Middle Earth Tour Day 20: Hit the road Jack!

Middle Earth Tour Day 20: Hit the road Jack!

This morning I was leaving Matamata for Whangarei. I had a strange night as I had kept waking up maybe in anticipation for the next stage of the journey, but the strangest part was wking up at 3am thinking there was an earthquake and wondering why I would be running into the street in my boxers. I knew it was irrational, but I was listening to the night sounds of everything too and nothing told me there was anything like that. The morning was cool though and I went to get some food before I left for the bus. I did wander several shops down to a place called Ronnies Cafe that had some decent meals for a reasonable price. Once I had food I went back to the room to get my bags so that I could wait for the bus.

I did see the Naked bus pull up and wondered if their times were regular to other towns. I do rather Intercity though as I know they are the national line and my bus did turn up on time. The drive to Hamilton was really nice even though there was some rain on the trip, but I was able to see some more of Cambridge along the way that I never seen going from Hamilton. I am still interested in visiting though I was more concerned with getting to the next bus. We did arrive with ten minutes before the departure of my next bus as I thought that had been good timing. I like something like that as it means I don’t have long to wait until my bus to Auckland. There were plenty of people on that bus as I had an aisle seat. Another town that has my interest is Huntly though I have no idea if you are able to stay there or not since it doesn’t look that big. I couldn’t tell how big the town centre actually was as it seemed to go on, but I did see the power plant over the road. I am not sure if I have ever mentioned seeing a theme park near Auckland before, but I think its called Rainbow End and has a rollercoaster so while I may not visit it I did see one.

The bus came into Auckland actually ahead of time by around 15 mins and I liked that one. I had never seen the bus come in that early before and I had an hour and half before I would get the next bus.  I did get some lunch and had that while waiting though there were several sparrows waiting for me to eat my sandwiches as they kept hovering near me. The Sparrows in New Zealand are unique and will take food off you if you eat anything near them. Back in Oz they don’t even come near you or wouldn’t attempt it. I did however get free wifi from a certain spot only to find Auckland has free wifi with 1gig a day you can use. I wonder how they can do something like that as I love it. My phone battery doesn’t though. My laptop thrives on internet connectivity of some sort. I had some guy come up to me and ask if I knew where some street was and I said no. The next guy beside me was asked if he had some skunk though the bloke was walking like he was on something. When the driver was accepting people’s bags he was after all the people for Whangarei though there were several people who didn’t quite understand him as they were after Paihia, but he was loading another town. They had to wait as he had his order of loading.

On the trip up north I noticed something that I hadn’t been feeling for most of my trip this time around and that was feeling hot in the sun. I was enjoying it though wearing a jumper does not help you either. Auckland had been cold in the shade, but I found elsewhere to be warmer especially on our refreshment break at the coffee pot cafe at Kaiwaka. I still do wonder why they never stop at the Swinging cow cafe just up the road, but I like where we are though. Once back on the road we go through the usual locations like Waipu where I visited last time with Claude. We did however get into Whangarei a little later than schedule, which was strange as we were running on time unless we now had to run a strange bus route through the different bus stations from Auckland like Albany. The weather in Whangarei was really agreeable after having been in cold and even snowy weather where there was rain one minute and the next white stuff from the sky. I am staying in Whangarei for 4 days and when I was picked up by Claude we visited the information centre for some ideas.

The ideas at the time seem to be hanging around the Town Basin for the walks they have there. I want to do the new river side type walk and want to start from around the Mount Parihaka base walk as a beginning area. There is the thought I could visit the kiwi house and the museum, which I still have not done in the years I have been dropping in on Whangarei. I think I can work something out tomorrow that will work though I have an inkling that I could end up in a book store by accident.  What are the chances of that happening on a nice sunny day though according to the news the places I had been like National Park is getting some more bad weather. That could mean snow and I am happy to be warm. Still it is good to be at the house of grandparents to see them again and then be off next week for the last part of my trip. I think I need to recharge for a little before heading back to the sunburnt country that could resemble a very burnt steak.