End of a Chapter, and back to the beginning.

Our vibrations were getting nasty. But why? Was there no communication in this car? Had we deteriorated to the level of dumb beasts?

Waves of disappointment washed over me as Tatjana told us that she didn’t want to go with the other girls she found, and offered us a ride to Kaitaia. After a short discussion with Jasper, who wanted to go with her, we accepted. With freedom nearly in my grasp the jail door slammed shut in my face. Barely hiding my disappointment I got in the van and prayed we could get there without troubles.
As we were moving I shut down nearly all systems, content to stare out of the window without thoughts, hopefully avoiding anything from annoying me. On the brink of my consciousness I heard Tatjana announced she was stopping in Kerikeri to get a new tire, though she did not know the way and we had to tell her where to go. Fortunately Jasper took it upon himself to read the directions, and he soon found out she was just as capable of following directions as a deaf chimpanzee, and agitation started to slowly creep into his voice. As he was on the point of screaming her in the face to turn right we arrived at Kerikeri and passed numerous tire shops. Not trying to understand her anymore we just let her drive past, it was obvious she had her sights set on a shop from heaven where the tires are free and made of gold. When we finally got to this shop, it turned out that they didn’t sell tires at all and just did routine checks on cars. Despite already going to a car shop in Paihia she went in and asked for their opinion on the tire, and they had some disturbing news. The tire had to be replaced. As this news obviously shocked Tatjana, she needed a few minutes to fully grasp the situation, which she did by laying over the steering wheel and remaining silent and motionless. As this wasn’t the first time she did this, I wasn’t impressed and neither was Steffi who had obviously experienced this even more than we had. We all continued to stare out of the window until Tatjana woke from her catatonic state and decided she would leave the car there and walk off in search of a new tire. For a short while at least we had some relief and expressed our annoyance to each other.
When she returned I quickly went back to my vegetative state, unwilling to deal with any problems she had undoubtedly found. She then moaned a bit about having to buy a new tire and how expensive it was. I tried to feel sympathy for her, I really did, but I had used up all my sympathy in the days before when she ignored any advice given to her to resolve her situation and she seemed determined to do everything in her power to make life more difficult for herself. So instead, I just looked out of the window and waited for her to do whatever it was she wanted to do. And after being in Kerikeri for about 60 minutes we finally got a new tire on the car and headed towards our next destination. We had decided earlier that we were going to a small town close to Kaitaia, called Ahipara, because there were no Hostels in Kaitaia. Still Tatjana made a fuss about this and insisted we go to Kaitaia anyway and try to find a motel. After explaining to her we didn’t have a money tree with us, and were more than a bit reluctant to blow a ton on staying in a crappy motel, she finally agreed we could go to Ahipara.
2 hours and a lot of ignored directions later we arrived at Ahipara holiday park. After setting up the tent we made dinner and upon seeing the stickers for ice-cream at the reception we joyously rang the bell, the thought of the ice cold sweetness lifting up our spirits. Unfortunately the guy behind the desk told us they didn’t have ice-cream yet, as that was more a thing for the summer, but we could probably buy some ice-cream in the shop close by if we hurried. So we set out immediately, and after about 20 minutes of walking (and waiting for the girls as they pampered every single dog in the neighbourhood, and there were a lot of those) we still didn’t see a shop. We figured we somehow went the wrong way and headed back, and turned into Kaka Street to go to the beach. The water was nice so we took off our shows and played around in it for a while until it went dark and we figured we’d best head back.
Once we got back to the Holiday Park, it was only 9 o’ Clock so we decided to watch TV for a while and sit next to the fireplace which gave off a nice glow. When the guy from the reception stopped by to close the office he asked if we managed to find the shop. When we told him we turned back at the fire station he said we only had to walk about 10 meters further to reach the store. He then went to close the office, and when he came back he was holding 4 cups of ice-cream which he offered to us for free. Shocked by his generosity it took us a few moments before we accepted and thanked him repeatedly. While we ate it we decided we had to give him something in return, and because we were planning to make a huge load of pancakes the next day I suggested we give him some pancakes in return.
The next day we headed out to the northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, and rented a few sand boards for the Giant dunes they had along the way. After an hour or two of driving we reached a place called Te Paki, where sandy giants resided. We picked up our board (which was actually more like a flexible sled) and took off to climb the dunes. The climb up was gruelling and the sun burned heavy on our heads, but the view alone was reward enough, the border between the land and the sand was absolute with a lush forest transferring into a sandy desert in a matter of meters.
The actual sand boarding itself turned out be a lot trickier than we’d thought it would be, and our attempts to soar down the mountains with the speed of sound were shattered when we couldn’t even reach speeds exceeding 1 mile an hour. Determined to go down in a spectacular way me and Jasper ditched the boards and decided to roll down. The sand was soft enough for it not to hurt and the dunes high enough to make us dizzy beyond belief, achieving a state of nausea rivalling the one after a good night of drinking. Through some kind of miracle we managed to keep our breakfast in our stomachs where it belonged, but decided to lay down and rest for a few minutes nonetheless.
After the storm in my stomach was calmed to a mild breeze, I decided to give the boarding another go smearing as much of the beeswax on the board as I could manage. I climbed up a short way and gave it a try, and incredibly I actually managed to pick up some speed. Rejuvenated by this small victory I set out to conquer the dune once more. Once I reached the top of the hill I asked Jasper if he could make a movie of my descent. He informed me he was just stung by a bee, and if I could hurry it up please. I grabbed my plastic slab and soared down the dune, sand blasting in my face as I managed to reach speeds of up to 2 miles an hour. When I finally reached the bottom I rushed over to aid Jasper who was obviously in pain. He asked me to see if there was still a stinger in his back, and when I looked I saw the biggest stinger I’d ever seen, so big it must have almost pierced him completely. I gripped it with two hands and placed my foot on Jasper’s back. “This might sting a little” I said as I ushered every ounce of my strength to yank the thing out. We quickly patched up the wound before he bled to death, and rushed him back to the car. Steffi had to giggle a little over the whole affair. (Note: this story may have been exaggerated a slight bit).
