Bay of Islands/Auckland/Rotorua

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Right...lets bring things up to date a bit.

The family from Yorkshire very kindly offered me a lift back to Auckland so I could get the bus down from there to Rotorua-a backpackers haven of a geothermal area in central North Island.

A little strange to say the least, sitting in the back of their car and wondering what the hell I was doing invading the holiday of these nice people, but they seemed not to mind a bit. On the way we visited the oldest tree in NZ and saw a bit of the east coast as we drove down the skinny bit at the top of the country. Lunch got fairly exciting as some poor man nearly choked on his food at the table next to us and about 3 people tried the Heimlich maneuver succeeding just in time before we all thought it was game over! I had to lean over and ask him what he had so I didn't order the same thing!!

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Spent the night in a rubbish hostel in Auckland and was blown out for dinner by Em's old boss who was going to meet me (cheek!) But I spose I wasn't in the mood as I was beginning to feel the toll of the traveling lifestyle...it's easy to just keep going doing everything you can without a break.

But it's a great feeling moving on to a new place, each stop feels like a new adventure and Rotorua was fabulous, just what I needed. The hostel was great...swimming pool no less...and spa tub! A very friendly place and within a few hours of being there I'd met a mate that I'll hopefully have for a very long time. Funnily enough her name's Claire and yes she's just as bonkers as the original!! But this one's Irish and lives up to the reputation I can tell you!

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We'd been chatting for about 5mins before she whipped out the 2/4/1 beer vouchers we'd got when checking in and before I knew what'd hit me it was midnight, I had double vision and we were playing pool very badly with a load of local Maoris. We had a bit of a fantastic evening, but I had to let the side down and go to bed earlier than everyone else with the excuse that I was nearly a decade older than some of them!

The next day I followed Claire around like a lost puppy cos she seemed to know what she was doing and it was great to let somebody else make all the decisions for a change. The museum at Rotorua is fantastic if you're ever there and this was the first chance I'd had to look at some Maori culture so drank it all in...as well as you can when you've been out with an Irish person the night before! A small note...don't go on earthquake simulators with bad hangovers...you'll get the fright of your life! Claire's quite a jumpy person and kept me entertained most of the day by leaping out of her skin at the slightest noise.

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In Rotorua they don't have your average town park...this one was full of pools of boiling mud and steaming hot springs, very pleasant and looked great as we watched the sun go down behind the local volcano.

We finished the evening with a few beers with some other backpackers in the Lava Bar and had a great night chatting to people from all over the world...as you do. The funniest of these was a 20yr old German girl, she was one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met in my life! "I just wana party you crazy people yaaaAAAA!!!" (Say in German matron style accent). When she heard what I had planned for the rest of my stay in NZ she crossed her arms infront of her face and said,"Yaaaa....you ist EXTEME!!!!" Obviously Claire and I found this hilarious and spent the rest of the evening doing it to everyone.

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Day 2- Rotorua.

Up early and off to Te Puia geothermal park to look at geysers and traditional Maori stuff- very fascinating, learnt a lot, none of which I will bore you with here other than that the Maoris used to watch their children from a young age to see what their natural interests were...when discovered what the kid was good at, they were individually trained in that area of expertise. E.g if a child was always fighting they were given warrior training and so on...very clever if you ask me.

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After all that knowledge was crammed into our small brains it was time for a little pampering at one of the hot springs and I could have easily fallen asleep, it being the first real time I had relaxed since arriving. Think I've said that before but this was REAL relaxation. This traveling lark can really take it out of you honest...it's not just a holiday ( yeah right I hear you say!). This place was so beautiful though..it had fantastic blossom trees overhanging the pools and overlooked the lake, the sun was shinning and....ahhhh....

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That night is another blurred, Irish, Maori, what's going on kind of evening. But what a laugh....ended up in a club dancing our socks off! All to be paid for the next day when I had to get up at 6.30 for the bus to the caves at Waitomo. Not a fun day...am feeling my age!