Aussie McBlog

Thursday, November 10, 2005: Paihia to Auckland

After our super busy day of cruising in the sand-bus up to Cape Reinga, Karana and I settled in with Dumb and Dumber and then bonded with our new roomies, a trio from the UK. The Welsh guy amused me; he had met a girl from Vancouver and was wondering how easy it would be to go there and find her, knowing only her first name. I laughed at him for about three hours (kidding).

The next morning, Karana and I spent a good while trying to figure out what to do. Paihia has just about anything crazy that you want to do. Crazy Kiwis will do anything you can think of. We pondered over skydiving, but it was just too expensive. Boo for everything being so gosh darn expensive. Boo tourist traps. Boo.


(coolest boat-thing EVER)

In the end, we settled on a $5 ferry ride to Russell Island so we could have a wander. Huzzah for cheap! When we landed we thought it would be fun to hire one of the many paddle boats that we had seen lying on the shore, but do you think we could find the guy who rented them out? Of course not. We went to the information desk, where the lady kind of smiled sympathetically and informed us that the guy showed up once in a while, one or two times a week, when he felt like it. I think hearing that was worth the disappointment of not being able to paddle around like idiots in the bay.







After looking for all of the free entertainment, we went for a hike up to the top of Russell Island, which involved meandering through people’s yards (really, they need to mark the damn trail better!), and Karana explained the process of the rush to me (she’s in a sorority at her home uni). It all sounds very complicated. If I were in a sorority, I would haze everyone constantly, just for fun.



We plodded back down and sat in the shade on the beach while we had our lunch. At this point I have to mention that we had been carrying around a bag of bread and a tub of peanut butter, as well as some fruit that we picked up from a crazy old man on the side of the road. Best kiwis and oranges I’ve ever had.



Just as we arrived back at the dock, the ferry was sailing away. We had an hour to wait, and we killed the time by playing stupid games and just generally embarrassing ourselves/annoying the people in our vicinity.

Made it back to the Pipi Patch safely and waited around for our new driver to whisk us back to Auckland. Cane was nice, though I tried to ignore him as he rattled on about this and that. I continued to be toured out, and both Karana and I found ourselves getting a little bit annoyed. What a couple of moody ladies we are! At least we weren’t getting annoyed with one another.



After checking back into Base, we watched some TV and went to sleep in a room full of new roommates.

posted by Sara @ 5:40 AM