How it all started?

   Our group met the first time in late January 2015. There we're 7 of us in the beginning of the planning phase, and only a few of attendants knew each other beforehand. Other than that everyone were only connected by one common thing that had brought us together that day: scouting! This meeting was the start of our Abroad Scouting -project, where we would get to visit a country of our choice with some funding from Finlands Scouters and other sources.

   After proper introductions, we had the hardest question in front of us: where should we head for this Rover project? Everyone agreed that it should be something exotic, you couldn't just get to do every year or ten. It didn't take long after we had our first target country in mind: Australia and New Zealand!

   We got answers from both countries, first from Australia regarding the big Jamboree they were gonna have next year, and later on from New-Zealand regarding their big venture -event Inferno 2016. We were happy to see that there were two main options to choose, but New Zealand had a stronger call for us, so we started having more detailed message exchange with their event organization team. Also something happened later on at Australia's Jamboree we heard about in Inferno, but more of that later. Anyways, our target country was decided: WE WERE HEADING TO NEW ZEALAND!

What did we do before trip?

   Before the trip we had a lot to prepare and get ready for! First we needed some funding for our trip. Basically this worked out in 2 ways:

1: By sending applications to several groups and organizations (Finlands Scouters, Lions Club, our own scout groups etc...) pleading funds for our trip.

2: Raising funds by our own in several ways, including facepainting, selling baked goods, selling second hand stuff and others.

   While the money was only one of our biggest issues, we also had a lot to consider beside that: what to do on the trip, how long, where to sleep, what to pack, and so many other little details. However all those things sorted themselves out one meeting at a time during the year. Probably the next big step after deciding where we were heading, was the time when we finally managed to book tickets to New Zealand! This was the step when no-one was be able to back out of project anymore, so it was a go or no-go. Unfortunately it was a no-go for 3 of our 7 participants, as some had work coming up just then and some just couldn't afford the trip... However, once the tickets were ordered, the feeling of trip actually happening got real!!

   After the tickets were ordered, rest of the year seemed like to fly past! Everyone was getting more excited the closer the end of year neared, as our flight was leaving right after the new years celebrations. We also got the custom ordered Wallaroo 2016 t-shirts just before Christmas hurries.

And we're off!

   Finally the first day of January 2016 was there! Our trip was finally beginning, and everyone was more excited than they had probably ever been before!

   We met at the airport in the morning to catch our plane on time. This was a good idea in case of any delays in check-in or anything else, but in the end we ended up waiting at the airport port for six hours! However this wasn't because of us, as the new plane we were supposed to jump on, got it's departure delayed because of maintenance...

   After the time that felt like an eternity, we got on the plane and left Finland behind! Now we had ahead of us a 25 hours flight with a plane change at Shanghai.

   And then we saw them: the hills and shoreline of New Zealand! Once we had claimed our bags, it was time to find a way to get to Auckland, and find our first night place there. Jet-lag was bound to hit us any moment soon, so it was better to know where to fall before getting too tired too sudden. After finding our place, we headed to see a bit of Auckland and to find something to eat. It didn't last too long though, as tiredness stroke the whole party like lightning right after dinner, and everyone fell asleep.

First day in a new country.

    After about 12 hours of tight sleep, we were more than ready to start exploring these exciting islands! We had planned to rent ourselves a car for our first week here, and head on to a road trip as our "Phase One" like everyone else had that time before the actual Inferno camp in Rotorua.

   After a quick test drive around a block in the left handed traffic (Finland has right handed traffic, so yeah...), we found ourselves on the highway 1 heading towards our first sightseeing: The Hobbiton!

          

   Green Dragon serves quality non-alcoholic drinks as well by the way! Anyways, after the Hobbiton we headed back to Hamilton to sleep, and while there we met some awesome backpackers and students as well, so we got to see some of the many sides of backpack travelling as well.

Tongariro and Blue Water Springs

   "New day, new jokes!" As we Finns use to say sometimes. We heard previous evening at the hostel about this interesting place, not too far away from Hamilton that we totally should visit. The place was called Blue Spring Waters and they said that over 70% of all bottled water in New Zealand comes from there. Of course since we had a bit free time, we headed that way first.

   We didn't have too much time though, so after a good time we headed back to car and found our next sleeping place from Turangi. This place was what we liked to call a real hippie commune, as it wasn't the most clean place of all and it was a bit crowded, but the host was nicer than anyone could ever be!

   As I mentioned, the host was a really nice guy, and he also told us the best places to visit as we were heading next to Tongariro National Park. We didn't stay long to unpack things at the hostel, but rather headed right away to our next sightseeing! We were told that these were the mountains where some of the clips for Lord of The Rings movies were shot, so we were pretty excited after last days Hobbiton tour.

     

   On our way down, we also saw this sign telling that there was a waterfall to be seen a few minutes walk away. What happens first after this sight? We hit the brakes and turn the car around of course! Just to get ourselves some awesome photos to remind us of all the wonders of New Zealand.

     

     

   After the waterfall surprise we headed to our last location we had on our map: Mt. Doom! Unfortunately to make it in time to shopping, we didn't have enough time to go all the way up the mountain, but we still got to about 1200 meters, and had a little break at the Mangatepopo hut, before heading back down and to the hippie hostel.

Hot Pools and Cool Caves!

Only God knows what's happening in here...

   Our third day on a roadtrip was gonna be the longest driving so far, so thought it'd be best to first get ourselves cleaned well. Our host had pointed us to the local hot pools spa, and OH BOY did it feel good to get to swimming again after a couple of months!

After getting ourselves all nice and tidy, it was time to start getting excited about our trips next sightseeing: The Waitomo Caves and some real life glow-worms!

          

     

   After visiting the caves, we headed back to Hamilton since there was a room waiting for us in the same place we had stayed just a night before. Some of those people we met there were still hanging around, so we got to already tell someone about our trip!

Final day of the roadtrip.

   Morning came too soon, as talking with people about pretty much everything between New Zealand and Finland was just way too much fun! We couldn't stay long at the hostel in the morning, because today would be the day we return our rental car. There was still enough time to visit the Lake of Hamilton, and feed some birds in there (the other ones, not the ducks!)

   Soon afterwards we headed back to Auckland. As we got there, we wanted to see the "crater" everyone had been talking us about on the roadtrip. It took a while, but finally we found a parking spot and got walking uphills.

 As we got down from the hill, we realised there was still a couple of hours left on our rental car, so there was a choice to be made: return the car ahead of the time, or go on one more small roadtrip. Can you guess which we chose?

   You got it! We went for an evening drive to Piha, and got ourselves some sand between toes, awesome pictures and sea shells to take home.

   Afterwards we headed back to Auckland, said goodbyes to our rental car and started to speculate what would happen next day as we'd get to the campsite!

Off to Rotorua!

   The next day start was quite hectic, as we didn't have too much time at morning before the planned leaving of our bus. Just managed to grab something to eat a little before we had to get on a bus.

   As we got to Rotorua, Phill and Kendall (K-Dog) were already waiting for us.

"Welcome Friends"

   Our camp life had now officially started, and first things first: we made it just in time for dinner! After proper meal we were introduced to other Rovers and Leaders. Also small jobs were applied right away, and our group was more than happy to help however we could.