… And on my own! Now there were no excuses, I was beginning a completely different trip, travelling alone is a something that I’ve been looking forward to experimenting and I was finally going to do it! Don’t take me wrong, it's great to travel with people, it’s fun but it can also be complicated, being more people there are more opinions… hihihihi
The truth is that the beginning of my trip alone wasn’t perfect... now I know that perfection does not exist, but I had never made "guiri" mistakes before and I was surprised with myself! I started my journey from Paihia (Bay of Islands) via Auckland to Cambridge where, fortunately for me, I arrived before 1730, time that the i–Site (tourist information offices, any town/city willing to be one of a kind has one) closes. I walked towards the lady behind the counter which greeted me with a big smile and a "good afternoon how can I help?" (the kindness in this country, it’s not absent at any times!) I asked her if she could tell me the way to my hotel, the Cambridge Hotel. She smiled at me and said: "you mean the one in Wellington, right?" Nooooo, I mean the one in Cambridge! That’s when her smile disappeared and she said: "do you have a brochure?” Of course, here you are, once more she looked at me with that big smile and said: "dear, here says welcome to Wellington! Don’t worry, it’s not the first time that happens, at least you didn’t book yourself into Cambridge UK!"
I know, I know… you can laugh all that you want! Just like all those people who in the past 3 years we have had night after night coming to the airport for the flight to Madrid, I felt so stupid! And what is worse, I had read it, but I just thought of a reasonable explanation, it could be that Cambridge belonged to Wellingtons county! Aaaaaaaggggghhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrr
Anyway, what could I do? I wanted to be there, but I didn’t have accommodation and I had just got off the bus, which I almost lost thanks to the "surfer/receptionist" at Paihias hotel. So, after 6 hours travelling, the last thing I wanted was to get on another bus. So I asked the lady if she could help me find accommodation for one night, the cheapest and closest for me to walk was more than double the price I’ve paid for the hotel in Wellington. But from that moment I’ve been able to experience the kindness of kiwis, totally selfless people who help you in all they can. The lady of the big smile, called a hotel, she explained my situation and they agreed to give me a twin room for myself for only $40!
It was still a long walk to the hotel, but totally worth it as soon as I saw the Victorian house. The new owners are rebuilding it and has become a motel after being a retirement home for a few years. A very nice couple, I enjoyed a good conversation with her and the next morning her husband drove me to the bus stop as I had too much gear with me…
Next stop, New Pleymouth. This time everything was going to be ok, or not… well, not really! I had booked my backpackers the night before; I ensured that it was in the destination city, the correct date, etc... I read all the Hostel information and I saw they offered free pick-ups and drop offs from the bus station and back to the hostel, so I send them a message requesting a pick up at the time of my arrival with the bus, but I never got any answer and of course they were not there when I arrived! I actually didn’t mind so much as I had requested it with a short notice. So once more I went to the i-Site and again asked for help to the lady behind the counter which very kindly called the hostel. She only got an answering machine that gave her another phone… this time it was the "manager", wh0 was in Queenstown (South of the South Island) he gave her another number, this wasn’t very good either! She seemed very unsatisfied with the situation so she asked her boss if she knew who was in charge of the hostel as no one was picking up the phone and the guy in charged was on holidays. Few minutes later, they told me the hostel was a 20 minutes’ walk away, then a lady offered to take me. It was so surreal, this time I had it wright, I swear, but it seemed that fate had decided to play against me… So Mary, who so kindly offered to take me, around 65 years old lady was not on her own, she was with 2 friends of the same age, one Australian and the other, kiwi, which could not stop asking her where we were going and why? Mary replied that she would not let me go alone with all the baggage when they were driving pass my hostel. Approaching the hostel we saw a board saying “mortgage for sale”, no good news! Mary, got off the car when she hadn’t even finished parking it, and headed towards the reception where there was nobody! The building was modern, but it was quite careless, in the kitchen we found an old gentleman who seemed a bit disorientated, on the first floor there were four guys drinking beer and it appeared that there was no one else. Suddenly we bumped into the gardener and Mary, who took the reins of the conversation, told him that no one had gone to pick me up and that I had a booking with them! The poor man could just apologize, even though it was obvious that he knew nothing about it. He had my reservation, but did not know anything about the pick-up. When I went back to Mary’s car to pick up my things, she told me that she was not happy leaving me there, that I could stay at another backpackers in town. If I have to be honest I didn’t feel like staying there either. So she insisted on me calling her back if I changed my mind as she would be in the area and could take me back into town. She gave me her business card and, almost, demanded to write her a text message keeping her informed!!!
Soon after the "housekeeper" arrived, so I asked him to show me the room, I asked him about the place and for what he told me I decided to be honest and tell him that I didn't wanted to stay there and I rather be in town as I already had a raft day. They turned to be very nice and helpful people, fully understood my situation and even helped me find another accommodation where they dropped me off later! Once at my new hostel I text Mary, she was very pleased to know I wasn’t staying there anymore... wow what an experience! I went back to the i-Site to see which were the activities that I could do while in New Pleymouth and, on this occasion, the supervisor asked me how have things finished with the other backpackers as Mary had called them to tell them she was not happy leaving me there! Can you imagine? Just like in Europe, eh!?
