New Zealand - Hahei

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So just as I thought I was getting some decent sleep, a couple wake me up at ridiculous o clock in the morning, probably like 4am or something. Obviously they have just arrived and decide to check in at the most inconvenient time possible whilst I’m trying to deal with my trauma, and of course the fact I have to catch my bus at 8bastardam. Okay so let me explain to you what Stray is..
For those of you travellers that aren’t ignorant to the travelling world, this will probably be boring to you. Stray is a hop-on hop-off bus company around New Zealand. Basically they provide all the transport around New Zealand, but also provide you with activities and accommodation if need be. However if you want to stay in a certain place longer you can. They are a bit like the ‘kiwi experience’, except lack of drunk 18 year olds, less gang bangs and more of the actual travelling, sight-seeing and going off the beaten track further than the usual tour group. I hadn’t even heard of Stray until Dave told me about them (he worked for a travelling company in Oz) and also I did my research from travellers agents and they told me they are the best company to be with if wanting to see all of NZ in a short space of time. Basically I have 3 weeks to do both islands, so I’m cramming it in good and proper. I decided on a pass called ‘the short max’ pass. This means I’m seeing most of the north and south island in a minimum of 19 days. However I’m staying for 22 so I can extend and stay in one place longer if need be. Ya see how this is working? Mmhmm? Then I fly back to Sydney and leave the next day to go up the east coast.. starting with a 4 day surf camp from Syd-Byron Bay, exciting stuff!

So back to the point.. Luckily I fall straight asleep after being woken by the late arrivals, but then get re-woken a couple of hours later by my damn alarm clock. The one bad thing about being with a company is being on a schedule, especially as they tend to leave ridiculously early. Stray happens to be meeting at my hostel at 8am, yay! My alarm goes off at 7, so naturally everyone else is asleep. This means I’m getting ready to leave for my journey in pitch black. Fortunately the bathroom is right next to my bed so I can use that bit of light to see what exactly I’m doing/packing, but I’m still struggling not to wake the others and to hopefully not leave some important items behind. I’m still feeling lonely and missing a certain someone incredibly so I wasn’t in the best of moods to be packing my life up.. But because I’m so organised luckily I had most the stuff prepared the night before. So I’m good to go and leave the room swiftly. Once I’ve checked out I go outside and see about 10 other travellers stood there waiting so I knew I was definitely not at the wrong place. Now my stomach is rumbling. I haven’t eaten since on the plane at 12pm the day before. I was so upset and feeling sick yesterday that I honestly couldn’t eat a thing without wanting to heave. How on earth has this become my life.. The kind of person that is missing someone so much that they can’t even stomach their food, and bare in mind I’m the kind of person that could eat 2 big-mac meals in one go without a problem usually, so this is a littttttttle out of character for me. So I buy a bottle of water and try to cram myself with it so I feel less hungry (I’ve heard this is a handy trick) but it didn’t do much good. Soon enough a woman in a stray tee-shirt arrived, she’s called Cougar (what an awesome name?!) and reads out the list of people to join her. Now after yesterdays fiasco with not being on the list at ACB hostel, my panic mode kicks in that I’m not down for the bus today.. But luckily someone has decided to make today a better day for me and my name is there!

So everyone else piles onto the bus, there’s already a few sat there that were picked up from hostels before us. Auckland is the first place the trip starts so everyone is pretty new to everything. We set off on our journey and luckily I’m not the token loser and everyone gets chatting. The good thing about travelling is that everyone is in the same boat and you’re not the only one travelling alone, so no-one wants to be by themselves. However with Stray as it is hop-on/off whenever you like, chances are you won’t be with the same group of people throughout the whole thing as some people may want to stay longer in a certain place.

So once everyone was starting to get to know each other, we made a stop at a mountain in Auckland. Apparently there’s shit loads of volcano’s surrounding it, like over 70 or something ridic, and we drove up one of them. It was kind of cool, we had a 360 view of Auckland and saw the crater and everything. I was kind of expecting to see bubbling volcanic rock in the crater but unfortunately it was just grassed over, what a let down. Still, the view was pretty. Auckland is actually pretty small, and it’s apparently meant to be the biggest city in NZ.. So god knows what the rest of it is like! I got chatting to the girl sat next to me on the bus called Martina, she’s really cool. She’s 29 but looks about 24! Don’t know why I felt the need to tell you that, just thought I should point out she was nice.. So anywayyyyyyyyy….

We then made our way to our next stop called Hahei where we are staying overnight. In Hahei due to volcanic rock the beaches have caused the sand to have hot water springs buried deep beneath them. Which gives us privileges of digging them out! So this was our first activity.. Going on a hot water beach and digging ourselves a hot water spring. It’s not as easy as it looks! You dig through the sand and you expect the water underneath to be warm.. Nuh-uh! You put your foot straight in and it burns instantly. Eventually we did manage to find a luke-warm spot and we all had a relaxing time in our mini-spring baths. It was a nice way to start our Stray journey! After this we went ot the supermarket and bought somes supplies. We also put a tenner each in to put towards our group bbq we were holding at our lodges later on that evening. As we got to the hostel, we were given either the option of kayaking out to a famous spot called Cathedral Cove, which is apparently where the Prince of Kasabian is filmed, or something.. Or we could chill out at the hostel, or WALK to Cathedral Cove. As I’m a lazy bitch and still completely tired I decide to save my money on kayaking and go for a nap instead. Got talking to a couple of finnish girls in my dorm which was nice.. And then passed out! Woke up hour and half later realising I needed shower ready for our bbq. Once I was freshened and clean I helped cut some buns for the Barbie.

The bbq was really bloody nice. I haven’t had one since Cavendish *tear* L. Ugh everything reminds me of Dave, seriously. Anyway once the Barbie was over the drinking began. I had a 6 pack of corona which amazingly was way cheaper here than Oz! Like 10x cheaper! Once everyone was feeling a bit merry we started with drinking games, however I was feeling a little sick and could only manage 2 beers, during ‘fuck the dealer’ and ‘ring of fire’.. 2 classic travelling drinking games! Everyone was starting to feel more comfortable with each other now. It’s nice to meet new people instead of seeing the same faces all the time, however I really would leave to see the old faces. As I was tired I went to bed, but naturally once I actually get into bed I couldn’t sleep. And because I couldn’t sleep and had nothing to distract me I start thinking about Dave again, and start mini-crying.. Again! Which keeps me awake.. But luckily I did eventually pass out, woopie.

Tomorrow we go to Raglan, home of surfing, night dudes. Xxx

Peace xxxx

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