Aaaaaall by myseeeelf

Monday 13th October
So I left Jason ("they call me sticky fingers") H at Raglan (incidentally, we stayed at an awesome YHA, Solscape where we slept in an old train carriage) so he could stay and surf while I took my solo trip up to the Coromandel Peninsula, where I wrongly assumed all the cool stuff would be close to each other. I spent a LOT of time driving, but there were also lots of nice walks along the way. I was primarily going to see Cathedral Cove and the Hot Water Beach, both of which were awesome sauce. The journey is much better described in pictures, as I have run out of synonyms for 'really nice'.

Karanghake Gorge. Suspension bridge!

What lies beneath the suspension bridge

Opoutere Beach.

View of Tairua (or somewhere near there) on the Mt Pahu walk

It was a steep walk. I did take a selfie, but there was sunburn and sweat.

Cathedral Cove!

Sandstoney type rock thing on the beach near Cathedral Cove

Sand and rocks. ooooo...

Rent a shovel for $5 and dig your very own hot pool!

Needless to say, I didn't dig.
I just watched with amusement as the cold sea rolled
in and destroyed the carefully built walls around
other peoples hot pools 

A beach?

A hilariously placed old man. I don't know why this made me laugh.

 After seeing all I had time to see around Coromandel, I stayed the night at a YHA somewhere. Can't remember where. (You are welcome)

Tuesday 14th Oct

Driving towards Auckland, along a super pretty coast. I had a mission today. I had a ski bag to purchase, and a particular beach that was very important to visit before needing to be at the airport for 4pm to return my rental car. I did stop to take a couple of pictures on the drive though.

Looking across to water towards Auckland.

Too pretty. I just can't.

The ski bag thing went fine, I managed to make my way through Auckland without getting lost, having an accident, or going insane, and I eventually made my way to Te Henga, also known as Bethells Beach. In the area is also Lake Wainamu, where there is an enormous black sand dune. This area, and some beaches nearby was where many scenes from Xena: Warrior Princess were shot, and so it was super high on my list of things to see in New Zealand. I'm not even ashamed. It was awesome.

Actually quite a long walk. I wont lie, I wished I had a horse. And a sword.

Someone totally fell down this on tv once

LOOK HOW HAPPY I AM!

Bethells Beach

Um.

 So my last excursion and touristy thing to do on my 15 month trip was running around on a beach pretending to be Xena. So worth it. I then had to wait at the airport for a good few hours before my 11 hr flight to Kuala Lumpur, so that gave me plenty of time to shake the sand out of my shoes and socks

...and to establish early dominance on the few power sources.

And that was that I guess.

Back to Ipswich. Joy.

hobbitses!

11th October
Went to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland! The area around here is full of hot springs, and scalding water shooting out of the earth, so there are a number of places like this. The one we went to was pretty special due to the sheer size of it, and varied terrain. Hard to describe, good thing I took a lot of pictures.

Get a load of that rotten egg smell. Yum.

The Lady Knox geyser was interesting in that every day, a dude chucks a load of washing powder into it to set it off. Something about surface tension, I forgot the explaination. Science!

Pow!

So after paying cash money to see all the amazing earth farts, we went for a walk in the park next to our hostel, and lo and behold, find a whole load more holes in the crust of the earth, belching out stinking hot air and bubbling mud and sulfer. Its a weird park, easy to lose a football. Also, a thermal foot pool, with lots of asians in it... ("its wonder-pool!" "Five dollar!").
After all the walking, we soaked our weary legs (J was fine, I had a blister) at the Polynesian Baths, which was capital a Awesome.

12th October
Started off the day with another walk to poke the furious earth then we decided to hit some baseballs at an homest to god americal style batting cage which we found by accident next to the museum. Ive ALWAYS wanted to have a go on one of those, ever since seeing A League Of Their Own, and I'm happy to report it was just as amazing as I had dreamed.

After that brief foray into american sports we got back on track and headed into the museum, where after finding out the admission cost was $20 we promptly headed straight back out again. Although we did meet an awesome old lady who'd lived in Rotorua for 50 years and was telling us a load of stories so it was totally worth wondering in.

