Mishap = Exciting Adventure

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  Thames, North Island, New Zealand
Sunday, May 4, 2008

Yes, it's another blog entry!   I'm sorry for basically a month of no blogging...I'm still planning to update you all on my WONDERFUL last month in OZ, but that will have to come later.  The last few days have been too funny to not write about.  So, I spent a couple of days in Auckland and wasn't feeling it.  It was a combination of missing Australia SO MUCH, being cold, being unable to fall asleep before 2am, being completely overwhelmed with all there is to do here and so many choices.  I spent Tuesday basically sleeping all afternoon, waking up and not being able to fall asleep.  Wednesday, I wandered aimlessly, cried a few times, felt utterly sad and alone, and cold.  Plus, I had freaked out a little and found solace in my good friend Jess who I knew would answer her phone, and from my friend Josh in S. Korea.  Both reminded me to calm the hell down and go to bed.  Tomorrow is a new day and for God's sakes, I'm in New Zealand!  It takes time for me to adjust. 

Thursday, I rolled outta bed LATE and met my friends from surf camp, Kat and Lucy, and Lucy's sister Imogen for coffee.  They all just finished a month in NZ and made me feel SO MUCH better.  I also was in hot pursuit of another pair of pants and shoes, was successful, AND finally called a few of my contacts here, even meeting one for a drink. 

Friday...I had to check out of my room by ten because the room was being deep cleaned, and check into a different room.  As I'm packing things up at quarter to ten, there's this woman still sleeping in the room.  We all had to be out of the room in the next 15 mins, so woke her up.  Well, this choice changed everything.  Sleeping beauty was Stine, from Denmark.  After I drilled poor, sleepy, Stine with questions, we both headed to reception, stored our bags and went to grab coffee.  To make a long story short, I've made a really wonderful friend.  Turns out, we have a TREMENDOUS amount in common including how much we miss Australia, have had a lot of fun and have become instant, laughing friends.  Stine and I spent all day together shopping and planning and having so much fun.  Stine ends up buying the same pants I bought the day before, and we call them our "Magic Pants".  We met Lucy, Kat, and Imogen for wonderful conversation, some New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Wagamama for dinner.

Saturday morning, took off for our "Magic" tour (magic is the name of the company) for the Coromandel Pennisula.  First by ferry -- lovely views, and great conversation, then by bus to Coromandel town where we borrowed bikes from the hostel and headed into town.  An adventure race was taking place, part of which included a ZORB (check it out on the internet if you don't know what it is.  apparently you can do them in Tennessee), and featured a celebrity team with Jack Osborne, you know, Ozzie and Sharon's son.  We tried to convice the Zorb dudes to let us have a go, but that wasn't happening...We saw Team Jack come through.  He looks like a normal guy with a lot of tattoos, nothing to write home about.  We headed on the bikes up to Wyuna Bay Road where we were told there was a lookout.  Up and down and back up and down, around several curves that went down, past the look out back up, oh yeah, and back down, we get to the water, only to go back up and down and finally to the lookout where we hug the lookout pole because we can't believe we made it...We continued to push ourselves because we knew we had a bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc and a hot tub waiting for us back at the hostel.  It was good stuff.  Dinner and then we met the winners of the adventure race in the hostel kitchen.  Learned all about adventure racing and went to bed, ready for the next day. 

So, we wake up ridiculously early today, catch a bus driven by this cute old man who's giving us the history of the area when we aren't dozing.  We're dropped off at the Thames information center where we sit in this cafe and wait for two and a half hours for the Magic bus to show up.  At 11:05 we realize, crap, we're late!  We race around,  grabbing our stuff, trying to figure out how the heck it's suddenly 11 and where do we need to be???  We race out the door around the corner to only wait some more.  The Magic bus never shows.  Turns out, there was some miscommunication between us and the agent who booked our "three day tour" which apparently actually more like a 6 day tour??? We call to figure out what's going on and what we can do.  They offer to put us up in the town for the night.  My plans are flexible, but Stine is meeting her brother in Christchurch on the South Island next week, so her time is much less flexible. We really were looking forward to our day of Maori bone carving, hot water baths, and sea kayaking.  Instead we are picked up by the nice, well-traveled, and helpful hostel owner where we decide chill out and figure out what we're going to do.  At this point we're crabby, cold, wet, and hungry.  The hostel is lovely.  We decide we want pancakes.  The hostel owner gives us a lift to the grocery store.  We walk home in the rain.  Have lunch and then spend the afternoon sharing stories of broken hearts, travel adventures, our thoughts on what we've learned and how we're better off because of this adventure.  We're all about the glass being half full here.  We are laughing, we are crying, we are having so much fun!  We figure out what the heck we are going to do with our time here, ie black water rafting (thanks for the suggestion JPA), glow worms, abseiling, caving. We make our phone calls, and then...we make pancakes.  It is just what the travel doctor ordered. 

I read this book a few weeks ago called "Without Reservations" by Alice Steinbach, about a woman who takes off for a year of travel.  At times I found it a little negative, but I got a lot of good out of it too.  One of my favorite parts of the book, she tells about meeting this guy at Oxford who's motto of sorts is "Mishap Equals Exciting Adventure."  I share this with Stine and we declare that our motto for this trip and for New Zealand. 

Tomorrow the adventure continues.  We've been laughing through our frustration all day.  I'm sure New Zealand will get better.  For now, it's raining, pouring rain.  I still haven't had a good night sleep in this country.  I'm hoping that changes tonight.  It is beautiful here.  Looking out on the land, the sea, the hills, the trees, this place might very well be enchanted.  It is so amazingly green here.  The trees look like they're going to come to life at any moment.  It really is lovely.  I've made a really wonderful friend.  Despite the crazyness of the last several days, I'm really happy...

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