The next morning we all wake up early as we are supposed to have a decently early start. We pack out stuff, get down stairs only to receive notice that our bus has been delayed. Joy! How much time do we have to kill? Lots! Several hours. We get breakfast...still have more time. We check email...still more time. Alex and I take off to do a few errands. I set out in search of a Vodaphone place and a cheap swimsuit, alex for some flight resolution. Vodaphone basically told me that I can't call out of NZ, joy...and eventually on the 3rd or 4th store, I found a swimsuit that was decent enough price and look wise to compensate for the loss of the other.
We finally departed around like 12 or 1pm. Jeez, if we had only kept that up for a few more hour it would have been infuriating as Tongariro Crossing was open that day.
The bus takes us around lake Taupo towards the three major volcanos of that crossing. We see the beautiful feilds of this golden flower on this bus which he informs us is called Broom(?) and is a major pest that is taking /has taken over much of NZ. Ah, the irony. We had a few changes in schedule with our late start. We were supposed to go up closer to the mountains and go see a waterfall there, but with time constraints we stopped for some quick picks and headed to a closer waterfall that you could jump off of (Rich inserted the standard cover-my-ass "you're doing it of your own free will" disclaimer). For the pics, I got an amazing picture of Mt. Doom (ask me about it later). For the waterfall, we headed down (I took my brand new bathing suit not sure if I was going to go in) and took a dip in the water. Rich informed us that it was a thermal area so the water should be somewhat warm, like 28 C. It...was...frigid!! He lies!!!
Caution/shame/bodily care to the wind, I decided I would never forgive myself if I don't embrace every oportunity to throw myself off cliffs in NZ. I join in the fun. I was pretty much last in line and when I got there only Frankie and Rich were still up top. Frankie was discussing how/what type of jump she should do with Rich to which they concluded some kind of flip. She does this weird kinda half flip, half dead body drop off the cliff and disappears beneath the churning surface. We wait a few seconds and don't see her resurface. Rich looks a bit worried and I comment "Is she dead?" (A comment that Rich will later recount to everyone on the bus for comedic effect). Rich was about 1/2 a sec from jumping in after her before we got word that she's on the other side of the river directly below us where we can't see...and she's safe. I resume my walk to the edge. With a few seconds of decision and hesitation, I do this half flying side-kick off the cliff and land, shockingly, in the water that clearly has antifreeze in it. Rich, as becomes his signature moves on many later jumps does a backward dive into the water. There was a round of second jumps and then we headed back to the bus for warmth and dryness.
On our way out from a restroom stop close to there, we had another fun event where Rich turned a corner too tight when trying to U-ey and hit a rock. Not huge rock, nor did it leave a big dent. The importance of this event was a wager that Rich had made with another bus driver. The bet was $100 against him not hitting anything on his first 3 or 5 (can't remember) trips (each which last about a month). After making the bet one of the observing bus drivers told him it was the easiest $100 the other guy had ever made as he was BOUND to hit something. He did... and on the first trip.
The rest of the ride was decently peaceful and a bit senic as we headed to the hilly fields around River Valley. We arrive at a small hostel where we have to walk down a windy road to get to the actual hostel as the bus won't make it. That kind of place... It was small and quaint and nice with some rooms with bunks or the infamous dorms (aka orgy pit, as they have become known) that are just a bunch of matresses side by side. I stayed in the bunks. The evening was nice and we had the Farm Dinner that the hostel was offering. We sat down at a table of 8 with drinks in hand and prepared for the feast.
We apparently were Ethiopian on the scale of hungry. Here's why...
They served us a plate of lamb, bowl of potatoes, some green beans, cauliflower with cheese, some other stuff, and gravy...most importantly gravy. We decimated this in about 10 min, maybe less. About this time, Hannah, who we discovered has a small black hole in her stomach because she is tiny and eats more than a small army and the hungry hungry hippos combined, steps up to the table and starts looking for other food. We turn our sites to the other tables seeing who looks somewhat finished and has food leftover. Hannah uses her cute factor and brings over a bowl of potatoes or something. Vaporized. The waitress comes around to collect dishes and we inform her to 1) leave our plates alone and 2) bring us all leftover food. Between hannah's efforts and the waitresses help, we destroyed all of our food, and about enough to feed another table. Twas fantastic. Some of our table tapped out during the final rounds but Hannah held us together. the only food left in the entire dining room was a small heap of green beans nobody wanted.
I realized later that that was indeed Thanksgiving night for us, and I'm fairly sure the spirit of Thanksgiving settled on our table (Imagine Pentecost...) and gave us the ability to devour.
In a slight food coma, we meandered around talking and playing some games. Somebody found a game of giant Jenga that I just had to play (it was bout 8 of us taking turns). We later had a small exchange of magic tricks and then more random conversation. It's funny walking into and between conversations. You can leave one about adventures in Asia and walk into one about drugs. Oh Nicolas and his Snooz(sp?)...not acutally a drug btw, just tabacco.
Hours passed, there was talk of going to a hot tub which we later discovered was a...the only color I can desiribe it as is "pee" and had stuff in it. The rest of the time was watching the conclustion of a poker match wiile participating in other conversation and watching Alex(b) and Axel try, and eventually successfully break into the bar. They succeeded in breaking the chain that connected two of the grates protecting the bar...they didn't actually take anything, but surprised by their own success decided to "leave it as a warning that we could have done it." There was no mention or question about it the next day.
Exit stage left for bed.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Wade nearly dies on a Moped
So the second day in Taupo, since Tongariro crossing was closed, was open to all sorts of possibilities. Alex and Kim approached me thinking of exploring a bit and possibly renting the mopeds next door for some self guided fun. I had told Alex(g), Sarah and others that we should meet up for b-fast in the morning, so Alex(m) and Kim went off and I told them to come back at 11 to check if we were back from b-fast.
Breakfast time came and went. I check with the girls to see if they were ready. They basically were still in bed. Disheartened and hungry, I resigned myself to getting some quick b-fast (which wound up being McD's) and waiting for Alex and Kim. Luckily, they saw me on the walk there. So I shoveled some food and rented the other bike for incredibly cheap ($37 NZD for the whole day) and we planned our adventure.
First stop was food. Figured we should go and get some supplies for food and drink for the afternoon with lunch out by the falls/dam. So we took off toward Woolworths. We proceeded to the end of the street, put on blinker and "turned" right. I say "turned" because the girls did this flawlessly. I, on the otherhand, more vered...and vered right onto a sidewalk that ran diagonal from the intersection. Nearly taking out some pedestrian, I play it off so smoothly walking the bike up to the information center that it led to, contemplated the posters displayed, and conclusively walked back to the road as if this whole adventure was completely intentional. The girls were waiting down the road wondering where I had vaporized to. I explained that I had not mastered the art of "leaning into the turn" as it was my first time on a moped. Whoops...
Now a pro, we get to the store, make our purchases and head back out to the mopeds. The mopeds, I may add, were a little difficult to start. Mine took a certain finesse with the electric start and throtle whereas Alex's more often than not required a kick start. About this time, the owner of the bikes pulls up next to us, introduces himself as such and gives us a half condecending half helpful demeanor with the starting of the bikes. We proceed up this long country road with nothing but paddocks and mountains a kilometer or 2 away. The sensation was incredible. My bike could get up to (as I later determined) over 70 kph (42 mph?) Impressive considering that the max speed on the road we were on was 80kph. I was thrilled! Alex and Kim, on the same bike had less luck with speed as they had 2 ppl to carry and I was often limited to the intricate task of matching their speed.
