another wicked DOC campsite.  We pick a spot that overlooks the whole bay and cook some noodles. The thing with camping in winter is it gets dark so early so we’re  in bed at about 8pm. 

We begin blading again in the morning from Maitai Bay. Amazingly I haven’t fallen over on the blades yet, but  I can’t say the same about Josh. At the moment he is slamming about four times a day on average. Our packs are really heavy which doesn’t help.

We begin to hitchhike and have some painfully long waits. Right on dusk we get offered a ride from John and Tiffany. John is smoking a cigarette, rocking a huge beard and his eyes are hidden behind sunglasses. The car looks atrocious, and is the exact car type of car that you would see on Police Ten Seven. These guys seem dodgy, and we’re reluctant to get in the car. However it’s getting dark and we don’t have many options. We get in and start driving. John offers for us to stay at his house, which is incredibly kind, but we are still trying to suss out whether it’s safe or not. We decide to stay, as we figure we can get some pretty entertaining footage with these guys. John is a possum trapper, and struggles to get through day by day on the money he earns. As we head deeper into the bush towards their house it definitely feels like something out of a horror film. 

John invites us to come up and set the possum traps with him. We go up into the bush and start setting his traps. He plucks the fur and sells the carcasses for dog meat. We have to keep quiet, as some of the land isn’t his. Nothing like a bit of possum poaching to kick off our trip.

John reckons that possum is good to eat and more kiwis should do it.  We get some great footage and interviews with John.That evening John generously offers some possum meat to put with our noodles but we decline.

The next morning we go up and get the possums with John. He has caught three, which equates to about 18 dollars. Not much considering it’s taken about four hours work. John bashes the possums on the head with a hammer to kill them, and it’s hard to watch. By now we know John pretty well and he opens up to us a bit more. He tells us that he has served seven years jail time for smashing someone up with a hammer and admits that he has had problems with addiction in the past. 

John showing Josh how its done

We’re deep in the bush in the middle of the North Island, poaching possums off someone else’s land with a ex junkie possum trapper who has spent seven years in jail for almost killing a man. This is exactly the sort of situations we were hoping to get in to. It’s a sad tale, and although he is holding a hammer with his hands covered in blood, we feel completely safe with John. 

It really ‘hammers’ home the difference in living standards and socio economic status in NZ. There is a whole side to poverty and struggle here, which is swept under the carpet. Here’s this guy who can hardly afford to eat and getting by catching possums, who still picks us up and offers up his home for us to stay in. Incredible. We leave John’s with a new outlook on life and continue south.

We arrive at Paihia, which is a touristy town on the east coast of NZ and a gateway to the Bay of Islands. The weather packs in and our tent leaks which is gutting, but what can you do. We spend a day blading and amazingly we’re allowed to blade at the treaty of Waitangi grounds.  The ground is slippery and Josh bails several times. 

Our next stop is Tutukaka, a place where people base themselves to go diving at the Poor Knights.  The clear water and abundance of marine life in the marine reserve is a massive drawcard to visiting tourists. This is our first dive in the cold NZ waters. Its so amazing to see snapper cruising along behind us.

Diving at Poor Knights

As we’re hitching out of Tutukaka we meet a pirate who is trying to hitchhike to Auckland. He gives us a bit of abuse, as he is a veteran hitchhiker, but also bit of a wanker. 

We arrive in Auckland and its it’s straight on the Fuller Ferry to Waiheke. The sun is going down and we’re chuffed to get to Waiheke. Such an epic spot!

On board the Fullers Ferry

Tonight we’re going to try couchsurfing, a popular option for travellers looking to meet real locals as opposed to other travelers, which is usually the case in hostels and camping grounds.  We have both done a bit of couchsurfing however never in NZ.  We’re under the impression we are staying with a local builder named Chris, however soon after arriving it is quickly evident that Chris the builder no longer exists, and we are instead staying with Christa the transsexual.

Josh and Christa

Fortunately, filming a real-life transsexual has been a goal of ours, and having the opportunity of staying an entire night is a huge bonus.  Christa is a hospitable host and she makes us feel right at home.  She shares some interesting stories, providing an insight into the life of a previously quiet and respected member of community who one day decided to throw all that away and become the flamboyant tranny she always knew was inside her.

The next day we are feeling a bit seedy as we got a little over excited and drank too much with Christa.  It was worth it, it’s not every day you get a chance to drink rum with a transsexual builder, and there was no way we were going to throw away such an amazing opportunity.  It does however make our morning quite a struggle.  We strap on the blades and start off on a long blade across the island to Man o War vineyard for some winetasting.    

On the way we stop for a break in Oneroa, the main town on the island.  There’s a diverse range of people who live and visit Waiheke, and we enjoy taking some time to meet some characters.  We meet a friendly cowboy busker who gives us some handy advice on where some places we should visit and also plays us a song. 

Cowboy

It is then time to move on, aiming for the Coromandel Peninsula.  As always, we give blading a solid attempt however once the ankles are sore and Josh has had a few bails, we chuck out the thumbs and hitch. 

Before long we arrive at Hot Water Beach, a popular tourist destination due to hot springs located on the shore.  We immediately attempt to dig a hole to rest our bruised and battered bodies, however finding a spot that is actually warm proves more difficult than we thought. Instead we decide we can’t be bothered and steal someone else’s while they aren’t looking. 

Beautiful Coromandel Pensinsula

Cathedral Cove is next on the list, and is possibly the most popular tourist attraction on the peninsula.  Josh has been told that the track down to the beach is perfect for blading so we strap up and start rolling.  Unfortunately Josh has been misinformed, and the track turns out to be treacherous and almost unbladable.  After around two and a half hours, a lost wheel and Josh bailing over a dozen times, we finally make it to the beach, just after the sun has set and everyone has left.  It is still a stunning view. 

We hitch and blade our way around the peninsula and manage to organise to do some WWOOF’ing at a local farm located on the Hauraki Plains.  WWOOF’ing stands for ‘Worldwide Workers on Organic Farm’s’, and is another popular option for travellers looking to meet real locals, especially those on a tight budget. We get given a few farm jobs to do but get a little bit distracted and end up giving each other mullets and make a music videoto cotton eye joe instead.

A great day but not much farm work has been done.

The lady kicks us off the farm but we still manage to sneak in a couple of brews as the sun goes down. 

Good times on the blades indeed.

#bladenz