Hello everyone, sorry it's been a very long time sice i last left a blog. My schedule has been pretty hectic, and I've had the most amazing time over the last two or so weeks.
My first week (starting monday 11th Jan) was going to the places that I'd already been to on the Stray bus. I headed back to Hahei from Auckland on the bus with Metro as our driver (really cool guy), and managed to do some snorkelling at Cathedral Cove and we sat underneath the stars at Hot Water beach for about an hour until just before midnight. Next morning we woke up early to go to Raglan, the small surfing town on the west coast, where i went and did some more surfing in the afternoon. the only difference was that the rip waves were extremely strong, so from going from the middle of the beach to far out on the left by the rocks was quite scary, especially as it happened in a matter of minutes and it was a struggle to paddle back in to the shore. At the lodge i had another few goes on the flying fox (zip wire in the middle of the woods) before watching a film then bed. (weds 13th) From Raglan we got the bus with Metro to Waitomo, where last time i did some caving! This time round however, I went for a walk through the country side with Zoe, whom I met on the bus and decided to travel together for the next couple of weeks. The walk was really good, and the scenery in Waitomo was beautiful. We both walked for 45mins to Aranui Cave (which you had to pay for a tour to go in, and the gates were closed.) and then 20 mins from there to Ruakuri Cave, which we were able to walk through. Not as cool as the caves i climbed through last time, but for something that was free it was good. On the way walking back to where the bus was we stopped off at the Shearing Shed, a place where Long haired rabbits were being sheared for the use of their long hair. Pretty random if you ask me! They had clothes that had been made out of the wool from the rabbits, extremely random! From the caves at Waitomo, we moved on to Maketu, this was where last time I had the Maori Cultural experience. And like last time, it was really enjoyable. We all had the Hongi, the exchanging of the breathe of life. Once the initial ceremony had been completed, we were then part of Uncle Boys tribe, the Arawa tribe. I got to do the Haka again, and then we all went to the beach (and made a better fire than last time) for a few drinks under the stars. until 2am. Uncle Boy has his own tradition when stray bus visitors stay in his Marai (communal hut) that in the morning he wakes everyone up at 7am by playing Abba...Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight, and then leaves the album running so you hear all the hits while your waking up...great (ahem!)
So, Thurs 14th Jan I'm up to. Maketu to Rotorua, the whole group went white water rafting again, second time round was better than the first. $70 well spent again, i think i had a smile on my face all the way down the river this time! Me and Zoe decided to stay in rotorua for the night (as its only an optional stop) as she likes her walking and I hd been for a walk to the redwood forest last time and recommended it to her. So she went and did that, while i chilled out for the afternoon.

On the friday we both walked round the geothermal park opposite the hostel, as Zoe hadn't seen them before. The smell of rotten eggs wasn't nice at all. Midday we caught the stray bus with Caash (as in casual) to Taupo, stopping on the way at Kerosine Creek, which was a geothermally heated river, much like the one I stopped at last time, but slightly bigger and with no cool water. Once we got to Taupo we went to the lake, which is the biggesy inland lake in New Zealand. Lake Taupo is actually a supervolcano, much like Yellowstone NP in USA. The most recent major eruption, which occurred in 180 CE known as the Hatepe eruption is believed to have ejected 100 cubic kilometres of material, of which 30 cubic kilometres was ejected in the space of a few minutes. This was one of the most violent eruptions in the last 5,000 years, with a Volcanic Explosivity Index rating of 7. The eruption column was twice as high as the eruption column from Mount St. Helens in 1980, and the ash turned the sky red over Rome and China. The eruption devastated much of the North Island and further expanded the lake. The 180 eruption was one of the largest in recorded history. The skies and sunsets formed from this eruption were noted by Roman and Chinese observers. Underwater hydrothermal activity continues near the Horomatangi vent,and the volcano is currently considered to be dormant rather than extinct. The lake is so deep in the middle that not even submarines can withstand the underwater geothermal heat that comes out of the vent at the bottom. Anyway, I got to the lake and had a go at trying to get a hole in one with the lakeside golf tees. There is a pontoon 100yds from the shore, and you pay $1 per ball to see if you can get a hole in one and win $10,000! My first shot went dreadfully wide, and my second was scuffed so it rolled down the hill infront of me! As for my third shot I dont even know where it went, so i tried convincing the guy that I got it in one of the holes haha.

