Kia ora from the East As! Em and I are currently in the most Eastern reach of NZ, the real rural outback - "chilled as"! After our stay in Waitomo, we headed on down to Taupo, stopping at a pretty obscure angora rabbit shearing place where we watched a huge white fluffball of a rabbit get stretched out on a rack to be shaved bald! It may seem slightly cruel but apparently they would die from overheating if they didn't have their half-yearly haircut...

We shared a dorm with Kim, a post-grad living in Australia whom we've made very good friends with, and Tom, another post-grad, and discussed our plan for the evening - it was Swedish Beach Party night, along with ladies night, at the local bar! Everyone who dressed up got $2 off each drink, so naturally we were all eager! We took a quick shopping trip into town to score some blue and yellow grass skirts and Hawaiian necklaces, whilst the guys ransacked our rucksacks to nab all the dresses and skirts they could find! Before we started to get creative with our attire, we all chipped in to a group meal cooked by the boys, which was delicious. (It was the girls' turn the next day but Em and I were leaving this bus for the East As bus so didn't have to). After a few pre-drinks, a lot of graffitied skin with permanent marker pen ("Swede As!" was a popular tattoo!) and some very butch "lasses", we all headed over to the bar and partied! The barstaff painted the Swedish flag on our faces and arms and with Swedish trivia questions scoring us free shots and various drinking games and competitions throughout the night - it was a lot of fun! The locals didn't really know what hit them...

The next day (slightly disliking the early start!) Em and I caught the little East Bus to take us up to Tatapouri right on the North East coast. We were joined by Arianne, a lovely German girl, and Juri, a Swiss gappy student, so with just us and our crazy Maori driver, Pedro, we made up the East As Five! Like our time on the Bottom Bus right in the south of the country, it was a big contrast to our typically 30+ person bus on the rest of our Kiwi Exp tour. Pedro handed us all a song sheet for a traditional Maori welcome song, written phonetically to ease our pronunciation of their language - we had a bit of a giggle about how Englishified he'd made it for us: "Poor Curry Curry Ah-nah" for "pokarikari ana"...! We have the task of learning this before the end of our 4 days on this bus. Pedro, a very manly, macho sorta-guy, also carries around a little pink Tommy Tippy cup to "ease his slurping of hot drinks whislt driving", he claims - a hilarious sight!

During the journey through the farmlands and secluded valleys of the East, we played a game invented by Pedro: "Hey Sheep". The aim is to shout "HEY SHEEP" as loud as you possible can one at a time out of the bus window to see how many sheep you can get to run - a point for each success and 2 for making them pee from fright! (Juri had the knack of this!). What started off as slightly awkward became a very loud activity - Em won!

True to good ol' Kiwi winter weather, it was pouring when we reached the hostel. We'd booked in to feed some stingrays in the surf but the sea was sadly too rough, so we chilled out at our hostel instead - we literally had a whole shack to ourselves! It was very cute and cosy watching a few films once all the heaters were fired up. Our only visitors were Pedro and a couple of huge cockraches....perhaps slightly more unwanted than the former guest!

On Saturday we visited the set of "The Whale Rider", a successful little NZ-produced film of a Maori tribe and the legend of Paikia, the Whale Rider, the majority of which was filmed in the secluded Eastern region. All of the population of the little village are direct descendants of Paikia - Maori ancestry is very prominent in their culture.

That afternoon we reached our accommodation, a small wooden hut situated in a farm amidst hundreds of acres of pasture and beautiflu hills, right next to the coast. After a short wait for the rain to subside, we ventured out for a horse trek with Reg, our hardcore Maori guide who owns the many horses roaming the hills. He had a hook for his left hand, but his riding was not hindered a bit! He bred all of his own horses and dogs to hunt the wild pigs running wild across the area. (Pedro introduced us to Kevin (bacon) a very cute little spotted pig!). Myself and Em (especially) had waited very patiently for this ride, as it is claimed to be the best in NZ! Joined by a lovely english lady, Jackie, we saddled up our horses and ventured out and onto the beach. Although we were unable to go up into the hills because of the rain, we went for some awesome gallops along the shore, the surf crashing up around the horses legs. It was amazing and such a good way to see the stunning views and land around these parts.

We were treated to a traditional hangi feast cooked over hot rocks whilst we played cards into the night and watched a Michael Jackson tribute on TV - can't believe it was a year ago already! According to good ol' East As bus tradition, Pedro has assigned us the task of coming up with a song about our trip out here to be sung to the next hostel's owner tomorrow morning before we leave, so we busily set to work on our creation...

As our ride had been a little stunted due to the weather and we hadn't paid for the stingray feeding, Em, Juri and I decided to take Reg up on his offer of an early morning ride up and over the nearby hill to see the first sunrise on Earth of the new day, being the most Easterly land mass on the planet. We saddled up in the half light, wrapped up nice and warm, to scramble up the slippery muddy slope to reach the peak overlooking the ocean where we stopped to wait. And it was so worth it; the sunrise was simply awesome, the sky was lit up orange and pink and it felt magical to see it! As Em and I we were his most experienced riders, he took us along the beach again where the river had subsided, galloping right down the coast to the cliffs and back, being the only inhabitants there aside from a large basking seal that we disturbed racing past it, which swiftly loped into the surf. It was to be a gorgeous day and it was a great way to spend the early morning hours! Em, of course, was in her element :) She sped along the sand ahead of everyone else! Even Reg was impressed that we'd beaten him :) Juri had a little more trouble as his horse, Warlord, didn't quite live up to its name - it wasn't quite the Shadowfax he'd been expecting! Reg even amazingly even offered us both a summer job there at his ranch if we ever returned, working with the horses in schooling and riding them - very tempting!

After a good hot drink and shower, we departed from our little hut and set off for Te Kaha, our last stop on the East As bus. We took a walk up to the 800 slippery steps to reach the East Cape lighthouse on the way, taking some wacky photos involving various poses with an island in the distance, before we arrived at our last hostel, a cute, family-run, rather basic house with a bonus - it has a fully heated hot tub at the bottom of the garden right on the sea front! As there's a chance that we'll be staying up to watch the England vs. Germany football match at 2am (!) we may still have time to take a dip before kick off...!

Tomorrow we head back to Taupo for a few days, but the East As bus has been awesome - definitely chiled as, as the Kiwi's would say :)

Love to everyone, Stephanie and Em xxxxx