[Rereading the post below, I realize now that itʼs a long, somewhat boring rant, so you have been warned, and feel free as always, to skip it. Iʼve tried to keep it as short as possible (believe it or not), but dumping the details of our first couple of days in Paihia was a bit like therapy for me. Now that itʼs down on paper (so to speak), I will let it go. Mostly. :) -DF]
Itʼs funny how a series of seemingly small and insignificant events can change the flow of things. Laura started to feel a cold/flu coming on as we made our way up from Auckland to Paihia on the first day of our Stray bus experience (which was otherwise really fun and social). Our plan was to wake up early the following morning (Monday) and join a separate tour (included in the Stray pass weʼd purchased) that went to the far north end of New Zealand to Cape Reinga, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The trip involved an early departure (7AM) and a really long day of driving up to the cape, plus a few interesting stops along the way, including 90-mile Beach and a chance to “surf” (boogie board, really) down a huge sand dune. As luck would have it, I was the one from our Stray group who ended up holding onto the voucher for the eight people in the group that were going on the tour (random event numero uno).
When we woke up early Monday morning, however, Lauraʼs cold was in full swing, and she felt pretty awful. We decided not to go on the tour, but I still had the pass. So, I shlepped over to where the other backpackers were staying, and I waited (and waited, and waited) until someone from the group showed up. He was a total John Wood doppelgänger (only 20 years younger, photo below), but unfortunately he lacked 5% of the intellect of the real person. He was completely confused by our conversation (it was early, but still) – at first, he thought that somehow I worked for the tour company (Explore NZ, maybe it was my black polo shirt) and was telling him the entire tour was cancelled; never mind that we spent the entire previous day riding a bus together up to Paihia. When I finally got through to him, I thought it was clear: Laura was sick, the two of us werenʼt going, could he please take the pass, give it to the Explore NZ driver, and explain why we werenʼt there. It was not clear (f-up number two). We slept in and woke up to a beautiful, sunny day on the Bay of Islands. Laura decided that, with enough cold medicine and the extra sleep, she could enjoy a day of sailing on the bay. Explore NZ had another tour where they took you out to explore some of the nearby islands on a HUGE catamaran sailboat: 66 feet long, 40+ feet wide, with a 105 ft. mast! We called the Explore NZ office from our hostel, booked the sailing trip (NZ $100 each, around US$150 total), and when the woman on the other end of the line heard our names, she asked to speak with me. She was extremely frosty and asked about why we didnʼt show up for the cape tour. I explained that we were traveling with Stray (random event three) and that Laura wasnʼt feeling well enough to do the long bus trip, and when I pushed her for details about rebooking, she finally told me that we could go standby in the next few days if there was room (we only had one more day there, though).
When we went to the Explore NZ office for the sailing tour, I apologized again for not showing up for the tour up north and asked about availability the next day. She was still really unfriendly. I pushed a little to see if it was possible to go ahead and book for tomorrow given that it was (to me, at least) an understandable no-show (as opposed to just sleeping late or being hungover or something), but no dice. I asked if it would be possible to instead apply the value of the tour to something else, or give us even a small discount on a different tour. Negative. There was zero flexibility, despite the fact that weʼd done our best to explain the circumstances, and weʼd just spent NZ$200 on another one of their tours. I was told to call back at 7:30PM when the office was about to close and see how many spots (if any) were open for the next day. I was pretty surprised by the cold treatment I was getting, but no time to argue, off to go sailing.
The day on the Bay of Islands was spectacular, with sunny skies and enough wind to do a bit of sailing. Check out the photos in our Bay of Islands gallery. We did a short hike up to the top of a small island for some great views, did a bit of sea kayaking while others on the boat got thrown around on a “sea biscuit” (a big floating platform) pulled behind a speed boat, and generally enjoyed the scenery and people watching on the boat. We were also amused to watch the gigantic gennaker (a sail somewhere between a genoa and a spinnaker) go up on the return trip.
After the sailing tour, we checked with the Explore NZ office again: six spots open for the next day. Seemed promising given that it was 4:30 in the afternoon. We headed back to our hostel, and I went out for a run, partly to clear my mind and try to lose the “f-you” attitude that was building within me towards the mean women in the Explore NZ office. Of course, I was punished for my ill will: while cutting across a small field to get onto a running path from the road, I hit a deep hole and twisted my left ankle so badly that I heard a really loud POP, and I seriously thought Iʼd broken it. I came close to passing out from the pain, and the fear of having just ruined our year-long trip so early in the game, but I kept walking on it and realized it wasnʼt broken, just severely sprained. I walk/limped the 30 or so minutes back to town, and I decided to stop in at Explore NZ one last time (because, why not just a little more pain?).
I spoke to a different woman, and amazingly, she was equally unhelpful and completely unsympathetic. There was (of course) one spot open on the cape tour the next day, which wasnʼt very helpful for the two of us. I tried every possible angle, always keeping my cool (Iʼd had plenty of time to think through my arguments on my painful walk back to town), but letting her know that I was really disappointed they couldnʼt do something more. In the end, it was the same story: weʼre being nice letting you go standby, you screwed us out of two spots on the tour, thereʼs nothing else we can do for you.
I figured out a few things after talking to her which pretty well explained (though didnʼt excuse) their frostiness: 1) the idiot from our Stray group who Iʼd given the tour voucher to that morning had not told the driver why were werenʼt there, and in fact, they had driven around town for 15-20 minutes looking for us before finally leaving for the trip; 2) mentioning Stray was, in fact, a bad idea, since most of the no-shows they have are Stray backpackers (I guess because the tour is included in the Stray pass, many backpackers find it easy to skip); and 3) they didnʼt give two shits about the specific details of our situation, including Lauraʼs illness, the fact that weʼd tried to let them know what was going on that morning, and the fact that weʼd spent NZ$200 with them anyway. I was pissed at this point, but I didnʼt let it show. I think they blew us off as typical irresponsible backpackers from the beginning, and there was no way they were going to budge.
In the end, we learned a few valuable lessons: do your homework and know what your cancellation options are, be careful about who you associate yourselves with when talking to tour operators, and donʼt expect any special treatment, even if youʼre nice about it (at least from this particular company). By all means, explore New Zealand, just maybe not with Explore NZ.
By the way, my left ankle still looks like a fat plum took residence inside it (the accumulation of jiggly fluid in there is pretty gross), but itʼs healing slowly. My ill will toward Explore NZ may take a bit longer.
