Middle-Earth! I mean, New Zealand

Day 153 – Matamata, New Zealand

Edit: read all about the waterfall below.

Yesterday, in a few hours, I lost quite a few degrees as well, though the humidity stayed high. Like, pouring rain. (Okay, more like Spring showers, but you know what I mean.)

I was of course dressed quite warmly for Fiji, which means not enough for New Zealand, but my socks and my shoes were handily accessible so a change in footwear made my afternoon a lot more comfortable.

I was welcomed at the bus stop but a friend of the family who is hosting me for a few days, and there was a toasty fire on. (And the kettle.) Nothing like getting out of the rain to a warm fireplace.

My last days in Fiji were under the taxi god blessing, as while waiting for my bus in Pacific Harbour to go back to Nadi on Sunday, a taxi driver that was doing the drive empty offered to take me there -and we negotiated a price almost as cheap as the bus ticket. So the 3-hour drive was a lot more comfortable! And he dropped me off at the hostel, where I learned later that I wouldn’t have found a bus on a Sunday to take me from the Nadi bus station to the hostel. So altogether, I paid less!

And Tuesday morning, I shared a taxi with three Kiwis for the airport (we were taking the same flight), and instead of making me pay my share of 3 dollars, they gifted it to me. Luck, luck, luck.

Today dawned bright and sunny, so the rain is just a past memory (that will probably come back tomorrow, but shush! Not thinking too far ahead!)

You will have noticed the picture heading the article: that was my welcome at the airport, “on loan from Middle-Earth”!

We took advantage of the nice weather to go walking up to the lookout on Wairere Falls.

Wairere Falls

We had a perfect timing going back, as it started to rain when we got back to the carpark!

Today is Halloween, and I saw a few people in costume. It’s still a recently imported custom, though. I had on my Fijian outfit, but I was in disguise, nobody knew that I was wearing a costume.