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Published: March 21st 2008
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Thursday 20th March, I got an early bus to Auckland - left around 9.30am and arrived about 2pm - shattered! This I think is going to be my last back-packing trip, all hotels and taxis from now on! It's pretty hard going on and off buses and then lugging the bags to the final destination. Still at least I might get fit! ;o) I stayed at The Brown Kiwi backpackers, small but friendly, in the suburb of Ponsonby. Walked into the city after a VERY long shower to try and wake up! Had pasta with olives, that I was craving, $7 NZ chardonnay, then saw 'The Other Boleyn Girl' at the cinema - quite entertaining. Again someone got chatting to me whilst I was having a coffee, waiting for the film, if you can dispell your feelings of paranoia and resist the urge to do the 'avert eyes stalker alert' you can meet some friendly people. No doubt there are some psychos out there, so I'll be careful tho!
Friday 21st March - Happy Easter everyone! I pottered around, had a cup of tea and tried to ignore the 3 children running around the kitchen at the Backpackers. There's quite
a nice garden I might sit out in later. Spent a while applying fake tan! Real tanning here is less popular amongst the Kiwis for health reasons etc, so I'm not the whitest person in the place like I normally am! Wandered into Auckland and saw some refreshing views of the Harbour.
Saturday 22nd March - will be getting the 9am bus to Tongariro National Park, and if weather and time permits might get some pics of 'Mount Doom' from the Lord of the Rings films. I phoned ahead and all the backpackers are full, but managed to get the only bed left in a place that has 40 Korean students staying so....that could be interesting!! Sunday I'll be meeting up with friend Mary, who I met 10 years ago in Australia!!!
The 40 Korean students turned out to be 10 year old girls, who were pretty well behaved so not so much of a problem. I got off the bus and lugged the bags to Piper's Lodge, after a phone call to check the location. I was in a dorm on my own, hurrah! After a quick discussion with Bruce the owner, he said it was a
bit too late in the day to go on any big walks (3pm). Seeing as it was a lovely afternoon, I wandered around town and had a lovely time pottering about in the Station Cafe etc. Roast lamb dinner in a restaurant called Elvins and some exhausted looking girls who had just completed the Tongariro Crossing walk took a picture of Mount Doom and I. I then went back to the Backpackers to meet a group of Irish/Kiwi girls who had also completed the 7/9 hour trek to Tongariro Crossing. They were really friendly and chatty and I met up with then back at Elvins later on for a drink.
Sunday 23rd March - After breakfast, the two Kiwi girls offered to drop me at Whakapapa, a village up the road where there are some nice 2 hour walks to do. Most people I've met are very friendly and helpful. Bruce, the owner, arranged for someone to pick me up in a shuttle at 1pm and bring me back to National Park, for only $10 dollars so I was all set. After a brief visit to the Whakapapa visitor centre, I set off on the walk to Taranaki falls.
It wasn't as sunny as the day before, but pleasant landscape and not too crowded. Got to the falls and got chatting to a family living on the East coast. In NZ, there are some lovely things to do that are only an hour or so away from where people live, it's fairly compact really and means that people can enjoy the countryside and lead a nice lifestyle. I got to the Intercity bus stop in National Park at around 2.15pm and again got chatting to two retirees from Kent who were enjoying themselves making their way around the country. They were with 'Thrifty Travels' (well something like that) and it included lifts to bus stops making life a bit easier! The bus turned up and I got into Palmerston North a bit earlier than scheduled around 6.45pm. I was due to stay the night in Palmerston North at the house where my friend Mary was house-sitting. I had met Mary 10 years ago on my last back-packing trip, whilst staying at Packer's Palace (it was anything but a palace!) in Melbourne. She's Canadian but is doing a Master's in NZ at the moment on Food Science. Anyway, after I
wandered off thinking that because the bus arrived 15 minutes early I would get a drink, I wandered back at 7pm and found Mary, all was ok. Mary drove us up to the farm where she was house-sitting for a friend, near Feilding 'The friendliest place in NZ' say the signs. Mary cooked pasta and we chatted for ages catching up over a bottle of red wine, it was a lovely evening. Good to see a friend I hadn't seen for a long time and we still get on great :o)
Monday 24th March, I was due to get the bus from Palmerston North to Wellington at 1pm. So Mary and I had time for a quick glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Hopefully we will meet up on Saturday to pay a visit to Martinborough vineyards.
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Gray
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Hi Mandy. We're missing you already. It's great seeing family, especially ones from the other side of the world who we don't see often enough. If you get any more tired trecking around, come back for a rest before heading away from NZ. :-)