quite good and I didn't go away hungry. We had a bunch of young adults at our table. There was one girl there that goes to school at Springfield College which is just down the street from me. She is actually taking a semester abroad in Australia and she was just taking a vacation in New Zealand. It is a small world.
At the end of the evening the bus driver and staff entertained us with their song and dances. They had the people that worked at this place do a multitude of duties. Not only did the bus driver drive, he taught us some Maori, he worked behind the desk and took cash or credit cards. He played the guitar and sang, and told us jokes on the way back. The main jokes were between the English, Aussies, and Kiwi about Rubgy, soccer. and cricket. I don't know much anout Rugby or cricket. Once while here I saw a little bit of cricket on TV--weird game--I guess I need to watch the whole thing. Maybe I will get to go to a match in England.
I met a girl named Ann that is Thai. She was at this event and also staying at our hostel. Ann is going to school in New Zealand for her PhD in tourism. Right now she is on holiday touring the North Island. She lives in Bangkok. When at home Ann gave us lots of information about things to do in Thailand.
Our bus driver took us back. He made our chief, who was Aussie, start us off in song. Good thing the bus driver knows songs from all over because he did most of the singing. The driver was then getting others to sing or tried to get others to sing. Ann actually sang a song from her country, Thailand. She did great and it was without music.
One of the other Maori traditions that we learned was the hongi. This is a greeting between two people. They look at each other and tap their noses twice while their right hands are grasped to one another and their left hands are on each others shoulder. It means breath of life and seals the bond of friendship between the different cultures.
The bus driver dropped us off and that was it for the evening.
The next morning, today, I was up at 5:30. I took a shower and did wash. Today we are leaving New Zealand. We ate, packed up and we did our last minute chores of mailing stuff home, the internet, and phone calls. We were on the road about 1:00. We had to drive to Auckland. We picked up a hitchhiker. We thought he was a traveler, backpacker. He ended up being a Kiwi, no job, and no money. He wanted to go to Hamilton, because of that and also because he didn't say much, we dropped him off and I gave him our bag of leftover food with bread, jelly, cooked chicken, and my diet Coke. He was very appreciative.
Laurie and I were wondering if we would have enough time to get to Auckland. Someone told us that it would be only two hours and 45 minutes. It was much longer than that. We had to drop the car off for 5:00 and get a shuttle to the airport. The roads were busy and they were working on the roads.
We did get to the car rental place in plenty of time. The shuttle had just pulled in and was ready to take us. I felt some anxiety. In some ways I was calm, but I could feel it in my stomach and chest. The only reason I could attribute it to was that I was leaving New Zealand. I got use to New Zealand. The people were great. They spoke English. Going to Bangkok is going to be totally different. We don't know the language. We don't know how to get around and we don't know anyone like we did in Hong Kong.
Well, I am on the plane to Bangkok. We are stopping in Brisbane, Australia and then on to Bangkok. It will be a 14 hour flight. So before I end my New Zealand noted, I would like to say a few words--like I haven't said anything in the last 40 days.
1. New Zealand is beautiful.
2. The people are great.
3. The hostels are nice and inexpensive.
4. The trails are well maintained.
5. The park system is well run.
6. They have phones and bathrooms everywhere.
7. The sandflies are horrible.
8. They have crazy drivers.
9. Everywhere is clean.
10. New Zealand is wonderful and everyone should come here.
Bangkok is in just click next.
