We left the next morning in the bus to a place called river valley, but on the way we had a 2 hour walk in the national park which was stunning. Half way through the walk there was a huge waterfall so we all stopped there for lunch and waterfall photo time. Jess and I were convinced we were going to be the last people back at the bus so we were walking so fast towards the end but low and behold we were some of the first there! After a few more snaps of mount doom we continued our journey to river valley. On the bus a sheet if paper went round for us to book our accommodation for the night. We had the option of sleeping in a 32 man room that just had one big bunk and endless spooning, or a 6 man room for $3 more, so because we were trying to save money we went for the 32 man room...NOT! Now I'm not sure that river valley is even a place. The thing is that when we drove in there was no sight of human civilization for about 45 mins before we arrived and then when we did we had to park the bus and walk down a hill to find the hostel. At the bottom if the hill was the hostel. Just the hostel. So basically I think the hostel named the land they were on 'river valley'...I'm going to google it! When we first arrived Jess and I weren't too impressed but as the night went on we enjoyed it a lot more. The main building was a dining room/lounge/bar and it had a log fire so after dinner we didn't move till about midnight, just playing games. Our friend Rose taught us all an Israeli card game called Yanif and then Harriet tried to teach us the most complicated game ever! During her explaining the rules Joe went to the loo so we decided to just make up all the rules as we played so that when he came back he'd have no idea wh at was going on. I've never tried so hardand failed so badly at keeping my laughter in! Obviously he lost and he begrudgingly accepted defete, but he accepted it and offered to buy us all a drink because he lost! And that was when we let him in on our little secret! (Think 'Friends' and the game 'cups'). So this hostel also did activities, either horse riding or white water rafting and if you didn't do an activity you just chilled in the sunshine. Chilling? Horse riding? Pah! Let's go white water rafting! We got up at 8am got suited and booted and met our rafting instructor Sam who is from Orpington! In the raft with me was Jess, Rose, Joe and Dani which was 100% the best combo around. We had SO much fun, with Sam pushing us out, doing the funky get down, parking up and jumping off a cliff and laughing at the other rafts getting stuck on the rapids! The only let down was that the photos were $15 each to buy so we didn't buy them but there were some absolute corkers! There was a pretty quick turn around from the rafting to getting on the road so we bought a cookie each and we charmed the cook into giving us a free one too, and then we charmed Sam into giving us a lift up the ridiculous hill...hey, you don't ask, you don't get! We arrived at the top of the hill waving to our friends as if we were the Queen and then boarded the bus to Wellington. On the way to Wellington we stopped in a place called 'Bulls' where the slogan for every shop, restaurant, bank, pavement, toilet used the word 'bull'. E.g 'buy our books, they're readaBULL' (I just made that up but I think that if I ever want to work in NZ I've got myself a job). Jess and I decided to stop in Wellington for a few nights on the way back up to Auckland so we only had one night there. We went out for a little bit in the hostel bar as it was some people's last stop with us. We were graced with the presence of a very drunk, borat mankini clad man who entertained us for a while before we went to bed.
The next morning was an early one as we had an 8.30 ferry to catch to the south island. I was probably a bit too excited to be getting on the ferry but, I'll admit, I do miss the Disney Magic and I felt this ferry was an adequate substitute. So I left Jess and had a little explore of the decks and went outside to look and the sea and feel the wind and when I was satisfied I went back to play cards with everyone else. I also taught them the 'I've got a new job' game and there were some right crackers!
Until next time...