Short and sweet

Hey everybody,
This is just a quik post to let you all know that YES I am alive! I know my parents got a little on the uneasy side for a while there..... sorry :S
Since internet is rather on the costly side, and money is something I'm a little short of I'll fill you in on the basics then post some longer updates in a day or 2.
Ok, good news Sarah and I got really well paying jobs today! We are working for a ompany that does paid advertising for 'Save the Children' and the 'Christian Children's Fund'. It is commisioned work but the comission off of each pledge is great. We also now have a place at a long stay 'private' hotel on the North shore of Sydney in an area called Kirribilli. The rent is cheap but I think that's all that is around here! More wondering is necessary to get tp know our new neighbourhood, I do fear that a map and good pair of walking shoes will be a necessity. Perhaps even food for when we get truly lost and can't find our way home!
Ok time's almost up, more numerous and interesting posts to come... even with pictures! Thanks to some help from a new friend :)
Love ya all,
Booth

May 31 - Wellington to Nelson

Another day, another early morning. It doesn't help that for the second day in a row one fo the girls sharing the bunks with us felt it necessary to turn on all of the lights in the room while she was getting ready. Couldn't tell you much about her, she never said hello mor even looked at us for the 2 nights we shared a room together. You would think that while travelling she would know the hostel room drill. It goes as follows...
1) You or the new person walks into the room with piles of bags.
2) "Hello, my name is Sara."
3) "Hi, I'm (insert name)"
4) "Where are you from?"
5) "(insert country), I've been traveling for x number of days/weeks/months. Where have you been?"
6) And on the cycle goes, so that you know the basics of the people you will be sleeping with for the next night or two. It is only the nice thing to do.
Anyways, to the ferry to check in luggage in exchange for plastic reusable boarding passes (ingenious).
The ride itself travels through beautiful scenery which reminded me of the Cape Breton area on the east coast of Canada. Perhaps even the thousand islands if that's a better point of reference. The view was good enough to stand out in the freaking wind for hours and taking countless pictures. Mel went photo happy.
Quick bus off to Nelson, yet another 'montrous' town. In good hostel nature this is what I found out about the people I was rooming with for the night...
Yos (Jos) from the Netherlands, is here for the long run and wants to get a job locally gutting fish, David is from Australia does road work and has a formal profession of truck driver, 3 South Africans (sorry don't remember the names) are around for a few weeks to go on long energy draining tramps, and my room is colder than a nun's bed.
In the kitchen we met 2 more Irish travels, and yes they were making potatoes as well. The English sausages they made were disturbingly cheap, the outside shrank while the filling expanded to create the illusion of complete disgust. It was at least a conversation starter... Anyways they were cool and made for good convo.
Ok, the free time is now up so I'm off until tomorrow, when there will be even more updates.
Love ya all,
Booth

May 30 - Wellington

Sweet, an entire day in one city to wonder and enjoy ourselves! This ment an early start to take advantage of all of the time we have in the capital of New Zealand. Of course our first stop was at the country's national museum, Te Papa (fun to read and spell). Unfortunately we didn't take the time to check when it open and our eager spirit got us there 30 mins before it even opened. Overpriced museum coffee it is.
Finally got in and spent hours looking at the wildlife and cultural exhibits, not to mention some pretty good photography bits. The place has a total of 6 floors, we only covered 4 in the 3 hours we were there. Even then we rushed through quite a lot.
Then it was time to get lost (trying to follow a set walking tour of course), and find brunch. A bizarre looking breakfast place that advertised all day breakfast was our choice. Unfortunately the meals I could eat were incredibly overpriced. This left me to the bacon nachos covered in bbq sauce and tomato butter. One of the more unique dishes I have recently had the luxury of trying, it really wasn't too bad. I may even try immitating it myself when I get home.
Not knowing what to do next we headed off to the ever helpful visitors centre. Where we happened to run into our potato boiling Irish friend who was just as clueless as us. He gave us some pointers on the South Island and us gave him some on the North. Then off to book buses and hostels for the next night or two. All I will say about this is that Intercity coachline sucks and has way too much fine print for my liking, bookings took at least an hour.
Most expensive trip of the day... $1 ride on the big red cable car to the top of a hill. Nothing quite like the student discount. Ended up at the Botanic Gardens around sunset to take some great pictures. A quick stroll through the garden (we were hungry and cold) past the parliament buildings, ours are more impressive ;) And back to make ourselves dinner.
This time there was the Irish guy making even more potatoes. Mel went to bed early and I ended up staying up way too late talking to Gene (Irish guy) about random things, such as the distrubing life of Micheal Jackson.

