GOON:30: Zew Nealand

March 29^th/30^th

I guess I’ll start off by saying New Zealand, what an INTERESTING place to say the least. Between the people, culture and nightlife, it was something I had never experienced before. Arriving in Auckland our first night, Moosh and I were eager to get to our hostile (Nomads) and meet the people who we would be spending the next couple of days with. Seeing as it was Good Friday and NOTHING was open, our roommates were fast asleep with the lights off by the time we had arrived around midnight. We threw on some clothes and decided to hit the town anyway. Naturally we stumbled upon a dark alley and noticed a bartender waiving us down, so we decided to check out the scene. To our surprise we were the only two people in the entire bar and were told to “sit pretty” to attract customers in exchange for free drinks. As Saturday morning arose, we caught the ferry over to Waiheke Island to check out a few beaches. We hitched a ride on a free bus to Palm Beach, “where the water is blue, and the sand is white” according to a homeless man we met hawking our table at California Burrito.

March 31^st /April 1^st

Percy and Tiff had arrived late Saturday night and we left Easter morning on a 4-hour bus ride to Tauranga. We yet again loaded up on the closest thing we could get to Chipotle, California Burrito and hit the road. The bus flew like a bat out of hell and we arrived at our next destination, Bay of Plenty. Tauranga reminded me very much of Martha’s Vineyard, with that kind of Nantucket sort of feel. Our hostile was right on the water and pretty nice at that. Later that night we got dinner and a few drinks right outside where we were staying, and were approached by a ginger haired fellow in a traveling jazz band. He invited us to party at Phil Rudd’s (drummer of ACDC) old recording studio, which was “really close by!” A 40-minute car ride later up into the hills of butt-fuck-nowhere, we arrived at the “party” which consisted of the ginger and three of his mates. While simultaneously thanking god for not being kidnapped and learning how to play the drums, we sipped on a few Whiskey cocktails and participated in shaking tambourines and maracas while the band sang us a few of their songs. The night later led us into a few drinking games of ‘never have I ever,’ and let me tell you, I did not except the ging to be that experienced…The next morning we got up bright and early, bought a coffee from the first Starbucks I’ve seen in over a month and took a bus over to Mt. Maunganui. We hiked up the mountain to the very top and got to see an amazing view that over looked the whole city and ocean. Feeling accomplished and content, we arrived back at our hostile ready to shower, throw on some clothes and hit the bars, when instead we walked into a room completely quarantined with our sheets and clothes in trash bags. Our room was filled with bed bugs, yay! We had to wash every article of clothing we had and spray down our suitcases with Raid. I think my favorite part about that day was actually waiting for the bus for an hour and a half playing ‘would you rather,’ and let me tell ya, shit gets weird when your bored and waiting.

April 2^nd/3^rd

As Tuesday approached, we took an hour bus over to Rotorua were we would be staying the next two nights. About 2 hours after we got in, we signed up to go river rafting down the Kaituna River which was actually a burial ground for its native tribe and chief, where the bodies would be layed into the river for the eels to feed on their flesh. Rafting through the river was so much fun. We went over a 7 meter drop (22 feet) which is the world’s highest commercially rafted waterfall, and I also not only fell out of the raft but willingly jumped out and went down a drop floating on my back. This was definitely my favorite experience of the whole trip along with the fact that we were named the “best looking raft.” ;) Later that night after each of us licked our plates clean of burgers and chips, cheersd' a nice glass of wine and split two orders of crème brulee, we head over to the Lava Bar which was supposed to be “poppn'.” If 12 people in a bar is poppn' then I’m starting to think the North Island has no idea what a good time is. NZ has some pretty CREEPY men to add. As Wednesday rolled around, we decided it was finally time for me to get my septum pierced; something I have been debating about for some time now. I can’t help myself when I get these urges; it also helped when Meesh was calling me a pussy and saying just do it already. So there I was laying in the chair getting finger fucked up my nose trying to find my soft spot, HA, which actually turns out, I DON’T HAVE ONE! Katie, it almost felt like the banana in the nostril scenario, ya know? Anyway, I felt very calm and at ease while the lady was sticking a 14-gauge needle through my cartilage yelling CRIKEY DINGO’S, THIS IS GUNA HURT!! My watering eyes turned more into tears as she used pliers to pull the ring through, but thanks to Tiff’s “moral support” of squeezing my hand while turning away from the horror scene in which I was living, the girls actually got some pretty disturbing pics! All in all it was a good time, and what better way to ease my pain then a cold beer, Advil and a lil trip to the Polynesian Spa! The spa was made up of various geothermal, naturally heated pools or jacuzzis if you will. With the lowest temp of water being 102 and the highest being 107, we stayed long enough to enjoy ourselves, get some cool pics and book it over to subway just in time for dinner.

April 4^th/5^th/6th

As we were approaching our final days in NZ, we took the 4-hour bus back to Auckland and out of sulfur city. The smell of that town is truly god-awful. We decided to stay in a hostile 20 min out of the city. The Bamber House was an adorable little cottage like home right on the base of Mt. Eden, which we ended up hiking the day after we arrived. As fun as it was sharing a room with a stinky old man who snored a majority of the night, we thought it might be a bit more entertaining to walk to a wine tasting near the city. The Foxes Island wine was actually pretty amazing, and grown and nurtured in the South Island. Later that night we hit a few bars, one being an ice bar called Freddy's Ice House. Being that Aucklands' night life is so good, we were the only 3 people in the bar as usual. This was definitely something we just had to do when in Rome. Departure day had come and we were actually very excited to head back to OZ. As much as we did enjoy our mid-semester break, we definitely missed the homies back at the Village and are glad to be back, and still smelling of Raid. Overall, New Zealand made for a good trip with great friends and memories. J