An update on my travels through New Zealand...

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Wednesday 30th Nov

I arrive in Auckland airport around 10am feeling pretty damn good after my ten hour sominex induced coma and a fairly decent 'plane food' breakfast. I head to my hostel in Ponsonby which, as it turns out, is one of the nicest areas in Auckland. Good choice me. The hostel is great with lovely staff and free towels!! When you're traveling through hostels, it's the small pleasures that are the most comforting.

After freaking out about visible dust thought the viewfinder on my camera, I head into the city to find a camera shop to get it cleaned up. Got there, turned out it was just on the mirror (not the sensor) and so no massive expenditure of money necessary. Em and Phil head up to meet me in Ponsonby. It was so good to see Emma and after so long but it felt like only a few weeks since I had last seen her. I think this is the signature of a great friendship.

Thursday 1st Dec

Woke up at 6.30 panicked at the sound of a bus outside, with an awful sensation that I have missed the stray bus. I hadn't. It was late. Very late. I eventually board the bus around 8.30am after meeting a Canadian called Andrew outside of the hostel, who was also traveling with stray. As the bus was running late, I ran up Ponsonby Rd and grabbed a giant apple and blueberry muffin from the deli bakery which was delicious.

The bus heads to the stray office for orientation and then off towards Thames. I 'uncharacteristically' faff for an hour in the supermarket, completely forgetting that I still need to get a New Zealand phone and a power adapter so I run in record time to the big red shed and somehow manage to make it back to the bus just in time.

Arrive at Hahei around 3pm and get settled in as the rest of the group bar one or two went with the bus to Cathedral Cove, got dropped off and made their way back along the hour and a half track back to the resort. I chill out. It had been a fairly full on few weeks in the states so I was happy to take it easy. We fire up the BBQ and start getting to know some of our fellow stray travellers. Unfortunately, most of them left the following day. I meet a really sweet couple from Petersfield called Rachel and Adam. Adam broke my brand new adapter whilst trying to get it working and Rachel and I talked all night about so many different things. Sadly, the following day they carried on with the bus and I stayed in Hahei.

I begin to see that whilst this could be a great opportunity to meet some amazing people, I can also see that it could be difficult later down the line when friends move on or stay behind.

Friday 2nd Dec

Woke up early when the rest of the stray travellers left, dozed back off but was awoken again but the sound of tables being scraped along the floor and what sounded like the smashing of plates. The cleaners had arrived in the kitchen, just outside my door.

Had an easy morning then hooked up with Andrew from Canada and Anne from Holland. We headed off for Cathedral Cove, an hour and a half away by winding hill track. Two minutes after we started out it began to rain. Fail. But after taking some shelter beneath a tree on Hahei beach, we got some guts and carried on along the track over to Cathedral Cove which reminded me of how horribly unfit I am. I need to do some serious training if I'm going to get up Franz Jo! The views along the way were spectacular. And when we arrived through the woods and onto the beach it was magical. It was like something out of a movie. Then it occurred to me that it was something out of a movie. Narnia was filmed here! The whole vision was so awe inspiringly beautiful that it seemed somehow unreal.

We spent a very chilled few hours taking in the scenery, basking in the sun and enjoying some time doing as little as possible.

Saturday 3rd Dec

Got up late and walked to the beach (1mins walk).

Did absolutely nothing else until they next round of Stray travelers arrived. Our world of peace, calm and tranquility was shaken by another 20 or so passengers who disembarked the big orange bus. They each rushed to grab a dorm bunk as we sat and watched the chaos and confusion. Andrew, Anne and myself decided to escape the invaders by wandering up to the shop to get an ice cream, the most energetic part of our day. Unfortunately, when we returned, the invaders were still there. So we each geared ourselves up for the same round of conversation as had been so prevalent on the previous bus. Where are you from? How long are you traveling? How long have you been traveling? Where have you been and where are you going? To this procedure we have become well rehearsed as have our new stray mates. Nobody from this bus stays at Hahei for more than one night and so we'll all move on to Raglan together.

We make every effort to get to know the new people but find it exhausting already. The idea that we will have to go through this same process several times over in the next few weeks is disheartening. Meeting new people, some that we will never see again but others that we may make eternal bonds with. But just as quickly as they wander into our lives they are gone. The constant goodbyes will be bitter sweet endings for the new friendships made.

Our next driver 'Dippy' introduces himself and we get a second BBQ with this new group. I chat to Adam from St Louis in the States. We talked about thanksgiving and my cynicism bubbles furiously to the surface. He respectfully deflects my strong opinions. A Brit named Pete sits opposite me, mourning the loss of a beer that spent too long in the freezer and is no longer drinkable.

Sunday 4th Dec

No more lie ins for a while, had to get up early and left Hahei at 7.45am en route to Raglan, the internationally famous surf town on the West coast of North Island. We were to stop at Bridal Veil Falls on the way but it didn't happen, probably because of the horrible weather. Unlike the previous days when the mid-morning clouds cleared up later in the day, today the grey gloom looms above as if it is here to stay.

We make a few stops at a service stop for breakfast and at a Pak n Save for supplies and get to Raglan eventually around 2.30pm. Some people choose to embrace the wet and go surfing. The hostel is miles out of Raglan, in the middle of nowhere but it is fantastic! It's in the middle of a rainforest but only ten minutes walk from the ocean.

There is a great bush walk that I had planned to do through the forest but the rain has made it trecherous. Three American girls managed to return just about in one piece but caked in mud. I figure that it may not be a good idea to do alone so I wandered down to the sea but meet with a fellow stray bus buddy on the way having just returned from inspiration point looking very uninspired. Judy, a teacher from Switzerland, accompanies me to the beach in the rain. I love the small unexpected surprises that traveling in this way has to offer.

Tonight I saw hundreds of glow worms in the bush near the hostel. Tomorrow I go to Waitomo caves and expect to see many, many more.

Monday 5th December

We leave Raglan in the rain and head for Waitomo caves. Most of the stray bus go for the adventure tour trips which are fairly adrenaline packed but budgetary restraints and a small phobia of crawling through tight spaces where spiders live prevent me from doing them so I choose the Spellbound option that consists of a walk through the caves and a boat trip down an underground stream where glow worms live in their hundreds of thousands. It's fantastic. It's very, very dark and the ceiling looks like the nights sky. Our guide gathers us around to see the fishing lines dangling beneath the glow worms just inches above our heads and asks, enthusiastically, if anyone is afraid of spiders. Me and Nikau (one of my fellow Strays) are about to answer but before we get the chance he's angled his torch upwards highlighting a giant spider just inches from our heads. Nikau and I almost hit the deck and are on tender hooks for the entire rest of the tour into the darkness.

Afterwards, I better get to know the small group who also came into the caves. Mark and Maive from London, Nikau and Sarah from Australia and realize that I could really enjoy spending time with these people. Maive is an actress and drama teacher, Mark a graphic designer. Nikau and Sarah have just finished Uni.

We get picked up and head on to Maketu where there is an evening of 'cultural entertainment' planned for us. I'm skeptical about the whole thing and assume it will be horribly artificial. However, when the evening kicks off I'm really pleasantly surprised. Uncle Boy runs the Marae (traditional Maori meeting house) and is the chief of his tribe. He gives us a fairly stern lecture about the rules of engagement between our 'tribe' and his and the etiquette involved in the meeting or coming together of different peoples.

The guys in our tribe learn the haka and put on a very convincing performance but still I cannot refrain from laughing. The ladies learn a dance and song with poi and deliver a slightly less convincing performance but it was great to get involved.

We all sleep on the floor of the Marae and I'm reminded of school trips taken as a child.

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