Roadtrip to Taupo

BREAKFAST: Cold pancakes, sausage that’s probably from two days ago, and other assorted cold things. I think they lower our expectations so that when they do decide to serve us good food, we think it’s awesome. I long for the days for Brittain food.

We entertain ourselves briefly by trying Marmite, the local “spread” (think a salty/nasty version of jam), under the supervision of a local. We still don’t like it. Maybe we will by the end of the trip.

Class sucked today; the econ teacher sprung not one, not two, but three pop quizzes on us today. I call shenanigans on this move--it has to violate some sort of international treaty. We spectacularly fail most of them. She needs to adapt to the lackadaisical study abroad attitude.

The weather today is amazing. It’s breezy, clear, and cool. I just want to sit outside all day, but then I remember I’ll get burned to a crisp if I do that. Drat.

DUH-HUH: Elisha comes to me complaining her internet isn’t working, that I screwed up something on her computer when I configured AIM to work on Victoria’s network. After looking briefly, I politely inform her the internet works better when it’s plugged in. She curls up into the fetal position on her bed. And you wonder why we think women suck at electronics...

ROADTRIP!: Today kicks off our weekend excursion to Taupo, which will be the longest school-sanctioned field trip I’ve ever taken. Three pure days of non-stop Geothermal exuberance!

We load up the bus and meet our bus driver, and cranky old Kiwi who has no tolerance for being late as we’ll later learn. This trip takes the same road that we used to get to Rotorua last weekend, so most of us have seen the sights before. The bus driver plays tour guide on the way up, informing us of fun little facts about each city (“Old Kiwis retire at this city, they built this windmill to attract tourists to this city…”) and our geology professor fills in useful geological facts about where we’re driving (“this road used to be underwater 4 millions years ago!”), which is actually fairly interesting.

DIE: I’ve come to conclude about New Zealand that while there isn’t much here to be afraid of in terms of dying from small things—there are no land-based predators, diseases are relatively benign, and there aren’t any killer scorpions or iguanas like Australia—the island has a tendency to blow up sporadically every 20,000 years or so and wipe out whole areas. There’s always some fine print…

LITIGATION PARADISE: One of the rest stops we make is at a combination rest area/playground. In short, this is the most badass playground I have ever been on in my life. This alone defines the legal differences between NZ and America, because this playground wouldn’t last a day without someone getting sued for a kid killing themselves on it.

We’re talking zip lines, trampolines, giant hamster wheels, huge slides, and basically anything FUN that you can think of. We had a blast. Most of the small children there gave us quizzical looks as the mob of 20-22 year-olds swarmed the playground like 10-yearolds. They’ll understand when they get older and visit America’s super-padded pathetic playgrounds suitable for mental patients.

Four bruises, 50 pictures, and 10 minutes later, we escape the playground as the cranky bus driver honks impatiently at us. I suspect this might be the most fun part of our trip—we’ll see.

The rest of the trip is uneventful besides a few more rest stops.

NIGHTLIFE, GO: Once we get to Taupo, we’re immediately bored and go check out the nightlife. More of the same here—empty bars suddenly becoming packed when the group of rowdy Americans storm in and take over the place (We seem to be good at that) then dying again as we migrate on, sucking all the life of the bar with us. We eventually settle down at one place called the Holy Cow, which is a prime picture-taking spot I decide, and fire away.

Tomorrow, we have to be up at 7am, ready to roll at 8am. Not looking forward to that.

--P