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New Zealand Blog Entry
We arrived in New Zealand in the early hours of the morning. It was a far cry from the weather that we experienced in Fiji, but to be fair everyone in Fiji had told us how cold it was going to be, but it was not as bad as people said. It was kind of like autumn in England. However this is the North Island, and the South Island is definitely going to be cold.
We headed back to the hostel, which we were recommended to go to by a girl in Fiji When we got there it was late so we had a little look around and then headed for bed.
This place seemed nice and the hostel seemed very modern. The thing that hits you straight away is that the hostel seems more like ahotel in that no one really socialises, especially in comparison to the other places we have visited. We chatted to some people, but most places we have been so far, everyone speaks to everyone. Hey Ho. We are social people.
We woke the next day and went to have a look around. The first thing on my mind was going to see a dentist as I had tooth ache and had had it for the last week of Fiji.
The only prbem was it was a Saturday and the place was closed. So we had a look around the city and it felt like being in London. Auckland has a lot of similarities with alot of other cities from around the world and you can seethe influences from London and from the US.
The weekend and the first few days was spent doing regular stuff and didn't really involve anything too exciting. Unles you class watching the new Transformers exciting. Whch of course I do.
I got a dental appointent for Tuesday and the dental work that I needed to have ws going to keep here until the following Monday.
As we were all splitting up for the New Zealand trip we all had some stuff to do to prepare as we had to choose a tour that would take us around both Islands and book it up of course.
We did have a couple of nights out within the first week and one of the nights involved going to an Ice bar that I assume would be similar to the one in London if you are familiar with that. This was a good night, that involved a lot of drinking and going into a
bar made of a load of ice with a good ten Ice sculptures. They were very insitant that nobody touches the sculptures as if they break they will be charged.
Of course Paul didn't listen,leant on one of the sculptures and snapped a bit clean off. luckily it wasn't a very important piece and nobody noticed - but still. If you were going to put your money on one of us doing that, it was going to be Paul all day long.
We also went to Sky city, which is the sky tower and is just under 350m tall and is the largest building in the Souther Hemisphere and 12th tallest building in the world. You take a lift up to the top and se pnoramic views of the city, up to 25 miles around. It was cool but I didn't realise how high it was. They had glass floors in sections and it was freaky standing on them as you feel that they could just slip out.
After my three dental appointments and on completion of the work, I left on the tour that I had booked with a company called Kiwi Experience on Tuesday 10th July with Paul.
Pete and ALex chose a different tour group so left the friday before but came back on Sunday night as the tour takes you up to the top and then down back to where you started for one night, then down South.
Paul and I booked with the same company so left together and will split up as we go along. We have all booked some skiing for when we get to the South Island, so you will read about that further down this blog entry.
The first port of call was called the Paiha - Bay of Islands, where we will be doing activities such as riding in super fast speed boats and also taking a day trip to the very north of the Island to go sandboarding. The only problem is that the North of the Island and Auckland has experienced the worst weather they've had for years.
After a couple of days the weather improved so we had a chance to go to do te sandboarding, see the point where the Tasman see meets the Pacific ocean,
and also drove along a stretch of beach called 90 mile beach. We drove along the beach in the coach for a short while on the sand as we headed back.
We had to get onto a different bus for this as our bus broke down (Ran out of fuel), but tis improved the day for us as the driver n the new bus was quality. He is a true Maori and speaks in a very strong New Zealand accent until he speaks on the the microphone on the bus. As he takes alot of Japanese and chinese tour groups, he tried to put on a very strong English accent, which was so funny. I will try and down load it.
After the sandboarding, which was good, but didn't really compare to the sandboarding in Peru, we headed for fish and chips and then made it back to the hostel. I was there till the next afternoon and then headed back to Aucklnd for one night and then will be leaving for Mercury Bay.
I will keep this fairly brief as you will be reading for days. Yet again I am behind with my blogs, so this has all been written long after the actual events.
Throughout New Zealand on the Kiwi expereince they teach you alot about local history and also take you on many nature walks. They were lovely so we can leave it at
that. I will try to keep thia as interesting and entertaining as possible.
Mercury Bay - The weather wsn't great so it affected the majority of the day. We had a long drive and headed went on a nature walk through a small town renowned for Gold mining. We then went on to the hot water beaches, although as i mentioned the weather kind of put a stop to any activitis, so we just headed for the hostel for some home
made dinner and an extremely early night, much to the annoyance of the group. Come on now, who closes a bar at a travleeing hostel at 10 pm.
Rotorua
From Mercury bay we went on to Roturua. This is a town renowned for it's Maori Culture and also geothermal activity and boiling mud baths. This was a great place, however it had one draw back. Due to the high levels of sulphur from the geothermal activity, the whole town smells like rotten eggs. You do get used to it after a while.
There were a few activities to do here but top of the list was taking a gondola up to the top of a massive hill and to take part in an activity called lugeing (The Luge Ride). This is where you take a small go kart down steep concrete hill and you brake by pulling the steering column back. Absolutely great fun, and may I add that i was pretty damn good. i put it down to weighing about 2 stone. It was then back to the hostel for a dip in the heated pool. This was very relaxing and I confess to spending a bit too much time in it.
