The last night in Auckland is a slaughter. I simply can’t see any more blood and so I go to bed early. But I still can’t sleep, the party and the snoring afterwards are too loud.
In the morning, after three hours’ sleep, I head back into the centre of Auckland on my own. Again in the rain. I am the first customer at A2R car hire. The price is great, the car very rudimentary. There’s really nothing about the estate that you don’t need. Crank the windows, adjust the mirrors by hand. And back up to Mount Eden to meet our mates. It’s a quick farewell. Although we all brought the apocalypse to Eden, the hostel owner says she would be delighted to see us again. We set off in the rain.
We go shopping, eat, refuel. Petrol is just as expensive as in Germany. I am pleased that the cost is divided by four. Everyone is quite dead, and I’m already dead tired shortly after Auckland. I’m driving on the left for the first time in my life. A big change. Not so much the actual driving on the left. More the little things like futile attempts to change gear with the right-hand door handle. Or flashing instead of switching on the windscreen wipers. In addition, the car starts to vibrate massively from 90 km/h and the lane seems to be properly adjusted.
We arrive in Lake Taupo. Before we look for a hostel, we take a look at Huka Falls and the neighbouring Moon Craters. The whole area is very thermal. The bubbling vapour fields stink much less than Yellowstone. We creep through fields of mist until the sun finally becomes halfway visible again behind the clouds. No more rain at last.
We arrive in Taupo and put up at the YHA. A nice hostel with an outdoor hot tub. We heat up before we catch up on some much-needed sleep. Sleep is hard to come by. More partying all round. I don’t mind the parties. I don’t like the fact that they encourage me to join in every night for no reason. Everything is bogged down.
The place is different, the exorbitant prices for bliss are the same. All the pubs in Taupo are on one street. Mild plans for rafting tomorrow. Nothing else. I need something else.
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.