A chilled out few days and a dramatic bus journey

I've spent the last few days staying with some friends in Opunake which is in the Taranaki region. Its been a lovely relaxed few days and a nice end to my New Zealand trip. After getting picked up at the bus stop I got taken to a little museum all about the introduction of the Europeans to this area of New Zealand. It was really interesting actually and included a little water boat ride which sailed through scenes made up of plastic people. Think Madame Tussauds but Maori.
I can't begin to explain how nice it was to actually be in a home with a room to myself with access to proper showers and towels. After a delicious tea of lamb chops and roast veg we settled down to watch Life of Pi on a big projector screen. That night was probably the best nights sleep I've had in a month! The house was incredible too, as I kept on telling them, it was wonderfully laid out, brightly coloured and the kitchen just about had everything you could dream of. The next day we drove to New Plymouth as the weather was terrible and did a bit of shopping.
Today I've got an 8 hour bus journey back to Auckland and its been pretty eventful. Firstly, the driver wouldn't let me put my backpack with all the others as they were 'busy' but the bus was only half full. After I'd taken my seat at the back as this was the only place with enough room for everything I was carrying, a lady goes "you're in for a rough ride; he's a maniac". He'd apparently already hit part of a building. All in all he was a very risky, speedy driver and his gear changes were sloppy. Some ladies on the bus got that worked up with his driving they called the police, which I thought was pretty unnecessary. They could just have asked him to calm it down a bit but they wanted a different driver. An hour after phoning, the police eventually pulled the bus over and it was clear they thought this was a waste of time too. The police officer asked if anyone was unhappy with the bus driver and about half the bus raised their hands. She then asked if anyone was that unhappy they wanted to get off the bus, none of the ladies who'd complained actually left. The police had a word with the driver as there was nothing else they could really do. If anything, phoning the police was counter productive as the driver had to go faster to make up for lost time.
Anyway, its my last night in NZ and I'm pretty sad to leave as I've had such a great time. On the other hand I'm looking forward to a new adventure in Australia! I cant believe I'm half way through this trip down under already
Xxx