Hightailing it back

After having spent such a good time on the South Island I’ve had to hightail it back to Auckland on the North Island. I'll have to explore this island more next time. They are quite different from each other. Briefly, the north is more populated, less wild, more Maori history and less convenient on the bus.

The routing seems to be more complicated somehow. I don’t understand why it’s so complicated to get to Waitomo for example. It’s about 3 hours south of Auckland and a popular destination for caving, glowworms, blackwater rafting. So why is it so complicated to get to? The bus doesn’t even stop in Waitomo…it goes by and stops in the next town, Otorohanga, which is so small that if you’re unfortunate the bus driver forgets to drop you off and drives right through. Fortunately I was paying attention and so he dropped me off just outside of the main town, backed down the hill a bit, pointed out the lights of a motel and I walked the rest of the way down. I wasn’t so impressed and this after having to buy a separate ticket from New Plymouth to Otorohanga. This route being so complicated I had to change buses in Bull and New Plymouth where I wasn’t on the bus driver’s list though I could have sworn that the flexipass guy who I arranged this complicated route with said he was booking me through to Otorohanga.

Blackwater rafting was anti-climactic. I had hoped there would be more rafting time. But I must have picked the wrong company for that. To be sure, the caves are very cool. Most of the time was spent caving, crawling and climbing about in the caves over the smooth rocks and sharp rocks and under and over the stalac-teits and stalac-meits. My favourite part was tubing along in the water in the pitch black with only the glow worms on the ceiling of the cave to guide you along. And then there were no more glow worms and it was just pitch black. That was a little eerie but also very cool. It kind of enveloped you and the silence made you feel alone. Fortunately we were all connected to each other. Crawling along the tight cave in the pitch black wasn’t as much fun. It was a nice day despite it not being quite like I’d expected. And I was very sore again after.

And I got to Auckland in the end. That last 3 hour bus drive felt very long. Even though there was a nice lady, Trish, chatting with me on the bus and giving me some history of the area. And today I have to get on a plane for 15 or more hours to fly to LA. It’s still trying to sink in. I think it’ll all be ok once I’m on my way.