A homely few days!

My location will probably change quite a lot while writing this, but I’m currently sat in a cafe in Blenheim, after just leaving Nelson a few hours ago!  After much thought and discussion, I’ve decided to go down the east coast to Dunedin, instead of going to the glaciers on the west. The main reason for this is only that I really fancied either the glaciers or a place called Kaikoura by the sea, and there wasn’t a bus running until tomorrow for the glaciers. I would have hitch hiked, but I really wanted to just have a nice bus journey without having to think too much, and I may not have made it to the glaciers in one day, which I really needed to do! So yeah, that’s what’s happening 🙂 

The past few days have been luxury, I’ve spent time with two lots of family friends in Wellington and Nelson, and I’ve been really spoilt! Before that however, I spent 3 days in Taupo with a friend from school called Sam, who has been in New Zealand for 9 months! We did a walk called the Tongariro crossing, which is meant to be the most popular walk in New Zealand. All the way through you’re walking on volcanic terrain, and between three active volcanoes, so it’s pretty different to walking at home! We got up at 6, and were out hitch hiking by 7, as the crossing was on the other side of Lake Taupo. We made it in three trips, and were walking by 10…which gave us just enough time! The two main volcanoes it runs through are called Mount Tongariro and Mount Ngauruhoe, the latter was used for Lord of the Rings, which is pretty awesome! You can climb to the top of it too, but we didn’t have time. Unfortunately it was a bit of a bleak day, it didn’t rain, but you couldn’t see too much, it was mostly red volcanic rock! Yet there are also some sulphur lakes, that are an amazing clear blue. The walk down also gave us amazing views of a lake called the blue lake in the foreground, and Lake Taupo in the background, with misty mountains surrounding them, which was pretty amazing! Lake Taupo is also around 40/50k long too, which is incredible!
Sam and I couchsurfed while we were in Taupo as well, the host was nice, but not really my kind of person. It was still a lot of fun though! We couchsurfed with three German girls, who were really great, and we did the crossing with them.
We also bumped into the tour group Kiwi Experience on the way down, so we jumped in with their tour guide! I met a big range of travellers that day! The girls from Germany were incredibly into couchsurfing and hitchhiking, and were adament on not spending any money, too much so probably that they seemed to go quite far to save money and not stay in hostels! Whereas when we bumped into the kiwi experience lot, it was one extreme to another. One of the girls told me she had spent $1000 in the past week, and every day they were doing expensive activities…I don’t think they would even think about couchsurfing! I find myself in the middle, I love the idea of saving money and staying with locals, but I love hostels too. I was thinking I would have perhaps liked to have done the kiwi experience, perhaps just to meet the people and to travel with people, but looking back I’m glad I didn’t, it seems like they don’t want to branch out at all, and do what they are told to do. Their guide mentioned when they were going to Wellington they just need to spend one day there because the Te Papa museum is the only thing to do, so it doesn’t seem like they get to really see and explore a place (to me they are kind of missing the point of being somewhere), they just go for the tourist activities and then move on! Which I don’t think is what it’s about…I felt like I needed to mention that!

But anyway, that was the main thing I did in Taupo, it was awesome to see Sam, and hear all of his stories, we talked a lot about how strange it will be going home too and seeing everyone…which it really will be! I left early the next morning to hitch hike to Wellington, where I would be staying with family friends called Sarah and Robert. I left my tight leggings in Taupo, which put a bit of a downer on things, I really liked those…

So I left quite early with the aim to hitch hike to the capital Wellington, which is at the very bottom of the north island! I was quite nervous about this one, because it was quite a way, and I really wanted to make it in one day, which I did! It was quite the adventure. I got picked up by 6 people in total, firstly by a woman who kindly just took me to the main road because I think she felt sorry for me with my bags. Then I was picked up by a man who owned a backpackers, who had also sailed round the world twice, a tour rep, a guy in his 20s who trained and competed in horse jumping (he sounded like he was quite good), a 65 year old traveller, who was so full of energy and life it was great! He also planned to go to university when he was 70. And finally a Maori truck driver, who carried thousands of beef bones! It wasn’t the perfect day, I waited for just under two hours twice, so was getting a tad worried then, but I was so thankful to the truck driver who took me to Wellington! I arrived at around 7 I think, and Sarah came into the city to pick me up, which was really nice of her! We went home to an incredibly good meal with fish they caught themselves (I think?)! Sarah and Robert, and their dog Evie (!) were old friends of some close friends of ours, they were so so nice, I felt really at home and very relaxed, and I got on really well with them both! They lived in a village called Eastbourne, which is a kinda suburb of Wellington. I really liked Wellington, it had some awesome, modern buildings, mixed in with some quirky ones along the harbour, and some really cool streets! You could also catch the ferry across the harbour which was very picturesque, and windy! The main attraction, like the kiwi experience guide said, is a huuge museum called Te Papa, which is 6 floors of all sorts relating to New Zealand! They’ve also got a place called the Weta Workshop, which is a film production company who have worked on the Lord of the Rings films. I went to have a look around their workshop which was incredibly cool! On the Saturday Sarah and Robert took me out for a really nice lunch by the sea, and we went for a walk to a point called the red rocks…which are red rocks, but cool red rocks, and they’re really red! The redness comes from lava formed from volcanic eruptions under the sea from millions of years ago, which is amazing to think about! We also got to see a seal colony up close! In the evening we sat down to watch the rugby, which was really fun! Especially watching it with some Kiwis! We lost though, but I think we pushed New Zealand quite a bit! I also bought some multi coloured leggins that day, so it was a pretty crazy day! It was soon time to leave, and catch the ferry to the South Island! I didn’t really want to go, but I had the comfort of knowning I had more family friends at the other end!

The ferry goes along the Marlborough Sounds before you arrive at a very small town called Picton. Despite the rain, it was beautiful!…

*I knew I wouldn’t finish this in good time…it’s now 5 days later and I’m in Dunedin, which is all the way down towards the bottom of the South Island! But anyway…

I got to Picton, and started hitch hiking straight away to a place called Nelson, which is where Tricia and Matt live. Tricia is an old nursing friend of my Mums, when they weren’t much older than I am now! Nelson is just over an hours drive along to the coast to the west. Hitchhiking went really smoothly, and I was there by 3! Tricia and Matt were so so nice (again!) and welcoming, I arrived to homemade soup and pizza! Like in Wellington, they made me feel really at home. It was nice to relax and talk about home and family too. Unfortunately it was raining the whole time I was there! So I spent my time getting wet really…but I went for good runs and bike rides! And they had the best two dogs, one of which was a Westie! So I took them for a few good walks! The weather didn’t bother me too much, apart from not seeing the view maybe, but I was able to relax even more! I had some really awesome homely meals again too! It was a nice break from my own attempt at cooking! Again, I didn’t really want to leave, but I think I just needed to get going again! But that week was a really nice break, and I’m really greatful to Sarah, Robert, Tricia and Matt for being so generous! 🙂

So I’ve now done a full circle back to the cafe in Blenheim, even though I’m now far from there! I’ve written so much I think I’ll stop for now, but I’ll really really try and get the rest done tomorrow!