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Day 8 - Today was Christmas Eve and as most things are closed on Xmas Day we headed to 'Skyline' just outside Roturua to have some fun! We took a gondola ride up a huge hill which gave us some amazing views over the town and Lake Roturua. Once at the top we embarked on the first of five luge rides down the hill followed by five ski-lift's back up! There were 3 luge tracks, scenic, intermediate and advanced. The scenic was 2km long and you could stop on the way down to go for a walk through the woods or take photos, there was even a cafe halfway down! We rode this once and the other 2 tracks twice each and over the course of a couple of hours had a really great time.
We decided that it would be nice to try and spend Xmas Day at the beach so quite late in the day we headed for Raglan, the nearest beach which wasn't very near at all! We arrived in the town as it got dark to find there was absolutely nowhere we could stay. After driving around in circles it got to 10pm where we headed for a small beach which did have a sign at the entrance saying 'no overnight camping' - it was so late and we were so tired that we had to ignore it. There were a few other campervans so we weren't alone plus we were right next to a public toilet which is the golden rule when 'free-camping' as they call it.
Day 9 - Christmas Day! Andy woke up at 6am to use the loo and as our van door was opened a locals dog trotted over so the first thing we did was give him a stroke. It was actually really nice as we've been missing the pets a lot so to be greeted by a dog on Xmas morning was comforting. Our next encounter wasn't quite as pleasant. We were woken to a council employee (yes, working on Xmas morning) knocking on our window who gave us a telling off for sleeping there. He said as it was Xmas Day he wouldn't fine us but not to do it in the area again. A friendly local who was up early to surf had called them to report the people staying. 'Merry Christmas to you too' we thought! Never mind we knew we shouldn't have been there anyway.
We drove 5 mins down the road to a sandy beach (the one we were at was rocky) where we relaxed for an hour. Andy really wanted to get in the sea but although the sun was out the wind blowing made it too cold. We tried to sunbathe but ended up covered in sand so we had to abandon our Xmas Day on the beach and instead drove to our next destination, the Waitomo caves.
We parked in their car park around midday and were joined by 2 other vans as there were no signs prohibiting overnight stays so we thought we'd try our luck. We managed to cook ourselves a really good Xmas dinner seeing as we only had 2 hobs out the back of a car! It consisted of some vegetarian koftas, boiled potatoes, carrots, peas, sweetcorn and vegetable gravy - amazing! We then exchanged a couple of small gifts before going for a walk which took us through a herd of cows (who seemed bewildered by our Xmas hats which we wore all day!) and up a hill giving us a nice view of the countryside around us. A different Christmas to say the least!
Day 10 - Today we went into the Waitomo Caves. They are a huge underground network of streams, rivers and caves but we only went into the main one which was enormous. There was a section inside it called 'The Cathedral' as the ceiling was very high. There were huge stalactites and stalagmites made all the more impressive by the fact it can take up to 3,000 years for either one to increase by an inch! After walking through the cave we got to an underground river where we got in a boat and in complete silence and darkness drifted along underneath thousands of bluey-green glow-worms - what many people come to Waitomo to see. It was beautiful looking up at all these natural and living lights, it may have been a day late but we got some Xmas lights after all!
From here we headed to Lake Taupo and a free campsite we had been told about by a couple we met on Xmas Day. There was an amazingly clear river running next to it - what a great find!
Day 11 - 9am - Woke up to find the sun shining, perfect weather for a certain activity Taupo is famous for. 11am - Went into town to book said activity. 1pm - Jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet. We hadn't planned to do it today nor had we discussed it but we both knew we wanted to skydive at some point during our time in Taupo. As the skies were clear Andy said 'come on let's just go and do it today, the more we put it off the more nervous we'll be'. We headed into town and luckily there were a couple of spots left.
