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Sophie And Tami Were Here
Saturday 12th May
Journal entry brought to you by Tami
Sophie and I were due to catch our new Kiwi Experience bus today, but first we had to tend to a few matters from the night before when Sophie had left her watch in the internet cafe, and I had taken written, addressed and stamped postcards out to post and returned with them still in my bag. We parted ways, Sophie to reclaim her property, and I went off in search of a post box, which I tell you is not an easy task in Taupo. Apparently there are only two boxes in the entire town, and one of them is inside the post office so is therefore inaccessible during out of office hours. What is that about?!
Anyhoo, it was no drama as I managed to post my cards and Sophie got her watch back.
We then finalised our packing and headed downstairs to wait for our new bus. I was a little nervous about this, there had been a few idiots on our last bus and it can really spoil the experience. When the bus finally arrived about 20 minutes late, Sophie and I ascended the steps a little cautiously. We had no sooner met our driver, Jimmy, and began the walk up the aisle that an accented voice called out, 'New People. Good.' We sat down opposite the speaker, who we learned to be a Canadian 20 year old called Brian, who had, quite possibly the bluest eyes i have ever seen on anyone. We also met the following people who will feature heavily in our up coming journal entries:
Steve: Introduced to us as Stig, Steve is wicked. He's a really sarcastic funny guy with lots of piercings and tattoos, and a heart of gold.
Michael: An ex-Etonian who was very tall with a deep voice. Very sweet and fond of using quaint expressions like 'Frankly, it was bloody ridiculous'.
Jamie: An absolute sweetheart. Possibly the nicest person I've ever met, a genuinely lovely guy who deserves nothing but the very best in life and everything he does.
There were a few other key people that we met today, but it wasn't until later on in the evening. However, I will list them here...
Ricky: A lovely cheeky chappy from Milton Keynes, lots of fun, very funny, and always looking out for people.
James: Sweet Canadian guy who seemed very thoughtful and deep. One of those people who comes out with the best comments in every situation.
Dan: Hilarious guy who seemed to have a knack for falling into bushes and trees and so on.
Staines / Tom: Lovely guy who seemed fairly quiet at this stage.
(Also three girls called Maddie, Sarah and Emily but we didn't really know them until about a week later).
So after a couple of general get to know you conversations, we were already getting a better impression from this bus than we had got from our first. The boys were quick to make us feel at ease, and right from the outset, it became clear that we were going to have a lot of laughs with this bunch.
We stopped off at a skydive centre so that some other people from the bus could go and jump as they hadn't had time while in Taupo, and then the rest of us went on to a river that was right next to a geothermic area and therefore was effectively 'heated'. Jamie, Steve and another guy called Will (who we had actually met briefly in Australia) went for a swim, the rest of us chatted for an hour or so, then it was back to the bus to pick up the skydivers and head on to River Valley where we were spending the evening. We made a brief lunch stop somewhere and, although I can't remember, there is a really high chance that we all went to Subway, seeing as it is pretty much all that the boys eat.
When we eventually got to River Valley (which I keep wanting to call 'Happy Valley' for some reason), we had to walk down the last part of the track as there was no bus access for the last quater mile to the hostel. We loaded our big bags onto a truck (well, I say 'we'...the boys did it. Sophie and I began a nice leisurely stroll, hehe) and then eventually got to the lodge. It was literally in the middle of nowehere, just a beautiful log cabin style house and out buildings, some horse stables, and a stunning wide river riding through the centre of the valley.
After checking into our 40 bed dorm (I know, extreme or what?! Lots of mattresses on one stretch of wood - literally you are sleeping next to each other.....hence why the dorm is nicknamed the 'Love Shack'), Sophie and I called Kiwi Experience to check we were fully booked onto our next bus, and then went for a walk up the hill opposite the lodge. It was an adventure in itself as we had to navigate our way over a pulley bridge where we had to literally pull ourselves across while sitting on this wobbly piece of wood, twenty feet above the river, and when we got to the other side it turned out to be the slippiest, muddiest hill EVER for the first couple of hundred metres! After that it was dry ground, but still steep, so by the time we actually got to the top of the hill we only had a couple of minutes to take pictures before we had to head back down to avoid being trapped by the sunset. I was in a lot of pain at this time because my groin muscle was severely pulled from the Tongariro Crossing walk and it hurt when I moved. Anyhoo, we saw some gorgeous sights of the gorge which can be viewed by clicking on this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3704&l=35bbe&id=503796050
After this exciting walk where Sophie fell over three times, we headed back to the lodge and played cards with Brian, Steve, Jamie and James (I won!) and then chatted to various people from the bus all evening, playing drinking games (with me on the hardcorest of them all, the mighty H20), and then all went to our one massive bedroom to sleep.
A really good night was had by all, it was awesome that our first night on the new bus was one where we were all in a place that we had nothing else to do but talk to each other, because it meant we really got to know everyone, and they are all so nice, really great people. Feeling very content right about now (-:
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