After Wellington,
everywhere we were going to go would be somewhere we'd been before
because the bus goes back up North along the same route. However,
this was good as we had left some activities to do in these places
because we knew we would be coming back.
The night before we
left Wellington, the driver (our old friend Buzz, who we had for our
first ever bus and really didn't like), came into the social area of
the hostel and offered to take everyone up to the top of the mountain
in Wellington (Mt. Victoria) to get a view over Wellington at night.
That was really nice of him actually. I was ready for bed at this
point, but quickly slipped on a fleece and up we went to the top of
this mountain at 11pm. We had some nice new people on the bus,
including two gay guys from Liverpool, one of which was wearing a
goats fur vest (who takes a goats fur vest round the world with
them??). Anyway, they were also in our dorm and we really got on with
them. It was cool to see Wellington at night but it was very chilly
as I only had my pyjamas on under my fleece. On the way back to the
hostel, Buzz decided to drive us all through the tunnel under the
mountain, which is extremely narrow (our bus only just squoze
through) and then he tried to scare us all by turning all the lights
off and nearly drove into the tunnel wall. It was scarier than some
of the buses in South America. When we got out the tunnel, there was
another bus about to enter from the opposite direction. If we had
been in that tunnel a few seconds later with the lights off, it would
have been a head on collision.
The next day we set off
to Taupo and on the way we stopped at a kiwi sanctuary where we
finally saw real life kiwis! There was even a lesser-spotted white
one and a kiwi chick. Jemma accidentally left her flash on when the
sign said not to so she got quite a good photo. After this, we
continued onto Taupo where we returned to the hostel we stayed in at
Christmas. I didn't enjoy the hostel at Chirstmas, but we were
looking forward to going back there as Jemma's mum had sent a
Christmas parcel for us that had finally arrived and the manager had
found me on facebook to tell me it was there – with 40 stamps on
it! We had a fantastic night unwrapping all of the treats inside,
including tesco own brand chocolate! (My favourite!) and Heinz beans!
Also in the box, were mince pies, which made Jemma very popular with
the man behind the bar as they were his favourite food. We rang
Jemma's mum on Skype to say thanks (thanks Barbara!) and then I ate
two bars of chocolate before I went to bed and couldn't sleep that
night at all (due to sugar overload?). It was better than actual
Christmas day in Taupo.
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