Kiwi Adventures: Auckland & Hot Water Beach & Waitomo

I've finally got a bit of time (and wifi!) to do a little update as to what I've been doing for the last few days since arriving in New Zealand.

I landed in Auckland about mid evening as all my flights were delayed and, after I managed to find some dinner, I went back to my hostel to sleep and was a bit unnerved at how unsociable my röoom was! I was suddenly questioning what the hell I was doing.

The next day I spent around Auckland, mostly by myself, and went up the Sky Tower and to an Art museum where they had a cool dance showcase on. I also had my first experience of eating in a restaurant on my own but found it okay as I took my Kindle with me! That evening the people in my room were a lot more chatty so I started to feel better in myself and got an early night as my first Kiwi Experience Bus left fairly early the next day.

I really did not know what to expect with the Kiwi Bus but so far it has been absolutely incredible, there's so many more solo travelers than I thought there would be! The first day we started off doing a little hike to a beach called Cathedral Cove (think Narnia) and people were just so friendly - I was making friends on supermarket and toilet stops! And then that night we stayed in a gorgeous lodge at Hot Water Beach where me and a few other girls I'd met made friends by sitting on a picnic bench by the food van for 2 hours. Sounds weird but was effective! Hot Water Beach is literally what it says in the name so at about half 9 at night a load of us headed to the beach dug some pools and sat in the warm water drinking wine and getting to know everyone.

Next day on the way to Waitomo we stopped off and did another hike around an old tramway track who was pretty cool as you had to walk through caves and stuff. Then when we got to Waitomo we had the opportunity to go Caving in these glowworm caves and it was so much fun! We also took rubber rings down there and it was so tranquil floating along by the light of the glowworms. That night we stayed at a hostel called Kiwi Paca and we stayed in little cabins and by this time I was already really good friends with three other girls so everything was so comfortable. Then the pub and more socialising in the evening meant we didn't get back until 3am!

But anyway, kia ora!