We continued out to the Hukka falls (or some falls, I forget the name) where the dam was. The dam was open when we got there so we proceeded onward to a glass blowing factory slightly down the road. Cool place, lots of nifty glass structures, all expensive and daunting in their fagility. We watch their presentation and forgo buying anything.
Upon leaving, we took our left hand turn out on the major highway we had already been on (this one was 100kph limit with lots of big trucks...lots in relation to nothing). This time, I attempt to turn around the girls to get on the other side. Instead...I wind up on the other side of the road plowing through daisies and tottering on a small hill. Joy! I take a sec to steady myself and continue on my way unharmed. The girls get a kick out of this as well. We went back to the falls and had a little pic-nic lunch. We waited a bit longer and got to a good lookout to watch the dam open. It might not sound like a spectacular experience, but seeing these small pool with large rock transform into a raging river of might was pretty intense and captivating. We get our fill and hop on the bikes. We stop to get some gas for Alex's bike and continue on to this spa/resort/waterpark place on the other side of town. I told the girls that if the price was right and they had availability, they would get massages on me. Fortunately and unfortunately, they had no availability so we headed down to the lake front for a viscious game of put-put. Kim began by whooping our asses, followed by a slight comeback by myself with Alex struggling on some holes. Don't worry, we laughed our asses off at ourselves.
With hours to kill before we had to turn these bad boy bikes in, we headed first to a museum near our hostel but found out it was closing in <10 min. Instead we enjoyed the rose garden right next to it litterally "stopping to smell the roses." With few options left, we went up to a cheap internet/gaming center that the girls had found the day before. We walk into this simple computer lounge with a couple small kids deeply submerged in their game of World of Warcraft. I take some of this time to email and crank out some blogging before I forget some of the finer elements of great stories. The girls left before I did and the night wound up being rather uneventful night. Mostly spent the rest of the night blogging and then sleeping.
Breakfast time came and went. I check with the girls to see if they were ready. They basically were still in bed. Disheartened and hungry, I resigned myself to getting some quick b-fast (which wound up being McD's) and waiting for Alex and Kim. Luckily, they saw me on the walk there. So I shoveled some food and rented the other bike for incredibly cheap ($37 NZD for the whole day) and we planned our adventure.
First stop was food. Figured we should go and get some supplies for food and drink for the afternoon with lunch out by the falls/dam. So we took off toward Woolworths. We proceeded to the end of the street, put on blinker and "turned" right. I say "turned" because the girls did this flawlessly. I, on the otherhand, more vered...and vered right onto a sidewalk that ran diagonal from the intersection. Nearly taking out some pedestrian, I play it off so smoothly walking the bike up to the information center that it led to, contemplated the posters displayed, and conclusively walked back to the road as if this whole adventure was completely intentional. The girls were waiting down the road wondering where I had vaporized to. I explained that I had not mastered the art of "leaning into the turn" as it was my first time on a moped. Whoops...
Now a pro, we get to the store, make our purchases and head back out to the mopeds. The mopeds, I may add, were a little difficult to start. Mine took a certain finesse with the electric start and throtle whereas Alex's more often than not required a kick start. About this time, the owner of the bikes pulls up next to us, introduces himself as such and gives us a half condecending half helpful demeanor with the starting of the bikes. We proceed up this long country road with nothing but paddocks and mountains a kilometer or 2 away. The sensation was incredible. My bike could get up to (as I later determined) over 70 kph (42 mph?) Impressive considering that the max speed on the road we were on was 80kph. I was thrilled! Alex and Kim, on the same bike had less luck with speed as they had 2 ppl to carry and I was often limited to the intricate task of matching their speed.
We continued out to the Hukka falls (or some falls, I forget the name) where the dam was. The dam was open when we got there so we proceeded onward to a glass blowing factory slightly down the road. Cool place, lots of nifty glass structures, all expensive and daunting in their fagility. We watch their presentation and forgo buying anything.
Upon leaving, we took our left hand turn out on the major highway we had already been on (this one was 100kph limit with lots of big trucks...lots in relation to nothing). This time, I attempt to turn around the girls to get on the other side. Instead...I wind up on the other side of the road plowing through daisies and tottering on a small hill. Joy! I take a sec to steady myself and continue on my way unharmed. The girls get a kick out of this as well. We went back to the falls and had a little pic-nic lunch. We waited a bit longer and got to a good lookout to watch the dam open. It might not sound like a spectacular experience, but seeing these small pool with large rock transform into a raging river of might was pretty intense and captivating. We get our fill and hop on the bikes. We stop to get some gas for Alex's bike and continue on to this spa/resort/waterpark place on the other side of town. I told the girls that if the price was right and they had availability, they would get massages on me. Fortunately and unfortunately, they had no availability so we headed down to the lake front for a viscious game of put-put. Kim began by whooping our asses, followed by a slight comeback by myself with Alex struggling on some holes. Don't worry, we laughed our asses off at ourselves.
With hours to kill before we had to turn these bad boy bikes in, we headed first to a museum near our hostel but found out it was closing in <10 min. Instead we enjoyed the rose garden right next to it litterally "stopping to smell the roses." With few options left, we went up to a cheap internet/gaming center that the girls had found the day before. We walk into this simple computer lounge with a couple small kids deeply submerged in their game of World of Warcraft. I take some of this time to email and crank out some blogging before I forget some of the finer elements of great stories. The girls left before I did and the night wound up being rather uneventful night. Mostly spent the rest of the night blogging and then sleeping.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wade almost gets in a fight
Today was a pretty chill day overall. I say day there for a very specific reason. So today we got picked up in the morning in Rotorua and made our way down to Waitomo. We stopped first at Te Puia, this really cool little park with geysers and such and some cool Maori stuff including some wood carvings and weavings that were pretty amazing. We stopped afterward to get my refund from the Maori dinner and then continued on. Next stop was Zorbing.
OMG!!!!
Zorbing was fantastic. Whoever thought it was a great idea to make a human hamster ball with water in it is a certified GENIUS. You try to stand as you are pushed down this zig zag path but it is impossible. Instead you just kinda surf around in a washer machine like fashion in the bottom of this ball. I apparently caught air. I say apparently because in the ball you have no idea which direction is which. I tried to take a video with a waterproof camera inside but failed. Do have a few interesting picture and videos to go with though. Alex and kim didn't want to do it so they went to this funny farm show instead. Lame if you ask me, but apparently it was good.
We continued on where we stopped at this random extreme adventures place where they had a few different things all in one such as bungy, swings, jet boating, simulated skydiving, etc. Didn't do any as I didn't find the appeal. Instead just ate the free sausages they gave us.
