Week One of Stray.. Auckland to Taupo!

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The Stray Tour bus turned up at our Ponsonby backpacker hostel at around 8.10am. As soon as we boarded the bus there was lots of enthusiastic ‘good mornings’ said to us. We set off for Raglan the first stop of our Stray journey. On the way the driver ‘Gollum’ kept pulling up for us to take some gorgeous scenic views, and also to collect some alcohol and food for the night. We all paid $10 each to arrange a huge barbecue for all 24 of us on that 1st night- proper good feed!

Once we arrived in Raglan, we checked in to the Karioi Lodge, and went for a trek around the infamous ‘Loop’ track which was very steep muddy and hard work. When we set off, nobody would go first, so Jen talked me into leading the way, which turned out to be funny apart from the fact I ate so many cobwebs ha-ha. As we were walking round we got chatting to a few people - Matt from London, who is working in Melbourne, Danielle from Cambridge, Lisa from Germany, Britney from Minnesota, Brad from Texas, Jen from Scotland and Josh. The walk took around an hour, but was so much fun, so many people slipping on their backside, but nobody hurt thankfully. After the trek, we all got showers in our lodge cabins, and got ready for the barbecue which was amazing. After eating, everyone sat round swapping stories, and we got talking to some other travellers from Melbourne - Mark, and his 2 sons Jack and Ben, who had been going round New Zealand in a campervan. Most of the crowd sat in the main hall playing a game of ‘a truth and 2 lies’, but we stayed outside with Matt and a few others. We met a lovely girl called Katy from the Wirral, and a Dutch girl called Sonny and ended up drinking the night away, whilst Jack played us songs on his guitar, which were a mixture of nice finger picking tunes and really bad heavy guitar playing. Jack said you can get his music from ‘Jumping Jack Williams’ but cant remember if it was from itunes, you tube - hes apparently touring the UK with his band the Red Coats in April - watch this space!

The next morning we headed off to the Waitomo caves, which is where we were doing the tumatuma tubing underground. . Once we arrived, we got changed into our wetsuits (see pic) and set off on a minibus to the start of the tunnel. On the way we got chatting to some more nice people who were in our group - Sarah from Kent, Becky from Germany, a family from Argentina, and 2 lads from Liverpool. Once we arrived at the caves, we had to walk to the spot where there was this ladder sticking out of the ground with hardly any space to manoeuvre down it. We all managed to get down, and got used to our surroundings, which was pitch black, caves around you, mud and water everywhere. We did a little tester first, where we all had to squeeze through a 10 meter long trail at the bottom of one of the rocks. It was hard work and you could hardly crawl the gap was that tight. When everyone passed the test we headed off further away from the entrance, and then it hits you that there is no quick escape out anymore. Jen got a little claustrophobic, but I managed to calm her down and re-assure her there was an exit (somewhere..haha) I was well proud of Jen after she completed it- I know so many girls would of backed out straight away. I wont take you through it all, but basically the caves were a ride of tubing on rubber rings, whilst watching the incredible glow worms on the ceiling of the caves in the dark, climbing through near enough impossible tunnels, swimming in the coldest waters imaginable, and walking over rocks everywhere like an assault course.. good times!

Once we left the Waitomo caves, we headed off to Maketu for the Maori night that I would never forget!. On the bus, just before we got there, Gollum the coach driver asked who was the oldest person on the bus, and everyone pointed at me (only by 2 years though, a lot of 30 yr olds on this tour) Gollum then went onto explain that who ever is the oldest is chosen as the chief of the NataStray tribe (us). The pictures will explain more, but basically I had to stare out a Maori warrior whilst he did his warrior dance and tried to intimidate me , and pick up a leaf whilst maintaining eye contact the whole time (harder than it sounds). I was that nervous I went to the toilet around 7 or 8 times, it was such an intimidating build up and they take it so serious. The owner Uncle Boy explained to me that some chiefs had actually ran out on their travelling mates and some were even sick due to the nerves. Once we were accepted onto their land we then had a concert from them, and was taught the Haka. As I was chief I had to shout out the commands, and learn them as well as the moves in 15 mins, and on top of that stand at the front! Jen was crying in stitches of laughter cos I was that nervous, this was not the attention I liked. I got my own back though as Jen had to do a girly dance with a poi (ball and string). The rest of the night involved more drinking, socialising and the best part was, Uncle Boy the owner who ran everything, explained to everyone that chief always has first say and his word is mightier than anyone’s. I only gave one order all night though and that was that women go first for tea, to be a gentlemen ! Once night time came around we all set up our beds, me choosing my spot 1st again as chief, and went to sleep in this huge cultural hall (see pic).

