Day 38 – River Valley to Wellington

The walk up to the bus from where we were staying wasn’t as bad as we all thought it was going to be. You felt like you were running down it the day before as it was quite steep but the return journey was ok. We all met at the bus just gone 8.30am and left River Valley just gone 9. It was a pretty windy drive and although the places the Kiwi bus takes us are cool there seems to be a lot of roads we have to go back along so at times it does feel like you’re living on a bus! Today was quite a long drive with the odd stop here and there for toilets, snacks etc.

We eventually arrived in Wellington early afternoon and after checking in, which is always a nightmare, we could explore the city…or more do anything but sit on a bus! Laura needed to post a few things home, so we went on the hunt for a post office, after we left there we decided to check out the Te Papa Museum. We, or more I, got sidetracked on the way there by quite a big slide, which obviously I had to go on!

The museum was free which makes a change, most museums I’ve found here and in Australia you have to pay for. I mostly find that odd as a lot of museums and such in the UK are free and just ask for a donation. This museum was 5 floors but we only had time to check out one floor. This showed us that New Zealand is on two plate tectonics so when they move that’s why earthquakes and stuff happen. We wondered around the bush top walk, across the swing bridge, saw the giant squid, took a selfie with a shark and learnt how much kiwis hate possums.

On the way back we went into New World supermarket to grab some dinner. I don’t really know why I bother as every kitchen we’ve been to so far in these hostels is terrible. It takes so long to do anything and most people don’t have respect for them so they are always in a disgusting state. Most of the time they’re electric hobs that barely work, there are saucepans without handles and about 4 forks between the entire place, but hey that’s hostel life!

That night as all buses stay 2 nights we got to see most of the old bus crew which was nice. We checked out the Basement Bar as they always put on deals for Kiwi Experience buses.

Day 37 – Taupo to River Valley.

The only problem with changing drivers is they all say different things. The bus I was originally on said 7am but the new guy said 7.30 so it was a bit of a guess of when he was going to arrive. He was very chilled out so didn’t arrive until 7.40 which normally would be fine but most of us had been waiting for about half an hour wishing we had spent more time in bed.

It took us a few hours to get there and we had a couple of stops on the way. Our journey was through the mountains as New Zealand has many volcanoes and quite a few of them are still active.

We arrived in River Valley mid afternoon, which gave people enough time to go White Water Rafting that day. I decided not to do it as I’ve done it before and it gives me a good excuse to spend my money on new crazy things. River Valley is based in the middle of nowhere on the west coast of the north island. I went for a small walk around the place but it was quite a damp afternoon.

For dinner I decided to eat what they cook at the lodge as our first bus driver raved about it and said we’d be stupid to miss it. It was only $15, which is about £7.50, and she was right, the food was incredible! We were served a roast chicken dinner with roast potatoes, salad, rice and other things.