Stray bus adventures - north island..

So by the end of this section it may become more apparent why we have been so slow updating the blog this month!!

We left Auckland with only 2-3 hours of sleep under our belts heading south. Our new driver for this leg was metro. We boarded the bus which was absolutely jam packed with Strays. We were probably reasonably shabby company for that first day or two with sleep never being far from our minds!!

The first day took us to Hahei where the warm water beach is. This is a beach where the hot springs feed lovely warm water into the sand. You have to dig down then you can enjoy being warmed by the nice sand (apparently).......Unfortunately not for us as we missed out on this experience as tides were not in our favour. We did get to sea kayak out into Cathedral cove, some huge white cliff face along that coast line. The kayaks were two man and team mclou managed pretty well as there were some big waves around the shore line. Highlights were definately launching out from the beach head on into the big surf and the hot chocolat prepared for us on the secluded beach. Not to mention tom and teds attempt to get through a little cave..hitting against the edges the whole way through. A nice experience but one I'm sure is supposed to be enjoyed on a sunny summers day when the wind is not blowing the wrong direction creating the big swells, but we kinda liked that!!

We did have a nice BBQ that night but early to bed was unavoidable as we were falling asleep in our diner following our previous nights excesses in Auckland!!

The next day was back on the bus and heading from east side to west coast (and slightly south to Raglan. This is one of the top surfing destinations in NZ. We stayed in an amazing hostel in the rainforest, with zip line through the forest and loads of facilities. A good place to kick back and enjoy get to know everyone on the bus. We had some offical teammclou to attend to. we got our IRD number and kiwi bank account sorted thanks to a lovely lady in a post office.

The next day we headed down to Waitomo caves, a place with a zillion or less caves to explore and some pretty good hiking. We all had the chance to do some exploring, abseiling, caving and see some glow worms in their hundreds. We chose to take the cheaper option and go off on a couple of hour walk, explore our own caves and stop by a local shop to watch the Rabbit shearing!!

That evening we had a cultural evening in Uncle boys place Maketu, we were welcomed to and stayed in a Maori village. It was a nice evening the boys got to learn the Haka, dressing up in traditional wears (a see through skirt and your undies) and the girls learnt to do a Maori dance in traditional dress. We were fed by the chief and his villagers for that night we were to follow the traditional village rules.we all slept in a village hall on a matress, we all got to know eachother pretty well.

The next day we headed down to Rotorua, a cool looking town but one we decided to pass through. It smells a bit like rotten egg, caused by the sulphur due to all the geothermal activity. we visited the bog of eternal stentch. We would have loved a day to spend on the world class mountain bike tracks but apparently we would have to wait four days for the next stray bus which we decided was a bit too long.

Enroute to Taupo we stopped at the hot springs these were incredible, so hot and we all struggled to get out of the beautifully warm water. Taupo was a sky dive destination for some on the bus but we waited with great difficulty while the others made their jump as we had planned to do ours in Queenstown. We were impressed with our discpline not to jump with the others but still green with envy when they all returned to the hostel that night high as a kite.



The next day proved to be our second favourite activity in NZ to date...........The Tonagariro crossing. This is sold as the world number one day hike!!.....and it didnt disappoint!! We had a fantastic day, hiking and in places climbing through a valley with a stream running along side, then we caught a glimps of mount doom...an active volcano we climbed a grueling ascent towards the volcano,to earn the right to take in some of the most amazing vista we think we'll ever see!! With signs warning that if it starts spitting rocks, smoking, or pouring with lava that you should RUN!

Once we'd climbed up we walked through a crater of a volcano, once over to the other side we caght a glimps of emerald lakes, they were really green due to the sulphur. As we reached the next peak the wind picked up, which was a little unnerving, the desent was on loose rocks that kind of fall down with you as you walk down, laura got a little freaked out. once on solid ground again and after walking past the lakes we then walked over shrubland and ended the walk going through lush rainforest. unbelievable!! It was a great day and one we wont forget for a long time. We headed back to the superb hostels hot tub for a much deserved soak then feed and beer!! The stray bus had conquered the volcano and we were a tight nit group at the end of this day!!

From the Tongariro hostel we headed south to Wellington where we enjoyed our last night in the north island, before we crossed over to the south island the next day!!