Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
On Monday the builders overhead me were being all noisy so I got up earlier than usual, even if it was still half 10!I went to the Cathedral café for some breakfast and then had a wander through the shops and looked at the other side of the city than I had the day before. I spent about an hour choosing a new book to keep me going through Fiji and my something silly like 45 hour journey home and then had lunch/tea in a good old fashioned Irish pub- jacket potato cheese and beans of course! We had another movie night that night and I got to know the new people who had moved in that day.
On Tuesday I got back on the bus to start my journey back up to Auckland. We had a crazy bus driver who I can only describe as a cartoon character! We arrived in Kaikora for lunch time and we went next door for some lunch at a quaint little café.Kaikora was the place to go dolphin swimming as there were pods of 300 dolphins you could jump in with, I'd been looking forward to it on all my trip round, but the day was just too too cold to take your jumper off let alone thinking about getting into the sea, so I decided to go whale watching which I thought would be just as good. I had already seen the dolphins in Paihia to be fair. But unfortunately I'm not having too much luck with activities at the moment; it was cancelled due to a cyclone out at sea. So a group of us took a long walk along the coast to a seal colony. We saw a group of surfers on the way and stood and watched them for a while taking in the picture having them surfing with a backdrop of snow mountains behind them it was beautiful. We stopped off at a pub on the way back and just chilled out with beautiful scenery, it was that priceless feeling of not having to be anywhere again that was just perfect.We strolled back and then had a take away curry for tea in the hostel with the log fire which relaxed us all. We got the winter woollies on when we worked up the energy and walked to a pub in the town for their pub quiz. Michelle, Tiffany and I found some huuuuge Crunchies on the way, never seen such big chocolate so we suitably named our team 'The Big Ass Crunchies' and suitably came last!! It was an achievement we're proud of, and got a free beer out of it as well with a competition between the two losing teams for team downing… so many bubbles!
We packed up and moved on to get the ferry in Picton to the North Island the next day. I left the friends I'd made who had been continuing on the south island and enjoyed the 3 hour journey back over making new ones! It was such a comparison to the journey over however many weeks ago as it's supposed to be one of the most beautiful ferry rides but we couldn't see a thing! The weather had definitely taken a turn for the worst, the cloud was right with us and the rain was just pouring down. We got our bags at the other end and ran as fast as we could with them to the bus getting absolutely drenched. We were in Wellington again, we had a mutual anti Base feeling as we'd stayed in so many of them along the way so had a change and went for a YHA that evening. We checked in then went over to the supermarket, about 7 of them were cooking together but me being the awkward one with no meatiness went for the jacket potato again, but we all cooked it together then ate at the biggest table we could find so that was nice, then just sat in their room and had a chilled out night catching up.
Thursday we made our way to Taupo, I was now repeating the route I had done on the way down so there wasn't really anything new to see. The driver dropped us off at the hostel while he took the others who hadn't been skydiving off to that and to see the Huka Falls - I just had a wander around the town. I was supposed to have another 3 days here as the buses didn't really work to get back into Auckland on the right day, but I realized how little there was to do there and the weather was just rubbish so I decided to make my way up to Auckland early, missing out Roturua so that I was in the city and could get settled for Fiji etc. We had a few drinks in the bar that night though and played some card games and then had an early night with my book which now probably won't last until Fiji, let alone the journey home! Going to have to find another one.
So on Friday I went straight back to Auckland. We stopped in Matamata again for some lunch, but got to Auckland late afternoon, me and Gemima checked into our room and lay on the beds for a while till a guy came in and said I was on his bed although it was perfectly "housekeepery" made, so I went downstairs and had to move rooms as there was a confusion somewhere along the way. And as for the rest of it, I've had 4 days here and have just done all the sorty things, washed aaall my clothes, packed for Fiji, bought a few more unnecessary things, (got stuck in a lift), changed some money and all that kind of thing! Ready for coming home! As I kind of feel like this is the last bit and the week in Fiji is just a bonus. I've absolutely loved New Zealand; the bus down from Auckland to Queenstown was just amazing, the people, the activities, the scenery, really can't describe it.I think I did actually have too much time out here for the Kiwi bus as most people finished in Christchurch but I'll know for next time now, can't wait to come back and explore with a campervan!!!!
Fiji here I come, relaxation for a week and hopefully come back with a little bit of a tan as it doesn't look like I've been away at all yet!!! 1 week to go x x x x
- comments