Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Things have perked up just a tad over the last few days in New Zealand, since I last wrote I've plunged 15,000 ft out of a plane, climbed up waterfalls in pitch black glow worm caves, dug my own hot pool in the pouring rain on a beach, and raced down a mountain on a luge. Today the weather's back to ruin our plans again, so we're stuck inside watching films instead of pretending to be hobbits on the 12 mile alpine walk up to Mount Doom. Pretty gutted about this seeing as everyone says it's the highlight of their New Zealand trip, had to come out in winter didn't I! Aah well at least I got to JUMP OUT OF A PLANE! Can't complain.
I hopped onto the bus in Auckland for the sheepdog portion of my Kiwi Experience pass, and was pleasantly surprised to find twenty other people on it, most of them Brits. Qutie a relief that. First stop was a walk through the rain and cloud to a beach which looked nice if a little grey, not quite the weather for it. We were staying at hot water beach which is at a point where the Earth's crust is so thin that the sea water gets warmed to ninety degrees. It was pooouring it down but there was no way we were missing out on it so we donned our bikinis and raincoats (a good look) and set off in the freezing cold to dig ourselves some hot pools. We managed to get a good pool going and were all trying to dig our way further into it to get away from the rain when a massive wave came and filled our pool with freezing sea water. How rude. Most of the group wussed out at this point but me and a bunch of Germans stole some old man's pool which was HOT, surreal experience, think the rain added to it. Had a few drinks and watched Kindergarten cop, good day.
Next up was Waitomo, home of the glow worm caves. This was one of the things I was most excited about in NZ so I went for the full on five hour abseling, ziplining, tubing and waterfall climbing adventure. Somuchfun. Quite used to abseiling by now but the ziplining was fun then we plunged into the FREEZING cold river in the dark. Quite used to not being able to feel my hands by now though, seems standard in NZ. We dragged ourselves along the river then switched our torches off and drifted back following the glow worm 'stars' - I love bioluminescence, never ceases to amaze me! Then we had to climb up through a roaring waterfall with no ropes which was a bit dodgy especially since my feet kept being pushed away by the water, but we made it to the top alive so all was good. Had a chilled out evening with a few drinks but nothing crazy. Another good day.
Rotorua was next, a nice little town which smells of farts, lovely. We did some luging here, where I attempted to race people down the mountain but ended up last every time, blaming the fact that I was too light rather than the fact that I was too much of a girl to not brake on corners. I loved it though, and it was actually a really sunny day for once too! That night we went to a cultural show to learn about the Maori. About time I did something cultural really. We were mainly excited about the food though to be honest. The Maori of NZ are all completely westernised unlike Oz's aboriginal people, so we just had to pretend that we were a tribe visiting another tribe, assign a chief, watch a welcome dance and show that we came in peace etc. It was set in a really cool lighted forest with lots of little fires which was nice and atmospheric, where we learned about weaving and tattooing and dancing and cooking and all that. They've managed to preserve their culture and their language through this sort of thing which is nice, seems to be a much nicer colonisation than in Oz! Then we had a nice big feast cooked in the ground (lamb, chicken, fish and mussels on one plate, bit weird) which was amazing, then watched another quite scary dance which you're expressly forbidden to laugh at. Lots of funny tongue wagging and chanting going on so you can see why really! Everyone else was wasted when we came back but we were waaay too full to ever catch up. Kiwi experience has been a weirdly sober affair so far!
Yesterday we explored the geothermal wonders of Rotorua - lots of Geysers, steaming hot springs, bubbling mud baths and rocks that keep your bum warm when you sit on them. It's amazing, such a weird place. We boiled an egg in one of the hot pools, best egg ever! Saw a kiwi bird in their enclosure too, so fluffy looking! Then we got to Taupo where I was reminded that we would be jumping out of a plane in about half an hour, which I'd managed to completely forget about... Had my first jolt of fear then! It was a beeeaaautiful day, so they pretty much just made us fill in a couple of forms, watch a video then hop on the bright pink plane. Took a lot faster than expected, I was hoping for some faffing around! Took twenty minutes to get up to 15,000 feet, and I was third to jump out. Everything happened so fast and the next minute you're flying, so strange. It was a lot more intense than I expected it to be, the wind is strooong! So amazing though. I couldn't really move my arms but managed to make a few swimming poses to the guy who was floating around filming me, aaand then the parachute was pulled and everything was instantly silent. My ears were feeling a bit like they were gonna explode so this was a relief! The parachuting feels ridiculously calm after the falling, it's crazy. We did a few spins and I got to drive for a while before gently gliding back to normality. As soon as we were on the ground it felt like the whole thing had just been some weird dream, so surreal. Had a good giggle at everyone's videos with their cheeks flapping everywhere, then had a limo ride back to the hostel, swish!
That night we couldn't really celebrate as we were supposed to be doing the Tongariro crossing the next day at 5am so we just watched the olympics opening ceremony instead. I loved it, made me so much more excited to go home and it was pretty cool seeing it from another country's perspective too. I like the UK so much more since I've been travelling! AMAZING day.
So that's that so far. Obviously it would have been great to do the walk today to cap off North Island in style, but never mind. Looks like crap weather for a while now but I'm not planning anymore activities until the Franz Josef glacier hike so that's ok, maybe we can actually do a bit of drinking now, I was told that I would be expected to drink every night so this is all a bit strange! Off to the bar now anyway so we shall seeeeee!
- comments