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Published: March 9th 2007
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After my big night in the little pub in the National Park I was feeling a little bit worse for wear but luckily all we really did the next day was drive, drive some more & drive a bit more all the way down to New Zealands capital city Wellington.
We did have a few stops on the way including a much needed one mid-morning for some hot chocolate & then one at lunchtime in the town called Bull (everything has a bull reference in the town including all the signs & litter bins....."Informa-bull" & "Responsi-bull") for a Subway.....felt much better after that!
We had one other stop along the way to have a shot a gumboot throwing, basically throwing a welly boot or gumboot if you're a kiwi, as far as you can. Although the town where you do it & where the championship is held every year seems to take it a bit more seriously as they have an actual place where you throw the gumboots & it has fences & everything to keep the gumboots from being flung all over the place although some of the guys from the bus managed to fling the gumboot
over the ridiculously high fences anyway! I guess it's kind of like the kiwi version of tossing the caber!
We finally arrived in Wellington at about 3pm & Fido took us up Mount Victoria for an amazing view of the city, it's in a really great location surrounded by bays & water. After we'd checked into the hostel for the night me & Kristine went down to the harbour looking for the beach which we couldn't find so we just sat down on the concrete beside some boatsheds & sat in the sun, just as good as a beach & no sand everwhere, bonus!
That night we all went out for dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown Wellington for our last supper together as a few of us were heading on to the South Island with the Stray Bus & with the same driver Fido but most of the group was staying on the North Island for a bit longer or heading home or on to their next destination on their travels. We had to wait for about 2hours until we actually got our food so we'd all pretty much finished our BYO bottles of wine but
the food was worth waiting for when it finally arrived & I'm not the biggest fan of Indian food (as my dad will tell you!). After that we said our goodbyes which included Adi, my partner in crime since the first moring when we'd been waiting for the bus outside the YHA in Auckland. A few of us girls went out for a quick drink in one of the bars in Wellington, called Establishment, where they had a live band playing who weren't that great except for the lead singer who was really young but had a great voice. Then it was off to bed as me & Kristine & some of the other girls were getting picked up at 7am to catch the ferry to Picton on the South Island.
The next morning (Friday 9th March) me & Kristine tried hopelessly to get ready & pack quietly in the dark at 6am in our dorm room! We made it downstairs in time to get picked up & miraculously with all our belongings in tow. We said some last minute goodbyes to Adi & some of the other guys from the bus as the Stray bus going back up
to Auckland was leaving at the same time as our ferry shuttle bus. We got to the ferry terminal & checked in our bags which was great as we didn't have to carry our rucksacks around with us for 3 hours on the ferry. Ferry was just like any other big ferry really, expensive but quite nice food but it did have some pretty comfy reclining seats which we lived in for most of the 3 hour crossing. Me & Kristine also had this Canadian guy who kind of attached himself to us for the whole of the journey, he was nice enough though & luckily he wasn't going to be on our bus he was heading straight for a small town called Makaroa down in the mountains on the West of the South Island to stay with a friend for a few days.
When the ferry docked in Picton on the South Isaland we pickec up our bags again & found our nice new big orange Stray Bus (not too difficult really) where Fido was waiting for us all & all the new people who were joining our bus from the South Island. It was a bit strange
to be on a bus full of mostly strangers again but we all got to know each other quite quickly over a few drinks later as per usual!
Before the drinks though we drove through some wine country where of course we stopped at one of the wineries for some tasting & to buy some bottles of wine for later. We made another quick stop along the way at a beautiful but very very cold river for a swim if you were mad enough. Unfortunately me & Kristine went down a different path than everyone else by mistake & ended up at a different part of the river where there were some teenagers in the water & lying on the rocks. It turned out that they were actually all taking part in rescue training & when the other kids came along to try & "rescue" the ones in the water & lying on the rocks they thought that I was one of them too & asked if I needed rescued, I was like No I'm just sitting in the sun I'm fine, I was half expecting one of them to grab me, wrap me in a blanket & start
trying to give me CPR. All I was doing was sitting by the water with my feet in catching some sun!
After the excitement by the river we headed for the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park & Old MacDonalds Farm camp & cabin site where we were staying for the next 2 nights so we all realxed with a few beers as we didn't have to get up & pack & get back on the bus the next day. As Fido had the following day off too he actually got to stay up past 9pm & have a few drinks as well. We also made friends with one of the fluffiest cats I've ever seen & named him Possum (in New Zealand possums are thought of as a pest & get the nickname Squashum in other words if you see one when you're driving run it over if you can...very friendly. of course this didn't apply to our new cat friend he was really cute & no one wanted to squash him!), before we all headed to bed in the tiniest little dorm cabins which were freezing, think it was the first time I'd been really cold since I
left home in January! I might have known the first place I'd get cold would be the South Island in New Zealand!
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