The rain in Taupo falls mainly on the James (Mar 4- 5)

After spending a few days in a camper, I grew a new appreciation for sleeping in a bed and having a hot shower. Staying at the Blackcurrant Backpackers was a nice change of pace from driving around Northland, the only bad part was the RAIN! The day started off nice enough and a group of people (Kate, Laura, Sophie, and Leigh) from Cornwall suggested I come on a bike trip with them to Huka falls and Craters of the moon. I agreed, even though I had already been to Huka falls I hadn't gone there by bike and we only stayed for a few mins. Craters of the moon was pretty cool, it's a geothermal site you can just walk around and go right up to the bubbling pools and mud pits and such. It also has a very nice look out point where you can see a few different mountains and things. The bike ride there and back was pretty intense, lots of hills but lots of nice scenery as well. Leigh was enjoying it the most I'd say, he was speeding around the trail with ease. The girls (maybe except Laura =P ) were having a bit more trouble but we all survived in the end.

There wasn't much else to do after this because the rain had started, so we just sat in and chatted. They invited me to have dinner with them later which was nice, Sophie is an aspiring chef so we had a very nice vegetable lasagna and CHIPS (very english lol). This was a great meal after a long day of riding, but it was some much needed physical activity.

It was Kate's last day in New Zealand (she was actually going back to WORK when she got home...yuck..24+ hr flight, a few hours sleep then back to work in a legal office. That's hardcore) so we decided to play some drinking games and then head out for the night. This is where I met John (Irish) and Ilka (Swedish) or Ilga I can't remember...so we all went out to some club/bar in town and danced the night away. First night dancing since I was here so that was nice, we had a great time =)....(Sidenote: there was a REALLY annoying Polish lady staying above us, we were just coming in and Leigh and I were talking outside and kept coming out and complaining about the noise we were making...BUT YOU'RE STAYING IN A HOSTEL, WE ARE JUST TALKING OUTSIDE...I told her to put a pillow over her head and keep her window shut..she complained about us every night we were there. She asked where we were from, Leigh says England and she says "Typical" .. pffft what a jerk, I told her I was from the moon)

I woke up the next day to some more RAIN...it literally rained the entire day, so we all just stayed in and listened to some music and comedy. Leigh was a big Techno Head so he played some stuff for me, he also mixes his own beats so that was cool. We listened to Bill Hicks and Mitch Headburg courtesy of Johns hard drive, which was dope. Sophie made muscles that night, soooooo delicious, so glad I met them if not only for the delicious meals =). We lazed around and watched a few movies at night (Something's gotta give [we watched this with an old Swedish guy he was lulz though] and North Country [pretty dope movie about women miners]).

John arrived half way through the first movie with some wine from a vineyard he was going to be working at in a few weeks, so we all sampled a bit of that (it was OK I guess, don't know much about wine...). We started chatting a bit and he mentioned he wanted to go to Gisbourne and he had a car...*JACKPOT*..so I turned on my charm and secured myself a ride to Gisbourne through Napier in the morning.

I had a great time with the Cornwall Crew, thanks for the food and laughs, and I'll see you (Sophie & Leigh) in Queenstown!

Peace & Love