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Gemma's Travels
Good afternoon campers! Hope you are all ok.
We are in Auckland at the moment for 2 days until we fly out on Thursday. Cant believe we have been here 3 weeks already, we have seen so much in such a short space of time! Had such a good time, road trip was such a giggle!
Since I last wrote I think we were about to go visiting Mel rellies. Was such a a fun evening, met Chrissies side of the family who all live in New Zealand, everyone was lovely. We went out for a meal before we did the rounds, Chinese Buffet - just my kind of dining! Ian had me and Mel in hysterics practically the whole evening, such a funny man! Was lovely to meet them both, they both were so welcoming and had a great stay with them although it was short.
We left the next day and travelled up through the beautiful scenery to Hanmer Springs. Stopped for a bit for luch in a lovely cafe and had some yummy cake! We planned to go to the natural thermal springs but they didnt look too impressive so moved on up to the north of the north Islands to Nelson, spent the night and then travelled to Picton the next day. Caught the ferry across the Wellingoton. Crossing was again good not too rocky!
we arrived in wellington about 1ish and went to the National Museam, was good and as much fun as a museum can be! We had lunch in our van and then went and found a campsite. Friday night so we went out for a few drinks, planned a big night on the tiles but werent feeling it so just had a few drinks and headed home for bed about 12.30!
Next day we drove up to Taupo where I was planning to do a skydive, as we rolled up it was pissing hard with rain and was so cloudy so didnt look hopeful for the next day! We spent the evening at an outside thermal spa/pool place. Was really cool cause we was in the hot pools with the rain. Spent the evening watching a bit of telly and I went to bed hoping for better weather in the morning. No such luck!! Still really overcast and now windy so no chance of a skydive, never mind! We headed into to town and had some lunch and then made tracks up to Watimo. We drove to some glow worm caves to have a look at about 8.30pm, you have to go at night to be able to see them! Parked up but once out of the van had 2nd thoughts because it was so dark and it was about a 5 min walk to the cave where they were! Mel also got freaked out by a man who was already in the car park so we left quite quickly and headed back to our campsite. Early night as we were up early the next day for our cavin/climbing/blackwater rafting trip!
Watimo is where the Watimo caves are! We had booked on to a 5hour trip doing lots of fun stuff! The trip started with us meeting up with our guide and the rest of the group, which there wasnt! So it was pretty cool cause it was just me Mel and 2 guides all day! We drove to pick up what we needed and changed into some very attractive wetsuits, rubber over trousers, white wellies and hard hats. Yes we did feel very pretty! We then drove to the caves where we took a 25metre absail to the cave entrance - so much fun! At the bottom we switched our headlights on and headed through hip deep freezing cold water into the cave. We did lots of climbing over rocks etc... It was quite hard work because we were going against the current and there was eels in the water which was a bit freaky! Once at the end we switched of our headlights (Mel was a bit scard!) and saw 100's of glow worms, it was amazing how any there were.
We then jumped into our tubes and floated back down the water, it was really fun. We did most of it with our lights off so we could see the glow worms through the whold cave.
We then took a walk across to another cave. We floated witht he current this time, a lot faster with more rapids so was even more fun! We had to stop a couple of times to squeeze through gaps in the cave to carry on with our trip. Saw loads more glowworms again. We then waded back to the mouth of the cave.
To get back up we had to climb up the 25metre rock face again, was hard work and quite scary as there wasnt much to hold onto but really good.
Had such a good day, really enjoyed it. Cause we started in the morning we finished up at about1.30pm so we didnt stop and drove on up to Auckland which is where I am now.
We went to the cinema last night and saw DOA - thinks a bit of a blokes film but we enjoyed it! Today we have spent at Auckland Zoo, sun has been out so been a really good day to be outside.
Tommorrow we have got the mammoth task of cleaning out the van and then packing aaaaarh! Gonna miss Peanut, he has been good to us the last 3 weeks!
Take care everyone,
Miss you all loads,
Thanks for my messages still love to getting them!
Lots of love as always,
Big Hugs
G
xxx
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