7th February 2011

Today I got up at 5.30am :o/ We had to be on the bus at 6.30am to head towards Tongariro as some people wanted to do the crossing which takes all day to do. I decided not to do it as I am far too lazy for all that.

We got to the tour guide station and everyone who was doing the hike got off the bus - the weather wasn't good so apparently they had to do it today as the mountain would be closed for sure tomorrow. And they had to take a guide today. Seemed just like they wanted to make money to me.

The rest of us went to the hostel and checked in. I am in a room with Sinead, Livvy, Holly, Lucia and Claire (who got off the bus to do the walk). We have an en suite! And a fridge! A FRIDGE! Amazing what excited after a while of travelling!

We decided to go for a walk to a lookout over a waterfall and the lady at reception said it would take about an hour and a half. So, we set off down a dirt track and walked....and walked...and walked. We came across a man in a pick up truck. We walked. The road got really muddy. We came across a man in a digger. By this point we had been walking for an hour and a half and the lookout was nowhere to be seen. We asked the man in the digger and he said they had been down the road about 3km and there was nothing else down there. Soooo, we decided to turn around. It was raining after all! We walked back to the man in the pick up truck and Sinead talked to him until he offered us a lift back to the hostel! He was a nice man and had the most impressive mullet I had ever seen.

When we got back we went for a spa (yes, the hostel has a SPA) and went out to the bar for tea. I had carbonaro. Nom nom nom!

8th February 2011

Today we slept in as it was the first time in a week that we didn't have to get the bus which was such a relief! Sinead was leaving today to go to Auckland for a wedding so we walked her to the train station to say goodbye :o(

We watched Rumour Has It and went out for tea again...I had carbonara again! Would you have guessed I like pasta?

I skyped Mum, Dad and Benji and it made me happy :o)

9th February 2011

Benji's birthday today! I sent him a facebook message from the future to wish him happy birthday :o)

Lucia got up at 6am to go and do the crossing and Holly left at 9am to get the bus to Wellington - which just left me, Livvy and Claire :o( My bus was at 12 so I skyped and got ready and Livvy and Claire walked me out to the bus. It was very sad to say goodbye to them.

As we got about half an hour down the road the driver pulled over because his accelerator pedal was stuck down! There was loads of smoke coming out but he managed to unstick it so all was good. I was thinking it would be just my luck for another bus to break!

We got into Auckland at 5pm and San and Dave were there to pick me up. Homemade soup for tea!

Did you know that in Canada they called daddy long legs 'mosquito hawks'?

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