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Hey again everyone,
Been busy busy busy as per usual, here's what I've been up to:
Spent a night in Waitomo which is a small town which is home to NZ's best cave system. Went quad biking with Rich and Nick. This was great fun as it involved some pretty tricky terrain rather than just racing around a flat course, basically 16kms of really hilly land this farmer has converted for quad biking and some hills you just wouldn't think you could get up if you hadn't just done it. The next day we spent 3hrs caving in a waitomo cave called the abyss. We started with a 40m abseil down a tight hole in the ground then did a mixture of swimming, tubing (riding a giant inner tube), squeezing through holes and climbing up water falls. It was a whole load of fun and the caves are also home to thousands of glow worms which dot the ceiling in patterns and look like constellations as you float by on your tube. All in all an awesome experience!
Next I spent 3 nights in taupo, quite a few of my mates did skydiving and really enjoyed but I decided to save my money as I've already experienced it and want to do some hangliding in a really scenic setting later on in the south island. Rich went off to travel a seperate route so we have split paths now after two weeks of great fun and laughs travelling together. I've also made loads of other mates, you tend to form groups that do stuff togethor for a few days, then have different timescales and split off but I keep bumping into some of these guys again and doing stuff with them as they then stay in different places for longer. Whilst in taupo I spent a couple of days chilling around the town, a group of us found out there was a natural hot spring/stream down the river where water came out the rocks really hot and formed natural spa pools. We took a liking to this place and went there a couple of times jumping into the river further down and swimming/getting caried down to it which was a good laugh.
Whilst in taupo I also did the tongariro crossing, I teamed up with a dutch girl from our named Anouk and we really enjoyed the walk. It involved 18kms across 3 volcaninc mountain peaks, with a mixture of fairly steep up/downhill sections and flats/ridges to cross. It took us 7hrs in total but this was including an add on 2hrs walk to the summit of mt tongariro (2000m high) which we decided to do. This was one of my favourite days so far, the views were amazing and the volcanic land provided many amazing sights including the bright blue sulphuric emarald lakes, old lava flows, dark red rock, steam coming out of the ground and the impressive Mt Ngauruhoe which was used as Mt doom in lord of the rings. This is the kinda thing I really came to NZ for :)! I'm planning lots more trekking in the south island where I'm promised there is even more beauty.
A couple of days ago I spent a night in river valley, an isolated lodge right in the middle of the country where we were going to do some grade 5 white water rafting. Unfortunately the river levels were really low and this wasn't possible so I spent the time chilling, walking in the nearby mountains and swimming in the river.
I'm now in wellington the capital of NZ that sits at the very bottom of the north island and am just sorting out some stuff. I had my first lost item (which after over a month I think is pretty good for me) but unfortunately it was my hiking boots so I had to get some new ones this morning, tho admittadely NZ is a good place to buy them and I got a decent pair at a pretty good price.
Thanks for the messages guys:
Matt/Chris: Yeah, was thinking you would have loved the mountain biking! Thx for inviting me to go to download, that would be really cool to do togethor, I've sent you an email about it too.
The fearnes: Real sorry to hear about Leilas knee, she's always in the wars that one, I would ask have you been beating her but would expect Occy is more likely to be the culprit! Only joking, hope she gets better soon. See you soon and say hi to the boys from me.
Sprinks: Looking forward to NUFAN, send me an email with the price and ur account details and I'll send u the moolah. Glad you enjoyed ur presents, saw them and just thought of you, think the potion probably cost 3x to post it that it did to buy it, but so worth it! Now go practice ur maths!
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