"Whenever I get anxious about walking across the street, I think about how old people must feel- and they can't even walk fast!!!"

On the road again...


And now, Part 2 of our Easter Break Adventure.

Sunday April 15th

It was two very groggy and sleep deprived foreigners who made it onto the bus that morning in New Plymouth.  The bus trip to Paihia took us all day, and thus was particularly uneventful, given that we spent the majority of the time trying to avoid numb bum, boredom, and ultimate irritation at the happy, obviously rested people around us. Sara and I are great traveling partners because we both know what it's like to be tired and grumpy, and we were typically tired and grumpy at the same time. Our tactics for dealing with such feelings are actually quite similar- we don't talk and wait for them to go away. In this way, we didn't have any conflicts throughout our trip.


I also developed a technique for securing two bus seats for myself over the course of this trip. A music-playing device, such as an iPod, is key. You can feign blindness to your surroundings then, and as such not see the people eyeing up the potential empty seat beside you. Sunglasses= also key. When people can't see your eyes, they can't judge where you're looking, or if you're a psychopath, so they're less likely to try to sit with you. Thirdly, sit in the back- people are inherently lazy and will fill up the seats in the front of the bus first, before moving to the back. Sit with either your body, or your things, across both seats- people will be less willing to make you move yourself, or your bags, because they don't want to inconvenience you.


Lastly- especially if you don't have sunglasses on- avoid eye contact and keep a straight face. None of this half smile stuff either, people sense a smidgen of warmth or welcome, and they pounce on the seat beside you like jungle cats. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point. This is, also, coincidentally my fatal flaw. The above paragraph makes me sound like an awful person, and maybe I am. These are techniques I have observed work for others in the past, and they have also worked for me- if implemented successfully. My biggest problem is that I feel guilty partway through the act, and then... make eye contact with someone. This is a mistake. Even slight eye contact (especially combined with an unintentional half-smile) is the recipe for cramped legs, an invaded personal space bubble, and an unknown bus buddy.


All summed up, try to re-create this persona when you are looking to be anti-social on your bus trip:

Agent Smith from the Matrix movies= the best "don't sit with me" face ever. Note: he doesn't even need an iPod to portray this emotion- people will intuitively avoid sitting with him at all costs, most likely for self-preservation reasons.

Now this is assuming, of course, that you are tired of people sitting beside you. If you're feeling the least bit sociable, make eye contact, let someone sit beside, and get to know someone new. You never know, they might just be super cool and a great travel companion.


But, alas, I digress. We spent that night, and the following night, at Peppertree Lodge/hostel. We really just crashed on Sunday night because we were so tired from the trip, and because we had to get up early the next morning for our trip out to Cape Reinga.

Monday April 16th

I am now seeing that, as time passes, I am increasingly forgetting details of the trip, and also neglecting to remark on the current events since my Easter adventure. Furthermore, I have numerous essays to write in the up-and-coming weeks ahead, so my time is limited. Therefore, I think I shall commence, henceforth, to list daily highlights of the trip, accompanied by pictures and hope that this will do justice to the wonderful times that Sara and I had.


So, on April 16th, we...


-Hopped on a bus with a whole bunch of other non-native people and cruised out to a placed called Manginangina to see some big trees. They were beautiful, and I can't remember their names, which makes me quite sad, because now I can only call them 'big trees'- a far less eloquent name than their colloquial or Latin names, I'm sure.

These trees probably have the best self esteem of all the trees in NZ, given the sheer number of hugs they get- especially from us tourists...

-Our next stop was... 90 MILE BEACH!! Clarification: The beach is not actually 90 miles long, it is only about 64 miles long. Why then, you might ask, is it called thus? Well, you see, there is a beach in Australia that is just over 80 miles long. Not to be upstaged by the Aussies, my beloved Kiwis named their beach '90 Mile Beach', to one-up Australia. The beach was fantastic- and it was, apparently, legal for bus drivers to drive on- with no apparent speed limit either. Another Note: whenever Kiwis have to choose between fun and safety, fun will win out every time- my kind of place.

Now, while on 90 mile beach, we stopped to pick clams in the surf. Me, being the clever person that I am, figured that rolling up my jeans would be sufficient. Well, as you might imagine, it wasn't. It might have been- for someone who can tone down their excitement about digging for clams. But, me, wellll I just had to give my all in the search for those slimy creatures- and I was one of the only females on the bus who was keen to try, so I had to represent my gender respectfully. Anyways, my jeans got soaked. So, I decided that because I was already wearing my bathing suit underneath, I could just take off my jeans, and everything would be hunkey- dorey. Uh huh- where's common sense when you need it? It pains me to say that my cell phone was in my pocket when I made this fateful decision. It fell into the ocean. I grabbed it and proceeded to try to dry it on my damp, salt-crusted, clothes. One of the English guys tried to help me out in the phone drying process, but alas, it never worked again.
Alright, moving on...