Next stop, Hobbiton, YEAH!

The Matamata visitor centre. Im sensing a theme...

Tiny house

SPOILER ALERT!! Fake tree.

Non hobbit behind the bar of the green dragon inn. 

So that was nice.

After hobbiton we drove to Raglan. It was then that I realised I had inherited my mothers driving habits, namely that of supreme confidence behind the wheel followed by awful etiquette and a highly nervous disposition when in the front passenger seat. Sorry, Big J.

trolls! yachts! rain! drinking!

Thursday 9th October

A day of touristing! After a healthy breakfast involving maple syrup I headed to the Te Papa museum,  which was full of cool stuff, and it was free! Yay! After i'd had enough of that I walked along the waterfront, got some second rate sushi for lunch then headed across the city to visit the Weta Cave, home of one of the best special effects workshops in the world. There wasnt too much to see but it was cool anyway. I liked the trolls standing outside the front door.

Grrr. Arrrg.

After that I spent some time catching up with lovely Rory (fellow liftie) at a number of awesome bars in wellington city centre (rouge and vagabond, goldings, bangalore, the library). I also reunited with my travel buddy! To my immense relief I actually recognised him. Phew!

10th October
Big J and I started our 5 hour drive to Taupo in style (windows down, system up). The drive was gorgeous; nice landscapes, very different to south island. We found some hot springs to sit in, then after that took the cheapest boat charter ever (The Barbary... $35 each and we had a gorgeous yacht to ourselves! And a beer! Thanks Sarah!) to see some carvings on a cliff that a load of stoned hippies did in the 70's. The trip started off sunny, but then we saw the clouds and rain roll in, which made for an eventful journey. My favorite part was when we were leaning over far enough that the deck was cutting through the water instead of just the hull.

Oh! Hai!

After that we carried on up the road to Rotorua, via Maccas. (Jason just wanted a McDonald's pie).
Fyi, Rotorua SMELLS BAD

rrrrrrrrroadtrip!

So im actually nearly at the end of my mini road trip, but dont worry, I was taking notes this whole time! Lets rewind to...

Monday 6th October
The plan was to pick up the car at 10, fill it with all my stuff, blast out of Queenstown by 10.30. In real life, I managed to faff around enough that I didnt leave QT till about 12. And in true sam bennett style, I managed to leave my shower gel behind, much like I did in multiple locations all the way through Australia and New Zealand.
It was a long drive to Christchurch,  but the scenery was bloody amazing. Again.

Lake Tekapo

I stayed the night with a lovely fellow liftie who opened his parents home to me most generously.  Thanks, Reece,  you are the best, and your mum makes a smashing quiche.

Tuesday 7th October

Roads! Hills! Snow!

Northbound to Blenheim to reunite with family. It was really nice to see my aunt and uncle again, and I also got given an eyetest, which is my familys way of showing affection I think?
Saying goodbye to them the next day was genuinely difficult to do, and it just made me want to come back and do it all again next year.

Wednesday 8th October
In theory, this was the day I was supposed to meet up with Jason, my new travel buddy (who got the job by drinking lots of alcohol with me the week before,  and owning a trustworthy face) but while he was hiking in Abel Tasman he managed to leave his bag in a hut in the middle of nowhere so he was delayed by a day. So I ferried across to the north by myself, and immediately took a wrong turn coming off the ferry. Eventually found my way to a YHA hostel and sorted my life out. This took some time, as I am not as organised as Barbara; who at this point was, unhelpfully, on the other side of the planet.

Looks like we made it

So its over. One season as a Lift Operator in one of the best ski resorts in New Zealand. It has gone past shockingly fast, is all I can say. Seems like last week I was at the interview and now its all done! Its been fantastic though; Ive learnt how to ski, how to snowboard, how to throw children around and how stupid members of the public can be. Its been a steep learning curve.

I go home with not only new skills and new friends, but also a load of shit that I can't bear to part with.... primarily a pair of skis and a rather fetching shell suit, as well as a number of excellent hats. Its been a successful season.

Its now time for another road trip! I have a car rented for a 9 day journey from Queenstown to Auckland, so I may well be updating a little more in the next few days.