Stray Bus
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 22 September 2007 | Views [462] | Comments [2]
Oh my... where do I begin? Day one we leave Auck @ 7:45 am. J sets the clock wrong and we get up at 6 am... after a long night out w/ our new friends. I napped on the bus, which i thought was a taxi bus taking us to our real bus .... turns out that was the one we'd be on for the N Island. We head to Hahei Beach on the E.Coast and there's a kayaking trip, 1 hour walk, or fishing to do. I opted to watch our driver fish and walk around on my own. The beach was sooooo beautiful. The sand was pinkish from all the broken sea shells, but still so soft. Ali, nicknamed Ali Bar Bar, our driver, pointed out these great sea shells that he called natures wedding ring. They fit perfectly. I picked some up for friends and sistas. He caught nothing, but was instead bitten by a crab. We headed to a place called the Hot Water beach afterwards. The water from the ocean was so cold, but if you dug a hole in the sand in certain points it was sooo hot....amazing. We hung out there until the tide came in. That night the hostel was cute... quaint. I roomed w/J and a sweet 20 yr old from Whales, Rachel. We all bonded over dinner a bit and played some cards. There was Anna, from Cologne area Germany, Vicky and Steve from London, Denise from Ireland, Eleanor from North Eng, and Dom from Eng too.
Next we headed to a great litlle town called Raglan. It's a cute ass hippy beach town. I took it easy and played pool w/Rach and then decided to check out the ground while some people took surf lessons. There was a zip line, indoor bb court, and a ropes course. So we decided why not try zip line... as I was going up the hill and pulling the rope there was a cute lil dog follwing me... and then I started to zip down and he was biting at the rope and got my leg! I had the biggest bruise and bite marks... nice battle scar and a HUGE running joke w/the bus. Nice...only me. I did the ropes course and made some dinner and headed to the sauna. This place felt like a nice lil resort... so cute.
Next we headed to Waitomo to go caving and check out glow worms. This was just undescribable. I had no idea what i was getting myself into. It was a free activity we got for booking a winter tour. I thought it would be shit... so wasn't. We were in pitch black w/helmet lights. As soon as we started we had to abseil or repell down a 20 meter cliff in the dark w/a gushing water fall.... freezing water. We had a safety line, but it was still freaky! We had to climb and crawl through caves and abseil four more times.. one corner was so tight and narrow you couldn't feel anything but clausterphobic. Close to the end we had the choice to climb a ladder or rock climb back up... of course i chose opt b... i had to. only four out of nine of us did. Denise went before me and she's a few inches taller and had a hard time w/the reach.. i was freaking out... the guide was telling me to put my foot just right there... which was the same height as my head.... couldn't do it. Finally I found a nook and pushed my ass up and prayed I wouldn't fall back... I made it! Such a fantastic feeling of accomplishment that left me high for the rest of the week. The same day we headed to Rotorua, but just before we stopped at the Zorbing site... they show this in all the discovery channels etc... the giant bouncy ball you go in down the hill. It was such a short course and $30 I opted to pass, but J went w/two of the girls in one ball and said it was like being in a giant washing machine. Rotorua is known for it's hot spring... that contain a lot of sulpher, which smells like bad eggs.... we were in an entire city that had a wave of rotten egg smell every 5 min... fun. The hot springs were neat... some much to hot to get into. We headed to a bar that night and bonded some more over a game of have you ever. Good times, all I can say. The next morning we were picked up by Nigel, a cute dred headed kiwi... also our white water rafting guide. It was also a crazy amazing experience.... The kiwi's say prayer to a goddess of the sea/water before entering... which was kind of neat. we did a few drills on land and then hit the water. We rafted a category 5 rapid. The largest commercially rafted water in the world... how about them apples? I didn't fly off the boat or need rescuing.. so I'm happy! Also still high from that!! Defo something I want to do again and rock climbing too. Anyone game to pair up? I can carry your weight... promise ;)
Let's see.... next we headed to Lake Taupo. quite a few people went skydiving. J, Rahcel and I headed to some natural hot springs and took it easy... rested our tired bodies. We did a bit of shopping and had a lloooonnng ass walk back into town (we hitched a ride from a sweet old lady out). That night we went out as a group to a place called Kazbar... karaoke and pool w/the local. Crazy people. Ali signed us up for a song, the stray girls... girls just want to have fun.. it was a lot of humming until the chorus and then singing by a couple and shouting and dancing from me and denise lol. We signed the boys, only two of em on the bus, up for Bohemian Rhapsody... they were awesome. That was pretty much it for Taupo. We headed out early the next morning to go to the National Park, Tongariro. This is by far the nicest hostel I've ever stayed in.... even better than some hotels. spa, common area w/fireplaces... just beautiful and alpine feeling. We picked up James, who only stayed w/us 2 nights, he's from Liverpool. As soon as we got in Ali told us about an indoor climbing place. Steve, Vicki, Denise and I decided to try it out. It was soooo great and I discovered I was pretty good at it. In the beginning it was extra scary because you have to trust that the person teamed w/you can handle you body weight and control the ropes... Denise was excellent! We headed to the hot tub and then a pub for dinner. I beat the boys in a game of darts ... then went to bed. We picked up two more girls, and american an a czeck... their not the best fun .. kind of too loud... good thing they're not coming to the south Island w/us... which brings me to today. We're in Wellington, the capital. Headed to the museum and ran into a couple i ment in fiji... how neat is that?? we went for drinks and it's now 1:30 and i have to be up at 6 to catch my ferry to the south. I'm finally caught up.. sorry if your eyes hurt. oh oh and i have pics up on photobucket: http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/liveanne/ let me know if it works... sorry if some are boring... or bad.
talk soon,
Aysha
ps ps send me your addresses and phone numbers please.. email me... thanks!
Tags: Sightseeing
Comments
Add your comments
