Kiwi Day 1 - Auckland to Hot Water Beach / 27.01.2019

The last few days in Auckland, New Zealand, I used to just chill because with the Kiwi Bus, with which I will explore New Zealand for the next one and a half months and get enough action.

Today I was picked up at 8:50 am in front of my hostel (the Nomads) with the green bus after a few uncertainties and complications - which I quickly resolved with a phone call - and had already met some nice people while waiting: Iris from the Netherlands, Talea and Lukas from Germany, and Sarah from Switzerland. I also befriended Eliná from Norway on the bus and everyone was cool in general.
Of course, there were also a few party-hungry English people, who felt like everyone was having 20 beers during the lunch stop on the way to Hot Water Beach, but Kiwi somehow had the reputation of a party bus, even though the journey further south was ultimately very relaxed, even if it was slow due to the heavy traffic.

Our first real stop was at around 1:45 pm at the famous Cathedral Cove, but we still had to walk three-quarters of an hour - up and over hills, through buzzing fern forests, and some idiot always deleted a number on the signs with the double-digit time estimates, so we felt fooled the whole time. But the views of white chalk cliffs and wooded little islands in the sea were already worth it, and when we arrived at the small beach at Cathedral Cove and saw the massive hole or cave in the rock and could walk through it and look out to the sea, all the sweat we had shed was forgotten.
We stayed here for a while - it was a bit of a shame because there were an unusually large number of people there, as the New Zealanders are currently having a long weekend - but then we had to hurry a bit because we also wanted to arrive at Hot Water Beach on time. So we climbed the steep stairs up, walked along the path lying in the blazing sun (why was it so hot here, I thought it would change when I left Australia?) and made our way back to our bus.

We squeezed through the emergency exit between the seats (which became more and more ridiculous with each time, but we didn't want to take the normal entrance at the front) and then it was a short drive to our sweet campsite-like hostel. I was in a kind of hut with Talea, Iris, Lukas, Sarah, and 2 other girls - one Swiss and one Austrian - which we shared with another room and a bathroom.
After checking in, we unloaded the bus, put on our swimwear, and quickly went down the short bush path to the beach - where a lot of people had already gathered.
The Hot Water Beach had a special feature: hot water seeped to the surface of the sand through a hole in the earth's crust and due to volcanic activity in the area - a dead volcano right next to us and several dormant and active ones a little further away. And really boiling hot, you could see steam everywhere and even a big warning sign of danger.
You could dig your own hot pool with a shovel, which we did (actually, we let a few boys do the work) and the water from the sea cooled everything down to a nice warm pleasant temperature.
We chilled there for a while until we dared to go into the cold sea. As soon as we walked in, we saw a stingray swimming mega close to us! And then I just ran into the water because otherwise it would have taken too long to get used to the temperature and ended up stumbling and landing in the water.
But it wasn't cold anymore and we went further out where the big waves broke and it was really fun. A look at the beach and the endless grass-covered hills behind it and you thought you were in a movie because the already low sun bathed everything in an incredible golden light and every time a wave broke behind us, I could see a rainbow.

At some point, we went back to the hostel, took a shower, and then ordered a delicious burger there because we had forgotten that there was no supermarket here (like some others - the English guys begged our bus driver to take them to buy cigarettes, but he amusingly refused).
But it tasted very good and we toasted with a little beer to our first day with the Kiwi bus, which later, when it was already dark, escalated into a few different funny versions of bus driver - while others were already screaming drunk - and in the end, we all fell dead into our sagging beds.

Song of the day: There You Are by Zayn, because I heard it by chance in Auckland recently and now I find it somehow epic.