Week 3 - part 1

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Dear Blog,

Boarded the 'tragic' with my flask of earl gray and an apple, after saying farewell to Dave and Peita. Felt a bit lonesome on the bus and not particularly in the mood to talk to anyone. So much so, when the list for accommodation came round, I put myself down to stay at a different hostel to everyone else. Bah humbug. I was also not impressed by the fact that although Taupo was only 45 mins away by bus, it would take us approximately 6 hours to get there. This was so that people could take part in various activities such as jumping off 30 foot poles, skydiving, bungey jumping and the like. Due to my foul mood however, I did not wish to partake in any, so I just sat and watched everyone else have fun.

Our first stop was just outside Rotorua at the Thermal Wonderland, an area of massive volcanic activity- bubbling mud pools, geysers, bright green lakes and lots of foul smelling sulphurous gas. Needless to say although I quite enjoyed the sights and took lots of photos, I felt really sick afterwards.

But I had started to perk up a bit and started chatting to the rest of the group who turned out to be really nice, and slightly regretted not staying at the same hostel as them. Oh well.

Finally got to my hostel which was lovely (thank god) and arranged to meet up with the others later.

After several hours mooching around Taupo I headed down to the Irish bar where we had agreed to meet. Played a couple of games of pool with Tom (an american guy) Kathy (english girl) and Duncan (a mad scot in a kilt). Had a really good laugh, and even met a bloke from Harrogate who went to St John Fishers!! Didn't recognise him though. But what a small world it is.

Got to bed at half eleven slightly regretting the fact that I had drunk more than I had planned to and had to get up in 6 hours for a 17k hike up a mountain.

Woke up at 3 am with a very dry mouth and a headache unable to sleep because I knew I had to get up soon. Caught the half 5 bus (which was driven like the bus in Harry Potter) and an hour or so later we were at the start of the Tongariro Crossing. I had been looking forward to this trip since coming to new zealand, because the views are supposed to be spectactular and I was looking forward to seeing Mount Doom (Lord of the Rings).

When we got off the bus it was raining. But the bus driver assured us it would clear up in an hour or so, so off we set in fairly high spirits and antway, I had my poncho (v sexy and slightly useless) to protect me. Basically to cut a dismal story very short, it rained for the entire trek- all 8 hours of it. The clouds were so low that I couldn't see any of the mountains, and when we got to the top (nearly 2000m up) it was so cold and windy that I just wanted to cry. I did feel better though as everyones else looked equally as miserable. It was really disappointing, and I was totally knackered, and also to add insult to injury, I slipped over and (almost broke my ankle) and got covered in mud. So got back to my hostel, very cold, wet but alive, and watched Batma begins to cheer me up, which is actually very good.

The next day, could have stayed in bed for hours, but had to get up at 7am to get the tragic to Wellington. A fairly uneventful day in the bus as it is quite a long way, but went out for a few drinks with a girl called Sue that I met on the bus. Got embarrasingly drunk on two beers (am turning into such a light weight don't know what is wrong with me- possibly the jet lag) and had a good laugh.

The next day, I had the worst hangover blues. Spoke to my mum and dave and they cheered me up a bit. (Sounds like Tiggy has got Dave wrapped around her little finger) But I still felt really fed up so there was only one thing for it. Catrina's letter. I have to say, that girl is a gem. Her letter was brilliant (i'm sure she won't mind me saying that), and after a couple of reads, and a couple of tracks from the Killers, was feeling much better.
The rest of the day was a bit of a write- off. I just did some washing, emailed and then got ready to go out for a few more drinks with sue. Didn't get drunk as before, in fact in true tragic stylie ended up drinking a hot chocolate and having an early night.

Woke up today in much brighter spirits. Took myself off early to go on a walking tour of Wellington which was excellent. Its a good job I had decided to do that as I had thought that there wasn't really much to the place (due to bad mood yesterday), but fortunately our guide showed me that there was more to 'Welly' than meets the eye. Seemed to walk for hours so decided to spend the afternoon on the beach. On the way back to the hostel I bought some salad and lasagne from the deli counter in the supermarket. The bloke who served it up had no concept of what lasagne should look like because by the time it got to me it was just a mush of beef and pasta. At least it tasted ok, andf I was starving so I didn't really care.

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