Last I left off I was in Picton and parted from everyone else on the Magic Bus. The hostel I stayed at was okay, quiet cozy and free chocolate pudding and ice cream every night! Through all my travels I have taught myself that I much prefer the quaint homey hostels to the large institutiony type ones. The Base, Nomads and YHA are all like fast food restaurants of the hostel world, it does the job in a pinch but there is no real good substance behind them. Also I have found that Base and Nomads tend to be party hardy which means no sleep. I am getting up there you know, this old gal enjoys a few zzzzz's now and again. I am still young enough that I like the nightlife sometimes but when I am done whooping it up I can stumble home to my nice quiet hostel and not have to put up with it all the time.

Anyways, so yea, Picton. Picton is a pretty small town but it is the port for all the inter-island transport of goods and people. It is nestled in the Marlborough Sounds, which is just stunning to look at. I stayed here because I wanted to do some hiking in the sounds. I knew I didn't have the time or resources to do the Queen Charlotte, which is 71kms long, but I knew there had to be some other walks around I could do. Sure enough I went to the i-site and there was a walk called the Snout that would offer up some pretty good views of the Queen Charlotte sounds. It was 4 hours return so it seemed the best option for my day spent in Picton.

The walk was lovely and it really did have great views of the sounds from up above. It certainly wasn't a flat track though and a lot of steep hills up and down. I just chalked it up to my Mantracker training. I even ran a bit of it. Don't think that just because I am on the other side of the world I can't be training for Mantracker. I also plan on hiking the Queen Charlotte, the Milford Track and the Routeburn at some point in the next year, as well as any other multi-day track I can get my hand on. The walk was great to do by myself too, gave me some me time, since the past month I have been on and off a bus always around people. I have made some great friends though, and some I will miss. I feel like Sahria and I are kindred spirits. She gets me without being offended and we had a great time together. I was sad that she went back to England but I am sure that our paths with cross again, especially since that makes 2 friends in Nottingham that I have to go see now.

After my walk I headed back to the hostel and enjoyed their free wifi while it lasted, chilled out and got ready to depart in the morning. I was headed to Wellington the next morning on the ferry and the past couple days the sea has been rough. I was actually hoping the sea would be rough, I like it rough. But it wasn't, just a few little swells and clear skies. Oh well! I arrived on the other side early afternoon and had to make my own way to the hostel. I booked a non magic hostel this time because someone told me about it. I can't for the life of me remember who told me about this hostel but whoever it is I am not their friend anymore. The place is called Trek Global, and I would never on my life stay there again. I was unaware when I booked it that I was booking a hostel at the Jersey Shore. I am not an unreasonable person and I know, especially on a Friday night, that a certain level of noise and shenanigans are to be expected in a hostel, but I also know that sleep is their main business. That is what you rent, A BED! I checked in and the little twat at the desk was less then informative and handed me my key and told me where to find my room. I went up and everything seemed to be fine. It was clean, kind of 'Base' like, but clean and it was cheaper then most. The bathroom looked like it had a nice shower and there was a kitchen on every level (For those who have never stayed in a hostel, kitchen space is valuable and if a place has more then one kitchen it is a huge plus. Imagine the UN all trying to cook dinner at the same time). I opened my room and noticed it was only a two bed dorm, score! The bigger the dorm the shittier it is so only having one other roommate was ace! Plus he was already settled on the top bunk which means I got bottom, boo-ya! I H-A-T-E bottom top bunks and have perfected an art of jumping ahead of everyone on the bus to secure my bottom bunk every time. I locked up my stuff and headed out to Wellington for a bit.

I continued my search for the 'Johns Lunch' on Willis and came up empty handed. I have now walked from one end of Willis to the other and back and have not found a place called Johns Lunch. Are you sure it was in Wellington? Are you sure it was on Willis? Are you sure it wasn't on Pleasant St in Dartmouth? I know you don't know Dartmouth that well, maybe you got confused? So still the list check-mark stands as is with a picture of me having a latte from Willis' Lunch on Willis. I also went down to Te Papa again. I had visited it first time around but didn't have a lot of time so I thought I would give it a go again. This time I got to see all the stuff I missed and it really is the best museum I have ever been to. If you are ever in Wellington make sure you visit Te Papa, and it is all completely free! After Te Papa I grabbed a quick bite and headed back to the hostel for a quiet night in. I had to get up and walk down to the Magic Bus for 7:30am so I didn't want to get too wild.

