Well Day 1! So I started my trip off nice and early. Had to get up at 5:30am and have a bit of brekkie. as I was wandering around the house I spotted a few other things that I hadn't packed and thought that might come in handy like my glasses and a camera stand and my uber $600 flash-as sunglasses! So I carefully packed those away, ate my weet-bix and left the house before Shaun (who said he was going to get up early and see me off) woke up. hehe.
It's always interesting from a people watching point of view to see who is wandering around your home area (Devonport for me) at 6am. There were a few familiar faces who I see around town every now and then and a couple of newbies as well. Quite a lot of tourists actually though (funny how you learn to spot them...). Had to walk up to Sky City Casino with my pack on, which actually wasn't too bad, because my pack is a flash-as pack that I got form Katmandhu last year for my first trip and it was fitted for me there on the spot. So it fits like a gloves and I can alter the places where the weight sits with a quick pull of a strap or two if need be - very nice!
So I got on a bus at about 7:45am (I got to sit outside the bus station for 30 mins because I don't
like to be late) and we took off. I got my little face covering do-hickey and tried to catch some sleep. I've seen the majority of the North Island before and figuring this was going to be a 6 hour bus trip I though I would sleep through as much as possible. Well I got about 2 hours and an hour after that we pulled into "The Big Apple" a nice little country food and rest stop. Very nice - took a couple of photos.. for no real reason other than to try out the new camera.. I'll upload them a little later and add them to the picasa web page, and maybe try to organise my old photos a bit better too.
Anyhow, back on the road and I got into reading a bit, not too bad there, I like to read when someone else drives.. a lot of people get headaches but I don't really notice them that much - lucky me.
Anyhow, pulled into New Plyouth at about 2pm and went and saw my buddy Mike and his lovely wife Kirsty. They have put me up for a few nights. I used to know Mike from my Polytechnic days and we still carry on our friendship to this day... which is nice... always good to have old friends.
So anyhow, I'm keen as to not miss out on Wrestlemania this year, so I went and booked it to play on Mike's TV in a few days haha - I don't think he and Kirsty are that keen on it, but I'll watch it just the same... it's only $20 and it's great for a but of a laugh and simple entertainment!
Kirsty cooked an amazing dinner of Roast chicken and pasta and another awesome salad here and Mike and I ate for all we were worth... I think Mike got told off for eating too much hehe - great to be a guest! Anyhow, tomorrow I might go for a bit of a walkies and take a few photo's maybe of the area - will be nice to have a few North Taranaki photo's. Shame the bus didn't have more touristy stops as the weather was awesome and some of the beaches were went past (not to mention the Awakino gorge) looked amazing!
OK - see you later kiddies - I'm enjoying this - will write more soon!
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment