Episode 5: Viana

I was on the North Island and I wanted to go from Auckland to the very top of the Island. The best way I found was to take a bus, so I took a backpacker’s bus called Kiwi Experience. You stopped in the middle of the trip and slept there because in total it was 14 hours, and on the next day you could go to the very top of the North Island.

I was in this bus and I was actually quite disappointed because it was not as I expected. Everyone’s aim was just to get drunk and have sex with each other – it was not really my goal.

We stopped at the hostel and it was bingo night. I was at the bingo and it was super boring: everyone was just competing to get shots. It was their only goal and I was really not having fun with them.

So at some point I just got out of the hostel, which was in a city by the beach. It was midnight and I started walking towards the beach. It felt quite amazing because the weather was super nice and the stars were shining.

I arrived at the beach and I heard people laughing. There were Indian people there launching fireworks. They saw me and said – “Hey do you want to try?” – And I said “Yeah!” So we started launching fireworks together and they asked “Do you want come with us and our friends?” and I started following them on the beach.

We went off to a hidden place where their friends were. They joined their friends but a bit further on there were other people who had a fireplace on the beach and I joined them. And I had one of the best nights that I had in New Zealand – just super randomly, sitting around the fireplace, launching a whole lot of fireworks with those people.

And that’s one of my highlights – just thinking about it reminds me that often it’s really cool to follow your instincts.