Happy in Hahei!

Got up this morning feeling slightly more upbeat, which wasn’t that hard seeing as I was pretty rock bottom yesterday. The reason for this change of mood was probably because I now had a mission – unpack and repack bag and then go get the Stray bus. Thankfully it wasn’t as painful as usual packing, although it never gets any easier, no matter how many times I have done it now!

I said goodbye to Joe who was heading out for his second day at work and walked to the YHA for 7.45am (I was a bit worried I would get left behind again!) and it started raining, hmmmm – I really love Auckland. After a relatively short wait, I saw a flash of orange go round the corner at the bottom of the road and then bus arrived – I was incredibly relieved! The driver jumped out – it was Daisy – the one who had left me behind before!

I hopped on the bus and there were a few people on it, but apparently I was the last pickup, so that was it – 11 of us. After stopping briefly to pick up takeaway coffee (best coffee I’ve had so far in NZ), Daisy took us to a hill, well a volcano actually, called Mount Eden, where we could look out and see the whole of Auckland from way up high. I couldn’t be certain but I am pretty sure that it looked as boring from that height as it did from the ground!

Back on board the bus, Daisy took us to the Stray office and we were told all about how to book (I think the idea was that there would be lots of new people who needed inducting into the process, but actually it wasn’t necessary). We then herded ourselves back onto the bus and we set off.

Daisy got us to introduce one another on the bus, so we had to completely make stuff up about someone and tell everyone about that person over the mic, then that person would come up and tell the real facts about themselves. It was a good icebreaker and very funny, certainly got us all chatting, which was cool. The journey itself was quite long and we stopped on the way at a veggie shop and a supermarket to get supplies. We then had to make a quick stop at a garage to get the clutch fixed!

The difference between this bus ride and most of the others I have been on was that we were all chatting such a lot that it made it way more fun. Every now and then Daisy would tell us some interesting facts. For example, there are around 4 million people in NZ, around a quarter of these live in Auckland, there are over 40 million sheep in NZ, there are over 100 million possums. That is a lot of possums! They’re actually a pest here and the government is trying to cull them as they are endangering lots of native bird species. We drove along a road through a massive forest and Daisy told us that this specific area is known for the fact that are lots of marijuana plants growing in the wild. Apparently the possums really like eating the leaves, but they then get stoned and this turns them into road kill as they just sit on the road and watch the cars speeding towards them, then splat!

After a bit more of a drive through more hills and seeing more cows and sheep, we came to Hahei. We were staying in a holiday park and had a cabin for us all, with a big kitchen/dining area. I ended up sharing a room with Rebecca, a really nice teacher from Gloucester.

The sun was shining and it was actually nice and warm, so Rebecca and I definitely wanted to make the most of it, so decided to take a walk to find Cathedral Cove - Daisy said it would take approximately two and a half hours. We set off along the beach and appreciated the beautiful views across the bay and how fine and light the sand was. We then had a bit of a monster climb up a trail/track that lead there – it was nothing like the Rocky Bay ‘track’ – we actually knew where we were going as there were signs along the way and an actual pathway! The path brought us to a lookout point and it was an even better view from there, looking down over the really long beach, with the sunlight dancing off the sea.

When we made it to Cathedral Cove, we were really rather impressed by its beauty. The cliff face has a massive hole in it, which means you can walk through from one beach to the other, but as you walk through, you appreciate how wide this section of rock is, making the hole seem even bigger. The hole looks arched, like a church doorway, so I guess that is how it got its name. Standing high out of the water are two massive rocks, like pillars, one either side of the cliff.

Having appreciated the beach and views for a while, we headed back to the lodge and once again enjoyed the views across the sea. When we arrived, we had to get changed into our swimmers (or ‘togs’) really quickly as we were all being taken to Hot Springs Beach. The bus was full, which confused us a bit as it had been half empty before, but it turned out to be the people from the Adventure Tours bus (sister company to Stray) who were staying in the cabin next to us. We all went together, with the AT driver Ali Barbar behind the wheel – Daisy enjoyed being driven for a change so sat at the back of the bus with us for the ten minute journey!

