On the bus to Wellington. Once again, another first: this was my first time using the couchsurfing website as a surfer, not a host, and it has been AMAZING. I stayed with Kicki and Mike in Motuoapa (moe-too-oh-AH-pa), which is a small collection of houses outside Turangi (TOOR-ang-ee) on Lake Taupo? Their house is in a really nice neighborhood up on a hill, with a view of lake Taupo, and the neighborhood is full of kids and parks and open space. The houses are all different styles because the parcels of land were bought up by Aussies who use the place as a vacation spot. In fact, a lot of the houses are all for sale because the place didn't take off like they expected, so now they need to sell it. I was dropped off
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