When we got to Waitomo we were dropped off immediately at the black water rafting place for the 8 of us that were doing the Abyss tour. It was a great group. We had team Sweden (Axel and Nickolas), Alex(g), Alex(b), Team UK (Josef and Adam) and Sarah. We got geared up which took a while. We wore: bathing suit, wet suit, booties, plastic boots over booties, wet suit jacket, shorts, helmet, harness, and harness accessories. Tad hard to move afterward. The took us to the spot where we practiced the rappel we were going to do and then went into it.
SAAAHHHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!
Prolly one of the coolest things I have ever done. Period.
We started off with at 34 meter rappel on a sheer rock face after squeezing through a hole. Went down pretty fast too so that was even more fun. I went first on about every element to the trip so it made it more unpredictable and more crazy. Got down to the bottom and waited there with my light off looking up at a few glow worm in the top of this massive cavern. We then did intros and headed to the zip line. The hooked us in, turned out all the lights, and sent me zipping into the darkness with tons of glow worms overhead. Very cool. I was jerked to a halt and there were two huge bangs. Later discovered they were the result of the first guide trying to fuck with me. He didn't succeed. They gave us some hot tea and these really good honey oat bar things for snack and then distributed the tubes for the "rafting" bit. The entrance to the rafting bit was jumping off a 10ft+ cliff into the water below with the tube on your butt, landing on it so as not to break your legs or something awful. Whoooo! The rafting bit was more floating. We just pulled ourselves along on still water using a rope and looking up at the glow worms. Very cool. We discovered how to tow each other by hooking feet into rafts which made more fun chain. We doubled back and redeposited our tubes. From here on it was just trekking by foot. We ventured through the caves for over a kilometer (i think it was 1.5 or so) floating, climbing and exploring. Couple cool parts to go through including tight spaces and a headfirst slide. Later on they stopped and gave us hot tang and chocolate (tasted fantastic even though hot tang sounded weird at first). Past that was climbing up waterfalls (very very very cool, kinda difficult too) and also meeting Cecil the eel that has her own pond. She came right up when the guide summoned her over and just kinda chilled there looking at his finger in the water. I thought she would pounce, but she never did. She must have been at least a few feet long too. Over more waterfalls and out!
Hot showers and soup greeted us back at the base and we purchased a few photos since they were cheap and cool. Chilled out there then headed back to check into the hostel. Again, reception was closed but we got someone to check us in. I got a pretty sweet room with one of the Brits (Adam) that was this two story condo like thing with two beds, bathroom and closet on ground floor and two beds upstairs. I grabbed the free one downstairs, Adam the free one upstairs. Dropped our stuff and headed to the kitchen.
I volunteered to make food for the night since we missed dinner with the others. I prepared the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo for the 8 of us, delicious! and then we went over to the bar for a while. Californication was on their way to drunkenness with this around the world challenge thing of 12 beers and you get a free mug afterward. We had our nice perch to the side and the rounds began. Later round 2am, Adam and I peaced for bed after escaping Alex(b)'s blockade of the door as we were supposed to stay with him and complete the challenge as well. We get back to our sweet room and one guy is in the bed next to mine gently snoring. We part and head to bed. At this time, Andrew, as I later discovered was his name (but hereafter referred to as "Kid") woke up and began to talk to me and introduce himself. Thus begins the night....
Disclaimer: most of this is on the lines of verbatim and thus uses strong language :D If this offends you or are worried that your son/brother/relative/friend is over abusive. I assure you it was all necessary/useful. (and it adds to the drama of the story)
He talked FOREVER!!!! My god this kid could just chat about anything. I'm face down in bed, eyes closed only talking on occasion to not be completely rude or asshole like figuring he would get the message, apparently not. I discovered he's from Oz in Brisbane off traveling on Contiki tours in NZ then off to Hawaii, he seems young. He's also been working at the Coles (grocery store back home). I'm guessing this kid is like 18-20 years old. Still he's friendly, but clueless.
I finally feign asleep (a skill mom and the sisters perfected in my younger years). He shuts up. Bout that time roomie 2 rocks up loud and drunk. He's Canadian and all about going to this party. He tries to convince Kid to go with him. He also realizes I'm there and goes "who the fuck is that?" I introduce. He also discover Adam is upstairs. This upsets him because "that is [his] bed" We tried to simply explain that there were two beds and he took the empty one as is normal hostel procedure. He's beyond reckoning at this point and just pissed and wanting to party. He leaves in frustration. Kid talks a bit more, i try to sleep. Canadian (his codename) returns about 30 min or so later, just enough to interrupt sleep right before you get there. Carbon copy earlier episode here. This time he tries to convince the other dude strongly to come with him. Kid is now getting afraid of Canadian and "doesn't like him any more" and says that "he's starting to scare me." Canadian leaves. He returns 30 min later, random girl comes in and leaves promptly. He assaults Kid again and is still pissed about his bed, I tell him to leave him the hell alone and go to bed. He has hissy fit over bed again saying that his stuff was up there and on that bed, he can't sleep in that bed, or something redic, Adam even clears off his bed (not kindly, I might add) and this dude still can't handle it. Dude leaves again. Round 4-ding ding ding!
This time Canadian return with two other drunk assholes. He and another proceed upstairs to hassle Adam. Third one remains downstairs to hassle me and Kid. Other asshole comes downstairs and both start into it with me saying that I shouldn't even be there. The start edging closer, getting a tad more aggressive. I tell them to back the fuck off. One even lightly grabbed my arm. They are tyring to egg me on saying "come on, hit me in the balls." What sane minded man would every say this I don't know. I turn over in bed and ignore them. This last all of a minute or two before they gathered renewed vigor and ripped my sheets off. Mother and sisters can attest to the fact that this never sits well with me. It is a personal pet peev and turns me from nice to raging asshole in .3 nanoseconds. Wade gets pissed (like legit pissed). Luckily about a min later Canadian dude came down and diffused the situation a bit. Apparently Adam had laid out the facts a few trickled through his thick skull. He tried to talk to me and explain that if I had told them that we were on Kiwi Exp or something then it would have been OK. He kept talking about shit. I cut him off and told him "hi, i'm on Kiwi, no go the fuck away". This did not sink in. I repeat the idea that I don't want to talk to him and that he needs to leave my bed stat. He eventually takes his pals with and vacates for the night. Kid in the mean time has been hiding under his covers. That's right...hiding under his covers. After this he emerges and tries to make some talk about the situation. The funniest of his statements was along the lines of "I wouldn't of let them hurt you guys. If they come back they will have to go through me before they can get to you" I laugh internally trying not to shatter this poor boys world. He's already voiced that he doesn't want to be here, shouldn't have gone on this tour and wants to go home. He then proceeds to talk to me more. I say one or two comments, and then go full play-dead. He shuts up. Some bad, short sleep and it's 6:45. I hear a bus outside start up. Kid has told me he has to get up at 6 something for his bus, I have to pee. I nicely wake him up, tell him the time. He proceeds to get ready and try to carry out a full conversation with me of Goodbye's even though my entrance to the bed was a full on flop. He talks at full voice and packs noisily. He turns goes to turn in his key. While he's gone a knock at the door. Contiki guide comes and asks me "Hey are there two of you from Kiwi staying in here?" yes "And reception put you in here" yes "and you have keys to this room" (clearly)...yes. He leaves. *Flop* Kid returns and says goodbye. I stupidly have already given him my email in the first hour of the night so he explains that he will email me on Dec 11th blah blah blah....my god what have i done. He proceeds upstairs to wake up Adam and say goodbye and hopefully swap emails. This kid has nerve. Adam deflects gracefully. He takes his wheely bag and leaves. Canadian returns and gathers his things silently, I hear him rummaging about the room and getting things. They both leave.
