Feb 12: Strangers and swimholes, dinner parties and dancing

"A stranger's just a friend you haven't made yet!":

Smart, slightly paranoid girls like myself tend to hate that phrase. It demands that we ignore a caution so basic we would be idiots not to heed: men are crazy and sometimes they want to kill you for sadistic, possibly sexual reasons.

Despite spending essentially a month with a guy who was once a stranger and going to places for no reason than a friendly stranger suggested we head there, I was not about to let down my guard. As Matt's car drove away, I immediatly sized up the situation: Karolina and I are reasonably fit, and this guy--despite his huge biceps and 6-foot frame--is basically jsut a string bean. We could easily take him down if things got rough or seedy and we needed an out. I had already looked at a list of other backpacker's places in Hamilton, knew where the bus station was, and figured I could make do with just my orange back with my laptop and my purple purse if the chips came down and we had to run for it. Karolina had all of her essentials in her purse, I was pretty sure, so if ever one of us saw the knife or the roofies we'd grab the other by her wrist, snatch the bag with the passport and run like crazy down Queen street towards the train station.

But it turned out none of my brilliant get-away schemes ever came to pass. Andy, an out-of-work lawyer who had taken a year off to travel all over South America and some other parts of the world, turned out to be quite a stable fellow. Not just that, but he and his friend Natasha were simply the best, most friendly hosts and tourguides turned friends we could have asked for.

Andy Let us leave our bags at his house that he was subletting and currently renovating. As he had a few more chorse to finish up, he invited us to check out the park and the lake, which was about an hours walk, and by that time he'd be done with one set of chores and would be ready to drop us and our stuff off at Natasha's (henceforth known as Tash) house.

Karolina and I spent the whole hour talking and making each other laugh and sizing up the situation:

"So do you feel scared?"

"Not anymore, he seems like a nice guy."

"Yeah, I really like that he's a lawyer."

"But he's also unemployed and spent a year traveling."

"Yeah, strange for a lawyer."

"But that kind makes me think he's OK."

"Me too!"

We walked around the lake and then wound up back where we started, and right around then Andy drove by in his car to pick us up and take us over to Tash's.

Unfortunately, she wasn't there, and Andy didn't have a spare key. SO we hung out for about 30 minutes, talking and such, and then he had more errands to do, so we walked off over to the other park and played there for a while.

"I feel really bad about this, shooing you guys off to parks!" he said. "We're going to have a great BBQ later, I promise, you'll love it!"

So we walked back to another park, got some soda, played on some swings, got dizzy on the carousel, talked about boys, talked about Matt, talked abuot the boy she left in Germany, and about an hour and half later we wandered back to Tash's house, wondering if maybe she was home yet.

We walked in front of the open sliding door and I saw a girl sitting in front of a computer and waved. She waved back. Yes! Oh wait! She still didn't know who I was!

"Hey!" I called. "Are you Andy's friend?"

"Oh! Yeah! Are you the little couch surfers from Germany?"

And then things went swimmingly from there. Andy came back and we went to the super market to pick up sausages and a salad for the BBQ, and we went back to Tash's friend's house, where we got a recomendation to head up to Waikato and see some springs.

We hung out and ate for about two hours, talking about the trip, where we were from, where we were headed, Texas, Germany, Hamilton itslef (which all kiwi's seemed to agree was a boring industrial town) and cracking jokes about everything.

We later went back to Tash's and had some more drinks, and more people ame over. Got to meet Tash's boyfriend, Chris, and her roommate, Dippy, and a bunch of other people who floated in and out for the whole evening. A few drinks and conversatios later, it was suggested we walk 15 minutes into town and visit a few dance clubs. Andy told us we didn't have to go, shouldn't feel pressured into going, etc etc. But Karolina and I looked at each other and both agreed we wanted to go, but only if the other person went. And so we did.