We arrived at the beach and it was considerably nippier than it had been at the other beach earlier. It was also super busy, with lots and lots of people standing in and around one particular part of the shore line where there were lots of rocks. The reason for its popularity is that this beach is famous for having hot spots where you can feel the water coming through the sand really hot. Volcanic activity underground means that certain parts of the beach are hot. People usually dig a hole at low tide and sit in the hot water that comes up from underneath. Ali told us that the water was actually really rather hot. Sadly for us the tide was not very low and didn’t seem to be shifting, so most people were giving up on digging a hole and instead just wading out into the water and burying their feet in a hot spot. This is exactly what I did. It was most odd because it meant you had warm legs, very hot toes but the rest of your body (ie the bit outside the water) was freezing! It was fun and at some points my feet got a bit too hot! I stood in the water chatting to Ali, Daisy and a nice German guy called Lucas, whilst most of the others from my bus stood out of the water. We even saw a stingray swim past us! Eventually it was time to get out and then we felt really cold!

Back at the cabin everyone got busy making dinner – we were having a group BBQ to ‘bond’! Everyone mucked in to get it all ready (my job – laying the table), then we all sat and enjoyed a delicious spread of BBQ chicken, steak and all sorts, with paprika potatoes and a very tasty feta salad. Daisy hadn’t told us before, but he had brought us some Stray Dog’s Piss wine for us too, so we toasted a good trip. He had also bought dessert of icecream which was great and the flavours were super amazing – my favourite was called ‘Goody Goody Gum Drops’; spearmint icecream with sweets like Jelly Tots in it!

Then, after washing up we started playing some games, they were drinking games, only we weren’t really drinking, but it didn’t matter as we really got into them and just laughed and laughed. A couple of the games involved us having silly made up names, so that meant that these names stuck and we referred to one another as these names for the rest of the night. The games themselves were really silly and incredibly good fun, they certainly helped us settle as a group and get to know one another. We all laughed so much our sides hurt! I got very excited during one game when a praying mantis randomly landed on the table in front of me! We had a good look at it and then it flew off! Ali and a few people from Adventure Tours came and joined us and we played a great game called Mafia – a bit link wink murder, but we all took it very seriously which made it even funnier.

We sat and chatted for a bit and then all headed to the beach – it was dark so was rather hard to see where we were going. We chilled on the beach for ages, chatting, laughing and looking at the stars, which were so clear; lighting up the sky like a patchwork of dots. Ali then built a very small fire and we all sat round that chatting some more, until we ran out of fuel for the fire, so headed back to the cabin. A few of us stayed up a bit longer and carried on chatting, before turning in. I definitely felt so much more upbeat and had really enjoyed being a part of this group!

Doom & Gloom Day

Woke up this morning and the room felt empty, I could sense Nikky’s absence. I turned over and saw the empty bed and the space where her bags had been. She’d gone. By this time she would probably be on the plane to Sydney. An overwhelming sense of isolation hit me in the face like a big lump of corrugated metal (I’m sure they use it for that too, here in the land of corrugated metal, volcanoes, sheep and cows!). I think it was the fact that Nikky and JJ were both now gone and I really felt like I was on my own, on the other side of the planet from everyone I love.

I felt so sad I couldn’t really inspire myself to do anything, so just fiddled around on the internet, aimlessly. Eventually, shortly before 10am, I dragged myself out of bed and went to the reception desk. As Nikky had left, I was in a private twin room by myself, so needed to move. The guy said he’d put me in a female dorm (there are only 8 rooms in total, so I don’t know how many of each sort there are!) and asked if I was ready to move. I said I wasn’t (the room actually looked like the stupid Icelandic volcano had gone off in it!) and I think he could tell I wasn’t feeling great so said I could have an hour or so to get ready.

Back in the room, I didn’t get straight onto the mission of packing up my mess, I went back on the internet, then after half an hour, threw everything in the bag and dragged it two doors down to room 7. It was a four bed dorm and looked like only one other person was there so far. I plonked my stuff down and sat on the bed with my computer, taking solace in my friend, the internet.

After a long while, including an online chat with JJ, I decided I needed to try and get out of the hostel, so collected myself together and walked into town, reluctantly. The weather was as grey as I felt. I looked in the same, dreary shops, plus a couple of new ones I found tucked down some side streets, but they turned out to be as lifeless as the others. I popped into Stray and chatted to the people in there and sorted out my pick-ups. I felt a little bit more upbeat once that was done, I guess it helped having actually spoken to someone and having a focus.