REJOICE!!!! Adam and I are just victoriously gloating that they are finally gone. My god!! Lemme also explain that our bus doesn't leave till 10am so our thought was go to the bar late, get a nice comfy nights sleep in our sweet place, wake up late, get a nice long hot shower, board bus....All completely ruined by these two. So we get about 1.5 hours of glorious uninterrupted sleep before my 2nd alarm (the "o shit" alarm) goes off to tell me the bus is leaving in 15. We gather and throw on clothes. I go to get my bathing suit off closet door handle where it has been drying and it is GONE! I'm like "surely no...no one steals a bathing suit" i look around thinking it has been misplaced. I look in trashcans thinking that he may have angrily thrown it somewhere else. It is nowhere to be found. The fucker STOLE my bathing suit!!!!
Raragh!!!
I proceed to tell this store about 12x over the next day in between glimpses of sleep on bus and on couches. Luckily while sorting the stuff the day before with Kiwi, they actually gave me a refund for that night too.
OMG!!!!
Zorbing was fantastic. Whoever thought it was a great idea to make a human hamster ball with water in it is a certified GENIUS. You try to stand as you are pushed down this zig zag path but it is impossible. Instead you just kinda surf around in a washer machine like fashion in the bottom of this ball. I apparently caught air. I say apparently because in the ball you have no idea which direction is which. I tried to take a video with a waterproof camera inside but failed. Do have a few interesting picture and videos to go with though. Alex and kim didn't want to do it so they went to this funny farm show instead. Lame if you ask me, but apparently it was good.
We continued on where we stopped at this random extreme adventures place where they had a few different things all in one such as bungy, swings, jet boating, simulated skydiving, etc. Didn't do any as I didn't find the appeal. Instead just ate the free sausages they gave us.
When we got to Waitomo we were dropped off immediately at the black water rafting place for the 8 of us that were doing the Abyss tour. It was a great group. We had team Sweden (Axel and Nickolas), Alex(g), Alex(b), Team UK (Josef and Adam) and Sarah. We got geared up which took a while. We wore: bathing suit, wet suit, booties, plastic boots over booties, wet suit jacket, shorts, helmet, harness, and harness accessories. Tad hard to move afterward. The took us to the spot where we practiced the rappel we were going to do and then went into it.
SAAAHHHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!
Prolly one of the coolest things I have ever done. Period.
We started off with at 34 meter rappel on a sheer rock face after squeezing through a hole. Went down pretty fast too so that was even more fun. I went first on about every element to the trip so it made it more unpredictable and more crazy. Got down to the bottom and waited there with my light off looking up at a few glow worm in the top of this massive cavern. We then did intros and headed to the zip line. The hooked us in, turned out all the lights, and sent me zipping into the darkness with tons of glow worms overhead. Very cool. I was jerked to a halt and there were two huge bangs. Later discovered they were the result of the first guide trying to fuck with me. He didn't succeed. They gave us some hot tea and these really good honey oat bar things for snack and then distributed the tubes for the "rafting" bit. The entrance to the rafting bit was jumping off a 10ft+ cliff into the water below with the tube on your butt, landing on it so as not to break your legs or something awful. Whoooo! The rafting bit was more floating. We just pulled ourselves along on still water using a rope and looking up at the glow worms. Very cool. We discovered how to tow each other by hooking feet into rafts which made more fun chain. We doubled back and redeposited our tubes. From here on it was just trekking by foot. We ventured through the caves for over a kilometer (i think it was 1.5 or so) floating, climbing and exploring. Couple cool parts to go through including tight spaces and a headfirst slide. Later on they stopped and gave us hot tang and chocolate (tasted fantastic even though hot tang sounded weird at first). Past that was climbing up waterfalls (very very very cool, kinda difficult too) and also meeting Cecil the eel that has her own pond. She came right up when the guide summoned her over and just kinda chilled there looking at his finger in the water. I thought she would pounce, but she never did. She must have been at least a few feet long too. Over more waterfalls and out!
Hot showers and soup greeted us back at the base and we purchased a few photos since they were cheap and cool. Chilled out there then headed back to check into the hostel. Again, reception was closed but we got someone to check us in. I got a pretty sweet room with one of the Brits (Adam) that was this two story condo like thing with two beds, bathroom and closet on ground floor and two beds upstairs. I grabbed the free one downstairs, Adam the free one upstairs. Dropped our stuff and headed to the kitchen.
I volunteered to make food for the night since we missed dinner with the others. I prepared the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo for the 8 of us, delicious! and then we went over to the bar for a while. Californication was on their way to drunkenness with this around the world challenge thing of 12 beers and you get a free mug afterward. We had our nice perch to the side and the rounds began. Later round 2am, Adam and I peaced for bed after escaping Alex(b)'s blockade of the door as we were supposed to stay with him and complete the challenge as well. We get back to our sweet room and one guy is in the bed next to mine gently snoring. We part and head to bed. At this time, Andrew, as I later discovered was his name (but hereafter referred to as "Kid") woke up and began to talk to me and introduce himself. Thus begins the night....
Disclaimer: most of this is on the lines of verbatim and thus uses strong language :D If this offends you or are worried that your son/brother/relative/friend is over abusive. I assure you it was all necessary/useful. (and it adds to the drama of the story)
He talked FOREVER!!!! My god this kid could just chat about anything. I'm face down in bed, eyes closed only talking on occasion to not be completely rude or asshole like figuring he would get the message, apparently not. I discovered he's from Oz in Brisbane off traveling on Contiki tours in NZ then off to Hawaii, he seems young. He's also been working at the Coles (grocery store back home). I'm guessing this kid is like 18-20 years old. Still he's friendly, but clueless.
I finally feign asleep (a skill mom and the sisters perfected in my younger years). He shuts up. Bout that time roomie 2 rocks up loud and drunk. He's Canadian and all about going to this party. He tries to convince Kid to go with him. He also realizes I'm there and goes "who the fuck is that?" I introduce. He also discover Adam is upstairs. This upsets him because "that is [his] bed" We tried to simply explain that there were two beds and he took the empty one as is normal hostel procedure. He's beyond reckoning at this point and just pissed and wanting to party. He leaves in frustration. Kid talks a bit more, i try to sleep. Canadian (his codename) returns about 30 min or so later, just enough to interrupt sleep right before you get there. Carbon copy earlier episode here. This time he tries to convince the other dude strongly to come with him. Kid is now getting afraid of Canadian and "doesn't like him any more" and says that "he's starting to scare me." Canadian leaves. He returns 30 min later, random girl comes in and leaves promptly. He assaults Kid again and is still pissed about his bed, I tell him to leave him the hell alone and go to bed. He has hissy fit over bed again saying that his stuff was up there and on that bed, he can't sleep in that bed, or something redic, Adam even clears off his bed (not kindly, I might add) and this dude still can't handle it. Dude leaves again. Round 4-ding ding ding!
