North Island road trip

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Thank God my ear infection cleared up and I was able to get back to traveling. As soon as I knew it was physically possible, I hopped onto the Stray bus (9th Feb) feeling a little nervous about having to get to know a whole bus full of strangers. Within an hour we were all having a laugh and pissing about so I was quickly put at ease. There's a really good mix of people on our bus; lots of different nationalities and ages. We even have a family with 3 kids. They've been globe trotting now for 6 months and the kids are being home schooled.

Our driver 'Mambo' made us play a few silly games on the way to our first stop, Hahei. It's a really quiet little township, which people use as a stopping point to see the Cathedral Cave. We arrived really late in the day, so I didn't get a chance to go on the 2 .5 hour return walk to the caves along the beach. Instead, the whole group pooled some money and ended up putting on a BBQ so we could have a 'get to know you' night. We all ate till we couldst eats no more and loved every second of it. I was only a little upset that I couldn't drink the beer with every one since I was still taking my antibiotics.

The following day, we left Hahei at 8am and arriving in Raglan at 5pm. Raglan has a well known surf beach and is also where you find the Whale Bay reserve. The conditions were a but crappy for surfing so I didn't get a chance to join a lesson. Instead Gracie and I went for a walk down to the reserve and walked out onto the rocks. It was a really fantastic sight. It's a shame the pictures don't do it the justice it deserves. The night at the Kairoi hostel in Raglan was brilliant. The hostel is set into the outback of the forest so the sounds of nature are all around making for a really peaceful environment. I cooked dinner with a few of the girls and played pool till late before heading off to bed around midnight. It was an INTERESTING night's sleep because everything felt incredibly damp.

The following morning we boarded the bus at 8am to head to Waitomo and the caves. There were a few activities on offer and I was torn between tubing through the caves for over $100 or just touring the caves on foot for $50. Knowing that there were a few more expensive activities further down the line I decided to be sensible and go for the cheaper option. We pulled up in Waitomo around 10:30am. I grabbed my bags and made the way to the front exit when all of a sudden everyone was in a frenzy saying they could smell burning. I turned around towards the back of the bus quickly and where I could see all the guys sitting before, they were now enveloped in smoke! 'Off the bus! Off the bus!' we all started screaming. Some TW*TS tried to grab bags before getting off...what fools! As everyone piled off I made my way slightly up the hill; a nice safe distance from the burning bus and proceeded to take photos :oD..but so did everyone else so it was okay. Mambo grabbed the fire extinguisher and tried put out the fire coming from the engine, but the smoke continued. Within 10 minutes the firemen arrived and we all applauded as they extinguished the fire. Such excitement! It really was a funny sight! Mambo made a call back to base to try and get another bus out from Auckland to Waitomo, so as he sorted that out, the rest of the group when about their days and headed to their activites.

Our guide on Spellbound was Pete. What an awesome gentlemen!! He was really nice and knew every minor detail about the caves. We spent the afternoon exploring two caves in darkness and got to see the gloworms. It was so much more beautiful than I would have ever thought. I tried my best to capture this in the photos, but I still don't think it does it justice.

We got back to the sight of the burning bus around 3pm and there was no sign of our new bus, but Mambo was confident it would arrive within the hour. To kill time we all went for a walk over to 'The Sheering shed' and I proceeded to experience the strangest demonstration my eyes have ever seen. The shop was famous locally for producing garments from Angora wool and as it turns out they do all of their preparation onsight. As the audience gathered at the front of the store she brought out a rabbit, used loops to stretch the poor thing out like it was on a rack, and over the next 10 minutes sheered the rabbit! Some of us were laughing, some were turning their heads in distress and rest really weren't that bothered. I was a little disturbed, but understood the rabbit wasn't in any pain or discomfort.

