The Road Goes Ever On and On

One thing that I enjoy about traveling is becoming aware of things that I take for granted back home and how they differ from other countries. It’s such a struggle to find free wifi that actually works here in New Zealand. I haven’t figured out why that is yet, but I’m determined to. There’s only been a few times in the US that the only option was to pay for wifi, thankfully I’m lucky enough to have data (even though it’s limited).

Although wifi has been a constant struggle we’ve made it so far with my limited data plan. Today we are getting picked up by our first WWOOFer host who is a lifesaver. Our original host fell through because there was a lack of communication on both sides. There was a lesson learned, sometimes you have to be that annoying person who is constantly sending messages otherwise the agreement falls through. Oh well, we managed to find this other host and she is being very generous in letting us stay for the next week.

Our last night in Auckland was a lot of fun. We stayed at cool backpackers hostel and hung out with a few English blokes and one Australian. It was great to make some friends for the evening and although we probably won’t ever see them again it was great to make that short connection.

Yesterday we left Auckland and took a bus south to Rotorua. This is a really cool town that has geothermal springs everywhere. We found a super chill hostel that had other travelers of our age as well as our own personal hot tub heated by the geothermal pools. Yesterday we found our new favorite restaurant called Fat Dog. It’s a family friendly restaurant with really delicious food and saved us from the edge of a hunger breakdown. This morning we returned and stuffed ourselves with a bit a breaki. We took a long walk through the geothermal pools and wandered for about two hours. The pools were pretty incredible. Steam rising out of them, mud or water boiling or just quietly bubbling, and of course the delicious smell of a thousand hard boiled eggs that had been left in the sun for about eight hours.

Out by the lake (that was not hot) there were at least 50 black swans hanging out with a lot of ducks. We had to walk around a herd of geese that were not too friendly. We also managed to forget sunscreen so that’s our souvenir for the day. As for the rest of our time here we may do some more wandering until we get picked up.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that our host has wifi. Hopefully it won’t be too long since I write again.

We saw all the pictures and footage of the Women’s Marches that happened everywhere last weekend. It was awesome to see so many people from all over the globe gathering together to stop the injustice that is happening in our country. We were sad that we couldn’t be part of it, there was a march in Auckland but we were in transit at the time.

Here’s to the change of minds worldwide and to the change of power.

Cheers!