This time Canadian return with two other drunk assholes. He and another proceed upstairs to hassle Adam. Third one remains downstairs to hassle me and Kid. Other asshole comes downstairs and both start into it with me saying that I shouldn't even be there. The start edging closer, getting a tad more aggressive. I tell them to back the fuck off. One even lightly grabbed my arm. They are tyring to egg me on saying "come on, hit me in the balls." What sane minded man would every say this I don't know. I turn over in bed and ignore them. This last all of a minute or two before they gathered renewed vigor and ripped my sheets off. Mother and sisters can attest to the fact that this never sits well with me. It is a personal pet peev and turns me from nice to raging asshole in .3 nanoseconds. Wade gets pissed (like legit pissed). Luckily about a min later Canadian dude came down and diffused the situation a bit. Apparently Adam had laid out the facts a few trickled through his thick skull. He tried to talk to me and explain that if I had told them that we were on Kiwi Exp or something then it would have been OK. He kept talking about shit. I cut him off and told him "hi, i'm on Kiwi, no go the fuck away". This did not sink in. I repeat the idea that I don't want to talk to him and that he needs to leave my bed stat. He eventually takes his pals with and vacates for the night. Kid in the mean time has been hiding under his covers. That's right...hiding under his covers. After this he emerges and tries to make some talk about the situation. The funniest of his statements was along the lines of "I wouldn't of let them hurt you guys. If they come back they will have to go through me before they can get to you" I laugh internally trying not to shatter this poor boys world. He's already voiced that he doesn't want to be here, shouldn't have gone on this tour and wants to go home. He then proceeds to talk to me more. I say one or two comments, and then go full play-dead. He shuts up. Some bad, short sleep and it's 6:45. I hear a bus outside start up. Kid has told me he has to get up at 6 something for his bus, I have to pee. I nicely wake him up, tell him the time. He proceeds to get ready and try to carry out a full conversation with me of Goodbye's even though my entrance to the bed was a full on flop. He talks at full voice and packs noisily. He turns goes to turn in his key. While he's gone a knock at the door. Contiki guide comes and asks me "Hey are there two of you from Kiwi staying in here?" yes "And reception put you in here" yes "and you have keys to this room" (clearly)...yes. He leaves. *Flop* Kid returns and says goodbye. I stupidly have already given him my email in the first hour of the night so he explains that he will email me on Dec 11th blah blah blah....my god what have i done. He proceeds upstairs to wake up Adam and say goodbye and hopefully swap emails. This kid has nerve. Adam deflects gracefully. He takes his wheely bag and leaves. Canadian returns and gathers his things silently, I hear him rummaging about the room and getting things. They both leave.
REJOICE!!!! Adam and I are just victoriously gloating that they are finally gone. My god!! Lemme also explain that our bus doesn't leave till 10am so our thought was go to the bar late, get a nice comfy nights sleep in our sweet place, wake up late, get a nice long hot shower, board bus....All completely ruined by these two. So we get about 1.5 hours of glorious uninterrupted sleep before my 2nd alarm (the "o shit" alarm) goes off to tell me the bus is leaving in 15. We gather and throw on clothes. I go to get my bathing suit off closet door handle where it has been drying and it is GONE! I'm like "surely no...no one steals a bathing suit" i look around thinking it has been misplaced. I look in trashcans thinking that he may have angrily thrown it somewhere else. It is nowhere to be found. The fucker STOLE my bathing suit!!!!
Raragh!!!
I proceed to tell this store about 12x over the next day in between glimpses of sleep on bus and on couches. Luckily while sorting the stuff the day before with Kiwi, they actually gave me a refund for that night too.
Wade gets abandoned at a BP station
Today we headed to Rotorua, one of my more optimistic stops with Zorbing, etc. But, as the story unfolds, was somewhat of a catastrophic failure. The day started off well. We stopped at this town called Matamata. It's the place where all of Hobbiton was filmed in the Lord of the Rings, and they kinda exploit that as a tourist attraction. They have a statue of Gollum on the main drag of this town, for example. Apparently when Peter Jackson was looking for a place to film it, he was flying over in a helicopter with little hope left then finally saw the place. They landed on this man's farm and knocked on his door. He told them to go away because Rugby was on. So they flew into town, grabbed a case of beer and flew back and asked the man if they could join him. Post game gave him the proposal and changed his reluctance with a nice figure on a piece of paper.
We headed on to Rotorua where we stopped at a cultural center. Here we gota cool little presentation, some native food and a quiz at the end of it all where they were giving out little Maori necklaces (kinda touristy but nice, not plastic). I actually got the last one right, so I now have cool spirally bone necklace. (don't judge, and try not to be jealous) We signed up for the cultural dinner for that night were they take you out give you food cooked on hot rocks in the earth and teach you the Haka, sweet! We dropped most of the people off at the Base hostel there (alex, kim and I decided to stay somewhere else) and I went directly from that bus to the bus taking us SLEDGING! (alex and kim took care of my backpack for me)
Sledging was cool. What is is basically going down white water with a glorified boogey board and short fins to propell yourself. Tiring, but fun. Had to do rolls, swim upstream to get where you wanted to go, and other cool maneuvers. The river was pretty cool with nice forrested cliff on each side. The cooler part was "surfing" where basically you paddled into the plunging part of a rapid where the recirculation was as well and basically kick and stay in that spot right on the falls. Very cool. Short trip though. So we headed back got out of those &^#*$ wet suits, played a little volleyball while waiting and headed back to the hostels. The story begins here....
Me and two other girls are signed up for the culutral dinner that night as well. The bus leaves at 7 from where we are supposed to catch it, it's already close to 7. The bus driver of the sledging takes us three to a BP station where the dinner bus is supposed to pick us up on it's way out. Now let me do some intros. The two other girls are from California, more specifically Orange county. They are the DEFINITION of OC. Completely brainless. They shall be collectively known as Californication for the rest of my travels (1 and 2 for distinction of individuals). For an example of the stupidity when I introduced myself to them and they asked which state I was from and I said the Carolinas, Californication 1 responded with (paraphrased) "oh cool, i don't really know where those are but yeah" ......................................WHAT?! SERIOUSLY?! maybe Miss Teen SC shoulda been from the OC. So here I am at this BP with these two bimbos (who, as seen from the music in the van, dance like a chickens on LSD after being severely electrocuted). 20 mins pass and I'm starting to think that with 10 min until the dinner starts, we are shit outta luck. I go and ask the BP workers if I can use their phone to call Kiwi since 1) my phone has no credit and no way of recharging it remotely in NZ and 2) Kiwi is the only number I have. Kala, as I've gotten to know her, answers and I explain our situation. She is pretty helpful and makes a few phone calls around and figures out that the bus waited as long as it could at the BP before leaving. So she tries to sort it out saying she's gonna call a cab for us. 10 min later she calls back and reaffirms some of this and says that she's gonna call the cab THEN when we though she had already called. She also informs us that we are going to have to pay for it and get reimbursed ...fine. I inform Californication and #1 is fairly composed about it. #2 goes TOTAL drama queen. We get a cab and this cool Maori woman is talking to us. We get into our current situation and cabbie actually knows a lot about the dinner thing and said that they used to just pay for cabs out there for people, apparently not anymore. Californication 2 decides to unpolitely take out her rage on the cabbie with the valley girl descirption/attutude on what happened..."like we've been sitting outside in the cold and rain for like an hour, and like they could have done something, like god, like we've been sitting outside cold and wet, and like it's cold...like and cold hour like like like...." Rargh!!! Wade KILL stupid girl!!! I maintain composure and try to dampen the conversation. We drop them off at the base and she takes me to my hostel. All the way we make fun of Californication 2 and identify her crazy attitude problem.
