Today was a significantly less extreme day compared to yesterday, primarily as I didn’t throw myself from any great heights; only jumping down from the top bunk when I woke up, but that did not necessitate a parachute, so does not really count. Although, thinking about it this might be slightly death defying - after my shower, I went to use one of the hairdryers and a load of blue sparks flew out of it, followed by a puff of smoke; so I narrowly escaped electrocution... No I would say that does not come close to the extremity of yesterday!
Anyway, after that I checked out and went for a wander into town whilst I waited for my Stray pickup. The lake was still looking beautiful as the sun shone down on it, but it made me think about how much better it had looked from waaaay up high! I then noticed something really odd, so went to investigate – the Maccas (which does not do free wifi – grrr!) had a plane outside it, a big one at that! It turns out it is a real plane that has been turned into part of the kids’ play/eating area! Very odd, yet kind of cool.
After a bit of a walk about, trying to remember where I saw it, I found the cafe that advertised free wifi and set myself up in there with a latte bowl and the most wrong (or is it ‘wrongest’?) breakfast ever – delicately named ‘Truckers’ Pancakes’; pancakes, bacon, maple syrup, Chantilly cream and banana. It was so wrong that it almost worked, although I wasn’t entirely sure about this odd combination and am still feeling equally as uncertain... Anyway, the free wifi was the best, so I just sat and surfed. During my surfing, I had a phone call from JJ who was bored in Welly airport. She told me she was flying to Auckland, so I said I was heading there too, but on the bus! I don’t know how, but we had failed to realise one another’s plans when we met in Welly, so this got us both very excited and we arranged to stay in the same place. Feeling slightly perkier, I continued to surf, then realised that they were now serving people from the lunch menu, which meant I should probably leave and go get my bus!
On the way back to the hostel, I had a revelation; never had I seen so many mullets in one place! The more I looked, the more I spotted. It seems that NZ men are particularly fond of that particular hair style, which is a shame because it makes them look ridiculous. It then occurred to me that I had seen a lot of women who I had thought looked quite manly – I think it was actually more likely the case that they were just men with mullets and I hadn’t noticed at the time!
When the bus arrived it was empty and my new driver, Mozza, explained that he’d dropped everyone off for a quick break whilst he picked the new people up. I sat at the front and we then collected a couple more people before returning to where he had dropped off the rest of the bus. Then I said a quiet goodbye to Taupo and we began our drive to Auckland.
The drive itself was most uneventful. More hills. More sheep. And that is about it. I had to try to stop looking out of the windscreen because for some reason, I became highly irritated by Mozza’s constant fiddling with every button and dial on the dashboard for the entire journey. I think he must find driving incredibly boring, so presses buttons and twists dials in order to distract him from the monotony. So it figures that I was bored, so found solace in being distracted from my boredom by obsessing about how annoying Mozza’s button pressing was. Five hours of it – felt like five hundred!
Anyway, on arriving in Auckland Mozza spoke over the tannoy to everyone on the bus (this being the first time he had spoken for the whole journey – Metro had told us interesting facts and Maori stories which may or may not have been true, but it was something at least!). Mozza had nothing interesting to say, apart from “Oh, it looks different, I haven’t been here in five years”, and that was it! Eventually he dropped me off at the hostel (I really hope he isn’t driving my next bus!) and I remembered that actually this was incredibly exciting because I would get to see JJ! Hurrah!
I checked in and the little man behind the desk said he would carry my bag to the room – he obviously hadn’t seen me dragging it up the initial flight of stairs and I think he regretted making the offer after heaving it up the first flight, then nearly collapsed at the top of the second! And there she was – JJ! Hurrah!
We had been put into a double room, rather small with a tv and an amazing view of a concrete wall, but we didn’t mind – it’s all about the free wifi! In fact, when I arrived, JJ was lying on the bed, surfing away. After dumping my things on the floor, I joined her with my netbook and there we spent the rest of the afternoon and all evening chatting, surfing and nibbling a chocolate bunny; sheer bliss! Then we suddenly noticed it was 1.30am – I had switched my computer on at 5.30pm and she had been online for a while before I had arrived, so we decided it probably was time for bed! Oops! So in summary of my induction to Auckland; Jana + free wifi = excellent.
No comments:
Post a Comment