After waiting for Tatjana to finish her attempts at sand boarding we headed towards Cape Reinga, where the joining of two oceans could be seen in a grand display of foam and whirlpools. At the lighthouse we waited for Tatjana to join us, as she’s always the slowest of us by far. And after she’d been there a few minutes we suggested we should head back if we wanted to get to the store in time. Tatjana said we would probably be too late anyway and should visit one of the smaller (more expensive) shops we saw on the way, and that therefore there was no need to hurry. Still, we wanted to go back and told her so. She seemed to get annoyed with us and insisted we were in too much of a hurry, and we had to relax more. We told her “whatever, we’ll be waiting in the van” and waited for her in the van. After 20 minutes there was still no sign of her and I vowed that if she made us wait for more than 30 minutes I’d never travel with her again. 50 minutes later she finally showed up with some bullshit excuse (pardon my language) that she’d tripped or something. The mood in the van was grim as we rode back, past all the shops we were supposed to stop at for food. When we reached Kaitaia it was around 8:30 and because the big stores were sometimes open till 9, we decided to stop at one and pray it was still open. It wasn’t. It closed at 8, meaning that if a certain person hadn’t made us wait for 50 minutes we’d be here in time to get supplies for pancakes. As it stood now we didn’t have anything, me and Jasper didn’t even have breakfast for the next day. We decided to stop at Kentucky Fried Chicken and had a sloppy weird tasting burger. KFC was not the Fast Food chain of our choice, but beggars can’t be choosers.
When we got back the gate to the Holiday Park was closed (it closed at 9) and the only reason we managed to get in was because the camper driving in front of us also went to the holiday park and made prior arrangements to have the gate opened for them. Then next morning me and jasper had to walk to the store to buy some bread and we also wanted to buy something for the reception guy as thanks for the ice cream. The bread they had was horrible, but we had no other choice, and as a present we bought the guy a tub of ice cream.
Despite my vow to not travel with her anymore, the others still wanted to continue with her as they wanted to visit the Kauri forests arguing that they were hard to reach by bus or through hitch-hiking. So we set out once more and this time she almost managed to topple the van on the windy road. She drove too fast through the corners, too close to the edge of the road and didn’t take the wetness of the road into consideration. So that eventually the car slipped to the left, she corrected to the right, the car slipped to the right and almost toppled. All she could say was “woops” and all we could do was stare at each other as our hearts pounded.
When we got to the forest and the DOC campsite we picked, the girls deemed it unworthy of them staying there even though it had a kitchen, hot showers and toilets. Being so fed up with them we were willing to risk getting stranded there for the sake of being rid of her, and flat out told her that we were staying there and that if she wanted to continue that we’d have no problems with that. But of course they didn’t know where to stay if not there and didn’t want to split the gas two ways, so they stayed as well.
That night we prepared to venture into the forest, flashlights at the ready and raincoats fastened to ward off the rain that kept coming down without end.
I heard many sounds in the forest that night, some belonged to birds, most to my companions and one to the giant snail I accidentally stepped on. Though night may not seem like the best time to venture through a forest, the path was clear enough and the forest had a soothing calmness over it. Though I was ever weary for sounds that might signal a kiwi bird being close by I only heard one cry that may or may not have belonged to one. Still, the trip through the forest was well worth it, with old logs infested with glow worms and the giant Kauri trees even more impressive rising up out of the darkness. Suddenly Steffi whispered to me she spotted something that looked like a red light in the distance, and after looking carefully I spotted a small red light piercing the darkness as if it were the eye of some metallic predator. As we were all standing there looking at the light in silence we noticed an alarm off in the distance, and as we walked further along the path the alarm grew louder. The angry electronic hunting call, belonging to the angry red eye we saw earlier, seemed to warn us to stay away and lure us closer at the same time. Though we knew it was probably nothing we decided to head back along the path lest we get lost.
As I exited our sleeping area the following morning I emerged in waterworld, our bags floating in a sea of rain water and our cooking supplies drowning in a pool of mud. The loss of my book hurt me the most and I spent the rest of the day in mourning. The others decided we were to go to Bayleys beach so I got in the van and attempted to dry my. An hour or so later we arrived at Bayleys beach. As I got out the weather was beautiful and the hot rays of the sun did wonders for my mood. After we’d set up our tent and had some lunch in our stomachs we headed out to the beach, with the lady behind the reception warning us about the dangerous and unpredictable tides and rip currents that claim at least 1 life per year.
When we reached the beach we saw what she meant, the sea was a lot rougher than anything we were used to back in Europe and you only had to wade into the water for a meter or two to feel the strong push and pull of the sea. After playing around in the sea for an hour or two we relaxed on the beach and explored the dunes. The following day Tatjana wanted to go to the library for some free internet, but once we got there it turned out the library closed early on Saturday and we were too late. We spent the rest of the day doing nothing.
The next day we headed to Auckland and only had to deal with the drama once more. While driving past one of the many, many road work sites a small rock hit the windshield and created a small star break. This seemed to be enough for Tatjana to pull over and lay over the steering wheel some more. After about 15 minutes of her and Steffi talking to each other in German we continued to Auckland where they finally dropped us off at our hostel.
We were with two once more.