Hamilton to Wellington

My idea of a sound trip is to go from the airport to my apartment and  plunk myself and my bags down for the duration. This trip is not like that.  I'm fond of Hamilton, but I must move on.
I figured out a short cut to the bus station and tested it yesterday.  It's hilly but avoids the scary roundabouts.  I am sure New Zealand drivers are taught to watch out for pedestrians, but the roundabouts make me nervous anyway.
I got my bus ticket yesterday. The only seats left were the "Gold," i.e. fancy seats in front.  I'll feel like an idiot sitting there, and I don't know how to make a long bus ride interesting.
Here's some practical advice for when you walk out of the grocery store with a big container of ravioli and then suddenly realize all you have in the motel room is a microwave and not a burner.  You can microwave pasta.  I poured boiling water on it and then zapped it for four minutes.  I used some of the starchy pasta water to mix with the pesto I got, drained said pasta and added the sauce.  it works.
Yesterday I forgot to mention the birds.  As I was walking though the indigenous forest I came upon two tiny brown birds engaged in . . . something.  They looked like sparrows but then fanned out their tails and the tails had vertical brown and white stripes.  It looked like some kind of dominance display, but at any rate the birds were oblivious to my presence.
And here I am in Wellington after a ten hour bus ride.  Argle.  The driver was skilled and courteous, and there was an additional person to look after the passenger list and our luggage.  I was comfortable enough.  The bus was a double decker, and the fancy seats were upstairs.  We had ample bathroom and food stops.
The trip here was--well--long and tiring.  At first we passed lush farmland featuring not just the usual sheep and cattle, but alpacas and red deer.  Then we began to climb and went up and down heavily forested hills and deep valleys with rushing rivers.
We crossed something our driver referred to as the Desert Region.  It was a high plateau with scrubby plants.  Desert?  The Californian in me sniffed, "Amateurs."  And it was boring and Went On Forever.  As did the trip, but I did get to see a lot of the North Island including a glacier covered mountain and an obvious volcano.  A lot of it was beautiful, and I loved the green.
Whoa!  I got upgraded to a luxury suite.  I have so much space--it's almost as big as my condo.  And what am I going to do with two bathrooms?  Never mind I'll think of something, and I totally deserve it.