isobelll - with 3 l

One of my favourite moments in New Zealand, and favourite stories to tell if you've already heard it, was when I visited Mount Maunghanui. One of the hitches was a bit scary due to the Maori guy (everyone's been warning me but I refuse to believe in the prejudice, racist comments against the Maori's) with tattoo's all over his face - blue flames. Then he started asking me how it was travelling alone as a girl, the usual question, if I liked to party, what I liked to drink and soon enough if I had a boyfriend where I laid and said that I had someone waiting for me in Sweden. Then the scary bit began, "You've gotta be real rich if you're travelling like this?" Well no! Not at all, if I were rich I might take the bus and not hitch? But I put it in perhaps a bit more diplomatic words. Telling him about Couch surfing and using the internet to get a hold of people where I could stay for a day or two was apparently notthe right thing to do. "Oh, but then you've got to have your laptop with you?" Pointing to my bag in the back. No way, that's way to expensive and I wouldn't carry it around with me anyhow! But I got out in one piece and with all my belongings. Maybe he just really wanted to know but it sure as hell felt like he wanted to know if it would be worth the trouble robbing me.

After hitching yet another ride I got to the beach which, apparently?, was the destination for the day. I've heard about Mount Maunghanui and that it was suppose to be real beautiful there but not really knowing that I was gonna find this spectacular beach. The water was real warm, filled with fun waves, seaweed and lost of salt which I merrily swallowed while playing in the ocean. As I was sitting in the sun, getting all warm and cosy again I wondered where I was gonna spend the night. Having seen town for just a second I realised that it was probably gonna be to expensive checking in at a backpackers (which I only did when there were no other options) or camp-ground but where could I pitch my tent just randomly hidden?

And suddenly I knew. Mount Maunghanui was to my left (I think) out on a peninsula and on the other side there was another small stretch of land surrounded by ocean, see the pitctures above. That one was gonna be my island for the night, yaaarrrrr!! I was gonna claim it to be all mine! My plan was brilliant. After waiting on the beach for the tourists to go home I snuck out on the peninsula and hid my backpack while I was looking for a place to crash, running around and playing hide and seek with no one looking for me of course. Ok, so you lose some sanity points while being on your own travelling the country, I must admit. Or maybe I didn't have any before either, I leave that for you to decide. The island was beautiful and I soon found the perfect place for my tent, just near a cliff edge, overlooking the ocean and hidden/sight underneath a huge tree. Yay! Just before sunset I pinched my tent and, to my surprise, remembered that I had one last bottle of beer (warm but nice) in my backpack. I took it and my dinner to the highest place on the island and watched the sunset. As the moon rose I knew that this was gonna be one of my best nights in New Zealand. It lit up the entire bay and the Mount, which looked absolutely beautiful. I can't describe it in any other way. The pictures looked completely computer generated but are real.

"I claim this island to be mine, yarrrr!" I waved with my beer knowing that I'd forgotten something important, I didn't have a flag. But instead of using a t-shirt on a stick I decided that another game of hide and seek on the now abandoned island would do.