The Rest of the Story

Okay, so this is kinda cheating because I arrived back in Canada on Friday, but here it is anyway.

I left off when Eduard and Simon) stocked us in Hokitika. What I forgot to tell you was that back when Rachelle and I were travelling up from Doubtful Sound... I told you that we kayaked Doubtful Sound, right? We drove for quite a long way on a REALLY rocky and washboardie back road to go see these lakes that I now forget the name of. They were very pretty, and Rachelle locked me in a stinky outhouse! Yes, she stood outside, thinking that I couldn't see her (but I culd, there was small hole), laughing as I sweated and held my breath. Thanks Rachelle, I love you too. Anyway, we saw the lakes, then finally got back on the pavement. We were somewhere between Te Auna and Queenstown when I heard eeeeeeeeee-duh-tudd-dupdupdupdupdupdupdup (and that's in my best possible sound effects voice). So I pulled off the road very quickly, and just hoped that it wasn't the tire. It was the tire. And then we strated to laugh. I bet you have never come across two girls who were more excited to have a flat tire than the two of us were in that moment! We got the camera out, had a photo shoot, dragged all of our things plus the spare tire out of the back hatch, and went to change the tire. BUT... we couldn't find the tools! We looked everywhere for them! At least we thought we did, because when we flagged someone down (his name was Pete, Kiwi Pete) he just reached into the side of the car and pulled out the long evasive tools. Yay! He told us where we could get a cheap tire the next day, we said thank you and waved when he drove away, then didn't actually get a tire until the day before Rachelle flew back to Canada (which was just about a month later).

So now, it brings me back to Hokitika, which I will call Hoki from now on. So Rachelle and I checked into our hostel, under the glare of the fellow residents. Don't know what we did, but they didn't stop shooting daggers at us the entire time it took us to pay and pick up our keys! We dropped our bags in our room and flew out of there to join the guys as fast as we could! Hoki is a town just like any town you'd find here in Canada, but it had it's very own ocean! Kay, I know there's some of you Canadians out there who come from places that have their own oceans too, but I'm from landlocked Alberta, and I love the ocean, so it was cool! So, we were walking through town, and everyone else was going to turn left and head back through the boring streets, but I figured we should go straight to the beach, even if it was cold and windy and rainy. So we did, and I'm sure glad we did because we met this english guy (Luke) who had been living in NZ for five years now, and he invited us over to his friend's house. Perfect! We get to hang out with locals! It was so much fun! Luke plays the guitar and writes his own music! So talented! We hung out and listened to music while we waited for his friend to get home from work, and when she did we all went out to shoot some pool. Now I SUCK at pool. Usually I have a hard time even hitting the white ball with my cue, let alone onything else into a pocket. But I learned some very helpful hints that night that I'm not going to share with you because then maybe I have a better chance of beating you if we ever have a game of pool in the future. Bwahahahaha!

So, after Hoki, we went north to this little hippie town called... one second while I run and check my map, because I don't actually remember what it was called...Karamea! Now we had Simon and Eduard in tow. They were super fun! They told us about this backpackers in Karamea that was run by a bunch of hippies, and it was by the ocean, and everything was super layed back. So we all went there. It's called Rongo's, and if you ever go to NZ, I highly recommend going there. The people are SO nice, and the fourth night that you stay is free! They have a herb garden and everything! And internet is by donation. So whatever you can afford. Sweet! WE stayed there two nights. Then we left the guys (but not for long). They stayed an extra night because they loved it there so much, but we figured that it we needed to keep moving if we wanted to see much of the north island. We headed out to a place a little farthe east, and a bit farther north, called Takaka. Another hippie town! Rachelle was in her glory! She's not really a hippie, but kinda is. Little hippie stores and vegetarian cafes and ocean and dreadlocks and hemp clothes. We had a few days of beautiful weather there. We got lost the first night that we drove in to town. It was pitch black, and some of the towns before Takaka are all strung together, one after another, and we eventually had no idea where we were, or what direction to drive because we kept taking wrong turns. (On a side note, it's cometimes very hard to navigate in NZ because the junctions to go towards a neighboring town are always in the middle of a town, and very poorly marked with arrows pointing in funny directions, and also lack of signage altogether! I would get VERY frustrated sometimes... okay, a lot of times.) Finally we decided that we were just going to sleep in the car in the parkinglot of a town hall. We pulled in, parked, turned the lights on, and realized that we had to pee. there were no trees, and no public toilets that we could see, so we figured that we would go find some one or the other, then make our way back to the hall. Well, we lucked out! In our ramblings to find a bathroom, we got lost again, and stumbled upon a campground with full bathroom, shower, and kitchen facilities! Phew! When we woke up the next morning, we took out dear time gtting ready, charging phone, computer, and cameras, have breakfast and all that stuff. When we were finally ready to move on we still had no idea where we were. We knew that we had been headed toward Takaka, but we didn't know where or how we had gotten to where we were, so we decided to drive into the nearest civilization and find out. Well, we turned the corner into what we later found out to be Motueka, and there was the most beautiful beach we'd ever seen in New Zealand! The sun was shining, the waves were lapping, and there were hardly and tourists on it! Paradise! We parked the car, jumped into our skirts and tank tops and took a walk. Just when we got to the other end of the beach and wanted to go in the water, a hugemungous cloud covered the sun and the wind picked up! :( We had a bit of trouble keeping our skirts down. So, needless to say, we jumped back in the car and headed for Takaka.

So, I'm not used to typing this much, and my eyes are starting to bug out of my head. Don't worry, I'll finish my story. There's more to come yet. I'll probably download the rest of my pictures onto Facebook tonight. Hope you're enhoying my travels almost as much as I did! Talk soon! By!