Later that evening we went to get a taste of some tradional Maori Culture (Maori's are the first indiginous tribe to settle in New Zealand) at the Tamaki Tours Maori village, where
they demonstrated the history of the Maori people from traditional clothing, to food, living, weaponry and most importantly the Haka. Afetr all of the demonstrations, and after the shock of just how aggressive the get during the Haka and most of the other intimidating war dances, we sat down to an absolute feast. A true treat for a traveller. After all the fun there, we headeed back to the bar for a few drinks and then on to a late night pool hall.
The next day is was off to a place called Waitomo and this was one of the best places in New Zealand for me. I wouldn't say there was a great deal to do, but it is home to one of the best activities that I did on the trip. It is called the Black Abyss - Black Water Rafting. It was a great adrenalin rush. First of all they show you the ropes - Literally, as you have to learn the basics of absailing as the entrance into the cave is a 30 meter drop in the pitch black. The whole tour last about 4-5 hours. So we are dressed in our silly wet suits and white wellington boot and have just earnt the basic of absalining.
It was then into the cave. I was first and they were right, you couln't see a thing. I dropped to the bottom and once everyone was down (5 of us in total), they hooked us up to a cable and through us down a zip wire in the pitch black. Absolutely no idea what was going on we hit the end of the wire and wait of the rest. That was rush number two.
We sit down for a a hot chocolate to warm us up and then the leader gives us a rubber ring and tells us that we have to jump off into the water. So we did. It was freezing. So we made our way through the caves and on to the glow worm section. They are small maggotts that glow, when they feel vibraion in the web that hangs from them. We all made loads of noise as we floated down the water and just watched as hundreds od litle lights flickered. It was amazing. From there we went on to do some climbing within the caves, saw some more glow warms and also jumping from waterfalls within the caves. This was a fantastic experience and worth every penny. Every other activity has a lot to live up to. After that it was back to the hostel and ready forfor the next day. Oh wait I had some beans on toast. I am eating well.
Leaving Waitomo, we stopped into the weirdest place I have ever been in my life. It was a sheering barn dedicated to sheering huge rabbits. They have tie them up as if they are stretching them in a torture tchnique and take thir hair off. Very weird, but apparently they need to do it every three months or the animal will die. Nt sure if I believe them. I think they just ike sheering rabbits.
Taupo - It was then onto Taupo, which is the home of the cheapest skydive, but again due to poor weather we were kind of stumped. we did however spend our time well, getting drunk and playing crazy golf (It wasn't really crazy though). we went out on both the nights we were there and ad a great time. One night we saw that a local bar was having a fance dress night and you ha to make a costume out of a black bag. We decided to do it, but ended up going to a different bar as they had cheaper drinks. Real travellers. The let doen of the skydive was a bit poor, but there was loads of other places to do it.
After leaving taupo, we went on to a place aclled River valley. this place was in the middle of no where and was great. we all stayed in a massive dorm and chilled out. There was a full roast dinner cooked for us and we had New Zealand Vs Australia playing rugby on the tele. Not really int it, but when in Rome and all that. Some of the group went out white water rafting in the morning, but having done it before I gave it a miss.
Wellington was our next port of cal but for only one night, so not long at all really. It is a fairly big city, so that night we all just went out into the town for a short while, as the coach was leaving really early the next day.
We then travelled across to the South Island by ferry and into Nelson. We droped our bags off at the hostel and headed up a huge hill to the most central point in New Zealand during sun set. Brilliant. A slow walk back to the hostel saw some of the nicest views I have seen, and that bizarrely enogh the locals seem to take for granted. Should be a crime. We had another well cooked roast and a few drinks and bar games in the restaurant and then off to the pillow.
It was time for some more adrenalin to flow through ourveins so our next stop of westport was home to a super fast jet boat, that takes you along a river with waters as shallow as three centimetres, but can still go at crazy speeds and pull of 360 degree spins. This was a cool activity. After the excitement it was off to our hostel to have some dinner and good conversation with the group we picked up when crossing over to the south Islnd.
The nezt stop was a very strange stop indeed. Again t is a hostel in the middle og nowhere and it is run by an 83 year old guy called Les. the place is caled the
Poo pub and it is used exclusively by people on the Kiwi Experience and has been for the past 15 years. He is a tiny man, that seems very short tempered, but is actually
very nice (Deep Deep Deep Down - I'm Sure - Just kidding, he was cool). So before you even get to the hostel, the Driver, who's name is Cheese - And he is qulaity, but far the best tour driver in the world) stops at a small town and tells you what you will be dressing up as. Our night we had to dress up in black bags, which was good as we had practice.
So we all stopped at the shop, got our supplies and got to the hostel to prepare. There were some great outfits. Mine was rather random. After finishing the costumes, some of us headed down to the beach to through the rugby ball around. We headed in to get showered and ready for the evening. Les cooked up the steaks and Cheese, cooked the
veg and we had a cracking meal. of course the meal was never going to be the highlight of that night, it was always going to be the drinking, so we got in the bar and started. It was a fantastic night with some very inventive costumes. Very memorable.
