Taupo-Wellington

The morning we were due to leave Taupo I decided to get up early and go for a swim in the largest lake in New Zealand… ha! As if! It was a beautiful morning as the bus left heading south for Wellington. We made a quick stop on the way to take a photo of Mt Doom- one of the many mountains featured in the Lord of the Rings. From there we continued the long journey to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. One thing I did notice on this journey-apart from the minimal amount of stops- was that the bus driver waved at every large vehicle he passed by. For trucks or Lorries it was a small wave only lifting his hand a small bit off the wheel. For other buses, there was a bit effort put into the wave and the arm was waved into the air. I couldn’t help but imagine if car drivers were to wave at every similar sized vehicle they saw, they would have extremely sore arms! Before we arrived into Wellington, the bus driver spoke over the pa and said that he had a song, which he plays all the time before arriving at a destination and we all would know the actions and he would keep putting it back to the beginning if he didn’t see the whole bus doing the actions… Everyone was confused and, later hugely embarrassed when “the Wheels on the bus” came on. We all did the actions and after three attempts we got the whole song through and we were, all laughing and now excited to arrive in Wellington. We arrived mid afternoon, which gave me enough time to drop my things and make my way to the Te Papa Museum and learn about the Maori culture and the history of New Zealand. I experienced another beautiful sunset on my way back from the Museum as the sun set over the harbour. I sat and soaked it all in before heading back to the hostel. Oh, the simple pleasures in life