We get off the plane in Auckland at 10am on Saturday, March 5th, and collect our luggage. Thankfully everything seemed to arrive except my ankles. We finally made it to New Zealand so you think we could finally relax. Oh no, we now had 3 buses to find and catch so we could get to Coromandel today. We found an information booth but the man seemed to have no idea what we were talking about so we abandoned the airport for the great outdoors to search for someone who else who may know what’s going on. Thankfully we found a nice lady who know what was going on and made sure we got on the right bus. We went from Auckland to Manakau and the ride reminded us a lot of Korea with all the outdoor markets. We got to Manakau only to find out it would be an hour and a half wait until our next bus. It was rainy out so we decided to take shelter in the mall across the street. Right inside the mall was the food court so we decided to take a seat there at an empty table. I stayed with our stuff while Holly went to get something to eat and then we switched, only when I get back to the table I see Holly hanging out with some random kid no older then 4. Turns out his brother left him there and asked Holly if she could look after him for a few minutes. Eventually the rest of his siblings and mother show up and take a seat and eat with us. Our first New Zealand friends.
After wasting a sufficient amount of time, we make our way back outside because we really couldn’t miss this bus. If we did, we wouldn’t make it to our accommodations that night. Thankfully we make it and zone out for most of the ride to Thames. We get off at Thames and wait for our last transfer to show up. We thought we were in the right place when the smallest bus of life pulls up. Unfortunately we were in the wrong spot and we get into a regular sized coach bus but was wishing we were on the little one during some of the turns we made during our hour ride to Coromandel. Even in the pouring rain the drive through the Coromandel Peninsula was crazy beautiful and more then a little crazy. The roads are so narrow and twisty it could make anyone sea sick. It wasn’t so bad until we started going up the mountain and Holly started having heart failure. We’re still not sure how the bus managed not to fall off the cliff!
We made it to Coromandel by 4:30 and Sue, a teacher at the school, was there to pick us up. She took us to get the keys to our accommodations, call our people and get some supper. Unfortunately the calling of the people didn’t work out so well and we were feeling bad for keeping Sue tied up for so long that we just had her drop us off at our accommodations and we would figure something out later. So we have supper, change and try and figure out what we should do. Knowing that people from home would want to know we made it here and not having a phone or internet at our place, we decided we had no other choice then to walk into town and find a pay phone and internet cafe. It was getting late and we didn’t want to be walking back in the dark so we went as fast as we could. Unfortunately it got dark very quickly. We start our trek back, not exactly sure where we were going but thinking we had no other choice we keep walking. I’m tired and zoned out but Holly is on full alert. All of a sudden she stops and says, “Are those eyes?” I had never even thought of animals until Holly mentioned eyes at that moment. I see what she’s talking about, say yes and we proceed to run away. We stop not far from where we started and try to think through what’s happening at the moment. Holly tried to convince us that we might just be hallucinating and we go back a little bit to see if it’s still there. Holly decides it’s a good idea to growl at the “beast” only I didn’t know she was going to do it so I screamed and we ran away again. This time I removed my flip flops seeing as they are slightly difficult to get a good speed from. Holly is convinced we have no other choice then to just walk towards the beast and hope it doesn’t attack us and all I can imagine is being dragged away and never found again. This is seriously what happens the day we finally make it to New Zealand?! So not fair. We start to walk again only this time we see the eyes closer and on the other side of the street so we turn around and run and I decide we’re sleeping on the street corner in town if it comes to it. When we get in town we ask the local fish and chips shop if there is a taxi service and the girl behind the counter starts laughing at us. We take that as a no. We’re soaking wet and have no idea what to do and we’re pretty sure this is where the girl takes pity on us. She tells us to go to the bar next door and pretend we’re drunk and we can use the courtesy van as a drive home. She even said she would vouch for our drunkenness, although by the sight of us I think anyone would believe it. We go next door, explain the wild animal situation and after some weird looks, they also take pity on us and take us home in the bar shuttle van. During our ride, which we couldn’t even tell them where exactly we lived although Holly by some miracle remembered it was past the oyster factory, I ask if there are any wild animals in New Zealand. That’s when we’re told that all they have here are cats, dogs and possums, none of which would cause us any trouble.
We finally make it back home, finally shower after too many days and climb into bed. It was an appropriate ending to our crazy adventure to Kiwi Land, little did we know the adventure was far from over.
To Be Continued...
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