On the 4th day of my 23-day All of New Zealand bus tour, MacGyver drove a bus full of people to the Coromandel region. We stopped for a bath on Hot Water Beach. You can dig a hole in the sand and the water that comes up, is warm. The deeper you dig, the warmer the water is. Unfortunately, it was raining when we were there, but that didn't stop many people from changing into their bathing suits and going for a relaxing soak in a warm water sand pit. I didn't go, because I didn't want to risk hurting my toe. We spent the night in a cottage. Marianne and I shared a room and had our own single bed (hooray!) and there were four other people in the cottage as well. We were really lucky that we were in the cottage, because we had our own shower and toilet and didn't have to use the public facilities. We had dinner with the whole group. MacGayver had prepared fish on the bbq and several people had helped prepare salads. We had our dinner outside, seated at picknick tables. Afterwards, we washed the dishes in the public washing room. This whole scenario reminded me of summer camp in Otterlo when I was 9. We all had a good meal. Marianne and I went to bed early that night and slept very well.

The next day, we had to get up early. We drove to Whakarewarewa, an authentic Maori village with hot thermal springs and bubbling mud pools. A Maori guide was waiting for us when we arrived and he took us on a tour through the village. We had a traditional hangi meal for lunch (food cooked in the steam from the natural hot pools) and we watched a traditional Maori show after lunch. People who had signed themselves up for wild water rafting, were picked up by a guy from the rafting company. Those who didn't want to go rafting - including me - were driven to our hostel by MacGayver. I spent the afternoon wandering around the shops of Rotorua, checking my email in a local internet café and enjoying being away from the group for a few hours. I headed back to the hostel around 7 pm for a group dinner in the restaurant next to the hostel. I had to bring my own food, because they didn't have anything that I could eat. It felt a bit weird to pull out my own food from my plastic supermarket bag and dump it on a restaurant plate, but the owner of the restaurant assured me it was okay. Marianne and I shared the room with Carl and Mark that night, two guys from Australia. Carl running around naked in the room gave us both nightmares... What a freak!

We had to get up early again the next day. I don't remember exactly what time it was, but I believe breakfast was at 6.30 am. Phew! We had to prepare our own breakfasts and wash our own plates and cutlery afterwards. We were in the bus at 7.15 am and driven to a natural hot river for a swim. It was dry that day, but it was still quite cold so early in the morning. Thankfully, the water in the river was nice and warm. While we were all slowly waking up in the nice warm water, Carl felt the urge to take of his shorts... Eeeks! No way Marianne and I were going to share a room with that guy again! After a relaxing 30-minute soak in the river, we were ordered back into the bus, because we had a long drive ahead of us. We drove around Lake Taupo, stopped at the Huka Falls and kept on going to the Blue Duck Lodge, a beautiful lodge hidden in the New Zealand wilderness. Some people went by kayak to cover the last 8 kms, but unfortunately, my arm was still too painful to go kayaking. Since MacGayver went by kayak as well, me and four other girls were driven to the lodge by Sam, a 27-year old kiwi guy. The lodge was nestled right on the edge of Whanganui National Park, surrounded by breathtaking views and natural beauty. The lodge was also very small... Six people had to sleep in one room and there were only two showers and two toilets (toilet + shower in one room) for 18 people. Ai, this was bound to cause some irritations! Sam took me, Marianne, Lucy, Agata and Bani for a tour of the surroundings in his 4WD. We had the best afternoon ever! Sam showed us how two dogs herded and drove the sheep, he told us a bit about the history of the land and about his work at the lodge. MacGayver had been bossing us around from the start, but Sam was very relaxed and we could stay in one place as long as we wanted to. What a luxury! We went back around 6 pm, so Sam could help Dan, the owner of the lodge, prepare dinner. Since it was New Year's Eve, Dan had hired a dj and he'd also invited some local people to celebrate the arrival of 2010. There was bbq food (mainly lamb and goat), there were drinks, people and music - all the ingredients for a sweet as party! I danced on the deck outside, under the stars and felt really happy. A great way to start the new year!

January 1 started really early - at 5.30 am. Today, we were going to the Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand's best one-day walk. The walk is 19.4 km long and takes about 8 hours. I was determined to finish the walk, even though I had a broken toe, a sore arm and only 5 hours of sleep. We started the walk at 10.00 am and finished around 5.30 pm - and it was tough. You have to climb mountains and volcanoes in order to get to the other side and the mountains and volcanoes are extremely steep. The tracks are narrow, there's a lot of wind at the top and the mountains are quite high. Three girls panicked when they saw the 'track' that went down the mountain. It was extremely steep and slippery and the only way to go down, was by skidding on your hands and feet. It was quite a scary experience, but the views were stunning. Everybody was absolutely knackered at the end of the day. I was in bed at 10 pm and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!

On January 2, we could sleep in until 7.30 am. What a luxury! After breakfast with the whole group in the restaurant of the alpine lodge where we'd spent the night (four people in one room, but luckily not in bunk beds), we climbed into the bus again and headed to Wellington, New Zealand's capital city. Wellington's nickname is Windy City, because there's always a lot of wind in Wellington. Boy, were they right about that! I almost got blown away! We spent the afternoon in Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. When the museum closed at 6 pm, we still hadn't seen everything. It was a really nice museum. Marianne and I had dinner together at a Malaysian restaurant. While we were enjoying the delicious food, Emma and Lucy popped in to say goodbye. They'd only signed up for a tour on the North Island, so their trip ended that day. We all felt very sad. The trip was also over for Bani and Agata, but because we shared a hostel room with them, we could put off our goodbyes until the next morning. The next morning came way too soon. We had to leave early, because we had to check in for the ferry that was going to take 10 of us across the Cook Strait to the South Island at 7.15 am. Emma and Lucy were flying back to Australia from Wellington, Jessica and Gina (both from Korea) were staying in Wellington and the others went back to Auckland by bus. Marianne (from Holland), Martin (from Scotland), Peter & Maria (a couple from Sweden), Jack & Kirsten (a couple from England), Fabian (from Switzerland), Carl & Mark (uncle + nephew from Australia) and me said goodbye to the North Island and went on the ferry for a 3.5 hour ride to the South Island.

To be continued...