New Zealand; Kiwi Experience bus, Days 7 - 11 Wellington

17/12/2011

Were going to Wellington! I'm staying there 5 nights. I had an amazing breakfast on the 12th, FULL English even with hash browns!!
Was quite a nice drive down to Wellington from River Valley, stopped off at a place called Bulls where everything was called 'something - a - Bull' I.e. The police station was Consta - Bull lol

Wellington Day 1; 12th dec

Got to YHA in the evening and made a fuss about having a top bunk in my room because of my back injury. They changed my room :) to a 6 bed en-suite. I shared with 2 German guys who moved out the next morning. Anyway, that evening we all went for dinner at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant which was pretty cool. You fill up your bowl with your own meat, veg and noodles and they cook it for you. Wasn't too much of a fan of the food though.
After we went home to get changed and a few of us went out for drinks. We started at Base bar where there was a wet Tshirt competition, which wasn't entertaining at all! Lol it was just embarrassing!
It was a Monday night so we couldn't really find anywhere else to drink. We had a couple at a really chilled out place and then went back to base which was shit! Went home at about 12/1!

Wellington day 2; 13th dec

Got to lie in and I'm not with my group anymore as most are going down to the South island today. I read in a brochure that Kci & Jojo are randomly in Wellington on the 14th, so I went to St James Theatre like 5 mins away and bought a ticket! Was $83, but its something I won't have the chance to do again!
After that I kept walking and decided to take the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens, which were really pretty. Loads of wierd trees and pretty flowers :)
Looked around the shops and walked back to YHA. Stopped off and did some grocery shopping then had a nap when I got in. Got awoken by my new housemates - 5 japenese people lol. Went and had soup for dinner and watched Wall-E in the TV room awww Wall E. Early night for me tonight. I feel pretty worn down because of my back and the bad hayfever, and I'm sad that ill be home soon :( oh well. Kci&JoJo 2mo night!

Wellington Day 3 - 14th Dec

I had a fix myself up day today! Uno pluckin eyebrows washing my hair etc. All I did in the day was go supermarket.
Then I left for K-ci and JoJo at about 6:45pm. Doors open at 7 so I thought I'd be fine. The show didn't start til 8:30!! But its fine tho, the DJ was playing some chooons! :) pure 90s RnB and Reggae at 1 point. He played 'in my house..there's a picture on the wall..' Lol deep.
Anyway 1st to perform was Barry Southgate who I didn't know, but he was amazing. Amazing voice. Sang couple of his own tunes and Boys2men water runs dry and somewhere over the rainbow. Aww
2nd out was an artist called Spawn Breezy who was a Reggae guy. Reminded me of Sean Kingston but not commercial enough to be big.

Then came K-ci and JoJo! The show was aiight it was nice 2 reminice about the tunes n stuff and they are F*in legends but they were so old (yes I knew this but..dunnoo!) And when Kci would try be sexy I'd cringe. Also JoJo wasn't there he was an embarrassment. Wasn't singing just blurting and at 1 point fell off his chair. Stay off the drugs maynnn! Oh well I'm glad I went.
Didn't go afterparty just went home. gotta watch those pennies lol.

Wellington Day 4 - 15th Dec

I only have 5 nights left travelling :( sad times. Slept in a bit today again and then went to Te Papa museum. Amazing because its free lol. It was interesting there was stuff about earthquakes, animals, the world, women gay rights etc. I felt I learnt a lot about NZ but Melbourne museum was better!
Didn't do much for the rest of the day. Washed all my clothes which wouldn't dry, ate lunch and ate an apple cream cake mmm. Early night tonight. Old Grandma laura lol.

Wellington Day 5 - 16th Dec

It stopped raining!!! Yay! I had a really good walk around the city for like 5 hours. Looked in a lot of shops, bought a few souviners, walked through Cuba street. How I killed 5 hours ill never know lol. Got back home and sorted my bag out seeing as I had ALL of my clothes hanging around the room everywhere.
Then met my new roommates Ben and Ryan really nice guys :) went to an Irish pub with them, we joked around and drank a lot! Lol it was soooo hard getting up for my bus up to Taupo the next day!!

New Zealand; Kiwi Experience bus, Day 6; Taupo to River Valley

12/12/2011

Had quite a late wake up, didn't need to leave until 9:30 :) we stopped off for coffee and I had a huge cream cake at 10:30am! Yum. Our next stop off was at a viewpoint of Lake Taupo which was beautiful and we also took pics with our green Kiwi bus.

Then we had ANOTHER WALK! At Taronga National park we walked and saw some beautiful mountains including Mount Doom and stopped off at an impressive waterfall that you could climb behind and fill up your water bottle with :) that took about 2 1/2 hours.

Another stop took us to another waterfall - Tawhai Falls. Apparently its from the Lord of the rings. Some people jumped off it. Craaaazy! Lol but it did look fun!

Then we drove to the accommodation, which was a lodge in River Valley. The river was nice and there was a bridgey swing thing to go over it. I didn't because of my hurt back!

Made myself some pasta for dinner and waited for happy hour at 8. Had a few beers and played MEGA JENGA lol which was fun! Then we played 'I've never' which was really exposing of me!! Lol but I don't care! :) went to bed about 12am

New Zealand, Kiwi Experience bus, Days 3 & 4: Taupo

11/12/2011

Drive from Rotorua today; we stopped off at a Maori arts and crafts centre, saw some carving and weaving and some more sulphur lakes and mud pools - they looked like the moon!
Our guide boiled us some eggs in a hot pool lol. We waited for a geyser to erupt for AGES but it never did :( boo

THEN we climbed a VOLCANO! I didn't want to so I stayed sitting at the bottom for a while until I got bored and thought 'let me go up a little bit' and before I knew it I was halfway up and then I was at the top! I kept thinking that I've come this far, I'm gonna go to the top! I was actually determined! The view was nice, I'm so proud! :)

Went to Huka falls afterwards which was pretty and some people went for a skydive :o

Got to base and had a free BBQ at element which was just a sandwich of sausage and burger.. nice though! Had a couple of jugs of snakebite and then went to someone's room for JD and coke and TEQUILA!! We played drinking games and then the night got messy lol.

