THAMES TO KERIKERI - NEW ZEALAND

Before leaving the hostel to go to Thames the whole dorm room had a 5am wake up call. A German had fell out the top bunk of his bed, we thought he would be ok when he got up but it turned out that he was still out of it and sleepwalking. It took several scarey minutes before he finally crashed out on the floor and we could wake him up. He later told us that he suffered from a sleep disorder.


Thames was a fairly small and laid back town, spent the first evening talking to someone in the hostel who had gone all the way round the country by motorbike.



On the one full day I spent there I headed into Coromandel forest park. It was an all day walk through countless miles of farmland to get there. On the way back I was rescued by an old couple who gave me a lift into town.

After Thames I went back to Auckland to the same place that I started at. It did nothing but rain hard for 3 whole days. Left the accommodation once to go food shopping. The rest of the time was taken up by TV, internet and talking to other travelers.


When it finally stopped raining I headed to Whangarei and got lost for about 2 hours on arrival!!!!! The small hostel was in a great location overlooking the town and was also fairly social.



Most of my daytime was spent walking through the local woodlands. There was also a small hill that I climbed.



One of the people in my dorm room was a skuba diving instructor, unlike all the others who start the "do you dive?" "no" "why not?" "because I can't swim" "why not?" conversation this one was telling loads of interesting stories about his job.

He was drinking beer until 4am and had to take a boat load of people out a few hours later!!!!!!



Last stop in New Zealand before Kerikeri was Paihia, yet another small but scenic town. The hostel was of the Base chain (full of annoying gap year students and tour bus types). Went to visit a waterfall during the one full day I was there.

I couldn't get in contact with the hostel who had sorted out my employment so on arrival in Kerikeri I spent one night at a farm like accommodation. It was just like staying round someones house, I even sat down to dinner with the owners.

One of the other guests had just been working at the south pole and turned out to have lots of interesting stories. A welcome change from the norm......................................