Taranaki
Finally, after so much "misfortune" it was time for some adventure. Climb the Taranaki! No, no, don’t worry, I haven’t suddenly turned onto a mountaineer or anything like that, or at least that wasn’t my intention!
The following morning I decided to climb one of the highest in the country and the highest in North Island (2850 meters), but by bus, hehehehe! I booked a space on the shuttle bus that takes you up to 960m, where the information center is. I could do several tracks of an hour, 3 hours, 30 minutes and of course the great one of 8 hours (all these are return times). I was only going to do the shorter tracks from where you can also enjoy the views of the mountain. I was shearing the bus with an Austrian (Julia), a Czech and a Slovenian, all 3 from my same hostel; they were going to climb Taranakis summit; the bus normally would come back at 1630 to pick people up, but we managed to arrange a later pick up at 1730 just in case. On our way to the mountain, the bus driver started giving us much information, so I already started to feel tempted by the idea of trying to climb to the top. He told me that I could give it a try and if by one pm I hadn’t reached the summit I should began to descent so I could make it on time for our pick up. I had a book with me, because if I was only going to do short tracks I would be ready long before pick up time! But by the time we arrived at the information Centre it was only 0815, so I thought it was plenty of time for me to try the summit. So, in the end, I decided I would give it a try and by 0830 Julia and I started our walk just after the Slovenian, who was very well equipped. We left behind the “strange” Czech and 10 minutes after we have started the climb, I had to stop! It had only been 10 minutes and I could not even cope with my boots… I made the terrible mistake of trying to keep up with Julia and talking all the way, so that didn’t help me at all, I know! I told Julia to go on without me as I doubted that I could do it, so I sat down on a bench looking back to what I had walked and looking up to what I still had to walk. I couldn’t stop feeling silly for being close to quit after 10 minutes! Then I thought I should try again but this time at my own pace and then perhaps I could arrive further. So off I went, stopping every time I needed it and after a while I managed to stabilize my breading and therefore my heart rate. I decided to set myself small goals, like ”if I get to that curve or if I get to that point in the distance” I’d be very satisfied. I knew that at a certain height there was a telecommunications tower and a shelter, you can do the walk in 3 days spending the night in them, but I never thought I would manage to get even near it. Suddenly it appeared on the distance and step by step it became my next goal.
I remembered that the supervisor of the i - Site had told me there was a part of the walk which was very steep, so when I came across the final slope to the tower and saw how steep it was I thought that my climb had come to its end... Once more, I sat down and looked behind to what I have already accomplished and then I looked up to the top and, although I know they say it’s better to not look back, this time it felt good, so I said to myself, look what you’ve done so far and look how little to go, so don’t be stupid and go ahead! When I finally reached "my top", I could not believe it, the views were amazing. I sat down to eat my sandwich and enjoy the scenery, allowing my knees to recover from such an effort. Because of them I decided I would not continue climbing, physically I felt capable to continue and I had enough time, but my knees couldn’t. I also thought that I still had to go down and that would be a great challenge for them too. I know now that it was the best decision to make as that was a month ago and my knees, even now, hurt with a small slope. The descent was hard, but I was so proud of myself that I could barely feel it. Once down I still had many hours until pick up time, so I enjoyed a well-deserved piece of brownie and a coffee, the Sun and my book.
By 1630, none of my colleagues had yet appeared. The “strange” Czech had passed me 40 minutes away from the Tower, by then I thought he had given up, so I knew he would be the last one to be back. I expected the Slovenian to be the first one down, but for my surprise the first to appear was Julia! She told me I had done the right decision by going back when I did, as from the tower the climbing got lot worse. She had to climb the first part, then continued an endless stairs and more climbing. Julia had reached the top before one pm and stayed there for an hour and a half to enjoy the views. The top is a crater and was snow-covered, she met a kiwi who climbs every day if weather permitted, he has already climbed it 400 times and the record is 1000 times! I suppose there are people who have nothing better to do! More than half an hour later the Slovenian arrived and when we were about to leave after waiting for nearly an hour for the Czech, he appeared form nowhere...
Anyway, the following days Julia and I could hardly walk. So the few days we had in Wellington help us recover!
Wellington, the windy city!
By the sea, slightly smaller than Auckland, blows the wind with insistence. It was my last destination in the North Island, the city in which you can enjoy its great Museum, visit its botanical garden, strolling through the port or go up the mountains behind the city in the cable car as if you were in San Francisco! I spent my last nights in a Nomads hostel, my first and last time. Not for lack of comfort, we had the dinner included, which is good, but the noise coming out of the pub every night made unbearable the stay! It was like being in San Antonio… In Wellington I met with Fiona and her friend Fabienne who had come to see Fiona and visit the NZ.
The South Island was my next destination!