The music at element was really good and I stayed dancing for most of the night. I fell over pretty badly at one point though. Don't remember falling but my backs been hurting ever since! Twas a good night!!

Next day 10th dec, I slept in and didn't get out of bed until 12! The housekeeping guys recognised me from last night! Lol i did make it outside though! Took a walk to the pharmacy and the woman suggested I go to the hot pools for my back. So we asked a couple where it is and they kindly dropped us there. NZ ppl are nice :) the hot pools were actually just heated swimming pools but it was nice! We rented swimming costumes and swam around. We also used the sauna :)

On the walk back home we stopped off at a thermal stream. It was really pretty. Then we got back to town did some grocery shopping and I lay down! Lol proper hungover now from last night and my back was killing! Had crunchy nut cornflakes for dinner and went bed after 9.. Sooo tired!! I actually realised that I didn't see Lake Taupo!! Lol ill be back here anyway so ill see it then!

New Zealand; Kiwi Experience bus Day 3: Waitomo to Rotorua

9/12/2011

Driving to Rotorua today.. We stopped off at the caves we were tubing in yesterday and we walked through some dry.

Got to Rotorua at about 12 and went for a walk. Its a cute little town. We walked through government gardens and a huge sulphur lake, saw loads of holes in the floor bubbling ans steaming. Walked to a wildlife refuge and saw black swans :) went to Lake Rotorua and then to some more really impressive sulphur lakes by our hostel.

We did mud masks when we got home with mud from Rotorua.

Went to a Maori night that evening. It was really good. They did an intimidating welcoming ceremony where they stuck their tongues out and bulged their eyes. Then we walked around the village learning about different aspects of Maori life.
Then they put on a show - dancing and singing, and a short film about the history of Maori people.

Dinner was amazing! It was a proper roast! Lamb, chicken, fish, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce omg it was soooo good! And the dessert was even better! Sponge and custard and pavlova yum!

The best part of the night however was our Maori bus driver! He was sooo funny. He did 61 accents from over the world and on our way home he sang 'we all go round the mulburry bush' and went round and round and round the roundabout! Lol

New Zealand; Kiwi Experience bus, Day 2: Hot water beach to Waitomo - Black water rafting!

8/12/2011

Firstly we stopped off to hug a tree lol and we had another stop off where we walked through an old railway tunnel through a cave. It was PITCH dark! We had to form a conga line just to find our way! It was at a place called Karangahake.

We got to our accommodation at about 2pm and I hung around til 4:15 for BLACK WATER RAFTING!! Omg it was so much fun! We had to wear wetsuits which were already wet and mine was gigantic! Wore booties and big old boots, I was so uncomfortable! But you soon forget about that!

The first thing we did was jump backwards into a river in the daylight. This was a tester lol. It was scary but I did it! It was fun! Next thing we were walking into the cave through a small gap. And walking is no easy feat either, the floor is just rocks and uneven. You could step forward in the cave and go down a foot. I fell 3 times! We did quite a lot of walking in the cave.

The trip mainly consited of 3 backward cliff jumps, paddling in the water in our tubes, doing the 'limbo' - going under a really low ceiling pulling along, being an 'eel' with everyone - we all joined up and slowly went along looking at glo worms..and the walking - the drunken stagger!
So so scary there no way you could do it if you were claustrophobic!

After that we warmed up with a hot shower and some soup :) went back to our accommodation for a BBQ dinner. Was so nice, steak and sausage and roast potatoes and different types of salad! Had a few beers then an early night :)

New Zealand; Kiwi Experience bus, Day 1: Auckland - Hot Water Beach

7/12/2011

Early wake up again in Auckland to catch my Kiwi Experience bus at 8:30am! Stopped off at a supermarket then went to an amazing viewpoint of Auckland.

Later in the day we got dropped off to do a 45 min walk down to Cathedral Cove. It was long and HARD but worth it! The beach was beautiful and the tide came in from two sides. The water was freezing though!
After relaxing for a while we did the 45 min walk back up! Even harder as we picked a different route through a rainforest! Oh well we made it!

Then we stopped off for some wine tasting. Had loadsa wine/liquors/port/cider mmm. Got drunk offa shots lol.

We got to the accomodation at Hot water beach which was amazing. I had a double bed all to myself! Went and had chicken nuggets and chips for dinner! :)

We were told that we should go to hot water beach at low tide - 11pm. But we decided to just go at 8:30 lol. While it was still light out. We brought our spades anyway. Didn't find any hot water but luckily it started pouring down with rain while we were on our way home. I say luckily as I wouldve hated to still be on the beach in that downpour! Lol we got soooo soaked! But its all good.

What a longggggg day! I was shattered!

New Zealand; Auckland

6/12/2011

Auckland is sooo boring! My flight got in at about 12pm and I got to my hostel at about 2pm. I was sooo sad to leave Fiji but I'm not home yet at least!

Went for a walk after checking in and had an amazing double cheeseburger mmm. Walked straight down the main road and came to a wharf with loads of boats. I then got lost lol but some guy helped me find my way back! All there was was loadsa shops..

Went for a free glass of bubbly at a bar downstairs because I'm a 'sanctuary' guest at base. Went to Dominoes pizza - large pizza for $8.90! Went back to the bar to eat it and had a really nice beer :)

Yep.. Auckland is boring!