Day 254 - Matamata to Auckland

After a really comfortable night's sleep, I heard Benjamin and Emily getting ready for school, so I jumped up and went to see what was going on - this was a good decision, as Ben was worried about missing me. I said goodbye, taught them the fish handshake (well, taught Ben, but apparently Emily was really keen to learn it in the car) and after they'd left Ben ran back in and instructed me to come back for longer in the summer, which I promised to do - at some point, not necessarily this summer though. Wayne and I had a walk around his land, and I checked out his motorbikes, one of which is an awesome Russian one with a sidecar, apparently copied from the 1939 German army BMWs - think Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Wicked. I then helped them with a few computer related things - mainly how to email photos and fixing the printing problems with Ben's birthday card for his Gran. After all this it was time to go. I got dropped in Matamata at 1130, and ate the sandwiches Lisette had very kindly prepared while I waited for the bus. She even popped in an apple, a Coke and a brunch bar - what a nice motherly thing to do. As it turned out, the bus didn't turn up until about 1, as the driver (Dillon again!) had had a bit of a nightmare on the roads - there have been snow and storms all over the southern north island, closing loads of roads. To cut a long story short, we arrived into Auckland around 4, and my Kiwi Experience was officially over. Oh, there was another Brazilian girl on the bus (Elaine) who further confirms my 'all Brazilian girls are sexy' theory.

I spent much of the evening wandering around looking for a haircut, but the only place I could find that was still open didn't speak English, and I was loathe to trust my hair to a Korean lady who had no idea what I wanted. I came back to the hostel for a dinner of pasta and tuna, and gave away some of my sauce to George and Jenny, two northern girls - Jenny is in fact from Spain via Manchester, and as a result has an awesome and confusing accent. Over dinner I told them of my quest for a barber, and they replied that they were both hairdressers! They said they would gladly sort me out if I could find somewhere to do it. While looking for somewhere I met another Jenny, one who I had vaguely recognised, although I thought it was maybe because she was hot. I then remembered that I had seen her in Queenstown and had the same reaction, and she pointed out that I had met her and her friend Carly in Melbourne, on the Neighbours tour! Well, in fact she asked me if I had kept my Libby Kennedy video, which bewildered me for a few moments until it all clicked. I saw Elaine again, and when I told her I was off to get a haircut she protested loudly, saying she liked it like it was. Moments later, in Jenny and George's (and also Jenny and Carly's, by coincidence) room, I met four young Kiwis (aged 17-19, and in town for a Children Of Bodum metal gig) who objected too, saying long hair was always better. They needn't have worried though, as we couldn't find anywhere to do it, and reception wouldn't lend us a broom. Thwarted, I returned to the TV room via the bottle shop - which, I should add, sells Soju! The only place I have seen the stuff outside Korea. It costs 7 times as much here, but $7.50 a bottle is still cheap for something as good as Soju. Anyway, back in the TV room I talked to (Neighbours) Jenny for hours, until we decided to go back to her room - not for any shenanigans, but because it was the only room we could hear which had anything going on. This turned out to be the Hairdressers, Kiwis, Carly and a bloke called Paul sitting around drinking and chatting, so we joined them. Well, I joined them, Jenny slunk off to bed and very subtly went to sleep.