May 29 - Taupo

Rain, snow, wind, ugliness... The weather was so bad that the Tongariro crossing bus refused passengers for the day. Since this was the only reason for us stopping in Taupo it was basically a waste of a day.
I was Sunday so next to nothing was open, the hostel had nowhere for us to store our bags so we had to carry it with us. We ended up rescheduling a bus to Wellington for the earlier mid-afternoon one and spending hours in a coffee shop. Then even more time at the bus depot. Where oddly enough we ran into Sylvia again, the German girl from Waitomo.
Not much to do in Wellington by the time we got there. Just made dinner and made friends with an irish fellow making of all things, potato stew. Ended up talking to him about any number of things, and settled into bed kind of early. The hostel itself was an old art deco hotel that Queen Elizabeth II stayed at in 1953 (if you care about that sort of useless info). The power kept on going out and the elevator was a little iffy. Otherwise it was a nice place and we got our own bathroom attached to the bedroom. We were just plain pooped, so off to bed we went.

May 28 - Rotorua, again

A new day and a chance for new beginnings. Time to retry that walk from yesterday under a sunnier sky. This time the lake was calm but the swans were still evil. The beauty of the view can make one easily understand how it has inspired a maori love story involving the lake (if you really want to hear it just let me know). So as not to miss out this time we headed from the lake straight for the park of boiling mud. After a little initial disappointment, and only seeing less impressive boiling water (we do get that in pots regularly afterall) success! We spent a good hour here checking out the numerous muddy upwellings and the damage they have occasionally done when they spouted water all over the place.
Then back along the lake and a leisurely stroll through the Botanical Gardens, which confussingly surround a golf course, spas and museum. The walking paths hold warnings that if one wanders off the marked areas they may fall into large holes of steaming water and mud. Just a little freaky.
A good 2 hours were then spent at the museum which used to be a ground breaking spa and therapy centre. The tour guide was really into the place and tended to drone on every now and then.
So that's what there was to do within walking distance in Rotorua. Our bus didn't leave the town until 11 pm so we wasted the rest of our time at the Warehouse (kinda like a K-mart) buying warm clothes we had forgotten to bring for the depths of the south and the Tongariro crossing. We then bought books to read and sat on couchs in the hostel common room until we had to leave for the bus.
In between Mel stopped at what seemed like everyother doughnut shop just to buy bags of fresh mini doughnuts.
The bus reached Taupo around 1 am and since we had next to no energy left, a very incorrect map and I was sans my glasses/contacts finding the hostel was a task and a half. We snuck in and truly confused the guy already sleeping in the room by himself.

May 27 - Rotorua

So here we are in Rotorua, and the weather is a tad on the dreary side. Clouds, wind, random downpours of rain. But the determined travellers we are, Mel and I battle on, sticking with the motto that it is better to see a wet Rotorua, than no Rotorua at all.
In order to get an overall instensive introduction to the place we decide to take up the good old lonely planet on one of its proposed selfguided walking tours. Mainly beause it's free! Light was diming so we had to make haste.
The walk started at the information centre and was supposed to end at Lake Rotorua. Technically... but after leaving the visitor's centre we walked into the Lake... obviously a wrong turn was taken somewhere... and so went the walk for another good hour and a half. We did see a very angry lake, which suitably had very angry black swans hanging out on it. As well as the exterior of a pretty anglican church and a maori meeting house (I think they are called marae???). By the time we reached the close by park of boiling mud, it was pitch black and we could see nothing, even my headlamp was no match for the dark void of the night. Thankfully Rotorua is only a few blocks wide and it didn't take long for us to get back to our hostel to make some ghetto dinner.
With our bellies full and muscles tired it was time for my favourite destination of the town. The natural healing powers of the hot springs of the Polynesian Spa (on the same street as our hostel!) overlooking the lake on a moonlight night. They had a number of pools ranging from 38-42 degrees celsius and for the low low price of $12 one can spend an unlimited amount of time in them. We spent over 2 indulgent hours.
While lounging in one of the lakeside pools we had a conversation about a number of topics with a local man who came to the pools at least a couples times a week. He travelled a lot but loved his pools. The surreal part of the conversation was that he looked exactly like Bilbo Baggins from the movie 'Lord of the Rings'. Overcome with awe and a touch of humour I was never able to quite get over this fact.
Once kicked out of the pools at 11 pm we dragged our relaxed bums back to the hostel one last time for the night and passed out in bed under big fluffy duvets. A room we had all to ourselves by the way!

