Bus...Oh how I love thee.

I finally got off of my beached as bum today and headed to Auckland

The City of Sails.

I spent the last 10 days relaxing at the beach in Mt. Maunganui,

a gorgeous area in the North Island, and also made 2 day trips to (you guessed it) 2 other beaches:

The Coramandel Region and Manu Bay, a world famous NZ Surf spot with the worlds longest left. I even took a surf lesson and managed to stand up and ride a few baby waves.

Ocean.Sun.Sand.

You have to be crazy not to love it.

As I was saying, I was headed up to Auckland, a 3 hour bus ride from Tauranga.

YES.

I said BUS.

I've managed to avoid them the rest of my trip in New Zealand.

As I boarded with the others, I had flashbacks of November 2007, riding on the bus from Paris to Barcelona.

On this particular European bus ride, I was awoken to a foreign Spanish man trying to play footsies with me and winking at 1am...then again at 1:33 am...2:04am and so on. When we finally arrived in Barcelona it was 5 am (STILL DARK) on a Saturday morning as we pulled up at the bus stop. Now, on this trip I had NO computer, and NO Phone. I walked a few blocks until I came upon all the drunkards leaving the bar. Cut back to todays story...

I was thinking 'oh hear we go again'. I took my Bright Blue Bench seat, pulled out my book and my ipod to pass the 4 hours ahead of me. A phone rang to the tune "wild thing" and i thought we were in Mexico or quite possibly a Taco Bell commercial from the over-bleached blonde woman's high pitched voice. The small asian woman can't figure out why she has to change buses three times, speaking in a soft voice with broken English so the driver has to repeat himself 8 times.

15 minutes later we were on our way; there was something else on the way as well: 2 stinky teenagers who apparently had never heard of deodorant sitting across from me.

I blocked it all out, read my new book (The Tender Bar), listened to La Roux, and drank my water... too much of it in fact.

3 hours had passed and I felt like I was going to burst! At the next stop I hopped off to tinkle and when I came out the bus was pulling away. I had to run and beat on the door until the bus driver turned around and realized he had forgotten about me! The nerve. I was so happy to get off that bus when we arrived in Auckland.

But it is all part of the adventure...if not, what would I have to write about today?

Buses may not be the most appealing, pleasant, or peaceful way to travel, but they sure are the cheapest (especially when you have as much luggage as I do).