When I arrived back to the hostel it was early, like before 7pm. I noticed that there were a lot more people in the kitchen adjacent to my room when I came up. That is a given it was around dinner time and it was Friday night so I knew there would be some drinks flowing and things. I decided to hide out in my room and watch some TV on my computer (Modern Family strikes again!) As the time ticked on the noise didn't dissipate, in fact it just increased. I was like, “Okay they will hoot and go on but then they will all go out and it will be quite for a decent time and by the time they come stumbling back in you will be getting up and getting ready to leave.” Wrong! I tried to go to sleep around 11 but all the Nora Jones and Jack Johnston in the world couldn't drown out those guys. The girls seemed to have set up a hair doing station right outside my door in front of the mirror, the guys were drinking in the kitchen and we all know that relationship of alcohol consumed to increase in voice volume is directly related. I went to brush my teeth and the bathroom looked like a truck stop bathroom, to be fair, I think I used a better one on East Hastings in Vancouver at a Waves coffee (Amy, that's for you). I just shook my head and went back to my room to try to get some sleep. I dozed in and out waking for every cheers and “Ohhhhhhh!” and just turning up my music until it was deafening. Then my roommate came in just after 1am and crawled into bed. He seemed a bit drunk and then I began worrying about the horror stories of people on the top bunk puking on themselves and the bottom bunkers being the recipients of that. He was breathing erratically so I just laid there waiting, and of course the partying was still going on around me. Once his breathing became rhythmic I figured I was in the clear for a chunky waterfall so I dozed off again. He never threw up but I thought that a croc may have followed him into bed because he kept rolling and tossing. I thought when you got drunk you passed out and didn't move around. The noise, partying, drunk girls etc continued until 5:30am. At one point there was a girl having a drunken skype outside my door in the hallway. You think drunk dialling is bad, when they can see you it just kicks it up a notch. Shameful! At 5:30 I gave up on getting back to sleep and just got up to shower and get ready to walk down to meet the bus.

When I came out of my room that's when I realized that I was indeed in the Jersey Shore house. The kitchen table was covered (I mean no space showing) with bottles, garbage, dirty dishes etc. There were shoes on the floor around the table, the counter was stacked high with dishes there was no cups to be had. The bathroom looked worse then before and there was a pair of underwear on the floor (mens). Of course at this time there was no one around so I had the sty to myself at least. I got in the shower, got dressed and packed up my stuff. I pushed clear a spot at the table for my breakfast and ate it up before going downstairs. I did not do my dishes! I want to know WTF! First of all where were the hostel peeps after 10pm when shit was getting loud? Why the hell would you leave the place like that? Why isn't their cameras in the kitchen? How can you allow people to act like that, and further more what in the hell are you doing acting like that!? As I descended the levels down to reception to pass in my key I noticed it wasn't just my floor that looked like that it was every kitchen table that I could see. Obviously that’s they way Trek Global does things, they live like animals. I will never stay there again and every traveller I have met since last night I have told them how shitty it was.

I walked down to the Magic Bus stop and up pulled the tiniest magic bus I have ever seen. It was one of those mini buses with a baggage trailer. The driver, Ross, helped me with my stuff and I loaded up. He checked his list and we hummed around Wellington looking for any other passengers. Turns out the rest of the list was a no-show and I was the only passenger on the bus. I also knew it was an 8 hour day on the bus.......... It was good though, we just chit chatted, played the music loud and didn't stop unless we wanted to.

Our first stop was at Mt. Bruce where they have a kiwi bird house with a while kiwi too. I went in and had a quick look at the kiwis but wasn't really too fussed about the other birds. I did see some Tuatara and some creepy eels before jetting back to the bus. So for those of you that don't know, Kiwi birds are nocturnal. I didn't know that at first, but they are. So any time you go to see them you have to go into a dark kiwi house and you are not allowed to take pictures. Not only that, but I am sorry New Zealanders, it's not even really that impressive of a bird. It doesn't have any wings, it doesn't fly and you can only see it in the dark. Anyway so I saw those and jumped back on the bus. Around 10am we here headed for the Tui Brewery, which is our scheduled next stop. Ross asked if I wanted to stop and I asked him if it was worth it. He said it was worth it if I wanted a beer, but wasn't it too early for a beer. It was obvious we had just met, I told him I don't think 'too early for a beer o'clock' existed. So we stopped. I ended up tasting 3 of the different beers they make there and the lovely girl who loved Canada gave them to me for free since I was the Magic VIP for the day. After a bite to eat, and 3 beers we jumped on the bus and hammered down for Taupo. We didn't make any other stops (4hours) until Taupo. When we approached a town Ross would ask if I needed to stop and each time I said I was fine so we kept on keeping on. We arrived in Taupo at about 3:15pm and I settled into my hostel.

This is the last 3 days of my trip. I stay here for 3 nights and then Tuesday morning it is back up to Auckland :( I am so sad this trip is over, but am already planning the next one! Plus, I have people meeting me in Auckland too so it will be good, and it will be nice to not live out of a backpack for a minute. I know this one was a long one, so thanks for hangin in there!