In no time at all we were at the small airfield and after watching a brief DVD we were being kitted up in all the gear. Strangely neither of us were nervous at all, we were excited! Not ones to do things by half we would be jumping from 15,000 feet with everyone else in the plane leaving us at 12,000 feet. This would give us an extra 15seconds of freefall time meaning a minute of freefall in total. We were sat furthest from the door and closest to the pilot as we would be jumping last. As the plane climbed we watched the ground get further and further away, no going back now! Andy was enjoying the views out of the window while Nikki was a bit nervous now - this was due to the plane ride though and not the impending jump! It was a very small plane with us squeezed in and each time someone jumped out the plane would bounce up and down as it adjusted to its new weight. The two of us were also given oxygen masks to wear as we were going higher where the air would be much thinner. Once everyone except us had jumped the planes engines roared as it quickly climbed to the height we would be jumping from...
Andy's description of his jump: "As the plane quickly climbed the last 3,000feet my tandem and I edged our way toward the door. On the pilots signal the door was opened to the loud & freezing wind, I found it especially cold as I was jumping barefoot! I had to sit on the very edge of the door with my legs hanging out of the plane while resting the back of my head on my buddy's shoulder behind me. We were now ready to go and with a small rock back we then rolled forward and out of the plane, tumbling toward the earth at 200kmph. You would expect your stomach to drop like when on a roller-coaster but other than the force of the wind against you there isn't any physical feeling at all. This is because at any height above 1,000feet our brains cannot comprehend that we are falling or how fast we are going as the ground doesn't appear to get any closer at all until you reach 1,000feet. The 1 minute of free-fall seemed to last a long time which is a good thing. This is probably because I spent half the time playing up to the woman who was filming the jump. I tried my best to take it all in and really understand what I was doing! I realised that this would be the only time in my life where I wouldn't be touching anything at all be it standing on a street or sitting in a chair, which is pretty cool! The thing I will remember most though is the complete silence that hit me once the parachute (thankfully) opened. We went from absolute mayhem with the noise of the wind in your ears almost unbearable to complete and utter silence in less than a second. It was very strange but also very peaceful and calming. I remember thinking to myself that I would never experience quiet like it ever again as of course there is absolutely nothing that makes a sound up there. The journey back down lasted around 5 minutes with the parachute turning and swooping, giving me amazing views of the scenery around us. We had the huge Lake Taupo beneath us with snow capped mountains and dormant volcanoes in the distance - amazing. We came back down to earth with a bump and as quickly as that it was over. I'd do it again in a nanosecond."
Nikki's description of her jump - "As mentioned above, I wasn't nervous at all until I got in the plane...it was so small and kept swaying, I was desperate to get out! When Andy disappeared into the air and I was last, I knew this was it as my guide edged towards the door. He pushed my head back onto his shoulder and I saw my cameraman clinging to the outside of the plane; next thing I knew my cameraman let go of the plane and I felt the air on my face as I plunged to the ground! The first few seconds were a blur - only until I watched the DVD of the jump did I realise we did a backflip (buckflup haha!) out of the plane and I think shock just made it a blur! Failing miserably to look stylish for my DVD, I gave up and let my brain do what it wanted. The best I could manage was a thumbs up for about 30 seconds! It was very surreal when the parachute opened and the wind noise disappeared and was replaced with absolute silence - my guide pointed out what we were seeing and tilted the parachute so we swooped around in circles on the way down. When land came back into perspective, it all ended very quickly and before I knew it, the gear was off and we were sat in the DVD room watching what happened 15 minutes ago! It really was awesome and I would do it again any day!"
After our extremely exciting morning we had an extremely relaxing afternoon spent by the river in the campsite relaxing in the sun and reading.
Day 12 - Still in Taupo we had a busy day sightseeing. First we headed to Huka Falls, an extremely fast and powerful stretch of white water that ends in a drop, with over 200,000 litres of water passing through per minute. From here we had a quick visit to 'Puzzleworld' where we tried our first 'thickshake' (which is essentially a few scoops of ice cream blended a little bit giving you a thick milkshake) before heading to a dam just outside town that was scheduled to open and release goodness knows how much water. Once the initial rush of water has been released we watched as the water slowly drained out. A brand new river had been created on the other side covering enormous boulders that were sitting in the sunshine a few minutes earlier.
Day 13 - Today was a refuelling day where we did some research for later parts of the trip and stocked up on supplies from the supermarket. We did head to some hot springs that were a little further up the river in the afternoon. Andy got in but Nikki found it too hot so just dipped her feet in. From here it was back to our beautiful and free campsite for our fourth and final night.
