New Zealand - Part 2

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Day 10

Back to Christchurch today! We’ve already done most of the cheap options available in Christchurch, so it would have been good if we could have skipped it but never mind. We arrive in the afternoon and after getting some supplies in, we head over to the local museum. Not usually our cup of tea, but our bus driver told us it is meant to be really good, and it’s FREE. The museum is actually really good and there are lots of things to see. Greg is delighted when he comes across a speedway section edicated to the Kiwi speedway rider Ivan Mauger. They have a gold plated speedway bike and everything. We manage to while away an hour or so and then back to the hostel again. Greg makes us some delicious dinner- he’s getting pretty good as this culinary stuff and I’m sure his mum will be impressed. Of course, he learned from the master lol. We watch 12 monkeys on the T.V in the living room. I am even more confused by the time it gets to the end of the film but that’s another story. That’s about it for the evening. We are knackered and end up in bed by 10.30pm.

Day 11

On to Kaikoura today and the sun is shining for us. It’s actually quite pleasant when the sun comes out. We drive 500 metres above sea level onto a large mountain and the views are amazing, but the drop at the side of the road is quite scary. The driver tells us about a really good seafood BBQ in Kaikoura and you would think he gets commission from them as he mentions it about 20 times on the way over. I never thought there could be someone other than me so animated talking about food. We stop off briefly at a pretty viewing platform overlooking the whole of the lake and mountains then make our way on to the seal colony. On the way, we pass the seafood BBQ, which the driver excitedly points out. When we get to the seal colony, the seals are just lying on the rocks right in front of us- you can walk right next to them! Well, as soon as you get too close they start grunting at you as a warning but it’s really cool. They are actually quite cute, especially a little baby seal we see. We enquire about going on a fishing trip in the afternoon but it turns out it is too expensive. I’m a bit gutted but it’s all for the greater good. Instead we decide to take a little walk down to the city centre (one row of shops, which takes us 40 minutes to walk to) then to the beach. We’re knackered by the time we get back to our hostel, but Greg decides he is going to walk back to the seal colony. I think that’s far too energetic, so I stay in the room instead. Two hours later, he comes back to tell me he just saved a dolphin! Apparantly it got stuck in the shallow water and was thrashing about, nearly drowning, so he went into the water and pushed it back out to shore. I don’t believe him but he has pictures to prove it. After all that excitement, we decide to go out for a meal as it has been a while. We pop into a local restaurant and apart from our weird waitress (who claims she is Spanish yet doesn’t seem to speak any Spanish and sounds Canadian) it is a tasty meal. We nip across the road to finish it off with a quick pint at the local. The pint goes down far too easily. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else staying at our hostel and we have the run of the TV room, so we pop in national lampoon European vacation to top of the evening. Good fun.

Day 12

Greg (our bus driver) takes us to a winery this morning to do some wine tasting. No one complains that it is only 10.30am, free wine is free wine! After that we make our way to Picton where we catch the Interislander ferry to the North Island. I am a bit nervous as apparently it’s a very choppy ride. I don’t often get travel sickness, but a rocking boat doesn’t sound very good. The boat is absolutely massive and has lots of comfy seats inside, as well as a cinema! We choose a spot then brace ourselves for the ride. The sea must be quite calm today as the journey isn’t bad at all. The worst part is sitting across from some noisy kids who keep coughing and spluttering every two seconds. When we arrive at Wellington, we grab the youth hostel shuttle bus which drops us off right outside our hostel for 4 dollars each. Nikki, Ceri and Lisa are staying at a hostel down the road and we head down to meet them for some food and booze later on that evening. I order a spinach and feta pizza which sounds lovely, but in reality is just a frozen pizza with cheddar cheese and some spinach leaves on top. Not quite what I was expecting. Greg has a steak sandwich which is cold and chewy. We have a few pints and I get the thirst on. It's ladies night too and so us girls all get a free glass of champagne (or cava). It’s hard to walk away after just a few drinks, but we just can’t afford to have a big night out at the moment. Bring on Vegas!

Day 13

Our destination is Napier today and on the way we stop at the Huka falls. They flow so fast, they could fill 3 olympic swimming pools in about 3 seconds. After that we stop at a wildlife reserve to see some kiwis (the animal not the people!). It costs us 8 bucks each which is a bit of a rip off as you can't even take pictures and it is about -5 degrees. We also stop at the TUI brewery where we are offered 3 pints for 2 dollars. It’s too good a price to resist, so in the space of our 45 minute stop we manage to force down the 3 pints. Back on the bus I think practically everyone passes out until we stop at Napier three hours later. We agree to meet the girls later on to cook them dinner as it is our last night together. We join up to go shopping for some supplies at the supermarket and agree I will cook a stir-fry and Greg will cook a curry. We also buy some booze too for good measure. The meals are delicious (Greg’s curry in particular) and we manage to polish off the booze by an hour later. We make the decision to buy some more and that’s when the fun really starts. We end up playing Pictionary and charades in the hostel living room which is really funny. Then we move onto playing card games and create dares for the person who loses. The dares get more stupid as the night goes on and we are in stitches by the end of the evening. Ceri has to impersonate a chicken, Greg runs into the busy TV lounge and jogs on the spot in front of the TV and everyone watching it, and I do some highland dancing in the kitchen. A few dares are related to the bus driver so we will need to carry them out tomorrow on the bus when we are sober- hmm we will see how that one goes! I have been dared to moonwalk down the coach and Greg has to shout “yeh” loudly every time the bus driver says “sweet as” (a common New Zealand saying). Good fun. Nicola also has to hug the bus driver...

Day 14

After last nights shenanigans, we are all slightly nervous at performing our dares on the bus. True to everybody’s word, we each perform our dares, which is good going, especially as we were all sober. I moonwalk down the middle of the coach, and the bus driver asks me if why i'm doing it. I just say i'm practicing some new moves and he looks like i am completely crazy. As we reach the town of Rotorua, it is time for us to depart the magic bus, and catch our own bus too Auckland. Before we head further north, we decide to go Zorbing. Basically you sit inside a giant inflatable ball and roll down a really steep hill. Awesome fun. I do the dry run, but Greg is slightly more daring (tight- it costs less) and decides to go for the wet run, which feels like you are in a washing machine. Unfortunately we do not get a chance to say good bye to the girls as we have to catch our bus. We mil about for a few hours in Rotorua before we catch our bus to Auckland. It's another 4 hours but thats nothing in comparison to other days. Once we arrive we have a 1.6 km walk with two suitcases, and four pieces of hand luggage up a hill to reach the hostel. This proves something of a challenge, and by the time we arrive, we decided all we want to do is cook some dinner and head to bed. My muscles are aching but at least i've burned some calories!

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Photos

Kaikoura
The dolphin Greg rescued

Napier
Very art deco town

Napier
Doing some highland dancing

Rotorua
Nicola hugging Glen the bus driver

Rotorua
Zorbing

Rotorua
Me zorbing