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Well made it to Wellington.. Its cold and wet. To summarise the last week on the bus...
Left Auckland, can't wait to go back.. Honest... Drove across country till we hit Mercury Bay, where a few of us went for a couple of hours of sea kayaking with a pit stop for coffee at Cathedral Cove.. A nice easy introduction to New Zealand sports... We also spent some time at Hot Water Beach, where unsuprisingly the water is bloody hot. Some chaps had dug us a jolly pit to bathe in but my sensitive toes just couldn't handle the heat so it was back to the bus follwed by an evening of darts and pool in the Turtle Cove hostel.
The next day (I've already forgotten which days they were, your guess is as good as mine) it was south on the little motorways to Rotorua. Stopped on route at Waihi to wander through some old gold mining tunnels and check out the scenery. We also drove past Matamata, or Hobbiton to most people.. At Rotorua (stinks of sulphur by the way, thermals everywhere) we upped the sports and sampled some tandem zorbing... Rolling down a hill in a giant rubber ball half full of warm water. An expensive but hilarious experience, recommended! We then had a cultural evening in a mock Mauri village, complete with peace welcoming, dancing, singing and a feast. Early night, too much food.
Next stop, west to Waitomo. Before reaching there though we stopped at Te Puia, a big old thermal area, complete with geysers, boiling mud and a kiwi bird house. Its fair to say the mud didn't make my nose look any better. We parked up at the youth hostel got on our speedos and went for a 5 hour black water rafting trip which involved abseiling into a cave, a zip line in the dark, jumping off a ledge into a cave pool, splashing around on innertubes in the cold and some climbing up waterfalls. And we got look at gloworms hanging their poo for all the little bugs to go for. Bcak to the hostel, followed by a boozy session in the local. Theres only three buildings in town. The hostel, the pub and a museum. Several white russians later (yes I have been introducing them to people over here), I found the museum. Bad sense of direction...
(At some point here, I think, we watched Angorra Rabbit shearing. It was histerical, seeing the fat b***** being trussed up on a spit and shaved, probably took more photos of this than anything on my travels so far!).
Good thing I was drunk that night as I woke up in a cold sweat knowing that 2 hours away in Taupo I was about to jump out of a plane... I don't recall much of that journey apart from I had my ipod on and a glazed look in my eye.... We hit the airfield, somehow I got picked to go up in the first plane... I settled my nerves in the toilet... On with a happy red suit and mong hat and up in a plane inhaling oxygen like there was no tomorrow... Luckily I had a chap attached to my back who knew what he was doing and iin no time I had my legs dangling out of the plane at 15,000 feet and we were freefalling... And it was one of the most amazing things I have ever done! A minute later, chappy pulled the shute, I lost the ability to ever reproduce (not nice harnesses for blokes) and we happily fell to the ground admiring the scenery (including mount doom from lotr). As everyone (bar one) on the bus did the jump the communal feeling was that of elation and a number of drinking games took place followed by some carnage in the local Irish pub...
Next morning I had a hangover from hell, so a spot of brekkie and back to bed for a rest and laundry day...
Back on the bus (not liking the early starts) and down to River Valley for a quiet afternoon wandering up a hill and playing some frisbee..
Back to sports the next day with a few hours of grade 5 white water rafting which, although fun, really wasn't that scary after the skydive.. I think I may have peaked early...
Last stop for this blog, a late night arrival in Wellington for a pool competition and some beers with the peeps that moved on early at Taupo....
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