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Hi Everyone,
We've been slacking with the blogs a bit lately as we're quite limited on time in N.Z and so each time the bus stops somewhere we only have enough time to stay there one night and then have to hop back on the next day! So finally heres some updates on our travels with the stray bus...
(North Island) Our first stop was to a place called Hahei campsite which had a really nice beach and we all had a bbq and some drinks together. Then once it got dark we went some 'hot baths' on the beach, which are really strange.. basically if you dig a hole in the sand, theres boiling hot water below and you can lye in it. You literally have to pour cold sea water into it tho as the water below the sand is that hot!! (as you can see in the pics when me and craig had to run out of it as we had scolded ourselves!!)
Next we was on to a place called Reglan, where the highlight of the night was going up and down on a zip rope :-) oh and craig trying to complete the assault course after drinking a few too many beers.
Next stop was Waitomo Caves where we signed up for blackwater rafting... was excellent!! the image of laying in a black tube and floating around isn't quite right tho, basically we had to climb through this really small hole to go in a cave thats 9meters below ground level and then climb, slither and swim in the dark through the caves. Was really cool, we saw loads of glow worms and did get to chill in a big rubber tube for a little while.
The next stop on our travels was a place called Maketu where we stayed with a man called 'Uncle Boy'. Basically this man has set up a place for travellers to hear about some N.Z history and about the Maori's. The whole group had to stay in one massive room which was funny, felt like a big sleep over. Also the boys had to learn the maori dance (Haka) and the girls had to learn the poi dance and then the boys had to show the girls and vice verser!! A few beers and a little practice made it a bit easier :-) Although out of all of the roles, i had to get the singing part hey!! We made some really cool friends here as well, Fran from ireland (she's a nutter and Teresa and Dave from England) Luckily Tersea got the singing part with me so it wasn't so bad, although I am tone deaf and kept forgetting the words!! Also Craig ended up with massive blue bruises on his legs from hitting them so hard ( I don't understand it tho as you hit your own legs, so why not just not hit them as hard :-) (if anyone doesn't know what the Maori's are, they are traditional new zealanders who were in tribes and if you want to know what they're Haka dance is, its there symbol of strength and manliness and is still done before any new zealand rugby match)
Next stop was Rotorua where you could do white water rafting and zorbing. We didnt really realise that these activates have a grade for how extreme they are and after signing up for white water rafting, we found out this was grade 5, with the biggest white water rafting waterfall you can get!! it was 7 meters high and whilst on the way there the bloke was telling us that your basically going to fall out of the raft and if you do whilst going down the water fall, then to curl up into a ball, and if you go under the raft, dont swim out until they tap the boat!! bit worrying at this point, especially seems all the blokes running it seemed to be complete nutters :-) reminded us of something out of the film jackass!! Plucked up our courage tho and are obliviously rafting pro's because we didnt fall out!! even when the bloke was rowing us into the bottom of the waterfall (called surfing) and we were literally standing up at this point!! Was excellent, definitely want to do it again!
Yep another stop... this time a place called Taupo, the first place that we had got to that did skydiving. After signing the sheet to do it like we had no fear in the world, it kinda sunk in and so the worry did set in a bit!! We were suppose to do it at 2pm, so after spending all morning crapping ourselves, they informed us that it was too cloudy and they would update us at 3pm, so 3pm came but then we had to wait until 5 and then 5.30pm and then to be told at 6pm we couldnt it as the weather still wasn't good enough :-( (honestly we're not making it up :-) so instead we went to the funfair, and went wild on the sack ride instead :-)
Sorry told you we had a lot to update you on.... Next stop was the National Park in Waiouru and our accomadation was lovely, reminded us of little sky cabins and had a nice little bar, and finally our rown room!! The waether was too bad for us to do the nation park walk (dame, it was only an 8hr walk as well :-)
So we decided to go bugging up some massive cliffs in the pouring rain, getting covered in mud! was excellent apart from the fact that me and craig had to share the driving, turns out he got the track at the bottom of the cliff so could go as fast as he wanted but when it was my turn i had to drive us around the top of the cliff that had no sides to it!! I got in a few slide outs tho, although then scared myself that we was going to go off the side of the cliff and so had to go slow again :-(
Our final stop in the North Island was Wellington, the Capital City. Didnt do too much during the day, except for look around the museme.
That night our group arranged a night out with our driver (Dc) taking us round some of the bars. Started in our hostel where drinks were on offer all ngiht, so that was a good start and then went on to a welsh bar and some locals underground hip-hop bar!! That was just about to shut tho but rather than following DC back to the hostel (sensible driver as we all had to be ready for the bus at 7am to take us to the ferry to get over to the south island) me, craig and Fran decided we'd have 'one' more drink :-) .. yep it didnt quite work out that way, after a stop off in an irish bar, we then found a pretty cool nightclub. turns out it didnt shut until 6am and after looking at the time and it was 5.30, we thought the best way was to stay until the end, then go and pack and get straight on the bus as we were!! Was an excellent night but definitely not the best ferry ride we've ever been on!!.... So on to the South Island.....
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