On my way back to the hostel, I decided a Wendy’s might cheer me up. It did not work. Epic fail, in fact; I was devastated to discover that their Frosty was vanilla flavoured?! What?! Vanilla?! That’s atrocious! Sums up NZ though, truly vanilla (and not even the good, exciting, sort of vanilla with bits in!). Honestly, why choose vanilla when you can have chocolate – don’t these people know anything?! Grrrr. So I left Wendy’s rather disheartened. Then it started raining and everyone in their coats and hats looked at me strangely as I walked along in a skirt and vest top – my response to them; scowl. Hmmmm.

When I got to my room, I went in and saw the strangest looking female I have ever seen, in that it was in fact a guy, not a girl – the man on reception had put me in the wrong room! I didn’t mind and it actually made me laugh! We chatted for a bit; he was from Northampton and had been there a couple of weeks – he started work today at the council in IT Services. We then both plugged ourselves into our laptops for the rest of the night. I Skyped home and spoke to my olds, but then spoke to the parrot too which cheered me up no end (sorry parents!). After a lot more internetting, I decided it was time to switch off and go to sleep.

Nikky's Last Day

It turns out Nikky was awake until 4.30am booking her accommodation – bless! I know how indecisive I am about these things, so can see why she found it so hard. Needless to say she needed a lie in, so when I woke up, I just chilled with my book until she stirred.

We put the tv on and had a lay in, chatting, then got up, showered and even did some washing! Once the washing was in the dryer and we were ready to head off, we meandered to the bus stop and took the bus downtown. We mooched about the shops for a bit, but I must say, having been to this street and these shops a number of times now, it really is very dull. I am sure shopping in Uxbridge with the same shops everyday isn’t that dull... Hmmmmm. After a couple hours of wandering in and out of the lacklustre retailers, despite our best efforts, we didn’t actually find anything that excited us. The grey skies and general gloom didn’t help matters.

It was getting close to 4pm, so we jumped back on the bus and went back to the K Road, as Nikky was going to have her nails done. I popped into the Starbucks and grabbed a coffee, then headed back to the hostel, where I sorted out the washing and then sat wifi-ing and watching tv, whilst I waited for Nikky.

Happy with her new nails, Nikky returned and set about packing her bags again – last night had been a ‘practice run’! I sat and watched her whilst clicking about on the internet and was amazed at how well she did – I really couldn’t see how all that stuff was going to squeeze into all those bags! She managed it though! It’s a shame she is going, I could do with her packing expertise myself! I don’t have as much stuff but I think my poor packing technique does not make optimal use of space!

Once she was done, we decided to head out for dinner. We didn’t really want to go too far from the hostel, so ended up at the pub we’d seen last night. I am sure it had been quite busy then. When we went in, there were only about five other people in there; we had a moment of uncertainty, but figured the only alternative was going to be kebab or going further into town, so plumped for staying put. We ordered out drinks and dinner, then found a spot out of the draught of both sets of doors that were open (really, do they need both sets of doors open – surely it just advertises the fact that it is dead in there?!). We toasted our time and travels together, then Nikky peered into her glass – in the slightly dingy light, it looked like her wine was corked. She dipped her finger in and plucked out what was floating on the surface, but then the piece of cork started walking across her hand! She thought she was going mad, we both looked into the glass and suddenly realised that there were several little flies all doing breast stroke (or it could have been front crawl, it was quite dark and the flies were swimming in red wine which made it difficult to identify the specific stroke they were using!). Yikes! She took it back to the bar and they were most apologetic, she pointed out that it didn’t bode well for the food but they ensured her that the food was fine.

To be fair, the food wasn’t bad; not the best, but not the worst and the good thing was that there was not a fly to be found in it! As we ate our meal, we reminisced about all the fun times we had and Nikky told me about all the silly things I have done that make her laugh – apparently I am a bit of a bumbling Basil Fawlty style idiot at times, so we had a good giggle at that and made our sides hurt! We then realised that the pub was completely deserted, bar us! This made us laugh even more and we enjoyed the rest of our night fly-free, before making our way back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, Nikky finalised her bags and we had a chat on Skype with JJ, before carrying on chatting, internetting and watching tv for a while, then we said our goodbyes (Nikky is leaving in the early hours of the morning) and went to bed, having had a lovely evening.

