26 Feb 2009
So after buying a pair of exceedingly overpriced hiking boots, showing off my Serj picture to a metalhead working in the local burger shop and then having a long conversation with a sexologist called Dave in the hostel, I packed up my bag and left Auckland on 26 Feb to join the Stray bus tour. The plan was to take 3 - 4 weeks travelling down from Auckland stopping at various spots on the North and South islands, ending up in Christchurch.
For those of you who aren't in the know about such things, the Stray buses (much like the Kiwi Experience buses) have drivers who are also tour guides/drinking companions and are able to pre-book accomodation as well as organise various activities as the tour goes along. You can "hop on/hop off", meaning that if you like a particular place you can stay there for an extra few days and book yourself on to the next Stray bus that comes through town. However, from what I could make out most people become friendly with the group they start with and tend to want to stick together throughout.
Our driver's name was Seagull, a gangly, absurdly chilled-out 32 year old Kiwi surf dude with a large beard and vaguely Popeye-esque laugh.
My fellow backpackers were a motley crew. 30% German, 30% Dutch, and the rest made up of Irish, Swedish, American and English. At first the conversation was as slow moving as our lumbering 1973 bus. Everyone kept their cards pretty close to their chests, but with a group this size it always takes a while for people to warm up.
First stop on the journey was Mount Eden (described by Seagull as the only thing worth visiting in Auckland), then on to the Hot Water Beach in the Coromandel Peninsula just north of Auckland (we were heading just a little bit North before we headed South). A Kiwi friend of mine had warned me that the Hot Water Beach would be a little touristy and lame, but I thought it was pretty cool. Digging holes in the beach so that boiling hot springs come up through the sand and burn the soles of your feet. Ok, it doesn't sound that thrilling, but you probably had to be there. Yeah there was a lot of tourists, and it felt more like ticking a box than a great life-changing holiday moment, but it was still a unique experience and it did give us all a chance to mix it up and let our guards down. If you get the right mix of hot springs and sea water, you can have a little bath. See...
My first and best pal on the bus quickly became Helena, a 22 year old former postal worker and generiatric nurse from Uppsala, Sweden with an equal fondness for dancing and scoffing chocolate, as well an excellent knowledge of Simpsons quotes. Helena was on a similar round the world trip to myself, but was doing it in reverse, so had hitchhiked across America before heading down to Oz and NZ, with SE Asia next on her hitlist.
Here is a pic of the H-Bomber...
H said she was a little worried about running out of money before she reached Thailand but I reassured her that she wouldn't need much dosh to sink a few Chang beers and stay in a beachhut when she got there. Giving Thailand tips made me a little nostalgic, and talking about money made me a little nervous. My own savings were also beginning to dribble away too and I still had the bulk of NZ, plus Fiji and USA to go. New Zealand was already revealing itself to be as expensive as Australia, and the main money-drainer looked set to be the activities we were encouraged to sign up for along the way. When we reached our stopover for the night at Hahei beach, a few of us (me, H, Germans Mike and Jacob and fellow Brit Emma) opted out of the $70 kayaking and decided to walk to a spot called Catherdral Cove instead.
It was about halfway through our walk back to the hostel that the outrageous beauty of this country really began to sink in. There was incredible coastline, air as fresh as my lungs have ever breathed and more rolling green hills than you can shake a stick at. It was stunning, one of those moments when you step outside yourself and think, Shitting hell, I'm a lucky bugger. I didn't know it at the time, but I was to have quite a few of those moments in New Zealand. The place is frickin' brilliant. Thank goodness for redundancies, eh?
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