Day 14 - Today was one of the busiest days of the trip so far and we covered a lot of ground. First we finally left Taupo but headed back north to an attraction we had missed on the way through. 'Wai-O-Tapu' is a geo-thermal 'wonderland' of geysers, pools of various colours and minerals and steaming craters. There was steam coming out of yellow caves turned that colour from sulphur, with other pools that were bright red and bright green made that way from whatever mineral was being brought to the surface and reacting with the air. We walked around for an hour or so looking at everything including the famous Champagne Pool, the largest spring in the area 62m deep with a surface temperature of 74 degrees. It was formed 700 years ago by a hydrothermal eruption, and contains many minerals including gold, silver, mercury, sulphur, arsenic, thallium and more. We also saw a huge geyser erupt (however it was prompted to do so by a worker pouring something inside it) as well as the caves and pools and what not. A very cool place which felt like the surface of another planet at times, and brilliant to know that it's all natural wonders at work.
Our afternoon was spent heading back south, through Taupo and in to the Tongariro National Park. While driving (the long way) round we stopped to get photos of a volcano here as well as the snow covered mountains we had seen from a distance on our skydives. After poor Nikki had already been driving a good couple of hours, we were then in it for the long haul and headed to our final destination on the North Island, Wellington. Well actually a small town 20km short of Wellington called Paremata as this was where we would be staying. It was a long drive but we finally made it before it got too dark where Nikki then had a well earned rest.
Day 15 - New Years Eve (not that anybody told Wellington!). Our first day here started out stressfully as we tried navigating one way streets in the city to try and get the car parked. Once sorted, we spent our day at: Weta cave, the seafront, shopping, riding on the cable car and in the botanic gardens.
Weta cave is a small museum and shop at the company (Weta's) workshop just outside the city where they have had a large hand in films such as Narnia, Avatar, District 9 and The Lord of the Rings trilogy among others. They provide the costumes, props and cosmetic make up for all of these films and we spent an hour looking at all of these different things.
Back in the city centre we took a ride on the cable car up to the botanic gardens high up on a hill overlooking the city. From here we had some really nice views. We walked through the gardens which had different areas such as endangered plants, fragrant plants etc, and snaked our way back down into the city for New Years Eve.
Well, being on the harbour promenade for NYE was nothing short of...disappointing! The evening started well with lots of people and families wandering around and there was live music and street performers dotted around but when it came to midnight itself, most people were oblivious it was time to start counting or just didn't get involved. When Andy started shouting '10, 9, 8' etc the people around us genuinely looked baffled as though they didn't realise, some were even looking at their watches! Anyhow the countdown hit zero and at midnight, nothing happened. NOTHING. Not a firework, a big cheer, a sing song, not even a sparkler in sight - and this is New Zealand's capital?! To think that Auckland were having their biggest firework display since the millennium and we didn't even get one rocket was a huge letdown. Once we were over the shock of nothing happening, we wished each other a Happy New Year, headed for the car and were asleep in bed within half an hour - Rock n Roll! The highlight of our New Years Eve 2010 was the hot chocolate and donuts we bought! Still, it was nice to spend it in a different part of the world.
Day 16 - Today we headed to Wellington's 'Te Papa' museum, a very modern place hailed as the best in the country. As it was so big we did an overview of the place, popping into each area for a quick look around. The earthquakes area was very interesting where we learnt about the different fault lines, and we also learnt a lot about NZ's history, Earth's evolution from 'Gondwana' to what it looks like today and there was also a great area on marine life, including the only giant squid on display (dead and in preservation fluids of course) in the world.
We then sat and ate dinner in the museums car park with a mother and son who we had met on Christmas Day and bumped into at the museum, before we all headed to another car park at the ferry terminal which is where we would be staying the night before our trip to the south island the following morning.
Before we went to sleep we headed to the toilets which were right on the sea front to clean our teeth. Andy heard a strange noise which sounded like a puppy whimpering coming from underneath one of the rocks, and upon investigation with a torch we found ourselves a couple of New Zealand Blue Penguins! They are a very small species of penguin and have a slight shimmer on them which makes them appear slightly blue. We went to sleep very excited having seen another animal in the wild that we won't get a chance to see anywhere else.
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