The Great Escape

Being 16 Again.

Our form of transportation is a 1995 Subaru Grand Wagon. In New Zealand pretty much anyone with a license that is written in English can drive. After we got over the initial fear of driving on the “wrong” side of the road, we quickly got the hang of it. However, it is still quite weird. Also, keep in mind everything that comes along with driving on the wrong side of the road. Such things include the steering wheel on the right side of the car and the windshield wipers and turning signal being reversed. For instance, in the United States when you press down on the turning signal you indicate a left hand turn. This same motion is no longer the case. Instead rather, in New Zealand this same motion brings anxiety with your windshield wipers randomly going off every time we try to turn. We are also quickly learning the metric system again. Our speed is in kilometers, one mile equals 1.62 Kilometers, and our gas is in liters, two liters equals a bottle of coke in America. The road signs are slightly different; instead of yield you have “give way.” You have a series of traffic lights, but the oddest one we have found is a bus light and only the bus can drive. It literally feels like we are advanced 16 year olds learning how to drive again.

We are heading down Interstate 1. The main highways here do not get any busier than Athens. As we get further outside the city it becomes a two-lane highway, like we are driving on highway 16 from Georgia/Florida. The radio stations are few and far between. The landscape is quite amazing. We are passing tons of cows, horses and of course sheep! Our destination at this point is Lake Taupo, which is a pretty central stopping point. Lake Taupo is known for its beautiful lake and hot springs. After about three and a half hours, we reach Taupo. We have a list of hostels that we would like to stay in, thanks to our Let’s Go New Zealand, Lonely Plant and our new handy Atlas. The town is looking pretty quiet at this point but we don’t think anything of it due the fact that it’s only 8pm. We go to our first hostel on the list… no vacancy. Okay, let’s go to the next one! The front desk is closed and there is no vacancy’s. Dude, it’s only 8 o’clock. We proceed to try five more places, no luck! We went to the grocery store, and they were gracious enough to let us use their phone. And we just start calling everywhere, no vacancy. Finally, after three bowls of coco puffs and having several heart to hearts with the grocery store ladies (one who offered her pull out couch to us), we decide to sleep in car. Therefore, we park the car in the safest place we could think of... the police station!

Tuesday morning we get an early start because not much sleeping is being done. We stop at a gas station to freshen up and we are on our way. We are shooting for a 1 o’clock ferry in Wellington to take us to the south island and we are about five hours away. Lindsay starts off driving and then Katie takes the wheel. Once again the landscape is breath taking and the roads are not very crowded. We arrive at the ferry just at 12:45 but all the ferries are booked for the remainder of the day. We have two ferries we can take: 2:35am or 8:35am. We decide to do the 2:35am ferry because it is cheaper and we are going to explore Wellington for the duration of our stay. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and there is much to see! We drive around exploring for a good while because parking is like Internet in New Zealand, expensive and not easy accessible. We stop at the botanical gardens to take a little stroll and rest. Unknowingly, we park our bodies right by a statue that turns out to be a popular site. When the people who visited the statue that day look back on their visit to the Wellington Botanical gardens, their pictures will include 3 girls sprawled across the lawn with pink sheets and pillows on heads, a.k.a a “hot mess.” But for the most part it is very peaceful and the weather is sunny and cool. Then we walk around the rose garden and head to the city center to get some food. We find a movie theatre, get tickets for the movie Valentines Day and hop on the Internet for a sec to make reservations for our hostel in Nelson. We are planning ahead because we do not want to reenact our sleeping situation in Taupo. We find an affordable hostel and make reservations online. Then we head to dinner at a place called Coyotes. The bartender ask us to present our passports, which initially we find quite awkward but in New Zealand foreigners have to show passports to get served a drink….. After dinner we head to the movie. The movie tickets are assigned seats, so we don’t have to worry about getting there early. For those of you who have watched a chick flick with Lindsay, enough said. The movie is decent but we have come to a consensus that it is not as good as it should have been with such an allstar cast. It’s about 11:30pm and we can enter the ferry terminal at 12pm. We go to yet another gas station to freshen up and we arrive to the ferry terminal. Emily burns us a CD to listen to! YAY! And we pass out for the next two hours before we have to board the boat. The ferry ride from Wellington to Picton is about three hours. We learn that you are not allowed to stay in the car during the boat ride. We find a spot on the boat and attempt to slumber.

A slow three hours passes and we are finally reach the south island!! YAY! Our final destination at this point is Nelson, which is about two hours away from Picton. We are kind of struggling at this point but Emily steps up and gets us to Nelson. It is a gray, cloudy Tuesday, which is not helping our sleepiness. We arrive at 7:45am at the hostel, and they don’t have our reservation! We want to cry. We decide to sleep two hours in the car and then start driving around Nelson to find a place to crash. Custom House was recommended to us from the previous hostel so we head there first. This nice old lady made accommodations for us and we couldn’t be happier at this point. FREE INTERNET, free tea and coffee, free washer/dryer, and of course, a bed. We move into a very spacious four-bedroom dorm. And don’t waste any time to shower and catch up with our sleep. Now what next?