Trekking, Caving, Swimming and Bus Trauma

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WHAT A WEEK!!!

I'll start with the basics, which was our return to Auckland. Fairly understated, it must be said, though we did have the benefit of being allocated a room which was a twin ensuite because of a muck up with the bookings. Because it was the YHA's fault that meant that we didn't have to pay extra (score!) and got it all for the price of an 8 man dorm! Thanks YHA!

We were picked up the next morning by Lauren, our new driver, who turned out to be an absolute LEDGE. More on the legendary status later, but after a morning where (we thought) we'd sorted out the buses for the entire trip, we headed down southwards and onwards to Mercury Bay, our first destination. It felt good to finally get away from Auckland, and even our Auckland based driver told us that the best attraction of Auckland is the road out...

So we were on our way at last, and after a stop off at Thames (STUPIDEST NAMES IN THE WORLD IN THIS PLACE, THANKS VERY MUCH CAPTAIN COOK! "Oh that river looks like the Thames, I think I'll name it the THAMES!!!") for lunch, and a trip to Cathedral Cove, a massive, extremely impressive hole in the cliff edge (complete with exhausting 2 hour round trip walk) we headed to the Turtle Cove Youth Hostel where we'd be spending the night. We finally had a chance to get chatting to a couple of the folks on our tour, notably Jerry and Neil from Vermont, who'd just come from Fiji and who were more than happy to get a winner-stays on pool tournament going. Later we were joined by Sandra from Austria and Katrina from Germany, and a few too many beers were consumed and the result was not favourable for me in the pool. Nonetheless it was a fab night, and we headed to bed a little bit drunk but knowing we had a couple of mates, at least!

Good times kept on rolling the next day as we headed to Rotorua, stopping off on the way for a bush walk through some old mining caves. Barely anyone had torches so an interesting half an hour of stumbling through passages ensued, and when we finally broke out onto the otherside my feet were absolutely killing me...even though I'd abandoned the jangles and stuck my HIKING BOOOOTS on instead...

Never mind, but our early start had thrown my body into an eerie disarray, which meant that I awoke some time later with Andrew telling me to get off the bus. Off the bus? Madness! Before us was a large Maori building, and with some trepidation (and a lot of yawning) we wandered into the Tamaki Maori Experience...Booking Room. We planned that we would be going to a traditonal Maori feast that night, so we were bundled into a queue and started working our way towards the paying bit.

Later found us at Base Rotorua - a fab hostel built over a geyser, which meant that they had a hot tub with "fresh" water being pumped in. Tres awesome...till I read the sign saying that there was a risk of ameobic meninigitis....

The best thing about our night there was the night. We headed to the Maori village, and were treated first hand to a traditional dance, haka and greeting ceremony...all the while in desperate need of a urination break. Neil had the best idea...to unleash his load against the fence of the cultural grounds (dumbass) while Mr Richards and I struggled through, chewing through fingernails until we found the toilet. These were desperate times man!

The feast was insanely good. All their food is cooked on hot rocks that have been placed on a fire, and the food is layered on top of each other, giving everything the most incredible taste imagineable! It was quite a feast too, Andrew making his way through 4 plates while I struggled with one...lame...though at least I had room for chocolate sponge and custard afterwards....AMAZING STUFF!!!

After singing national songs to each other on the way back (cool when the bus was made up of Brits, Germans, the Dutch, the Irish, the French, the Swedish, the USA, the Canadians and the Aussies) we bumped into the guys from Sydney!!! The reunion was a total coincidence and suprise, and well funny too, and we promised to meet up in Taupo for one last drink!

Next morning brought us back to the bus for our trip to Waitomo, stopping on the way at Agroventures...one of the lamest attractions in the world. It's basically just a farm with a bungee jump and a fast boat, and on offer was the (in)famous "Sheep Show!"

So we decided to give it a miss. As a busload of 18-25 year olds we reached the joint decision that we could all live without seeing a bunch of sheep being herded around a stage. Felt a bit bad for the girl at the front door though when Lauren let them know we weren't going...imagine if your expected bus load of 50 people didn't turn up? Bad for business...

...instead we went and watched some of the guys Zorbing and then ate some hot-dogs. Probably did make the right choice after all then.

Rolling into Waitomo at 1ish we were kicked off the bus and rushed into the Black Water Rafting Co building, before being suited up and bunged in a mini-bus. EXCITING AS ANYTHING! We had to practice jumping backwards into water with a rubber ring first, then were led through the trees to the cave entrance, plunging into the darkness.

We stumbled through the caves for a good 20 minutes, loosing our footing and falling into holes waist-deep that we couldn't see because of the blackness all around. The tiny light on our helmets felt useless as we stumbled forwards, but by the time we reached the main cave it was clear that we didn't need them. Clearer when we switched them off but visible nonetheless were THOUSANDS of glowworms above our heads that looked like stars up above us - it was an amazing sight!

We floated in the darkness back out of the abyss, and though we were all glad to be out of the FREEZING WATER (especially Somer, who spent most of her time upside down in it...) the walk back to the bus was a little taxing in our extremely sexy black wetsuits and white shoes...

Heading back to the hostel, we checked in and had time to sort ourselves out before going for an explore. We bumped into Somer and Seb playing a game of pool, and it wasn't long before we got another tournament going. After a while, and with me complaining about being hungry, we bade farewell and headed to the bar for a feed and a beer. The two of them joined us a little later, followed by Julian and Sarah, and Eddie and Audrey, and so it ended up with me and Andrew and the tour group couples. An interesting state of affairs. It didn't take long for the conversation to nose dive back down to our level of maturity though (and to be honest, Somer was even less mature than us...) and we ended up stealing a couple of glasses and heading back to the chalet for a 'tea party'. By about 11 a crowd had gathered and we had a proper get together going on, joined soon by a group of Aussies who were living above us and who didn't quite understand the concept of tea, which was a bit odd even for the Americans among us. Jerry spent a good 20 minutes trying but going nowhere with Jess, who was sort of the lead Oz girl, and when people started heading home Andrew and Jess comandeered the party BACK to the bar for a nightcap.