From Taupo, we went to the Tongariro National Park (16th Jan) and did an 18km hike through the park called the Tongariro Crossing. Luckily for us the weatehr was good enough to go hiking in. Tongariro National Park is the oldest national park in New Zealand, located in the central North Island. It has been acknowledged as one of the 25 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Tongariro National Park was the fourth National Park established in the world. The active volcanic mountains Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe, and Tongariro are located in the centre of the park. Lots of the areas that we walked through were used in The Lord of the Rings trillogy, some scenes on the slopes of Mount Doom were filmed on the slopes of Ruapehu. And we also had a look at Mordor, but weren't able to see Shelobs lair due to time constraints and uncertainty over weather conditions. The park holds some beautiful and amazing views, but due to the weather alot of the time we couldn't see through the thick fog. As a group we completed the 18km hike in 6hrs 50mins, which was a great achievement. We were given a well deserved cold beer at the end, which went down very well! That night we chilled out in the jacuzzi looking up at the stars.

Sunday 17th, we left the Tongariro NP for Wellington, New Zealands capital city. On the way we stopped off at Taihape to have a go at Gum Boot throwing at the National Gum Boot throwing arena (it just looked like a couple of wired fences in the middle of a field by a rail track). The boot throwing was pretty funny to be honest, our driver threw a boot over onto the rail track infront of an oncoming train who then pulled his horn to beep at us, so we were all on the floor laughing. Me and Caash were both experimenting with the best way to hold and throw the gum boots...over hand, under hand, toe first or heel first, etc. It was great, the winning combo was holding the boot at the top, with the heel facing forward, then a couple of swings followed by a full rotation of the arm before release. Me and Zoe had a brief look in the National Museum, Te Papa, only had 45 minutes to walk round, but I'll do that properly when I go back there in a few weeks. Oh, I also came down with the man flu as we got in to Wellington, which as all you guys out there know, is very bad!

So I hardly slept that night as i couldn't breathe and so was very tired and irritable during the day. We had to be up at 6.30am to catch the ferry to Picton. As the ferry approached Picton, i was able to take in my first views of the south island, and the scenery looked very different, beautiful, an insight of views to come! From Picton we hopped onto Seagull's bus (another Stray driver) and he took us to Abel Tasman NP. On the way we stopped off at Hunter's Vineyard, and paid $5 for some wine tasting, very posh! We stayed overnight just outside (literally 50yards) the national park itself. I tried having an early night again and managed to get a few more hours kip.

On tuesday 19th, Me, Zoe and Isla went on an all day boat trip on a catamaran, which gave us some awesome views from the water of Abel Tasman. Abel Tasman NP was named after the dutch sailor who discovered this area of NZ back a few centuries ago. On the boat trip we sailed past Split Apple Rock, a leather fur seal colony, some amazingly nice and expensive bach's (holiday homes on the shore), and we saw some small blue penguins (awww).

I'm going to have to leave it there for the moment as I'm running out of internet credit. Thats me up to about a week ago. I'm in Queenstown currently, but will catch up with my blog from Abel Tasman NP to Queenstown very soon. It may not sound it with what I've writtten, but these last two weeks have been absolutely amazing, I've enjoyed every day and every place that I've been to. I've met some awesome people on the way who I'm not gonna forget as they have helped make this trip so memorable for me. I have been uploading pictures before updating my blog as its easier and less time consuming. So the blog you are reading now you had probably seen the pics for a week or so ago. It's kinda hard keeping on top of this as I'm always so busy. I hope you enjoy this read, and I'll try and update as soon as I can.

Just wanted to mention also to those who haven't heard. Originally I was planning on travelling for 6 months, but I have managed to get a 12 month working visa for australia, so that means I will be away for up to 16 months (maybe more if i can afford thailand/cambodia/vietnam for after my visit to australia, or maybe less if I dont find enough work to keep my funds going)

Anyways, I hope you are all well back home.

Take care for now,

Geraint (Gary)