Part 5: Rotorua & Waiheke

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The following events take place between October 25 and October 26 and are based on a true story.



Our bus doesn't leave rotorua until about 4, so we wanted to do a bit of exploring around ole stink-town before we take our leave. Had the best sleep of entire trip in the beautiful YHA...I fully plan on staying at a YHA when we get to Sydney.



We walked out to the lake front and then through the government gardens. Still smelly but strangely beautiful too. Like how the earth would look in prehistoric times. We have officially finished all of the candy that Natalie and Mike sent with us on the trip. God help us. We then walked to a few of the smaller geyser areas. Considered walking up to the place where they do zorbing (Google it), but the prices was crazy high for a short ride. Considering we have to pay for a campervan and the coromandel now...we decided to get kiwi ice cream instead of zorbing.



On the bus ride home, Alison had an...incident (if you watched the TV show LOST, read that in Dr Marvin Candle AKA Pierre Chang's voice). No she didn't pee her pants (but you're close!)...she vomited. But I gotta hand it to her...she was tres stealthy (Jane would be proud). I was asleep when she poked me awake claiming she was gonna hurl. She looked pretty green so I snagged her a plastic bag from my backpack. About 10 bumpy minutes on the road later...boom. She had just eaten an Aero bar about an hour prior so...ya. But she kept it all in the bag, made zero noise, and no one on the bus even noticed. She was like a vomiting ninja.



Upon returning to K Road (our last night thankfully), I had some wine with the two dudes we met on the bridge and four German dudes. Yup...just 7 dudes from different country, hanging out over a bottle of wine. Sweet.



We woke up early the next day so that we could get out to the airport and get our campervan. Goodbye forever K Road Travelers! We had no idea how to get out to the neigborhood where the campervan rental was, and I actually had to run after the shuttle that was supposed to take us there. When we did get there though, we got upgraded from the Lowballer to a real campervan with stove, fridge, microwave, toaster, the works! And its an automatic, meaning there's a good chance we won't stall and/or crash! Huzzah!



As Alison booked it on her card, she had to be the driver. So we began quite carefully, with me telling her when she started drifting too far to the left (which was often that first day). But I gotta hand it to her...Al is an excellent left-sideof-the-road driver...among other things...like stealthy vomiting.



We needed to get to Auckland and find parking before hopping a ferry to Waiheke Island. We drove down the harbor until we found a spot, then walked to the ferry. Along the way, some dude gave us a NZ lotto scratch ticket. Guess what...twenty bucks! Boom! Alison crushed some gravol before boarding the ferry, in order to avoid another upchuck episode...she promptly passed out during the thirty minute ride.



It was a beautiful day today so the ride was gorgeous. Clear blue water, awesome views all around. The bus drivers were all very helpful getting us where we needed to go. We hit four beaches in one day... oneroa, palm, little oneroa, and ontangi. My favorite was definitely palm. Smoothest, whitest sand I've seen, clear blue water...a Corona commercial basically. Alison found an oyster with some meat in it and was super psyched. Onetangi was nice...met a kiwi kid who showed me how to use a rope swing on this really cool/weird/awesome climbing tree. Alison swears I have a thing for trees now. We had some dragonfired pizza at little oneroa before we hopped the ferry back across. We both snoozed (little tuckered from our big day).



Upon our landing we needed to make an executive decision...drive out of Auckland towards the Coromandel Peninsula and look for a place to camp for the night? Or...sleep in a parking lot for the low, low price of eight dollars. Forever bargain-hunters...we slept in a parking lot by the Auckland harbor bay.



PS. A dude totally walked in on Alison, pants around ankles, using the bathroom at a gas station. True story.



PPS. Ben totally woke up in the middle of the night in the parking lot, yelping like a scared puppy because he had a dream where Sherminator from the American Pie series was hiding in the bushes, coming to get him. True story.

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