01.07.2004

Its a cold and grey morning. Last night, the wind was blowing so hard that the windows were rattling in their panes. I thought the hostel building would collapse. And I initially thought they were shaking because of what the couple a few doors down were doing...Luckily, or unluckily, it didn't, and I woke up at 7.30am only to find that I can't feel my feet. What a great way to start the day eh? Breakfast was a quick affair, a cuppa hot Milo and some cereals we managed to filch from the common pantry.
We checked out after breakfast and headed outside to the train station for our train to Otorohanga. The winds had not abated abit since last night, and I almost regretted coming to NZ. The train was late, apparently there was a major storm last night that took out part of the railway in the centre of the north island. The train company were trying their best to rectify the problem, but it was 30min after the scheduled departure time before our train left the station. It was a 3hr journey to Otorohanga from Auckland, and I thought to enjoy the scenery along the way. No such luck. The sleep demon found me first.
Our taxi was waiting for us at Otorohanga station after we disembarked. A 15min ride through beautiful countryside took us to the sleepy little village of Waitomo. Booked a twin room in the Kiwi Paka backpackers hostel, and it turned out to be a triple room actually after checking. Of course, I reserved the larger bed for myself. What a great deal. Went horse trekking in the countryside for 2 hrs after putting down our baggage. My horse, with a nondescipt name of Danny, looked every bit the opposite of what you might expect of a horse with such an ordinary name. It was bigger than the other horses, it was black, it was a stallion, and it smelled bad. I took a liking to it instantly. It kinda reminded me of the war horses in the LOTR. After learning the basic controls and mounting procedures, we were off to explore the countryside with a couple of guides, one of which was a cute American named Megan who was staying at the ranch for a couple of months. After 5min of riding, my butt felt like it was ready to fall off. My horse, for all its powerful looks, doesn't like to move fast, in fact it doesn't even like to move. There were times when I tried to spur it on a little faster, and it ended up in a headlong run to catch up with the others in front, during which I was bouncing up and down like a rag doll on my balls. Did I mention that my balls hurt? After the whole ride was over, I hurt in at least a dozen places which included my arse and my crotch. Well, at least the feeling of freedom was worth it. A word of advice to other aspiring jockeys, you better have some good crotch protection ready when you try riding a horse, unless of course you don't have any balls to speak of. At last, I was beginning to feel like some medieval knight; like Aragorn....yes... I think I shall name my horse Sauron...muahahahaha...