Crash Palace Backpackers Rotorua

We got up early on Saturday morning and waited outside the hostel in Auckland to be picked up on the first leg of our Magic Bus Tour around New Zealand. We were headed for Rotorua via the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. There were only about 20 people on our bus that could hold 50 so we had loads of room to stretch out and get comfortable. As its coming into winter in NZ at the moment the tourist levels are quieting down so most of our buses will be half empty like this one, suits us nicely! After t...

I awoke and went for a jog at what I thought was 6am. Upon returning I found that it was already 7:20 and my bus was due out front of the hostel at 7:55. Apparently sometime during the night my watch lost 50 minutes. That or I can't tell time. I made my bus, shower and all. Our first stop was a quick drive up Mt. Eden, which having seen this last night, was not much of an attraction for me. The large Magic tour bus was about 1/3 full, a few older couples, a number of pairs of friends and prob...

I was wrong about the severity of the sulphurous smell. Upon opening the door to the hallway this morning I was instantly hit with a whiff of that unmistakably aroma of rotten eggs. I guess the wind had changed and the odor was blowing straight into town. Being a glutton for the obscene and weird, my morning jog took me straight to the lake, though the Government Gardens and eventually near a few of the geothermal pools. The nearer the lake, the stronger the stench. After a while you just get...

06 April 9:30 a.m. departure on the Intercity Bus from Franz Josef to Nelson via Hokitika. (Cost:  NZ$ 74; trip duration 10 hours including numerous stops.)  The usual unfriendly driver forbidding us to eat or drink on the ride.  Frequent and seemingly unnecessary stops, although a couple of the stops were worthwhile.  First stop in the quaint seaside town of Hokitika.  The weather was so perfect (cool and sunny) that it was a pleasure just to walk around.  Since we were not allowed to eat on...

We hiked to Marahou and the end of the Abel Tasman coast track in record time, shaving an hour off the estimated time and came out feeling ready for a hot shower and some civilization, although much tougher for hiking with all our gear. Marahau was a cute little place with artists' huts and horse trekkings the main occupations. The wetlands were being restored and Pukekos were all over the place along with many other birds. We hopped on a short bus over to Nelson and had a brief runin with th...

up early this morning to board the magic bus to rotorua and i wasn't helped by the fact that i turned off the alarm and went straight back to sleep either anyway caught my cab bang on time into central Auckland and joined the bus by the time we had picked up everyone there must have been twenty people on the trip to rotorua most a few years younger than me too on the way we went to waitomo caves famous for its glow worms and i decided to go on a black water rafting trip strangely this trip do...

well change of plan - today i was going to do a trip to see the geysers (not geezers) and thermal pools but got down to book it too late -even though it was only 10 am so instead i'm doing that tomorrow and today i spent exploring rotorua - you might have already seen the pictures on the recommendation of dave the hostel bloke i took a walk down to the lake area where there are a few mud pools, thermals pools and milky white water from all the chemicals like hydrogen sulphide (rotten eggs) in...

jeez i was woken up about 5.30 this morning by rain - not just any old rain sodding bucketloads all day long tipping it down rain the only problem with it raining of course was that i had to go out in it to see the waimangu thermal pools and geysers being an englishman I wasn't about to stop a small (torrential) downpour from ruining my plans so off i went it turns out that only 2 of us were making the trip so me and a 23 year old swedish girl named nina went round the track of the waimangu p...

Today was the day of the Hobbit holes! So I finally also got to see them. This place called Hobbiton is a private sheep farm near 'Matamata', and was used by Peter Jackson to film most of the scenes of the Hobbits' home country in the movie Lord of the Rings. But not only from Matamata, also from Rotorua you can join the Hobbiton Tour which shows you the farmland and the filming locations there. It's already exciting to finally walk along the green hills (the most time now in New Zealand I co...

Waitamo and the Glowworm caves Rotorua