We said our fairwells to the Young's in Napier and boarded our bus, called the 'Naked Bus' to Tauronga. The 'Naked Bus' has conotiations of a company run by half naked bus drivers that take you the length and bredth of the country, in
reality the bus drivers are over and above the pension age and we'd rather see them keep their clothes on, thanks very much.
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| A Naked bus |
The first leg of our jouney from Napier was with a driver who took us to Rotorua via Taupo, so we got to see the same scenic route that we saw on the way to Napier. Anyway, after a short break we boarded another bus with a different
driver, an extremely large guy and my immediate thought was 'prime victim of a heart attack.' We took our seats, the bus was half empty so we took two seats each opposite each other and this time at the front as we had spent most of our bus journeys at the back, next to the lavvy.
About half an hour into the journey I could see the driver grabbing his chest and grimacing - I had a great view of him where I was sitting in his rear view mirror. The grimacing soon turned to gentle moaning and leaning on the steering wheel as we were driving. All I could think of was my immediate thought of him when I first saw him about heart attacks and prayed that I wasn't having some kind of premanition. Then he grabbed a giant sized bottle of Gaviscon and proceeded to guzzle half of it before rubbing his belly and groaning. I started going over in my head what I'd learned in my CPR courses and thinking how many breathes to compressions, and what was the emergency number in this country, when he suddenly stopped the bus. Most people behind were completely oblivious to what was happening and as I looked over at Aoife I could see she knew what what going on and we gave each other knowing looks. The driver was searching in his bag, groaning all the time and found what he was looking for, his pills. He scoffed a few down and by this stage more people in the back were gaining his attention, which he saw, and prompty told us not to worry, they were only headache pills he was popping!!!
Well I was starting to worry and as he set off again, I slipped my seatbelt on and couldn't take my eyes off the driver. He then decided he'd make a phone call and called his boss saying he wasn't feeling great and may not be able to
make the next part of the journey which was to continue on to Auckland. He continually groaned and rubbed his chest and I did not relax the whole time! After another ten minutes, he called his boss again and said he really
wasn't well, he had chest pains, stomach pains, acid reflux, a headache, sweating profusely, and there was no way he could continue the journey and they would have to find a relief driver asap. By this time Aoife and I were shitting it, I thought he was going to cark it at any point.
We could see signs to Tauranga and knew we were close, then all of a sudden he's heading in another direction to pick up an old biddy from another stop. He gets off and with all his strength puts her suitcase in the hold under the bus,
and from where I was sitting I could see him trying to get himself together, leaning over and gasping to get his breath and saying 'oh dear, oh dear' to himself. He gets back on the bus and necks a whole bottle of water, more gaviscon and wipes his sweaty brow. The biddy decides to sit behind him, and as he is driving off, keeps distacting him asking him what's wrong and he replies, "heart burn" to which she starts waffling on and asking him if he wants a dry bun and giving him old remedies. We were all looking at each other thinking he just needs to concentrate on the fricking road ahead! Not gas to this old lady. Eventually she shuts up and ten minutes later he seemed to have recovered and was on the phone to his boss saying he could complete the journey to Auckland!! Good luck to all on board I say, that ride was scarier than a sky dive.
We arrived in Tauranga in one piece and gave our best wishes to the driver, and headed to our backpackers, wondering what reception we would receive there, and who we would be sharing our 4 bed dorm with.
Well, the clientelle was something to be desired, the dregs of society all in one place - great. We were shown to our dorm, sorry, window-less cell, and walked into a stinking flea pit. Because the room had no window, you can imagine the
stench eminating. We were greeted, no sorry again, ignored by our fellow roomate, a German girl who we later found out was working in Taurongo on one of the nearby asparagus farms.
We dumped our bags and went into Tauronga which happens to be a lovely town with a great atmoshphere. We found a pub and joined a couple of girls to do the weekly pub quiz which seemed to be extremely popular, all the tables were
reserved and some groups had ten or more people in them. So it was surprising to see that after 5 rounds, our little team of 4 girls were joint first, thanks to the input of Aoife and the round on New Zealand affairs, but we did ourselves proud coming somewhere in the middle of the board.
After the pub, it was back to the stinking cell where we met our other cell mate, another German girl. It was lights out, and what seemed like seconds later, lights on as the asparagus farm worker was up at 5.45am and flashing her torch
around whilst rustling plastic bags and getting ready for work. Next it was German girl number 2's turn and this time she turned the main light on screeching "I am checking out, I must have the light on." Jeez, at least in prison no ones getting up for work at a god awful hour or checking out.
The second day in Tauronga was spent legging it to Mount Maunganui, and when I say legging it I mean walking but Aoife's style of walking - extremely fast. We refreshed ourselves in the pub before reaching the base of the mount.
We wanted to go up, but only seemed to find the base track, so we walked around that and saw the workers helping out with the oil spill and clearing up clothes and other items washed onto the shore from the stricken tanker out to
sea. There were also a team of rugby players out training for the afternoon, so we had a great view of the coast and also the topless runners.
After walking the base of the mount we found the route up, so proceed walking the 4x4 track up, and said we would come down via the steps. People we met coming down near the bottom of the mount kept saying "good luck" and
we were perplexed at what they meant, it was only a hill! When we were half way up we realised how steep it was, and were practically on our hands and knees by the top. Although it was worth it, there was a fabulous view.
After the climb up Mount Maunganui, we ate fish and chips, or "fush and chups" as the Kiwi's say and went to the cinema to see "One Day", a book a few of us had read whilst on the truck.
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| Climbing the Mount, a quick stop to catch the breath and take a shot of the cute lamb |
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| at the top of the Mount |
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| The View from Mount Maunganui, with the cruise ship in the distance that we bumped into 2 more times |
Then it was back once again for a final night in our cell, and when we arrived the German girl was in bed and the other bed obviously had a new occupant but who we would never know, as she came to bed by torch light and did the obligatory rustling of plastic bags before bed. Then we were up at the crack of dawn, but not as early as the German asparagus worker, and packed and left our digs without even knowing who was sleeping in the next bed.
So, once again we lugged our stuff to to bus station and boarded a Naked Bus, ready for the long drive up north to Paihia.
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