Enjoying Views With Paihia Seagulls

Vicky got up early this morning for her day trip, so when she left, I got up too and packed my things together. I checked out, put my bags in the ‘hobbit hole’ – a very small luggage area under a stairwell – and went to the beach where I found a bench to chill out on – my bus wasn’t due until 1pm. I just enjoyed sitting and looking at the sunlight highlighting the ripples in the water. It was an incredibly pretty view.

I wandered into town and went to a cafe on the pier, where I sat outside and had a coffee, again enjoying the view. Lots of seagulls were hanging around, looking out for any hint of a scrap of food or an unattended plate – they even swooped at plates which were attended! There was a lot of noise and suddenly a helicopter appeared out of nowhere! It landed right next to the cafe! It got so close, I could see the pilot really clearly! A few minutes later it took off again, really close to the veranda of the cafe and flew away into the distance.

With the helicopter excitement over, I made my way to the shops and had a meander around those, not a lot to see and I had already seen most of it the day before, so it didn’t take long before I was done. Still with time to kill, I headed back to the beach and sat on the bench in the sunshine, reading my book and enjoying the peace and quiet and the warmth from the sun.

When it was 12.45, I went back to the hostel, got back in the hobbit hole and retrieved my bags, before going back outside and sitting on a wall to wait for the bus. I hadn’t been on the wall long before I saw a terrifying large ant with white knees coming straight towards me. I thought to myself “Be brave, B, it’s only an ant and nothing in NZ wants to kill you”, so I stood (or sat) my ground, defiant – until, that is, he went off and came back with a load of his terrifyingly large, white-kneed ant mates. At that point, I surrendered and leapt off the wall!

Shortly afterwards, the bus arrived and a herd of us piled into it, including a couple of girls I had met before. This time, our driver was Scratch (apparently he has had a few knocks with the bus!) and he took us on our journey back to Auckland. The bus went back past the same hills and cows as I had seen along the way to Paihia! There was one thing I didn’t see before, it had me in stitches – it seems that it is quite common for buildings to be made out of corrugated metal (along with a lot of other things that seem to be made out of corrugated metal – they love the stuff) and often when the building is large, they paint big adverts on the roof, like the name of a company (I saw one Scout hut with a roof saying “This Scout Hut Is Proudly Sponsored By...” I forget the name of the company), anyway, we were going along and in the middle of nowhere was a big corrugated metal building and on its corrugated metal roof it said “Jesus For Lease”! Obviously, it must have said something else about Jesus, but they had then put the ‘For Lease’ sign over the top of that. Made me laugh anyway.

We arrived in Auckland and Scratch dropped me at the hostel. The new guy at the check in desk was useless and it literally took me a good twenty minutes to get done – he was trying to do too many things at once, serve three people at the same time and also didn’t seem to know much about what he was supposed to do. Eventually I was checked in and taken to my room – this time Room 5 (I had been in Room 2 with JJ). No sign of Nikky, so I got my stuff sorted and then made use of the free wifi!

Nikky arrived back a while later - it was super great to see her! We sat and chatted for a while, looked at all the things she had been buying (mostly presents, honest!), then sat about and did some internetting, more chatting, watching tv and Nikky packed her bags.

When she was done we decided it was time for dinner. Annoyingly, seeing as NZ is more or less shut 80% of the time it was tough finding somewhere, the choices being; kebab, kebab again, pub grub or Thai, so in the end we settled on Thai. This brought about small traumas over what to have, as neither of us are particularly knowledgeable about this form of cuisine. After a bit of help from the lady, we enjoyed a very delicious dinner indeed!

Back at the ranch, feeling full to the brim, but most satisfied, we got nice and comfy in our room, threw on our PJs, put the tv on and sat there chatting and internetting. Then Nikky set about booking her accommodation for Hong Kong. This was particularly entertaining as she started looking at and researching hotels at about 11.30pm, when I started watching Coyote Ugly on the tv, then another film and then I gave in at 2.30am, whilst she carried on looking!

Paihia: The Joys of Diving

This morning I had to get up ridiculously early for diving, so crept around the room, trying not to make too much noise, before heading into town. It was a five minute walk along the seafront and in the sun, the bay looked very pretty. I grabbed a drink and found the dive shop, where I checked in and got kitted up.

