Littlest hobo

Driving in my car along all these windy roads in the wilds of New Zealand I keep coming back to the lyrics of that marvellous kids tv programme the Littlest Hobo. You remember, where the dog makes friends with a new person or family each episode. I googled the lyrics and think it sums things up quite aptly:

"There's a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road, that's where I'll always be.
Every stop I make, I make a new friend,
Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

Down this road that never seems to end,
Where new adventure lies just around the bend.
So if you want to drive me for a while,
Just grab your hat, come travel light, that's hobo style."

It's been in my head for a few days now. Used to love it as a kid. I wouldn't necessarily say I make a new friend everywhere I go but you certainly get chatting to lots of random people about inane things and then you're off again, somewhere new. I do crave a conversation with someone who knows me well that I don't have to make an effort with or explain myself to though sometimes!

Did I say in my last post how much I love staying in surfing towns? They have such a laid-back, chilled out vibe and the hostels are always great with lots of things free or provided if you ask (in Raglan they had free mountain bikes, kayaks, surf boards etc). Plus lots of kitchen bits and pieces so long as you shared what you made. I just love that level of trust, hard to come by in some of these hostels where they charge a deposit for your key, blanket, and kitchen stuff in some really rubbish places. I think that's going a step too far not providing basic kitchen stuff on trust.

I moved on yesterday from Raglan after going for a beautiful walk in the sunshine along the surf beach. Took lots of pictures and clambered over the rocks before turning back and watching the planes taking off from the little local airport and flying low over the statuesque Mount Karioi. I was going to head off on another walk but after two or so hours of walking along the volcanic sand I was a bit knackered and settled for a drive in the car to another surf beach and a local scenic reserve instead. Had a quiet night chilling out.

Shared a room with an interesting kiwi girl, an ornithologist who was in the area to assess the impact of the local windfarm on the bird population. Fascinating who you meet on your travels. After being spoilt rotten with fancy hotels paid for by the companies I've worked for it's hard to imagine being put up in a hostel by your job, expected to share with a stranger and get up for work the next day. But I guess things are a bit different over here.

Next stop was the Waitomo Caves, a two-hour drive from Raglan. Black water rafting is pretty different from the white water variety, mainly because your in the depths of huge caves, it's mostly pitch black and there aren't many rapids. But it was an awesomely incredible experience. Famed for its glow worms in the local vicinity it was a truly spectacular experience to drift along in your little tube with only the glow worms lighting our way in the caves. Surreal, fantastical and almost felt out of this world, like I was transported into a superman film, the walls flecked with kryptonite or something. After getting a bit claustrophic in the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam I was surprised that I didn't mind one bit squeezing myself into the smallest of passages to explore the black labyrinth of caves that gave the tour its name.

Another long drive later and I arrived at the National Park in the centre of the North Island in the dark. I had no idea what my surroundings looked like and things were no different this morning as the area was cloaked in a huge veil of thick cloud. Which scuppered my plans to do the famous Tongariro alpine crossing, one of the best one-day walks in NZ, if not the world. I could have gone but as I've got time and no fixed plans I've amended my non-existent itinerary (just a rough idea in my head of what I want to do) and will return over the weekend to (hopefully) better weather.

So I'm now in Napier, on the East coast, and have indulged in an afternoon of art deco architecture with a guided walk by the local art deco centre. I think I'll appreciate it more tomorrow when I've had a good night's sleep, a hearty breakfast and haven't driven three hours. It was a good walk and interesting information but I was so thirsty and hungry with not much time to satiate myself before embarking on the walk that I was a little grumpy by the time we got underway!

It is a fascinating story of the town full of pastel-coloured wonders, if you like that style of architecture (I wholeheartedly do). Raised to the ground by a fiersome earthquake in 1931 it was rebuilt in the style of the day from scratch. What's even more remarkable is the difference in land mass before and after the earthquake. Originally most of the area surrounding the small town was swamp and sea. But the 'quake raised the level of the land by two metres and created an extra 4,000 hectares on which to rebuild the new city. It's pretty unique in many ways but that is quite phenomenal.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring some better weather and I can either head off on a self-guided cycling tour of the Hawke's Bay wineries or a bus tour to join some other folk and sample those smashing grapes.