Our 'New' bus which was basically an old school bus arrived in Waitomo at 4pm. We were well behind schedule for our next planned activity near Rotorua so had our bags loaded onto the new bus in record time and were back on the road. The bus was ridiculously slow and old, but we had a good laugh at the situation and remained in good spirits. The plans for the evening were to go to 'Uncle Bobby's' in Rotorua where we would learn about the Mauri culture and participate in some presentations. We arrived around 8pm, met Uncle Bobby who is a top notch bloke and then had a scrumptous dinner in their canteen. Next, Uncle Bobby explained the traditional Mauri meeting ceremony to make sure we didn't offend the tribe and then we straight to meet them. It was so amazing seeing how the warriors from the home tribe have to challenge the newcomers (us). It was intimidating as well, which is exactly what they want it to be, but I was so intrigued and sucked in by the culture. It was beautiful. Once we all had personal greetings with the tribe members (hold hands, touch noses and say Kia Ora, which means welcome), we sat down to watch their Haka and Poi. Again, I was in complete awe. The emotion and intensity behind each movement, each facial expression, each word is truly unbelievable and fascinating. It was then our groups turn to show them our stuff. The guys all went off together to learn the All Black's Haka (I was jealous) and the ladies learnt the Poi. It was a lot of fun and it was great that everyone totally got into it. Of course, I chose to stand front centre! What the hell was I thinking? After just 15 minutes practicing we had to present to the rest of the group, but no nerves were invovled because everyone had a brilliant time. The guys' Haka was hilarious and very well done...all credit to them! We stayed at Uncle Bobby's that evening; everyone (40 people) sleeping on matresses in one big hall. Sur[risingly it was one of the best nights sleep I had in a long time.

We woke up to a crappy morning. It was grey, wet and cold, but surprisingly we were still in good spirits. I think it was because we were all looking forward to the upcoming activities in Rotorua. For me, it was what I had been waiting for since the beginning of the trip...white water rafting over waterfalls! There were about 10 of us from the group who had signed up for it, so he dropped us off at the Kaituna raft centre first. We were moved along very quickly to pay for the activity, get our kit on, and board the minibus to the raft entry point. I was happy to be grouped with 4 of the other ladies on the Stray bus tour and a lovely guide called Nick. I'm telling you...all the guides on the tour were hot!!! and very funny!! I was the only one in our raft who had any experience at all, so I got to sit at the back with the guide ;o)
We navigated a few grade 5 rapids along the Kaituna with relative ease, but the highlight was a run of 3 small waterfalls in quick succession. The first was a warm up at just 1.5m, followed by a 3m and then the almighty 7m, which is the tallest commercial water fall in the biz. Of course the 7m was the best! The adrenaline rush was madness...I loved it! As we went over the falls it felt like we were falling for ages until we all ended up being submerged in the white water at the bottom of the falls. I was sitting on the left hand side of the raft and felt the right side dip when we were under. As we emerged and I opened my eyes I noticed Gracie was missing and I heard our guide Nick say 'Oh shit'. In a flash he was leaning over the raft grabbing for Gracie's life vest. She was struggling to get her head above the water to breathe, but within a couple of seconds she was safely back on the raft. It wsa one of those moments where you want to laugh your head off, but need to make sure the person is okay first before you start ripping into them, so that's exactly what I did. I put my arm around her with concern and asked if she was okay; when she started laughing, then it was fair game for the rest of us to burst into hysterics. Soon after the 7m drop the run was over and we boarded the bus back to base to dry up and get changed.

We soon regrouped and were on the way over to Taupo. A few had put their name down to Sky Dive, but the weather wasn't on their side. Disappointment all round! Everyone was knackered so we all pretty much fell asleep on the way to Taupo. We had just one quick stop along the way at Huka Falls. The sound of the rapids was beautifully deafening and I spent the whole time day d reaming about rafting over the falls. Of course I knew that wouldn't be possible since no one has ever survived it, but a girl can day dream. It was 5pm when we arrived at the Urban hostel in Taupo and checked in. We had all planned to go out and drinking, but we were pretty much rained in so ended up staying in the hostel drinking all night. At about 8pm Mambo came in to let us now we would be going ahead with the Tongariro crossing the following morning so pretty much everyone stopped drinking and were asleep at a reasonable hour.

