The Duckling

I am on the move yet again, this time making my way up part of the North Island to get to the hot geysers and springs in the volcanic areas surrounding Rotorua.

The boring part of travelling that I’m sure no one will miss (which is why I dont go on about it) is how long it takes to travel between some of these places. This morning I had to get a bus at 9am to get to the Train station in order to get another bus at 11am to finally get me to Rotorua just after 7pm this evening which has been quite a day of travel.

For the first few hours of the trip I had a double seat to myself, however as things really filled up nearly every seat was filled. I though I was home free before a guy got on with a young child and asked if the seat next to me was taken. I moved my bag and the boy sat down before his father wished him farewell and got back off the bus. A little perplexed I looked in the boys hand at the paperwork his dad had asked him to keep hold of and it was stuff regarding minors travelling alone as it turns out he was going to see his grandma a few hours away. Not knowing what the rules are in society in this day and age when it comes to talking to children I decided to just play it safe and keep watching the TV show on my laptop that I was watching before, keeping my headphones in and not saying anything more which seemed to be working for me.

About 45 mins later we made stopped for a 30 min break at a small cafe truck stop place where everyone had to get off of the bus in order for it to be locked to keep everything safe. I told my little companion we had to get off and he quite happily trudged away before scurrying back to ask me where I was going. I replied that I was also going inside as everyone had to which seemed to please him and he wandered inside with the crowd. Inside the cafe I ordered my food while I watched him pick the biggest bag of crisps going (which also happened to be very spicy) with a big grin on his face. Once he had bought them though he suddenly looked aimless again, not quite knowing where he should be going or what he should be doing which is when I told him to come and join me at my table (in the middle of the crowded room as im still not taking any chances!). This is the point where the ducking / mother duck effect set in and from then on I had myself a permanent shadow!

The boy may have not said a single word before during the first journey but not we had sat together to eat which to a 9 yr old means we are best pals, especially since I recognised that he was wearing a creeper hoodie (minecraft reference for those who don’t have a clue). The kid, who I now know is called Noah, started talking and didn’t shut up for the next 30 mins. He told me about his parents, his grand parents, his school, his favourite colour, sweets he liked, his birthday (which was 2 days ago) his new watch (which he got that day) and anything else his 9 year old brain could think of. When he had finished telling me everything in the world it was time for the questions to start with “what’s the biggest mountain in New Zealand?” and here is where I made my mistake. Instead of killing the conversation there and saying “Not a clue” I instead grabbed my iPad and googled it to give him the exact details. This then opened the doors to many more “what’s the biggest in the world” questions, including and not limited to, the tallest man, longest river in NZ, longest road, longest bridge, tallest tree, oldest building, biggest building and a whole host more. He didn’t seem to stop with the questions until my battery eventually “went flat” which is the adult way of saying I lied to a child because I was tired. I am not proud of it but I did it anyway and though I would get a moment of quiet I so desperately craved. After about 5 mins of silence he then started to rummage through his bag before producing some sweets and offering me one. I’ll be honest, I had no clue how to react to that situation. Everyone is always so focused on the the whole “don’t take sweets from strange old men” that no one bothers to tell you if you’re allowed to take a sweet from a young boy if he offers. With the lets not be creepy instinct running strong I turned him down on his offer until the 9th attempt then I realised it was never going to stop so just took the sweet and went about my day.

The rest of the journey he was rather quiet until it started to approach his arrival time in Taupo. Remember that watch I mentioned? Well according to the piece of paper he had he should arrive in Taupo at 5.20pm which meant I got a running commentary from his newly practised time telling skills every 2 mins counting down how long he had left before he got to his Nana B’s (at this point I practically know his family tree!). The thing is that the coach was running 20min late but that didn’t sit well with our little explorer. As far as he was concerned his letter said 5.20pm so when his watch said 5.20pm he should be where he wants to be. As soon as the time hit he started panicking, worrying that maybe his Nana was going to leave without him and what if she didn’t even know if he was coming in the first place. I eventually managed to calm him down by reassuring him that she would be there and that he hadn’t been abandoned but he was still worried all the way up until he saw her from the bus window…. and with a flash my random 9yr old friend with a mullet (yes I forgot to mention that!) was gone again.

As much as he was chatty at the end of the day Noah was a nice kid which is more than I can say for some of the kids on the bus, some of which I really wanted to kick in the face. A few seats back there were 2 girls who must have just been in their teens who really started to piss me off from the moment they got on the bus. The first thing they started to do was play music from their phone and sing along to it at the top of their lungs. If this was some top 10 single or something from Glee then maybe it would have been quite and endearing but it seems these 2 budding pop stars had purchased the latest copy of “Bitch, Nigger, Motherfucker’s greatest hits” (or at least that’s what it sounded like) and proceeded to just shout (as they couldn’t sing) along with the obscenitys. Now I am someone who has eclectic taste and I’m sure I have my fair share of distasteful rap songs that I love to listen to but they took it to a whole new level. Not only were the songs offensive, loud and tinny coming from a phone speaker but they were also crap. Not like a little crap but properly full on rubbish for anyone to hear.

At first I was going to tell the girls to shut up but it was then that I realised that they were not alone on the coach. It seems like the whole of scum family were out in force travelling on the coach today and none of them said a word regarding the girls behaviour. That made me thing better of saying anything really. It is one thing telling off a child for being an arse but if there parents are sat right next to them and not saying anything then you already know what sort of reaction you are going to get and I didn’t quite feel like escalating a situation on a coach I still needed to be on for a few more hours, especially when I had my new duckling to protect as well. Luckily for me, or for his parents, he was chatting to much I don’t think he was paying much attention to the music or what was going on. It just seems that no matter where you go you always seem to get a dickhead on a bus!

On a positive note though I did finally get to Rotorua in piece and am looking forwards to seeing that the place has to offer when I get to investigate tomorrow. The only downside of the awesome displays of nature all around is that the place does smell slightly of rotten eggs due to all the sulphur in the air. I guess this is something I can deal with if I get to see something cool tomorrow.

As another bonus too the Hostel that I am staying in is next door to the climbing centre which means that they have windows from the lounge area of the hostel where you can watch what is going on on the walls as you chill which is pretty awesome.

I know this post seems like a wall of text and no pics so I will try my best to get some more pics tomorrow in the daylight 🙂