2nd March 2008

For out trip back to Auckland we had a new driver, Lefty, and I was actually booked on the bus for once. Lefty was good fun and jokey, so was a good ride. First stop was a random village which had some crazy kids show being filmed in it and Kelly, Kirsty, Sarah and I got some breakfast in a harbour side cafe. Next stop was Opononi and to watch an informative and totally hilarious video about Opo the gay dolphin, that played with residents for a year in the 50s. Took photos of Opos grave and statue, was fantastic.

After bidding farewell to Sarah, who was to do the amazing footprints night-time forest walk, we had a photo op just outside Opononi. We got the Waipana Forest and it was really wet, but we still visited the HUGE tree called Tare Mahuta, named after a story where some guy had to hold his mother (the earth) and his father (the sky) apart. After an incident involving the ordering of drinks, I was named Diet Coke by Lefty and his trainee driver Brian. We then became the cool kids on the bus...

On the next driving stint we played the now classic game of "Hey Cow" which only Kirsty and me volunteered for and consisted of shouting "Hey Cow" at a field of cows and who ever gets the most cows to look at them wins. Excellent fun. Before arriving at our next destination we drove through a very "inbred" town and Left dedicated the classic banjo yokel song to me. At Matukohe, Kirsty and I went into the awesome Pioneer Museum, with working wood processing machinery and reconstructions of houses in the 1800s.

Unfortunately, we had very little time there and our next stop was the city of Auckland, where the hostel were busy and the "fat camel" was our only sensible option. We agreed to meet the drivers in the bar at 8 and then wandered around town (mainly for Starbucks) with Kelly;s friend Lisa (essex).

Using various bouts of cunning, we acquired a table in the bar and had a few drinks. We met our driver for tomorrow, Luke, who was vastly insane and crazy. Met a few more randoms,as well as the bus drivers from today, and played a few drinking games. At some point we met a kid who had loads of free doughnuts, which Luke ate most of and we got some burgers as well. Great night and good fun.