Weekend Bus Trip

Classes have started up by now. It's amazing how easy it is to fall back into the student routine, even just two weeks in. Wake up, go to class, listen, read, eat, procrastinate, repeat. Walking down Symonds Street on the way to university, I encounter more and more people I know or recognize from International House. As such, my comfort level living here increases every day.

Last weekend I took a trip to the city of Whangarei (pronounced Faa-Naa-Ray). Whangarei is the capital (pop. 60,000) of Northland, which is the northern section of New Zealand that contains the Bay of Islands. I wanted to get out of the city at least once before classes started, and Whangarei, which is three hours from Auckland, was a perfect distance for a day trip.

The trip was also a chance for me to investigate the two bus companies that I'm going to be traveling with when I bus around the South Island in late August/early September. Intercity and Nakedbus (so called because they "strip down everything, including the fares") are designed in part for locals, as they offer services to many towns that the backpacker buses don't go near. Yet, with at least $1 ticket available on each segment, they can be an affordable way to travel if you time your purchases right.

I traveled with Intercity first on the way out to Whangarei. The Intercity terminal is located at the base of Sky Tower, which is about a 20-minute walk from my residence hall. Boarding was wicked easy--I just gave the driver my confirmation number, he checked me off a list, and I was good to go. My traveling companions seemed to be mostly locals with a few identifiable travelers mixed in. There were a surprising number of family members at the terminal to send off whomever was traveling ("Say hi to the Johnsons for us!" etc.) and a few unaccompanied minors. The buses was about half full, so I got a row to myself.

The bus started off going over Auckland's massive Harbor Bridge, and I was treated to the great view of the city in the morning. But just 30 minutes outside of Auckland, the concrete scenery started to change to rolling hills, mountains, and lush green valleys. Traveling on NZ's country-long Motorway 1. we passed by sheep and dairy farms, small towns, and through treacherous windy roads. Unfortunately I had picked the sunny side of the bus, so I was trying to block out the sun while taking in the views. Nevertheless, and no offense to Auckland, but this felt like the "real" New Zealand--the one I had signed up for.

The bus made stops in several towns--the Auckland suburb of Owera and the small village of Kaiwaka, to name a few. The bus driver grumbled about having to stop in the pastoral town of Warkworth even though no one was getting on or off, but the rain from the previous day created this rainbow that made the stop worthwhile.

After three hours, including a break for tea, we arrived in Whangarei. I was planning to include Whangarei in this post, but I think I'll break it off into its own later in the week.

Nakedbus offered a similar experience on the way back. I had heard that Nakedbus used some inferior coaches, but the bus that pulled into Whangarei was equally as new and nice as the Intercity one. It was nearly dark by this point, which made cruising through windy Motorway 1 at 100 km/h that much more exciting (and nervewracking). In the dark of the bus cabin, I had two distinct reactions simultaneously: that this scene of me sitting in a dark bus speeding down a one-lane road could be happening anywhere in the world, yet, conversely, I felt like I was unmistakeably in New Zealand for the first time on this trip.