Because I slept on that McDonald's sofa couch which was surprising comfortable, however, I did not get much sleep because I was worried about our bags sitting out and very nervous about the next few days of travel. This morning I got up around 7AM. I had a huge swollen eye this morning which everyone made me aware of-I woke up to Abby saying, "Oh my god your eye"-so I went to the bathroom and yes indeed my eye was completely swollen, puffy, and still bloodshot. My eye felt very stiff, so I put some of Abbys drops in it, hoping the swelling goes down.
We got breakfast and then headed to the door to find the Jucy car rental guy who would take us to their office building where we got our two vans. Abby was driving Van 1 and I was driving van 2 for starters. We were about to start a 5 day exploration, covering 1520km or 944 miles!!! I was so excited!
We packed our van--I was with Rory, Alyssa, and Misha and Colin and Jenn were with Abby. We had to make a couple u-turns to start, but soon the GPS picked up signal and got us heading the right direction. The GPS I had was quite useless and would lead us off-roading so I switched with Abby since I was leading the group.
Driving was the same in NZ as it was in AUS. Left side of the road and right side of the car. This beginning drive was not bad at all---typical highway and pretty straight for now! My co-pilot was Alyssa who did a great job reading the directions and helping me get to where I needed to go. I am getting very used to driving opposite America and it feels rather normal for me now. I really enjoy driving and really like that there are no stop signs and lots and lots of roundabouts. The one thing that scares me every time is the people who pull out when about to turn left (like our right turn at home)---they pull out so far and I always think they are not going to stop and plow right into me, but it just makes me nervous.
Today was a Holiday here---called Anzac Day--its a day of remembrance to honor the Army Corps for WWI. Because of this, everything was closed until 1PM so we had to wait half a day for things to open and to get food.
We got on Highway 1 (the main Interstate) and headed toward Hamiliton. We drove for a couple hours and then stopped at a grocery store (New World) to get some Pb and j supplies, bananas (so much cheaper here than AUS-only 1.99/kg vs. 12.99/kg), and apples. Then we went to the Hamilton Gardens---these were beautiful. There were many cultural distinctions in the gardens---so there were American, Asian, Italian, Greek sections which we walked through--all with fountains, flowers, vines, statues----Even though it was drizzling the entire time, it was beautiful to see! I wished we had more time to walk around because we only saw a few areas, but we had to go Rotorua next.
Alyssa and Jenn drove the next leg of the trip---it was their first time driving so we took it a bit slower, but they each did a great job. It took about about an hour and half or so to get to Rotorua. Rotorua is a well known city for the hot, mud pools and distinct sulfur smell. We went to Kerosene Creek. Ewww this is was quite nasty, but neat to see the bubbling masses of water and mud. The smell was a mix of rotten eggs, acid, and dirty smoke. Not pleasant. We didn't make the public mud pool time because we were about 5 minutes late which was a bummer, but we drove to another spot to take pictures and breathe in enough of the awful air! I also lots of sheep, cows, and horses along the drive which were just gazing out in the fields.
We got back in the car and stopped about 15 min later at a lookout spot---where we saw much of Rotorua's town and a mountain (didn't know the name). We continued on to Taupo which is another popular place in the Northern Island. Taupo is known for their thrills of skydiving, bungee jumping and Lake. We stopped a huge commercial shopping/eating square where we found Hell Pizza for dinner. We could make our own personal pan pizza for NZ$5 so we ecstatic. I had a mushroom and cheese pizza which was delicious---tasted much like pizza huts.
Then it was back in the car and I was up driving again----on to Wellington (Southern tip of the Northern Island). This drive was a little more nerve-racking. There were huge cliffs and windy windy roads----I was even warned to go 25km/h when the typical speed limit was 100 km/h. A few of the turns were sharp and it was primarily long windy roads the entire 2.5 hours I drove. I also drove through 2 cute, small towns. I wish it was light out because I am sure the view was spectacular, but to get to Wellington we had to drive at night. I stopped around 10:15PM in Bulls. I was getting really tired and Alyssa who had been napping took over for the rest of the drive. The roads were not as bad I had been told and expected. There were occasional windy roads (which reduced my speed to 25km/h), but for the most part, the roads were typical highways---reminded me of Seattle with large hills around.
The only issue we had with the two vans was trying to stay together. One car drove much faster than the other one felt comfortable to so the cars kept having huge distances in between. This caused some separation and some tension between the groups. It all worked out because the fast car would just wait at a destination until the other car met up.
I slept about an hour because I was fairly uncomfortable in the second seat. It did recline back, but my back was uncomfortable. It was a nice nap and we were close when I woke up. We ended in Wellington just before midnight.We drove around trying to find parking, and pulled into a gas station where the guy told us we could park there for the night. We used their toilet and then bundled ourselves in our blankets and hoodies, put down the back seats, and got ready for bed. Misha, Rory and I slept long-ways in the back seat and Alyssa slept across the two front seats. I was surprisingly comfortable, got a little chilly during the night so Alyssa put the heat on in the car a few times during the night. I had trouble sleeping in the beginning, then Abby called and they arrived in Wellington about an hour after us and then parked right next to us. I fell asleep for a few hours and then woke up in the middle of the night freezing. I put some sweatpants on and then went back to bed. I woke up to a man tapping on the Alyssa's window, writing us a ticket for parking more then 2 hours. It was a NZ$40 which we went directly to the Parking Services to pay and then stopped at a BP/Mcdonalds which had free wifi!! We all had breakfast, I made the pb and banana sandwiches and then we hung out for a bit. Then it was off to get on the Ferry which would take us from Wellington to Picton.
No comments:
Post a Comment