You! Me! Dancing!:

We hit up four clubs and stayed at two. Because there's not much natural stuff to do in Hamilton, like surfing or hiking or enjoying the fresh air, the city makes it up to its dwellers by having the most concentrated area of bars of all the New Zeland cities. They all esentially share the same courtyard area. Imagine ten houses sharing the same back yard, and that's kind of what it's like. And nobody's parents are home. It was like crashing a Prom Dance, and we had an awesome time.

The next day, we were supposed to get to Karolina's train at 10:00 and I was going to get to my bus at 10:10. But Karolina's train wasn't in commission, and so she decided to stay an extra day. I was starting to feel protective of Karolina, like and older sister or a cousin, and I wanted to hang out with her until I knew where she was going and how she was going to get there. So we both decided to wait until her train left Hamilton, two days later, untill we left.

The Best Hosts Ever:

So we spent the rest of that day going to Rotorua, where there's an abundance of sulferic springs and boiling mud. The steam's so big and thick and moist it rolls off of the surface of the water like cumulous clouds. The boiling mud pits looked like a caldron of which's brew. And all this we got to see for free, since ndy was a NZ tour guide at one point and knew all the best touristy places to go. We swam for free, saw the pits for free, and later that night, we swam in a second springs for free.

The second one was such an intense experience. We got there late at night, at about 10:00. Pitch black and with nothing but Andy's flashlight on his cell phone to guide us, we parked the car and walked about twenty steps to a big, shallow pond. We could barely see anything, except for the flashlight.

This particular spring was pecial because it was fed by one hot and one cold spring. The result was a lovely cool pool of water with intense and frequent pockets of heat, perfect for chilly summer nights in NZ.

It was amazing. wewere just four shapes in the water, talking, laughing, relaxing, getting sared every now and then from the shadows and the yelling possums. You couldn't see them, but you could hear them advance and shriek.

Later, aroudn 12:30 during the car ride home, Karolina and I sat in the back and the four of us passed around a chocolate bar and listened to music. At one point Karolina turned to me and said "I really love this moment." I felt very much the same.

Maxin' and relaxin':

The next day as designated chill out day: check e-mails, make phone calls, and head out to the Hamilton botanical gardens. Andy worked all day but Tash showed us the seven or eight country-themed gardens: the english garden, the american, the italian, chinese, indian, japanese, etc. So much fun, and so pretty considering it's a free park, open to the public and whatever events they want to throw. Even weddings. Tash's sibligns have all been married in each of the gardens, at no cost. So sarah, maybe we should jsut have the wedding here and fly everyone to NZ? Eh? Eh?

Later at home, Tash made gourmet pizza and Karolina made Polish Cake, which had a number of names: yeast cake, breakfast cake, bread cake...Super yummy meal, and good times were had by all.

The next day we went into Waikato and after about an hour of wandering around in the wrong place and walking for 30 minutes in an abandoned train tunnel, we found the spring's Tash's friends recomonded we visit at the BBQ. To get to it, we had to walk 15 minutes over two rope swing bridges and through a cave of glow worms--which, when yuo see them in a cave, emit little pin pricks of blue light and look like stars. Apparently they're just wormy slugs, but i tried not to think about that.

We landed in front of an amazing sight: two waterfalls, on coming from another cave, and falling into a perfect pond. We jumped off rocks and ate plums and cadbury choclate bars, and it was perfect.

So Long, Hamiltron:

That was yesterday. Today we woke up early to get to Karolina's train and to my bus, and I was almost as sad as when Matt left. We exhanged numbers and information and promised to see each other before Karolina's six months were up and my semester is over.

I made it into Auckland, safe and sound, and got to my dorm room and finally, FINALLY put my bags away and my clothes in a closet and fell into my bed, just soon enough to ignore the ugliness of the room. Cinderblocks, tiny windows, ugly carpet, etc. etc.

Today was a boring mix of nesting and buying things. I'm going to have to purchase an internet plan, look into my phone situation and figure out why I can't set up my voice mailbox, and abunch of other boring stuff.

Hopefully it will all pick up tomorrow. I guess a few down days can't be all that bad.