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November 27th 2009

Published: November 28th 2009

So after a phone call from my long lost stephy asking if i had fallen off the face of the earth, feel kinda guilty! So - yes, joined this infamous backpacker kiwi experience bus tour, which was due to take me through the north island over 5 days, and to be fair was feeling pretty shitty. I had wained thin of the company since arriving in nz and a further two days in a soul destrying hostel in auckland was starting to wonder what on earth i was doing in this country. Travelling alone has so far has been pretty great, but i knew nz would be hard as i dont have many people to call on here.

So getting on this bus - was worried it was going to be one huge teenage booze cruise - and in a sense it was. But along with it also came 35 instant companions of varying ages, and out of that number chances are there would be a few decent people. I am happy to say this was true, and i have had a really great week!

Friday - we left auckland via a stop at Mount Eden, a dormant volcano which holds some amazing views of the city. And we then rode onto the Coromandel Penninsula. Upon arrival, we had left the rain behind and took off on a small trek in the sun to a gorgeous beach called cathedral cove. Its a popular postcard scene and you can see why! We then went to see the Hot water beach where there are springs under the sand, loads of people had dug themselves pools, but were frantically fighting the incoming tide to save their hot water! we spent a while playing on the sand, and then we went to our hostel for the night called turtle cove. It was a small place, but they put on a huge dinner for us all of spag bol, and then we set into pool games for the evening.

Saturday we left the coromandel pretty early and went into Rotorua. This is famous for its thermal activity, and although had passed through it last week with adam, we didn't stop for anything but the luge riding, so it was nice to see more of the town! myself and a lovely danish girl Maire-louise went into the town and did some sightseeing, and then soaked in the outdoor heated pool - so good! That evening we all went to a traditional Maori village called Tamaki. Here we saw a traditional warrior greeting, walked around a replica village and were treated to a concert. This was really impressive, and quite moving. Afterwards we had a massive buffet banquet, which all us backpackers indulged in - as it was all you could eat. I felt so fat once finished as had eaten as much as physically possible! we later drunk the night away at the hostel bar till early hours. It was the only club in rotorua though, so was very funny to see that nz has scantily clad drunk 17 year old walking round too!

Sunday we left Rotorua via a sheep show - seriously the funniest things i have EVER seen! Trained sheep and dogs and ducks and stuff all linked with one crazy kiwi guy - bizarre. We then moved into what can only be described as a hamlet called Waitomo. This was seriously tiny, it has one pub, one hostel and not even a shop! The reason we came here was obvious though. Waitomo was home to the Glow worm caves. There was the option of black water rafting, but a few of us decided to take a more sedate walk and pitch black boat trip through the caves instead. These were your standard stalagtite type caves. but once the lights went off it was like the clearest night sky you can imagine! I did try to take photos to show you, but we got busted by the security guards - so apologies there.

As waitomo was not really a 'happening' place, it was early nights all around, which was quite welcome by this point! After leaving the next morning we went via an angora rabbit farm where we watching some rabbit shearing! they string them up like ducks, but then seemed pretty happy! Then we moved straight into Taupo for a 2 night stop. First stop monday afternoon was the airfields for a Skydive! Nearly all of us jumped, and having done one before in the uk - this was truly amazing. I had no fear of it, and just had the most stunning views in the sunshine over lake taupo. We did alot of crazy spins and i had fun doing parachute spirals, it was every bit amazing as last time i threw myself out of a plane. As it also happened, the guy who i jumped with was working at the cambridge dive centre in england when i last jumped! Small world eh! So i did 15,000 feet of falling with one massive grin.

Now - this was quite an exciting day - which led to many adrenaline filled people hitting the bars. Consequently, this little one was sick. Alot. Luckily we didnt have a bus journey the next day. Once i had arison and had cleared my stomach for probably the 8th time we went out to the top of taupo to find some natural thermal pools to rest ourselves in. After walking for an hour and a half and getting lost twice we found a few boiling waterfalls which led into a freezng river. Somewhere between the falls and the lake was patches of what can only be described a the warmest most relaxing bath tub. We all sat in these getting wrinkled for hours and hours! (you just had to ignore the occasional eel swimming by) Taupo was a great little place with a beautiful sunset - i even found a guy in the pub from brighton!! There are so many english here its quite scary.

We all left Taupo quite sad, and drove through the Tongariro National Park (again!) and stopped off for a waterfall walk to break up the journey. This walk wasn't for the scenery though - there was once again another waterfall which was to be jumped! It certainly does seem that the crazy new zealand people have nothing better to do than through themselves off and out of things for thrill to substitute for the more sedate daily life! Loads of the crew jumped, but knowing how cold the water was from last week i opted to be camera man and sunbathe - which suited me fine. Especially when the bus was late to pick us up and the jumpers had near pnumonia!

We next headed into an isolated adventure lodge called River Valley. This was so off the beaten track there was no phone reception anywhere, 30 mins of windind single track lanes, and upon arrival - no TV's, outdoor showers and spiders in the farm dorm 32 shared in one room! We all played volleyball untill sundown and then went inside to enjoy a massive roast dinner. As a regular Kiwi bus stop - there was no TV, but of course there was a bar! They really didn;'t miss a trick on that one! Happy hour began, and so did the games from our crazy driver guide to keep us entertained.

I haven't mentioned Lauren up until now, and i feel she deserves a mention. She is a small blond kiwi girl, aged 26 who has driven buses of backpackers round nz for the past 5 years, and is truly crazy. Reminds me alot of someone else... So she got the games going. Which in this place involved the good old fashioned cereal box game. The we played how far you can place a match box accross a line game, then we all took it in turns to lay on the huge oak dining table and see who can flip underneath, crawling and then can life themself back up the otherside without touching the floor. (I cant really explain, but by this point so many of us had fallen off and bruised top to bottom it semed like a great idea) and finally we all had to chair dance with another matchbox - totally bizarre. The next day was the activity part of this visit. There was rafting and horse treking.

Now i had changed my mind a million times as to whether i wanted to ride or not, and left it too late, and thankfully so. The next morning there were two accidents on 2 different treks, and one was serious. A girl has fallen, and as to the remote location, took ages to transport her back to the hostel. they had established nothing was broken, but she was wailing in pain. She had decided to not go to a hospital outside the valley, but to continue on the bus to wellington to go to A&E there. This was a hard journey for 4 hours with her on a mattress on the floor of the central aisle of the bus in tears. We got her to the hospital and luckily it was all bruising and muscle spasm. But the reason i had decided not to was a worry of unkown massive horses, as has come up so much in the past. For once my worrying side was warranted!

Due to this unforseen crisis - we were pretty delayed getting to wellington, and arrived after dark. We were all tired from the drama and a few quiet drinks marked my last night on the bus. Most of the guys on board had bought a ticket for both of the islands and were simply passing through NZ. I had only bought the north and myself and my danish friend have stopped here in Wellington for a bit.

It was horrible to see the whole bus leave this morning, and i feel gutted i am not continuing with the group. Some good people, but i suppose the nature of this whole trip is to move onto something else very quickly.

So - New thing for this week - Wellington!

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