Day 249 (Friday 20th) - A Night In Kaikoura
Well that was quite a night, coming out of nowhere - having put the drunken dutchman in the recovery position, we played a round of Ring Of Fire, then some of Ride The Bus. The former went on for ages, as everyones repeatedly forgot the rules and had to have them patiently explained by Simon and Josh. It was fun though, and we were left to basically do whatever we wanted by the staff - we had free reign over the stereo, noone else was in the room, and everyone on the bus (except Jos) played the games. Around 11 we went down into town, suitably prepared for whatever Kaikoura had to offer - which at first didn't seem to be much. We went to Strawberry Tree, as recommended by a chap in the hostel, and saw a few songs of a slightly crap live local band. Before too long they cleared off, and I got chatting to a big Maori fellow at the bar - I forget his name, but he bought me a pint seemingly just because I wasn't a local, and I found out that he spent a few months of the year in Italy, and he and his brother Kieran both played rugby locally, and a few other things. While I was chatting to the Maori, the boys from Borehamwood were cracking onto the girls on the bus - Simon with Trog (actually very cool and pretty, just an unfortunate nickname - during a discussion about nicknames I let 'Princess' slip - they immediately seized upon it with glee. Oops), Josh onto Rosa and Dhaval onto Emma - the first two succeeded, I think (well, there were two voices coming from the hostel toilet at one point, and I don't think they all slept in their own beds) and last I heard Dhaval was trying to persuade Emma that her boyfriend was rubbish. The music was pretty good, quite a lot of Drum & Bass and decent dance, none of the crap I have become used to (and exasperated by) hearing all the time. In spite of my ruined neck I had a bit of a dance, and observed the odd dynamics between two quite hot local girls and a throng of local blokes who were dancing with them. I have no idea when we went back to the hostel, but it was pretty ridiculously late, I feel. We milled about for ages making far too much noise, and were up at half 8 to board the hangover bus once more.
Day 250 (Saturday 21st) - Bit Of A Crap Day
We raced off to Ohau, a seal colony nearby, where baby seals grow up along a freshwater creek. It's a bit odd, walking through the bush and seeing seals popping their heads out every now and again. At the end of the walk is a waterfall with a pool at the bottom, which must have contained at least 30 baby seals, frolicking about and occasionally coming over to investigate us - this concerned Buzz, our driver, as he was worried that a mother seal might come out and separate us from her inquisitive cub, but we saw no adults while we were there. We were now off to Picton, where 6 of us were to Hop on the ferry to Wellington, and everyone else joined a full busload of people going south. Facebook details were exchanged - impressive after only 24 hours, the girls and guys who are going south are a friendly bunch - and we bid each other farewell at the terminal. To my dismay, the journey across the Cook Strait was to last over three hours. I spent much of this time lying around on the sundeck until it got too cold, reading in the food court and wandering about the enormous ferry. At one point I sat next to a really interesting looking girl and thought about trying to start a conversation, but she was engrossed in her knitting, so I chose not to disturb her. When we were picking up our baggage, I found myself standing next to her - she was wearing a sort of knitted skirt, green checked coat, and had all her knitting stuff and a few old-fashioned notebooks in a wicker basket. I got the impression she was from another age. Apropos of nothing, she turned to me, smiled and said "This is always the funny bit, when everyone's getting their luggage." I nodded agreement, although I was actually thinking "How is this in any way funny? Tedious, yes. Dull, yes, but not really funny." and asked her about her knitting. Somehow we got chatting about farming and a few other things, and I ascertained that she was American, worked as a Steiner teacher, and had been WWOOFing for a while somewhere down south. She was really nice, and seemed to have a pretty cool life. She asked me about my trip, and I had to admit (grudgingly - I am rather embarrassed to be on the Kiwi bus, and rather wish I had never made the decision) that I was on a tour of NZ for a couple of weeks. She asked me if I could stray from the group, and if I fancied coming to her hostel later for a further chat about farming. I immediately replied yes, and we sort of arranged to meet in the bar of the Downtown backpackers around the start of the rugby.
Our bags came out, she left, and I walked to the bus grinning from ear to ear. I was chatty and funny on the bus, and generally felt awesome. Checked in and fed, I found out how to get there and walked the 25 minutes to her place, saw a pub on the ground floor, assumed that's where she meant, and settled in for the first half of the rugby to await her arrival. 25 minutes in, it struck me that this might not be the right place - I walked around the corner and saw anohter bar, and went into the hostel to ask if I could check their TV room - turns out there's a bar in there too, which is doubtless where she meant. By this time it was half time, and I had clearly missed her. I went downstairs to reception and asked if they could tell me where an American girl named Rachel might be (after much umming and ahhing over whether it might seem odd to suddenly turn up at her dorm, and turning a bright shade of red and ), but they couldn't help me. Bugger. Crestfallen, I walked back into town, checked out my hostel bar, didn't feel like staying around and went back to the room. It's now midnight on a Saturday night in Wellington, when the All Blacks had just won the second test against England. I'm sure there must be some awesome places I could be right now, instead of sitting in bed typing this, but I simply can't be arsed. Damn, really wish I'd found her...
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