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The bus journey from Taupo to Auckland was to be my last journey on the Kiwi Experience which was quite sad in a way as I had had so many good times travelling around the country on the bus and had great memories to bring from it with me. But all good things have to come to an end at some stage and the end was in sight as we left Urban Retreat at 9.30am, our first stop was only 50 minutes away, which was Rotorua, the rotten egg smelling city I stayed three nights at on my way down the north island. About 10 minutes prior to arriving in Rotorua we made a five minute photo stop at some bubbling mud pools, although I had seen mud pools on my previous visit these were in a different location so although they looked the same they still looked pretty cool as it is not something that you come across every day. In Rotorua we dropped off some people and picked up just as many, before we continued our travels towards Auckland.
The next stop after Rotorua was Matamata, which was our lunch stop despite arriving there at around 11.30am. We stopped for half an hour, and after seeing the ‘Welcome to Hobbiton’ sign that greeted our entry into the city we walked past it where people from the group for whom it was their first visit to the town got the cheesy photo in front of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ signage before we went and sat in subway, where the people I was with brought a sub of the day, but I had my own lunch on me so just ate that. Once back on the bus it was a clear drive back into Auckland with no other stops, so we were given a questionnaire to fill out to detail our experience on the Kiwi bus, once completed it was time to chill and take in my last moments on the big green bus. On arrival in Auckland we went to the Kiwi Experience office so they could try and flog us further trips and merchandise, which I resisted but it did give me the opportunity to book onto the free Auckland day trip they offered for the following day. After a short stop here we were then taken to our respective hostels in the city, I was staying at K Road City Travellers which as it happened was the last drop off, so was on the bus on my own at the end with Poncey, so we chatted about my future travel plans and how he had never heard of the hostel I was staying at, but there was no way I was going to stay at Base which is where I stayed on my first couple of nights in Auckland, as I felt I had had enough of the Base hostels as I had stayed in so many of them during my time in New Zealand.
I arrived at my hostel at about 3pm, and checked in to my room and unpacked to find that my shampoo had exploded everywhere which was a nice greeting present upon opening my backpack lol. After clearing that up I walked into the city to go to find some postcards and then walk to the supermarket to get some grub. The supermarket was a good 20 minutes plus walk outside of the centre which meant it was a fair trek return, especially as the walk back up to the hostel was up a real steep hill which was an exhausting mission to climb. Walking through the city I kept going past packed bars cheering and screaming loudly watching some boxing which I later found out back at the hostel was a Mayweather fight which unsurprisingly he won. At the hostel I wrote my postcards and made some dinner before skyping home to catch up on the latest comings and goings. By which stage it was time for bed.
The next morning, I had a reasonable lie in despite doing the free Kiwi Experience day trip for my last day in New Zealand, the pickup point was in the city centre at 10.15 about a 15 minute walk from my hostel, I was there in good time but was kept waiting a little while as the bus was late, it was only a small minibus with a capacity of about 15, but there were only 11 on the trip so it wasn’t full. The first stop was only a 10 minute drive away, so after being introduced to the driver and finding out about the itinerary for the day we headed for the Auckland Harbour Bridge, where we got to take a free walk on the bridge, we went into the office to get safety gear on for the walk which included a helmet and a harness which we then had to attach to a metal pole which prevented us from falling whilst on the bridge, after walking about 20 minutes along the bridge we arrived at ‘The Pod’ which is the bungy sight for AJ Hackett in Auckland, whilst there plenty of gutsy people jumped off the 40 metre jump site getting dunked in the water in the process and getting soaking wet. After watching many people jump we made our way back to along the bridge and back to the office after there were no more volunteers to bungy, on the way back there was a good view over the whole of Auckland city for the duration of the walk with the Sky tower remaining the obvious landmark throughout. Back at the office we were returned to the minibus after removing our safety equipment and continued our trip.