May 26 - Waitomo... possibly day 7

We leave the bustling metropolis that is Auckland and head south. After multiple plan changes we have made the executive decision to head to the Waitomo caves. One of the highlights we both have been looking forward to since we started reading those travel books. More on the details later...
The bus ride was not too bad. Once out of the city scenery improved. Rolling hills with green grass, green trees, and hundreds upon hundreds of cows. "Cows?!" you say? Yes, cows. The country reknowned for its sheeping farming is covered in cows. The sheep are mainly further south where the grass is less lush. Much of the grass in the north is considered to be too good to waste on sheep, and more worthy of the cows. The kiwis may love their sheep (no jokes please), but they don't love them THAT much.
Waitomo, a different place. I would not be surprised if Waitomo's population numbered around 50 people. Even then it sounds like a bit of an overestimate. The entire community seems to thrive off of the tourist dollar, booming thanks to the naturally occuring glowworms that habituat hundreds of local caves. Which in reality are found all over the country, this place just happens to be their paradise.
The starkness of the village is particularily jolting when juxtiposed (oh yes I went there) against Auckalnd and Sydney, our only basis' of comparison. Thankfully being a tourist hotspot there are plenty of things to see and do within a 10 min walking distance.
For our first activity of the day, which was delightfuly free, I must ask Connie to skip down past it to the paragraph marked with an asterix. I have deemed this a continuation of the "Connie safe zone".
Ok, now that she's gone .... ;)
This town does not have your usual sheep shearing (perhaps there are not that many sheep???), but Abysinian Rabbit shearing. It is basically done via tying the rabbit up by all 4 legs and placing them onto a contraption that spins a creepily looks like the rack. No not a rack of sumptuous ribs, the torture device that was in vogue for a while in the middle ages. Having the rabbit in such a posture made it easy to spin and shear with very large, and very scary looking electric shears. The whole process looked rather dramatic and traumatizing for the animal. They tried to tell us that the rabbits enjoyed the process but this was a little hard to believe since it was struggling to free itself. This leads me to a strong believe that rabbits do not enjoy S&M. All said and done if you're in the village than do it just because you can. Be warned though, they will attempt to sell you ludicrously priced rabbit fur hats and sweaters.
*Connie Safe Zone* - Back to the hostel to get out of the drizzle and await the door-to-door pick-up involved in our next slightly pricier venture. Or roommate of the night, Sylvia (we think that was her name), a really nice quiet German girl trying to rush through the entire country in a short time span just like us.
Ah yes, Rap, Raft & Rock... a Waitomo caves adventure led by a guy that we swear was permanently doped and fathered by a lemur. When you think about it, this should really make the day that much more exciting... and for some reason we trusted him not to let us die. When he arrived to pick us up in a beat up 4WD - had an endless supply of 'holyshit bars' - and took us to the company headquarters (someone's house), the sketch factor was high. We felt a little better to find out we were not alone on this death defying trip. Two guys from the US (Tom from Arizona and John from California) had made a last minute booking to join us. We started our 5 hour adventure off with a wetsuit fitting, hardhat
(with headlamp), rock climbing harness and some abseiling lessons, and after 5 minutes of instruction we felt confident enough to lower ourselves down into a dark watery pit using only a rope. Of course I had to be the first in line to try it out. Mel went incredibly slowly simply because she didn't weigh enough to go any faster!
Once at the bottom and with a normal heartrate we got our innertubes and rode down into the deep dark caves. We floated and walked for a good few hours, many times completely in the dark and not knowing what we would bounce into next. The ceiling was completely coated in glowworms! It was a mesmorizing experience... the night sky had invaded these caves and it seemed as if the stars always shined brightly. Everyone has to experience this!
Upon our return to the open pit it was night out and had been raining. So the only reasonable thing to do was climb up the steep muddy slope over pointy rocks. Finally undressing from the stench encrusted wetsuits and hitched a ride back for dinner to our hostel with our new american friends, who were living in their van... and as such didn't really care which parking lot they ended up in.
In good Booth style I ended up talking to them late into the night and got very little sleep.

Ok so maybe a little later than tomorrow...

I now finally have 2 FREE hours of internet, can you believe it?! After a week of, "$1 should get you about 10 mins" - how do they not know? - I now have the time and money to post a copious amount of blogs. So today is your lucky day, sit back and relax the review of my last week of travels in the land of the kiwi.