-Sand boarding! This is kind of like tobogganing, but on massive sand dunes, on surf board type things (I believe the technical term is 'boogie board'). Climbing up sand dunes sucks. It's hot, and the sand does not offer a great purchasing surface- but we survived. I hope these pictures can truly convey to you the steepness of the dune we were climbing:

Once we all got back onto the bus, our driver proceeded to tell us about all of the things people have broken while sand boarding- necks, teeth, shoulders, the whole lot. Woot. Our driver was also, I might add, a bittt prejudice against Canadians- often making comments about how we were going to be cleaning the bus. I asked him about this, and found out that his little sister visited Canada, married a Canadian guy, and moved there permanently. His beef with Canadians was totally understandable afterwards.


-After sand boarding... we went to Cape Reinga. This place was unbelievably beautiful- I really would have liked to spend more time there, especially because people I didn't know kept asking me to take pictures for them. So much of my time was spent looking at other people through their digital cameras. The significance of Cape Reinga is that this is the departing place of spirits for Maori people. If you ever come to NZ, I would highly recommend visiting here.

-Then it was time for some fish and chips (which were supposed to be the best ones in NZ, but I think they lied) and back to the hostel.

Tuesday April 17th...

We had the morning in Paihia before our bus trip to Auckland. We spent most of it checking out the location of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This is a very significant document in NZ history- and also very contentious. It was the apparent cession of NZ sovereignty from the Maori to the British Crown. I say apparent because the translation of the English version of the treaty, to Maori, is highly debated and regarded to be highly misleading. I won't go into the politics of it, but it felt quite momentous to go to the location of the signing- despite the controversy.


Around 1pm we caught our bus to Auckland, which arrived that evening around 8pm. We proceeded to trek through the downtown core with our massive backpacks, and haggard expressions to match. We took the train to a suburb outside the city- Newmarket. For that night, and the next, we stayed with Ander- a friend of Sara's (and mine, after this trip) and her family. They were such nice, hospitable, wonderful hosts! They are originally from the United States, but they are, more than anything, world citizens. They've lived in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa- and now they've moved to New Zealand. Sleep came super easy that night.

Wednesday April 18th:

This was a fantastic day in NZ's biggest city (over a million people). It had to be a fantastic day, because it started off with homemade eggs benedict a la Ander (with special gluten free bread they bought me!!)!

That day went as follows... a trip to this cute little French creperie (I got bacon, apple and cinnamon mmmm):

Then on we went to get gelato... wasn't the best I've ever had, to be honest.


And then to the art museum...

And then to an arcade where we got our photos taken in one of those little booth thingies that give you print out pictures- fun fun.


We went to the harbour front for a while as well...

Yes, such an attractive smile, I know...

We got someone randomly walking by to take a picture for us, he was pretty nice about it, considering he looked kinda like he was heading somewhere.

Oh, I lied, he took 2 pictures.

By this time we were all pretty tired, so we hopped on the train to get back to Newmarket, picked up some groceries for dinner and went back to Ander's. Her parents were out for the night, we made super awesome nachos and watched the Johnny Depp version of Alice in Wonderland. Side note: Ander's family fed us when we got there the first night- salmon, and roasted veggies and squash. It was like Heaven after living off of stale rye crisps and peanut butter for over a week. Oh! And I had gluten free black licorice and it was to die for.

Thursday and Friday April 19th and 20th

Well folks, this is where my tale draws to a close. Thursday was my bus travel day from Auckland to Wellington (about 12 hours). Ander's mom was super nice and drove me to the bus station that morning. I spent all of it in a seat, in the back, sitting by myself- those techniques in the beginning really paid off.


Friday was spent resting, and getting ready for the 80's idol gig that night. For those of you who don't recall- or if I never mentioned it- a bunch of us who dance were asked to do a set during a film fundraiser on that Friday. It was super low key, nothing too big, but it was my first time breaking in front of a crowd (which, to be honest, wasn't that big either), and it was nerve-wracking. But, all in good fun, and a few of us went out afterwards, so that helped the night along as well.


And that is how my Easter break went. 


Stay tuned for a more recent life update in the past month- I promise it will be far less wordy, and more riveting than this one.


Cheers.