At around 8.30am, once everyone had arrived and all the kit was ready on the large trolleys, we helped wheel them down to the marina, where we loaded the boat up and hopped on. Lots of other, bigger boats were boarding their customers – these were dolphin watching boats. We were introduced to the crew and given a brief by Skipper Roy (from Bracknell!), before he set us off.

The sun was shining and the sea was flat – a perfect day for being on a boat and I felt a lot more stable than I had in Cairns! It looked like I would not need to feed the fish this time! As we made our way out of the bay, we chatted and I found that quite a few people on the boat were from the UK, some of them have moved here, others were just on holiday. We discussed our hometowns and what we thought of NZ. Everyone else raved about it and found it shocking when I said I preferred Australia!

Roy briefed me on my dives and we discussed what I had already covered in Cairns. There were five of us diving together but he was going to be my instructor and buddy, so he described the plan for the first dive at HMNZS Canterbury. This boat had been decommissioned by the navy and was bought by some random locals – including the guy who owned the dive shop I had gone on the trip with. They wanted to purposely sink it in order to create a good dive site. They only paid a couple of dollars for the ship itself, but had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to arrange for the ship to be purposely sunk. It was eventually laid to rest on the seabed on 3rd November 2007. They did it with much precision so that the ship would go down in one piece and sit bolt upright on the bottom, rather than at an angle. They also cut away some parts and made others more accessible and interesting.

The dive itself was out of this world. I got into the water and instantly noticed the dip in temperature, compared to the other dives I have done in Australia. We bobbed about on the surface for a couple of minutes - the chill meant that it was harder than usual to keep my breathing slow and deep, but once I was ok, Roy and I descended along the buoy line to the central section of the ship. After about 10m, the ship came into view and my eyes widened! The closer we got, the more amazing it looked. The visibility in the water was really good, so that really helped make the view more impressive. Seeing as it has only relatively recently sunk, the ship still looks like a ship – more so than the wrecks I saw in Hervey Bay (they had been there so long, it was much harder to see where the sealife stopped and the metal began). We swam around, Roy took my hand to lead me whilst I got used to the depth and had calmed down a bit (I warned him I am a nervous diver when I first descend).
We went along the side of the ship, following the railing, then he took me to a big hole and pointed down it – I looked; it was the ship’s bridge. They’d cut away a big hole in the ceiling of the bridge and smashed out all the windows so that divers could go inside and be able to get out easily. We dropped into the hole and looked around at all the control panels, then had a giggle doing silly gestures, like saluting “Aye, aye Cap’n” style and looking out to sea “Land ho” style through the non-windows!

Next, we went all the way along to the stern of the ship and looked into the aircraft hangar, which now lacked any form of aircraft, merely water and some fish. Actually, thinking about it, the marine life wasn’t as abundant as I thought it would be. There were some plants growing off the deck, some algae and urchins (particularly funky bright purple ones!) on the metal work/chains and some fish, but it was by no means teeming with life. This was insignificant though as the wreck itself was a joy to behold. When we got to the very front, we went over the railing and appreciated how the ship sat perfectly upright in the sand. It also made me appreciate how deep we were – at 27m, this was the deepest I have ever been!

We then followed the deck and railing along the other side and looked through some of the doorways and passages – we didn’t enter them, just looked at where there would once have been sailors running around, following orders. Then Roy put his hand to his ear and looked quizzical, like he could hear something. He did this again, then led us over one of the walls on the top deck, where he reached up and opened a box attached to the wall. I actually laughed out loud when it revealed a telephone and he picked up the receiver, ‘spoke’ into it and handed it to me, pointing in a “It’s for you” way! I took the receiver, ‘spoke’, then hung up!

As we continued around the ship, I had to point out potential hazards to Roy (this is part of the test) and a bit further along the ship we came to where the gun seats were – the guns have been removed but the towers still turn, so we pretended we were firing guns off into the distance. Even though the ship didn’t sink in a disaster, I actually found it quite an eerie feeling, knowing that this boat used to sail the high seas and people used to be walking about where I was swimming. Because the ship was so recognisable as a ship, as nature has not yet taken over completely, the ship really did look alien being at the bottom of the sea. It was this that made the experience so amazing.

