Day 5: 5/1/13
Everyone had to get up at about half 6 this morning as we were leaving at half seven. Lots of tired heads! The showers and toilets are in a block outside and it fairly wakes you up when you have to walk outside for the toilet! The sun was shining though and the air was nice and crisp so a nice morning!
We had a long enough bus journey then to Raglan. It's was about four hours in total. We stopped I somewhere called Paeroa for the driver to get petrol and everyone to get drinks and toilets. We drove onto Hamilton then where we stopped in the supermarket again. This is the fourth biggest city in New Zealand. The part we saw wasn't big but we were probably on the outskirts. A big group of us decided to group together for dinner so we went around the shop getting ingredients for a big spaghetti bolognese! It worked out at about $8 each I think for loads of food!!
Also, in Hamilton they have a field day thing every year with animals and machinery to do with agriculture. Basically it's like the ploughing championships!
The scenery all day was lovely, really green. In some places there were lots of green fields, just like Ireland and then in others there were lots of hills and lots of green tropical trees.
We got to Raglan around one. It's a famous beach/surf town. Apparently it has the longest left handed in the world, whatever that means in surf world! We got off there for a little walk around the town which was small but pretty Then we were brought to the hostel which was about 10 minutes from the beach, at the foot of a hill and in the bush.
Affer checking in some people went surfing but most of us were back in the bus to see some waterfall. We dropped people off at the beach first and the car park was really full. Some people had parked right on a corner so the bus couldn't get through and we couldn't go to see the waterfall. Instead we just stayed on the beach. We had around two hours sitting around on the sand which meant the sand got everywhere! I hadn't put on my swimsuit as we were supposed to be going to the waterfall. I had it with me but I didn't bother to change, just sat the way I was. As it was I think my shoulders got a bit burnt, so good job there wasn't too much of me out! The sun was right overhead glaring down- it was really strong. Apparently New Zealand has no ozone layer either so plenty of sun cream needed. There were loads of people on the beach- lots of people surfing and lot of families. It was good but I probably would have preferred the waterfall.
We went back to the hostel the and speed cooked the dinner. Some of us did a load of chopping and prep and then went and washed up. We had spaghetti bolognese and a side salad. I think 17 people ate it and there was still more left! It ended up only costing $5 as so many people ate it! Great way to get dinner!!
We had a cruise then on the harbour for the sunset. It was lovely. The boat drove out from the wharf along the bay until it reached the point where it hour the ocean, kind of a narrow strip and there you could see the sun going down over the ocean. It was gorgeous! There was lots of nice scenery along the bag as well- weird rock formations like stacks and houses up in trees and beaches, very varied! We all had a few beers on the boat too so it was good.
We sat around the table when we came back and they started a drinking game called ring of fire. I didn't play as I didn't really want to drink any more (we've a busy day tomorrow) but I watched and it was good fun.
I snuck off to bed early enough though as I was wrecked from all my nights with no sleep. Bed at 11 for me tonight!! There are so many people on the trip I still haven't been speaking to them all. I saw faces today that I hadn't even seen yesterday so it's hard to meet everyone! There's a whole group of people in their twenties all travelling on their own so we have all sort of grouped together. There are a lot of Germans on the trip, a lot of English, twoAustralians two Americans, some Dutch people, a South African, some Swedish people.... From what I know so far! There are also two Irish from Dublin. It seems to be a really good trip to get talking to people, even though every day there are different activities and people choose lots of different things.