Advertisement
Published: July 29th 2008
So North it was for us, well north and then a swift right to take us too a lovely place called Hamner springs, this was meant to be one of the places to go if you wanted some hot water springs action, and by this time i fear we were both in desperate need of a break and some R and R. So to Hamner springs we headed, arriving at a wonderful guest house which was recommended to us by some fellow travelers, called la Guit. Run by a lovely French couple and their very friendly cats. The place was great and we headed off into the town center, to go and experience these hot springs and maybe treat ourselves. The treat turned out to be a wonderful massage, which after having a dip in the naturally hot and also smelly springs which were meant to do wonders for our skin and health was just the ticket. I had the best half our ever, completely different from the Thai massage where they bend and stretch you and make you click, this was all about relaxing and making my leg better, which she did, just heaven. Sarah of course had a longer
View of the sounds
This is what i see everyday in Picton, pretty amazing place, these Soundsmassage but she is a working woman and on holiday not a poor little backpacker like myself.
That night nice and relaxed we cooked different dishes as we couldn't agree on what we both wanted to eat, and then sat and watched a great show called the "Amazing Race" where teams of 2 have to race around the world doing different tasks in different countries and try and beat the other team, it is the best show and i defo want to be on it, though i think it might be best to not have my sister as my travel partner in a race situation, she would disown me for not being competitive enough.
So the next day we moved onto the sunniest place in New Zealand, a 50.000 person town called Nelson, a place which i like very much. We booked into this great hostel called the Bug, which had the VW bug theam and car running through out the hostel, run by the nicest of English chaps: we then proceeded to get into a terrible argument with each other where horrible things were said from both parties, she stormed off so as not be near me
and i went off to try and get the car fixed. Looking back now i think we both just really needed some space, Sarah and i have always had a rather strained relationship and traveling together perhaps was not the best of ideas. It feels as though we are sisters raised in the same household, but in different countries. I feel that is the best way to describe how different we are.
But that evening i did do my best to make it up to her, by suggesting we go to the cinema and see a film with an actor she has a big crush on; the film was terrible and predictable and not the least bit funny, but she liked it and i feel i kinda owed it too her to make a peace offering.
The next day bright and early we set off to my old home town of Picton, by this point i was not sure if we were still traveling to the north island together, and i had arranged to meet up with other friends if this was the case, but the drive though the Marlborough mountain range seemed to have cooled her off
Nz police at their finest
Now why can't Sarah do this kind of police work? and by the time we were back at the Villa my old Hostel, she was quite less mad and taking of staying on. We had lovely day spent driving around the water front, drinking Diet coke, eating great salads and playing scrabble, which i let her win. We hung out in my old reception downloaded photos and chatted with my old Manager katrin, of whom Sarah could not understand a word though her thick German accent. I booked us a ferry the next day, which was terrible expensive, to take up to the North island and stay in a the YHA in Wellington as they are nice staff there and gave me a discount, sweet. So the next morning we were up early fueled with naughty things from the bakery next door which is the 4th best in Nz, onto the ferry where Sarah felt sick the whole thing so tried to sleep, in doing so she missed the Nz police doing practice operations on and around the ferry, with 3 boats 5 Helicopters, one of which flew right above the ferry, i managed to get out to see a Nz police officer sliding down a rope from the Helicopter
on the top of the ferry, very exciting and Sarah slept though this all. She complained later that i didn't wake her and purposely let her miss all the fun...you just can not win.
We managed to finally get to the North Island, check into the hostel, where one of the chaps who works there and i chat to on the work phone about bookings etc etc asked if i had got his last note for me from a customer, i answered yes and why?, apparently he had put some hearts on the booking form for me, i missed it all.
We met up with a kiwi friend of mine another Sarah who i had worked with in London, she is back at STA Travel in WLG and hating it, she speaks so badly of them. But she took us out for a drink and then we arranged to meet up with her after work. Sarah ( sister ) went off to explore some of the delights of Wellington, walked along the sea front and saw some amazing homes built into the hills. We even happened upon a secondary school production of some traditional Mouri dancing and singing,
Police museum
Finally we have done the Nz police museum was very good and Sarah was very impressed with the boys Hukka. We met up with Kiwi Sarah later and went out on a bit of a pub crawl, though Kiwi Sarah kept trying to get us back to the first Irish pub we were at as her kind of boyfriend worked there. I again stayed out for a bit longer catching up with the Kiwi and made it back to our room where i had aloud sister Sarah to choose which bed she slept in ( so as to keep her from complaining ) this time she choose the bed with the bedbugs in it...at least she could not blame this one on me.