When Roy and I ascended, he made me laugh at the safety stop (you have to wait for 3 minutes when you get up to 5 metres below the surface) – to make the time pass, we played rock/paper/scissors and thumb wars! I will definitely remember that for the future – it was a really good idea!

Back up top, we got out and out of our kit, then Roy made everyone a hot drink – just what we needed! Although it wasn’t cold, the sun had gone behind some clouds, so being wet made for a bit of a chill. We hung out there for some time, until the others got back (there was a group of guys doing their Open Water Diver training, so had to learn and practice all the skills). I chatted to a lovely couple from Melbourne and a really nice girl called Fay.

Roy took us to our next dive site – a new one that he hadn’t been to before, but one that Mike (one of the other instructors) had recently come across. It was only a short distance from the Canterbury and was called Pig’s Gully. We anchored up and some of the guys were getting kitted up while the rest of us were chatting, when Debbie (the lady from Melbourne) suddenly pointed and said she’d seen some dolphins, two of them, splashing about, around 10m from the boat. We all looked. We saw nothing, so went back to what we were doing. She saw them again, but again, when we looked, we saw nothing.

We buddied up and got into the water. Roy and I did a free descent and no sooner had we done so when I was suddenly aware of just how clear this water was and how many fish I could see! The sun was shining down on the water, which made for even better visibility and really brightened the colours of everything under the water. The fish were so friendly and inquisitive, some were absolutely stunning. Huge shoals swam about, hundreds of following one another precisely, then all suddenly changing direction at the same split second. My favourite fish were: leatherjackets which are kind of grey and spotty with big pouty lips – they swam right up to my mask to peer in at me, sandagers wrasse which had amazing purple stripes, some nameless dark grey fish with two spots near the tail which twinkled like diamonds and some greenish googly eyed fish that kept sneaking up on me and peering through my mask in my peripheral vision. We swam about and appreciated how beautiful it really was.

Roy then picked up a sea urchin and then suddenly stabbed it, thus smashing it open – within an instant we were surrounded by trigger fish, all clambering at the urchin. Roy put the urchin down and the trigger fish went crazy as they all hustled and bustled to get some of the food! It was quite shocking! We carried on swimming about, around and over a forest of bright orange weed, watching it wafting in the swell and every now and again seeing a little fish peep out from underneath one of the massive leaves. I was having trouble with my bouyancy – they hadn’t put enough weight on my belt and so I kept floating upwards and having to swim back down, in the end Roy was having to hold me down! It was becoming more difficult and we had seen a lot of fish, so I said we should ascend.

Once we had surfaced, Roy raved about the dive and how great it had been – as it was his first time there, it meant he was as awed about it as I was! He then mentioned the sea urchin and I said how much the trigger fish seemed to enjoy it – he asked if I had ever tried one, I said I didn’t think they sold them in Tescos, so no I hadn’t! At that, he dived back down, then appeared a minute or two later with another urchin. We swam back to the boat and hopped out, everyone on board was raving about the dive. Roy didn’t even take his kit off, he set straight to cutting open the purple, spiky urchin. He then handed me what I can only describe as a putrid-orange lump of phlegm and told me to try it, apparently it was delicious. I looked at the revolting blob on my hand, then I looked up at everyone else on the boat, looking at me expectantly; many with a slightly sickened expression. What the heck; I threw it into my mouth and tasted the odd sea-salt taste, mixed with a strange nuttiness, but with an altogether slimy texture which was particularly unpleasant. I swallowed it and everyone cheered. I then wondered if I had been duped, but apparently not; Roy had a bit and said it wasn’t a particularly good urchin, then offered to everyone else. Funnily enough, no one else attempted it!

Then Roy made a revelation. It turned out that the dolphins that had been swimming next to the boat, which no one had seen apart from Debbi, did exist but were not in fact dolphins. They were sharks. Mako sharks. Apparently could have given us a bit of a nip! Still, everyone made it back in one piece and with all limbs attached, so all good!

Once everyone was out of their kit, we started our way back to Paihia. As we were going along, we chatted away to one another. There was a guy called Chris, originally from the UK and now living here for six years, he was telling us all about his job – so interesting – he is a dog handler for the prison service so goes to all the prisons in NZ to search the building, prisoners, staff, visitors, contractors and vehicles for drugs. We then talked about stuff in NZ and I mentioned the tv programmes and it turned out that the Christmas episode of Coronation Street I had watched was in fact from Christmas 2008!

