A piece of New Zealand with Scratch

Continuing my adventure in New Zealand with a Stray bus, this time, the next 5 days in the South of Auckland were with a new driver, Scratch!
Why Scratch? Because he scratched a few buses in his carrer! Of course, never his fault ;)

New tour, new pople, some of the same people met in the previous tour in the North of Auckland, such as Sabin!



One of the nicest things about Stray is that when a new trip starts everyone has to introduce himself and say something about the trip, hobbies and whatever they want people to know. I liked immediately Annelie, which, travelling with Victor, said that they were only travelling together, NOT as a couple! I understood her immediately and remembered the time when I was travelling with Darren, back in Thailand that, as soon as people see you with a man, they think you are a couple and can't be bothered to approach you and talk to you...not sure why! But it's a bit annoying!

Scratch, passing by anecdotes and Maori stories, took us to the first destination: Hahei, in the Coromandel penisula! Really great place. It took an hours or so of walking through the natural park, and we ended up at the Cathedral Cove!
The walk was pretty long and tiring but arrived there it felt so worth it!!...walking with Annelie, Victor, Sabin, Lennie and other people met in the bus...we also bumped into a really lovely couple from Ireland met in the previous trip at the north of Auckland! Padrig and Mary!

(Little parethesis: talking with Padrig one night in the Auckland, he said that they got engaged before going travelling because it was the only way he could take her with him! Of course, they are in love! But it shocked me that these days families are so strict in name of a religion! Yes, he said that her family is very religious - Catholics - so wouldn't allow her to go travelling the world with her boyfriend - so, I guess without any control of their daughter's body - unless he was going to marry her, in the name of God!! :)
Well, I recommended him a book to give to his in-laws, "God is not great", Hitchens!)

Anyway, back to the Cathedral Cove!! Amazing, fun and really breathtaking!

On the way back at the hostel, Scratch suggested a BBQ...and, again, because backpackers only do cheap food, I - at least - took control of cooking it! It was really good, though! Fun being the only Italian with them and funny seeing and touching the stereotypes when you go travelling! So, Italians really understand food, so if an Italian is putting the meat on the fire and back in the plate, that meat is great, regardless! :)
I guess I can live with that!

Scratch, as previously said, was such a character! In every story and anecdote there was a 80% of words like "it's all good" (even to describe a disaster) and "sweet as.." to conclude any sentence...(though I took days before I realised that it was "sweet as" and not "sweet ass"...apparently, it stands for "sweet as pie" so, it's all good! I remember him saying that this has put him in troubles in the past for the same reason! Imagine Scratch saying "sweet as" to a girl next to his jealous and not English speaker boyfriend! :)

After dinner, Scratch suggested a night at the Hot Water Beach! We were pretty stuffed and tired, but we went anyway! What is it? Is a beach on a volcano area, where you digg holes in the sand and seat in the hot water at the light of moon and stars!! I think it's self-explanatory of the magnificity of the place...if you add wine and good company...even better!

The day after we moved into Reglan, the surfers paradise! If I hadn't plan to meet Steve 5 days after I would have stayed more days there, because the hostel was absolutely fantastic! In the middle of a bush, on the top of a little mountain, where practising yoga at he sunset and sunrise...lovely people, great rooms, clean...everything I needed after a few days of backpacking! But no! I had promised and I actually didn't want to leave my new travelling friends!
At Reglan we met Philip, a German nice and cute guy...we had a very good time together...with an interesting peak of weirdness when I laughed about a story about he being arrested instead of his brother by mistake, years ago! He thought it wasn't funny...while I did! But, I guess it was another moment of cultural difference! One has sense of humor, the other one doesn't!...you figure out which one has it! :)

New day, new place! Passing by the Waitomo Caves for admiring the glowworm! It seemed like to be in a fairy tale, but they are milions of insects that at the larva stage emit light to attract food! It was really impressive!

We then stopped for a quick dip in a lake, moving towards Maketu at the Uncle Boy's place!
This is a place (looks like a farm house, not pretentious) where Stray takes you to meet Maori people, talk to them, see their dances, learn their songs and spend a night with them! It was really good and fun at the same time, especially when we had to learn songs and dances!
Uncle boy is a big and old man, half English half Maori...interesting, because I asked what he didn't like of the English culture or what the English have brought in New Zealand. His answer was really diplomatic! "I can't say that English have done all wrong, because I have 50% of my blood that is English. So, depending who you speak to, the story changes"!!!!

After a night on the beach trying to light a fire with little wood sticks found, and an amazing fool moon looking at us, we left for Rotorua!
Rotorua...here another story!
"Roto" means lake and "rua" means two, and there is a famous Maori love story associated to this place...
Hinemoa was a beutiful young woman, daughter of an influential tribe chief. Because of this, she was considered special to marry anyone so, according to her family, no one was good enough!
Totanekai, of course was too low for her, but as every respected love story, they fell in love...
Totanekai, despite Hinemoa's family opposition, didn't give up and spent one whole night playing love songs on Mokoia island for Hinemoa, with his flute!
She decided to swim the lake as all the canoas were hidden by her family...and it took all night to reach the other side of the lake! The couple persistence convinced their tribes that they were ment to be together and they lived happily ever after!
Yuppie!! :)
...many more stories related to Rotorua...for example, as being this a geothermal area, the sulphur makes it a pretty smelly ambient, something like rotten eggs! Scratch said that some people say "have you done a 'rotorua'?" to ask if someone has farted! :)

...and the stories continue...but I'd stop here!

Finally, after 5 days we arrived in Wellington, passing by Taupo (sorry no crossing as the weather wasn't good) and we finally met Steve! We had a mad night at the Base hostel...and got ready to start the trip at the South Island!
Ah, I forgot, 2 days after would have been my birthday and Annelie and Victor (spontaneusly :)) agreed to proceed with Steve and I to be there and sing the song for me! How nice!!! :)