G'day! It is 05:36 in the morning here, and surprisingly there are no other wack-a-doos using the internet stations at this time other than me. HA! Oh, except for the girl who just came in. So that makes 2 of us crazies... Due to my unplanned excursion yesterday, I failed to complete my mission of obtaining a watch so I still don't know what freakin' time it is here at any given moment! My travel clock is still on Boston time (LET IT GO... LET IT GO...) I have to be at the front desk today by 7:30am to plan my second touring excursion of the South Islands. It is a 9 day minimum tour which ends in Christchurch. I get to take a little puddle jumper plane ride from Wellington to Kaikoura and then I will pick up a bus which will take me to Picton, Nelson, Westport, Greymouth, Franz Josef, Fox Glacier Haast, Wanaka, Queenstown, Dunedin, Oamaru, Tekapo and then finally Christchurch. I am flying out from Christchurch to head over to Fiji on April 3rd so this little "Magic Bus/Plane Pass" will work out perfect! It is the Southern Tour that I have to straight away this morning at 7:30am.
Today I am heading North. My first stop is Taupo, and I will check in to a new hostel called Taupo Urban Retreat (Details listed under links). I will stay in Taupo for 2 nights and then head over to Roturua for 2 nights, staying in the Treks Backpackers hostel. I talked to a bunch of the local people and I was told to check out the Polynesian Pools in Roturua... Princess here heard the word "spa", I am ALL OVER IT! I will definitely let you know how I make out there.
I also forgot to share that I have offically had my first "Dumb American" (extreme blonde) moment. I bought a new battery charger for my new digital Camera (Canon Powershot A95, LOVE IT!) which came with a voltage converter for overseas. I also have all the converter plugs for all the countries I am visiting.... So far so good right? Um, no.... Blondie over here forgot to insert the voltage converter in between the NZ outlet converter and my digital battery charger... It only took about 45 seconds before I heard a little "poof" and saw a bit of black smoke emerge from the wall socket... DOH! So now my battery charger is fried, and I am quite sure the socket in my room is useless as well. Luckily I brought a pack of extra AA batteries which will have to do from this point forward. I was so mad at myself because for once I actually had all the right power converters I needed and I still blew it! No pun intended... LOL MLD>> Dumb American....
I obsessed about losing my battery charger for approximately an hour, and then I finally let it go since there was but nothing I could do to change it... I think I have heard this kinda talk somewhere??? hmmm???
I was pleased to see that my next hostel has hot water laundry facilities and a cafe on-site. It also has internet access but not free. One thing I have noticed around Wellington is that there a ton of internet cafes everywhere and the few that I tried were very cheap considering.
When I arrive in Taupo today, the first thing I have to do is laundry as I have quickly gone through my minimal clothing selection. I did handwash my fabulous Nikey outfit last night so that I have something relatively clean to wear for my long bus ride today. Luckily the material for that matching outfit dries super quick. I am not sure what I am going to do in Taupo just yet, but I do know that by staying in the hostels you find out great information for activities which fit into your budget. I do hear that Taupo has the cheapest and best skydiving... Hmmmmm....
BTW-I had my room to myself here at the Wildlife House again! Two nights of privacy, I know I got lucky but I am so grateful because I needed both nights of rest to get on with time zone change. And why do I feel like I am absorbing the local accent? Probably because it sounds so cool! I love the NZ accent!
Well, my next update will be from Taupo. I am going to check my budget today and see how I am doing. Since I have barely spent any money in Wellington the past few days, except for a gift for my nephew and my mum, I think so far I am ahead of my daily budget....
So far, so good...