Franz Josef was the next stop and this was home to a huge 13 km long glacier, which you can hike up. We arrived at the hostel and it was straight into the hot tub to chill out for the evening and to prepare for the glacier hike.
We went down to the hike shop and got all of our equipment on and headed on up there. (I will add pictures as they will do far more justice that I can) At the bootom the ice is dirty as they are lots of rocks that have been wahed down, but the further up you travel the clearer and bluer the ice becomes. we were split into teams and given out spike books and we went off. our guide was called Donkey (Not sure why) he lead the way and chipped into the ice where necessary and had to cut paths and stairs out as he went. This was a fantastic day and you will see by the pictures just how magnificent the glacer is.
Afterwards it wa back to jump in the hot tub and then onwards for some dinner. Me and a couple of the other lads where going to stay there for a couple of days in the hope of doing a skydive there, but they had been cancelled for the forthcoming 4 days due to poor weather.
The next place we stopped was another place that we could do a sky dive (Our fingers where crossed) - we drove there and turned up at the hotel (Slightly nicer than a hostel)
and that night we didn't do a great deal with the exception of cooking a bit of dinner (I am Learning to cook - Bring it on) We booked our skydive for the following day and just had to hope it was on.
I woke up and got ready in the hopw all was well and it was on. We were driven to the skydive shop and given our crazy clown outfits and ran through the routine. It was then up in the plane to 15,000ft and as i was the first in I was going to be the first out. I wasn't nervous as it was a tandem skydive and they seemed very safe, which was reassuring. Then the moment came, the guy hung me out the door and dangled me out of the lane and then jumped. I don't fel i need to go into too much detail, in how it felt. All I can say is it was the best feeling in the world, to be free falling and then the yank came when the parachute opend and the guy pulled out some leg straps to make me more comfotabe and it was like sitiing in a seat thousands of feet in the air.
Absolutely brilliant. I would go as far as to say the best fun you can even with a man on your back. I have a DVD and some pics of it, so anyone interested can have a watch. I certainy recomment it to anyone. Amazing views and the feeling after is so cool. I was very lucky with the skydive as well because spome of the group had there's cancelled no more than an hour after mine due to bad weather.
Thw only thing that can detract away from the pure pleasure is the face that we missed out going to a place called puzzle world (fear not we got there in the end. That story will come later)
So after the skydives, it was off to our final stop on the big green bus (With the exception of another day trip, but that was not with the group).
This stopwas Queenstown. The adventure capital of the world. We had a massive final night there, where needles to sya things got messy and funny, with every member of the group getting extremely drunk. What a great night and a great end t a quality trip.
I feel I have not gone into enough details into some of the sections, however time is limited when doing this much. Yes, I speak of all of the destinations, but some of the best times on the trip where had talking to the group and getting to know them on the journeys.
The group that I was in including the driver guide made that trip for me 100 percent. a great group and a load of legends that I will definitely stay in touch with. Without souding geeky you make some true friends for life.
Pete and Alex joined us a few days after paul and I got there. I will not go into a great into the whole Queenstown experience, but let me just say that it was fantastic. I don't want to write so much that you have no reason to talk to me when I get back.
Queenstwon included:
2 canyon swings - Like Bungy Jumps with a swing on the end and no bounce (So really not like a bungy at all - More like a jump with rope) 4 Bungy jumps (2 from the 5th biggest in the world) 2 3 day packages of snowboarding/skiing - Oh and a karaoke competition where I won a 15,000ft Skydive. I am great.
Milford Sound
Dunedin - We stopped off in Dunedin on the way to Christchurch to meet up with a friend that we met in Fiji. To get from Queenstown Pete and I hired a massive four birth campervan that was way to big for us but great fun to drive and sleep in.
We drove to Dunedin and for the first night just stayed in a camp site. The next day we had a look around the town and did the touristy things. This included going to the Cadbury's factory, which let me add was great, however the chocolate does not taste any where near as good as in England. In the evening we met up with Moritz, our German friend from Fiji, who took us to a few bars to get us drunk and then onto a karaoke bar. It was such a good night, but as it was a Wednesday the place was dead so it was just us and the bar people.
It was a competition karaoke so for the most part it was myself against Pet and Moritz. Let me say, it was not pretty and in the bigger picture there were no winners that night.
We headed back to the campervan and passed out to be woken up by Moritz the next morning who was late for Uni. All good fun.
Pete and I then headedd to Kaikora to do the whale watching tour. It was one hell of a long drive, with great scenery but no result as the whale watching excursion was cancelled due to bad weather. We did however meet up with Alex who was there so we had a fun drive to Christchurch.
Christchurch was the last stop in our New Zealand adventures before we flew out to Oz. We spent two nights there, but that consisted of a few drinks and some relaxing. Nothing too taxing.
So that is me up to date with the New Zealand trip. I hope you enjoyed it and I will write more from Oz.
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