In the morning, we all ate breakfast and headed off to ‘Rotorua‘. Some of the guys on the bus were doing white water rafting so they got off before us and the rest of us headed towards Rotorua meaning ‘2 lakes‘. Once we arrived in Rotorua, you could see steam holes everywhere, they were even in peoples back yards, and they were using them to cook on. The stench as we got off the bus was a rotten egg smell, which was explained to us as the sulphur from the earths crust. We were staying in a hostel called Base backpackers (not the best - seriously grubby!) As we walked round a corner, we witnessed this huge argument between three women, and one women was sat in a car with a tissue covering blood on her face. We were warned by a few people that Rotorua is quite a rough place at night, so me and Jen went to the popular touristy night market where I got a huge hotdog for tea and then went to a few bars before retiring for a well needed early night.

The second night in Rotorua was one Jen will never remember (literally). We met up with her old school friend Jenna, who had been travelling for 4 (maybe more?) years. On the night, we all met up in a lively bar called the ‘pig n whistle’ and started drinking. Jenna had brought two friends with her, John and Hayden. Hayden was a local celebrity- he knew everyone. The drinks were flowing and I could see Jen getting well on her way cos she was having a proper girly catch up with Jenna. Hayden knew the guys at Lava Base bar, so we went there for a fun filled night of Jaeger bombs…the rest is a bit of a blur…!

In the morning, as would have been predicted, Jen woke up, rough as toast, I was o.k. but a little rough, and we had the Stray bus picking us up at 12.30am As usual on a hangover, we went to a MacDonalds to try and sort us both out, before getting on the bus towards Taupo. We got on and started falling asleep on our way. We stopped off at two places on the way, the first was the ‘mud pools‘, which were crazy (see pics) and the second was the ‘Huka Falls’ which apparently experts have kayaked down! crazy people! After an hour waiting to check-in at ‘Taupo urban retreat hostel‘, we went to our 1st shared dorm of our travelling experience. The hostel didn’t have any double rooms, so we shared a 4 bed dorm, 2 bunk beds with a tiny en suite bathroom. We got lucky though, or as Jen said, I got lucky ha-ha the other 2 rooms mates were 2 young girls, Katy from London and Emily from Denmark, both friendly nice girls. Once we were all sorted we headed off out to find a chemist as Jen had been bitten to death in the previous hostel by midgies (although shes convinced they were bedbugs!) - not nice, shes absolutely covered from head to toe!
The night started early as Ireland were playing Wales at 6pm and England were on against France at 8.30pm. Sarah and Becky met up with us again, and we all went out to an Irish bar called ‘Mulligan’s’ to watch the game. When we got there we got chatting to a French guy called Pierre who was on his own, trying to find other French for support in the game. It only took him 5 mins to find 4 French lads who were singing and swinging their scarves in a pub full of English in an Irish bar, but a good bunch. Our ’gang’ bumped into some other lads who were on Stray tours, Felix from Germany, Andrei from South Africa and Dominick from Switzerland. As you will all be aware by now, England lost, so we just carried on drinking, on to the next bar ‘Elements bar’. I found it so funny when I was dancing, 2 Irish girls came onto me, but making it blatantly obvious, and Jen got well jel! ha-ha. Our German friend Becky had kindly lent me her England flag to wear (yeah weird a German supporting England right?!) which didn’t go down too well after the match.. Surprisingly the locals were giving us a bit of grief, first experience of non friendly kiwis! I kept it on all night though.. even though England were an embarrassment!

The next day was a no brainer. We weren’t rough at all, but knew we needed to cut back on spending monies. We set off for the ‘Pak n Save’ down the road to get some stock in to cover our lunches and teas for the next few nights. We then planned to walk up to the hot springs, past Huka Falls and it was only an hours walk, but Jen was paranoid about her clothes possibly having bedbugs on them, due to the bites she had got, so we decided to stay around the hostel and wash our clothes for the day. We just sat out in the hostel garden all chatting and five hours later (and all looking rather sunburnt!) we finally went back to the room to get ready for the Australia vs. South Africa match. Now that the budget had started, we made beans on toast for tea and drank water, then decided to only have a couple of beers out in ‘mulligan’s’ bar again to watch the BIG game- New Zealand vs. Argentina before having a well needed early night.

Last day here in Taupo and its been another chilled one. It’d be so easy to burn yourself out doing every single thing possible, but we have to remember we have another three weeks of this tour to go (and the budget wouldn’t survive if we did every activity!) and another two weeks once we get to Christchurch to see Mark and Tracey. Really cant believe we’ve only been on Stray for a week, we’ve done so much and met so many people.. Life is good!!!

Until next time…TTFN xxx

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Comments

[Simone]

Wow
Hi Guys Missing you both so much - i look forward to reading this update, expecially now the nights are drawing in and the weather is getting rubbish...ALTHOUGH did you know we had a heatwave?! The caves sound like such an amazing experience, wish we could of been there!! Keep having fun, stay safe and stick to the budget!! Love you lots Sim & James xxxxxxxxx