I arrive, home sweet home....wait, no...reception is closed and I haven't checked in. I knock on a random window and a girl comes to the door. I ask if reception is closed or if anyone who works there is around...bad news. So I'm homeless, still in a bathing suit smelling like wet suit and river, with only my day pack and no means of communication. So I make out for the Base hostel. I know generally where it is. I figured I can call Kiwi from there and get them to call Rich. What should have been a short 4 block walk was a 30 min wondering in the cold. I stop once for directions...not in english and incorrect...i stop again 10 min later at a hotel. Sweet, i know where I'm going. I head that way stopping at a random Japanese place that has something about terriaki chicken to go on a board outside. starving...i go "ug...that...now". Don't eat it as a place to stay is slightly more important. When I arrive...reception is closed, so I have to go to the bar next door to ask about hostel question. I get stopped by the security guy basically looking at me like I'm crazy trying to get into a bar with a swimsuit, sandals and a backpack. I tell him I need help. I get the phone from the bar. Kiwi is now closed! Joy! Bartender knows that the dinner bus gets back at 10:30, that's only oo....1 hr from now. Fine, I camp outside waiting shovel my food in and grab a beer to chill. I found a lot of others I knew from the bus and told them my wonderful story, even though I smell like shit right now. Time goes on, bus eventually comes back. I pounce on Rich and get him to call Kim. I coordinate with Kim to watch for me to get there and I finally return home. Get there take a REALLY hot LOOONG shower. Toasty and full I feel much better. We then find that this hostel doesn't provide sheets or a duvet. Sweet, top of the night with some cold sleeping. I was actually fine till about 6am where i just tossed my towel on top of me.
My luck runneth thin....
As an addendum, I did eventually get a refund for the dinner and the cab ride...well I'm still waiting on it, and it currently looks like the dinner is charging me twice..but we'll see.
We headed on to Rotorua where we stopped at a cultural center. Here we gota cool little presentation, some native food and a quiz at the end of it all where they were giving out little Maori necklaces (kinda touristy but nice, not plastic). I actually got the last one right, so I now have cool spirally bone necklace. (don't judge, and try not to be jealous) We signed up for the cultural dinner for that night were they take you out give you food cooked on hot rocks in the earth and teach you the Haka, sweet! We dropped most of the people off at the Base hostel there (alex, kim and I decided to stay somewhere else) and I went directly from that bus to the bus taking us SLEDGING! (alex and kim took care of my backpack for me)
Sledging was cool. What is is basically going down white water with a glorified boogey board and short fins to propell yourself. Tiring, but fun. Had to do rolls, swim upstream to get where you wanted to go, and other cool maneuvers. The river was pretty cool with nice forrested cliff on each side. The cooler part was "surfing" where basically you paddled into the plunging part of a rapid where the recirculation was as well and basically kick and stay in that spot right on the falls. Very cool. Short trip though. So we headed back got out of those &^#*$ wet suits, played a little volleyball while waiting and headed back to the hostels. The story begins here....
Me and two other girls are signed up for the culutral dinner that night as well. The bus leaves at 7 from where we are supposed to catch it, it's already close to 7. The bus driver of the sledging takes us three to a BP station where the dinner bus is supposed to pick us up on it's way out. Now let me do some intros. The two other girls are from California, more specifically Orange county. They are the DEFINITION of OC. Completely brainless. They shall be collectively known as Californication for the rest of my travels (1 and 2 for distinction of individuals). For an example of the stupidity when I introduced myself to them and they asked which state I was from and I said the Carolinas, Californication 1 responded with (paraphrased) "oh cool, i don't really know where those are but yeah" ......................................WHAT?! SERIOUSLY?! maybe Miss Teen SC shoulda been from the OC. So here I am at this BP with these two bimbos (who, as seen from the music in the van, dance like a chickens on LSD after being severely electrocuted). 20 mins pass and I'm starting to think that with 10 min until the dinner starts, we are shit outta luck. I go and ask the BP workers if I can use their phone to call Kiwi since 1) my phone has no credit and no way of recharging it remotely in NZ and 2) Kiwi is the only number I have. Kala, as I've gotten to know her, answers and I explain our situation. She is pretty helpful and makes a few phone calls around and figures out that the bus waited as long as it could at the BP before leaving. So she tries to sort it out saying she's gonna call a cab for us. 10 min later she calls back and reaffirms some of this and says that she's gonna call the cab THEN when we though she had already called. She also informs us that we are going to have to pay for it and get reimbursed ...fine. I inform Californication and #1 is fairly composed about it. #2 goes TOTAL drama queen. We get a cab and this cool Maori woman is talking to us. We get into our current situation and cabbie actually knows a lot about the dinner thing and said that they used to just pay for cabs out there for people, apparently not anymore. Californication 2 decides to unpolitely take out her rage on the cabbie with the valley girl descirption/attutude on what happened..."like we've been sitting outside in the cold and rain for like an hour, and like they could have done something, like god, like we've been sitting outside cold and wet, and like it's cold...like and cold hour like like like...." Rargh!!! Wade KILL stupid girl!!! I maintain composure and try to dampen the conversation. We drop them off at the base and she takes me to my hostel. All the way we make fun of Californication 2 and identify her crazy attitude problem.
I arrive, home sweet home....wait, no...reception is closed and I haven't checked in. I knock on a random window and a girl comes to the door. I ask if reception is closed or if anyone who works there is around...bad news. So I'm homeless, still in a bathing suit smelling like wet suit and river, with only my day pack and no means of communication. So I make out for the Base hostel. I know generally where it is. I figured I can call Kiwi from there and get them to call Rich. What should have been a short 4 block walk was a 30 min wondering in the cold. I stop once for directions...not in english and incorrect...i stop again 10 min later at a hotel. Sweet, i know where I'm going. I head that way stopping at a random Japanese place that has something about terriaki chicken to go on a board outside. starving...i go "ug...that...now". Don't eat it as a place to stay is slightly more important. When I arrive...reception is closed, so I have to go to the bar next door to ask about hostel question. I get stopped by the security guy basically looking at me like I'm crazy trying to get into a bar with a swimsuit, sandals and a backpack. I tell him I need help. I get the phone from the bar. Kiwi is now closed! Joy! Bartender knows that the dinner bus gets back at 10:30, that's only oo....1 hr from now. Fine, I camp outside waiting shovel my food in and grab a beer to chill. I found a lot of others I knew from the bus and told them my wonderful story, even though I smell like shit right now. Time goes on, bus eventually comes back. I pounce on Rich and get him to call Kim. I coordinate with Kim to watch for me to get there and I finally return home. Get there take a REALLY hot LOOONG shower. Toasty and full I feel much better. We then find that this hostel doesn't provide sheets or a duvet. Sweet, top of the night with some cold sleeping. I was actually fine till about 6am where i just tossed my towel on top of me.
