Good day, folks! I hope 2010 has started off well for everybody. I've climbed in front of a computer to tell you a little bit more about my Adventure Tours All of New Zealand group bus tour.

On December 26, I was supposed to be at the pick-up point at 6.50 am. I'd set two alarm clocks, but for some reason, I didn't wake up until 6.40 am... Panic! I jumped out of bed and into my clothes, slammed my suitcase shut and started running. The pick-up point was downhill and my suitcase has wheels, so I went almost flying! When I arrived at the Nomads Hostel where the Adventure Tours bus was supposed to pick me up, I saw Jess. ‘That's a good sign', I thought, ‘at least the bus hasn't left yet'. When I saw his face, however, I wasn't so sure anymore. I walked over to Jess and he told me that the bus would arrive at 7.30 am. He was disappointed, because he'd been waiting for a while, but I was happy that I wasn't too late! At 7.20 am, the bus arrived and Matthew, the driver, also known as Scratch, happily jumped out. We loaded our luggage into the trailer behind the bus and took the best seats (first row = more leg room). We stopped at a few other places to pick up Emma and Lucy from Australia, Scottish Martin, Indian Bani and Marianne from Holland. With 7 people on board, our journey was ready to start.

We went to the Bay of Islands and spent one night on Urupukapuka Island. Urupukapuka Island is beautiful. There were no shops, cafes or restaurants on the islands, only a few cabins. We stayed in double cabin rooms and we had to share the showers, toilets and kitchen with a few other guests. We went for a walk in the hills and Scratch told us a little bit about the island and the environment. After Scratch had finished his tour, Marianne and I wanted to explore the island a little bit more, so we continued walking. We had to back at the cabins at 7 pm for dinner, but of course, we got lost, so we arrived late for the barbecue food that Scratch had prepared. It still tasted good, though. After dinner, we all did the dishes together and played some card games. I shared a room with Marianne. I didn't sleep so well in the top bunk bed. Marianne was seriously sun burnt and she kept tossing and turning in her sleep, making me move as well!

On Sunday, we went kayaking with kayak instructor Adriana. It was amazing to kayak on the Atlantic Ocean. The waves were big and really cool! I was in a double kayak with Bani on the way to a remote and I shared a double kayak with Scratch on the way back. We spent about 3 hours on the water and by the time we were back at ‘our' island, my right arm was extremely sore and swollen. Ouch! It's been a while, but my arm still hurts today.

At 4.30 pm, we took the boat back to the mainland. We went on a dolphin cruiser, but unfortunately, we didn't see any dolphins. Because the company guarantees all their passengers that they will see dolphins, everybody on board got a voucher for another boat trip. The voucher is valid for life. We were all very disappointed, but the boat trip was still amazing. Marianne and I had to pinch each other a couple of times to make sure we weren't dreaming. It was so beautiful!

On Sunday night, we stayed at a crappy hostel and the worse thing was that we all had to sleep in the same room. Seven people in one room with only one toilet and one shower - and the toilet and shower were in one bathroom... It wasn't much fun, but I managed to get a few hours sleep.

On Monday, we drove back to Auckland. On the way back, we stopped at a beach to go snorkeling and swimming. The water was pretty cold and since I wasn't particularly interested in the sea life beneath me (too scary!), I decided to go for a swim to get warm. According to Martin, I swam quite fast and that's when I hit a rock and felt a terrible pain in my toe. When I went ouf of the water, I only saw a scratch, so I didn't understand why my toe hurt so much. I told myself to stop whining and continued walking. It wasn't until later that night, when we were back in Auckland, that I discovered that the toe next to the one with the scratch on it looked kind of er... weird. Bani, who works in a hospital in Canada, immediately recognized what was wrong. 'Your toe is broken', she said with a serious face. Oh no! Emma, who'd broken her toe a couple of weeks earlier, confirmed Bani's diagnosis. No wonder my toe hurt so much! The trip ended in Auckland for Jess, but as a way of saying goodbye to him, we had dinner together with the whole group in a Mexican restaurant on Auckland's waterfront. Bani and I spent the night at Nomads Hostel in Auckland. We had to sleep in a bunk bed and there was a guy in our room in another bunk bed. That guy was a bit weird, but luckily, we were only there for one night.
On Tuesday, we were picked up by MacGyver, our driver for the North Island. Everybody, apart from Jess, was still on the bus and we picked up 11 new people along the way. That was a very full bus!

To be continued...