The day of the Tongariro crossing (Friday 13th) was pretty much a disaster for me. The crossing takes anything from 6 - 8 hours, reaches altitudes above 1800 ft and includes the infamius Devil's Staircase. I was so up for the challenge and was thinking positively all morning until it came time to sign the disclaimer. The lady at the National Park entry asked me over and over again if I really wanted to go ahead with the crossing since most people with Ashtma have trouble with on Devil's Staircase because of the altitude. There was so no way I was going to pull out without even giving it a try, but I was starting to feel nervous. The group set off on the hike at 10:45am and were told to try and make it to the end to meet our bus by 5:45pm. I was walking a steady pace with a few of the others and was feeling fresh and confident. The sights were unbelievable and the weather was on our side. When we reached 5km the Devil's staircase started and for the first 0.5km I was still feeling pretty tough, but the altitude got to me around 6km in. All of a sudden I couldn't breathe and no matter how many times I took my asth,a pump it made no difference. The guys with me started panicking and wanted me to turn back, but I stupidly thought I could just take a rest and carry on. After 15 minutes of back and forth in my mind as to whether or not I could really go on, I just couldn't go any further and continue to put myself at risk. The deciding factor was when Emily told me to think about them and the fact that we had no phone reception so if I got any worse there was no way they could get me help. So, feeling defeated and an utter wreck I agreed to turn back and Emily wanted to come with me. The rest of our group went on with the crossing and honestly, I just broke down. I sat there on the rocks by the staircase in the middle of this amazing setting crying my eyes out. I was just so disappointed that I couldn't carry on. Emily was great, she sat there with me for as long as it took, and once I was over it we set off back down to the start. The return journey was easy as pie and we made it in record time and with a spring in our step. One of the guides to took us back to the National Park Village and Emily and I checked into our rooms and chilled out waiting for the rest of the group to return. They were all back by 6:45pm and after checking in, we all settled in the common area in the hostel with a few beers. The night was topped off with a game of Cranium, which the team I was on eventually won. :o) OH! I forgot to mention that I also got stung by a wasp when Emily and I got back to the lodge. Friday the 13th!

We were all able to sleep in until 9am the following morning (Valentine's Day) before heading off to Wellington. It was sad when we had to switch drivers from Mambo to 'Gollum' (don't ask), but I think we were all just desperate to get to Wellington and have a few drinks together since a good number of us had decided to stay in Wellington for an extra night. We were in Wellington checking into the Base Backpackers by 4pm and found out the the Hurricanes were playing the Waratahs in the opening game so about 10 of us decided to try and get tickets. The rest planned to have dinner and we would all meet up for a crazy night out afterwards. At 6pm I met the rest of the rugby gang and we walked over to the Westpac stadium to get our tickets. For $25 each they were bloody brilliant! The game was pretty non-eventful in that the Hurricanes lost, but I had such a good laugh. Tom and I sat next to each other and we chanting pretty much the whole way through the match. Tui beer were one of the sponsors of the game, so the 'Tui girls' were in the stands giving people prizes in return for completing their dares. It was a cold night; I wanted some Tui socks, a scarf, hat...anything to keep me warm so I called the girls over and asked them to set me a challenge. They told me and Madeline to get up in the aisles and do a short interpretive dance. Now...ordinarily I wouldn't do these things, but seeing as I was in a country where no one knows me, I jumped up and was in the aisles dancing like a complete twat within seconds. Madeline was given some Tui socks and they gave me a t-shirt with the Tui gnome on it, which I decided to give to Ian as a present since he liked it so much.

Once the match was over we got in touch with the rest of the group and met them on Courtenay Street to get the night started and ended up in an Irish bar (there's ALWAYS and Irish bar) called Kitty O'Shea's. From beginning to end the dancing was non-stop and the alcohol was free-flowing. What a night! I made a call to stop drinking so much around 1am and went at a more steady pace, so at around 2am all the rest of the guys were completely trollied and I had to look after a few of them who crossed over the line and needed to be kept an eye on. I still had a good night even though it wasn't quite what I had in mind. At 3am the drunkest of the group went back to hostel leaving just me and Ian still drinking and dancing away at the bar. We called it a night after a couple more drinks and were back chatting at the hostel shortly afterwards. I wasn't quite ready to sleep so we went to the TV room and chilled out there watching some movies. I have no idea at what time, but we both fell asleep on the bean bags. I woke up around 6am and stumbled back to my room to get some proper sleep. I dumped my bag in the room trying not to wake the other girls and then decided to make a quick stop to the bathroom. It was the precise second that the bedroom door shut behind me that I looked down at my lanyard and realised my keycard was missing and must have fallen off in the room. Without hesitation I just walked back down to the TV room and made myself comfortable on the bean bag for the night. When reception opened around 8am they let me back in the room. I slept until 1pm. NICE!

I'm feeling surprisingly full of energy considering the amount that I drank last night. My plans for my last day in Wellington are to go to the Tepapa museum and the waterfront, then tomorrow morning we will make the crossing over to the South Island. I can't wait.

(P.S. I haven't had time to upload the photos yet. Watch this space!)

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Comments

[Benjamin]

I saw your bus!
HA! I was on a day trip going to Waitomo and saw your bus! Or what was left of it. ;) I was with Grayline and w passed by you guys standing on the road, with the charred remains still smoking a bit. I just finished a month long tour of Australia / New Zealand and didn't get a chance to see Sydney...did a google search for 'thoughts on sydney'. What a funny coincidence!