Roy pointed out some dolphins ahead of the boat, jumping out of the water. This time they really were dolphins! They were massive and leaping out of the water so high! Then they disappeared, but moments later, reappeared at the back of our boat, one either side, leaping out of the water so close, I thought they might accidentally land in the boat rather than back in the water! They followed us like this for about 5 minutes, it was so cool!

Once back at the shore, we all helped unload the boat and take everything back to the shop. Fay and I stayed and helped to wash all the kit and put it away, then helped to pack up the gear for the following day; going through the list and making up a bag for each person with the correct sized fins, boots, wetsuit, BCD and a regulator. Then we learned how to fill up the tanks and so set about refilling all the tanks from today. Then it was time for a drink and by that time Roy had come back from cleaning the boat and we set about sorting out my paperwork, thus making me a fully qualified Advanced PADI Diver! Hurrah! I admitted that I had been really worried that the diving would be bad – I explained about my first dives in Hervey Bay being a bit scary owing to the threat of a tsunami caused by the earthquake in Chile and my second set of dives in Cairns being marred by the cyclone from Fiji – I had half expected that the stupid ash cloud from the volcano in Iceland might somehow mess up my dives in Paihia, but thankfully it did not!

When I left the dive shop, I was feeling rather pleased with myself! I went for a mooch around the shops (all 20 of them!) then went back to the hostel where I had a shower and got cosy on my bed in my PJs! A couple of new girls had moved in, so I chatted to them and watched tv – Friends, Neighbours, news and Trinny & Susannah. They were going out and invited me to join them, but I didn’t really feel like it as I was so tired from diving. I eventually convinced myself to get out of bed (it was only 7pm!), threw some clothes on over my PJs and went back to town to grab a couple of things from the supermarket (it really is by no means ‘super’!) and fetch some fish & chips for dinner.

When I got back, one girl had gone out but Vicky was still there, so we chatted whilst she got ready, watching Come Dine With Me. She went out and then another girl came in, it was Vicky’s friend – she had just arrived from Auckland, so I told her which pub to go to. Only a little later, they both came back and we all sat in our PJs watching Restaurant in My Living Room (OMG – this means at some stage I will be aired on NZ tv – how odd is that?!) and then Benidorm, chatting some more and then going to bed.

Bye Bye JJ & Bye Bye JJ!

Got up ridiculously early, put together the last of my things and said a sad farewell to JJ and then left her to go back to bed whilst I headed to the Stray bus pick up point outside the YHA, arriving there at 7.20am. I had been told to get there for 7.30am, with an approximate pick up time of 7.55am. After a while I was joined by a couple of other people, including Anna! She and the other girl were waiting for a different Stray bus. We chatted as we waited, then lady at reception called Stray for us to see where our buses were. Apparently they were on their way. Still nothing. Anna decided to call again at 9.10 and she was told her bus had just left the pick up before hers, she then asked about mine and they asked to speak to me.

I was stunned to hear the woman say that the bus had been and had left because I hadn’t arrived on time! I couldn’t believe it! Anyway, after a lot of faffing about and a lot of being put on hold, it turned out that I had been told to go to one pick up place, but the man had clicked on the wrong one on their system, so they had gone somewhere else to pick me up, whilst I was waiting at the YHA. I was far from impressed with this revelation and from somewhere within me, a different person arose and I found myself saying that leaving tomorrow instead was not good enough. I surprised myself. I was even more surprised when the woman on the phone said that Stray would pay for me to travel from Auckland to Paihia today on a regular Inter-City bus. Wow! She then set about booking my seat on the 1pm bus. Result.

So, I now had time to kill. What to do? There really was only one solution. Back to the hostel for free wifi! I decided to sit in the cafe next door to the hostel, having ascertained yesterday that the hostel wifi signal stretched that far. I grabbed a coffee, text JJ to tell her I was delayed and got online. A while later, JJ appeared and we had a drink together and sat, chatting, until it was time for me to go to the bus station. JJ accompanied me there and waited with me until I boarded. Saying goodbye this time was indeed much harder, I don’t really know why, but it was! I guess there was no doubt this time that it was the last time I’ll see her until August . As the bus pulled out of the terminal, we both waved frantically at one another and I think people must’ve thought us a bit odd!