We crossed the harbour bridge in the vehicle and made our way to a small town on the other side of the bridge where we stopped for lunch, the town provided excellent views across the water of the city, after sitting on the promenade area to eat my lunch with a few guys that I had met we were back on the minibus after a 45 minute break as we made our way to a nearby beach which we strolled upon before ending up at a historic peninsula and its hidden war tunnels which were one of New Zealand’s main lines of defence during the war, we were given a guided tour around the war tunnels and told some really informative background information, as well as walking through the pitch black war tunnels which we required a torch for. We had a final moment to soak up the spectacular 360o views from Mount Victoria before we boarded the mini bus for the last time as we made our way back to the city centre to be dropped off at our respective hostels. It was about 30 minutes before we made it into the centre so it gave the driver a chance to tell us a bit more about the city and tell those that hadn’t started their Kiwi Experience adventure yet that the trip was what they should expect from the rest of their time on the Kiwi, it was also the last time I had to fill in a clipboard which is something you have to do many times aboard the Kiwi bus every journey. I was returned to my hostel at about 3.30pm and straight away headed for the supermarket and posted my postcards, I still didn’t return to my hostel until gone 5 because of the long walk to the supermarket and back, but upon my return to the hostel I was straight on the internet to make the most of the free wifi as I had a lot of stuff to sort out for my future travels. Then I made my sweet and sour chicken which I had treated myself to as my last meal in New Zealand, which was delicious before I was back on the internet until around midnight, I had packed my bags earlier that night as I was flying out at 7am the next morning which meant leaving the hostel by 4am.
I got to sleep just gone midnight once I had come off of the internet and got three hours kip until 3 in the morning when I woke up to get showered and ready to walk to the bus stop to catch the airbus to the airport. The bus stop was a 5 minute walk from the hostel so after leaving the hostel at around 4am, I walked to the bus stop through the deserted city which was spookily quite, there was no one else waiting for the bus which was not a surprise so I was waiting there alone in the dark in the wee hours of the morning for about ten minutes before the airbus arrived, only seeing the same police car doing the same lap over and over again patrolling the city, they failed to spot the escorts on the streets who would simply hide as they heard the police come past before resurfacing, the police obviously knew where they would be hiding as they slowed down at their exact location but failed to spot them so continued their journey, it was quite amusing and the only bit of life in the city that early in the morning except from the bin men collecting the rubbish.
I had cheekily photocopied my Kiwi Experience ticket before I left home which had a free Airbus ticket on it to use only from the airport to the city which I used when I arrived in New Zealand but I thought I would try my luck and use the ticket to get back to the airport from the city and it worked so saved me NZ$14, which was a bonus, as the driver didn’t even realise the bold print stating under no circumstances for the ticket to be used on the return journey. It was only about 25 minutes before we arrived at the airport where I was dropped at the terminal and checked in and went through security before waiting at the gate for boarding my flight to Fiji which I was really looking forward to.
I had been in New Zealand for six weeks and the time had flown by, but I had an amazing time meeting so many ‘friends for life’ in the process on the Kiwi Experience which was a great way to travel the country with their quality driver guides. I had done things I would never have dreamed of doing such as skydiving the best commercial location in the world and hiking up the face of the Franz Josef glacier as well as experiencing the Maori culture and the geothermal activity in the country. Plus I have to give the mighty Fergburger and Queenstown another mention which were awesome, I couldn’t believe my kiwi adventure was over but could look back on my 6 weeks with a smile because of all the happy memories I brought with me from the most scenic place I had ever been! I was proud to be part of Kiwi Experience 2010!
Love Toby xxx
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Ann-Marie Hi Toby, Wow, what an awesome post. We at Kiwi Experience are really glad you had such a great time. If you want to keep in touch with all your bus buddies, check out the community pages of www.kiwiexperience.com and upload some of your own pics to go into our monthly prize draws! Sweet As The Kiwi Ex Whanau