Friday, September 11
When we woke up, it looked like it was going to be a nice, sunny day. However, once we started loading the bus, it started to rain. Thankfully, the rain cleared up and we were able to enjoy a nice tour of Hobbiton. I'm not a Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit fan, but the tour ended up being cheaper than it's original cost and I guess since I'm in New Zealand how could I possibly pass up going to the Hobbiton movie set? After walking around a bit it got a bit more exciting…mostly because I started thinking about my friends who would love to visit this cute place. After touring around the set for a while, we left and went to Rotorura. I met up with some of Suz's friends, Rachel and Neil, who were kind and took me in for the night. Upon arrival to their home, I found another bug like one I had seen in the hostel the night before in Waitomo. As it turns out, the bugs I confused for a tick was actually a bed bug! NOOOOO!!!!! GROSS! So I immediately threw everything I had in their washing machine and borrowed some clothes in the mean time. That night, I went to the Tamaki Village for a hangi meal and to learn more about the Maori culture. My phone sucks because I bought the cheapest iPhone which also means that it has the lowest GB…which means that I can't take as many pictures and videos as I'm used to. It was a very interesting experience. They showed up the games they played, the haka, how they would train for speed (for hunting), where they cooked our dinner, the meaning of their tattoos, and lastly our dinner. Chicken, fish, mussels, veggies, and desserts. It was so good! Most everybody else stayed the night at the village which reminded me of staying at the Bedouin tent (except the marae had real beds and not mats on the floor), but I stayed with Suz's friends. They took me to a cave nearby that had some glow worms. It wasn't a massive amount, but it was still magical. Even if they are just glowing maggots.
Saturday, September 12
I got up to meet my group so that some of us could go zorbing. When we arrived, they told us that they only had the wet zorb available which none of us wanted to do because it's cold and who wants to be wet when it's like 50 degrees? We left and headed for the Redwoods Park…there was some event so we weren't able to go. I asked to just be let off since I was staying close by. I ended up going with Rachel for a walk through the Redwoods. They aren't as massive as the ones in California as far as width goes, but they are still quite young I think. Later, Neil dropped me off at the Kiwi observatory and I went to another Zorb place called OGO since I had about two hours to kill until the tour to see kiwis. They also only had wet zorbing, but I decided that I would just suck it up and do it anyway because it was the only other thing I really wanted to do while here. I signed up to do the straight down run and the zig-zag run. IT WAS SO FUN! The water in the zorb was warm, but getting out was torture. Thankfully, they had a hot tub for you to wait in between runs. If you don't know what zorbing is, basically you are in this hamster ball rolling down a hill. The kiwi tour was a bit disappointing but I did get to see a real one…might as well had been stuffed since you can't see them very well and it was sleeping. Regardless, its still fun to say I saw a real one. Rachel made a lovely dinner of roast lamb and veggies with a crumble for dessert. YUM.
Sunday, September 13
I woke up and realized that I have bed bug bites all over my neck, face, hands, and feet. It looks so gross. Neil and his son drove me to Taupo where the rest of the bus stayed the night before and tonight as well. I went out for a walk around and ate my lunch in the park before going to the store to buy stuff for dinner for the next few days. We watched a couple of movies that night. Pretty easy going day basically.
Monday, September 14
Our drive today was really nice. Beautiful skies and scenery with the snow covered mountain close by. We did about a 2 hour trek around the Tongariro National Park. So lovely. We headed to our over-night accommodation in River Valley. It was basically wayyy out in the country so we did not have any cellphone service, were not close to any stores, etc. It was cool because there were games we could play (we started Monopoly, but put it on pause for dinner and never came back to it), there was some drinking going on with games involved. There was a challenge to see if someone could make it around the big dinner table without touching the ground. A few people tried and almost had it, but only one made it around. He got a free beer out of it. It reminded me of the bonding moments Birthright and Masa created, but in a different way.
Tuesday, September 15
We had a late departure today since people went white water rafting (buncha crazies) or horseback riding. A few people explored the area, but I couldn't be bothered. :p Basically had a long day of driving. So long in fact that we didn't even arrive in Wellington until after 6pm. We have a 7:15 departure time tomorrow in order to catch the ferry to the South Island. This means I didn't get a chance to see any of Wellington. I didn't realize how late we were going to get into Windy Welly or else I would've stayed another night. I don't understand this tour…we stayed two nights in this tiny town called Taupo, why? There wasn't anything really special about it. It's just annoying.
Wednesday, September 16
We took the ferry from Wellington in the North Island to Picton in the South Island. The ferry was much bigger than I imagined it would be. There were some nice views, and some people saw dolphins, but the swaying of the boat was kind of making me feel bad so I took a benadryl to help with the itchy bed bug bites and it helped me nap for a bit. The ride was about 3 hours. Once in Picton, we continued our way to Kaiteriteri which is close to Abel Tasman National Park. We have a bunch of new people with us and a quite a few stayed behind in Wellington. I kind of miss our group being small on the bus.
Thursday, September 17
So…I'm 30 today. Wow. I got birthday wishes all day and lots of "you're 30? No way!" Sweet as ;) I got up early so I could get some nice pictures of the sunrise over the water. I'm glad I did because it turned into a rainy day, as per usual ;) We left and made our way to Nelson Lake where a few brave souls jumped into some VERY cold water and it was already cold to begin with. We headed to Westport where we were staying the night. After we settled into our really cool hostel called Bazil, a couple of the girls got me a chocolate mousse and my room sang me happy birthday.
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