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June 17, 2011

Leaving National Park is always hard.  It is kind of like a train station for Stray.  Loads of people get on and off there.  So whenever I leave there I’m leaving behind good friends.  This happened a couple of weeks ago when Matthias got off there and it happened again today when about half my bus hopped off there.

Several of the people I was traveling with on Stray I’d only met a few days before and it was still hard to say goodbye to them.  The hardest to say goodbye to were people that I’ve been traveling with longer like Fiona and Paul.  Fiona and I have been bumping into each other all over New Zealand on the Stray bus.  She would just sort of pop back on my bus at random times and it was always great to see a familiar face.  Paul and I had been on the same bus together since Monday, June 6.  That’s a week and a half. And even though he and I weren’t super, amazing friends, he was still this constant familiar face and friendly person.  

Needless to say I was quite sad to leave our hostel yesterday morning.  I also knew that it would be my last day on the bus too as I was getting on in our next stop, Wellington.  So there were even more goodbyes ahead of me.  Scratch, our driver, tried to cheer us all up and we played two truths and a lie as we rumbled down the road to Wellington.  I laughed so hard playing that game!  We had a good time.

We stopped for lunch in Kapiti.  Kapiti has an ice cream brand and so I tried Kapiti ice cream.  It’s very good, but expensive.  Before we knew it we were back in Wellington.  I got more melancholy thinking about all the great times I had when I was last here and all the people I spent those great times with.  I realized this morning that none of them are even in New Zealand anymore and that’s a little depressing too.

Sarah, a girl on the bus, and I walked up to Mt. Victoria for the view over Wellington.  It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon.  At the top there was a group of people who were singing in Maori. It kind of felt like a very special moment.

In the evening all of us on the bus went for drinks in the bar of our hostel.  It was my last night with them and my last night with Stray entirely so I wanted to have a good time.  I had five drinks.  I’m not sure I’ve ever had that much before -- except for the five course dinner I had in Colorado at Beaver Creek.  

We had a good time hanging out, talking, laughing, playing pool, and dancing.  Yes, I even danced!  Going out with people from Europe is interesting.  I think they really know how to let loose much more than Americans.  I went to bed about half past twelve and said goodnight to everyone.  

This morning I slept late for the first time in a long time.  It felt great.  I showered, breakfasted, and called my mom.  Unfortunately I ran out of minutes on my phone and our conversation was cut off.  But still it was good to catch up with her.  I’ve been a little lax in keeping in touch with home!

I’ve booked a wine tour of the Martinborough wine region for tomorrow.  It includes an hour train trip out of Wellington to Martinborough, lunch, and four wine stops, plus a hot drink in the morning.  Then I will take a train back to the city.  For Sunday I’m going to go to church in the morning and then have a half day Lord of the Rings tour in the afternoon.  I’ve spent a lot of money on all this, but it’s what I want to do and I don’t want to miss out on it.