The last slot of the North Island

---

After a very ‘extreme’ time in Taupo, we were ready to get back onto the Kiwi Experience and see more of the North Island. Our new driver was called LJ (Little John) and he was a great guy, really up for all of us to bond as a group. From leaving Taupo he drove us to the Tongariro National Park and took us on a great walk to the Tongariro falls. We could see Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings, but that would have taken us a day or so to climb, so we didn’t try. Once everyone was back on the bus we had a long day driving to a place called River Valley, where we were staying for the night.
It was a beautiful drive to the River Valley region and we saw a lot of the New Zealand countryside that we wanted to see - so sheep, rolling hills, cows and more sheep. River Valley was a very secluded place that has practically been set up just for Kiwi Experience customers, as there is nowhere else you can stay. It gets a bus full of young travelers every day so I’m sure they are doing fine. When we walked into the “hostel” it seemed nice with a bar and places to hang about near the lovely river, but the main problem was the bedroom. You see I wrote bedroom in the singular sense there - that is because there was only ONE bedroom!
32 beds in one big dorm! Now let me rephrase beds and say mattresses. There were just four rows of eight mattresses in this average sized room. Me and Andy saw the funny side to it and thought that it could be ‘fun’ - nope - worst nights sleep I have had on this trip as I was stuck next to a smelly older woman who didn’t get any bedding, so just lay on her mattress snoring all night long listening to Madonna all night long at volume level 10 - thanks love!

The next morning we had the choice to go white water rafting (for the 3rd time in 6 days) but we decided to do the other option which seemed a lot more extreme - - - Horse Riding! Even better was that it was only me and Andy doing this horse trek so it was just us and our guide. She came and picked us up from the hostel at 9.30am and drove us to the stables, which were just down the road. Now let me get this straight. Before this point I didn’t really like horses and have never had the urge to ride one. This has been interesting as my lovely girlfriend Amy loves them and has been riding them for years. She thinks the reason I don’t like them or don’t want to ride them is because I’m ‘scared’. So this was an opportunity for me to prove otherwise (without her being there to hear my scared cries!).
I wasn’t sure what to expect from horse trekking but it really was a fantastic experience. We got kitted out in our funky looking horse gear and then met our stallions. Mine was called Turk and from the start I knew he was going to be a legend. He was a lovely “silver” horse (so white to me) and rather big and crazy. I got up onto him and realised just how high you are, its rather worrying at first. Then once Andy was ready we slowly trotted off into the beautiful New Zealand countryside.
It was such a beautiful sunny day for us and being in the countryside where you were the only people for miles was amazing. Our instructor showed us all around the area which was so beautiful and there was a good amount of farmland that we were going through and saw lots of dears, cows and sheep. We then started trotting quite fast and learning how to control our horses well. I was so impressed as to how well the horses follow what you do - Turk was very well trained and knew what we needed to do. Our instructor then decided that was needed to get cantering (which they don’t usually do on the first lesson) which we did and Turk seemed to love cantering. He didn’t like being at the back so whenever another Andy’s horse came near Turk would speed up nearly tipping me off. It was such a fun experience and I know I now have to go horse riding with the legend that is Amy.
Once we were back, showered and packed we all got back onto the bus and had the longest drive yet to get us to the capital of New Zealand - Wellington. Luckily it was a nice drive but still long and tiring. We got into Wellington early evening and checked into our hostel where me and Andy had a private room. It was such a contrast from the night before where the room was horrible and there were 30 other people there. This was one of the nicest rooms yet and we were actually looking forward to going to bed. A few of us went out and had a meal with LJ as it was our last night with him and we then went out to see what Wellington had to offer us that evening.

We woke up the next morning after a fantastic nights sleep and we bumped into our friend Luke who had got to Wellington before us. It was great to see him and we planned to go round Wellington with him and another one of our friends Gemma for the day. The first stop for us was to walk up to the top of Victoria Mountain, which was a nice walk and gave us a fantastic view of Wellington. We got to see the whole city with a 360-degree view from where we were. It was apparently one of the highest points in Wellington.
Apparently there were quite a few bits from Lord of the Rings filmed up on Victoria Mountain so we decided to try and find some of them. The tree that Frodo and Sam hide under in the first film (I think) was there and we spent ages trying to find it - but had no luck. So we just found a random tree that looked mildly the same and took some funny Lord of the Rings style photos. It was a beautiful forest and could tell that lots of bits were used in the film.
After lunch we then went to the ‘Te Papa’ museum. As most of you know I’m really not the kind of guy who likes museums, but we were told that this museum was meant to be “amazing” --- Wrong! It was the same as any other museum and I actually thought that the London museums were way better (never thought I’d say that). We all went through it pretty quickly and got out as soon as we could.
That evening we were lucky enough to go and watch our second Super 14 match at the Wellington stadium. It was the Wellington Hurricanes vs The Highlanders. We went with our friends Luke, Katie and Nat. It was brilliant game and we all had lots of fun. The Hurricanes only won by 1 point so it was a close match and we all really enjoyed it. The atmospheres at the New Zealand rugby games are brilliant and the Kiwis really live for their rugby.
It was actually the last thing we would be doing in the North Island as the next day we were getting on a new Kiwi bus and traveling down to the South Island - we were very much looking forward to it.

---

Comments

[Amy]

you've been converted :D yay!! love you xx xx