The bus journey itself was totally non-eventful! In fact, even more dull that being on a long Stray bus – this time there was no music, no speaking and the bus was actually full of actual 12 year olds (and younger!) – being the end of the school Easter hols, it appears NZ parents ship their kids off to visit their grandparents, then the kids get shipped (or, I guess, bussed) home again. It meant lots of 6-13 year olds all travelling alone. The bus driver did not speak at al, other than giving us a big speech at the start of the journey, telling us that eating and drinking on the bus was outlawed – seriously, he went on about it with such ferocity, I was slightly worried he might get a sniffer dog out or something!

After a few hours of passing through hills, with views of cows and sheep, we stopped for a comfort break (we were reminded that this was our one and only chance to eat or drink along the journey!). The driver took us to a very odd cafe which was cow themed. It was excessively cow themed. Cow related pictures, nik-naks, tat, signage, jokes, furniture, cutlery, crockery, wall decorations, statues, plates... They seriously liked cows.

Back on the bus, I whiled away some time listening to my ipod and reading my book. I remembered that I needed to finish off the reading/written tests for my diving tomorrow, so got that done. Then I had a phone call – from my friend Larissa in Australia! It was a lovely surprise! We had a quick chat, she was wondering when I would be going to Berry, so we could make some plan, I told her I was in NZ, so we agreed that we’d sort something out when I get to NSW.

Eventually the bus arrived at Paihia. I got off and waited, then a few minute later, the Stray bus arrived, to pick me up and transfer me to my hostel, which actually turned out to be two minutes up the road. I checked in and went to my room. I was stunned to see it had a tv and it’s own bathroom – not had one of those for a long while! It was a four bed dorm, but there was only one other person in there, a nice guy from Ireland. We chatted for a bit, then he went out and I decided to have a chilled night in, so got settled on my bed, watching tv. Bliss! I watched Friends, Neighbours, the news (OMG about the volcano grounding flights in Europe and an earthquake in China!), then I nearly fell off the bed when Coronation Street came on – the Christmas show! I felt quite at home watching that! After that were two American thriller/crime shows which were quite good. The Irish guy came back and we chatted, watching the news for a bit before deciding that it was time for sleep – diving tomorrow!

OMActualG - what happened to the wifi?!

JJ and I woke up bright and early again this morning, ready for another bout of free internet. However, we were devastated to discover, on booting up our computer s that the wifi system was down! Noooooo! We tried the usual solution to an IT problem; turning it off and on again, but to no avail. This could not be happening! We tried several other things to try and get it to work and I asked a couple of the other guests who were online in the lounge – one could get online and the other couldn’t. Not good! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

At 10.30am we’d had enough of the amazing view out of our window and the frustration of the lack of internet. For this reason, we decided to head out to a cafe across the road that had advertised free wifi for customers. Foiled again – it was closed! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr again. Instead we went to the coffee shop next to our hostel, in the vague hope that the hostel wifi would a) start working and b) stretch far enough to be able to pick up a signal from the cafe. Annoyingly b) was ok, but a) was still a problem. Grrrrrrrrrrrr! Our drinks arrived and the second they did, the cafe across the road (ie the one with free wifi) opened their doors! Double grrrrrrrrrrr! Out of desperation, we finished our drinks and then went across to the other cafe and bought another drink, then at long last we managed to get online using their wifi! Phew! The connection was pretty poor, so it kept dropping off, but seeing as we had been wifi-starved, we appreciated it nonetheless!

Having had our internet fix, we packed up our computers and headed for a wander down Queens Street. We walked through Myers Park (a tiny park in the middle of the city) which was being overrun with school children at the time, but then as we neared the exit we found a moderately interesting statue of some goats (we wondered why goats, rather than sheep or cows). Once out of the park we were back on Queens Street, so we continued along it and mooched into some of the shops, generally having a nice last afternoon together. The highlight was our visit to Wendy’s. Sad, but true. After a bit more window shopping, we stopped for coffee at a cafe, then JJ headed back to the hostel and I went for a further wander. I popped into the Stray office and confirmed where my pick up would be, before making my way back to the hostel.

We were overjoyed to discover that the hostel wifi was back up, so we whiled away our last evening together, chatting about the fun times we have shared together and surfing the internet. Simple, but pleasurable. All good.