Back up to Auckland

I decided to go back to Auckland (where I was flying out from), via the east coast of the North Island. From Kaikoura I headed up to Picton to get the ferry across the Cook Straight. I though Picton would be an ugly maritime port, but it is actually in a beautiful spot with a Sound to rival the ones further south.

After a rough ferry crossing, I was in Wellington where I spent a couple of days seeing the sights, but it was actually really boring so I won't write about it. Then on to Palmerston North which was equally boring, and here I developed a really bad cold and cough, I'm sure I annoyed a lot of people in the dorms because I was sneezing and coughing all the time. I needed to find a nice hostel in which to get well again, and I found one in Napier. It was a very sociable hostel; full of fruit-pickers so everyone knew each other as they had been there a while. I decided to ignore my cold and went out with them 3 nights in a row, it was good fun.

Whilst I was in Napier, there was a international cricket test match at the local stadium. I decided to wander down to soak up the atmosphere, and met two guys outside the stadium whose friend hadn't turned up, so they sold me his ticket half price. It was in a really good spot, I could see the game perfectly and we had a really good day. It was a shame that Australia thrashed New Zealand, as most of the crowd wanted NZ to win, but the atmosphere was great and it was good fun.

I reluctantly left the nice hostel in Napier and carried on to Gisborne & Whakatane. In Gisborne the one and only bus to Whakatane (pronouced Faka-tan-ee) was at a stupid time early in the morning, so I decided to hitch-hike there instead. I got picked up a couple of times by nice people who took me to the next major road junction, but then I got picked up by a guy called Geoff who was a lorry driver. The lorry was massive, I had to climb a ladder just to get into the cab. Geoff was cool, very chatty and played great music, but the best thing was that I had an amazing view and it was like sitting in a wobbly arm-chair (the chair moved on springs). He drove this big truck for a couple of hours through one of NZ's biggest gorges, on small windy roads. It was great fun, and far better than the bus.

In Whakatane, I wandered down to the tourist office and discovered a national backpacker's newspaper with a picture of me in it! It was taken with Rich & Dunc in National Park, we all have red faces from sunburn and very cheesy smiles. Its a good article and picture though.

In the afternoon I walked up to a Maori Pa site, up a hill. Half-way up I met a Maori man all dressed in white, who was meditating. At the top of the hill, he came over and we started talking, and he told me all about the Maori culture and his ancestors. He was a bit crazy, but he was fascinating to talk to, and I'd rather talk to a crazy guy like this than pay to see a tourist show. He told me about his plans for visiting every country in the world when he retired, and he kept going on about how the world is a beautiful place, which I agree with.

After Whakatane I spent a day in Tauranga, where I climbed Mt Manganui. It was more of a hill really, but it made me realise how unfit I've become since starting travelling! Then it was back to Auckland to fly to Sydney, and continue my travels in Australia.