The Oz girl's tour bus woke us up early the next morning, which was to turn out to be the 'Long Day' anyway. We jumped back on the bus and headed for Lake Taupo...where along the way I discovered to my horror that KIWI had messed up the bus bookings and as a result there was no way for me to get to River Valley. This, as you may have gathered dear reader, was something of a ruddy nightmare. Not to worry though! It was Lauren the bus driver to the rescue, securing her legendary status by forcing Kiwi to pay $150 to ferry me and AJ to River Valley out of their own pocket! Excellent!

In Taupo we spent the afternoon swimming in the lake, which was framed by a snow-capped mountain in the background, lending it a very beautiful atmosphere, before heading out and buying pizza. On our way back, we bumped into Fran from the bus, who was to turn out to be our best friend and third musketeer for the next 36 hours.

The night started off as normal - we went to the bar, had a couple of drinks, took part in the pool tournament (which for the record, I OWNED) and then went to part ways at about 2.

Fran and Kat, one of the Canadian girls, had other ideas.

Thus it began - an odyssey that kept us up all night to wave off Julian, Sarah, Audrey and Eddie, who were up at 5.30. We planned to go up to the sun deck, which was locked, and resulted in us sitting in the stairwell for 3 hours. Once the grown ups had gone, we chowed down on chocolate cake, went to MacDonalds for coffee at 6, watched the sunrise, watched Cool Runnings, went shopping, went to the Lake and spent the day there, and then finally collapsed at 11.30 after doing the pub quiz an absolute wreck.
But it was worth it - we'd emerged victorious from our strange long day of wonder. And there is NOTHING funnier than going to a kids toy section still a little tipsy and without sleep...

The others piled onto the Kiwi bus at 10am the next day and left Andrew, myself and two Danish girls, Lena and Zena, standing at the Taupo Bus Terminal, waiting for our connection to Taihape. It was severly delayed, so AJ and I grabbed some late breakfast and a drink and had a wander, coming back in time to leap aboard. We were off, rounding the snow capped mountain and rolling into Taihape at about 1pm, unsure of where to meet our shuttle bus to River Valley.

Greeted immediately by Janey, our problem was solved. We piled into a tiny bus and took off at great speed, racing through country roads at 100km/h, bricking it all the way. It didn't help that Janey's baby daughter Ida was in the front seat, but in fairness Janey explained that she had been brought up driving too quickly through these streets so we couldn't have been in more capable hands!!

When we arrived, the view was breathtaking, and I had the wind knocked out of me. River Valley lodge sits at the bottom of a stunning valley, a huge, blue green river tearing through it, where above us the view of the mountain ranges gave the place the feel of the setting or a western. IT WAS AMAZING!

The first thing we did was jump in the river, and it was freezing cold but twice my height in depth. Incredible. Our afternoon was an organised horse trek and we were a good few hours ahead of the others, so for a long while we sat and chilled out by the lake, diving in off the huge rocks and doing journal stuff. It felt like another taste of paradise, and Andrew was buzzing to the point of deciding that he wasn't going to uni, just to move here, work for his accom and board, and go horse riding everyday.

The feeling of being in a western continued when we went on our horse trek a little later on. I'd never ridden a horse in my life but with my new best mate Chestnut I felt like I was a pro. We were going for about 2 and half hours through the valley, and I wished it could have gone on for longer. I was starting to see where Andrew was coming from!

The evening reunited us with Fran and Kat, and with a few too many drinks, and ended up with a bus-wide game where you had to move your body right around a table, going underneath it. What a team building exercise! Also finally had a chance to see some real stars - as we were miles from a big town there was NO light pollution, which meant the milky way was laid out before us. I even caught a glance of a shooting star - a mesmirising sight!

So we near the end of the update, dear reader, and I'm sure you're more than happy about that, but I'll leave you with one more nugget of amusing information - our exit from River Valley was scary AS! Once again, the Legendary Lauren proved how much of a hero she was by sneaking me and AJ onto the bus, and instructing everyone to hide us as we rolled past a police patrol! What a LEGEND! Putting her neck on the line for her passengers, if only all driverguides were like that!

As we rolled into Wellington our backs and backsides were sore, but even sorer was the feeling that the people we'd spent the last week with were parting ways and that we may not see them again. Fran got off a while before, and that was gutting - we'd known her 5 minutes but she was one of our best mates on the bus, and everyone seemed to be going a few days before us. We said so long to Eddie and Audrey and then met the others for a pint and a farewell drink.


What a legendary lot. Onwards and downwards it was though, with a couple of days in Wellington ahead of a ferry ride to the South Island, amongst the sadness is a huge load of excitement...

LTYM
Peace out
xxx

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Photos

Sunrise
Dawn breaks in Taupo

KIWI at River Valley
Our bus frames the valley!

Getting out of Auckland
View from the top of Mt Eden

Lake Taupo
The view from where we were sunbathing

River Valley
A view of the river right outside the lodge

Caving...
One of the mine caves...

Somer and Seb
Legends!

Julian and Sarah
More legends!

Eddie (and Audrey behind the paper)
Even more legends!!!

Diving
Andrew dives into the river

Andrew and Fran
Struggling through the Longest Day

Bed?!
Falling onto a bed in Farmers in Taupo...don't think they were too happy...

Me, AJ and Fran
As the Longest Day reaches midway!