My luck runneth thin....
As an addendum, I did eventually get a refund for the dinner and the cab ride...well I'm still waiting on it, and it currently looks like the dinner is charging me twice..but we'll see.
Wade sleeps in a comfy bed
Today we left for Mercury bay from Auckland and got a new Driver. Meet Rich, the brand spankin' new driver on his maiden voyage south. This was the definition of rough start. So I started the day very slightly hung over and it was magnified 10 fold by this. The music he played was too loud, the bus was too hot, the mic when it eventually worked had a LOT of feedback, the roads he took were curvy with many stops and starts. He spent an extra 30 min or so doing loops trying to figure out where the Kiwi office was. Even when my hangover did go away I was still feeling ill. Joy! (He got much better down the road though). When we did get to the office, we got everyone sorted, I got some much needed water and food.
We eventually got on the road on the way to Mercury bay. We stopped at this place that had an interesting hike over these hills to these really nice secluded beaches with lots of cool cliffs and rocks and a few waterfalls. Very scenic pictures. Cold water though. Not too much to say, the pictures are really where it's at.
We stopped at another spot slightly down the road that was a hike along this beautiful river on the cliff face that was where a lot of mining used to be done. We followed the old mining tracks through the mountain, posed in a mining car, and saw the foundation of where these large mining facilities were. We also had about 30 people on a swing bridge that said max of 10 ppl....and they were jumping...brilliant!
When we finally got to Mercury bay. Alex and Kim and I went to the grocery store to restock then headed to a nice Indian restaurant for dinner. Everyone stayed back and had food at the hostel there. We came back and joined them in a few card games. Learned how to play a game called shithead (similar to asshole in some of the dynamics). Early bed...REALLY REALLY comfy bed. The next morning it was incredibly difficult to get up as the bed was just that comfy, even though the room was like a shed with 2 bunk beds in it.
We eventually got on the road on the way to Mercury bay. We stopped at this place that had an interesting hike over these hills to these really nice secluded beaches with lots of cool cliffs and rocks and a few waterfalls. Very scenic pictures. Cold water though. Not too much to say, the pictures are really where it's at.
We stopped at another spot slightly down the road that was a hike along this beautiful river on the cliff face that was where a lot of mining used to be done. We followed the old mining tracks through the mountain, posed in a mining car, and saw the foundation of where these large mining facilities were. We also had about 30 people on a swing bridge that said max of 10 ppl....and they were jumping...brilliant!
When we finally got to Mercury bay. Alex and Kim and I went to the grocery store to restock then headed to a nice Indian restaurant for dinner. Everyone stayed back and had food at the hostel there. We came back and joined them in a few card games. Learned how to play a game called shithead (similar to asshole in some of the dynamics). Early bed...REALLY REALLY comfy bed. The next morning it was incredibly difficult to get up as the bed was just that comfy, even though the room was like a shed with 2 bunk beds in it.
Wade harvests his own food and gets a cowboy hat
Early morning after the bar. The some of the girls and I decided to go on this cannoing trip called Te Waka this morning. The girls, as they have become regulars are Sarah and Alex(g) (the g is for girl. there is a girl alex, boy alex and my alex...so i'll use g, b, and m to distinguish if in same situation). There were a few others, I think their names are Bambi and Laruen(?) totally wrong on those I'm sure...anyway...
So Te Waka was this trip where we went out on this large cannoe with an outrigger on the water in the Bay of Islands with this big Maori guy named Nick. I got front and was then the pace setter. Was pretty easy paddling with 6. We headed out to this one set of rocks where Sarah and I jumped out with a bucket, swam through the cold water over to them, and hand picked mussles off of the rocks. Kinda hard hanging there with the waves just pushing you around. Fell off a couple times and had a few small cuts, nothing that really mattered. From there we took our harvests over to a small perfect tiny beach. Nick set up a stove and started to cook them up for us while we set off exploring, sitting, and taking pictures. Pretty cool bunch. We had mussles on the half shell compliments of Nick. Very good. Little longer and we packed up and went to other islands. Nick sang a little bit, a few cool Maori songs. Also did a little info/cultural/personal stories about the area. Eg. there are 144 islands in that area, Russell was the first place where Europeans settled (russell was the town across the bay that has the oldest pub, post, bar, hotel, etc. in all of NZ) also used to be a hell hole full of prostitution etc. as that's where sailors went after long voyages. Apparently Nick and his cousin/brothers used to also take these wakas (cannoes) out when they were kids and do the trip we were doing. Fun. Moving along. We did a couple small walks on islands to really cool lookoutpoints with pictures, of course.
When we got back, most of the girls were hungry. I ate the lunch i prepared and headed with them to the cafe next to our hostel. THIS was the perfect end to this day. As we sat there in the semi-shade, there were 3-4 guys with guitars just sitting there having there own little jam session playing songs. They started to play a few others and got some of the local girls they knew to sing the songs instead of themselves. There were two girls that sang, the second had an AMAZING VOICE. the frist girl did give an amazing rendition of sweet home alabama, to give her some credit. It was just nice having some relax time with good music.
The bus left at 3 to go back to Auckland. Seemed like a much longer ride with only one stop. Dan the driver decided to put on a movie at one point and apparently there was a documentary about John Paul II in the player so he put that on for an inordinately long time (long enough for the "seriously?!" to wear off and to get settled into it) then he put on disc 2 of finding nemo which is useless, took that out and put on some NZ movie, the plot being about some stunt driver. Midly eneteraining movie, just annoying because the movie would skip about 10-20 mins occasionally with no filling in of the gaps. This often followed the sequence of drama leading to stunt, prep for stunt........gap.......person dead or disfigured at end of stunt. Fun!
Back in Auckland we check into the Base hostel again. Alex(b) and I grabbed a room together and met Team Canada (married couple named Melissa and Brandan) downstairs, grabbed some food and headed to the bar next to Base (there's always one attached). There was to be $1000 free tab for as long as it lasted...it was gone before we got there. So we had two beers there and decided to make this night a bar hoping night. We headed down to the harbor to some random Irish pub that had a live band on. Good music. I love the fact that Oz and NZ are stuck in the 80's and 90's. It guarantees good music or music you haven't heard in a while but enjoy. I will walk 500 miles is always on everywhere, also recently heard Brimful of Asha again...forgot that song. Anywho...2 beers there, Melissa spotted her roomie from back in College in Canada there with another girl celebrating other girl's b-day. Lemme underline that for you. She spotted a girl she knew really well and hadn't seen in YEARS halfway around the world. (singing) it's a small world afterall!
They join our escapade and we proceed to many more bars. One I got told to leave because I had on sandals, but they didn't really enforce it so we just finished our 1 beer and left. We tried to go next door but that was a fancier place that required collars...who wants to go there anyway?! Then we found the gold mine. Some random bar that had cowboy hats! Yeah, they had hats they were just letting people wear in the bar. We grabbed them, fitted them, grabbed a beer and chilled. That was until 1) Melissa thought it was a good idea to have Jager bombs and 2) there were random girls who were kissing us. Um, it's a shameful story that will be revealed on a nagged basis. There are pics, but they will not be posted. We did manage, however, to steal the cowboy hats with the cunning use of Melissa's jacket! so we wore them the rest of the night
More bars, interesting rejections, a fun walk home with me impersonating Alex(b) and other's English accents badly.
