My bus ride from Auckland to Rotorua was not exciting nor pleasant I sat behind what I swear to be one of my good guy friends from home (shout out Brett Perez if your reading) doppelganger who unfortunately for me loved to sing.. Out loud. His song choices included but were not limited to Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez he also happened to ruin about six of my favorite Iggy songs.
I also got confused about where our restroom stop would be and apparently you aren’t supposed to ask the bus driver where or when it is (I downed a whole two liter of diet coke pre departure like an idiot) and the bathroom was calling my name, but the bus driver was not calling a bathroom stop.
I approached him to merely ask when we would be stopping and was greeted with a loud scream in front of the whole bus “ WE DON’T STAND ON A MOVING BUS WE SIT AND USE A BUCKLE” shocked, scared, and bladder pounding I sat down face red, as people on the bus laughed, looked at me awkwardly, or my personal favorite was when the Brett Perez look alike told me “ wow he sure doesn’t like you... I could hear that yell from over my music and headphones…. Thanks dude… thanks.
And OoO the best part was that we stopped about eight minutes for a rest break after the bus drivers little freak out….
Rotorua had the strangest smell due to its well-known geysers and bubbling mud, I didn’t mind it (then again I don’t live there and have to smell it every day). I had an awesome rock climbing wall in my hostel and free Wi-Fi so needless to say I was happy. In my current research I read about Rotoruas famous thermal waters and wanted to find a hot and cold thermal spring at once !! In my research I came to find that no bus actually goes to the free thermal springs( my cheap self was not pleased in the least by this information). Thankfully the awesome hostel attendant at the time told me if I did the thermal wonderland tour in Wai-O-Tapu I could ask the driver to pick me up a bit later so I could enjoy an hour or so of the free spring conveniently located two minutes away from the park. So naturally I signed up for this tour( thinking to myself how smart I am for getting a two for one deal)
The tour was beautiful and the colors were truly amazing like nothing I’ve ever seen ( or at least naturally… and yes if you’re wondering I did doctor the photos so you could see the colors my camera clearly left out ( secrets out)). I also got to see bubbling mud that actually looked like straight for lack of a better word crap, and smelled like it too.. But still hilarious to watch it fizzle and bubble. I also got to see an active volcanic or geyser ( human induced though) eruption and clearly it was a minor one and it might not even be volcanic to be honest I didn’t know what the heck I signed up for so don’t use this information as a source( no one really should use me as a source for life advice or information either).
I finished the tour with my newly made German friend (she assisted in the taking of my photographs, so I could appear to look like less of a self-obsessed egotistical selfie taker) and we headed to the hot and cold stream
This STREAM WAS AMAZING I had never felt anything like it so so hot, hotter than a hot tub and all you do is cross under a bridge and your swimming in Luke warm water which then flows into an oncoming cold water stream !! It was THE BEST THING EVER seriously I felt amazing after.
At the stream I came across two more Americans who were studying in Wellington ( Shout out to Bill and Erin), I mentioned my plans to go there next and learned they had rented a car and were headed out there the next day. Bill added me on Facebook and later that night messaged me saying that they wouldn’t mind if I tagged along. I met them for drinks and we discussed the game plan (my newly found German friend came along for drinks as well.. she informed us that her most missed thing in Germany was the partying until 7AM.. Germans (kidding).
Now I know what your all thinking, im crazy and shouldn’t take rides from strangers and blah blah. But I swear I’m a pretty good judger of murders and creepers and trolls.. they didn’t appear to be either ( and I also told them I sent my mom their information and if they killed me she would come after them like Liam in “Taken”… I also told them I had clippers and tweezers and knew how to use them)