On leaving Welly we looked around the YHA hostel as they had 100 things to do in Welly when it is raining, and low and behold one of them was go see the Police Museum, so of course we jumped at the chance, we asked at the hostel reception where we could find this place, they kinda knew but advised us that going to the Ta Papa Nz nation Museum was a much better option, Sarah just turned and told them that we only
ever go to Police museums...So off we went found the small museum, on entry they asked if one of us was a police officer, Sarah answered yes ( which is true ) and i said i was just her sister, they said we could go in for free as police officers and their families don't have to pay, good thing they didn't ask if she was an Nz police officer. The place was nice and informative and lots of funny older photos of Uniforms and cool bikes to try out. Much fun was had by both of us.
We then moved on as Sarah wanted to do a Volcano crossing (walk!!!!!!!) this was not my idea of fun, particularly as i has spoken with people who had done this walk and told me how hard it was, well it is a Volcano, but she was adamant to do it and so we drove to the national park of Tongaririo, booked for her to do it the next day, and in the evening she watched Kiwi netball on the telly which made her happy and kept me out of the firing line. The next morning she left early and i
mooched around the hamlet of Tongariro went on a little walk for an hour or so, did some reading, chatted with other travelers and worried that Sarah wouldn't come back and what this would mean to my inheritance if i was the only surviving child of Liz's, would this mean that i get everything?
But she did come back and was in such a state, covered in mud and limping with many tales of going off with mad kiwis on longer extended walks, walking on gravel, snow, mud and through rivers. She said it was amazing and walking on a volcano was incredible but she did complain about her ankle and knee for the rest of our travels in Nz.
That evening we set off with me driving to Rotorua, as Sarah was in not fit state to drive. It took us quite a while and we missed out on seeing Taupo, which i came back to on a later occasion. But we arrived at a nice environmentally sound hostel run by a mad owner, who thought we were a lesbian couple who had just had a fight, well he was right about the last bit.
Rotorua
You what?
Sarah not being imprest with the 1960's Nz women's police uniform!!! smells and it smells all the time, i am told that you can live there 30 years and you will never get used to the sulfur in the air, in our few night there we didn't get used to the smell. The first day we went off to the national park which has all the geezas and hot water ponds and so on, was just a drive out of town and once there we hurried off to see the one of the geezas have some normal soap put in it's spout and within a few minutes just go off. Was very exciting and lots of ohhhhhhhh and arrrrrrrrrr's came from the crowds of Japanese tourists. When we were driving back to see the rest of the national park we were stopped by Claire and Rob again ( what a nice surprise ) who walked around the park with us and who we met up with later for drinks in a English teamed (badly ) pub. Sarah went off for a traditional Hungi in the evening which is a Mouri evening of song and dance, where they cook food in the ground in a oven, she really liked it, and contemplated
on getting some traditional Mouri tattoos like the women on her chin and lips, but when she met us later in the pub she had done neither, not sure Stoke Newington police would have been too happy with it.
It would seem that the smell of Rotorua would be to drive us out of town and we left the next day to travel to the Coromandel, which is famed for it's hot water beaches and very dangerous roads. The idea is that you go to one of the beaches at low tied and gig in the sand and as the water fills up the whole the underground thermal springs heat the pool you have made for yourself. Just lovely. So aided with spades we hired from a lovely cafe,we set off to dig not for gold, not oil, or even glory but for hot toes and silliness. We defo got both and some of the holes we dug were just too hot to stay in. On the way back to the car i bumped into a guest i had known from Picton, he and his friend had been admiring my car, well how can you not. It turned out
that we were all staying at the same hostel, and we spent a lovely evening with them. But to get to the hostel it would seem like we could drive all around the top of the Peninsular on the main road some what, or a gravel path though the Forrest, we opted for the second option, as it would cut down on our driving time considerable. Once we got on the path we did stop to ask some locals if taking my car would be a good idea, they turned out to be bee keepers, and did say that it was muddy but that Isadora could defo do it. So off we took with Sarah at the helm of the car and me closing my eyes and pushing down on imaginary break peddles on the passenger side of the car.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.151s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 15; qc: 62; dbt: 0.1149s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Anna
non-member comment
love it!
love the sheep!!! want a flock of them in my back garden!!!