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What a week! Been moving fast so a lot to talk about
Arrived in Auckland after flying through a lightning storm and dodging a tornado in Brisbane. Not massivelt impressed with auckland but the islands arounda re really cool. Walked up one called rangitoto which only formed 400 years ago. Its pretty hot here and we didnt bring enough water so had to ration it and then run down in the heat to atcht the ferry! Discovered some cool caves formed by lava. The island itself is cool because its all relatively recently cooled lava so all the plants are unique in some ways.
In auckland itself we fianlyl saw some chinese new year celebrations. Saw the msot amazing jugglers and a gu who was a magician with a diablo. Hostel ok but got owken up 1am monday moring by hip hop finsihing with a rousing whitney housten finish.
Next took scenic route in our new car (it hasnt been new for a long time and makes a reassuring rattling noise all the time) out towards tauranga via hobbiton. Hobbiton really surreal as its set in the middle of a huge sheep farm which is all brown but is intensivly watered so its bright green, full of butterflies and bees. Really interesting how they filmed it (all tricks of perspecitive, eg almost none of the hobbit holes are human sized). Also had a banana and chicken pizza for lunch which was interesting...
Next day in mount maunganui which was this enourmous beach with another volcano at the end of it. Had big plans to climb it but after rangitoto decided to sleep on beach instead. Good surf but forgot to take any pictures.
Then we drove south to rotorua which is a small ''city'' on the edge of a lake. Its surrounded by geothermal streams and pools and so intermittently smelt of suphur. Spent a few days here, Charlotte went horse riding at a 100 miles an hour and I went kayaking down a 7m waterfall (video to follow). Was brilliant. We also went to one of many geo-thermal parks and saw lots of bubbling mud and boiling pools. Also watched a geyser for about 40 mins but worth it when it erupted in clouds of steam and went about 15m high. 100 years ago some of the geysers went up 400m! Following day went for a walk around ''blue lake' which was a good contrast.
We have now arrived in Taupo and have already bathed in a hot stream (actually hot, almost uncomofrtably so)...2 weeks down , about 20 to go!
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