So Te Waka was this trip where we went out on this large cannoe with an outrigger on the water in the Bay of Islands with this big Maori guy named Nick. I got front and was then the pace setter. Was pretty easy paddling with 6. We headed out to this one set of rocks where Sarah and I jumped out with a bucket, swam through the cold water over to them, and hand picked mussles off of the rocks. Kinda hard hanging there with the waves just pushing you around. Fell off a couple times and had a few small cuts, nothing that really mattered. From there we took our harvests over to a small perfect tiny beach. Nick set up a stove and started to cook them up for us while we set off exploring, sitting, and taking pictures. Pretty cool bunch. We had mussles on the half shell compliments of Nick. Very good. Little longer and we packed up and went to other islands. Nick sang a little bit, a few cool Maori songs. Also did a little info/cultural/personal stories about the area. Eg. there are 144 islands in that area, Russell was the first place where Europeans settled (russell was the town across the bay that has the oldest pub, post, bar, hotel, etc. in all of NZ) also used to be a hell hole full of prostitution etc. as that's where sailors went after long voyages. Apparently Nick and his cousin/brothers used to also take these wakas (cannoes) out when they were kids and do the trip we were doing. Fun. Moving along. We did a couple small walks on islands to really cool lookoutpoints with pictures, of course.
When we got back, most of the girls were hungry. I ate the lunch i prepared and headed with them to the cafe next to our hostel. THIS was the perfect end to this day. As we sat there in the semi-shade, there were 3-4 guys with guitars just sitting there having there own little jam session playing songs. They started to play a few others and got some of the local girls they knew to sing the songs instead of themselves. There were two girls that sang, the second had an AMAZING VOICE. the frist girl did give an amazing rendition of sweet home alabama, to give her some credit. It was just nice having some relax time with good music.
The bus left at 3 to go back to Auckland. Seemed like a much longer ride with only one stop. Dan the driver decided to put on a movie at one point and apparently there was a documentary about John Paul II in the player so he put that on for an inordinately long time (long enough for the "seriously?!" to wear off and to get settled into it) then he put on disc 2 of finding nemo which is useless, took that out and put on some NZ movie, the plot being about some stunt driver. Midly eneteraining movie, just annoying because the movie would skip about 10-20 mins occasionally with no filling in of the gaps. This often followed the sequence of drama leading to stunt, prep for stunt........gap.......person dead or disfigured at end of stunt. Fun!
Back in Auckland we check into the Base hostel again. Alex(b) and I grabbed a room together and met Team Canada (married couple named Melissa and Brandan) downstairs, grabbed some food and headed to the bar next to Base (there's always one attached). There was to be $1000 free tab for as long as it lasted...it was gone before we got there. So we had two beers there and decided to make this night a bar hoping night. We headed down to the harbor to some random Irish pub that had a live band on. Good music. I love the fact that Oz and NZ are stuck in the 80's and 90's. It guarantees good music or music you haven't heard in a while but enjoy. I will walk 500 miles is always on everywhere, also recently heard Brimful of Asha again...forgot that song. Anywho...2 beers there, Melissa spotted her roomie from back in College in Canada there with another girl celebrating other girl's b-day. Lemme underline that for you. She spotted a girl she knew really well and hadn't seen in YEARS halfway around the world. (singing) it's a small world afterall!
They join our escapade and we proceed to many more bars. One I got told to leave because I had on sandals, but they didn't really enforce it so we just finished our 1 beer and left. We tried to go next door but that was a fancier place that required collars...who wants to go there anyway?! Then we found the gold mine. Some random bar that had cowboy hats! Yeah, they had hats they were just letting people wear in the bar. We grabbed them, fitted them, grabbed a beer and chilled. That was until 1) Melissa thought it was a good idea to have Jager bombs and 2) there were random girls who were kissing us. Um, it's a shameful story that will be revealed on a nagged basis. There are pics, but they will not be posted. We did manage, however, to steal the cowboy hats with the cunning use of Melissa's jacket! so we wore them the rest of the night
More bars, interesting rejections, a fun walk home with me impersonating Alex(b) and other's English accents badly.
Wade gets harrased by Kiwis
So the next morning we wake up and get on a bus at like 7am. Our driver is crazy. Certifiably crazy. He enjoys randomness, lude jokes, and odd humor. My kinda guy. Some of the jokes he decided to tell over the intercom were ones like "what did cinerella say when she got to the ball"...yeeeah. Cool guy though. pretty laid back. We made our way up north with a few stops including a place that had honey tastings. Random.
Pahia was beautiful. Lot of cool island with nice hillsides and mountainous terrain but with nice grass slopes and such. When we got there we signed up for a few activities and did a small walk around the tiny town. Walked with this young 18yr old Scottish dude that was on his gap year touring. Cool kid. We went on this high powered boat called the Excitor to this cool rock formation doing like 40 knots. The final destination was "the hole in the rock" creatively named because there is a large hole in a rock (actually 2 of them). Sped out there getting rocked a bit, went through it, came back. Exciting...kinda. We then headed on toward our hostel call the Pi Pi Patch (horrible name I know). Got our stuff settled and went down stairs for the bbq they were having and beers to follow. Got to know a couple Swedish guys and a couple brits and canadians a bit better as the beer flowed and rounds continued. The most interesting part was when me and the scotsman were just sitting at a table by ourselves because everyone else has trickled off at this point and 6 kiwis sit down.
These guys are like the loud obnoxious bar type. They do the loud, obnoxious, annoying chat to strange other guys at table with them thing for a while. They left eventually after some time but came back later only to join back in the conversation with strangeness. It's hard to capture them in words. There are pictures of them. One with the ring-leader and the scotsman says it all.
Pahia was beautiful. Lot of cool island with nice hillsides and mountainous terrain but with nice grass slopes and such. When we got there we signed up for a few activities and did a small walk around the tiny town. Walked with this young 18yr old Scottish dude that was on his gap year touring. Cool kid. We went on this high powered boat called the Excitor to this cool rock formation doing like 40 knots. The final destination was "the hole in the rock" creatively named because there is a large hole in a rock (actually 2 of them). Sped out there getting rocked a bit, went through it, came back. Exciting...kinda. We then headed on toward our hostel call the Pi Pi Patch (horrible name I know). Got our stuff settled and went down stairs for the bbq they were having and beers to follow. Got to know a couple Swedish guys and a couple brits and canadians a bit better as the beer flowed and rounds continued. The most interesting part was when me and the scotsman were just sitting at a table by ourselves because everyone else has trickled off at this point and 6 kiwis sit down.
These guys are like the loud obnoxious bar type. They do the loud, obnoxious, annoying chat to strange other guys at table with them thing for a while. They left eventually after some time but came back later only to join back in the conversation with strangeness. It's hard to capture them in words. There are pictures of them. One with the ring-leader and the scotsman says it all.
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